Recently I came up with idea to upgrade operating system on my HP TouchSmart tm2t to Windows 8. In general there was no major issues except one. As this computer has two graphics adapters (Intel for low performance when operate on battery, AMD/ATI for better performance when operate on mains) there was small issue with configuring Switchable Graphics option.

After installation computer was operating only on low performance Intel card and thre was no possibility to switch to AMD/ATI. Here is what I’ve done ot make it work:

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If you want to use Windows Server 2012 Datacenter on workstation/laptop (sometimes it is handy to have mobile workstation with server operating system) you might experience issues with wireless networking. Even if driver for wireless network adapter is installed you might not be able to connect to any wi-fi network.

In order to use wireless in Windows Server 2012 Datacenter additional feature has to be installed: Wireless LAN Service. This can be installed from PowerShell prompt using add-windowsfeature wireless-networking command, as shown on screenshot below:

Once installed and server rebooted make sure that WLAN AutoConfig service is started, as shown on screenshot below:

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Sometimes when ShoreTel ShoreGear switches connected to infrastructure might have old version of the firmware. In theory ShoreTel HQ Director should upgrade firmware on devices to bring it to current version across the infrastructure. However sometimes that fails and there is a need to enforce apropriate firmware on device.

In order to enforce firmware on ShoreTel switch best is to logon to ShoreTel HQ Director server and issue burnflash command as shown below:

C:\Program Files\Shoreline Communications\ShoreWare Server>burnflash -switch 192.168.20.31
Shoreline Communications BurnFlash Utility (Version 14.21.4905.0)
  Burning flash for switch "192.168.20.31" (192.168.20.31).
  Current switch info:
      Internet Address: 192.168.20.31
      Ethernet Address: 00-10-49-00-00-00
Product Code: IPBX-SG4_T1
Firmware Version: 12.5.8107.0
           Patch Level: 0
       BootRom Version: 1.1.3.17
               Up Time: 0 days 00:28:21 (booted from Flash)
          POST Version: 3
TMS 5460: NccBurnFlash(...,0,192.168.20.31): Start
TMS 5460:                       : FileA Type=2,Unit=0,Language=
TMS 5460:                       : FileB Type=2,Unit=2,Language=en-US
TMS 5460: NccBurnFlashWorker2[192.168.20.31]: WSASocket() --> 1616 (Error: 0)
   12.50 MBytes (100%) transferred to flash unit 0.
TMS 5460: NccBurnFlashWorker2[192.168.20.31]: WSASocket() --> 1616 (Error: 0)
    1.13 MBytes (100%) transferred to flash unit 2.
  Rebooting switch.
TMS 5460: NccBurnFlash[192.168.20.31]: End. hr = 0x0
  Waiting up to 180 seconds for switch to start.
  Waited 103.4 seconds ... connected.
  Current switch info:
      Internet Address: 192.168.20.31
      Ethernet Address: 00-10-49-00-00-00
          Product Code: IPBX-SG4_T1
      Firmware Version: 14.21.4905.0
           Patch Level: 0
       BootRom Version: 1.1.3.17
               Up Time: 0 days 00:00:00 (booted from Flash)
          POST Version: 3

Sometimes burnflash process has to be repeated twice to upgrade firmware correctly.
After burnflash power off device for 20 seconds and power back on.

Just released small app for Android platform. This app allows to decrypt type 7 password from Cisco devices as well as passwords from Cisco VPN profiles (PCF files).

Password which can be recovered using this app:

• wireless keys fro Cisco access points,
• RADIUS/TACACS shared secrets
• NTP authentication keys
• Enable passwords (NOT enable secrets, which are stored using MD5)
• enc_GroupPwd – VPN group password from PCF file
• enc_UserPassword – VPN user password from PCF file

You can find app in Google Play:

Few times in the past when I was doing some changes on Cisco devices remotely I was a victim of myself, when wrong order of commands just disconnected me from device without ability to connect back. After few experiences of this kind I discovered magic command “reload” which can help and save the day.

So, when doing changes which can impact remote terminal connection to device it’s a good idea to initiate reload before making changes. In case something goes wrong device will reboot itself and will come back with previous configuration.

lab-r01#
lab-r01#reload in 15
Reload scheduled in 15 minutes by admin on console
Reload reason: Reload Command
Proceed with reload? [confirm]
lab-r01#
*Mar  1 03:11:11.659: %SYS-5-SCHEDULED_RELOAD: Reload requested for 03:26:09 UTC Fri Mar 1 2002 at 03:11:09 UTC Fri Mar 1 2002 by admin on console. Reload Reason: Reload Command.
lab-r01#

Once everything is configured and connectivity to device was not lost we can cancel reload process.

lab-r01#
lab-r01#reload cancel
lab-r01#

***
*** --- SHUTDOWN ABORTED ---
***

*Mar  1 03:11:19.415: %SYS-5-SCHEDULED_RELOAD_CANCELLED: Scheduled reload cancelled at 03:11:19 UTC Fri Mar 1 2002
lab-r01#

It is very helpful and can save time and rescue from trouble.