HP c7000 and Updating the iLO firmware.

I am i the process of rolling out a HP c7000 Blade Enclosure with 12 new Servers and migrating old machines to new Blades and into the HyperV World and a MSA 2012i for Backups and Virtuals. One thing I ran into was I had the secondary OA have a Firmware mismatch with the Primary and I could not get it to Sync with the Primary OA. So I downloaded the latest Firmware for the Enclosure and checked the notes on it and it required iLo firmware 1.78 from HP. I checked all the servers and none of them had 1.78 now what do I do as 10 of the Blades are not running and have no OS on them. The 2 that I have running I did those updates and then went to searching.

What I found was you can use the OA Command line to update your Firmware on your Blades with them shutoff. So I had a little ftp server I turned on and dropped the iLo2_178.bin file into the site and then opened a command prompt and telneted into the Primary OA and ran this command.

Update iLo 1 ftp://servername or ip address/iLo2_178.bin  hit enter and away it went. Just as easy as that it updated the firmware and I didn’t have to turn the machines on and install a OS. The number 1 after Update iLo is the Blade you are wanting to update or if you want to do the whole EnclosureBlades you would put All instead of the Blade number.  Or you do 2 and then 3 and you get the picture.  Ftp and HTTP and a Tftp server will also do the trick for presenting the Firmware to the Blade.

Til Later just Roger

Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM Upgrade.

Ok the title is misleading because the offical line is that you can not upgrade from Windows 7 RC to the RTM which is true kind of. I know if you call in with problems you would probably have a hard time getting support if you did that. But for those of you really wanting to try this if you do pop in your DVD and see what you get. You will get a error that this won’t happen Format and reload like a good little worker bee.

But for those of you who like to push and really have a hard time taking no you can’t do that for a answer the answer is with a little hack you can make the Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM work. My favorite network Admin Randy found this little hack you do and things will go. I did the same thing with a Windows 2003 Server to SBS 2003 Server upgrade when I accidently ran the wrong version of  CD on the Source machine Prepping the Forest and Domain and had the wrong AD Version. That was a matter of editing the ini file that does the version check. Same thing here.

Copy your Windows 7 TRM install DVD over to a folder on your Drives and then go into Sources and Edit the cversion.ini and change the MinClient value to 7000. Also note that you can only upgrade to the Windows 7 RTM as that is what the RC installed. So if you are feeling like taking a chance here you go knock yourself out but if it causes problems you are on your own. That is why I have a backup of my original Vista machine before I upgraded to Windows 7 RC and now upgraded my laptop to the RTM. It worked for me and it worked for Randy but there is always that time that it won’t.

Til Later just Roger

I know bad again

Well it has been a while since I last posted but as a person stated in their blog about why that haven’t posted in a while “Life gets in the way once in a while” Which is true for me between work and going through the 20000 details of what we are going to do in our new addition here at home and vacations and all that fun stuff. OK maybe not 20000 but it sure seems like it. I have a lot to blog about on things I have run into lately so more on that coming soon.

Til later just Roger

Smartphone Part 2

As I was working today I thought more on the guy giving up his Smartphone for the month which lead my mind to wander to the people out there that along with their Smartphone they are texting and twittering and emailing and talking on their cell phones and surfing the web and IMing it makes you wonder how do they get anything done work wise. Just think if each one of those took 10 minutes a hour to do that it would add up to 60 minutes and I know it is all about staying connected and Social networking with customers and others but what about work? If you are spending 60 minutes a hour doing all of the above when does something really get done. Or is work something you do in the evenings and not working and suppose to be relaxing and unplugging or are you stuck in some kind of cruel mindless loop that you can’t figure out how to get out of?  

My mind still thinks back to that commercial where the guy was passing out airline tickets to his group of people that worked for him and they was going to visit everyone of there customers. Where does all of this get you does it really help your business? Or is it another thing that has taken away from your real business. Or does it help you stay connected to the people you are trying to sell to and do business with. I just read a email that our company sends out and on the just for Laughs cartoon that was on there and one office worker was talking to another ” As soon as I Text, IM, Tweet and update my status to Getting right down to it. I will get right down to it. This reminds me of the let’s have a meeting to have a meeting.

Funny that was to come out while I was typing about this.  Hmm a case of Dejavu “Was that the same Black cat or one just like it”

I read a article that had some numbers off a Poll done on which is more important LinkedIn or Twitter and it was some interesting reading. Here read away if you want too. So many questions and so little time.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/poll_business_people_say_twitter_more_important_th.php

Til later just Roger

Windows 7

Well I have been running Windows 7 now for about a month and have not had one bit of problem with the OS. My laptop is more responsive even when I have many apps or RDP Sessions open it just keeps going. How has your experience been? I am liking what I am seeing with this and for any of you that went through the Vista Beta you know how much fun was had by all there as some machines worked very well and some had some problems but that was usually because of not enough memory in the computer.

