<#
 .SYNOPSIS
   Start or Stop Local & Remote TSM
 .VERSION
  1.0
 .DESCRIPTION
  Script to start or stop Local & Remote Tech Support Mode on all the vSphere severs located in vCenter.
 .NOTES
   Author(s): Stijn Vermoesen
 .EXAMPLE
   PS> ./StartStop-TSM.ps1
#>

### Check if the VMware PowerCLI plugin is loaded
 if ((Get-PSSnapin -Name VMware.VimAutomation.Core -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null )
     {
     Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core
     Write-Host "Loading VMware PowerCLI Powershell plugin." -ForegroundColor blue
     }
     else
     {
     Write-host "VMware PowerCLI Powershell plugin already loaded." -ForegroundColor blue
     }

 $vCenter = Read-Host "Provide vCenter Server"

 # Connect to the vCenter server
 Connect-VIServer $vCenter -credential ( Get-Credential )

$serviceInstance = get-view ServiceInstance
 if ( $serviceInstance.content.about.Name -like "Vmware vCenter Server")
 {

$vmhosts = Get-VMHost | sort Name

Write-Host "Start or to stop the Remote Tech Support (SSH)service"
 Write-Host "The Tech Support services on ALL hosts in the vCenter will be changed by running this script." -ForegroundColor Magenta
 Write-Host " 1) Start Remote Tech Support (SSH)"
 Write-Host " 2) Stop Remote Tech Support (SSH)"
 Write-Host " 3) Start Local Tech Support (DCUI)"
 Write-Host " 4) Stop Local Tech Support (DCUI)"
 Write-Host " 5) Start Local & Remote Tech Support (DCUI & SSH)"
 Write-Host " 6) Stop Local & Remote Tech Support (DCUI & SSH)"
 $response = Read-Host "Enter your selection"

foreach ($vmhost in $vmhosts)
 {

Switch ($response)
 {
     1 {
     $vmhost | Get-VMHostService | Where {$_.key -eq "TSM-SSH"} | %{
             if ($_.running -eq $false) {
                 $_ | Start-VMHostService -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
                 Write-Host "Remote Tech Support Mode on $vHost started"
             }
             else {
                 Write-Warning "Remote Tech Support Mode on $vHost already started"}
           }
     }

     2{
     $vmhost | Get-VMHostService | Where {$_.key -eq "TSM-SSH"} | %{
             if ($_.running -eq $true) {
                 $_ | Stop-VMHostService -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
                 Write-Warning "Remote Tech Support Mode on $vHost stopped"}
             }
             else {
                 Write-Host "Remote Tech Support Mode on $vHost already stopped"
           }
     }

     3{
     $vmhost | Get-VMHostService | Where {$_.key -eq "TSM"} |  %{
             if ($_.running -eq $false) {
                 $_ | Start-VMHostService -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
                 Write-Host "Local Tech Support Mode on $vHost started"
             }
             else {
                 Write-Warning "Local Tech Support Mode on $vHost already started"}
           }

     }

     4{
     $vmhost | Get-VMHostService | Where {$_.key -eq "TSM"} | %{
             if ($_.running -eq $true) {
                 $_ | Stop-VMHostService -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
                 Write-Warning "Local Tech Support Mode on $vHost stopped"}
             }
             else {
                  Write-Host "Local Tech Support Mode on $vHost already stopped"
           }
     }

     5{
     $vmhost | Get-VMHostService | Where {$_.key -eq "TSM"}| %{
             if ($_.running -eq $false) {
                 $_ | Start-VMHostService -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
                 Write-Host "Local Tech Support Mode on $vHost started"
             }
             else {
                 Write-Warning "Local Tech Support Mode on $vHost already started"}
           }

     $vmhost | Get-VMHostService | Where {$_.key -eq "TSM-SSH"} | %{
             if ($_.running -eq $false) {
                 $_ | Start-VMHostService -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
                 Write-Host "Remote Tech Support Mode on $vHost started"
             }
             else {
                 Write-Warning "Remote Tech Support Mode on $vHost already started"}
           }
     }

     6{
     $vmhost | Get-VMHostService | Where {$_.key -eq "TSM"}| %{
             if ($_.running -eq $true) {
                 $_ | Stop-VMHostService -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
                 Write-Host "Local Tech Support Mode on $vHost stopped"
             }
             else {
                 Write-Warning "Local Tech Support Mode on $vHost already stopped"}
           }

     $vmhost | Get-VMHostService | Where {$_.key -eq "TSM-SSH"} | %{
             if ($_.running -eq $true) {
                 $_ | Stop-VMHostService -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
                 Write-Host "Remote Tech Support Mode on $vHost stopped"
             }
             else {
                 Write-Warning "Remote Tech Support Mode on $vHost already stopped"}
           }
     }

     default {
     Write-Host "Enter a valid number (1-6)"
     }
 }
 }
 }
 else
     {
     Write-Error "This script should be run against a vCenter server"
     }
 Disconnect-VIServer    -Confirm:$false

As I had already encountered something similar before I checked the partitions on the hosts.

