Windows

Software management is not trivial task. Preparing for silent deployment is challenging, and even if you manage to install the application, how to keep it up to date? Chocolatey is package manager for Windows, that can fully automate lifecycle of your software. In this video, I’ll show you how to install Chocolatey, then how to find software, install it and finally keeping it up to date - all coming with free open-source license....

Having software consistently deployed across the fleet of computers is one of the key points that can be automated. If I have a choice (and it makes sense), I will always choose GPO over any other solution because it’s embedded into Active Directory thus not requiring installation, learning and maintenance of additional management tool. MSI – Software Installation One of the main advantages of MSI installers is that in 99% of cases you can just use the “Software Installation” option in GPO, and GPO will take care of the silent installation....

Deploying a new server is always fun! Well, at least the part after ISO download, installation, patching. Having said that, why not create a template so that you jump right into the fun? So we are essentially going to create a preconfigured VHDX file that can be attached to the newly created VM, and it will take you straight to the login screen. What’s needed Windows server or Windows 10 with Hyper-V role and management tools enabled Windows Assessment and Deployment Toolkit (ADK) – I always pick the latest version available, at the moment of writing this – Windows 10, version 1903 – is latest....

Recently I’ve had a request to restore a certain backup from the old backup tapes. We’ve had a new Backup exec installation which didn’t have the catalogue/record of these tapes nor the actual tape drive to recover them – I knew it was going to be one in the world task. And the hell it was. Locating tapes in the storage unit was a pure joy – no need to go to the gym after this....

The task: to move a virtual machine from one ESXi to another. The ESXis are on two completely separate networks. VM size is 5.5 TB, with one file being 5TB. The problem: VM cannot be started due to maxed out resources. There’s no NAS or any other means of storage where the files could be transferred to. From previous experience, I knew that transfer over SSH or USB would be well too slow, as the task was time critical....