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Oct 3 |
HP Colour LaserJet M476dw Firmware Bug – DHCP Assigns Self IP for Gateway
Posted by Philip Elder on 03 October 2014 05:10 PM
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Original Posted Here: HP Colour LaserJet M476dw Firmware Bug – DHCP Assigns Self IP for Gateway After beating our collective heads against the wall wondering why our newly deployed HP Colour LaserJet M476dw refused to make SMTP connections for Scan to E-mail we found our source in the _very_ last place we expected.
Note that the gateway address currently points to _itself_ instead of the router that is assigning the IPs. This is the IPConfig /ALL output for one of the systems on the network:
Note the Gateway address is correctly pointing to the router. What this means is that for now we are setting the IPv4 configuration to Manual and putting in the correct IP address for the Gateway: What a pain that has been. Sure enough: The above status came out really quick and so did the test e-mail:
So, after all of the time we spent getting frustrated with the ISP, thinking they had blocked SMTP outbound, and everything else in between the least expected source for the problem has turned out to be the one. NOTE: Printer firmware was updated to the most current version as of this writing. NOTE TO SELF: Check the hanger bearing before replacing that rear-end! Philip Elder Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project Read more » | |
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May 20 |
Some Mandatory Reading for Sys Admins
Posted by Philip Elder on 20 May 2014 02:41 PM
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Original Blog Post Here: MPECS Inc. Blog: Some Mandatory Reading for Sys Admins There have been some critical human attributable error related news stories that we have seen lately. Many of us, if not all of us, have had situations that have had negative impacts on our client’s networks or our own networks due to something we did or did not do. The following four links come via the Patch Management list serve (Ben S.):
As with anything out there on the Interwebs take a PDF of the four parts to keep them safe. There are many pearls of wisdom contained in the above pages as well as some humorous stories that we _all_ can relate to.
When we make a mistake that directly impacts our clients we make sure to apologize and make some sort of restitution offer to them. Contrary to some folks that claim that admitting mistakes can kill a business we have found over the years that being honest with our clients actually builds up their trust in us. Philip Elder Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project Read more » | |
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Mar 28 |
Flash Multiple Intel or LSI RAID and SAS HBAs Together
Posted by Philip Elder on 28 March 2014 07:08 PM
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Original Posted Here: MPECS Inc. Blog: Flash Multiple Intel or LSI RAID and SAS HBAs Together We ran into a bit of a question mark around updating the SAS HBAs (Host Bus Adapters) in our Scale-Out File Server nodes. The question being how do we update all of the SAS HBAs in the server without having to take things a part physically. When looking at the HBA.NSH file that comes with the firmware update for EFI Shell we see the default command line in the batch:
A quick search on the SAS2Flash utility and we found the LSI manual here:
In the guide we find what we need:
Once we power cycled through POST and CTRL+C into the HBA BIOS we saw:
Happiness is not having to pull apart the server systems to update things one at a time! Philip Elder Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project Read more » | |
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Mar 18 |
HP Driver Clean-up Utility ntScrubber
Posted by Philip Elder on 18 March 2014 11:14 AM
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Original Posted Here: MPECS Inc. Blog: HP Driver Clean-up Utility NTScrubber If there are any problems with HP drivers then the ntScrubber utility is the one to use.
The utility will completely remove any remnants of HP’s driver set on a machine. Once rebooted one can then work towards installing the printer or printers again. Philip Elder Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project Read more » | |
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Mar 7 |
Installing Windows 8.1 on a Toshiba Tecra Z50 with Secure Boot and uEFI
Posted by Philip Elder on 07 March 2014 12:52 PM
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There seems to be a bit of a caveat installing Windows 8.1 onto a Tecra Z50 when Secure Boot and uEFI are enabled. We cannot use an enclosure that mounts an ISO and presents it as a bootable optical drive or a USB flash drive formatted with NTFS. Whatever method we tried we ended up with various errors that lead nowhere. Once we formatted a 4GB stick with FAT32, set it to active, and copied the Windows 8.1 content over to the flash drive we were able to install the OS as expected. Thanks to Chris G. of Toshiba Canada for helping us to work through getting a new Tecra Z50-A set up. Oh, and for now we need to get the required drivers from the Toshiba US site as the Canadian site is not hosting any yet. Philip Elder Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen Read more » | |
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Jul 6 |
Updating the Intel Modular Server from v6.5 to v6.8 Involves Taking the Storage Controllers Offline
Posted by Reprinted Article on 06 July 2013 07:32 PM
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We are in the process of updating the firmware on our Intel Modular Server from v6.5 to v6.8 on our way up to v6.10. When we uploaded the file using Modular Server Control (MSC) we came to the point where the firmware would not go any further before we reset the Storage Controllers into Safe Mode.
The process of flipping the two Storage Controllers into Safe Mode takes about five to ten minutes with a few CONFIRM steps required. Once they are offline, we are able to move on with our firmware updates:
Given that storage is offline this particular update will need to be run after hours. A backup is mandatory for any servers whether physical or virtual prior to running this update (we only back up the guests in the case of a Hyper-V Failover Cluster).
IE10 is a waste of time. IE9 in Compatibility Mode with the MSC in Trusted Sites will work for the most part. Third Party browser may be the best option for this process. Note that the IMS will go into Limp Mode once the first SCM goes offline. That means that hearing protection should be worn during the process.
The update process can take anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes to complete. Please budget time for this process accordingly. Intel Modular Server Support: Philip Elder Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen Read more » | |
