Evil Emu of Doom » Tech Articles

Windows 7 XP Mode Easy Setup

EvilEmuofDoom — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:26:01 +0000

As I started to use Windows 7 as my primary OS I was very impressed at how well it runs as a whole. Far faster than Vista, prettier and more functional than XP. Oh, and PowerShell 2.0 of course! Out of all the apps I’ve installed so far I’ve only found one that doesn’t run in Win7 and that’s the vSphere client. Unfortunately for me I spend a significant part of my day managing VMware servers so this quickly became a big problem. I could go with the .NET 2.0 hack but I didn’t feel like potentially breaking other apps so I decided to finally check out XP Mode. Needless to say, I was pleasently suprised. In sharing the fun I found that people tend to get hung up on a few small details (mainly VT support) so I decided to put together this little guide.

Enjoy!

Step 1: Download Files

Download the Intel Processor Identification Utility or the AMD Virtualization Compatibility Check Utility

Then go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx and follow the download instructions to download the 32 or 64 bit XP Mode files which for me were:

Windows6.1-KB958559-x86.msu
WindowsXPMode_en-us.exe

Step 2: Verify your processor supports VT and that it’s enabled in BIOS

Install the Intel Processor ID Utility (pedenu22.msi)

Run the utility and click on the “CPU Technologies” Tab.

Ensure that “Intel Virtualization Technology” has the word “Yes” to the right of it.

***I didn’t have any AMD machines available at the time I wrote this article. If you have instructions and perhaps a screenshot of the AMD utility feel free to email me at evilemuofdoom@gmail.com and I’ll add it to this article.***

Verify VT is enabled in the BIOS :

Dell BIOS (Text Version: Latitude, Inspiron, etc)

During “Dell” Splash screen on boot press F2 to enter the BIOS
Using the arrow keys move down to “POST Behavior” and press Enter
Move to “Virtualization” and make sure “Enabled” is highlighted
- If not enabled, press Enter, selected “Enabled” and hit Enter again

Press the “Esc” key, select “Save and Exit” and press Enter

Dell BIOS (GUI Version: Precision, XPS, etc)

During “Dell” Splash screen on boot press F2 to enter the BIOS
Expand the ”Virtualization Support” menu
Select Virtualization
Check the “Enable Intel Virtualization Technology” checkbox
Click Apply
Click Exit

*HP and Lenovo info from Microsoft.com:

HP BIOS:

Press ESC when prompted to enter BIOS
Press F10 to configure BIOS
Use the arrow keys to scroll down to “System Configuration”
Select “Virtualization Technology” and press Enter
Select “Enabled” and press Enter
Press F10 to Save and Exit
Select “Yes” and hit Enter

Lenovo BIOS:

Press the blue ThinkVantage key when prompted on boot
Press F1 to enter BIOS Setup Utility
Use the arrow keys to scroll down to “Config” and press Enter
Select CPU and press Enter
Select “Intel Virtualization Technology” and press Enter
Select “Enabled” and press Enter
Press Enter to continue
Press F10 to Save and Exit
Select “Yes” and press Enter

Step 3: Install Virtual PC and XP Mode

Install Windows 7 XP Mode Virtual PC Component:

Run Windows6.1-KB958559-x86.msu (or Windows6.1-KB958559-x64.msu for 64-bit)
Select Yes to reboot

Install Windows 7 XP Mode

Run WindowsXPMode_en-us.exe
Follow basic install instructions

Once XP is running, install an application like you normally would in XP and it will automatically create a shortcut on the Start Menu of the Windows 7 machine. Here is an example using the VMware vSphere client which currently does not run in Windows 7:

After your application is installed, close the XP VM by clicking the X in the upper right (it will notify you that the Virtual PC is being hibernated).

Now, go ahead and open your Application from the Windows 7 Start Menu. You should see a dialog box like this while it loads the VPC in the background and opens your Application:

Although technically it’s running in a Virtual PC, XP Mode does a pretty good job of making it look like the Application is running natively:

Comments, corrections, and/or additions are always welcome!

VMware + PowerShell = AWESOMENESS!!!

