HRF Systems

02/21/2017

Now that I have Windows Server 2016 with the Hyper-V role installed, I wanted to take advantage of this perfect environment to have running several virtual machines on it.
I created several VM and they were running really nice and easy.
Then I needed to convert a VMWare virtual machine that I was using with VMware installed on other PC. The virtual machine has Windows 7 installed, along with MS Office, Visual Studio and other useful applications and programs.
After investigating what tool could I use to accomplish this task, I discovered this Microsoft tool: Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 3.0 that you can also download.

But, the problem was that the GUI of this tool only accepts VMWare machines that are hosted in ESX , ESXI or vCenter Server. I don't have any of these. I just have VMWare Player.
The good news is that the newly installed Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter is just a GUI for the cmdlets that do the real work.

So I was able to import the Virtual Hard Disk (VMDK) with just ONE command in PowerShell, then creating a VM in Hyper-V and attaching the converted disk to it.

So, what are the steps to import a VMWare virtual machine into Hyper-V? (We need to import the Virtual Hard Disk, no need to import the virtual machine).

1) Download the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 3.0 from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42497

2) Once downloaded, install it.

3) After the installation finishes, open PowerShell as an administrator (right-click, Run as administrator).

4) run the following command: Import-Module "C:\Pogram Files\Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter\MvmcCmdlet.psd1"

5) Look for the folder where you have your VMWare Virtual machine disk (where the vmdk files are) and take note of the first vmdk file.

6) Take note of destination folder where you want the converted virtual hard disk to be.

7) Run this command (replacing the SourceLiteralPath and DestinationLiteralPath with your own paths.
ConvertTo-MvmcVirtualHardDisk -SourceLiteralPath "F:\Main\Backups\HRF4\HRF4.vmdk" -DestinationLiteralPath "E:\imported hard disks\HRF4" -VhdType DynamicHardDisk -VhdFormat vhd

These are the parameters used:
SourceLiteralPath = It is the path to the vmdk file.
DestinationLiteralPath = It is the path to the new virtual hard disk.
VhdType = FixedHardDisk or DynamicHardDisk.
VhdFormat = VHD or VHDX.

8) Once the conversion is done, Create a new virtual machine (I just crated a Generation 1 machine) and then in the Connect Virtual Hard Disk settings, select "Use an existing virtual hard disk" and browse for the newly converted disk.

9) Start the machine. Maybe you'll need to restart it one or more times to finish installing the drivers for the new machine.

01/30/2017

The Echo Dot with Amazon Alexa is amazing.
I feel like living in the future using it.
It is really amazing to be able to control the lights, or play the music I want, turning the volume up or down, or ask about the weather or the traffic just using my voice.
Bye Bye Siri...
HELLO ALEXA!!!!

06/24/2016

Do you want your passengers to get all the info they need even at 3 AM in the morning?
Let them email RetoX and the system automatically will email them back with all the info, even vouchers.
With RetoX you can.

05/12/2016

Need to send automatic reminders to your pax about the services they'll have with you?.
With ReToX you can.

04/19/2016

ReToX, the Receptive Tour Operator System eXtended is now available.
If you want to see a demo, please send us an email to [email protected]

01/29/2016

As you know, we are the developers of ReTo, the Receptive Tour Operator Management System used by important companies in the industry to manage their tasks efficiently.
This year we plan to release ReToX, the Receptive Tour Operator Management System eXtended edition.
Using the latest tools from Microsoft, the world leader in Software Tools, we have come up with a solution that is integrated and can be used not only on desktops, but on the web, including mobile versions. All these make ReToX the IDEAL solution for receptive tour operators that want to work fast and efficiently.

06/11/2015

Successful hack attacks often happen not because of tricky coding, but plain old "social engineering" -- ie, conning people. A Github researcher called "

05/07/2015

http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/smartphone-os-market-share/

This information is based on the research extracted from the Kantar Worldpanel ComTech global consumer panel and refers in all cases to 3 months periods ending the stated month. ComTech is the largest continuous research consumer mobile phone tracking panel of its kind in the world, conducting over…

02/20/2015

VMWARE Workstation Memory error

A couple of days ago I installed a new virtual machine with Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard and SQL Server 2008 Standard, to check for a web application for a customer. Everything went smooth and worked perfectly well. (The host is a Windows 8.1 machine).

After testing the systems, I put the virtual machine to sleep instead of turning it off. But on the third day, when tried to play the VM again, I was presented with the following error:

Not enough physical memory is available to power on this virtual machine with its configured settings.

To fix this problem, power off other virtual machines, decrease the memory size of this virtual machine to 768 MB, increase the amount of physical memory for all virtual machines to 2256 MB, or adjust the additional memory settings to allow more virtual machine memory to be swapped.

It is possible that native applications and/or services have locked down memory which could be preventing the virtual machine from launching. Shutting down unnecessary applications or services may free enough memory to launch this virtual machine.

If you were able to power on this virtual machine on this host computer in the past, try rebooting the host computer. Rebooting may allow you to use slightly more host memory to run virtual machines.



The actual number of megabytes that the prompt tells you to configure may change, and sometimes it even changes between reboots of the host machine.

I tried a different VM, I got the same error. I couldn't make any VM to boot.



The Solution?



Modify the config.ini file (Host Parameters)

1. Open the config.ini file located by default at C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation.

2. Add the following line to the end of the file:

vmmon.disableHostParameters = “TRUE”

3. Save the file. You may need to edit it as an administrator in case you get an error during the save.

4. Reboot your host computer.

5. Run VMware Workstation and boot your VM.



This fixed my problem.

01/10/2015

I was having problems when trying to update a machine with Windows 8.

Despite of having the settings to download windows updates automatically, none was downloaded.

When trying manually to check for updates I got the error 80070422 (Windows Update cannot check for updates).

So I've googled and tried to apply all the solutions offered:

Go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services and Check for disabled services under the service tab. (Background Intelligent Transfer, Windows Update, etc.)

BUT, after a lot of frustration, the real culprit was the WINDOWS MODULES INSTALLER. After enabling this service, Windows Update begun to work as it should.