Being a System Administrator, I constantly use the command prompt, mostly because I access systems remotely and many tasks can be performed quickly with out the graphics over head (even though connecting via Terminal Server is very convenient).

So if you are an avid user of the command line, here are my top 10 built-in (non third party) command line tools for XP, Vista and WIndows server versions (remember these commands are not your typical tools, such as find, copy, move, dir, etc..).

1 - systeminfo – Have a need to display operating system configuration information for a local or remote machine, including service pack levels? Then systeminfo is the tool to use. When I need to connect to a system that I am not familiar with, this is the first tool I run. The output of this command gives me all the info I need including: host name, OS type, version, product ID, install date, boot time and hardware info (processor and memory). Also knowing what hot fixes are installed can be a big help when troubleshooting problems. This tool can be used to connect to a machine remotely using the following syntax: SYSTEMINFO /S system /U user

2 - ipconfig – This tool may be most useful tool for viewing and troubleshooting TCP/IP problems.  It's capability includes release or renew an adapter IP Address, display and flush DNS cache, re-register the system name in DNS. WIth Vista and some server versions, ipconfig includes support for IPv6.

Some examples when usinging ipconfig.

• To view all TCP/IP information, use: ipconfig /all
• To view the local DNS cache, use: ipconfig /displaydns
• To delete the contents in the local DNS cache, use: ipconfig /flushdns

3 - tasklist and taskkill – If you are used to Windows Task Manager, then you'll find tasklist very easy to use. This tool displays a list of currently running processes, including image name, PID (Process ID) and memory usage on local or remote machines. Using the /V switch displays more information in verbose mode that includes, CPU Time, user name, and modules. Tasklist includes a filter option to display a set of task based on the criteria specified. But the best use of the filter is using it to display programs running inside svchost.exe process.

Of course, there will be times when a process needs to be killed and taskkill can be used to terminate those trouble processes. A single or multiple processes can be killed using the PID (/PID ) or image name (/IM ). Here are two examples for doing just that:

TASKKILL /IM notepad.exe
TASKKILL /PID 1230 /PID 1241 /PID 1253 /T

Both tasklist and taskkill can connect to remote systems using the /S (system name) /U (user name) switches.

4 - netstat – Need to know who (or what) is making a connection to your computer? Then netstat is the tool you want to run. The output provides valuable information of all connections and listening ports, including the executable used in the connections. In additon to the above info, you can view Ethernet statistics, and resolve connecting host IP Addresses to a fully qualified domain name. I usually run the netstat command using the -a (displays all connection info), -n (sorts in numerical form) and -b (displays executable name) switches.

5 – type – A lesser known tool to those who don't work with the command prompt. For Administrators, the type command is the perfect tool for viewing text files. But what many people don't know about the type tool, is it's capability to read multiple files at once. For example to view multiple text files, just separate each file with a space:

type firstfile.txt  secondfile.txt  thirdfile.txt

For files that are large, you can control text scrolling using the more command.

6 - net command – Although this tool is more known as a command, the net command is really like a power drill with different bits and is used to update, fix, or view the network or network settings.

It is mostly used for viewing (only services that are started), stopping and starting services:

• net stop server
  
• net start server
• net start (display running services)

and for connecting (mapping) and disconnecting with shared network drives:

• net use m: \\myserver\sharename
  
• net use m: \\myserver\sharename /delete
  

Other commands used with net command are, accounts (manage user accounts), net print (manage print jobs), and net share (manage shares).

Below are all the options that can be used with the net command.

[ ACCOUNTS | COMPUTER | CONFIG | CONTINUE | FILE | GROUP | HELP |HELPMSG | LOCALGROUP | PAUSE | PRINT | SESSION | SHARE | START |STATISTICS | STOP | TIME | USE | USER | VIEW ]

To display the complete syntax for each command, just type net help followed by the command – net help use .

7 – nslookup – With the Internet, DNS (Domain Name Service) is the key for allowing us to use friendly names when surfing the web instead of needing to remember IP Addresses. But when there are problems, nslookup can be a valuable tool for testing and troubleshooting DNS servers.

