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• SVN Server not responding

  - by Rob Forrest

  I've been bashing my head against a wall with this one all day and I would greatly appreciate a few more eyes on the problem at hand. We have an in-house SVN Server that contains all live and development code for our website. Our live server can connect to this and get updates from the repository. This was all working fine until we migrated the SVN Server from a physical machine to a vSphere VM. Now, for some reason that continues to fathom me, we can no longer connect to the SVN Server. The SVN Server runs CentOS 6.2, Apache and SVN 1.7.2. SELinux is well and trully disabled and the problem remains when iptables is stopped. Our production server does run an older version of CentOS and SVN but the same system worked previously so I don't think that this is the issue. Of note, if I have iptables enabled, using service iptables status, I can see a single packet coming in and being accepted but the production server simply hangs on any svn command. If I give up waiting and do a CTRL-C to break the process I get a "could not connect to server". To me it appears to be something to do with the SVN Server rejecting external connections but I have no idea how this would happen. Any thoughts on what I can try from here? Thanks, Rob Edit: Network topology Production server sits externally to our in-house SVN server. Our IPCop (?) firewall allows connections from it (and it alone) on port 80 and passes the connection to the SVN Server. The hardware is all pretty decent and I don't doubt that its doing its job correctly, especially as iptables is seeing the new connections. subversion.conf (in /etc/httpd/conf.d) LoadModule dav_svn_module modules/mod_dav_svn.so <Location /repos> DAV svn SVNPath /var/svn/repos <LimitExcept PROPFIND OPTIONS REPORT> AuthType Basic AuthName "SVN Server" AuthUserFile /var/svn/svn-auth Require valid-user </LimitExcept> </Location> ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:29:5F:C8:3A inet addr:172.16.0.14 Bcast:172.16.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fe5f:c83a/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:32317 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:632 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:2544036 (2.4 MiB) TX bytes:143207 (139.8 KiB) netstat -lntp Active Internet connections (only servers) Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:3306 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1484/mysqld tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:111 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1135/rpcbind tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:22 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1351/sshd tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:631 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1230/cupsd tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:25 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1575/master tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:58401 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1153/rpc.statd tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5672 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1626/qpidd tcp 0 0 :::139 :::* LISTEN 1678/smbd tcp 0 0 :::111 :::* LISTEN 1135/rpcbind tcp 0 0 :::80 :::* LISTEN 1615/httpd tcp 0 0 :::22 :::* LISTEN 1351/sshd tcp 0 0 ::1:631 :::* LISTEN 1230/cupsd tcp 0 0 ::1:25 :::* LISTEN 1575/master tcp 0 0 :::445 :::* LISTEN 1678/smbd tcp 0 0 :::56799 :::* LISTEN 1153/rpc.statd iptables --list -v -n (when iptables is stopped) Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination iptables --list -v -n (when iptables is running, after one attempted svn connection) Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT 68 packets, 6561 bytes) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination 19 1304 ACCEPT all -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state RELATED,ESTABLISHED 0 0 ACCEPT icmp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 0 0 ACCEPT all -- lo * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state NEW tcp dpt:22 1 60 ACCEPT tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state NEW tcp dpt:80 0 0 ACCEPT tcp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state NEW tcp dpt:80 0 0 ACCEPT udp -- * * 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state NEW udp dpt:80 Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT 17 packets, 1612 bytes) pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination tcpdump 17:08:18.455114 IP 'production server'.43255 > 'svn server'.local.http: Flags [S], seq 3200354543, win 5840, options [mss 1380,sackOK,TS val 2011458346 ecr 0,nop,wscale 7], length 0 17:08:18.455169 IP 'svn server'.local.http > 'production server'.43255: Flags [S.], seq 629885453, ack 3200354544, win 14480, options [mss 1460,sackOK,TS val 816478 ecr 2011449346,nop,wscale 7], length 0 17:08:19.655317 IP 'svn server'.local.http > 'production server'k.43255: Flags [S.], seq 629885453, ack 3200354544, win 14480, options [mss 1460,sackOK,TS val 817679 ecr 2011449346,nop,wscale 7], length 0

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• Need help identiying a nasty rootkit in Windows

  - by goofrider

  I have a nasty rootkit that not tools seem to be able to idenity. I know for sure it's a rootkit, but I can figure out which rootkit it is. Here's what I gathered so far: It creates multiple copies of itself in %HOME%\Local Settings\Temp with names like Q.EXE, IAJARZ.exe, etc., and install them as hidden services. These EXE have SysInternals identifiers in them so they're definitely rootkits. It hooked very deep in the system, including file read/write, security policies, registry read/write, and possibly WinSock/TCP/IP. When going to Sophos.com to download their software, the rootkit inject something called Microsoft Ajax Tootkit into the page, which injects code into the email submission form in order to redirect it. (EDIT: I might have panicked. Looks like Sophos does use an AJAZ email form, their form is just broken on Chrome so it looked like a mail form injection attack, the link is http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/virus-removal-tool/download.aspx ) Super-Antispyware found a lot of spyware cookies, in the name of .kaspersky.2o7.net, etc. (just chedk 2o7.net, looks like it's a legit ad company) I tried comparing DNS lookup from the infected systems and from system in other physical locations, no DNS redirections it seems. I used dd to copy the MBR and compared it with the MBR provided by ms-sys package, no differences so it's not infecting MBR. No antivirus or rootkit scanner be able to identify it. Most of them can't even find it. I tried scanning, in-situ (normal mode), in safe mode, and boot to linux live CD. Scanners used: Avast, Sophos anti rootkit, Kasersky TDSSKiller, GMER, RootkitRevealer, and many others. Kaspersky reported some unsigned system files that ought to be signed (e.g. tcpip.sys), and reported a number of MD5 mismatches. But otherwise couldn't identify anything based on signature. When running Sysinternal RootkitRevealer and Sophos AntiRootkit, CPU usage goes up to 100% and gets stucked. The Rootkit is blocking them. When trying running/installing HiJackThis, RootkitRevealer and some other scanners, it tells me system security policy prevent running/installing it. The list of malicious acitivities go on and on. here's a sample of logs from all my scans. In particular, aswSnx.SYS, apnenfno.sys and PROCMON20.SYS has a huge number of hooks. It's hard to tell if the rootkit replaced legit program files like aswSnx.SYS (from Avast) and PROCMON20.SYS (from Sysinternal Process Monitor). I can't find whether apnenfno.sys is from a legit program. Help to identify it is appreciated. Trend Micro RootkitBuster ------ [HIDDEN_REGISTRY][Hidden Reg Value]: KeyPath : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\sptd\Cfg Root : 586bfc0 SubKey : Cfg ValueName : g0 Data : 38 23 E8 D0 BF F2 2D 6F ... ValueType : 3 AccessType: 0 FullLength: 61 DataSize : 32 [HOOKED_SERVICE_API]: Service API : ZwCreateMutant Image Path : C:\WINDOWS\System32\Drivers\aswSnx.SYS OriginalHandler : 0x8061758e CurrentHandler : 0xaa66cce8 ServiceNumber : 0x2b ModuleName : aswSnx.SYS SDTType : 0x0 [HOOKED_SERVICE_API]: Service API : ZwCreateThread Image Path : c:\windows\system32\drivers\apnenfno.sys OriginalHandler : 0x805d1038 CurrentHandler : 0xaa5f118c ServiceNumber : 0x35 ModuleName : apnenfno.sys SDTType : 0x0 [HOOKED_SERVICE_API]: Service API : ZwDeleteKey Image Path : C:\WINDOWS\system32\Drivers\PROCMON20.SYS OriginalHandler : 0x80624472 CurrentHandler : 0xa709b0f8 ServiceNumber : 0x3f ModuleName : PROCMON20.SYS SDTType : 0x0 HiJackThis ------ O23 - Service: JWAHQAGZ - Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com - C:\DOCUME~1\jeff\LOCALS~1\Temp\JWAHQAGZ.exe O23 - Service: LHIJ - Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com - C:\DOCUME~1\jeff\LOCALS~1\Temp\LHIJ.exe Kaspersky TDSSKiller ------ 21:05:58.0375 3936 C:\WINDOWS\system32\ati2sgag.exe - copied to quarantine 21:05:59.0217 3936 ATI Smart ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - User select action: Quarantine 21:05:59.0342 3936 C:\WINDOWS\system32\BUFADPT.SYS - copied to quarantine 21:05:59.0856 3936 BUFADPT ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - User select action: Quarantine 21:05:59.0965 3936 C:\Program Files\CrashPlan\CrashPlanService.exe - copied to quarantine 21:06:00.0152 3936 CrashPlanService ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - User select action: Quarantine 21:06:00.0246 3936 C:\WINDOWS\system32\epmntdrv.sys - copied to quarantine 21:06:00.0433 3936 epmntdrv ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - User select action: Quarantine 21:06:00.0464 3936 C:\WINDOWS\system32\EuGdiDrv.sys - copied to quarantine 21:06:00.0526 3936 EuGdiDrv ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - User select action: Quarantine 21:06:00.0604 3936 C:\Program Files\Common Files\Macrovision Shared\FLEXnet Publisher\FNPLicensingService.exe - copied to quarantine 21:06:01.0181 3936 FLEXnet Licensing Service ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - User select action: Quarantine 21:06:01.0321 3936 C:\Program Files\AddinForUNCFAT\UNCFATDMS.exe - copied to quarantine 21:06:01.0430 3936 OTFSDMS ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - User select action: Quarantine 21:06:01.0492 3936 C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\tcpip.sys - copied to quarantine 21:06:01.0539 3936 Tcpip ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - User select action: Quarantine 21:06:01.0601 3936 C:\DOCUME~1\jeff\LOCALS~1\Temp\TULPUWOX.exe - copied to quarantine 21:06:01.0664 3936 HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\services\TULPUWOX - will be deleted on reboot 21:06:01.0664 3936 C:\DOCUME~1\jeff\LOCALS~1\Temp\TULPUWOX.exe - will be deleted on reboot 21:06:01.0664 3936 TULPUWOX ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - User select action: Delete 21:06:01.0757 3936 C:\WINDOWS\system32\Drivers\usbaapl.sys - copied to quarantine 21:06:01.0866 3936 USBAAPL ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - User select action: Quarantine 21:06:01.0913 3936 C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Player\vmware-authd.exe - copied to quarantine 21:06:02.0443 3936 VMAuthdService ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - User select action: Quarantine 21:06:02.0443 3936 vmount2 ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - skipped by user 21:06:02.0443 3936 vmount2 ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - User select action: Skip 21:06:02.0459 3936 vstor2 ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - skipped by user 21:06:02.0459 3936 vstor2 ( UnsignedFile.Multi.Generic ) - User select action: Skip

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• My D-Link's Ethernet bridge downlink just got 10-30x slower?

  - by Jay Levitt

  TL;DR: I unplugged my network to move my desk, and now downloading via my DIR-655's Ethernet LAN bridge is 10-30x slower than the Ethernet switch it's plugged into. Background My network is SMC cable modem <-> Cisco firewall <-> Netgear switch <-> D-Link WiFi† | | | | SMC8014 ASA-5505 GS608v2 gigE DIR-655 rev A3 gigE †The DIR-655 is used as an access point, not a router (although what D-Link calls an access point, I'd call a bridge). The "WAN" port is unused; the Netgear connects to the built-in 4-port Ethernet LAN switch, inside the built- in router/firewall. Endpoints: MacBook Pro 17" mid-2010 iPhone 4S Fedora 12 Linux server running reasonably fast dual-Athlon X2, VelociRaptors, etc. All cables are <10 feet, mostly CAT-5e, some CAT-6, all premade. All WiFi endpoints are within three feet of the D-Link. Yesterday I unplugged and rearranged stuff, and now connecting via the D-Link - even through the wired switch, right next to the incoming network cable - is 30x slower than connecting directly to the Netgear switch, on both my MacBook and iPhone. How I'm measuring "slower" I'm mostly using http://speedtest.net, which of course only really measures broadband speeds. I've also installed http://www.speedtest.net/mini.php on my local server, but can't test the iPhone with that. Results Speedtest.net, closest server over Comcast business-class: CONFIG | PING (ms) | DOWN (Mbps) | UP (Mbps) Mac <-> Ethernet <-> Netgear | 9 | 31.6 | 6.8 Mac <-> Ethernet <-> D-Link | 8 | 4.1 | 6.0 Mac <-> WiFi <-> D-Link | 9 | 1.4 | 2.9 iPhone <-> WiFi <-> D-Link | 67 | 0.4 | 1.6 Speedtest Mini on Linux PC: CONFIG | DOWN (Mbps) | UP (Mbps) Mac <-> Ethernet <-> NetGear | 97.2 | 76.9 Mac <-> Ethernet <-> D-Link | 8.2 | 24.2 Mac <-> WiFi <-> D-Link | 1.0 | 8.6 Slow typing in SSH: Mac <-> Ethernet <-> Netgear <-> Linux PC: smooth Mac <-> Ethernet <-> D-Link <-> Linux PC: choppy Note that D-Link upload speeds are normal on broadband, slower locally (but I'd believe that's a D-Link limitation), and always faster than the downloads! Since ssh is choppy just with slow typing, I don't believe it's a throttling-type problem either; that's not a lot of bandwidth. What I've tried Swapping all "good" and "bad" cables Re-plugging "bad" cable from D-Link to Netgear and watching it be the "good" cable pulling cables away from power lines Verify that the Mac auto-detects the D-Link as gigE Try to verify the link speed of the D-Link <- Netgear connection, but the firmware doesn't report that Verify that the D-Link sees no TX/RX errors or collisions Use different Ethernet ports on both Netgear and D-Link Reset the D-Link to factory settings Upgrade the D-Link firmware from 1.21 to 1.35NA, 2010/11/12, the latest Reboot everything at least once On the Mac, disable Wi-Fi during the Ethernet tests, and unplug Ethernet during the Wi-Fi tests Using iStumbler, verify that the D-Link isn't picking overloaded Wi-Fi channels (usually just 1-5 neighbors on my and adjacent channels, average for my apt building) Verify that the only client connected to the Wi-Fi was the iPhone Verify that nothing was being chatty on my network according to the WISH log Enable and disable all sorts of D-Link settings, including forcing WAN auto-detect to gigE So. I don't mind buying a new access point—I wouldn't mind having a dual-link network—but as a guy who's been networking since gated v4 was a drastic rewrite, and who often used physical sniffers in the days before Wireshark, I'm baffled. I hate being baffled. What could I possibly have changed that would result in this? How can I measure it? All I can think of is a static zap—thick carpet, socks, HVAC—but I didn't feel one, and does that really happen anymore? Can I test if it's Ethernet vs. TCP layer slowness? I'm not familiar with modern network utilities; it's hard to Google without hitting "Q: Why is my network slow? A: Is your microwave on?" If I don't get an answer here, will someone big and powerful help me migrate it to serverfault without getting screamed back here? In the words of Inigo Montoya, "I must know." Don't get all Dread Pirate Roberts on me.

