Thursday, January 15, 2015

How to upgrade all of the firmware and bios on a Dell PowerEdge Server running VMware or another non-windows OS.

How to Upgrade ALL of the firmware, bios, etc. on a Dell server.

This comes up often with VMware hosts.  Here is your easy solution to update all of the firwares (RAID, Lifecycle, Drac, etc.) and BIOS all at once.

1)      Download and install Dell Repository manager.  You can get it here- http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER02720479M/1/Dell_Repository_Manager_2.0.0.187.msi or you can find it on the dell support site for your server product under the category “Systems Management.”
2)      There will be two icons on your start menu, you want to run “Datacenter Edition.”  After launching, it will check for updates.  If there is an update, go ahead and install it.
3)      On the “Source” menu, click “Sync Database with Dell Online.”
4)      Click on the “Dell Online” tab, select your system under “Supported Platforms.”
5)      Check the checkbox next to “System Bundle (Linux)”, if there are multiple select the newest one.
6)      Click “Export”, select the bubble next to “Bootable ISO (Using Linux Bundle), Click Next.
7)      If you do not have the plugin installed, let it install it for you.
8)      Select the location you want to save the ISO.
9)      Leave the bubble next to ‘No” when asked if you want to include your own script, click “Next.”
10)   Click “Finish.”
11)   Down at the bottom, there is a section that says “Job Queue”.  It’s not obvious that it is there.  Click the little “UP ARROW” to bring it up so you can monitor the status of the ISO creation.  It takes a bit, as it has to download from Dell.

12)   Once it finishes, simply burn the ISO and boot the server from it or use the drac to connect the ISO to boot from. 

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

How to install a Go Daddy Certificate on a Cisco ASA for AnyConnect.

Here is how you install a Go Daddy Certificate on a Cisco ASA for use with AnyConnect.  This assumes you already have anyconnect up and running.

1) Open and log into the ASDM.

2) Click on "Configuration", "Certificate Management", "Identity Certificates".



3) Click "Add", Give the Trustpoint a name (for example "GoDaddy"), select "Add a new identity certificate."  Click "New", select "Enter new key pair name", and name it.  Change the size to 2048 (Go Daddy no longer allows 1024).  If you cannot select 2048, you need to update your ASA.  Click "Generate Now".




4) Next to "Certificate Subject DN" click "Select".

5) Fill in the Attributes.  Don't worry about Location or Email.  Then Click "OK"
Common Name- This is the name of the domain URL you will use.  For example, vpn.company.com
Department- This is the department in your company, say "IT".
Company Name- Your company name, say "Company"
Country- "US" for United States.
State- Your state, "CO" for Colorado in my example.


6) Click "Add Certificate" and save your CSR somewhere.

7)  Go to Go Daddy's site, order your cert and paste your CSR.  Once it is issued, download the certificate.  Choose "Other" when asked what server type.

8)  Go back to identity certificates (see step 1), click on your cert and click "Install".


7) Select the certificate that has a numbered name.  DON'T select the one called gd_bundle-g2-g1.crt, that's the intermediate cert.  It will be called something like 89438f6489342cc.crt.

8) Open the file gd_bundle-g2-g1.crt, you'll see two certificates with
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

9) Remove the second certificate from the file and paste it into a new file, save the file with a .crt extension.  So you'll have two files.  The first with the first certificate in the file, the second with he second certificate.

10) Click on "Configuration", open "Certificate Management", click on "CA Certificates."  (Your ASDM Certificate should already be located under "Identity Certificates")

11) Click "Add", select your first file, click install certificate.  Repeat for the second file.  You then should see two files listed.

7) Click "Apply", then "Save".

If you have trouble with step 8, you can download the files from here-
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ltvx4olrcev7osk/AAAubPLuFXfEoojewaHE9gUIa?dl=0

Cisco AnyConnect with Go Daddy (GoDaddy) Certificate Certificate Error (Not Trusted) in Safari (So on Apple Mac, iPhone, iPad, etc.)

Recently I had a client complain that Apple users were experiencing certificate errors.  The first thing I checked was to see if the intermediate certificate was installed.  It was.  But what I discovered is, it appears the ASDM only imports the first certificate in the bundle and that apparently Safari doesn't have Go Daddy as a trusted root CA.  I had to split the intermediate certificate into two files and install them.  Here is how I resolved the problem.

1) When you download your Certificate, choose "Apache" or "Other".

2) Open the file gd_bundle-g2-g1.crt, you'll see two certificates with
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

3) Remove the second certificate from the file and paste it into a new file, save the file with a .crt extension.  So you'll have two files.  The first with the first certificate in the file, the second with he second certificate.

4) Open the ASDM and log in.

5) Click on "Configuration", open "Certificate Management", click on "CA Certificates."  (Your ASDM Certificate should already be located under "Identity Certificates")

6) Click "Add", select your first file, click install certificate.  Repeat for the second file.

7) Click "Apply", then "Save".

If you have trouble with step 2, you can download the files from here-
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ltvx4olrcev7osk/AAAubPLuFXfEoojewaHE9gUIa?dl=0