Emulating a WAN with WANem

WANem will serve us to emulate wide area networks or WAN's 😉 full name is Wide Area Network emulator, is a free product of Sourceforge, we can download it in ISO to install on a computer or in virtual appliance format to mount it on a VMware machine. Thanks to this application we will be able to emulate a WAN to test a product/technology in our laboratories, The good thing is that it can be parameterized quite thoroughly.

Renaming a Windows Server Domain Controller 2008

In this document, we will discuss the proper steps for renaming a Microsoft Windows Server-based domain controller 2008, I know it's something unusual, but we will have to take it into account for when it is time, since there are several reasons that come to mind ;). We can run this wizard through GUI or via command line, I will choose this last option since it will be valid for Windows Server servers 2008 Core. We will take into account that if the server has the role of Certificate Authority or Certificate Authority (AC) We will not be able to change the name.

Connecting USB Devices in VMware ESX Environments

I have wanted to publish this document for a long time, where with a simple software called USB over Network (HTTP://www.usb-over-network.com/usb-over-network.html) We can share USB devices over the Ethernet network, This is, We can have on the physical server (in the VirtualCenter or VCB x example) a server with multiple USB adapters or extending it with PCI devices… plug the USB devices needed by the virtual machines into this hardware and share it over the network; in the VMs a client software is installed that will make them connect to this USB server. Apart from this software there are also other solutions, but personally they are not as fast as they are. If we are looking for a hardware solution I would review AnywhereUSB (HTTP://www.digi.com/products/usb/anywhereusb.jsp).

ClearType on XenApp

ClearType is a feature designed by Microsoft to improve the user experience and make reading text on monitors more comfortable (especially on LCDs), by smoothing the outline of the text. This feature could not be enabled in XenApp ICA sessions 4.5 running on Windows 2003, Microsoft explains the problem as follows: “The option to enable the Font smoothing feature is not available in the Windows Server version of RDC 2003 that was published. Windows Server 2003 disables the Font smoothing feature on all remote connections by default. These connections include connections established through RDC 6.0.”

Convert VMs to XenServer

If we want to convert VMware Server VMs, VMware ESX, Microsoft Virtual Server or Microsoft Virtual PC to Xen Virtual Appliance Format (XVA) we must use the v2xva Virtual Disk Migration Utility application (a V2V app). We go to their official website and download the binary or the sources depending on our OS. (HTTP://tx.downloads.xensource.com/products/v2xva/), be careful that it is only useful to convert virtual machines with Windows from S.O. client and run it from a Windows XP/2003 R2 or Vista as administrator.

Using XenAppPrep 2.0 to clone XenApp servers 4.5 and XenApp 5.0

There is a utility that we can use to clone Citrix XenApp servers 4.5 o Citrix XenApp 5.0, called XenAppPrep, currently in its version 2.0. Its official website (HTTP://support.citrix.com/article/CTX116063), we can download it from AKI. We can use it to create Citrix Provisioning Server vDisks (HTTP://www.bujarra.com/?p=763) or to create templates from XenServer or VMware ESX for example. As well as to clone it on a regular basis with a Ghost or whatever…

Resize System Disk in Windows 2008

Yes!!! ya por fín Microsoft nos deja redimensionar las particiones de nuestros discos duros, sean particiones del sistema o no. En estos breves pasos vemos cómo se podría realizar. Es algo bastante interesante ya que si queremos crear o redimensionar particiones o volúmenes, antes debíamos usar aplicaciones de terceros, especialmente es interesante, ya que para realizar copias de seguridad del estado del sistema de nuestro equipo, debemos realizarlo en otro disco duro o partición.

Installing Nagios 3.x

We are going to perform a Nagios installation starting from a Debian Etch installed without anything. With Nagios we will be able to monitor any equipment that has a snmp service installed and configured, although they can be monitored by other means that we will explain later.

Cloning Windows Server 2008

In this document, describes how to clone a Windows server 2008, using the Sysprep utility, as NewSID development has been discontinued. First of all, I show the official links of the application: What is Sysprep: HTTP://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721940.aspx How Sysprep Works: HTTP://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766514.aspx Command-line parameters: HTTP://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721973.aspx I think that today everyone knows what Sysprep is and that its use is mandatory whenever we are going to clone any machine, whether it's a server or a post, whether physical or virtual, all machines must have a different SID, this is what Sysprep does, prepare the machine with a different SID and give us the possibility to change the name.