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• Solaris 11 SRU / Update relationship explained, and blackout period on delivery of new bug fixes eliminated

  - by user12244672

  Relationship between SRUs and Update releases As you may know, Support Repository Updates (SRUs) for Oracle Solaris 11 are released monthly and are available to customers with an appropriate support contract.  SRUs primarily deliver bug fixes.  They may also deliver low risk feature enhancements. Solaris Update are typically released once or twice a year, containing support for new hardware, new software feature enhancements, and all bug fixes available at the time the Update content was finalized.  They also contain a significant number of new bug fixes, for issues found internally in Oracle and complex customer bug fixes which  require significant "soak" time to ensure their efficacy prior to release. Changes to SRU and Update Naming Conventions We're changing the naming convention of Update releases from a date based format such as Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 to a simpler "dot" version numbering, e.g. Oracle Solaris 11.1. Oracle Solaris 11 11/11 (i.e. the initial Oracle Solaris 11 release) may be referred to as 11.0. SRUs will simply be named as "dot.dot" releases, e.g. Oracle Solaris 11.1.1, for SRU1 after Oracle Solaris 11.1. Many Oracle products and infrastructure tools such as BugDB and MOS are tailored towards this "dot.dot" style of release naming, so these name changes align Oracle Solaris with these conventions. No Blackout Periods on Bug Fix Releases The Oracle Solaris 11 release process has been enhanced to eliminate blackout periods on the delivery of new bug fixes to customers. Previously, Oracle Solaris Updates were a superset of all preceding bug fix deliveries.  This made for a very simple update message - that which releases later is always a superset of that which was delivered previously. However, it had a downside.  Once the contents of an Update release were frozen prior to release, the release of new bug fixes for customer issues was also frozen to maintain the Update's superset relationship. Since the amount of change allowed into the final internal builds of an Update release is reduced to mitigate risk, this throttling back also impacted the release of new bug fixes to customers. This meant that there was effectively a 6 to 9 week hiatus on the release of new bug fixes prior to the release of each Update.  That wasn't good for customers awaiting critical bug fixes. We've eliminated this hiatus on the delivery of new bug fixes in Oracle Solaris 11 by allowing new bug fixes to continue to be released in SRUs even after the contents of the next Update release have been frozen. The release of SRUs will remain contiguous, with the first SRU released after the Update release effectively being a superset of both the the Update release and all preceding SRUs*.  That is, later SRUs are supersets of the content of previous SRUs. Therefore, the progression path from the final SRUs prior to the Update release is to the first SRU after the Update release, rather than to the Update release itself. The timeline / logical sequence of releases can be shown as follows: Updates: 11.0                                                11.1                               11.2     etc.                  \                                                         \                                    \ SRUs:       11.0.1, 11.0.2,...,11.0.12, 11.0.13, 11.1.1, 11.1.2,...,11.1.x, 11.2.1, etc. For example, for systems with Oracle Solaris 11 11/11 SRU12.4 or later installed, the recommended update path is to Oracle Solaris 11.1.1 (i.e. SRU1 after Solaris 11.1) or later rather than to the Solaris 11.1 release itself.  This will ensure no bug fixes are "lost" during the update. If for any reason you do wish to update from SRU12.4 or later to the 11.1 release itself - for example to update a test system - the instructions to do so are in the SRU12.4 README, https://updates.oracle.com/Orion/Services/download?type=readme&aru=15564533 For systems with Oracle Solaris 11 11/11 SRU11.4 or earlier installed, customers can update to either the 11.1 release or any 11.1 SRU as both will be supersets of their current version. Please do read the README of the SRU you are updating to, as it will contain important installation instructions which will save you time and effort. *Nerdy details: SRUs only contain the latest change delta relative to the Update on which they are based.  Their dependencies will, however, effectively pull in the Update content.  Customers maintaining a local Repo (e.g. behind their firewall), need to add both the 11.1 content and the relevant SRU content to their Repo, to enable the SRU's dependencies to be resolved.  Both will be available from the standard Support Repo and from MOS.  This is no different to existing SRUs for Oracle Solaris 11.0, whereby you may often get away with using just the SRU content to update, but the original 11.0 content may be needed in the Repo to resolve dependencies.

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• Five Key Strategies in Master Data Management

  - by david.butler(at)oracle.com

  Here is a very interesting Profit Magazine article on MDM: A recent customer survey reveals the deleterious effects of data fragmentation. by Trevor Naidoo, December 2010   Across industries and geographies, IT organizations have grown in complexity, whether due to mergers and acquisitions, or decentralized systems supporting functional or departmental requirements. With systems architected over time to support unique, one-off process needs, they are becoming costly to maintain, and the Internet has only further added to the complexity. Data fragmentation has become a key inhibitor in delivering flexible, user-friendly systems. The Oracle Insight team conducted a survey assessing customers' master data management (MDM) capabilities over the past two years to get a sense of where they are in terms of their capabilities. The responses, by 27 respondents from six different industries, reveal five key areas in which customers need to improve their data management in order to get better financial results. 1. Less than 15 percent of organizations surveyed understand the sources and quality of their master data, and have a roadmap to address missing data domains. Examples of the types of master data domains referred to are customer, supplier, product, financial and site. Many organizations have multiple sources of master data with varying degrees of data quality in each source -- customer data stored in the customer relationship management system is inconsistent with customer data stored in the order management system. Imagine not knowing how many places you stored your customer information, and whether a customer's address was the most up to date in each source. In fact, more than 55 percent of the respondents in the survey manage their data quality on an ad-hoc basis. It is important for organizations to document their inventory of data sources and then profile these data sources to ensure that there is a consistent definition of key data entities throughout the organization. Some questions to ask are: How do we define a customer? What is a product? How do we define a site? The goal is to strive for one common repository for master data that acts as a cross reference for all other sources and ensures consistent, high-quality master data throughout the organization. 2. Only 18 percent of respondents have an enterprise data management strategy to ensure that data is treated as an asset to the organization. Most respondents handle data at the department or functional level and do not have an enterprise view of their master data. The sales department may track all their interactions with customers as they move through the sales cycle, the service department is tracking their interactions with the same customers independently, and the finance department also has a different perspective on the same customer. The salesperson may not be aware that the customer she is trying to sell to is experiencing issues with existing products purchased, or that the customer is behind on previous invoices. The lack of a data strategy makes it difficult for business users to turn data into information via reports. Without the key building blocks in place, it is difficult to create key linkages between customer, product, site, supplier and financial data. These linkages make it possible to understand patterns. A well-defined data management strategy is aligned to the business strategy and helps create the governance needed to ensure that data stewardship is in place and data integrity is intact. 3. Almost 60 percent of respondents have no strategy to integrate data across operational applications. Many respondents have several disparate sources of data with no strategy to keep them in sync with each other. Even though there is no clear strategy to integrate the data (see #2 above), the data needs to be synced and cross-referenced to keep the business processes running. About 55 percent of respondents said they perform this integration on an ad hoc basis, and in many cases, it is done manually with the help of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. For example, a salesperson needs a report on global sales for a specific product, but the product has different product numbers in different countries. Typically, an analyst will pull all the data into Excel, manually create a cross reference for that product, and then aggregate the sales. The exact same procedure has to be followed if the same report is needed the following month. A well-defined consolidation strategy will ensure that a central cross-reference is maintained with updates in any one application being propagated to all the other systems, so that data is synchronized and up to date. This can be done in real time or in batch mode using integration technology. 4. Approximately 50 percent of respondents spend manual efforts cleansing and normalizing data. Information stored in various systems usually follows different standards and formats, making it difficult to match the data. A customer's address can be stored in different ways using a variety of abbreviations -- for example, "av" or "ave" for avenue. Similarly, a product's attributes can be stored in a number of different ways; for example, a size attribute can be stored in inches and can also be entered as "'' ". These types of variations make it difficult to match up data from different sources. Today, most customers rely on manual, heroic efforts to match, cleanse, and de-duplicate data -- clearly not a scalable, sustainable model. To solve this challenge, organizations need the ability to standardize data for customers, products, sites, suppliers and financial accounts; however, less than 10 percent of respondents have technology in place to automatically resolve duplicates. It is no wonder, therefore, that we get communications about products we don't own, at addresses we don't reside, and using channels (like direct mail) we don't like. An all-too-common example of a potential challenge follows: Customers end up receiving duplicate communications, which not only impacts customer satisfaction, but also incurs additional mailing costs. Cleansing, normalizing, and standardizing data will help address most of these issues. 5. Only 10 percent of respondents have the ability to share data that was mastered in a master data hub. Close to 60 percent of respondents have efforts in place that profile, standardize and cleanse data manually, and the output of these efforts are stored in spreadsheets in various parts of the organization. This valuable information is not easily shared with the rest of the organization and, more importantly, this enriched information cannot be sent back to the source systems so that the data is fixed at the source. A key benefit of a master data management strategy is not only to clean the data, but to also share the data back to the source systems as well as other systems that need the information. Aside from the source systems, another key beneficiary of this data is the business intelligence system. Having clean master data as input to business intelligence systems provides more accurate and enhanced reporting.  Characteristics of Stellar MDM When deciding on the right master data management technology, organizations should look for solutions that have four main characteristics: enterprise-grade MDM performance complete technology that can be rapidly deployed and addresses multiple business issues end-to-end MDM process management with data quality monitoring and assurance pre-built MDM business relevant applications with data stores and workflows These master data management capabilities will aid in moving closer to a best-practice maturity level, delivering tremendous efficiencies and savings as well as revenue growth opportunities as a result of better understanding your customers.  Trevor Naidoo is a senior director in Industry Strategy and Insight at Oracle. 

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• Not attending the LUGM mini-meetup - 05. Oct 2013

  Not attending a meeting of the LUGM can be fun, too. It's getting a bit of a habit that Ish is organising small gatherings, aka mini-meetups, of the Linux User Group Mauritius/Meta (LUGM) almost every Saturday. There they mainly discuss and talk about various elements of using Linux as ones main operating systems and the possibilities you are going to have. On top of course, some tips & tricks about mastering the command line and initial steps in scripting or even writing HTML. In general, sounds like a good portion of fun and great spirit of community. Unfortunately, I'm usually quite busy with private and family matters during the weekend and so I already signalised that I wouldn't be around. Well, at least not physically... But this Saturday a couple of things worked out faster than expected and so I was hanging out on my machine. I made virtual contact with one of Pawan's messages over on Facebook... And somehow that kicked off some kind of an online game fun on basic configuration of Apache HTTPd 2.2.x, PHP 5.x and how to improve the overall performance of a newly installed blog based on WordPress. Default configuration files Nitin's website finally came alive and despite the dark theme and the hidden Apple 'fanboy' advertisement I was more interested in the technical situation. As with any new installation there is usually quite some adjustment to be done. And Nitin's page was no exception. Unfortunately, out of the box installations of Apache httpd and PHP are too verbose and expose too much information under the hood. You might think that this isn't really a problem at all, well, think about it again after completely reading this article. First, I checked the HTTP response headers - using either Chrome Developer Tools or Firefox Web Developer extension - of Nitin's page and based on that I advised him to lower the noise levels a little bit. It's not really necessary that detailed information about web server software and scripting language has to be published in every response made. Quite a number of script kiddies and exploits actually check for version specifics prior to an attack. So, removing at least version details hardens the system a little bit. In particular, I'm talking about these response values: Server X-Powered-By How to achieve that? By tweaking the configuration files... Namely, we are going to look into the following ones: apache2.conf httpd.conf .htaccess php.ini The above list contains some additional files, I'm talking about in the next paragraphs. Anyway, those are the ones involved. Tweaking Apache Open your favourite text editor and start to modify the apache2.conf. Eventually, you might like to have a quick peak at the file to see whether it is necessary to adjust it or not. Following is a handy combination of commands to get an overview of your active directives: # sudo grep -v '#' /etc/apache2/apache2.conf | grep -v '^$' | less There you keep an eye on those two Apache directives: ServerSignature Off ServerTokens Prod If that's not the case, change them as highlighted above. In order to activate your modifications you have to restart Apache httpd server. On Debian and Ubuntu you might use apache2ctl for that, on other distributions you might have to use service or run the init-scripts again: # sudo apache2ctl configtestSyntax OK# sudo apache2ctl restart Refresh your website and check the HTTP response header. Tweaking PHP5 (a little bit) Next, check your php.ini file with the following statement: # sudo grep -v ';' /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini | grep -v '^$' | less And check the value of expose_php = Off Again, if it's not as highlighted, change it... Some more Apache love Okay, back to Apache it might also be interesting to improve the situation about browser caching and removing more obsolete information. When you run your website against the usual performance checks like Google Page Speed and Yahoo YSlow you might see those check points with bad grades on a standard, default configuration. Well, this can be done easily. Configure entity tags (ETags) ETags are only interesting when you run your websites on a farm of multiple web servers. Removing this data for your static resources is very simple in Apache. As we are going to deal with the HTTP response header information you have to ensure that Apache is capable to manipulate them. First, check your enabled modules: # sudo ls -al /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/ | grep headers And in case that the 'headers' module is not listed, you have to enable it from the available ones: # sudo a2enmod headers Second, check your httpd.conf file (in case it exists): # sudo grep -v '#' /etc/apache2/httpd.conf | grep -v '^$' | less In newer (better said fresh) installations you might have to create a new configuration file below your conf.d folder with your favourite text editor like so: # sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf.d/headers.conf Then, in order to tweak your HTTP responses either check for those lines or add them: Header unset ETagFileETag None In case that your file doesn't exist or those lines are missing, feel free to create/add them. Afterwards, check your Apache configuration syntax and restart your running instances as already shown above: # sudo apache2ctl configtestSyntax OK# sudo apache2ctl restart Add Expires headers To improve the loading performance of your website, you should take some care into the proper configuration of how to leverage the browser's ability to cache certain resources and files. This is done by adding an Expires: value to the HTTP response header. Generally speaking it is advised that you specify a near-future, read: 1 week or a little bit more, for your static content like JavaScript files or Cascading Style Sheets. One solution to adjust this is to put some instructions into the .htaccess file in the root folder of your web site. Of course, this could also be placed into a more generic location of your Apache installation but honestly, I'd like to keep this at the web site level. Following some adjustments I'm currently using on this blog site: # Turn on Expires and set default to 0ExpiresActive OnExpiresDefault A0 # Set up caching on media files for 1 year (forever?)<FilesMatch "\.(flv|ico|pdf|avi|mov|ppt|doc|mp3|wmv|wav)$">ExpiresDefault A29030400Header append Cache-Control "public"</FilesMatch> # Set up caching on media files for 1 week<FilesMatch "\.(js|css)$">ExpiresDefault A604800Header append Cache-Control "public"</FilesMatch> # Set up caching on media files for 31 days<FilesMatch "\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|swf)$">ExpiresDefault A2678400Header append Cache-Control "public"</FilesMatch> As we are editing the .htaccess files, it is not necessary to restart Apache. In case that your web site doesn't load anymore or you're experiencing an error while trying to restart your httpd, check that the 'expires' module is actually an enabled module: # ls -al /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/ | grep expires# sudo a2enmod expires Of course, the instructions above a re not feature complete but I hope that they might provide a better default configuration for your LAMP stack. Resume of the day Within a couple of hours, and while being occupied with an eLearning course on SQL Server 2012, I had some good fun in helping and assisting other LUGM members while they were some kilometers away at Bagatelle. According to other blog articles it seems that Nitin had quite some moments of desperation. Just for the records: At no time it was my intention to either kick his butt or pull a leg on him. Simply, providing some input based on the lessons I've learned over the last couple of years configuring Apache HTTPd and PHP. Check out the other blogs, too: LUGM mini-meetup... Epic! Superb Saturday Linux Meetup And last but not least, the man himself: The end of a new beginning Cheers, and happy community'ing! Updates Due to our weekly Code & Coffee sessions in the MSCC community, I had a chance to talk to Nitin directly and he showed me the problems directly on his machine. This led to update this article hence the paragraphs on enabling the modules 'headers' and 'expires'.

