Understanding EtherChannel

As a follow up to the 802.1q config on VMware, here is a Cisco article on EtherChannel and Load Balancing.

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/4.html#cat2950_3550

dot1Q Trunking on VMware

A concise and informative article on setting up 802.1q trunking on a Cisco Switch.

http://virtrix.blogspot.com/2006/11/vmware-switch-load-balancing.html

.Net Framework Unattended Install

Automation for Citrix deployments is pretty much old hat at this point, but the 64-bit version is another story. One of the annoying things is that Citrix still uses the 32-bit version of .Net Framework which, of course, is not installed with Windows Server 2003, 64-bit edition.

Why would anyone need .Net 1.1 when 2.0 and 3.0 are available, right? Right.

What's an enterprising administrator to do?

dotnetfx.exe /q:a /c:"install.exe /l /q"

Hat tip to Aaron Stebner.

HP Visio Stencils

If you've ever gone looking for Visio stencils for HP ProLiant or StorageWorks, here is the place.

The logical layouts are very useful for configurations, since it gives you all the part number options. I use these stencils all the time when I am laying out a new server or storage solution to make sure I don't miss something.

They also make for a visually appealing layout that helps you sell the solution; doing a layout means you've actually thought it out!

HowTo: Remove Hidden Devices in Windows 2003

Devices that were in a system but now are gone, such as NICs, still linger and even get in the way of healthy operation. To get rid of them, follow these easy steps.

1. Open a command prompt.
2. At the prompt, type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 to set the Device Manager Console MMC to show the hidden devices, then press Enter.
3. Next, launch the Device Manager Console MMC by typing devmgmt.msc at the prompt.
4. Now, in the Device Manager Console MMC, click ViewShow Hidden Devices.

Now you can browse the device tree and find the pesky device that has outstayed its welcome.

Devices that are not loaded will be greyed out, but don't go crazy here. Just whack the devices you know you don't need; being overly zealous here could get you into VERY deep trouble.

HP ProLiant BL GbE2 Default Password

I always tend to forget the default passwords for different gear, probably because they are all over the place, even with the same vendor.

For future reference, the default admin username and password for the GbE2 Switch Interconnect on HP Blade System is admin/admin. Also, the admin guide is located here.

Well that's... Annoying

You would think that Citrix could automatically adjust the processor metrics on a server if it detects multiple processors during install. I guess that's asking too much.

Context switches/sec appear to be scaled as a total across all processors, but the default threshold isn't adjusted to reflect multiple procs.

Lesson: At the least, multiply the threshold by the number of processors in the server.

More info...

Ugh... Symantec buys Altiris?

Just when I was starting to get over the licensing pain of Veritas being bought by Symantec, they go and buy Altiris.

I so look forward to yet another licensing scheme change. Yay.

Which port goes to which blade?

I do a lot of work with HP p-Class blades. For the most part, they are great to work with, but one of the most annoying things about them is that when you use the half-height blades, figuring out which network port goes to which server is SUPREMELY annoying.

So, I went out and grabbed the 17 page document on which port goes where and managed to distill it down to this picture.

Simply put, the top blade is on the left port and the bottom blade is on the right port. And PXE is serviced by the ports on the right (A side) interconnect.

Easy enough.

PXE-E55: ProxyDHCP service did not reply to request on port 4011

I was working on a client’s server today and trying to get HP’s Rapid Deployment Pack (RDP) to connect to a blade for imaging.

The PXE boot environment kept recycling and I couldn’t figure out why until I managed to snag a screen capture of the error.



I did a little bit of digging and found this article on Microsoft’s site.

• PXE clients computers do not start when you configure the DHCP server to use options 60, 66, 67

While it didn’t help me exactly, since the PXE server was on the same server as the DHCP service, it did lead me to the right answer.

The Altiris PXE Server was set to manual and wasn’t started. I should have checked that first, but live and learn.

I've seen this before...

Don't you hate that?

You're working on a problem and you know you've seen it before, but now you can't find the knowledgebase article!

What's that registry key? Which version of the driver do I need again?

It happens to me all the time. I overcome a lot of little annoying problems and gotchas each day, and unless I journal them someplace, it's a 50/50 chance that I'm going to have to start all over again finding the answer the next time I run into the same problem.

In order to help solve this annoying problem of memory, I have resolved to chronicle my daily experiences here, in the hopes that if I've seen it before, I can fix it again without jumping through the same hoops.

Wish me luck!