Tag: Windows

Just sit right back…

and you’ll hear a tale. A tale of a fateful trip. That started from this tropic port aboard this 64 bit ship..” as the classic TV theme goes. Well almost.

 

So to recap, I have been trying to install SBS 2008 into a virtual environment. Problem is because SBS 2008 is only 64 bit I need something that supports a 64 bit guest operating system. However, I firstly need to purchase hardware that supports 64 bit and then install a 64 bit host operating system.

 

Hardware purchase, tick.

64 bit host operating system, tick.

64 bit virtual environment software, tick.

 

My initial choice for 64 bit virtual environment was Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. Which I discovered doesn’t support host 64 bit operating systems. Strike one. Next option VM Ware Server. I install the current version (1.06). Problem is it doesn’t have signed drivers and Vista 64 bit wants signed drivers. Long story short the current version of VM Ware server doesn’t run on Vista 64 bit. Strike two. So now I try VM Ware server 2.0 Beta 2. Program installs but I can’t actually log onto the VM Server. What the …? I google here, I google there, turns out you have to enable the administrator account, (disabled by default under Vista), assign it a password and use that to log in. Ok, ok so I’m in. Now I create a VM machine and boot it but I can’t connect to the VM console. I get a message about being unable to connect because a secure connection can’t be established. I google here, I google there, turns out this a problem on Vista 64 bit. Damm! I try IE and Firefox to connect still no good. I google here, I google there but finally decide it’s a lost cause. Strike three.

 

Next option, Virtual box from Sun. Turns out that doesn’t support guest 64 bit operating systems either. . I know I can make this work, I ain’t beat yet.

 

Thinking, thinking….ok let’s try Windows 2008 and Hyper V as the virtual environment. This means an installation of Windows 2008 server 64 bit to remove the base Vista 64 bit I started with on my hardware. Luckily, I created a small system partition and had my data on another partition so all I needed to do was reformat and reinstall on the small system partition while my data remained intact. Hey, I’m not just a pretty face you know! Now my 64 bit machine doesn’t have a mouse, keyboard and monitor since I was using remote desktop. So I stretch my existing keyboard, mouse and monitor across, boot to the Windows 2008 Server 64 bit system DVD and install Windows Server 2008.

 

Ok, Windows Server 2008 is up, I enable remote desktop, remove the keyboard, mouse and monitor and access it remotely again. I add the role for Hyper V and reboot. Bugger, Hyper V console won’t load. Next stop Microsoft Update. Patching, patching, patching …. reboot, still no joy. Bugger x 2. So I search Microsoft.com and find that there is an update (not a critical or recommended update mind you for Hyper V on 64 bit Windows 2008 which I install and finally the Hyper V console is working. Phew. I go in and create a new virtual machine and start it up but am greeted by an error saying that the machine can’t start because Hyper V isn’t running. What the …?

 

So I’m googling and I’m googling and learn that you have to turn on the virtualization stuff in your PC’s BIOS since it is disabled by default in most cases. So I move the keyboard, mouse and monitor BACK to the 64 bit machine, reboot go into the BIOS and enable the virtualization stuff. I reboot the machine, move the keyboard, mouse and monitor BACK AGAIN to my original desktop and connect remotely.

 

That’s all for this entries exciting tale. Stay tuned to the next entry for … Just kidding, I couldn’t do that to anyone who has read this far. Bottom line is I now have it working and am in the process of installing a guest SBS 2008 system on a Hyper V virtual machine on a Windows 2008 64 bit host operating system. I’m sure this story is far from over so do stay tuned!

Not as easy as that

So, as John points out in a comment to my last post, I have discovered that Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 doesn’t support guest 64 bit operating systems even if it is running on a 64 bit system. Bugger! Ok, so I’ve learnt something today.

 

It seems that Sun has something called Virtual Box which appears to support 64 bit guest operating systems and seems to be all the rage with the Linux crowd. I think perhaps I’ll try VM Server which is also free and appears to be more supported at least in the Windows world.