Nslookup can be run in two modes: interactive and noninteractive. Noninteractive mode is useful when only a single piece of data needs to be returned. For example, to resolve google.com:

To use the interactive mode, just type nslookup at the prompt. To see all available options, type help while in interactive mode.

Don't let the help results intimidate you. Nslookup is easy to use. Some of the options I use when troubleshooting are:

set ds (displays detailed debugging information of behind the scenes communication when resolving an host or IP Address).

set domain (sets the default domain to use when resolving, so you don't need to type the fully qualified name each time).

set type (sets the query record type that will be returned, such as A, MX, NS)

server NAME (allows you to point nslookup to use other DNS servers than what is configured on your computer)

To exit out of interactive mode, type exit .

8 - ping and tracert - These tools can be helpful with connectivity to other systems. Ping will test whether a particular host is reachable across an IP network, while tracert (traceroute) is used to determine the route taken by packets across an IP network.

To ping a system just type at the prompt: ping www.google.com. By default, ping will send three ICMP request to the host and listen for ICMP “echo response” replies. Ping also includes switches to control the number of echo requests to send (-n ), and to resolve IP addresses to hostname (-a ).

To use tracert, type at the prompt: tracert www.google.com. You can force tracert to not resolve address to hostnames by using the -d switch, or set the desired timeout (milliseconds) for each reply using -w switch.

9 – gpresult – Used mostly in environments that implement group poicies, gpresults (Group Policy Results) verifies all policy settings in effect for a specific user or computer. The command is simple to use, just enter gpresults at the prompt. It can also be used to connect to computers remotely using the /S and /U switches.

10 – netsh – Without a doubt the most powerful command line tool available in Windows. Netsh is like the swiss army knife for configuring and monitoring Windows computers from the command prompt. It capabilities include:

• Configure interfaces
• Configure routing protocols
• Configure filters
• Configure routes
• Configure remote access behavior for Windows-based remote access routers that are running the Routing and Remote Access Server (RRAS) Service
• Display the configuration of a currently running router on any computer

Some examples of what you can do with netsh:

• Enable or disable Windows firewall:

netsh firewall set opmode disable

netsh firewall set opmode disable

• Enable or disable ICMP Echo Request (for pinging) in Windows firewall:

netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8 enable

netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8 disable

• Configure your NIC to automatically obtain an IP address from a DHCP server:

netsh interface ip set address "Local Area Connection" dhcp

(For the above command, if your NIC is named something else, use netsh interface ip show config and replace the name at Local Area Connection).

As you can see netsh can do alot. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, check out the following Microsoft article for more info on netsh.

The use of Windows command line tools can be a powerful alternative when only a command prompt is available. I'm sure there are plenty more commands that I have not mention.

Let us know what your favorite command line tool is and leave a comment below.

Recently I was working in a Virtual Machine that was running on VMWare Server and somehow activated Quick Switch mode. Cool, no problem….wrong. I couldn't remember how to go back to Console mode.

If you are not familiar, Quick Switch mode is similar to Full screen mode except it adds tabs at the top of the screen for switching between active VM's and does not display the inventory list in the sidebar or menu and toolbars at the top of the screen.

So, along the way in trying to figure out how to return back to VMWare Server Console mode, I found a hidden function that will display the menus and toolbars while in Quick Switch mode.

Below is a screen shot of Quick Switch mode:

NOTE: To enter Quick Switch mode, press F11 or select View \ Quick Switch from the menu.

Notice there is no sidebar, or menu and toolbar at the top of the screen. When you enter Quick Switch mode ther are just tabs for the active VM's and Home at the top of the screen.

To display the Menu and Toolbar, just move your mouse and touch the top of the screen and hold for a second. VMWare Server Console Menu and Toolbar will appear giving you back complete control.

Once you move the mouse down past the toolbar, the tabs will re-appear. You can always press F11 to exit out of Quick Switch mode if needed.

