IT Should Just Work

Welcome to IT Should Just Work

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to I.T. Should Just Work - a website full of technical analysis, nuggets of useful information, and the odd humorous call to the IT Help Desk.

Use Light Mode when Presenting

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Why I think Light Mode is the colour scheme of choice when you're presenting.

Deploy Azure Workbooks with Terraform

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

How to deploy an Azure Workbook with Terraform, using the Orphaned Resources workbook as an example.

London VMUG January 2026 Preview #LonVMUG

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The London VMware User Group is holding an in-person event on Thursday 22nd January. Here's a quick preview.

Azure Linux VM Patch fails: Sudo status check failed

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Solution to Linux VM Patching with Azure Update Manager failing with the error Sudo status check failed.

Commvault SHIFT 2025

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Commvault held their annual SHIFT event this week, with a New York and global event. This saw the launch of the new Commvault Cloud Unity platform.

Configuring Logs for AVD Hostpools and Workspaces with Terraform

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How to use Terraform to configure Azure Virtual Desktop logging to a Log Analytics Workspace.

Azure Policy Exemption on Management Group using Terraform.

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How to use Terraform to create a Policy exemption when the Policy assignment is scoped to a Management Group.

Azure Terraform Parsing Error on Workspace ID

Sun, 25 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A Terraform reference to a Log Analytics Workspace ID is rejected because the segment at position 2 didn't match.

Multi-region Azure VM deployment with Terraform

Sat, 17 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How to use Terraform to deploy multiple Azure Virtual Machines spread across regions.

Exchange 2016 CU22 Upgrade fails

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

An unexpected error when upgrading Exchange Server 2016 to CU22. Setup finishes silently and missing registry keys are reported in the logs.

Azure Network Security Group Defaults

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How to use custom rules to lock down Azure Network Security Groups

Azure Backup Internal Error

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What to do when an Azure VM backup fails with the message 'Backup failed with an internal error'

UK VMUG 2024: Community Session

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On Thursday November 28th I will be speaking at the UK VMware User Group (#UKVMUG) meeting at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham.

VMware Explore 2024 The Future

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

It's been a week since we left Barcelona after VMware Explore, and I've had opportunity to digest all the content I took in, and have a think about what the future holds for both the event and VMware by Broadcom in general.

VMware Explore 2024 Day 2 - General Session

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Covering the General Session announcements on Tuesday at the 2024 VMware Explore event in Barcelona.

VMware Explore 2024 Day 1

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Monday at the 2024 VMware Explore event in Barcelona. In this post I pick up on some of the highlights of the first day of the event.

Using Azure Action Groups with Code

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

How to use Terraform or PowerShell to create Azure Action Groups for notifying multiple admins by email.

Using Azure Resource Locks with Terraform

Sat, 19 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

How to use Terraform to create Azure management resource locks, and a look at the required roles and permissions.

Commvault SHIFT 2024

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Commvault held their annual SHIFT event this week, continuing their focus on cyber resilience with crisis prevention *and* recovery to keep businesses running.

VMware Explore 2024 Barcelona After Hours

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A list of social events happening around the 2024 VMware Explore event in Barcelona.

VMware Explore Europe 2024 Session Scheduler

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The session scheduler is going live for VMware Explore 24 in Barcelona. Book in your breakouts for the week.

Validate UK Postcodes with PowerShell

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Use the PowerShell Posh-Postcodes.io module to validate a CSV file of UK Postcodes.

Azure VMware Solution at Explore 2024

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My top 5 picks for Azure VMware Solution sessions at the upcoming 2024 VMware Explore event.

Posh-Postcodes.io

Sun, 04 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A PowerShell wrapper for the postcodes.io API that can be used for looking up and working with UK postcode data.

Getting Started With.... PowerShell

Fri, 26 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

First steps in getting started with PowerShell.

Getting Started With.... Git

Fri, 19 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

First steps in getting started with Git.

VMware Explore Europe 2024 Coming Soon

Tue, 16 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Early Bird Pricing is available for the annual Barcelona virtualisation event.

Getting Started With.... Markdown

Fri, 12 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

First steps in getting started with Markdown.

Getting Started With.... HTML

Fri, 05 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

First steps in getting started with HTML- the language behind web pages.

Getting Started With....

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A new series covering the basics in various technologies useful to an IT Professional.

Surrey Azure User-Group July 2024

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A quick look at my first visit to the Surrey Azure UserGroup meeting, held in Woking, UK.

Azure API Management NSG Rules with PowerShell

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Use PowerShell to configure NSG rules for a Azure API Management upgrade.

Azure Table Storage Sort Order

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

How to write to Azure Table Storage so rows are retrieved latest first.

Azure WebApps- What's New: May 2024

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

News and announcements related to Azure WebApps from May 2024

Azure WebApp Access Restrictions Tidy Up

Fri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

How to remove an IP Address from multiple Azure WebApp Access Restrictions using PowerShell.

Nutanix .NEXT 2024

Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Nutanix .NEXT 2024 Conference was on the 21st to the 23rd of May in Barcelona.

VMware Certification Changes

Wed, 08 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Now you can become a VMware Certified Professional without taking an official course.

Azure WebApps- What's New: April 2024

Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

News and announcements related to Azure WebApps from April 2024

Virtualisation Conferences 2024

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Conference season is starting, and if you haven't been planning already then get the details of the big Virtualisation conferences this year!

Azure WebApps- What's New: March 2024

Sun, 31 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

News and announcements related to Azure WebApps from March 2024

Active Microsoft Certifications Expired in Credly

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Why some of the badges for your active Microsoft Certifications are now showing as expired in Credly.

Arlie Walkthroughs in Commvault Cloud

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Commvault Cloud has a new AI assistant called Arlie. One of the features it offers is walkthrough tutorials.

Clear vSphere Alarms with PowerCLI

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

How to use PowerShell to clear vSphere Alarms. An example of clearing all Remote Syslog Connection Error alarms using PowerCLI.

Rudolph's First PowerShell Module

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Resources to accompany my Festive Tech Calendar 2023 session about PowerShell.

Azure WebApps- What's New: November 2023

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

News and announcements related to Azure WebApps from November 2023, including announcements from Microsoft Ignite.

PowerCLI vReplication Resources

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Resources from my session at the UK VMware UserGroup UserCon 2023: SRM on a budget- Automating vSphere Replication.

Commvault SHIFT 2023

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Commvault's SHIFT event launched *Commvault Cloud, powered by Metallic AI* showcasing their latest technologies in cloud data security, and looked to the future of cyber resilience.

Azure WebApps- What's New: October 2023

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

News and announcements related to Azure WebApps from October 2023, including previews of code snippets and traffic splitting features in Static Web Apps.

vSphere: An error occurred during host configuration - fixed

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Dealing with a vSphere error ``An error occurred during host configuration /usr/bin/esxupdate returned with exit status: 7``

Azure WebApps- What's New: September 2023

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

News and announcements related to Azure WebApps from September 2023, including Free WordPress hosting and PHP 8.1 end-of-life announcement.

Azure Subnet Visualisation

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

How to use PowerShell to visualise subnet allocations in an Azure Virtual Network (VNET).

The Document Cartographer - Improve your IT Documentation Today!

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A recording of a presentation at the July 2023 London VMUG event.

Azure PowerShell - Find Classic Application Insights

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Use Azure PowerShell to discover Classic Application Insights resources in your subscription.

PowerShell - modify a property in an array

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We have a PowerShell dataset where we want to modify the values of a property but we don’t want to add a new property.

London VMware User Group #LonVMUG - What to Expect

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

What to expect if you’re visiting the London VMware User Group for the first time.

PowerShell: Get Azure VMs with no base marketplace image.

Mon, 03 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Whilst most Virtual Machines in Azure are built from Marketplace images, this isn’t always the case. This PowerShell snippet will find VMs in your subscription which are not built on Marketplace images.

VMware Explore Europe 2023 Dates

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Registration for VMware Explore 2023 in Barcelona opened this week let’s look at some of the key dates for the event.

Commvault Security Launch- June 2023

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

On 7th June 2023, Commvault held a Security product launch, advancing and expanding their current range of tools for protecting your data.

Goliath Technologies ChromeOS Monitoring

Wed, 10 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Goliath Technologies are offering extensive new monitoring solution for enterprise Google ChromeOS environments.

vSphere Replication with PowerCLI - First Look

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Using PowerShell and PowerCLI to manage vSphere Replication. A first glance at the new module included in PowerCLI 13.1.

VMware vRealize to Aria Naming Conversion

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

VMware has released the Aria Cloud Management suite as a successor to vRealize and CloudHealth. Whilst this is more than just a rebranding, many existing products now have new names. Here’s a quick conversion table to get you started.

London VMware events April 2023

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re based near London then there’s a couple of exciting VMware events coming up this month.

Security Blue Team Level 1

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

My experience with the Security Blue Team Level 1 certification course and exam.

App Service Plan Scaling Azure PowerShell

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

How to scale up an Azure App Service Plan from B1 to B2 to B3 using PowerShell.

Microsoft Cloud South Coast User Group. March 2023

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

On Tuesday evening I returned to Southampton for the Microsoft Cloud South Coast User Group. The event kicked off at 7pm, with three sessions and a curry on the agenda.

Azure Portal IP Address Searching (Video)

Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A quick video that shows how to find which Azure VM is using a particular IP Address using the Azure Portal.

Progress Kemp LoadMaster

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Progress Kemp LoadMaster is a load-balancer and application delivery controller available for use both on-premises and in public cloud environments.

vExpert 2023 - Award

Sat, 18 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The VMware vExpert award recipients for 2023 have been announced and I’m pleased to say that I am on the list for the eighth consecutive year.

Use WinSCP to connect to an Azure WebApp (Video)

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A quick video that shows how to connect to an Azure WebApp using WinSCP so you can upload files to your website via FTPS.

Azure for Students for University IT Admins

Sat, 11 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Azure for Students is a great offer from Microsoft, and requires no input from the University for students to setup. However, there’s a few steps you might want to consider if you’re an Azure administrator in Higher Education.

Commvault Metallic File & Object Archive

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Commvault Metallic File & Object Archive is a new Archive-as-a-Service offering.

Azure Quick PowerShell: Find Empty App Service Plans

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Use PowerShell to find Azure App Service Plans in the current Azure Context with no App Services associated with them. These empty App Service Plans will potentially be incurring unnecessary charges.

vSphere Client IP Address Search

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A quick tip- did you know you can search for a Virtual Machine by IP address in the search bar in vSphere?

Azure PowerShell Get-AzVM returns an error

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

When using Get-AzVM an error about ‘System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable’ is returned.

Secure your website headers in time for Christmas.

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This week I presented a Festive Tech Calendar 2022 session about working with HTTP Security Headers.

Azure Quick PowerShell: Remove User RBAC Assignments

Fri, 11 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How to remove a user’s explicit Role Assignments from everywhere in a subscription.

South Coast Summit 2022 #SCS2022

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A recap of my visit to the Microsoft community conference- South Coast Summit 2022 - held in Southampton, UK.

vSphere 6.5 and 6.7 End of Life

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re running VMware vCenter and ESXi 6.5 or 6.7 it’s time to upgrade as General Support ends on 15 October 2022.

Azure New-AzStorageAccount: Subscription was not found error

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How to use resolve the Subscription was not found error when using New-AzStorageAccount

HP Printer 79 Service error: Solution

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How to resolve the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M283fdw printer error 79 Service error Turn off then on.

Support for PowerShell 7.0 in Azure Functions is ending on 3 December 2022

Fri, 16 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Support for PowerShell 7.0 in Azure Functions is ending on 3 December 2022. This post explains how to use PowerShell to find affected functions in your environment.

Xbox External Drive Disconnection

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Using a USB external hard drive with an Xbox Series X and it keeps disconnecting .

Microsoft Ignite 2022 Registration Open

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Registration is open for Microsoft Ignite, taking place on 12-14th October 2022.

vCenter Emails via Office365 SMTP

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Don’t make this mistake when configuring vCenter Emails to use the Office365 SMTP service!

Monitoring Azure Static WebApps with Application Insights

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How to use Azure Application Insights to monitor the availability of a Static WebApp, complete with alerts when it goes down, for (almost) no cost.