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• Can't ping other machines at Linux VPN PPTP server's local lan from outside

  - by Marco Sanchez

  Before anything else, hello guys, this is the first time I ask for something here so I hope someone can give me a hand, please look at the following network diagram: --------------------------------------------------------------- VPN Server Webserver (SuSE SLES11) | | | ------- VPN LAN -------- | Router with Unique IP (With Port Forwarding rules set and VPN through enabled) | PPTP connection over Internet | Workstation (PC or Laptop with Windows) --------------------------------------------------------------- So the idea is for the workstation to connect to the PPTP Server and then be able to access a Web Application on the Webserver, right now I have the PPTP server configured and the VPN works, I can connect to the SLES11 server with no problems from the workstation and I can ping it and everything works fine but if I try to ping the Webserver from the workstation, I can't reach it, I'm making a mistake somewhere but I don't see where, please note that I'm not a network expert and thus I'd greatly appreciate some specific guidance. Here is some info related to the IPs --------------------------------------------------------------- *** SLES11 VPN Server has 2 Network cards: -- eth0 (Internal Network) IP: 192.168.210.5 MASK: 255.55.255.0 -- eth1 (External Network) IP: 192.168.1.105 MASK: 255.55.255.0 *** Webserver has 1 network card -- eth0 (Internal Network) IP: 192.168.210.221 MASK: 255.55.255.0 *** Workstation -- IP info once connection has been established to the VPN PPP adapter Test VPN Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Test VPN Connection Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.210.110(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 189.209.208.181 (Defined as part of the PPTP Server options config script) 189.209.127.244 Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.210.220 (Defined as part of the PPTP Server options config script) NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled --------------------------------------------------------------- I also defined the following within IP tables: ------------------------------------------------------------- iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 1723 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p gre -j ACCEPT ------------------------------------------------------------- If you need any piece of information from the PPTP server scripts please let me know, the thing is that I can actually connect to the VPN server and access its services and everything but after that I can't reach any other computer on that LAN. Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance

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• Bridging LXC containers to host eth0 so they can have a public IP

  - by Vianney Stroebel

  UPDATE: I found the solution there: http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/networking/bridge#No_traffic_gets_trough_.28except_ARP_and_STP.29 # cd /proc/sys/net/bridge # ls bridge-nf-call-arptables bridge-nf-call-iptables bridge-nf-call-ip6tables bridge-nf-filter-vlan-tagged # for f in bridge-nf-*; do echo 0 $f; done But I'd like to have expert opinions on this: is it safe to disable all bridge-nf-*? What are they here for? END OF UPDATE I need to bridge LXC containers to the physical interface (eth0) of my host, reading numerous tutorials, documents and blog posts on the subject. I need the containers to have their own public IP (which I've previously done KVM/libvirt). After two days of searching and trying, I still can't make it work with LXC containers. The host runs a freshly installed Ubuntu Server Quantal (12.10) with only libvirt (which I'm not using here) and lxc installed. I created the containers with : lxc-create -t ubuntu -n mycontainer So they also run Ubuntu 12.10. Content of /var/lib/lxc/mycontainer/config is: lxc.utsname = mycontainer lxc.mount = /var/lib/lxc/test/fstab lxc.rootfs = /var/lib/lxc/test/rootfs lxc.network.type = veth lxc.network.flags = up lxc.network.link = br0 lxc.network.name = eth0 lxc.network.veth.pair = vethmycontainer lxc.network.ipv4 = 179.43.46.233 lxc.network.hwaddr= 02:00:00:86:5b:11 lxc.devttydir = lxc lxc.tty = 4 lxc.pts = 1024 lxc.arch = amd64 lxc.cap.drop = sys_module mac_admin mac_override lxc.pivotdir = lxc_putold # uncomment the next line to run the container unconfined: #lxc.aa_profile = unconfined lxc.cgroup.devices.deny = a # Allow any mknod (but not using the node) lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c *:* m lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = b *:* m # /dev/null and zero lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 1:3 rwm lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 1:5 rwm # consoles lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 5:1 rwm lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 5:0 rwm #lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 4:0 rwm #lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 4:1 rwm # /dev/{,u}random lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 1:9 rwm lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 1:8 rwm lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 136:* rwm lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 5:2 rwm # rtc lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 254:0 rwm #fuse lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 10:229 rwm #tun lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 10:200 rwm #full lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 1:7 rwm #hpet lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 10:228 rwm #kvm lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 10:232 rwm Then I changed my host /etc/network/interfaces to: auto lo iface lo inet loopback auto br0 iface br0 inet static bridge_ports eth0 bridge_fd 0 address 92.281.86.226 netmask 255.255.255.0 network 92.281.86.0 broadcast 92.281.86.255 gateway 92.281.86.254 dns-nameservers 213.186.33.99 dns-search ovh.net When I try command line configuration ("brctl addif", "ifconfig eth0", etc.) my remote host becomes inaccessible and I have to hard reboot it. I changed the content of /var/lib/lxc/mycontainer/rootfs/etc/network/interfaces to: auto lo iface lo inet loopback auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address 179.43.46.233 netmask 255.255.255.255 broadcast 178.33.40.233 gateway 92.281.86.254 It takes several minutes for mycontainer to start (lxc-start -n mycontainer). I tried replacing gateway 92.281.86.254 by : post-up route add 92.281.86.254 dev eth0 post-up route add default gw 92.281.86.254 post-down route del 92.281.86.254 dev eth0 post-down route del default gw 92.281.86.254 My container then starts instantly. But whatever configuration I set in /var/lib/lxc/mycontainer/rootfs/etc/network/interfaces, I cannot ping from mycontainer to any IP (including the host's) : ubuntu@mycontainer:~$ ping 92.281.86.226 PING 92.281.86.226 (92.281.86.226) 56(84) bytes of data. ^C --- 92.281.86.226 ping statistics --- 6 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 5031ms And my host cannot ping the container: root@host:~# ping 179.43.46.233 PING 179.43.46.233 (179.43.46.233) 56(84) bytes of data. ^C --- 179.43.46.233 ping statistics --- 5 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 4000ms My container's ifconfig: ubuntu@mycontainer:~$ ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 02:00:00:86:5b:11 inet addr:179.43.46.233 Bcast:255.255.255.255 Mask:0.0.0.0 inet6 addr: fe80::ff:fe79:5a31/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:64 errors:0 dropped:6 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:54 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:4070 (4.0 KB) TX bytes:4168 (4.1 KB) 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:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:2496 (2.4 KB) TX bytes:2496 (2.4 KB) My host's ifconfig: root@host:~# ifconfig br0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 4c:72:b9:43:65:2b inet addr:92.281.86.226 Bcast:91.121.67.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::4e72:b9ff:fe43:652b/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:1453 errors:0 dropped:18 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:1630 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:145125 (145.1 KB) TX bytes:299943 (299.9 KB) eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 4c:72:b9:43:65:2b UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:3178 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:1637 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:298263 (298.2 KB) TX bytes:309167 (309.1 KB) Interrupt:20 Memory:fe500000-fe520000 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:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:300 (300.0 B) TX bytes:300 (300.0 B) vethtest Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr fe:0d:7f:3e:70:88 inet6 addr: fe80::fc0d:7fff:fe3e:7088/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:54 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:67 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:4168 (4.1 KB) TX bytes:4250 (4.2 KB) virbr0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr de:49:c5:66:cf:84 inet addr:192.168.122.1 Bcast:192.168.122.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 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) I have disabled lxcbr0 (USE_LXC_BRIDGE="false" in /etc/default/lxc). root@host:~# brctl show bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces br0 8000.4c72b943652b no eth0 vethtest I have configured the IP 179.43.46.233 to point to 02:00:00:86:5b:11 in my hosting provider (OVH) config panel. (The IPs in this post are not the real ones.) Thanks for reading this long question! :-) Vianney

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• Java Refuses to Start - Could not reserve enough space for object heap

  - by Randyaa

  Background We have a pool of aproximately 20 linux blades. Some are running Suse, some are running Redhat. ALL share NAS space which contains the following 3 folders: /NAS/app/java - a symlink that points to an installation of a Java JDK. Currently version 1.5.0_10 /NAS/app/lib - a symlink that points to a version of our application. /NAS/data - directory where our output is written All our machines have 2 processors (hyperthreaded) with 4gb of physical memory and 4gb of swap space. We limit the number of 'jobs' each machine can process at a given time to 6 (this number likely needs to change, but that does not enter into the current problem so please ignore it for the time being). Some of our jobs set a Max Heap size of 512mb, some others reserve a Max Heap size of 2048mb. Again, we realize we could go over our available memory if 6 jobs started on the same machine with the heap size set to 2048, but to our knowledge this has not yet occurred. The Problem Once and a while a Job will fail immediately with the following message: Error occurred during initialization of VM Could not reserve enough space for object heap Could not create the Java virtual machine. We used to chalk this up to too many jobs running at the same time on the same machine. The problem happened infrequently enough (MAYBE once a month) that we'd just restart it and everything would be fine. The problem has recently gotten much worse. All of our jobs which request a max heap size of 2048m fail immediately almost every time and need to get restarted several times before completing. We've gone out to individual machines and tried executing them manually with the same result. Debugging It turns out that the problem only exists for our SuSE boxes. The reason it has been happening more frequently is becuase we've been adding more machines, and the new ones are SuSE. 'cat /proc/version' on the SuSE boxes give us: Linux version 2.6.5-7.244-bigsmp (geeko@buildhost) (gcc version 3.3.3 (SuSE Linux)) #1 SMP Mon Dec 12 18:32:25 UTC 2005 'cat /proc/version' on the RedHat boxes give us: Linux version 2.4.21-32.0.1.ELsmp ([email protected]) (gcc version 3.2.3 20030502 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.3-52)) #1 SMP Tue May 17 17:52:23 EDT 2005 'uname -a' gives us the following on BOTH types of machines: UTC 2005 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux No jobs are running on the machine, and no other processes are utilizing much memory. All of the processes currently running might be using 100mb total. 'top' currently shows the following: Mem: 4146528k total, 3536360k used, 610168k free, 132136k buffers Swap: 4194288k total, 0k used, 4194288k free, 3283908k cached 'vmstat' currently shows the following: procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- --system-- ----cpu---- r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa 0 0 0 610292 132136 3283908 0 0 0 2 26 15 0 0 100 0 If we kick off a job with the following command line (Max Heap of 1850mb) it starts fine: java/bin/java -Xmx1850M -cp helloworld.jar HelloWorld Hello World If we bump up the max heap size to 1875mb it fails: java/bin/java -Xmx1875M -cp helloworld.jar HelloWorld Error occurred during initialization of VM Could not reserve enough space for object heap Could not create the Java virtual machine. It's quite clear that the memory currently being used is for Buffering/Caching and that's why so little is being displayed as 'free'. What isn't clear is why there is a magical 1850mb line where anything higher means Java can't start. Any explanations would be greatly appreciated.

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• CSC folder data access AND roaming profiles issues (Vista with Server 2003, then 2008)

  - by Alex Jones

  I'm a junior sysadmin for an IT contractor that helps small, local government agencies, like little towns and the like. One of our clients, a public library with ~ 50 staff users, was recently migrated from Server 2003 Standard to Server 2008 R2 Standard in a very short timeframe; our senior employee, the only network engineer, had suddenly put in his two weeks notice, so management pushed him to do this project before quitting. A bit hasty on management's part? Perhaps. Could we do anything about that? Nope. Do I have to fix this all by myself? Pretty much. The network is set up like this: a) 50ish staff workstations, all running Vista Business SP2. All staff use MS Outlook, which uses RPC-over-HTTPS ("Outlook Anywhere") for cached Exchange access to an offsite location. b) One new (virtualized) Server 2008 R2 Standard instance, running atop a Server 2008 R2 host via Hyper-V. The VM is the domain's DC, and also the site's one and only file server. Let's call that VM "NEWBOX". c) One old physical Server 2003 Standard server, running the same roles. Let's call it "OLDBOX". It's still on the network and accessible, but it's been demoted, and its shares have been disabled. No data has been deleted. c) Gigabit Ethernet everywhere. The organization's only has one domain, and it did not change during the migration. d) Most users were set up for a combo of redirected folders + offline files, but some older employees who had been with the organization a long time are still on roaming profiles. To sum up: the servers in question handle user accounts and files, nothing else (eg, no TS, no mail, no IIS, etc.) I have two major problems I'm hoping you can help me with: 1) Even though all domain users have had their redirected folders moved to the new server, and loggin in to their workstations and testing confirms that the Documents/Music/Whatever folders point to the new paths, it appears some users (not laptops or anything either!) had been working offline from OLDBOX for a long time, and nobody realized it. Here's the ugly implication: a bunch of their data now lives only in their CSC folders, because they can't access the share on OLDBOX and sync with it finally. How do I get this data out of those CSC folders, and onto NEWBOX? 2) What's the best way to migrate roaming profile users to non-roaming ones, without losing vital data like documents, any lingering PSTs, etc? Things I've thought about trying: For problem 1: a) Reenable the documents share on OLDBOX, force an Offline Files sync for ALL domain users, then copy OLDBOX's share's data to the equivalent share on NEWBOX. Reinitialize the Offline Files cache for every user. With this: How do I safely force a domain-wide Offline Files sync? Could I lose data by reenabling the share on OLDBOX and forcing the sync? Afterwards, how can I reinitialize the Offline Files cache for every user, without doing it manually, workstation by workstation? b) Determine which users have unsynced changes to OLDBOX (again, how?), search each user's CSC folder domain-wide via workstation admin shares, and grab the unsynched data. Reinitialize the Offline Files cache for every user. With this: How can I detect which users have unsynched changes with a script? How can I search each user's CSC folder, when the ownership and permissions set for CSC folders are so restrictive? Again, afterwards, how can I reinitialize the Offline Files cache for every user, without doing it manually, workstation by workstation? c) Manually visit each workstation, copy the contents of the CSC folder, and manually copy that data onto NEWBOX. Reinitialize the Offline Files cache for every user. With this: Again, how do I 'break into' the CSC folder and get to its data? As an experiment, I took one workstation's HD offsite, imaged it for safety, and then tried the following with one of our shop PCs, after attaching the drive: grant myself full control of the folder (failed), grant myself ownership of the folder (failed), run chkdsk on the whole drive to make sure nothing's messed up (all OK), try to take full control of the entire drive (failed), try to take ownership of the entire drive (failed) MS KB articles and Googling around suggests there's a utility called CSCCMD that's meant for this exact scenario...but it looks like it's available for XP, not Vista, no? Again, afterwards, how can I reinitialize the Offline Files cache for every user, without doing it manually, workstation by workstation? For problem 2: a) Figure out which users are on roaming profiles, and where their profiles 'live' on the server. Create new folders for them in the redirected folders repository, migrate existing data, and disable the roaming. With this: Finding out who's roaming isn't hard. But what's the best way to disable the roaming itself? In AD Users and Computers, or on each user's workstation? Doing it centrally on the server seems more efficient; that said, all of the KB research I've done turns up articles on how to go from local to roaming, not the other way around, so I don't have good documentation on this. In closing: we have good backups of NEWBOX and OLDBOX, but not of the workstations themselves, so anything drastic on the client side would need imaging and testing for safety. Thanks for reading along this far! Hopefully you can help me dig us out of this mess.

