SHIFT-WIKI - Sjoerd Hooft's InFormation Technology
This WIKI is my personal documentation blog. Please enjoy it and feel free to reach out through blue sky if you have a question, remark, improvement or observation. See below for the latest additions, or use the search or tags to browse for content.
Active Directory Basic Installation
Summary: How to install a Windows Server 2003 server as a domain controller.
Date: Around 2005
Refactor: 20 February 2025: Checked links and formatting.
This is an installation report of a basic installation of Microsoft's Active Directory through the tool dcpromo. The settings are based on a small AD domain design and should be set to your own settings when installing in a production environment.
This page is created for a 2003 AD, if you need an explanation for 2008, look here.
Change Password in RDP Sessions
Summary: Change your password in an AD rdp session.
Date: Around 2017
Refactor: 20 February 2025: Checked links and formatting.
It can be hard to change your password when you're in a RDP session in an Active Directory environment (as in no local accounts). When you're just one session deep, you could try to use this key combination:
<CTRL>+<ALT>+<END>
If that doesn't work, and you're on Windows 7 you could try this:
Go to Start → Windows Security and click the link to change your password.
Change IP Address vCenter 5.1
Summary: How to change the IP address for your vCenter 5.1 and it's database.
Date: Around 2014
Refactor: 21 February 2025: Checked links and formatting.
With the introduction of vCenter 5.1 VMware introduced a scalable setup in which all components can be divided over different servers. This is a logical step considering the always growing infrastructure, and thus the always growing resource need of vCenter. However, this also means increased administration and in case of changes some more steps to be performed. Due to an oversight of one of my collegues I had to change the IP address of the vCenter server and the vCenter database server to a different address (as in, not being a DHCP address). After changing the IP address I also had to reregister several components of vCenter. This is the full report.
Scripts: PowerCLI: Detect and Change Guest Selected OS
Summary: How to bulk change the guest selected OS in your VMware VMs.
Date: Around 2017
Refactor: 21 February 2025: Checked links and formatting.
The Guest Selected OS is the VM value to determine how the VMware Tools should work. If this setting is not correct then weird issues may occur on your VMs from errors and BSOD to performance issues. These scripts will help you correct this issue:
Manually this can be done like this, but be aware that the VM needs to be turned off:
- In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
- Click the Options tab and select General Options.
- Select a guest operating system type and version.
- Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.
But scripted everything can be done automatically, which is useful when a lot of VMs are configured wrong.