While were at it, VMWare Server has several Keyboard shortcut keys. Below is a complete listing.

• Ctr-B – Power on.
• Ctrl-E – Power off.
• Ctrl-R – Reset the power.
• Ctrl-Z – Suspend.
• Ctrl-N – Create a new virtual machine.
• Ctrl-O – Open a virtual machine.
• Ctrl-F4 – Close the current virtual machine.
• Ctrl-D – Edit the virtual machine's configuration.
• Ctrl-G – Grab input from the keyboard and mouse.
• Ctrl-P – Edit preferences. See Setting User Preferences for the Vampire Server Host.
• Ctrl-Alt-Enter – Go to full screen mode.
• Ctrl-Alt – Return to normal (windowed) mode.
• Ctrl-Alt-Tab – Switch among open virtual machines while the mouse and keyboard input are grabbed.
• Ctrl-Tab – Switch among open virtual machines while the mouse and keyboard input are not grabbed. VMware Server must be the active application.
• Ctrl-Shift-Tab – Switch among open virtual machines while the mouse and keyboard input are not grabbed. VMware Server must be the active application.
• Ctrl-Alt-Fax – Switch among open virtual machines while using full screen mode. Fx is a function key corresponding to the virtual machine you want to use. The key combination to use for a virtual machine is shown in the VMware Server title bar when that virtual machine is active and in normal (windowed) mode.

If you have not noticed, after creating Virtual Machines (VM) in VMware Server, the new VM is added to the end of the inventory list when viewed in the Console. VMWare does not sort the list at any time and you are stuck with a list that may not be to your preference.

Fortunately there is an easy way to re-sort the list that will allow you to group, list Virtual Machines in alphabetical order or display them in any order.

In the screen shot below, I recently created two Virtual Machines named WTN2_Ubuntu and WTN5_W2K which appear at the end of the inventory list.

To re-order the list, the file vm-list file needs to be edited.

1 - Close the VMWare Server Console

2 - In Windows open a command prompt (Start \ Run…) and enter the following command:

NOTE: (virtual machines do not need to be stopped)

net stop "VMware Registration Service"

Linux systems do not need to stop any deamons.

3 - Make a backup copy of the vm-list file, before editing (Windows users can use Notepad and Linux users can use VI or any editor of your choice).

In Windows Vista the file can be found in the following folder location:

C:\Users\All Users\VMware\VMware Server

In all other versions of Windows (XP/2000/2003):

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\VMware\VMware Server

In Linux:

etc/vmware/vm-list

NOTE: if you can not find the file, search for vm-list to locate it.

When editing the file, order the VM's to your preference and make sure there is a carriage return after each VM entry (otherwise the VM will not appear in the inventory list).

4 - In Windows restart the VMware Registration Service:

net start "VMware Registration Service"

Now when you open VMWare Server Console…

…your VM's will be in the order that you chose, instead of VMWare preference.

Running multiple Operating Systems as Virtual Machines has numerous advantages, until it comes time to reboot the Host Computer (running VMWare Server). You either need to manually start all VM's or allow them to startup at once causing a system wide bottleneck to occur on the Host.

Instead of trying to start up all VM's at once, you can configure VMWare Server to delay the startup times for each Virtual Machine, and specify the order in which each VM starts. In fact, an option also exist to auto shutdown each VM in a delayed ordered, making way for a more responsive Host during reboots.

For reasons unknown, you cannot configure delayed starting and shutdown of VM's using VMWare Server Console. Instead you need to use the web based VMWare Management Interface (VMI).

The Management Interface is installed during VMWare Server installation if it detects a Web Server (Apache or IIS) is installed. It can also be installed later by running VMWare Server setup again.

NOTE: if VMWare Management Interface will not connect when using IIS on Windows XP or Vista, see starting the VMWare web service.

Once you have VMWare web service up and running, you can connect and logon to the interface by typing the following in your browser:

https://<hostname>:8333 (or https://localhost:8333 when using the VMWare Host Computer)

If SSL is disabled, connect with

http://<hostname>:8222

Enable Startup And Shutdown

Now that you are connected, first verify that all VM's Startup and Shutdown parameter have been enable (VM must be powered off to enable).

