How to increase the size of a hard drive on VMware ESXi and MS Server 2012

Hard drives that hold varying amounts of data will need to expand as the volume increases.

For example, if a fileserver must accommodate 15 new users that need to add their data to the network you will want to extend the file storage by at least a few Gb. In a virtualised environment running MS Windows server 2012 this can be achieved very easily.

Step 1 – Increase the virtual hard disk capacity in VMware (on your ESXi server)

Step 2 – Use server 2012 to configure and recognise the extra space.

Following these steps will expand your current drive and you will not lose data.

Step 1 – Increase the size in VMware

1. Log into the Vmware vSphere client
2. Go to Inventory > Hosts and Clusters
3. Power down the server which requires increased disk space
4. In the left hand server list, right click the server > Go to Edit settings
5. Highlight the Hard disk you wish to increase
6. Under ‘Disk Provisioning’ increase the Provisioned size to your requirements.
7. Click OK and start the virtual machine (VM)

Step 2 – Expand/extend the disk size in Windows Server 2012

1. Log onto your server
2. Go to Computer Management > Disk Management
3. You will now see the existing drive and now some extra ‘Unallocated space’ next to it.
4. Right click on the existing drive and select ‘Extend Volume..’. The extend volume wizard will appear with the maximum disk space selected by default. Click Next
5. The wizard will then apply the change and expand the volume.

When you return to the Computer Management interface you will see that your original drive has increased as required.

How to resolve the ‘Parameter is not a valid backup job or group’ error in Fbackup

I recently installed FBackup software on my server and configured it to do daily, weekly and month end backups. Each night after the daily backup had completed successfully I would come into the office to find the error ‘Parameter “New Backup” is not a valid backup job or group’.

There was no backup in the FBackup interface with the name “New Backup” so I assumed it was a remnant of the initial configuration that had been changed or deleted.



This error will occur after each backup unless the following fix is applied :

Go to C:\Windows\Tasks and remove the backup that has the same name as the one mentioned in the error message. In my case it was “New Backup” and the file I had to delete in the tasks folder was ‘fba_New Backup’.

I deleted this file and the error was never produced again.

Change a product key in Microsoft Server 2012

When installing Microsoft Server it may be necessary to change the product key. An example of this would be installing an evaluation copy for testing and then purchasing a full license for when the server goes into production.

There is no obvious link to add or overwrite a product key so it can be achieved in the following way :

1. Go to the Home Screen of Server 2012 (if you are on the desktop) by pressing the Windows key or point to the lower-right corner of the screen, and then click Search.
2. Type Slui.exe 0x3
3. click the Slui.exe 0x3 icon
4. This will give you the option to enter your new product key. Enter the key and then click Activate.

Your new product key will now be active on your server.

How to delete an organisational unit (OU) that is protected against accidental deletion

When a new organizational unit (OU) (object) is created in ‘Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC)’ there is an option called ‘Protect container from accidental deletion’. If this is ticked at the point of creation then you will receive the following message when you try to delete the OU at a later point.

“You do not have sufficient privileges to delete <OU Name>, or this object is protected from accidental deletion”.

Although, this is a useful safe guard it may become necessary to delete an OU that is no longer required. In order to do this, the following work around can be used :

1. Open ‘Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC)’.
2. Click on View > Advanced features (ADUC will refresh)
3. Navigate to the OU that is to be deleted > Right click > properties > Object tab
4. Untick ‘Protect object from accidental deletion’ >Click Apply > click OK.
5. Highlight the OU and delete

The OU will now be deleted from ‘Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC)’.

How to check the Microsoft Server 2012 Product key and Windows activation status on your server

It may be necessary to check the licensing status of a server after it has been configured and activated. As an administrator you may also need to check your current list of product keys against the actual entries registered on the server.

To access this information, do the following :

1. Go to the Home Screen of Server 2012 (if you are on the desktop) by pressing the Windows key or point to the lower-right corner of the screen, and then click Search.
2. Type Slui.exe
3. click the Slui.exe icon
4. This will show the status of the activation and also show the last 5 characters of the windows server product key.

Win 7 XP Mode – Integration features unavailable

A user today complained that she was unable to open an application that was installed via XP Mode. The error being produced was “Integration features unavailable”.

After trying to start the VM from the Win7 program menu it produced the error and gave the option to retry or continue. If you retry it produces the same error, if you continue the VM opens with a blank (black) screen.

I managed to resolve the issue, so if you receive the error “Integration features unavailable” or "Could not enable integration features" here is the fix.

1. On the Win7 machine, go to All programs > Windows Virtual PC > Windows Virtual PC.
2. Right click the Windows Virtual PC icon > Select ‘Settings’.
3. Under the ‘Close’ option (on the left), Change the ‘Automatically close with the following action : ‘ from ‘Hibernate’ to Shutdown’ and click OK.
4. Try to open the Virtual PC again and wait until it produces the error, when it gives you the option ‘Retry’ or ‘Continue’, select continue until the Virtual PC with the blank screen is displayed.
5. Go to the top left of the window and choose Action > Close. It will ask if you want to force the shutdown. Select Yes.
6. Once the virtual PC is showing as ‘Shut down’, try to re-open the application and it should work !.
If this helped you or you have an alternative fix, please leave a comment for others.

How to rename an email account on iPad or iPhone

One of my colleagues had configured a new exchange email account on their iPhone but hadn’t changed the name as they were going through the setup.

As a result the name of the email account showed up as ‘Exchange’ rather than ‘Support’ which is our IT support inbox. The way to change this is not immediately evident so once I had changed it for him I decided to write this post for others.

So here is how you rename an email account on iPad or Iphone.

Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Tap your Exchange account (in this case it was ‘Exchange’) > Tap on your exchange email address (i.e. ‘support@supportingtechblogspot.com’) > scroll down to Description (past Username and Password), then enter the new name in there (in this case it was ‘Support’).

Yes, it is slightly strange that the ‘Name’ of the email account is actually labelled ‘Description’ in the UI but I guess Apple can’t get it right all the time !.