Showing posts with label server. Show all posts
Showing posts with label server. Show all posts

Thursday, March 28, 2013

vSphere: Add a vSwitch that has no access to physical network adapters


I have a few test servers that I wanted to be virtualized but have no access to the campus network or Internet. I also wanted to be able to give those servers access to the Internet or campus network easily for whatever reason. Some good use cases are test environments for domain controllers, SCCM upgrades, you name it.

In vSphere, I created a new vSwitch that does not have access to any physical network adapters. When a particular vm needs Internet access, I can simply change the network settings on that vm's network adapter.



Pretty simple stuff.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Upgrading SCCM 2012 to SP1

Here are the Microsoft TechNet articles that I used to prep for this install.

What’s New in Configuration Manager SP1
Considerations For Upgrading to Configuration Manager SP1
Upgrading System Center 2012 Configuration Manager to Service Pack 1 (TechNet Video)


Run Prerequisite Checker   /bin/X64/prereqchk.exe  (Run As Administrator)

Install the Windows ADK (do this ahead of time if possible)
  [x] Deployment tools
  [x] Windows preinstallation environment
  [x] User State Migration Tool

Make sure you are on "Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2"
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30437
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/gg682077.aspx#BKMK_SupConfigSQLDBconfig


Run SCCM SP1 installer (make sure you run this as the account you installed SCCM with)
(o) Upgrade this Configuration Manager site

MS SQL Server 2012 Express
[x] I accept these License Terms

MS SQL Server 2012 Native Client
[x] I accept these LIcense Terms

MS Silverlight 5
[x] I accept these Licesnse Terms

Download required files (ahead of time if possible)

Preqequisite Checker will run again
  WSUS Warning (I do not use WSUS on SCCM, ignored)

The install took approximately 25 minutes.


To upgrade CM clients to the latest:

Sites node > Hierarchy Settings > Automatic Client Upgrade tab
   [x] Upgrade client automatically when new client updates are available
   2 days (I prefer to have my clients upgraded in a faster schedule than the default 7 days)

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Installing Software From a DVD on a vSphere VM

This was a little different scenario than usual. I had a dual-layer DVD, 7.5GB's worth of software that I needed to install on a vSphere VM (server). The software wouldn't allow install through a remote desktop connection. The second approach I took was to create a folder on the VM desktop and copy the files over. That didn't work because I was getting "file name too long" error's, so the copy would not fully complete. What I ended up doing was using ImgBurn to create an .iso of the DVD, then I uploaded the .iso to the desired datastore in vSphere, attached the iso to the cd/dvd drive of the VM, then done deal! A little extra work, but it got the job done.

*Edit* - It was brought to my attention of a much easier way to do this Go to the Properties of the VM, CD/DVD Drive, then (o) Client Device

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Two Printers to One Print Server Port


A while back, the idea of duplex printing for our computer labs was thrown around. Once approved we had to come up with an easy way to implement this while still giving the student an option to print simplex. To make things easier, we have a print manager software called Papercut. There is a duplex feature to turn on duplex printing for the specified printer, however, from there on - duplex is strictly enforced, even if a student turned off duplex in their favorite program. This presented a challenge as most of our labs only contain one physical printer. So, to get around that challenge, we setup a "new printer" using an existing port on the print server. Essentially this is like having two virtual printers to one physical printer.

So as you can see, I have printer 1C05-1 with Duplex enforced (on Papercut side). To add a "Simplex" printer, using the same port click on "Add a printer." 



Next, click on "Add a local printer"


Choose the same port, in this case "1C05P1" which is the dns name in which printer 1C05-1 is assigned


Once the printer is added, you now have two virtual printers, using the same port. So essentially, a student can now choose the "1C05-1-Simplex" printer to print 1-sided print jobs, while leaving 1C05-1 as the default, duplex virtual printer. Keep in mind, this is still one - physical printer.


On the server, if you go to Print Server Properties, you can see two (virtual) printers are assigned to the one port.