- Blind-sysadmins - lists.hodgsonfamily.org

List downtime tomorrow
by Andrew Hodgson 31 Aug '08

31 Aug '08

Hi, Just to say that this list will not be accepting emails tomorrow - the web interface will still work however. This is due to the fact that the room in which my kit is in currently is due for some decoration tomorrow. If you send an email to the list it will be queued at your server for delivery when our system is back online. Sorry for any inconvenience caused, Andrew.

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jfw9 and disk management
by Dave 26 Aug '08

26 Aug '08

Hello, I'm using jfw9 on a 2000 and/or xp and/or 2003 virtual machine, in any case i need to use the disk management applet under administrative tools. Thus far i've not found this applet particularly accessible, does anyone have a solution for this? Thanks. Dave.

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installing exchange 2003 with jfw
by Philip 19 Aug '08

19 Aug '08

Hi. I am attempting to installing exchange 2003 under windows 2003 using jfw 9. I can get to the part of the wizard where I must select the connectors to install. Does anyone know how to select or unselect items, such as the exchange 5.5 admin stuff or the novell stuff using jfw? I can left or right click on items in the list, but nothing seems to change. is it possible, or must I resort to getting someone to use the dreaded mouse to select what I want. Many thanks Phil

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help with winnt.sif for unattended install
by john coley 18 Aug '08

18 Aug '08

Hi again everybody, since my post on this subject yesterday I've incorporated drivers using NLite and have further tweaked the winnt.sif. I've pasted below the first part of the current version of my winnt.sif. Could someone in the know have a look at it please and let me know if it looks ok? I've noticed that since incorporating the drivers a couple of lines have been inserted. As I'm not an NLite guru I may have missed out something, or selected something I shouldn't have. As I said in my last post I need to make sure it will only format the c partition, and not the d partition. On the subject of drivers there were two options, text mode and regular pnp. I set it to regular pnp. Was that right? How would I know which to choose? My next question, given that the winnt.sif is ok is arguably, for a blind person the most important, regarding a working sound device, one that will work as soon as windows installs. Although I can incorporate drivers with NLite a lot, if not all sound cards require you to run a setup before the sound card will work. Does anyone know of either a way I can incorporate the setup for my sound card in my winnt.sif, or alternatively know of a sound card, preferably a usb one, that windows xp pro will recognize automatically, or one that only requires a driver. Sorry about all the questions, but I really want to get this unattended thing cracked. All help will be greatly appreciated, John. ;SetupMgrTag [Data] autoPartition=1 MsDosInitiated="0" UnattendedInstall="Yes" [Unattended] UnattendMode=FullUnattended OemSkipEula=Yes OemPreinstall=Yes NoWaitAfterTextMode=0 NoWaitAfterGUIMode=1 DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore NonDriverSigningPolicy=Ignore FileSystem=NTFS ExtendOEMPartition=1 Repartition=Yes ConfirmHardware=no KeyboardLayout=Uk TargetPath=\WINDOWS [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword=* EncryptedAdminPassword=NO OEMSkipRegional=1 TimeZone=85 OemSkipWelcome=1

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ghost solutions suite commandline switches
by Dave 18 Aug '08

18 Aug '08

Hello, Does anyone use ghost solutions suite i believe the version of ghost used is 11.0, for imaging? I did this, whereby i would make a machine, and then use a batch file and image it to a network share, i did this in in think it was v5.1 ghost to like 9.0, but am not sure if the switches for automated cloning are still the same, nor do i have the batch file i originally used. I'm wondering if anyone does have one? Ideally i'd like to incorporate it in to the ghost boot wizard, drop the CD in, and when the rom stops spinning i'm prompted for actions, like load or dump a disk or partition, and depending on keystrokes i enter would fill in the ghost commandline, do the imaging, and exit. Thanks. Dave.

