Having a backup is great, but it only helps if you know how to restore it. Previously I showed you how to take an ESXi Config Backup. Now let me show you the process to restore that ESXi config backup. The Process If you aren’t sure how, here’s a post I made about how to…
Recently I’ve been playing with some Nvidia/Mellanox switches specifically the SN2410. An issue that I ran into was that I didn’t have the BIOS password. All of the documentation says that the default BIOS password is admin. That password did not work on my switch. You can absolutely use the switch even without the BIOS…
Intune aka Microsoft Endpoint Manager can be extremely powerful but as it always goes with great power comes great responsibility. To make sure I’m only targeting the devices I want, I like to make a few dynamic device groups that I’ll use for various Intune policy targeting. The dynamic device groups I create are: By…
On Lenovo servers the default configuration has a physical presence policy enabled. When a physical presence policy is enabled it prevents you from doing a few tasks on the system either in BIOS or IPMI. Lenovo calls their IPMI XClarity Controller (XCC). With an enabled physical presence policy your only options to do some of…
Duo Authentication for Windows Logon and RDP is great tool that I like to use to add MFA to Windows systems specifically servers, as it could help prevent lateral movement in the network. When you only have a few systems running Duo Authentication for Windows Logon and RDP upgrading it is short and painless. When…
While I was looking into various ways to restore an ESXi config backup I came across a bug. If you read VMware’s documentation about how to restore an ESXi config backup (you can find that here) you will see that it is full of references saying the build numbers must match. The bug is that…
Knowing your ESXi Build Number can be very useful. It’s really easy to do with vCenter. Without vCenter it’s not as straight forward. Here are a few ways to get your build number when you don’t have vCenter. Console If you have access to the console of the ESXi host via IPMI or iLO or iDRAC…
I ran into an issue where some older Cisco Aironet APs (Access Points) stopped connecting to a Cisco WLC (Wireless LAN Controller). No config changes had been made and some of the Cisco Aironet APs would connect and some wouldn’t. All of them were the same model, the Cisco Aironet APs were able to ping…
Recently I needed to upgrade a Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) system and while Cisco does have documentation about it. The process can be scary and could use more screenshots. Here is my step by step guide on how to upgrade a Cisco UCS via the Firmware Auto Install with the Cisco UCS Manager. Fully…
Recently I’ve ran into an issue with Microsoft Teams where the user sees a blocking message that says “Teams needs an update”. The user needs to action it before they can use Microsoft Teams again. Typically the user can just click on Update Teams which will take them to a download page for Microsoft Teams,…
