Category: Computing

SharePoint Online(365) following SP sites

So, today I learned something. Part of my job is to work in Azure(365) and this little bit I never knew but now I know. If you are trying to follow a SP site it will not work unless you are a member of the site. It does not matter if you are a site …

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How to Create an admin account on MacOS without admin rights

I was unable to log into a Macbook Pro the other day where I work because I did not have the admin password and so I looked up how to bypass this. I came across these steps across multiple sites so I figured I would document this little how to. This was tested with Catalina. …

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PXE Boot Issue

Well, yesterday(03/26/2019) I came across a PXE boot issue which seemed to come out of the blue. I would start up a system and try to PXE boot. The error I would get was “A required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed.” This would happen not that far into the boot process. Of course …

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UEFI and BIOS(Legacy) PXE Booting for MDT

Ok, well to start this off I have been working with MDT and SCCM for years. I remember when computers started to include the ability to switch between UEFI and Legacy mode. If you want to know which you should use that would be for a different post as I am dealing with PXE booting …

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Been working since September

I got a nifty job at a company that is an MSP. It is a Managed Service Provider here in Houston, TX. It has plenty of variety and keeps me thinking usually. I also get to tinker with deployment, which is nice and one of my favorite things to do. I enjoy automation and making …

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Running virtual machines

I currently have a load of VMs on my desktop for various uses. I also have a VM of Windows 10 running so I can learn C# programming. I am not terribly good at it yet of course but one has to start from somewhere. My endgame is to learn how to make Windows 10 …

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UPS devices and the pain they can be

I have some older UPS hardware that the devices themselves should be fine but the batteries are shot. The most painful part of this is when they have decided to expand and trying to get them out without bursting the batteries or damaging the actual unit. I may have a bit of a night ahead …

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A silly hotfix

For various reasons up at work I have configured a deployment setup for the training room. It is a rather decent setup combining the Microsoft Development Toolkit(MDT), Windows AIK, and the Windows Deployment Services(WDS). It was working fine with deploying Windows XP, attaching to the domain, installing all sorts of software. Well, we got new …

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Software updates

I have this nagging issue with the way updates are done on Windows. I think that Microsoft should have APIs and other ways to tie into their update software so companies like Adobe (Acrobat, etc.) and Oracle (Java) can just have it check for updates. That way it would be one piece of software doing …

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Enabling SSH on ESXi Servers

For 3.5 follow these instructions. You must be at the console of the server for this. Hold down ALT and push F1. Just type in the word ‘unsupported’, without the quotations of course, and hit enter. You may see a warning about it being unsupported. type in the root password that was set up when …

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SSH and Public Key authentication

I was toying around with this for a way to automate a backup but do it over a secure connection. Here is the basic instructions that I have for at least setting up the key authentication. Also, WordPress mangles apostrophes so if you copy the commands from here and paste them into a shell it …

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Google Calendar has become useful

I am generally the type that only uses Google for searching. I have a Google email account, that I do not use, and have been playing with Wave a bit but never really wanted to branch out past that. At home I tend to use Outlook for my calendar. It works great but is not …

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2009 Microsoft Event in Houston

Some months back I signed up for the event and have been waiting on it as they were promising they were giving out a copy of Windows 7 Professional to each attendee. The event was yesterday and I got there around 7:30a or so. The interesting part was that it took place in the AMC …

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VMware ESXi Server on the IBM

Well, so far getting ESXi installed on my IBM was rather easy once I got a CD drive hooked up to install it on the server. I am thinking there was maybe a compatibility problem with the SATA controller and the Dell. It could have been a voltage incompatibility because it started having issues when …

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Bout time

Original configuration Originally I had a desktop computer running Windows 2003 Server as a DC. I ran it in ‘2000-Mixed mode’ for Samba’s sake as I was told it was important to do so. I eventually used the VMware Converter to make the DC a VM to run on my IBM as a guest. Samba …

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Alas poor ESXi, it was not meant to be

It seems that I will be moving my VMware related VMs and all that to my IBM once I have things migrated to my Dell. I wanted ESXi to work on the Dell properly but the limits of SATA driver support and the underlying PITA it is to dig up logs to find out what …

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ESXi and RDM

I think I have finally made some headway on my ESXi experiment. I have all the VMs and ESXi running on my RAID5 array. It all works great and the speed is not too bad but there is not enough space for data storage. I figured I could put a couple of 500GB drives and …

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Active Directory Forest Functional Level upgrade

The other day at work I needed to upgrade the functional level of the AD Forest from Windows 2000 to 2003 R2. I was going to add another server and make it the main AD server. It is running 2003 R2 but the rest in the domain controllers are running 2003 RTM with service pack …

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VMware ESXi Server fun times

I have been off and on playing with VMware’s ESXi Server 3.5 u4 on my Dell Poweredge 2600 that is spec’ed similar to my IBM Server but has 6GB of RAM instead of 3GB. So far I have 4 VM’s running on it and it seems like a sweet spot for me as far as …

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W00T!! I got Tomcat SSL working

It looks like I just needed a good nights sleep to get it working properly. It definitely was a character building moment though. I will put it in my “Book of Crazy Info” so I can get it working later in case my mind does not hold onto the solution. 🙂