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blog howto windows

Windows 7 change product key and activate from command line

Open CMD as Administrator (elevated).
cd /d %systemroot%\system32
cscript slmgr.vbs /inpkey:XXXXX-YYYYY...
cscript slmgr.vbs /ato

Windows 10/2016/2019:

cd /d %systemroot%\system32
cscript slmgr.vbs /ipk XXXXX-YYYYY...

Good luck.

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blog howto windows

Office 2010 command line activate or change product key

Cloned PC, changed office key. Got error with license information on restart office. Ativated through CMD and all was OK.
Open CMD as Administrator.
cd c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14
cscript ospp.vbs /act

If you want to change product key through command line it is like this:
cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:XXXXX-YYYYY....

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blog server virtualization

Install HP offline bundle on VMWARE ESXi v5

EDIT: You can always just download HP’s ready made install ISO for Vpshere 5.

When using the VMWARE iso image on HP Proliant you should install the HP offline bundle for hardware status and event log viewing in the Vsphere client.
Download the files. Check if there are newer versions.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=4091412&swItem=MTX-dd492ace50c6427389678df8be&prodNameId=4091432&swEnvOID=4115&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=1
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=4091412&prodNameId=4091432&swEnvOID=4115&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-48fa6d3608514c60979531d921

Place host in maintenance mode via the Vsphere Client.
Upload the files to the root folder of the datastore.
My datastore is called DAS600GBRAID10, look up your name and change the path in the commands accordingly.

Run these commands from the Vsphere CLI v5.
esxcli.exe -s 192.168.101.60 -u root software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/DAS600GBRAID10/hp-esxi5.0uX-bundle-1.0-20.zip
esxcli.exe -s 192.168.101.60 -u root software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/DAS600GBRAID10/hp-nmi-esxi5.0-bundle-2.0-11.zip

Change the IP, path and username according to your situation. Password will be prompted for.

If you want to run the command without vCLI then run them on the host in Local Shell or SSH like this:
esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/DAS600GBRAID10/hp-esxi5.0uX-bundle-1.0-20.zip
esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/DAS600GBRAID10/hp-nmi-esxi5.0-bundle-2.0-11.zip

Change path according to your situation.

Categories
server virtualization

Enable software iSCSI adaptor on ESXi v5

Through SSH or on local console:
esxcli iscsi software set --enabled=true

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blog server virtualization

HP ESXi 5.0 image license problem

The vmware.lic file is read only with a free ESXi key inside.

Execute on the command line of the particular ESX host:
esxcli software vib remove -n hp-esx-license --no-live-install
Connect with the VI client directly as root to the host and select by right-click to “shutdown” the host.

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blog howto server windows

Errors with ntbackup caused by shadow copy.

Portions of FILENAME cannot be read. The backed up data is corrupt or incomplete. This file will not restore correctly.

I would receive this error numerous times in my ntbackup log.

In my case the C: drive would backup without any issue, but the D: drive would show these errors for every file in use.

My backup destination was a 2TB USB disk (G:) with a newer cluster size that is greater than 512. This is not really an issue for storing the backups. But somehow my shadow copy settings on the D: drive were using the G: backup drive as the place to store the shadow copies for the D: drive. And storing shadow copies on a drive with cluster size != 512 will fail. Note: on the G: drive itself shadow copies are disabled. Not needed for backup drive and will fail anyways because of above mentioned reason.

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blog howto linux server

Ubuntu upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04 broke grub

After upgrading my Ubuntu server from 10.10 to 11.04 using the “do-release-upgrade” method, my system would no longer boot.
It was stuck on a GRUB shell. I downloaded the liveCD, booted from that and ran the excellent Boot-Repair utility. I had to install it using apt-get, so you need an internet connection. They should include it in the liveCD. I belive you can also download a Boot-Repair ISO file to boot from.

But the Boot-Repair tool worked great and fixed my GRUB in no time.
I see a lot of problems with GRUB after the upgrade. Maybe it’s a bug that affects people who, in the past, already upgraded from 9.x or 8.x to 10.x. So people who had GRUB v1 at some point in time.

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blog howto

SIPTAPI and Cisco UC520

I have succesfully configured SIPTAPI by IPCOM for use with the Cisco UC520.

Follow the installation instructions and then configure like this.
SIP DOMAIN: IP for the UC520, this can either be the LAN IP or the CallManager IP.
SIP PROXY: leave this empty
user: leave this empty
password: leave this empty
extension: your extension number

If configured like this, whenever you dial from dialer.exe or outlook your own extension will ring, pick it up and the number you requested will be dialed.

Categories
blog howto linux

Send PCL code for landscape to raw printer in Linux

When the CUPS printer is in RAW mode (no driver or PPD file), you can send PCL codes to the printer in plain text. You can just insert & append the codes on your job.
Here is how I did it:

#!/bin/bash
#
# Created on 01 march 2011 by Stan Gobien
# http://ares.gobien.be:8080/2011/03/pcl-code-landscape-raw-linux/
#
# Insert PCL code for landscape at beginning and append PCL reset code at end
# PCL codes tested on HP Laserjet
# The script expects input via stdin and sends output to stdout
# usage: cat somefile | ./landscape.sh | lp -dPRINTER
cat | sed -e ‘1i^[&l1O’ | sed -e ‘$a^[E’

Note: You can’t simply copy/paste the ^[ code. This is the VI representation of the ESCAPE character. You have to create it like this: CTRL+V ESC (this means press CONTROL and V key together then press ESCAPE key). Tested on Vi IMproved 7.0

Categories
blog howto virtualization

Upgrade ESXi (free) 4.0 to 4.1.0 U1 (Update 1)

Are you upgrading from 4.0 to 4.1U1 ? Then read on or you will end up like me browsing trough the ZIP file and the XML files inside to find out the correct bulletin name. It’s not pleasant to do this when you just entered maintenance mode in a small time frame to stop production vm’s.

Procedure from the Upgrade guide:

Procedure
1 Download the following upgrade ZIP bundle from the VMware Web site to a location that is accessible
to the vSphere CLI machine.
upgrade-from-ESXi4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.build#-release.zip
The upgrade ZIP bundle contains and esxupdate bulletin and an upgrade bulletin.
2 Power off any virtual machines that are running on the host and place the host into maintenance mode.
3 Install the esxupdate bulletin by running the following command on the vSphere CLI machine.
vihostupdate –server host name or IP address -i -b location of the ESXi upgrade ZIP bundle –
B ESXi410-GA-esxupdate
4 Install the upgrade bulletin by running the following command on the vSphere CLI machine.
vihostupdate –server host name or IP address -i -b location of the ESXi upgrade ZIP bundle -B ESXi410-GA
5 Verify that the bulletins are installed on the ESXi host by running the following command.
vihostupdate.pl –server host name or IP address –query
6 Reboot the host.

What they fail to mention is that the bulletin name in step 4 has changed. So in step 4 the command should now read:

vihostupdate –server host name or IP address -i -b location of the ESXi upgrade ZIP bundle -B ESXi40-TO-ESXi41UPDATE01

PS: After the upgrade I had some problems connecting to the management IP. I did a restart management but no effect. I then changed the mgmt IP and I could connect. However I had to update my client before I could login.