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Drive in Windows still displays old size after extending the partition
by lunarg on August 22nd 2017, at 13:49
After successfully extending a partition on a VM, Disk Management shows the correct partition size but Explorer still shows the old size, even after a reboot.

The reason for this is that while the partition has been extended to the new size, the filesystem itself has not. Normally, Disk Management should first extend the partition, then the filesystem, but for some reason, the second part did not happen.

To resolve, perform an extension of the volume using diskpart.

Open an elevated command prompt and start diskpart (type diskpart and press Enter).

List all volumes to find out which volume number corresponds with the drive you need to resize: DISKPART> list volume



Select the volume  ...
 
Shorewall not automatically starting on Debian 9 (and some versions on Ubuntu 16.04)
by lunarg on August 18th 2017, at 14:27
There's an issue with the Shorewall package in Debian 9 Stretch, causing Shorewall not to automatically start even when the required configuration files are in-place and/or modified. As stated here, the problem also exists on Ubuntu with some versions of the package (see article).

The problem lies with the package not enabling the startup script in systemd during installation. The solution is to manually enable this by running the following command (as sudo):

systemctl enable shorewall.service

This will enable Shorewall to automatically start during a reboot. Note that you will still have to set the correct parameters in /etc/default/shorewall (and possibly /etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf t  ...
 
Running T-SQL scripts with sqlcmd
by lunarg on August 9th 2017, at 12:20

You can easily run Transact-SQL (T-SQL) script files (with extension .sql) via the commandline utility sqlcmd:

sqlcmd -S Server\Instance -i C:\path\to\SomeScript.sql

By default, the output is written to the command prompt. You can also save the output to a file:

sqlcmd -S Server\Instance -i C:\path\to\SomeScript.sql -o C:\path\to\TheOutput.txt

Note that when using this, no output is written in the command prompt window.

 
Configure Cisco phones on Asterisk
by lunarg on August 4th 2017, at 16:17

An excellent resources website on how to configure Cisco phones to work on Asterisk. This includes the provisioning of phones, configuring them in Asterisk and enabling advanced functionality for Cisco on Asterisk.

http://usecallmanager.nz/document-overview.html

 
Factory reset Samsung A3 (when locked out)
by lunarg on August 1st 2017, at 09:31
You can quickly reset a Samsung A3 smartphone by booting into recovery mode (e.g. when you're locked out):

Turn off the phone by holding down the power button (right side) and then select to power off.

Hold down Volume up, Home and Power buttons to power the device on. Keep Volume up and Home down until you see the Samsung logo. After a while you will get the recovery menu.

Use the volume buttons to navigate in the menu (up for up, down for down). Select wipe data/factory reset, then press the Power button to confirm. Use the same keys to select yes if an additional prompt appears.

The reset takes a very short time after which the recovery menu will be displayed again. Either select rebo  ...
 
Adding file extensions to the list of safe extensions in Safari (on Mac)
by lunarg on July 28th 2017, at 10:31
Safari has an option to automatically open files that are considered "safe". Usually these are document types (e.g. PDF) but sometimes it may become necessary to add other file extensions that are not considered "safe" by default. This can be achieved easily by adding/editing a plist configuration file to your profile (i.e. user-based setting).

The preferences file is located at ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.DownloadAssessment.plist, and determines whether a specific file extension is considered safe or not.

If the file does not yet exist, create it with the contents below:

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.ap  ...
 
Error 'VIEW SERVER STATE permission was denied' when connecting to SQL 2014 using SSMS 2012
by lunarg on July 26th 2017, at 12:30
When attempting to connect to a SQL Server 2014 or SQL Server 2016 using SQL Server Management Studio 2012, you may encounter the following error:

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
An exception occured while executing a Transact-SQL statement or batch. (Microsoft.SqlServer.ConnectionInfo)

Additional information: VIEW SERVER STATE permission was denied on object 'server', database 'master'. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 300)

Apparently, this is a known bug when using Management Studio 2012 to connect to a newer version of SQL Server: https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/791630/cannot-view-properties-of-database-when-using-db-owner-account.

The solution is to updat  ...
 
