VMware SRM 6.0: Unable To Protect VMs - "Device not found: CD/DVD drive 1"

When trying to protect a number of VMware Virtual Machines with SRM 6.0 we ran into the following alert on some of the VMs;

"Device not found: CD/DVD drive 1"

This is due to an ISO image being mounted to the Virtual Machine (sometimes VMware tools or an OS disk). If you have a large number of VMs to set back to "Client Device" for CD settings you may want to do this by running the following script;

$vms = Get-Content C:\Scripts\In\cd-vms.txt

foreach($vm in $vms){
    Get-VM -Name $vm | Get-CDDrive | Set-CDDrive -NoMedia -Confirm:$false
}

This will set the CD settings to "Client Device" and confirm silently rather than needing to receive user input for each VM. 

vSphere: List Network Details For All Hosts

I had a requirement to view detailed network information for all host NICs under a vCenter server. The following command generates the required information (including MTU, IP and MAC addresses) and exports this to a .CSV file;

Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter | select VMhost, Name, IP, SubnetMask, Mac, PortGroupName, vMotionEnabled, mtu, FullDuplex, BitRatePerSec | Export-Csv C:\VMHostNetworkDetails.csv

AWS: Enabling Federation With ADFS

Following the guide found in the blog post below;

https://blogs.aws.amazon.com/security/post/Tx71TWXXJ3UI14/Enabling-Federation-to-AWS-using-Windows-Active-Directory-ADFS-and-SAML-2-0

This guide allowed us to set up federation using ADFS 3.0. The only thing to note which does not appear to be in the blog post, is that the Active Directory Security Groups that you create (starting AWS-) must be Global or Universal. This will not work if the group has been created as Domain Local.

If you have created the group at this level you can change this without needing to recreate the Security Group. Simply set the Group Scope to "Universal" as this will then allow the "Global" box to be selected again.

This will also accept nested groups when granting access so you do not need to add all users individually.

Azure: Using Azure AzCopy

When attempting to upload files to a storage account in Azure, if you upload using the portal no Check-MD5 value appears to be generated. In order to have a value generated you need to use the AzCopy tool.

Once you have this installed, open a command prompt and run the tool (default installation location will be C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\AzCopy\AzCopy.exe)

To upload a single file to a location, use the following command;

AzCopy /Source:A:\Folder\On\My\Computer /Dest:https://storageaccount.file.core.windows.net/filescontainer/folder /DestKey:Storage-Account-Access-Key /Pattern:FileName.ext

Replace the bold text with your parameters

/Source: needs to be the folder location only - do not include the file name or the command will fail. The file name is specified in /Pattern:

Update:

Alternatively, if you have several files to upload to a single location and so want to copy the entire contents of a folder, you can run the command below. This copies all content in a directory including structure;

AzCopy /Source:A:\Folder\On\My\Computer /Dest:https://storageaccount.file.core.windows.net/filescontainer/folder /DestKey:Storage-Account-Access-Key /S

ESXi: Restart Management Agents

Running ESXi 5.0.0 with command line access the following commands will restart the management agents - logged in as root;

/etc/init.d/hostd restart/etc/init.d/vpxa restart

This was required when the host stopped reporting it's CPU and Memory usage in vSphere Client. 

Compatibility View In IE11

After adding some additional sites to the "Use Policy List of Internet Explorer 7 sites" policy in Group Policy we found that these sites were not running in compatibility view for the user despite RSOP reporting that the policy was in place, and the user's registry reporting the same.

(Registry key can be found at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\BrowserEmulation\PolicyList)

There is a known limitation in IE11 whereby it doesn't run sites presented from this policy. Instead if you want to enable compatibility mode via GPO you need to turn on Enterprise Mode.

The TechNet document below gives the steps to deploying from GPO, as well as creating a registry entry to test with a single user.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/internet-explorer/ie11-deploy-guide/turn-on-enterprise-mode-and-use-a-site-list

If you turn Enterprise Mode on and still cannot select it from the "Tools" menu in IE11, chances are you are missing update 3087038 (KB3089548). If this is not installed you will not be able to turn on Enterprise Mode in the browser.

