Windows Server Core - CoreConfigurator to the rescue

If you need to configure Server Core to get your installation up and running but you're nota command-line expert then check CoreConfigurator.
Guy Teverovsky, Windows Server MVP, comes to rescue with a simple GUI utility to do all thehard work for you.

CoreConfigurator Features:
Product Activation
Configuration of display resolution
Clock and time zone configuration
Remote Desktop configuration
Management of local user accounts (creation, deletion, group membership, passwords)
Firewall configuration
WinRM configuration
IP configuration
Computer name and domain/workgroup membership
Installation of Server Core features/roles

Here's a screenshot of the main screen:

VMware: VC Roles & Permissions

When you are migrating VC from one version to other in a complex environment it would be very tough to keep track of roles and permissions for various users.

René vd Linden at www.renevdlinden.nl has released a excel sheet that can be used to document and update roles and permissions in VC.
It looks very easy and straight forward.
http://www.renevdlinden.nl/wordpress/2008/01/04/vmware-vc-roles-permissions/

Getting cpu info for VMotion

Richard Garsthagen owner of http://www.run-virtual.com/ has written beautiful tool which can get CPU info for VMotion. To find if your server is compatible for VMotion or not you need to go to ESX install CD and run cpuid.iso. But this tool will allow you to communicate with your virtual center and get all the information for VMotion compatable host

Interested in knowing if all your physical ESX servers are the same? VMotion Info will help you find out. The application gathers the important system information from your hosts and puts this in one single overview. It’s my first written VB application, so sorry for the looks
At the Login screen just provide your username, password and the IP/DNS of your Virtual Center.

After the login, the program will collect from all hosts the Vendor, Model, CPU Types and the CPU feature bits.

After you have the overview, you can easily cut and paste it into Excel and make some nice reports or so
Version History:
1.00 - First release, show raw data only
1.01 - This release translates the actual raw data to what CPU features are available
1.02 - Fixed an error when servers are found that are not licensed yet
1.03 - Improved error trapping
1.05 - Added functionality to change the VC port number
Download VMotionInfo

Battle at Kruger

Battle at Kruger
This is one of the best video shot which explain if you are united nothing is impossible. It convey many messages but what I like most about this video is you can fight back with all odd in your life if you have a faith in yourself. Buffalo wanted to survive and he did. If you are good leader you will have many follower.
It is awsome video.

How to check/Update the VMtools on Virtual Machine

Rob from http://home.planet.nl/~veij0002/ has written beautiful tool using VI SDK and called it RV TOOLS. It looks really cool

RVTools
RVTools is a small .NET 2.0 application which uses the VI SDK to display the version of the installed VMware tools.It also shows if the tools are upgradeable. The button "Upgrade VMware Tools" starts an UpgradeTools_Task for every selected VM. If you think this is useful information please download the application, try it and let me know by mail what you think about it. You can find my email address in the help, about box of the application.Note: This application only supports ESX Server 3.x, VirtualCenter 2.x and ESX Server 3i.





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