Virtual Server not cleanly shutting down

Posted by joelgibby on December 21, 2006 · View Comments 

We have a few virtual servers here and have seen issues when shutting down a virtual server host machine. When the system comes back online, all the virtual servers come up fine, but they all have been shutdown unexpectedly (as if there were a power failure). I found this entry on Virtual PC Guy’s Weblog that details a registry key that will instruct windows to wait longer than the usual 20 seconds before killing a non-responding service (if you have more than one virtual machine, it may take longer than 20 seconds to shut it down or save state).

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2005/06/07/426475.aspx

The key is [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WaitToKillService] . The time is in milliseconds.

On another note, here is an article detailing the steps to enable shut down or save state of a virtual machine when the Virtual Server Service shuts down.

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/46057/46057.html

Filed under MS Virtual Server, Remote Administration, System Administration, Virtual Server 2005 · Tagged with

Google Patent Search

Posted by joelgibby on December 19, 2006 · View Comments 

Google has just released (and included in the quick links) a patent search engine: http://www.google.com/ptshp

Screenshots (just in case it goes away):

 gq.gif gp.gif

Filed under Google, web 2.0 · Tagged with

Recover permanently deleted mail in Outlook

Posted by joelgibby on December 18, 2006 · View Comments 

Users normally delete an item, sending it to the deleted items folder, then empty the deleted items folder. If a user wants to recover the item, they can use the “Recover deleted items” functionality of Outlook. But how do they recover items permanently deleted from their inbox, that have bypassed the deleted items folder?

The article details a registry key that can be implemented that will turn on the “Recover deleted items” functionality outside of the deleted items folder. It will let you see “deleted items” that skipped the deleted items folder and are recoverable. This all assumes that your organization implements deleted item retention.

Filed under Desktop Support, Email, Exchange, MS Office, Outlook · Tagged with