The vdf -h command shows that the hostdstats partitiion has filled up. This was new to me. On previous similar issues it was the MAINSYS partition who ran out of space. Check this KB article to solve the MAINSYS filling up issue.

The content of this partition is located under /var/lib/vmware/hostd/stats. Here we see that the hostAgentStats-20.stats file is the cullprit.

Delete the hostAgentStats-*.stats file from /var/lib/vmware/hostd/stats. Run services.sh restart on the vSphere host.

Problem should be solved now.

1. Week view: Windows phone kalender heeft geen week overzicht; deze app vult de leemte in. Als je alle dagen naar dezelfde klant moet misschien minder een probleem maar ik vind hem super handig om te weten waar (was’t nu in Xant of Xbxl?) ik wanneer moet zijn.

2. Runkeeper: statistiekjes over lopen/fietsen/wandelen door gebruik te maken van gps functionaliteit vd smartphone. Niet dat ik nog veel de kans zie om daar gebruik van te maken ;-) Runkeeper account voor nodig, waarvan ook een freemium versie bestaat.

3. Adobe Reader: nog niet veel gebruikt, schermpje blijft tenslotte klein om écht te kunnen lezen. Komt vroeg of laat wel eens van pas.

4. Evernote: wp7 app voor evernote (notetaking app). Evernote account voor nodig, waarvan ook een freemium versie bestaat.

5. Lastpass: wp7 app voor lastpass (password manager in de cloud). Ook plugins voor firefox, IE, chrome op zowel windows, MAC als Linux. Komt goed van pas om alle complexe+unieke paswoorden voor alle andere cloud apps niet manueel hoeven over te typen. Lastpass account voor nodig, waarvan wel een freemium versie bestaat maar de mobiele applicaties nu net een abonnement vereisen.

6. Hello Proximus: bijhouden data verbruik. Tegenwoordig is er ook een Hello Belgacom app, die meer van’t zelfde doet. Die heb ik echter nog niet gebruikt.

7. Connectivity shortcuts: om sneller wifi, airplane mode etc te kunnen aanzetten, bv op events zoals TechDays. Daar is zeer slechte ontvangs en uw batterij gaat er in een halve dag door omdat hij steeds maar probeert connectie te maken.

8. WordPress: client voor persoonlijk wordpress blog. Gebruik ik sporadisch eens om comments als spam te markeren. WordPress Lastpass account voor nodig, waarvan ook een freemium versie bestaat.

9. Wonder Reader: favoriete RSS lezer voor WP7

10. TuneIn Radio: Stubru (of andere zenders) luisteren over Wifi aangezien er in ons badkamer geen/slechte FM ontvangst is. Open Syno kan dan weer streamen vanaf een Synology NAS.

11. Camcard (proefversie): business cards scannen, ocr’en en optioneel naar de people hub saven.

12. Carbon: Twitterclient. WP7 heeft basic twitter integratie maar deze app laat bv toe om de search “#techdays” te pinnen op je home screen terwijl je daar rond loopt.

13. IN+ Networking: Beste LinkedIn app voor WP7. Ook hier weer een aanvulling op de basic functionaliteit die native in WP7 zit. Die ingebouwde funtionalitiet zorgt dan weer voor nette foto’s bij de meeste contacts in de people hub.

14. SkyDrive: SkyDrive (surprise, surprise) client. Nog niet echt veel gebruikt, ook onder het motto “komt vroeg of laat wel van pas”.

15. Lync 2010: Mobiele lync client, zodat je om 23h nog kan lastig gevallen worden door collega’s ;-)

Strict gesproken is dit al geen top 10 meer, dus doe ik er nog maar eentje als bonus bij: Lumos, de obligatoire zaklamp app.

Tot slot zou je dmv Reinstaller makkelijk je fav apps op een nieuw toestel moeten kunnen installeren, leerde ik nadat ik alles manueel had teruggezocht bij mijn wissel van Omnia 7 nr Lumia 800 :-(

Quick meetup with the team from pro-exchange to discus what’s next from our community. Also , the new shirts arrived, which already impressed the Nokia girls

A first session from Jason Helmick on PowerShell. How to take a single PS cmdlets and turn it into a script, advanced script and finally a module and have it look like the real stuff from MS itself. At the end of the day there was a second session from the same speaker covering PSv3. Both of them were very very entertaining! You can read some more on the adventure of a first international speaking engagement on his blog: http://www.jasonhelmick.com/tag/techdays/

Ilse’s session Lync session got overridden because of an interview by Mirosoft Marketing dept. However me and my team are now proud owners of some new hardware we can use for Lync demo purposes.

So much for the good news. The bad news is our barista took off to TechDays.nl :-(

More than enough volunteers for the community lounge, so I attended some sessions myself. As I missed the pro-exchange preview around Lync Mobile clients I was obviously eager to attend the real one. After a quick bite it was up to Microsoft to try to bust some myths on Office 365.

