Imaging and the McAfee Agent

When deploying machines using images, the McAfee agent will no longer communicate with the ePO Server.
This is because the GUID relating to the McAfee Agent needs to be reset.

Running SysPrep on a Windows machine will NOT reset the McAfee GUID, this should be done manually.

To accomplish this, delete the "AgentGUID" from the following location in the registry:
32-Bit:  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Network Associates\ePolicy Orchestrator\Agent\]
64-Bit:  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Network Associates\ePolicy Orchestrator\Agent\]

Once the registry entry has been deleted, restart the McAfee Framework Service.  The McAfee Agent should now communicate with the ePO server.

Note: If you are prepping a machine for imaging, the registry key should be deleted immediately before imaging takes place.

Converting a VMware Virtual Machine to Hyper-V

Occasionally the need arises to convert a VMware virtual machine (vmdk) to work in a Hyper-V environment (vhdx).  There are a number of third-party tools available to accomplish this task, some better than others.  However, wherever possible, I like to use tools built into an Operating System, or made directly by the same company.  Enter Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter.

This tool enables the direct conversion of a vmdk file with PowerShell, and can be downloaded from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42497

Download and install to the default location.  Then open a PowerShell window with elevated privilages, and run the following command:
     Import-Module 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter\MvmcCmdlet.psd1

This cmdlet contains a number of commands that can be used to perform various conversion tasks.  However the simplest is "ConvertTo-MvmcVirtualHardDisk".

Remaining in the elevated PowerShell window, enter the following command (obvioulsy you will need to change both the "SourceLiteralPath" (source) and "Destination" arguments:
     ConvertTo-MvmcVirtualHardDisk -SourceLiteralPath C:\TEMP\Disk1.vmdk -VhdType DynamicHardDisk -VhdFormat vhdx -destination C:\Temp\Disk1

That's it.  Wait for the command to complete, and you will have a fully functioning vhdx file you can use with your shiny new Hyper-V virtual machine.