VMware ESXi 6.5 – Setting up ESX Time Sync via Web Client
KB ID 0001274 Another guest post from Daniel Newton Problem Now that we have the web console instead of the VI client, and don’t have a windows machine anymore, it would be better to use the web console. Also, having your ESXi Server running the correct time/date is very important, before you follow this article I should suggest that by making sure the time is set in the ESX Servers BIOS, e.g. the internal clock is set correctly...
Cisco AnyConnect – Allow Domain Password Change via LDAP
KB ID 0001273 Problem If you have remote users who connect via VPN, and a policy that forces them to change their password periodically, this can result in them getting locked out without the ability to change their password (externally). If your Cisco ASA is using LDAP to authenticate your users, then you can use your remote AnyConnect VPN solution to let them reset their passwords remotely. Solution Standard LDAP runs over TCP...
Reset an AD Users Password Expiry Date
KB ID 0001272 Problem I was setting up a Cisco ASA this week and needed to enable the ability for users to reset their domain passwords when they are about to expire. To actually test that, I needed a test user that had their password either about to expire, or actually expired. As I dint want to wait 42 days, or setup a password policy just for one user, I needed to find a ‘quick and dirty’ fix for one user. Solution You...
Cisco – LDAP AAA Error ‘AAA Server has been removed”
KB ID 0001271 Problem Seen while attempting to test AAA authentication via LDAP to a Windows domain Controller. Authentication test to host {IP-Address} failed. Following error occurred – ERROR: Authentication Server not responding: AAA Server has been removed Solution This is a terribly ambiguous error! What it means is that the ASA cannot bind to active directory, either because; The ASA bind account password is wrong. The...
Cisco Licence Differences LAN-Lite / LAN Base / IP Base / IP Services
KB ID 0001270 Problem Actually finding the answer to this question is far more challenging than it needs to be! As usual Cisco can change this on a whim so before you purchase any equipment it’s still a good policy to check on the feature navigator. Solution This is about the best reference I’ve found. Although anyone who can tell me what the correct Layer 2 differences between Enterprise Access and Complete Access are,...
Managing IE Settings via GPO
KB ID 0001269 Problem There used to be a GPO called “Internet Explorer Maintenance” that you could set your Internet Explorer settings, i.e. Proxy server settings, home pages etc. This has now gone, and has been replaced with a group policy preference. Solution From the Group Policy Management Console > Locate the OU containing the USERS you want to link the policy to and create a new policy, then give it a sensible...
macOS – Editing the Hosts File
KB ID 0001268 Another guest post from Daniel Newton Problem I’ve had windows for years; I knew the OS inside out. Recently, I switched to Mac. But I wondered how to edit the hosts file for my VPN connections and my servers. After some research, I found out how to do it and thought I will document it on PeteNetLive! 🙂 Solution Open a terminal session and type in the following command; Sudo nano /etc/hosts Note: I’m using nano for this...
Windows 10 Create a WMI Filter for Group Policy
KB ID 0001267 Problem I was messing around with some GPO’s for client today to replace ‘Edge’ as the default browser, (with IE11). To make the whole process more efficient, I wanted to use a WMI filter toapply the policy only to Windows 10 machines. Before this used to be simple enough, you just set the Windows version in a WMI query. But because it searches for a string e.g. 6.1 (for Windows 8.1), that’s...
Move AD Group Members to an OU
KB ID 0001266 Problem I got asked to do this at work this week, PLEASE BE AWARE, moving users about within AD may drastically change the way your ‘User Group Policies’ are being applied. So do some Group Policy Modelling beforehand, to avoid any problems. Solution In the example above, I’ve got ten users in a security group called ‘Source-Group’. For simplicity, they are all in the same source OU as well,...
Upgrade vSphere vCenter Appliance to Version 6.5
KB ID 0001265 Problem Here I’m upgrading from version 6.0 to 6.5, the process creates a new vCenter appliance, then migrates all your settings into it, finally it then shuts down the old appliance and brings up the new one. Note: This procedure is ‘non-invasive’ i.e. it does not affect your production VMs, a vSphere environment can run for about 60 days without it’s vCenter, all that you would lose is the...