This can be set in the VMI by clicking on the down arrow (next to the VM icon),

followed by:

– Selecting Configure Options…
– Click on Edit next to System Startup Options
– Check Start Virtual Machine (set all other options as shown in below screenshot including Shutdown Options)
– Click OK to save settings

NOTE: you can also set the delay time here, but as you will see later, it is much easier to set in the global System configuration section.

Setup Startup And Shutdown Delay Times

Once Startup and Shutdown has been enable for each VM, you can now set up the order and delay times by:

– Clicking on the Options tab from the main screen in VMI. Then click on Virtual Machine Startup and Shutdown… link.

- Followed by clicking on the Edit button in the System Configuration section.

In the System Startup and Shutdown Defaults screen, enable startup and shutdown by selecting the check box and set the delay times to your preference. Click OK to save settings.

Next set the order of starting each Virtual Machine, by editing the Specified Order or Any Order. Click OK to save settings.

Virtual Machines will shutdown in the reverse order you have configured for startup.

When completed with the setup, you will see a summary of the settings and startup sequence similar to the below screen shot.

Now your VMWare Server host will more than likely see less bottlenecks and quicker startup and shutdown times. Also, with a graceful shutdown, your Virtual Machines will be less likely get corrupted from a hard shutdown (power off).

After you have created Virtual Machines that are running any Operating System such as Windows or Linux , you may have a need to add hardware components. As long as the host Computer, where VMWare Server is installed, has the hardware installed, components such as sound card, hard drives, USB controllers, etc.. can be added easily using the Add Hardware wizard in VMWare Server console.

With VMWare Server, the available hardware components that can be added to Virtual Machines are:

• Hard Disks
• DVD/CDRom Drive
• Ethernet Adapter
• Floppy Drive
• Sound Adapter
• USB Controller
• Serial Port
• Parallel Port
• Generic SCSI Device

To add hardware components to a Virtual Machine, open the VMWare Server console and select a VM. If the VM is running, you will need to shut it down and power off before adding hardware components.

Next highlight the VM under the Inventory column, then select Edit virtual machine settings under the Commands section in the right window pane:

In the Virtual Machine Settings window, click on the Add… button at the bottom

which will start the Add Hardware Wizard. Click the Next > button, which will bring you to the Hardware Types screen where you can select hardware from the list that you want to install.

In this example, I'm going to add a sound card to the VM, which is running Windows XP , by selecting Sound Adapter, then click Next >.

At the next screen, you can specify the type of sound adapter installed in the Host computer running VMWare Server by clicking the Specify sound adapter: radio button, then pull down the window and select the best option available. In this example, the Realtek High Definition is what I have selected.

Since I want the Device available when the VM is powered on, the Connect at power on option is checked.

Click Finish when completed.

Now start up the Virtual Machine and for Windows and most Linux Systems, plug and play should recognize the new hardware and add it to the System.

Looking for more VMWare help? Check out our VMware Tips and guides section.

If you installed VMWare tools in Ubuntu or Kubuntu guests running on VMWare hosts, you probably noticed that VMWare tools does not, by default start up automamtically during boot. To start VMWare tools, you must run vmware-toolbox & manually at a command prompt. While this is good way of starting up VMWare tools, a better way is to have it start up automatically on Unbuntu or Kbuntu.

To start VMWare tools automatically from Kubuntu, we'll need to add a start up script to ~/.kde/Autostart directory (hidden), located in your home directory.

Logon to kubuntu and open a Terminal window by clicking on Kmenu \ Utilities \ Terminal from the panel. Next enter the following two commands:

echo "/usr/bin/vmware-toolbox – -minimize" > ~/.kde/Autostart/vmware-toolbox.sh
(NOTE: there is no space between hyphens before minimize)

and press enter. Then enter the following command:

chmod +x ~/.kde/Autostart/vmware-toolbox.sh

and press enter. Now the next time you restart, VMWare tools will start and minimize to the panel.

