Tech Blog of N.E.C.O.

My Blog has a copy, Beware of counterfeits : TAKE 2

2010-07-08T22:43:00.000+03:00

Today I realized another blog stealing my precious content :) This time it's under blogger.com domain.

http://microsoft-systemengineer.blogspot.com/

I even see this guy's blog posts have higher page ranking in Google for some of my articles. How fair !

Hyper-V Best Practices Analyzer

2010-04-30T12:56:00.002+03:00

Microsoft released a best practices analyzer for Hyper-V on Windows 2008 R2 only which can be found on the following link :
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977238/en-us

Hotfix : Windows 2008 R2 + Hyper-V + Intel Nehalem = Blue Screen

2010-03-08T09:51:00.000+02:00

If you have Windows 2008 R2 + Hyper-V running on Nehalem CPU(Intel Xeon 5500 or Core-i) and getting blue screen messages with 0x00000101 - CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT stop code then you will definetly need to check the KB below :

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/975530

Before applying the Hotfix to your platform take into account the warning from MS :

Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing the problem described in this article. This hotfix might receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next software update that contains this hotfix.

Windows 2008 R2 Migration Utilities for Hyper-V

2010-03-01T22:30:00.000+02:00

Windows 2008 R2 Migration utilities has been updated with support for Hyper-V. Now it's possible to migrate your Hyper-V setup including VMs,Virtual Switches,VMQ,Chimney Settings etc.. to a Windows 2008 R2 host. The support is from :

Windows 2008 x64 Full Only
Windows 2008 R2 x64 Core or Full Edition to :

Windows 2008 R2 x64 Core or Full Editions. Also from documentation the scenarios that are not supported are :

The saved state of a virtual machine under one of the following conditions:
- When moving from Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 to Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2.
- When moving between physical computers that have different processor steppings or vendors—for example, migrating from a computer with an Intel processor to a computer with an AMD processor.
Virtual machine configuration under one of the following conditions:
- When the number of virtual processors configured for the virtual machine is more than the number of logical processors on the destination server.
- When the memory configured for a virtual machine is greater than the available memory on the destination server.
Consolidation of physical servers to virtual machines, or consolidation of multiple instances of Hyper-V to one instance.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5c1ec14a-e9d7-46ea-9c6e-73d6bc4219b4

Documentation:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee849855(WS.10).aspx

F5 System Engineer LTM Certified

2010-02-26T13:37:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I passed the second and final exam in the F5 System Engineering track F50-522. Without breaking NDA lets go into an overview of the exam :
- As I mentioned in LTM Essentials F50-521 exam, the questions are mostly based on theory. So you need to know hot things works instead of how things are done. Having more then 3 years of hands on with those devices, I really had hard time on some of the questions :)
- Majority of the questions requires you to have a deep understanding of Virtual Server types (network,transparent,forwarding), SNAT/NAT concepts like automap and how source and destination IP@ changes from client to member node.
- Master the iRules. Know the context for each method. Know how context changes the behavior of local_address/remote_address etc..
- Master TCL functions like findstr,starts_with,ends_with etc..
- Know variety of logging options like alertd,syslog-ng and snmpd
- And for sure you need to have a good understanding of how HTTP works. Cookies, Keep-alive messages and their interaction with One-Connect profiles, XForward headers etc..

Hyper-V Live Migration Network Configuration Guide from Microsoft

2010-02-26T11:42:00.000+02:00

Microsoft just released a network configuration guide for Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V Live Migration feature. It's short but useful article at least for design perspective.

This guide describes how to configure your network to use the live migration feature of Hyper-V™. It provides a detailed list of the networking configuration requirements for optimal performance and reliability, as well as recommendations for scenarios that do not meet these requirements.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff428137(WS.10).aspx

Microsoft recommends Increasing VMBus buffer size on Hyper-V for better network throughput

2010-02-14T22:30:00.003+02:00

I read an article on Windows Server Performance team blog. Basically it's recommending increasing the VmBus buffer size from 1MB to 2MB to get a better network throughput and a less chance of packet loss for VMGuest NICs on Hyper-V.

"Your workloads and networking traffic may not need increased buffers; however, these days, 4Mb of RAM isn’t a tremendous amount of memory to invest as an insurance policy against packet loss. Now, if only I could increase a few buffers and alleviate congestion on my daily commute!"

http://blogs.technet.com/winserverperformance/archive/2010/02/02/increase-vmbus-buffer-sizes-to-increase-network-throughput-to-guest-vms.aspx

In order to make the change (source above) :
On the Guest OS , In the Network Adapter Properties dialog, select the Details tab. Select Driver Key in the Property pull-down menu as shown in figure 1 (click the images to see a version that's actually readable):

Record the GUID\index found in the Value box, as shown in figure 1, above. Open regedit and navigate to:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{GUID}\{index} as shown in figure 2:

Right click the index number and create two new DWORD values, entitled ReceiveBufferSize and SendBufferSize (see figure 3). These values measure the memory allocated to buffers in 1Kb units. So, 0x400 equates to 1,024Kb buffer space (the default, 640 buffers). In this example, we’ve doubled the buffer size to 0x800, or 2,048Kb of memory, as shown in figure 3:

F5 BigIP Virtual Edition

2010-02-12T20:41:00.001+02:00

F5 released a trial version of their famous LTM (Local Traffic Manager) product. The product is valid for 90 days trial use. It can be a great candidate for testing the product for your virtual environment or building a home lab for your F5 Certification studies.(F50-521 and F50-522 exams)

First download the file for your VMware virtual platform (ESX(i) vSphere or Workstation 7)

https://downloads.f5.com/esd/product.jsp?sw=BIG-IP&pro=big-ip_ve&prodesc=BIG-IP+Virtual+Edition

Then generate a registration key for your product that will be used to create the dossier file for activation during initial setup. You can have up to 4 registration keys e-mailed to you :

https://www.f5.com/trial/secure/generate-eval-key.php

The virtual machine has :

1 GB RAM
3 NIC (should be possible to additional NIC for redundant pair heartbeat traffic)
10 GB vdisk

NOTE : Don't try to decrease memory, otherwise you will have problems allocating additional modules to LTM.

