Category Archives: IT Pro

BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4

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Introduction

What is a BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4 you might ask? If you are managing a Fibre Channel fabric it is quite common to have Brocade switches running. In that case, I hope you have moved on from the Java web client to the free version of Broadcom Network Assistant (BNA). The free client was not the best end-user experience and gave us a lot of hassle just to keep running. See Manage Your Brocade Fibre Channel Switch with recent Java & browser versions.

BNA works better in a modern environment. It offers more functionality and provides for better and easier user experience. BNA itself is on the way out (EOL 2022) and will be replaced with SANNav as the Java runtime sage is reaching a point where just about the entire world has decided it is unsustainable as a future approach to management tools.

But that will take a while and we need a basic free tool to get the job done. Sure older versions still work but staying up to date is a good thing. On top of that, one of the most annoying things about BNA was the lack of support for Windows Server 2016/2019. Well BNA 14.4.4 solved that issue. So let’s upgrade! Well,l it turns out we need to do an upgrade from BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4. Let me explain that.

Finding Brocade Network Analyzer 14.4.4

On the Brocade site, the downloads for BNA 14.4.4 are darn near impossible to find or you don’t have access to them. And if you google for that you’ll find a lot of people trying but failing to find it. It is also there that you will find the information that BNA will be replaced.

The good news is that as a DELL customer you can normally download the OEM branded version of this software. In the past, this used to be found at https://portal.broadcom.com/web/support/dell but that is no longer there. Today in the DELLEMC world, this is called Connectrix Manager – Converged Network Edition.

We are looking for version 14.4.4 and yes on the DELL website (you need to create an acount to login) you will find it at https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/connectrix-manager-converged-network-edition/drivers. You want 14.4.4 as it supports Windows Server 2016/2019 but also because it fixes some issues with 14.4.3.

BNA 14.4.2 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4
Connectrix Manager – Converged Network Edition 14.4.4

So we download it and we start our upgrade process. 14.4.4 fixed an issue with 14.4.3 that causes issues with importing an existing config by the way. So use 14.4.4.

The install process in pictures

Run the installer
BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4
Click Next
Accept the EULA
Accept default install path or choose a custom one
BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4
If you’re happy with your choice, click install to continue
Be patient while the setup runs.
BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4
Done! Leave the checkbox marked to launch the CMCNE Configuration

The upgrade process in pictures

BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4
The wizard will run you through the upgrade process. For an existing installation, you will accept to leave everything as it was. This depends on your needs.
BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4
Be patient.
Be even more patient
Click next to continue with the data migration process.
Select the appropriate license.
I accept the defaults
I have no preference
Change if needed, otherwise, go with the defaults
If your company policy allows it, you can opt into the improvement program.
BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4
Yup, all looks fine, click Next
Kick of the migration. Pay attention to the remark about the services window that must be closed. Also, note that the client might not start immediately as the service has to be up and running first.
BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4
Migrating and initializing the database
Just cleaning up here.
Log in! Note you might want to wait a while to make sure the service has started.
Success! Now you can also upgrade your virtual machine from W2K12R2 to W2K19.

That’s it. You performed a BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4

Upgrade to Windows Server 2019

Finally, we upgrade the virtual machine OS to Windows Server 2019. With 14.4.4 this is possible and we can get rid of the legacy OS we had to introduce or keep around just to run BNA. Good news all around.

Success, we have 14.4.4 running on our Windows Server 2019 management virtual machine.

Conclusion

You can become happy consultants or customers. By installing BNA 14.4.4 you keep your network fabric management software up to date. Last but not least, you can upgrade the OS version of the virtual machines running it to Windows Server 2019. This will keep us going for a couple of years in a modern, secure and capable environment until the successor is clear and available to all. I hope this helps some of you out.

TechNine SMB Technology User Group

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Introduction

The TechNine SMB Technology User Group has a meetup on December the 4th 2019. It will be the last event of 2019.

It takes place at Ingram Micro who is hosting this at Ingram Micro, Hermeslaan 1b / 3rd floor, B-1831 Diegem. Thanks for this.

There are 3 speakers who will share some of their insights with you.

Hyper-V backups. The good, the bad, the ugly

This is the session I am giving. I presented this before and I have found that it still delivers a lot of value and insights to people. Every time it has helped some attendees out. We’ll discuss how Hyper-V backups have improved and why. I will also share some insights into what can trip you up with Windows Server 2016/2019.

7 Habits every Azure Admin Must Have

Wim Matthyssen, a well known Azure specialist at Cegeka and is an experienced speaker delivers this one. It will help you be a better Azure admin. As he is a Microsoft Certified Trainer his teaching talents are well developed. We can only benefit from this.

The mystery session

Diego Lens is an experienced trainer, speaker, and Citrix expert. He works as a Cloud Technology Strategist and he will bring us a mystery session. Actually, it is such a mystery I honestly have no idea what it is all about. You’ll have to attend to find out! a talk about Azure Migrate This is “the” tool for migrating workloads to Azure. Is this the forklift for lift and shift or is there more to know? Come and find out!

TechNine SMB Technology User Group event on December 4th 2019

Calendar:
18h00: Welcome & Food
18h30: Hyper-V backups. The good, the bad, the ugly – Didier Van Hoye
19h15: 7 habits every Azure admin must have – Wim Matthyssen
20h00: Break
20h15: Mystery session 😊 – Diego Lens
21h00: Networking and Questions
21h30: End
When: Woensdag 4/12 om 18:00
Where: Ingram Micro, Hermeslaan 1b / 3rd floor, B-1831 Diegem

Register

If you are interested in attending just navigate to the TechNine SMB Usergroup website read up un the other sessions and register. It is as easy as that. If you don’t even have the time for that, the blow button takes you directly to the Eventbrite site for registration.

Register for TechNine Event

I hope to see you at the TechNine SMB Technology User Group on December 4th 2019.

Back from Experts Live Europe 2019

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Back from Experts Live Europe 2019

I am back from Experts Live Europe 2019. The conference was very well organized and a great success. The speakers and attendees alike were passionate, drive and inquisitive IT professionals. We all came there to learn from each other. To talk shop and share our experiences and war storage. There were plenty of opportunities to network to do exactly that.

k from Experts Live Europe 2019
Back from Experts Live Europe 2019

I call these types of conferences “boutique conferences”. They are open to all who want to learn and be part of the community. The real-world content is not driven by marketing but by people sharing their experience and knowledge. People like you and me, who practice IT on a daily basis.

A big thank you to the attendees of my session Hyper-V Backups – The good, the bad, the ugly. I had fun presenting and the vibe in the room felt good. It enjoyed seeing that I was pointing out some of the problems some of my attendees encountered. It was even better to able to help them out. I sent the slide deck (pdf) to the conference organizers and it will be shared with you shortly. If you found my contributions helpful and enjoyed the session and the talks we had let the conference organizers know via your feedback. Also, note if something could have been done better. It helps us improve.

Well done!

Finally, dear Isidora and Marcel, well done. We all felt so welcome and appreciated at the conference. This made it easy to share with each other and learn how to become better technologists together. I hope to make it back next year! Thank you!

I can only advise you to try it out and attend or speak in order to learn with the community. Be part of it and advance professionally as well as personally.

November 2019 updates caused Windows Server 2012 reboot loop

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Introduction

Some laggards that still have some Windows Server 2012 virtual machines running got a bit of a nasty surprise last weekend. A number of them went into a boot loop. Apparently the November 2019 updates caused Windows Server 2012 reboot loop. Well, we have dealt with update issues before like here in Quick Fix Publish : VM won’t boot after October 2017 Updates for Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 (KB4041691). No need to panic.

Symptoms

Not all Windows Server 2012 virtual machines were affected. We did not see any issues with Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016 or 2019. Well the symptom is a reboot loop and below I have a sequence of what it looked like visually.

November 2019 updates caused Windows Server 2012 reboot loop
Restarting
Looking good so far …
OK, stage 2 of 4 … stlil seems OK.
November 2019 updates caused Windows Server 2012 reboot loop
Could still be OK … but no, its starts again in an endless loop.

So what caused this Windows Server 2012 reboot loop?

Fix

We turned of the virtual machines on which the November 2019 updates caused Windows Server 2012 reboot loop. We started them up again in “Safe mode” which completed successfully. Finally, we then did a normal reboot and that completed as well. All updates had been applied bar one. That was the 2019-11 Servicing Stack Update for Windows Server 2012 (KB4523208).

We manually installed it via Windows update and that succeeded.

When reading the information about this update https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/ScopedViewInline.aspx?updateid=5fa2a68f-e7cd-43c7-a48a-5e080472cb77 its states it need to be installed exclusively.

Maybe that was the root cause. It got deployed via WSUS with the other updates for November 2019.

Anyway, all is well now. I remind you that we have at least 2 ways of restoring those virtual machines. In case we had not been able to fix them. Have known good backups and a way to restore them people.

Conclusion

We fixed the issue and patched those servers completely. So all is well now. Except for the fact that they now , once more, have been urged to get of this operating system asap. You don’t go more than N-2 behind. It incurs operational overhead and risks. They did not test updates against this old server VM and got bitten. Technology debt without a plan is never worth it.