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• Why are my USB 2.0 devices crashing Windows XP?

  - by BenAlabaster

  Background on the machine I'm having a problem with: The machine was inherited and appears to be circa 2003 (there's a date stamp on the power supply which leads me to this conclusion). I've got it set up as a Skype terminal for my 2 year old to keep in touch with her grandparents and other members of the family - which everyone loves. It has a generic ATX motherboard with no identifying markings other than one stamp that says "Rev.B". CPU-Z identifies the motherboard model as VT8601 but doesn't provide me with any manufacturer name. On board it has 1 x 10/100 LAN, 2 x USB 1.0, VGA, PS/2 for KB and mouse, parallel port, 2 x serial ports, 2 x IDE, 1 x floppy, 2 x SDRAM slots, 1 x CPU housing that is seating a 1.3GHz Intel Celeron CPU, 3 x PCI, 1 x AGP - although you can only use 2 of the PCI slots if you use the AGP slot due to the physical layout of the board. It's got 768Mb PC133 SDRAM - 1 x 512Mb & 1 x 256Mb installed as well as a D-LINK WDA-2320 54G Wi-Fi network card and a generic USB 2.0 expansion board containing 3 x external + 1 x internal USB connectors. It has a DVD+/-RW running as master on IDE1 and a 1.44Mb 3.5" floppy drive connected to the floppy connector. It has an 80Gb Western Digital hard drive running as master on IDE0. All this is sitting in a slimline case. I don't know the wattage of the PSU, but can post this later if this proves to be helpful. The motherboard is running a version of Award BIOS for which I don't have the version number to hand but can again post this later if it would be helpful. The hard disk is freshly formatted and built with Windows XP Professional/Service Pack 3 and is up to date with all current patches. In addition to Windows XP, the only other software it's running is Skype 4.1 (4.2 hangs the whole machine as soon as it starts up, requiring a hard boot to recover). It's got a Daytek MV150 15" touch screen hooked up to the on board VGA and COM1 sockets with the most current drivers from the Daytek website and the most current version of ELO-Touchsystems drivers for the touch component. The webcam is a Logitech Webcam C200 with the latest drivers from the Logitech website. The problem: If I hook any devices to the USB 2.0 sockets, it hangs the whole machine and I have to hard boot it to get it back up. If I have any devices attached to the USB 2.0 sockets when I boot up, it hangs before Windows gets to the login prompt and I have to hard boot it to recover. Workarounds found: I can plug the same devices into the on board USB 1.0 sockets and everything works fine, albeit at reduced performance. I've tried 3 different kinds of USB thumb drives, 3 different makes/models of webcams and my iPhone all with the same effect. They're recognized and don't hang the machine when I hook them to the USB 1.0 but if I hook them to the USB 2.0 ports, the machine hangs within a couple of seconds of recognizing the devices were connected. Attempted solutions: I've seen suggestions that this could be a power problem - that the PSU just doesn't have the wattage to drive these ports. While I'm doubtful this is the problem [after all the motherboard has the same standard connector regardless of the PSU wattage], I tried disabling all the on board devices that I'm not using - on board LAN, the second COM port, the AGP connector etc. through the BIOS in what I'm sure is a futile attempt to reduce the power consumption... I also modified the ACPI and power management settings. It didn't have any noticeable affect, although it didn't do any harm either. Could the wattage of the PSU really cause this problem? If it can, is there anything I need to be aware of when replacing it or do I just need to make sure it's got a higher wattage than the current one? My interpretation was that the wattage only affected the number of drives you could hook up to the power connectors, is that right? I've installed the USB card in another machine and it works without issue, so it's not a problem with the USB card itself, and Windows says the card is installed and working correctly... right up until I connect a device to it. The only thing I haven't done which I only just thought of while writing this essay is trying the USB 2.0 card in a different PCI slot, or re-ordering the wi-fi and USB cards in the slots... although I'm not sure if this will make any difference - does anyone have any experience that would suggest this might work? Other thoughts/questions: Perhaps this is an incompatibility between the USB 2.0 card and the BIOS, would re-flashing the BIOS with a newer version help? Do I need to be able to identify the manufacturer of the motherboard in order to be able to find a BIOS edition specific for this motherboard or will any version of Award BIOS function in its place? Question: Does anyone have any ideas that could help me get my USB 2.0 devices hooked up to this machine?

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• Computer won't reboot without waiting for a while

  - by Benjamin

  I've got an unusual problem with my computer. When ever I reboot my computer it won't boot, I get a few beeps from the BIOS and nothing else, however if I wait for a few minuets the computer will boot perfectly. I tried to count the beeps and I get around 7-9 of them; the first two are noticeably closer together than the rest. [Edit: I'm now reasonably confident it's 1 long followed by 8 short beeps. That would be a display related issue: http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/amibeep.htm] My BIOS is American Megatrends Inc and version P1.80, the Motherboard is an ASRock X58 Extreme (both according to dmidecode) Here's an output from LSPCI, I'm not sure what else might be useful but I can provide whatever's asked. 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub to ESI Port (rev 13) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 13) 00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev 13) 00:07.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 7 (rev 13) 00:14.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub System Management Registers (rev 13) 00:14.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub GPIO and Scratch Pad Registers (rev 13) 00:14.2 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Control Status and RAS Registers (rev 13) 00:14.3 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Throttle Registers (rev 13) 00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 00:1a.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 1 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 2 00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 6 00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 90) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JIR (ICH10R) LPC Interface Controller 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SATA AHCI Controller 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SMBus Controller 01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03) 02:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6315 Series Firewire Controller 02:00.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6415 PATA IDE Host Controller (rev a0) 03:00.0 SATA controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB360 AHCI Controller (rev 02) 05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GT200b [GeForce GTX 285] (rev a1) ff:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-Core Registers (rev 05) ff:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 05) ff:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 QPI Link 0 (rev 05) ff:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 QPI Physical 0 (rev 05) ff:03.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller (rev 05) ff:03.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Target Address Decoder (rev 05) ff:03.4 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Test Registers (rev 05) ff:04.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 0 Control Registers (rev 05) ff:04.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 0 Address Registers (rev 05) ff:04.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 0 Rank Registers (rev 05) ff:04.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 0 Thermal Control Registers (rev 05) ff:05.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 1 Control Registers (rev 05) ff:05.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 1 Address Registers (rev 05) ff:05.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 1 Rank Registers (rev 05) ff:05.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 1 Thermal Control Registers (rev 05) ff:06.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 2 Control Registers (rev 05) ff:06.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 2 Address Registers (rev 05) ff:06.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 2 Rank Registers (rev 05) ff:06.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon 5500/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 2 Thermal Control Registers (rev 05) Update: ok I installed lm-sensors and here's the output. coretemp-isa-0000 Adapter: ISA adapter Core 0: +58.0°C (high = +80.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) Core 1: +59.0°C (high = +80.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) Core 2: +58.0°C (high = +80.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) Core 3: +57.0°C (high = +80.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) it8720-isa-0a10 Adapter: ISA adapter in0: +0.93 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V) in1: +0.06 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V) in2: +3.25 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V) +5V: +2.91 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V) in4: +3.04 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V) in5: +2.94 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V) in6: +2.14 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V) 5VSB: +2.96 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V) Vbat: +3.28 V fan1: 1869 RPM (min = 0 RPM) fan2: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM) fan3: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM) fan4: 1106 RPM (min = -1 RPM) fan5: 225000 RPM (min = -1 RPM) temp1: +39.0°C (low = +0.0°C, high = +127.0°C) sensor = thermistor temp2: +56.0°C (low = +0.0°C, high = +127.0°C) sensor = thermistor temp3: +127.0°C (low = +0.0°C, high = +127.0°C) sensor = thermistor cpu0_vid: +1.650 V intrusion0: ALARM If it helps here's the summery from sensors-detect Driver `it87': * ISA bus, address 0xa10 Chip `ITE IT8720F Super IO Sensors' (confidence: 9) Driver `adt7475': * Bus `NVIDIA i2c adapter 3 at 5:00.0' Busdriver `nvidia', I2C address 0x2e Chip `Analog Devices ADT7473' (confidence: 5) Driver `coretemp': * Chip `Intel digital thermal sensor' (confidence: 9)

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• Windows 7 ipv4 autoconfiguration - cannot connect to internet

  - by GuiccoPiano

  I get my internet connection from a guy (lets call him my service provider henceforth). He gives internet connections to many students here in my hostel. My PC gets a private IP through his DHCP server. Now, when I switch on my WiFi, my PC gets a private IP as it should and I can connect to the internet just fine. But now when I connect my LAN cable, my PC gets some "Autoconfiguration IPv4 address" 169.254.110.154(Preferred) and I cannot connect to the internet. Here is the ipconfig /all output for ethernet port: Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon 88E8059 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : <<MAC DISPLAYED HERE>> DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::5054:a347:7d06:6e9a%11(Preferred) Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.110.154(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 285222078 DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-14-50-AC-68-54-42-49-EE-52-16 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1 fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1 fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled I also tried: Start a command prompt as admin. Run "netsh winsock reset" Run "netsh interface ipv4 reset" Run "netsh interface ipv6 reset" Restart your computer. All this does not work. Any idea to solve the problem?

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• Why are my USB 2.0 devices hanging Windows XP?

  - by BenAlabaster

  Background on the machine I'm having a problem with: The machine was inherited and appears to be circa 2003 (there's a date stamp on the power supply which leads me to this conclusion). I've got it set up as a Skype terminal for my 2 year old to keep in touch with her grandparents and other members of the family - which everyone loves. It has a generic ATX motherboard with no identifying markings other than one stamp that says "Rev.B". CPU-Z identifies the motherboard model as VT8601 but doesn't provide me with any manufacturer name. On board it has 1 x 10/100 LAN, 2 x USB 1.0, VGA, PS/2 for KB and mouse, parallel port, 2 x serial ports, 2 x IDE, 1 x floppy, 2 x SDRAM slots, 1 x CPU housing that is seating a 1.3GHz Intel Celeron CPU, 3 x PCI, 1 x AGP - although you can only use 2 of the PCI slots if you use the AGP slot due to the physical layout of the board. It's got 768Mb PC133 SDRAM - 1 x 512Mb & 1 x 256Mb installed as well as a D-LINK WDA-2320 54G Wi-Fi network card and a generic USB 2.0 expansion board containing 3 x external + 1 x internal USB connectors - it has a NEC uPD720102 chipset. It has a DVD+/-RW running as master on IDE1 and a 1.44Mb 3.5" floppy drive connected to the floppy connector. It has an 80Gb Western Digital hard drive running as master on IDE0. All this is sitting in a slimline case. I don't know the wattage of the PSU, but can post this later if this proves to be helpful. The motherboard is running a version of Award BIOS for which I don't have the version number to hand but can again post this later if it would be helpful. The hard disk is freshly formatted and built with Windows XP Professional/Service Pack 3 and is up to date with all current patches. In addition to Windows XP, the only other software it's running is Skype 4.1 (4.2 hangs the whole machine as soon as it starts up, requiring a hard boot to recover). It's got a Daytek MV150 15" touch screen hooked up to the on board VGA and COM1 sockets with the most current drivers from the Daytek website and the most current version of ELO-Touchsystems drivers for the touch component. The webcam is a Logitech Webcam C200 with the latest drivers from the Logitech website. The problem: If I hook any devices to the USB 2.0 sockets, it hangs the whole machine and I have to hard boot it to get it back up. If I have any devices attached to the USB 2.0 sockets when I boot up, it hangs before Windows gets to the login prompt and I have to hard boot it to recover. Workarounds found: I can plug the same devices into the on board USB 1.0 sockets and everything works fine, albeit at reduced performance. I've tried 3 different kinds of USB thumb drives, 3 different makes/models of webcams and my iPhone all with the same effect. They're recognized and don't hang the machine when I hook them to the USB 1.0 but if I hook them to the USB 2.0 ports, the machine hangs within a couple of seconds of recognizing the devices were connected. Attempted solutions: I've seen suggestions that this could be a power problem - that the PSU just doesn't have the wattage to drive these ports. While I'm doubtful this is the problem [after all the motherboard has the same standard connector regardless of the PSU wattage], I tried disabling all the on board devices that I'm not using - on board LAN, the second COM port, the AGP connector etc. through the BIOS in what I'm sure is a futile attempt to reduce the power consumption... I also modified the ACPI and power management settings. It didn't have any noticeable affect, although it didn't do any harm either. Could the wattage of the PSU really cause this problem? If it can, is there anything I need to be aware of when replacing it or do I just need to make sure it's got a higher wattage than the current one? My interpretation was that the wattage only affected the number of drives you could hook up to the power connectors, is that right? I've installed the USB card in another machine and it works without issue, so it's not a problem with the USB card itself, and Windows says the card is installed and working correctly... right up until I connect a device to it. The only thing I haven't done which I only just thought of while writing this essay is trying the USB 2.0 card in a different PCI slot, or re-ordering the wi-fi and USB cards in the slots... although I'm not sure if this will make any difference - does anyone have any experience that would suggest this might work? Other thoughts/questions: Perhaps this is an incompatibility between the USB 2.0 card and the BIOS, would re-flashing the BIOS with a newer version help? Do I need to be able to identify the manufacturer of the motherboard in order to be able to find a BIOS edition specific for this motherboard or will any version of Award BIOS function in its place? Question: Does anyone have any ideas that could help me get my USB 2.0 devices hooked up to this machine? Edit: Updated the USB 2.0 info with reference to actual card - http://www.xpcgear.com/lpnec4u.html

