Slow logins in Windows 7

According to Microsoft the welcome screen may be displayed for 30 seconds during the logon process after you set a solid color as the desktop background in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2
To fix this configure the value of the DelayedDesktopSwitchTimeout registry entry. This value determines the time-out interval of a session before Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 switches between sessions.
To configure the value of the DelayedDesktopSwitchTimeout registry entry, follow these steps:
Locate the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\SystemDouble-click the DelayedDesktopSwitchTimeout registry entry.
In the Value data box, type 5, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit.

Adding a USB device to the virtual machine fails in ESXi 5

After upgrading an ESXi 4.1 host to ESXi 5.0, you are unable to add a USB device to the virtual machine. The USB controller has been added to the virtual machine, but the USB device is not available.
This issue occurs if hostd loads before the USB Arbitrator in ESXi 5.0
To workaround this issue:
Connect to the host using SSH as the root user.
Open the /etc/init.d/usbarbitrator file using the vi editor.
Locate this line:
# chkconfig: 3 70 70
Change this line to:
# chkconfig: 3 17 83
Save and close the file.
Run these commands on the host:
chkconfig usbarbitrator off
chkconfig usbarbitrator on
Reboot the host.
Run this command to stop hostd service:
/etc/init.d/hostd stop
Run this command to stop the usbarbitrator service:
/etc/init.d/usbarbitrator stop
Run this command to start the usbarbitrator service:
/etc/init.d/usbarbitrator start
Run this command to start hostd service:
/etc/init.d/hostd start
For more information read the following article from VMware.

View Desktop logon credentials screen takes 60 seconds to appear

When the Internet connectivity in your View desktop is disabled from a client using SSL, you experience these symptoms:
There is a delay of 60 seconds before you see the login credentials screen for the View desktop.
The login credentials screen may not appear and times out.
You may see a message stating that the certificate is invalid.
The View Client conducts a certificate revocation check when using SSL certificates. If the Internet connectivity is disabled, the client cannot complete this check and results in a 60 second delay before the logon screen is displayed.
To resolve this issue, reduce the timeout period for the certificate revocation check.
To reduce the certificate revocation check timeout:

• In the client machine, click Start, type regedit, and click OK. The Registry Editor window opens.
• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Cryptography > OID > EncodingType 0 > CertDllCreateCertificateChainEngine > Config.
• Click Edit > New > DWORD Value.
• In the Name field, type ChainUrlRetrievalTimeoutMilliseconds.
• Right-click the entry and click Modify.
• Under Base, select Decimal.
• Under Value data, enter 15000.
• Click Edit > New > DWORD Value.
• In the Name field, type ChainRevAccumulativeUrlRetrievalTimeoutMilliseconds.
• Right-click this entry and click Modify
• Under Base, select Decimal.
• Under Value data, enter 20000.
• Close the Registry Editor.
• Restart the client machine.

Use the View Client to connect to the desktop.
For more information read the following article from VMware.

Upgrading from vCenter Server 4.1 to 5.0 fails

Upgrading from vCenter Server 4.1 to 5.0 fails and an exception is thrown while executing SQL script. This issue occurs if an index named INDX_TIME_ID in the VPX_HIST_STAT1 table was not deleted in a previous upgrade and continues to exist. The script to upgrade the table fails because of the index's constraint on the TIME_ID column.
To remove the lingering index on the table:
Launch SQL Server Management Studio and Connect to the SQL instance of the vCenter Server database.
Take a backup the vCenter Server database.
To back up the vCenter Server database, right-click the database and click Tasks > Back Up.
Expand the Databases folder.
Click the vCenter Server database name.
Click the New Query button on the toolbar. A blank query window appears.
Enter this SQL statement in the blank query window:

    DROP INDEX VPX_HIST_STAT1.INDX_TIME_ID

Execute the statement by pressing the F5 key or by clicking the ! Execute button on the toolbar.
For more information read the following article from VMware KB.

How to correctly remove a LUN from an ESX host

Please read the following article from VMware.

How to use PowerShell to run Exchange commands remotely

Please read the following article from Technet.

Cannot login to the vCenter Server Appliance using the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client after joining to Active Directory

To resolve this issue:
Log in to the vCenter Server Appliance as root.
Reset the number of failed login attempts for the affected domain user with the command:
/sbin/pam_tally --user user@domain --reset
For more info read this article from VMware KB.

How to inspect spam logs in Exchange Server 2010

Open an Exchange Management Shell on Edge Transport Server and use Get-AgentLog command to examine the logs:
Get-AgentLog -StartDate "01/01/2012 0:00:00" -EndDate "02/01/2012 23:59:59" | ? {$_.IPAddress -eq "a.b.c.d"} | more
Get-AgentLog -StartDate "01/01/2012 0:00:00" -EndDate "02/01/2012 23:59:59" | ? {$_.SmtpResponse -like "*5.1.1*"} | more

Configuring initial Exchange database

To setup Exchange with a custom initial mailbox database name and non-default locations of database and log files, you can use the following command line:
setup /mode:install /roles:c,h,m,t /mdbname:MDB01 /DbFilePath:E:\MDB01DB\MDB01.edb /LogFolderPath:D:\MDB01LOG
For more information please read this article.

Troubleshooting ESX virtual machine performance issues

Please read the following KB article from VMware.