TekRanch Blog

Restart Management Agent on ESXi.

Run the following commands to restart the management agent on an ESXi host.

/etc/init.d/hostd restart

/etc/init.d/vpxa restart

Get Last Backup Field in vCenter with Powershell.

#This is a little Powershell script that gets the last time a vm in the Cluster that it has been backed up. Emails out if it has not been backed up in 14days.

$daystoalert = 14

$vCenter = "vCenter server name"

add-pssnapin vmware.vimautomation.core

connect-viserver $vCenter

$today_date = get-date

$all_vms = get-cluster "Cluster Name" | get-vm | Sort-Object Name

foreach($vm in $all_vms)

{

#check $vm for null?

Try {

$last_backup_date = $vm. CustomFields.Get_Item( "Last Backup")

$last_backup_converted = get-date $last_backup_date

$days_with_no_backups = New-TimeSpan -Start $last_backup_converted .DateTime -End $today_date. DateTime

if ($days_with_no_backups .Days -gt $daystoalert)

{

Write-output " $($vm. Name),$( $days_with_no_backups.Days) "

}

Catch {

# VM was never backed up gets caught in this exception.

Write-output " $($vm. Name), Never backed up"

}

Delete files in a folder and subfolders of files based on last access time

Get-ChildItem -path "D:\ftp.archived.logs" -Recurse | Where-Object{$_.LastAccessTime -lt (get-date).AddDays(-90)} | remove-item

add -whatif at the end of remove-item to show what will get removed.

Enable/Disable SMBv1,2,3 in Windows

Disable form repost on browser refresh

Here's a trick I found to prevent a form repost on browser refresh

        protected void Page_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

                     ViewState["Check_Page_Refresh"] = Session["Check_Page_Refresh"];

}

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

            if (!IsPostBack)

            {

                Session["Check_Page_Refresh"] = DateTime.Now.ToString();

            }

}

protected void btn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

if (ViewState["Check_Page_Refresh"].ToString() == Session["Check_Page_Refresh"].ToString())

{

<your main code you want to execute once on button click here>

}

}

Reset vmware ESX evaluation license.

VMWare ESXi license expires in 60 days. You can reset that 60 days by doing the following.

-ssh into the ESXi host.

-rm -f /etc/vmware/vmware.lic /etc/vmware/license.cfg

-reboot

SQL does not allow modifying of table.

If you've dealt with MS SQL before, by default, it does not allow you to modify a table without you dropping it and recreating it. It's kind of annoying. Here's a way to get around it. Do this at your own risk of corrupting your database.

-Go to the Tools menu -> Options

-Click on "Designers" on the left menu tree

-Uncheck "Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation"

VMWare - Power ON a vm from the command line

To power on a virtual machine from the command line:

-List the inventory ID of the virtual machine with the command:

vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms |grep <vm name>

Note: The first column of the output shows the vmid.

-Check the power state of the virtual machine with the command:

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate <vmid>

-Power-on the virtual machine with the command:

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on <vmid>

VSS Error while running system state/bare metal restore backup using SCDPM.

When running a system state/bare metal restore backup using SCDPM, you may encounter a VSS error leading to a protection point inconsistency. This is due to automounter being disabled and the system restore partition being offline in disk management. The cause of this may be a third party snapshot tool that leverages VSS such as Netapp's SnapDrive. In order to get SCDPM to do a system state/bare metal restore, you will need to do the following steps. Note: this works for VMWare converter as well if you're getting

System Partition is offline. No drive letters

1. log into the server you want to protect.

2. open a command prompt

3. type "diskpart"

4. type "automount" to display the current state of automount. If its disabled, open another command prompt and run "diskpart> automount enable" to enable it.

5. in diskpart, get a list of volumes by typing "list volume".

6. find the system restore partition and note down the volume number.

7. type "select volume (x)" where x is the volume number of the system restore partition.

8. type "online volume" to bring the volume online.

9. rerun the SCDPM consistency check and it should be successful.

Before