Mac Mini video issues on Samsung TV/Monitor

This post will be a bit different from my others.  It's less focused on enterprise IT work and more on personal computing.

For Christmas, I got a Mac Mini.  This is my first foray into Apple computing instead of Microsoft computing.  I am learning, slowly but surely.

I plugged my Mac into my "monitor," a Samsung SyncMaster P2770HD.  I left my Windows PC plugged into the DVI input, and plugged the Mac into the HDMI.  

I was dismayed to have very poor video quality.  The color was off, and the video quality was very jagged and unsatisfactory.  Adjusting settings on the Mac and messing with the resolution effected no positive change.  As a work around, I used the Mac's HDMI to DVI adapter, but that wasn't my desired configuration.  I wanted to rely on the TV/monitor speakers.

Some searching online tipped me off to the culprit.  (I have misplaced the link as to where I got the good info, I believe it was on Apple support forums.)

The fix was to "label" the HDMI input as being a PC.  I thought these labels were merely for display purposes to help remind you what was on each input, but clearly it does more than that and adjusts the quality.  Once I performed these steps, I was getting the quality video I expected.

On the TV, the command changes can be found at Menu | Input | Edit Name | HDMI.  Then you select PC and you have good video output from the Mac to the Samsung.  

Office Communicator 2007 R2: Tempermental with Patches

I run Office Communicator 2007 R2.  It has been a bit finicky for me as a Microsoft security patch can break it (go figure).

If you install MS09-056 (aka KB974571), you will get an error that the Front-End service will not start with error code 1008124893.  That's easy enough to fix, uninstall the hotfix and restart, and the problem is gone. I inadvertently applied that patch more than once, but a second mistake got me in the habit of avoiding that patch and keeping the server running.

When it came to apply Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1, however, the issue again returned.  How could I remove the hotfix when it was a part of a service pack?

Googling the matter again, I came upon an alternative solution that worked for me.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982021

Item 5a includes file OCSASNFix.exe.  This makes a quick registry fix.  I have to confess that I originally manually applied the registry fix, and didn't get the desired result.  Running this file, however, restored me to good working service.

Successfully Installing Windows 8 on VMware vSphere ESXi 5

Initial efforts to install Windows 8 Professional 64-bit were not successful for me.  I was pleasantly surprised to find my versions of vCenter (5.0.0 623373) and vSphere (5.0.0 623860 or update 1) had Microsoft Windows 8 32-bit and 64-bit in the guest operating system list.  However, my install was not completing successfully.  After initial reboot, all I was getting was an endless spinning circle (the modern day hourglass).

I didn't actually figure this solution out myself, but found the answer here:
http://tinkertry.com/windows-8-runs-fine-on-esxi-5-0-update-1-build-623860-and-build-768111/

Selecting the guest operating system as Windows 7 64-bit was the fix.  The above link mentions a UEFI BIOS but I didn't try that.

I also found information here:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/microsite.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=2006859&sliceId=2&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1
indicating that vmxnet3 virtual NIC does not work in Windows 8.  Solution?  Stick with e1000e or e1000 NICs.

Completing VMware vSphere upgrade to ESX5i: Datastores

Today I begin tackling the last piece of my vSphere 5 upgrade project.

The project was a long time coming.  I was previously running ESX (no i) 4.0 update 1.  Sadly, this was a fairly buggy version.  Many support calls to VMware, some of which featured unpleasant downtimes, came back to blaming the version of my operating system.  I was unable to upgrade due to our previous backup software being incompatable.  Then once my colleague migrated us to a new backup system, other projects on my plate delayed things.

What did the upgrade consist of?  First, I had to tackle vCenter.  I had to migrate off Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit, then I could go from vCenter 4 to vCenter 5.  At that point, the time came to upgrade each host from ESX4 to ESX5i.  That process was fairly straight forward, albeit quirky.  I frequently had to reconfigure the network settings or mess with NTP settings.

Now that my 9 hosts are upgraded, the last piece of the puzzle: datastores.

My datastores were running VMFS3.  The current version is VMFS5.  The wrinkle to the upgrade is that there are benefits to rebuilding the datastores fresh, not upgrading them.  One of the key features to VMFS5 is a unified 1MB block size.  An in-place upgrade would not give me that feature.

So, any system partitions on my hosts, or any local disks, I am not touching.  For my shared storage on my SAN, where I can migrate data off to alternate datastores, I am rebuilding.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Storage vMotion any VMs off a VMFS3 datastore by:
2. Right click VM in vCenter, Migrate.  
3. Change datastore, Next.
4. Select your datastore, virtual disk format (same format as source, or do you want to change: thick lazy, thick eager, thin).  Use the Advanced button if your server has data spread across multiple datastores.  Hit Next when you have things as needed.  Then Finish.
5. Confirm the datastore is empty.  In Datastores and Datastore Clusters view, on the Summary tab, note the Number of Hosts Connected.  Ensure Virtual Machines and Templates is ZERO!
6. Right click datastore, making note of it's original name if you want to reuse that later, and select Delete.  Confirm removal operation with Yes.
7. vCenter tasks will show the Remove datastore task and then all affected hosts will initiate a Rescan VMFS task.  Wait for these to complete.
8. In vCenter, go to Hosts and Clusters view.  Select a host connected to the storage, and go to the Configuration tab and then Storage.  Click Add Storage...
9. Storage type of Disk/LUN, Next.
10. Select the LUN (or name, if you're not working with a SAN).  Hopefully you only have the one you just deleted earlier.  Click Next.
11. File System Version, VMFS-5.  That is why we're doing this!  Next.
12. Review operation.  Next.
13. Enter desired datastore name and Next.
14. Maximum available space, Next.
15. Finish.
16. The datastore will be recreated, and the hosts will initiate another Rescan VMFS command.  Once those complete, you're good to go.  In DaDC view, you may want to relocate the new datastore back into any folder hierarchy you originally had.  Confirm all hosts reconnected (on the Summary tab) and that you are at VMFS5 (on the Configuration tab, mine lists at VMFS 5.54).
17. Repeat the above Storage vMotion operations (steps 2 thru 4) and you're good to go.
18. Work with your backup software to ensure any steps required for backups are completed.

I hope to plug away at this for a few days and have my 50ish datastores all at VMFS5.  Then onto other things!

About This Blog

Welcome to my blog.  I am an IT professional working in southeastern Michigan.  I manage a mid-sized infrastructure with approximately 1,000 users. My key responsibilities range from Windows server administration, VMware server administration, Active Directory, and other areas.

I always get great benefit from solving problems when I find the solutions on the blogs of others.  I plan to use this site to document my successes and projects at work in the hopes of educating others fighting similar roadblocks.