Vmware VCAP-DCD exam passed!

I did the exam for Vmware Certified Advanced Professional in Datacenter Design today, and I must say its the toughest exam I have ever done in my entire life. The test was 270 minutes and I was convinced I would not have the time to finish all of the tasks. It's 113 tasks and its divided into multiple choice - one answer, multiple choice - 2/3 correct answers, "connect the dots" on statements and finally quite a few design tasks. Those were the toughest since I wasn't sure my way of thinking and placing items were the same as Vmwares idea of it all, so I was very VERY uncertain about passing this exam. With 10 mins to go I had done all 113 tasks, but I had about 10 to review. So with 2 mins left on timer I clicked finish review, and the score was 337! Passing requirement is 300, so I am more than happy :)

Was nice to let my shoulders down, now its done and I can smile about it.

ESX: Remove hidden devices after converted VMs

I had to move a VM from an older stand-alone ESX to a customers new ESX 4.1 cluster, and I decided to use Vmware Converter through the new Virtual Center. The conversion process was insanely slow, but its nothing new, Vmware Converter tend to be on the very slow side, and moving them manually with Veeam SCP or something similar would be preferred.

Anyways, when the clone was done the server was booted on new host, and it discovered new hardware. I let it run, then upgraded Vmwaretools, and rebooted. Problem then was the same as often, you get the hidden NIC taking the default IP, and you get DHCP on the new one. To sort this problem you need to do the following.

Start -> Run -> Cmd -> Enter
Type in "set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" and press Enter
In the SAME Cmd window, type "DEVMGMT.MSC" and press Enter
Then go to View, select Show hidden devices and then go find your missing NIC under Network Adapters

The key here is to run the DEVMGMT.MSC in the same Cmd window as the first command, or it wont work. You can no do Start -> Run -> command cause it wont work. So do it all in the same window before closing it.

After you remove the adapter you can change IP settings for your real adapter and its ready to run. I reboot just in case though, but thats up to you.

Upgrade ESX 3.5 to 4.1 using Update Manager

Not in the mood to type tonight, so referencing this movie from Vmware.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM2NfdgA5rY

Poor graphics performance on Windows 2008R2 / Win7 on ESX4.x

When installing Windows 2008R2 (and Windows7) on Vmware ESX, you will end up with non-accelerated graphics, even with acceleration set to full in the graphics setup. To sort this out you need the new WDDM driver included with Vmware tools, but not automatically installed. Those new drivers are in the following directory.

C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\wddm_video

Add them to your standard graphics card through device manager and restart your computer, all is well. This info can be found at Vmwares KB1011709.

Anonymous relays via Exchange 2010

Sometimes you need your Exchange server to allow relaying from scanners, printer units or software that need to push mail directly. If you only need emails to your local users you pretty much dont need to do much, but if you need it to relay to external users, you should make your own receive connector for it allowing anonymous users.

Server Configuration -> Hub Transport -> Create new Receive Connector
Choose an easy name and select Custom for use, set it to use the local IP with port 25 (if you dont want it running on another port or IP), choose which units can relay through it. You can go with either your subnet, or spesific IPs, or a combination if you have several subnets. Finish the wizard and you have your new connector. Now you need to edit it, and make sure only Anonymous users are selected on the Permission groups tab.

When its done, start up Exchange Management Shell and do the following command to give the proper Anonymous rights on the connector.

Get-ReceiveConnector "Name of your new connector" | Add-ADPermission -User "NT AUTHORITY\ANONYMOUS LOGON" -ExtendedRights "ms-Exch-SMTP-Accept-Any-Recipient"

After that restart your Transport service and you should be good to go.

Exchange 2010 says #550 5.7.1 RESOLVER.RST.AuthRequired

If you make distribution groups in Exchange 2010 and you are enabling them from external senders, make sure you remove the authentication requirement on the group itself. Follow these steps to ensure its setup proper.

#1. Click the Distribution Group name as you want to set

#2. Click the "Properties"

#3. Click the "Mail Flow Settings" Tab

#4. Click the "Message Delivery Restrictions" item

#5. Click the "Properties..." button

#6. Uncheck the "Require that all senders are authenticated" item

#7. Click "OK" button

#8. Click "OK" button again

Thats all you need to do to enabled external senders.

Upgrade your ESX from 4.0 to 4.1 using ESXUPDATE

I just did this upgrade and it was very quick and simple. I followed the guidelines in this video from Vmware.com, do the same or go by the small guide I've written.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0wSHPSvmpk

Here are the steps you need to take

1. Make sure you obtain your new license keys from your valid account at Vmware.com, your old license will not work on 4.1.
2. Download the two patchfiles you need from Vmware.com, they are named pre-update and update and will have your from and to version in the name, ending with .zip. Upload the two patchfiles to your local VMFS store so they are ready for use.
3. Shut down all our running VMs and put your host in maintenance mode. You can do this by using the vSphere client, or you can do it on the command line as root with the command "vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter"
4. Run the pre-upgrade patch with "/usr/sbin/esxupdate --bundle=<name of pre-update bundle> update"
5. Run the version upgrade with "/usr/sbin/esxupdate --bundle=<name of update bundle> update"
6. When its done updating, you can either turn off maintenance mode from command line with "vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit" or you can just restart the host and do it from your vSphere client.
7. When your VMs are started, remember to upgrade the vmwaretools.

Thats all there is, you can do a commandline check with "vmware -v" to make sure you're on the correct version, or check it from your vShpere Client.

Good luck!