Cisco ASA firewalls have had USB sockets on them for a while, but a dig into the documentation only yielded, ‘for use in future releases’. Well they are working now!
Note: Firewall shown is a 5516-X (running version 9.8(1))
Solution
Your drive needs to be formatted as FAT (not NTFS), I’m going to update/install some AnyConnect client software, but there’s nothing to stop you uploading a new IOS or ASDM images.
Your drive will get mounted as ‘Drive1’ (unless you have a secondary flash drive onboard already).
A few weeks ago I changed cars, I was pleased to see that the entertainment system in my new car could play music from SD card. These are cheap and can hold a Lot of songs, so rather than have my iPod in the car, I could simply drop music onto an SD card.
Which I did but, annoyingly non of the ‘album artwork’ was displayed, even though the music played fine. I did some Googling and read a few Audi forums, and finally got it to work.
Solution
Theres a lot of conflicting information in forums on how to get this to work, so I will just tell you how I got mine working.
Car: Audi A6 (2013)
MMI Version 3
SD Card Size: Has to be 32GB or less – This is because it has to be formatted at FAT32, it’s a limitation of the storage system not Audi or the SD Cards (Yes you can have more than 32GB FAT32 drives, thats a different argument).
To Check;
Mac OSX (right click > Get Info).
Windows (Right Click > Properties).
Why is there a problem displaying Album art?
Well, (and I’m making the assumption your mp3 files actually have album art embedded within them, (thats in the mp3 file, not in a different folder, if not get that sorted first!) The Audi will only display art if;
It’s less than 500×500 pixels in size.
It’s less than 254kb in file size (the image not the track!)
For example, below Im using the excellent, (and free) Mp3tag to look at this songs details, see the album art is 2000×2000 pixels, and is 409Kb in size. Try to play this in the car and the music will play but you will just see a generic ‘musical note’ instead of the album art.
Well that’s OK, but manually resizing all your album art could take along time, (I’ve got a large music collection). To do that requires another brilliant free piece of software called Bliss, (download here). I’m using Mac but theres a Windows version as well.
Windows Alternative
If I’m in Windows I use Sense Mp3 Art Sizer;
Back to my mac..
Install and run the software, at this point it appears nothing has happened but you should see a large blue ‘bl’ at the top of the screen. Right click that, and it will open. Go to Settings.
Change the music location, so that it points to your SD card.
Under the cover art section click ‘more’.
You now have the option to set the maximum size, set it to 500×500, and then set the maximum size to 256KB. Click Apply Rules an it should rattle its way though all the songs on the SD card. Depending on how many you have, this can take a while.
Notice once complete, when looking at the album art it has been resized, and should now show correctly in the car.
Additional Steps For Mac OSX Users.
Mac OSX has a habit of dropping some folders on the drive, and their names start with a full stop (or period if you’re over the pond). Normally that is not a problem, but your Audi will not like this, (typically is scrolls through all the songs and does nothing).
My Mac is set to show hidden folders, so you probably wont even be able to see them, to remove them open a terminal window. Execute the following two commands;
[box]
cd /volumes
ls
[/box]
What this does, is shows you the names of the mounted volumes, mines got a simple enough name because I called it PETES-AUDI, yours might be something else, take note of what it’s being called.
Then, change into the volume name for the card, change to match the name of yours, then issue three rm commands as shown below(rm is simply a remove command).
[box]
cd PETES-AUDI
rm -rf .f*
rm -rf .S*
rm -rf .T*
[/box]
Then you can eject the SD card, and play it in the car.
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Over the last couple of years I’ve done a lot of imaging of School PC’s I don’t know why but they come with a myriad of different drive and partition configurations. Even big vendors like HP and Dell ship their machines with recovery partitions these days.
If you are imaging with WDS this can cause a problem so what I usually want to do is remove all the partitions, create one big one that takes up all the drive, and format it as NTFS.
Solution
Before you begin make sure you are clued up on working with WDS unattended files, run through my instructions here.
