Automatic Startup of Virtual Machines in VMWare ESX

To start up your virtual machines automatically when a VMWave ESX server powers up you will need to log into your VMWare Infrastructure Client and then: Select the VMWare ESX server -> Configuration -> Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown as circled below.

Then click on Properties towards the top right of the window.

Tick the “Allow virtual machines to start and stop automatically with the system”. All your VM’s should be set to Manual startup initially, you will need to select them one by one and click the “Move Up” button. I like to order my VM’s with a statup delay to allow time for the Domain Controllers to finish starting up before the Exchange and File & Print servers.

Installing Quicktime 7 through Active Directory

Further to yesterdays posting I have also been trying to install Quicktime 7.62 to around 200 computers through the Active Directory application Software Installation GPO. As with Sketchup Apple did not provide an MSI file, but the quicktimeinstaller.exe file they do provide does extract to an MSI in the following folders when you double-click it and get to the “Welcome to the QuickTime 7 Installer” Screen:

Under Vista: C:\Users\User\Local Settings\temp\

Under WinXP: C:\documents and settings\User\Local Settings\Temp\

Under the above folders look for a folder who’s name is similar to IXP484.TMP (the string of three numbers appears to be random and changes each time you open the QuickTimeInstaller.exe) and copy the Quicktime.msi file to a place accessible by your workstations on a network.

After assigning the Quicktime.msi file in a GPO you will need to do one more thing to get the application to install. Right click on quicktime in your list of applications to be installed under software installation and select properties.

Note that the language says Chinese (Taiwan). If this package was left as is, the installation would not occur unless your installed XP/Vista systems were this language.

Now goto the Deployment Tab and click advanced towards the bottom. Select “Ignore language when deploying this package”. Click Ok, Ok and close down the Group Policy Editor and Group Policy Management

Setup your Log on to Domain automatically

One thing that really annoys me about windows is that when you add a machine to a domain the log on to domain defaults to “MachineName (This computer)”. This means that you then need to log into the machine under a domain account and then log off again if you don’t want to get a phone call from your users saying that their domain passwords dont work. This also occurs when you log into a machine using a local account to do some administration. Its such a time waster to have to login just to log out, especially if you are setting up multiple machines at a time.

By presetting the following key via a group policy object within active directory and assigning it to your computer Organisational Unit your computers always have domain name as default:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\DefaultDomainName (REG_SZ)

To do this you will need to setup a startup script under the computer policy section.

On your Computer Organisational Unit create a New Group Policy and call it DefaultDomainName.

Under Windows Settings -> Scripts, Right click on Startup and select Properties.

Click Show Files.

Now create the following two files within this folder.

A “DefaultDomainName.bat” containing:

%systemroot%regedit /s defaultDomainName.reg

A “DefaultDomainName.reg” file containing:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

“DefaultDomainName”=”YOURDOMAINNAME”

Close the folder and click Add on the Startup Properties window.

Click Browse and select the DefaultDomainName.bat file.

Click Ok -> Ok. Then close out of the Group Policy Editor.

When your computers under that Organisational Unit restart that policy should now be applied.