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Re: [Blind-sysadmins] vmware (was: buying documentation)
by Ryan Shugart 15 Aug '08

15 Aug '08

Hi No, you don't need a 2 cpu machine to run ESX, but I'd never run with 1 CPU in production, as you won't be able to use many VMs. For testing, and for learning about the product, you should be fine though. Hope this helps. Ryan -----Original Message----- From: "John Heim" <jheim(a)math.wisc.edu> To: "Blind sysadmins list" <blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Sent: 8/15/2008 8:54 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] vmware (was: buying documentation) Well, this may be a stupid question but do I really need at least 2 processors to run esx? I installed it on a machine with a single cpu . It installed okay but I haven't tried to config a virtual machine yet. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ryan Shugart" <rshugart(a)pcisys.net> To: "Blind sysadmins list" <blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 8:27 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] vmware (was: buying documentation) > Hi John: > I actually configured VMWare ESX to work with an ISCSI array just > last week. Actually, understanding the principles of ISCSI is harder than > getting VMWare to work with it, and speaking as someone who'd never worked > with ISCSI before I had it up and running inside of 4 hours, including > setting up the ISCSI target. How much experience with ISCSI do you have > outside of VMWare? > In general, yes, if you had VMWare workstation some of the concepts > would carry over such as how VMs are stored and the things you can do with > VMs. However, VMWare Workstation and VMWare ESX are two very different > products with two different goals. Unless you've never worked with any > kind of virtual machine before, I'm not sure there's much of a point with > you starting out with workstation. Even if you have never done anything > with virtual machines, you won't gain too much with workstation in terms > of skills with ESX, although Workstation is a nice product to work with in > its own right. Depending on how much time you have, I'd get VMWare ESX up > and running using local storage, make sure you're comfortable with > managing local storage including creating VMFS volumes and managing them, > and then bring in the ISCSI stuff. The VIC can seem daunting at first > from an accessibility standpoint simply because its so busy and there > aren't as many keyboard commands as there s > hould be. If you've got a virtual center server its even worse. However, > take it from someone who has been working with ESX for over a year its > very doable if you just take time to learn it. You should be comfortable > with your screen reader's mouse commands, and have an overall idea of your > architecture, but there's nothing that's not doable with time. Also if > you have Linux experience, you can log into the service console and run a > lot of commands from there. The service console is NOT a 100% replacement > for the VIC GUI though. > Hope this helps. > Ryan > > -----Original Message----- > From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org > [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of John > Heim > Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 3:59 PM > To: Blind sysadmins list > Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] vmware (was: buying documentation) > > Do you have experience with vmware esx and configuring an ISCSI array? > That's what I'm going to need to do. I've been diggling around with an > evaluation copy of esx 3.5. But i'm thinking I might be better off > starting > with one of the lesser products intended for a workstation. > > What I would really like to know is if I play with vmware workstation, > will > what I learn be useful to me when learning esx? > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Ryan Shugart" <rshugart(a)pcisys.net> > To: "Blind sysadmins list" <blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org> > Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 8:38 PM > Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] buying documentation > > >> Hi John: >> Well, in the case of VMWare, VMWare has a lot of good >> documentation, including their installing and configuration guides, >> available on their web site for free. Many books are available in >> browsable HTML and downloadable PDF forms, I don't know specifically >> about >> the install guide. They aren't the most accessible, but on the other >> hand >> I've been able to work my way through them with time if that says >> anything, so none of them are to the unusable point. If you're into >> ebooks though, two good sources are bookshare (http://www.bookshare.org) >> and for specific technical books try >> http://safari.oreilly.com >> I've used Safari, and while the main stream site doesn't give you >> accessible books, you can contact them, tell them you use a screen reader >> and they'll let you into a special site that has accessible versions of >> the content for no extra charge. Overall, Orielly is one of the most >> blind friendly book publishers I know of, although they are expensive. >> Its worth it though. Finally, there are several of us on this list who >> work with VMWare, including myself, so if you have questions I'm sure we >> would be more than happy to do the best we can to answer. I myself work >> with VMWare on a daily basis at work, and use all their tools, the SSH >> interface, the VIC, etc. and do so successfully with minor annoyances >> that >> can be major depending on how much pressure you're under, but have never >> left the annoyance relm for me. >> Ryan >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org >> [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of >> John >> Heim >> Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 1:14 PM >> To: Blind sysadmins list >> Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] buying documentation >> >> Anybody have experience buying books on-line? I guess I'm going to need >> to >> buy a book on installing & configuring vmware esx. I have been struggling >> just to get it installed. I'm going to have to learn about the remote >> admin >> tools and how to get it to talk to an ISCSI array. >> >> I'm worried that if I buy an e-book, I'll end up with the equivalent of a >> pdf document. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Blind-sysadmins mailing list >> Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org >> http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Blind-sysadmins mailing list >> Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org >> http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Blind-sysadmins mailing list > Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org > http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins > > > _______________________________________________ > Blind-sysadmins mailing list > Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org > http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins > > _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

