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Managing Microsoft ressource

Ooooh dear Microsoft…

Say you have a ressource named “Meeting room” used for booking a physical room.

Recurring meeting that conflict with just a single meeting will reject the recurring meeting entirely. To avoid this you might be tempted to enable

Set-CalendarProcessing “Meeting toom” -AllowConflicts $true

But that will allow double bookings and isn’t the greatest.

Firstly, some tenants may not receive e-mail confirmations when a ressource is booked, so run this:

Set-CalendarProcessing “Mødelokale” -ProcessExternalMeetingMessages $True

Next, to modify the behaviour of the ressource to allow a recurring meeting that still conflicts, run:

Set-CalendarProcessing “Meeting room” -ConflictPercentageAllowed 80

Set-CalendarProcessing “Meeting room” -MaximumConflictInstances 10

Above commands will allow the person who booked to receive confirmation emails for accepted dates, and confirmation emails for dates rejected because there was a conflict. Obviously, the above commands allows 10 maximum conflicts, or up to 80% conflicts, exceeding those parameters and the recurring meeting will be rejected entirely.

More on the subject here but the essence is;

So, for example, say a room mailbox is configured with the following settings:

AutomateProcessing : AutoAccept
AllowConflicts : False
AllowRecurringMeetings : True
ConflictPercentageAllowed : 40
MaximumConflictInstances : 6

  1. A recurring meeting request which repeats 10 times (10 instances) is sent to the mailbox. Now let’s suppose 5 out of 10 (or half) of the instances for that recurring meeting occur at the same time other meetings are scheduled in the calendar. In this case, the 50% conflict ratio exceeds the ConflictPercentageAllowed setting of 40.
    The result: The entire meeting request is rejected and the room sends a message back to the meeting organizer with the subject Declined All. The five conflicting instances are declined, as are the other five instances that didn’t conflict with another meeting.
    ——
  2. Another meeting request is sent where there are 100 instances of a recurring meeting and 10 of them conflict with existing bookings. In this case the ConflictPercentageAllowed is not exceeded by the 10% conflict rate. However, we exceed the MaximumConflictInstances setting of 6.
    The result: Once again, the entire meeting request is rejected and all 100 instances are declined.
    ——
  3. For our last example, a recurring meeting request comes to this room where there are 10 instances and only 2 of them conflict with existing bookings.
    The result: Since we don’t exceed either MaximumConflictInstances or ConflictPercentageAllowed, the room mailbox accepts the recurring meeting request series but declines to book the two instances that conflict. The meeting instances that don’t conflict are accepted and booked and the room sends three emails back to the organizer, one with Accepted in the subject stating the recurring meeting request was accepted, and two with Declined in the subject for the two conflicting instances.

So by these examples we see how a recurring meeting request with conflicting instances can be accepted or declined based on the calendar processing settings. However, it’s important to repeat that a recurring meeting request instance that conflicts with another booking is ALWAYS declined.

How to convert .tib to .vmdk

First create a bootable ISO with Acronis Backup and Recovery. Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 was used for this guide. It should also be possible to use Acronis’ newer version of bootable restore with Acronis Universal Restore.

You will also need a copy of VMware Workstation and create and use a virtual machine to boot the Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 ISO on.

It was possible to convert .TIB to .VHD In Acronis True Image Backup 2014 and below, but that feature was removed in version 2015.

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  • In VMware Workstation create a new custom virtual machine.

If you have VMware Workstation 11 and select typical the hardware version will be 10, and such a VM can only be edited from an ESXi 5.5 managed through a vCenter with the Web Client installed. Therefore do not select typical.

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  • Select Workstation 8.

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  • Mount the Acronis ISO image.

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  • Select Other as the operating system and version.

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  • Choose a VM name and location.

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  •  Fast forward to the final VM settings select Customize Hardware.

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  • Add a USB Controller to the VM. You want this so you can connect the external HD with the .TIB files on to the new VM.

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  • Turn on the new VM and let it boot on Acronis B&R 10 ISO.

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  • Select Run management console.

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  • Select Recover.

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  • Right-click the new VM in Workstation and go to Removable Devices > Select USB with .TIB files on > Connect (Disconnect from Host).

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  • Press Change.

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  • Navigate to the .tib file desired to be restored.

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  • Press change to select the data to be restored.