You can find the detailed installation document on :
https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ve/releasenotes/product/relnotes_ve_10_1_0.html

My Blog has a copy, Beware of counterfeits :)

2010-02-10T23:33:00.000+02:00

Today while I was checking my Google Alerts RSS feed, I realized a post I sent was replicated to another site. After entering to the website I got shocked. It was a complete replica of my blog. Check below :

http://systemengineer.blogcu.com/

I hope I didn't promote this fake blog giving its URL:) Btw I sent an email to the blogcu.com for further action. Hope they will take care asap.

Vulnerability in Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Could Allow Denial of Service - 977894

2010-02-09T23:40:00.000+02:00

A new security bulletin by Microsoft has been published today. This DoS vulnerability effects the x64 editions of Windows 2008 and R2 including the Core installations.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS10-010.mspx

This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V. The vulnerability could allow denial of service if a malformed sequence of machine instructions is run by an authenticated user in one of the guest virtual machines hosted by the Hyper-V server. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally into a guest virtual machine to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users.

How to test the throughput/performance of your network using Netperf - Part 1

2010-02-07T19:42:00.000+02:00

In this multi-part series, I will explain how to use GNU tools and Linux to have a free network throughput test setup. In Part 1 of the series we will use only one NIC to create single unicast TCP/UDP stream to saturate the linkspeed.
First of all what I used to have this test setup (you can adapt it to your needs)

HW :
- 2 HP Blade on same enclosure chassis with 10Gig HP Flex NICs. (servers)
- HP VC Flex 10 (the network device)

Software :- Centos 5.4 x64
- I only installed core GNU packages + development libraries. No unnecessary service/software loaded. Even I took XWindow(Gnome/KDE) out of the package and run the system in rulevel 3.
- Disable Firewall/SELinux
- netperf rpm (ftp://ftp.netperf.org/netperf/netperf-2.4.5.tar.gz)

I made the first run of the test using single Vnet (counterpart of VLANs in HP Virtual Connect). You can also use the same tools to create a setup that utilize Shared Uplink Sets (trunk links on VC). In order to set this up create a Vnet for your load VLAN(Vnet_LOAD). Create the profiles for the blades and assign one FlexNIC with 100Mb to management VNet and the other one to VNet_LOAD (10Gb)

Netperf is based on client server model. After installing the software on both blades you execute different processes on different nodes. netserver as the name states is the server part of the test suite. You can also use the

[root@SERVER ~]# netserver
Starting netserver at port 12865
Starting netserver at hostname 0.0.0.0 port 12865 and family AF_UNSPEC

while netperf is the tool that executes the test and gives output.

[root@CLIENT ~]# netperf -H SERVER -l 15
TCP STREAM TEST from 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0) port 0 AF_INET to SERVER (*******) port 0 AF_INET
Recv Send Send
Socket Socket Message Elapsed
Size Size Size Time Throughput
bytes bytes bytes secs. 10^6bits/sec
87380 16384 16384 15.00 9387.92

The default test is TCP_STREAM you can also define other tests like UDP Request Response to fully saturate Full Duplex Link :

[root@CLIENT ~]# netperf -t UDP_RR -H SERVER -l 15

UDP REQUEST/RESPONSE TEST from 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0) port 0 AF_INET to SERVER (*********) port 0 AF_INET

Local /Remote

Socket Size Request Resp. Elapsed Trans.

Send Recv Size Size Time Rate

bytes Bytes bytes bytes secs. per sec

129024 129024 1 1 15.00 21045.72

Also you can fetch the CPU utilization info while doing the test using -c (local) and -C(remote) parameters

[root@CLIENT ~]# netperf -t UDP_RR -H SERVER -l 15 -c -C
UDP REQUEST/RESPONSE TEST from 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0) port 0 AF_INET to SERVER (*******) port 0 AF_INET
Local /Remote
Socket Size Request Resp. Elapsed Trans. CPU CPU S.dem S.dem
Send Recv Size Size Time Rate local remote local remote
bytes bytes bytes bytes secs. per sec % S % S us/Tr us/Tr
129024 129024 1 1 15.00 20964.03 2.06 2.03 15.759 15.481

For detailed documentation and command line options you can check :

http://www.netperf.org/netperf/training/Netperf.html#0.2.2Z141Z1.SUJSTF.8R2DBD.J

On the next parts of the series I will focus on different types of throughput/load tests like multi flow & multi IP throughput testing using netperf & some Linux tweaking and IP multicast testing using MGEN.

F5 Big IP LTM Certification

2010-02-04T10:28:00.002+02:00

I've been planning to have F5 certification for a long time. Last Tuesday I had a chance to take and pass the fist exam of F5 System Engineering track which is the F50-521 LTM essentials exam. That makes me certified as F5 Product Consultant - Local Traffic Management. 10th IT certification in my museum :)

As part of NDA I will not go into the details but will give an overview of the exam :

- First of all Student/Instructor guide is not alone sufficient for the exam. You should also take a look on product documentation. The exam is currently covering 9.4 material.
- Apart from the practical side of the devices, you should mostly focus on the theory. I didn't get any lab question like I had in Cisco exams.
- Knowing the theory of NAT/SNAT, iRule, some of the TCL function syntax, VS, Pool and Profile details, redundancy/failover concepts will help you a lot in the exam.
- You will need 76% to pass out of 50 questions. If all questions have the same weight that means you have a chance to make 12 mistakes.

Next week I will also take the F50-522 Advanced exam for the F5 System Engineer certification. Good luck to me ;-)

NOTE : I'm still preparing for the RHCE lab. I will also put updates on the blog about that.

Hyper-V Memory Overcommitment in new Service Pack for Windows 2008 R2

2010-02-03T10:25:00.002+02:00

One of the features in Vmware Infrastructre that was missing in Hyper-V was over-provisioning of memory resources which is also known as memory overcommitment. A leaked screenshot from Softpedia shows that the dynamic memory management features is about to be included in the next Windows 2008 build.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Windows-8-Start-Post-RTM-Windows-7-Build-6-1-7700-0-100122-1900-133746.shtml

Windows 2008: Modifying Network Bindings from CLI

2010-02-03T09:46:00.000+02:00

Microsoft internals just released a tool called nvsbind. For our mass deployments I was using a powershell script which I wrote in order to change network bindings on specific interfaces (disable IPv6,File and Printer sharing etc..)This really requires lots of effort.(fetching registry hive,modfying it making queries to Inetcfg classes etc..)