Resolving hostnames locally with syslog-ng
by lunarg on July 26th 2017, at 10:34
Resolving hostnames locally enables the use of hostnames (instead of IP addresses) without relying on a DNS server. If you do not want to use reverse DNS resolving but still would like to use hostnames instead of IP addresses, then this is a useful workaround. The key is to configure syslog-ng to use only the local DNS cache as a source for reverse DNS lookups, completely eliminating the need for a DNS server (and the negative impact this would entail).

Add the hostnames and IP addresses to the local name resolution file /etc/hosts, then reconfigure syslog-ng (by editing the global options in /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf) to use DNS resolving but only use the persistent cache (i.e. whateve  ...
 
List of sysprep files for VMware Converter
by lunarg on July 24th 2017, at 17:19
In order to succesfully convert Windows systems to a VMware virtual machine, you need to install the sysprep files of the to be converted host. Below is a list of downloads to these sysprep files:

The base folder of where to put the files is always:

Quote
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\sysprep

Extract contents to: base-folder\2k

Available in SP4 or the CD-ROM of Windows 2000 SP4 at Support\Tools\Deploy.cab

Extract contents to: base-folder\svr2003

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=14830.

Extract contents to: base-folder\svr2003-64

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8287.

Extract cont  ...
 
Enable Windows Photo Viewer on Server 2016
by lunarg on July 24th 2017, at 10:06
Windows Server 2016 no longer has an option to enable Desktop Experience from Server Manager. Instead, most (but not all) features are enabled by default. One such feature is Windows Photo Viewer, which no longer seems to be available, and there's no clear way of enabling or installing it. Luckily, there's a workaround to get it enabled again.

First of, you need to check on Server 2016 whether the required files are already present. If you have selected to install the full UI, the required files should already be there:

C:\Program Files\Windows Photo Viewer\

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Photo Viewer\

They should already be present on a fresh install of Server 2016, but if not, then you  ...
 
List of VMware vSphere clients
by lunarg on June 26th 2017, at 09:53
A list with direct links to VMware vSphere clients. Saves you a lot of time when you need to (re)install many different versions.

Starting with 6.5, the vSphere client is no longer available.

VMware vSphere Client 6.0 Update 3: VMware-viclient-all-6.0.0-5112508.exe

VMware vSphere Client 6.0 Update 2a: VMware-viclient-all-6.0.0-4437566.exe

VMware vSphere Client 6.0 Update 2: VMware-viclient-all-6.0.0-3562874.exe

VMware vSphere Client 6.0 Update 1: VMware-viclient-all-6.0.0-3016447.exe

VMware vSphere Client 6.0: VMware-viclient-all-6.0.0-2502222.exe

VMware vSphere Client 5.5 Update 3d: VMware-viclient-all-5.5.0-3705931.exe

VMware vSphere Client 5.5 Update 3: VMware-viclient-all-5.5.0-3  ...
 
Enable/disable an interface on a Juniper EX switch
by lunarg on June 15th 2017, at 13:17

To administratively disable (shut down) or enable a port, first go into edit interfaces mode, then:

To disable: 

set interfaces <interface> disable

To enable:

delete interfaces <interface> disable
 
Set Private Computer checkbox to unchecked (Public) by default on Exchange OWA
by lunarg on June 14th 2017, at 14:25
By default, when the Private computer checkbox is visible, it is checked by default, meaning that OWA will store some things in your browser by default. Sometimes, this may not be desirable, and you may prefer the checkbox is unchecked by default so as to prevent this. There is no setting to change this default, but there's a workaround, allowing you to obtain the same result. The only downside of this workaround is that it needs to be done anew after each update of Exchange.

To show the Private Computer checkbox in the first place, read this article about enabling the option.

To apply the workaround, you need to manually edit the logon.aspx page so it does not check the checkbox by defaul  ...
 
Show the Private Computer checkbox on the logon page of Exchange OWA
by lunarg on June 14th 2017, at 14:22
Exchange OWA stores data offline in your browser for a better user experience and performance. In older releases of Exchange, this behaviour could be turned off at the logon page by unchecking a checkbox, but since Exchange 2013, this checkbox is no longer visible on the logon page. But, this option can be turned on again by changing a configuration option of OWA in Exchange.



The option can be enabled through EMS on the CAS server. If you have more than one CAS server, this needs to be done on all of them.