Update Hugo Tweet Shortcodes with PowerShell, Curl, and the Twitter API

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How to update Hugo Tweet Shortcodes to include the user and id parameters.

5 Sessions to look out for at VMware Explore

Mon, 04 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Content Catalogue for VMware Explore (formerly VMworld) is now live. Here’s my pick of 5 sessions from the VMware Explore Europe Content Catalogue you don’t want to miss.

London VMUG July 2022 Preview #LonVMUG

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The London VMware User Group is coming back in person on Thursday 7th July 2022. Here’s a quick preview.

Oracle Cloud partners with Commvault

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Commvault and Oracle Partner to Deliver Metallic® Data Management as a Service on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to Accelerate Enterprise Hybrid Cloud Adoption.

#MCSCUG June 2022

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Tuesday evening was my first trip down to Southampton for the Microsoft Cloud (South Coast) User Group. The event kicked off at 7pm, with three sessions and a curry on the agenda.

Scheduling Hugo + Azure Static WebApp Posts with GitHub Actions

Thu, 19 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How to use a scheduler to automatically post Hugo articles when hosting on an Azure Static Website with Github Actions.

Add a Collector to VMware Skyline

Tue, 17 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Looking for the “Add New Collector” button? So was I.

Azure App Gateway Routing Rule Priority in PowerShell

Fri, 13 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How to use rule priorities with the Add-AzApplicationGatewayRequestRoutingRule cmdlet.

vSAN 7.0 Resync Throttling

Thu, 12 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How to throttle vSAN resync traffic in vSphere 7.0.

PowerCLI 12.6 Upgrade Fails with Certificate Error

Wed, 11 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

What to do when a PowerCLI upgrade to 12.6 fails with a certificate issuer error.

VMware Explore 2022 US Dates

Wed, 04 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Early Bird Registration for VMware Explore 2022 US is open so now seems a good time to look at some of the key dates for the event.

Custom Whiteboard Magnets

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This week I’ve created some custom magnets to improve my whiteboard infrastructure diagrams.

VMworld rebrands to VMware Explore

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

VMworld - the global VMware conference that has been running since 2004 is changing to “VMware Explore” and after a 2 year virtual stint is back in-person for 2022.

Remove Unwanted HTTP headers on an App Gateway with PowerShell

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Increase the security of your sites by removing unwanted HTTP response headers on an Application Gateway using Rewrite Rules and Powershell.

VMware Project Capitola @ #LonVMUG

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Amongst the many topics covered at the latest London VMware User Group, a new memory tiering technology called “Project Capitola” caught my eye.

Retention in Azure Storage Accounts with #PowerShell

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How to use PowerShell to manage a retention schedule on blobs in an Azure Storage Account.

#vRetreat February 2022 Overview

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

February 2022 saw the 6th vRetreat virtual event happening online with sponsors Cohesity and Progress Software in attendance.

Using AZCopy with an Azure WebApp

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How to copy data from a Azure Linux Web App using Microsoft’s AZCopy utility.

vExpert 2022 - Award

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The VMware vExpert award recipients for 2022 have been announced and I’m pleased to say that I am on the list for the seventh consecutive year.

Set the default location in Azure PowerShell

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How to set the default location for Azure PowerShell cmdlets so you don’t need to specify it with each command.

Azure DevOps Contributor can't create a Repo

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How to troubleshoot error TF401027 when a user with the Azure DevOps Contributor role and Basic (or Visual Studio) access level can’t create a new Repo.

The time for improvement

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A recent exchange on Twitter started me thinking about when do I take the opportunity to introduce something new, or better, into the projects I’m working on. How do we balance a project deadline against the longer-term benefits of improving and automating?

Get ESXi Hardware Serial Number with PowerCLI

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re auditing your vSphere hardware inventory here’s a PowerShell/ PowerCLI snippet to show the Vendor, Model, and Serial Number of all the ESXi hosts in your environment.

LLDP and PowerCLI: Get-VirtualSwitchConnections

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re having to audit or troubleshoot your ESXi host patching and need a full list of connections from LLDP then this PowerCLI can help.

Azure: Deploy a WebApp with a Network Security Group

Wed, 12 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A preview Azure feature allows a WebApp to be hosted behind a Network Security Group. This post explains the architecture involved and how to deploy it.

Xbox Series X Display is stuck on low resolution

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Turned on the Xbox Series X this evening and the TV showed a very low resolution picture.

ICYMI- A review of the year 2021

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In case you missed it, here are some of the highlights of this blog from the last year.

Locking Around The Christmas Tree

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This week I presented a Festive Tech Calendar 2021 session about Azure Resource Manager Locks. This post includes a link to the session recording and some accompanying resources.

Microsoft Certification Renewal

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This week I received notification that my Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) certification was due to expire in 180 days, and I took the opportunity to renew it using the free online renewals process.

UK VMUG 2021- Live and In-Person

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

After being online only in 2020 the UK VMware User Group event was back with a bang, catering for both online attendees and those making a return to Leicester last week. These are my highlights of that event.

Festive Tech Calendar 2021

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

December 2021 sees the return of the month-long Festive Tech Calendar with a whole host of content being released every day.

vExpert 2022- Time to Apply

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Applications for the VMware vExpert program for 2022 open on 6th December 2021. If you have an interest in the VMware ecosystem and contributing to the #vCommunity then you should check this out.

Microsoft Ignite 2021- My First Computer

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A video short for the upcoming Microsoft Ignite 2021 event happening November 2–4, 2021 where I talk briefly about my first computing experience- a Sinclair ZX81.

Cohesity Connect Global User Conference Starts Next Week

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Cohesity will host its inaugural global user conference online between 19-21 October 2021 with a focus on cyber resilience.

Automating Azure Resource Locks

Wed, 13 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Locks can be used to prevent accidental deletion of Azure Resources. But what happens when you remove a lock to perform maintenance and forget to reapply it? Azure Automation and PowerShell can be used to make sure locks are reapplied.

Get old Azure Disk Snapshots with PowerShell

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Taking a snapshot of a disk is often a useful precaution before making a big change to an Azure VM. However, it’s easy for them to get forgotten about and remain on your account eating up budget. This PowerShell snippet will find old Snapshots in your subscription.

Find Stopped Azure VMs with PowerShell

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Stopped, but not deallocated, Azure VMs still cost you money. This article looks at how we can find those servers using PowerShell.

Azure Lab Services Admin Costs

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Azure Lab Services is a very cost-effective way of provisioning hands-on lab environments for classes, but you need to keep an eye on the admin costs which may be invisible to the lab owners.

OMIGOD Patching

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A 30 second guide to manually patching the OMIGOD vulnerability (September 2021) in Azure-hosted Linux Virtual Machines.

PHP 7.3 End of Support and Azure WebApps

Mon, 13 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

If you run WebApps in Azure you may have recently received a notification that PHP 7.3 will shortly become unsupported. This post shows how to find and update those apps.

Screen dims during Netflix playback on Xbox One

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Whilst watching shows on the Netflix Xbox One application the screen kept dimming after 10 minutes.

VMworld 2021 Session Breakdown

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The VMworld 2021 Content Catalog is online, so what is the focus of the sessions at this year’s event?

Azure Resource Locks

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Have you ever thought you had accidentally deleted a VM, or removed a production resource when you thought you were working in the test environment? Azure Locks are for you!

CoreSuite - an Overview

Mon, 09 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Microsoft 365 suite is used by over a million companies worldwide. The CoreSuite solution from CoreView looks to help those customers better manage the efficiency, investment, and risks that come with the SaaS platform.

The Alerting Cycle

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Ever had an incident where you think “we could have resolved this quicker if we’d have spotted that X was happening”? Automated alerts can help.

VMworld 2021 Registration is now open

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

VMworld is staying online in 2021, taking place on 5-7th October with the tagline “Imagine That”.

Cohesity DMaaS arrives in Europe

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

On 9th June 2021 Cohesity launched it’s Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) solution for enterprise and mid-sized companies in Europe. This is their first step in a wider Data-Management-as-a-Service offering.

IntSights Active Directory Integration

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Are you using Active Directory to authenticate your users? Are you concerned that your staff’s credentials are compromised and being leveraged by cyber-criminals? This is a problem that IntSights can help resolve.

Azure App Service Backups Failing

Thu, 27 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

One solution to Website backups failing with “Timeout expired”

Working from Home- Getting the Camera right

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A number of colleagues have commented how clear my picture is during Teams calls. This is how I achieve a good image.

Windows Server 2012 Countdown with #PowerShell

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

We have 900 days until Windows Server 2012 (and 2012R2) goes End of Life. Here’s how you can use PowerShell to report back the number of days till a deadline.

Get Ubuntu 16.04 VMs in Azure with PowerShell

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Ubuntu 16.04 is going End Of Life at the end of April 2021, so without a paid-for subscription there won’t be any new security updates. We can use a couple of methods in PowerShell to list affected VMs in a tenancy.

Online Tech Events- May 2021

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The global pandemic of 2020 caused a lot of previously in-person events to go online. This means that even more events are now accessible to a global audience, and often at times that can fit around your work and home schedules. Here’s some upcoming tech events for May 2021.

VMware Leading Change event

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Leading Change: Accelerate Your App and Cloud Transformation

March/April 2021

Setup Windows Admin Center in Azure Portal with PowerShell

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

At Microsoft Ignite Spring 2021 it was announced that Windows Admin Center was now available for Azure VMs through the portal. This post covers how to configure that new feature in PowerShell.

Azure Key Vault Retention Policy

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Azure Key Vaults now enforce a Soft-Delete feature to prevent accidental deletion. This post discusses how to use Policy to control the associated retention period.

Launch of Labs

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

March 2021 is kicking off with the formal launch of the IT Should Just Work: Labs. These are tools and utilities, usually associated with articles on this site, which are being made available for general use.

Teams chat and calling features are no longer available

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Microsoft Teams started giving the error message Due to org policy changes, some chat and calling features are no longer available. Continue your conversation here on existing chats with contacts external to my organisation.

Use PowerShell to check WordPress versions

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

When running a one or more WordPress sites it’s important to make sure they are running an up-to-date application. This PowerShell function will check if a site is outdated.

IT Should Just Work - 2021 Site Refresh

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This site, I.T. Should Just Work, has had a makeover - both cosmetically and also under the hood. This post will take you through the new design, migration process, and reasoning behind this refresh.

Kusto Query for Working Hours

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 09:00:00 +0000

A quick Kusto query snippet you can use with Azure Log Analytics to show the last 7 days of records, but between 9am and 5pm each day.

Microsoft Security Fundamentals Certification

Sun, 14 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A new foundation level qualification is being added to the Microsoft certification stable with the inclusion of Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals.

Azure Web Apps Default Document not working

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

When using an Azure WebApp (a.k.a. Application Service) behind an Application Gateway with the default document set correctly, visiting example.com/path/ works but example.com/path without the trailing slash brings up the blue 403 error.

Azure Reservations vs Automated Power Downs

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Two of the biggest techniques for saving money on Azure Virtual Machines are Reservations and shutting down VMs when they are not in use. However, as they can’t be used together which one is best?

Cross-vCenter migration of vSphere Encrypted VMs

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

During a recent consolidation prospect I was faced with the challenge of migrated encrypted VMs from one vCenter to another.

Depicting chemicals with Azure Functions

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A guide to quickly setup an Azure function to draw chemical structures from SMILES strings.

Windows 10- microphone is playing back through speakers

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A surprise one from your friendly neighbourhood IT Support this afternoon. A laptop running Windows 10 has started playing back all the sound picked up by the Microphone- my voice was being echoed back (with a slight delay) even when no applications were running.

Making the most of an Azure Sponsorship Subscription

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

If you take a Microsoft Azure course you may be given a limited-time Azure Subscription to help your learning. This post shows how to check the usage of that allowance so you can make the most of it before having to revert to your personal paid-for account.

VMware Tools grows up

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This week VMware announced that VMware Tools – the agent that sits on the guest operating system is now a separate product. This means that it’s subject to its own product lifecycle, and admins can modify their approach to keeping tools updated. It’s all grown up, and got a home of it’s own.

vSphere Reports in Microsoft Teams.

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

By joining PowerCLI to interrogate a VMware vSphere environment and the Webhook API to post Microsoft Teams messages, we can send informational reports on the state of a virtual environment to channels in Teams.

