Windows 2008 R2 Server & Windows 7 Pro: Unidentified network unchangeable

After installing Windows 2008 R2 inside VMware, I changed the network driver from E1000 to VMNET3. No problem, Windows 2008 R2 recognized the new adapters after a reboot. I only had to change the DHCP IP address to fixed IP. And then the problems started: apparently Windows 2008 (or Windows 7) won’t let you change the network location as soon as it has put the network in the ‘Unidentified network’ category. Trying ‘to fix’ this problem using the Windows ‘Diagnose’ tool just removed the fixed IP address and put it back on DHCP (and strangely, now the network category is Public).

This, of course, sucks.

However, this little trick should work:

1. Start –> run –> MMC –> press enter

2. In MMC console , from menu file select Add/Remove Snap-in

3. Select Group Policy Object editor –> Press Add –> select Local computer –> press OK –>press OK

4. Open Computer configration –>Windows Settings –>Security Settings –>select Network list manager policies

5. Double click –>Unidentified networks

Then you can select the option to consider the Unidentified networks as private.

This worked for me !

Loading drivers in ESXi 5.0

So I upgraded to 5 from 4.1 – Cool. Almost. Vanilla install had no support for my Promise SuperTrak EX-8654 card which I have in my HP MircoServer. Now what?!?!?
Well, after a lot of searches, the solution was actually on the Promise site! Yay for them!

So in short an example of you to load a driver on esxi 5.0.

1) Enable ssh access on your esxi 5 host (what do you mean you’ve already done that? It’s dangerous!)

2) Get you driver. The 8654 driver I got from the Promise support site was called 'scsi-stex-4.07.0000.75-1OEM.500.0.0.472560.x86_64.vib'. Yep, what’s in a name.

3) Copy over the driver to the host using scp
ex: scp <driver name> root@<esxi_5_host_ip>:/tmp

4) Next ssh to the esxi host, go to /tmp

5) Install the driver
esxcli software vib install -v /tmp/<driver name>

6) Reload the esxi host – Oh I hand’t told you? Well you need the driver right?

7) Then ssh to the esxi host and check if the driver loaded with 'esxcli software vib list'
In my specific case it looked like this:

~ # esxcli software vib list
Name        Version                             Vendor   Acceptance Level  Install Date
----------  ----------------------------------  -------  ----------------  ------------
scsi-stex   4.07.0000.75-1OEM.500.0.0.472560    Promise  VMwareCertified   2011-12-26

8) Sit back and enjoy the fact you have access to the disks again for adding as a datastore.

(Sony) XDCAM Transfer for OS X

So as I now and then have to fix up a OS X + FCP install with XDCAM PDW-U01 import functionality, here is a short howto:
1) PDZK-P1 XDCAM Transfer, now 2.12
2) Mac i.Link FAM driver
3) XDCAM Browser, currently 1.2

The links might break, so here is the official Sony XDCAM site.

I am not affiliated with Sony, nor do they pay me for this. It’s just a braindump for myself and hopefully others will find this helpful!