• IT Systems Engineering

    How to re-sync replication with an old initial replica on USB drive

    I ran into a situation where a large VM had its replication enabled, and the initial replication (IR) sent to a USB drive. Then IR was imported on the DR site. Everything was fine but later on, for one reason or another, the replica was deleted. At this point you have the option of recreating another IR to a USB drive, sending that USB drive to your DR site, importing the new IR again. All that, of course, will take quite a lot of time. The alternative is to import the same old IR on the USB drive (assuming it is still there at the DR site) and letting the…

  • IT Systems Engineering

    When pre-staging a computer account for HV replica broker does not work

    While creating a Hyper-V replica broker in my HV cluster, I came across a problem. No matter what workaround I tried, my broker wont work. I tried pre-staging the computer account etc, as mentioned here but for my particular environment, it did not work. I read this: “https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askpfeplat/2012/12/09/why-adding-hyper-v-replica-connection-broker-fails-in-failover-cluster-manager/” and this https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/36ab7df9-a202-4493-a4a4-57b9cc8370b8/hyperv-replica-broker-stuck-in-failed-status?forum=winserverhyperv   Here is how I resolved it : I deleted the pre-staged computer account in AD, (which I had created manually, earlier for the replica broker) Configured the role in FCM, no errors while creation After that… yes, I got errors in the log (ignore for a minute) Then I recreated the AD computer name by hand and gave…

  • IT Systems Engineering

    Error 20552 in VMM after restoring database

    So after scratching my heard for the most part of two hours, I found out the solution to my problem. The problem started happening after I had to restore the DB of my VMM 2012 R2 onto a new installation. I kept on getting Error 20552 when refreshing any server in VMM. I finally resolved it by re-entering the password for the “run as account” for the VMM service in control panel. PS: I had tried resetting the password inside VMM’s settings > Security > run as account > my host admin account. But that was not taking, throwing an error saying that the account was not found in the…

  • IT Systems Engineering

    Create clone of running VM using VMM

    Do you know that System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) lets you create an identical clone of a running VM? Yes! you do not even have to shut down a VM . How cool is that! Just remember: 1) While going through the cloning process wizard in VMM, choose to leave the NIC disconnected If you do not leave the NIC connected, you will have duplicate IP addresses on the network, when the cloned VM boots up. 2) After the cloning process completes, remember to run sysprep. Yes, there have been some reports that VMM runs sysprep when it creates a clone, but I have confirmed myself (using psgetsid utility)…