Enable Windows Update on SCCM Managed Computer

Computer cannot contact Microsoft update service to upgrade latest patches if it’s managed by SCCM policy. Sometimes we may need to keep latest patch for testing, security or other purpose, such as when you create a golden image, you always want to keep the system up to date.

I found an article “How To: Remove WSUS Settings and Restore Windows Update Defaults” talks about how to delete registry keys to workaround the restriction.

I also found actually just need to change two keys in registry if you want to enable Windows Update service temporarily.

Backup registry path below.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindowsUpdate
Go to the same path above.
Change value of “DisableWindowsUpdateAccess” from “1” to “0”
Go to following registry path.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindowsUpdateAU
Change value of “UseWUServer” from “1” to “0”

I also wrote another post about solution of install standalone patch on Windows Server 2016 for your reference: “The update is not applicable to your computer” When Install Standalone Patch on Windows Server 2016

Cannot Open Cisco UCS KVM Console By Java

When you lunch KVM console in Cisco UCS Manager. You probably get following error message:

Unable to launch the application
Error: you can not run this program because your system deployment.config file states that an enterprise configuration file is mandatory…

This is caused by Java. There are two things you can try to fix KVM console:

Install Java on a directory without “space”. For example, install it on C:javajre7.
Delete Sun folder in C:windows. But please make a backup of the folder since it may contains some special configuration of your enterprise.

I have another blog talking about UCS KVM issue: Cisco UCS Blade Cannot Get IP Address for KVM

Validating Connection Result of Connect-VIServer

Validating connection result of Connect-VIServer is trick since VMware doesn’t use the standard way of throwing errors.

There are different error messages for different scenarios. We can leverage “Try Catch Finally” of PowerShell to testing connection result and output customized errors.

The essential format of testing vCenter connection is below. PowerShell cannot catch error message if you don’t add “-ErrorAction Stop” when connect vCenter.

try{
    connect-viserver vcenter-xxxx -ErrorAction Stop
}
catch [VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.ErrorHandling.InvalidLogin]{
    Write-Host "Permission issue"
}
catch [VMware.VimAutomation.Sdk.Types.V1.ErrorHandling.VimException.ViServerConnectionException]{
    Write-Host "Cannot connect to vCenter Server"
}
catch
    {Write-Host "Other issue"}
finally{
    write-host "the end."
}

How to know error types of the validating connection result?

You probably have question how did I know which error types are for what? I used a very simple way that just give it a try. 🙂

# Simulating connection error
Connect-VIServer vCenter.zhengwu.org -User "xxx" -Password "yyy"

# Format output of $Error. $Error stores output of errors in PowerShell.
$error[0] | fl * -force

# You will see similar lines below
writeErrorStream      : True
PSMessageDetails      :
Exception             : VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.ErrorHandling.InvalidLogin: 7/29/2019 9:27:30 AM   Connect-VIServer                Cannot complete login due to an
                        incorrect user name or password.         ---> VMware.Vim.VimException: Cannot complete login due to an incorrect user name or password. --->
                        System.ServiceModel.FaultException`1[VimApi_67.InvalidLogin]: Cannot complete login due to an incorrect user name or password.

VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.ErrorHandling.InvalidLogin is the error type we want to find.

Conclusion

This is very simple way to validating connection result of Connect-VIServer. Looks like the result errors coming from different assemblies. For example, connection error is VMware.VimAutomation.Sdk.Types.V1.ErrorHandling.VimException.ViServerConnectionException. It’s hard to find out all possible errors. I’m looking for a official document but no lucky. Please let me know if you know where I can reference.

Bitbucket Server Integration With Visual Studio Code on Windows

There is an official Bitbucket extension for Visual Studio Code if you use Bitbucket Cloud. Bitbucket has not yet released official extension for Bitbucket Server users. Following is how to configure Visual Studio Code to use Bitbucket Server.