More information on this update can be found at

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3089548

The update itself can be downloaded from

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/MS15-094

Once this is installed you should be able to use Enterprise Mode to view sites that require compatibility.

To create the XML file containing sites to be displayed using Enterprise Mode download the Enterprise Mode Site List Manager tool from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42501

DNS: Converting An Automatically Created Record To Static

I had a requirement to convert a large number of automatically created DNS "A" records into static entries to avoid issues with DNS scavenging. Rather than manually creating a static record then removing the existing one, this can be accomplished with a few clicks.

1. In "DNS Manager" select "View" > "Advanced"

2. Browse into the appropriate "Forward Lookup Zone" and select the "A" record you wish to convert to static.

3. Double click the record (or right click and select "Properties") and uncheck the "Delete this record when it becomes stale" tick box.

4. Click OK.

When you refresh the page you'll now see the time stamp has been removed from the record and is instead set to "Static"

3PAR: Check Licensed Features

In order to check which features you are licenced for on your 3PAR, open a connection to the CLI and run the command;

showlicense

You should see a response similar to;

License key was generated on date

License features currently enabled:
Dynamic Optimization
InForm Suite
System Reporter
Thin Conversion
Thin Copy Reclamation
Thin Persistence
Thin Provisioning (44032G)
Virtual Copy

Get PowerShell Version

To find out which version of PowerShell you are using, run the following in PowerShell;

$PSVersionTable.PSVersion

You will get an output similar to;

Major  Minor  Build     Revision
-----     -----     -----       --------

5         0         10586   117

Formula to Calculate LUN Number in HP-UX

***** This formula only works if the LUN number isn't too high (ie over 100ish) *****

The disk in HP-UX has the identifier /dev/dsk/cxtydz

Take the /cxtydz portion and apply the formula below;

(y x 8) + z

This should give you the LUN number from the SAN device. In the example below this would be;

c52t2d1

t =2, d = 1

(2 x 8) + 1 = 17

LUN number is 17

Adding Users To Local Groups On Domain Controllers

As the local groups are hidden in Computer Management on a Domain Controller, this needs to be done via command line;

net localgroup "groupname" "domain\username" /add

For example;

net localgroup "Remote Desktop Users" "UTF\Jon" /add 

Exchange Online - Get Distribution Lists With Owners

I had a requirement to generate a list of all distribution lists with their owners. In the Exchange portal on Office 365 I could export a list but there was no option to include the owners of the list.

I managed to get the information I needed using Powershell. Having connected Powershell to Exchange Online I ran the following command;

Get-DistributionGroup -Filter * | Select Name, ManagedBy | Export-CSV C:\export.csv -NoTypeInformation

Exchange Online - Connecting With Powershell

1. Open Powershell and run;

$UserCredential = Get-Credential

2. Enter your Exchange Online credentials
3. Run;

$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $UserCredential -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

4. Run;

Import-PSSession $Session

When you are finished run;

Remove-PSSession $Session 

Windows 10 - Show "Run As Different User" On The Start Menu

By default, unlike in Windows 7 there is no option in Windows 10 to run software from the Start Menu as a different user when you Shift + Right Click. To enable this option again follow the steps below;

1. Open regedit and browse to;

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

If Explorer does not exist, create it as a new key under Windows.

2. Add a DWORD with the value ShowRunasDifferentuserinStart.

3. Right click the new DWORD and set the value to 1. Click OK.

4. Restart your machine.

After the restart you should now be able to "Run As Different User" in the Start Menu.

Find .ISOs Attached To VMs

To get a list of all .ISOs attached to the CD drive of VMs, run the script below. This will give you the server name that the ISO is connected to, as well as the path to that ISO.

I used this when trying to delete old ISO images from a datastore. The file would not delete as it was still attached to a VM.

Get-VM | where { $_ | Get-CDDrive | where { $_.ConnectionState.Connected -eq "true" -and $_.ISOPath -like "*.ISO*"} } | select Name, @{Name=".ISO Path";Expression={(Get-CDDrive $_).isopath }}