why it’s so important and desirable to have configured graceful shutdown for servers and hypervisors.

February 5, 2017 by Munkhtuvshin Baatar
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Why it’s so important and desirable to have configured graceful shutdown for DB servers and hypervisors.

From my experience it’s completely nonsense that almost all Mongolian companies are so neglect to UPS issues. Servers should be mandatory configured for graceful shutdown by USB or PCNS cards. Otherwise for long black outs there is no difference between UPS backed or not RACK systems – servers will be just cut off mercilessly damaging database files, file system, boot sectors, virtual hard disks and so on. 

In case of proper configuration and on battery event SmartUPS (or very few BackuUPS) will send

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The main misunderstandings about AD/Active Directory:

February 5, 2017 by Munkhtuvshin Baatar
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1. The majority of Mongolian companies start to use AD just as a prerequisite for other Microsoft solution (for example for MS Dyn Nav). so that AD is considered just like part of other solution, not as a stand-alone very important security solution itself.

2. Other wrong common mistake – AD requires Microsoft licenses or that only licensed windows OS can integrated to AD. Piracy doesn’t have any direct impact on AD functionality (although not hotfixed and updated cracked OS can have problems even without AD).

3. Another mistake – AD is not free. Wrong. If you have

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How to update Dell firmware from Lifecycle Controller with error “The updates you are trying to apply are not Dell-authorized ..

February 5, 2017 by Munkhtuvshin Baatar
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Recently i have tried to update my R720 PE Dell servers firmware (suspecting that multiple SATA hdd damages are due to wrong not updated RAID controller firmware, btw wrong suspect), but got below error:
At first i thought that it’s temp ftp.dell.com server problem, later that it’s due some problems with DNS for ftp.dell.com in Mongolia. But everything was easier, just in wrong outdated iDRAC version (and integrated into it LC/lifecycle controller) so that LC couldn’t properly get firmware from Dell ftp.
So just go to Dell site:
  • enter your server
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iDrac or vPro access to local NIC

February 5, 2017 by Munkhtuvshin Baatar
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Often i’m asked why idrac/vpro is not accessible from OS on the same computer?. When you share one NIC between OS NIC and idrac/vpro management card (for example on Dell optiplex you have only one NIC with enabled vpro and at the same time use this NIC for windows server) you usually cannot even ping from windows server own vpro/idrac interface. So for Dell PE servers it’s better if you assign for idrac interface own dedicated port. As for vpro you can only add extra NIC for OS usage and use builtin NIC only for vPro.
So if you

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My top of sysadmin tools

December 12, 2016 by Munkhtuvshin Baatar
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  1. free Putty
  2. free Winscp
  3. Webresearch (personal knowledge base)
  4. Microsoft DaRT from MDOP, former ERD disk (very easy to add to WDS, or replacing boot.wim on USB with Win7 or win8) For repair, locksmith to reset built-in administrators password, to backup files from not booting disk and so on. To prevent non-authorized access by ordinary users during booting, place pxelinux with password before WDS network bootloader.
  5. Acronis tools (usually on USB, or as WDS image) mainly for cloning, partitioning, backups
  6. Hiren tools (mhdd, victoria, memtest to diag freshly purchased HDDs, RAM)
  7. Separate tiny Memtest (i prefer as a pxelinux option in
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Personal data mining tools, comparison

February 12, 2016 by Munkhtuvshin Baatar
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I’m going to compare several commonly used tools like OneNote, Evernote vs Macropool Webresearch. In browser you can bookmark only URL address, but then you cannot save your current opinion and comments to page or to concrete part of page. You may open needed resource by URL page and it can be changed, deleted, re-designed – so you can spend more time to find what you need.

Pros of locally installed Webresearch:

  1. Folders structure for saving documents. OneNote, Evernote just dump everything in one huge heap. To find something, you need provide to each note a tag, category, or you
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