 

So now I gotta get VM Server running on 64 bit Vista (which I must say runs really well so far) and then get SBS 2008 running on VM Server.

 

Hey, I’ve got plenty of time, I’ve only just completed the download of the second SBS 2008 ISO DVD. You do need something to do during these long downloads don’t you? Maybe like get a life as my mother would say!

A brave new world

I now have a new machine onto which I will be launching into the 64 bit world. The first step is to install Windows Vista Business x64 as the base operating system. Why? You well ask. Well, the plan is to run multiple Virtual PC’s and initially I think that I should start with the latest and greatest client operating system and see where that leads me. Now sure, I could have installed Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 but I’m really interested to see whether Windows Vista 64 bit is any better than normal Vista or XP. Besides, in my experience the only way to learn is to try it yourself, although I know that I’m bound to waste a heap of time going through the process.

 

Hopefully I won’t have too much trouble at least getting the base operating system running. After doing all the updates, the next step will be the installation of the 64 bit version of Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. Then I’ll be interested to see whether any of my existing Virtual PC images work or whether I have to create “dedicated” 64 bit versions from scratch (a real pain if that is the case). Then I’ll be installing SBS 2008 to give it a run through.

 

Hopefully along the way I’ll be able to give you a run down of my experiences in the 64 bit world and whether it does in fact make things run “better”. Time will tell.

 

Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye. Cheerio, here I go on my way….

Awh ma gawd!

Just have a look at what we found when we opened up a prospect’s server recently to take a look:

 

bad_server_2

 

Notice something outta place? Maybe that hard disk lying on the bottom of the case is a hint? What about the fact that two hard disks actually in the case are disconnected? Now, that’s not all folks. It is an SBS 2003 R2 server with only 1GB of RAM! Apart from SBS 2003 and Anti virus, the server is also running in this 1GB of RAM, a virtual machine that had a linux distro to do the anti-spam (not very well either – hello Intelligent Message Filter).

 

Strangely enough (well, not really), the old IT person moved interstate and now won’t return any of the client’s phone calls. Strange that eh?

 

This is the battle we face everyday trying to convince potential customers:

 

A. All IT companies aren’t trying to rip them off.

B. There is a big difference between IT providers. You get what you pay for basically.

 

However, I do understand this from a customers point of view. How the hell do they know if an IT person is good or bad? They don’t know IT, that is why they pay someone to do this. It seems today that businesses only understand the difference after they have been burnt! However, it really does give the rest of us that are trying to do the right thing a bad name. Thank goodness that I believe in karma (really nasty payback karma, but karma none the less).

HP ML110G5 Unknown device

Having recently setup a Proliant ML110 G5 Server with Windows 2003 SBS we encountered an unknown device in the Device Manager. The reason for this was that we prefer to blow away the OEM setup and rebuild from scratch. That way we get the server exactly the way we want it. This is a bit of a pain since you need to reload all the drivers manually. Everything seems OK except there is one item in Device Manager with Unknown Device Properties.  The details of this item have a Device Instance ID of ACPI\IPI0001\0 and Hardware IDs of ACPI\IPI0001  *IPI0001.

 

Turns out that this is for the Remote Lights Out board (RILO) even though one isn’t install in the server. Even better, there isn’t a driver listed for the device on the HP drivers page for the ML110G5! Turns out you have to go back to the ML110G4 page where the RILO driver is located. You can also get there directly by clicking here

 

Boy, they certainly make it hard don’t they?

The very last version of Small Business Server

As most techie types salivate over the imminent release of Small Business Server 2008 I will contend that this will in fact be the last version every produced.

 

What do small business customers want? Simple. They want access to their “stuff”. What is their stuff I hear you ask. Well, it is probably “stuff” they create as well as “stuff” other people send them. In more technical terms “stuff” they create are documents and “stuff” other people send them is emails. Why do they need a server to access their “stuff”? They don’t. Managing a server for their “stuff” has become way too complicated and way too expensive for most small businesses. They have to firstly buy the equipment, next they have to run it up and get it all working. Next, they have to keep it secure and so and so on. If they can’t do this themselves they pay someone else to do it for them but it still pretty expensive just to access their “stuff”.