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• 5 Ways Android Still Disappoints (Me)

  - by TStewartDev

  Let me make this clear: I'm annoyed with Apple. I don't like their current policies and I don't like where Steve Jobs is taking the company. In general, I don't like it when any one company gets too much control in a market. When that happens, the leading company dictates the game and as consumers, our options all but disappear. That said, I'm still going to buy a new iPhone next week. My Apple-hating friends seem to desperately want me to go Android instead, but frankly, it's not good enough for me, and here are the reasons why. The Modern WinMo One of the reasons that Microsoft has identified for Windows Mobile's rapid decline is the breadth of hardware. They exercised little control over manufacturer's implementations. In theory, that sounds great. We as consumers have lots of choice. In practice, though, it meant among other things that updates to the devices were left up to the manufacturers. As a result, that rarely happened. (I'm still bitter at Toshiba for leaving me hanging back in 2002.) And now, Google is doing the same thing with Android. Case in point: my wife has a Motorola Backflip that we bought in April. It was released in March. Motorola says it will get Android 2.1 "sometime in Q3". Great. Meanwhile, I pull down the latest version of iPhone OS (now iOS) and install it the same day it's released. You may say that I can't judge Android by one lazy manufacturer. Yup, I sure can. With Apple, my original iPhone has been supported perfectly for 3 years. With Android, I will have to wait for upgrades after Google releases them, possibly indefinitely. Not cool. AT&T We signed a new contract with AT&T in April to get my wife's phone. I've had a reasonable experience with them. I don't imagine my experience with Verizon would be any better, and I'm relatively confident that Sprint doesn't have the coverage it takes to work well for us. The fact is, AT&T, for whatever reason, doesn't have jack for Android phones. May not be Android's fault, but it's still a shortcoming that prevents me from having it just like the iPhone's exclusivity keeps some folks on other networks from having it. Innovation? What Innovation? Android has a nice dashboard and a great notification system and… nothing else original. I keep reading about how disappointing the iPhone is nowadays. "It has no innovation," people say. Who does? Android has modeled its behavior after the iPhone. That's fine, but if all you've got is a similar product and I'm invested both skill-wise and app-wise in my current platform, why should I change? Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 looks somewhat innovative, and I'm pretty excited to see what they'll bring to the table, but that's another six months away, at least. I've got a 3 year old phone that has some annoying issues now (thanks to recent encounters with water). I need a new phone now. Is This Going to Work? There's no shortage of criticism of Apple over its App Store policies, and I've vented my own anger about it. However, I will give them credit: their screening of apps has done a great job of weeding out the crap and gives an excellent indication that the app will work on my device. How about Android? Nope. It might work on your phone. Maybe. You'll have to try it to see. Get burned by it? Well, write a nasty review to try to keep others from making the mistake you did. If you don't mind doing that stuff, then Android is the platform for you. Personally, I'd rather have a receptionist screening out the telemarketing and survey calls than hang up on them myself, but that's your call. Slow, Slowing, Slower All this yapping about multitasking. This is an area I've been on Apple's side from the beginning. Sorry folks, but this is the number one reason I hated Windows Mobile: the longer you use it, the slower it gets because it doesn't kill apps. I'm with Steve Jobs on this one: if you see a task manager, we're doing it wrong. I don't want to have to manually kill apps. I hate doing that on Windows let alone on a mobile device. To me, priority one should be keeping the device speedy. Waiting for your device to respond is unacceptable. Bonus! Taken from iPhone Letdown? 8 Things Apple Didn't Announce, here are my responses: 4G Yeah, let me know if your area actually has it. I live in Lincoln, Nebraska. No carrier is going to have 4G here for at least 3 years. Meanwhile, you still get to pay for it. Yay! Cloud iTunes/OTA Sync You got me here. Of course, whether or not your Android device will be able to do it is always a good question. 3G Video Chat You got me here, too. I'm sure you spent countless hours in front of your phone with video chat. Also, I can't wait for the "No Video Chat While Driving" laws. Mobile Hotspot This is a neat feature, but as the author points out, it's left up to the carrier whether to implement it or not. Pretty sure any Android phones that come to AT&T won't have this enabled in the foreseeable future. Is Verizon even allowing this? I just figured Sprint was because they're failing so hard at keeping customers. Free MobileMe I use Google's services with my iPhone. The only people I know who use MobileMe are Apple fanboys and fangirls. If you choose to pay for a service that you can get for free, that's your decision, not Apple's. Voice Input Voice input has been available on phones (even "dumb" phones) for years now. iPhone does have the ability, though limited. Why don't I hear people telling their phones what to do? Maybe because it's still easier to use your fingers than talk to it. Get back to me when this becomes an important feature. Free Navigation Maybe this will be a bigger deal to me now that I'm getting a phone with GPS, but when using my buddy's 3gs, Google maps has worked just fine. Maybe I just don't trust turn-by-turn navigation enough to want it. Dashboard The only legitimate complaint on this list, to me. iPhone's home screen is pathetic, doubly so for the iPad. What a waste of perfectly usable space. I also want to add notifications to this list. Android's notification panel is far superior to the iPhone's. I don't want to hunt all over my screen to find little red dots. Put 'em in one place, Apple.

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• Exception Handling And Other Contentious Political Topics

  - by Justin Jones

  So about three years ago, around the time of my last blog post, I promised a friend I would write this post. Keeping promises is a good thing, and this is my first step towards easing back into regular blogging. I fully expect him to return from Pennsylvania to buy me a beer over this. However, it’s been an… ahem… eventful three years or so, and blogging, unfortunately, got pushed to the back burner on my priority list, along with a few other career minded activities. Now that the personal drama of the past three years is more or less resolved, it’s time to put a few things back on the front burner. What I consider to be proper exception handling practices is relatively well known these days. There are plenty of blog posts out there already on this topic which more or less echo my opinions on this topic. I’ll try to include a few links at the bottom of the post. Several years ago I had an argument with a co-worker who posited that exceptions should be caught at every level and logged. This might seem like sanity on the surface, but the resulting error log looked something like this: Error: System.SomeException Followed by small stack trace. Error: System.SomeException Followed by slightly bigger stack trace. Error: System.SomeException Followed by slightly bigger stack trace. Error: System.SomeException Followed by slightly bigger stack trace. Error: System.SomeException Followed by slightly bigger stack trace. Error: System.SomeException Followed by slightly bigger stack trace. Error: System.SomeException Followed by slightly bigger stack trace. Error: System.SomeException Followed by slightly bigger stack trace.   These were all the same exception. The problem with this approach is that the error log, if you run any kind of analytics on in, becomes skewed depending on how far up the stack trace your exception was thrown. To mitigate this problem, we came up with the concept of the “PreLoggedException”. Basically, we would log the exception at the very top level and subsequently throw the exception back up the stack encapsulated in this pre-logged type, which our logging system knew to ignore. Now the error log looked like this: Error: System.SomeException Followed by small stack trace. Much cleaner, right? Well, there’s still a problem. When your exception happens in production and you go about trying to figure out what happened, you’ve lost more or less all context for where and how this exception was thrown, because all you really know is what method it was thrown in, but really nothing about who was calling the method or why. What gives you this clue is the entire stack trace, which we’re losing here. I believe that was further mitigated by having the logging system pull a system stack trace and add it to the log entry, but what you’re actually getting is the stack for how you got to the logging code. You’re still losing context about the actual error. Not to mention you’re executing a whole slew of catch blocks which are sloooooooowwwww……… In other words, we started with a bad idea and kept band-aiding it until it didn’t suck quite so bad. When I argued for not catching exceptions at every level but rather catching them following a certain set of rules, my co-worker warned me “do yourself a favor, never express that view in any future interviews.” I suppose this is my ultimate dismissal of that advice, but I’m not too worried. My approach for exception handling follows three basic rules: Only catch an exception if 1. You can do something about it. 2. You can add useful information to it. 3. You’re at an application boundary. Here’s what that means: 1. Only catch an exception if you can do something about it. We’ll start with a trivial example of a login system that uses a file. Please, never actually do this in production code, it’s just concocted example. So if our code goes to open a file and the file isn’t there, we get a FileNotFound exception. If the calling code doesn’t know what to do with this, it should bubble up. However, if we know how to create the file from scratch we can create the file and continue on our merry way. When you run into situations like this though, What should really run through your head is “How can I avoid handling an exception at all?” In this case, it’s a trivial matter to simply check for the existence of the file before trying to open it. If we detect that the file isn’t there, we can accomplish the same thing without having to handle in in a catch block. 2. Only catch an exception if you can do something about it. Continuing with the poorly thought out file based login system we contrived in part 1, if the code calls a Login(…) method and the FileNotFound exception is thrown higher up the stack, the code that calls Login must account for a FileNotFound exception. This is kind of counterintuitive because the calling code should not need to know the internals of the Login method, and the data file is an implementation detail. What makes more sense, assuming that we didn’t implement any of the good advice from step 1, is for Login to catch the FileNotFound exception and wrap it in a new exception. For argument’s sake we’ll say LoginSystemFailureException. (Sorry, couldn’t think of anything better at the moment.) This gives us two stack traces, preserving the original stack trace in the inner exception, and also is much more informative to the calling code. 3. Only catch an exception if you’re at an application boundary. At some point we have to catch all the exceptions, even the ones we don’t know what to do with. WinForms, ASP.Net, and most other UI technologies have some kind of built in mechanism for catching unhandled exceptions without fatally terminating the application. It’s still a good idea to somehow gracefully exit the application in this case if possible though, because you can no longer be sure what state your application is in, but nothing annoys a user more than an application just exploding. These unhandled exceptions need to be logged, and this is a good place to catch them. Ideally you never want this option to be exercised, but code as though it will be. When you log these exceptions, give them a “Fatal” status (e.g. Log4Net) and make sure these bugs get handled in your next release. That’s it in a nutshell. If you do it right each exception will only get logged once and with the largest stack trace possible which will make those 2am emergency severity 1 debugging sessions much shorter and less frustrating. Here’s a few people who also have interesting things to say on this topic:  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericlippert/archive/2008/09/10/vexing-exceptions.aspx http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/9538/Exception-Handling-Best-Practices-in-NET I know there’s more but I can’t find them at the moment.

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• DBA Best Practices - A Blog Series: Episode 1 - Backups

  - by Argenis

    This blog post is part of the DBA Best Practices series, on which various topics of concern for daily database operations are discussed. Your feedback and comments are very much welcome, so please drop by the comments section and be sure to leave your thoughts on the subject. Morning Coffee When I was a DBA, the first thing I did when I sat down at my desk at work was checking that all backups had completed successfully. It really was more of a ritual, since I had a dual system in place to check for backup completion: 1) the scheduled agent jobs to back up the databases were set to alert the NOC in failure, and 2) I had a script run from a central server every so often to check for any backup failures. Why the redundancy, you might ask. Well, for one I was once bitten by the fact that database mail doesn't work 100% of the time. Potential causes for failure include issues on the SMTP box that relays your server email, firewall problems, DNS issues, etc. And so to be sure that my backups completed fine, I needed to rely on a mechanism other than having the servers do the taking - I needed to interrogate the servers and ask each one if an issue had occurred. This is why I had a script run every so often. Some of you might have monitoring tools in place like Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) or similar 3rd party products that would track all these things for you. But at that moment, we had no resort but to write our own Powershell scripts to do it. Now it goes without saying that if you don't have backups in place, you might as well find another career. Your most sacred job as a DBA is to protect the data from a disaster, and only properly safeguarded backups can offer you peace of mind here. "But, we have a cluster...we don't need backups" Sadly I've heard this line more than I would have liked to. You need to understand that a cluster is comprised of shared storage, and that is precisely your single point of failure. A cluster will protect you from an issue at the Operating System level, and also under an outage of any SQL-related service or dependent devices. But it will most definitely NOT protect you against corruption, nor will it protect you against somebody deleting data from a table - accidentally or otherwise. Backup, fine. How often do I take a backup? The answer to this is something you will hear frequently when working with databases: it depends. What does it depend on? For one, you need to understand how much data your business is willing to lose. This is what's called Recovery Point Objective, or RPO. If you don't know how much data your business is willing to lose, you need to have an honest and realistic conversation about data loss expectations with your customers, internal or external. From my experience, their first answer to the question "how much data loss can you withstand?" will be "zero". In that case, you will need to explain how zero data loss is very difficult and very costly to achieve, even in today's computing environments. Do you want to go ahead and take full backups of all your databases every hour, or even every day? Probably not, because of the impact that taking a full backup can have on a system. That's what differential and transaction log backups are for. Have I answered the question of how often to take a backup? No, and I did that on purpose. You need to think about how much time you have to recover from any event that requires you to restore your databases. This is what's called Recovery Time Objective. Again, if you go ask your customer how long of an outage they can withstand, at first you will get a completely unrealistic number - and that will be your starting point for discussing a solution that is cost effective. The point that I'm trying to get across is that you need to have a plan. This plan needs to be practiced, and tested. Like a football playbook, you need to rehearse the moves you'll perform when the time comes. How often is up to you, and the objective is that you feel better about yourself and the steps you need to follow when emergency strikes. A backup is nothing more than an untested restore Backups are files. Files are prone to corruption. Put those two together and realize how you feel about those backups sitting on that network drive. When was the last time you restored any of those? Restoring your backups on another box - that, by the way, doesn't have to match the specs of your production server - will give you two things: 1) peace of mind, because now you know that your backups are good and 2) a place to offload your consistency checks with DBCC CHECKDB or any of the other DBCC commands like CHECKTABLE or CHECKCATALOG. This is a great strategy for VLDBs that cannot withstand the additional load created by the consistency checks. If you choose to offload your consistency checks to another server though, be sure to run DBCC CHECKDB WITH PHYSICALONLY on the production server, and if you're using SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 CU4 and above, be sure to enable traceflags 2562 and/or 2549, which will speed up the PHYSICALONLY checks further - you can read more about this enhancement here. Back to the "How Often" question for a second. If you have the disk, and the network latency, and the system resources to do so, why not backup the transaction log often? As in, every 5 minutes, or even less than that? There's not much downside to doing it, as you will have to clear the log with a backup sooner than later, lest you risk running out space on your tlog, or even your drive. The one drawback to this approach is that you will have more files to deal with at restore time, and processing each file will add a bit of extra time to the entire process. But it might be worth that time knowing that you minimized the amount of data lost. Again, test your plan to make sure that it matches your particular needs. Where to back up to? Network share? Locally? SAN volume? This is another topic where everybody has a favorite choice. So, I'll stick to mentioning what I like to do and what I consider to be the best practice in this regard. I like to backup to a SAN volume, i.e., a drive that actually lives in the SAN, and can be easily attached to another server in a pinch, saving you valuable time - you wouldn't need to restore files on the network (slow) or pull out drives out a dead server (been there, done that, it’s also slow!). The key is to have a copy of those backup files made quickly, and, if at all possible, to a remote target on a different datacenter - or even the cloud. There are plenty of solutions out there that can help you put such a solution together. That right there is the first step towards a practical Disaster Recovery plan. But there's much more to DR, and that's material for a different blog post in this series.

