Initial ISO repository on a XenServer host

Initial ISO repository on a XenServer host

Today I was performing a fresh install of XenServer 7.5 on my test server and ran into the issue of “How do I get my first VM on there?”.  By default there isn’t a local ISO repository on the initial install. I looked at my notes from a few years ago and figured I should put them up here for when I end up losing those papers. Connect to the server using your favorite SSH program [e.g. PuTTY]. Create a…

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How to get the SID of a user in Windows

How to get the SID of a user in Windows

A colleague was trying to modify a user’s registry remotely – specifically a key in their HKey_Current_User (HKCU) hive.  Whilst opening regedit and connecting to the remote system worked without issue, he could not see HKCU.  The solution turned out to be fairly simple.

Thought for the day – 24th November 2016

Thought for the day – 24th November 2016

“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” – Eric Hoffer There is a constant need in life for us to evolve on a daily basis.  Life doesn’t stay still – we always have to strive to keep up otherwise we will be left behind.  As someone in the tech industry, the permanent progress in my field requires us to keep on top of all…

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How to mount a raw disk image in Linux

How to mount a raw disk image in Linux

There have been a number of times in Linux where I’ve had to create a bit-copy image of a hard disk  using dd or dd_rescue, then needed to mount that image to the local filesystem to peruse its’ contents. When you use dd or dd_rescue against the block device, you end up with the MBR, Partition Table, and all the partitions on the disk too.  This can trip you up when you are used to mounting individual partitions using the…

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Changing NIC order in XenServer

Changing NIC order in XenServer

I ran in to an issue when attempting to join a freshly reinstalled and fully patched XenServer 6.5 host back to a pool. This host was one of four Cisco blades in a chassis which had the exact same hardware configuration as the other blades.  Every time I’d try to add the blade to the pool, the network configuration (which included bonded NICs) would go awry.

XenServer update script

XenServer update script

I recently had to reinstall some XenServer hosts and found the update procedure from both the CLI and the Xen Center application to be tedious and very time consuming.  Each update had to be applied individually. Erf, not something I relished doing at the best of times. I came across this fantastic script: Citrix_XenServer_Patcher by Darren Gibbard which has saved me countless hours of downloading and installing patches on a one-by-one basis.