Problem Installing ESXi 5.1 From CD - Installing From USB Instead

I was having problem getting my hosts to read a CD that I had written the ESXi 5.1 ISO to - it would not install from the directly attached CD drive, or an externally connected USB CD drive. In the end I used an app called UNetbootin to create a bootable USB drive with the ESXi ISO.

This can be downloaded from http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

Creating A New Local Account On vCenter Server Appliance

To create a new local account in the vCenter Server Appliance, SSH onto the vCenter Server and run the following commands;

useradd -m accountname

passwd accountname

You will then be prompted to enter a new password 

vMotion Between Hosts With Differing CPU Versions

After setting up two new ESXi 5.1 hosts in a cluster I found that I was unable to vMotion between them as the CPUs, whilst both Intel Xeons, were different versions. The error I received was;

The virtual machine requires hardware features that are unsupported or disabled on the target host (SSE4.1)

To make this work I had to follow the steps below (as advised by VMware) and enable EVC on a Host Cluster;

1. Connect to the vCenter Server using the VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client or vSphere Client.
2. Create a new empty cluster which does not contain any ESX hosts.
3. Enable EVC on this new empty cluster. Choose the CPU type (Intel or AMD) and the chip generation.
4. Migrate all virtual machines off of one ESX host in the existing cluster.
5. Put the host into Maintenance Mode then drag and drop the ESX host into the EVC cluster. Exit Maintenance Mode.
6. Using the VI Client or vSphere Client, directly connect to the ESX host which is hosting the vCenter Server virtual machine.
7. Right-click the vCenter Server virtual machine and click Edit Settings. Click the Options tab then General Options.
8. Note the location and name of the virtual machine configuration file (.vmx) on the datastore.
9. Power off the vCenter Server virtual machine.
10. Right-click the vCenter Server virtual machine and click Remove from Inventory.
11. Using the vSphere Client, connect directly to the ESX host which is in the EVC cluster.
12. Browse the datastore which contains the virtual machine configuration file for the vCenter Server virtual machine (as noted in step 13 above). Right-click on the virtual machine configuration file and click Add to Inventory.
13. Power on the vCenter Server virtual machine.
14. Using the VI Client or vSphere Client, connect to the vCenter Server.
15. Right-click the ESX host not in the EVC cluster and click Disconnect to disconnect it from the vCenter Server Inventory.
16. Drag and drop the disconnected ESX host into the EVC cluster.
17. Right-click the ESX host and click Connect to connect it to the vCenter Server Inventory.
18. Repeat steps for each ESX host in turn until all ESX hosts are part of the EVC cluster.
19. To confirm vMotion is now working, try to vMotion again between hosts.

DFS Namespaces and Windows Server 2008 R2

When trying to create a new DFS namespace in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, I was encountering the error;

\\Domain.local\Files: The namespace cannot be queried. The RPC server is unavailable

After searching online for this issue and following a number of other instructions from Microsoft I found that the error was due to a previous testing namespace I had created with the name I now wanted to use.

Choosing another name for the namespace (ie. Shared) allowed the namespace to be created and folders to be added to it.

Nexenta - Locked LUNs Making Servers Unreachable

If a LUN on Nexenta storage that is presented to VMware locks, all servers on that LUN will no longer be accessible. This is quick to fix although it may indicate an underlying problem.

1. Browse to the GUI of the device with the locked LUN.
2. Go to the "Data Management" tab and "SCSI Target Plus".
3. Select the mapping for the locked LUN then delete the mapping.
4. Recreate the mapping with the same settings. Once completed, this will allow access to the servers again.

Nexenta - Recovering From A Locked Auto-Sync Service

If replications via the Auto-Sync services are not working, the following is how our third-party support have told me to fix the issue.

1. Browse to the GUI for the device with the failed services.

2. Go to "Data Management" and "Auto Services" - this is a list of all the created Auto-Sync services.

3. Under "Auto-Sync Services" on the left hand side of the screen, click "Show".

4. This page will likely take a while to load so don't worry! Click the tick box next to "Instance" to select all the services, then click "Abort" to stop anything that thinks it is running. Once this has been done, select all the services again and click "Disable". Once again, both of these actions may take some time to complete.

5. Once the services are disabled, use Putty to connect to the device where the replications are being sent.

6. Type "nmc" and press enter to access the Nexenta Management Console.

7. Type the following commands to restart the services;

svcadm restart dbus

This will take quite some time to complete so leave it for 15 minutes to restart all the services

8. Type "svcs" to check the status of the services. If any are showing as offline or disabled, make a note of the service name and run the following command;

svcadm clear servicename

9. Run the following command to restart the rrsync service;

svcadm restart rrdaemon

10. Check the services again by typing "svcs". Once they are showing as online you can close Putty.

11. Back on the GUI for the device with the failed services, select all the Auto-Sync services that you had previously disabled and click "Enable". Once this is done, select them all and click "Start".

12. Click on one of the service names and click "Run Now" to start the sync. On the services screen, the bar that displays "Online" should change to "Task 1 of 1; 0.00 KB of x.xx". This may display as "Task 0 of 0" for a short while but should change quite quickly to Task 1 of 1. If this does not change there is still a problem with the replication. At this point a call will need to be logged with your third-party support.

Kayako Helpdesk Ticket Closure Report (Monthly)

Create a new report in Kayako Helpdesk with the following code to generate a report that will display the number of calls marked as "Resolved" within a calendar month. Change the bolded text to the month/year you wish to report on;

SELECT COUNT(*) AS Total FROM 'Tickets' WHERE 'Tickets.Is Resolved' = '1' AND 'Tickets.Resolved Date' = month(April 2013) GROUP BY X('Tickets.Resolved Date':Week), X('Tickets.Resolved Date':DayName), Y('Tickets.Department')

Updating Kayako Resolve Helpdesk To 4.50

Step-by-step process for upgrading the Kayako Resolve helpdesk to version 4.50. These steps only need to be taken if you are upgrading from 4.4x or earlier as there is a change in the file structure;

1. Took a snapshot of the existing virtual server for backup purposes.
2. Did a manual copy of the contents of my installation folder and stored them on the network.
3. Downloaded the 4.50 installation file and extracted the "upload" folder.
4. Deleted the contents of my installation folder from the server.
5. Copied the contents of "upload" from the downloaded 4.50 build into the now empty installation folder on the server.
6. Copied the "__swift/files" "__swift/geoip" and "__swift/config/config.php" from the backup into their new corresponding locations on the server.
7. Gave 777 permissions to "__apps" "__swift/files" "__swift/cache" "__swift/geoip" and "__swift/logs"
8. Upload your licence "key.php" into the installation folder.
9. Accessed setup page at http://your_supportdesk_url/setup/ and ran the upgrade process.
10. After upgrade had completed, deleted the "setup" folder from the installation folder on the server.
11. Logged into the Admin CP, rebuilt the cache (Diagnostics > Rebuild Cache) and restored the templates (Templates > Restore) and languages (Languages > Restore)

Finding An SMTP Address That Is Not A Primary Address

When you search Active Directory for an email address, you will only get a response if the address you are searching for is the Primary SMTP address.

To search for other addresses, whether they are attached to a user, contact or public folder, follow the steps below;

1. Login to the Exchange Server and open Active Directory Users and Computers

2. Right click on the domain and choose Find

3. In the find field, change the criteria to "Custom Search"

4. Click the Advanced tab so you can enter an LDAP query

5. Type proxyAddresses=smtp:address@yourdomain.com 

6. Click find to search