With this tool it is now possible to make this via CLI. It can also change NIC binding order for specific protocols.
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/nvspbind

Parameters are as below:

C:\>nvspbind /?

Hyper-V Network VSP Bind Application 6.1.7690.0.
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Usage: nvspbind [option] [NIC|*] [protocol|*]

Options:
   /n display NIC information only
   /u unbind switch protocol from specified nic(s)
   /b bind switch protocol to specified nic(s)
   /d disable binding of specified protocol from specified nic(s)
   /e enable binding of specified protocol to specified nic(s)
   /r repair bindings on specified nic(s)
   /o show NIC order for specified protocol
   /+ move specified NIC up in binding order for specified protocol
   /- move specified NIC down in binding order for specified protocol

Most options are documented in the readme which downloads with the install.
The NIC connection order options (o, + and -) show the NIC connection order, move NICs up and move NICs down.

Project Sikuli : Innovative approach to Scripting using image recognition.

2010-02-01T22:32:00.003+02:00

Project Sikuli is a new automation scripting language developed by MIT students. This new development environment uses image recognition for processesing. So you can say click on this image on the screen then type this etc.. The syntax look like Python and the IDE is based on Java. So any machine with JRE can run this. I'm really planning to do some server side test case automation based on this new language. If you check the project site even the 0.9.7 release contains lots of features. For more information check :
http://sikuli.org/

For examples (especially the bejeweled bot shows the skills of this new IDE):
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/sikuli/demo.shtml

0x80041002 Error while adding host to NLB Cluster

2010-01-25T00:08:00.000+02:00

We were getting error 0x80041002 while adding host to a NLB cluster. After making some research I recognised that apart from being a NLB specific error this was related with WMI repositories.

As we started to have this error after a power failure, recreating WMI repositories made sense. In order to fix this error :

- Stop WMI service.
- Move contents of %windir%\system32\wbem\repository to a temp folder (if Windows doesnt allow do this in safe mode)
- Go to command prompt. Under %windir%\system32\webm execute :

mofcomp cimwin32.mof
mofcomp wlbsprov.mof
mofcomp nlbmprov.mof

- Start the WMI service and try the NLB operation again.

"Server manager has detected that the processor on this computer is not compatible with Hyper-V" Error While Enabling Hyper-V Role

2009-12-28T12:25:00.001+02:00

If you receive the below error during the installation of Hyper-V role :

"Server manager has detected that the processor on this computer is not compatible with Hyper-V. To install this roll, the processor must have a supported version of hardware-assisted virtualization and that feature must be turned on in the BIOS."

First make sure you have Hardware Assisted Virtualization and DEP turned on BIOS. If you still see this error message after enabling those roles make sure you didn't enable the role using :

start /w ocsetup Microsoft-Hyper-V

If so you need to first uninstall it (start /w ocsetup Microsoft-Hyper-V /uninstall) then install using the GUI (Server Manager -> Add Roles)

Redhat Virtual Experience 2009

2009-12-14T00:00:00.000+02:00

Redhat Virtual Experience 2009 online convention is available for replay :

http://www-2.virtualevents365.com/rhexp/

Eclipse Character Set Problem During Save

2009-12-05T15:50:00.001+02:00

I'm using ECLIPSE as the Perl editor on my Windows machine together with EPIC Perl. If I copy/paste sample code from Perl books I get the error :

Save could not be completed.
Reason:
Some characters cannot be mapped using "Cp1254" character encoding.
Either change the encoding or remove the characters which are not supported by the "Cp1254" character encoding..

In order to overcome this problem go Window > Preferences > General > Content Types > Text > Perl Source Files > Default Encoding and make it UTF-8

How to see the path of a process that's listening on specific port

2009-12-01T00:20:00.001+02:00

From time to time you can have multiple instances of Apache installed on your server. As ps aux only shows the entire path, if you started the process using full path convention; you need to check /proc presudo file system to gather path information for the process. I generally use the below one liner to fetch this info :

[root@VM1 bin]# ls -altr /proc/`netstat -natp | grep 80 | awk '{print $7}' | awk -F/ '{print $1}'`/exe
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 30 13:03 /proc/25316/exe -> /apache_test/bin/httpd

It uses netstat to gather process ID for specific port (also lsof can be used) then checks the /proc/$PROCESS_ID/exe soft link to see where the process resides.

How to increase the Logging Level of NFSD

2009-11-21T13:31:00.001+02:00

NFS Server logging is by default very good, but in case you need more logging for deeper inspection you can use :

echo 32767 > /proc/sys/sunrpc/nfsd_debug

echo 32767 > /proc/sys/sunrpc/rpc_debug

And for the client side use :

echo 32767 > /proc/sys/sunrpc/nfs_debug

In order to return back to old debugging level use :

echo 0 > /proc/sys/sunrpc/nfsd_debug

echo 0 > /proc/sys/sunrpc/rpc_debug

echo 0 > /proc/sys/sunrpc/nfs_debug

Master Certificate in Experts-Exchange

2009-11-15T19:50:00.000+02:00

I really find Experts-Exchange a great way of challenging yourself for different problems then you have in your daily job. As I contribute in various areas, I could finally got enough points to get Master Certificate. Next target is Guru ;-)

How to Rescan SCSI Bus in Linux

2009-11-15T19:43:00.001+02:00

I have a RHEL5 lab on my laptop, that's hosted on Vmware 7. For my RHCE prep I usually add/remove disks while the VM is up and running (hot swap). In order to make Redhat recognize the new disk you need to trigger the rescan of the SCSI bus :

echo “- - -” > /sys/class/scsi_host/hostX/scan

instead of hostX use the HBA ID. It's host0 in my case. Immediately after you can see the new disk on "fdisk -l"

NOTE : This works on 2.6 kernel only.

