Find VM Attached RDM By WWN

In order to find an existing VM attached RDM by WWN use the script below;

Get-VM | Get-HardDisk -DiskType "RawPhysical","RawVirtual" | where {$_.ScsiCanonicalName -like "*WWN*"} | Select Parent, Name, DiskType, ScsiCanonicalName, DeviceName | fl

The output will look similar to the below if an RDM is found;

Parent                          : SERVER-NAME.domain
Name                            : Hard disk x
DiskType                     : RawVirtual
ScsiCanonicalName   : naa.WWN

DeviceName                : vml.DeviceName

Find VM Datastore By WWN

In order to find any existing VM datastore by WWN use the script below;

Get-Datastore | where {$_.extensiondata.info.vmfs.extent.diskname -like "*WWN*"}

The output will look similar to the below if a datastore is found;

Name                                       FreeSpaceGB      CapacityGB
----                                            -----------                 ----------
san01-lun01                            339.047                 499.750
san01-lun01                            339.045                 499.750

Check If A .VMDK Is Attached To A VM

Another quick PowerCLI script to check if a .vmdk file is associated with a VM

Get-VM | Get-HardDisk | Where {$_.Filename -like '*vmdk-name*'} | Select Parent, Filename

If the disk is in use you should get a response similar to

Parent                                                Filename
------                                                    --------
VMName                                             [SAN] VMName/vmdk-name.vmdk
VMName                                             [SAN] VMName/vmdk-name_1.vmdk
VMName                                             [SAN] VMName/vmdk-name_2.vmdk

Check To See If Folder Or File Is Present On A Remote Server

I needed to check for an installed program on a number of remote servers without having to log in to each one individually. Unfortunately, whilst the program is listed in Control Panel > Add / Remove Programs, it does not get returned via Powershell when running;

Get-WMIObject Win32_Product

Running the following script allowed me to import a list of servers then search for a file or folder on those servers. Following the search the server name and result of the search is outputted to the screen;

#Import list of servers
$cns = Get-Content "C:\Users\LangridgeJ\Desktop\list-of-servers.txt"

#Scan for selected file or folder
foreach ($cn in $cns)
{$path = Test-Path "\\$cn\C$\Path\To\Folder\Or\File"

#Write output to screen
If ($path -eq $true ) { Write-Host $cn 'Files or folders are present' }   
        Else { Write-Host $cn 'No files or folders are present' } }

No "Continue To This Website" Option On HTTPS Site

I recently had an issue with an internal website with no certificate. When trying to access the site via IE10 I was not being given an option to "Continue to this website". This was due to a change Microsoft made blocking the use of RSA certificates with keys less than 1024 bits long.

Microsoft's Security Advisory bulletin can be found here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2661254

To fix this, run CMD as administrator and submit the following command;

certutil -setreg chain\MinRSAPubKeyBitLength 512

Then refresh the page. The "Continue to this website" option should be available again.

AWS RedShift Cluster Can Only Be Launched In Default VPC

When trying to launch a RedShift cluster in AWS I found I was only able to select the default VPC - unfortunately not the VPC that my Production workloads were running in.

In order to allow the creation of RedShift clusters in VPCs other than your default you need to create a new Cluster Subnet Group. To do this follow the steps below;

1. Login to AWS console and select RedShift
2. In the RedShift console go to "Security" and select "Subnet Groups" from the tabs at the top
3. Click "Create Cluster Subnet Group"
4. Give the group a name and description and pick the VPC you want to run the Cluster in. Then choose your Subnet IDs from the Availability Zones available.
5. Click "Create". Now when you try to launch a RedShift cluster you will be able to choose the VPC you want to run the Cluster in, and your newly created Subnet Group.