To start VMWare tools from Gnome, logon, then click System \ Preferences \ Sessions from the panel.

Click on the New button and in the New Startup Program window, enter

VMWare Tools

in the Name field, and

/usr/bin/vmware-toolbox – -minimize
(NOTE: there is no space between hyphens before minimize)

in the Command: field. Click OK to save.

Next time you restart Ubuntu, VMWare tools will auto start and minimize to the panel. No more starting up manually!

Every now and then, you may have notice the network connection for a Virtual Machine guest running on VMWare Server has stopped working. The guest VM could be running any version of Windows or Linux distribution and restarting the Virtual Machine does not fix the problem. If this happens to you, a possible work around to get the Network re-connected can be fixed by restarting the VMWare Server NAT service.

Several ways exist to restart the NAT service when running VMWare Server either on a Windows or Linus host. The easiest way is from the VmWare Server Console.

To re-start the NAT service, connect to the Console and select Host \ Virtual Network Settings… from the menu.

Select the NAT tab, and at the bottom click on the Restart button.

Then click on the Apply button, to restart VNWare Server NAT service. After the service has restarted, the Service request field will be blank and the Service status field will display Started.

Another method to restart the service, is from the command prompt on Windows by running the following command (NOTE: must include quotes):

net stop "VMware NAT Service"

then to restart the service:

net start "VMware NAT Service"

On Linux, open a Terminal window or session, and run the following command (depending on the distribution, this command may not work):

/etc/init.d/vmware restart

To expand an existing partition, the Virtual Machine must be shutdown and powered off. The vmware-vdiskmanager utility resides in the directory that VMWare server was installed. On my install, it is located at C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server.

Open a command prompt and navigate to the directory of the virtual disk you want to expand, and execute a directory listing by typing dir at the command prompt.

C:\OTHER\Virtual Machines\WTN1>dir
Volume in drive C is System
Volume Serial Number is E40F-D10A

Directory of C:\OTHER\Virtual Machines\WTN1

05/18/2007  05:30 PM    <DIR>          .
05/18/2007  05:30 PM    <DIR>          ..
05/18/2007  04:24 PM             8,664 nvram
05/14/2007  11:57 AM            21,751 vmware-0.log
05/14/2007  08:37 AM            20,180 vmware-1.log
05/12/2007  09:52 PM            22,807 vmware-2.log
05/18/2007  04:24 PM            19,519 vmware.log
04/02/2007  12:41 PM               850 Windows XP Professional.vmsd
05/18/2007  02:28 PM               856 Windows XP Professional.vmx
05/18/2007  04:24 PM     8,589,934,592 WTN1C.vmdk

On my Computer, the Virtual Machine is located at C:\OTHER\Virtual Machines\WTN1 and the Operating System is Windows XP Professional named WTN1. The virtual disk that needs to be expanded is WTN1C.vmdk.

The command to expand a virtual disk follows:

vmware-vdiskmanager -x <new-capacity> diskname

Where:

-x is the option to expand
<new-capacity> is the new size of the virtual disk you want to expand
diskname is the virtual disk name

(NOTE: enter the full path to the vmware-vdiskmanager executable. Use quotes if the path includes spaces)

C:\OTHER\Virtual Machines\WTN1>"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server\vmware-vdiskmanager" -x 10GB WTN1C.vmdk
Using log file C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Temp\vmware-Owner\vdiskmanager.log
Grow: 100% done.
The old geometry C/H/S of the disk is: 16383/16/63
The new geometry C/H/S of the disk is: 16383/16/63
Disk expansion completed successfully.

WARNING: If the virtual disk is partitioned, you must use a third-party
utility in the virtual machine to expand the size of the
partitions. For more information, see:

http://www.vmware.com/support/kb/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1647

Next, execute a directory listing to verify the virtual disk was expanded.

