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