Tech Blog
Convert thick disk to thin on ESXi free
Here are the steps to convert a thick VMDK file to thin. Steps 2-4 are optional, but if you want to shrink it down as small as possible then don't skip them! Evaluate how much space you have on the datastore. You will be creating 2 copies of the .vmdk file before...
Using Cisco 8945 IP phones with CME
We just finished testing the Cisco 8945 IP phone with CME using SCCP and it worked great. Point to point video works flawlessly. A few things to note in setting up these phones: Make sure you add the "video" command under telephony-service as well as under...
CME 8.8 upgrade and Exchange UM voicemail problem
We recently upgraded to the new Cisco CallManager Express (CME) version 8.8 so that we could try out the new 8945 phones for point to point video. Immediately after the upgrade Exchange no longer answered calls to voicemail or auto-attendants and instead gave us a...
Centrally setup Windows XP machines to use the new 2008 Group Policy Preferences
With the new 2008 Group Policy Preferences there are some great new tweak tools to manage without the need for login scripts. Windows XP machines are not compatible with these new GPOs without first installing an update for Group Policy Preference Client Side...
Public folders and upgrading to Exchange 2010
We recently had some problems with Public folder synchronization during an Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010 migration. Public folders were not syncing up to the new Exchange 2010 server with the following error message in the logs: Event ID: 1020, Source: MSExchange...
Virtualization Now!
Ten Reasons You Should Already Be Using Virtualization For Your Server Environment According to Intel: Virtualization technology is possibly the single most important issue in IT and has started a top to bottom overhaul of the computing industry Virtualization is a...
Add roles features or Windows Update on 2008 R2
The problem is that Windows Updates will not run properly (giving you various errors) and when Roles or Features are selected under the Server Manager you get the following error: Error: Cannot display data until your computer is restarted. To resolve this, try some...
Simplify Exchange 2010 OWA URL
Exchange Outlook Web Access is a wonderful feature, but directing users to access it on their own can be a patience testing proposal if you’re not using URL redirection. For example: you’ve installed Exchange 2010, configured all the appropriate roles, including the...
Enabling jumbo frames in VMware ESX
To get the best performance out of VMware's iSCSI initiator it's a good idea to enable jumbo frames on the ESX hosts. First configure a new vSwitch dedicated to the iSCSI network and if you're doing this in the GUI delete the default port group that is created. Then...
Handling drive corruption on VMware ESX
Here's a tip if your ESX host freaks out and you happen to be storing a VMFS partition on the same volume as ESX: If an "upgrade" install doesn't fix the problem then do a clean install and on the page that shows how it will cut up the partitions there is a checkbox...