Mind Circus

Bit of an odd one this, but I felt worth blogging about.

The latest Dell SUU (6.5.3.25) doesn’t seem to be able to detect applicable updates when it’s run on a Linux system.

You get the message:

"bash-3.2# ./suu -c

------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the Dell OpenManageServer Update Utility.
Copyright (c) 2003-2011 Dell Inc. All Rights Reserved.
SUU Version: 6 .5 .3 .25

There are no software updates applicable to this system.
Please refer to the User Guide for more information about
prerequisites and supported systems."

Now, I know this isn’t true; because the current BIOS version is 3.0.0 and the one in the SUU repository is 6.0.7. Also, normally you get a comparison list of results, even if none of the updates can be applied.

If I downgrade SUU to 6.5.2.20, it works as expected.

How do we fix this?

If you want to replace SUU 6.5.3 with a working SUU 6.5.2 you’ll need to:

1. Download SUU 6.5.2
2. Delete SUU_653.cab from C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\RepositoryManager\Payloads\
3. Copy the SUU_652.cab that you just downloaded into C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\RepositoryManager\Payloads\
4. Re-export your repository/SUU via Dell Repository Manager

Let me know how you get on!

Very brief issue I had with a Lab NetApp Filer last night.

Symptoms:

If you try to log on to http://filer/na_admin/ you see: Error 500, Servlets not enabled

To fix the problem:

Re-install the OnTap software

Ta-daa

I was just reading “Cisco’s Billion-Dollar Server Guy Has Left“, over at Business Insider, and it explains Virtualisation as:

“virtualization software tricks applications into thinking they are on their own servers, even though they are sharing one with many others”

Which is an interesting take; although I think the use of “tricks” makes it sound a lot more hacky/dodgy than it really is.

As a Virtualisation enthusiast, explaining Virtualisation to a non-technical audience has always been an interesting conundrum for me.

How do you explain Virtualisation “in a nutshell” to non-techies?

So, somewhere along the way, I’ve managed to lose some posts that were uploaded over the last 6 months. In fact, I’ve lost almost all changes to the site over the last 6 months. How frustrating. If anyone happens to miraculously have copies of my posts, I’d be eternally grateful for the content!

Hope everyone’s keeping well

Phil

I first deployed Bitlocker and AD integration with Windows 7 Enterprise back before it was publicly released (that gap between when it gets released to Volume Licence customers, but not to the public). It wasn’t easy, and I had to use some interesting hacks and self-discovered cludges gleaned from old Vista documentation, as the Win 7 documentation hadn’t been released by Microsoft at the time. I had meant to document and release it as a quick-fix blog entry but the time passed and everything can be done properly now.

Since deployment, Bitlocker has been fantastic. The only issue we’ve had with Bitlocker since we deployed it is that of ensuring that end-users don’t suspend it or disable it, and that we most definitely have a good backup of the recovery key.

Effectively, without a management tool, you fly a bit blind until a problem comes up, or a Bitlockered laptop ends up in your lap with it disabled. Ignorance shouldn’t be bliss when it comes to full disk encryption and protecting your company’s data.

The AD backup of keys is a particular pain, as we’ve found that sometimes, Bitlocker just forgets to back itself up to AD when it’s enabled. To mitigate this, we’ve just instructed Bitlocker to also copy the key to a secure fileshare when it’s enabled during the MDT task, as well as backing it up to AD.

Fortunately, Microsoft have started to build a Bitlocker management tool called Microsoft Bitlocker Administration and Management. You can read more about it on the Windows Team Blog.

It’s still in Beta, but I’m looking forward to trying this out!