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• Applying Unity in dynamic menu

  - by Rajarshi

  I was going through Unity 2.0 to check if it has an effective use in our new application. My application is a Windows Forms application and uses a traditional bar menu (at the top), currently. My UIs (Windows Forms) more or less support Dependency Injection pattern since they all work with a class (Presentation Model Class) supplied to them via the constructor. The form then binds to the properties of the supplied P Model class and calls methods on the P Model class to perform its duties. Pretty simple and straightforward. How P Model reacts to the UI actions and responds to them by co-ordinating with the Domain Class (Business Logic/Model) is irrelevant here and thus not mentioned. The object creation sequence to show up one UI from menu then goes like this - Create Business Model instance Create Presentation Model instance with Business Model instance passed to P Model constructor. Create UI instance with Presentation Model instance passed to UI constructor. My present solution: To show an UI in the method above from my menu I would have to refer all assemblies (Business, PModel, UI) from my Menu class. Considering I have split the modules into a number of physical assemblies, that would be a dificult task to add references to about 60 different assemblies. Also the approach is not very scalable since I would certainly need to release more modules and with this approach I would have to change the source code every time I release a new module. So primarily to avoid the reference of so many assemblies from my Menu class (assembly) I did as below - Stored all the dependency described above in a database table (SQL Server), e.g. ModuleShortCode | BModelAssembly | BModelFullTypeName | PModelAssembly | PModelFullTypeName | UIAssembly | UIFullTypeName Now used a static class named "Launcher" with a method "Launch" as below - Launcher.Launch("Discount") Launcher.Launch("Customers") The Launcher internally uses data from the dependency table and uses Activator.CreateInstance() to create each of the objects and uses the instance as constructor parameter to the next object being created, till the UI is built. The UI is then shown as a modal dialog. The code inside Launcher is somewhat like - Form frm = ResolveForm("Discount"); frm.ShowDialog(); The ResolveForm does the trick of building the chain of objects. Can Unity help me here? Now when I did that I did not have enough information on Unity and now that I have studied Unity I think I have been doing more or less the same thing. So I tried to replace my code with Unity. However, as soon as I started I hit a block. If I try to resolve UI forms in my Menu as Form customers = myUnityContainer.Resolve(); or Form customers = myUnityContainer.Resolve(typeof(Customers)); Then either way, I need to refer to my UI assembly from my Menu assembly since the target Type "Customers" need to be known for Unity to resolve it. So I am back to same place since I would have to refer all UI assemblies from the Menu assembly. I understand that with Unity I would have to refer fewer assemblies (only UI assemblies) but those references are needed which defeats my objectives below - Create the chain of objects dynamically without any assembly reference from Menu assembly. This is to avoid Menu source code changing every time I release a new module. My Menu also is built dynamically from a table. Be able to supply new modules just by supplying the new assemblies and inserting the new Dependency row in the table by a database patch. At this stage, I have a feeling that I have to do it the way I was doing, i.e. Activator.CreateInstance() to fulfil all my objectives. I need to verify whether the community thinks the same way as me or have a better suggestion to solve the problem. The post is really long and I sincerely thank you if you come til this point. Waiting for your valuable suggestions. Rajarshi

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• How to reduce virtual memory by optimising my PHP code?

  - by iCeR

  My current code (see below) uses 147MB of virtual memory! My provider has allocated 100MB by default and the process is killed once run, causing an internal error. The code is utilising curl multi and must be able to loop with more than 150 iterations whilst still minimizing the virtual memory. The code below is only set at 150 iterations and still causes the internal server error. At 90 iterations the issue does not occur. How can I adjust my code to lower the resource use / virtual memory? Thanks! <?php function udate($format, $utimestamp = null) { if ($utimestamp === null) $utimestamp = microtime(true); $timestamp = floor($utimestamp); $milliseconds = round(($utimestamp - $timestamp) * 1000); return date(preg_replace('`(?<!\\\\)u`', $milliseconds, $format), $timestamp); } $url = 'https://www.testdomain.com/'; $curl_arr = array(); $master = curl_multi_init(); for($i=0; $i<150; $i++) { $curl_arr[$i] = curl_init(); curl_setopt($curl_arr[$i], CURLOPT_URL, $url); curl_setopt($curl_arr[$i], CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); curl_setopt($curl_arr[$i], CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, FALSE); curl_setopt($curl_arr[$i], CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE); curl_multi_add_handle($master, $curl_arr[$i]); } do { curl_multi_exec($master,$running); } while($running > 0); for($i=0; $i<150; $i++) { $results = curl_multi_getcontent ($curl_arr[$i]); $results = explode("<br>", $results); echo $results[0]; echo "<br>"; echo $results[1]; echo "<br>"; echo udate('H:i:s:u'); echo "<br><br>"; usleep(100000); } ?> Processor Information Total processors: 8 Processor #1 Vendor GenuineIntel Name Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5405 @ 2.00GHz Speed 1995.120 MHz Cache 6144 KB Processor #2 Vendor GenuineIntel Name Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5405 @ 2.00GHz Speed 1995.120 MHz Cache 6144 KB Processor #3 Vendor GenuineIntel Name Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5405 @ 2.00GHz Speed 1995.120 MHz Cache 6144 KB Processor #4 Vendor GenuineIntel Name Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5405 @ 2.00GHz Speed 1995.120 MHz Cache 6144 KB Processor #5 Vendor GenuineIntel Name Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5405 @ 2.00GHz Speed 1995.120 MHz Cache 6144 KB Processor #6 Vendor GenuineIntel Name Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5405 @ 2.00GHz Speed 1995.120 MHz Cache 6144 KB Processor #7 Vendor GenuineIntel Name Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5405 @ 2.00GHz Speed 1995.120 MHz Cache 6144 KB Processor #8 Vendor GenuineIntel Name Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5405 @ 2.00GHz Speed 1995.120 MHz Cache 6144 KB Memory Information Memory for crash kernel (0x0 to 0x0) notwithin permissible range Memory: 8302344k/9175040k available (2176k kernel code, 80272k reserved, 901k data, 228k init, 7466304k highmem) System Information Linux server3.server.com 2.6.18-194.17.1.el5PAE #1 SMP Wed Sep 29 13:31:51 EDT 2010 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux Physical Disks SCSI device sda: 1952448512 512-byte hdwr sectors (999654 MB) sda: Write Protect is off sda: Mode Sense: 03 00 00 08 SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back SCSI device sda: 1952448512 512-byte hdwr sectors (999654 MB) sda: Write Protect is off sda: Mode Sense: 03 00 00 08 SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back sd 0:1:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sdb sd 0:1:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0 sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg7 type 0 Current Memory Usage total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 8306672 7847384 459288 0 487912 6444548 -/+ buffers/cache: 914924 7391748 Swap: 4095992 496 4095496 Total: 12402664 7847880 4554784 Current Disk Usage Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 898G 307G 546G 36% / /dev/sda1 99M 19M 76M 20% /boot none 4.0G 0 4.0G 0% /dev/shm /var/tmpMnt 4.0G 1.8G 2.0G 48% /tmp

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• Wordpress blog with Joomla?

  - by user427902

  Hi, I had this Wordpress installation which was installed in a subfolder (not root). Like http: //server/blog/. Now, I installed Joomla on the root (http: //server/). Everything seems to be working fine with the Joomla part. However, the blog part is messed up. If I try to browse the homepage of my blog which is http: //server/blog/ it works like a charm. But while trying to view individual blog pages like say, http: //server/blog/some_category/some_post I get a Joomla 404 page. So, I was wondering if it was possible to use both Wordpress and Joomla in the same server in the setup I am trying to. Let me clarify that I am NOT looking to integrate user login and other such things. I just want the blog to be functional under a subfolder while I run the Joomla site in the root. So, what is the correct way to go about it. Can this be solved by any .config edits or something else? Edit: Here's the .htaccess for Joomla ... (I can't find any .htaccess for Wp though, still looking for it.) ## # @version $Id: htaccess.txt 14401 2010-01-26 14:10:00Z louis $ # @package Joomla # @copyright Copyright (C) 2005 - 2010 Open Source Matters. All rights reserved. # @license http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU/GPL # Joomla! is Free Software ## ##################################################### # READ THIS COMPLETELY IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE THIS FILE # # The line just below this section: 'Options +FollowSymLinks' may cause problems # with some server configurations. It is required for use of mod_rewrite, but may already # be set by your server administrator in a way that dissallows changing it in # your .htaccess file. If using it causes your server to error out, comment it out (add # to # beginning of line), reload your site in your browser and test your sef url's. If they work, # it has been set by your server administrator and you do not need it set here. # ##################################################### ## Can be commented out if causes errors, see notes above. Options +FollowSymLinks # # mod_rewrite in use RewriteEngine On ########## Begin - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits ## If you experience problems on your site block out the operations listed below ## This attempts to block the most common type of exploit `attempts` to Joomla! # ## Deny access to extension xml files (uncomment out to activate) #<Files ~ "\.xml$"> #Order allow,deny #Deny from all #Satisfy all #</Files> ## End of deny access to extension xml files RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} mosConfig_[a-zA-Z_]{1,21}(=|\%3D) [OR] # Block out any script trying to base64_encode crap to send via URL RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} base64_encode.*\(.*\) [OR] # Block out any script that includes a <script> tag in URL RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (\<|%3C).*script.*(\>|%3E) [NC,OR] # Block out any script trying to set a PHP GLOBALS variable via URL RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} GLOBALS(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2}) [OR] # Block out any script trying to modify a _REQUEST variable via URL RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} _REQUEST(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2}) # Send all blocked request to homepage with 403 Forbidden error! RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [F,L] # ########## End - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits # Uncomment following line if your webserver's URL # is not directly related to physical file paths. # Update Your Joomla! Directory (just / for root) # RewriteBase / ########## Begin - Joomla! core SEF Section # RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/index.php RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (/|\.php|\.html|\.htm|\.feed|\.pdf|\.raw|/[^.]*)$ [NC] RewriteRule (.*) index.php RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization},L] # ########## End - Joomla! core SEF Section

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• What is the best practice when coding math class/functions ?

  - by Isaac Clarke

  Introductory note : I voluntarily chose a wide subject. You know that quote about learning a cat to fish, that's it. I don't need an answer to my question, I need an explanation and advice. I know you guys are good at this ;) Hi guys, I'm currently implementing some algorithms into an existing program. Long story short, I created a new class, "Adder". An Adder is a member of another class representing the physical object actually doing the calculus , which calls adder.calc() with its parameters (merely a list of objects to do the maths on). To do these maths, I need some parameters, which do not exist outside of the class (but can be set, see below). They're neither config parameters nor members of other classes. These parameters are D1 and D2, distances, and three arrays of fixed size : alpha, beta, delta. I know some of you are more comfortable reading code than reading text so here you go : class Adder { public: Adder(); virtual Adder::~Adder(); void set( float d1, float d2 ); void set( float d1, float d2, int alpha[N_MAX], int beta[N_MAX], int delta[N_MAX] ); // Snipped prototypes float calc( List& ... ); // ... inline float get_d1() { return d1_ ;}; inline float get_d2() { return d2_ ;}; private: float d1_; float d2_; int alpha_[N_MAX]; // A #define N_MAX is done elsewhere int beta_[N_MAX]; int delta_[N_MAX]; }; Since this object is used as a member of another class, it is declared in a *.h : private: Adder adder_; By doing that, I couldn't initialize the arrays (alpha/beta/delta) directly in the constructor ( int T[3] = { 1, 2, 3 }; ), without having to iterate throughout the three arrays. I thought of putting them in static const, but I don't think that's the proper way of solving such problems. My second guess was to use the constructor to initialize the arrays Adder::Adder() { int alpha[N_MAX] = { 0, -60, -120, 180, 120, 60 }; int beta[N_MAX] = { 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 }; int delta[N_MAX] = { 0, 0, 180, 180, 180, 0 }; set( 2.5, 0, alpha, beta, delta ); } void Adder::set( float d1, float d2 ) { if (d1 > 0) d1_ = d1; if (d2 > 0) d2_ = d2; } void Adder::set( float d1, float d2, int alpha[N_MAX], int beta[N_MAX], int delta[N_MAX] ) { set( d1, d2 ); for (int i = 0; i < N_MAX; ++i) { alpha_[i] = alpha[i]; beta_[i] = beta[i]; delta_[i] = delta[i]; } } My question is : Would it be better to use another function - init() - which would initialize arrays ? Or is there a better way of doing that ? My bonus question is : Did you see some mistakes or bad practice along the way ?

