A very simple process... Logon to the server currently running DHCP. It's ok to leave DHCP running during this process. In Powershell, running as administrator: Export-DhcpServer -File C:\DHCPdata.xml -Leases -Force -ComputerName old.network.local –Verbose On the server to be running DHCP, make sure the role is installed and the service is started Import-DhcpServer -File C:\DHCPdata.xml -BackupPath C:\DHCP\ … Continue reading Moving DHCP from Server 2012 R2 to another 2012 R2 Server
Fixing Unknown Health Status in ESXi
The scenario: When an ESXi host is originally installed, the health status shows green and all is well. After a while, health status' begin reporting unknown. Here are a few fixes I've used to address this in a variety of scenarios. In vSphere client, Configuration > Security Profile > Services > Restart CIM Server service. … Continue reading Fixing Unknown Health Status in ESXi
Failure when demoting a DC…
I was tasked with migrating from 2008 to 2012 R2 DCs. The new DC had been promoted. FSMO had been transferred. Dcdiag and repadmin looked good...no signs of issues. However, when I went to demote the old DC, I received the following error: The operation failed because: Active Directory Domain Services could not transfer … Continue reading Failure when demoting a DC…
Adding stored passwords to Windows via cmd line
I recently encountered a scenario where it was necessary to store credentials in Dell Wyse Windows 8 Embedded thin clients. The thin client user account didn't allow access to the credential manager with a lot of work to remove the device lockdown. It was desired to pre-stage the credential for the user account of a … Continue reading Adding stored passwords to Windows via cmd line
Configuring USB passthrough to a VM in ESXi 6.0
Sometimes it's neccessary to configure USB passthrough to a VM on an ESXi host. On situation where that would be necessary is a USB licensing dongle. Right-click in the intended VM and Edit Settings... On the Hardware tab, click Add... Select USB controller, then click Next I recommend xHCI with modern devices as it supports … Continue reading Configuring USB passthrough to a VM in ESXi 6.0
Simple improvements that have been made to EC2 over time that make managing instances much simpler.
For anyone who is used to managing VMs with a traditional hypervisor like VMWare, the first encounters with the EC2 console seem limiting. However, new features are making management via the EC2 console a lot more like vSphere client. Changing instance types used to involve taking a snapshot, convert the snapshot to a volume, then … Continue reading Simple improvements that have been made to EC2 over time that make managing instances much simpler.
Get SID of AD user
I recently did a terminal server replacement for a small number of users. I found that the users didn't use standard drive mappings, logon scripts, etc; They used 1-off manually mapped drives. I took it upon myself to move them to a standardized drive mappings. These aren't the type of users who you could email … Continue reading Get SID of AD user
Import Excel into SQL using SSMS
I've started working with PowerBI Desktop these days for data visualization. It didn't take long to hit some limits on portability when using an Excel sheet as a data source. So, I decided to import the Excel sheets into SQL, and then connect PowerBI Desktop to the SQL database. First, I created a new SQL … Continue reading Import Excel into SQL using SSMS
vCenter Server MS SQL Express database is full
This is something that I encounter more commonly with older versions of vCenter where the MS SQL Express 2008 that came bundled with vCenter was used. I've stumbled on to this when you can't login to vCenter and the VirtualCenter Server service won't stay started. **I have found that in some cases it might make … Continue reading vCenter Server MS SQL Express database is full
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