I recon VMware should start to built some API’s for hardware suppliers to integrate this more easily.
Although the Dell Multi UPS management software has a plugin for VMware it only allows you to shutdown the hosts, or bring them into maintenace mode.
I haven’t found a way to shut down the virtual machines at the same time witht the plugin.

So I made a workaround.

Dell UPS Management software – vSphere 5

1. Obtain the Dell Multi UPS Management Console (MUMC) software from http://www.dellups.com/soft-tech-doc.asp
2. The file is called DELL_MULTI-DEVICE_A00_R318771.exe
3. I’ve installed the software on the vCenter server since it’s a dedicated physical server.
4. Once installed, you can access it trough:
   http://127.0.0.1:4679/default.html
   or through the start menu by clicking on the dell mgmt software icon.
5. The default login is admin/admin
6. A quick scan is automatically performed

1. In my case, 2 ups devices have been discovered as well as the management server.
2. Then go to System
3. Enable the shutdown module:
4. Next, we will configure the shutdown module

Powersource = the UPS powering the management server
The rest speaks for itself.

I’ve created a shutdownvms.bat script that will bring down everything. (read below)

1. Shutdownvms.bat
   This is the content of the batchfile, I’ve copied everything in the c:\scripts folder (including powershell.exe en vim.psc1)
   It is important to change the Powershell Executionpolicy otherwise the script won’t run
   Do this once by running “Set-Executionpolicy Bypass”  in a powershell prompt

#———————————————-
# short log file creation
echo Shutdown of all VM’s and ESX hosts is launched at >> c:\scripts\alert.txt
echo %date% %time% >> c:\scripts\alert.txt
#Call the powershell script to shutdown everything
C:\scripts\powershell.exe -PSConsoleFile “C:\scripts\vim.psc1″ “& “C:\Scripts\shutdownallvms.ps1″ |Out-File C:\scripts\log.txt
# shutdown the server itself
shutdown.exe /s /t 10
exit
#—————————————————-

1. Shutdownallvms.ps1

Connect-VIServer IPADDRESS

# Get All the ESX Hosts

$ESXSRV = Get-VMHost

# For each of the VMs on the ESX hosts

Foreach ($VM in ($ESXSRV | Get-VM)){

# Shutdown the guest cleanly

$VM | Shutdown-VMGuest -Confirm:$false

}

# Set the amount of time to wait before assuming the remaining powered on guests are stuck

$waittime = 200 #Seconds

$Time = (Get-Date).TimeofDay

do {

# Wait for the VMs to be Shutdown cleanly

sleep 1.0

$timeleft = $waittime – ($Newtime.seconds)

$numvms = ($ESXSRV | Get-VM | Where { $_.PowerState -eq “poweredOn” }).Count

Write “Waiting for shutdown of $numvms VMs or until $timeleft seconds”

$Newtime = (Get-Date).TimeofDay – $Time

} until ((@($ESXSRV | Get-VM | Where { $_.PowerState -eq “poweredOn” }).Count) -eq 0 -or ($Newtime).Seconds -ge $waittime)

# Shutdown the ESX Hosts

$ESXSRV | Foreach {Get-View $_.ID} | Foreach {$_.ShutdownHost_Task($TRUE)}

Write-Host “Shutdown Complete”

I did not wrote this script myself, I got it from the communities forum @ vmware, but I can’t recall from who.

You can do a test from the management menu, but be warned,it WILL shutdown everything.

Hope this helps you out

Patrick

Extract the content and launch the splash.hta

Install Configuration Manager 2007 R3

To my surprise, I got the above error.

So I googled/binged the KB number and found http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977384/en-us

(You would think that MS included the hotfix in the R3 iso, guess again.)

Important to know:
This issue occurs on a computer that is serving in the following role:

• A System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) site server
  
• A System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 remote administration console
  
• A System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 client
  

I went ahead and installed the missing update. (the this may take several minutes is no joke)

The reason why it takes several minutes, is because it depends how long it takes for you to find out that there is a window behind the installer asking for instructions:

What is it saying? Basically it creates a new program for you to update the SCCM Client on your computers, which you have to manually deploy after the installation of the update.
The reason for the update is related to the new power management features.

So, off with the actual update:

Once installation is done, open the SCCM console, go to Site Database, Site Management
Right click you site, choose properties.

On the general tab, you should see this :

So, what’s new??

Read all about it here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff977104.aspx

Now, that might come in handy some day.
I decided to give it a try.

To begin, you AD schema needs to be updated.
The file you need for this is located here: “driveletter:\whereveryouinstalledDPM\DPM\End user recovery\DPMADSchemaExtension.exe”

• You need to run this on a DC,
• To be more specific, the DC needs to have the Schema Master Role.
• Obviously, you need to run this under an account in the schema admins group
• To be more specific, you need to right-click the file and choose run as administrator

  Otherwise you’re prompted to run the installation under an account from the schema admins group (even tough you’re logged on with the correct account)

• You’re asked 3 questions:
  • The name of your DPM server (without the domain suffix so if your FQDN of the dpm is something like DPM2010.local, fill in DPM2010)
  • The name of your domain (so if you’re local domain name is .local, fill in Local)
  • Then it asks something else which I can’t remember, but it’s self-explaining.
• Update takes a few seconds

Next, go back to your DPM server.