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• Translating Your Customizations

  - by Richard Bingham

  This blog post explains the basics of translating the customizations you can make to Fusion Applications products, with the inclusion of information for both composer-based customizations and the generic design-time customizations done via JDeveloper. Introduction Like most Oracle Applications, Fusion Applications installs on-premise with a US-English base language that is, in Release 7, supported by the option to add up to a total of 22 additional language packs (In Oracle Cloud production environments languages are pre-installed already). As such many organizations offer their users the option of working with their local language, and logically that should also apply for any customizations as well. Composer-based UI Customizations Customizations made in Page Composer take into consideration the session LOCALE, as set in the user preferences screen, during all customization work, and stores the customization in the MDS repository accordingly. As such the actual new or changed values used will only apply for the same language under which the customization was made, and text for any other languages requires a separate upload. See the Resource Bundles section below, which incidentally also applies to custom UI changes done in JDeveloper. You may have noticed this when you select the “Select Text Resource” menu option when editing the text on a page. Using this ensures that the resource bundles are used, whereas if you define a static value in Expression Builder it will never be available for translation. Notice in the screenshot below the “What’s New” custom value I have already defined using the ‘Select Text Resource’ feature is internally using the adfBundle groovy function to pull the custom value for my key (RT_S_1) from the ComposerOverrideBundle. Figure 1 – Page Composer showing the override bundle being used. Business Objects Customizing the Business Objects available in the Applications Composer tool for the CRM products, such as adding additional fields, also operates using the session language. Translating these additional values for these fields into other installed languages requires loading additional resource bundles, again as described below. Reports and Analytics Most customizations to Reports and BI Analytics are just essentially reorganizations and visualizations of existing number and text data from the system, and as such will use the appropriate values based on the users session language. Where a translated value or string exists for that session language, it will be used without the need for additional work. Extending through the addition of brand new reports and analytics requires another method of loading the translated strings, as part of what is known as ‘Localizing’ the BI Catalog and Metadata. This time it is via an export/import of XML data through the BI Administrators console, and is described in the OBIEE Admin Guide. Fusion Applications reports based on BI Publisher are already defined in template-per-locale, and in addition provide an extra process for getting the data for translation and reloading. This again uses the standard resource bundle format. Loading a custom report is illustrated in this video from our YouTube channel which shows the screen for both setting the template local and running an export for translation. Fusion Applications Menus Whilst the seeded Navigator and Global Menu values are fully translated when the additional language is installed, if they are customized then the change or new menu item will apply universally, not currently per language. This is set to change in a future release with the new UI Text Editor feature described below. More on Resource Bundles As mentioned above, to provide translations for most of your customizations you need to add values to a resource bundle. This is an industry open standard (OASIS) format XML file with the extension .xliff, and store translated values for the strings used by ADF at run-time. The general process is that these values are exported from the MDS repository, manually edited, and then imported back in again.This needs to be done by an administrator, via either WLST commands or through Enterprise Manager as per the screenshot below. This is detailed out in the Fusion Applications Extensibility Guide. For SaaS environments the Cloud Operations team can assist. Figure 2 – Enterprise Manager’s MDS export used getting resource bundles for manual translation and re-imported on the same screen. All customized strings are stored in an override bundle (xliff file) for each locale, suffixed with the language initials, with English ones being saved to the default. As such each language bundle can be easily identified and updated. Similarly if you used JDeveloper to create your own applications as extensions to Fusion Applications you would use the native support for resource bundles, and add them into the faces-config.xml file for inclusion in your application. An example is this ADF customization video from our YouTube channel. JDeveloper also supports automatic synchronization between your underlying resource bundles and any translatable strings you add – very handy. For more information see chapters on “Using Automatic Resource Bundle Integration in JDeveloper” and “Manually Defining Resource Bundles and Locales” in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Web User Interface Developer’s Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework. FND Messages and Look-ups FND Messages, as defined here, are not used for UI labels (they are known as ‘strings’), but are the responses back to users as a result of an action, such as from a page submit. Each ‘message’ is defined and stored in the related database table (FND_MESSAGES_B), with another (FND_MESSAGES_TL) holding any language-specific values. These come seeded with the additional language installs, however if you customize the messages via the “Manage Messages” task in Functional Setup Manager, or add new ones, then currently (in Release 7) you’ll need to repeat it for each language. Figure 3 – An FND Message defined in an English user session. Similarly Look-ups are stored in a translation table (FND_LOOKUP_VALUES_TL) where appropriate, and can be customized by setting the users session language and making the change  in the Setup and Maintenance task entitled “Manage [Standard|Common] Look-ups”. Online Help Yes, in fact all the seeded help is applied as part of each language pack install as part of the post-install provisioning process. If you are editing or adding custom online help then the Create Help screen provides a drop-down of which language your help customization will apply to. This is shown in the video below from our YouTube channel, and obviously you’ll need to it for each language in use. What is Coming for Translations? Currently planned for Release 8 is something called the User Interface (UI) Text Editor. This tool will allow the editing of all the text shown on the pages and forms of Fusion Application. This will provide a search based on a particular term or word, say “Worker”, and will allow it to be adjusted, say to “Employee”, which then updates all the Resource Bundles that contain it. In the case of multi-language environments, it will use the users session language (locale) to know which Resource Bundles to apply the change to. This capability will also support customization sandboxes, to help ensure changes can be tested and approved.  It is also interesting to note that the design currently allows any page-specific customizations done using Page Composer or Application Composer to over-write the global changes done via the UI Text Editor, allowing for special context-sensitive values to still be used. Further Reading and Resources The following short list provides the mains resources for digging into more detail on translation support for both Composer and JDeveloper customization projects. There is a dedicated chapter entitled “Translating Custom Text” in the Fusion Applications Extensibility Guide. This has good examples and steps for many tasks, especially administering resource bundles. Using localization formatting (numbers, dates etc) for design-time changes is well documented in the Fusion Applications Developer Guide. For more guidelines on general design-time globalization, see either the ‘Internationalizing and Localizing Pages’ chapter in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Web User Interface Developer’s Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework (Oracle Fusion Applications Edition) or the general Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide. The Oracle Architecture ‘A-Team’ provided a recent post on customizing the user session timeout popup, using design-time changes to resource bundles. It has detailed step-by-step examples which can be a useful illustration.

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• Webcast Q&A: Qualcomm Provides a Seamless Experience for Customers with Oracle WebCenter

  - by kellsey.ruppel

  Last Thursday we had the second webcast in our WebCenter in Action webcast series, "Qualcomm Provides a Seamless Experience for Customers with Oracle WebCenter, where customer Michael Chander from Qualcomm and Vince Casarez & Gourav Goyal from Oracle Partner Keste shared how Oracle WebCenter is powering Qualcomm’s externally facing website and providing a seamless experience for their customers. In case you missed it, here's a recap of the Q&A.   Mike Chandler, Qualcomm Q: Did you run into any issues when integrating all of the different applications together?A: Definitely, our main challenges were in the area of user provisioning and security propagation, all the standard stuff you might expect when hooking up SSO for authentication and authorization. In addition, we spent several iterations getting the UI’s in sync. While everyone was given the same digital material to build too, each team interpreted and implemented it their own way. Initially as a user navigated, if you were looking for it, you could slight variations in color or font or width , stuff like that. So we had to pull all the developers responsible for the UI together and get pixel level agreement on a lot of things so we could ensure seamless transitions across applications. Q: What has been the biggest benefit your end users have seen?A: Wow, there have been several. An SSO enabled environment was huge a win for our users. The portal application that this replaced had not really been invested in by the business. With this project, we had full business participation and backing, and it really showed in some key areas like the shopping experience. For example, while ordering in the previous site, the items did not have any pictures or really usable descriptions. A tremendous amount of work was done to try and make the site more intuitive and user friendly. Site performance has also drastically improved thanks to new hardware, improved database design, and of course the fact that ADF has made great strides in runtime performance. Q: Was there any resistance internally when implementing the solution? If so, how did you overcome that?A: Within a large company, I’m sure there is always going to be competition for large projects, as there was here. Once we got through the technical analysis and settled on the technology choices, it was actually no resistance to implementing the solution. This project was fully driven by the business with the aim of long term growth. I can confidently say that the fact that this project was given the utmost importance by both the business and IT really help put down any resistance that you would typically see while implementing a new solution. Q: Given the performance, what do you estimate to be the top end capacity of the system? A:I think our top end capacity is really only limited by our hardware. I’m comfortable saying we could grow 10x on our current hardware, both in terms of transactions and users. We can easily spin up new JVM instances if needed. We already use less JVM’s than we had planned. In addition, ADF is doing a very good job with his connection pooling and application module pooling, so we see a very good ratio of users connected to the systems vs db connections, without impacting performace. Q: What's the overview or summary of feedback from the users interacting with the site?A: Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from both the business and our customers. They’re very happy with the new SSO environment , the new LAF, and the performance of the site. Of course, it’s not all roses. No matter what, there are always going to be people that don’t like the layout or the color scheme, etc. By and large though, customers are happy and the business is happy. Q: Can you describe the impressions about the site before and after the project within Qualcomm?A: Before the project, the site worked and people were using it, but most people were not happy with it. It was slow and tended to be a bit tempermental, for example a user would perform a transaction and the system would throw and unexpected error. The user could back up and retry the steps and things would work fine, so why didn’t work the first time?. From a UI perspective, we’d hear comments like it looked like it was built by a high school student.  Vince Casarez & Gourav Goyal, Keste Q: Did you run into any obstacles when implementing the solution?A: It's interesting some people call them "obstacles" on this project we just called them "dependencies".  There were both technical and business related dependencies that we had to work out. Mike points out the SSO dependencies and the coordination and synchronization between the teams to have a seamless login experience and a seamless end user experience.  There was also a set of dependencies on the User Acceptance testing to make sure that everyone understood the use cases for how the system would be used.  With a branching into a new market and trying to match a simple user experience as many consumer sites have today, there was always a tendency for the team members to provide their suggestions on how things could be simpler.  But with all the work up front on the user design and getting the business driving this set of experiences, this minimized the downstream suggestions that tend to distract a team.  In this case, all the work up front allowed us to enumerate the "dependencies" and keep the distractions to a minimum. Q: Was there a lot of custom work that needed to be done for this particular solution?A: The focus for this particular solution was really on the custom processes. The interesting thing is that with the data flows and the integration with applications, there are some pre-built integrations, but realistically for the process flow, we had to build those. The framework and tooling we used made things easier so we didn’t have to implement core functionality, like transitioning from screen to screen or from flow to flow. The design feature of Task Flows really helped speed the development and keep the component infrastructure in line with the dynamic processes.  Task flows and other elements like Skins are core to the infrastructure or technology stack of Oracle. This then allowed the team to center the project focus around the business flows and use cases to meet the core requirements and keep the project on time. Q: What do you think were the keys to success for rolling out WebCenter?A:  The 5 main keys to success were: 1) Sponsorship from the whole organization around this project from senior executive agreement, business owners driving functionality, and IT development alignment; 2) Upfront design planning and use case definition to clearly define the project scope and requirements; 3) Focussed development and project management aligned with the top level goals and drivers; 4) User acceptance and usability testing along the way to identify potential issues and direct resolution of the issues;  and 5) Constant prioritization of the issues for development to fix by the business.  It also helps to have great team chemistry and really smart people working on the project. If you missed the webcast, be sure to catch the replay to see a live demonstration of WebCenter in action!  Qualcomm Provides a Seamless Experience for Customers with Oracle WebCenter from Oracle WebCenter

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• Windows Azure Virtual Machine Readiness and Capacity Assessment for SQL Server

  - by SQLOS Team

  Windows Azure Virtual Machine Readiness and Capacity Assessment for Windows Server Machine Running SQL Server With the release of MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta, we have added a new scenario to assess your Windows Azure Virtual Machine Readiness. The MAP 8.0 Beta performs a comprehensive assessment of Windows Servers running SQL Server to determine you level of readiness to migrate an on-premise physical or virtual machine to Windows Azure Virtual Machines. The MAP Toolkit then offers suggested changes to prepare the machines for migration, such as upgrading the operating system or SQL Server. MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta is available for download here Your participation and feedback is very important to make the MAP Toolkit work better for you. We encourage you to participate in the beta program and provide your feedback at [email protected] or through one of our surveys. Now, let’s walk through the MAP Toolkit task for completing the Windows Azure Virtual Machine assessment and capacity planning. The tasks include the following: Perform an inventory View the Windows Azure VM Readiness results and report Collect performance data for determine VM sizing View the Windows Azure Capacity results and report Perform an inventory: 1. To perform an inventory against a single machine or across a complete environment, choose Perform an Inventory to launch the Inventory and Assessment Wizard as shown below: 2. After the Inventory and Assessment Wizard launches, select either the Windows computers or SQL Server scenario to inventory Windows machines. HINT: If you don’t care about completely inventorying a machine, just select the SQL Server scenario. Click Next to Continue. 3. On the Discovery Methods page, select how you want to discover computers and then click Next to continue. Description of Discovery Methods: Use Active Directory Domain Services -- This method allows you to query a domain controller via the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and select computers in all or specific domains, containers, or OUs. Use this method if all computers and devices are in AD DS. Windows networking protocols --  This method uses the WIN32 LAN Manager application programming interfaces to query the Computer Browser service for computers in workgroups and Windows NT 4.0–based domains. If the computers on the network are not joined to an Active Directory domain, use only the Windows networking protocols option to find computers. System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) -- This method enables you to inventory computers managed by System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). You need to provide credentials to the System Center Configuration Manager server in order to inventory the managed computers. When you select this option, the MAP Toolkit will query SCCM for a list of computers and then MAP will connect to these computers. Scan an IP address range -- This method allows you to specify the starting address and ending address of an IP address range. The wizard will then scan all IP addresses in the range and inventory only those computers. Note: This option can perform poorly, if many IP addresses aren’t being used within the range. Manually enter computer names and credentials -- Use this method if you want to inventory a small number of specific computers. Import computer names from a files -- Using this method, you can create a text file with a list of computer names that will be inventoried. 4. On the All Computers Credentials page, enter the accounts that have administrator rights to connect to the discovered machines. This does not need to a domain account, but needs to be a local administrator. I have entered my domain account that is an administrator on my local machine. Click Next after one or more accounts have been added. NOTE: The MAP Toolkit primarily uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to collect hardware, device, and software information from the remote computers. In order for the MAP Toolkit to successfully connect and inventory computers in your environment, you have to configure your machines to inventory through WMI and also allow your firewall to enable remote access through WMI. The MAP Toolkit also requires remote registry access for certain assessments. In addition to enabling WMI, you need accounts with administrative privileges to access desktops and servers in your environment. 5. On the Credentials Order page, select the order in which want the MAP Toolkit to connect to the machine and SQL Server. Generally just accept the defaults and click Next. 6. On the Enter Computers Manually page, click Create to pull up at dialog to enter one or more computer names. 7. On the Summary page confirm your settings and then click Finish. After clicking Finish the inventory process will start, as shown below: Windows Azure Readiness results and report After the inventory progress has completed, you can review the results under the Database scenario. On the tile, you will see the number of Windows Server machine with SQL Server that were analyzed, the number of machines that are ready to move without changes and the number of machines that require further changes. If you click this Azure VM Readiness tile, you will see additional details and can generate the Windows Azure VM Readiness Report. After the report is generated, select View | Saved Reports and Proposals to view the location of the report. Open up WindowsAzureVMReadiness* report in Excel. On the Windows tab, you can see the results of the assessment. This report has a column for the Operating System and SQL Server assessment and provides a recommendation on how to resolve, if there a component is not supported. Collect Performance Data Launch the Performance Wizard to collect performance information for the Windows Server machines that you would like the MAP Toolkit to suggest a Windows Azure VM size for. Windows Azure Capacity results and report After the performance metrics are collected, the Azure VM Capacity title will display the number of Virtual Machine sizes that are suggested for the Windows Server and Linux machines that were analyzed. You can then click on the Azure VM Capacity tile to see the capacity details and generate the Windows Azure VM Capacity Report. Within this report, you can view the performance data that was collected and the Virtual Machine sizes.   MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta is available for download here Your participation and feedback is very important to make the MAP Toolkit work better for you. We encourage you to participate in the beta program and provide your feedback at [email protected] or through one of our surveys. Useful References: Windows Azure Homepage How to guides for Windows Azure Virtual Machines Provisioning a SQL Server Virtual Machine on Windows Azure Windows Azure Pricing     Peter Saddow Senior Program Manager – MAP Toolkit Team

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• SQL Server Developer Tools &ndash; Codename Juneau vs. Red-Gate SQL Source Control

