Using a Mac to Control a Windows based network (1 Viewer)

[RayRay]

This is for any support IT people out there. My job has decided to use Mac as the primary device and as im in IT support one of my tools of choice, MMC, is sadly missed.

Anyone know if there is anything similar for the Mac? I have Microsoft Remote Desktop for the Mac but it means having about 10 connections running at the one time rather then having all my servers in a neat list at the side in MMC. Also Active directory would be a nice touch too.

 

[pete]

http://www.jobs.ie


or just get them to buy you Parallels & install XP / Win7 as a VM. Or dual boot windows on the Mac with bootcamp.

 

[Theseus Mock]

You could use cORD http://cord.sourceforge.net/ to manage multiple RDP sessions although you'd never (at least my knowledge) be able to control machines through MMC from an OSX machine so you'd need to open the computer management applet on each server VM.

 

[RayRay]

Yeah i have VMWare Fusion. I'm currently trying to P2V my windows machine, it keeps failing on 98% with some very shitty error. I was just wondering does anyone else work in the wonderful world OZ aka Mac on windows based network

I'll just make do and go to the minor complains thread.

Thanks all

 

[pete]

just install a basic XP machine as a VM then run your MMC as a seamless window.

or, you know, refuse the Mac.

 

[Theseus Mock]

P2V'ing a machine for use on any desktop virtual client is a dark art in itself that will cause grief as you need the virtual machine to have the exact same hardware/driver configuration of the physical machine. It's not as easy as sucking a machine into a bare metal Vmware ESX instance.

 

[pete]

P2V'ing a machine for use on any desktop virtual client is a dark art in itself that will cause grief as you need the virtual machine to have the exact same hardware/driver configuration of the physical machine. It's not as easy as sucking a machine into a bare metal Vmware ESX instance.

I have VMWare vCenter Converter installed here, and it claims to P2V machines for VMWare Fusion,Player & Workstation but i've never actually tried it... must give it a go someday.

 

[Theseus Mock]

I have VMWare vCenter Converter installed here, and it claims to P2V machines for VMWare Fusion,Player & Workstation but i've never actually tried it... must give it a go someday.

Oooh, I always thought that was just for upgrading older VMware images for compatibility in newer versions of VMWare Fusion. Must give it a gander.

 

[pete]

Oooh, I always thought that was just for upgrading older VMware images for compatibility in newer versions of VMWare Fusion. Must give it a gander.

i've used it to p2v a load of windows servers into ESX and it always just works. magic.

 

[Theseus Mock]

i've used it to p2v a load of windows servers into ESX and it always just works. magic.

Into bare metal ESX you can do it flawlessly but last time at home (without any server hardware) when I wanted to clone an XP machine for P2V (V=VMWare Fusion on my mac), I used clonezilla to clone the entire HD of the xp machine. Then using a clonezilla disc booted up in a new VMWare machine , I pointed this at the clonezilla image I had just taken from the physical machine. Once the image is restored onto the virtual machine, windows initially starts booting but bluescreens once it detects certain hardware DLLs cannot be aimlessly thrown at WMWare fusion.

If vCenter Converter can overcome this, I'm sold. The P2V (V=bare metal ESX) works without a hitch as I reckon it doesn't have to do any software emulation but rather has direct access to the physical hardware of the ESX host server.

 

[maims bond]

Why did I read this thread?

 

[pete]

Into bare metal ESX you can do it flawlessly but last time at home (without any server hardware) when I wanted to clone an XP machine for P2V (V=VMWare Fusion on my mac), I used clonezilla to clone the entire HD of the xp machine. Then using a clonezilla disc booted up in a new VMWare machine , I pointed this at the clonezilla image I had just taken from the physical machine. Once the image is restored onto the virtual machine, windows initially starts booting but bluescreens once it detects certain hardware DLLs cannot be aimlessly thrown at WMWare fusion.

If vCenter Converter can overcome this, I'm sold. The P2V (V=bare metal ESX) works without a hitch as I reckon it doesn't have to do any software emulation but rather has direct access to the physical hardware of the ESX host server.

VMware converter lets you p2v the local machine it's running on, but you need to have a target for it - normally that would be an esx host but I wonder can it be an external drive when creating a VMware workstation/fusion image? Network share should work too I suppose.

 

[pete]

Why did I read this thread?

Nerrrrrdddd

 

[ann post]

i like pete's earlier suggestion of just pretending to use a mac.

 

[RayRay]

Yeah i'm using the VMware converter at the moment, its having its own problems converting the pc, failing at 98%. I'm not giving up yet as what Pete said about servers, its worked great for me too in the past.

I've done loads to setup my PC and i have it just the way i want it so it would be nice to just P2V it. (Nerd moment ahoy) Plus P2Ving shit and getting it to work is satisfying. If this doesn't work i already have a bog standard windows 7 VM ready to go, there's no fun in that.

The eventual plan was to use fusion and run MMC from it, i just wanted to know if anyone used any other nifty tricks

 

[pete]

Plus P2Ving shit and getting it to work is satisfying

So true.

 

[Goodbye]

Who's bright idea was it to get a mac to control a windows network?

 

[RayRay]

Finish this sentence with a make of computer. American IT want to be trendy so they go.........

 

[Goodbye]

...Alienwear?

 

[magicbastarder]

...steampunk?

macs are for people who like to pretend they're technical.