Non-present Network Adapter issues

A while back I changed our virtualization platform from VirtualIron to MS Hyper-V and that caused all network adapters to disappear on my VMs. Hyper-V installed its own. So when i tried to set fixed IP addresses to new adapters I got the following message: “The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned…”

I thought the best way to resolve this issue was to remove the source of the problem (in this case these old VirtualIron network adapters), which is a bit hard to do if you can’t see these adapters.   After digging around I found a nice MS KB article 269155, which helped me to reveal and remove those non present hidden devices.

Here’s what i did to reveal non present hidden devices.

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd.exe, and then press ENTER.
2. Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1, and then press ENTER.
3. Type Start devmgmt.msc, and then press ENTER.
4. Click View, and then click Show Hidden Devices.
5. Expand the Network Adapters tree.
6. Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then click Uninstall.

-Eric

Source: MS KB

Configure or Change SMTP after TFS 2005 install

Alerts stopped working on our TFS 2005 server after I upgraded our internal mail server (new IP address). In order to get them working again I had to change SMTP server address on TFS. Configuration file with SMTP settings is located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server\Web Services\Services folder. It is called web.config. Open it with notepad and modify the following keys in bold.

<appSettings>
    <add key="ConnectionString" value="Application Name=TeamFoundation;Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=TfsIntegration;Data Source=TFSServerName;Integrated Security=SSPI"/> 
    <add key="eventingEnabled" value="true" />
    <add key="DetailedExceptions" value="true" />
    <add key="emailNotificationFromAddress" value="Senders Email Address" />
    <add key="smtpServer" value="Your SMTP Server Name" />
  </appSettings>

Once you’ve done this, restart IIS service.

-Eric

Hyper-V Resource Control

Virtual Machine Reserve (percentage) – this value says how much CPU is kept aside for the running Virtual Machine.

Percent of total system resources – this is a precent of a Virtual Machine processor time, that is measured by how many processors are assigned to the virtual machine

Virtual Machine Limit (percentage) – this is a percent of CPU that the running Virtual Machine is not allowed to go over the top of

Percent of total system resources – this is percent of a VM processor time, that is measured by how many processors are assigned to the physical computer

Relative Weight – this is used to decide how CPU is distributed. (Basically a virtual machine with the higher weight (say 500) will get twice the CPU time as a virtual machine with a weight lower weight (say 400).

Example:

Basically on a 1 CPU and 4 Core computer you can run 40 1 CPU Virtual Machines if their reserve is 10%.

-Eric

Source: MS TechNet Forums.

SCE 2010 Reporting, Essentials Reports not working

Date: 18/11/2010 16:53:44
Application: System Center Essentials
Application Version: 7.0.2432.1
Severity: Error
Message: Cannot initialize report.

Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.ReportServerException: An error has occurred during report processing.
(rsProcessingAborted) —> Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.ReportServerException: Query execution failed for dataset ‘StatusList’.
(rsErrorExecutingCommand) —> Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.ReportServerException: The SELECT permission was denied on the object ‘fnUpdateInstallationStateMap’, database ‘SUSDB’, schema ‘PUBLIC_VIEWS’.
— End of inner exception stack trace —
— End of inner exception stack trace —
at Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.ServerReport.GetExecutionInfo()
at Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.ServerReport.GetParameters()
at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Mom.Internal.UI.Reporting.Parameters.ReportParameterBlock.Initialize(ServerReport serverReport)
at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Mom.Internal.UI.Console.ReportForm.SetReportJob(Object sender, ConsoleJobEventArgs args)
Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.ReportServerException: Query execution failed for dataset ‘StatusList’.
(rsErrorExecutingCommand) —> Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.ReportServerException: The SELECT permission was denied on the object ‘fnUpdateInstallationStateMap’, database ‘SUSDB’, schema ‘PUBLIC_VIEWS’.
— End of inner exception stack trace —
Microsoft.Reporting.WinForms.ReportServerException: The SELECT permission was denied on the object ‘fnUpdateInstallationStateMap’, database ‘SUSDB’, schema ‘PUBLIC_VIEWS’.

If you get this error when you try to access your essentials reports under Reporting there is a quick and easy way to fix it.

Solution:

• Open your SQL Management Studio.
• Then browse to SUSDB database and select it, right click and select properties.
• Under properties select permissions. There should be only 3 entries, which are Domain\Username, NT Authority\Network Service and COMPUTERNAME\WSUS Administrators. You want Domain\Username user, so select that one.
• Under Explicit tab scroll down until you see Select. Tick it under Grant and press OK. Now go and try to run your reports again.

-Eric

Enabling Tape drive data co-location on DPM 2010

Open DPM Management Shell and use the following command to enable tape drive data co-location:

Set-DPMGlobalProperty -DPMServerName YourDPMServer01 -OptimizeTapeUsage $True

Source: MS Technet

-Eric

How to change SCVMM 2008 R2 default library share

 

You can only do this on the same server using the same share name. There is no other way. It’s because default library share points to that share.

Use the following steps:

• Stop the SCVMM service using the following command: net stop vmmservice
• Write down the name and permissions (including NTFS) that has been set on the default VMM Share
• Remove (delete) the existing share and create a new share on a new folder using the information you recorded
• Create the same folder structure and move all your files to the new location (if you don’t you might end up with loads of missing items)
• Start the SCVMM service using the following command: net start vmmservice
• Make sure that you can access the new share

PS! Special thanks to Matthew Mattoon

-Eric

Enable Remote Connections on SQL Server 2008 R2

There are few things that needs to be sorted in order to get this running properly.

• Enable TCP/IP and Named Pipes protocols. In order to do that open Sql Server Configuration Manager (Start > All Programs > Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 > Configuration Tools > SQL Server Configuration Manager). Now on the left go SQL Server Network Configuration and select Protocols for YourInstanceName. Enable Named Pipes and TCP/IP.
• Allow Remote Connections. Open Management Studio, right click on SQL server and select properties. Under Properties select connections and make sure that under Remote Server Connections Allow Remote Server Connections has been ticked. If its not then tick it (enable it) and click ok.
• Create Firewall rules. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools and open Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.
  SQL Server rule. Select Inbound Rules, right-click and select “New Rule”. Select Program and click Next, enter the path to the SQL server program (C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Binn\sqlserver.exe), click Next three times, then enter the name of the firewall rule (e.g. SQL Server), then click finish.
  SQL Server Browser rule. Select Inbound Rules, right-click and select “New Rule”. Select Program and click Next, enter the path to the SQL server program (C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\sqlbrowser.exe), click Next three times, then enter the name of the firewall rule (e.g. SQL Server Browser), then click finish.

Once all this is done, you should have Remote Connections enabled for SQL Server 2008 R2.

-Eric