  - by Ajarn Mark Caldwell

  So how do the new SQL Server Developer Tools (previously code-named Juneau) stack up against SQL Source Control?  Read on to find out. At the PASS Community Summit a couple of weeks ago, it was announced that the previously code-named Juneau software would be released under the name of SQL Server Developer Tools with the release of SQL Server 2012.  This replacement for Database Projects in Visual Studio (also known in a former life as Data Dude) has some great new features.  I won’t attempt to describe them all here, but I will applaud Microsoft for making major improvements.  One of my favorite changes is the way database elements are broken down.  Previously every little thing was in its own file.  For example, indexes were each in their own file.  I always hated that.  Now, SSDT uses a pattern similar to Red-Gate’s and puts the indexes and keys into the same file as the overall table definition. Of course there are really cool features to keep your database model in sync with the actual source scripts, and the rename refactoring feature is now touted as being more than just a search and replace, but rather a “semantic-aware” search and replace.  Funny, it reminds me of SQL Prompt’s Smart Rename feature.  But I’m not writing this just to criticize Microsoft and argue that they are late to the party with this feature set.  Instead, I do see it as a viable alternative for folks who want all of their source code to be version controlled, but there are a couple of key trade-offs that you need to know about when you choose which tool set to use. First, the basics Both tool sets integrate with a wide variety of source control systems including the most popular: Subversion, GIT, Vault, and Team Foundation Server.  Both tools have integrated functionality to produce objects to upgrade your target database when you are ready (DACPACs in SSDT, integration with SQL Compare for SQL Source Control).  If you regularly live in Visual Studio or the Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) then SSDT will likely be comfortable for you.  Like BIDS, SSDT is a Visual Studio Project Type that comes with SQL Server, and if you don’t already have Visual Studio installed, it will install the shell for you.  If you already have Visual Studio 2010 installed, then it will just add this as an available project type.  On the other hand, if you regularly live in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) then you will really enjoy the SQL Source Control integration from within SSMS.  Both tool sets store their database model in script files.  In SSDT, these are on your file system like other source files; in SQL Source Control, these are stored in the folder structure in your source control system, and you can always GET them to your file system if you want to browse them directly. For me, the key differentiating factors are 1) a single, unified check-in, and 2) migration scripts.  How you value those two features will likely make your decision for you. Unified Check-In If you do a continuous-integration (CI) style of development that triggers an automated build with unit testing on every check-in of source code, and you use Visual Studio for the rest of your development, then you will want to really consider SSDT.  Because it is just another project in Visual Studio, it can be added to your existing Solution, and you can then do a complete, or unified single check-in of all changes whether they are application or database changes.  This is simply not possible with SQL Source Control because it is in a different development tool (SSMS instead of Visual Studio) and there is no way to do one unified check-in between the two.  You CAN do really fast back-to-back check-ins, but there is the possibility that the automated build that is triggered from the first check-in will cause your unit tests to fail and the CI tool to report that you broke the build.  Of course, the automated build that is triggered from the second check-in which contains the “other half” of your changes should pass and so the amount of time that the build was broken may be very, very short, but if that is very, very important to you, then SQL Source Control just won’t work; you’ll have to use SSDT. Refactoring and Migrations If you work on a mature system, or on a not-so-mature but also not-so-well-designed system, where you want to refactor the database schema as you go along, but you can’t have data suddenly disappearing from your target system, then you’ll probably want to go with SQL Source Control.  As I wrote previously, there are a number of changes which you can make to your database that the comparison tools (both from Microsoft and Red Gate) simply cannot handle without the possibility (or probability) of data loss.  Currently, SSDT only offers you the ability to inject PRE and POST custom deployment scripts.  There is no way to insert your own script in the middle to override the default behavior of the tool.  In version 3.0 of SQL Source Control (Early Access version now available) you have that ability to create your own custom migration script to take the place of the commands that the tool would have done, and ensure the preservation of your data.  Or, even if the default tool behavior would have worked, but you simply know a better way then you can take control and do things your way instead of theirs. You Decide In the environment I work in, our automated builds are not triggered off of check-ins, but off of the clock (currently once per night) and so there is no point at which the automated build and unit tests will be triggered without having both sides of the development effort already checked-in.  Therefore having a unified check-in, while handy, is not critical for us.  As for migration scripts, these are critically important to us.  We do a lot of new development on systems that have already been in production for years, and it is not uncommon for us to need to do a refactoring of the database.  Because of the maturity of the existing system, that often involves data migrations or other additional SQL tasks that the comparison tools just can’t detect on their own.  Therefore, the ability to create a custom migration script to override the tool’s default behavior is very important to us.  And so, you can see why we will continue to use Red Gate SQL Source Control for the foreseeable future.

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• DBA Best Practices - A Blog Series: Episode 1 - Backups

  - by Argenis

    This blog post is part of the DBA Best Practices series, on which various topics of concern for daily database operations are discussed. Your feedback and comments are very much welcome, so please drop by the comments section and be sure to leave your thoughts on the subject. Morning Coffee When I was a DBA, the first thing I did when I sat down at my desk at work was checking that all backups have completed successfully. It really was more of a ritual, since I had a dual system in place to check for backup completion: 1) the scheduled agent jobs to back up the databases were set to alert the NOC in failure, and 2) I had a script run from a central server every so often to check for any backup failures. Why the redundancy, you might ask. Well, for one I was once bitten by the fact that database mail doesn't work 100% of the time. Potential causes for failure include issues on the SMTP box that relays your server email, firewall problems, DNS issues, etc. And so to be sure that my backups completed fine, I needed to rely on a mechanism other than having the servers do the taking - I needed to interrogate the servers and ask each one if an issue had occurred. This is why I had a script run every so often. Some of you might have monitoring tools in place like Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) or similar 3rd party products that would track all these things for you. But at that moment, we had no resort but to write our own Powershell scripts to do it. Now it goes without saying that if you don't have backups in place, you might as well find another career. Your most sacred job as a DBA is to protect the data from a disaster, and only properly safeguarded backups can offer you peace of mind here. "But, we have a cluster...we don't need backups" Sadly I've heard this line more than I would have liked to. You need to understand that a cluster is comprised of shared storage, and that is precisely your single point of failure. A cluster will protect you from an issue at the Operating System level, and also under an outage of any SQL-related service or dependent devices. But it will most definitely NOT protect you against corruption, nor will it protect you against somebody deleting data from a table - accidentally or otherwise. Backup, fine. How often do I take a backup? The answer to this is something you will hear frequently when working with databases: it depends. What does it depend on? For one, you need to understand how much data your business is willing to lose. This is what's called Recovery Point Objective, or RPO. If you don't know how much data your business is willing to lose, you need to have an honest and realistic conversation about data loss expectations with your customers, internal or external. From my experience, their first answer to the question "how much data loss can you withstand?" will be "zero". In that case, you will need to explain how zero data loss is very difficult and very costly to achieve, even in today's computing environments. Do you want to go ahead and take full backups of all your databases every hour, or even every day? Probably not, because of the impact that taking a full backup can have on a system. That's what differential and transaction log backups are for. Have I answered the question of how often to take a backup? No, and I did that on purpose. You need to think about how much time you have to recover from any event that requires you to restore your databases. This is what's called Recovery Time Objective. Again, if you go ask your customer how long of an outage they can withstand, at first you will get a completely unrealistic number - and that will be your starting point for discussing a solution that is cost effective. The point that I'm trying to get across is that you need to have a plan. This plan needs to be practiced, and tested. Like a football playbook, you need to rehearse the moves you'll perform when the time comes. How often is up to you, and the objective is that you feel better about yourself and the steps you need to follow when emergency strikes. A backup is nothing more than an untested restore Backups are files. Files are prone to corruption. Put those two together and realize how you feel about those backups sitting on that network drive. When was the last time you restored any of those? Restoring your backups on another box - that, by the way, doesn't have to match the specs of your production server - will give you two things: 1) peace of mind, because now you know that your backups are good and 2) a place to offload your consistency checks with DBCC CHECKDB or any of the other DBCC commands like CHECKTABLE or CHECKCATALOG. This is a great strategy for VLDBs that cannot withstand the additional load created by the consistency checks. If you choose to offload your consistency checks to another server though, be sure to run DBCC CHECKDB WITH PHYSICALONLY on the production server, and if you're using SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 CU4 and above, be sure to enable traceflags 2562 and/or 2549, which will speed up the PHYSICALONLY checks further - you can read more about this enhancement here. Back to the "How Often" question for a second. If you have the disk, and the network latency, and the system resources to do so, why not backup the transaction log often? As in, every 5 minutes, or even less than that? There's not much downside to doing it, as you will have to clear the log with a backup sooner than later, lest you risk running out space on your tlog, or even your drive. The one drawback to this approach is that you will have more files to deal with at restore time, and processing each file will add a bit of extra time to the entire process. But it might be worth that time knowing that you minimized the amount of data lost. Again, test your plan to make sure that it matches your particular needs. Where to back up to? Network share? Locally? SAN volume? This is another topic where everybody has a favorite choice. So, I'll stick to mentioning what I like to do and what I consider to be the best practice in this regard. I like to backup to a SAN volume, i.e., a drive that actually lives in the SAN, and can be easily attached to another server in a pinch, saving you valuable time - you wouldn't need to restore files on the network (slow) or pull out drives out a dead server (been there, done that, it’s also slow!). The key is to have a copy of those backup files made quickly, and, if at all possible, to a remote target on a different datacenter - or even the cloud. There are plenty of solutions out there that can help you put such a solution together. That right there is the first step towards a practical Disaster Recovery plan. But there's much more to DR, and that's material for a different blog post in this series.

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• Advice for a distracted, unhappy, recently graduated programmer? [closed]

  - by Re-Invent

  I graduated 4 months ago. I had offers from a few good places to work at. At the same time I wanted to stick to building a small software business of my own, still have some ideas with good potential, some half done projects frozen in my github. But due to social pressures, I chose a job, the pay is great, but I am half-passionate about it. A small team of smart folks building useful product, working out contracts across the world. I've started finding it extremely boring. Boring to the extent that I skip 2-3 days a week together not doing work. Neither do I spend that time progressing any of my own projects. Yes, I feel stupid at the way I'm wasting time, but I don't understand exactly why is it happening. It's as if all the excitement has been drained. What can I do about it? Long version: School - I was in third standard. Only students, 6th grade had access to computer labs. I once peeked into the lab from the little door opening. No hard-disks, MS DOS on 5 1/2 inch floppies. I asked a senior student to play some sound in BASIC. He used PLAY to compose a tune. Boy! I was so excited, I was jumping from within. Back home, asked my brother to teach me some programming. We bought a book "MODERN All About GW-BASIC for Schools & Colleges". The book had everything, right from printing, to taking input, file i/o, game programming, machine level support, etc. I was in 6th standard, wrote my first game - a wheel of fortune, rotated the wheel by manipulating 16 color palette's definition. Got internet soon, got hooked to QuickBasic programming community. Made some more games "007 in Danger", "Car Crush 2" for submission to allbasiccode archives. I was extremely excited about all this. My interests now swayed into "hacking" (computer security). Taught myself some perl, found it annoying, learnt PHP and a bit of SQL. Also taught myself Visual Basic one of the winters and wrote a pacman clone with Direct X. By the time I was in 10th standard, I created some evil tools using visual basic, php and mysql and eventually landed myself into an unpaid side-job at a government facility, building evil tools for them. It was a dream come true for crackers of that time. And so was I, still very excited. Things changed soon, last two years of school were not so great as I was balancing preps for college, work at govt. and studies for school at same time. College - College was opposite of all I had wished it to be. I imagined it to be a place where I'd spend my 4 years building something awesome. It was rather an epitome of rote learning, attendance, rules, busy schedules, ban on personal laptops, hardly any hackers surrounding you and shit like that. We had to take permissions to even introduce some cultural/creative activities in our annual schedule. The labs won't be open on weekends because the lab employees had to have their leaves. Yes, a horrible place for someone like me. I still managed to pull out a project with a friend over 2 months. Showed it to people high in the academia hierarchy. They were immensely impressed, we proposed to allow personal computers for students. They made up half-assed reasons and didn't agree. We felt frustrated. And so on, I still managed to teach myself new languages, do new projects of my own, do an intern at the same govt. facility, start a small business for sometime, give a talk at a conference I'm passionate about, win game-dev and hacking contest at most respected colleges, solve good deal of programming contest problems, etc. At the same time I was not content with all these restrictions, great emphasis on rote learning, and sheer wastage of time due to college. I never felt I was overdoing, but now I feel I burnt myself out. During my last days at college, I did an intern at a bigco. While I spent my time building prototypes for certain LBS, the other interns around me, even a good friend, was just skipping time. I thought maybe, in a few weeks he would put in some serious efforts at work assigned to him, but all he did was to find creative ways to skip work, hide his face from manager, engage people in talks if they try to question his progress, etc. I tried a few time to get him on track, but it seems all he wanted was to "not to work hard at all and still reap the fruits". I don't know how others take such people, but I find their vicinity very very poisonous to one's own motivation and productivity. Over that, the place where I come from, HRs don't give much value to what have you done past 4 years. So towards the end of out intern, we all were offered work at the bigco, but the slacker, even after not writing more than 200 lines of code was made a much better offer. I felt enraged instantly - "Is this how the corp world treats someone who does fruitful, if not extra-ordinary work form them for past 6 months?". Yes, I did try to negotiate and debate. The bigcos seem blind due to departmentalization of responsibilities and many layers of management. I decided not to be in touch with any characters of that depressing play. Probably the busy time I had at college, ignoring friends, ignoring fun and squeezing every bit of free time for myself is also responsible. Probably this is what has drained all my willingness to work for anyone. I find my day job boring, at the same time I with to maintain it for financial reasons. I feel a bit burnt out, unsatisfied and at the same time an urge to quit working for someone else and start finishing my frozen side-projects (which may be profitable). Though I haven't got much to support myself with food, office, internet bills, etc in savings. I still have my day job, but I don't find it very interesting, even though the pay is higher than the slacker, I don't find money to be a great motivator here. I keep comparing myself to my past version. I wonder how to get rid of this and reboot myself back to the way I was in school days - excited about it, tinkering, building, learning new things daily, and NOT BORED?

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• Resolving data redundancy up front

  - by okeofs

  Introduction As all of us do when confronted with a problem, the resource of choice is to ‘Google it’. This is where the plot thickens. Recently I was asked to stage data from numerous databases which were to be loaded into a data warehouse. To make a long story short, I was looking for a manner in which to obtain the table names from each database, to ascertain potential overlap.   As the source data comes from a SQL database created from dumps of a third party product,  one could say that there were +/- 95 tables for each database.   Yes I know that first instinct is to use the system stored procedure “exec sp_msforeachdb 'select "?" AS db, * from [?].sys.tables'”. However, if one stops to think about this, it would be nice to have all the results in a temporary or disc based  table; which in itself , implies additional labour. This said,  I decided to ‘re-invent’ the wheel. The full code sample may be found at the bottom of this article.   Define a few temporary tables and variables   declare @SQL varchar(max); declare @databasename varchar(75) /* drop table ##rawdata3 drop table #rawdata1 drop table #rawdata11 */ -- A temp table to hold the names of my databases CREATE TABLE #rawdata1 (    database_name varchar(50) ,    database_size varchar(50),    remarks Varchar(50) )     --A temp table with the same database names as above, HOWEVER using an --Identity number (recNO) as a loop variable. --You will note below that I loop through until I reach 25 (see below) as at --that point the system databases, the reporting server database etc begin. --1- 24 are user databases. These are really what I was looking for. --Whilst NOT the best solution,it works and the code was meant as a quick --and dirty. CREATE TABLE #rawdata11 (    recNo int identity(1,1),    database_name varchar(50) ,    database_size varchar(50),    remarks Varchar(50) )   --My output table showing the database name and table name CREATE TABLE ##rawdata3 (    database_name varchar(75) ,    table_name varchar(75), )   Insert the database names into a temporary table I pull the database names using the system stored procedure sp_databases   INSERT INTO #rawdata1 EXEC sp_databases Go   Insert the results from #rawdata1 into a table containing a record number  #rawdata11 so that I can LOOP through the extract   INSERT into #rawdata11 select * from  #rawdata1   We now declare 3 more variables:  @kounter is used to keep track of our position within the loop. @databasename is used to keep track of the’ current ‘ database name being used in the current pass of the loop;  as inorder to obtain the tables for that database we  need to issue a ‘USE’ statement, an insert command and other related code parts. This is the challenging part. @sql is a varchar(max) variable used to contain the ‘USE’ statement PLUS the’ insert ‘ code statements. We now initalize @kounter to 1 .   declare @kounter int; declare @databasename varchar(75); declare @sql varchar(max); set @kounter = 1   The Loop The astute reader will remember that the temporary table #rawdata11 contains our  database names  and each ‘database row’ has a record number (recNo). I am only interested in record numbers under 25. I now set the value of the temporary variable @DatabaseName (see below) .Note that I used the row number as a part of the predicate. Now, knowing the database name, I can create dynamic T-SQL to be executed using the sp_sqlexec stored procedure (see the code in red below). Finally, after all the tables for that given database have been placed in temporary table ##rawdata3, I increment the counter and continue on. Note that I used a global temporary table to ensure that the result set persists after the termination of the run. At some stage, I plan to redo this part of the code, as global temporary tables are not really an ideal solution.    WHILE (@kounter < 25)  BEGIN  select @DatabaseName = database_name from #rawdata11 where recNo = @kounter  set @SQL = 'Use ' + @DatabaseName + ' Insert into ##rawdata3 ' + + ' SELECT table_catalog,Table_name FROM information_schema.tables' exec sp_sqlexec  @Sql  SET @kounter  = @kounter + 1  END   The full code extract   Here is the full code sample.   declare @SQL varchar(max); declare @databasename varchar(75) /* drop table ##rawdata3 drop table #rawdata1 drop table #rawdata11 */ CREATE TABLE #rawdata1 (    database_name varchar(50) ,    database_size varchar(50),    remarks Varchar(50) ) CREATE TABLE #rawdata11 (    recNo int identity(1,1),    database_name varchar(50) ,    database_size varchar(50),    remarks Varchar(50) ) CREATE TABLE ##rawdata3 (    database_name varchar(75) ,    table_name varchar(75), )   INSERT INTO #rawdata1 EXEC sp_databases go INSERT into #rawdata11 select * from  #rawdata1 declare @kounter int; declare @databasename varchar(75); declare @sql varchar(max); set @kounter = 1 WHILE (@kounter < 25)  BEGIN  select @databasename = database_name from #rawdata11 where recNo = @kounter  set @SQL = 'Use ' + @DatabaseName + ' Insert into ##rawdata3 ' + + ' SELECT table_catalog,Table_name FROM information_schema.tables' exec sp_sqlexec  @Sql  SET @kounter  = @kounter + 1  END    select * from ##rawdata3  where table_name like '%SalesOrderHeader%'

