This guide would have been good to find about a week ago. I’ll have to readjust my storage repositories to have 1 iSCSI LUN for each VM instead of 1 large storage repository for my resource pool. I wonder if I’ll be able to copy directly from the old LUN to each of the new LUNs?
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Now that I read the title of this post, it sounds a touch dirty…
I had created a couple generic Win2k8 R2 VMs last week with 25GB OS drives. I hadn’t decided which services would be running on the boxes and 25GB would be more than enough for most applications. The only problem was that I had decided to install Sharepoint 2010 Foundation on one and SQL 2008 R2 on the other and both require 80GB of disk space. Good thing XenServer 5.6 and Window Server 2008 R2 make it easy to increase the disk size.
In XenCenter 5.6 select the virtual disk from the storage tab of the virtual machine, click Properties, select Size and Location, then increase the size of the disk.
Super simple, eh? This feature has been available for quite some time, v4.1 I believe, via the CLI but was exposed to the GUI in v5.6.
Now you need to extend the partition in Windows. Right click My Computer select Manage, select Disk Management, right click on the disk you want to extend, and select Extend. This starts the Extend Volume Wizard. Follow the prompts to complete the process. By default Win2k8 R2 extends the partition to the maximum available space available. So this wizard is just about clicking next, next, finish.
Take a look at the Citrix KB article for more info and additional instructions for the CLI procedure and how to extend a partition in Linux operating systems.
Note: Windows 2003 and XP are not able to extend the partition while the OS is running. You need to attach the disk to another VM and use DiskPart to extend the volume.
When you work with virtual machines, either converting physical or working with new builds, you often have issues with hidden devices. Most often the hidden device that gives the most grief is old physical network cards. Thankfully the issues easily resolved.
To work around this behavior and display devices when you click Show hidden devices (source):
- Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
- At a command prompt, type the following command , and then press ENTER:
- set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
- Type the following command a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
- start devmgmt.msc
- Troubleshoot the devices and drivers in Device Manager.
- When you finish troubleshooting, close Device Manager.
- Type exit at the command prompt.
NOTE: Click Show hidden devices on the View menu in Device Managers before you can see devices that are not connected to the computer.
Note that when you close the command prompt window, Window clears the devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 variable that you set in step 2 and prevents ghosted devices from being displayed when you click Show hidden devices.
DH.com turns 4 today and I’d like to mark the occasion by going back to my 1st post and updating it.
Here we go…
1. A computer is nothing to be afraid of. So, go ahead and explore the file system. Aside from deleting any files located in c:\windows, or c:\program files, there isn’t to much that can go wrong by going into My Computer and taking a look around, Trial & error work for you as a small child, why not as an adult.
- 2010 Update: Nothing new to add here. Explore your systems!
2. Beware deals that are “to good to be true”. Shop around, ask friends, and take your time. Quite often the mega deals large retailers put on are marked as refurbished . Depending on the store this can mean anything from the entire unit has been repaired (i.e. laptops) to some or all of the parts inside the case were repaired.
- 2010 Update: Netbooks took the world by storm and drove pricing down. Apple and the iPhone/iPod Touch revolutionized hand-held mobile computing, but, you still need to beware of what you are purchasing but getting a good web surfing PC, or Mac, is relatively inexpensive.
3. Do not purchase a computer that comes with a copy of Windows installed without making sure you actually paid for the operating system. Often small retailers will sell you a system that comes with Windows XP, but not give you the installation CD. This is illegal and you can report this behavior to Microsoft. A copy of XP Home can be found online for as little as $100 CAD.
- 2010 Update: Windows Vista and 7 have been released but the message is the same, make your OS legit. For those looking to save on an OS can look to the many Linux distros for a solid operating system for free.
4. Anti-virus/Anti-spyware. Today an unprotected PC can be infected in less time than it takes to boil water. Invest in a good anti-virus(AV) program and keep it up to date. There are a number of good programs to choose from and even a free one . In addition to AV protection it is a good idea to install a anti-spyware (AS) program as well. Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware is free and I recommend its use. It will root out the ad- and spy-ware on your PC that you get from surfing the web.
- 2010 Update: The point is still valid but recommendations have changed. Microsoft released Security Essentials free to Windows users and it ranks well in detection and system resource utilization and is my AV of choice. SuperAntiSpyware is a great free anti-malware scanner.
