Script to sequentially defrag remote servers (example: on a SAN!)
December 13, 2007
Posted by Roel in : Technical , 1 comment so far
Previous years i had running several scheduled tasks on all my servers.
Recently I migrated all my Physical Large Iron Hardware (mostly servers) to Virtual Servers (VMs) in XEN. I have an OpenFiler SAN which hosts all the Storage (iSCSI storage or NFS shares).
I still had all my scheduled tasks running at all the Virtual servers, which included Backup and Defrag tasks, they all started somewhere between 02:00 and 06:00 during the night.
Because the defrag and backup tasks were now running all on the same OpenFiler SAN and all at the same time, the SAN was getting a bit slow,… as you can imagine ;)
That’s why i made a sequential defrag script!
How to resize your SR in Xen
November 3, 2007
Posted by Roel in : Technical , 5comments
Since a while, i’m using OpenFiler 2.x and Xen 4.01 Enterprise.
I use the iSCSI capabilities of OpenFiler for my Storage Repositories (SR) in Xen.
Last week i had a space problem for one of my VMs in XEN: The (virtual) Harddrive was only 30GB and i wanted to add another drive of 60GB. However, my Storage Repository (SR) was only 30GB! (more…)
Hidden Share$ in OpenFiler
October 16, 2007
Posted by Roel in : Technical , add a comment
You can create a hidden (Windows) share in OpenFiler (SMB/CIFS Share) by entering the “Override SMB share name” ending with the $ sign. Do not forget to restart (disable and enable) the SMB/CIFS service.
This actually changes the /etc/samba/smb.conf file to something like this (you can also do that manually):
[Backup$]
comment = Backup
path = /mnt/...../Backup
...
Note: Linux boxes always see ‘hidden’ Windows shares, only windows is hiding them.
obscurity != security
Windows .NET 2.0 Update warnings (aspnet_perf.dll / KB928365)
October 14, 2007
Posted by Roel in : Technical , add a comment
I had a Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 (30day edition) running. When I decided to run all updates (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com), I saw the following warnings in the Application Event Log:
Event ID: 37
Type: Warning
Source: WINMgmt
Description:
WMI ADAP was unable to load the C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_perf.dll performance library due to an unknown problem within the library 0×0.
Finally, ICACLS Valhalla !
August 20, 2007
Posted by Roel in : Technical , 2comments
Did you ever need to script ’setting-file/folder-permissions’ or making a deployment or install script ? Or did you ever screwed-up the NTFS permissions on the C:\Windows folder (including all the subfolders) ?
If so, you’d better read on;
Microsoft finally came with a solution which stops all the horror of automaticly setting-NTFS permissions, including the slow and buggy CACLS variants. (more…)
ABN-AMRO security weaknesses
April 17, 2007
Posted by Roel in : Technical , 1 comment so far
Today i took some time to write a little about ABN-AMRO’s security weaknesses.
This article including it’s examples and example code (which will be posted later) are for educational purposes only.
Account blocking
It’s made too simple to lock an account for internet banking. Going to https://www.abnamro.nl/nl/homepage/overview.html and typing an existing bank account number with any card number, submit this 5 times and the account will be locked.
The owner of the account needs to call the Service Center (or submit a letter/fax) and request to unlock his/her account. This takes some time,.. meanwhile he/she cannot enjoy internet banking or online stock trading.
You might think: “Nothing wrong, it’s just one account”.
Wrong!, imagine building a script, blocking all account numbers of all internet banking customers.
(more…)
Miss list
February 6, 2007
Posted by Roel in : Technical , add a comment
Instead of making a wish list, i’ll give you my miss list below. Most of the items should be vaporware #1 since many people are waiting years for it and the miss will be a bigger problem in feature. As soon as an item is available or a good workarround is available i’ll post it next to the item.
- MySQL (5.x) Cluster for Windows(server) (thread)
- MySQL open-connection and password-attack protection (auto-block IP)
- IIS FTP – Password-attack protection (auto-block IP) (also see this EE request)
Get the most out of your Ipaq 6915
January 25, 2007
Posted by Roel in : Technical , 7comments
Last year i bought my new HP Ipaq 6915. Last month the touchscreen broke (couldn’t touch it anymore), first i thought it was a software problem so i did a hard-reset on the device. Too bad, after a hard-reset you must tab-the-screen which i couldn’t.. I called HP which came to pickup the device and withing one week UPS came to bring a new one (thanks to the CarePaq). A new year, a new device, a new clean start. Below i give you my best-software / tweaks for this device;
- CoolCam (instead of using the slow camera)
- Use SmartTweaker 1.08 (for the real-time memory defrag, blinking sms led, menu and IE speedup, flexible handling of EXE and CAB files, set call history to 1000).
- PHM Registry Editor (0.70) for Pocket PC (to make the TomTom6 internal GPS fix and more)
- Eye on Privacy (0.40) (to lock my sms/mail or even call-log/phone/calendar with a pin code. Note that the user-interface is a bit ugly. It’s also capable of safe-list sms, inserting a fake sms or sending a urgent/alert sms with a hotkey)
- TomTom6 (TomTom5 was built-in)
- Phone Hack (replaces the .mid files to .wav to reduce slow-number-input) (thread) (download it free at my mirror)
Trans IP removes negative feedback.
December 10, 2006
Posted by Roel in : Technical , add a comment
One year ago, the main domain name of my company was hijacked, fortunately we monitor those things and i was on time to prevent a little disaster.
The company who initiated this hijacking was Trans IP, one of the larger hosting companies in The Netherlands. I thought it was my duty to write a little comment at the ‘independant’ webhosting-compare site: www.webhosters.nl about this hijacking.
A few months later i noticed there was a reaction on the site from Trans IP. I gues their marketing department was trying to get the negative feedback off the web. One week later i got an email from Dennis, he was a Trans IP customer and had some complaints and experienced weird things with Trans IP, so he also wrote a comment at www.webhosters.nl.
He also got a reaction (fax1 and fax2) from Trans IP and had to remove his comment at www.webhosters.nl or he got a lawsuit. He did because he didn’t want any further problems and moved to another webhoster.
It is probably disturbing the people at Trans IP that when you google their name there were plenty of negative stories on them, instead of lifting their service to a higher level they decided to remove the negative content and threat with lawsuits..
HowTo setup a DNS Appliance (Cobalt RAQ2)
November 29, 2006
Posted by Roel in : Technical , 2comments
Last weeks i spent some time working on a ‘new’ DNS appliance. DNS is light weight but you must have multiple separate servers for redundancy in multiple locations. Using a power consuming HP DL-360 server would be a serious overkill and running Microsoft Windows Server for DNS only, is a waste of licensing / money / expertise and required hardware. The need for a simple (cheap hardware), easy to manage (web interface), standard (BIND for DNS), flexible (capable of working with Active Directory) and low-power consuming DNS appliance is everywhere.