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• Screenshot Tour: Ubuntu Touch 14.04 on a Nexus 7

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Ubuntu 14.04 LTS will “form the basis of the first commercially available Ubuntu tablets,” according to Canonical. We installed Ubuntu Touch 14.04 on our own hardware to see what those tablets will be like. We don’t recommend installing this yourself, as it’s still not a polished, complete experience. We’re using “Ubuntu Touch” as shorthand here — apparently this project’s new name is “Ubuntu For Devices.” The Welcome Screen Ubuntu’s touch interface is all about edge swipes and hidden interface elements — it has a lot in common with Windows 8, actually. You’ll see the welcome screen when you boot up or unlock a Ubuntu tablet or phone. If you have new emails, text messages, or other information, it will appear on this screen along with the time and date. If you don’t, you’ll just see a message saying “No data sources available.” The Dash Swipe in from the right edge of the welcome screen to access the Dash, or home screen. This is actually very similar to the Dash on Ubuntu’s Unity desktop. This isn’t a surprise — Canonical wants the desktop and touch versions of Ubuntu to use the same code. In the future, the desktop and touch versions of Ubuntu will use the same version of Unity and Unity will adjust its interface depending on what type of device your’e using. Here you’ll find apps you have installed and apps available to install. Tap an installed app to launch it or tap an available app to view more details and install it. Tap the My apps or Available headings to view a complete list of apps you have installed or apps you can install. Tap the Search box at the top of the screen to start searching — this is how you’d search for new apps to install. As you’d expect, a touch keyboard appears when you tap in the Search field or any other text field. The launcher isn’t just for apps. Tap the Apps heading at the top of the screen and you’ll see hidden text appear — Music, Video, and Scopes. This hidden navigation is used throughout Ubuntu’s different apps and can be easy to miss at first. Swipe to the left or right to move between these screens. These screens are also similar to the different panels in Unity on the desktop. The Scopes section allows you to view different search scopes you have installed. These are used to search different sources when you start a search from the Dash. Search from the Music or Videos scopes to search for local media files on your device or media files online. For example, searching in the Music scope will show you music results from Grooveshark by default. Navigating Ubuntu Touch Swipe in from the left edge anywhere on the system to open the launcher, a bar with shortcuts to apps. This launcher is very similar to the launcher on the left of Ubuntu’s Unity desktop — that’s the whole idea, after all. Once you’ve opened an app, you can leave the app by swiping in from the left. The launcher will appear — keep moving your finger towards the right edge of teh screen. This will swipe the current app off the screen, taking you back to the Dash. Once back on the Dash, you’ll see your open apps represented as thumbnails under Recent. Tap a thumbnail here to go back to a running app. To remove an app from here, long-press it and tap the X button that appears. Swipe in from the right edge in any app to quickly switch between recent apps. Swipe in from the right edge and hold your finger down to reveal an application switcher that shows all your recent apps and lets you choose between them. Swipe down from the top of the screen to access the indicator panel. Here you can connect to Wi-Fi networks, view upcoming events, control GPS and Bluetooth hardware, adjust sound settings, see incoming messages, and more. This panel is for quick access to hardware settings and notifications, just like the indicators on Ubuntu’s Unity desktop. The Apps System settings not included in the pull-down panel are available in the System Settings app. To access it, tap My apps on the Dash and tap System Settings, search for the System Settings app, or open the launcher bar and tap the settings icon. The settings here a bit limited compared to other operating systems, but many of the important options are available here. You can add Evernote, Ubuntu One, Twitter, Facebook, and Google accounts from here. A free Ubuntu One account is mandatory for downloading and updating apps. A Google account can be used to sync contacts and calendar events. Some apps on Ubuntu are native apps, while many are web apps. For example, the Twitter, Gmail, Amazon, Facebook, and eBay apps included by default are all web apps that open each service’s mobile website as an app. Other applications, such as the Weather, Calendar, Dialer, Calculator, and Notes apps are native applications. Theoretically, both types of apps will be able to scale to different screen resolutions. Ubuntu Touch and Ubuntu desktop may one day share the same apps, which will adapt to different display sizes and input methods. Like Windows 8 apps, Ubuntu apps hide interface elements by default, providing you with a full-screen view of the content. Swipe up from the bottom of an app’s screen to view its interface elements. For example, swiping up from the bottom of the Web Browser app reveals Back, Forward, and Refresh buttons, along with an address bar and Activity button so you can view current and recent web pages. Swipe up even more from the bottom and you’ll see a button hovering in the middle of the app. Tap the button and you’ll see many more settings. This is an overflow area for application options and functions that can’t fit on the navigation bar. The Terminal app has a few surprising Easter eggs in this panel, including a “Hack into the NSA” option. Tap it and the following text will appear in the terminal: That’s not very nice, now tracing your location . . . . . . . . . . . .Trace failed You got away this time, but don’t try again. We’d expect to see such Easter eggs disappear before Ubuntu Touch actually ships on real devices. Ubuntu Touch has come a long way, but it’s still not something you want to use today. For example, it doesn’t even have a built-in email client — you’ll have to us your email service’s mobile website. Few apps are available, and many of the ones that are are just mobile websites. It’s not a polished operating system intended for normal users yet — it’s more of a preview for developers and device manufacturers. If you really want to try it yourself, you can install it on a Wi-Fi Nexus 7 (2013), Nexus 10, or Nexus 4 device. Follow Ubuntu’s installation instructions here.

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• Who could ask for more with LESS CSS? (Part 2 of 3&ndash;Setup)

  - by ToStringTheory

  Welcome to part two in my series covering the LESS CSS language.  In the first post, I covered the two major CSS precompiled languages - LESS and SASS to a small extent, iterating over some of the features that you could expect to find in them.  In this post, I will go a little further in depth into the setup and execution of using the LESS framework. Introduction It really doesn’t take too much to get LESS working in your project.  The basic workflow will be including the necessary translator in your project, defining bundles for the LESS files, add the necessary code to your layouts.cshtml file, and finally add in all your necessary styles to the LESS files!  Lets get started… New Project Just like all great experiments in Visual Studio, start up a File > New Project, and create a new MVC 4 Web Application.  The Base Package After you have the new project spun up, use the Nuget Package Manager to install the Bundle Transformer: LESS package. This will take care of installing the main translator that we will be using for LESS code (dotless which is another Nuget package), as well as the core framework for the Bundle Transformer library.  The installation will come up with some instructions in a readme file on how to modify your web.config to handle all your *.less requests through the Bundle Transformer, which passes the translating onto dotless. Where To Put These LESS Files?! This step isn’t really a requirement, however I find that I don’t like how ASP.Net MVC just has a content directory where they store CSS, content images, css images….  In my project, I went ahead and created a new directory just for styles – LESS files, CSS files, and images that are only referenced in LESS or CSS.  Ignore the MVC directory as this was my testbed for another project I was working on at the same time.  As you can see here, I have: A top level directory for images which contains only images used in a page A top level directory for scripts A top level directory for Styles A few directories for plugins I am using (Colrizr, JQueryUI, Farbtastic) Multiple *.less files for different functions (I’ll go over these in a minute) I find that this layout offers the best separation of content types.  Bring Out Your Bundles! The next thing that we need to do is add in the necessary code for the bundling of these LESS files.  Go ahead and open your BundleConfig.cs file, usually located in the /App_Start/ folder of the project.  As you will see in a minute, instead of using the method Microsoft does in the base MVC 4 project, I change things up a bit.  Define Constants The first thing I do is define constants for each of the virtual paths that will be used in the bundler: The main reason is that I hate magic strings in my program, so the fact that you first defined a virtual path in the BundleConfig file, and then used that path in the _Layout.cshtml file really irked me. Add Bundles to the BundleCollection Next, I am going to define the bundles for my styles in my AddStyleBundles method: That is all it takes to get all of my styles in play with LESS.  The CssTransformer and NullOrderer types come from the Bundle Transformer we grabbed earlier.  If we didn’t use that package, we would have to write our own function (not too hard, but why do it if it’s been done). I use the site.less file as my main hub for LESS - I will cover that more in the next section. Add Bundles To Layout.cshtml File With the constants in the BundleConfig file, instead of having to use the same magic string I defined for the bundle virtual path, I am able to do this: Notice here that besides the RenderSection magic strings (something I am working on in another side project), all of the bundles are now based on const strings.  If I need to change the virtual path, I only have to do it in one place.  Nifty! Get Started! We are now ready to roll!  As I said in the previous section, I use the site.less file as a central hub for my styles: As seen here, I have a reset.css file which is a simple CSS reset.  Next, I have created a file for managing all my color variables – colors.less: Here, you can see some of the standards I started to use, in this case for color variables.  I define all color variables with the @col prefix.  Currently, I am going for verbose variable names. The next file imported is my font.less file that defines the typeface information for the site: Simple enough.  A couple of imports for fonts from Google, and then declaring variables for use throughout LESS.  I also set up the heading sizes, margins, etc..  You can also see my current standardization for font declaration strings – @font. Next, I pull in a mixins.less file that I grabbed from the Twitter Bootstrap library that gives some useful parameterized mixins for use such as border-radius, gradient, box-shadow, etc… The common.less file is a file that just contains items that I will be defining that can be used across all my LESS files.  Kind of like my own mixins or font-helpers: Finally I have my layout.less file that contains all of my definitions for general site layout – width, main/sidebar widths, footer layout, etc: That’s it!  For the rest of my one off definitions/corrections, I am currently putting them into the site.less file beneath my original imports Note Probably my favorite side effect of using the LESS handler/translator while bundling is that it also does a CSS checkup when rendering…  See, when your web.config is set to debug, bundling will output the url to the direct less file, not the bundle, and the http handler intercepts the call, compiles the less, and returns the result.  If there is an error in your LESS code, the CSS file can be returned empty, or may have the error output as a comment on the first couple lines. If you have the web.config set to not debug, then if there is an error in your code, you will end up with the usual ASP.Net exception page (unless you catch the exception of course), with information regarding the failure of the conversion, such as brace mismatch, undefined variable, etc…  I find it nifty. Conclusion This is really just the beginning.  LESS is very powerful and exciting!  My next post will show an actual working example of why LESS is so powerful with its functions and variables…  At least I hope it will!  As for now, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions on my current practice, I would love to hear them!  Feel free to drop a comment or shoot me an email using the contact page.  In the mean time, I plan on posting the final post in this series tomorrow or the day after, with my side project, as well as a whole base ASP.Net MVC4 templated project with LESS added in it so that you can check out the layout I have in this post.  Until next time…

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• DRBD Not syncing between my nodes

  - by Mike Curry

  Some version info: Operating system is Ubuntu 11.10, on EC2, kernel is 3.0.0-16-virtual and the application info is: Version: 8.3.11 (api:88) GIT-hash: 0de839cee13a4160eed6037c4bddd066645e23c5 build by buildd@allspice, 2011-07-05 19:51:07 Getting some strange errors in dmesg (seen below) as well, there is no replication happening. I have made my first node primary and its showing: drbd driver loaded OK; device status: version: 8.3.11 (api:88/proto:86-96) srcversion: DA5A13F16DE6553FC7CE9B2 m:res cs ro ds p mounted fstype 0:r0 StandAlone Primary/Unknown UpToDate/DUnknown r----s ext3 my secondary node is showing: drbd driver loaded OK; device status: version: 8.3.11 (api:88/proto:86-96) srcversion: DA5A13F16DE6553FC7CE9B2 m:res cs ro ds p mounted fstype 0:r0 StandAlone Secondary/Unknown Inconsistent/DUnknown r----s Showing /proc/drbd on the master shows: version: 8.3.11 (api:88/proto:86-96) srcversion: DA5A13F16DE6553FC7CE9B2 0: cs:StandAlone ro:Primary/Unknown ds:UpToDate/DUnknown r----s ns:0 nr:0 dw:4 dr:1073 al:0 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 wo:f oos:262135964 Showing /proc/drbd on the slave shows that there is nothing being transfered... version: 8.3.11 (api:88/proto:86-96) srcversion: DA5A13F16DE6553FC7CE9B2 0: cs:StandAlone ro:Secondary/Unknown ds:Inconsistent/DUnknown r----s ns:0 nr:0 dw:0 dr:0 al:0 bm:0 lo:0 pe:0 ua:0 ap:0 ep:1 wo:f oos:262135964 Here is my config... resource r0 { protocol C; startup { wfc-timeout 15; degr-wfc-timeout 60; } net { cram-hmac-alg sha1; shared-secret "test123; } on drbd01 { device /dev/drbd0; disk /dev/xvdm; address 23.XX.XX.XX:7788; # blocked out ip meta-disk internal; } on drbd02 { device /dev/drbd0; disk /dev/xvdm; address 184.XX.XX.XX:7788; #blocked out ip meta-disk internal; } } I have run the following on the master: sudo drbdadm -- --overwrite-data-of-peer primary all There is no firewall between the systems. Here is the dmesg with some errors: [2285172.969955] drbd: initialized. Version: 8.3.11 (api:88/proto:86-96) [2285172.969960] drbd: srcversion: DA5A13F16DE6553FC7CE9B2 [2285172.969962] drbd: registered as block device major 147 [2285172.969965] drbd: minor_table @ 0xffff88000276ea00 [2285173.000952] block drbd0: Starting worker thread (from drbdsetup [1300]) [2285173.003971] block drbd0: disk( Diskless -> Attaching ) [2285173.006150] block drbd0: No usable activity log found. [2285173.006154] block drbd0: Method to ensure write ordering: flush [2285173.006158] block drbd0: max BIO size = 4096 [2285173.006165] block drbd0: drbd_bm_resize called with capacity == 524271928 [2285173.008512] block drbd0: resync bitmap: bits=65533991 words=1023969 pages=2000 [2285173.008518] block drbd0: size = 250 GB (262135964 KB) [2285173.079566] block drbd0: bitmap READ of 2000 pages took 17 jiffies [2285173.081189] block drbd0: recounting of set bits took additional 1 jiffies [2285173.081194] block drbd0: 250 GB (65533991 bits) marked out-of-sync by on disk bit-map. [2285173.081203] block drbd0: Suspended AL updates [2285173.081210] block drbd0: disk( Attaching -> UpToDate ) [2285173.081214] block drbd0: attached to UUIDs 1C1291D39584C1D1:0000000000000004:0000000000000000:0000000000000000 [2285173.095016] block drbd0: conn( StandAlone -> Unconnected ) [2285173.095046] block drbd0: Starting receiver thread (from drbd0_worker [1301]) [2285173.099297] block drbd0: receiver (re)started [2285173.099304] block drbd0: conn( Unconnected -> WFConnection ) [2285173.099330] block drbd0: bind before connect failed, err = -99 [2285173.099346] block drbd0: conn( WFConnection -> Disconnecting ) [2285173.295788] block drbd0: Discarding network configuration. [2285173.295815] block drbd0: Connection closed [2285173.295826] block drbd0: conn( Disconnecting -> StandAlone ) [2285173.295840] block drbd0: receiver terminated [2285173.295844] block drbd0: Terminating drbd0_receiver Edit: Reading some other similar issues, it was suggested to do a 'drbdadm dump all', so I figured it couldn't hurt. ubuntu@drbd01:~$ drbdadm dump all /etc/drbd.conf:19: in resource r0, on drbd01: IP 23.XX.XX.XX not found on this host. and on slave: root@drbd02:~# drbdadm dump all /etc/drbd.conf:25: in resource r0, on drbd02: IP 184.XX.XX.XX not found on this host. Strange it doesn't find its own ip, however, this is an Amazon EC2 system using an elastic IP... here are my ipconfigs for both... master: ubuntu@drbd01:~$ ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 22:00:0a:1c:27:11 inet addr:10.28.39.17 Bcast:10.28.39.63 Mask:255.255.255.192 inet6 addr: fe80::2000:aff:fe1c:2711/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:1569 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:1169 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:124409 (124.4 KB) TX bytes:213601 (213.6 KB) Interrupt:26 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B) slave: root@drbd02:~# ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 12:31:3f:00:14:9d inet addr:10.160.27.107 Bcast:10.160.27.255 Mask:255.255.254.0 inet6 addr: fe80::1031:3fff:fe00:149d/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:915 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:774 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:75381 (75.3 KB) TX bytes:109673 (109.6 KB) Interrupt:26 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