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• GPO errors filling up event viewer

  - by burntehsky

  there have been a few issues with the server i have been working on i check the event viewer and it is filled with the errors below i was not sure how to go about fixing this i looked in the path where the file is and it is there Windows cannot access the file gpt.ini for GPO CN={31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9},CN=Policies,CN=System,DC=ISPHOME,DC=NET. The file must be present at the location <\\isphome.net\\sysvol\ISPHOME.NET\Policies\{31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}\gpt.ini>. (The network location cannot be reached. For information about network troubleshooting, see Windows Help. ). Group Policy processing aborted. C:\Documents and Settings\Dimitri>ipconfig /all Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ispserver Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : ISPHOME.NET Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : ISPHOME.NET Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection #2 Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-07-E9-AA-3E-C3 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.50 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 127.0.0.1 *dcdiag /c /v is below* Summary of test results for DNS servers used by the above domain contro llers: DNS server: 192.168.1.1 (<name unavailable>) All tests passed on this DNS server This is a valid DNS server DNS server: 192.168.1.50 (<name unavailable>) All tests passed on this DNS server This is a valid DNS server Name resolution is funtional. _ldap._tcp SRV record for the fores t root domain is registered Summary of DNS test results: Auth Basc Forw Del Dyn RReg Ext ________________________________________________________________ Domain: ISPHOME.NET ispserver PASS FAIL PASS PASS PASS PASS n/a ......................... ISPHOME.NET failed test DNS

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• COM port read - Thread remains alive after timeout occurs

  - by Sna

  Hello to all. I have a dll which includes a function called ReadPort that reads data from serial COM port, written in c/c++. This function is called within an extra thread from another WINAPI function using the _beginthreadex. When COM port has data to be read, the worker thread returns the data, ends normaly, the calling thread closes the worker's thread handle and the dll works fine. However, if ReadPort is called without data pending on the COM port, when timeout occurs then WaitForSingleObject returns WAIT_TIMEOUT but the worker thread never ends. As a result, virtual memory grows at about 1 MB every time, physical memory grows some KBs and the application that calls the dll becomes unstable. I also tryied to use TerminateThread() but i got the same results. I have to admit that although i have enough developing experience, i am not familiar with c/c++. I did a lot of research before posting but unfortunately i didn't manage to solve my problem. Does anyone have a clue on how could i solve this problem? However, I really want to stick to this kind of solution. Also, i want to mention that i think i can't use any global variables to use some kind of extra events, because each dll's functions may be called many times for every COM port. I post some parts of my code below: The Worker Thread: unsigned int __stdcall ReadPort(void* readstr){ DWORD dwError; int rres;DWORD dwCommModemStatus, dwBytesTransferred; int ret; char szBuff[64] = ""; ReadParams* params = (ReadParams*)readstr; ret = SetCommMask(params->param2, EV_RXCHAR | EV_CTS | EV_DSR | EV_RLSD | EV_RING); if (ret == 0) { _endthreadex(0); return -1; } ret = WaitCommEvent(params->param2, &dwCommModemStatus, 0); if (ret == 0) { _endthreadex(0); return -2; } ret = SetCommMask(params->param2, EV_RXCHAR | EV_CTS | EV_DSR | EV_RLSD| EV_RING); if (ret == 0) { _endthreadex(0); return -3; } if (dwCommModemStatus & EV_RXCHAR||dwCommModemStatus & EV_RLSD) { rres = ReadFile(params->param2, szBuff, 64, &dwBytesTransferred,NULL); if (rres == 0) { switch (dwError = GetLastError()) { case ERROR_HANDLE_EOF: _endthreadex(0); return -4; } _endthreadex(0); return -5; } else { strcpy(params->param1,szBuff); _endthreadex(0); return 0; } } else { _endthreadex(0); return 0; } _endthreadex(0); return 0;} The Calling Thread: int WINAPI StartReadThread(HANDLE porthandle, HWND windowhandle){ HANDLE hThread; unsigned threadID; ReadParams readstr; DWORD ret, ret2; readstr.param2 = porthandle; hThread = (HANDLE)_beginthreadex( NULL, 0, ReadPort, &readstr, 0, &threadID ); ret = WaitForSingleObject(hThread, 500); if (ret == WAIT_OBJECT_0) { CloseHandle(hThread); if (readstr.param1 != NULL) // Send message to GUI return 0; } else if (ret == WAIT_TIMEOUT) { ret2 = CloseHandle(hThread); return -1; } else { ret2 = CloseHandle(hThread); if (ret2 == 0) return -2; }} Thank you in advance, Sna.

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• Accessing a broken mdadm raid

  - by CarstenCarsten

  Hi! I used a western digital mybookworld (SOHO NAS storage using Linux) as backup for my Linux box. Suddenly, the mybookworld does not boot up any more. So I opened the box, removed the hard disk and put the hard disk into an external USB HDD case, and connected it to my Linux box. [ 530.640301] usb 2-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3 [ 530.797630] scsi7 : usb-storage 2-1:1.0 [ 531.794844] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access WDC WD75 00AAKS-00RBA0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 [ 531.796490] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0 [ 531.797966] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] 1465149168 512-byte logical blocks: (750 GB/698 GiB) [ 531.800317] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off [ 531.800327] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 38 00 00 00 [ 531.800333] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through [ 531.803821] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through [ 531.803836] sdc: sdc1 sdc2 sdc3 sdc4 [ 531.815831] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through [ 531.815842] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk The dmesg output looks normal, but I was wondering why the hardisk was not mounted at all. And why there are 4 different partitions on it. fdisk showed the following: root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# fdisk /dev/sdc WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It's strongly recommended to switch off the mode (command 'c') and change display units to sectors (command 'u'). Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdc: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00007c00 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 4 369 2939895 fd Linux raid autodetect /dev/sdc2 370 382 104422+ fd Linux raid autodetect /dev/sdc3 383 505 987997+ fd Linux raid autodetect /dev/sdc4 506 91201 728515620 fd Linux raid autodetect Oh no! Everything seems to be created as a mdadm software raid. Calling mdadm --examine with the different partitions seems to affirm that. I think the only partition I am interested in, is /dev/sdc4 (because it is the largest). But nevertheless I called mdadm --examine with every partition. root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# mdadm --examine /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdc1: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 00.90.00 UUID : 5626a2d8:070ad992:ef1c8d24:cd8e13e4 Creation Time : Wed Feb 20 00:57:49 2002 Raid Level : raid1 Used Dev Size : 2939776 (2.80 GiB 3.01 GB) Array Size : 2939776 (2.80 GiB 3.01 GB) Raid Devices : 2 Total Devices : 1 Preferred Minor : 1 Update Time : Sun Nov 21 11:05:27 2010 State : clean Active Devices : 1 Working Devices : 1 Failed Devices : 1 Spare Devices : 0 Checksum : 4c90bc55 - correct Events : 16682 Number Major Minor RaidDevice State this 0 8 1 0 active sync /dev/sda1 0 0 8 1 0 active sync /dev/sda1 1 1 0 0 1 faulty removed root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# mdadm --examine /dev/sdc2 /dev/sdc2: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 00.90.00 UUID : 9734b3ee:2d5af206:05fe3413:585f7f26 Creation Time : Wed Feb 20 00:57:54 2002 Raid Level : raid1 Used Dev Size : 104320 (101.89 MiB 106.82 MB) Array Size : 104320 (101.89 MiB 106.82 MB) Raid Devices : 2 Total Devices : 1 Preferred Minor : 2 Update Time : Wed Oct 27 20:19:08 2010 State : clean Active Devices : 1 Working Devices : 1 Failed Devices : 1 Spare Devices : 0 Checksum : 55560b40 - correct Events : 9884 Number Major Minor RaidDevice State this 0 8 2 0 active sync /dev/sda2 0 0 8 2 0 active sync /dev/sda2 1 1 0 0 1 faulty removed root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# mdadm --examine /dev/sdc3 /dev/sdc3: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 00.90.00 UUID : 08f30b4f:91cca15d:2332bfef:48e67824 Creation Time : Wed Feb 20 00:57:54 2002 Raid Level : raid1 Used Dev Size : 987904 (964.91 MiB 1011.61 MB) Array Size : 987904 (964.91 MiB 1011.61 MB) Raid Devices : 2 Total Devices : 1 Preferred Minor : 3 Update Time : Sun Nov 21 11:05:27 2010 State : clean Active Devices : 1 Working Devices : 1 Failed Devices : 1 Spare Devices : 0 Checksum : 39717874 - correct Events : 73678 Number Major Minor RaidDevice State this 0 8 3 0 active sync 0 0 8 3 0 active sync 1 1 0 0 1 faulty removed root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# mdadm --examine /dev/sdc4 /dev/sdc4: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 00.90.00 UUID : febb75ca:e9d1ce18:f14cc006:f759419a Creation Time : Wed Feb 20 00:57:55 2002 Raid Level : raid1 Used Dev Size : 728515520 (694.77 GiB 746.00 GB) Array Size : 728515520 (694.77 GiB 746.00 GB) Raid Devices : 2 Total Devices : 1 Preferred Minor : 4 Update Time : Sun Nov 21 11:05:27 2010 State : clean Active Devices : 1 Working Devices : 1 Failed Devices : 1 Spare Devices : 0 Checksum : 2f36a392 - correct Events : 519320 Number Major Minor RaidDevice State this 0 8 4 0 active sync 0 0 8 4 0 active sync 1 1 0 0 1 faulty removed If I read the output correctly everything was removed, because it was faulty. Is there ANY way to see the contents of the largest partition? Or seeing somehow which files are broken? I see that everything is raid1 which is only mirroring, so this should be a normal partition. I am anxious to do anything with mdadm, in fear that I destroy the data on the hard disk. I would be very thankful for any help.

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• count specific things within a code in c++

  - by shap

  can anyone help me make this more generalised and more pro? #include <fstream> #include <iostream> #include <string> #include <vector> using namespace std; int main() { // open text file for input: string file_name; cout << "please enter file name: "; cin >> file_name; // associate the input file stream with a text file ifstream infile(file_name.c_str()); // error checking for a valid filename if ( !infile ) { cerr << "Unable to open file " << file_name << " -- quitting!\n"; return( -1 ); } else cout << "\n"; // some data structures to perform the function vector<string> lines_of_text; string textline; // read in text file, line by while (getline( infile, textline, '\n' )) { // add the new element to the vector lines_of_text.push_back( textline ); // print the 'back' vector element - see the STL documentation cout << lines_of_text.back() << "\n"; } cout<<"OUTPUT BEGINS HERE: "<<endl<<endl; cout<<"the total capacity of vector: lines_of_text is: "<<lines_of_text.capacity()<<endl; int PLOC = (lines_of_text.size()+1); int numbComments =0; int numbClasses =0; cout<<"\nThe total number of physical lines of code is: "<<PLOC<<endl; for (int i=0; i<(PLOC-1); i++) //reads through each part of the vector string line-by-line and triggers if the //it registers the "//" which will output a number lower than 100 (since no line is 100 char long and if the function does not //register that character within the string, it outputs a public status constant that is found in the class string and has a huge value //alot more than 100. { string temp(lines_of_text [i]); if (temp.find("//")<100) numbComments +=1; } cout<<"The total number of comment lines is: "<<numbComments<<endl; for (int j=0; j<(PLOC-1); j++) { string temp(lines_of_text [j]); if (temp.find("};")<100) numbClasses +=1; } cout<<"The total number of classes is: "<<numbClasses<<endl;

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• Solution: Testing Web Services with MSTest on Team Build

