Convert the physical server to a virtual server on ESXi via vCenter standalone converter

Step 1: Go to the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone -> press the “Convert Machine”

Step 2: Enter the IP address, administrator user account of the source (Physical server which is you want to convert to Virtual server), and then press “View source details….”

Step 3: Press “Yes” to keep the default setting and then press “Next” to continous

Step 4: Enter the IP address of ESXi and also the administrator account information.

 

Step 5: Keep or change the VM name you want (default it will provide the server name of the physical server)

 

Step 6: Check the configuration and press “Next” to continuous.

 

Step 7: Check the configuration, if everything good to go, please press “Finish”. It will start to do the P2V.

Step 8: The P2V start to run, please wait for the process until it finish.

Step 9:

When the P2V is completed, please do not power on the virtual machine (which is you just create).

Please login the physical server which is being virtualized, power off it and disconnect it from the network.

After that you will able to power on the virtual machine.

Convert the physical server to a virtual server on ESXi via vCenter standalone converter

Windows 8 Server Consumer Preview installation (Running on Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP2)

1. Boot from the Windows 8 ISO file, you wll see the following screen:

2. Click “Next” to start the installation.

3. Click “Install Now” for the installation. (You will see the new Windows 8 icon on this screen)

4.

5. Select the “Windows Server with GUI” or “Server Core”.

6. Accept the agreement.

7. Select the “Custom: Install Windows only (Advanced)”

8.

9.

10. Setup the “Administrator” account.

11.

12. The new logon gina of the Windows Server 8 beta

13.

14. The first time login, it will take some time to create the profile.

15. When you login, the server manager will be auto start.

16.

Windows 8 Server Consumer Preview installation (Running on Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP2)

How to attach a email as a attachment in Lotus Notes 8.5.3?

Step 1: Go to “File”, select “Save As….”

Step 2: Save the email as *.eml

Step 3: Attach the .eml file to the new email.

 

How to attach a email as a attachment in Lotus Notes 8.5.3?

Skype 5.6 offline installer (.MSI) - business edition

Please go to the following link to download:

http://download.skype.com/msi/SkypeSetup_5.6.0.110.msi

Skype 5.6 offline installer (.MSI) - business edition

Windows 7 sysprep (Solve the driver issue)

Running the following unattended file for the sysprep:

***********************************************************************************

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

- <unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">

- <settings pass="oobeSystem">

- <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

  <InputLocale>en-US</InputLocale>

  <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>

  <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>

  <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>

  <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>

  </component>

- <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

- <OOBE>

  <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>

  <NetworkLocation>Work</NetworkLocation>

  <ProtectYourPC>1</ProtectYourPC>

  </OOBE>

- <UserAccounts>

- <LocalAccounts>

- <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">

- <Password>

  <Value>cABhAHMAcwB3AG8AcgBkAFAAYQBzAHMAdwBvAHIAZAA=</Value>

  <PlainText>false</PlainText>

  </Password>

  <Description>First Admin User</Description>

  <DisplayName>User</DisplayName>

  <Group>administrators</Group>

  <Name>User</Name>

  </LocalAccount>

  </LocalAccounts>

  </UserAccounts>

  <TimeZone>Eastern Standard Time</TimeZone>

  </component>

  </settings>

- <settings pass="specialize">

- <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

  <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>

  </component>

  </settings>

- <settings pass="generalize">

- <component language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" processorArchitecture="amd64" name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State">

  <SkipRearm>0</SkipRearm>

  </component>

- <component language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" processorArchitecture="amd64" name="Microsoft-Windows-PnpSysprep" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State">

  <PersistAllDeviceInstalls>true</PersistAllDeviceInstalls>

  </component>

  </settings>

  <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:h:/sources/install.wim#Windows 7 ENTERPRISE" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />

  </unattend>

*************************************************************************************

Please copy the above content and save it as unattend.xml, then copy this unattend.xml to C:\answerfile and run the following command for sysprep:
%systemroot%\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /oobe /shutdown /generalize /unattend:c:\answerfile\unattend.xml

Please full backup the Windows (Windows backup or DELL backup and recovery) before running the sysprep.

(If the sysprep is running failure, you will not able to login the Windows again (e.g. reboot in looping))

Just a friendly reminder:
1. Full backup the machine before run sysprep
2. Do not use the default local administrator account for "profile copy"

Windows 7 sysprep (Solve the driver issue)

How to reset the root password of VMware ESXi 4.1 Embedded edition

I would like to take this chance to say Thank you to Bernhard Bock (bernhard's blog - http://www.bock.nu/blog) to posting this solution to us.

I just modify little bit to fit for "VMware Embedded edition"

The tools is GRML (grml.org) - Debian-based Live CD made for system administrators and users who prefer text tools. 

The following steps which is I did for reset password:

The solution at the following: (Only apply for DELL VMware Embedded edition, for the standard/Installer edition, we need to change the local.tgz which is containing by states.tgz)

First of all, we need to boot your ESXi server with a "GRML"
mount /mnt/Hypervisor1
cd /tmp
tar xzf /mnt/Hypervisor1/local.tgz
vi etc/shadow (Remove remove the hash altogether (everything between the first and the second colon))
mv /mnt/Hypervisor1/local.tgz /mnt/Hypervisor1/local.tgz.bak
tar czf local.tgz etc
mv local.tgz /mnt/Hypervisor1/

Since there are two "volume" of Hypervisor, we need to repeat those step at Hypervisor2

mount /mnt/Hypervisor2
cd /tmp
tar xzf /mnt/Hypervisor2/local.tgz
vi etc/shadow (Remove remove the hash altogether (everything between the first and the second colon))
mv /mnt/Hypervisor2/local.tgz /mnt/Hypervisor2/local.tgz.bak
tar czf local.tgz etc
mv local.tgz /mnt/Hypervisor2/

Reference:
How to reset the root password of VMware ESXi 4.1 and 5.0
http://www.bock.nu/blog/reset-root-password-vmware-esxi-4.1

How to reset the root password of VMware ESXi 4.1 Embedded edition

Got a error Hyper-v rpc server unavailable suddenly when configuring Remote Management of Hyper-V Server - in a workgroup

If your Hyper-V remote management is in a workgroup environment and it work well. But one day, you receive a error message “Hyper-v rpc server unavailable” when you try to use a Server Manager to remote access it.

It maybe your user account password is expired.

Solution:

Use the remote desktop (by using the local administrator account) to remote the hyper-v server and check the user account password is it expired.

If the user password is expired, run the following command to change it.

net user <user_name>  <new_password>

e.g. net user administrtaor password

Remark: Make sure your new password have been changed in the remote client machine too. Otherwise, the password will not match at the client side, it will not able to remote via the Server Manager.

Got a error Hyper-v rpc server unavailable suddenly when configuring Remote Management of Hyper-V Server - in a workgroup