Open DOS console during windows installation

To access the DOS console during a windows installation on the language selection hit SHIFT+F10

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How mutch memory is installed on yor vmware4 host?

If you have a Vmware farm and you want to upgrade the memory it is useful to know which banks are busy and which is the size of the memory mounted.

So activate the SSH console connect and the type smbiosDump | less, navigate to the memory information.

Be aware that on hardware like HP DL 380 the memory is divided in two parts one for each processor but the slot name is the same.

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Scanner Manual Installation Windows 7

In Windows Explorer, access C:\Program Files\Windows Photo Viewer, where C: is your system drive, and then double-click ImagingDevices.exe or run it via a console with administrator privilegies

DNS Resolution

Happens on only some client that's the DNS name resolution fail.
On a first troubleshoointg the ping command pointing the server name fails, but nslookup not and do not fail also the ping with FQDN.

Both the nic configuration and os settings in the "workstation name" label window has the append dns suffix value.

After a long search I found this interesting articles:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755882%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/networking/archive/2009/04/16/dns-client-name-resolution-behavior-in-windows-vista-vs-windows-xp.aspx 

The second one has something that should be the correct resolution:

Modify this registry key 

This registry entry works for both Windows XP and Windows Vista
HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\DNSClient\AppendToMultiLabelName
Type = DWORD
Data:

• 0 (Do not Append Suffix)
• 1 (Append suffix)

Else a Group Policy should be used but only from Windows Vista:

Group Policy location (for Windows Vista only) - (run gpedit.msc):
Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Network -> DNS Client -> “Allow DNS Suffix Appending to Unqualified Multi-Label Name Queries”

WSUS troubleshooting

This artilcle is in english to be useful to more people.

I've spent some time to setup wsus on my environment and other time to maintain that and to approve the updates but oftent I saw client that are not loggin on the wsus server. 
Here you can find some useful workaround:

Situation: - There's a group policy that sets WSUS on the clients (not mandatory, you can use also a script see: http://msmvps.com/blogs/athif/pages/Manually-Configure-WUA.aspx)
- My wsus have a DNS alias that points on the correct server (just for future upgrades, this avoid change group policy or settings on the clients)

To be sure that your client is receiving properly updates:
1. check if your client receive the correct policy, with group policy result wizard or directly on the client looking the content of this registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
you should see this two values:

"WUServer"="http://YOUR-WSUS-SERVER"
"WUStatusServer"="http://YOUR-WSUS-SERVER"

 2. Check if dns resolution works correctly:
nslookup YOUR-WSUS-SERVER<.name.local> 

3. Chek with internet explorer if you can access the wsus website with the address on the key in point 1


At this point all should work and if you use wuauclt /detectnow after some time you should see the client registered on wsus server and probably some updates needed.

If the client still not connect to the server use the WSUS client diagnostic tool: http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/7/6/976d1084-d2fd-45a1-8c27-a467c768d8ef/WSUS%20Client%20Diagnostic%20Tool.EXE
(see other tools here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb466192.aspx)

Run the client in a command window and see if all the test are: PASSED
If not look at the Winhttp proxy setting section and see if there's a proxy defined here.

In my case was as: (you can read) "proxy:" and then "avoid proxy for 192.168.1.25"

This lines was the ones that avoid access to WSUS, the local system account is using the string as a proxy and the server is not in the "avoid proxy list".

use the command proxycfg  to see which is the configuration and eventually use: proxycfg -d to go diretct or proxycfg -p to set parameters correctly.

This worked for me like a charm.

VMWare patch install

Last patch for VMWare 5.1 is 
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2051208
 
and the command line to install it is: 
 esxcli software vib install --depot="/vmfs/volumes/ds-r1-l0/esx51patch/ESXi510-201305001.zip"

VMWare disk cloning via command line

The free version of VMWare as strange could appears is a very good version also in production environments, it lacks obviously of various function, one of them is the ability to create template or copy virtual machines, which are very useful.

The solution is to create a vm as a template, with a name like tmpl.w2k8r2 to distinguish from production one, then create a new virtual machine with the desired hw resources but without disks.
Then clone the disk with this simple command, it is also possible to create a mini script:

vmkfstools --clonevirtualdisk tmpl.w2k8R2/tmpl.w2k8R2.vmdk [vmfolder]/[newvmdisk].vmdk