ITIL®4 Foundation Certification

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

After three days spent breathing nothing but IT Service Management, I’ve sat –and passed- the ITIL®4 Foundation exam. This post has some tips I learnt along the way and some resources that might be useful if you’re looking to get the certification yourself.

Using your Ignite Attendee benefits to extend your Office subscription

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

As a benefit for attending the online (and free!) Ignite conference this year, Microsoft have rewarded delegates with some discount prices on “select digital downloadable products” at the company store. Amongst the X-box games there’s also a great deal on the Office Family subscription.

The input arguments had entities that did not belong to the same datacenter.

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Troubleshooting a vMotion error.

Quick Tip- Azure SQL Server Connectivity

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Troubleshooting connectivity between application and database servers in Azure.

#vRetreat 8 Video

Thu, 16 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A video of the Cohesity vRetreat Session in July 2020 thanks to Patrick Redknap.

PowerShell- Get Usernames from Windows Security Log

Tue, 14 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This snippet takes the export of the Windows Security log and returns a list of user ids from within it.

RTO With Cohesity @ vRetreat

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

How Cohesity’s Approach to VM Backup Affects the Recovery Time Objective

Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Last week the Microsoft AZ104 exam went live and all those who took the test during the beta period (myself included) were issued with their results. The good news is I Passed!

Datrium @ vRetreat May 2020

Mon, 25 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Last week I received an invitation to the latest in the vRetreat series of events. These events bring together IT vendors and a selected group of tech bloggers- usually in venues like football clubs and racetracks, but in the current circumstances we were forced online. The second of the two briefings at the May 2020 event came from Datrium. To paraphrase their own words, Datrium was founded to take the complicated world of Disaster Recovery and make it simpler and more reliable, they call this DR-as-a-service.

Snapt @ vRetreat May 2020

Sun, 24 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Check Azure WebApps have Backup Configured

Fri, 22 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Azure WebApps (depending on tier) come with an optional native backup service. This quick PowerShell snippet looks at all the WebApps in the current subscription and reports back on whether Backup has been set up. This should be helpful for spotting where a configuration has been missed.

Using New-AzureFirewallRule with multiple ports or IP ranges

Mon, 11 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

When creating an Azure Firewall rule with multiple ports or IP ranges using the PowerShell New-AzureFirewallRule cmdlet, you may get an error like this:

Checking Hybrid Benefits in Azure with PowerShell

Fri, 01 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

When using Windows-based Virtual Machines on Microsoft Azure, there’s an option to use Azure Hybrid Benefit to re-use existing Windows licenses you own on-premises for workloads now running in the public cloud.

Virtual vs In-person Conferences

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In the current pandemic situation (April 2020) a lot of events, both small and large, have had to close their doors and move from in-person to virtual on-line environments. There’s been a lot of chatter about this on the interwebs, and how some people favour the way of conferencing we have been forced into adopting.

Going for a run? Share your progress with Google Maps

Tue, 18 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve done a number of long runs in the past few years, both at Ultramarathon events and in training beforehand. In online forums for these events people often discuss whether they should hire GPS trackers but I’ve been using the free Location Sharing feature on Google Maps instead as I’m already carrying my phone.

Cisco Live Europe 2020 Highlights

Thu, 13 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I got the opportunity, thanks to a conference pass from the IT Blog Awards, to travel out to Barcelona for Cisco Live Europe. This video is my “highlight reel” of the event.

CSS, Javascript, Images cause 500 errors after IIS Website upgrade

Thu, 13 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

How to handle pages not rendering correctly after an Internet Information Services upgrade.

Note Taking at Conferences

Tue, 21 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

When I’m in sessions at conferences I’m often a prolific note-taker. I find the process itself of writing things down has benefit as well as the resulting pages of scribbles. In this post I’ll discuss a few things that work for me, some of which you may want to try yourself.

Azure- Why is my OS disk bigger than I asked for?

Tue, 03 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

When spinning up a VM from a marketplace image using the Azure Portal you don’t get a choice of OS disk size, and if you specify a size in an API call it’s ignored. For example when deploying Ubuntu images a 32GB default OS disk is always created.

PowerShell Get-Command: finding the cmdlet

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A recent Slack chat reminded me that PowerShell’s Get-Command cmdlet is a good way of finding what commands to use when you encounter a new problem. However it goes beyond typing Get-Command and just getting a huge list back- my laptop just gave me 7659 commands to choose from – as this can be unusable. Here’s some quick tips on focussing your search by using the built in arguments.

UK VMUG UserCon 2019 Preview

Thu, 14 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In two weeks time (Wednesday 27th November) the annual UK VMware User Group “UserCon” conference (#UKVMUG) returns to the National Space Centre in Leicester. I’m going to be there, and here’s a summary of five things I’m looking forward to at the event.

Azure: Email a Backup Report with PowerShell and Office365

Sat, 09 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This PowerShell snippet compiles a daily report of backup jobs on all the Recovery Service Vaults within the current subscription. It then uses the Office 365 SMTP server to mail this report out to chosen recipients - if you’re not using O365 then just change the SMTPServer, Port, and UseSSL arguments as appropriate in the Send-MailMessage cmdlet.

Azure Arc Announcement

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Microsoft released an 87 page “Book of New listing the announcements from this weeks Ignite Conference and right at the top is Azure Arc. It’s not just alphabetical order that put’s this new product here, in my opinion this is a real step forward by Microsoft towards fulfilling the early promise of their Azure Hybrid Cloud model.

VMworld Europe 2019-Day 2 Keynote Highlights

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The Wednesday General Session at VMworld Europe is usually where VMware puts the meat onto the bones of the Tuesday announcements and this year was no exception. Here’s a quick rundown of my highlights.

VMworld Europe 2019-Day 1 Keynote Highlights

Tue, 05 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

VMworld Europe is happening in Barcelona this week, and today saw the annual Tuesday keynote start the morning off. I’m not amongst the 14,000 attendees from 111 countries at the event this year, so I’m recapping the highlights from the comfort of the sofa thanks to the online broadcast.

Improving Documentation via the Community.

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Have you ever had to deal with incorrect documentation? Or been frustrated by a typo? Or been annoyed that a how-to guide uses an old version of an interface?

Now you can fix it!

Azure: Deploy a WebApp with PowerShell

Tue, 03 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A quick run through using PowerShell to deploy a new WebApp. ASP.NET code for the website has been zipped up (into myapp.zip) and this code snippet will upload it to a new WebApp, hosted in a new App Service Plan and a new Resource Group.

Tue, 27 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

[Meet the Best Analysis Blog of the 2018 IT Blog Awards @ Cisco Blogs](https://blogs.cisco.com/perspectives/meet-the-best-analysis-blog-of-the-2018-it-blog-awards)

vSAN Cluster Shutdown

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I had to shutdown a vSAN Cluster temporarily for a planned site-wide 24 hour power outage that was blacking out a datacentre. With the amount of warning and a multi-datacentre design this wasn’t an issue, but I made use of vSphere tags and some Powershell/PowerCLI to help with the evacuation and repopulation of the affected cluster. Hopefully some of this may be useful to others. The infrastructure has two vSAN Clusters – Cluster-Alpha and Cluster-Beta.

Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

Thu, 18 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier this week I took and passed the Microsoft AZ-900 exam- the requirement for the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals badge. Whilst this is the entry-level cert and not a requirement for the more advanced ones in the pathways, it is still useful for experienced techies moving into the Azure space, perhaps from other cloud platforms or on-premises architectures.

Hyper-Converged Cynicism

Mon, 08 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Or “How I’ve come to love my vSAN Ready Nodes”

Rubrik Build Workshop

Mon, 03 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Last week (end of May 2019) I was lucky enough to secure a place at the Rubrik Build Workshop in London. This event, which has been touring round the world, is a day of technical learning focussed on API, SDK, and version control.

Wear Comfortable Shoes

Tue, 07 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Ladies and Gentlemen of VMworld 2019.

Wear comfortable shoes.

If I could offer you only one tip for the conference, comfy shoes would be it.

vRealize Log Insight Upgrade-License warning

Mon, 29 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

For several years vSphere admins have been able to use the Log Insight tool for free as a “25 OSI” license was included in vCenter. This has meant that deployments of up to 24 hosts (plus vCenter) have been able to use the VMware tool as a syslog server and troubleshooting tool without having to purchase further licenses.

Experiences using Microsoft To-Do

Fri, 12 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

For over a year now I’ve been using Microsoft’s To-Do application to manage and organise my tasks. This has probably been the longest I’ve stuck with a personal task manager for some time, and I believe the app has just the right amount of features for me, sitting somewhere between Outlook tasks and a more in-depth project management/ planning application. In this post I will discuss how I use the app; you might find To-Do is something you want to check out, or if you’re a current user you might find new ways to use it.

vSAN- Controller Driver is (not) VMware Certified

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In the process of upgrading a vSAN ReadyNode cluster from ESXi 6.5 to 6.7 a warning appeared in the vSAN Health check. The first host in the cluster had gone through the upgrade and was now showing the warning “Controller driver is VMware certified” (Note 1 in the image below). The Dell HBA330 card was using an older version of the driver (2 in the image below) than recommended (3).

PowerShell Maths

Mon, 25 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A colleague recently popped in a support request after noticing that the Calculator app wasn’t installed on their computer. This prompted an office discussion on how else you can solve sums when sat in front of a computer, and I mentioned you could just use PowerShell.

VMworld 2019 Dates

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

It was announced this week that registration for VMware’s VMworld 2019 conference will open at the beginning of May so now seems a good time to look at some of the key dates for the event.

Cohesity Marketplace

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

During the recent #vRetreat event in London, Cohesity presented their latest release of DataPlatform – and with a launch happening the very weekend of the event, February 26 2019 this was timely presentation. This release included a number of new features- and when following up on the vRetreat event one which caught my attention is the Cohesity Marketplace.

vSphere 6.0- time to upgrade

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re running VMware vCenter and ESXi 6.0 it’s time to start planning to upgrade as General Support ends on 12 March 2020- one year from now and five years from it’s release. Thankfully the upgrade from 6.0 to 6.5 or 6.7 is usually quite straightforward, and VMware have put a lot of work into streamlining this process.

vRetreat February 2019- Secondary Storage with Cohesity

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the latest #vRetreat blogger event. This edition featured a day of presentations and labs from enterprise storage vendor Cohesity held at Chelsea Football Club in London. In my first blog post from the event I look at what Cohesity are doing to distinguish “Secondary Storage” from “Backup Storage”.

Powered Off VM cannot be Powered On

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A powered off VM on ESXi 6.5 will not power on and returns the error “Failed to power on virtual machine…. The attempted operation cannot be performed in the current state (Powered off)”.

AWS re:Invent comes to London

Mon, 28 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Last week (January 2019) I attended an AWS event in London to learn a bit more about Amazon Web Services and catch up on the big announcements from the November re:Invent conference held in Las Vegas. This is my write up of that one day event held at the Altitude360 tower in the capital.

IT Blog Award Winner

Mon, 28 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Wow.

Thanks to all those that voted for “IT Should Just Work” in the IT Blog Awards and passed the devious maths test at the bottom of the voting form. I’m shocked and humbled to let you all know that the results are in and this blog won the award for Best Analysis.

IT Blog Awards

Mon, 10 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I’m pleased to announce this blog is a finalist in the 2018 IT Blog Awards hosted by Cisco in the category of “Best Analysis”. Voting is open to the tech community through January 4th 2019, so if you’ve found this blog useful or insightful at any point (or you’ve followed my advice and your datacentre didn’t catch fire as a result) please can you go to http://cs.co/itblogawards and pop in a vote for “IT Should Just Work” in the first section.

UK VMUG 2018 Preview

Wed, 28 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In two weeks I’ll be heading up to the annual UK VMware User Group meeting. This year a later VMworld Europe has pushed this conference’s date into Christmas season from it’s usual home in November and, speaking of homes, it’s relocated from the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham to the National Space Centre in Leicester. “The Sky’s the Limit”? – not here.

vSAN Scalable File Services

Thu, 22 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

One of the new developments that caught my eye at VMworld this year was the introduction of file services to the VMware vSAN software-defined storage platform. vSAN already offers VMDK storage to vSphere and the ability to host iSCSI volumes, but this feature will allow NFS and SMB file-shares to be hosted directly on the cluster without the need for a separate Windows Server or NFS provider.

