Monday, August 27, 2012

Windows XP schedule a task without password

SkyHi @ Monday, August 27, 2012

winxp backs do not need a password. here is the over ride.
WIN_XP will allow you to work around the password requirement for windows scheduler. set up the backup task and schedule it for later as required.
once the task has been scheduled , go into the schedluer and selcet the properties under the newly created backup task. in the botom portion of the task properties, place this text in the run as cell.
nt authority\system
this will prompt for a password... do not enter a password, just click ok and yes on the no password warning.
right click the task and run it. it will run and you can reschedule it from the scheduler.


Scheduled Tasks - Applying/Running tasks without a password
For Pro:  Go to Start/Administrative Tools/'Local Security Policy/Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options
Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only. This is enabled by default, disable it.

For Home: (Keith Miller) Go to Start/Run/Regedit and navigate to this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa

Value name: limitblankpassworduse, Type: REG_DWORD, Data: 0 (disabled) 1 (enabled)

For Home: Run Scheduled Task without a Password (Line 67)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm


REFERENCES
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/backup_requires_password_on_windows_xp.html
http://www.vas.com/Tnotes/XP%20Task%20Scheduler%20and%20Password%20problems.htm

ESXi 5 Running Nested VMs

SkyHi @ Monday, August 27, 2012
ESXi  5 on ESXi 5


To allow the use of this feature, the ESXi administrator must add the following configuration option to the/etc/vmware/config file on the physical host:
vhv.allow = TRUE and change the OS to VMWare ESXi 5.x



KVM on ESXi 5
change the OS to VMWARE ESX 5.x


Xen on ESXi 5
change the OS to VMWARE ESX 5.x
(use LSI Logic SAS for SCSI controller or else you will get ERROR: XEN Table is not found or AMD-VI IOMMU not found)


[root@centos6xen ~]# egrep '(vmx|svm)' --color=always /proc/cpuinfo
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm constant_tsc up tsc_reliable nonstop_tsc pni pclmulqdq ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes xsave avx hypervisor lahf_lm svm extapic abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw xop arat
[root@centos6xen ~]#





Hyper on ESXi 5
coming..