The following procedure needs to be added to the WDS Unattended file NOT the unattended file for the image, (again run through KB0000180 if you are unsure.)
1. While editing your Unattended answerfile you need to locate, “Microsoft-Windows-Setup_neutral” and add “DiskConfiguration” to the “1 windowsPE” component.
2. Right click it and add a disk > Set Disk ID = 0 > Set WillWipeDisk = true.
3. Right Click > Create Partition > Set Extend = true > Set Order = 1 > Set Type = Primary.
4. Select Modify Partitions > Set Active = true > Set Extend = false > Set Format = NTFS > Set Label = SYSTEM > Set Letter = C > Set Order = 1 > Set Partition ID = 1.
5. This procedure will add the following to your unattended file.
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In part two we built our reference machine and took an image of it using WDS. Now to automate the deployments we need to create some unattended answer files, these will answer all the questions that the Windows 8 machines will ask while they are building. We will take those files and import them into the WDS server we configured in part one. Finally to make sure everything is working we will deploy Windows 8.
Solution
Download and Install the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit for Windows 8
1. We used to have the WAIK for Windows 7, now this has been replaced with the ADK. (download link).
2. It’s a MASSIVE download, it will take a long time.
Create a WDS Distribution Share
1. On a drive that has some room (Approx 5GB should be fine,) create a folder.
2. Launch the System Image Manager.
3. In the top left section > Right click ‘Select a Distribution Share’ > Select ‘Create Distribution Share..’
4. Navigate to the folder you created earlier.
5. Now you don’t need to do this next part, but I copy the full contents of the Windows 8 DVD into this folder as well.
6. Like so.
7. Then in the bottom left section > Right click > ‘Select Windows Image..’.
8. Navigate to the Windows 8 Media > Sources Directory > Select ‘install.wim’.
Note: The install.wim MUST match the version you are going to deploy, it’s no good pointing to a Windows 8 Pro image if you are going to deploy Windows 8 Enterprise.
9. Select the version you are going to deploy > OK.
10. This is normal, select yes to create a catalog file. It will take a while, it has to mount the image, interrogate it and create all the components. Now would be a good time to put the kettle on.
Create the Unattended file for WDS (WDSUnattended.xml)
This unattended file will be just for the WDS settings, it will not be applied to the image you are going to deploy. It sets the keyboard and language settings for WDS to use, then it gives the credentials to connect to WDS, and wipes all the partitions from the target machines hard drive. It then repartitions it ready for deployment.
WARNING: As reiterated below, the disk configuration settings below will wipe the target machines drive of ALL partitions, even manufacturers rescue partitions. If you are imaging machines anyway this should not be a problem, but don’t email me to complain of you lose the recovery files for a laptop/PC while you were practicing!
1. Create a new answer file.
2. The components may not start amd64 (if you are deploying x86 images) and some of the numbers might be different on yours. But the main titles of the components will be the same. Locate Microsoft-Windows-Internationa-Core-WinPE.
3. Add it to Pass 1. If you are unfamiliar with SIM, you add a component (or a sub component) to one of the ‘Passes’ in the center, then you can select that component (or sub component) and set the values for its settings in the top right hand section. The SIM builds an XML file in the background which will become the unattended answer file.
4. You will now see this component under pass 1, select it and set the following settings. (These are for my local English Great Britain settings, you may need to change your settings according to your locale).
Wiping the Targets Hard Drive and Partitions with WDS
6. Locate the Microsoft-Windows-Setup component > Disk Configuration sub component.
7. Add to Pass 1.
8. Right click > Insert New Disk.
9. Expand > Disk > Create Partitions > Right click > ‘Insert New CreatePartition’.
10. Select the DISK.
Disk ID = 0 WillWipeDisk = true
11. Select the Partition.
Extend = true Order = 1 Type = Primary
12. Right click ModifyPartition > Insert New ModifyPartition.
13. With the new ModifyPartition selected.
Action = AddlistItem Active = true Extend = false Format = NTFS Label = SYSTEM Letter = C Order = 1 PartitionID = 1
Select Partition to install Image to
1. Locate the WindowsDeploymentService sub component, (also in Microsoft-Windows-Setup).
2. Add to Pass 1.
3. Expand Image Selection > Install To.
Disk ID = 0 PartitionID = 1
4. Expand Login > Credentials.
Domain = {Your domain name i.e. petenetlive.com would be PETENETLIVE). Password = {Of a user with administrative rights – IT WILL GET OBFUSCATED*). Username = {Of a user with administrative rights).