Vendor Brief: Rubrik-2018 Edition

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Following on from a similar briefing at VMworld 2017 I sat down at this year’s event with a couple of the Rubrik execs to see what’s happened in the last 12 (and a bit) months, and what the future holds for the company. Last year Rubrik stood proudly on their flagship product- the “Brik” backup appliance and software, but since then their product range has expanded, primarily with their new lines “Polaris” and “Radar”.

Quick PowerCLI- Getting VM hardware versions

Mon, 19 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A quick PowerCLI snippet for examining what VM Hardware versions exist in your virtual environment:

VMworld 2018: Dev 4 The Ops Team

Thu, 08 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A recording of my VMworld 2018 talk, thanks to the vBrownbag team.

VMvillage at VMworld Europe 2018

Mon, 05 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to #VMworld Europe 2018 Posted by I.T. Should Just Work on Sunday, 4 November 2018 A quick look round the VMvillage just after VMworld Europe 2018 opened- click on the image for a 360 degree view. The village has the VMTN, VMware {code} stages, Partner and Alumni Lounges, Hands On Labs, CloudCred, and VMware Education stands.

VMworld Europe 2018 Sunday

Sun, 04 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

VMworld Europe 2018 officially started today (4th November) with registration opening this afternoon. The IT world has descended again upon Barcelona and you can’t go far in the airport or on the streets or metro without overhearing talk of virtualisation and VMware.

How to extend disk on a HyTrust KeyControl Appliance

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

An alert (and corresponding email) has been issued by the KeyControl service stating that free disk space is running low.

Rise of the Full Stack Vendors

Wed, 24 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In a recent Datanauts podcast Chris Wahl was discussing Azure and Azure Stack with fellow Rubrikan Mike Nelson and Microsoft’s Jeffrey Snover (If you haven’t already, you can check out the podcast for yourself- Datanauts #148). Jeffrey made some interesting observations about the changes in alignment of some of the major IT vendors over time (this discussion runs from 25min to 29min into the podcast). He detailed how the big players (DEC, IBM etc) had started with a “vertical” alignment by building their own chips, boards, operating systems, and applications.

VMworld Session Full- DON'T PANIC

Tue, 23 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re planning your schedule for the upcoming VMworld Europe event, you’ll no doubt find that some sessions are at capacity. Don’t panic- there’s still options open for you.

Happy 18th

Tue, 16 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

October 2018 marks my 18 year anniversary working in Higher Education IT (so yes, about the same time since this year’s Freshers were born). It’s been a long ride and things have changed dramatically from technology, personal, and industry perspectives in that time. In this post I’ll be discussing a few of those differences, so gather round and imagine me sat in a rocking chair holding a pipe and talking about the olden times.

Dev 4 the Ops Team Preview

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In one month from now I’ll be speaking at VMworld in Barcelona with a concise session on coding skills for the IT operations team. To quote the abstract for the session:

I believe every IT Ops person, SysAdmin, and vSphere administrator should do some coding

Get the Windows Install Date of a remote computer with PowerShell

Tue, 11 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A quick script that came up in response to a situation where I wanted to know the date a workstation on the network was last built without visiting the machine or interrupting the currently logged on user. PowerShell to the rescue!

VMworld Europe Session Builder

Thu, 06 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

With VMworld US 2018 out of the way, focus turns to the European conference now only a couple of months away. For attendees of the Barcelona event, 25th September is a date to put in your diary as the “Schedule Builder” will be released.

VMworld 2018 US: HCI1469BU- The Future of vSAN and Hyperconverged Infrastructure

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This “HCI Futures” session at VMworld US was hosted by two VPs from the Storage and Availability Business Unit, plus a customer guest. It covered the new features recently added to the vSAN environment with the release of 6.7 Update 1, alongside discussion of the possible future direction of VMware in the Hyper-Converged Infrastructure space. I caught up with the session via the online recording. HCI is a rapidly growing architecture, with both industry wide figures from IDC and VMware’s own figures seeing massive spending increases.

VMworld 2018 US: VIN2992BU- vSphere Client Roadmap

Tue, 04 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This session at VMworld US 2018 covered the past, present, and some of the future of the VMware vSphere Client. I caught up with the session via the online recording.

The NSX Portfolio

Tue, 24 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

There’s an ever growing variety of NSX flavours as VMware expands the range of their Network Virtualisation and security platforms. A recent podcast highlighted these to me, and I thought it worth summarising here in a quick post.

Email Alerts not sending in vCenter 6.5

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Symptoms

vCenter (in my case VCSA 6.5 ) is not sending alert emails even though the mail server appears to be configured properly (in the vSphere Web Client this is on the vCenter node under Configure, Settings, General).
Network connectivity between vCenter and port 25 on the SMTP server is fine and has been tested.

Find VMs being replicated to a datastore with Get-VmdkFolders

Thu, 24 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I’m using vSphere Replication to replicate a number of VMs to a datastore which is being decommissioned. I can’t reconfigure replication by code (I’ve mentioned that there’s no public API or PowerCLI around the vSphere Replication functionality in vSphere 6.5 before- most recently on Twitter) and I can’t multi-select VMs in the vSphere Web Client and reconfigure en-mass through the GUI. There’s also no way of telling which VMs are being replicated to this datastore without going into the reconfigure dialogues for each one individually.

VMworld 2018 Early-Bird Registration Available

Sat, 12 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Registration for VMworld 2018 opened this week (8th May) with Early-Bird discounts available until 15th June for the US event, or 27th July for the European event. This gives prospective attendees a $300 / €200 discount on the regular price which runs up until the day before the respective events.

vSAN Licensing: Expanding Clusters and Setting off Alerts

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

vSAN licenses are assigned per-cluster, so whilst the total number of vSAN licenses in a vCenter inventory might match the total number of vSAN host CPUs, they may not be assigned correctly to the clusters.

Content Library fails to create when target datastore contains a space

Mon, 26 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A quick note on an issue I spotted in VMware vSphere 6.5 when creating a new content Library.

VMworld 2018 Call for Papers

Tue, 20 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The Call for Papers for VMworld 2018 is now live, running until March 13th. As with last year, this is for both the US and Europe legs of the event, even though the Barcelona date has been moved to early November.

vSAN Editions

Thu, 15 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

There are three major editions* of vSAN 6.6 available - “Standard”, “Advanced”, and “Enterprise”- so other than price what’s the difference between the three?

vSAN Introduction

Thu, 08 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

What is vSAN?

This is a first post in a series on vSAN, VMware’s software-defined-storage offering. vSAN uses disks within the ESXi hosts to create a resilient scalable shared storage platform for the virtual infrastructure providing many of the features of SAN/NAS shared storage without the need for additional hardware. There are also operational, performance, and scaling benefits associated with integrating the storage into the hypervisor’s control.

Devs4Ops Resources

Thu, 18 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This post contains resources to accompany my Devs4Ops talk from the January 2018 London VMUG. It’s a list of links to things I mentioned (or intended to mention but forgot to) in the presentation.

PowerShell Snippet - Find Windows 2008 VMs before EOL

Tue, 16 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Support for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 ends in January 2020- just two years from the date of this post. Four years ago I put up a script to find XP and 2003 VMs, and I’ve modified this to search a vSphere environment for powered on VMs running Server 2008 as a Guest OS: 1Get-VM | 2 Where {$_.PowerState -eq "PoweredOn" -and 3 ($_.Guest -like "*Server 2008*")} | 4 get-VMGuest | 5 select VmName, OSFullName 6 7VmName OSFullName 8------ ---------- 9MyVM1 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) 10MyVM2 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) 11MyVM3 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (64-bit) 12MyVM4 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)

IT in Higher Education

Tue, 28 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

After over 15 years working in IT within the H.E. vertical I’ve spoken publically a few times about our corner of the tech industry, with talks at VMworld in 2016 and a recent TechUG meeting and chairing a roundtable at a UK VMUG UserCon. This post covers the highlights some of the content of these sessions, it contains themes that I’ve seen myself at various institutions and have struck a common chord in discussions with colleagues from other Universities.

vRealize Operations Passwords

Tue, 24 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

When setting up a new vRealize Operations 6.6 environment (using the vRealize Operations Manager Initial Setup wizard) the password is not accepted despite apparently meeting the complexity requirements.

Vendor Brief: Runecast

Wed, 11 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This evening I was amongst a group of vExperts attending a webinar briefing from Runecast. The company is relatively new on the scene at only a couple of years old, but the product has created a stir in the VMware community.

How To... Patch VCSA

Wed, 04 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

With VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 patching has become very straightforward and both the vCenter software and the underlying Photon OS can be updated using a simple GUI. This short run through covers patching a single VCSA where the VCSA High Availability has not been configured.

Vendor Brief: Turbonomic

Thu, 28 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve blogged about Turbonomic before- when they evolved from VMTurbo in 2016 and at VMworld 2017 in Barcelona I had a sit down with Perry and Giampiero from the company to see where the product was at 12 months on.

vSphere Encryption- Knowing your limits

Wed, 27 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been running a Proof of Concept system for vSphere Encryption using vSphere 6.5u1 and a HyTrust KeyControl 4.0 KMS cluster. This has been very straightforward to implement and use and there’s plenty of documentation out there on how to do so, but in this post I’ll be highlighting some of the limitations. A few of these are things you can’t do that you may currently do day-to-day with normal VMs but there’s usually a sound technical reason why it’s not possible to do so with an encrypted VM.

VMworld 2017 Europe Wednesday Keynote

Tue, 26 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Wednesday saw the second of the two VMworld Europe keynotes- again fronted by Pat Gelsinger with his colleagues. The format at the start of the show was similar to the US sit down between Pat and Michael Dell, but this time the VMware CEO was joined by Sanjay Poonen and Ray O’Farrell to answer attendees questions.

Vendor Brief: Rubrik

Mon, 18 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Rubrik have become the new “cool kid” of backups and in the past couple of years I’ve seen lots of enthusiasm in the community for the product. To reinforce this their stand at the Barcelona show featured a Mercedes Formula 1 car, their marketing giveaways include custom LEGO figures based on Mr Men books (you can’t not be cool with that combination), and they topped it all when they gave away 1000 copies of the Host Resources Deep Dive book by Niels Hagoort and Frank Denneman to attendees. Aside from the swag Rubrik have made impressive steps in the Gartner Magic Quadrant and received awards at VMworld US last month.

VMworld 2017 Europe Tuesday Keynote

Thu, 14 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Even when VMworld US had been weeks in advance of the European event there had been a lot in common between the keynotes so with the two legs being just days apart this year more similarity was inevitable. My write-ups of the VMworld 2017 US keynotes can be found elsewhere on this blog, so I’ll be trying to avoid too much duplication.

VMworld 2017 Europe Monday

Tue, 12 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday the VMworld faithful started arriving at El-Prat Airport in Barcelona, heading to registration at the Fira Gran Via, and checking into their hotels in the city.

Missing Content Libraries.

Fri, 08 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I came to deploy a Virtual Machine from a Content Library on vSphere 6.5 and discovered that the Content Library had disappeared.

VMworld US 2017 Monday Keynote Highlights

Mon, 28 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Monday 28th August 2017 and VMworld has officially kicked off and Monday morning in Las Vegas saw the first keynote of the US event.

VMworld US 2017 Tuesday Keynote Highlights

Mon, 28 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Following on from my write up of the Monday keynote, here’s my highlights from the Tuesday VMworld keynote streamed from Las Vegas.

Exploring Tags and PowerCLI

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Tags were added to vSphere back in version 5.1 so they’re not a new feature but are still often overlooked. One or more tags can be applied to items (entities) in the inventory and then used as a search term or metadata not only in the GUI but also through tools such as PowerCLI. This post covers a few useful cmdlets for working with tags.

PowerCLI Snippet-Find Thick Provisioned Disks

Mon, 07 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A quick PowerCLI one liner to locate VMs with thick-provisioned disks attached.

Session Builder Now Available- VMworld Europe 2017

Tue, 25 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The Session Builder, the place where attendees can book spaces in the sessions, is now online for VMworld Europe 2017. It’s accessed through the Content Catalog on the website.