SCVMM Unknown Error 0x80338104

2009-10-30T21:31:00.001+02:00

If you get the below error message on SCVMM while connecting to your hosts :

VMM does not have appropriate permissions to access the WSMan resources on the vmtest server.

(Unknown error (0x80338104))

Make sure you have the Service Account for VMM is under Local Administrator Group of each host you manage and this is not blocked by group policy enforcements.

SCVMM Error 403 : %ComputerName; is not a valid network computer name

2009-10-17T11:02:00.001+03:00

While adding your Hyper-V hosts to your VMM inventory. If you get the error below :

Error 403 : %ComputerName; is not a valid network computer name

please make sure you are resolving the DNS entry for that host correctly. Especially check /etc/hosts file for any incorrect static entries (that's was the problem in my case)

Windows 2008 Failover Clustering and HP EVA Storage

2009-09-06T10:26:00.000+03:00

If you are using HP EVA and getting the below error during the WCS validation phase in Windows 2008 :

Failed to read drive layout of Cluster disk 0 from node ****, status 21
Cluster Disk 0 does not support Persistent Reservation
Test failed. Please look at the test log for more information

Make sure Windows LH Host Mode is configured for your LUN. Below article is a guidance for Win2k8 and HP EVA config :

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01764063/c01764063.pdf

Page 17 :

Configuring EVA host connections

Make sure the Windows LH Host mode is enabled for each node on the Enterprise Virtual Array
(EVA) through command view. Depending on what command view you have installed, if in the drop-
down there is no "Microsoft Windows LH" then choose custom and type in the custom type field the
following HEX number 00000004198009A8 (Figure 1). If the wrong connection type is configured,
you cannot share the disks between the cluster nodes and the cluster check will fail with a non-SCSI-3
compliant message.

Tip of the Day : Vmware - Linux Virtual Consoles Keystroke from Vmware

2009-08-30T21:00:00.001+03:00

As you know in linux the keystroke from GUI for virtual consoles is CTRL+ALT+Fx. As CTRL+ALT is the keystroke for releasing the mouse from Vm session, these functionalities conflicts. In order to achieve CTRL+ALT+Fx in Vmware :

1. Press CTRL+ALT+Space

2. Only Release Space leaving Ctrl+Alt pressed

3. Press the Function (Fx) key

The battle of hypervisor footprints

2009-08-28T14:27:00.000+03:00

Microsoft's stance against the statement in Vmware's official site saying Hyper-V has a bigger footprint then ESXi :

http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2009/08/12/hypervisor-footprint-debate-part-1-microsoft-hyper-v-server-2008-vmware-esxi-3-5.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2009/08/14/hypervisor-footprint-debate-part-2-windows-server-2008-hyper-v-vmware-esx-3-5.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2009/08/17/hypervisor-footprint-debate-part-3-windows-server-2008-hyper-v-vmware-esxi-3-5.aspx

    Hyper-V Server 2008 vs ESXi 3.5 | June 2008 - June 2009
      Hyper-V: 82MB footprint increase with 26 patches
      ESXi: 2.7GB footprint increases with 13 patches
    Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V vs ESX 3.5 | January 2008 - June 2009
      Hyper-V: 408MB footprint increase with 32 patches
      ESX: 3GB footprint increases with 85 patches
    Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V vs ESXi 3.5 | January 2008 - June 2009
      Hyper-V: 408MB footprint increase with 32 patches
      ESX: 2.7GB footprint increases with 13 patches

and now Vmware's official reply :

http://blogs.vmware.com/virtualreality/2009/08/our-position-on-hypervisor-footprints-patching-vulnerabilities-and-whatever-else-microsoft-wants-to-throw-into-a-blog-post.html

I'm leaving the final decision to you :)

Linux Baby Rocker :)

2009-08-28T11:29:00.000+03:00

There is no limit for Linux's usability...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYcF_xX2DE8

Source code of the shell script:

#!/bin/sh
while [i= 1]
do
eject
eject t
done

What's new in SCVMM 2008 R2

2009-08-28T08:47:00.000+03:00

From : http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/virtualmachinemanager/en/us/whats-new-R2.aspx

