It’s been fun, a lot of hard work, approximately 3,500 VMware and Virtualisation Questions answered in 2011, and 20,000 posted comments at Experts Exchange. Expert of the Quarter, Juggernaut and The Ally for Q2 and Q4 2011, and now I’ve just learnt
I AM THE EXPERT OF THE YEAR FOR 2011!
So not bad for 2011, VMware vEXPERT 2011, Experts Exchange EXPERT of the YEAR 2011!
Roll-on 2012!
For the last two weeks, VMware have been running VMware Festive Journey to the your Cloud, a daily draw competition, where you could win, cameras, iPods, Gift Vouchers, and VMware Merchandise.
It finishes on the 23 December 2011, so you’ve got a few days left to register, answer the question, and be entered into the daily draw!
I’ve been lucky to win a few items
Some handy winter car items, an ice scraper, torch and travel mug!
If you wondering what to purchase a vEXPERT, VCP, VMware Admin, VMware Geek this Christmas, why not consider one of the best Technical books on VMware HA and DRS!
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My Christmas Present from Secret Santa!
We’ve now also, added the Christmas Tree lights outside, in the Magnolia Tree.
I also got a little bored, and decided rather than using a traditional plug-in 240v 24 hour timer, I would add them to the X10 Computer Controlled System, so I can turn them off via a VMware Virtual Server, running Windows 2008 Web Services!
Lindsey asked “Why?“ – I replied, because I can do stuff like that!
So in thoery I could grant access to this Website, on the Internet to turn them off remotely, or let other people turn them on or off!
The website is basic, but it functions, just need some graphics and CSS!
Update: I’d already written this blog, and submitted for publishing, before catching an Episode of “The Big Bang Theory” – The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarisation (s1e9) – at this very start of the episode, Howard Wolowitz also demonstrates a light and stereo being power-on via x10, and enabling public access to do the same thing, which Penny also states “Why?” – you can get a really cheap wireless remote from Radio Shack!
Okay, so I’m a nerd! But we all knew that!
Just been published, Fame for 15 seconds?
VMware vExperts were asked the following three questions?
1.How did you get into IT?
2.How did you get into working with VMware and becoming a 2011 vExpert?
3.What would you tell someone who wanted to get a job like yours to do?
Check out my answers, if you want at http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2011/12/vexpert-spotlight-andrew-hancock.html
I do not have any floppy disks anymore, and as I’ve blogged many times, I don’t do the physical! Some System/Server Administrators seem to have forgotten the art of How to create a Windows Server 2003 boot disk, very useful to have if you’ve managed to corrupt the master boot record and cannot boot your OS, it’s not a big deal if you have a virtual server, you can create a virtual floppy to boot in minutes and recover your server, and service is restored, and why not leave the virtual floppy disk connected, it’s not causing any issues!
This step by step video How to create a Windows Server 2003 virtual floppy boot disk, demonstrates how to create a virtual floppy, format, copy the required files, and boot your server.
[flv:https://andysworld.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/How-to-create-a-Windows-2003-Server-Virtual-Floppy-boot-disk.flv 480 360]
(flash is required, sorry iPad users!).
Okay, so we have a Full Backup of Microsoft Small Business Server 2011, approx 20GB on our Western Digital Worldbook NAS (\\nas\backup).
(see this blog – New HD Video Bare Metal Recovery of Microsoft Small Business Server 2011: Part 1 How to Backup Microsoft Small Business Server 2011)
The next bit could not have been easier, we insert the Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 DVD into the DVD ROM drive, Boot from the DVD as if we are going to install a copy of Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 on the server, you are already probably familiar with this step, but we Click the ‘Repair your Computer‘. This procedure WILL only work, if restoring to “like for like” hardware as the original server backup. Follow the Wizard, selecting the network location of the backup.
In this video, I’m restoring to a VMware vSphere Virtual Machine. Initially to prove, that I’m restoring to Bare Metal Server, (no OS is pre-installed), I’ve booted the virtual machine with NO Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 DVD ROM Media in the DVD ROM drive, and you can see it tries to PXE Boot from the Network, at the next reboot, I’ve inserted the media, to boot and start the Server Bare Metal Restore from the Network copy.
DO NOT TRY THIS PROCEDURE ON A PRODUCTION LIVE SERVER!
YOU WILL ERASE AND DESTROY IT!
[flv:https://andysworld.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Bare-Metal-Recovery-Part2-SBS2011.flv 480 360]
Wait for the Restore and Server to Restart.
Whilst on the subject of Backup and Restore, I also get asked “How Do I perform a Bare Metal Restore of Microsoft Small Business Server 2011?”
All the software is provided by Microsoft to perform a Bare Metal restore of Microsoft Small Business Server 2011. The application we use is called Windows Server Backup, available from the Start bar. So there is no excuse to try and practice, the software is included for free, and following these videos, you will also be able to perform a Bare Metal Recovery of your Microsoft Small Business Server 2011, should the need arise from a recent backup.
Firstly, we need to complete and run a Full Backup. You could backup to a another local disk, external USB hard disk, but I prefer to backup to a network location, which happens to be a Western Digital Worldbook NAS. I’ve already created a share called backup, so the full UNC path to the backup location is \\nas\backup
[flv:https://andysworld.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Bare-Metal-Recovery-Part1-SBS2011.flv 480 360]
See Part 2 Bare Metal Restore – New HD Video Bare Metal Recovery of Microsoft Small Business Server 2011: Part 2 How to Restore Microsoft Small Business Server 2011
I get asked many times, “How do I Restore my Virtual Machines to my VMware vSphere 4.x, 5.0 ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.0, ESX 4.0 servers?”
Hopefully this will answer your question!
If you’ve followed the last blog, and video New HD Video: Backup VMware vSphere 4.x, 5.0 ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.0, ESX 4.0 for FREE using VMware vCenter Converter, I’ll show you how to restore it quickly in this 3 minute video
Okay, so you have a “virtual machine backup” or a virtual machine that you would like to Convert, Import or (“Restore”) to VMware vSphere 4.x, 5.0 ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.0, ESX 4.0.
I have a backup on a NAS called NAS (Western Digital Worldbook), in the share backup, folder TestXPforEE, the UNC path is \\nas\backup\TestXPforEE.
The destination ESXi server is called esx3iserver, and I’m going to restore to a datastore called nfs.
[flv:https://andysworld.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/VMware-vCenter-Converter-Restore.flv 480 360]
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