Setup Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Failover Cluster in VMware Workstation - PART1

Here you can see how to setup Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 failover cluster in VMware Workstation.This article contains step by step method on Microsoft windows 2008 R2 failover cluster with freenas iscsi disks in VMware workstation just on your computer.  if you search on internet about setting up Windows 2008 R2 cluster in any desktop virtualization software, you can’t find it in one place.

Installation and setup procedure for MS windows 2003 cluster and earlier versions are available on internet, but not Windows 2008 or R2 failover cluster. Everybody including me stuck in one place while setting up Windows 2008 or R2 cluster in Virtualization environment, which is Cluster disk validation.  This is the main issue on MS windows 2008 R2 cluster in VMware workstation or Sun virtual box desktop virtualization software.

Windows 2008 and R2 failover clusters require SCSI-3 persistent reservation target disks as their cluster disks. Now question is how to setup SCSI-3 persistent reservation cluster disks in VMware workstation? I already wrote an article on setting up SCSI-3 persistent reservation cluster  iSCSI disksin VMware workstation using FreeNAS. Before continue reading this post, please read my previous article and create cluster disks in your VMware workstation according to cluster need.

Let’s start the installation and setup of Windows 2008 or R2 Failover cluster in desktop virtualization software VMware workstation.

Required Software

a)      VMware workstation

b)      Windows 2008 or R2 Operating System

c)       FreeNAS

Read more about Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Failover cluster in normal environment

Prerequisites setup

a)      Installation of Windows 2008 or R2 Operating System in VMware Workstation ( Three Windows 2008 R2 Server virtual machines required.  One as domain controller and other twos as cluster nodes)

b)      Setup domain on one server and join other two servers with domain. Use domain administrator login for servers. ( in this example, domain name is sysprobs.net and cluster server names are vm-clus1 and vm-clus2)

c)       Install failover cluster feature in two windows 2008 or R2 servers you are going to setup failover cluster in VMware workstation.

d)      Install second network card in both cluster servers. Give two separate IP addresses, so both servers can communicate through this network also. This network will be used as ‘heart beat’ network for both servers. Make sure, this network name is identical in both servers. (in this example, heart beat network named as ‘ internal’ on both servers)

e)      Create cluster disks in your FreeNAS virtual machine.   Read my previous post on creating SCSI-3 persistent reservation target iSCSI disks in FreeNAS.
( in this example,
Qurom disk – 512MB,
Storage disk1- 2GB,
Storage disk 2- 2GB,
Storage disk 3 – 2GB,
and Backup disk 4GB)

Make Your PC Clients Aware Of Your Samba PDC (SAMBA) - PART12

There are many types of Windows installed on people's PCs and each version has its own procedure for joining a domain. The next sections show you how to add the most popular versions of Windows clients to your domain:

Windows 95/98/ME and Windows XP Home

Windows 9x machines do not implement full domain membership and therefore don't require machine trust accounts. Here's what you need to do:

1. Navigate to the Network section of the Control Panel (Start ->Settings->Control Panel->Network)
2. Select the Configuration tab
3. Highlight "Client for Microsoft Networks"
4. Click the Properties button.
5. Check "Log onto Windows NT Domain", and enter the domain name.
6. Click all the OK buttons and reboot!

Windows NT

For Windows NT, you must first create a manual Samba machine trust account as explained earlier, then follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Network section of the Control Panel (Start ->Settings->Control Panel->Network )
2. Select the "Identification" tab
3. Click the "Change" button
4. Enter the domain name and computer name, do not check the box Create a Computer Account in the Domain. In this case, the existing machine trust account is used to join the machine to the domain.
5. Click "OK". You should get "Welcome to <DOMAIN>" message as confirmation that you've been added.
6. Reboot.

You can now log in using any account in the /etc/smbpasswd file with your domain as the domain name.

Windows 200x and Windows XP Professional

For the 200x and XP Professional varieties of Windows, create a dynamic Samba machine trust account, then go through these steps:

1. Press the Windows and Break keys simultaneously to access the System Properties dialogue box.
2. Click on the 'Network Identification' or 'Computer Name' tab on the top.
3. Click the "Properties" button.
4. Click on the "Member of Domain" button.
5. Also enter your domain name and computer name and then click "OK"
6. You will be prompted for a user account and password with rights to join a machine to the domain. Enter the information for your Samba administrator. In this home environment scenario, the user would be root with the corresponding smbpasswd password. Now, you should get a "Welcome to <DOMAIN>" message confirming that you've been added.
7. Reboot.

Log in using any account in the /etc/smbpasswd file with your domain as the domain name.

Note: With Samba version 2 you may also have to make a few changes to your system's registry using the regedit command and reboot before continuing.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters]
"requiresignorseal"=dword:00000000
"signsecurechannel"=dword:00000000

Is That Grinding Sound the Death of My Hard Drive?

By Lincoln Spector, PCWorld Nov 17, 2011 7:44 AM

Ericuse165 has a friend with a PC that's making a grinding noise. Eric asked the Hard Drives, NAS Drives, Storage forum for advice.

First, backup that hard drive. And I mean now! That drive could die any minute, and when it does, it will cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars to retrieve your files--if the files can be retrieved.

Do a full image backup of the entire drive, including all partitions. EASEUS Todo Backup andMacrium Reflect Free are both free and either one will do the job just fine. You'll need an external hard drive to back the images onto.

