All posts by Michael Albert

Windows knowhow

Windows Vista: Cannot install Service Pack 2

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Hello,

a customer had the problem that he couldn’t install the Windows Vista Service Pack 2 on his Laptop. Service Pack 1 seems to be installed, but the Service Pack 2 Setup says it isn’t.

Service Pack 2 Setup do not recognize Service Pack 1
Service Pack 2 Setup do not recognize Service Pack 1

I processed a query by using the WMI Command line tool and filtered for Service pack 1 (Hotfixnumber KB936330).

wmic qfe|findstr /I 936330

But in the list of installed hotfixes KB936330 is not listed. WinVer.exe reports a Vista with Service Pack 1 installed.

WinVer report
WinVer report

Continue reading Windows Vista: Cannot install Service Pack 2 →

VMware

VMware: Cannot connect from vCenter Webclient to VDP Appliance

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Hi,

the license of VMware vSphere 5.1 includes the diskbased Backup Solution VDP(vSphere Data Protection). So I’ve decited to try the appliance (Version 5.1 Timestamp 2012-10-02) whether these meets our requirements.

Before I started, I ensured that

  • The DNS forward and reverse resolution of the choosen name and IP address is possible.
  • The User, who manage the backup, have vCenter Administrator rights.
  • all prerequisites are fulfilled

Downloading and installing of the appliance works as expected. The Appliance is properly registered in the vSphere Webclient but I can’t start the VDP Frontend within.

Error Message
Error Message

Error: Could not connect to the requested VDP appliance. Would you like to be directed to the VDP configuration screen to throubleshoot the issue.

But whats wrong? I’m currently logged on to the Webclient with my Domain Login. When I’m using SSO Administrator admin@system-domain Login the VDP Frontends starts,
also another Domain Login can connect. Something in the chain Windows Domain, Single Sign On, vCenter and VDP Appliance fails.
Continue reading VMware: Cannot connect from vCenter Webclient to VDP Appliance →

Windows Scripts

Windows: Script to get the NetBIOS Name of an Active Directory Domain

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Hi,

just a short post :-). A powershell script to get the NetBIOS Name of an Active Directory Domain


###############################################################################
# Gets the NetBIOS Domain
# Author Michael Albert michlstechblog.info
# License: GPL v2
###############################################################################
[reflection.assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.DirectoryServices.Protocols")|Out-Null

if($args.count -ne 1){
    Write-Warning " Start script with fqdn as parameter"
    Write-Warning (" for example: "+$myInvocation.myCommand.name+" yourdomain.com")
    exit 1
}
$sDomainName=$args[0]
# Get AD Root
$oRootDSE = [ADSI]"LDAP://RootDSE"
$sConfig = $oRootDSE.Get("configurationNamingContext")
# AD Object AD Root
$oADSearchRoot=New-object System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry("LDAP://CN=Partitions," + $sConfig)
# Search for Netbiosname of the specified domain
$sSearchString="(&(objectclass=Crossref)(dnsRoot="+$sDomainName+")(netBIOSName=*))"
$oSearch=New-Object directoryservices.DirectorySearcher($oADSearchRoot,$sSearchString)
$sNetBIOSName=($oSearch.FindOne()).Properties["netbiosname"]
# Print out
Write-Host "Domain NetBIOS Name:" $sNetBIOSName

Have fun :-)!

Michael

VMware

VMware vCenter: Howto add an Active Directory Domain as SSO Identity Source and using system session credentials

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Attention: If plan a update to VMware vSphere/vCenter 5.1.0 Update 1. Currently this version contains a bug which prevents User from Login. VMware is working on an Fix. See KB2050941

=> Bug is solved in 5.1.0 Update 1a

Hi everybody,

since VMware vCenter 5.1 a new service SSO, the Single Sign On Service,  handles the authentication for all logons. The advantage is that multiple authentication sources are possible. For example Local User and groups, OpenLDAP Directory Services and of course Microsofts Active Directory.

This post is related to vCenter Version 5.1.0b and describes how to add an Active Directory Domain as Identity source and get this running by using the “Reuse session” Authentication Type. The last one is the tricky part :-).

Let us start. Start the vSphere WebClient with a login which owns the appropriate rights, for example admin@system-domain or any other user who owsn has the SSO administrator privileges, and navigate to Administration/Sign On and Discovery/Configration. In the default configuration two identity sources are added by default. The SSO database and the user management of the local server.

To add an Active Directory as identity source the following informations are required

  • The Domain fully qualified domain name
  • The Domains NetBIOS Name
  • At least one domain controller
  • The Base DN for the users and groups

The attached powershell script GetSSOParameters.ps1 should determine this for your domain. You must start the script with the fully qualified domain name as parameter. Try it!

PS c:\>GetNetBiosDomainName.ps1 yourdomain.com
Basic Config for VMware SSO Identity source
NAME: YOURDOMAIN
Primary Server: ldap://domaincontroller1.yourdomain.com
Secondary Server: ldap://domaincontroller2.yourdomain.com
BaseDN Users: DC=yourdomain,DC=com
Domain: yourdomain.com
Domain Alias: YOURDOMAIN
BaseDN Groups: DC=yourdomain,DC=com

If you have the necessary information you can add the Identity source. See Screenshot below. First try to add by specifing a Username and a password which have the rights to query the Active Directory

VMware SSO Identity Source with "Password" option
VMware SSO Identity Source with “Password” option

Press the Test Connection Button and normally this return that the connection is successfully established. Continue reading VMware vCenter: Howto add an Active Directory Domain as SSO Identity Source and using system session credentials →

miscellaneous

Script to get a list of computers connected to a Avocent KVM switch

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Hello,

in his office, a customer have a few Avocent KVM switches to control some client computers in a remote room. He ask me about the possibility to get a list of all computers connected to these boxes, because he do not want to maintain any list by hand.

I research the documention but there is no (scripting) interface from which I could get such a list. SSH is only for connecting serial consoles, SNMP offers no OIDs for such a case.

Because of the costs, DSView isn’t a option. The only way seems to be to extracting the list by reading the Webfrontend HTML output. Let us do this 🙂

I wrote a script in powershell, at least version 2 is needed to handle selfsigned SSL certificates, which do the following:

  • Login to the Webfronted with https and SSL encryption by System.Net.HTTPWebRequest class to get the authentification cookie
  • Get the Device HTML  page by .NET class System.Net.Webclient and using Authentification cookie
  • Save HTML do a temporary file
  • Open the file with Internet Explorer
  • Get the URL to start a KVM session, computername and portnumber by  DOM

Script details

Define the User, Password, protocol and the devices:

# KVM User
[string]$sUser="Admin"
# KVM Password
[string]$sPassword="YourPassword"
# Protocol
[string]$sProtocol="https"
# Your Devices
[String[]]$aAvocentDevices=@("Console1.domain.local","Console2.domain.local")

Built HTTP POST text and disable SSL certificate warnings
Continue reading Script to get a list of computers connected to a Avocent KVM switch →