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  Guess what. About 20 minutes after I fixed the build, Allan broke it again! Update: 4th March 2010 – After having huge problems getting this working I read Billy Wang’s post which showed me the light. The problem here is that even though the test passes locally it will not during an Automated Build. When you send your tests to the build server it does not understand that you want to spin up the web site and run tests against that! When you run the test in Visual Studio it spins up the web site anyway, but would you expect your test to pass if you told the website not to spin up? Of course not. So, when you send the code to the build server you need to tell it what to spin up. First, the best way to get the parameters you need is to right click on the method you want to test and select “Create Unit Test”. This will detect wither you are running in IIS or ASP.NET Development Server or None, and create the relevant tags. Figure: Right clicking on “SaveDefaultProjectFile” will produce a context menu with “Create Unit tests…” on it. If you use this option it will AutoDetect most of the Attributes that are required. /// <summary> ///A test for SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.Services.IProfileService.SaveDefaultProjectFile ///</summary> // TODO: Ensure that the UrlToTest attribute specifies a URL to an ASP.NET page (for example, // http://.../Default.aspx). This is necessary for the unit test to be executed on the web server, // whether you are testing a page, web service, or a WCF service. [TestMethod()] [HostType("ASP.NET")] [AspNetDevelopmentServerHost("D:\\Workspaces\\SSW\\SSW\\SqlDeploy\\DEV\\Main\\SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web", "/")] [UrlToTest("http://localhost:3100/")] [DeploymentItem("SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.dll")] public void SaveDefaultProjectFileTest() { IProfileService target = new ProfileService(); // TODO: Initialize to an appropriate value string strComputerName = string.Empty; // TODO: Initialize to an appropriate value bool expected = false; // TODO: Initialize to an appropriate value bool actual; actual = target.SaveDefaultProjectFile(strComputerName); Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual); Assert.Inconclusive("Verify the correctness of this test method."); } Figure: Auto created code that shows the attributes required to run correctly in IIS or in this case ASP.NET Development Server If you are a purist and don’t like creating unit tests like this then you just need to add the three attributes manually. HostType – This attribute specified what host to use. Its an extensibility point, so you could write your own. Or you could just use “ASP.NET”. UrlToTest – This specifies the start URL. For most tests it does not matter which page you call, as long as it is a valid page otherwise your test may not run on the server, but may pass anyway. AspNetDevelopmentServerHost – This is a nasty one, it is only used if you are using ASP.NET Development Host and is unnecessary if you are using IIS. This sets the host settings and the first value MUST be the physical path to the root of your web application. OK, so all that was rubbish and I could not get anything working using the MSDN documentation. Google provided very little help until I ran into Billy Wang’s post  and I heard that heavenly music that all developers hear when understanding dawns that what they have been doing up until now is just plain stupid. I am sure that the above will work when I am doing Web Unit Tests, but there is a much easier way when doing web services. You need to add the AspNetDevelopmentServer attribute to your code. This will tell MSTest to spin up an ASP.NET Development server to host the service. Specify the path to the web application you want to use. [AspNetDevelopmentServer("WebApp1", "D:\\Workspaces\\SSW\\SSW\\SqlDeploy\\DEV\\Main\\SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web")] [DeploymentItem("SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.dll")] [TestMethod] public void ProfileService_Integration_SaveDefaultProjectFile_Returns_True() { ProfileServiceClient target = new ProfileServiceClient(); bool isTrue = target.SaveDefaultProjectFile("Mav"); Assert.AreEqual(true, isTrue); } Figure: This AspNetDevelopmentServer will make sure that the specified web application is launched. Now we can run the test and have it pass, but if the dynamically assigned ASP.NET Development server port changes what happens to the details in your app.config that was generated when creating a reference to the web service? Well, it would be wrong and the test would fail. This is where Billy’s helper method comes in. Once you have created an instance of your service call, and it has loaded the config, but before you make any calls to it you need to go in and dynamically set the Endpoint address to the same address as your dynamically hosted Web Application. using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting; using System.Reflection; using System.ServiceModel.Description; using System.ServiceModel; namespace SSW.SQLDeploy.Test { class WcfWebServiceHelper { public static bool TryUrlRedirection(object client, TestContext context, string identifier) { bool result = true; try { PropertyInfo property = client.GetType().GetProperty("Endpoint"); string webServer = context.Properties[string.Format("AspNetDevelopmentServer.{0}", identifier)].ToString(); Uri webServerUri = new Uri(webServer); ServiceEndpoint endpoint = (ServiceEndpoint)property.GetValue(client, null); EndpointAddressBuilder builder = new EndpointAddressBuilder(endpoint.Address); builder.Uri = new Uri(endpoint.Address.Uri.OriginalString.Replace(endpoint.Address.Uri.Authority, webServerUri.Authority)); endpoint.Address = builder.ToEndpointAddress(); } catch (Exception e) { context.WriteLine(e.Message); result = false; } return result; } } } Figure: This fixes a problem with the URL in your web.config not being the same as the dynamically hosted ASP.NET Development server port. We can now add a call to this method after we created the Proxy object and change the Endpoint for the Service to the correct one. This process is wrapped in an assert as if it fails there is no point in continuing. [AspNetDevelopmentServer("WebApp1", D:\\Workspaces\\SSW\\SSW\\SqlDeploy\\DEV\\Main\\SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web")] [DeploymentItem("SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.dll")] [TestMethod] public void ProfileService_Integration_SaveDefaultProjectFile_Returns_True() { ProfileServiceClient target = new ProfileServiceClient(); Assert.IsTrue(WcfWebServiceHelper.TryUrlRedirection(target, TestContext, "WebApp1")); bool isTrue = target.SaveDefaultProjectFile("Mav"); Assert.AreEqual(true, isTrue); } Figure: Editing the Endpoint from the app.config on the fly to match the dynamically hosted ASP.NET Development Server URL and port is now easy. As you can imagine AspNetDevelopmentServer poses some problems of you have multiple developers. What are the chances of everyone using the same location to store the source? What about if you are using a build server, how do you tell MSTest where to look for the files? To the rescue is a property called" “%PathToWebRoot%” which is always right on the build server. It will always point to your build drop folder for your solutions web sites. Which will be “\\tfs.ssw.com.au\BuildDrop\[BuildName]\Debug\_PrecompiledWeb\” or whatever your build drop location is. So lets change the code above to add this. [AspNetDevelopmentServer("WebApp1", "%PathToWebRoot%\\SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web")] [DeploymentItem("SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.dll")] [TestMethod] public void ProfileService_Integration_SaveDefaultProjectFile_Returns_True() { ProfileServiceClient target = new ProfileServiceClient(); Assert.IsTrue(WcfWebServiceHelper.TryUrlRedirection(target, TestContext, "WebApp1")); bool isTrue = target.SaveDefaultProjectFile("Mav"); Assert.AreEqual(true, isTrue); } Figure: Adding %PathToWebRoot% to the AspNetDevelopmentServer path makes it work everywhere. Now we have another problem… this will ONLY run on the build server and will fail locally as %PathToWebRoot%’s default value is “C:\Users\[profile]\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects”. Well this sucks… How do we get the test to run on any build server and any developer laptop. Open “Tools | Options | Test Tools | Test Execution” in Visual Studio and you will see a field called “Web application root directory”. This is where you override that default above. Figure: You can override the default website location for tests. In my case I would put in “D:\Workspaces\SSW\SSW\SqlDeploy\DEV\Main” and all the developers working with this branch would put in the folder that they have mapped. Can you see a problem? What is I create a “$/SSW/SqlDeploy/DEV/34567” branch from Main and I want to run tests in there. Well… I would have to change the value above. This is not ideal, but as you can put your projects anywhere on a computer, it has to be done. Conclusion Although this looks convoluted and complicated there are real problems being solved here that mean that you have a test ANYWHERE solution. Any build server, any Developer workstation. Resources: http://billwg.blogspot.com/2009/06/testing-wcf-web-services.html http://tough-to-find.blogspot.com/2008/04/testing-asmx-web-services-in-visual.html http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms243399(VS.100).aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/dscruggs/archive/2008/09/29/web-tests-unit-tests-the-asp-net-development-server-and-code-coverage.aspx http://www.5z5.com/News/?543f8bc8b36b174f Technorati Tags: VS2010,MSTest,Team Build 2010,Team Build,Visual Studio,Visual Studio 2010,Visual Studio ALM,Team Test,Team Test 2010

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• Mr Flibble: As Seen Through a Lens, Darkly

  - by Phil Factor

  One of the rewarding things about getting involved with Simple-Talk has been in meeting and working with some pretty daunting talents. I’d like to say that Dom Reed’s talents are at the end of the visible spectrum, but then there is Richard, who pops up on national radio occasionally, presenting intellectual programs, Andrew, master of the ukulele, with his pioneering local history work, and Tony with marathon running and his past as a university lecturer. However, Dom, who is Red Gate’s head of creative design and who did the preliminary design work for Simple-Talk, has taken the art photography to an extreme that was impossible before Photoshop. He’s not the first person to take a photograph of himself every day for two years, but he is definitely the first to weave the results into a frightening narrative that veers from comedy to pathos, using all the arts of Photoshop to create a fictional character, Mr Flibble.   Have a look at some of the Flickr pages. Uncle Spike The B-Men – Woolverine The 2011 BoyZ iN Sink reunion tour turned out to be their last Error 404 – Flibble not found Mr Flibble is not a normal type of alter-ego. We generally prefer to choose bronze age warriors of impossibly magnificent physique and stamina; superheroes who bestride the world, scorning the forces of evil and anarchy in a series noble and righteous quests. Not so Dom, whose Mr Flibble is vulnerable, and laid low by an addiction to toxic substances. His work has gained an international cult following and is used as course material by several courses in photography. Although his work was for a while ignored by the more conventional world of ‘art’ photography they became famous through the internet. His photos have received well over a million views on Flickr. It was definitely time to turn this work into a book, because the whole sequence of images has its maximum effect when seen in sequence. He has a Kickstarter project page, one of the first following the recent UK launch of the crowdfunding platform. The publication of the book should be a major event and the £45 I shall divvy up will be one of the securest investments I shall ever make. The local news in Cambridge picked up on the project and I can quote from the report by the excellent Cabume website , the source of Tech news from the ‘Cambridge cluster’ Put really simply Mr Flibble likes to dress up and take pictures of himself. One of the benefits of a split personality, however is that Mr Flibble is supported in his endeavour by Reed’s top notch photography skills, supreme mastery of Photoshop and unflinching dedication to the cause. The duo have collaborated to take a picture every day for the past 730-plus days. It is not a big surprise that neither Mr Flibble nor Reed watches any TV: In addition to his full-time role at Cambridge software house,Red Gate Software as head of creativity and the two to five hours a day he spends taking the Mr Flibble shots, Reed also helps organise the . And now Reed is using Kickstarter to see if the world is ready for a Mr Flibble coffee table book. Judging by the early response it is. At the time of writing, just a few days after it went live, ‘I Drink Lead Paint: An absurd photography book by Mr Flibble’ had raised £1,545 of the £10,000 target it needs to raise by the Friday 30 November deadline from 37 backers. Following the standard Kickstarter template, Reed is offering a series of rewards based on the amount pledged, ranging from a Mr Flibble desktop wallpaper for pledges of £5 or more to a signed copy of the book for pledges of £45 or more, right up to a starring role in the book for £1,500. Mr Flibble is unquestionably one of the more deranged Kickstarter hopefuls, but don’t think for a second that he doesn’t have a firm grasp on the challenges he faces on the road to immortalisation on 150 gsm stock. Under the section ‘risks and challenges’ on his Kickstarter page his statement begins: “An angry horde of telepathic iguanas discover the world’s last remaining stock of vintage lead paint and hold me to ransom. Gosh how I love to guzzle lead paint. Anyway… faced with such brazen bravado, I cower at the thought of taking on their combined might and die a sad and lonely Flibble deprived of my one and only true liquid love.” At which point, Reed manages to wrestle away the keyboard, giving him the opportunity to present slightly more cogent analysis of the obstacles the project must still overcome. We asked Reed a few questions about Mr Flibble’s Kickstarter adventure and felt that his responses were worth publishing in full: Firstly, how did you manage it – holding down a full time job and also conceiving and executing these ideas on a daily basis? I employed a small team of ferocious gerbils to feed me ideas on a daily basis. Whilst most of their ideas were incomprehensibly rubbish and usually revolved around food, just occasionally they’d give me an idea like my B-Men series. As a backup plan though, I found that the best way to generate ideas was to actually start taking photos. If I were to stand in front of the camera, pull a silly face, place a vegetable on my head or something else equally stupid, the resulting photo of that would typically spark an idea when I came to look at it. Sitting around idly trying to think of an idea was doomed to result in no ideas. I admit that I really struggled with time. I’m proud that I never missed a day, but it was definitely hard when you were late from work, tired or doing something socially on the same day. I don’t watch TV, which I guess really helps, because I’d frequently be spending 2-5 hours taking and processing the photos every day. Are there any overlaps between software development and creative thinking? Software is an inherently creative business and the speed that it moves ensures you always have to find solutions to new things. Everyone in the team needs to be a problem solver. Has it helped me specifically with my photography? Probably. Working within teams that continually need to figure out new stuff keeps the brain feisty I suppose, and I guess I’m continually exposed to a lot of possible sources of inspiration. How specifically will this Kickstarter project allow you to test the commercial appeal of your work and do you plan to get the book into shops? It’s taken a while to be confident saying it, but I know that people like the work that I do. I’ve had well over a million views of my pictures, many humbling comments and I know I’ve garnered some loyal fans out there who anticipate my next photo. For me, this Kickstarter is about seeing if there’s worth to my work beyond just making people smile. In an online world where there’s an abundance of freely available content, can you hope to receive anything from what you do, or would people just move onto the next piece of content if you happen to ask for some support? A book has been the single-most requested thing that people have asked me to produce and it’s something that I feel would showcase my work well. It’s just hard to convince people in the publishing industry just now to take any kind of risk – they’ve been hit hard. If I can show that people would like my work enough to buy a book, then it sends a pretty clear picture that publishers might hear, or it gives me the confidence enough to invest in myself a bit more – hard to do when you’re riddled with self-doubt! I’d love to see my work in the shops, yes. I could see it being the thing that someone flips through idly as they’re Christmas shopping and recognizing that it’d be just the perfect gift for their difficult to buy for friend or relative. That said, working in the software industry means I’m clearly aware of how I could use technology to distribute my work, but I can’t deny that there’s something very appealing to having a physical thing to hold in your hands. If the project is successful is there a chance that it could become a full-time job? At the moment that seems like a distant dream, as should this be successful, there are many more steps I’d need to take to reach any kind of business viability. Kickstarter seems exactly that – a way for people to help kick start me into something that could take off. If people like my work and want me to succeed with it, then taking a look at my Kickstarter page (and hopefully pledging a bit of support) would make my elbows blush considerably. So there is is. An opportunity to open the wallet just a bit to ensure that one of the more unusual talents sees the light in the format it deserves.  

