I’ve got a Boss BR-600 which is, frankly, an amazing piece of kit.
Boss BR-600
One problem a lot of BR-600 owners have is getting hold of 1GB CF cards. Well, I’ve solved that problem. After much research on my part I’m pleased to offer 1GB cards that are 100% compatible with the BR-600. I’ve teamed up with a major supplier and can offer you these cards at the stunning price of just £13.99 plus £1.00 p&p.
There comes a time when you have to face an internal office move-around. Shifting PC equipment is the easy part. Getting the telephones sorted can be/is a nightmare especially if everyone wants to keep their existing numbers (and why wouldn’t they).
In the InterTel Axis 272, this is easy to achieve from the Admin phone. Simply:
1. Go to Admin phone
2. Select ‘Admin Features’
3. Select ‘Program Database’
4. Select ‘System’
5. Select ‘Station Etn’
6. Select ‘Swap Exts’
7. Type in the Source extension you want to swap and ‘Accept’
8. Type in the Destination extension you want to sway and ‘Accept’
9. That’s it.
This error usually manifests itself with a message presented to the end user stating that the software couldn’t get a ‘Logical Lock’ with a code ending in ’007′
To cure:
1. Go to Start > Iris > Utilities and click on the ‘File Recovery’ option
2. Click ‘Fix’
3. Click ‘Reset Session Control’
4. When done click ‘Ok’ and close out.
More details can be found in the support area of www.iris.co.uk (note, you need a valid support account with Iris to access it)
Iris (www.iris.co.uk) has regular issues; a particular favourite is to throw someone out of the program randomly. This causes a problem with locks etc.
To solve:
1. Open the Iris main menu and select ‘System Maintenance’
2. Log in
3. Select ‘system’
4. Select ‘Logins’
5. Clear any logins that are jamming up
6. Select ‘Locks’
7. Clear any old/defunct locks
Every year, you’re going to need to renew your Exchange 2007 Server’s digital certificate. You’ll know if you’ve forgotten to do this because your end users will be inundating you with support calls relating to error message they’re getting when they open Outlook.
The cure is, thankfully, quite simple but does require some care around steps 4 & 6:
1. Go to your Exchange 2007 server
2. Launch ‘Exchange Management Shell’
3. Type:
Get-ExchangeCertificate | List
4. Look for certificate with IIS, POP, SMTP etc. Make a note of that ‘Thumbprint’
5. Type:
New-ExchangeCertificate
‘Y’ to accept warning
6. Then type
Enable-ExchangeCertificate –Thumbprint thumbprint number of new cert –Service IIS
For a multitude of reasons, it’s a good idea to set up SSH access on any Ubuntu desktop/server you are responsible for. The process itself is pretty straightforward.
1. Open a terminal and enter the following:
sudo apt-get install openssh-server
This will download the openssh server and may take a while depending on connection speeds etc
2. I would highly recommend tightening the security on our newly installed SSH box. SSH’s config file is located in /etc/ssh/sshd_config so before we muck around with it, lets take a copy:
sudo cp /etc/ssh/sshd_config ~
A copy of sshd_config now resides in your home directory
3. To edit the sshd_config file:
sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Note: I’m using ‘nano’ as my text editor here. Please feel free to use your favourite editor instead
4. Go to the very end of the config file and add these two lines:
PermitRootLogin no
AllowUsers USERS
USERS = the usernames of the people who will be allowed access to the box via SSH. These people, and these people alone will be able to connect via SSH
5. This is optional but you can also change the default port of TCP/IP port 22 to an alternative. You would need to make any users aware of this port change. Changing the port reduces the chances of your box/SSH connection being discovers and malicious scanners etc
6. Because we’ve edited the SSH config file we need to restart the SSH daemon
sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart
You now have a working SSH connection. Congratulations.
Once the OS has been installed on a Ubuntu/Debian based VM, VMware Tools will vastly improve the performance of that VM. To install VMware Tools in such a VM, follow these instructions:
1. Once the VM is up and running, log in to the VM and launch a terminal.
2. Connect up the VMtools ISO (VM > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools)
3. If you’ve installed Ubuntu Server, or you don’t have a X session running, you may (read probably will) need to mount the CD. This is done with:
sudo mount /media/cdrom0/ -O unhide
To unmount a CD:
sudo umount /media/cdrom0/
4. Before we can install VMware Tools we need a few packages for our Ubuntu box. These packages make the installation of VMware Tools that little bit smoother:
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Ubuntu will now download the packages and update as required
5. Now run:
cp -a /media/cdrom/VMwareTools* /tmp/
cd /tmp/
tar -zxvf VMwareTools*.gz
cd vmware-tools-distrib
sudo ./vmware-install.pl
During the VMware Tools installation process, you’ll be prompted to answer some questions. Answer accordingly for your environment.