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• Create an Alias Directory inside a Virtual Host

  - by Praveen Kumar

  First, let me say, I asked this question in StackOverflow, and thought I could get more replies here. I checked here, here, here, here, here, and here before asking this question. I guess my search skills are weak. I am using the WampServer version 2.2e. I have a need like, I need a virtual path inside a virtual host. Let me say the two hosts that I have. Primary Virtual Host (Localhost) NameVirtualHost *:80 <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName localhost DocumentRoot "C:/Wamp/www" </VirtualHost> My Apps Virtual Hosts <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName apps.ptrl DocumentRoot "C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/apps" ErrorLog "logs/apps-ptrl-error.log" CustomLog "logs/apps-ptrl-access.log" common <Directory "C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/apps"> allow from all order allow,deny AllowOverride All </Directory> DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.php </VirtualHost> My Blog Virtual Host <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName blog.praveen-kumar.ptrl DocumentRoot "C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/praveen-kumar/blog" ErrorLog "logs/praveen-kumar-ptrl-error.log" CustomLog "logs/praveen-kumar-ptrl-access.log" common <Directory "C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/praveen-kumar/blog"> allow from all order allow,deny AllowOverride All </Directory> DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.php </VirtualHost> My requirement now is to have http://apps.ptrl/blog/ and http://blog.praveen-kumar.ptrl/ should be the same directory. One thing I thought of is, moving the blog folder inside the apps folder, but it is connected with Git and other stuffs are there, so it is not possible to move the folder. So, I thought of creating an alias to the VirtualHost in this way: <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName apps.ptrl DocumentRoot "C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/apps" ErrorLog "logs/apps-ptrl-error.log" CustomLog "logs/apps-ptrl-access.log" common <Directory "C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/apps"> allow from all order allow,deny AllowOverride All </Directory> DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.php # The alias to the blog! Alias /blog "C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/praveen-kumar/blog" <Directory "C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/praveen-kumar/blog"> allow from all order allow,deny AllowOverride All </Directory> </VirtualHost> But when I tried to access http://apps.ptrl/blog, I am getting an Error 403 Forbidden page. Am I doing the right thing? If you need to look at the access log, and error log, they are here: # Access Log 127.0.0.1 - - [14/Oct/2012:09:53:11 +0530] "GET /blog HTTP/1.1" 403 206 127.0.0.1 - - [14/Oct/2012:09:53:11 +0530] "GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 404 209 127.0.0.1 - - [14/Oct/2012:09:53:53 +0530] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 6935 127.0.0.1 - - [14/Oct/2012:09:53:53 +0530] "GET /app/blog/thumb.png HTTP/1.1" 404 216 # Error Log [Sun Oct 14 09:53:11 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] client denied by server configuration: C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/praveen-kumar/blog [Sun Oct 14 09:53:11 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/apps/favicon.ico [Sun Oct 14 09:53:53 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/apps/app/blog, referer: http://apps.ptrl/ Waiting eagerly for some help. I am ready to provide more info, if needed. Update #1: Changed VirtualHosts: <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName apps.ptrl DocumentRoot "C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/apps" ErrorLog "logs/apps-ptrl-error.log" CustomLog "logs/apps-ptrl-access.log" common # The alias to the blog! Alias /blog "C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/praveen-kumar/blog" <Directory "C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/praveen-kumar/blog"> allow from all order allow,deny AllowOverride All </Directory> <Directory "C:/Wamp/vhosts/ptrl/apps"> allow from all order allow,deny AllowOverride All </Directory> DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.php </VirtualHost> The issue now: I am able to access the site. The physical links are working now. i.e., I am able to open http://apps.ptrl/blog/index.php but not http://apps.ptrl/blog/view-1.ptf, which gets translated to http://apps.ptrl/blog/index.php?page=view&id=1. Any solutions?

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• Arch Linux with an nginx/django setup refuses to display ANYTHING

  - by Holland

  I'm on Amazon Ec2, with an Arch Linux server. While I truly am loving it, I'm having the issue of actually getting nginx to display anything. Everytime I try to throw my hostname into the browser, the browser states that it's not available for some reason - almost as if the host doesn't even exist. One thing I'd like to know is, how can I get this up and running? Is there a specific arch linux configuration I have to do to make it web accessible? I have port 80 open, as well as port 22. I've tried using gunicorn, python-flup, and nginx. Nginx Config user http; worker_processes 1; #error_log logs/error.log; #error_log logs/error.log notice; #error_log logs/error.log info; pid logs/nginx.pid; events { worker_connections 1024; } http { include mime.types; default_type application/octet-stream; log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" ' '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" ' '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"'; access_log logs/access.log main; sendfile on; #tcp_nopush on; #keepalive_timeout 0; keepalive_timeout 65; #gzip on; server { listen 80; server_name _; access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log; error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log; #charset koi8-r; location ^~ /media/ { root /path/to/media; } location ^~ /admin-media/ { root /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/media; } location / { root /path/to/root/; fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:8080; fastcgi_param SERVER_NAME $server_name; fastcgi_param SERVER_PORT $server_port; fastcgi_param SERVER_PROTOCOL $server_protocol; fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_script_name; fastcgi_param REQUEST_METHOD $request_method; fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING $query_string; fastcgi_param CONTENT_TYPE $content_type; fastcgi_param CONTENT_LENGTH $content_length; fastcgi_pass_header Authorization; fastcgi_intercept_errors off; fastcgi_index index.html; index index.htm index.html; } error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html; location = /50x.html { root /etc/nginx/html/50x.html; } } # server { # listen 80; # server_name localhost; #charset koi8-r; #access_log logs/host.access.log main; # location / { # root html; # index index.html index.htm; # } #error_page 404 /404.html; # redirect server error pages to the static page /50x.html # #error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html; #location = /50x.html { root html; #} # proxy the PHP scripts to Apache listening on 127.0.0.1:80 # #location ~ \.php$ { # proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1; #} # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000 # #location ~ \.php$ { # root html; # fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; # fastcgi_index index.php; # fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /scripts$fastcgi_script_name; # include fastcgi_params; #} # deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root # concurs with nginx's one # #location ~ /\.ht { # deny all; #} #} # another virtual host using mix of IP-, name-, and port-based configuration # #server { # listen 8000; # listen somename:8080; # server_name somename alias another.alias; # location / { # root html; # index index.html index.htm; # } #} # HTTPS server # #server { # listen 443; # server_name localhost; # ssl on; # ssl_certificate cert.pem; # ssl_certificate_key cert.key; # ssl_session_timeout 5m; # ssl_protocols SSLv2 SSLv3 TLSv1; # ssl_ciphers HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5; # ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on; # location / { # root html; # index index.html index.htm; # } #} } I can't quite tell if it's a server issue or a configuration issue: I've followed so many guides now I can't even count them all. The thing is that Django itself is working fine, and my permissions to the document root of the where the site files are stored is 777. Ontop of that, I have a git repo which works perfectly fine, and django, python, and runfcgi all start without issues. The same goes for gunicorn, when I do a gunicorn_django -b 0.0.0.0:8000 in my document root. Here is my output from that: 2012-04-15 05:17:37 [3124] [INFO] Starting gunicorn 0.14.2 2012-04-15 05:17:37 [3124] [INFO] Listening at: http://0.0.0.0:8081 (3124) 2012-04-15 05:17:37 [3124] [INFO] Using worker: sync 2012-04-15 05:17:37 [3127] [INFO] Booting worker with pid: 3127 As far as I know, everything seems fine, as well as error.log and access.log for nginx. The access log is completely blank, for that matter. I just feel lost here; what would be a step in the right direction to bebugging an issue such as this?

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• puppet master REST API returns 403 when running under passenger works when master runs from command line

  - by Anadi Misra

  I am using the standard auth.conf provided in puppet install for the puppet master which is running through passenger under Nginx. However for most of the catalog, files and certitifcate request I get a 403 response. ### Authenticated paths - these apply only when the client ### has a valid certificate and is thus authenticated # allow nodes to retrieve their own catalog path ~ ^/catalog/([^/]+)$ method find allow $1 # allow nodes to retrieve their own node definition path ~ ^/node/([^/]+)$ method find allow $1 # allow all nodes to access the certificates services path ~ ^/certificate_revocation_list/ca method find allow * # allow all nodes to store their reports path /report method save allow * # unconditionally allow access to all file services # which means in practice that fileserver.conf will # still be used path /file allow * ### Unauthenticated ACL, for clients for which the current master doesn't ### have a valid certificate; we allow authenticated users, too, because ### there isn't a great harm in letting that request through. # allow access to the master CA path /certificate/ca auth any method find allow * path /certificate/ auth any method find allow * path /certificate_request auth any method find, save allow * path /facts auth any method find, search allow * # this one is not stricly necessary, but it has the merit # of showing the default policy, which is deny everything else path / auth any Puppet master however does not seems to be following this as I get this error on client [amisr1@blramisr195602 ~]$ sudo puppet agent --no-daemonize --verbose --server bangvmpllda02.XXXXX.com [sudo] password for amisr1: Starting Puppet client version 3.0.1 Warning: Unable to fetch my node definition, but the agent run will continue: Warning: Error 403 on SERVER: Forbidden request: XX.XXX.XX.XX(XX.XXX.XX.XX) access to /certificate_revocation_list/ca [find] at :110 Info: Retrieving plugin Error: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib]: Failed to generate additional resources using 'eval_generate: Error 403 on SERVER: Forbidden request: XX.XXX.XX.XX(XX.XXX.XX.XX) access to /file_metadata/plugins [search] at :110 Error: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib]: Could not evaluate: Error 403 on SERVER: Forbidden request: XX.XXX.XX.XX(XX.XXX.XX.XX) access to /file_metadata/plugins [find] at :110 Could not retrieve file metadata for puppet://devops.XXXXX.com/plugins: Error 403 on SERVER: Forbidden request: XX.XXX.XX.XX(XX.XXX.XX.XX) access to /file_metadata/plugins [find] at :110 Error: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 403 on SERVER: Forbidden request: XX.XXX.XX.XX(XX.XXX.XX.XX) access to /catalog/blramisr195602.XXXXX.com [find] at :110 Using cached catalog Error: Could not retrieve catalog; skipping run Error: Could not send report: Error 403 on SERVER: Forbidden request: XX.XXX.XX.XX(XX.XXX.XX.XX) access to /report/blramisr195602.XXXXX.com [save] at :110 and the server logs show XX.XXX.XX.XX - - [10/Dec/2012:14:46:52 +0530] "GET /production/certificate_revocation_list/ca? HTTP/1.1" 403 102 "-" "Ruby" XX.XXX.XX.XX - - [10/Dec/2012:14:46:52 +0530] "GET /production/file_metadatas/plugins?links=manage&recurse=true&&ignore=---+%0A++-+%22.svn%22%0A++-+CVS%0A++-+%22.git%22&checksum_type=md5 HTTP/1.1" 403 95 "-" "Ruby" XX.XXX.XX.XX - - [10/Dec/2012:14:46:52 +0530] "GET /production/file_metadata/plugins? HTTP/1.1" 403 93 "-" "Ruby" XX.XXX.XX.XX - - [10/Dec/2012:14:46:53 +0530] "POST /production/catalog/blramisr195602.XXXXX.com HTTP/1.1" 403 106 "-" "Ruby" XX.XXX.XX.XX - - [10/Dec/2012:14:46:53 +0530] "PUT /production/report/blramisr195602.XXXXX.com HTTP/1.1" 403 105 "-" "Ruby" thefile server conf file is as follows (and goin by what they say on puppet site, It is better to regulate access in auth.conf for reaching file server and then allow file server to server all) [files] path /apps/puppet/files allow * [private] path /apps/puppet/private/%H allow * [modules] allow * I am using server and client version 3 Nginx has been compiled using the following options nginx version: nginx/1.3.9 built by gcc 4.4.6 20120305 (Red Hat 4.4.6-4) (GCC) TLS SNI support enabled configure arguments: --prefix=/apps/nginx --conf-path=/apps/nginx/nginx.conf --pid-path=/apps/nginx/run/nginx.pid --error-log-path=/apps/nginx/logs/error.log --http-log-path=/apps/nginx/logs/access.log --with-http_ssl_module --with-http_gzip_static_module --add-module=/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-3.0.18/ext/nginx --add-module=/apps/Downloads/nginx/nginx-auth-ldap-master/ and the standard nginx puppet master conf server { ssl on; listen 8140 ssl; server_name _; passenger_enabled on; passenger_set_cgi_param HTTP_X_CLIENT_DN $ssl_client_s_dn; passenger_set_cgi_param HTTP_X_CLIENT_VERIFY $ssl_client_verify; passenger_min_instances 5; access_log logs/puppet_access.log; error_log logs/puppet_error.log; root /apps/nginx/html/rack/public; ssl_certificate /var/lib/puppet/ssl/certs/bangvmpllda02.XXXXXX.com.pem; ssl_certificate_key /var/lib/puppet/ssl/private_keys/bangvmpllda02.XXXXXX.com.pem; ssl_crl /var/lib/puppet/ssl/ca/ca_crl.pem; ssl_client_certificate /var/lib/puppet/ssl/certs/ca.pem; ssl_ciphers SSLv2:-LOW:-EXPORT:RC4+RSA; ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on; ssl_verify_client optional; ssl_verify_depth 1; ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:128m; ssl_session_timeout 5m; } Puppet is picking up the correct settings from the files mentioned because config print command points to /etc/puppet [amisr1@bangvmpllDA02 puppet]$ sudo puppet config print | grep conf async_storeconfigs = false authconfig = /etc/puppet/namespaceauth.conf autosign = /etc/puppet/autosign.conf catalog_cache_terminus = store_configs confdir = /etc/puppet config = /etc/puppet/puppet.conf config_file_name = puppet.conf config_version = "" configprint = all configtimeout = 120 dblocation = /var/lib/puppet/state/clientconfigs.sqlite3 deviceconfig = /etc/puppet/device.conf fileserverconfig = /etc/puppet/fileserver.conf genconfig = false hiera_config = /etc/puppet/hiera.yaml localconfig = /var/lib/puppet/state/localconfig name = config rest_authconfig = /etc/puppet/auth.conf storeconfigs = true storeconfigs_backend = puppetdb tagmap = /etc/puppet/tagmail.conf thin_storeconfigs = false I checked the firewall rules on this VM; 80, 443, 8140, 3000 are allowed. Do I still have to tweak any specifics to auth.conf for getting this to work?

