Windows Server Virtualization (Viridian) Announcement (sad)
Oh come on now! (Windows Server Division Blog)
They already are releasing the product late (the BETA will be released in conjunction with the RTM of Longhorn), and now they are removing some of the most highly-touted features that actually were going to set the product apart from the leader? Some of the ground-breaking features being axed:
- Hot-add of resources (memory, processor, storage and networking)
- Live migration (this is a killer app currently being offered by VMWare in their VMotion technology)
- Support limit of 16 cores (4 processor, quad core) though I don’t see this as a big issue. I think you’d need some pretty hefty hardware for your host to even get close to that many cores being useful. My vision probably isn’t as broad as the developers though – I’m sure we’ll see Quad-proc, Octo-Core boxes on the desktop a few years out.
Stings, doesn’t it? Time to start looking at VMWare…
Another dismal take on the news.
Virtual Server not cleanly shutting down
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
Dell PowerConnect 3024/48/5012 Password Reset
Found this on the Dell Forums:
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 switchThe 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.
Force manual system discovery in SMS 2003
Took me awhile to find this:
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?
Follow-up: More ways to shrink Office documents
Last night, I made a post about shrinking Powerpoints without any special software. Today I was saving a Word document and noticed the “Tools” menu, clicked it and saw … wait for it …
Compress Pictures!
This is an even simpler method for reducing Microsoft Office document sizes. Once you click “Compress Pictures,” you can choose the level of compression (printed or screen / web), and whether to delete cropped areas of pictures or not. You still have the original image, right?
The only thing left is to make this the default option during Office setup; If it’s possible, you’ll see it here. Please comment if you experience success with this tip 
Joel
Edit: Found another awesome resource for reducing Office Document file sizes: University of Queensland “Ask IT” page (they also have the same information in .PDF handout format)
Setup a Windows XP Administration Workstation
From Digg:
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!
Drastically reduce PowerPoint file size – EASY!
Got a call from a user today:
“I need to send a powerpoint to a grant organization, and it’s got to get there TODAY! I tried sending it but got a message saying that it exceeds the limit for this user. I need you to take that limit off as soon as possible!”
Whoah, whoah – hold your horses. Those limits are there for a reason. How big is the file?
“I don’t know! Can you please just take the limit off?”
Well, let’s see what we can do first. Right click the file and click … [explaining right click vs. left, what tab the file size is listed on under a file's properties window (it's the general tab)...] OK. So the file is 11MB. That’s 7MB more than the limit. Let’s try something:
- Open the document and right click on an image.
- Click “Format Picture.”
- Now click on the tab “Picture.”
- Click Compress
- Select “All pictures in document.”
- Choose a resolution (hint: screen creates a smaller file).
- Check “Delete cropped areas of pictures” and “Compress Pictures.”
- Click OK (and Apply if prompted).
- Save the file. If you’re paranoid, save it with a new name.
So what’s the file size now?
“It says 1.1 em-bee”
You should be able to send it now.
“Wow, thanks!”
Resource used:
Microsoft Office Assistance: Reduce the size of your PowerPoint files
Boot Windows PE from RIS with PXE
Just a quick post: I’ll be taking a look at this:
How to boot the Microsoft Windows Preinstall Environment from an RIS server by using PXE-enabled clients
looks promising.
Initial issues with SMS 2003 OSD FP
In my initial testing of the SMS 2003 Operating System Deployment Feature Pack, I ran into a couple of issues that, after a bit of determined googling (I’m seeing now that Google Groups has a lot more to offer than previously assumed), yeilded a few gems that I’m sure would come in handy for others facing the same problems.
The first adventure was successfully capturing a build with the Image Capture CD. I created the CD per the instructions in the included guide. Windows PE got all the way to attempting to connect to the Image Share, then crapped out with an error code 8000704fc.
My initial attempt did not include any additional network drivers, and as a result, Windows PE was unable to connect to the share I setup for capturing images to. After a few botched attempts at including the drivers, I realized that all the .inf and other related driver files had to be in the same folder – Windows PE does not search through subfolder structures. After lumping all the drivers together, I was able to capture an image (4.6 Gigs) and move on to the next step: deployment.
I created the OS Package and Program, then created an Image Installation CD, with the same driver setup. I popped it into a bare metal system and booted to the CD. This time, it began restoring the image, then failed at the State Restore phase with “exit code 3″ – it turns out that there is a hotfix that addresses this issue. I called Microsoft PSS, got the hotfix and applied it. I re-created the Image Capture CD, grabbed the image, and the created the package, program and installation CD. I started the Image Installation process just before leaving this afternoon. We’ll see tomorrow if it was successful.
SMS + VirusScan = HELL
We’re experiencing the following symptoms:
- Very high CPU utilization
- Vitrually unresponsive systems
- Violent end-users
- Vicious finger pointing (not really, but it was a good V-word!)
While doing research, we’ve noted that the 2 things common on systems with these symptoms was that SVCHOST.EXE (Automatic Updates in this case) or CCMEXEC.EXE were the main CPU hogs. Killing CCMEXEC, running ccmclean.exe, or sometimes killing the Automatic Updates service would bring the system back from the brink.
Googling for “ccmexec cpu” and similar phrases came up with a few places to start looking:
SMS Admin newsgroup
MyITForum Discussion
Hopefully we’ll get this nailed down and have:
- Responsive systems
- Readiness for update deployments (we’re temporarily suspending them until we get this worked out)
- Really happy customers
- Raises (maybe not).
