Bare Computing

I had a fresh server running 2008 R2 that I installed Exchange 2010 on. Shortly after the migration from Exchange 2007 to this box, I noticed tons of errors in the event log happening every couple of minutes.

Message: The performance counter explain text string value in the registry is not formatted correctly. The malformed string is %1!s!. The first DWORD in the Data section contains the index value to the malformed string while the second and third DWORDs in the Data section contain the last valid index values.

I found the fix to it here on Technet.

I had to open a command prompt with administrator rights and run lodctr /r and press enter.

C:\Windows\system32>lodctr /r

Info: Successfully rebuilt performance counter setting from system backup store
C:\Windows\system32>

And after that, no more errors. I’m not sure what caused it but it appears to be working correctly now.

First you need to download and install HP’s Virtual Connect Support Utility and install it on Server 2003, Vista, or XP Pro. It is as of this writing on version 1.5.2 and can be found here. Then you need to get the latest firmware from here and extract it to a location you can type out ie. c:\. Run the Virtual Connect Support Utility – Interactive. Below are my results. It took about 33 minutes to run and my virtual servers only lost a couple pings though of course I did this at night.

——————————————————————————-
 HP BladeSystem c-Class Virtual Connect Support Utility
 Version 1.5.1 (Build 9)
 Build Date: Sep  3 2010 00:04:14
 Copyright (C) 2007-2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
 All Rights Reserved
——————————————————————————-

Please enter action (“help” for list): update
Please enter Onboard Administrator IP Address: 192.168.1.6
Please enter Onboard Administrator Username: HPADMIN
Please enter Onboard Administrator Password: **********
Please enter firmware package location: c:\vcfwall315.bin
Please enter Bay Number (Optional):
Please enter Configuration backup password (Optional):
Do you want to force an update on modules? (yes/NO): no
Do you want to Specify VC-Enet module activation order? (yes/NO): no
Do you want to Specify VC-FC module activation order? (yes/NO): no
Do you want to Specify the amount of time(in minutes) to wait between
activating or rebooting VC-Enet modules? (yes/NO): no
Do you want to Specify the amount of time(in minutes) to wait between
activating or rebooting VC-FC modules? (yes/NO): no
Please enter the VCM Domain user credentials.
User Name: HPADMIN
Password: **********
The following modules will be updated:

==============================================================================
Enclosure   Bay  Module           Current Version       New Version
==============================================================================
USE942T89S  1    HP VC Flex-10    2.30                  3.15
                 Enet Module      2009-09-29T01:44:36Z  2010-10-09T07:18:16Z
——————————————————————————
USE942T89S  2    HP VC Flex-10    2.30                  3.15
                 Enet Module      2009-09-29T01:44:36Z  2010-10-09T07:18:16Z
——————————————————————————

During the update process, modules being updated will be temporarily
unavailable. In addition, the update process should NOT be interrupted by
removing or resetting modules, or by closing the application. Interrupting
the update or the modules being updated may cause the modules to not be updated
properly.

Please verify the above report before continuing.

Would you like to continue with this update? [YES/NO]: yes

The following modules were updated successfully:

=======================================================================
Enclosure   Bay  Module                     New Version
=======================================================================
USE942T89S  1    HP VC Flex-10 Enet Module  3.15 2010-10-09T07:18:16Z
USE942T89S  2    HP VC Flex-10 Enet Module  3.15 2010-10-09T07:18:16Z

Total execution time: 00:33:38
Press Return/Enter to exit…

I recently updated the firmware on my HP C7000 Blade Enclosure and noticed that there was newer firmware available for the HP 1Gb Ethernet Pass-thru Module for c-Class BladeSystem. I finally figured out how to do it from a post on the HP forums. You telnet into the onboard administrator. After logging in, type UPDATE DEVICE ICBAY 1A or whichever one it is you are trying to udpate. It will prompt you to type YES and then proceed to update. It only took a few seconds to update each one.

BladeAdministrator> show update

Device  Name                                          Location Version    NewVersion
———————————————————————————–
TRAY  | BladeSystem c7000 Onboard Administrator Tray  | -     | 1.7      | 1.7
LCD   | BladeSystem c7000 LCD                         | -     | 2.2.2    | 2.2.2
ICBAY | HP 1Gb Ethernet Pass-Thru Module for c-Class  | 1A    | 2.6.3    | 2.8.3
ICBAY | HP 1Gb Ethernet Pass-Thru Module for c-Class  | 2A    | 2.6.3    | 2.8.3