Looks like ecto isn't working with my upgraded MT install. Nice. At least the posting interface is improved.
Results tagged “LessonsLearned” from ScottandMargo.net
This one's as much for me for future reference as anything else. I was having a hard time finding anything on Google that worked and wasn't overly complicated. Maybe I'll save someone else some time while I'm at it.
Situation: A development/test Windows 2003 server that's in a virtual machine on a VMWare ESX 3 server (I'm also using Virtual Center, but this should all hold for situations without Virtual Center and with ESX 2.x servers at least). It's been offline for a while, and is not a member of a domain in my case. Nobody seems to be able to find what the local admin account password was. Wiping and rebuilding it is an option of course, but I didn't really want to do that.
By default for Windows 2003 virtual machines, VMWare has it using the LSI logic virtual SCSI adapter rather than the Buslogic adapter. Your typical Windows account password reset program like the one found in the Emergency Boot CD (EBCD) doesn't have a driver for LSI SCSI adapters, so it won't see your virtual machine's disk.
If you shut the virtual machine down, you can reconfigure the virtual SCSI adapter as a Buslogic adapter. I don't know about how standalone ESX servers handle this change, but Virtual Center will ask a couple of times to be sure before it actually makes the change. If your Windows install was done on LSI and you switch to Buslogic, Windows will not boot..it'll bluescreen not long after the OS logo screen pops. But we're not booting into Windows now...we're going to boot up onto the password resetting tool of your choice. I know that EBCD has a driver for Buslogic adapters already so it'll boot up and see your Windows partition and do the password reset with no problems.
Instead of rebooting after the password reset, shut the virtual machine off and reset your SCSI adapter back to LSI. You'll get the same warnings about OS's having problems when you change the adapter type but it'll still do it. Then power your virtual machine back on.
It'll come back up like before, but with a known password this time. Maybe next time you'll remember to write down admin passwords even for quickie one-off test boxes that you might need later. I know I'm going to try. :D
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, VMWare, Security, Technology
Just in case anyone was wondering, being in a server room when an FM-200 based fire suppression system kicks off won't kill you, just like the sales guys will tell you. It just leaves your ears ringing and makes you smell like a nail salon (kind of like that quick-dry nail spray).
For the record, I didn't have anything to do with this particular incident. It was the result of a fire alarm test that got a bit out of control. I just happened to be in the room when it happened.
Who says IT isn't exciting?
Technorati Tags: Safety, Technology
I've been playing around with the Microsoft Office 2007 Beta that was released last week and I really like most of what I've seen.
I don't use most of Office at work so I don't really wide range of experience yet. I'm looking forward to playing with Groove with the actual server for once. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing SharePoint 2007...especially the SharePoint Designer 2007 as it seems to be a little bit of a nod to Lotus Notes and its Domino Designer client.
I appreciate the new Notebooks structure in OneNote 2007. I don't have a tablet so I'm not using OneNote to its fullest but I'm getting a lot of use out of it typing out notes, ToDo lists, etc.
I did find one gotcha with Outlook 2007 so far. Outlook 2007 does not work with an Exchange 5.5 server. Actually, when I try to connect to my Exchange 5.5 server, Outlook 2007 doesn't even let me run in offline mode...it just errors out and quits.
That sucks. I know Exchange 5.5 is old and is unsupported. That doesn't change the fact that my legacy mail server is running Exchange 5.5 and it's not going to be upgraded. I also can't connect that client to my production Exchange server...so I'm kinda high and dry for Outlook 2007. Too bad, looks like it has a lot to offer.
Technorati Tags: Domino, Marketing, Technology
This is also a follow-up to my FiOS install from a couple months ago.
One of the unexpected consequences of the FiOS install was that it cut the Tivo off my network. When I had Cox cable internet, I put a splitter on the cable that went to the TV in the living room. One end went to the cable box, the other went to the cable modem. The Linksys WRT54G router connected to the cable modem, and since everything was right near the TV, I did CAT5 from the Tivo to the router. No fuss no muss.
With the FiOS install, the internet connection comes from a CAT5 drop that's downstairs in a corner of the basment. I'm not pulling cable all the way across the house, so the wireless router is in the basement now.
So I bought a Netgear WRT111 USB wireless NIC, and figured I was good to go. Oops.