EvilEmuofDoom — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:26:34 +0000

In my 2nd “real” powershell script I have decided to explore the sheer awesomeness that is PowerCLI. Having recently upgraded a client to vSphere I suddenly had a bunch of VMs with outdated tools that needed to be upgraded including one host with 60 VM’s (that’s a lot of right-clicking and installing tools…). So, PowerShell comes to the rescue again! This script connects to a VI3 or vSphere host, queries all running VMs for tools status and runs the tools update on out of date VMs with a one minute delay. Enjoy!

As always, comments, suggestions, corrections and requests are always welcome

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#************************************************************************************
#
# NAME: UpdateVMTools.ps1
#
# AUTHOR: Allen Oliver
#
# EMAIL: admin@evilemuofdoom.com
#
# COMMENT:
# This script will login to a single VI3 or vSphere Host, make a list of VM's with
# "Out of Date" Tools and update them (reboot required). It also creates a VERY
# simple log file that mainly provides a list of VM's that were/weren't updated
# Feel free to modify or use this script in any way. Comments, Suggestions,
# and/or Corrections are always welcome!
#
# SPECIAL THANKS!:
# Thanks goes out to Hal (www.halr9000.com) and LucD who's blog / forum posts
# provided the majority of information needed as well as some of the command
# content required for this script. If you haven't already, please checkout
# http://halr9000.com and search for LucD in the VMware Community forums.
#
# VERSION HISTORY:
# 1.0 - 8/05/2009 - Wrote and tested script
# 1.1 - 8/19/2009 - Removed "noreboot" option (no longer a valid install flag)
# 1.2 - 8/20/2009 - Fixed Name output to logfile
#
#************************************************************************************

cls
#Prompt for VI Host and login credentials, set logfile name to VMToolsUpdateLog-MM-DD-YYYY.log in C:\Scripts folder
$VIhost = Read-Host "Enter the name of the VI Host Server you would like to connect to"
$Cred = Get-Credential
$logFile = "C:\Scripts\VMToolsUpdateLog-$((get-date).ToString('MM-dd-yyyy')).log"
$Time = (Get-Date -format g)
cls
Add-Content "$Time - VMWare Tools Update started on $VIhost" -Path $logFile -Passthru

#Connect to VI Host and if connection fails, report $Error to log file and stop script
Connect-VIServer -Server $VIhost -Credential $Cred
If($? -eq $false){
Add-Content "$Time - $Error" -Path $logFile
Add-Content "Connection to $VIhost FAILED" -Path $logFile -Passthru
Add-Content "----------------------------------------------------------------------------------" -Path $logFile
Break
}

#Get list of VM's that are Powered ON and have "out of date" VMWare Tools installed
$VMs = get-vm | Where-Object { $_.powerstate -eq "PoweredON" } | foreach { get-view $_.ID } | Where-Object { $_.guest.toolsstatus -match "toolsOld" }

#If it returns no VM's with out of date tools write to log file and stop script
IF($VMs -eq $null){
Add-Content "$Time - VMWare Tools are up to date for all VM's currently powered on" -Path $logFile -Passthru
Add-Content "Completed on $Time" -Path $logFile -Passthru
Add-Content "----------------------------------------------------------------------------------" -Path $logFile
break
}

#Update VMware Tools and log results
foreach($vm in $VMs) {
$Name = $vm.Name
$vm.UpgradeTools_Task('/s /v/qn')
IF ($?) {
Add-Content "$Time - VMWare Tools Upgrade succuessfully started for $Name" -Path $logFile -PassThru
}
Else {
Add-Content "$Time - VMWare Tools Upgrade FAILED for $Name" -Path $logFile -PassThru
Add-Content "$Time - $Error" -Path $logFile -Verbose
}
#60 Second Delay between installs
Start-sleep -s 60
}

#Log script completion
Add-Content "Completed on $Time" -Path $logFile -Passthru
Add-Content "----------------------------------------------------------------------------------" -Path $logFile

Learning PowerShell a.k.a. “How to change 50 local admin passwords in 2 minutes”

EvilEmuofDoom — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 05:57:42 +0000

When someone leaked a local administrator account password to roughly 50 web servers in our hosted environment my first reaction was @#$%*&^! because they’re not on a domain and I knew that meant I would be spending the next hour changing passwords. So, I decided that I can’t put it off anymore… I need to learn PowerShell. After reading the Intro paragraph of the dust-covered PowerShell book sitting on my desk and 45 minutes of scouring the web I was ready to go! The script prompts for the username who’s password you want to change, the new password, the username/password of the account logging in to actually make the change. It uses a list of servers called ServerList.txt (I didn’t incorporate any kind of AD query since this was used for non-domain servers). I’ve also included simple but informative screen output as well as some simple error checking and logging.

So without further delay here is my first PowerShell script:

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#************************************************************************************
#
# NAME: AdminPWreset.ps1
#
# AUTHOR: Allen Oliver
#
# EMAIL: admin@evilemuofdoom.com
#
# COMMENTS:
# ***NOTE*** Requires Powershell 2.0! (I think... it's possible I might have fixed
# this but I no longer have Powershell 1.0 installed anywhere to test)
#
# This script takes entries in a text file called ServerList.txt and resets the
# password to the specified local account (Administrator by default). It also
# provides a simple dated log file.
#
# SPECIAL THANKS!:
# Thanks goes out to the numerous contributors at poshcode.com!
# Since installing Windows 7 on my laptop I lost my reference links :( If you
# think your site contributed to this script, let me know so I can give proper
# credit.
# Thanks @octopauly for the "–assecurestring" parameter to mask PW!
#
# VERSION HISTORY:
# 1.0 - 7/28/2009 - Wrote and tested script
# 2.0 - 8/3/2009 - Added logging and comments
#
#************************************************************************************

cls
#Hide errors from console, set logfile name to PWChange-MM-DD-YYYY.log
$ErrorActionPreference = "SilentlyContinue"
$logFile = "PWChange-$((get-date).ToString('MM-dd-yyyy')).log"

#Prompt for Username who's PW will be changed
$UserName = Read-Host "Enter the local username who's password you want changed (Leave blank for Administrator)"

#If username is left blank, set to "Administrator"
If($UserName -match $null){ $UserName = "Administrator"}

#Prompt for new PW
$NewPW = Read-Host –assecurestring "Enter the new password"

#Get login credentials
$AdminUser = Read-Host "Please enter the username used to login to the servers (Leave blank for Administrator)"
If($AdminUser -match $null){ $AdminUser = "Administrator"}
$AdminPW = Read-Host –assecurestring "Enter Password"
cls

$Time = (Get-Date -format g)
Add-Content "$Time - Script started" -path $logFile -passthru

#Set pw for each server in ServerList.txt with simple error checking and logging.
foreach($Server in get-content ServerList.txt){
$x = 0
$myuser = new-Object System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry("WinNT://$Server/$UserName,user",$AdminUser,$AdminPW)
If($?){$x = $x + 1}
Else{$x = 0}
$myuser.psbase.invoke("SetPassword",$NewPW)
If($?){$x = $x + 1}
Else{$x = 0}
$myuser.psbase.CommitChanges()
If($?){$x = $x + 1}
Else{$x = 0}
$Time = (Get-Date -format g)
If($x -eq 3){
Add-Content "$Time - Password Reset was Successful for $Server" -path $logFile -passthru
}
Else{
Write-Host "$Time - Password Reset FAILED for $Server" -ForegroundColor black -BackgroundColor red
Add-Content "$Time - Password Reset FAILED for $Server" -path $logFile
}
}

$Time = (Get-Date -format g)
Add-Content "Completed on $Time. Results logged to $logFile" -path $logFile -passthru
Add-Content "-------------------------------------------------------------------------------" -path $logFile -passthru
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Press any key to continue..."
$x = $Host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey("NoEcho,IncludeKeyDown")

All in all I think it’s not bad for my first PowerShell script. It could be a little prettier or arranged in functions but it’ll do for now. It was a great learning experience that has led me into using PowerShell to perform administrative tasks in VMware, but that’s another post entirely . Feedback, corrections, or suggestions are welcome.

Update: Thanks @octopauly for the following VERY helpful suggestion via Twitter

@evilemuofdoom By adding the –assecurestring parameter you can mask the data entered. Good practice with passwords. http://tr.im/vYC2

How to build a Quad-Core Xeon VMware ESXi Server for less than an ‘82 Civic!

EvilEmuofDoom — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:06:35 +0000

Not long ago I was in need of a decent Virtual Lab machine and my only budget was whatever I could get from selling off some old computer / networking equipment that was just taking up shelf space in the laundry room and seriously annoying my wife. The really tricky part was also meeting the following criteria:

4 Cores, 6-8GB of RAM, 500GB+ Storage
Meets the NAZI-like requirements of the ESXi HCL (unofficially if not officially)
Has BIOS enabled virtualization support (for Citrix XenServer)
64-bit processor(s)
Name brand for easy to find replacement parts (Dell, HP, IBM)
Cheap enough not to piss off my wife (ie: not a damn dime over what I got from selling my old equipment!)

I already had two 500GB SATA drives sitting around from an old server pull so I mostly just needed a decent chassis with CPU and RAM. Sadly, even building a decent desktop for this ranged anywhere from $400 to $800 since I wanted to go Quad-Core with at least 8GB of RAM. Then I stumbled upon some REALLY cheap PowerEdge 860’s on eBay (yes, I know… eBay…). So, I did my homework and found that although it was LGA775 it WOULD accept the Quad-Core Xeon models X3210, X3220, and X3230 as well as 8GB of RAM. Also, since it takes unbuffered ECC RAM it’s a lot cheaper than FB-DIMMs. So for the price of a cheapo desktop I could have a “real” server. The PE860 was going for $249obo so I told the seller that I didn’t need the two 250GB HDDs and the 2GB of RAM and would offer $200 for just the Chassis with the processor (since I needed the heat sink) and he accepted. I then purchased an X3220, RAM and Slim IDE DVD-ROM from Newegg. I ran into an issue with the DVD-ROM where I had purchased a slim IDE drive but didn’t have an IDE to Slim adapter and had to harvest one out of another old server I had lying around. Because I already had 2 HDDs my total cost was $515 which was only $15 more than selling off the Cisco ASA5505 and two old servers (just don’t tell the wife). So, if you’re looking for a small (1U) super-low-budget 64bit VMware server that actually performs, here is a detailed list of components:

Component:	Purchase Location:	Cost:
Server Chassis – Dell PowerEdge 860	eBay	$200 – $250
CPU – Intel Xeon X3220 Quad-Core 2.4GHz	Newegg – Link	$200
RAM – 4 x 2GB Unbuffered ECC PC2-5300	Newegg – Link	$116
HDD – 1TB SATA	Newegg	$79 – $99
CD/DVD – Slim SATA DVD-RW (if your server doesn’t have one)	Newegg	$49

Total

$595 – $710

Additional items of note:

Don’t let the CD/DVD ROM catch you off guard! Most of the cheaper 860’s available DON’T come with one so you have 3 options:
1. Find a PE 860 with a CD-Rom
2. Use one of the two onboard SATA connectors to install a slim SATA DVD-RO
3. Buy an IDE slim drive and find a slim to 3.5″ IDE adapter board (I did this and was a PITA since they’re usually slim to 2.5″ adapters
Try to negotiate with the seller on the PE 860, I was able to get mine for only $200 by telling the seller I didn’t need the RAM and two 250GB HDD’s it came with (original price was $250 with a Pentium D processor)
I SPECIFICALLY mention the Xeon X3220 because you’re limited to LGA775 at 1066MHZ BUS ONLY!!! Therefore, the best bang for the buck comes out to be the X3220 since the X3210 is the same price and the X3230 is $299
The performance bottleneck in this server is definitely the HDD, if you have a slightly higher budget you can find Dell SAS5i/R cards for $50-$100 which will give you RAID 1/0 and let you use faster SAS drives instead of SATA
The 860 was available with 2 different riser cards (make sure you know which one you’re getting!):
1. 2 PCIe 8x slots
2. 1 PCIe 8x slot and 1 PCIx slo

***This is good to know because if you are adding peripherals the PCIx versions are sometimes cheaper***

Although all the onboard hardware WILL work with both ESXi 4.0 and Citrix XenServer 5.5, the onboard SATA controller is not compatible with ESXi 3.5 or 3.0.
If anyone wants me to test out ESX (Not ESXi) version 3.0, 3.5, or 4.0 let me know.