Windows Server Administration and Latest Trends

Problem in Trust Creation with Domain Controller on VM

2012-02-01T10:14:00.001+05:30

Problem description: When you try to establish a trust from a domain controller running inside a VMware virtual machine, the trust is not established and is followed by the below error.

"The local security authority is unable to obtain an RPC connection to the Domain controller"

As per Microsoft it can be a DNS issue or RPC problem.

Resolution: The origin of the problem is a component in a VMware Tools i.e. Shared Folders. The purpose of this component is to be able to share files between a management workstation and the virtual machine.

Here is the resolution.

A) Uninstall the Shared Folders component in your virtual machine (DC).

àGo to Add/Remove Programs à VMware Tools à click "change" à next à deselect "Shared Folders".

B) Reboot the machine.

C) Establish the trust.

Popular SysAdmin Quotes

2012-01-29T19:17:00.001+05:30

“The problem with troubleshooting is that trouble shoots back.” ~Author Unknown

“User is the word computer professionals use when they mean "idiot." ~Dave Barry

“If a train station is where the train stops, what's a workstation?” ~Author Unknown

“I haven't lost my mind; I have a tape back-up somewhere.” ~Author Unknown

“What goes up must come down. Ask any system administrator.” ~Author Unknown

“In God we trust, all others we virus scan.” ~Author Unknown

“Never meddle in the affairs of NT. It is slow to boot and quick to crash.” ~Stephen Harris

"What? No raise? No Backups, then!" ~A Frustrated Sysadmin

“Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don't let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months.” ~Clifford Stoll

“Rebooting is a wonder drug - it fixes almost everything.” ~Garrett Hazel

"Like car accidents, most hardware problems are due to driver error." ~Author Unknown

"Unix is user-friendly. It's just very selective about who its friends are." ~Author Unknown

“Difference between a virus and windows? Viruses rarely fail." ~Author Unknown

New Features in VMware vSphere 5 at a Glance

2012-01-26T23:25:00.004+05:30

There are a lot new features that vSphere 5.0 brings and the list will be even longer if all API and backend changes are included. Listed below are some of the significant changes that vSphere 5 brings for its customers.

1) Vsphere ESXi Convergence: VMware vSphere 5 is the first version of VMware vSphere built exclusively on ESXi™, the only hypervisor purpose-built for virtualization that runs independently from a general-purpose operating system with smallest footprint.

2) VSphere Auto Deploy: Auto-Deploy will enable IT to automatically deploy servers “on the fly” and will be able to reduce the time it takes to deploy a datacenter with 40 servers from 20 hours to 10 minutes. Once the servers are up and running, Auto-Deploy will also automate the patching process, making it possible to instantly apply patches to many servers at once.

3) New VM Hardware version: The new virtual machine format (Version 8) in vSphere 5 has several new features, including support for

è 3D graphics for Windows Aero

è USB 3.0

4) Compatibility: Continue to run virtual machines with the 4.x version of VMware Tools, and virtual hardware versions 4 and 7.

5) Apple Product Support: Support for new guest operating systems including Mac OS X Server v10.6 (“Snow Leopard”).

6) 4X larger VMs : Virtual machines can now have up to 32 virtual CPUs and 1TB of RAM.

7) New Licensing Model: vSphere 5 Licensing continues to be physical CPU based but now linked with pooled vRAM Entitlement instead of CPU cores and physical RAM.

8) New command-line interface (ESXCLI): vSphere 5.0 introduces a new command line utility esxcli. Some of you will say that esxcli was already available before 5.0, and yes you are correct it was around however it has been completely revamped with new options and switches.

9) ESXi Firewall: A new service-oriented firewall with the capability to restrict access to services based on IP address and subnet mask.

10) VM Storage Profiles: Decrease the amount of administration required to properly deploy virtual machines by allowing for the creation of Profiles. These profiles typically list the requirements of storage and can be linked to a virtual machine.

Mapped Network Drive: An unexpected network error has occurred.

2011-09-25T14:35:00.000+05:30

After applying a security hardening policy through a GPO on the servers in our environment we were
not able to access the mapped network drive on CIFS filer.
I was able to map the drive but when I try to access the mapped drive I get an error "An unexpected network error occurred".

Resolution: Some GPO settings were blocking this as the Netapp filer was supporting only NTLM
protocol authentication.
The policies should be set as below.
1) Network Client Digital sign Network communication always : Disabled
2) Lan Manager Authentication Level: Send NTLM response only
3) Minimum session security for NTLM session based (including secure RPC) Clients : No minimum
4) Minimum session security for NTLM session based (including secure RPC) Server : No minimum

Multi Monitor Configuration Settings in Citrix Xenapp 4.5

2011-09-14T23:37:00.031+05:30

In one of our Citrix Farms, Users were facing an issue with a Particular Published Application where they want to work on Multi Monitors and this application was behaving erratically with Dual Monitors.

That’s when I resolved the issue with the below settings in our environment with reference to a particular Citrix Document CTX115637.

1) Open Farm server Properties and set the display settings as per the screenshot below.

è Deselect “ Use Farm Setings”

è Set Max memory usage to 8192 KB (max which you can set)

è Degardation the colour depth first

è Deselect the notify user option

2) Adjust Window’s SessionPoolSize parameter as needed to accommodate increased LVB

memory requirements. SessionPoolSize parameter is held in a DWORD value named

SessionPoolSize in the system registry.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

It is expressed in MB. Default SessionPoolSize for x86 systems is either 16MB or 32MB

depending upon how much memory your system is configured with. Default SessionPoolSize

for x64 systems is 64MB

3) Calculating the DWORD DefaultHooks Value

è To change the behavior from the default, choose the hooks you want enabled and add them together, remember to use decimal mode when entering the value in the registry, or first convert to HEX.

è Setting a value of zero is the same as disabling MMHook

è For our case this value comes to 40959.

For more information and kindly refer http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX115637