DRAC / ERA internal address registered in DNS on Domain Controller

DRACs installed on Domain Controllers were registering their RAC PPP connection in DNS with the hostname of the computer the DRAC is installed in. This creates a problem for clients looking in DNS for a domain controller - they get an address that is either non-routable (192.168.234.235) or doesn’t respond at all. For most systems, you can simply uncheck “Register this connection’s address in DNS” in the DNS tab under Advanced options for the connection. Windows Server 2003 SP1 installed as a domain controller however ignores this setting and continues to register the address in DNS. There is a hotfix (included in Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2) that addresses this issue, but you have to call Microsoft to get it (I think I’ll just install the service pack).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832478

Thanks to Neal’s Admin Notes:

Dual NIC Problems with NetLogon and DNS

DRAC / ERA Console Redirection Fails with Warning – Reintstall PPP Connection

The other issue was that the graphical console redirection on some of my ERA (Embedded Remote Access) devices (basically an embedded DRAC III) was not working. The console window would launch, but I would get no video and the message: “Warning: Remote Console is not available” The first step is to wait a few minutes (sometimes it takes awhile to initialize). Check. If it’s still a no-go, check the RAC services (Remote Access Connection Service and RAC VNC Service) and restart them if necessary. Check. Still no-go. Then I found this gem (note command is run from C:\Program Files\Dell\SysMgt\RAC in default Windows installs):

Root Cause: 

During RAC3 installation, the modem is disabled and enabled for the default name of the modem to be changed to RAC PPP connection Using RACPORT after modem driver installation. The OS fails to recognize the modem name change and the installer code is not able to find modem device to establish the connection.

Solution: 

From the command prompt run the command installppp createRacConnection. The following message will be displayed confirming that the installation was successful: 

Installing PPP connection
Successfully Installed the RAC connection

Here: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/stor-sys/spv745N/en/RN/RelNotes.htm (it’s an obscure Release Notes for a Dell NAS device). The instructions fixed the issue immediately – no reboot required. Kinda bizarre, but as long as it’s working, right?

For the 3024/3048/5012 products:

1. Connect to the switch via the console port and manually reboot the switch
2. As soon as power is applied, press and hold the ESC key
3. At the command prompt, type “EmergencyPasswordReset” (case-sensitive without the quotation marks)
4. At the confirm (Y/N) prompt, type X
5. If done properly, you will receive a message stating that the password has been disabled
6. Type G and hit enter to reboot the switch

The switch will reboot with the password disabled.

This saved us in a pinch. Just goes to show that Physical Security is still the first and most important security.

In the SMS 2003 Administrator Console, expand Site Hierarchy, then your Site Name, then Site Settings, then highlight Discovery Methods.

On the right-hand side, double click Active Directory System Discovery, then click the tab “Polling Schedule.”

Click the checkbox “Run Discovery as soon as possible.” The checkbox will clear once the discovery request is made.

Easy, no?

Tips for setting up a Windows XP Pro computer to perform administrative tasks on a MS windows network. Links to downloads of the tools you’ll need.

I love it when I come across another great blog. Thanks Rob Durkin!

read more | digg story

Needless to say, users were somewhat confused by this.

To get rid of the message, we either had to:

1. Run around to every Dell PC in the organization
2. Uninstall Dell OMCI
3. Remotely disable chassis intrusion detection and clear any current detections

Obviously we chose option three. With Dell’s OpenManage IT Assistant software, I was able to build a remote CIM command line to execute on a set of systems (in our case any system that was reporting a status of degraded). Here’s the command we ran:

system cim action=setcim ipaddress=$IP username=$USERNAME password=$PASSWORD authenticationlevel=packet classpropertyvalue=Dell_SMBIOSsettings::ChassisIntrusion:4

To execute the command, I setup a new command line task in ITA, targeted at a query of computers whose status was not “OK.” I set this to run once an hour, since clients were still being discovered and inventoried as this was happening. By setting the query to only hit degraded clents, we avoided running this needlessly on clients already configured properly.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been trying to get a deeper understanding of SMS 2003. Unfortunately, the more I learn about SMS, the more I realize that it’s going to continue to broaden it’s scope of management. From the enhanced post-SP1 patch and update management features to the Operating System Deployment Feature Pack and beyond. Luckily, MyITForum.com has got more information than I could possibly ever read, tons of tools, downloads and an active forum of knowledgable experts. Expect to see plenty of links to these folks as I discover more of their content.

This fixed it.

Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server Documentation