I always recommend a reboot of the box. Watch for any issues during the start-up process
1. Power on VM
2. Select ‘Install VMware Tools’ in the normal way from the Console toolbar
3. Browse to the CD-rom drive
4. Double-click on the rpm file
5. Click ‘Apply’
6. Click ‘Install anyway’ at the ‘Unable to verify VMware Tools’ warning
7. Click ‘Ok’ to finish and then close the file browser window
8. Open a terminal window and run the following command:
vmware-config-tools.pl
9. The script will run and prompt you for a screen resolution which you should select and then press ‘Enter’ to continue.
10. Accept the default values given to any questions asked by the installer
11. Type ‘Exit‘
To bring up the VMware Tools properties type the following:
vmware-toolbox &
vm
How can I migrate my Vmware Server VMs to ESX?
There are several methods for doing this that are listed below:
Method 1 – Vmware Converter running directly on Vmware Server (Cold clone)
Install Vmware Converter on to the Vmware Server/host and reboot if prompted
Shutdown the VM to be converted
Run Converter and select Import Machine
Click Next at the Welcome screen and Next again at the Source screen
Select ‘Standalone virtual machine, backup or disk image’ as your source and click Next
Browse to your VMs vmx file and click Next
Select either ‘Import all disks and maintain size’ or ‘Select volumes and resize to save or add space’, select your volumes and enter a new disk size if necessary and click Next
Click Next at the Destination screen
Select ‘VMware ESX Server’ or ‘VirtualCenter virtual machine’ as your destination and click Next
At the destination login screen enter your VC/ESX server name and login credentials and click Next
Enter a Virtual Machine name and folder and click Next
Select a Host/Cluster and click Next then select a Datastore and click Next
Enter your NIC information and click Next then click Next again at the customization screen
Click Finish when it completes
Edit your new VMs settings and remove any extra hardware if not needed, ie. USB devices, serial and parallel devices, Floppy drive and change the SCSI adapter to LSI Logic if needed
Power on your new VM and uninstall VMware tools (VMware server version)
Restart server
Remove old virtual machine hardware
Open CMD prompt and type SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1 and then DEVMGMT.MSC
Select ‘Show Hidden Devices’ from top menu
Remove old greyed-out non-present hardware, ie. old processor, disk drives, IDE/SCSI controllers, storage volumes, etc.
Reboot and install VMware tools (ESX version) and you are finished
Method 2 – Vmware Converter running directly on Virtual Machine (Hot clone)
Install Vmware Converter on to the Virtual Machine and reboot if prompted
Run Converter and select Import Machine
Click Next at the Welcome screen and Next again at the Source screen
Select ‘Physical Computer’ as your source and click Next
Select ‘This local machine’ and click Next
Select either ‘Import all disks and maintain size’ or ‘Select volumes and resize to save or add space’, select your volumes and enter a new disk size if necessary and click Next
Click Next at the Destination screen
Select ‘VMware ESX Server or VirtualCenter virtual machine’ as your destination and click Next
At the destination login screen enter your VC/ESX server name and login credentials and click Next
Enter a Virtual Machine name and folder and click Next
Select a Host/Cluster and click Next then select a Datastore and click Next
Enter your NIC information and click Next then click Next again at the customization screen
Click Finish when it completes
Edit your new VMs settings and remove any extra hardware if not needed, ie. USB devices, serial and parallel devices, Floppy drive and change the SCSI adapter to LSI Logic if needed
Power on your new VM and uninstall VMware tools (VMware server version)
Restart server
Remove old virtual machine hardware
Open CMD prompt and type SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1 and then DEVMGMT.MSC
Select ‘Show Hidden Devices’ from top menu
Remove old greyed-out non-present hardware, ie. old processor, disk drives, IDE/SCSI controllers, storage volumes, etc.
Reboot and install VMware tools (ESX version) and you are finished