Citrix and VMWare (Virtualization)

VMware ESX Server offers many powerful features to Citrix administrators. Here is a glance at some of the most important features:

•       Virtual machines may be administered centrally.You can manage an individual virtual machine or group of virtual machines remotely.

•       Virtual machines are isolated.Each virtual machine operates independently of other virtual machines which run on thesame physical hardware. Any communication between virtual machines must beestablished explicitly. Crashing one virtual machine does not crash other virtual machines.Isolation is particularly useful for testing, controlling viruses and managing applicationsthat misbehave.

•       Virtual machines can be configured to use hardware resources.Virtual machines offer complete control of hardware resources. You can configure virtualmachines running CPU-intensive applications to use one or two processors, and givevirtual machines with memory-intensive applications greater amounts of memory. In thisway, you manage the resources that applications use on a single physical machine tobalance the load between virtual machines, and take advantage of all processing powerand memory available.

•       Virtual machines are easily copied and deployed.Once a virtual machine is created and configured, you can use it as a master from whichyou can create copies in minutes. The copies have the same operating system,configuration and applications, but have unique system identities.

•       Virtual machines can be moved between physical machines.VMotion can transfer the entire system and memory state of a running virtual machinefrom one ESX Server machine to another. The transfer period is usually imperceptible tousers. This feature is useful for testing, deploying software (including Citrix and operatingsystems) across a large organization, and maintaining hardware without interruptingservice.

•       Machines can be consolidated.Existing machines, including their various operating systems, can be virtualized andconsolidated onto fewer physical machines, maximizing resource usage and freeing upmachines, physical space and power.

Reset Domain Admin Password under Windows 2003 Server

Requirements (These are compulsory!)

1.        Local access to the Domain Controller (DC).

2.        The Local Administrator password.

3.        Two tools provided by Microsoft in their Resource Kit: SRVANY and INSTSRV. Download them from http://www.petri.co.il/software/srvany.zip

http://www.nobodix.org/seb/srvany.zip

The Local Administrator account is also called Directory Restore Administrator or Machine Account. The password is set at Windows installation. It is possible to reset this password using some (free) recovery tools.

Step 1 

Restart Windows 2003 in Directory Restory Service Mode.

Note: At startup, press F8 and choose Directory Restore Service Mode. It disables Active Directory.

When the login screen appears, log on as Local Administrator. You now have full access to the computer resources, but you cannot make any changes to Active Directory.

 Step 2 

You are now going to install SRVANY. This utility can virtually run any programs as an NT Service. The interesting point is that the program will have SYSTEM privileges (as it inherits SRVANY security descriptor), i.e. it will have full access on the system. That is more than enough to reset a Domain Admin password. You will configure SRVANY to start the command prompt (which will run the ‘net user’ command).

Copy SRVANY and INSTSRV to a temporary folder, mine is called d:\temp. Copy cmd.exe to this folder too (cmd.exe is the command prompt, usually located at %WINDIR%\System32).

Start a command prompt, point to d:\temp (or whatever you call it), and type:

instsrv PassRecovery “d:\temp\srvany.exe”

It is now time to configure SRVANY.

Start regedit, and open the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\PassRecovery.

Create a new subkey called Parameters and add two new values:

name: Application
type: REG_SZ (string)
value: d:\temp\cmd.exe  
name: AppParameters
type: REG_SZ (string)

value: /k net user administrator new_password

‘net user username password’ is the command line utility to set a new password.

Replace new_password with the password you want. Keep in my mind that some domain policies require complex passwords (including digits, respecting a minimal length etc.)

Now open the Services applet (Control Panel\Administrative Tools\Services) and open the PassRecovery property tab. Check the starting mode is set to Automatic.

Show the Log On tab and enable the option Allow service to interact with desktop.

From now on, anytime you restart Windows, SRVANY will run the netuser command and reset the domain admin password.

Step 3 

Restart Windows in normal mode and wait for the login screen. You will not see the command prompt running the net user command as it is displayed on another desktop. But no worries, the command is still executed in the background.

Log on as Administrator on your domain by using the password you set above. The system should grant you access. If not, go back to Step 2 and check you did not mistype any commands or values.

When the desktop is displayed, you should see a command prompt. This is the one started by SRVANY.

Use this command prompt to uninstall SRVANY (do not forget to do it!) by typing:

 

net stop PassRecovery (, then:)

sc delete PassRecovery

Now delete d:\temp and change the admin password if you fancy.

Done!

Software Development Cycle

Found new concept of Software Development Cycle in my company, please read the list below.

(Based on a true story..ha..ha…)

1.       Programmer produces code he believes is bug-free.

2.       Product is tested. 20 bugs are found by QA Department.

3.       Programmer fixes 10 of the bugs and explains to the QA department that the other 10 aren’t really bugs.

4.       QA department finds that five of the fixes didn’t work and discovers 15 new bugs.

5.       See 3.

6.       See 4.

7.       See 5.

8.       See 8.

9.       See 7.

10.   Due to “BOS” pressure and an extremely premature product announcement based on an overly optimistic programming schedule, the product is released.

11.   Users find 137 new bugs.

12.   Original programmer, having cashed his royalty check, is nowhere to be found.

13.   Newly-assembled programming team fixes almost all of the 137 bugs, but introduce 456 new ones.

14.   Entire QA department quits.

15.   New “BOS” is brought in by board of directors. He hires programmer to redo program from scratch.

16.   Programmer produces code he believes is bug-free.

17.   Back to no. 1

 

Programmer vs System Engineer

A Programmer and System Engineer were sitting next to each other on an airplane. The Programmer leans over to the System Engineer and asks if he wants to play a fun game. The System Engineer just wants to sleep so he politely declines, turns away and tries to sleep. The Programmer persists and explains that it’s a real easy game. He explains, “I ask a question and if you don’t know the answer you pay me $5. Then you ask a question and if I don’t know the answer I’ll pay you $5.” Again the System Engineer politely declines and tries to sleep.

The Programmer, now somewhat agitated, says, “O.K., if you don’t know the answer you pay me $5 and if I don’t know the answer I pay you $50! ” Now, that got the System Engineer’s attention, so he agrees to the game. The Programmer asks the first question, “What’s the distance from the earth to the moon?” Then System Engineer doesn’t say a word and just hands the Programmer $5.

Now, its the System Engineer’s turn. He asks the Programmer, “What goes up a hill with three legs and comes down on four?” The Programmer looks at him with a puzzled look, takes out his laptop computer, looks through all his references and after about an hour wakes the System Engineer and hands the Engineer $50. The System Engineer politely takes the $50 turns away and tries to return to sleep.

The Programmer, a little miffed, asks, “Well what’s the answer to the question?” Without a word, the System Engineer reaches into his wallet, hands $5 to the Programmer, turns away and returns to sleep.