Powershell: Verifying the vCenter Services are running

This past weekend, I was unable to log into our vCenter server.   To quickly get the status of vCenter Services, I ran the following commands.

get-service -cn YourvCenterServer -DisplayName VMware*

 Unfortunately, the vCenter SSO service has a different service naming convention (gsv is an alias for get-service):

gsv -cn YourvCenterServer -DisplayName vCenter*

It turns out, the volumes associated with the sql server housing the vCenter DB were being moved from the Equallogic to the Compellent array....

Graphics Card Fix: How to Revive a Misbehaving Card

AKA Oven fix, Oven mod, Oven trick, "Baking your Video Card"

I recently had issues with an EVGA 8800 GTX Graphics card.  There was absolutely no video output, just a black screen upon power on.

I replaced the power supply with a new 700 Watt unit, updated the BIOs, and confirmed the problem followed different know good computers. 

A Google search showed a few cards (and XBOX 360s) that were repaired by cooking it in an OVEN!

Well, I had nothing to loose, so I gave it a go.  I was surprised that IT WORKED! 

My "Non-Scientific" explanation - Apparently, over time, the tiny electrical connections/solder begins to crack and no longer makes contact to the components on the board. Baking the card melts the solder and "reforms" the contact.  Below are the steps I performed.  

***Perform the following fix at your own risk.  I am not responsible for any damage or injury while performing the steps below***

1. Remove the fan and heat sink from the card.  On the EVGA 8800 GTX there were 

11 x large screws

2 x black screws near the exhaust port.

1 x power wires to the GPU fan

2.  Clean off the old thermal paste using isopropyl alcohol.

3. Place aluminum foil on a cooking sheet.  I rolled up 4 aluminum foil "balls" to prop the card off the cooking sheet.  Keep GPU side up.  (Ball placement didn't seem to matter.  Just as long as the card was horizontal and not sitting directly on the cooking sheet)

4.  Preheat oven to 385 degrees.  Place the card into the oven for 8 minutes.  Use fans to ventilate the area.  I used a fan and channeled the air out an open window. 

5. After 8 minutes, crack open the door and let stand for 20 minutes to allow the card to slowly cool down in the oven. 

6. After 20 minutes, removed the card from the oven and allow it to cool completely.

7. Clean the gpu and fan mating surface one last time.

8. Place a small amount of thermal paste on the GPU.  I typically spread the paste using a sandwich bag.

9.  Reinstall the fan/heatsink back onto the card.

10.  Reinstall the graphics card back into the computer and test functionality. 

Thanks it! Good luck, the procedure above worked for me.  As vendors always say "Your mileage may very"

Remove-ADComputer - The directory service can perform the requested operation only on a leaf object

I was performing server account clean up in AD an received the following error when running the Remove-ADComputer PowerShell cmdlet.

The directory service can perform the requested operation only on a leaf object

 

 It turns out, this server was not a leaf object.  Since it had child objects the Remove-ADObject cmdlet must be used to remove it from the domain. 

Running the following command removed the server from the domain:

get-adcomputer -identity servername | remove-adobject -recursive

Commvault Simpana 10 Software Install Failure

AKA: How to install .NET 3.5 on Windows Server 2012.

Yesterday, the installation of the Commvault File System and MSSQL Server agents failed on a new Windows Server 2012 VM.   I turns out, the agents require .Net 3.5 and the 3.0 and 2.0 package. 

I went to install the Feature and received the following warning:

"One or more installation elections are missing source files on destinati..."

The .Net 3.5 install files are not loaded by default. To resolve this issue, attach the Windows 2012 install media to the VM and run the following command in Powershell with elevated rights (substitute in the appropriate cd-rom drive letter):

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /all /featurename:NetFX3 /Source:X:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

After the install completes, disconnect the cd rom from the VM and restart the server:

I reran the agent install and it completed successfully: