I ran into this issue with a Windows XP image being applied using SCCM 2012. After the minisetup the machine crashed with the following BSOD (0x000000ED, UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME):
SCCM 2012 OSD variable OSDDiskpartBiosCompatibilityMode not working, causes 0x000000ED BSOD
January 30th, 2013
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Alecto WS-1300 Wireless Plant Sensor teardown
January 23rd, 2013
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The Alecto WS-1300 is a wireless plant observation system. It consists of a base unit and one or multiple plant sensors. The default system includes the base unit and one plant sensor. Optional sensors can be ordered from the manufacturer (Alecto). Although it seems Alecto just re branded a Chinese product (more about that later)
Here is a picture of the product, with the plant sensor on the left and the base unit on the right:
The case of the 340.000 contacts in a user mailbox
January 15th, 2013
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One of our users suddenly had this issue, this user had over 340.000 contacts most of them duplicates. As it turns out it was a syncing issue with his mobile phone. Deleting 340.000 contacts using Outlook is a painful task, so I figured out another way to do it. Here are the steps I took:
- Disabled the synchronization
- Restored the user’ contacts from a recent back-up into a PST file. We are using Commvault software which has this option. You can also export the existing contacts using PowerShell.
- Deleted the contacts using PowerShell.
- Moved the contacts from the PST back into the users mailbox.
Step 1, 2 and 4 are quite trivial, and I assume you know how to do that. The second task is a bit more complicated, and requires some special rights within your Exchange organization. The complete PowerShell command I used to delete only the contacts from the users mailbox:
New receiver: Onkyo TX-NR414
November 6th, 2012
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Last weekend I received my new receiver (hah, I’m a word artist!), it is an Onkyo TX-NR414. Here’s a picture of it in all its glory:
Smartmeter update: permanent cable
April 18th, 2012
15 Comments
Today I received a FTDI DS_TTL-232R cable ($12 on ebay), this cable allowed me to create a more permanent solution for my smartmeter. Here is the old cable/test setup:
And here is the new cable (I replaced the six pin female header with a RJ11 crimp connector):
New smart meter installed (Iskra ME382 and Landis + Gyr gasmeter E06140)
April 5th, 2012
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Last week Liander, one of the biggest energy network maintainers in the Netherlands installed a new smart meter at my place. Actually they installed two new meters: the Landis+Gyr E06140 to measure gas usage and the Iskra ME382 to measure electricity. Both devices are linked together and the electricity meter provides a P1 port, this is a open and accessible port to retrieve data from the meter. More information about this P1 port can be found here.
Of course I couldn’t resist that P1 port, and I just had to try and get the data out! Here’s a picture of the smart meter with the P1 port annotated (click for a bigger picture):
Installing Fusion IO driver on VMware ESXi 5 using vSphere Update Manager (VUM)
March 29th, 2012
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This blog post will describe how to install the Fusion IO driver on VMware ESXi 5 using the vSphere Update Manager. First things first, grab the latest driver from the VMware website, at the time of writing the driver is available here.
Next we need to import the patch file into the vSphere Update Manager, the patch file is included into the downloaded zip file. It should be named: iomemory-vsl-2.3.9.54-offline_bundle-632012.zip. From the vSphere Update Manager click the “Import Patches” link:
GreenWave Reality PowerNode (bar) first impression
March 20th, 2012
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Recently my colleague Frank (props to him) discovered this device which could well be a good alternative to the (ever delayed) Qees power strip. We both decided to order one of these devices. It’s a very reasonably priced device (€50,-) for it’s specifications:
- 6 switchable and measurable sockets
- Overcurrent (10A fuse) -and surge protection
- 0.1W precision on load monitoring (energy measurement)
Here’s a picture of the device:
FSRM: Failed to send the test e-mail due to the following error: Cannot send the email due to an error.
March 7th, 2012
4 Comments
I was working on FSRM (File Server Resource Manager) today and I was trying to get e-mail notifications working. Using the test button, the following error appeared:
Further investigation in the Windows (application)eventlog showed me the following information:
A File Server Resource Manager Service email action could not be run.
Error-specific details:
Error: IFsrmEmailExternal::SendMail, 0x8004531c, Mailbox unavailable. The server response was: 5.7.1 Client does not have permissions to send as this sender
As it turns out you need give send permissions to the computer running FSRM. You need set this send permission on the mailbox you specified in the “Default From e-mail address”. To do this, type the following command from the Exchange Management Shell:
Add-ADPermission -Identity "MailboxName" -User "DOMAIN\Computeraccount$" -ExtendedRights "Send-as"
After setting this send permission the error no longer occurred!
Convenience feature
I’m writing this blog post to let you know about a new convenience feature on this weblog. You can now subscribe to comments, this is especially handy if you are expecting a reply for me/others but don’t want to check this weblog on a daily basis. I got this idea while visiting Robert Hekkers’ blog, he also wrote a post about it here.