GoPro Session SD Card Comparison

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

When using a GoPro Session Action camera it’s important to ensure that an approved MicroSD card is used.

test-ESXi-Network

Wed, 19 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I was lucky enough to take delivery of some new ESXi hosts recently. After installing them in the datacentre, I wanted to test that the network had been patched correctly. This environment is going to have Distributed vSwitches configured, but I wanted to test the physical connectivity before joining them to vCenter- have the physical NICs been patched to the correct networks?

VMUG London June 2017

Tue, 04 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Last month I was back in London for another VMware User Group meeting. There was a good mixture of familiar faces and first-time attendees all ready to lap up a day of learning. As usual I came away with pages of notes, so here’s a rundown of my experiences.

Let's talk about SexiGraf

Tue, 20 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I was introduced to SexiGraf by Eric Bussink during a roundtable at the April London VMUG meeting. The room was divided into those who said “Oh yeah, SexiGraf, it’s awesome” and those, like me, who hadn’t yet discovered it.

Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0 provider is not registered on the local machine

Fri, 16 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve come across this error a couple of times in the past few weeks when migrating old ASP.NET websites to new web servers so I’m popping it into the blog as an aide-memoire for myself and in case it’s useful for others.

VMworld Europe 2017

Sun, 04 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

It’s confirmed- I’ll be returning to Barcelona in September as an official Blogger for VMworld Europe 2017. Thanks again to Corey Romero and the VMware Community team for extending me this opportunity.

VMworld 2017-One Month Left on Early Bird Discount

Fri, 19 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Early-Bird pricing for the annual VMware VMworld events ends June 12th (for the US event) and June 20th (for the European event). That means there’s only a month to go before the price goes up to the regular rate.

OneDrive, Placeholders, and shared PCs.

Fri, 12 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

OneDrive now with Files On Demand

UK VMUG UserCON 2016 Videos

Mon, 10 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Videos from the 2016 UK VMUG UserCON are now available on YouTube.

New Layout for VMworld Europe 2017

Wed, 05 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

VMworld Europe returns to the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona again this year, but even though it’s in the same place the organisers have taken advantage of the massive venue to move a few things around.

VMworld 2017 Early-Bird Registration is now open

Tue, 04 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

VMworld registration, for both the US and European events, went live today. European Early-Bird discounts of 200 Euros are valid through till 20th June, and US discounts of $300 are valid till 13th June.

vHighlights #004

Sun, 02 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Some highlights from VMware ecosystem and Virtualisation in general from the past 7 days. Announcements, discoveries, and useful bits-and-bobs found on the internet. Week ending 2nd April 2017

VMworld 2017 Session Voting

Thu, 30 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

On Tuesday VMware announced that voting for VMworld sessions had started. This is an opportunity for members of the VMware community to “help shape the agenda” for the conference.

Auto Power On and VCSA Upgrades

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

VMware vSphere 6.5 comes with a RESTful API implementation and there’s some great documentation out there- starting with the API Explorer (http://my.vcenter.name/apiexplorer ). Here’s a quick piece on how to use this API to create a VM from the PowerShell command line. This is intentionally not using PowerCLI, just the native PowerShell cmdlets- partly as a REST learning experience for me, and partly so the API code can be transferred to another language at a later date.

vHighlights #003

Sun, 26 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Some highlights from VMware ecosystem and Virtualisation in general from the past 7 days. Announcements, discoveries, and useful bits-and-bobs found on the internet. Week ending 26 March 2017

Rolling back a failed VCSA HA deployment

Thu, 23 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The deployment of High Availability in the vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 is very slick and there’s a great step-by-step walkthrough of how to implement it. However, sometimes things go wrong

vHighlights #002

Sun, 19 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Some highlights from VMware ecosystem and Virtualisation in general from the past 7 days. Announcements, discoveries, and useful bits-and-bobs found on the internet. Week ending 19 March 2017

100,000 good reasons to virtualise those apps

Thu, 16 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A few years ago the IT department I work for set about revolutionising it’s software delivery methods using application virtualisation. As a University we were faced with the challenge of providing all applications to the staff and students on any PC- fighting the situation where “Package A is only available in the Engineering labs, Package B is only available in the Library” and so on. The Legacy way of dealing with this was to provide ever-more-massive disk images, but this meant desktop computers were requiring larger and larger hard disks and were faced with longer and longer rebuild times.

PowerShell Quick Tip- Letter Frequency

Thu, 16 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

With a list of Surnames in a text file I wanted to see how many start with A, how many with B, and so on. This is my PowerShell solution:

Auto Power On and VCSA Upgrades

Mon, 13 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) upgrade from 6.0 to 6.5 is a slick, well managed, process. The installer deploys a new appliance, transfers all the settings from the old one (including IP address and identity) and then powers the old appliance VM off. This provides a neat roll-back option if something has gone wrong- you just power down the new appliance and turn the old one back on. In upgrading my homelab I came across a small gotcha in this however.

About vHighlights

Sun, 12 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

vHighlights are my recent key talking points from the VMware ecosystem, the vCommunity, and Virtualisation in general. Hopefully it comes across as more than a summary of useful things rather than just a list of what I’ve tweeted or retweeted, as well as an opportunity for the less time-sensitive information to be more accessible in the longer term. Links are likely to be things I personally find interesting, useful in my day-to-day operations, or relevant to the industry vertical (education) I currently work in.

vHighlights #001

Sun, 12 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Some highlights from VMware ecosystem and Virtualisation in general from the past 7 days. Announcements, discoveries, and useful bits-and-bobs found on the internet. Week ending 12 March 2017

Mailbox filling up harddisk? Turn Off Cached Exchange Mode

Thu, 16 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This came up in conversation at work earlier today- a user has connected to their own mailbox and those of other staff. They now have a whopping 35GB of Outlook files on their workstation. They are having performance issues. Here’s a 30-second highlight of the solution.

vExpert 2017

Thu, 09 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’m honored to again be a member of VMware’s vExpert program following the 2017 award announcement yesterday evening.

#vBeers-trying out a new gathering

Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

vBeers- “an opportunity for virtualization enthusiasts and professionals to meet and enjoy discussing all things virtualization and anything else in the world of tech”

vbeers.org

VMUG London January 2017

Wed, 25 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Last week saw the first London VMware User Group of the year, another great meetup with many of the usual faces along with some new ones. This was another informative event at the TechUK site just off Fleet Street, and was again very community orientated. If you want to go and find out how people are using VMware products (and others in the surrounding ecosystem) then I’d thoroughly recommend these events- there’s just the right balance between real technical accounts direct from the coalface and marketing of new and interesting products

Checking Encryption Status of Remote Windows Computers

Thu, 12 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Using the manage-bde command you can check the Bitlocker encryption status on both the local Windows computer but also remote devices on the local area network. For example, to check the encryption status of the C: drive on the computer “WS12345” the following command could be used 1manage-bde -status -computername WS12345 C: and the results might look something like this: 1BitLocker Drive Encryption: Configuration Tool version 10.0.14393 2Copyright (C) 2013 Microsoft Corporation.

Dell Latitude Numbering- 2017 Edition

Wed, 11 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Ever wondered what those four-digit model numbers used on Dell Latitude devices (for example “Latitude 7275”) mean? This helpful guide should answer your questions.

2016, a year of industry friendliness

Mon, 09 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

You may have seen various posts in blogs and social media over the past few days about VMware staff accounts being blocked from joining the Nutanix community website, and the VMware User Group- VMUG- blocking Nutanix staff from leadership committees. I’m not party to the detail or the reasons behind these moves, but I’m surprised at the developments with the backdrop of 2016’s collaborative direction. As an industry we managed so well being friendly in 2016 despite the divisive world landscape with things like the US Election and Brexit, what happened over the Christmas break to mess this up?

Events Calendar 2016-2017

Wed, 04 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

It’s that time of year again, when we change the calendar on the wall, look back at what happened in the previous 12 months, and look forward to what might be coming in the next 12. Here’s some of the in-person events I enjoyed in the last year and some rough plans for 2017.

ESXi UNMAP not working on Replicated EqualLogic Volume

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

What to do when the VMware vSphere ESXi UNMAP command doesn’t release space on some or all volumes on a Dell EqualLogic SAN array running v8 firmware (may apply to other versions too).

Learning with Minecraft

Tue, 08 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

There’s been a lot of coverage in the press about teaching with Minecraft- Microsoft even releasing an Educational version. So when the kids were set a homework project about “Super Structures” this got me thinking- let’s give Minecraft a go to supplement the project work set by the teacher.

VMworld Europe 2016 Social, Community, and vPeople

Tue, 01 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The #vCommunity at VMworld 2016.

VMworld Europe 2016 Day 3

Mon, 31 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Wednesday morning and VMworld continues…

Here’s a look at my sessions from another day in Barcelona.

Support Bundle taking up log file space on VCSA

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The vCSA Log file disk was triggering a warning.

Photon, Photon, Photon

Wed, 19 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

VMware’s cloud-native application stack is here, and it uses several things called “Photon”. In this quick post, I’ll have a look at what’s what in the stack and how the components of this container-optimised enterprise cloud platform fit together.

The Amazing World of IT in Higher Education

Wed, 19 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

There are around 17,000 IT Professionals working in the UK Higher Education industry supporting world-leading, cutting edge research and the development of the next generation of minds. They are also stewards of the (slightly less glamorous) systems for HR, payroll, email, printing and so on.

VMworld Europe 2016 Day 2

Wed, 19 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Day 2, Tuesday, is when the real meat of VMworld starts- kicking off with the General Session (a.k.a. Keynote) at 9am. We were expecting some big announcements and weren’t disappointed. Here’s a look at some of my sessions today- these are the highlights only and more detail will follow.

The All New vSphere 6.5

Tue, 18 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

A new version of VMware vSphere, 6.5, will be released shortly

VMworld Europe 2016 Day 1

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Monday is always a quieter day at VMworld Europe; the Keynotes kick the event off fully tomorrow and most of the sessions on Monday are reserved for Partners and TAM clients. However, there’s still plenty going on for us regular attendees.

Finding Deprecated VMFS Volumes

Thu, 08 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Following an upgrade to vSphere 6, hosts popped up an error message reporting that some old VMFS volumes were found on the host. Whilst these still worked, it would be prudent to tidy them up and replace them with modern datastores. The message is: Deprecated VMFS volume(s) found on the host. Please consider upgrading volume(s) to the latest version Whilst this highlights that there is an issue, the GUI message doesn’t indicate which volumes (or how many) are affected.

Travel Changes for #VMworld Europe 2016

Mon, 05 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

For those that have previously been to VMworld (or other conferences) at the Fira Grand Via Barcelona venue there’s a few changes to transport this year. If you’ve walked round the conference centre from the “Europa Fira” metro station to the North entrance used by VMworld (and formerly TechEd Europe) in the past couple of years you’ll have spotted the closed entrance to the metro station ten minutes closer to the front door.

Setting EVC Level on a Cluster with a VCSA and no shared storage

Tue, 30 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Problem

A second host has been added to a one-node vSphere cluster which has no shared storage and EVC cannot be enabled.

VMworld US 2016 Day 1 Keynote

Tue, 30 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday saw the 2016 VMworld US formally kick off with the Keynote address. There are 23,000 attendees at the Las Vegas event, and I was amongst the many armchair supporters watching the live online broadcast.

vExpert 2016

Thu, 25 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve worn my thesaurus out looking for synonyms of “astounded”, “honoured”, and “proud” for this post, but let’s just say I’m “very happy” find myself amongst the latest 123 individuals to have been awarded the VMware vExpert title following the announcement at the end of last week. Thank you to the VMware community team for this recognition.

Sessions to look out for at #VMWorld Europe 2016

Thu, 18 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

With 60 days to go to the Barcelona event, the Content Catalog for VMworld Europe 2016 is filling up and the Schedule Builder will be coming online later this month. Here’s a look at some of the sessions already listed that I’m hoping to get onto my timetable. There’s lots to choose from, and this is by no means a complete or final list for my schedule- just five highlights I’ve spotted in the list so far.

Goodbye VMTurbo, Hello turbonomic!

Wed, 17 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Big news today from workload monitoring and management vendor VMTurbo - The name has gone and the brand is now called “turbonomic”.

VMworld Europe 2016 Early Bird Pricing

Wed, 27 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Last chance to get that Early Bird pricing for VMworld Europe 2016 before the regular price starts August 17th edit August 2nd Register now to take advantage of the saving on the conference pass, and if you’re a VMUG Advantage member remember you can stack that discount as well.