C:\OTHER\Virtual Machines\WTN1>dir
Volume in drive C is System
Volume Serial Number is E40F-D10A

Directory of C:\OTHER\Virtual Machines\WTN1

05/21/2007  11:31 AM    <DIR>          .
05/21/2007  11:31 AM    <DIR>          ..
05/21/2007  11:31 AM             8,664 nvram
05/21/2007  11:29 AM            19,549 vmware-0.log
05/18/2007  04:24 PM            19,519 vmware-1.log
05/14/2007  11:57 AM            21,751 vmware-2.log
05/21/2007  11:31 AM            17,724 vmware.log
04/02/2007  12:41 PM               850 Windows XP Professional.vmsd
05/21/2007  11:30 AM               936 Windows XP Professional.vmx
05/21/2007  11:31 AM    10,737,418,240 WTN1C.vmdk

You should now see the new size of the virtul disk. Also, notice the Warning message above. You will need to use a third party tool such as Partition Magic or Acronis Disk Director to resize the partition inside the Virtual Machine Operating System.

To list all available options for vmware-vdiskmanager, just enter the following at a command prompt:

vmware-vdiskmanager.exe /?

VMWare GUI interface is great for building Virtual Machines and making any configuration changes when needed. After the VM is running and configured to your preference, there is little need to use the GUI interface except for starting VM's when they are powered off. Instead of using the GUI, VMWare provides an easier method to administer and manage VM's from the command line using vmware-cmd command.

   

vmware-cmd has two modes of Operations (see further below for entire list of parameters for vmware-cmd):

Operations on a Virtual Machine syntax – vmware-cmd <options> <vm-cfg-path> <vm-action> <arguments>

(Note: On Windows OS's, if you do not CD (Change Directory) to the location of vmware-cmd, don't forget to use quotes when there are spaces in the path – "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server\vmware-cmd" -l)

To start a Virtual Machine, the sytax is: vmware-cmd <vm-cfg-path> start

So on my computer, I would run the following command to start the Virtual Machine named WTN1:

vmware-cmd "C:\OTHER\Virtual Machines\WTN1\Windows XP Professional.vmx" start

To stop WTN1, I would run: vmware-cmd  "C:\OTHER\Virtual Machines\WTN1\Windows XP Professional.vmx" stop

What if I did not know if the VM was running or stopped? In this case, I would use the getstate parameter which will tell me the state of the machine by running: vmware-cmd "C:\OTHER\Virtual Machines\WTN1\Windows XP Professional.vmx" getstate

The command would return: getstate() = off telling me that the VM is is powered off.

vmware-cmd -H PC1 -U mike P watchingthenet "C:\OTHER\Virtual Machines\WTN1\Windows XP Professional.vmx" start

Managing Virtual Machines from the command line has many benefits, including remote administration , status, and creating scripts or batch files that can be used to automate backups of VM's by shutting down and powering off. While using the GUI interface is convenant, using vmware-cmd command can provide for quick access and execution.

When testing Software, drivers, hotfixes, or any kind of updates, Virtual Machines (VM) can make life a lot easier, especially for System Administrators. With free virtualization tools available such as VMware Virtual Server, the average consumer can now take advantage of using this technology that once belong in the Datacenter.

Having the ability to test on a virtual machine, knowing if something goes wrong and you cannot recover or reboot, just requires a reinstall of the OS in the VM. But why rebuild, when you can easily revert back to the original state with Snapshots.

   
Snapshots allow you to preserve the state of the virtual machine so you can return to the same state repeatedly. You can take a snapshot while a virtual machine is powered on, powered off, or suspended. Once a snapshot has been created, you can test any changes made to the OS, and reboot or shutdown as normal. If anything goes wrong during testing, you can revert back to the snapshot to the state the VM was before you made changes.

If testing was successful, you can discard the snapshot and use the OS with the changes, or create a new snapshot and continue testing. A real time saver while eliminating the need to reinstall the OS.

When taking snapshots, the entire state of the virtual machine is captured at the time you take the snapshot. This includes, the state of all the VM disks, contents of the VM memory, and the virtual machine settings. When you revert to the snapshot, you return all these items to the state at the time you took the snapshot.