*I used to say ‘encrypted‘, but thats NOT the case, they are simply Base64 encoded.
Attach the Answerfile to the WDS Server
1. Save the file you have just created.
2. Place it in your Remoteinstall folder in the WdsClientUnattend sub folder.
3. Launch the Windows Deployment Services management console > Expand Servers > Right click your server > Properties.
4. Client tab > Tick to enable unattended installation > I’m deploying x64 bit images so next to that option > Browse.
5. Navigate to and select the file you have just created > Open > Apply > OK.
Create the Unattended file for Your Image (OOBEUnattend.xml)
1. Create a new answer file.
2. Locate the Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup component.
3. Add to Pass 4.
4. With the component selected.
ComputerName = * CopyProfile = true (Unless you don’t want to copy the profiles from your source image). ProductKey = Your 25 character Windows 8 unlock code Note: Only put in a code of you are deploying with MAK keys or Retail Keys, if you are planning on using KMS leave this option blankRegisteredOrganization = Your business name. RegisteredOwner = Your owners name. ShowWindowsLive = false {now depreciated for Windows 8} TimeZone = GMT Standard Time Note: For other time zones see here
Automatically Join the Domain
1. Locate the Microsoft-Windows-UnattendedJoin component
2. Add to Pass 4.
3. With Identification selected.
JoinDomain = {Your domain name i.e. petenetlive.com would be PETENETLIVE). UnsecureJoin = true
Set the Image Language and Keyboard Settings
4. Locate the Microsoft-Windows-International-Core component.
Set the Local Administrator Password and Add a Local Administrator
Note: The local admin account is disabled by default, so here I’m setting the local admin’s password, and then creating a new local admin user called Sysadmin.
1. Locate the Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup component > UserAccounts sub component
2. Add to Pass 7.
3. With AdmnistratorPassword selected set the password value.
4. Right click LocalAccounts > Insert New LoacalAccount.
5. With LocalAccount selected.
Action = AddListItem Description = Sysadmin DisplayName = Sysadmin Group = Administrators Name = Sysadmin
6. Then set the password value.
7. Save the answer file.
8. Save the file as OOBEUnattand.xml
Attach the Answer file to the Windows 8 Image
1. Launch the Windows Deployment Services Management console.
2. Locate the Windows 8 Image you are attaching the answer file to > Right click > Properties.
3. Tick the option ‘Allow image to install in unattended mode’ > Select File > Browse.
4. Select the OOBEUnattend.xml file you created earlier.
5. Note: It makes a copy of the file and stores it elsewhere calling it ImageUnattend.xml (watch out for this if you need to edit the answer file and nothing changes!)
Deploy Your Windows 8 Image.
1. Boot your target machine to the network via pXe > Press F12 to boot from the WDS.
2. Install an Image.
3. Select the image you want to deploy.
4. After the install, the machine should reboot and present you with a domain logon.
5. And your programs and settings will be pre-configured.
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This weekend I needed to install Windows 7 on my shiny new Acer HTPC, but having no internal CD/DVD drive I needed to do this via USB.
Quite a few times now I’ve needed to install Windows (Particularly Server 2008), on a machine that has no DVD Drive. You can now install both products from a bootable USB drive by doing either of the the following.
Note: You will need a USB Drive with enough free space on it to hold the Windows setup files (Windows 7 and Server 2008 require 4GB ish, depending on versions).
Solution
Option 1 (The quick and dirty techie way!)
