My notes, things I have learned, and documentation I have created.

OS: Ubunutu 12.x
Web server: apache 2.x

So here is what I was trying to accomplish. I have a server with many sites in their own directories. I had one that I wanted to just use a hostname to access it. Now, I have done this many times in CentOS/Redhat, but never in Ubuntu, and it adds a little twist to the process. First the name needed to be added to the DNS. I created a CNAME, since I already had a name in for the server.

Then:

vi /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
…
NameVirtualHost *:80
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
 NameVirtualHost *:443
</IfModule>
…

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
</blockquote>

Created a file with a descriptive name of my site:

vi some.hostname.com

Added the following as appropriate for my site:

<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerName some.hostname.com
 ServerAlias some
 DocumentRoot /var/www/some
</VirtualHost>

There are many other options you can add here, but this is where I started.

cd /etc/apache2/site-enabled
ln -s ../sites-avaiable/some.hostname.com
service apache2 restart

I used the following procedure to extract the Windows 8 key from a Lenovo desktop.

Download RW from: http://rweverything.com/. I used the 64-bit portable version.

Copy the Win64 directory from the zip to your local drive.

Execute the RW.EXE program in the Win64\Portable directory.

Once open, click the ACPI icon or select ACPI Tables from the menu.

Then, click on the MSDM tab in the ACPI Table window.

You will find the key in the bottom of the ACPI Table window.

I really don’t understand why Apple makes somethings so difficult for users. Since, Apple no longer distributes their OS upgrade installation media and they have no made an ISO/DMG easily available, we have had to figure out different ways to create a bootable media. For Lion and Mountain Lion it was pretty simple once you figured out how to find the DMG buried in the installation application. For Mavericks, it is different. You can find the DMG in the package, but using the same method does not produce a bootable media. Instead, you have to use createinstallmeda which is a program buried in the installation package.

You must be root to execute the program, so you su or sudo to gain root privileges. The volume is the name of you USB drive. It takes while to to create, but does work.

# /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/SanDisk –applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app –nointeraction
Erasing Disk: 0%… 10%… 20%…100%…
Copying installer files to disk…
Copy complete.
Making disk bootable…
Copying boot files…
Copy complete.
Done.

Here is the help output:

Usage: createinstallmedia –volume –applicationpath [–force]

Arguments–volume, A path to a volume that can be unmounted and erased to create the install media.
–applicationpath, A path to copy of the OS installer application to create the bootable media from.
–nointeraction, Erase the disk pointed to by volume without prompting for confirmation.

Example: createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/Untitled –applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app

I could not get the vSphere client to install on Windows 8.1. I rebooted and it still didn’t work. It turns out that the client requires .Net Framework 2 or 3 to install. In Windows 8.1, it is a feature that just needs to be turned on. Go to Control Panel\Programs\Turn Windows features on or off. Then, check off .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0).

Once complete, you should be able to install the client.