Both programs also have an option for creating a bootable CD from which you can restore the backup. Create that CD.

Backed up? Good. Now you need to determine if it’s the hard drive making the noise, or just a fan.

If the PC is a desktop, open it up, turn it on, and try to locate the location of the noise. If you can't, find yourself a hollow tube--the cardboard one from a used-up paper towel roll works. Holding one end of tube to your ear, point the other end to various locations in the PC, especially towards the hard drive and fans. You'll easily pinpoint the source of the grinding.

Laptops aren't that easy. If you feel comfortable opening yours, use the desktop instructions above. Otherwise, try to determine the location of the fan and the hard drive from the outside. The fan is probably near a vent. Most laptops are designed to make hard drives easy to remove and replace. If you can't find where the drive is located, check your model's online manual.

Once you know where everything is, use the cardboard tube method described above.

If the noise is coming from a fan, and the PC is open, look for something obstructing the fan. Remove it if you find it. If the fan is loose; tighten it. Otherwise, replace it.

But if a fan is making the noise, and you're not comfortable opening the laptop, bring it to a professional and explain the problem.

And if it really is the hard drive making the noise? Buy a new hard drive, install it, and restore Windows and your files from that image backup.

Read the original forum discussion.

Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector writes about technology and cinema. Email your tech questions to him at answer@pcworld.com, or post them to a community of helpful folks on the PCW Answer Line forum. Follow Lincoln on Twitter, or subscribe to the Answer Line newsletter, e-mailed weekly.

• See more like this:
• hard drives,
• internal hard drive,
• repair

PC Dies Before It Can Begin to Boot

When Kennyrosenyc turns on his PC, it dies before it even begins to boot. He asked the Windows forum for help.

You can't blame this one on Windows. If the PC shuts down before it tries to boot off the hard drive (or off of a CD or flash drive), then you definitely have a hardware problem. And the piece of hardware that's giving you the problem is almost certainly not the hard drive.

You're going to have to decide between fixing or replacing the computer. But before you do that, you must rescue your files--especially if you don't have a recent backup.

Since you can't boot off a CD or flash drive, and therefore can't use a live Linux variant, you'll have to remove the hard drive from the old computer and attach it to another computer as a second drive. I can't tell you how to remove the hard drive for your particular model, but you can probably find instructions online. It isn't difficult.

If the working PC is a desktop, you can open it up and install the broken PC's drive as a second, non-booting drive. Or you can borrow or buy an SATA/USB or IDE/USB adapter that will turn the old drive temporarily into an external one. These adapters sell for anything from $15 to $30, and are your only real option if that working computer is a laptop, or if you borrowed the working PC and the owner doesn't want you opening it.

Once a working computer can access the drive, you can copy your files to another location.

Now that you've saved your files, let's get back to the original question: Repair or replace?

If the fan won't start or dies soon after it does, the problem is likely your power supply. If you have a desktop PC, power supplies are cheap (some less than $30) and easy to replace. It might be worth a gamble to see if that's your problem before you try anything else.

Otherwise, unless you're particularly skilled at working with computer hardware, I'd recommend taking it to a professional. On the other hand, if the PC getting old, replacing it may make more sense.

How To Add Workstations To Your Samba Domain (SAMBA) - PART11

Adding workstations to a Samba domain is a two step process involving the creation of workstation trust accounts on the Samba server and then logging into each workstation to add them to the domain.

Create Samba Trust Accounts For Each Workstation

PDCs will accept user logins only from trusted PCs that have been placed in its PC client database. Samba can create these Machine Trusts in two ways, either manually or automatically.

Manual Creation Of Machine Trust Accounts (NT Only)

The commands in this example create a special Linux group for Samba clients and then add a special machine user that's a member of the group. The password for this user is then disabled and the machine is then added to the smbpasswd file to help keep track of which devices are members of the domain. In summary, a machine trust account needs to have entries in the /etc/passwd and /etc/smbpasswd files. Pay careful attention to the dollar sign ($) at the end and replace machine_name with the name of the Windows client machine.

[root@bigboy tmp]# groupadd samba-clients
[root@bigboy tmp]# /usr/sbin/useradd -g samba-clients \
-d /dev/null -s /bin/false machine_name$
[root@bigboy tmp]# passwd -l machine_name$
[root@bigboy tmp]# smbpasswd -a -m machine_name

This is the only way to configure machine trusts using Windows NT.

Dynamic Creation of Machine Trust Accounts

Although you can use the manual method, the recommended way of creating machine trust accounts is simply to allow the Samba server to create them as needed when the Windows clients join the domain which known as making a machine account on the fly. You can set this up by editing the /etc/samba/smb.conf file to automatically add the required users.

The easiest way to do this using SWAT in the Global menu to modify the add machine script parameter.

[global]
# <...remainder of parameters...>
add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd -d /dev/null -g samba-clients -s /bin/false -M %u

When you have completed the modifications, you'll need to create the samba-clients Linux group that will be used to help identify the all the domain's Windows clients listed in the /etc/passwd file.

[root@bigboy tmp]# groupadd samba-clients

In Samba version 2, you need to add the client to the smbpasswd file also

[root@bigboy tmp]# smbpasswd -a -m machine_name

Samba version 3 adds it automatically.