When I got cisco 881w first time it was interesting experience. This device presented new concept which was different to model I knew so far, which is 871w. In 881w router module and wireless module are separated. With that being said, router configuration and access point configuration is separated as well. Also, each module (router and access point) has own IOS:

• c880data-universalk9-mz.152-1.T1 – router IOS
• ap801-k9w7-mx.124-21a.JA1 – access point IOS

As usual, first I connected device to console cable and attempted to configure it. Not being familiar with new concept it was a bit of a failure 🙂 So, eventually had to refer to documentation to find out what’s going on. Problem which came up was, how to access wireless module to configure it or even check if it’s there 🙂

So, finally after I did apply reading ability and spent few minutes with Cisco documentation I was able to access wireless module and configure it to provide wireless services in the air. Here is how that happend:

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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.

When I tried to install Technical Preview of Windows 10 on my Nokia Lumia 820, I ended up with phone which went into infinite loop of updating.

As a result of that phone became unusable and there was no way to bring it back to life without any additional intervention.

To get phone back to life I used fostware available for free from Microsoft:

• Lumia Software Recovery Tool – http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=525568

…and here is how that went…

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I think it’s common problem as Active Directory gets bigger in organizations, control over content of that mission-critical component seems to be lost. Same happened in my place. In addition to that we had to provide information from AD on a regular basis in a form of report. We had no tools to pull all data from AD, process it and present in some readable format. However, I was working with skilled SQL guy who was also very good in Reporting Services. So, I proposed that we can link Active Directory with SQL Server and use Transact-SQL to pull information from AD, process it on SQL and then make it readable and presentable through Reporting Services. That would allow SQL guy to process all information and do all kind of reporting required.

Here are components of our LAB environment before solution went to production:

And below steps how we made SQL Server 2008 R2 to work with Active Directory to use Transact-SQL queries to pull information from directory database.

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In case Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry process takes a lot of your processor, you can easily remove it:

1. Run Command Prompt as Administrator.
2. Execute following commands in Command Prompt:

• sc delete DiagTrack
• sc delete dmwappushservice
• echo “” > C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Diagnosis\ETLLogs\AutoLogger\AutoLogger-Diagtrack-Listener.etl
• reg add “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection” /v AllowTelemetry /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

It is really cool to take a screenshot of the favorite game and have it as wallpaper. Unfortunately usually HUD spoils whole effect.

But… there is a solution 🙂 Turn off HUD.

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In order to create new Forest and promote Windows Server 2012 Core to be Domain Controller for that Forest, first Active Directory Services Role has to be added:

Install-WindowsFeature AD-Domain-Services –IncludeManagementTools

Once Active Directory DOmain Services role is installed we can promote server to be first Domain Controller in the Forest.

Install-ADDSForest -DomainName "lab.corp" -DomainNetbiosName "LAB" -DomainMode Win2008R2 -ForestMode Win2008R2 -InstallDns -Force

And after some time new Forest and Domain Controller is ready to use.

Set of screenshots from old archives. It shows how to setup DAG on Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

If there will be interest in that subject I will put some description around that, just request that in comments.

Otherwise, enjoy step-by-step screenshot guide for DAG on Exchange 2010

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Quick installation how-to for Nagios on openSUSE 11.4 “Celadon” platform. Same procedure applies to other versions of opeSUSE platform. I’m using version 11.4 for my LAB purposes.

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Sometimes when you start machine with BitLocker enabled and same time some storage device was connected to USB port, BitLocker might request Recovery Key. This happens because USB ports is listed on boot device search list. To avoid this type of event best idea is to remove USB from boot search list. However, changing list of boot devices might also trigger BitLocker.

How to deal with this type of situation? Follow steps below:

1. Suspend BitLocker  – command: manage-bde -protectors -disable c:
2. Reboot machine
3. Go to BIOS and remove all USB devices from available boot devices list
4. Boot up to Windows
5. Resume BitLocker – command: manage-bde -protectors -enable c:

After that no more issues with BitLocker during startup when USB storage devices are connected.