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• OSX Server 3, Mac clients binding to OD and Profile Manager failing

  - by dbf

  I've made a setup containing a Mac Mini with OSX Server 3 (Mavericks 10.9.2) using Open Directory and Profile Manager (Mail, etc all set up and working). Now the thing is, internally on the local network, everything works great. Clients can bind to the OD and the users are able to login. I can install trust and settings profiles (either custom or group profiles) and all services in the profiles mentioned are being configured correctly. I can log in and out, hump around and do it a 100 times on different macs with different users, it works. My goal is to make this service publicly. The domain is with a FQDN which I own, for simplicity let's say server.domain.com. Now the only way for me to bind the clients to the OD is using LDAP mapping RCF2307 (without SSL) and a DN suffix of dc=server,dc=domain,dc=com using the Directory Utility. The options from server, or open directory will throw several errors like Connection failed to node '/LDAPv3/server.domain.com (2100). First of all I don't really understand the problem why clients can't bind to the OD like it does locally, with and without SSL (all ports are open, literally all ports are open, not just 389,636 and 1640, wasn't sure if I was missing any). When the clients are using LDAP mapping RFC2307 to bind (without SSL only), clients are able to authenticate, login and even load the Trust profile. But every Settings profile will fail with a Debug Message: Unable to find GUID in user record OD or fail to install saying missing user identification. Is there any way to get this to work without RFC2307? Because there is quite some stuff missing when using RFC2307 and not pull the mapping from the server or use open directory. Is this setup even possible? Or should I use VPN to authenticate with the OD? The network setup is a Modem/Router (DHCP off) with WAN NATted to an Airport Extreme (Using DHCP+NAT). The AE does notify with a double NAT message but I haven't had any problems with it on any other service. So WAN - 192.168.2.220 (static), AE - 10.0.1.* (dhcp) Output of DIG from the outside using dig server.domain.com ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;server.domain.com. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: server.domain.com. 77 IN A 91.50.*.* (valid WAN IP) ;; SERVER 172.*.*.1#53(172.*.*.1) (iPhone) DIG locally from a client and server (same output) ;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;server.domain.com. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: server.domain.com. 10800 IN A 10.0.1.11 ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: server.domain.com. 10800 IN NS domain.com. (used for email send in relay) server.domain.com. 10800 IN NS server.domain.com. ;; SERVER 10.0.1.11#53(10.0.1.11) Are there any things I should check? Only have OSX. -- double NAT issue, plugged in the server directly on the Modem/Router with a static IP and issue remains. Guess that rules out the double NAT thing. -- changeip -checkhostname comes with There is nothing to change, e.g. success. Primary address = 10.0.1.11 Current HostName = server.domain.com DNS HostName = server.domain.com For now, I've made a workaround by using an admin account that forces a permanent VPN connection on boot. That means before it comes to the login, a connection is already made or underway. I will continue this post when I have more time, also locating all the necessary .log files of each application involved. I have some suspicions but have to debug a bit more when I have more time on my hands .. Unless, of course, I get sidetracked with having a life. Which is arguably not very likely. krypted.com

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• ssh login successful, but scp password gives me "Permission denied"

  - by YANewb

  I'm trying to get some blogging software up on an organizational remote server. I tried to set up a SSH Key but was having problems and decided that getting the blog up and running was more important than dealing with the SSH Key issue, so I ssh-keygen -R remoteserver.com. Now I can successfully login with ssh -v [email protected] and the correct password. Once logged in I can move around and read any file and directory that I should be able to read. But when I try to edit an existing -rw-r--r-- file with VIM, it shows up as read-only, if I try to edit permissions I get chmod: file.ext: Operation not permitted, and if I try to scp a new file from my local machine I'm prompted for the remote user's password, and then get scp: /home/path/to/file.ext: Permission denied. Since I didn't have any of these problems before I tried to set up the ssh key, I suspect these anomalies are a side effect of that, but I don't know how to troubleshoot this. So what does a foolish server-newb, such as myself, need to do to get edit capability back as a remote user? Addendum 1: My userids are different between my local machine and the remote server. For ssh I ssh -v [email protected]. if I whoami I get remoteuser For scp I scp file.ext [email protected]:/path/to/file.ext from the local directory with file.ext while logged in as the local user. if I whoami I get localuser The ls -l for two different files I've tried scp: -rw-r--r--@ 1 localuser localgroup 20 Feb 11 21:03 phpinfo.php -rw-r--r-- 1 root localgroup 4 Feb 11 22:32 test.txt The ls -l for the file I've tried to VIM: -rw-r--r-- 1 remoteuser remotegroup 76 Jul 27 2009 info.txt Addendum 2: In the past I've set up ssh-keys for git repositories. I don't want to completely destroy them, so in an attempt to follow a deer's train of thinking I renamed my ~/.ssh/ to ~/.ssh-bak/, then tested the different types of access. The abridged version of the terminal commands and results is below; I think everything is working until the 8th line from the end. localcomputer:~ localuser$ ssh -v [email protected] OpenSSH_5.2p1, OpenSSL 0.9.8l 5 Nov 2009 debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh_config debug1: Connecting to remoteserver.com [###.###.###.###] port 22. debug1: Connection established. debug1: identity file /Users/localuser/.ssh/identity type -1 debug1: identity file /Users/localuser/.ssh/id_rsa type -1 debug1: identity file /Users/localuser/.ssh/id_dsa type -1 debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_5.8p2 FreeBSD-20110503 debug1: match: OpenSSH_5.8p2 FreeBSD-20110503 pat OpenSSH* debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0 debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_5.2 debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REQUEST(1024<1024<8192) sent debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_INIT sent debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REPLY The authenticity of host 'remoteserver.com (###.###.###.###)' can't be established. RSA key fingerprint is ##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes Warning: Permanently added 'remoteserver.com,###.###.###.###' (RSA) to the list of known hosts. debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password debug1: Next authentication method: publickey debug1: Trying private key: /Users/localuser/.ssh/identity debug1: Trying private key: /Users/localuser/.ssh/id_rsa debug1: Trying private key: /Users/localuser/.ssh/id_dsa debug1: Next authentication method: password [email protected]'s password: debug1: Authentication succeeded (password). debug1: channel 0: new [client-session] debug1: Requesting [email protected] debug1: Entering interactive session. Last login: Sun Feb 12 18:00:54 2012 from 68.69.164.123 FreeBSD 6.4-RELEASE-p8 (VKERN) #1 r101746: Mon Aug 30 10:34:40 MDT 2010 [remoteuser@remoteserver /home]$ ls -l total ### -rw-r--r-- 1 remoteuser remotegroup 76 Aug 12 2009 info.txt [remoteuser@remoteserver /home]$ vim info.txt ~ {at the bottom of the VIM screen it tells me it's [read only]} [remoteuser@remoteserver /home]$ whoami remoteuser [remoteuser@remoteserver /home]$ logout debug1: client_input_channel_req: channel 0 rtype exit-status reply 0 debug1: client_input_channel_req: channel 0 rtype [email protected] reply 0 debug1: channel 0: free: client-session, nchannels 1 Connection to remoteserver.com closed. Transferred: sent 3872, received 12496 bytes, in 107.4 seconds Bytes per second: sent 36.1, received 116.4 debug1: Exit status 0 localcomputer:localdirectory name$ scp -v phpinfo.php [email protected]:/home/www/remotedirectory/phpinfo.php Executing: program /usr/bin/ssh host remoteserver.com, user remoteuser, command scp -v -t /home/www/remotedirectory/phpinfo.php OpenSSH_5.2p1, OpenSSL 0.9.8l 5 Nov 2009 debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh_config debug1: Connecting to remoteserver.com [###.###.###.###] port 22. debug1: Connection established. debug1: identity file /Users/localuser/.ssh/identity type -1 debug1: identity file /Users/localuser/.ssh/id_rsa type -1 debug1: identity file /Users/localuser/.ssh/id_dsa type -1 debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_5.8p2 FreeBSD-20110503 debug1: match: OpenSSH_5.8p2 FreeBSD-20110503 pat OpenSSH* debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0 debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_5.2 debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REQUEST(1024<1024<8192) sent debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_INIT sent debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REPLY debug1: Host 'remoteserver.com' is known and matches the RSA host key. debug1: Found key in /Users/localuser/.ssh/known_hosts:1 debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password debug1: Next authentication method: publickey debug1: Trying private key: /Users/localuser/.ssh/identity debug1: Trying private key: /Users/localuser/.ssh/id_rsa debug1: Trying private key: /Users/localuser/.ssh/id_dsa debug1: Next authentication method: password [email protected]'s password: debug1: Authentication succeeded (password). debug1: channel 0: new [client-session] debug1: Requesting [email protected] debug1: Entering interactive session. debug1: Sending command: scp -v -t /home/www/remotedirectory/phpinfo.php Sending file modes: C0644 20 phpinfo.php Sink: C0644 20 phpinfo.php scp: /home/www/remotedirectory/phpinfo.php: Permission denied debug1: client_input_channel_req: channel 0 rtype exit-status reply 0 debug1: channel 0: free: client-session, nchannels 1 debug1: fd 0 clearing O_NONBLOCK debug1: fd 1 clearing O_NONBLOCK Transferred: sent 1456, received 2160 bytes, in 0.6 seconds Bytes per second: sent 2322.3, received 3445.1 debug1: Exit status 1

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• help setting up an IPSEC vpn from my linux box

  - by robthewolf

  I have an office with a router and a remote server (Linux - Ubuntu 10.10). Both locations need to connect to a data supplier through a VPN. The VPN is an IPSEC gateway. I was able to configure my Linksys rv42 router to create a VPN connection successfully and now I need to do the same for Linux server. I have been messing around with this for too long. First I tried OpenVPN, but that is SSL and not IPSEC. Then I tried Shrew. I think I have the settings correct but I haven't been able to create the connection. It maybe that I have to use something else like a direct IPSEC config or something like that. If someone knows of a way to turn the following settings that I have been given below into a working IPSEC VPN connection I would be very grateful. Here are the settings I was given that must be used to connect to my supplier: Local destination network: 192.168.4.0/24 Local destination hosts: 192.168.4.100 Remote destination network: 192.167.40.0/24 Remote destination hosts: 192.168.40.27 VPN peering point: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Then they have given me the following details: IPSEC/ISAKMP Phase 1 Parameters: Authentication method: pre shared secret Diffie Hellman group: group 2 Encryption Algorithm: 3DES Lifetime in seconds:28800 Phase 2 parameters: IPSEC security: ESP Encryption algortims: 3DES Authentication algorithms: MD5 lifetime in seconds: 28800 pfs: disabled Here are the settings from my attempt to use shrew: n:version:2 n:network-ike-port:500 n:network-mtu-size:1380 n:client-addr-auto:0 n:network-frag-size:540 n:network-dpd-enable:1 n:network-notify-enable:1 n:client-banner-enable:1 n:client-dns-used:1 b:auth-mutual-psk:YjJzN2QzdDhyN2EyZDNpNG42ZzQ= n:phase1-dhgroup:2 n:phase1-keylen:0 n:phase1-life-secs:28800 n:phase1-life-kbytes:0 n:vendor-chkpt-enable:0 n:phase2-keylen:0 n:phase2-pfsgroup:-1 n:phase2-life-secs:28800 n:phase2-life-kbytes:0 n:policy-nailed:0 n:policy-list-auto:1 n:client-dns-auto:1 n:network-natt-port:4500 n:network-natt-rate:15 s:client-dns-addr:0.0.0.0 s:client-dns-suffix: s:network-host:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx s:client-auto-mode:pull s:client-iface:virtual s:client-ip-addr:192.168.4.0 s:client-ip-mask:255.255.255.0 s:network-natt-mode:enable s:network-frag-mode:disable s:auth-method:mutual-psk s:ident-client-type:address s:ident-client-data:192.168.4.0 s:ident-server-type:address s:ident-server-data:192.168.40.0 s:phase1-exchange:aggressive s:phase1-cipher:3des s:phase1-hash:md5 s:phase2-transform:3des s:phase2-hmac:md5 s:ipcomp-transform:disabled Finally here is the debug output from the shrew log: 10/12/22 17:22:18 ii : ipc client process thread begin ... 10/12/22 17:22:18 < A : peer config add message 10/12/22 17:22:18 DB : peer added ( obj count = 1 ) 10/12/22 17:22:18 ii : local address 217.xxx.xxx.xxx selected for peer 10/12/22 17:22:18 DB : tunnel added ( obj count = 1 ) 10/12/22 17:22:18 < A : proposal config message 10/12/22 17:22:18 < A : proposal config message 10/12/22 17:22:18 < A : client config message 10/12/22 17:22:18 < A : local id '192.168.4.0' message 10/12/22 17:22:18 < A : remote id '192.168.40.0' message 10/12/22 17:22:18 < A : preshared key message 10/12/22 17:22:18 < A : peer tunnel enable message 10/12/22 17:22:18 DB : new phase1 ( ISAKMP initiator ) 10/12/22 17:22:18 DB : exchange type is aggressive 10/12/22 17:22:18 DB : 217.xxx.xxx.xxx:500 <- 206.xxx.xxx.xxx:500 10/12/22 17:22:18 DB : c1a8b31ac860995d:0000000000000000 10/12/22 17:22:18 DB : phase1 added ( obj count = 1 ) 10/12/22 17:22:18 : security association payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 : - proposal #1 payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 : -- transform #1 payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 : key exchange payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 : nonce payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 : identification payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 : vendor id payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 ii : local supports nat-t ( draft v00 ) 10/12/22 17:22:18 : vendor id payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 ii : local supports nat-t ( draft v01 ) 10/12/22 17:22:18 : vendor id payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 ii : local supports nat-t ( draft v02 ) 10/12/22 17:22:18 : vendor id payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 ii : local supports nat-t ( draft v03 ) 10/12/22 17:22:18 : vendor id payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 ii : local supports nat-t ( rfc ) 10/12/22 17:22:18 : vendor id payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 ii : local supports DPDv1 10/12/22 17:22:18 : vendor id payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 ii : local is SHREW SOFT compatible 10/12/22 17:22:18 : vendor id payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 ii : local is NETSCREEN compatible 10/12/22 17:22:18 : vendor id payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 ii : local is SIDEWINDER compatible 10/12/22 17:22:18 : vendor id payload 10/12/22 17:22:18 ii : local is CISCO UNITY compatible 10/12/22 17:22:18 = : cookies c1a8b31ac860995d:0000000000000000 10/12/22 17:22:18 = : message 00000000 10/12/22 17:22:18 - : send IKE packet 217.xxx.xxx.xxx:500 - 206.xxx.xxx.xxx:500 ( 484 bytes ) 10/12/22 17:22:18 DB : phase1 resend event scheduled ( ref count = 2 ) 10/12/22 17:22:18 ii : opened tap device tap0 10/12/22 17:22:28 - : resend 1 phase1 packet(s) 217.xxx.xxx.xxx:500 - 206.xxx.xxx.xxx:500 10/12/22 17:22:38 - : resend 1 phase1 packet(s) 217.xxx.xxx.xxx:500 - 206.xxx.xxx.xxx:500 10/12/22 17:22:48 - : resend 1 phase1 packet(s) 217.xxx.xxx.xxx:500 - 206.xxx.xxx.xxx:500 10/12/22 17:22:58 ii : resend limit exceeded for phase1 exchange 10/12/22 17:22:58 ii : phase1 removal before expire time 10/12/22 17:22:58 DB : phase1 deleted ( obj count = 0 ) 10/12/22 17:22:58 ii : closed tap device tap0 10/12/22 17:22:58 DB : tunnel stats event canceled ( ref count = 1 ) 10/12/22 17:22:58 DB : removing tunnel config references 10/12/22 17:22:58 DB : removing tunnel phase2 references 10/12/22 17:22:58 DB : removing tunnel phase1 references 10/12/22 17:22:58 DB : tunnel deleted ( obj count = 0 ) 10/12/22 17:22:58 DB : removing all peer tunnel refrences 10/12/22 17:22:58 DB : peer deleted ( obj count = 0 ) 10/12/22 17:22:58 ii : ipc client process thread exit ...

