1. Open Powershell 5.1 or later 2. Determine a save location. In my example an SMB storage location will be used 3. If you are not sure of the name of the powershell module you are looking to save offline utilize the Find-Module *name* command. Under the name column will be the PSGallery name 4. Run the command Save-Module -Path “File location” -Name vmware.powercli. In the picture below you can see both step 3 & 4 shown as well as the progress when saving the module(s).
In the midst of attempting to deploy out a new Windows Server 2019 installation I came across a new issue. As mentioned in the title of this quick block. My remote virtual machine posted the error 0xc0000001 which was odd since I was able to PXE call from my onsite domain controller (DC02) and start to load the boot file config.
After some research and a few cups of coffee I found that the resolution to this issue was the Enable Variable Windows Extension. To fix this follow the instructions below… 1. Open your Windows Deployment Services app or WDS 2. Right click on your WDS server in the left pane 3. Left click on Properties 4. Click on the TFTP tab within the properties window 5. Uncheck Enable Variable Windows Extension 6. Lastly Reboot your WDS Server
If you followed all the steps above correctly you should be able to PXE boot your VM from MDT now. Enjoy!
Cloning a virtual machine can come in pretty handy… Especially when you need to troubleshoot or tinker with an existing virtual machine you might just not know enough about or a previous admin didn’t document. All Admins ~ “Please DOCUMENT DOCUMENT DOCUMENT!”. For this article, I’m going to show you step by step on how to create a clone of a virtual machine and disable the virtual NIC.
Accessing The VMware vCenter
Open any browser of your choosing (IE11, Edge, Chrome, Firefox) and enter the vCenter DNS name of your system in the URL bar for the browser.
URL for vCenter
If you’ve enter all the above information correctly. You will be prompted with a Getting Started page. Click on Launch vSphere Client (HTML5). Next, you’ll want to enter the information to access the vCenter administrative console. This section, again, can vary depending on your setup. For my case, I have SSO enabled with a IT Security group. So, I’ll enter in my domain credentials and sign in.
Cloning Virtual Machine
This should be a given but confirm you have enough resources to clone the virtual machine of your choosing or the other hosts in the cluster do.
I chose the Development – SQL19 server I have running in my development vlan. By right clicking on that virtual machine I now have a slew of options, one being the clone option… click on clone. Click Clone to Virtual Machine. You’ll want to select
Select the datastore that best suites your needs or environment.
Check the following boxes: * Customize this virtual machine’s hardware * Power on virtual machine after creation
Disconnect the NIC from the vSwitch by click on the check box next to Network Adapter 1. If you have multiple NIC’s you’ll want to repeat the process.
Lastly, Clicking on the next button in the task above will start to process the cloning of the virtual machine. When the cloning is initiated you’ll see the process below in the Recent Tasks section of vCenter.
