14 June, 2010

Disable TCP Chimney

I know a lot of places has it, but I always search for it, just a quick note on how to disable/enable TCP chimney:

- Using registry:
In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

- EnableTCPChimney
Type: REG_DWORD
Values: 1 (enabled) 0 (disabled)
- EnableRSS
Type: REG_DWORD
Values: 1 (enabled) 0 (disabled)
- EnableTCPA
Type: REG_DWORD
Values: 1 (enabled) 0 (disabled)

Using Netsh:
- Netsh int ip set chimney ENABLED
- Netsh int ip set chimney DISABLED

What is TCP Chimney: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951037

Info based on : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912222

25 May, 2010

Never be prompted for a password again via RDP

Hi,

I connect a lot using RDP to my servers, each time need to remember to save the connection or retyping the password.

A small registry key would force ALL RDP connections to autologin using your current username and... wait for it... PASSWORD!!!

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\fPromptForPassword
registry value should be set to 0

there is also a KB Article to do this using GPO.

Bye...

20 May, 2010

Central Fortigate Backup script

Hi,

I have several sites with fortigate as the firewall and a lot of on the fly changes on them, I wrote a script for automatic backup of the fortigates, it uses the following tools:
- PLINK
- 7zip

You need to prepare a FTP site to backup to, I created the site on the machine that runs the backup and this way I can zip it up after the backup completes.

just run it once a day and it will keep history for each day.
change each [] field with your values.


===========================================================
echo off
set user=[username]

rd D:\Backup\Fortigate\Temp /s /q
md D:\Backup\Fortigate\Temp

:1st
set pass=[password]
set hostIP=x.x.x.x
set hostName=[Fortigate Name]
set next=2nd
goto start_bk

:2nd
set pass=[password]
set hostIP=x.x.x.x
set hostName=[Fortigate Name]
set next=3rd
goto start_bk

:3rd
set pass=[password]
set hostIP=x.x.x.x
set hostName=[Fortigate Name]
set next=7zip
goto start_bk

:start_bk
echo === Backing up %hostName% at %hostIP% ===
echo execute backup config ftp /fortigate/Temp/%hostname%_%hostIP%.conf [traget ftp ip] [ftp user] [ftp password] > Command.txt
plink -ssh %hostIP% -l %user% -pw %pass% -m D:\Work\Fortigates_Backup\Command.txt
del command.txt /q
echo.
goto %next%

:7zip
Set MONTH=%DATE:~4,2%
Set DAY=%DATE:~7,2%
Set YEAR=%DATE:~10,4%
7z.exe a -r "D:\Backup\Fortigate\FG_%DAY%-%MONTH%-%YEAR%.zip" D:\Backup\Fortigate\Temp\*.*

:end

====================================================================

have fun.

12 May, 2010

IP address convert to full numbers

Hi,

don't know about you but I keep a record of all of my IP on a spreadsheet, did you try to sort them ? - it will sort the 1 and then the 100 numbers because it sees them as test and not numbers.

Created a cool small spreadsheet that helps you convert all your IP to a structure of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx format.
The GoogleDoc Link

Enjoy.

(By the way, it will work with xxx.xxx at at the start - my all network is 192.168 so...)

11 May, 2010

Delete all snapshots in a SR (XenServer)

Hi,

Wrote a little script to centrally delete all snapshots from a SR on XenServer.
I noticed that although you delete a snapshot an entry still remains on the SR.
Since I have 1 main SR I wrote a script to delete all of them before the backup process begins (later when it will be ready I'll post it).

================================================
echo === deleting old snapshot ===
echo Start at:
echo %date% - %time%
:start
C:\Progra~1\Citrix\XenCenter\xe.exe -s [Pool Master / Server IP] -u [user] -pw [password] vdi-list is-a-snapshot=true sr-uuid=[sr uuid] --minimal > vdi.txt
for /f "tokens=1 delims=," %%G in (vdi.txt) do (
if [%%G] EQU [] goto end
C:\Progra~1\Citrix\XenCenter\xe.exe -s [Pool Master / Server IP] -u [user] -pw [password] vdi-destroy uuid=%%G
echo.
goto start
)

:end
=================================================

and it works great...

06 May, 2010

Resizing a SR on XENServer 5.5

I needed to re-size an SR in XenServer, for some reason all the articles (including the one on citrix web site) did not work.

Finally I did the following steps and it started working...

1. Shut down all virtual machines on the SR.
2. Get the SR UUID with #xe sr-list name-lable=[SR anme]
3. Extend the Volume on the Storage
4. In CLI Run #iscsiadm -m node –R (to reinitialize the iSCSI) on the pool master
5. In the CLI run #pvresize --setphysicalvolumesize 40G /dev/sda1 (when replacing the amount of Gb and the location of the SR)
6. Run in the CLI #xe sr-scan uuid=[uuid]
7. Run #pvs to be sure the new size is here
8. Power on the Virtual Machines.



Simple, no ?

VMWare workstation virtual NIC has no access

Hi,

Had a problem with VMWare Workstation for some time now, started a vm and the nic could not connect to the network, only a restart to my laptop did the trick.

Took me a while to find that this will happen after a hibernation, looked a bit more and found the solution:


=====================================
net stop vmnetbridge
net start vmnetbridge
pause
=====================================

you can run it even if the VM is running and it will fix the NIC problem.