Hyper-V, a key feature of Windows Server 2008, has now released to manufacturing (RTM) and is available for deployment into production environments. With help of ServerManagerCMD.exe I will install the Hyer-V role.
What is ServerManagerCMD.exe?
Server Manager in Windows Server 2008 provides a single source for managing a server’s identity and system information, displaying server status, identifying problems with server role configuration, and managing all roles installed on the server.
ServerManagerCMD is powerful tool and within one command line you can install the Hyper-V role. Make sure you installed the Windows 2008 RTM version and updated your system with KB950050.
With ServerManagerCMD.exe you will be able to install all those roles:
Active Directory Certificate Services Active Directory Domain Services Active Directory Federation Services Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services Active Directory Rights Management Services Application Server Availability and Scalability DHCP Server DNS Server Fax Server File Services Hyper-V Network Policy and Access Services Print Services Streaming Media Services Terminal Services Troubleshooting UDDI Services Web Server Windows Deployment Services
Finally we get a single command line tool for this administrative task. I hate having different text files and run the cmd batch scripts.
Since I am dual booting between Ubuntu and Windows Vista on my desktop workstation I am missing my linux volumes on Vista. I have three large 500GB SATA2 disks and one of them is partitioned and formatted with Ext2 linux file system. I have two options to read my linux volumes from windows:
a) Explore2fs which is a simple tool and I don’t need to install any low level system drivers. Explore2fs only operates in Read-Only mode. b) Ext2IFS which is a pure kernel mode file system driver Ext2fs.sys, which actually extends the Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista (x86/x64) operating system to include the Ext2 file system.
I want to have full read-write mode on my linux volumes and I installed option b.
If you are migrating notebooks at work, from friends or family you will always hit same problem after the new one is ready for use. Most documents and user settings can be migrated in some kind (ntbackup,robocopy and the Windows transfer wizards) , but when migrating the wireless network setting you may need additional script to perform that. Recently I have been asked to reinstall couple of tools and migrate import user documents including the wireless network. I received both notebooks without the wireless access point and after all important things were moved to the new notebook I started running the netsh command to export the wireless settings/networks into a text file.
See my howto I performed to get this done on my own Windows VISTA notebook.
Run CMD.exe to get into the command prompt and run “netsh wlan show profiles”
I am interested in exporting the “NetworknetForFree” WLAN SSID into a text file which I can import on another notebook.
I am still in the command prompt and than I execute “netsh wlan export profile name=”NetworknetForFree” folder=C:\” to export NetworknetForFree to C:\ drive.
NetworknetForFree wireless network profile has now been exported to a file named “C:\Wireless Network Connection-NetworknetForFree.xml” and I can copy this file to a usb drive. If you want to export all your wireless profiles just run “netsh wlan export profile folder=C:\“
The netsh tool generates a XML based file with all the settings for the wireless profile.
Start a CMD.exe command prompt on the new notebook and import the XML file located on the usb drive. You can copy the XML file first from the usb dirve to C:\ and than import the file. Type and execute “netsh wlan add profile filename=”c:\Wireless Network Connection-NetworknetForFree.xml” user=all“
The wireless SSID “NetworknetForFree” network has been migrated without knowing the exact settings like SSID, authentication type and the password. I was also trying to perform these steps with a Windows XP SP2 client but too bad that this feature is only for Windows Vista and not XP.
This morning my Cacti appliance warned me by email that the windows root volume was getting above the 90% threshold. I configured this a while ago for getting notified in front.
When installing and configuring this Windows server I didn’t plan the configuration in the right way and my free space for C:\ volume is limited. If you install a fresh server again think about having one volume using the complete physical RAID disk space and not having one 18GB disk as I used now. My main problem is that server has 4GB of RAM and paging file is sitting on C:\.
I was not able to move the paging file nor could I move the production virtual machine another volume. I went to C:\Windows and found a lot of blue directories which were used by the Automatic Updates. It used more than 500MB.
To safely remove Hotfix Backup files and the Add/Remove Programs Registry entries go to here and download the tool. Run the tool and remove all hotfixe backup files.
After you run the tool; go to c:\Windows and delete all blue marked directories. They all should start with $ sign.
Now we have on directory we need have closer look. Mine on this particular server grow to 600+ mb. Go to C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download and verify your size.
Stop the “Automatic Updates” service or run “net stop wuauserv” from cmd.
Delete all subfolders within C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download. Restart the “Automatic Updates” service. You can safely remote these. The procedure can be executed on a Windows XP or a Windows Server 2003 system.
You have a Windows File Server and you want to migrate the windows shares. What options do you have to complete this job? A) recreate them or B) migrate them from ServerA to ServerB. Sometimes option A is the only one you have but in most cases you want to keep those Windows Shares available as they were before and using some kind of script would be nice. Microsoft published a KB125996 article based on following procedures and my option B:
Reinstall Windows over an existing installation (a clean install, not an upgrade).