5. Use an alternate browser and email client. Internet Explorer 6 and Outlook Express have long been the target of virus writers and hackers. The Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email client and more secure than IE6 and Outlook Express and are quite easy to use. Although the main draw for me to Firefox are the extensions that have been developed to extend Firefox. Opera is highly regarded by those who use it and the new Internet Explorer 7 has been improved but it still lacks in web standards.
- 2010 Update: IE 7 and 8 have been released and have improved the built in Windows web browser but I still prefer looking to an alternate. Firefox is the de-facto alternate browser, and while security holes do exist they are patch by Mozilla in a timely manner. The main draw to Firefox is the vast amount of quality browser extension. Google Chrome has stormed into the browser wars and offers a light, secure browser. Google is also slowing expanding Chrome to include extensions. Firefox is still my main browser, but Chrome is slowing gaining my attention. Opera and Safari round out the major browser alternates and have fans of their own.
There you go, my top 5 (updated!) tips for a new or prospective computer owner.
I needed to RDP into my desktop at work to complete a couple of tasks while at home but didn’t have RDP enabled on it. I connected to our VPN and RDP’d into one of the servers. I then connected to my desktops registry via regedit’s “Connect Network Registry” feature.
The key I needed, fDenyTSConnection, was in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server.
I changed the REG_DWORD value from 1 (Remote Desktop disabled) to 0 (Remote Desktop enabled), then remotely rebooted my PC, shutdown -m \\%PCNAME% -r.
After the reboot I was able to log in via the domain admin account. Once logged in I added my domain account to the users allowed to utilize remote desktop.
I signed up for Google Voice last year during the beta but since it is US only I haven’t been able to use it. Now we have news this week of Google rolling out integrated VOIP calling into GMail. Tonight I’m able to have free calls to the US and Canada for the rest of 2010. I only tried a couple of calls but the quality as quite good. Now all I need is for Google Voice to open up to the rest of the world.
You need a reboot to add desktop icons in Windows Server 2008 R2. You can add your own icons for shortcuts on the desktop, but to get Computer and Network, you have to add the entire Desktop Experience feature. Whoever thought of adding desktop personalization to R2′s features and requiring a reboot should be punched in the throat.
Here’s how to get them back.
First, you’ll have to go into Server Manager and access the Features section. In Features, you will select to add a feature and then select the Desktop Experience feature. After a reboot right-click on the Desktop and select Personalize. From here, you can add the desktop icons you desire as usual.
I was the recipient of a shiney new 64gb iPod touch this morning. I’ve got the wordpress app installed and am posting from it. I wish we had bought the nurses touch’s instead of the Motorola WinMo devices. These are waaay better.
A customer was concerned with an error they were seeing when booting their XP Home PC. Windows would continue to load correctly but the error still had them worried. I suggested they bring it in for me to take a look.
Invalid Boot.ini, loading from C:\Windows
The problem was caused due to a corrupted boot.ini file which is usually located in the C drive. Since I had a copy of XP Home I tried to rebuild the boot.ini as per the instructions below.
- Insert the Microsoft Windows XP CD into the computer. Note: If you have a system recovery CD or restore CD (not a Microsoft CD) these steps will likely not work for your computer.
- Reboot the computer with the CD and press any key when prompted to press any key to boot from the CD. If you do not receive this prompt and/or are not able to boot from the CD see document CH000217.
- Once in the Microsoft Setup menu press R to open the recovery console.
- Select the operating system you wish to use; if you only have Windows XP on the computer you will only have one prompt.
- Once prompted for the password enter the Admin password and press enter.
- Once at the command prompt type bootcfg /rebuild to start the rebuild process.
- The rebuild process will step you through a number of steps depending upon how many operating systems you have on the computer and how the computer is setup. Below is a listing of the common steps you are likely going to encounter.
- Prompt for the identified versions of Windows installed. When you receive this prompt press Y if the bootcfg command properly identified each of the Windows operating systems installed on the computer. It is important to realize this command will only detect Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows NT installations.
- Prompt to enter the load identifier. This is the name of the operating system for the boot.ini. For example, Microsoft Windows XP Home users would enter Microsoft Windows XP Home edition.
- Prompt to Enter OS load options. When this prompt is received type /fastdetect to automatically detect the available options.
- Once you have completed all the available options in the rebuild and are back at the prompt type exit to reboot the computer.
See Microsoft KB289022 for more info on boot.ini.
