VirtuEs.IT

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Archive for category Scripts

Automatically build a Windows 2008 Stand-alone Domain

Aug 15

Posted by VirtuEs in HomeLab, Quests, Scripts | 1 Comment

The last nine months at work have been spent on a project to create a fully automatic installation of a stand-alone Windows Servers infrastructure. Nothing fancy, just the basic Serverroles one might need in a stand-alone Domain.

I had alot of fun transforming all the needed commandlines, scripts and settings into RES Wisdom Modules and Tasks. So after that experience I’ve decided to recreate a new installation set for my own HomeLab. So alot of new posts will be describing the automation of Server Role and software installations and configurations.

I’ve found myself a new Quest!

diskpart.exe CommandLine Interface

Jul 27

Posted by VirtuEs in How To, Management Tools, Scripts | 5 Comments

The easiest way to connect to you iSCSI storage LUNs from Windows Server 2008 is by using the iSCSI initiator GUI. With the GUI you can easily make a connection with your iSCSI Storage by giving the ip-address and dynamically discover the LUNs (or Volumes) it has to offer.

As I’m working on scripts to automate the installation and configuration of Windows Server 2008 systems, I was also looking for a way to configure the local disks and volumes of a Server, without having to use the GUI and manual instructions. Luckily Windows offers some nice tools for scripting. The scripting and configuration of the local disks and volumes can best be done with diskpart.exe. Which offers it’s own commandline interface and the option to use a preconfigured script with all the commands.

 

This post offers step-by-step instructions for the diskpart.exe command.

 
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Windows Server 2008 iscsicli.exe CommandLine Interface

Apr 6

Posted by VirtuEs in How To, Management Tools, Scripts, Storage | 5 Comments

The easiest way to connect to you iSCSI storage LUNs from Windows Server 2008 is by using the iSCSI initiator GUI. With the GUI you can easily make a connection with your iSCSI Storage by giving the ip-address and dynamically discover the LUNs (or Volumes) it has to offer. With the Windows Server 2008 R2 Core edition, you can start the GUI with iSCSICPL.exe.
In case you do not have the option to use the GUI (Core Server or when scripting the configuration), you can use the CommandLine Interface (CLI) Windows Server 2008 has to offer by default.

The iscsicli.exe command of Windows Server 2008 allows you to use the Microsoft iSCSI initiator without the GUI. Making it the perfect tool for scripting the iSCSI connections (Hyper-V Server shared storage). If you know the ip-address of your iSCSI storage and the IQN of the LUN you want to use (though it can be found with the command), you are all set to set up the connection and use your shared storage.

 

This post offers step-by-step instructions for the iscsicli.exe command.

 
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Install the XenServer PowerShell Snapin on a 64-bits Windows OS

Apr 1

Posted by VirtuEs in How To, Hypervisors, Scripts | Comments off

As I’m discovering the CLI options I can revert to for scripting automated jobs for the XenServer 5.5 environment, I wanted to check out the new PowerShell Snapin provided by Citrix. After downloading and installing the XS-PS Windows installer I discovered that the PowerShell cmdlets were only installed for the PowerShell (X86) console and were not installed for the 64-bits console.

Fortunately for me a solution is mentioned on the XenServer SDK download page

In order to use the cmdlets in the 64-bits PowerShell Console, all you need to do is run the following command after the msi install in a command box:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727>InstallUtil.exe "c:\Program File
s (x86)\Citrix\XenServerPSSnapIn\XenServerPSSnapIn.dll"

 

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