Before the procedure you need to collect the following information:

Your user name on Bitbucket Server.
Your email on Bitbucket Server.
Decide the local path to store code. (It’s c:tempgit in this guide)
Your account has permission to modify repositories on Bitbucket Server.
Assume project name is “ExampleProject” on Bitbucket Server.
Assume repository name in the project is “ExampleRepository“.
Get the URL of the target repository. (It’s https://userid@bb.zhengwu.org/scm/exampleproject/examplerepository.git in this guide)
Make sure you have the latest Visual Studio Code installed.

Time needed: 30 minutes

Download and install Git.
Download windows installer in Github.
Installation is simple. Only thing is to make sure to choose “Visual Studio Code” when it asks editor integration.
Configure user name and email in Git.
Name and email should match your account information on Bitbucket server.
Run the commands in Windows command prompt.
$ git config --global user.name "Name" $ git config --global user.email "sample@zhengwu.org"
Clone repository to local.
Open a command prompt. Go to a folder you want to clone the remote “ExampleRepositiry” to. Run command:
git clone https://userid@bb.zhengwu.org/scm/exampleproject/examplerepository.git
You will see a sub-folder with the name “ExampleRepository” is created in local.
A hidden folder “.git” is created in the sub-folder. It’s used to tracking changes.
Open workspace in Visual Studio Code
Bitbucket Server configuration is completed in local.
Now open Visual Studio Code -> File -> Add folder to workspace -> Open “ExampleRepository” folder.
Visual Studio Code is integrated with Git in-the-box. It detects the repository automatically.
It shows “Unrack” if you create a new file in the folder.

Conclusion

This is an expressway to integrate Bitbucket Server with Visual Studio Code. I’m still new on Git. Following are some useful information.

https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/install-git?section=windows

https://www.atlassian.com/git?utm_campaign=learn-git&utm_medium=in-app-help&utm_source=stash

Virtual Machine Cannot Mount ISO on System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2

A few days ago a user report to me that he cannot mounts ISO image to virtual machines on SCVMM 2012 R2. The error message is the following:

Error (2912)

An internal error has occurred trying to contact the dcahyv01.amat.com server: NO_PARAM: NO_PARAM.

 

WinRM: URL: [http://hyper01.contoso.com:5985], Verb: [INVOKE], Method: [GetError], Resource: [http://schemas.microsoft.com/wbem/wsman/1/wmi/root/microsoft/bits/BitsClientJob?JobId={89EC51A2-633C-4E06-8B09-3A84146830B5}]

The reason is the communication between SCVMM and Hyper-V servers are blocked due to certification on SCVMM application is expired. The default expiry date of SCVMM certification is 1/1/2019. The issue got fixed after renewing certificates in System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager.

Private IP Address Routes to L3 Subnet on Dual vNIC VM

It’s not easy for me to describe the issue in one line on the title. Let me give some background here. I have 2 set of VMs. Set 1 has VM A & VM B. Set 2 has VM C & VM D. Each VM has a vNIC configured with a private IP address. VM A and VM C also have another vNIC configured with an L3 (Routable) IP address. Each set’s private IP addresses are the same. To make sure no confusion I implemented a vRouter VM for each set. The vRouter is same as VM A or VM C, it has two vNICs. One is connected to L3 network, another is connected to the private network. This way can keep the private network traffic not going outside of the set. So the both set no disturb each other when I set same private IP addresses.

Following are IP addresses I set for each VM:

VM A: 192.168.0.11
VM B: 192.168.0.12
VM C: 192.168.0.11
VM D: 192.168.0.12

The problem is I still can get ping responding on VM A to 192.168.0.12 when I turn off VM B. I expected to see the L2 traffic goes to it own vRouter and finds VM B is offline. But tracert command shows me the traffic goes from VM A’s L3 network to vRouter of the 2nd set, and then get the answer from VM D. Looks like the L2 ping package is broadcasting on L3 network.

The issue was fixed by enabling a feature on L3 network. It called “Enforce Subnet Check for IP Learning“. Cisco changed the name to “Limit IP Learning To Subnet“. It’s a VLAN level setting. It will not allow broadcasting the private Ip traffic on an L3 network. It forces private IP traffic to go to L2 network only.