Do you prefer video tutorials or written tutorials?

I'm thinking about doing some tutorial type posts on certain Microsoft, Veeam and VMware products and not sure where to do them as videos or written posts - what would you prefer to see?

Exchange 2010 EMC "Kerberos" authentication failed

Came across an issue today where when I launch the Exchange 2010 EMC I was presented with the error message:

"The attempt to connect to http://server.domain.com/PowerShell using "Kerberos" authentication failed: connecting to remote server failed with the following error message : The WinRM client cannot complete the operation within the time specified. Check if the machine name is valid and is reachable over the network and firewall exception for Windows Remote Management service is enabled. For more information, see the about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic."

Not an error I had seen before so after searching around the Internet for awhile I came across the correct fix for this issue.

1. First Close EMC

2. Navigate to C:\users\specific user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\MMC and delete the Exchange Management Console config file

3. Then within the registry HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Exchangeserver\v14\AdminTools\NodeStructureSettings delete the value NodeStructureSettings

4. Log off and back on

5. The EMC should now launch fine

Installing the VMware vSphere client on Windows Server 2012 R2

I had occasion to install VMware vSphere client my home lab server which is a domain controller and running Windows Server 2012 R2 but ran into two problems... thought they were worth documenting.

The first issue was that I was told the installer wasn't compatible on the Operating System I was running.  In order to get round this, I navigated to the location of the installer. Highlighted it, right clicked and select properties.  I clicked on the Compatibility tab and set it so the installer would run as if it was on a Windows 7 machine.

I tried to install the client again but ran into ANOTHER problem! The GUI installer was complaining about being installed on a domain controller.  To get around this issue I broke out an elevated command prompted and issued the command: 

VMware-viclient-all-5.5.0-1618071.exe /VSKIP_OS_CHECKS="1"

After all that the client successfully installed!

Installing VMware Workstation alongside Hyper-V

For the past three years I've been working for a Microsoft Partner company in Scotland and as you can imagine their primary focus was on Microsoft products and the virtualisation technology the recommended to clients as Hyper-V so the majority of my focus has been on using that.  As such I set up a lab at home running Windows Server 2012 R2 and Hyper-V to help teach myself bits and bobs.

I recently changed job and although the company I now work for is a Microsoft Partner also they focus more on using VMware as the virtualisation technology so today I decided to set up a wee mini lab to help get me back up to speed with it and test a few things.

I wanted to keep my Hyper-V in tact and run the new VMware lab in parallel, so to do that I downloaded a free trial of VMware Workstation onto my home lab server (HP Microserver N40L) but ran into an issue when trying to get it to install.  I was told I had to uninstall Hyper-V first.

After a little digging I found a useful work around:

1. Open Hyper-V Manager and click on "stop service" in the right panel
2. Open an elevated command prompt and type:
   bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off
3. Restart your computer

Hyper-V is now disabled and you can run VMware workstation and your lab.  When you wish to switch back to using your Hyper-V lab carry out the following: 

1. Open an elevated command prompt and type:
   bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto
2. Restart your computer

A nice little workaround if you are switching between the two types of lab. 

Sponsor my abseil please?

In aid of MacMillan Cancer Care I will be abseiling off the Forth Rail Bridge on the 7th June with several friends.

This event is run in conjunction with the Rotary Club of South Queensferry. The abseil is 165ft from the bridge onto the beach below. Not sure whether I'll be doing the abseil crying, screaming or laughing - no matter what way I complete the abseil it is sure to be a great experience while raising money for a great charity.

If you could spare a few pennies or pounds to sponsor me and this great cause it would be much appreciated.

My JustGiving page is located at https://www.justgiving.com/SazLean

Writing to Event Logs with Powershell

Was pondering how to trigger a event log entry on a server today at work in order to test SCOM monitoring, came across Powershell and the various commands that can be used for to do something like this. Found it quite interesting so thought it would be worth writing a wee post about it.

To begin you can see what Powershell commands are available in relation to the Eventlog:

get-command -Name *eventlog

The one that writes the event logs is called "Write-EventLog". The command syntax should be something as straightfoward are this:

Write-EventLog -LogName Application -Source "Test EventLog" -EntryType Information -EventID 1 -Message "This is a test message".

In this command the following parameters are required - LogName, Source, EventID.

Unforuntately this generates an error message because the source does not exist on the machine.  The cmdlet New-EventLog should help us here.

To fix the previous error we need to run the following command:

New-EventLog -LogName Application -Source "Test EventLog"

Then we can run:
Write-EventLog -LogName Application -Source "Test EventLog" -EntryType Information -EventID 1 -Message "This is a test message".

As we can see within the Event log the entry is now there:

Why not follow me on Twitter for other hints and tips - www.twitter.com/weeyinfotos

Do you prefer video tutorials or written tutorials?

I'm thinking about doing some tutorial type posts on certain Microsoft, Veeam and VMware products and not sure where to do them as videos or written posts - what would you prefer to see?

Follow Me

If you wish to be notified of when a new post is published on this site you can either subscribe to the RSS Feed or subscribe to the mailing list.  Please note the mailing list will only send you an email when a new post has been published, you won't receive spam etc.

My Twitter account also will notify you of any new posts and other useful information.  The hash tag #techielass on Twitter can also be used to follow things that I post via this blog.

If you have any comments or tips I would love to hear from you so please do get in touch.  I have enabled comments on this blog so please do interact with me, I've love to hear from you!

Veeam - NFC storage connection is unavailable

After upgrading a client's Veeam solution to version 7 patch 4 I came across  this error message for the replication jobs that were set up and it had me a little confused:

 Processing configuration Error: Client error: NFC storage connection is unavailable. Storage: [stg:datastore-22,nfchost:host-21,conn:172.1.1.1]. Storage display name: [Temp].
Failed to create NFC download stream. NFC path: [nfc://conn:172.1.1.1,nfchost:host-21,stg:datastore-22@Server_replica/Server.vmx].

There is a knowledge base article on Veeam's website regarding this - http://www.veeam.com/kb1198 but given nothing had changed regarding ports opening/closing etc I was sceptical that this was the root cause.  Especially since the replication jobs had worked an hour earlier, before the patch was applied. 

After much head scratching and restarting of servers etc I found the resolution to the issue.  Within the VMware vSphere client there is an option to rescan the storage attached to the host to help pick up new volumes, changes, etc, once I ran that on the host that the backup storage is attached to the replica jobs completed successfully!!

Am still unsure as to why the error occured or why that fixed the issue but it did, one worth remembering!!