Archive for September, 2009

How to Remotely Administrate Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 in a Workgroup

// September 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

One of the most annoying things with Microsoft is their model of authenticating outside of a domain.  I found out the hard way when configuring Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 and trying to use the remote administration tools.  I kept getting an error that I couldn’t connect to the Hyper-V Service.  Here are the proper steps to get it working.

  1. Make sure to have a user account that is an administrator on the Hyper-V machine with th same user name that you are logged in with.  If you are logged in locally as administrator (bad, bad, bad) on your desktop or laptop then make sure that the password matches on the Hyper-V server.  This works even if you’re in a domain and the Hyper-V server is not.
  2. Install the Remote Administration Tools for Windows 7 or Vista.  You can get the Windows 7 ones here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=48359dd2-1c3d-4506-ae0a-232d0314ccf6&displaylang=en or Vista ones here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9FF6E897-23CE-4A36-B7FC-D52065DE9960&displaylang=en .
  3. Once you install them you have to actually enable the remote administration tools so go to Control Panel and choose Programs and Turn Windows Features On or Off.  Now scroll down and expand Remote Server Administration Tools and add the ones you want to enable by checking the boxes.  The Hyper-V tools are located in the Role Adminstation Tools.
  4. Click Ok and let Windows Configure the installation of the tools.
  5. Now on the local Vista or Windows 7 machine click on Start and in the search type dcomcnfg and hit enter
  6. Expand Component Services until you see My Computer
  7. Now right-click on My Computer and go to properties
  8. Click on COM Security
  9. Under Access Permissions click on Edit Limits
  10. Click on ANONYMOUS LOGON and check the box for Remote Access and hit OK (this actually allows you to connect to the Hyper-V service on the remote server.  This is the part that irritated me the most).
  11. Click OK  twice and close Component Services
  12. Now go to Start – Administrative Tools and launch Hyper-V Manager (or create a custom MMC, whatever makes you happy)
  13. If prompted by the UAC click Yes.
  14. In the left pane right-click on Hyper-V Manager and choose Connect to Server.
  15. Type the name of the server you created and hit OK. 
  16. You should now be able to successfully manage the server remotely.  You can also use Computer Management and other MMC plugins for remote administration.  Provided that you configured the firewall on the Hyper-V server to allow this administration.

Macrim Relfect = Ultra Cheap Image Backups

// September 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

You’re not going to get universal restore capabilities but for $40 for a paid version this is hard to beat.  Top it off with the free version that would work for home users it’s a good alternative to ones like DriveImage XML.

 http://www.macrium.com/default.asp

How to Install Citrix XenServer 5.5 to a USB Hard drive

// September 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // Citrix XenServer

I’ll go ahead and cite the original owner first then go into changing his process to adapt to XenServer 5.5.  Chris Wolf is a genius: http://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2008/05/09/installing-and-running-xenserver-41-on-an-external-usb-drive.aspx

Ok now for the changes.  If you noticed I updated steps 12 and 13 because the kernel has changed since the article was written.

To get XenServer to successfully boot on an external USB drive, follow these steps:

  1. When the server boots, hit the hotkey for the boot options menu.
  2. Ensure that the XenServer installation CD is in the CD-ROM drive.
  3. In the boot options menu, select the option to boot from the CD-ROM.
  4. As soon as the Welcome to XenServer setup screen loads, immediately press the F2 key to view the advanced setup options.
  5. Now type shell and hit Enter.
  6. When the system finishes booting, run the following command to create a temporary folder where you will mount the external USB drive:

    mkdir /tmp/sda

  7. You will now mount the USB drive to the temporary location. Note that I’m assuming the USB drive is the only drive attached to the system and therefore is mounted as /dev/sda. To mount the first partition of sda to the /tmp/sda folder, run this command:

    mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /tmp/sda

  8. You will now need to copy the sys/block drivers from the setup environment to the USB drive. However, you will first need to change the driver file permissions prior to the copy. To do this, run this command:

    chmod -R 664 /sys/block

  9. You can now copy the contents of /sys/block to the USB drive. To do this, run this command:

    cp -R /sys/block/ /tmp/sda/sys/block/

    Note: Disregard the resultant “Input/Output error” message. The file copy will complete successfully.

  10. Next you need to change the root location to /tmp/sda. You can do this by running the command:

    chroot /tmp/sda

  11. Now let’s change to the /boot folder on the USB drive. To do this, run the command:

    cd /boot

  12. Now we will rename the original primary initrd image file because the new image file will have the same name as the original file for ease of configuration. To rename the primary initrd image file, run this command:

    mv initrd-2.6.18-128.1.6.el5.xs5.5.0.496.1012xen.img initrd-2.6.18-128.1.6.el5.xs5.5.0.496.1012xen.img.old

  13. Next, we’ll create a new initrd image that includes the USB driver. To do this, run this command:

    mkinitrd –with-usb initrd-2.6.18-128.1.6.el5.xs5.5.0.496.1012xen.img 2.6.18-128.1.6.el5.xs5.5.0.496.1012xen

  14. At this point, you will now be able to successfully boot XenServer from an external USB drive. To reboot, the server, type exit and hit Enter and then type reboot and press Enter. Remember to select the external USB drive from the boot options menu when the server boots.