Restart the VMWare Management Service

Sometimes VMWare Virtual Infrastructure Client reports that VMs are disconnected. The solution is usually to restart the service that the VI client is connecting to by SSHing into the host machine and restarting the management service by running "service mgmt-service restart".

For more info, check out:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1003631&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&dialogID=24868783&stateId=1%200%2024872576

Cisco VLANs

To add a VLAN with trunking already set up, log in to the VTP server:

1. configure terminal
2. vlan x (where x is your VLAN name to allow the VLAN to be trunked)
3. name y (where y is the name you'd like to give your VLAN)
   

Which pid corresponds to which AppPool?

In troubleshooting IIS 6.0 performance issues, it's helpful to use Application Pools (AppPool) to isolate web sites to their own instance of w3wp.exe . Once you perfmon the w3wp.exe instances, you'll need to know which instance corresponds to which pool. The command you'll need is:

cscript c:\windows\system32\iisapp.vbs

Network Stumbler

Cam told me about a great simple utility for surveying wireless networks: http://www.netstumbler.com/

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Error Code: 0x643

In setting up 2 new XP installations, I was getting a failed Windows Update on .NET 3.0. The fix ended up being to install .NET 3.0 manually from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en

Can't Remote Desktop

There are many reasons why you can't remote desktop to a PC, but if you notice that you can remote desktop to a computer from location A, but NOT location B, then check your Windows firewall group policy for your remote desktop policy. You can restrict which subnets will accept remote desktop messages from at Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | Network/Network Connections/Windows Firewall/Domain Profile.

Stale DHCP Reservation

When I tried to PXE boot a test PC, I couldn't get a DHCP address because there this PCs MAC had a duplicate DHCP reservation. The error I got was "ProxyDHCP service did not reply to request on port 4011". Removing the DHCP reservation for this MAC solved the problem. Thankfully, Windows 2003 Server DHCP labelled the reservation BAD_ADDRESS for me.