TrippLite: Upgrading firmware on a SNMPWEBCARD

The TrippLite SNMPWEBCARD allows for remote access and alerting for TrippLite UPS's and PDU's.  Please read the resources below first.  This card I am upgrading is a Generation 3 card, came with version 012.004.052 of the firmware, and it will be updated to 012.006.064.  Download the latest firmware from the card's home page.  This is a folder that contains multiple firmware versions, as well as the massupdate.exe program.  I unpacked it to c:.

Make sure you read the READ ME - RELEASE NOTES, as firmware has to be updated in a certain order, the card can be bricked if it is updated incorrectly.  The update order for my card is to .55 then to .64.  The .55 update we will use FTP, then to go to .64 we will use the recommended massupdate.exe found in the Utility folder of the firmware package.

First connect the serial cable, this is a cable provided by TrippLite, other cables may not work.  Putty into the web card using the serial connection with the following settings:

If you have an issue connecting.  Connect via putty, unscrew and unslot the card, plug in the serial cable between the web card and PC/Server and slot the card back into the UPS/PDU.  This reboots the card and the stream should then output to the putty console.

Once connected to the card, login and reboot it:

We will use the serial stream to keep an eye on what the card is doing, but we will use command prompt with the windows FTP program to upload the new firmware.  Open a command prompt and browse to the firmware folder you unpacked.  Use FTP "IP Address" to open an ftp session with the web card, it will ask you to log in.

Change to binary mode with the 'bin' command and upload the firmware with the 'put' command, .55 in my case.  There is no tab completion, so type accurately.

Once it is uploaded type 'bye'.  The card will install the firmware and restart:

Upon bootup it shows the .55 firmware was uploaded.

Repeat the same steps to upload the pwralert.dat file:

The card will once again reboot, this may take awhile.

Before using massupdate.exe to update to .64, I had an issue with the application logging into the card to upload the new firmware, so I decided to reset the settings on the card.  This is done by rebooting the card and pressing a key on the console before 5 seconds is up.  It asks you if you want to reset the settings.  This changed the IP to dhcp and changed the admin password.  If you have issues with massupdate.exe connecting, this may fix it.

Now that we are on .55 we will use massupdate.exe found in the Utility directory (SNMPWEBCARD-FW-Gen3-12-6-064-RC1\Utility) to update the card the .64.

Open massupdate.exe.  Under Path of Files to Update click browse and select the Version directory (\SNMPWEBCARD-FW-Gen3-12-6-064-RC1\Firmware\Version 12.06.0064)

Click Add Devices at the bottom, enter the IP of the web card.  I used the default login.

Click update on the bottom and click Start on the progress window:

The image will upload and the card will reboot.  Be patient while the firmware installs, its a major upgrade and it takes awhile.

The card will reboot (again this is a long process) and you will be on the latest firmware.

Once the card is fully loaded you can connect to the web admin panel using the DHCP IP.  Also enjoy whitelisting all of the Java stuff, because the panel is Java, the browser will block it.

Resources

Make sure to go through these in detail, as well as the firmware readme file, as it is possible to brick the card.

http://www.tripplite.com/shared/techdoc/Owners-Manual/933179.pdf

Thanks to johndball.com, it seams his website is down, but please read his post on this card before you attempt a firmware update.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140216230929/http://www.johndball.com/2013/01/16/upgrade-the-tripplite-snmpwebcard-firmware/

Exchange 2013: Database copy has been blocked from automatic activation on server by an administrative action. Reason: None specified.

After updating two Exchange 2013 mailbox servers in a DAG environment to CU8 and running Test-Replicationhealth, Database Availability reported an error:

I tried to use -autosize to show the entire error which wouldn't work, but after googling around I found this:

 $r = Test-ReplicationHealth  
 $r | ?{$_.Result.Value -ne 'Passed'} | fl  

The entire error is as follows: Database copy 'DB01' has been blocked from automatic activation on server 'EXCH2' by an administrative action. Reason: None specified..

Its actually an easy fix, go into the ECP, Servers -> databases, suspend the passive healthy DB, wait a moment then Resume it.

Now test-replicationhealth again and you should be good.

Spotify Desktop (Windows): How to downgrade so that you can actually use Spotify

Spotify recently updated to version 1.0 and with it broke a lot of features that users have come accustomed to.  Most notably for me the client freezing up and causing songs to blip.

Download 0.9.14.13 here: http://www.filehorse.com/download-spotify/17905/download/
Link warning: it will automatically download.

Install it and you will have the older version, but we need to disable the autoupdate, sadly there is no option to do this in the preferences.  Follow these instructions to disable auto-update:

Browse to %appdata%/Spotify/

If there is a Spotify_new.exe application, delete it.

Create a new text document in the same folder:

Make sure extensions are showing and rename it to Spotify_new.exe

It will ask you to set the file type to exe, which is correct, you don't want it to be a text file.

Now set Spotify_new.exe to read-only: Right click on it, click properties and check the Read-only Attribute:

You should be all set.  It feels good to be back!

A lot can be said about the state of Spotify as a company at the moment.  This is release 1.0, it should be HUGE, it should be polished and beautiful and something the company and devs and product managers be proud of.  What happened?  Between the decisions that went into 1.0 and them no longer offering some of my favorite albums lately, I am considering taking my subscription somewhere else.

Server 2012 r2: Disk # has been surprised removed, event ID 157 when backing up VHD's.

I have a Server 2012 r2 Hyper-V virtual machine that has 3 disks (vhd's) mounted.  One for the C drive, one for Logs, another for DB storage.  A VSS backup is taken every night, and during this time there is some curious event logs being recorded:

The highlighted partmgr event 58 is described as: "The disk signature of disk 3 is equal to the disk signature of disk 0."  As well as the other 2 partmgr events pairing the virtual disks 1 and 2.  The disk event 157 is described as "Disk 3 has been surprise removed"  As well as the other two disk events saying the same for disk 4 and 5.

My theory is when a VSS backup is taken 3 new disks are created (3,4,5) that match the original virtual machine disks (0,1,2).  Data is then backed up to the new disks and a signature check is done (partmgr event 58) to make sure they match.  Disks 3,4,5 are then ejected from the system, and event ID 157 is recorded.

In that case when backups are taken these events should probably be defined as Informational and not Warning, in order to keep logs clean.

Aastra IP Phone: Web Recovery: Firmware Download Failed

If you find your Aastra IP phone in Web Recovery Mode and you need to get firmware from your PBX you may have issues configuring the TFTP server using Chrome.

The trick is to use Firefox and NOT press the "Download Firmware" button at the bottom but use Enter on the keyboard instead.

Magic!