To install the vCentre a 32 bit ODBC connection is required.  When installing the role on a 64 bit server OS (ie Windows 2008 R2),  the installer will fail giving the error shown in the screenshot below.

To configure a 32 BIT Odbc connection on a 64 Bit version of windows use the following;

Start > Run
%systemdrive%\Windows\SysWoW64\Odbcad32.exe
Click ok
Select System DSN  and complete the wizard in the normal manner.

Please note that a 32 Bit odbc connection will not be dispayed in the default 64 bit odbc data source administrator manager.  Use odbcad32.exe  to view the settings.

This is caused by the windows HAL being violated within the Virtual Machine. 

A fix for this issue is to  add the below line to the virtual machine’s configuration (.vmx file).

piix4pm.smooth_acpi_timer = TRUE

To Solve this issue,  the following clean up powershell script is useful;

#powershell clean up script based on file write time

gci “e:\temp\*.*”|? {$_.lastwritetime -lt (get-date).adddays(-1)} |

remove-item

To run this script,   set the powershell  execution policy to RemoteSigned (run the command set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned ) and save the powershell  script  in a .ps1 file.

To configure the script, change the directory path (e:\temp\*.* in this example)  and the number of days required (-1).

To test the script add –whatif  after the “remote-item” cmdlet.  This will show the files that would be deleted and no data will be lost if errors exist.

Once tested, to schedule it  create a batch file with the following   (change the powershell file location).

powershell -command “& ‘c:\delete.ps1′ “

You can now schedule the script with the Windows task scheduler (point to the batchfile).

Get-ExchangeServer | fl name,edition,admindisplayversion

As the example output shows below,  each exchange server in the organisation will be listed with name, edition, and build/patch level.

To synchronise a client machine with a time source or list of time sources (10.10.10.1, 10.10.10.2, 10.10.10.3),

go to command line

w32tm /configure /manualpeerlist: “10.10.10.1,0×1, 10.10.10.2,ox1 ,10.10.10.3,0×1 ” /update

net stop w32time

net start w32time

To check time between source

w32tm /stripchart /computer:10.10.10.1

Note:  UDP port 123 for NTP is required.

If for legitimate reasons this needs to be extended, it is possible to reset this a maximum  of 3 times.  Resulting in a total 120 days grace period.

This option is activated by running a command prompt session in administrator mode and entering the following;

slmgr.vbs -rearm

A message box will be displayed and the machine will need to be restarted.

This is a Microsoft supported option, and does not violate the EULA
This also applies to windows vista.

This useful oneliner solves the issue

From the CMD prompt run

systeminfo | find /i “install date”

Example output

Original Install Date: 28/11/2009, 11:17:44