Support for new features of Windows Server 2008 R2
Live Migration: Seen through the VMM console, this enables administrators to move a virtual machine between clustered hosts in a way that is completely transparent to the users connected to the virtual machine. This allows administrators greater flexibility in responding to planned downtime and provides higher machine availability. The basic requirements for Live Migration are that all hosts must be part of a Windows Server 2008 R2 failover cluster and host processors must be from the same manufacturer. Additionally all hosts in the cluster must have access to shared storage. No changes are required to existing virtual machines, network, or storage devices in moving from Quick Migration to Live Migration other than upgrading to Windows Server 2008 R2 and VMM 2008 R2.
Hot addition/removal of Storage: Allows the addition and removal of storage to virtualized infrastructure without interruption. Additionally, "live” management of virtual hard disk (VHDs) or iSCSI pass through disks, allows administrators to take advantage of additional backup scenarios and readily use mission critical and storage-intensive applications.
New optimized networking technologies: VMM 2008 R2 supports two new networking technologies – Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ) and TCP Chimney – providing increased network performance while creating less of a CPU burden. NICs that support VMQ, create a unique virtual network queue for each virtual machine on a host that can pass network packets directly from the hypervisor to the virtual machine. This increases throughput as it bypasses much of the processing normally required by the virtualization stack. With TCP Chimney, TCP/IP traffic can be offloaded to a physical NIC on the host computer reducing CPU load and improving network performance.
Enhanced storage and cluster support
Clustered Shared Volumes (CSV): Provides a single, consistent storage space that allows hosts in a cluster to concurrently access virtual machine files on a single shared logical unit number (LUN). CSV eliminates the previous one virtual machine per LUN restriction and coordinates the use of storage with much greater efficiency and higher performance. CSV enables the Live Migration of virtual machines without impacting other virtual machines sharing the same LUN. Enabling CSV on failover clusters is straightforward; many storage configuration complexities prior to CSV have now been eliminated.
SAN migration into and out of clustered hosts: This allows virtual machines to migrate into and out of clusters using a SAN transfer, which saves the time required for copying the virtual machine file over the network.
Expanded Support for iSCSI SANs: Previously, only one LUN could be bound to a single iSCSI target whereas now – with support now built into VMM 2008 R2 – multiple LUNS can be mapped to a single iSCSI target. This provides broader industry support for iSCSI SANs allowing customers more flexibility in choosing storage providers and iSCSI SAN options.
Storage Migration: Quick Storage Migration enables migration of a VM’s storage both within the same host and across hosts while the VM is running with a minimum of downtime, typically less than 2 minutes. VMM 2008 R2 also supports VMware storage vMotion which allows the storage of a VMware VM to be transferred while the VM remains on the same host with no downtime.
Rapid Provisioning: Allows administrators to take advantage of SAN provider technologies to clone a LUN containing a VHD and present it to the host while still utilizing the VMM template so the OS customization and IC installation can be applied.
Support for third party CFS: For users requiring a true clustered file system, VMM 2008 R2 supports third party file systems by detecting CFS disks and allows for deploying multiple VMs per LUN.
Support for Veritas Volume Manager VMM 2008 R2 recognizes Veritas Volume Manager disks as a cluster disk resource.
Streamlined process for managing host upgrades:
Maintenance Mode: Allows administrators to apply updates or perform maintenance on a host server by safely evacuating all virtual machines to other hosts on a cluster. Maintenance mode can be configured to use Live Migration to move the virtual machines or can put the workloads into a saved state to be safely reactivated when maintenance or upgrades are complete. Maintenance mode is enabled for all supported hypervisor platforms on Windows Server 2008 R2.
Other VMM 2008 R2 enhancements
Support of disjoint domains: Reduces the complexity of reconciling host servers with differing domain names in Active Directory and DNS. In these situations, VMM 2008 R2 automatically creates a custom service principal name (SPN) configured in both AD and DNS allowing for successful authentication.
Use of defined port groups with VMware Virtual Center: On installation, VMM 2008 R2 will present available port groups for VMM’s use with VMware vCenter thus allowing administrators to maintain control over which port groups are used.
Queuing of Live migrations: This feature enables users to do multiple Live Migrations without needing to keep track of other Live Migrations that are happening within the cluster. Detects when a Live Migration will fail due to another Live Migration already in progress and queues the request for later.
Host compatibility checks: VM migration requires host hardware to be compatible; this feature provides a deep check for compatibility using Hyper-V and VMware compatibility check APIs. Administrators can check if the source host is compatible with the destination host before performing a migration and finding out the VM cannot start on the new host. A related feature makes a VM compatible by turning off certain CPU features which makes the VM compatible with the hosts in the cluster.

Tip of the Day : Software - Free IMAP/SMTP/POP3 Solution For Windows

2009-08-27T11:38:00.000+03:00

Today, my colleague asked me for an e-mail solution that we can use for a demo that includes SCOM notification functionality. As we don't have Exchange server for the demo, I googled and found the below solution :

http://www.hmailserver.com

The software is open-source and free. The setup is pretty straight forward. Just couple of Next's and Finishes. You can use SQL Compact, MYSQL or MSSQL as the back-end DB. The configuration is also very easy. Just setup your domain and accounts then you are ready to go.

Tip of the Day : SSHD - How to connect a server using SSH and without entering login credentials

2009-08-23T00:49:00.002+03:00

From time to time you will need to connect your servers remotely and execute commands there using scheduled jobs. As the nature of these scheduled jobs/scripts, they have no capability of user interaction like entering user/pass information. (I'm talking about simple shell scripts, you can also use Perl's use Net::SSH::Perl for entering user/pass info) For these scenarios we have the below trick of generating RSA/DSA key pairs and putting it into the authorized_keys file:

[root@server-a ~]# ssh-keygen -t rsa
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/root/.ssh/id_rsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): --- leave empty
Enter same passphrase again: --- leave empty

Your identification has been saved in /root/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

The key fingerprint is:
35:ee:f1:53:f6:d7:85:4b:65:c3:68:f0:b6:59:f5:50 root@server-a

[root@server-a ~]# scp .ssh/id_dsa.pub server-b:/root/.ssh/id_dsa_lr.pub

[root@server-b ~]# cd /root/.ssh/
[root@server-b ~]# cat id_dsa_lr.pub >> authorized_keys
[root@servera ~]# ssh server-b

Last login: Mon Sep 3 12:29:09 2007 from X.X.X.X

[root@server-b ~]#

This example gives server-a the ability of connecting server-b via SSH and without entering any user/pass information.

NOTE : You can also use this trick to connect your Windows boxes using Cygwin SSHD. I will give details on Cygwin on a future article.

Easter Egg of the day : Google Translates MySpace as YouTube

2009-08-21T15:54:00.003+03:00

If you translate MySpace from English to Turkish you get YouTube :)

Tip of the day : Linux - Output a specific line

2009-08-21T11:58:00.002+03:00

head -150 file_name.txt | tail -1

Shows the 150th line inside the file

Tip of the day : Linux - How to keep commands running in the background after logging out

2009-08-20T13:17:00.000+03:00

Yes I know this is the 2nd tip of the day but this one is simple. Today a colleague of mine come to me with this scenario :

I'm starting a ping on console. Then I'm exiting console, and would like to return my ping session. How can I do this ?

Normally in order to send a command to background and redirect STDOUT & STDERR to a logfile we use :

ping localhost >> /var/log/neco.test 2>&1 &
[2] 27783

Even if you send a process to the background when you logout/exit from a shell session Linux shell sends a HUP signal and kills that process. So we need to detach this process from shell. At this point the command nohup helps us. nohup detach the process from shell and attach to initd which is the mother process of all :) So we modify our command as below to reach our target :

nohup ping localhost >> /var/log/neco.test 2>&1 &
[1] 27786

After this command we can exit the shell and check the status of the STDOUT from the log file :

tail -f /var/log/neco.test
64 bytes from necoPC (127.0.0.1): icmp_seq=105 ttl=64 time=0.023 ms
64 bytes from necoPC (127.0.0.1): icmp_seq=106 ttl=64 time=0.022 ms
64 bytes from necoPC (127.0.0.1): icmp_seq=107 ttl=64 time=0.019 ms

In order to kill the process we need to use kill command with process id.