Til later just Roger

Have you ever Googled Yourself?

I never had till tonight. I am not one that likes to speak much in front of people which my boss so likes to do to me which I have wrote about before. But I googled my name on a lark and there is someone out there with my name that is a motivational speaker. I guess he got all of my liking to talk. The only talking I can do is front of a crowd is when I was in front of the firing squad er I mean the group of us on vacation and we was having a time figuringout where to go to eat. But his story was pretty unique and it caught my attention and was some pretty good reading. Heck I guess he motivated me without even knowing it to read his story. I did show up on Google on page 4 but the rest of the pages before me was on the one that likes to talk. Guess I will just do my talking this way.

Til later just Roger

SBS 2008 Best Practice Analyzer

SBS 2008 Best Practice Analyzer  is a good tool to use on your existing SBS 2008 Servers just to see how healthy the server is. Do you do this? I know I haven’t but am thinking this is something that needs to be done at your customer sites when you are doing something for them and could be of added value to you and your customer and I will be doing as we move more of our customers to SBS 2008. If it finds something you look like a star to your customer and if not you have the peace of mind that things are working like they should be and also it is something you would be running when you do a SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 server migration or even a SBS 2008 to SBS 2008 Server migration. You can download it here so give it a shot see if your server is running like it should be.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=86A1AA32-9814-484E-BD43-3E42AEC7F731&displaylang=en

Til later just Roger

SBS 2003 Old Hardware to New Hardware

I wonder is it just getting that easy for me to move a SBS 2003 server from old hardware to new hardware or am I just getting the process down better?  It use to be we would bring the new server in join the domain and then make it a DC and then once you had all of that unplug it off the network and then upgrade the server to SBS 2003. Move data and then export email and bring it in and then re-point the workstations once you bring the new server in the network for Exchange and such.

Not so much anymore as I have taken a job that use to take 2 days to one that I did last night in 4.5 hours. The last one I did this way took 6.5 hours so something is going on here. Basically I use one of my favorite tools and that is Shadow Protect IT version to backup the server and then use it to restore onto the new hardware and loading the new RAID driver in the process of restore it is just that easy. Why waste 2 days when you can cut this down to half a day? Well some would say when you are cutting down billable time you could have had then and that is hurting you. What I say is you are becoming more efficient and can do more jobs. Who is the customer going to remember? The one that took 2 days to do the work or the one that did it in 4.5 with no problems and saved them money and was still done properly and in a good manner? You tell me but I bet they remember you and what you did for them and their bottom line.

Til later just Roger

Life without a Smartphone

I was doing some reading getting myself back into the thinking stage from the stage of non thinking of gee what ride do I ride next and do I have that deep fried Oreo or not to the real world of migrations and everyday IT stuff. But it was a guy about to undertake a month without his smartphone and would he be able to do it and still move forward with what he had on his plate and use just a plain ol ordinary cell phone.

Which lead me to think awww I just went 2 weeks without one but that was in a different world but it sure was quite. Could you do this? I know most will say there is no way you could operate in today’s world but is that true? You still have your web access to your email from a computer which is basically the same thing as your smartphone other than the phone will ring right at that moment that you have a great troubleshooting thought going on with your current problem and then that goes away as you answer the phone and listen to the problem someone else is stuck on at the moment. Does it really help you or add more to a crazy busy day also? Sure if you are stuck in some meeting it is a way to stay connected but also you find for the most part you have Internet Access for your laptop from this location already so is it helping?

I know in this down economy that companies are looking for ways to trim costs, is it a good idea for all in the company to have one of these or is this a place they can trim costs and still not hurt themselves by this action.  Do you really need all those bells and whistles for all or is this some place you can save yourself some money. I guess that is something that your company has to decide for themselves and how they do things with a smartphone. Myself I have one but I really don’t see it helping me with the way I work other than I don’t have to open a IE session. I just saved myself a double click and typing. Well there is something to that I hate typing but that is me. But I was a phone call away for the most part anyways.

But could you make it without one? I know funny what a clear head back from vacation will make you think of and actually type about but it made me wonder and takes note to self don’t forget about not liking to type so what the heck are you doing here but typing.

Til later just Roger

SBS 2008 and 2008 SP2

Well I bit the bullet and installed the Windows 2008 SP2 off the Windows Update of the SBS 2008 Server. And I did not have any problems with the install everything looks like it is still working and I will be doing some more testing to make sure everything is a go but from first glance it all looks good to me. I will be doing my 2008 HyperV Server soon but from what I seen here this should be ok but will let you know.

Til later just Roger