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Re: [Blind-sysadmins] vmware (was: buying documentation)
by Ryan Shugart 15 Aug '08

15 Aug '08

Hi No, you don't need a 2 cpu machine to run ESX, but I'd never run with 1 CPU in production, as you won't be able to use many VMs. For testing, and for learning about the product, you should be fine though. Hope this helps. Ryan -----Original Message----- From: "John Heim" <jheim(a)math.wisc.edu> To: "Blind sysadmins list" <blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Sent: 8/15/2008 8:54 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] vmware (was: buying documentation) Well, this may be a stupid question but do I really need at least 2 processors to run esx? I installed it on a machine with a single cpu . It installed okay but I haven't tried to config a virtual machine yet. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ryan Shugart" <rshugart(a)pcisys.net> To: "Blind sysadmins list" <blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 8:27 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] vmware (was: buying documentation) > Hi John: > I actually configured VMWare ESX to work with an ISCSI array just > last week. Actually, understanding the principles of ISCSI is harder than > getting VMWare to work with it, and speaking as someone who'd never worked > with ISCSI before I had it up and running inside of 4 hours, including > setting up the ISCSI target. How much experience with ISCSI do you have > outside of VMWare? > In general, yes, if you had VMWare workstation some of the concepts > would carry over such as how VMs are stored and the things you can do with > VMs. However, VMWare Workstation and VMWare ESX are two very different > products with two different goals. Unless you've never worked with any > kind of virtual machine before, I'm not sure there's much of a point with > you starting out with workstation. Even if you have never done anything > with virtual machines, you won't gain too much with workstation in terms > of skills with ESX, although Workstation is a nice product to work with in > its own right. Depending on how much time you have, I'd get VMWare ESX up > and running using local storage, make sure you're comfortable with > managing local storage including creating VMFS volumes and managing them, > and then bring in the ISCSI stuff. The VIC can seem daunting at first > from an accessibility standpoint simply because its so busy and there > aren't as many keyboard commands as there s > hould be. If you've got a virtual center server its even worse. However, > take it from someone who has been working with ESX for over a year its > very doable if you just take time to learn it. You should be comfortable > with your screen reader's mouse commands, and have an overall idea of your > architecture, but there's nothing that's not doable with time. Also if > you have Linux experience, you can log into the service console and run a > lot of commands from there. The service console is NOT a 100% replacement > for the VIC GUI though. > Hope this helps. > Ryan > > -----Original Message----- > From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org > [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of John > Heim > Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 3:59 PM > To: Blind sysadmins list > Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] vmware (was: buying documentation) > > Do you have experience with vmware esx and configuring an ISCSI array? > That's what I'm going to need to do. I've been diggling around with an > evaluation copy of esx 3.5. But i'm thinking I might be better off > starting > with one of the lesser products intended for a workstation. > > What I would really like to know is if I play with vmware workstation, > will > what I learn be useful to me when learning esx? > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Ryan Shugart" <rshugart(a)pcisys.net> > To: "Blind sysadmins list" <blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org> > Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 8:38 PM > Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] buying documentation > > >> Hi John: >> Well, in the case of VMWare, VMWare has a lot of good >> documentation, including their installing and configuration guides, >> available on their web site for free. Many books are available in >> browsable HTML and downloadable PDF forms, I don't know specifically >> about >> the install guide. They aren't the most accessible, but on the other >> hand >> I've been able to work my way through them with time if that says >> anything, so none of them are to the unusable point. If you're into >> ebooks though, two good sources are bookshare (http://www.bookshare.org) >> and for specific technical books try >> http://safari.oreilly.com >> I've used Safari, and while the main stream site doesn't give you >> accessible books, you can contact them, tell them you use a screen reader >> and they'll let you into a special site that has accessible versions of >> the content for no extra charge. Overall, Orielly is one of the most >> blind friendly book publishers I know of, although they are expensive. >> Its worth it though. Finally, there are several of us on this list who >> work with VMWare, including myself, so if you have questions I'm sure we >> would be more than happy to do the best we can to answer. I myself work >> with VMWare on a daily basis at work, and use all their tools, the SSH >> interface, the VIC, etc. and do so successfully with minor annoyances >> that >> can be major depending on how much pressure you're under, but have never >> left the annoyance relm for me. >> Ryan >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org >> [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of >> John >> Heim >> Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 1:14 PM >> To: Blind sysadmins list >> Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] buying documentation >> >> Anybody have experience buying books on-line? I guess I'm going to need >> to >> buy a book on installing & configuring vmware esx. I have been struggling >> just to get it installed. I'm going to have to learn about the remote >> admin >> tools and how to get it to talk to an ISCSI array. >> >> I'm worried that if I buy an e-book, I'll end up with the equivalent of a >> pdf document. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Blind-sysadmins mailing list >> Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org >> http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Blind-sysadmins mailing list >> Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org >> http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Blind-sysadmins mailing list > Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org > http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins > > > _______________________________________________ > Blind-sysadmins mailing list > Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org > http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins > > _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