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• How to Reuse Your Old Wi-Fi Router as a Network Switch

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Just because your old Wi-Fi router has been replaced by a newer model doesn’t mean it needs to gather dust in the closet. Read on as we show you how to take an old and underpowered Wi-Fi router and turn it into a respectable network switch (saving your $20 in the process). Image by mmgallan. Why Do I Want To Do This? Wi-Fi technology has changed significantly in the last ten years but Ethernet-based networking has changed very little. As such, a Wi-Fi router with 2006-era guts is lagging significantly behind current Wi-Fi router technology, but the Ethernet networking component of the device is just as useful as ever; aside from potentially being only 100Mbs instead of 1000Mbs capable (which for 99% of home applications is irrelevant) Ethernet is Ethernet. What does this matter to you, the consumer? It means that even though your old router doesn’t hack it for your Wi-Fi needs any longer the device is still a perfectly serviceable (and high quality) network switch. When do you need a network switch? Any time you want to share an Ethernet cable among multiple devices, you need a switch. For example, let’s say you have a single Ethernet wall jack behind your entertainment center. Unfortunately you have four devices that you want to link to your local network via hardline including your smart HDTV, DVR, Xbox, and a little Raspberry Pi running XBMC. Instead of spending $20-30 to purchase a brand new switch of comparable build quality to your old Wi-Fi router it makes financial sense (and is environmentally friendly) to invest five minutes of your time tweaking the settings on the old router to turn it from a Wi-Fi access point and routing tool into a network switch–perfect for dropping behind your entertainment center so that your DVR, Xbox, and media center computer can all share an Ethernet connection. What Do I Need? For this tutorial you’ll need a few things, all of which you likely have readily on hand or are free for download. To follow the basic portion of the tutorial, you’ll need the following: 1 Wi-Fi router with Ethernet ports 1 Computer with Ethernet jack 1 Ethernet cable For the advanced tutorial you’ll need all of those things, plus: 1 copy of DD-WRT firmware for your Wi-Fi router We’re conducting the experiment with a Linksys WRT54GL Wi-Fi router. The WRT54 series is one of the best selling Wi-Fi router series of all time and there’s a good chance a significant number of readers have one (or more) of them stuffed in an office closet. Even if you don’t have one of the WRT54 series routers, however, the principles we’re outlining here apply to all Wi-Fi routers; as long as your router administration panel allows the necessary changes you can follow right along with us. A quick note on the difference between the basic and advanced versions of this tutorial before we proceed. Your typical Wi-Fi router has 5 Ethernet ports on the back: 1 labeled “Internet”, “WAN”, or a variation thereof and intended to be connected to your DSL/Cable modem, and 4 labeled 1-4 intended to connect Ethernet devices like computers, printers, and game consoles directly to the Wi-Fi router. When you convert a Wi-Fi router to a switch, in most situations, you’ll lose two port as the “Internet” port cannot be used as a normal switch port and one of the switch ports becomes the input port for the Ethernet cable linking the switch to the main network. This means, referencing the diagram above, you’d lose the WAN port and LAN port 1, but retain LAN ports 2, 3, and 4 for use. If you only need to switch for 2-3 devices this may be satisfactory. However, for those of you that would prefer a more traditional switch setup where there is a dedicated WAN port and the rest of the ports are accessible, you’ll need to flash a third-party router firmware like the powerful DD-WRT onto your device. Doing so opens up the router to a greater degree of modification and allows you to assign the previously reserved WAN port to the switch, thus opening up LAN ports 1-4. Even if you don’t intend to use that extra port, DD-WRT offers you so many more options that it’s worth the extra few steps. Preparing Your Router for Life as a Switch Before we jump right in to shutting down the Wi-Fi functionality and repurposing your device as a network switch, there are a few important prep steps to attend to. First, you want to reset the router (if you just flashed a new firmware to your router, skip this step). Following the reset procedures for your particular router or go with what is known as the “Peacock Method” wherein you hold down the reset button for thirty seconds, unplug the router and wait (while still holding the reset button) for thirty seconds, and then plug it in while, again, continuing to hold down the rest button. Over the life of a router there are a variety of changes made, big and small, so it’s best to wipe them all back to the factory default before repurposing the router as a switch. Second, after resetting, we need to change the IP address of the device on the local network to an address which does not directly conflict with the new router. The typical default IP address for a home router is 192.168.1.1; if you ever need to get back into the administration panel of the router-turned-switch to check on things or make changes it will be a real hassle if the IP address of the device conflicts with the new home router. The simplest way to deal with this is to assign an address close to the actual router address but outside the range of addresses that your router will assign via the DHCP client; a good pick then is 192.168.1.2. Once the router is reset (or re-flashed) and has been assigned a new IP address, it’s time to configure it as a switch. Basic Router to Switch Configuration If you don’t want to (or need to) flash new firmware onto your device to open up that extra port, this is the section of the tutorial for you: we’ll cover how to take a stock router, our previously mentioned WRT54 series Linksys, and convert it to a switch. Hook the Wi-Fi router up to the network via one of the LAN ports (consider the WAN port as good as dead from this point forward, unless you start using the router in its traditional function again or later flash a more advanced firmware to the device, the port is officially retired at this point). Open the administration control panel via  web browser on a connected computer. Before we get started two things: first,  anything we don’t explicitly instruct you to change should be left in the default factory-reset setting as you find it, and two, change the settings in the order we list them as some settings can’t be changed after certain features are disabled. To start, let’s navigate to Setup ->Basic Setup. Here you need to change the following things: Local IP Address: [different than the primary router, e.g. 192.168.1.2] Subnet Mask: [same as the primary router, e.g. 255.255.255.0] DHCP Server: Disable Save with the “Save Settings” button and then navigate to Setup -> Advanced Routing: Operating Mode: Router This particular setting is very counterintuitive. The “Operating Mode” toggle tells the device whether or not it should enable the Network Address Translation (NAT)  feature. Because we’re turning a smart piece of networking hardware into a relatively dumb one, we don’t need this feature so we switch from Gateway mode (NAT on) to Router mode (NAT off). Our next stop is Wireless -> Basic Wireless Settings: Wireless SSID Broadcast: Disable Wireless Network Mode: Disabled After disabling the wireless we’re going to, again, do something counterintuitive. Navigate to Wireless -> Wireless Security and set the following parameters: Security Mode: WPA2 Personal WPA Algorithms: TKIP+AES WPA Shared Key: [select some random string of letters, numbers, and symbols like JF#d$di!Hdgio890] Now you may be asking yourself, why on Earth are we setting a rather secure Wi-Fi configuration on a Wi-Fi router we’re not going to use as a Wi-Fi node? On the off chance that something strange happens after, say, a power outage when your router-turned-switch cycles on and off a bunch of times and the Wi-Fi functionality is activated we don’t want to be running the Wi-Fi node wide open and granting unfettered access to your network. While the chances of this are next-to-nonexistent, it takes only a few seconds to apply the security measure so there’s little reason not to. Save your changes and navigate to Security ->Firewall. Uncheck everything but Filter Multicast Firewall Protect: Disable At this point you can save your changes again, review the changes you’ve made to ensure they all stuck, and then deploy your “new” switch wherever it is needed. Advanced Router to Switch Configuration For the advanced configuration, you’ll need a copy of DD-WRT installed on your router. Although doing so is an extra few steps, it gives you a lot more control over the process and liberates an extra port on the device. Hook the Wi-Fi router up to the network via one of the LAN ports (later you can switch the cable to the WAN port). Open the administration control panel via web browser on the connected computer. Navigate to the Setup -> Basic Setup tab to get started. In the Basic Setup tab, ensure the following settings are adjusted. The setting changes are not optional and are required to turn the Wi-Fi router into a switch. WAN Connection Type: Disabled Local IP Address: [different than the primary router, e.g. 192.168.1.2] Subnet Mask: [same as the primary router, e.g. 255.255.255.0] DHCP Server: Disable In addition to disabling the DHCP server, also uncheck all the DNSMasq boxes as the bottom of the DHCP sub-menu. If you want to activate the extra port (and why wouldn’t you), in the WAN port section: Assign WAN Port to Switch [X] At this point the router has become a switch and you have access to the WAN port so the LAN ports are all free. Since we’re already in the control panel, however, we might as well flip a few optional toggles that further lock down the switch and prevent something odd from happening. The optional settings are arranged via the menu you find them in. Remember to save your settings with the save button before moving onto a new tab. While still in the Setup -> Basic Setup menu, change the following: Gateway/Local DNS : [IP address of primary router, e.g. 192.168.1.1] NTP Client : Disable The next step is to turn off the radio completely (which not only kills the Wi-Fi but actually powers the physical radio chip off). Navigate to Wireless -> Advanced Settings -> Radio Time Restrictions: Radio Scheduling: Enable Select “Always Off” There’s no need to create a potential security problem by leaving the Wi-Fi radio on, the above toggle turns it completely off. Under Services -> Services: DNSMasq : Disable ttraff Daemon : Disable Under the Security -> Firewall tab, uncheck every box except “Filter Multicast”, as seen in the screenshot above, and then disable SPI Firewall. Once you’re done here save and move on to the Administration tab. Under Administration -> Management:  Info Site Password Protection : Enable Info Site MAC Masking : Disable CRON : Disable 802.1x : Disable Routing : Disable After this final round of tweaks, save and then apply your settings. Your router has now been, strategically, dumbed down enough to plod along as a very dependable little switch. Time to stuff it behind your desk or entertainment center and streamline your cabling.     

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• Letter to Ballmer: Making Better Consumer Devices

  - by andrewbrust

  Last year, I wrote Steve Ballmer an email, and he was kind enough to write me back.  The email contained a scan of a column I wrote praising Microsoft’s BI strategy.  His reply contained three simple words: “Super nice  thanks.” Well, now I’d like to write to Steve again, in an open letter format, and this time the love may be a bit tougher.  But I’m still super earnest. The past two days have been eventful ones for Microsoft: The company announced the departure of company veterans Robbie Bach and J Allard and the market announced Apple is now besting Microsoft in market capitalization. Plus, announcements were made that make it plain that Ballmer will, in effect, be running Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division himself. With that in mind, I’d like to offer my list of a dozen things I think Microsoft’s CEO should do to improve that division’s offerings and, hopefully, its bottom line. So here goes:   1. On Windows Phone 7, Stay the Course The press is teeming with headlines and reader comments proclaiming the death-before-arrival of Windows Phone 7.  That’s plain silly.  You’ve got the makings of a great and unique SmartPhone platform, and you’re the only company (even considering RIM) that can offer full fidelity Exchange integration, not to mention implementing Office on the device.  Let the existing team finish this puppy and ship it. And then have them pump out a few updates, over-the-air, quickly.  Show them that Google Android’s not the only product that can do good, rapid dot releases. And another thing: make sure your OEMs’ devices have flawless touch screens.  If they don’t, then you shouldn’t certify them for delivery to customers.  Period. Oh, and kill the Kin, quietly.  It was DOA, and you know it.   2. Move Media Center to the Xbox Platform Media Center is, at its core, a good product.  But delivering a media distribution and DVR platform on a sophisticated PC operating system like Windows 7 just creates too many moving parts.  Xbox already functions as the best Media Center extender device – it should actually be the hub as well. Media Center is mostly based on .NET code – and XNA is a .NET environment for Xbox – find a way to bridge that small gap and make Media Center a joy to work with instead of a frustration.  Beating Apple TV out of this sub-market is the lowest hanging fruit on the tree (goofy pun, but it’s true).   3. Integrate Media Center with Mediaroom, or Kill the Latter You have two media products with almost identical names.  One is for standalone DVRs and the other is for IPTV cable set tops with DVR capabilities.  Can we merge these please?  My previous request of putting Media Center on Xbox would seem to tie into this nicely, since you’ve announced plans to do that with Mediaroom already.   4. Fix the Red Ring of Death People love the Xbox, but they really don’t love sending their consoles back every 18-24 months, when they get a bunch of red lights flashing on power up.  You’ve handled this defect about as gracefully as possible, but it’s been around for a long time now and it doesn’t seem to be fixed yet.  You can do better.  In fact, you must do better, or you insult your customers.   5. Add Blu Ray to Xbox I know, streaming movies are the future; physical media is legacy technology.  So if that’s true, why did you back HD DVD so hard?  You know why: for now, the film studios won’t allow a large selection of new release, HD, surround sound content be distributed on any medium other than Blu Ray or cable pay per view/on-demand.  Don’t you want home theater buffs to see the Xbox as a fantastic device for their rigs?  Don’t you want to put PlayStation 3 out of its misery?  And if you follow my suggestions above (move Media Center to the Xbox and fix the Red Ring problem), you’d have it all sewn up.  Do I think Blu Ray functionality will move a lot of units?  No.  Do I think that it would move more units with desperately needed influential home theater consumers?  You bet.  And you might sell more ZunePass subscriptions in the process. But while you’re at it, make the fan quieter, please.   6. Make More of Windows Home Server Home Server is a fantastic product.  And for reasons unknown to me, it seems like you’re letting it languish.  Development of the add-in ecosystem seems underfunded.  WHS’ unparalleled ease of use and reliability for home PC backup (and emergency restores) goes unsung.  Product cycles are slow.  Support for your OEMs, who are doing great work, especially in the green space with Atom CPUs, seems lacking.  You’ve married a trophy girl and you keep her cloistered at home!  That’s cruel, unusual and, um, incredibly ill-advised.  Make use of this ace card, and while you’re at it, give it real integration with Media Center.  The integration thus far proof-of-concept quality.  You should go way past that – both products will benefit immeasurably.   7. Set Up a Partner Platform for Custom Installers There’s a whole sub-industry of companies that install, integrate and configure home theater, security and connected home products.  They have an industry group. They are influential in the high-end of the consumer electronics industry, and so are their customers.  They love Media Center and they love Windows Home Server.  But I have talked to several of them at the Consumer Electronics Show and they tell me you don’t love them.  They find it very difficult to do business with Microsoft, even though they want nothing more than to sell and evangelize your platform.  This is a travesty.  Please fix it.  Get Allison Watson and the Microsoft Partner Network on board and have her hire someone who knows how to run a channel program for consumer electronics companies.  Problem solved.  Markets expanded.   8. Make Your Own Hardware In other areas, I know you love your partners.  I help run one, so I appreciate that.  But when it came to Xbox and Zune you built them it yourself (albeit on a contract basis, which is fine).  Windows Phone 7 has a chance to work as an OEM play, but it would work better if you produced the devices.  At least consider building a reference device that sells alongside your OEMs’ offerings.  That’s what Google did with the Nexxus One.  And while that phone was not itself a big seller, it catalyzed two wonderful things : (1) a quality bar was set and (2) partners exceeded it.  Before the Nexxus One, the best Android handset out there was the Motorola Droid. The Nexxus One was better, and the HTC Droid Incredible and Evo 4G are now even better than Google’s phone, which is why Verizon and Sprint decided not to carry it.  Imagine if all Windows Phone 6.x devices were on par with the HTC HD2.  I tend to believe you’d have a lot bigger market share than you do now.   9. Continue with Your Retail Initiative From what I hear, it sounds like it’s going well.  And this goes right along with making your own hardware.  When you build it, they will come.  And then it makes the likes of Best Buy and Staples do better.   10. Make an Acquisition (or Two) TiVo and/or Moxi look ripe for the picking.  With their ability to build stuff people love and your ability to run a business, you might just have something.  But do a better job than you did when you bought Danger.  Buy the ideas, not just the customers, eh?   11. Make Beautiful Stuff You’ve heard this one before, I know.  But I have some head-shrinking advice on this one.  You know that Apple obsesses over its industrial design.  You know that appeals to consumers.  But it seems you think doing so is Apple’s game exclusively and so you shouldn’t even try.  Bull dinky.  Come to New York and visit the Museum of Modern Art’s Architecture and Design gallery.  You’ll see that lots of companies and product categories have had very high design value well before Apple existed.  You can do this, and the Zune HD was a great start.  Now run with that.  Find those negative voices in your head that are telling you that you can’t and shut them up.  For good.   12. Burst the Bubble Some of the products you’ve built seem like they were conceived in a bizarro world.  That would appear to be the result of groupthink.  You must do better.  And there’s lots of people willing to advise you.  This includes just about everyone in the Regional Director program, and probably a bunch of MVPs.  Heck, I bet the guys at Engadget could help out too.  Imagine if you let them see the Kin before it shipped.  Talk to high-end gear consumers.  Talk to Best Buy and CostCo customers too.   Signing Off I hope this was of value to you.  As I wrote this I kept telling myself how obvious, even trite, some of these pieces of advice were and then, because of that, doubting they’d really help.  But I decided that they must not be obvious to Microsoft.  Sometimes when you get wrapped up in stuff, it’s hard to clear your head.  I think my head’s pretty clear here though (I’m wrapped up in other stuff), so maybe my perspective can help.  If not, well, then, I guess they all can’t be super nice.

