How rules are evaluated in Windows Firewall
by lunarg on February 8th 2019, at 10:04

An excellent TechNet-article explained how rules are evaluated in Windows Firewall, specifically in what order and which rules take precedence over others.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/13894.troubleshooting-windows-firewall-with-advanced-security-in-windows-server-2012.aspx#Rules_are_evaluated_in_a_specific_order

 
Manually install the VMWare vConverter agent on a machine
by lunarg on February 8th 2019, at 10:02

If for some reason the deployment of the VMWare vConverter agent fails, you can also copy the installer to the machine you wish to P2V and manually install it.

On the machine VMWare vConverter is installed, navigate to the location where it's installed (by default: C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone), and look for the file VMware-Converter-Agent.exe. Copy over this file over to the target machine and run it to install the agent. Accept the defaults, including the TCP-port (unless your setup requires you to change it). Once finished, a service will have been installed and you will be able to connect to it using vConverter.

 
VMWare VCSA/PSC: disable password expiration for the root account from the CLI
by lunarg on February 2nd 2019, at 15:44
You can disable password expiration from the command-line when logging on using SSH or by enabling the Bash shell. Note that you will need root privileges (i.e. root account) to make this change.

If shell access is not enabled, you need to enable it first:

Log on to the appliance management portal: https://ip-or-fqdn:5480/.

In the Navigator, click on Access. On the right side (Access Settings), click on the Edit button.

Tick the box next to Enable SSH Login for remote access, or if you rather prefer making the change through the VMRC, check the box Enable BASH Shell. Then click OK. The change is effective immediately.

Log on to the shell using either SSH (using PuTTY or another applicat  ...
 
Virtual NUMA Topology in vSphere 6.5 (link)
by lunarg on January 29th 2019, at 12:03

Found this article online about how vSphere virtualizes NUMA and how this is relevant to the configuration of vCPUs in your VMs:

https://www.opvizor.com/decoupling-of-cores-per-socket-from-virtual-numa-topology-in-vsphere-6-5

 
Selective deletion of tasks, events, and historical performance data in vSphere 5.x and 6.x
by lunarg on January 11th 2019, at 10:04

In the event of migrating your old vCenter Server to a new version (or from Windows to the appliance), it may become necessary to first clear out old historical data. Not only will this speed up the migration process considerably, it will also prevent certain issues which may block the migration from completing successfully.

VMWare provided a KB with database scripts which allow you to selectively purge historical data and decreasing the database size: KB 2110031.

 
Barracuda VPN Client on Mac crashes on macOS Mojave
by lunarg on January 11th 2019, at 09:06

The Barracuda VPN Client does not work properly on macOS Mojave: after connecting the VPN, the UI crashes and restarting it immediately makes it crash again. The VPN tunnel itself does work, but other than manually killing the process (kill -9), it is not possible to terminate the tunnel (other than rebooting of course).

An updated version of the client, Barracuda VPN Client 5.0.2.5 for macOS is available which resolves these issues.

 
Using libdvdcss with Handbrake on macOS
by lunarg on January 4th 2019, at 16:40
Handbrake offers the ability to convert copy-protected DVD's (aka "rip") too. It is not able to do this out of the box, but instead, relies on a specific library called libdvdcss. This library is installed by default when you also use VLC media player, but a version compatible with Handbrake is also available for download.

For Mac OSX, an installer was made available to easily install the library and have Handbrake use it, but due to the write-protection of system folders, introduced with macOS High Sierra, this method no longer works. As a result, it became difficult to use Handbrake. Fortunately, there are a number of workarounds and other methods of installing the library, whic  ...
 
Windows Server 2016: upgrade from evaluation to full
by lunarg on December 20th 2018, at 15:10
On Windows Server 2016, when attempting to enter a full edition product key on an evaluation edition, you will get the error: "This edition cannot be upgraded". Fortunately, you can workaround the issue by "upgrading" via DISM (a built-in command-line tool).

Note that you will have to reboot the server when performing the upgrade, so schedule some downtime for it. Also, you cannot only convert full GUI versions of Windows Server. Server Core or Nano Server cannot be upgraded. Additionally, if you have the ADDS role installed, you need to uninstall this role before performing the upgrade.

Start an elevated command prompt, then type in the commands listed below.

First, m  ...
 
 
 
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