Move all of your data drives from one server to another.
Install Windows to another folder or drive on a computer that already has Windows installed.
I am performing a clean installation of a application server which has several file shares associated for application functionality. I don’t want to recreate them manually and I am using the next steps to complete this task.
a) Verify the shares you want to migrate and the drive letter location is the same on both servers.
b) Export the Shares key from HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Shares
c) Make sure the user and group still exist in the domain! When migrating from DomainA to Domain B make sure you recreate all users and groups. Copy LanmanServer.reg to ServerB and import the registry file.
reg import LanmanServer.reg
net stop server & net start server
Reboot the file server and verify the share with “net share” command; also check the System Eventlog for any warnings or errors.
I am sure many of us hit this problem before, but after 6 years working with Windows XP I forget to change default settings over and over. Most of our clients are sitting in some kind of domain structure and receiving all their settings from Group Policy, but you probably will also have workgroup clients. Today I am testing the remote installation of Symantec Antivirus 10.2 server and hit this Administrator account problem.
First I thought the password is wrong; ok try again no…; than I add the computer\administrator and tried again; no again setup message.
I went back to my Windows XP virtual machine and checked the setting in Windows Explorer / Tools menu / Folder Options / View tab / and uncheck “Use simple file sharing (recommended)”.
Windows 7 (formerly known as Blackcomb and Vienna) is the working name for the next major version of Microsoft Windows as the successor of Windows Vista.
For complete session of Eric Traut demonstration of Windows 7 click here.
MinWin = windows kernel
A minimalistic variation of the Windows kernel, known as MinWin, is being developed for use in Windows 7. The MinWin development efforts are aimed towards componentizing the Windows kernel and reducing the dependencies with a view to carving out the minimal set of components required to build a self-contained kernel as well as reducing the disk footprint and memory usage. MinWin takes up about 25 MB on disk and has a working set (memory usage) of 40 MB.It lacks a graphical user interface and is interfaced using a full-screen command line interface. Very interesting presentation.
Sandboxie released newest version of their isolated abstraction product for your applications. Trust no program you download and install from Internet. Using Sandboxie it can help you investigating the code you are installing on your computer.
Under the supervision of Sandboxie, an application operates normally and at full speed, but can’t effect permanent changes to your computer. Instead, the changes are effected only in the sandbox.
Version 3.24 :
Improved compatibility with Windows Vista Service Pack 1. Support for blocking Internet access to more than one sandboxed program at a time. Support for the new bookmarks system introduced in Firefox 3. Removed domain restrictions: Sandboxie can again be used in a domain network without additional license keys. Some performance improvements and security enhancements. Translation to Korean, contributed by doa. Resolved conflicts with third-party software: AVG 8, Ad Muncher, Novell NetIdentity, Trend Micro Internet Security 2008.
Before you start downloading the SP1 package check your Windows Vista version. To find out which edition you are running, click Start, right-click Computer, and then click Properties. In the System section, you can view the operating system under System type. If you are installing SP1 from an installation disc, the correct version will install automatically.
Currently I am running 64-bit Operating System of Windows Vista. Download the Windows Vista SP1 Standalone update: x64 | x86
Select the language and download installation package.
After the download has completed locate the Windows6.0-KB936330-X86-wave0.exe file and exceute the SP1 update. Make sure there is enough free space on your computer’s hard disk to install the service pack. The 32-bit SP1 requires a minimum of 7 gigabytes (GB) of free space; the 64-bit SP1 requires a minimum of 13 GB of free space. Click Run if you get a security warning and click continue if UAC is enabled.
Click Next
I unchecked “Automatically restart the computer” and click Install
Click Restart. Vista will reboot and it will some more minutes to finish the update.
Installation of Service Pack 1 was successful. I tried to install the beta versions before and as posted the installation failed each time.
For a while I have been struggling with Office Communicator 2005 and Windows Vista. Office Communicator 2007 is not supporting Office Live Communications 2005 server and there I am forced to use the Office Communicator 2005 client. All presence and chat features worked fine with 2005 but when it came for sharing your desktop or sharing a file the communicator started to complain about the firewall or me sitting behind a Network Address Translator (NAT).
Cannot establish the data sharing session with user1, either because user1 canceled the session, or because you or the person you are calling is behind a firewall or Network Address Translator (NAT).
How to resolve this issue?
Uninstall Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 Get the KB927853 hotfix from Microsoft. This update will install the NetMeeting 3.02 version which is compatible with Windows Vista. Reboot the machine Install Microsoft Office Communicator 2005
I scripted the Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 into a Altiris SVS application layer but after installing the hotfix it still didn’t solve my problem. Make sure you uninstall the Communicator first or delete the SVS layer and than reinstall the packages.
Hyper-V, a key feature of Windows Server 2008, has now released to manufacturing (RTM) and is available for deployment into production environments. With help of ServerManagerCMD.exe I will install the Hyer-V role.