Get-OwaVirtualDirectory | Set-OwaVirtualDirectory -LogonPagePublicPrivateSelectionEnabled $true

After the change, don't forget to reload IIS:

iisreset /noforce

Optionally, you can a  ...
 
Independent Disk option in VMWare Fusion
by lunarg on June 9th 2017, at 13:31
In VMWare Workstation and vSphere ESX, it is possible to set disks to be independent so they are not linked to snapshots. Independent disks can then be set to be Persistent (changes are written immediately and permanently to disk) or Non-persistent (changes are lost when the VM powers down). In VMWare Fusion, although this option does not seem to be present, it is still available, and can be configured by manually changing the parameters in the VM configuration file (.vmx).

A VM configuration file is a text-based file containing all the parameters and properties for a VM. This file can include options that are not present in the Fusion UI. By adding parameters manually, you can enable featu  ...
 
Installing latest nginx on Debian
by lunarg on June 8th 2017, at 13:59
nginx provides packages for Debian in their own repository, allowing you to install the most recent version rather than the older versions provided through the main repositories.

Add these lines to /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/debian/ jessie nginxdeb-src http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/debian/ jessie nginx

Change jessie to wheezy if you are still on Debian 7 "Wheezy".

Download and add nginx's public key:

wget http://nginx.org/packages/keys/nginx_signing.key && cat nginx_signing.key | apt-key add -

Update the package list and then install nginx:

apt-get updateapt-get install nginx

By default, the latest version of nginx will be ins  ...
 
Patch KB4012598 manual download link (MS17-010 WannaCry vulnerability)
by lunarg on June 8th 2017, at 09:25

To protect your Windows devices against the MS17-010 vulnerability, used by WannaCry cryptolocker variants, be sure to install the March 2017 Quality Rollup or newer. It is available from Windows 7 or newer through Windows Update.

Emergency patches of MS17-010 (WannaCry) for older (unsupported) releases of Windows, starting from Windows XP, can be downloaded manually here:

→ http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4012598

More information: https://support.microsoft.com/help/4013389

 
Mac App update stuck in Paused mode
by lunarg on May 24th 2017, at 09:57

I had an issue with an app being stuck in Paused mode in Launchpad, and was unable to cancel/resume the update from the App Store because it wasn't listed in the updates list.

The solution, as stated here, was to open Launchpad, hold down the mouse on the app until it started jiggling, then clicking the delete button (x). The app reappeared normally and was even updated correctly.

The reason was probably the app got updated along with a system update, and Launchpad was unaware the update was completed.

 
Microsoft SQL Server version matrix
by lunarg on May 9th 2017, at 15:54
This article contains the version matrix for Microsoft SQL Server. It outlines the product and its internal version numbers, along with download links for the service packs (if any).

 RTM (no SP)SP1SP2SP3SP4SQL Server 2017     SQL Server 201613.0.1601.513.0.4001.0   SQL Server 201412.0.2000.812.0.4100.1
* 12.1.4100.1   SQL Server 201211.0.2100.6011.0.3000.0
* 11.1.3000.011.0.5058.0
* 11.2.5058.0  SQL Server 2008 R210.50.1600.110.50.2500.0
* 10.51.2500.010.50.4000.0
* 10.52.4000.010.50.6000.34
* 10.53.6000.34 SQL Server 200810.0.1600.2210.0.2531.0
* 10.1.2531.010.0.4000.0
* 10.2.4000.010.0.5500.0
* 10.3.5500.010.0.600  ...
 
PowerCLI: quickly set storage path policies to Round Robin in VMWare
by lunarg on May 8th 2017, at 14:32
A very common practice when setting up SAN storage on a VMWare cluster is to configure the storage path policy to be set to "Round Robin" to properly benefit from MPIO in addition to standard failover. However, if the cluster consists of many nodes or there are many volumes, this can take up quite a lot of time if you configure this using the (Web)GUI. A better way to adjust the setting for the entire cluster is through PowerCLI.

The one-liner:

Get-VMHost <Cluster-or-Host> | Get-ScsiLun -LunType "disk" | Where {$_.MultipathPolicy -ne "RoundRobin"} | Set-ScsiLun -MultipathPolicy RoundRobin

The cmdlet selects a cluster or host, gets all LUNs which are of   ...
 
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