Here is my PowerShell script to deploy multiple vmware virtual machines using a template and a custom specification file. You can use this script to create an unlimited number of VM’s, all with unique computer names and static IP addresses.

The following attributes need to be configured for your individual environment.

$server_address = Change this to your vCenter Server address
$username = Change this to the user with permission to create new VM’s using the desired template
$password = The user’s password
$destination_host = Change this to any host in your vmware cluster
$template_name = Change this to the required template
$customization = Change this to the required customization file
$location = Use this to deploy the VM to a specific folder
-SubnetMask = Change this to the netmask for you new servers
-DefaultGateway = Change this to the default gateway for your VM’s
-Dns = Add your DNS servers in order separated with a comma (,)

$array = This is the list of the servers you wish to create. The values here are the NETBIOS names for the servers, so chose them wisely. Remember to wrap each server name in quotation marks (“) and separate each server with a comma (,)
$iparray = This is the list of IP’s you want to allocate the VM’s. Each IP is assigned to a machine in the $array

Save the following to a text file and rename it to .PS1

# Virtual Center Details
$server_address = "vCenterServer"
$username = "Administrator"
$password = "password"

# Vm Details
$destination_host = "AnyVMHost.network.LOCAL"
$template_name = "Template1"
$datastore_name = "DataStore1"
$customization = "Customization1"
$location = "vCenter folder location"

# Name the VMs in this array
$array = "Server1", "Server1"
$iparray = "10.1.1.10", "10.1.1.11"
$a= 0

Connect-VIServer -Server $server_address -Protocol https
-User $username -Password $password
foreach ($vm in $array)
{
Get-OSCustomizationSpec $customization | Get-OSCustomizationNicMapping |
Set-OSCustomizationNicMapping -IpMode UseStaticIP -IpAddress $IParray[$a]
-SubnetMask 255.255.255.0 -DefaultGateway 10.1.1.1 -Dns 10.1.1.2,10.1.1.3
$vm=New-VM -Name $vm -Location $location -Template $template_name
-Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec
$customization -Confirm:$false $a = $a + 1
}

Or just download the file from http://mattlog.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/AutoDeployVMwareVirtualMachineTemplate.txt (NOTE: you need to rename the file to .PS1)

You need to download the vmware vSphere PowerCLI application and install it on the machine you would like to build the VM’s from. You can download the PowerCLI extension from www.vmware.com/go/powercli (you need a free vmware accou nt to download)

Run the PS1 file created earlier from the PowerCLI command line and the script will cycle through your array and create the virtual machines.

Enjoy.

You will find in the setup logs:

Either FilterPack 2.0 is not installed or it is not the correct version (minimum requirement – 14.0.4709.1000)

Seems that the SharePoint 2010 installation installs an older build of the FilterPack 2.0. You need to install the 14.0.4709 version by downloading the file from Softpedia (I can’t find this build on the MS site)

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Office-Filter-Packs-Download-144582.html

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/344669/2010_year_move_away_from_2003/

Open Firefox and type into the address bar:

about:config

Agree to the warning. (note: about:config has lots of settings & changing some of them may cause Firefox to break)

In the Filter input box type browser.task. You should receive three options:

browser.taskbar.previews.cachetime
browser.taskbar.previews.enable
browser.taskbar.previews.max

Change the .enable to TRUE and press enter. You should now have tab preview enabled on the Firefox taskbar icon.

Enjoy

‘VMSERVER’ could not initialize machine remoting system. Error: ‘Unspecified error’(0×80004005). (Virtual machine XXXX-XXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXX)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;967902&sd=rss&spid=12925

This hotfix is suggested for all users, not only those affected by the error.

RIP: ignored v2 update from bad source 192.168.1.1

Run the no validate-update-source on your rip configuration and the updates will start to work.

router rip
no validate-update-source

I’ve just been given 10 new Google Wave invitations – add a comment below with your email address and I’ll hook you up.

Cheers,
Mat.

This is a massive issue! Recently when trying to recover an archived mailbox, I was shocked to find only 32 mailboxes (out of over 100) available to restore. After some research I found it’s a known issue with Backup Exec and installing SP2 should resolve the issue. It did resolve the issue – well, sort of.

The problem is, it doesn’t fix the problem retroactively! That means any of your old backup tapes that were used prior to SP2 have unrecoverable mailboxes. To access the hidden mailboxes there is a work around (no fix though), and if you often need to recover archives your not going to be happy.

In order to restore these mailboxes you need to duplicate the backup tape to disk. Once you’ve duplicated the information store/s to a Backup-To-Disk folder you then need to re-catalog the image. You will then see all of your backed up mailboxes.

I doubt Symantec will fix this problem, as SP2 was released June 09 and they are not-surprisingly silent about the issue.

Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 SP2 can be download from http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/323735.htm