 

Customers don’t care about servers. They also don’t care about software. They just want something that will allow them to do their job – i.e. get access to their “stuff”. It seems that things like servers and software are simply getting in the way of this. I reckon more and more are going to be migrating to “cloud computing” since it all far easier to access their “stuff” here.

 

Look, Small Business Server (SBS) has been a great product over the years. It really has. It has been an extremely cost effective method of doing much that a small business needs but not any more in my books. Everything that SBS can do is now begin done in the “cloud”. As a customer, why would you ever want to maintain your own mail server? Put it in the “cloud” and let someone else manage the problems of spam a smart operator will say. If you really think about it there isn’t really much that SBS has over “cloud” computing.

 

Now sure, many clients aren’t comfortable with the the idea of accessing their “stuff” somewhere on the Internet but hey if I tell them that they can do it for half the cost, guess how long it will take most to change their attitude? Half a nano-second I’ll bet! So no customer really cares about SBS and all the technical gee-whiz. If they can find a cheaper and easier way to get their “stuff” they go for it.

 

The second front on which SBS faces annihilation is from Microsoft. Microsoft seems clearly to moving towards the concept of “medium” rather than “small” business servers with its release of Essential Business Server (EBS) which basically is similar to the current SBS but allows all the software to run on multiple machine (unlike SBS). Why? Businesses that are going to run EBS are bigger and far more likely to spend far more dollars on IT than “small” businesses who buy SBS. For those clients even Microsoft is pitching its own “cloud” computing solution, which is even evident in the upcoming version of SBS 2008. The way I see is that SBS is being “stripped” down and “consumerized” so all it does is simple store “stuff”.

 

Since it has been 5 years now since the last version of SBS was released (and SBS 2003R2 doesn’t count as a “new” release). I can’t see that in another 5 years we’ll have SBS 2013. I’m sorry, but I think it will be gone. If you are selling and supporting SBS then I reckon your time left to make money with the product is fast dwindling. You have either to move up market with EBS (which will be tough for one man bands) or embrace “cloud computing” (but if everything works right why do customers need you?).

 

So maybe it is not only the end of SBS as we know it. Maybe it is also the end of the SBS only reseller?

HP ML110G5 hanging on array utility (F8)

So you want to configure the embedded RAID array on a HP ML110G5? Well, first thing you have to do is go into the BIOS (via F10 at boot) and select the Advanced menu. From Advanced menu item select Advanced Chipset Control. Then set the Serial ATA field to Enabled, select SATA Controller Mode Options -> Enhanced field and set the SATA RAID Enable field to Enabled. Press F10 the Yes to save and the server will reboot.

 

Now as the server is booting you should see a message about the SATA RAID controller and how you must press F8 to configure. Ok when I did that I received the message:

 

Utility found, Loading wait ….

 

and the server hung. Bugger! Reset, try again, disconnect some things, try again. Still no luck. Bugger x 2! Ok, the BIOS Build date was 1/11/08 and as it typically turns out there is a later version (2008.04.03 (A) (18 Apr 2008)) that fixes the problem although it doesn’t appear to be noted in the release notes. You can download it from here:

 

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3577708&swItem=MTX-c97c6477ae454b5289fd5a7011&prodNameId=3577715&swEnvOID=1005&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=5

 

So you download the file, unpack the files to you workstation hard disk and run the utility that allows you to create a bootable USB device (anyone know what these things called floppies are? I can’t remember ever seeing one ). Insert that into the server, the server boots to the device, runs some updates, reboots, finishes updating and when I now press F8 at the RAID controller config I can finally get in and configure my drives for RAID.

 

Generally, it is always a good idea to update all the firmware prior to the installation of any new server. Why? Simple. It’s the first thing the manufacturer is going to ask you to do if there are problems and I’d sure as heck rather do it on a system I’m running up rather than a production server if I can avoid it!