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  • Select the data from the .tib file to be restored.

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  • Press change to select where to recover the data to.

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  • Press OK to start the restore.

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Once done simply reboot the VM and hope it doesn’t BSOD 🙂

How to import a VMware Workstation 6 VM into a vSphere environment

So a colleague asked me how he would go about exporting a VM he had in VMware Workstation 6, and then import it onto a vSphere 5.5 platform. I told him to remove the VM from the inventory of Workstation 6 so he didn’t risk the vmx file being locked. Then upload the folder directly to a Datastore in vSphere and right-click the vmx file and register it… Except that didn’t really work!:)

I did not know Workstation 6 was not supported by any vSphere version. Although simple I have outlined the steps below to properly import a hardware version 6 VM into vSphere.

VMware Workstation 6 was released in 2008 and any virtual machine created in version 6 will have a hardware version of 6 as well. Hardware version 6 isn’t supported by ESXi, so a VM from Workstation 6 first has to be upgraded before importing it into ESXi vSphere.

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  • If you open the vmx file of the virtual machine created in Workstation 6 you can confirm the hardware version.

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To upgrade the hardware version I used Workstation 11.

  • Go to File -> Open in Workstation 11 and navigate and select the virtual machine you want to import.

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  • When imported make sure the VM is powered off and then right-click it and go to Manage -> Change Hardware Compatibility.

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  • On the Hardware Compatibility selection screen choose any version above 6. I recommend version 8 as version 10 will force you into the web client.

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Finish the conversion of the hardware upgrade.

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  • Power on the VM and then right-click and select Update VMware Tools. If Workstation asks you whether you moved or copied it then select “I moved it”.

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  • When VMware Tools have been upgraded then shut down the VM and it is ready to be imported into vSphere.
  • First export the VM from Workstation by going File and select Export to OVF.

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  • In vCenter go to File and select Deploy OVF Template.

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Doing a hard copy upload of the VM files directly from the directory of the VM repository in Workstation to a Datastore in vSphere will not work.

  • Follow the import wizard in vSphere to finish, and the VM will be ready for use.

How to patch an ESXi host through a USB flash drive

For ESXi shell to be able to detect the USB flash drive it must first be formatted in Fat16 and not exceed 2 gigabytes.

  • First format the flash drive in FAT16. If the flash drive is 8 gigabytes or below the format can be done from the Windows user interface.

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If the flash drive is above 8 gigabytes then follow the below instructions to format the drive in a command prompt.

  • Enter Diskpart in a command prompt and follow the below example.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Windows\System32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7601
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: PC503934

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status         Size     Free     Dyn Gpt
——– ————- ——- ——- — —
Disk 0   Online         119 GB     0 B
Disk 1   Online           14 GB     0 B

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> clean

DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.

DISKPART> create part primary size=2000

DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.

DISKPART> active

DiskPart marked the current partition as active.

DISKPART> format fs=fat quick

100 percent completed

DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.

DISKPART> assign

DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART>

 

  • Use PuTTY to connect and login to the ESXi host as root.

Before starting the patch ensure that the new patch files have been copied to the USB flash drive.

  • Type: /etc/init.d/usbarbitrator stop

This stops usbarbitrator so it is possible to access the USB flash drive.

  • Plug the USB flash drive into the ESXi host.

It is important that usbarbitrator has been stopped before you plug in the USB drive.

  • Type: vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter

This sets the EXSi host into maintenance mode so changes made wont trigger alarms.

  • Type: esxcli storage filesystem list

This will show a list of available volumes, and you need to verify what name the USB have been given.

“mpx.vmhba35:C0:T0:L0:1” will be used as an example.

  • Type: esxcli software vib update -d /vmfs/volumes/”Name of USB Drive”/”name of Patch file”

Example: esxcli software vib update -d /vmfs/volumes/mpx.vmhba35:C0:T0:L0:1/ESXi550-2014.zip

This will apply the patch file, and if you have more than 1 patch file simply type in the same command again with the name of the second patch file.

  • Type: vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit

When the patch is done being loaded then exit maintenance mode.

  • Type: reboot

This will reboot the ESXi host, and when it has started again the new patch will be active. When the ESXi host is done booting log back in with Putty, and you can verify the new patch by using the vmware -v command.

  • Type: vmware –v