Afterwards I had the chance to talk with lots of people; customers, colleagues, fellow community members etc. Being, albeit just a small, part of the event certainly helps there. Did some interviews with a Flip video cam, together with my colleague Michael a long the way.

Attended two more sessions, the first one on Hybrid deployments of Office 365, while the last one covered SQL Server 2012 which will be released shortly.

Some general comments on the event:

• Met several people with completely drained batteries on their smartphones (all of the smart phone OS’s). Perhaps we need to think of a mobile charging station instead of an espresso machine for next year. There seems to be a need for it. Or hand out some of these Duracell chargers as goodies.
• A lot of people mentioned the hall way being to crowded.

On to a, hopefully, interesting second day. There are some sessions on Windows Server 8 Hyper-V and AD I’d like to attend. We’ll also benefit from the occasion to sit together as pro-exchange core members.

Regards,

Koen

The Rules I imposed on myself:

1. Don’t miss any break or lunch. That is the easy part
2. Everything more or less related to the user community I’m part of myself, pro-exchange, gets priority
3. Some of my colleagues at Xylos are eager to help you with deploying your own cloud, whether it’s either private or hybrid, so it’s certainly a plus to have an opinion of my own around the private cloud buzz of late.
4. Open slots are filled with Windows Server 8 and Hyper-V 3.
5. All of the above is overridden by possible chalk talks or involvement in the MEET community.

Here’s the agenda I composed for myself:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

I might to do some blogging on/from the event, ref. http://blog.koenvermoesen.be/tag/techdays/, we’ll see how and if we’re able to compete with some pros from.

CU @ the TechDays,

Koen

However I also wanted to see this information on my windows smartphone. Here’s how I went about subscribing to it in Windows Live to get it to sync to my Windows Phone smartphone.

Download Schedule

First of all you need to get the correct ICS file for your home address. Go to the ILvA website and click on “Afvalkalender”:

Next you need to provide you home address details to get to the correct roster details:

You can then download the agenda for your specific location.

Import Schedule

Go to your Windows Live calendar.

Click on the subscribe link:

Import the *.ICS file in you main calendar. Note: this is the calendar of the main Windows Live account I use for my smartphone. I do not use Hotmail and/or the calendar on this account for anything.The advantage is that I can have these entries stand out by using a different color scheme

This is what it looks like:

Verify Settings

Check you phone settings; ensure syncing is turned on for your Windows Live Calendar. I’ve also chosen a color that is different from my professional (which is blue because that’s the main color in the Xylos logo) and personal (mango because there some of that in the Office365 branding) agendas.

There it is. No need to monitor the neighbors anymore

I’ve already mentioned that I use excel to manage task lists from time to time. Sometimes reality catches up and a task is invalid before you get to it. You could obviously remove the task from the list, but I prefer to keep a reference of the task and why it became invalid. Instead I set the value of my status column to “Cancelled”. (Other possible values are: “Not started”, “Ongoing”, and “Done”.)

Now in case a task gets cancelled I want to apply a strikeout effect to the entire row, not just that one cell. This is not to difficult to establish, but I always forget about one of the details and need to look up an old copy. Hence I’m writing this post “for future reference”, hopefully somebody else out there finds it useful.

Have a task list at hand and select the rows in it:

Office 2010 Ribbon > Home tab > Conditional formatting > new rule

Select “Use a formula to determine which cells to format”

The formula syntax needs to be along the lines of:

=$e2="Cancelled"

Click the “format” button and check the “strikeout” effect:

The end result:

Now go ahead and try to make a rule that sets a green background for tasks where the status is set to done:

Things that usually go wrong (it’s in the details):

• Typing the wrong cell number; you need the row number of the first row in the area you selected
• Forgetting about one of the equal sings or the quotes
• Not specifying the formatting to apply
• Incorrectly selecting the area the formatting needs to apply to

My Photos are organized in a “Year\Year-Month\Year-Month-Day” structure based on the date the picture was taken. I’m very happy with the solution because a picture can only belong to one folder. No discussion possible. Moving pictures from multiple digital cameras and smartphones into that structure quickly becomes tiresome. I’ve tried AntRenamer and PhotoMove but always ended up doing most of the moves manually anyway. Until I discovered the post above, which refers to an even older post from Belgian SCCM MVP Kim Oppalfens.

I’ve only tweaked the script a little bit to have it match my exact folder structure.

I’m working for Xylos as you might have read on my about page. At Xylos we are constantly looking for new colleagues. Have a look at the list of current job offerings or consider a spontaneous job application instead.

If you prefer a more informal approach, or you’d like to watch the new “The Three Musketeers” movie, than you might be interested in our job event:

Date: Saturday, 1 October 2011
Time: from 09:30 till 13:30
Location: Utopolis Mechelen

As a matter of fact I will be present myself, but I’d like to see some people to come and talk to me.

Check out http://www.xylos.com/musketeers/ for more info.

Note: you can do me a favor by referring to me during your application.