I had a Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machine running on XenServer 6.2 SP1 with all updates and patches applied, however it was still running an older version of XenServer tools. The tools were version 6.0.2, and this was causing problems with backups from Arcserve freezing and not completing. To fix the problem I needed to upgrade XenServer tools to the latest version of 6.2, easy right? Think again.
Tag Archives: Windows - Page 10
Fixing Blue Screen in Windows after XenServer Tools Update
Posted by Jarrod Farncomb
on May 20, 2015
16 comments
How to enable the Telnet Client in Windows 10
Posted by Jarrod Farncomb
on April 18, 2015
69 comments
By default the telnet client in Microsoft’s Windows operating systems is disabled, this is unfortunate as it is an extremely useful tool which can be used for testing TCP connectivity to external hosts on a specified port.
This is great when you’re trying to troubleshoot network connectivity problems, for example, say we have a web server which should be listening on port 80 to serve HTTP traffic but we are not able to load a web page, by using telnet to connect to the web server on port 80 we can verify the connectivity.
It may be that the connectivity is fine but there is a problem with the web server, or that the web server is stopped and the port is not listening at all, for instance. With telnet we can get a better understanding of what’s going on.
Free Virtualization Software for Windows
Posted by Jarrod Farncomb
on April 15, 2015
3 comments
There is a lot of free virtualization software available for your to download and install, here we cover some of the best free options available for you to use in Windows.
These options can be installed within your existing Windows operating system installation, allowing you to run a virtual machine (VM) running an entirely separate operating system within. For example this will allow you to run multiple instances of Linux and Windows desktop clients or servers.
Best New Features in Windows 10 Preview
Posted by Jarrod Farncomb
on April 8, 2015
No comments
When Microsoft first made the Windows 10 Technical Preview available I downloaded the free ISO straight away and booted it up into a virtual machine as soon as possible as I was excited to see what was new. My initial reaction at the time was “finally, something better than Windows 8” and I couldn’t wait to get the final version.
Windows 10 has since gone through many changes through the various new builds that have been released, so I have downloaded and started using the most recent build (10049) to review and share some of the best new features of Windows 10 that I have found so far.
How to convert an OVA virtual machine to VHD
Posted by Jarrod Farncomb
on February 25, 2015
19 comments
Today I received a virtual machine OVA file exported from VMware, I needed to import this into Apache CloudStack where XenServer was the hypervisor.
To do this I first needed to convert the OVA/OVF to VHD, this post covers how it’s done.
How to test network connectivity with telnet
Posted by Jarrod Farncomb
on February 18, 2015
7 comments
This post is a follow on from my post last week regarding how to install the telnet client. The telnet client is simple yet extremely powerful in helping us gain a quick idea of where a problem may lie with TCP connectivity, it’s one of my first go to tools to use when testing a network connection to a server.
How to enable the telnet client in Windows 8.1
Posted by Jarrod Farncomb
on February 11, 2015
3 comments
By default the telnet client in Microsoft’s Windows operating systems is disabled, this is unfortunate as it is an extremely useful tool which can be used for testing TCP connectivity to external hosts on a specified port.
This is great when you’re trying to troubleshoot network connectivity problems, for example, say we have a web server which should be listening on port 80 to serve HTTP traffic but we are not able to load a web page, by using telnet to connect to the web server on port 80 we can verify the connectivity.
It may be that the connectivity is fine but there is a problem with the web server, or that the web server is stopped and the port is not listening at all, for instance. With telnet we can get a better understanding of what’s going on.
Decreasing disk space in Windows Server 2012 R2
Posted by Jarrod Farncomb
on January 21, 2015
5 comments
Previously I’ve covered how to increase disk space in Windows server, now we’ll be outlining how to do the opposite by shrinking the disk space for a virtual machine running Windows Server 2012 R2. Firstly we will be shrinking the file system within the operating system, and then shrinking the actual virtual disk afterwards to reclaim space.
As of Windows Server 2012 R2, Hyper-V allows us to dynamically shrink and expand the size of our virtual hard disk while the virtual machine is still running, meaning that there is no down time. Prior to 2012 R2 you would have to shut down the virtual machine to complete the process, I’ll cover where that’s done later on in case you’re using a version prior to 2012 R2.
Shrinking the available disk space on a server may allow us to use the space elsewhere, perhaps on another virtual machine. Typically most provisioning nowadays is thinly provisioned where the virtual disks will only be the size of the data stored on them rather than wastefully statically assigning the total space of the disk, so this may not be very beneficial for you. With that in mind there are still times where you may want to shrink the available disk space on the server to prevent a user using it. For example a service provider may have a customer looking to downgrade their disk space and we would want to shrink their disk back so they do not use space they are no longer paying for.
Windows Server Maintenance Checklist
Posted by Jarrod Farncomb
on January 14, 2015
No comments
Server maintenance needs to be performed regularly in order to ensure that your server will continue to run with minimal problems, while a lot of maintenance tasks are automated within the Windows operating system now there are still things that need to be checked and monitored regularly to ensure that Windows is running optimally. Below are steps that should be taken in order to maintain your servers.
70-412 Microsoft Configuring Advanced Windows Server 2012 Services exam – Passed
Posted by Jarrod Farncomb
on December 16, 2013
No comments
Last week I passed the Microsoft 70-412 exam for Configuring Advanced Windows Server 2012 Services with a score of 865/1000. This was the last exam I needed to complete in order to earn my MCSA 2012 certification. In this post I’ll cover the materials I studied to pass 70-412 and where I’ll be going from here.
This exam was far more challenging than the others because I had a lot less time to prepare in comparison to 70-410 and 70-411. I had already started doing some light study for 70-412 and then heard that in January 2014 the exam content would be changing to include 2012 R2 content. While I’m happy to learn the changes in R2 and have read over all the great changes it introduces, I wanted to see if I could finish off the exam before the end of the year as the change to R2 would mean all my study materials would essentially be out of date, and new books including the R2 content were months away at the time.
I then went to see when the last available date for the year was for me to take the exam, and was surprised to find that it was the 12th December. This was on the 28th November, so only 2 weeks until the last day I could take the exam. So I had to make a choice, try and rush through it two weeks and finish before the end of the year, or take it slow and wait until next year and learn the changes in the content.