REFERENCES
http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8970

Vmware vSphere licensing and Identify available vCenter server editions

SkyHi @ Monday, August 27, 2012

Apart from the new breakthrough features in the vSphere5 another breakthrough which is overlooked is in the licensing model. The VMware has completely revamped their licensing policy as compared to their previous editions. In vSphere4 the licenses were based on the C.P.Us and the number of cores. Apart from this other hardware limits were opposed based on the license.
As the technology is every rapidly increasing, Moore’s law converting to fast Moore’s law hardware is getting cheap and advanced day by day. High density ram chip and C.P.Us with 8 cores and 12 cores are available in the market. Keeping the growth in hardware industry and the growth of organizations in terms of server capabilities VMware introduced the new licensing policy based on the number of C.P.Us (irrespective of number of cores in them) and a new term called the vRAM. The vRAM is the total virtual ram that can be used by multiple licensed C.P.Us on multiple hosts managed by a single vcenter server.
A single C.P.U is licensed for 32GB of vRAM. If we have a single C.P.U server and one license we can power up any number of virtual machines but the total running vRAM capacity shall not increase the 32GB mark. If we want to run more virtual machines we can purchase additional C.P.U license (despite having no extra C.P.U.). The licenses (vRAM) are pooled together on a single vcenter server. The following chart from VMware shows the difference between the licensing in previous versions and the new vSphere5.
Vvmware vsphere licensing and identify available vcenter server editions 5 Vmware vSphere licensing and Identify available vCenter server editions
The licenses can be specified to specific hosts using vcenter which is recommended. The license can be specified to hosts as well. The licenses entered are persistent and not lost after reboot. 
There are three different types of vSphere package that can be licensed, these are standard , enterpriseand enterprise plus
  • The standard license is bare minimum and has all the base features like 32gb of vRAM per C.P.U and basic features like HA, DR and vMotion.
  • The enterprise license has 64GB vRAM entitlement and apart from the features from the standard edition it has features like HOT ADD, Fault tolerance, Storage vMotion , DRS and DPM, vShield zones.
  • The enterprise plus is premium offering of the vsphere and it includes all the new and advanced features. Apart from the features of both the standard and the enterprise it offers features like the distributed switch, I/O control (SIOC and NIOC), HOST profiles. Some new features which are part of this offering and not present in previous vSphere package include the Auto deploy, policy driver storage and storage DRS.
The chart from VMware shows all the features.
Vvmware vsphere licensing and identify available vcenter server editions Vmware vSphere licensing and Identify available vCenter server editions
How the licensing actually works. Consider for e.g. a company Lamegeeks inc. it has two physical servers each with 96gb of ram and 2 C.P.U. each. So in total they need license for 4 C.P.U.s and 192GB of vRam. This can be broken down with which features they want. If they want only basic features they can go with 6 standard licenses which gives them total 192GB of ram and 6 C.P.U licenses so they can upgrade C.P.U.s in the physical server in the future but they cannot upgrade the ram.
Now if they want features like hot add and fault tolerance they have to go with 4 licenses of enterprise
So in total they will get 256GB of VRAM entitlement but cannot add new C.P.U without purchasing a new license but with this option they can increase the physical ram of their server to 256GB as they will become entitled for 256GB of vRAM.
They can also go for 4 enterprise plus license that give 384GB vRAM. They might not need additional VRAM but it is dependent on the number of physical C.P.U.
The lamegeeks plan to go with enterprise lincese for 4 CPUS and giving them entitlement of 256gb of ram. So they upgrade the ram to 128gb on each physical server. Now they can run machines utilizing 256gb of ram from a single server if one fails as the vram is pool of all the ram of cpu licensed.
To manage the multiple licensed servers ( physical server running hypervisors) vcCnter server is required. The vcenter server is a centralized way of managing all the hosts . Another license is required for the vcenter server. The basic features of vcenter server are :-
Management server – provisioning, configuring and monitoring virtualized environments.
Database server- Stores configuration data and performance information
Search engine – to search the whole inventory.
Vmware vsphere client – To access multiple vcenter server from one place.
Vcenter api and .net extensions – Using third party tools and customizing.
The vcenter server is available in three variants
Vcenter server for essentials kit – this is for the vsphere essentials kit.
Vcenter server foundations – It manages upto vmware esxi hosts.
Vcenter server standard – This can manage any number of hosts and provides full control over the virtual infrastructure and includes vmare orchestrator and vcenter linked mode.
To make the licensing easier and to get away from hassle of buying licenses for C.P.U and vcenter separately vmware sell them in form of kits.Now a single kit includes multiple vsphere licenses and vcenter server all included in a single bundle. The next figure depicts the license offered in the form of kits.
Vvmware vsphere licensing and identify available vcenter server editions 2 Vmware vSphere licensing and Identify available vCenter server editions
If we consider the scenario of lamegeeks the essential plus will be a good buying option for them as they get entitled for 192GB of vRAM and 6 C.P.U.s plus they get features like vmotion and High availability.
Now if in future they plan to expand and they want to increase the physical ram ( which means they need more vram) on these machines but not the number of C.P.U they can do it in the following ways.
1.) Adding new vsphere licenses of the same edition to the existing pool.
2.) Upgrading license with higher vram entitlement
3.) Adding new host with new vsphere license of the same edition to the existing pool.
Upgrading from Vsphere4.X t0 5.X
The customers with existing SnS contract are eligible for upgrade to vSphere5. The chart from vmware shows the mapping of previous license to the new kit licenses. New licenses are issued for upgrade the new licenses are discarded.
Vvmware vsphere licensing and identify available vcenter server editions 3 Vmware vSphere licensing and Identify available vCenter server editions
Upgrading within vsphere5
Customers can upgrade from one edition to higher edition. The new SnS fees is calculated based on the days left in the previous SnS. The following chart depicts the upgrade process within vsphere5.
Vvmware vsphere licensing and identify available vcenter server editions 4 Vmware vSphere licensing and Identify available vCenter server editions
Note:- The vRAM does not have hard limits ( except the standard kit). The average of high watermark is used for calculating the vRAM. If the year average is below the vRAM entitlement then there is no violation. The vRAM is monitored from within the vcenter itself.
Note:- A SnS for patch and upgrade is required with all licenses. A per incidence based support can be purchased for only for the standard edition but one year support is required for all editions of vsphere.