1. Pop in your USB Drive > open a command windows and execute the following commands:
[box]diskpart {enter} [launches the disk partition program]
list {enter}[Displays all the disks you can work with]
select disk x {enter}[Select the USB Drive number]
clean {enter}[Wipes the USB Drive][/box]
2. Execute the following commands:
[box]create partition primary {enter} [Creates a new primary partition]
select partition 1{enter}[Select the partition you have just made]
active {enter}[Makes the partition bootable]
exit {enter}[Closes diskpart][/box]
3. Now use a utility like 7-Zip to extract the Windows Install media .ISO file to your USB drive.
4. Now boot your device from USB, (Enter the BIOS boot section and change the boot order), or press the key the machine says will load the boot options when you first turn it on.
Note: Some machines require you to change USB emulation before you can boot from them like so.
Providing you have your location setup, Outlook 2013 will give you a three day temperature forecast. However by default that will be in Fahrenheit, if you would prefer this in Celsius then do the following.
Solution
1. From within Outlook > File > Options.
2. Calendar > Scroll Down > Change to Celsius> > OK.
3. Now it should display properly.
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Before starting the hard drive must be formatted, refer to the PARTITIONING section for more details. You CAN format a partition that is ALLREADY formatted to “wipe it clean”.
WARNING: Formatting a Partition that contains information will DESTROY that information.
This section deals with FAT32 formatting, this is required for operating systems like Windows 95/98/ME but can also be used by Windows 2000 and XP – The only time I would recommend using FAT32 for 2K and XP, is if you are dual booting your PC with two operating systems, and still want to see ALL the drive from either operating system.
Solution
Formatting a Partition
1. First ensure you have a windows 98SE Bootdisk, you can download one, CLICK HERE
2. Boot the PC with your boot disk, ENSURE the boot order is set in the BIOS to boot from the floppy disk BEFORE the hard drive.
3. When The PC has booted simply type format c: {enter}.
4. You will get a warning that you are about to “Wipe” your drive and erase all the data. Press Y then {enter}.
5. The drive will now start formatting, depending on the drive size, this may take a while – time for a coffee :0)
6. The system will now create the File Allocation Table – This is like a “routemap” for your operating system so it can find all its files.
7. You will now be asked to enter a Volume Label, if you have a lot of partitions to do this is a good idea, i.e. Music, WorkStuff etc.
8. If you don’t want a Volume Label, just press {enter} I’m calling this one PETESDRIVE.
9. This will tell you some information about the drive, for example how big it is, this one is approx 4Gb. And that’s it finished.
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Cisco ISE arms itself with a self generated certificate out of the box, (well the NFR appliance does anyway). To replace that cert with one signed by your own CA, this is the procedure. (Note: I’m using Microsoft Certificate Services on Server 2012 R2).
Solution
Step 1: Import the CA Certificate into ISE
Note: If you have a lot issuing servers it’s a good idea the repeat this procedure for EVERY issuing server you have in your PKI environment. Assuming you have an off-line root that would be every SubCA (to use Microsoft terminology). On my test network I only have one so that’s not a problem.
1. Connect to the web enrollment portal of your Certificate services folder > Download a CA Certificate, certificate chain, or CRL.
9. Again save it somewhere you can find it easily.
10. Open the PEM file you just created, and copy all the text to the clipboard.
11. Back at you web enrollment portal > Request a certificate.
12. Advanced certificate request.
13. Submit a certificate request by using…
14. Paste in your copied text (make sure no spaces get added to the end, this usually happens, be careful) > Set the template to Web Server (of your own template, if you are not using the default one) > Submit.
15. Select DER encoded > Download certificate > Save it with a name that is recognizable as the ISE appliance.
16. On the ISE web portal > Local Certificates > Add > Bind CA Signed Certificate.
17. Browse to the new cert > Select EAP and HTTPS > Submit.
18. Now remember to connect to the ISE appliance using its FQDN (you did remember to create a record in DNS for it didn’t you?)
At this point if you get an error either the URL is wrong, or you didn’t create a DNS record, or the machine you are on does not trust your issuing servers root certificate.</p?
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