Disabling IPv6 in Windows 2008

Unticking IPv6 in the NIC settings only disables IPV6 for that NIC. This does not apply to sudo NIC like Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP), 6to4 and Teredo. To disable this to the system open and CMD prompt with elevated privileges and execute this command:


reg add hklm\system\currentcontrolset\services\tcpip6\parameters /v DisabledComponents /t REG_DWORD /d 4294967295


Further reading: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852

Disabling network offloading in Windows

There is some useful info on offloading on this website www.windowsitpro.com/article/networking/give-microsofts-scalable-networking-pack-140350
But in my opinion it is still best to disable offloading. One example is the Microsoft Small Business Server best practices analyser recommends it, now why would Microsoft do this if it was not for the best.


To Determine the current state of offloading on the system issue these commands:


netsh int ip show global
netsh int tcp show global


To disable offloading issue these commands:

netsh int tcp set global rss=disabled
netsh int ip set global taskoffload=disabled
netsh int tcp set global autotuning=disabled
netsh int tcp set global congestion=none
netsh int tcp set global chimney=disabled

Remember this only disables offloading within the OS kernal, NOT the NICs! You can use the BACS control suite or the Intel driver options to disable this on the adapter.

Montoring ESXi with SNMP

Open ESXCLI from your PC.


vicfg-snmp.pl --server 10.0.x.x --u root --p youresxipassword --comm PUBLIC
vicfg-snmp.pl --server 10.0.x.x --u root --p youresxipassword  --enable

vCentre SYSPREP file downloads and locations

Sysprep 1.1 files
Location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\1.1 

or:
C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\sysprep\1.1
Download: [download]
Instructions: Extract the EXE download and copy the contents of the tools folder to the 1.1 folder.

Windows 2000
Location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\2k

or:
C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\sysprep\2k
Download: [ SP4 download]
Instructions: Extract the EXE download and then open this file: i386\deploy.cab. Copy the contents of the file to the 2k folder.

Windows 2003
Location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\svr2003
or:
C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\sysprep\svr2003
Download: [SP2 download]
Instructions: Run the EXE and then open this file: c:\windows\system32\deploy.cab. Copy the contents to the svr2003 folder.

Windows 2003 x64
Location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\svr2003-64

or:
C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\sysprep\svr2003-x64
Download: [SP2 download]
Instructions: Extract the contents of the EXE and then extract the file SP2QFE\deploy.cab. Copy those files to the svr2003-64 folder.

Windows XP
Location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\xp

or:
C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\sysprep\xp
Download: [SP2 download]
Instructions: Open the CAB file download and copy the contents to the xp folder.

Windows XP x64
Location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\xp-64

or:
C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\sysprep\xp-64
Download: [SP2 download]
Instructions: Extract the contents of the EXE and then extract the file SP2QFE\deploy.cab. Copy those files to the xp-64 folder.

VMWare VMKernal ports and over subscription with Equallogic SANs

Previously it was possible to assign multiple VMkernel ports to physical nics. This was called over subscribing and was done to attempt to obtain more bandwidth for the environment especially when the ESX server had 10Gb nics and the SAN was running multiple 1Gb ports. Dell and VMware have changed the support for this practice and now only recommend using a 1:1 VMkernel binding process as described in this updated technical report.

Error: "Initiator wanted to skip security phase but we cannot." or "Initiator tried to bypass the security phase but we cannot."

This gets me every time I setup an EQL box.


Error: "Initiator wanted to skip security phase but we cannot." or "Initiator tried to bypass the security phase but we cannot."


To fix this open the EQL GUI web interface. Click the iSCSI tab and click Prevent unauthorised hosts from discovering targets.

Making Google the default search provider

Paste this in to IE, goodbye BING ;)


http://www.iegallery.com/gb/addons/detail.aspx?id=13438