Group Policy Results Wizard - Access Denied

Finished migrating a server from VI to XS using XenConvert 2.0 seemed to go very smooth but then running Group Policy Results wizard on it to help resolve what I believed was a GP issue gave the error:
Group Policy Error
The wizard was unable to generate the Group Policy data due to the error listed below.
Details: Access denied


A little looking and I found this: http://www.minasi.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=20825

Go to Command Prompt --> Copy Paste the below lines
cd /d %windir%\system32
regsvr32 /n /I userenv.dll
cd wbem
mofcomp scersop.mof
gpupdate /force

Worked like a charm.

SharePoint Services 3.0 Install on Windows Server 2008

Overall installation of SharePoint Services 3.0 on Windows Server 2008 was a breeze. I found one issue that was not listed in the user guide (or rather the solution didn't actually work).

After installing SharePoint Services navigating to the website prompts for username / password. In the install guide it's listed that adding the site to the trusted sites will solve the issue, but I found this not only to not fix the issue, but to not be necessary at all.

Instead, removal of IE ESC (Enhanced Security Configuration) was necessary. Open Server Manager and click on "Configure IE ESC" in the Security Information Section. Turn off for admins and users.

XenServer - The hosts in this pool are not homogeneous. cpus differ

When I was using Virtual Iron there wasn't a problem with using slightly different hardware. I quickly found when joining my second Dell 1950 to XenServer pool that this wasn't the case with Paravirtualized drivers.

Attempting to join gave the error: The hosts in this pool are not homogeneous. cpus differ.

After a little looking around I found that I had purchased 2 of my Dell 1950's at the same time and the third later on and apparently with a slightly different cpu.

After some more research I decided that it would "probably" be okay to force join the server into the pool. This would allow for shared storage of VM's, but not the use of XenMotion (I confirmed this later on)
xe pool-join master-address=IPofmaster master-user=root master-password=password force=true

http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?threadID=247765&tstart=0

XenServer Forget Host

During my implementation of XenServer I had an oops. It resulted in an unretrievable host.

To get rid of the host that isn't retrievable I did this:

1. On the master console type: xe host-list
2. Note the uuid of the dead host
3. type: xe host-forget uuid=UUIDofHost
4. type yes
5. I then had several drives that where local to bad host (greyed out drives in the pool)
6. Note the uuid's of each drive (ie DVD drive, etc)
7. type: xe sr-forget uuid=UUIDofDrive

Virtual Iron > XenServer Terminal Server Conversion

This is pretty basic and follows the steps from my previous guides, but there where a couple of key points that I HAD to do in order to not have issues in the end.

1. Uninstall VI Tools (Important)
2. Start machine back up and follow these steps: (had to login via the local admin account, domain account login failed) http://didyourestart.blogspot.com/2009/08/vmware-vi-conversion-tip.html
3. Shutdown
4. Export (this is for a Virtual Volume in VI, didn't have any Terminal / Citrix Servers with Raw LUN connections)
5. Convert to xva
6. Import and boot
7. Login via local admin account
8. Windows finds new hardware and installs drivers, reboot (not the pci device, but rather the hub root). I had to reboot after this occured prior to installing XenTools otherwise funky issues happened, may not be related, but what's a reboot?
9. Cancel the search for drivers for the PCI device
10. Install XenTools
11. Reboot
12. Login and ensure IP address is correct. When I did this I found that in the Device manager the "Citrix XenServer PV Ethernet Adapter" was not working properly. I simply waited 5 minutes (was researching how to fix) and it finished it's install and started working on it's own in that time.
13. Fix IP address if necessary
14. Shutdown
15. Change Memory, CPU, and Advanced options (select Optimize for Citrix XenApp)
16. Boot

Unmountable_Boot_Volume

User came in today for simple corporate issue, but also mentioned that his personal computer wasn't running. He'd taken it to "a big box store" and had been informed that he would have to buy a new Hard Drive and to reinstall everything ($280).

I volunteered to fix it ;) Mainly because I wanted to see if I could and somewhat because I'm a nice guy ;)

BSOD Unmountable_Boot_Volume 0x000000ED with second paramater of (0xC0000032).

Right off... according to MS this is a file system damaged error NOT a bad hard drive necessarily. I ran a utility that checks the disk and it came back that the disk is fine, just needs some tlc.

After running through chkdsk /r and fixboot and not getting any good results I fixed it by doing the following (note typing DIR also resulted in an error that I forgot to write down)

1. Boot to Windows XP install disk
2. Choose Repair (R)
3. type fixmbr
4. type y for yes to the warnings
5. type fixboot
6. type chkdsk /r (took a long time to run, but didn't fail like it previously had prior to running fixmbr)
7. Reboot
8. Hand back the computer saving the user $280 and the overall nuisance of the process.

VMWare / VI Conversion Tip

Received this great tip from an unidentified colleague ;)

He had used this method on VMWare machines. It also works great on Virtual Iron machines and especially with Windows Server 2008 conversions.

From within VMWare machine

1. remove VMWare Tools
2. reboot
3. Go to the Device Manager->IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
• Right click on the "Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller" drive
• Select 'Update Driver'
• No, not this time
• Install from list or specific location
• Don't search
• Select 'Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller'
4. This will update the driver to a generic non-busmaster driver.
5. Shutdown your VM then convert to VHD

Sources
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX116603
http://vmtoolkit.com/files/folders/converters/entry8.aspx
http://blog.virtualiron.com/2006/12/18/converting_vmware_virtual_appl.html