This was a short description of vmware licensing as per my knowledge if there is a mistake or you would like to add something feel free to comment on this. You can also ask your queries.


REFERENCES
http://www.routemybrain.com/vmware-vsphere-licensing-and-identify-available-vcenter-server-editions/

How To Fix Shockwave Flash Crashes in Google Chrome

SkyHi @ Monday, August 27, 2012


flashchromecrash
If your copy of Google Chrome has taken on a sudden and inexplicable hatred for Shockwave Flash, we’re here to help. Read on as we show you how to tame Chrome and get it to play nice with Flash.
More so than other browsers, Google Chrome is particularly susceptible to a specific but not uncommon situation in which it simply will not coexist peacefully with Adobe Flash—frequent slow downs and annoying crashes are common as a result. The following tutorial will help you get Chrome back to its speedy self.

What’s Causes The Issue?

2012-01-16_134919
The reason we’re talking about Chrome and not, say, Firefox, is because of the way Chrome handles Flash content. While other browsers call upon the Flash installation of the host system, Chrome includes an internal Flash installation. When everything goes smoothly this isn’t a problem—the internal Flash installation is updated with every new Chrome release.
Unfortunately things can fall apart pretty easily if Chrome gets confused and attempts to utilize both the OS installation of Flash and the internal Chrome installation of Flash. The result is serious browser lag, temporary lockup, and then a browser-wide crash of all active Flash instances. You don’t realize how many web sites use Flash until every single tab locks up with a crash warning—”The following plug-in has crashed: Shockwave Flash”

How Do I Know A Conflicting Flash Installation Is Causing The Crashes? 2012-01-16_134644

First of all, despite the warning about Shockwave, the actual warning has nothing to do with Adobe Shockwave which is a separate program/multimedia system from Adobe Flash. Second, while not every instance of Flash flaking out in Chrome can be attributes to a Flash install conflict, we’ve found it to be the most common reason users are experiencing Flash-related problems.
How can you tell if a Flash conflict is the source of your trouble? Run Chrome. In the address bar, type about:plugins in the address bar. After you press enter you’ll be greeted with a list of all the plug-ins installed in Chrome (this is different than user-installed Extensions). Look down the list of plug-ins for the Flash entry. If the entry looks like Flash (2 Files) there is a very good chance the source of your Flash-related crashes is a conflict between the two.
In the upper right hand corner of the browser window there is a small toggle labeled [+] Details. Click on that toggle to expand the entries for all the plug-ins. Return to the entry for Flash.
2012-01-16_135248
You should see something like the screenshot above: two entries for Flash, one for the internal Chrome installation (highlighted in red here) and one for the host OS’s installation (seen below the highlighted entry).
You need to click on the Disable link for Chrome’s internal installation of Flash (make sure you disable the one located in Chrome’s AppData folder and not the separate stand-alone Flash installation). Once you do so the entry for the internal installation should look like so:
2012-01-16_135912
Go ahead and close the tab and then close Google Chrome. Restart Chrome and resume normal browsing—visit Adobe’s test page to ensure everything looks good:
2012-01-16_194053
Remember, you’ll no longer be getting automatic updates with each Chrome upgrade. Make sure to check for updates at Adobe’s Flash download page and/or turn on the update check in your local installation of Adobe Flash.
If for whatever reason disabling the built-in Flash doesn’t help, we suggest playing around with different combinations. Try turning off the OS Flash installation instead of the built-in Flash installation for example. Also, try visiting a flash-based web site while Incognito Mode (when you enter Incognito Mode it turns off all your Extensions which may or may not be causing issues with Flash). Finally, as a last ditch effort, you can reinstall Chrome (if Flash works in every other browser but Chrome, this is likely the only option you have left).

Have a tip or trick for dealing with tricky Flash installations or other browser quirks? Sound off in the comments.



REFERENCES
http://www.howtogeek.com/103292/how-to-fix-shockwave-flash-crashes-in-google-chrome/