#VMworld Europe 2016

Tue, 26 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

VMworld is coming back to Europe this autumn, with thousands of delegates attending hundreds of sessions to keep up-to-date in virtualisation technologies. The annual conference has been running since 2004, and since 2008 there’s been a European event alongside the US one.

VMware Certified Associate 6 – Data Center Virtualization Resources

Tue, 12 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post contains a list of resources for anyone planning on taking the VMware VCA6-DCV Qualification. This certification is obtained by passing a single, online, exam and unlike the more advanced VMware awards requires no mandatory training course.

London VMUG June 2016

Wed, 29 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

A rainy day in June saw me back in London for the latest VMware User Group event. For anyone who works with VMware products but has never been to a VMUG I cannot stress enough how great they are. VMUG is a community focussed and community run event filled with a bunch of really friendly, knowledgeable IT Professionals, and- thanks to vendor sponsorship- it’s free of charge so there’s little or no impact on your training/conference/personal budget or wallet.

Quick Tip- Deleting iOS Apps

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Problem: I’m trying to delete an iOS app from an iPad (9.3.2) , I hold down my finger on the icon on the homescreen till they all jiggle but no little x appears on the icon.

Automated Deployment in the HomeLab- Part 1

Tue, 21 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I’m commencing a project with my HomeLab- I’m going to build a system whereby I can produce custom mini-lab environments by means of a script. There are off the shelf solutions to do this (see AutoLab as an example) but if I build this myself I get something tailored exactly to my needs (and available resources) and hopefully learn something along the way- which is what the HomeLab is all about really.

vSphere HTML5 Web Client

Tue, 14 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

With ESXi 6.0 update 2 we were treated to a HTML-based web host client. This meant we were no longer confined to using the Windows (“C++”) client for host management, however it was still necessary to use the Flash-based web client for managing a vCenter infrastructure. The vSphere HTML5 Web Client is the solution to this- providing a HTML5, standards-based, web front end to a VMware virtual infrastructure. The product is currently in the “Fling” stage- so it’s out there to try but not quite finished to “production” standards yet.

VB.NET- Random String from a set

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

A Quick Code Snippet in VB.Net/ ASP.Net- Picks a random string from the set.

Timeout Value on vSphere Host Client

Thu, 12 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re running the HTML ESXi Host Client that comes with version 6.0 Update 2, you may find your screen reverting to the login prompt after only a short period of inactivity. This is because there’s an Application Timeout setting that defaults to 15 minutes. To change this setting login to the host client and locate the user@host drop down menu in the top right hand corner, select “Client Settings” and then “Application timeout”.

The Open HomeLab Project

Tue, 10 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

If you run a HomeLab, or have ever considered setting one up, you should check out the new Open HomeLab Project. This is a new wiki-based initiative to collect together information on the Home Lab ecosystem for newbies and hardened enthusiasts alike.

Top vBlog 2016 Awards

Tue, 03 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Voting is now open for the Top vBlog 2016 Awards, and I am pleased to say that this blog- IT Should Just Work - is in the running for the first time.

CloudCred- Gamification of VMware Learning

Thu, 28 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Recently I’ve been spending some time looking at CloudCredibility, a VMware website which provides some direction for learning about their ecosystem and technology.

Error Fetching Datastores when installing VCSA

Mon, 25 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Symptoms When installing VCSA onto an existing vCenter environment (as a VM, not as an in-place upgrade of that environment), on Step-9 “Select Datastore” the installer shows the message “Error Fetching Datastores” and no datastores are listed so installation cannot continue. Workaround Go back through the installer and select an ESXi host rather than the vCenter server in Step 2 “Connect to target server”. Remember to use the host credentials which may differ from the vCenter credentials.

London VMUG April 2016 (Part 2)

Mon, 18 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Last week was the second London VMware User Group of 2016- and I came away with so many notes I couldn’t justify just squeezing them all into one post. So, check out Part 1 here if you haven’t already and what to know what happened in the morning.

London VMUG April 2016 (Part 1)

Fri, 15 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Thursday saw another trip to TechUK for the second London VMware Users Group of the year. It was, yet again, a very educational and entertaining community driven event with sessions covering a whole range of topics from enterprise scale implementations of hardware and software right down to the nitty-gritty of running your own HomeLab.

Backup Clock

Mon, 11 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

In a tangent from my regular IT activities, I’ve made a clock for the IT office using an old tape reel, a floppy disk, and an analogue clock kit from Amazon. It’s turned out quite well and looks like this. Here’s a (very) quick guide on how to make one of your own.

ESXi Host Web Client

Sat, 26 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

A few days ago I tweeted about managing my ESXi HomeLab from the Xbox. Whilst this is a bit of a novelty (I’m holding out for the Minecraft ESXi plugin fling), it highlights the management possibilities that the new HTML-based (rather than Flash or Windows based) client creates. In addition to working via the Edge browser on the Xbox One, the new Host Client which is included in ESXi 6.0 Update 2 (see here for my upgrade details) means that it’s now possible without any additional components to manage a VMware virtual host from any device (OK, well- you need a device with a modern-ish web browser.

Virtual Machine Backups with Veeam

Mon, 21 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

So, I’ve got my Home Lab on a NUC setup and running the VMware ESXi 6 Hypervisor. Before I get too carried away “experimenting” I want to be a good sysadmin and ensure that I can backup (and restore) my Virtual Machines.

Home Lab Upgrade to 6.0u2

Fri, 18 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

VMware have released vSphere 6.0 Update 2 - this brings with it many new features, but amongst the most exciting for my home lab was the host-based web client. I no longer need to rely on the functionality of the traditional Windows application to manage my virtual environment. Here’s how I installed it:

Quote of the Day - 18 March 2016

Fri, 18 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

“If there isn’t a spec, a program can’t be wrong - it can only be surprising.” Overheard/ Jeffrey Snover March 2016

Home Lab VPN Connection

Mon, 15 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I wanted to be able to connect to my new home lab from off-premises (that’s a technical way of saying “when I’m not at home”). My solution to this was to setup an Ubuntu VM running OpenVPN, following the comprehensive instructions here and configuring my home broadband router to forward UDP port 1194 to the VM.

Check out the vBlog Database

Sat, 13 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I’m proud to say that this blog has been added to the vBlog Database, an index of over 400 virtualisation related blogs maintained by Andreas Lesslhumer at running-system.com.

Installing ESXi on the NUC

Fri, 12 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to Part 2 of my Home Lab series (it’s now twice as long!) where I install the Hypervisor. The 6th Generation Intel NUC hardware is all assembled and working, so now it’s time to put some software into the mix.

New NUC Based Home Lab

Fri, 12 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Inspired by the folks at the London VMUG, I finally got round to starting on a proper home-lab for the bits of hands-on IT learning that I can’t do with a Virtual Machine on my laptop, VMware Hands on Labs and the like.

VMUG London January 2016

Wed, 27 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The New Year brought a new venue and new committee members to the London VMUG meeting, now held at TechUK near Fleet Street. It was another great event, an informative and educational presentation of the latest and greatest in the VMware ecosystem without anyone pushing too hard for sales.

PowerCLI Snippet- Total Memory Allocation

Wed, 20 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This PowerShell one liner looks at all the powered on Virtual Machines in a vCenter estate and returns the total memory allocated, rounded to the nearest GB.

Using Test-NetConnection to check connectivity

Thu, 07 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

A regular ping command is great for checking if Host A can see Host B, but what if we want to go a bit deeper- for example check if a web server is contactable on port 80 and 443? The PowerShell cmdlet Test-NetConnection is a great tool for doing this.

Nose in a book

Mon, 04 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t spend quite as much time reading books as I’d like to, in fact I think my new years resolution this year might be to read more IT books.

ICYMI- A review of the year 2015

Thu, 31 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

In case you missed it, here are some of the highlights of this blog from the last year.

Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter

Mon, 21 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Last week a Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter turned up in the post. I’ve tried some wireless PC display connectors before, and the general rule seemed to be they were clunky, unreliable, and not that user friendly. This however, changes that. This is WiDi/ Miracast as it should be; easy to set up and simple to use.

Quote of the Day- 16th December 2015

Wed, 16 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

“If you are in IT you are gonna have to learn something new every year… side projects are a great way of doing it” John Troyer, TechReckoning - Architecting Your IT Career

Failure to Create Diagnostic Logs on EqualLogic

Tue, 15 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Symptoms When running the diag command from the Dell EqualLogic CLI (via a SSH session to an EqualLogic member) the process proceeds as normal but never completes, and the SSH session is eventually terminated. Repeating the operation produces the same result. Example Output: 1login as: grpadmin 2grpadmin@xxxxx's password: 3 4Welcome to Group Manager 5 6Copyright 2001-2015 Dell Inc. 7 8EQxxxxx> diag 9The diag command will gather configuration data from this array 10for support and troubleshooting purposes.

Open Live Writer

Wed, 09 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Open Live Writer, an Open Source fork of the Windows Live Writer application, is now available. To check it works with this blog, here’s a test post.

Unable to Save Email Settings in SAN HQ

Fri, 04 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Symptoms When modifying the email settings in the Dell EqualLogic SAN Headquarters application, the following error message appears: The SAN HQ was unable to save the recent e-mail notification changes. Unable to save changes to the group (GroupName) due to insufficient access permissions or administrative credentials. Verify that your account has all required permissions and administrator-level access to update the selected group. Cause The credentials of the account running SAN HQ do not have sufficient permissions on the server.

Find Your Windows 10 Laptop

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

A new feature in Windows 10 is the ability to locate a missing device. Want to check you left your Surface at the Office and not on the train?- here’s how.

Microsoft Future Decoded 2015

Wed, 11 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

November 2015 saw the return of Microsoft’s Future Decoded event to the ExCel Center in London.

PowerShell Christmas Countdown

Sun, 01 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

How Many Sleeps Till Christmas?

Last Day of VMworld Europe

Fri, 23 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

And to wrap up the daily summaries, here’s my top-five takeaways from the sessions I attended on the Thursday of VMworld Europe 2015.

VMworld Europe 2015 Day 3

Tue, 20 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s my five highlights (each) of some of the sessions I attended on the Wednesday at VMworld Europe 2015. Full videos of most of the sessions will be online shortly, but this is a taster.

VMworld Europe 2015 Hang Space

Tue, 20 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

An early morning peek round the Hang Space and Hands On Labs areas at VMworld Europe 2015. (25 seconds)

VMworld Europe 2015 Day 2

Wed, 14 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s my five highlights (each) of some of the sessions I attended today (Tuesday) at VMworld Europe. Full videos of most of the sessions will be online shortly, but this is a taster.

VMworld Europe 2015 Kicks Off

Mon, 12 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The anticipation, the build up, the packing. All done, and I made it to Barcelona yesterday evening to start VMworld today. With over 10,000 attendees and hundreds of sessions and labs to choose from this is going to be a busy few days! First up, thanks to the vRockstar team (and the sponsors) for organising last night’s welcome event. It was a great opportunity to make new friends and finally meet all those twitterers in person.

5 Conference Tips

Mon, 05 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

VMworld Europe 2015 is next week. Whilst this is my first time at the VMware conference (yep, I’m a NewV), here are some general purpose tips from my other conference experiences.

Hybrid Identity Management

Mon, 28 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Last Thursday I spent the day with Microsoft in London finding out about their latest developments in mobile working strategy, data protection, and BYOD integration at an Enterprise Mobility Workshop.

Running as a different user in Windows 10

Tue, 08 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Right-clicking on a desktop application on the Start Menu in Windows 10 gives you the option of running this application as administrator, with raised privileges. But what happens if you want to run as a different user?

5 Things From VMworld US

Thu, 03 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s five things from the US leg of VMworld 2015 I’m looking forward to finding out more about at the European event in October.

VMworld Europe 2015

Sun, 30 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This October I’m off to Spain for my first VMworld experience at VMworld Europe 2015. This is an awesome opportunity, VMware’s annual conference covering the virtual world is one of the biggest cloud and virtualisation events in Europe. Although bad timing between the US event, my work calendar, and my wallet meant I missed out on an offered “official blogger” spot in San Francisco, that disappointment was turned into jubilation when I got the go-ahead for a regular pass to the European leg.

