Ordering/Ranking Multiple IP Addresses on the Same NIC

Problem:
Your add a second IP Address to the network card on your server. Suddenly things which involve the outbound connection are either misbehaving or not working at all (e.g. RDP, telnet).

Cause:
After 2008, Windows Server started to assign its ranking of IP Addresses based on whichever has the lowest numerical value. The order the IP Addresses were added onto the NIC no longer matters, so if you first added 182.168.1.20 and then added 192.168.1.10 you'd find that any outbound connections were made from the x.x.x.10 address.

You can confirm this by viewing the ranking of the IP Addresses. Open an elevated command prompt and type in:

netsh int ipv4 show ipaddresses level=verbose

Fix:
You must manually remove the new ip address and then add the new ip address back onto the NIC using


netsh int ipv4 add address "Ethernet" 192.168.1.10 SkipAsSource=True

Thus the new ip address will be added to the NIC but it will not take precidence over the old IP Address, even though it is numerically lower.

Virtual Box - Drag and Drop/Copy and Paste Not Working

Problem:
Even though you've installed the Guest Additions software and enabled 'Bi-directional' drag and drop and copy and paste, you still can't move stuff from your host machine onto the Virtual Machine.

Fix:

Open up Task Manager on your VM, kill the Virtual Box Guest Additions Tray Application. Then, still in Task Manager, go to File > Run New Task > Browse to C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox Guest Additions and choose VBoxTray.exe. Suddenly you should find you can copy and paste stuff.

To make this long term fix simply create a shortcut to the VBoxTray.exe and move it to your Startup folder.

Daylight Savings - "System time synchronized with the hardware clock" - CMOS Issue

Problem:
After Daylight Savings has happened, you may find your HP server resolutely refuses to update to the correct time. Even though manually syncing the time with the Internet Time works, after a short while the time will drop an hour. You will then see this message in the System event log:

The system time has changed to ‎2016‎-‎03‎-‎29T09:13:28.500000000Z from ‎2016‎-‎03‎-‎29T10:13:27.986215700Z.

Change Reason: System time synchronized with the hardware clock.

This tells you that the hardware clock (CMOS) is still an hour behind and that for some reason, Windows can't update it. As a result, every time you correct the time, it will fall back to the pre-Daylight Savings time.

Cause:
As it turns out the this is a hardware issue, which effects:

• HP ProLiant DL580 Gen8
• HP ProLiant BL460c Gen9
• HP ProLiant DL160 Gen9
• HP ProLiant DL180 Gen9
• HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9
• HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9
• HP ProLiant ML350 Gen9
• HP ProLiant XL230a Gen9

The details on the issue are listed here:
 
h20564.www2.hpe. com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c04557232&lang=en-us&cc=us

Fix:
The fix was to make the following registry change then reboot the server:

"Create a new DWORD sized Microsoft Windows registry setting named RealTimeIsUniversal under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation\ and set the value to '1'. This option will cause the Windows operating system to treat the Real Time Clock time as UTC rather than local time. "

Delphi Seattle - Multi Device Applicaiton / Form - Change Color of Background

There are many ways to fill in the color of a form but these two are fairly simple options.

Option 1:  Use the predefined color options.
When you've typed out TAlphaColors. , hit Ctrl and Spacebar to see the pre-defined colour options:

procedure TMainForm.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
fill.Color := TAlphaColors.Blueviolet;
fill.Kind := TBrushKind.Solid;
end;

 

Option 2:  Use the hex.
This takes the form of $00BBGGRR. Fill out the details accordingly and then put your hex code in the bracket. As a general rule of thumb, always set the first letters to be 'FF':

procedure TMainForm.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
fill.Color := TAlphaColor($FF008000);
fill.Kind := TBrushKind.Solid;
end;


Useful links:
Embarcadero breakdown of color options:
http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/Libraries/XE6/en/System.UITypes.TAlphaColorRec#TAlphaColorRec_Colors
Here you can find the RGB six letter code for you colour
http://www.w3schools.com/colors/colors_picker.asp 
Colors in the VCL:
http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/Seattle/en/Colors_in_the_VCL
 

Oracle Virtual Box - Increase Disk Space/Hard Drive Size

NB: This will only with Dynamic disks which are either VDI or VHD format.
 
To resize a disk in Virtual Box, you need to use the command line prompt and a VB tool called VBoxManage. To do this:

1] Open elevated command prompt
2] Change Directory to the Virtual Box installation folder, most likely C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox
3] Enter the following code: 

VBoxManage modifyhd (insert path to visrtual disk) --resize (enter size in MB you wish to increase the disk to)

You should end up with something which looks like this:

This will have increased the size of the disk but you'll need to log into Windows on the VM and extend the Volume size in Disk Manager to be able to access the new space:

  

Follow the wizard steps through and you'll be left with a new, improved volume: