Interesting AMD Processor Issues – EdgeSight and GPOs.

Just cleaning out my inbox and noticed 2 separate threads on AMD Processor issues. 

From David Paoleschi : FYI – Dual-Core AMD issue to be aware of.

This issue arose during an EdgeSight install at a client. This issue manifested itself as corrupted reports within ES, and inconsistent report generation time when querying Reporting Services. Turns out the issue was on the 64 bit SQL server (with Reporting Services).

 

"An internal error occurred on the report server.  See the error log for more details. (rsInternalError)".  While checking online, the error message refers to the Microsoft.ReportingServices under SQL server as seen within these links:  

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqlreportingservices/thread/60228c86-e6f2-4f5b-91fb-5634676a1cc6/

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/895980

 

Applied AMD's Dual-core Optimizer Utility and now all summary reports and subscriptions within EdgeSight show no errors or slowness 

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_13118,00.html 

From Jacques Bensimon and Aaron Silber : FYI - GPO / AMD processor drift

This issue arose during a XenApp installation where GPOs were being processed incorrectly and sometimes not at all.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938448

“ A Windows Server 2003-based server may experience time-stamp counter drift if the server uses dual-core AMD Opteron processors or multiprocessor AMD Opteron processors. When this problem occurs, operations that rely on the time-stamp counter may not function correctly. These operations include network communications and performance monitoring. ”

You'll notice that even under SP2 the boot.ini modification has to be done in cases where Windows is unable to properly test whether the processor can support this or that timer mechanism (possibly due to missing BIOS support). Since they don't offer a way to find out whether Windows is in fact able to test, I guess the safe bet is to make the boot.ini entry.

 

IPM Utility : Path Manager

Introducing the latest IPM utility by Jacques Bensimon. (Be sure to drop by his Restaurant and try the risotto when in the NYC area!)

Path Manager is a simple utility that lets administrators graphically edit the system PATH environment variable, as read from the Registry.  Easily identify duplicate entries or invalid entries.  Edit and remove entries with the click of a mouse.

Download the package here : IPMPathMgr.rar
*May Require "Wingdings 3" font.

Freeware disclaimer: The author of this freeware accepts no responsibility for damages resulting from the use of this product and makes no warranty or representation, either express or implied, including but not limited to, any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This software is provided "AS IS", and you, its user, assume all risks when using it.

Quick Tips for Troubleshooting vDR (VMware Data Recovery)

After working a couple of weeks with vDR, John Simon sent me over some of his favorite quick commands for troubleshooting and working with the appliance driven backup product.  Seems as though he ran into the snapshot issue blogged about on Scott’s Blog here.  Scott has a great explanation of the Whys and Hows but if you are just looking for some concise commands, check out John’s notes below. :)

- FINDS ALL FILES WITH ddb.deletable set to false!

find /vmfs/volumes/ -name '*.vmdk' -size '-2k' -exec grep '-H' 'ddb.deletable = "false"' '{}' ';'

 

- FINDS ALL FILES WITH ddb.deletable set to false and displays the change it would need to make (TEST RUN)  

find /vmfs/volumes/ -name '*.vmdk' -size '-2k' -exec sed 's/ddb.deletable = "false"/ddb.deletable = "true"/' '{}' ';'

 

- To commit and run the change:

find /vmfs/volumes/ -name '*.vmdk' -size '-2k' -exec sed '-i' 's/ddb.deletable = "false"/ddb.deletable = "true"/' '{}' ';'

Road Warrior : Bluetooth Tethering with the AT&T Blackberry Bold

A little off topic today but I was very excited to get my Blackberry Bold wirelessly tethered to my Windows 7 laptop!  Makes the commute home much more productive.  The speeds are great and I am able to run all my apps through the CAG without issue.  The vSphere client works great rolling down the highway on the bus. :)  

I spent some time searching for the right mix of settings to get the BT working and found this great post by Philip Fuesser.  
I was missing some INIT strings for the modem which instantly made the connection begin functioning correctly.

Check it out for all the settings and information to make your commute more productive. :)
BT Tethering in Windows 7 RC

Configuring Citrix NetScaler to Load Balance VMware View Connection Brokers

Currently with VMware View 3.1, multiple Connection Brokers are required to provide a robust redundant environment.  Enter Citrix’s NetScalers. Among their numerous features, they provide excellent Global Service Load Balancing and monitoring.  Jeff Miller provided these screenshots giving a great overview of the process where we created a Virtual Server and monitor for our 2 VMware View Connection Brokers.

Step 1 – Create the Server objects : This allows for nice friendly names in NetScaler.

Step 2 – Configure your Load Balanced Virtual Server

Step 3 – Leverage Least Connection to distribute load and Persistence SOURCEIP to ensure continued connectivity.

Step 4 – Configure the Monitor to verify that the Members of the Virtual Server are running for both HTTP and HTTPS Services.

Step 5 – Be sure to Check the Secure checkbox for the HTTPS service.

In the end, the Citrix NetScaler provided a great solution for fault tolerance and load balancing of the VMware View Connection Brokers.