Required Local OS Firewall Rules for SCVMM and Hyper-V Host Communication

2009-08-20T09:55:00.001+03:00

Communication Details For HyperV&SCVMM

In order to manage HyperV Hosts using SCVMM below ports/protocols should be open on the firewall.

VMM Server

80 (HTTP, WS-MAN)
443 (HTTPS, BITS)
8100 (WCF Connections to PowerShell or Admin Console)

SQL Server

1433 (Remote SQL instance connection)
1434 (SQL browser service) - only needed for initial setup

Host / Library

80 (HTTP, WS-MAN)
443 (HTTPS, BITS)
3389 (RDP)
2179 (VMConnect on Hyper-V hosts for single-class console view)5900 (VMRC on Virtual Server hosts)

The list of all ports and protocols can be found in the official MS document :

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc764268.aspx

Most of the FW rules above has been created by the SCVMM Installer and the role setup wizard for IIS,HyperV.

Additionally during the deployment of the SCVMM agent on the HyperV host the SMB-IN 445 should be available on HyperV host because the Agent Installer file has been moved to the ADMIN$ share of the HyperV host.

Necessary Configuration For Remote Management

General Rule Groups You Must Enable in Windows Firewall to Allow Remote Management by an MMC Snap-in

In order to manage HyperV hosts remotely enable the below rule groups :

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Windows Firewall Remote Management" new enable=yes

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=" Remote Administration" new enable=yes

For Device Manager apart from the rulegroups above you need to enable the GPO for :

Allow remote access to the PnP interface

For Disk Manager :

Make sure VDS service is running and enabled on startup. Also enable the below rule :

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=" Remote Volume Management" new enable=yes

Also in order to make HP System Management Homepage available enable TCP port 2381 on Hyper Host inbound rules.

Summary of Local Firewall Rules

Below images shows all rules enabled on SCVMM and HyperV host to make remote management possible. The default Outbound rule for all profiles is “Allowed”. That’s why only INBOUND rules has been placed inside the document.

SCVMM Input :

Hyper-V Input :

Tip of the day : Networking - How to Find the Files to Backed Up in an UCS Archive on F5 Big IP LTM Load Balancer

2009-08-20T09:23:00.001+03:00

Apart from the articles I decided to publish small tips on my website. Sometimes those kind of tips can be more useful then big documents. Todays tip is based on the F5 Big IP LTM Load Balancer. One of my favorite network device :) I used this command on 9.x should also be working on 10.

Files to be included inside UCS :

grep save.*.file /usr/libdata/configsync/cs.dat

Directories to be included inside UCS :

grep save.*.dir /usr/libdata/configsync/cs.dat

Excluded files from UCS :

grep save.*.ignore /usr/libdata/configsync/cs.dat

For more details check the F5 article on : https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/4000/400/sol4422.html

Putting Digg Icon on your Blogger.com/Blogspot.com Posts

2009-08-19T20:52:00.001+03:00

Under Layout->Edit Templates click Expand Widget Templates and replace the below code :

 <div class='post-header-line-1'/>

with this :

 <div class='post-header-line-1'>
<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
digg_url = '<data:post.url/>';
</script>
<script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js'
type='text/javascript'>
</script>
</div>
</div>

and Save Template

Oracle 10g AS Webcache Installation on RHEL4

2009-08-19T14:24:00.001+03:00

After writing my post on RHCE, I remembered a document I wrote long time ago wrt Oracle 10g AS Webcache on RHEL4. I thought it can be useful so I’m sharing it on my blog.

INSTALLATION OF LINUX OS

Full OS + SW version overview

Webcache OS : Red Hat Enterprise 4
Webcache SW : Oracle Application Server Web Cache 10g Release 2
systat-5[1].0.5-11.rhel4.i386.rpm : Depending on what packages you have installed on the OS, this utility may not be installed on your system.

HW REQUIREMENTS

· VGA screen, keyboard, mouse
· Any PC which has following specs :
- Supported by RHEL 4
- at least 2 GIG of RAM
- at least 36 GIG HDISK
- at least 3 GIG-E COPPER ETHERNET INTERFACES or 2 GIGE COPPER ETHERNET + 1 10/100 MBIT ETHERNET IFS

The hardware used for the document is HP DL360 G5 with :

Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU 5140 Quad Core @ 2.33GHz
2 Gig RAM
72*2 RAID 0+1 HDD
HP NC364T PCI Express Quad Port Gigabit

Install of Linux OS

1. Boot your computer with Red Hat Installation CD 1 / DVD.

NOTE : For Text installation of Red Hat. If you only have a keyboard without a mouse, type linux text + ENTER.

Then follow the items in graphical installation (the sequence of graphical and text install is the same)

Graphical installation of Red Hat.

- Press ENTER to begin graphical installation of Red Hat.

- Press Skip to skip media test.

- Click Next

- Select English for Installation Language and click Next

- Select U.S. English(or the appropriate language) for system keyboard and click Next

- Select Manually partition with Disk Druid and click Next

Disk partition sizes

The webcache which are installed on Hp DL360G5 with 2GB RAM and 72*2 (RAID 1+0) disks.

Device	Mount Point	Type	Size (MB)
/dev/cciss/c0d0p1	/boot	ext3	102
/dev/cciss/c0d0p2	/opt	ext3	11719
/dev/cciss/c0d0p3	/	ext3	5373
/dev/cciss/c0d0p5	/u01	ext3	3891
/dev/cciss/c0d0p6		swap	4095
/dev/cciss/c0d0p7	/usr	ext3	4095
/dev/cciss/c0d0p8	/var	ext3	3891
/dev/cciss/c0d0p9	/u02	ext3	8087
/dev/cciss/c0d0p10	/tmp	ext3	8189
/dev/cciss/c0d0p11	/home	ext3	8189
/dev/cciss/c0d0p12	/home2	ext3	rest (12339)

- Click Next to complete manual partitioning.