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• Build and migrated to software raid (mdadm) on GPT disk, now can't assemble array

  - by John H

  mdadm, gpt issues, unrecognized partitions. Simplified question: How do I get mdadm to recognize GPT partitions? I have been attempting to convert/copy my Ubuntu 11.10 OS from a single drive to software raid 1. I have done similar in the past, but in this case, I was adding in a drive that has been configured for GPT and I tried to work with that without fully looking into the implications. Currently, I have a non-booting mdadm RAID 1 array of /dev/md127 (the OS assigned that and it keeps picking up). I am booting off of live USB keys, currently System Rescue CD from sysresccd. While gdisk and parted can see all the partitions, most of the OS utilities do not, including mdadm. My main goal is just to make the raid array accessible so I can get pull the data and start fresh (without using GPT). /dev/md127 /dev/sda /dev/sda1 <- GPT type partition /dev/sda1 <- exists within the GPT part, member of md127 /dev/sda2 <- exists within the GPT part, empty /dev/sdb /dev/sdb1 <- GPT type partition /dev/sdb1 <- exists within the GPT part, member of md127 History: POINT A: The original OS was install on sda (actually /dev/sda6). I used a the Ubuntu live usb to add sdb. I got warning from fdisk about GPT so I used gdisk to create a raid partition (sdb1) and mdadm to create a raid1 mirror with a missing drive. I had many issues getting this working (including being unable to get grub to install) but I eventually got it to boot using grub on sda and /dev/md127 off of sdb. So at point A, I had copied my OS from sda6 to md127 on sdb. I then booted into a rescue mode and attempted to get a bootloader onto sdb, which failed. I then discovered my mistake: I had installed the raid onto sdb instead of sdb1, essentially overwriting the sdb1 partition. POINT B: I now had two copies of my data- one on md127/sdb, and one on sda. I destroyed data on sda and created a new GPT table on sda. I then created sda1 for the raid array, and sda2 for a scratch partition. I added sda1 into the raid array and let it rebuild. md127 now covered /dev/sdb and /dev/sda1 as fully active and synced. POINT C: I rebooted onto linux rescue again and was still able to access the raid array. I then removed /dev/sdb from the array and created /dev/sdb1 for the raid. I added sdb1 to the array and let it sync. I was able to mount and access /dev/md127 without issues. Once it completed, both /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1 were GPT partitions and actively syncing. POINT D (current): I rebooted again to test if the array would boot and grub failed to load. I booted off of my live thumb drive and found that I can no longer assemble the raid array. mdadm doesn't see the required partitions. -- root@freshdesk /root % uname -a Linux freshdesk 3.0.24-std251-amd64 #2 SMP Sat Mar 17 12:08:55 UTC 2012 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 645 Processor AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux === /proc/partitions and parted look good: root@freshdesk /root % cat /proc/partitions major minor #blocks name 7 0 301788 loop0 8 0 976762584 sda 8 1 732579840 sda1 8 2 244181703 sda2 8 16 732574584 sdb 8 17 732573543 sdb1 8 32 7876607 sdc 8 33 7873349 sdc1 (parted) print all Model: ATA ST31000528AS (scsi) Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: gpt Number Start End Size File system Name Flags 1 1049kB 750GB 750GB ext4 2 750GB 1000GB 250GB Linux/Windows data Model: ATA SAMSUNG HD753LJ (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 750GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: gpt Number Start End Size File system Name Flags 1 1049kB 750GB 750GB ext4 Linux RAID raid Model: SanDisk SanDisk Cruzer (scsi) Disk /dev/sdc: 8066MB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 31.7kB 8062MB 8062MB primary fat32 boot, lba === # no sda2, and I double the sdb1 is the one shown in parted root@freshdesk /root % blkid /dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs" /dev/sda1: UUID="75dd6c2d-f0a8-4302-9da4-792cc7d72355" TYPE="ext4" /dev/sdc1: LABEL="PENDRIVE" UUID="1102-3720" TYPE="vfat" /dev/sdb1: UUID="2dd89f15-65bb-ff88-e368-bf24bd0fce41" TYPE="linux_raid_member" root@freshdesk /root % mdadm -E /dev/sda1 mdadm: No md superblock detected on /dev/sda1. # this is probably a result of me attempting to force the array up, putting superblocks on the GPT partition root@freshdesk /root % mdadm -E /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb1: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 0.90.00 UUID : 2dd89f15:65bbff88:e368bf24:bd0fce41 Creation Time : Fri Mar 30 19:25:30 2012 Raid Level : raid1 Used Dev Size : 732568320 (698.63 GiB 750.15 GB) Array Size : 732568320 (698.63 GiB 750.15 GB) Raid Devices : 2 Total Devices : 2 Preferred Minor : 127 Update Time : Sat Mar 31 12:39:38 2012 State : clean Active Devices : 1 Working Devices : 2 Failed Devices : 1 Spare Devices : 1 Checksum : a7d038b3 - correct Events : 20195 Number Major Minor RaidDevice State this 2 8 17 2 spare /dev/sdb1 0 0 8 1 0 active sync /dev/sda1 1 1 0 0 1 faulty removed 2 2 8 17 2 spare /dev/sdb1 === root@freshdesk /root % mdadm -A /dev/md127 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 mdadm: no recogniseable superblock on /dev/sda1 mdadm: /dev/sda1 has no superblock - assembly aborted root@freshdesk /root % mdadm -A /dev/md127 /dev/sdb1 mdadm: cannot open device /dev/sdb1: Device or resource busy mdadm: /dev/sdb1 has no superblock - assembly aborted

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• Updating with using custom class collection not working

  - by Risho

  I've posted this yesterday on asp forum but no one replied so perhaps I'll have better luck here. For some reason the OnUpdating method does not pull new values from the grid which is in edit mode. I've search and have come across several blogs and sites, some sugesting that an ObjectDataSource is required in order to use the "e.NewValue" construct others provide code to the contrary. I don't get any errors - the variables in the code file would contain the old values rather then new ones. I don't want to use the ODS way of manipulating the data. My delete method works but not the update one. Can you suggest what is wrong with the code? Here is what I've got: aspx file: <asp:GridView ID="gvBlack" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False" OnRowUpdating="gvBlack_OnUpdating" OnRowEditing="gvBlack_RowEditing"> <Columns> <%--<asp:BoundField DataField="Ident_Black" ReadOnly="True" visible="false" />--%> <asp:TemplateField ItemStyle-Width="1px"> <EditItemTemplate> <asp:Label ID="lblIdent_Black" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("Ident_Black") %>' Visible="false" /> </EditItemTemplate> </asp:TemplateField> <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Model" > <ItemTemplate> <asp:Label ID="lblModel_Black" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("Model_Black") %>' width="130px" /> </ItemTemplate> <EditItemTemplate> <asp:TextBox ID="txtModel_Black" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("Model_Black") %>' width="100px" /> <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="rfvModel_Black" runat="server" ControlToValidate="txtModel_Black" SetFocusOnError="true" ErrorMessage="*" ValidationGroup="CurrentMfg" ForeColor="Red" Font-Bold="true" /> </EditItemTemplate> </asp:TemplateField> <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Description" > <ItemTemplate> <asp:Label ID="lblDesc_Black" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("Desc_Black") %>' width="200px" /> </ItemTemplate> <EditItemTemplate> <asp:TextBox ID="txtDesc_Black" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("Desc_Black") %>' width="170px" /> <span></span> </EditItemTemplate> </asp:TemplateField> <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Qty" > <ItemTemplate> <asp:Label ID="lblQty_Black" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("Qty_Black") %>' width="35px" /> </ItemTemplate> <EditItemTemplate> <asp:TextBox ID="txtQty_Black" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("Qty_Black") %>' width="35px" /> <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="rfvQty_Black" runat="server" ControlToValidate="txtQty_Black" SetFocusOnError="true" ErrorMessage="*" ValidationGroup="CurrentMfg" ForeColor="Red" Font-Bold="true" /> </EditItemTemplate> </asp:TemplateField> <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Reorder<br />Limit"> <ItemTemplate> <asp:Label ID="lblBlack_Reorder_Limit" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("Black_Reorder_Limit") %>' width="35px" /> </ItemTemplate> <EditItemTemplate> <asp:TextBox ID="txtBlack_Reorder_Limit" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("Black_Reorder_Limit") %>' width="35px" /> <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="rfvBlack_Reorder_Limit" runat="server" ControlToValidate="txtBlack_Reorder_Limit" SetFocusOnError="true" ErrorMessage="*" ValidationGroup="CurrentMfg" ForeColor="Red" Font-Bold="true" /> </EditItemTemplate> </asp:TemplateField> <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Notes"> <ItemTemplate> <asp:Label ID="lblNotes" runat="server" Text='<%# Bind("Notes") %>' width="200px" /> </ItemTemplate> <EditItemTemplate> <asp:TextBox ID="txtNotes" runat="server" Text='<%# Eval("Notes") %>' width="170px" /> <span></span> </EditItemTemplate> </asp:TemplateField> <asp:CommandField ShowEditButton="True" ShowDeleteButton="false" ValidationGroup="CurrentToner" /> </Columns> </asp:GridView> aspx.cs file: protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { LoadData_TonerBlack(); } private void LoadData_TonerBlack() { dalConsumables_TonerBlack drTonerBlack = new dalConsumables_TonerBlack(); gvBlack.DataSource = drTonerBlack.GetListTonersBlack(); gvBlack.DataBind(); } protected void gvBlack_OnUpdating(object sender, GridViewUpdateEventArgs e) { //GridView gvBlack = (GridView)sender; //GridViewRow gvBlackRow = (GridViewRow)gvBlack.Rows[e.RowIndex]; int _Ident_Black = Convert.ToInt32(gvBlack.DataKeys[e.RowIndex].Values[0].ToString()); TextBox _txtModel_Black = (TextBox)gvBlack.Rows[e.RowIndex].FindControl("txtModel_Black"); TextBox _txtDesc_Black = (TextBox)gvBlack.Rows[e.RowIndex].FindControl("txtDesc_Black"); TextBox _txtQty_Black = (TextBox)gvBlack.Rows[e.RowIndex].FindControl("txtQty_Black"); TextBox _txtBlack_Reorder_Limit = (TextBox)gvBlack.Rows[e.RowIndex].FindControl("txtBlack_Reorder_Limit"); TextBox _txtNotes = (TextBox)gvBlack.Rows[e.RowIndex].FindControl("txtNotes"); string _updatedBy = Request.ServerVariables["AUTH_USER"].ToString(); dalConsumables_TonerBlack updateTonerBlack = new dalConsumables_TonerBlack(); updateTonerBlack.UpdateTonerBlack(_Ident_Black, _txtModel_Black.Text, _txtDesc_Black.Text, Convert.ToInt32(_txtQty_Black.Text), Convert.ToInt32(_txtBlack_Reorder_Limit.Text), _txtNotes.Text, _updatedBy); gvBlack.EditIndex = -1; LoadData_TonerBlack(); } protected void gvBlack_RowEditing(object sender, GridViewEditEventArgs e) { gvBlack.EditIndex = e.NewEditIndex; LoadData_TonerBlack(); } Thanks in advance! Risho

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• WPF DataContext does not refresh the DataGrid using MVVM model

  - by vikram bhatia

  Project Overview I have a view which binds to a viewmodel containing 2 ObserverableCollection. The viewmodel constructor populates the first ObserverableCollection and the view datacontext is collected to bind to it through a public property called Sites. Later the 2ed ObserverableCollection is populated in the LoadOrders method and the public property LoadFraudResults is updated for binding it with datacontext. I am using WCF to pull the data from the database and its getting pulled very nicely. VIEWMODEL SOURCE class ManageFraudOrderViewModel:ViewModelBase { #region Fields private readonly ICollectionView collectionViewSites; private readonly ICollectionView collectionView; private ObservableCollection<GeneralAdminService.Website> _sites; private ObservableCollection<FraudService.OrderQueue> _LoadFraudResults; #endregion #region Properties public ObservableCollection<GeneralAdminService.Website> Sites { get { return this._sites; } } public ObservableCollection<FraudService.OrderQueue> LoadFraudResults { get { return this._LoadFraudResults;} } #endregion public ManageFraudOrderViewModel() { //Get values from wfc service model GeneralAdminService.GeneralAdminServiceClient generalAdminServiceClient = new GeneralAdminServiceClient(); GeneralAdminService.Website[] websites = generalAdminServiceClient.GetWebsites(); //Get values from wfc service model if (websites.Length > 0) { _sites = new ObservableCollection<Wqn.Administration.UI.GeneralAdminService.Website>(); foreach (GeneralAdminService.Website website in websites) { _sites.Add((Wqn.Administration.UI.GeneralAdminService.Website)website); } this.collectionViewSites= CollectionViewSource.GetDefaultView(this._sites); } generalAdminServiceClient.Close(); } public void LoadOrders(Wqn.Administration.UI.FraudService.Website website) { //Get values from wfc service model FraudServiceClient fraudServiceClient = new FraudServiceClient(); FraudService.OrderQueue[] OrderQueue = fraudServiceClient.GetFraudOrders(website); //Get values from wfc service model if (OrderQueue.Length > 0) { _LoadFraudResults = new ObservableCollection<Wqn.Administration.UI.FraudService.OrderQueue>(); foreach (FraudService.OrderQueue orderQueue in OrderQueue) { _LoadFraudResults.Add(orderQueue); } } this.collectionViewSites= CollectionViewSource.GetDefaultView(this._LoadFraudResults); fraudServiceClient.Close(); } } VIEW SOURCE public partial class OrderQueueControl : UserControl { private ManageFraudOrderViewModel manageFraudOrderViewModel ; private OrderQueue orderQueue; private ButtonAction ButtonAction; private DispatcherTimer dispatcherTimer; public OrderQueueControl() { LoadOrderQueueForm(); } #region LoadOrderQueueForm private void LoadOrderQueueForm() { //for binding the first observablecollection manageFraudOrderViewModel = new ManageFraudOrderViewModel(); this.DataContext = manageFraudOrderViewModel; } #endregion private void cmbWebsite_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e) { BindItemsSource(); } #region BindItemsSource private void BindItemsSource() { using (OverrideCursor cursor = new OverrideCursor(Cursors.Wait)) { if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(Convert.ToString(cmbWebsite.SelectedItem))) { Wqn.Administration.UI.FraudService.Website website = (Wqn.Administration.UI.FraudService.Website)Enum.Parse(typeof(Wqn.Administration.UI.FraudService.Website),cmbWebsite.SelectedItem.ToString()); //for binding the second observablecollection******* manageFraudOrderViewModel.LoadOrders(website); this.DataContext = manageFraudOrderViewModel; //for binding the second observablecollection******* } } } #endregion } XAML ComboBox x:Name="cmbWebsite" ItemsSource="{Binding Sites}" Margin="5" Width="100" Height="25" SelectionChanged="cmbWebsite_SelectionChanged" DataGrid ItemsSource ={Binding Path = LoadFraudResults} PROBLEM AREA: When I call the LoadOrderQueueForm to bind the first observablecollection and later BindItemsSource to bind 2ed observable collection, everything works fine and no problem for the first time binding. But, when I call BindItemsSource again to repopulate the obseravablecollection based on changed selected combo value via cmbWebsite_SelectionChanged, the observalblecollection gets populated with new value and LoadFraudResults property in viewmodule is populated with new values; but when i call the datacontext to rebind the datagrid,the datagrid does not reflect the changed values. In other words the datagrid doesnot get changed when the datacontext is called the 2ed time in BindItemsSource method of the view. manageFraudOrderViewModel.LoadOrders(website); this.DataContext = manageFraudOrderViewModel; manageFraudOrderViewModel values are correct but the datagrid is not relected with changed values. Please help as I am stuck with this thing for past 2 days and the deadline is approaching near. Thanks in advance

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