In the action pane on the right, click the Configure End user recovery…

When you mark the checkbox to Enable end-user recovery, you’re prompted with above message.
Message makes sense (for a change)

Before I go further, here’s a note:

“DPM supports only short-term, disk-based recovery for end users”
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Ready for another one??

“When using the end-user recovery functionality of DPM, disable the local shadow copies on the protected server”

To recover data by using a client computer:
Click Start, click Run, and type the path to the protected data.
Browse to the file, right-click the file name, and then click Properties.
On the Properties menu, click Previous Versions, and then select the version that you want to recover from the list of available versions.

_______________________________________________________________

Do this before attaching lun’s to the host:

esxcli nmp satp setdefaultpsp –psp VMW_PSP_RR –satp VMW_SATP_EQL

It will put round robin as the default path policy to round robin, saves you lot of time

After some searching I found this iso, named:
vmware-esx-drivers-net-igb_400.1.3.19.12-1.0.4.164009.166506.ISO
It’s possible to use this iso during the manual installation, the intaller will ask you if you want to load additional drivers.  Tried that, and it worked, it found the quad port nics.

So why slipstream ?
Well, I needed to create an unattended installation for a customer and it’s not really unattended if you need to go swapping iso’s during the install phase.

Ok, let’s roll:
The files we will be working with are:

PACKAGES.XML  (in the root)
packageData.pkl (in the VMWARE\RPMS folder)
TRANS.TBL (in the VMWARE\RPMS folder)

Extract these  files from the ISO to a folder.
Oh yeah, before you go launching your favorite ISO software, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT use PowerISO.
PowerISO changes the MD5 checksum of the ISO, making it useless.
I found out the hard way. Instead I recommend MagicISO.

let’s start with putting the newer driver in the \VMWARE\RPMS folder.
Extract the vmware-esx….ISO file you downloaded from VMware.
Goto the .rpm folder and insert the vmware-esx…..x86_64.rpm to the \VMWARE\RPMS folder of the ESX iso.

You can delete the other (older)  vmware-esx-drivers-net-igb file as we will no longer need it.

Next, we need to change the TRANS.TBL file, so that it contains the new file.
Use a text editor such as Notepad++ to change any of the files in this tutorial.
do NOT use windows notepad, wordpad, word or whatever texteditor incapable of handling unix formatted files.

In this case, you will find an entry In the Trans.tbl file on line 280 called:
“F VMWARE_ESX_DRIVERS_NET_IGB_.;1”
If you find the line, scroll to the right, and you will see the name of the old rpm.
Only change the right part of this line to the name of the new rpm.

Save and close the file.
Next, edit the packages.xml file in the root of the extracted iso.
Goto line 91 and change the old entry to the new one:

Save and close.
Next up, packageData.pkl in the \VMWARE\RPMS folder
Goto line 2245 (yes, it’s a long file J also, you can search for “igb” and it will bring you right there)
And as you already guessed, change the entry there.

Save and close.
Now, update your ESX iso file with the edited files and new rpm.
After installation with the new ISO, it “should” detect the intel quad port cards.

Hope this helps you out, the same way it did for me

Here are the steps needed to fix IE7:

1. From the “Tools” menu, select “Internet Options

2. Go to the “Security” tab and highlight “Intenet” and select “Custom Level”

3. Scroll to “ActiveX control and plug-ins”, and set the sub-setting “Automatic prompting for ActiveX controls” to “Enable”

4. Click “OK” a couple of times to save settings and then try to access the DRAC5 KVM plugin again – it should properly install now.

source: http://carsonfriday.com/?s=opt

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Networking/Q_21871521.html

On the server:
type… net time /querysntp
This will show you what time server your domain controller is currently syncing with.

NOTE: the default windows time server on the internet is completely unreliable. I suggest a change.

Now type… net time /setsntp:tick.usno.navy.mil,tock.usno.navy.mil

Your DC now has two time servers available for sync, provided by the US Millitary. Very reliable.

Now all of your clients should be syncing with the DC, either by specifying > “net time /setsntp:{servername}”…or….by logon script. > net time \\{servername} /set /y

Get-Mailbox -Server “servername″ | Add-MailboxPermission -User “domain\username” -AccessRights FullAccess | Format-List

copy paste above line and edit it before you run it.
enjoy

I was born in the other millenium in the year 1981 in the lovely country of Belgium.
Located in Europe and unknow to any great nations until we win the worldcup one day.
That’s right, I’m a soccer fan, I’m a big Liverpool supporter and I hope to go there at least once in my lifetime to experience the true force of the Kop!
Other than that I take care of my 2 dogs and renovate my house.
I’m also happily married to my beautifull wife for almost 2 years now.

I work for an IT company located in Antwerp as a system engineer.
My “expertise” goes to Windows server, exchange and VMware.
Got certified last year and been using VI3 for quite some time now. Certified but no expert yet

I’m blogging for a couple of reasons:
- so I don’t have to memorize every solution I come across.
- I get a lot of help from other blogs and decided to do something back. I hope I can help others out to.
- and it’s fun to do