I tried joining the network right after adding the new NIC. It couldn't join the network. So I did some Googling and found out that Series 2 Tivos don't do WPA or WPA2...they only do WEP. That's not good. I'm supposed to drop my WLAN down to WEP? I don't think so.
Fortunately, I still have the DLink DI-624 that Verizon provides on the FiOS installs. I decided to run two wireless networks...my main one, and then one running WEP that the Tivo runs through. It's simple enough. I made sure that the Dlink router's LAN IP address is set to a different subnet than the LAN IP address of the Linksys (the defaults already are), then plugged the WAN port on the DLink to one of the LAN switch ports on the Linksys. The Linksys gives the DLink an IP address in its subnet, then the DLink gives an IP on a different subnet to its clients, and routes through to the Linksys.
I did have some connectivity trouble for a couple days. The signal strength on the DLink was almost unusable....KisMac showed 35 when I was standing right next to it, and down to 15 when I went 10 feet away. The Tivo couldn't connect to it at all. I called Verizon and got a replacement and the new one works fine.
This configuration has been set and stable over the last couple months without any trouble. The TiVo is getting its updates as needed, and I didn't have to change anything on my main WLAN.
I'm slowly but steadily junking up the basement corner with computer-related gear, but it's always been an ugly corner so I don't mind.
Technorati Tags: FiOS, Technology, WLAN, TiVo
Just another non-update. I'm mostly recovered from my hard drive crash. I'm missing some preferences in my applications. I might decide to just reinstall the applications and get it over with. Will see.
I'm having some allergy issues and am trying out some new drugs, so I'm a little tired to go into details on the recovery. I have a couple "It could happen to you" bits that I learned along the way. I'm going to try to get that out of the way in the next day or two.
Also before I was so rudely interrupted by this disk crash, I was working on a post about learning one's place in the blogosphere. That one's going to take some more work so it might have to wait til things calm down at work.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, Technology
When I first heard about the 3-23-2006 update for iPods that adds a volume limiter setting, my first thought was that the lawyers won again. Personal media devices in general and iPods in particular have been in the news on and off over the last few months with studies about their contribution to hearing loss.
Then I actually started playing with it and it's actually kinda useful for how I use my iPod. I mostly listen to it in the car through the headphone jack into a tape adapter (yeah, I know). I found a balance between the volume setting on the iPod and the volume from the car's stereo that minimizes distortion and when I go back and forth between listening in the car and listening with the headphones that I have to hunt for that "best" volume level in the car.
With the volume limiter, I set the upper limit to the level that I listen to the car....so now I can just max it instead of hunting and pecking for the sweet spot.
Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod, Technology
I was skimming through technotes on the Lotus Support site and came across a technote (193337) that I hadn't noticed before, and since it's Thursday I figured I'd share because I haven't seen it anywhere else:
Does Sametime scan files for transferred viruses?
Without posting the whole content of the technote, what it's saying is that this functionality will be in Sametime 7.5. When I deployed Sametime in my current environment, lacking the ability to scan files in transit is the reason why I wasn't allowed to enable the file transfer functionality.
This feature is going to be as big for me as the new pretty UI on the client. Thank you IBM!
Technorati Tags: Domino, Lotus, Show and Tell Thursday, Software, Technology
I'll put my thoughts on Show and Tell Thursday in a different post. Look for it (or not) soon. :P
Here's an admin thing that popped up again recently for someone I know. It took me a while to remember what the fix was and it takes some digging in Notes.net or Google to find it so it sounded to me like a good SnTT post.
This is for Sametime 6.5.1 on Windows. I can't vouch for other platforms. I haven't done this in R7 yet so I don't know if it has the same issue.
If you do a lot of partitioned Domino servers like I do, you tend to try to keep all of your server-specific files in the server's data directory. Even servers that aren't partitioned I always put the notes.ini and the server.id in the data directory. It's one less step I need to do later if I need to migrate the server into a partitioned configuration.
There's a problem when you do this with Sametime 6.5.1 servers on the install. You get throught the first part of the installation OK, but the second section of the install when it runs stsetup.exe, after you choose your directory type, the installer comes back with a "File does not exist" error.
There are probably several conditions that can cause stsetup to throw this error, but in the environments I deal with, it's always been the same thing: stsetup is looking for notes.ini and the server id file in the program directory instead of the data directory.
The fix is to just copy those files into the program directory before the Sametime install and then copy them back to the data directory when it's done.
Technorati Tags: Domino, Lotus, Show and Tell Thursday, Software, Technology
