VMware View Composer: The database specified is not supported by [ProductName].

Deploying another View Pod in our infrastructure I installed View Composer.  The other Pods used SQL Server 2012 so I created the databases and ODBC connections.  After specifying the ODBC connection I received the error The database specified is not supported by [ProductName].

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It appears that this error is caused by the SQL ODBC driver.  I installed the SQL Management tools from SQL Server 2008 and changed the SQL driver to the SQL Server 2008 version (SQL Server Native Drivers v10) and recreated the ODBC connection.

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Yay! The install continues!

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Windows 7 on Macbook Pro 15” with Retina Display DPI Settings in VMware Fusion

I made the jump from a 2008 Macbook (Unibody Aluminum) to a Macbook Pro 15” with the Retina display.  As far as the Retina display goes, I can really tell the difference! Everything on the screen seems so much smoother and crisper!

So I fire up my Windows 7 VM to get to work and… woah! everything is pixelated!  Let’s see if there are any settings in Fusion to help me…

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However, upon clicking that checkmark, everything becomes super tiny.  Can’t I just get this to work normally?  Scouring the internet I found some mention of being able to set the DPI in Windows 7 in Control Panel, Display.

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Click “Set custom text size (DPI)” and you are able to click on the ruler and drag it left and right to increase / decrease the DPI.  I guess you could take out an actual ruler and match up the 1”, but 200% seemed fine for me.

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Now log out and log back in (more Windows fun!) and time to get back to work!

VMWare Fusion: Switch from Full Screen to Mac Applications

When Command+Tab switching between my fullscreen Windows session and another Mac application I would be able to switch to VMware fusion, but I would not be able to switch back to the fullscreen session without clicking on the Window menu and selecting my VM.

I should also further clarify that this is a 27” iMac with two external monitors attached.  When running in single monitor mode I was able to switch fine, however when I go into full screen mode with multiple monitors I couldn’t Command+Tab switch back to my Windows VM.

I figured out this behavior is caused by Mission Control in OS 10.8.  To resolve the issue I checked “When switching to an application, switch to a space with open windows for the application”.  Voila!  I can now switch between my Mac OS apps and my fullscreen Windows session!

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$6.40 Skype phone

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I recently moved and tried using my cell phone exclusively. Didn’t work. I decided that I needed a house phone. However, I use a house phone so infrequently that it really isn’t worth $20 per month to the cable company. I decided that I could try Skype. I found this usb phone on Amazon for $6.40. A Skype subscription is $2.99/month plus $3.00 a month for a DID (phone number). That puts me at $6.00 per month using Skype vs. $20.00 using cable, which is a savings of $168.00 per year. (Probably more when you consider that Skype is not a common carrier and so they don’t charge FCC taxes, universal service fees, or 911 service fees)

So far it has worked great. The caveat is that it only works for Windows. However, I leave my Windows 7 VM constantly powered on in VMware Fusion so I connected the USB device to that VM. Once I installed the driver I noticed no audio quality issues. It sounds much better than my cell phone!

How to find WWPN assignments on Cisco UCS

Let’s say that you have a new UCS that you need have configured and now you need to get the WWPNs from it so you can zone your fibre channel switch. What’s the command you say? Well, you could try something like:

UCS-A# scope \org
UCS-A /org # show wwn-pool VDI_WWPN expand

This will spit out each WWPN, the service profile, and vHBA that it is assigned to.

RedHat: Install packages from CD

I am giving IOmeter a try on Linux. More specifically I am creating a minimal RedHat install that I want to install the IOmeter client on, then clone the install a few dozen times. When I tried to download the IOmeter linux client I realized that the minimal RedHat install does not include wget. Since I did not have a reliable internet connection on my MacBook I wasn’t able to connect to the RedHat repos. I was able to search and find the following process on how to configure a local repo to be able to install packages from the cdrom.

  1. Create a file: /etc/yum.repos.d/cdrom.repo
    [cdrom]
    name=cdrom
    baseurl=file:///mnt/cdrom
    gpgcheck=0

     

  2. Mount CDrom:
    mkdir /mnt/cdrom
    mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

     

  3. Run: yum clean all

     

  4. Install needed packages:
    yum install wget

     

VMworld 2011

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I returned from VMworld 2011 in Las Vegas a couple days ago. What a great conference! So much useful information. The key information for me was learning that there are PCoIP Zero Clients currently available for purchase that have an SFP port so you can use a fiber SFP. The particular model pictured below is the Leadtek Winfast VP200.

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Update Dell 2950 BIOS without Windows

I was helping a friend do P2V conversions of his older but still useful Dell 2950 servers, when I noticed the BIOS was version 2.2.6 and the latest BIOS available from Dell is 2.7.0. Unfortunately I had already finished the P2V migrations from Windows Server 2008 R2 and the servers were running ESXi 4.1. I was having limited success with booting a linux live CD and running the linux bin file when I stumbled upon this post. This man is a genius!

Modify Settings to Open Side-by-Side Excel 2007 Windows

If you have two monitors and need to open side by side excel windows you might have been annoyed by Excel’s default setting of opening everything in the same window. Here’s how to fix that:

 

Open My Computer

Select Tools

Select Folder Options

Select the File Types tab

Choose XLSX (XLSX for 2007 and XLS for 2003)

 

Go to Advanced

 

Uncheck “browse in same window” in advanced window.

Then highlight Open

Click Edit

Make sure in the Action box it says &Open

Copy the following and paste into “application used to perform action”

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12\EXCEL.EXE” “%1”

Check the box next to use DDE

Remove anything that is in DDE Message box and DDE Application Not Running box.

Make sure the application box says: EXCEL

And in the Topic box it says: System

Click OK and enjoy side by side Excel windows!

Technologist