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• SQL SERVER – Guest Posts – Feodor Georgiev – The Context of Our Database Environment – Going Beyond the Internal SQL Server Waits – Wait Type – Day 21 of 28

  - by pinaldave

  This guest post is submitted by Feodor. Feodor Georgiev is a SQL Server database specialist with extensive experience of thinking both within and outside the box. He has wide experience of different systems and solutions in the fields of architecture, scalability, performance, etc. Feodor has experience with SQL Server 2000 and later versions, and is certified in SQL Server 2008. In this article Feodor explains the server-client-server process, and concentrated on the mutual waits between client and SQL Server. This is essential in grasping the concept of waits in a ‘global’ application plan. Recently I was asked to write a blog post about the wait statistics in SQL Server and since I had been thinking about writing it for quite some time now, here it is. It is a wide-spread idea that the wait statistics in SQL Server will tell you everything about your performance. Well, almost. Or should I say – barely. The reason for this is that SQL Server is always a part of a bigger system – there are always other players in the game: whether it is a client application, web service, any other kind of data import/export process and so on. In short, the SQL Server surroundings look like this: This means that SQL Server, aside from its internal waits, also depends on external waits and settings. As we can see in the picture above, SQL Server needs to have an interface in order to communicate with the surrounding clients over the network. For this communication, SQL Server uses protocol interfaces. I will not go into detail about which protocols are best, but you can read this article. Also, review the information about the TDS (Tabular data stream). As we all know, our system is only as fast as its slowest component. This means that when we look at our environment as a whole, the SQL Server might be a victim of external pressure, no matter how well we have tuned our database server performance. Let’s dive into an example: let’s say that we have a web server, hosting a web application which is using data from our SQL Server, hosted on another server. The network card of the web server for some reason is malfunctioning (think of a hardware failure, driver failure, or just improper setup) and does not send/receive data faster than 10Mbs. On the other end, our SQL Server will not be able to send/receive data at a faster rate either. This means that the application users will notify the support team and will say: “My data is coming very slow.” Now, let’s move on to a bit more exciting example: imagine that there is a similar setup as the example above – one web server and one database server, and the application is not using any stored procedure calls, but instead for every user request the application is sending 80kb query over the network to the SQL Server. (I really thought this does not happen in real life until I saw it one day.) So, what happens in this case? To make things worse, let’s say that the 80kb query text is submitted from the application to the SQL Server at least 100 times per minute, and as often as 300 times per minute in peak times. Here is what happens: in order for this query to reach the SQL Server, it will have to be broken into a of number network packets (according to the packet size settings) – and will travel over the network. On the other side, our SQL Server network card will receive the packets, will pass them to our network layer, the packets will get assembled, and eventually SQL Server will start processing the query – parsing, allegorizing, generating the query execution plan and so on. So far, we have already had a serious network overhead by waiting for the packets to reach our Database Engine. There will certainly be some processing overhead – until the database engine deals with the 80kb query and its 20 subqueries. The waits you see in the DMVs are actually collected from the point the query reaches the SQL Server and the packets are assembled. Let’s say that our query is processed and it finally returns 15000 rows. These rows have a certain size as well, depending on the data types returned. This means that the data will have converted to packages (depending on the network size package settings) and will have to reach the application server. There will also be waits, however, this time you will be able to see a wait type in the DMVs called ASYNC_NETWORK_IO. What this wait type indicates is that the client is not consuming the data fast enough and the network buffers are filling up. Recently Pinal Dave posted a blog on Client Statistics. What Client Statistics does is captures the physical flow characteristics of the query between the client(Management Studio, in this case) and the server and back to the client. As you see in the image, there are three categories: Query Profile Statistics, Network Statistics and Time Statistics. Number of server roundtrips–a roundtrip consists of a request sent to the server and a reply from the server to the client. For example, if your query has three select statements, and they are separated by ‘GO’ command, then there will be three different roundtrips. TDS Packets sent from the client – TDS (tabular data stream) is the language which SQL Server speaks, and in order for applications to communicate with SQL Server, they need to pack the requests in TDS packets. TDS Packets sent from the client is the number of packets sent from the client; in case the request is large, then it may need more buffers, and eventually might even need more server roundtrips. TDS packets received from server –is the TDS packets sent by the server to the client during the query execution. Bytes sent from client – is the volume of the data set to our SQL Server, measured in bytes; i.e. how big of a query we have sent to the SQL Server. This is why it is best to use stored procedures, since the reusable code (which already exists as an object in the SQL Server) will only be called as a name of procedure + parameters, and this will minimize the network pressure. Bytes received from server – is the amount of data the SQL Server has sent to the client, measured in bytes. Depending on the number of rows and the datatypes involved, this number will vary. But still, think about the network load when you request data from SQL Server. Client processing time – is the amount of time spent in milliseconds between the first received response packet and the last received response packet by the client. Wait time on server replies – is the time in milliseconds between the last request packet which left the client and the first response packet which came back from the server to the client. Total execution time – is the sum of client processing time and wait time on server replies (the SQL Server internal processing time) Here is an illustration of the Client-server communication model which should help you understand the mutual waits in a client-server environment. Keep in mind that a query with a large ‘wait time on server replies’ means the server took a long time to produce the very first row. This is usual on queries that have operators that need the entire sub-query to evaluate before they proceed (for example, sort and top operators). However, a query with a very short ‘wait time on server replies’ means that the query was able to return the first row fast. However a long ‘client processing time’ does not necessarily imply the client spent a lot of time processing and the server was blocked waiting on the client. It can simply mean that the server continued to return rows from the result and this is how long it took until the very last row was returned. The bottom line is that developers and DBAs should work together and think carefully of the resource utilization in the client-server environment. From experience I can say that so far I have seen only cases when the application developers and the Database developers are on their own and do not ask questions about the other party’s world. I would recommend using the Client Statistics tool during new development to track the performance of the queries, and also to find a synchronous way of utilizing resources between the client – server – client. Here is another example: think about similar setup as above, but add another server to the game. Let’s say that we keep our media on a separate server, and together with the data from our SQL Server we need to display some images on the webpage requested by our user. No matter how simple or complicated the logic to get the images is, if the images are 500kb each our users will get the page slowly and they will still think that there is something wrong with our data. Anyway, I don’t mean to get carried away too far from SQL Server. Instead, what I would like to say is that DBAs should also be aware of ‘the big picture’. I wrote a blog post a while back on this topic, and if you are interested, you can read it here about the big picture. And finally, here are some guidelines for monitoring the network performance and improving it: Run a trace and outline all queries that return more than 1000 rows (in Profiler you can actually filter and sort the captured trace by number of returned rows). This is not a set number; it is more of a guideline. The general thought is that no application user can consume that many rows at once. Ask yourself and your fellow-developers: ‘why?’. Monitor your network counters in Perfmon: Network Interface:Output queue length, Redirector:Network errors/sec, TCPv4: Segments retransmitted/sec and so on. Make sure to establish a good friendship with your network administrator (buy them coffee, for example J ) and get into a conversation about the network settings. Have them explain to you how the network cards are setup – are they standalone, are they ‘teamed’, what are the settings – full duplex and so on. Find some time to read a bit about networking. In this short blog post I hope I have turned your attention to ‘the big picture’ and the fact that there are other factors affecting our SQL Server, aside from its internal workings. As a further reading I would still highly recommend the Wait Stats series on this blog, also I would recommend you have the coffee break conversation with your network admin as soon as possible. This guest post is written by Feodor Georgiev. Read all the post in the Wait Types and Queue series. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, Readers Contribution, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL

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• Advantages of SQL Backup Pro

  - by Grant Fritchey

  Getting backups of your databases in place is a fundamental issue for protection of the business. Yes, I said business, not data, not databases, but business. Because of a lack of good, tested, backups, companies have gone completely out of business or suffered traumatic financial loss. That’s just a simple fact (outlined with a few examples here). So you want to get backups right. That’s a big part of why we make Red Gate SQL Backup Pro work the way it does. Yes, you could just use native backups, but you’ll be missing a few advantages that we provide over and above what you get out of the box from Microsoft. Let’s talk about them. Guidance If you’re a hard-core DBA with 20+ years of experience on every version of SQL Server and several other data platforms besides, you may already know what you need in order to get a set of tested backups in place. But, if you’re not, maybe a little help would be a good thing. To set up backups for your servers, we supply a wizard that will step you through the entire process. It will also act to guide you down good paths. For example, if your databases are in Full Recovery, you should set up transaction log backups to run on a regular basis. When you choose a transaction log backup from the Backup Type you’ll see that only those databases that are in Full Recovery will be listed: This makes it very easy to be sure you have a log backup set up for all the databases you should and none of the databases where you won’t be able to. There are other examples of guidance throughout the product. If you have the responsibility of managing backups but very little knowledge or time, we can help you out. Throughout the software you’ll notice little green question marks. You can see two in the screen above and more in each of the screens in other topics below this one. Clicking on these will open a window with additional information about the topic in question which should help to guide you through some of the tougher decisions you may have to make while setting up your backup jobs. Here’s an example: Backup Copies As a part of the wizard you can choose to make a copy of your backup on your network. This process runs as part of the Red Gate SQL Backup engine. It will copy your backup, after completing the backup so it doesn’t cause any additional blocking or resource use within the backup process, to the network location you define. Creating a copy acts as a mechanism of protection for your backups. You can then backup that copy or do other things with it, all without affecting the original backup file. This requires either an additional backup or additional scripting to get it done within the native Microsoft backup engine. Offsite Storage Red Gate offers you the ability to immediately copy your backup to the cloud as a further, off-site, protection of your backups. It’s a service we provide and expose through the Backup wizard. Your backup will complete first, just like with the network backup copy, then an asynchronous process will copy that backup to cloud storage. Again, this is built right into the wizard or even the command line calls to SQL Backup, so it’s part a single process within your system. With native backup you would need to write additional scripts, possibly outside of T-SQL, to make this happen. Before you can use this with your backups you’ll need to do a little setup, but it’s built right into the product to get this done. You’ll be directed to the web site for our hosted storage where you can set up an account. Compression If you have SQL Server 2008 Enterprise, or you’re on SQL Server 2008R2 or greater and you have a Standard or Enterprise license, then you have backup compression. It’s built right in and works well. But, if you need even more compression then you might want to consider Red Gate SQL Backup Pro. We offer four levels of compression within the product. This means you can get a little compression faster, or you can just sacrifice some CPU time and get even more compression. You decide. For just a simple example I backed up AdventureWorks2012 using both methods of compression. The resulting file from native was 53mb. Our file was 33mb. That’s a file that is smaller by 38%, not a small number when we start talking gigabytes. We even provide guidance here to help you determine which level of compression would be right for you and your system: So for this test, if you wanted maximum compression with minimum CPU use you’d probably want to go with Level 2 which gets you almost as much compression as Level 3 but will use fewer resources. And that compression is still better than the native one by 10%. Restore Testing Backups are vital. But, a backup is just a file until you restore it. How do you know that you can restore that backup? Of course, you’ll use CHECKSUM to validate that what was read from disk during the backup process is what gets written to the backup file. You’ll also use VERIFYONLY to check that the backup header and the checksums on the backup file are valid. But, this doesn’t do a complete test of the backup. The only complete test is a restore. So, what you really need is a process that tests your backups. This is something you’ll have to schedule separately from your backups, but we provide a couple of mechanisms to help you out here. First, when you create a backup schedule, all done through our wizard which gives you as much guidance as you get when running backups, you get the option of creating a reminder to create a job to test your restores. You can enable this or disable it as you choose when creating your scheduled backups. Once you’re ready to schedule test restores for your databases, we have a wizard for this as well. After you choose the databases and restores you want to test, all configurable for automation, you get to decide if you’re going to restore to a specified copy or to the original database: If you’re doing your tests on a new server (probably the best choice) you can just overwrite the original database if it’s there. If not, you may want to create a new database each time you test your restores. Another part of validating your backups is ensuring that they can pass consistency checks. So we have DBCC built right into the process. You can even decide how you want DBCC run, which error messages to include, limit or add to the checks being run. With this you could offload some DBCC checks from your production system so that you only run the physical checks on your production box, but run the full check on this backup. That makes backup testing not just a general safety process, but a performance enhancer as well: Finally, assuming the tests pass, you can delete the database, leave it in place, or delete it regardless of the tests passing. All this is automated and scheduled through the SQL Agent job on your servers. Running your databases through this process will ensure that you don’t just have backups, but that you have tested backups. Single Point of Management If you have more than one server to maintain, getting backups setup could be a tedious process. But, with Red Gate SQL Backup Pro you can connect to multiple servers and then manage all your databases and all your servers backups from a single location. You’ll be able to see what is scheduled, what has run successfully and what has failed, all from a single interface without having to connect to different servers. Log Shipping Wizard If you want to set up log shipping as part of a disaster recovery process, it can frequently be a pain to get configured correctly. We supply a wizard that will walk you through every step of the process including setting up alerts so you’ll know should your log shipping fail. Summary You want to get your backups right. As outlined above, Red Gate SQL Backup Pro will absolutely help you there. We supply a number of processes and functionalities above and beyond what you get with SQL Server native. Plus, with our guidance, hints and reminders, you will get your backups set up in a way that protects your business.

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