- Leave the boot loader settings as defaults, and click Next.

- Configure Ethernet interfaces

If you have multiple interfaces on your machine it will be best to enable them all by clicking the checkboxes of the required interfaces. Also give an appropriate hostname for the machine. The Quad Ethernet Card is not detected by the system at the initial setup we will install it later after the setup completes. Click Next

- Disable Firewall and SELinux

Disable Firewall and SELinux and click Next. These features are not required by our application. Click Proceed when you have a firewall warning.

- System language is default English

Leave the system language to default English(USA) and click Next

- Time zone

Select correct timezone depending your location.

I selected Europe/Brussels for time zone and click Next

- Enter root password and NEXT

- Customize software packages to be installed

Click Customize software packages to be installed and click Next

Please make sure that the following packages are installed :

gcc-3.4.3-22.1
gcc-c++-3.4.3-22.1
openmotif21-2.1.30-11.RHEL4.4
setarch-1.6-1
pdksh-5.2.14-30
sysstat-5.0.5-1
gnome-libs-1:1.4.1.2.90-44.1
libstdc++-3.4.3-22.1
libstdc++-devel-3.4.3-22.1
compat-libstdc++-296-2.96-132.7.2
compat-db-4.1.25-9
control-center-2.8.0-12
glibc-common-2.3.4-2.9
binutils-2.15.92.0.2-13
make-1:3.80-5
xscreensaver-4.18-5.rhel4.2

NOTE 1 : You can disable unnecessary packages like Web Server, Windows File Server, Printing Support etc.

NOTE 2 : gcc is required during intallation of ORACLE AS. So, even if you go for production install, then Development tools MUST ALSO be installed .

- Begin installation.

Click Next and Continue to begin installation.

- Reboot after installation completes

After installation completes click Reboot

- Appearance of welcome screen

After the reboot welcome screen will appear. Click Next.

- Accept license agreement

Accept license agreement and click Next.

- Configure correct date and time

Configure correct date and time, click Next.

- Display settings

Configure your display settings and click Next.

- Product registration (is not needed)

There is no need to register the product so

Next screen click Tell me why I need to register.. and click Next.

Next screen click I can not complete registration.. and click Next.

- Creation of system user (not needed)

Don’t create a system user click Next and then Continue.

- Complete post install tasks.

Click Next in the following two screens to complete post install tasks.

- Log on to the system

By using your credentials log on to the system.

- Post RHEL4 install tasks

- Installing HP NC364T PCI Express Quad Port Gigabit

1. First download the Quad Card Driver from

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/networking/us/download/27412.html

2. Install the source RPM package.

# rpm -ivh e1000-<version>.src.rpm

3. Build the binary RPM for the e1000 driver.

# cd /usr/src/redhat
# rpmbuild -bb SPECS/e1000.spec

4. Check for the existence of a current version of the e1000 package as follows

# rpm -q e1000

If an old version of the package exists, the RPM package should be removed.

# rpm -e e1000

Verify that the old e1000 package has been removed as follows:

# rpm -q e1000

5. Install the new RPM package. This installs the e1000 driver and man page.

Do NOT use the U (Upgrade) flag in the RPM command below - previous e1000 drivers must be removed as described in step 4 above before installing this version.

# rpm -ivh RPMS/<arch>/e1000-<version>.<arch>.rpm

The e1000.o module is installed in the following directory:

/lib/modules/<kernel_version>/kernel/drivers/net

On 2.6 kernels a e1000.ko module will be installed instead of e1000.o

6. Configure your network setting and address using the below config files :

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth*
/etc/sysconfig/network

8. You can now reboot your server. Upon reboot the network should start with the e1000 driver loaded and the correct network configuration.

To verify that the e1000 driver is loaded use the following command.

# lsmod

If e1000 is listed then the e1000 driver is loaded. You can also verify that the correct e1000 driver is loaded through any of the following methods. Note that version of the driver loaded should be same as that of the package version.;

Look for driver load messages in the system log.

#dmesg | grep Intel

You should see messages of the following type,

Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - version x.x.x

- Create /usr/system directory and add it to PATH variable.

In this directory we will add additional tools (as root user) which might be very handy.

mkdir /usr/system

then edit /etc/profile and add following line after the line containing :

after pathmunge /usr/X11R6/bin

add following 2 lines :
#needed for /usr/system
pathmunge /usr/system after

This will make sure that the /usr/system dir is in your path and that commands put in there will always be executed. Exit the session and relogin the session to make the changes effective. Check with echo $PATH to verify if /usr/system is in your path variable.

- Disable some useless processes with chkconfig

chkconfig --level 2345 cups off
chkconfig --level 2345 sendmail off

INSTALL ORACLE 10GR2 WEBCACHE

Preinstall Tasks for Oracle10gR2 Webcache

- Change the kernel security parameters

Add the following lines to the /etc/sysctl.conf file:

kernel.msgmnb=65535
kernel.msgmni=2878
kernel.msgmax = 8192
kernel.shmmax=4294967295
fs.file-max=206173
kernel.sem = 256 32000 100 142
kernel.shmmni=4096
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 20000 65000

Then run :

/sbin/sysctl –p

Add the following lines to the /etc/security/limits.conf file:

* soft nproc 16384
* hard nproc 16384
* soft nofile 65536
* hard nofile 65536

Create new groups and oracle user (as root)

groupadd oinstall
groupadd dba
groupadd oper
useradd -g oinstall -G dba oracle
passwd oracle

Create the directories in which the Oracle software will be installed:

mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/10gr2
chown -R oracle:oinstall /u01
chown -R oracle:oinstall /u02

Setup ORACLE environment

As oracle user edit the /home/oracle/.bash_profile file and after the line :

“# User specific environment and startup programs “ add following entries :

ORACLE_BASE=/u02
ORACLE_HOME=/u01/oracle/product/10gr2
ORACLE_SID=test
ORACLE_TERM=xterm
export ORACLE_BASE
export ORACLE_HOME
export ORACLE_SID
export ORACLE_TERM

# Set shell search paths
PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$HOME/bin
export PATH
unset USERNAME

Make sure that export PATH and unset USERNAME commands are created as above.