VMworld 2015 Content

Sat, 29 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction VMworld 2015 US summary 5 Conference Tips Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Hang Space Video Day 4

Recovery of an Accidentally Deleted Datastore.

Mon, 20 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Symptoms

A VMware administrator has been tidying up an old ESX host prior to decommissioning and has accidentally clicked Delete on a shared datastore rather than Unmount.

Using PowerCLI to measure VM disk space usage.

Tue, 05 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I had a recent need to calculate how much disk space was being taken up by all the VMs in my vSphere environment for capacity planning purposes.

Deploying SCCM Applications via a custom web portal

Fri, 17 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

My organisation has a user-facing application portal, distributing Application Jukebox and direct download apps from one central location. However, we use SCCM to distribute some applications and have been stuck in the unsatisfactory situation of having to direct users to two different sites depending on what application they want

70-410 Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012R2

Thu, 19 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I sat, and passed, the Microsoft 70-410 exam in Windows Server 2012R2 last week.

Testing a web server with PowerShell

Fri, 30 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s another little PowerShell script that might be useful. This was knocked up to provide some basic load testing on the search function of a web application

Using PowerShell to check a folder copied

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve had a number of times over the years where I’ve needed to guarantee to someone that their data is unchanged as a result of an IT action

VMUG London January 2015

Mon, 26 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Despite having attended the annual VMware-hosted London vForums a few times this was my first VMware User Group meeting.

Migrate VM to a new datastore

Fri, 09 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

In an ESXi environment with no Storage vMotion I had the need to move a production VM from one datastore to another.

ICYMI- A review of the year

Wed, 31 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In case you missed it, here are some highlights of this blog from the last year.

Using RemoteApp to stream Application Jukebox packages

Tue, 23 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I’m currently working in an environment where we use the Application Jukebox architecture as an Application Virtualisation platform to package and stream software to our Windows estate. Recently I have also been running a POC system based on Server 2012R2 to provide Windows Apps to our Macintosh users via RemoteApp. The concept works, a Apple user running the Microsoft Remote Desktop client can stream an individual application to their Mac (or indeed to an iOS or Android device).

Standalone ESX Resource Group Permissions

Wed, 12 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I have recently had the need to setup a standalone ESXi 5 server (no vCenter) with several resource groups for a lab session.

TechEd Europe 2014- Session Types

Wed, 05 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

There were three main session types at TechEd Europe 2014. Here’s an overview.

TechEd Europe 2014- Top 10 Practices for OS Deployment with ConfigMgr 2012R2

Wed, 05 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

WIN-B328

An interesting session from Dell Tools Strategist Greg Ramsey.

TechEd Europe 2014- Windows 10 Deployment

Tue, 04 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

WIN-B338-R

A session on deployment options for Windows 10 with Michael Niehaus from Microsoft.

TechEd Europe 2014- Foundational Session

Wed, 29 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

FDN03 - Optimizing Your Datacenter with Windows Server, System Center, and Microsoft Azure

TechEd Europe 2014- SQL Server Management

Wed, 29 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

DBI-B220 - Introduction to SQL Server Management for the Non-DBA

TechEd Europe 2014 Keynote

Tue, 28 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

TechEd Europe kicks off here- as I said in my previous post, I’m going to try and get 5 key points from each session I attend. We’ll see how that goes, but I should be able to keep it up for the first session!

Microsoft TechEd Europe 2014

Fri, 24 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

After years of trying to get a place, I’m lucky enough to be spending the coming week at the premier Microsoft conference for Dev’s and IT Pro’s this side of the Atlantic- TechEd Europe 2014.

Windows 10 Server Installation Run Through

Thu, 02 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

A video run through of installing Windows 10 Server so you know what to expect

Customisation of Server 2012R2 in VMware ESX 5 VM fails

Thu, 25 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In VMware ESX 5.0.U2 when deploying a Server 2012R2 VM from a template with customisations applied the following error message appears:

LDAP Paths in Active Directory

Wed, 24 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve recently been involved in setting up a number of SaaS applications for my organisation which use our on-premises Active Directory to authenticate users.

Out of Office Mail Tips- A great feature

Mon, 22 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Our corporate email recently upgraded to Office365 and one of the many benefits which has come with this is the ability to preview an Out of Office message from a colleague before sending them a mail from Outlook.

When the Surface goes wrong

Fri, 25 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been using a Surface Pro as my main work computer now for over a year. I love it, the form factor works well for me on the move and coupled with the Targus USB Docking station I get a full, normal, desktop experience when I’m at my desk.

VMWare vForum London 2014

Fri, 13 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier this week I attended the VMWare vForum in London. I’d missed last years, but it was good to return to Wembley Stadium- especially on the eve of the World Cup.

PowerShell snippet- Finding XP and Server 2003 VMs

Tue, 15 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Some PowerShell to find all the VMs in an ESX environment which are powered on and running Windows XP or Server 2003.

Removing the Hard Drive of a Toshiba Portege A200

Mon, 16 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Our office just had a pile of these in for disposal and as part of our process we remove the Hard Drives.

Eleven comes after Five

Wed, 11 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A quick maths challenge for a Wednesday morning.

Removing Attachments to Save Space

Fri, 06 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

If, like me, you use your email archive as a record of what’s happened and if, like mine, this means your email box is approaching capacity, here’s a trick that might free up some space.

PowerCLI without certificates

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

When using VMware PowerCLI to communicate with an uncertified vSphere server a number of warning messages appear upon connection.

Knock Knock

Thu, 24 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

In a large organisation it’s commonplace to have a large IT organisation with staff taking on specific roles in the infrastructure to deliver part of the IT service. However, it’s often the case where a colleague outside of IT will always go to their nearest IT person regardless

My Office Desktop

Tue, 03 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s a snapshot of my current office desktop:

Old Computers- Dell Optiplex GX620

Mon, 29 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Our Lifecycle Management of desktop hardware sometimes turns up some gems, today we had a venerable Dell Optiplex GX620 ultra small form factor desktop PC returned for recycling.

Fahrenheit vs Celsius in Outlook 2013

Mon, 15 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

When using Outlook 2013, the Calendar conveniently displays the current weather and temperature at the top of the pane. The location can be switched using the drop down on the weather itself (for some reason my English-UK Office setup decided that I was most likely a New Yorker following installation) but changing from Fahrenheit to Celsius is not as obvious. Being “English (United Kingdom)” I’m still clinging to the Imperial measurements when it comes to measuring distances, my own body mass, and beer.

Interesting Reading this week (w/e 9 June 2013)

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Some interesting or useful articles, blog posts, and other stuff I looked at this week……

A Towel Day Adventure

Sat, 25 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

As any Hoopy Frood will know May 25th is Towel Day and to celebrate you could sit down with the book, or watch the TV show or the movie, or you could just read a towel. But instead why not dust off the 1980’s text adventure of the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.

To save you finding an old 486 and dusting off those MS-DOS disks there’s several ways of getting this Infocom classic running on your modern computer, here’s a guide to some of them.

EqualLogic Upgrade FTP Permission Denied Error

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Whilst trying to update firmware on a Dell EqualLogic PS6500 I received the error FTP: Permission denied: recv failed. It turns out that this was down to a Java problem on my Windows 7 workstation, rather than the EqualLogic.

Lost a DreamSpark product key?

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Microsoft DreamSpark is a great resource for staff and students in Higher Education- it gives you access to many Microsoft packages for free, so if you haven’t already got access then I’d recommend looking into it.

One request that I often face is from students who have downloaded Windows 7 from DreamSpark via the OnTheHub/ELMS system but mislaid their Product Key. This post tells you how to retrieve it (these instructions also apply to other DreamSpark packages where a product key is used).

ITAM- It's all about the questions

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

IT Asset Management has taken up quite a bit of my time over the years. Creating the “IT Inventory” is often a challenge in an organisation, building and keeping accurate records of hardware and software once the number of devices grows can be difficult and isn’t a “do-once and forget” task. It’s common to start with a discovery session – either by scanning the company network or sending someone round with a clipboard. For me, however the first step is all about the questions; what do we want to ask the database to tell us?

Functional Dependency Symbol in Word

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re writing functional dependencies in a Microsoft Word 2010 document and want to insert the “Long Rightwards Arrow From Bar” symbol you should select “Symbol” from the Insert Ribbon(in Word 2010), and then on the Symbol dialog window select the “Segoe UI Symbol” font and you will find the symbol in the “Supplemental Arrows-A” subset. Then just click the “Insert” button.

Microsoft UK Tech.Days Windows 8 Camp

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Held at the De Vere New Place near Southampton this was a very different experience to the other Microsoft events I have been to in the past. Firstly the audience was much smaller, more like 60 than 600 attendees. Also, this wasn’t in a lecture room or a darkened cinema, but the room was arranged with us sat at circular tables, (with power for laptops) and the whole day was much more interactive.

Unable to open current profile error in Battlefield 2

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I had a brand new installation of Battlefield 2 today, provided via Steam, which upon opening would give a “LOGERROR_unable to open current profile” error message and then close before I was able to play the game.

Command Prompt Here in Windows 7

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

In Windows XP there was a downloadable PowerToy called “Open Command Window Here” which could open a command prompt window from Explorer and set the starting directory in the command prompt to the currently selected directory in Explorer. Windows 7 has this feature built in, and here’s how to use it. The (short) video below demonstrates how to launch the command prompt, but basically all you need to do is navigate to the required folder in Windows Explorer – in this example I’ve chosen C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.

It's not the Technology's Fault

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Well, not always… A recent case at work has reinforced an idea I have long since held that often blame is assigned to the technology (or the technical staff maintaining it) when the behaviour would be quite different if a computer was not involved.

Interesting Reading this week (w/e 25 Jan 2013)

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Some interesting or useful articles, blog posts, and other stuff I looked at this week……

Microsoft Sculpt Touch Mouse

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A Microsoft Sculpt Touch Mouse turned up on my desk on Friday morning, this is my experience so far.

How to determine Domain Functional Level

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Not an everyday task this (once you’ve checked it you can usually remember what the level is!), but here’s how to find the Domain Functional Level of your Active Directory domain and whilst there check for any trust relationships with other domains.

Quote of the Day- December 21st 2012

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

“keep on trying till you run out of cake.”

Disabling Alt-Print Screen in Evernote with Skitch installed

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re using Evernote Skitch for Windows you will notice that the Alt-Print Screen key combination now opens up Skitch rather than copying a snapshot of the current window to the Clipboard. Whilst I’m a big fan of the Evernote/ Skitch combination and the clipping, I want to retain the Alt-Print Screen combo for Active window snapshotting. There’s currently no way to disable this in Evernote, but the following method works.

Quote of the Day- December 11th 2012

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

“An afternoon with no meetings is a great sleeping opportunity”

Evernote Skitch for Windows

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Evernote Skitch is now available for Windows, first impressions of the app on my Windows 7 desktop are good, it’s recreating the simplicity of the Android app very well.<–more–> More details here- http://blog.evernote.com/2012/10/25/skitch-for-windows-desktop-and-skitch-for-windows-8-are-here/

Generating Reports in WinDirStat

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

To use WinDirStat to generate reports of disk usage you need to have either Outlook or Outlook Express installed as the reports are generated as an email.<–more–> Without one of these mail clients an “unknown error” message is shown. (found in version 1.1.2.80)

Evernote Clipper

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I use Evernote a lot for note-taking, keeping track of ideas, code snippets, conversations, and so on. One of the great added features on the Windows desktop is the Clipper functionality. This is a great screen clipper- by pressing Win-Key and Prnt-Scrn together (on Windows 7, Windows 8 uses that “charm” itself) brings up a cross-hair that can be used to select an area of screen. By default this selection is dropped into Evernote, but by pressing Ctrl when selecting it will be placed in the Windows clipboard ready for pasting into other applications.

Keeping Digital Photos safe

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Fairly regularly at work I’m asked what I do to keep my digital photos safe. This question usually comes from someone who’s just had a hard disk failure or similar and lost their photo collection. At home my budget (like most people’s) doesn’t run to a Storage Area Network with fault-tolerant, load balanced RAID arrays, so I need to make use of tech I can afford. Anyway, this is my route to keeping photos safe….