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need help with winnt.sif for unattended install
by john coley 15 Aug '08

15 Aug '08

Hi everybody, I'm trying to create an unattended xp installation cd. I've got most of the way there I think, but could do with someone in the know casting their eye over my winnt.sif. Due to a disk faulure a couple of weeks ago I now have only one disk, partitioned into c and d. I need to be sure that the install would only format the c partition. I've pasted the first part of my winnt.sif below. Could someone let me know if it looks ok, and if not tell me what I need to correct. Thanks for any help, John. ;SetupMgrTag [Data] autoPartition=0 MsDosInitiated="0" UnattendedInstall="Yes" [Unattended] UnattendMode=FullUnattended OemSkipEula=Yes OemPreinstall=No NoWaitAfterTextMode = 0 FileSystem = ConvertNTFS Repartition = no ConfirmHardware = no KeyboardLayout="Uk" TargetPath=\WINDOWS [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword=* EncryptedAdminPassword=NO OEMSkipRegional=1 TimeZone=85 OemSkipWelcome=1

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buying documentation
by John Heim 15 Aug '08

15 Aug '08

Anybody have experience buying books on-line? I guess I'm going to need to buy a book on installing & configuring vmware esx. I have been struggling just to get it installed. I'm going to have to learn about the remote admin tools and how to get it to talk to an ISCSI array. I'm worried that if I buy an e-book, I'll end up with the equivalent of a pdf document.

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Installing jfw9 during a windows unattended setup?
by Dave 12 Aug '08

12 Aug '08

Hello, Might be slightly O.T so please respond privately if necessary. I'm doing work with a custom windows xp pro unattended setup. I'm wanting to install applications along with the setup, one of which is jfw9. I've heard it's possible to do a silent install, but not sure how to do this, nor even if it is possible to package the file so it would install. Thanks. Dave.

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