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Crosier Bike Ride

23 Jun

Decided to ride Crosier mountain last Sunday, 7.5 mile round trip with an elevation range of 7,044′ – 9,204′. It was just as steep as I remembered, however the last 1/4 mile to the summit was even steeper than I remembered. I decided to carry my bike but in the end it was hardly worth it as riding down most of the last 1/4 mile would only make the trail worse. Great weather and clear view of Long’s Peak from the top. I love the variety you get on this trail, all single track but so many variations. My favorite section is the where the trail is about a foot below the rest of the surface and the tall grass leaves you with only a few feet of viability. I took a picture of a columbine right off the side of the trail. This is a great place to ride especially when it is hot as you get plenty of shade.

PS. I tossed in the last pic showing off my new OSI spare tire bike rack. This thing is great and recommended not just by me but the users at mtbreview.com. Neither the rack or the 3 bikes it carries sway when you go off road and you can lock the rack and the bikes.

 
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Posted in Mountain Bike

 

How to find path/location of network mapped drive

16 Jun

For some network mapped drives you will see the location by looking under My Computer. Depending on how the drive was mapped you may just see the folder name and the drive letter: Scans (S:\) and not the path: Scans (\\fileserver\scans) (S:\)

To see the path for all mapped drives open a command prompt and run: NET USE

 
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How to Deploy KMS Volume Licensing Windows Server 2008

09 Jun

Prior to Windows Vista and Server 2008 Microsoft Volume Licensing was easy and highly susceptible to piracy. It was one key that could be used just about anywhere. Now if you purchase volume licensing it is even more important carefully choose the type of licensing that will meet your organizations needs. For example, different levels of 2008 server volume license entitle you to just Standard and Enterprise, vs DataCenter and everything below. Also, now that virtualization is taking off, although spell check thinks other wise :P , you can get processor based volume licensing.

However you do it, my first step suggestion is to setup an install/config call with an MS Product Specialist (you paid for it). 1-800-936-4900

Here is a walk through of the steps you will perform to deploy KMS (Key Management Service) Volume Licensing.

KMS Server
1. Create a KMS Server (MS Windows 2008 R2 Standard, register in DNS)
2. Log in as LOCAL administrator
3. Activate the KMS Server (180 day trial)
4. Allow Key Management Service through windows firewall on the KMS Server
5. Open a command prompt on the KMS Server
6. Run: slmgr -upk (removes product key)
7. Run: slmgr -cpky (removes product key from registry)
8. Run: slmgr -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx (Use your KMS Key here)
9. Run: slmgr -ato (activates KMS)
10. Run: slmgr -dlv (provides KMS stats)

KMS Client
1. Create your server that you will license with the KMS Server (2008, 2008 R2)
2. Log in as LOCAL administrator
3. Activate the KMS Server (180 day trial)
4. Allow Key Management Service through windows firewall on the KMS Client
5. Open a command prompt on the KMS Client
6. Run: slmgr -upk (removes product key)
7. Run: slmgr -cpky (removes product key from registry)
8. Run: slmgr -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx (The MS Product specialist will provide you with a generate key based on the version of Windows you are licensing here)
9. Run: slmgr -skms kmsserver:1688 (creates a pointer to the KMS Server on port 1688, where kmsserver:1688 = name of your server:1688)
10. Repeat this step on at least 4 KMS Clients (KMS requires at least 5 2008 clients before activation will be successful)

KMS Client
1. Run: slmgr -ato (Product activation will fail for the first 4 clients and succeed for the 5th client. When the 5th client succeeds the other 4 will automatically)
2. Repeat on remaining KMS Clients

KMS Server
1. Run: slmgr -dlv (Look for the ‘Current Count’ to be at least 5)

Note: If you make a major mistake and have to wipe out the changes you made you will need to Run: slmgr -rem (only do so if instructed by a MS Product Specialist)

Each client will contact the KMS Server every 7 days to reactivate. If they drop off the network they will fail activation on the 7th day when they can not contact the KMS Server.

All of this info is what I gathered with my 4 hour call with MS Product Specialist Rohit. Mileage may very, but this was my best MS phone support experience. :)

 
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Intel Quad NIC ESX 4 compatability

01 Jun

In the past, adding network interfaces to an ESX server was as easy as adding a flash drive to Windows 7 (works 99% of the time right?). Recently a server we purchased from Dell came with a and Intel Quad NIC expansion card. After installing ESX 4.0 I found that only the onboard NICs were showing up. Dell OpenManage showed the other 4 network interfaces as disabled. I messed around disabling the onboard NICs in BIOS and when ESX restarted it complained that it did not have the drivers for the network.

The odd thing is that Dell shipped this “VM ready” server with that expansion card. Further googling showed that these cards had native support in ESX 4.0 but no long in 4.0u1. Hence the drivers you will need to use this card. Download here.

1. Use something like 7zip to extract the .iso you downloaded to a folder.
2. Copy the folder to the /tmp directory on your ESX server using WinSCP
3. Connect to the ESX server via Putty
4. cd to the directory you uploded
5. cd to the directory labeled ‘offline-bundle’
6. Run: esxupdate –bundle=INT-intel-lad-ddk-igb-1.3.19.12.1-offline_bundle-185976.zip update
7. Reboot

Your additional network interfaces will now be available and configurable.

 
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Free hyperterminal Windows7

01 Jun

If you have purchased Dell PowerConnect switches you have found the need for a serial interface on your computer plus a hyperterminal capable of VT100 emulation. I was unable to get the working via Putty but was more interested in the whereabouts of hyperterminal in Windows 7. This once, included, free, utility came with Windows. That was pre-vista days though. Luckily, like most programs, XP versions run fine on Windows7. So just pull Windows hyperterminal from an XP machine download it here!

Happy, free, VT100 emulation.

 
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