New SkyDrive desktop client

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a new client out for Microsoft SkyDrive. I take advantage of the free cloud storage services on a number of providers but don’t always want to sync everything to my local hard disk. Thankfully Microsoft have added this feature to their desktop app.

Quote of the Day- 5th November 2012

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

“There is no charge for awesomeness” Po

CheckCAS version 1.0 for Windows

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This small application will check one or more Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) Registry Numbers to make sure they are formatted correctly. It validates both the format of the given registry numbers and also their check digits.

Installing memory on a Dell Latitude E4310

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I recently had my corporate-build laptop upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7. The laptop in question is a Dell Latitude E4310 which came fitted with 4GB RAM- more than sufficient for 32-bit Windows XP, but the OS upgrade offered the potential to increase.

New Media Centre Part 1

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I’m building a new home media centre to sit in my living room and play video and music through my TV. Today the hardware for my media centre arrived from Ebuyer.

New Media Centre Part 2

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Following on from New Media Centre Part 1 where I put the hardware together it was time to move onto installing the software- XBMC.

Formatting the Windows date in a filename.

Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve often needed to date an output file or backup folder created from a Windows script. The %DATE% variable cannot be used on it’s own because it returns a value with slashes in. This method formats it to the ISO standard YYYYMMDD

Interesting Reading this week (w/e 6 Jan 2012)

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Some interesting or useful articles, blog posts, and other stuff I looked at this week……

Converting Excel Dates to UNIX Timestamps

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A previous article showed how to convert a UNIX Timestamp to an Excel Date. It’s also possible to do the reverse- convert an Excel Date value to a UNIX formatted Timestamp.

Windows Defender Offline Beta

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Having been given a laptop where the user had clicked on a link they probably shouldn’t have this morning and was now getting prompted to clean their system for only $9.99, I took the opportunity to test out the new Beta of Windows Defender Offline.

Windows 7 Hibernation file on an old Netbook

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been trying to squeeze a little more life out of an old netbook with a small SSD. It’s running a fairly minimal Windows 7 install but the C:\ drive (where Windows is installed) keeps filling up. I’ve relocated the virtual memory pagefile.sys file to the more spacious D:\ drive, but wasn’t able to relocate the hibernation file (hiberfil.sys) which stores a copy of the computer’s memory when it goes into hibernation.

Get the Current User's Display Name

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

In an ASP.Net page you can easily get the username of the currently logged in user with Request.ServerVariables(“AUTH_USER”). With the following code snippet you can also get their real name (the “Display Name”) from the Active Directory.

Bulk upload of images to Mediawiki

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

If like me you’re running a Mediawiki wiki you sometimes need to upload large numbers of pictures in one go. This can be done quickly and easily using the ImportImages script.

Converting UNIX Timestamps to Excel Dates

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Faced with analysing a proprietary log file from a Linux system I turned to Excel to look at the data. The dates in this log file were stored in the standard UNIX timestamp format (number of seconds since midnight on the 1st January 1970) so I needed a formula to convert this into something readable. This is what I came up with.

Changing the Upload Limit in SharePoint Services 2.0

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The upload limit in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 is set to 50MB as default. The following instructions show how to increase or decrease this.

Interesting Reading this week (w/e 29 July 2011)

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Some interesting or useful articles, blog posts, and other stuff I looked at this week……

Deploy with Group Policy error

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

When deploying a printer by Group Policy using the Windows Server 2008 R2 “Print Management” application on a Windows Server 2003 Active Directory the following error may appear.

Pinch to Get an Overview of All Your Android Home Screens

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

When you’re on the home screen and you want to head to a screen that’s more than one swipe away, it’s probably faster to get an overview of all your screens and tap on the one you want. To do this, just pinch in on the home screen

PowerPoint poisoning

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Dilbert PowerPoint Poisoning Eleven years on this is still one of my all-time favourite Dilbert cartoons.

VMware Forum 2011 - London

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A couple of pictures from yesterday’s [VMware Forum in London]. In the last few years the event has been held at Chelsea Football Club and the ExCeL Centre. This year it was held at Wembley Stadium.

Internet Explorer text all in italics

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I opened IE this morning (this machine is IE7 on Windows XP) and nearly all the text on every page was in italic.

Shutting down a Virtual Machine using PowerCLI

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

VMware PowerCLI allows us to shutdown a guest operating system on a virtual machine (assuming VMTools are installed) but the command to do this- Shutdown-VMGuest -returns straight away. In a script we may wish to wait for the VM to power down before continuing, this can be done as follows.

Hitachi Information Forum

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A couple of pics from the Hitachi Information Forum event at the Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal Football Club, yesterday.

Line counting in Windows batch files

Tue, 31 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

In Linux the wc -l command gives a count of the number of lines in a file or pipe. Windows doesn’t have the wc command, but the same can be done using the built-in find command as follows:

Microsoft Tech.Days UK 2011

Wed, 25 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A couple of pics from day 2 of the Microsoft Tech Days UK 2011 event at Fulham Broadway cinema yesterday. This was in the Hyper-V for IT-Pro’s track.

Turn off the pointing stick on a Dell E4310

Mon, 23 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I have a Dell E4310 as my work laptop at the moment and have been very pleased with it. The only niggle I have is that when I’m typing the cursor often randomly jumps back to the middle of a previous sentence.

Interesting Reading this week (w/e 20 May 2011)

Fri, 20 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Some interesting or useful articles, blog posts, and other stuff I looked at this week……

Quote of the Day- May 19th 2011

Thu, 19 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

“The tastiest ice cream is always the hardest to scoop” Apu Nahasapeemapetilon

Scheduled Tasks running every 15 minutes

Thu, 12 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

In Windows XP, the Scheduled Tasks system only offers the choice of “Daily”, “Weekly”, “Monthly”, “Once” or when the computer starts or the user logs on. It’s possible, however, to schedule tasks to occur much more frequently, for example every 15 minutes.

ASP.NET Drop-Down List OnSelectedIndexChanged not firing

Wed, 11 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

When using an OnSelectedIndexChanged event on a drop down list in an ASP.NET page, the event code wasn’t getting executed.

How to make a USB Boot Disk

Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Brief instructions on how to make a USB flash drive that can boot a computer into Windows 98 DOS mode. Useful for running things like Norton Ghost.

How many copies of my application are running?

Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A quick line of code for displaying how many copies of an application are running on a Linux platform: 1ps -ef | grep myapplicationname | wc -l | awk ' { print $1-1 } '

Webpage to Monitor CPU usage on a linux box.

Thu, 05 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

This cgi script allows you to post a webpage on your multi-processor Linux server which shows the current CPU usage. Useful if you want to quickly and easily check the load on the system and see if multi-processor applications are spreading themselves across the available cores.

Updates for Fedora Core 2

Tue, 03 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I have an old (virtual) server which, for various support and compatibility reasons, is still running Fedora Core 2 Linux, released back in 2005. Despite this being an old, unsupported, version of the OS I wanted it to be as up-to-date as possible, and this is how I went about it.

Can't open StickyKeys settings

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

By default on a Windows XP pressing the Shift Key 5 times in a row turns on StickyKeys and brings up the warning dialog. In normal operation this doesn’t happen very often, but if you’re bashing someone with your rifle in Call of Duty it can pull you out of the game to show this dialog.

Normally you click on the proffered Settings button on the warning dialog and you can disable this feature. However on some configurations clicking on the Settings button does nothing.

du for Windows

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

One of those UNIX commands that is oh-so-useful when working from the command line is du or “disk usage”. This command calculates the total size of all the files and subfolders within a folder.

Drives not mapping on Windows 7 but OK on XP?

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A short puzzler here- I had a group policy script mapping a (DFS) network drive at user login. It had always worked fine on XP, but the same users logging in to a Windows 7 PC didn’t get the drive mapped.

Checking the current Fedora Version

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Logged into a Fedora linux box via a command line? Want to know what version of Fedora it’s running?

Outputting CSV from an ASP page

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve recently had the need to write an ASP page which reads a SQL database and outputs into Microsoft Excel- a user clicks on a link to this ASP page and Excel opens up with a new spreadsheet of the data. This is how I did it

Network Commands in VB.NET

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A couple of useful network commands in Visual BASIC .NET (2005). These are the equivalents of doing ping and nslookup from the command prompt. The variable sIPAddress in these examples is a string containing the IP to test, i.e. "127.0.0.1"

Using Cron to automate a Rsync backup job

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The rsync tool in Linux is very useful for backing up files from one machine to another, and coupled with the Cron scheduling tool it can be used to make a simple yet efficient automated backup. This post outlines how. Authenticating with the remote system It is necessary to save your credentials on the remote system, if you don’t then every time rsync is run it will prompt for your password.

Scripted silent install of Visual Basic 6.0

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I recently had a need to install Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition on a number of machines using a batch file script and a silent -unattended - installation process. Given the age of the application I thought this would be quite straightforward and well documented, but there were a number of hurdles to clear on the way so here is my solution.

The Print Screen key, forgotten tool of the Windows desktop

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The Print Screen key, usually located above the number pad to the right of the keyboard, is an invaluable tool when working with images in Windows. Pressing it will copy a picture of the entire screen to the Windows clipboard,

Missing Facebook updates?

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Users of Facebook may have noticed that they’re missing some updates from their friends on their homepage (News Feed). This is a feature designed to show you only the most relevant info- posts from the users and applications you have interacted with most recently. If you want to change it so that all updates are displayed, it’s a simple process. Scroll down to the bottom of the window and click on the link “Edit options”.

Category 5 Standard Wiring.

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

10BaseT and 100BaseT networks use Cat5 twisted pair cable and RJ45 connectors to join computers to hubs or switches. This post details how to wire the connectors.

Error trying to Install Expression Studio 4.

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

When installing Microsoft Expression Studio 4 on Windows XP Professional, double clicking on the setup application brought up the following error:

Your computer is scheduled to restart. Restart your computer and run Setup to continue installing this Expression program.

Quote of the Day- February 6th 2011

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

“Spot’s triangle is a triangle shape.”

Quote of the Day- February 4th 2011

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

“When science gets icky, it’s alright to be sicky” Professor Bunsen Jude

Turning a page round in Word 2003

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Often when writing a long document or report there is a need to switch from portrait (vertical) to landscape (horizontal) orientation for an individual page, for example to include a full-page table that is wider than it is high. This short “How To” explains how to do this using Microsoft Word 2003.

Microsoft Word 2003 Quick Tip #1

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

You can select a whole sentence (including the full stop and following space) by holding down the CTRL key whilst clicking on the sentence.

Any colour you like, as long as it’s pink

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

When handling requests for IT purchasing I sometimes wonder what benefit that particular item will have to the business.

Quote of the Day- 17th November 2010

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

…anything the consumer can use at home, they will … ask for it at work.

And eventually, IT will give it to them.

Steve Ballmer

License error connecting ESXi server to vCenter

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday I was connecting up an ESXi Virtual Host which has been running in standalone mode for a while to vCenter. The host has recently been upgraded to a VSphere 4 Essentials Plus License. When trying to setup the connection so the host could be managed by the vCenter server I received the following error message: 1License not available to perform the operation. 2 3The vSphere 4 Essentials Plus license For Host myhostname does not include VMotion.

Network Boot on an Acer Veriton N260G

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

If you want to boot an Acer Veriton N260G off the network

The ups and downs of Windows versions

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The release of Windows 7 generally getting good feedback from users, especially compared to Vista, comes as no surprise. Vista is, when you actually look at it, not a bad OS- I’m still running it on my main home PC and I haven’t had to reinstall it, my applications work, and I’ve never had any virus or malware problems (although having written that I’m going to go home and find it’s exploded or something).

Intel Goes Turbo Again

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

BBC News announced Intel’s new processors for 2009 onwards today- the Nehalem range.

There's no Escape

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

From the broken keyboard bin Keyboard with no Escape key

New Years Day TimeStamp

Mon, 05 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Some work I’ve been involved with (see here and here) with UNIX Timestamps threw up another challenge today- getting the timestamp for midnight on January 1st of the current year. This is what I came up with:

Clean Hard Drive

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

This is a Fujitsu Hard Disk which a user has tried to “clean” of any sensitive data by dipping it in hot soapy water

Electric Nuts

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

A strange support report, obviously someone hasn’t been following the Tufty club code when crossing the busbars:

Saucy Support Request

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The following email came in from the manager of the company coffee shop: