The below config is for a pair of Powerconnect 6224s stacked together and connected to a Equallogic SAN used with VMWare hosts. On each switch ports 1-4 are for management (i.e. default vlan), 21-24 are set for vMotion, the rest of the ports are for iSCSI. Jumbo frames are also enabled.

Please also note my other article on 6224s which covers setting up LAGS which are not setup here.

————————————————————-

BJ-FP-SANSW#show run

!Current Configuration:

!System Description “PowerConnect 6224, 3.3.4.1, VxWorks 6.5″

!System Software Version 3.3.4.1

!Cut-through mode is configured as disabled

!

configure

vlan database

vlan 200,300

exit

hostname “BJ-FP-SANSW”

stack

member 1 1

member 2 1

exit

ip address 172.30.1.221 255.255.255.0

ip default-gateway 172.30.1.253

ip routing

interface vlan 200

name “iSCSI”

exit

interface vlan 300

name “vMotion”

exit

username “admin” password 5f4dcc3b5aaXXXXXXXdeb882cf99 level 15 encrypted

!

interface ethernet 1/g1

description ‘Management’

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g2

description ‘Management’

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g3

description ‘Management’

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g4

description ‘Management’

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g5

description ‘EqualLogic’

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g6

description ‘EqualLogic’

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g7

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g8

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g9

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g10

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g11

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g12

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g13

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g14

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g15

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g16

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g17

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g18

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g19

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g20

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g21

description ‘vMotion’

spanning-tree portfast

switchport access vlan 300

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g22

description ‘vMotion’

spanning-tree portfast

switchport access vlan 300

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g23

description ‘vMotion’

spanning-tree portfast

switchport access vlan 300

exit

!

interface ethernet 1/g24

description ‘vMotion’

spanning-tree portfast

switchport access vlan 300

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g1

description ‘Management’

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g2

description ‘Management’

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g3

description ‘Management’

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g4

description ‘Management’

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g5

description ‘EqualLogic’

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g6

description ‘EqualLogic’

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g7

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g8

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g9

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g10

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g11

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g12

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g13

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g14

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g15

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g16

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g15

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g16

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g17

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g18

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g19

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g20

spanning-tree portfast

mtu 9216

switchport access vlan 200

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g21

description ‘vMotion’

spanning-tree portfast

switchport access vlan 300

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g22

description ‘vMotion’

spanning-tree portfast

switchport access vlan 300

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g23

description ‘vMotion’

spanning-tree portfast

switchport access vlan 300

exit

!

interface ethernet 2/g24

description ‘vMotion’

spanning-tree portfast

switchport access vlan 300

exit

exit

—————————————————————————

Due to frankly enormous demand for migration services, my company has setup a dedicated team for Office365 migrations. You can view their website here:-www.migrateoffice365.co.uk . If you are looking for help please get in touch!

New-ManagementRoleAssignment –Name "Impersonation-MyApp" –Role "ApplicationImpersonation" –User serviceaccount@contoso.com

This article explains how to update the dell iDRAC firmware via the iDRAC web interface. This is particularly useful if you running a non-windows OS on the Dell server e.g. VMWare ESXi.

Download the firmware update file

You can download the firmware from here…

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/systems-management/w/wiki/3204.dell-remote-access-controller-drac-idrac.aspx

You want to download the hard drive version

Extract Downloaded File

Extract the downloaded file. The key file is highlighted below

Upload Firmware Update to idrac

Logon to the idrac and go to “remote access” and “update.

Upload the firmware update file (in this example firmimg.d6)

Select next to install the update.

Wait until complete.

If you now close your browser and reconnect to the idrac you will see it looks very different!

This article explains how to update the ADSL firmware on a Cisco 877.

Download File and Put on TFTP server

• You will need to download the latest firmware – you can do this from the Cisco website (if you have a smartnet contract) or you can download from http://www.alcatron.net/cisco877/firmware/. The version I have downloaded is ADSL_ALC_20190.4-0-018.bin
• You will need to rename the file to ADSL_ALC_20190.bin
• You will need to have a TFTP server installed on your PC (such as solarwinds TFTP). Copy the renamed file into your TFTP directory

Upload to Cisco Router

Connect to the router via a console cable. Enter the below commands to upload to the router.

yourname#copy tftp flash

Address or name of remote host [10.10.10.2]?

Source filename [adsl_alc_20190]? adsl_alc_20190.bin

Destination filename [adsl_alc_20190.bin]?

Accessing tftp://10.10.10.2/adsl_alc_20190.bin…

Loading adsl_alc_20190.bin from 10.10.10.2 (via Vlan1): !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[OK - 993760 bytes]

993760 bytes copied in 8.484 secs (117133 bytes/sec)

Reload and Verify

Reload the router. You can then verify the adsl version by entering

show dsl interface

If there is a problem for some reason you can roll back to the original firmware by entering

delete adsl_alc_20190.bin

In this article I am taking advantage of Equallogic replication to move VMWare VMs between data centers.

Step 1 – Setup Equallogic Replication

Please see my other article on how to configure this

Step 2 – Prepare to migrate

To ensure consistency of the VMs I recommend shutting them down and configuring a manual replication to ensure the data in the other data center is a) consistent, and b) up to date

Wait for this replication to complete

Step 3 – Promote the Replica Volume

On the destination Equallogic you need to promote the replica volume to make it an actual volume.

Choose the options below

I recommend giving it the same name as the original to keep the VMWare references the same

Setup the appropriate access permissions for your destination SAN.

Click next and finish. You should now see the volume on the destination SAN.

Step 4 – Add Volume to ESXi Server

On the ESXi server in the destination data center rescan the iSCSI adapter

You should see the volume appear. You can then browse the datastore for the VMX associated with the VM.

Step 5 – Start up VM

Power on the VM and you will probably get the message below.

Select “I copied it” and the VM should startup. Once started you will probably need to change the IP address to that of the new local subnet.

Step 6 – Firewall and DNS

The last step you will probably need to do is make any firewall or DNS changes to reflect the change in location of the VM. All done!

Below is a sample configuration for a Dell Force 10 S4810 switch

• Vlan 700 is for vMotion
• Vlan 777 is for iSCSI traffic
• Ports 56 and 60 are used as an uplink to another force10 S4810

In the below output I have setup an Equallogic using the serial port and putty. Note in this instance I have added the array to an existing group. I also manually set the address of the management interface.

=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= PuTTY log 2012.08.02 10:10:07 =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=

Enter the network configuration for the array.

Member name []: BJ-HQ-EQ3

Network interface [eth0]:

IP address for network interface []: 192.168.100.13

Netmask [255.255.255.0]:

Default gateway [192.168.100.1]:

Initializing interface eth0. This may take a minute…..

Enter the IP address and name of the group that the array will join.

Group name []: BJ-HQ-EQGROUP

Group IP address [192.168.100.10]:

Searching to see if the group exists. This may take a few minutes.

Password for managing group membership:

Do you want to add this array to group BJ-HQ-EQGROUP (yes | no ) [yes]:

Synchronizing configuration data with the group. This may take

several minutes.—-

Saving the configuration…

Waiting for configuration to become active…Done

2821:24:psgd: 2-Aug-2012 09:08:34.510025:psgd_group.cc:17393:INFO::18.2.0:Group member BJ-HQ-EQ3 now active in the group.

The array has successfully become a member of group BJ-HQ-EQGROUP.

You must now configure the RAID set using the Group manager GUI or CLI.

Configuration of the RAID set requires that the raid-level be selected.

2855:32:psgd: 2-Aug-2012 09:08:34.710033:psgd_group.cc:17393:INFO::18.2.0:Group member BJ-HQ-EQ2 now active in the group.

2862:34:psgd: 2-Aug-2012 09:08:34.760035:psgd_group.cc:17393:INFO::18.2.0:Group member BJ-HQ-EQ1 now active in the group.

BJ-HQ-EQGROUP> member select HQ- J-HQ-EQ3

BJ-HQ-EQGROUP(member_BJ-HQ-EQ3)> eth select 1 ipaddress 172.20.1.212 netmask 255

.255.0.0

BJ-HQ-EQGROUP(member_BJ-HQ-EQ3)> eth select 1 up

This port is for group management only. Make sure it is connected to a dedicated management network.

Do you want to enable the management interface? (y/n) [n]y

BJ-HQ-EQGROUP(member_BJ-HQ-EQ3)> sh eth

Name ifType ifSpeed Mtu Ipaddress Status Errors

DCB

—- ————— ———- —- —————————– —— ——

——

eth0 ethernet-csmacd 10 Gbps 9000 192.168.100.13 up 0

off

eth1 ethernet-csmacd 100 Mbps 1500 172.20.1.212 up 0

off

BJ-HQ-EQGROUP(member_BJ-HQ-EQ3)>

In this article I am converting moving a VM hosted on a VMWare ESXi 5.0 server to a Hyper-V 2008 R2 server. Most articles on this assume you will use System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SC-VMM) to migrate VMs, however in smaller environments it is not always practical (or cost effective) to install VMM. Therefore for this example I have used the free starwind converter tool.

Create VHD

First you must copy the vmdk you want to convert to the windows server on which you have the starwind software installed. You will therefore need a lot of free disk space!

Note you may need to open the vSphere client in elevated mode (i.e. use “run as administrator”). Otherwise you may get access denied errors when trying to download the vmdk.

You can download a copy of the starwind converter software here http://www.starwindsoftware.com/converter

Once downloaded and installed open the converter and browse to the vmdk file you have just downloaded. Again I recommend opening starwind in elevated mode.

Then select the appropriate output format. In this instance vhd.

Specify where to store the output file.

Assuming you ran the conversion on a different server to your Hyper-V server you will want to copy the .vhd file across.

Create VM

In Hyper-V manager create a new virtual machine.

Specify the folder where you copied the .vhd.

Set RAM and network as desired.

Specify the .vhd you have copied over

You should now have VM listed in Hyper-V.

You should now have a working VM in HyperV. As with p2v’s I would recommend installing “integration services” and setting IP addresses etc.

You will also want to uninstall VMWare tools if installed on the VM.

THE END

This article explains how to deploy Dell OpenManage using VC update manager. You can use this process to deploy other bits of software (e.g. Dell Equallogic Multipath extension module). In the below example I am adding OpenManage v7 for ESXi 5.0. You will need to have the Update Manager plugin for virtual center installed and configured prior to this.

Step 1 – Add update to patch repository

• You will need to download the Dell OpenManage VIB file from the Dell website.
• Once downloaded you need to upload the Dell OpenManage offline bundle zip file (e.g. Dell_OpenManage_ESXi500_OM700-offline_bundle-643291)

Step 2 – Create baseline

You then need to create a new baseline. In “update manage” under the “baselines and group” select create

Choose the Dell OpenManage VIB

Select next and finish. You should now have your baseline.

Step 3 – Attach Baseline and Scan for Updates

You then need to attached your baseline to the ESXi server you want to update. You should get the below.

Once attached select scan which will determine if any updates need to be applied.

Step 4 – Apply Updates

• Lastly you need to apply the updates. You can choose “remediate” to have the updates applied immediately. Otherwise you can choose stage to have the files copied to the server first. Once you have “remediated” the server it will likely require a reboot.
• Once applied I recommend doing another scan to check that the server now meets the attached baselines.