VMware ESXi E1000 vs VMXNET3 Network Adapters

I found this really helpful article from Rickard Nobel who has done a set of testing showing the performance improves when using VMXNET3 network adapters over the emulated E1000 cards.

http://rickardnobel.se/vmxnet3-vs-e1000e-and-e1000-part-1/

http://rickardnobel.se/vmxnet3-vs-e1000e-and-e1000-part-2/

Check it out and leave a comment.

Windows Update Servers List

Here is a list of the server addresses required for accessing Microsoft Update servers.
This may required for firewall or proxy policies.

• http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com 
• http://*.windowsupdate.microsoft.com 
• https://*.windowsupdate.microsoft.com 
• http://*.update.microsoft.com 
• https://*.update.microsoft.com 
• http://*.windowsupdate.com 
• http://download.windowsupdate.com
• http://download.microsoft.com 
• http://*.download.windowsupdate.com 
• http://wustat.windows.com 
• http://ntservicepack.microsoft.com

See this article for further information

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/library/cc708605%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

Windows Activation Servers

In some case you might need a list of the servers required for Microsoft Windows activation to apply to a firewall or proxy policy.

This is the list as defined by Microsoft:

• http://go.microsoft.com/
• https://sls.microsoft.com/
• https://sls.microsoft.com:443
• http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/MicrosoftRootAuthority.crl
• http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/MicrosoftProductSecureCommunications.crl
• http://www.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/MicrosoftProductSecureCommunications.crl
• http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/MicrosoftProductSecureServer.crl
• http://www.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/MicrosoftProductSecureServer.crl
• https://activation.sls.microsoft.com

See this article for further information:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/921471

EATON IPM Appliance: Update IP address

The EATON Intelligent Power Manager is a software package that help monitor and manager UPS connected to your server infrustracture and can be installed in different ways. For virtual environments, the easiest way is to deploy the pre-configured Virtual Appliance for VMware ESXi.

However what I discovered is there is no easy way to reconfigure the IP addresses just from the management console. As the appliance is based on Centos Linux, you can use basic Linux commands to change the IP address.

For this, you will need either direct console access or SSH.
As you will be changing the IP address and a disconnection will be required, I advise connecting via the direct console.

1. Log on to the Virtual Appliance as root
   (Default username is 'root'; default password is eaton)
   
2. Use vi to modify the ifcfg-eth0 file
   
   #vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
   
   Update with the following lines:
   DEVICE=eth0
   BOOTPROTO=static
   ONBOOT=yes
   TYPE=Ethernet
   IPV6INIT=no
   IPADDR=x.x.x.x
   NETMASK=255.255.255.0
   
   Then, save and close (:wq)
   
3. Use vi to modify the sysconfig/network file
   
   #vi /etc/sysconfig/network
   
   Update with the following lines:
   NETWORKING=yes
   NETWORKING_IPV6=yes
   HOSTNAME=localhost
   DOMAINNAME=localdom
   GATEWAY=x.x.x.x
   
   Then, save and close (:wq)
   
4. Restart the network service to have settings take affect
   
   #service network restart

Office 365 ScanPST to fix corrupted Outlook files

In Office 365, which uses the Click-to-Run technology, Office program files are now in a new location.

When you experience issues with Outlook, often you would use the ScanPST.exe tool to repair PST and OST files with Outlook.

This tool can now be found in the following location:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15\ScanPST.exe

Microsoft has published a Knowledge Base article list the locations of the ScanPST utility depending on your installation of Office 365. Whether you're using 32 or 64 bit versions.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/272227

This should apply for both 32-bit and 64-bit installations of Office 365.

Unable to activate Office 2013

During the setup of some PCs recently I found the error that Office 2013 would not activate. While I did some Google searches and a lot of forums often said the solution was to reinstall the software, which is a lot of effort, especially if you have the error on multiple computers.

This is the error I received:

.

For this particular instance, I found that I had to open an Office app (whether it was Word or Excel etc.) as Administrator. Meaning, right-clicking the icon and selecting Run as Administrator.

Once it was running as Administrator, I was able to get it activiated.

Not sure what was different able that installation but that's what I had to do to get it activated.

Outlook 2003 showing incorrect email time on Citrix XenApp 5.0

Environment

Citrix XenApp 5.0

Windows Server 2008 R1 (64-bit)

Microsoft Office 2003 Professional (32-bit)

Scenario

When using Outlook 2003 via Citrix session, time zones in Outlook would not match the user session time via Citrix. Email would show the wrong received timestamps.

However if you log on to the same server via Microsoft Remote Desktop (RDP) instead of via Citrix (ICA) the timestamps would be correct.

When going to Options > Calendar Options > Time Zones... Outlook would default to (GMT) Coordinated Universal Time.

Solution

We found that registry for AppInit_DLLs registry entries for Citrix was missing. Specifically, the DLL references that provided the necessary hooks for Citrix to provide the time zone redirection of the client session. Since the office application was 32-bit, this meant that the reference for 32-bit applications for these required hooks weren't being applied despite what the Windows Server GPO was instructing or redirecting.

 

 

This is the correct setting.

32-bit Application Reference

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows

AppInit_DLLs = c:\progra~2\citrix\system32\mfaphook.dll,mfaphook.dll

64-bit Application Reference 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows

 

AppInit_DLLs = c:\progra~2\citrix\system32\mfaphook64.dll,mfaphook64.dll

MYOB PowerPay 8.x on Windows 8/Windows Server 2012

MYOB PowerPay is old. Like... really old. The database engine behind this software was built in 1990 and is by a company called ACI which no longer exists. So expecting to run it on a modern operating system like Windows 8 is a high expectation.

Originally I tried what everyone else would do and go straight for the Windows Compatibility settings. I tried everything and every version with no luck.

However this is how I got it going on Windows Server 2012 R2 Remote Desktop Server, so this should also apply to Windows 8.

So normally after the install of PowerPay 8.x you will see this error:
"4D Engine has stopped working"

  

 Go to the Start Screen and search for "Environment Variables"

 

On the System Properties screen, click on Settings under the Performance heading

Go to the Data Execution Prevention tab. Make sure DEP is set to On. Then click Add.

Browse to where MYOB PowerPay is installed and select PowerPay.exe and click Open.

Click Apply.

MYOB PowerPay will now open.

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