Bad NIC Strikes Again!

I have a pretty complex lab setup in order to be able to model different scenarios. The lab consists of 3 host computers each running Hyper-V. Each host have 3 - 5 NIC cards; management, VM Network, iSCSI, Live Migration, and Heartbeat NICs.

In order to allow the VM's to communicate with each other on their own each host is connected to a switch for the VM Network. Well, I have been fighting to setup my domain controllers for the last two days. 1 DC is on host A and the 2nd is on Host B. I was getting some weird timeout issues when trying to join the domain and dcpromo the 2nd DC on host B. I disabled firewalls, change policies, and even rebuild the VM's. Same issue.

So, I decided to run a few pings while I was doing a promo. From a VM on host B, I ran pings to VM's on Host A, Host B, and Host C. I saw request time outs to both VM's on Host A that I was pinging.

I switched my VMNet to a different NIC on Host A and the problems gone... Looks like I need to buy a new NIC. Now that I go back and look at the logs on Host A, I see errors in the logs


Log Name: System
Source: VMSMP
Date: 12/9/2010 12:19:57 PM
Event ID: 24
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: HOSTA
Description:
NIC '/DEVICE/{E7692807-E1EA-4792-8E72-184C01BDCF7E}' is no longer operational, status = 2.





Realtek NIC, you are being replaced ...

UPDATE: When I actually opened the box to look at the NIC, its a Netgear GA311... I have one of these installed in each box. No I wonder if just this one if bad, or if there maybe some issue with this card and Hyper-V Virtual Switches.

Move that mouse. Keeping the screen saver from turning off

So you have two computers, lets say a desktop and a laptop. You are primarily working on the desktop computer, but your using the laptop for viewing a webpage or a dashboard. You turn away from your laptop for 10 minutes or more and when you come back to it, the screen is black and lock. You have to turn and type your password in again and get the screen back up. Its very time consuming...

I use a tool from lifehacker.com that allows me to set the mouse to move on its own.

http://lifehacker.com/software/exclusive-lifehacker-download/automate-timed-mouse-clicks-with-clickwhen-260445.php