NOTE : We are doing these steps as oracle user

- Transfer and install systat-5[1].0.5-11.rhel4.i386.rpm

Oracle requires sysstat packages to install completely. Check first if it is installed by running the sar (sar is one of the apps installed by sysstat) command.

If the OS cannot find then it has to be reinstalled.

Download systat-5[1].0.5-11.rhel4.i386.rpm and transfer it to the root directory of the WC server.

as root run :

gzip –d sysstat-[1].0.5-11.rhel4.i386.rpm.gz

followed by

rpm –ivh sysstat-5[1].0.5-11.rhel4.i386.rpm

note it is possible that rpm will not detect the [] characters in the rpm filename. In that case first rename sysstat-5[1].0.5-11.rhel4.i386.rpm to sysstat.rpm

mv sysstat-5[1].0.5-11.rhel4.i386.rpm to sysstat.rpm

and then run

rpm –ivh sysstat.rpm

Run sar to check if sysstat installed correctly. if you get the error :

cannot find directory /var/log/sa/sa29 then reboot the machine.

- Transfer oracle SW in /u01/app/oracle/SW directory

Transfer as_linux_x86_webcache_101202.cpio file into /u01/app/oracle/SW and run :

cpio -idmv < as_linux_x86_webcache_101202.cpio

NOTE 1 : You can transfer the cpio file as root user, then move it into ./SW dir and then do

chmod 777 as_linux_x86_webcache_101202.cpio
chown oracle:oinstall as_linux_x86_webcache_101202.cpio

NOTE 2 : Do NOT forget the < between –idmv and as_linux….cpio !

NOTE 3 : After decompressing using cpio you can remove the original as_linux_x86_webcache_101202.cpio file in order to save some diskspace

Running RunInstaller

As oracle user open a terminal and then run :

/u01/app/oracle/SW/Disk1/runInstaller

following screen will popup :

- Specify Inventory directory and credentials.

IMPORTANT : Change the default /u02/oraInventory to : /u01/app/oracle

IMPORTANT : Make sure that the Operating System group name is oinstall AND NOT dba

Then click NEXT.

- Run /u01/app/oracle/orainstRoot.sh

Important : A popup window will appear telling you need to run /u01/app/oracle/orainstRoot.sh as root before pushing CONTINUE. So open a terminal and su – to root and execute that script.

As root (so in a different terminal), run /u01/app/oracle/orainstRoot.sh before proceeding with the install.

[root@wc oraInventory]# /u02/oraInventory/orainstRoot.sh
Creating the Oracle inventory pointer file (/etc/oraInst.loc)
Changing groupname of /u02/oraInventory to oinstall.

NOTE : If you get the message to run u02/oraInventory/orainstRoot.sh then this means that at the beginning or oracle you aceepted the default values which is not recommended. In that case restart the install of oracle using the correct install directory

Click continue after running run /u01/app/oracle/orainstRoot.sh

Specify file locations

Leave the Source path as /u01/app/oracle/SW/Disk1/stage/products.xml

Leave destination name as oracleas1

Change Destination path to : /u01/oracle/product/10gr2

NOTE : This is the same as ORACLE_HOME. (do : set | grep ORACLE as oracle user in a separate terminal to check)

- Specify Web Cache Admin Password (at least one char should be numeric)

- Product-specific prerequisite checks

The installer will now execute some checks.

IMPORTANT NOTE : in case you get a warning in the prerequisite checks

If you did not install sysstat-5-XX before as mentioned in the manual above then you will get a warning.

Depending on your installed packages during LINUX RHEL 4 OS, it might be that sysstat-5- is not installed.This means that the checks will result in following error :

“Checking recommended operating system packages” with status = WARNING.

Further examination of the window tells us that sysstat-5-0.5.-1 is not installed.

- Begin Oracle Universal Cache Top 10.1.2.1.0 installation

Click Install to begin installation.

- After the installation execute /u01/oracle/product/10gr2/root.sh as root

So open new terminal window and as root then run

/u01/oracle/product/10gr2/root.sh

accept the default /usr/local/bin path

Running Oracle10 root.sh script...

The following environment variables are set as:

ORACLE_OWNER= oracle
ORACLE_HOME= /u01/oracle/product/10gr2

Enter the full pathname of the local bin directory: [/usr/local/bin]:

Copying dbhome to /usr/local/bin ...
Copying oraenv to /usr/local/bin ...
Copying coraenv to /usr/local/bin ...
Creating /etc/oratab file...
Adding entry to /etc/oratab file...

Entries will be added to the /etc/oratab file as needed by Database Configuration Assistant when a database is created Finished running generic part of root.sh script.

Now product-specific root actions will be performed.

After execution of the root.sh script, click OK

- Note the end of installation message

Click exit to finish installation

Post-install Tasks for Oracle10gR2 Webcache

- Change the default runlevel to 3

as root user, vi /etc/inittab and look for the line :

id:5:initdefault:

and modify it to

id:3:initdefault:

runlevel 3 uses less memory + reboot the machine

- Create some aliases (optional):

As root in /etc/bashrc, look for following line …

#Even for non-interactive, non-login shells

… and insert following lines.

alias xmlvid='vi /u01/oracle/product/10gr2/webcache/webcache.xml'
alias vi='vi'
alias gobin='cd /u01/oracle/product/10gr2/webcache/bin'
alias goconf='cd /u01/oracle/product/10gr2/webcache'
alias gologs='cd /u01/oracle/product/10gr2/webcache/logs'
alias gobin='cd /u01/oracle/product/10gr2/webcache/bin'
alias eventlog='tail -f /u01/oracle/product/10gr2/webcache/logs/event_log'
alias accesslog='tail -f /u01/oracle/product/10gr2/webcache/logs/access_log'
alias wcstatus='/u01/oracle/product/10gr2/webcache/bin/webcachectl status'
alias wcstart='/u01/oracle/product/10gr2/webcache/bin/webcachectl start'
alias wcstop='/u01/oracle/product/10gr2/webcache/bin/webcachectl stop'

By doing this, these aliases will be visible both for root and oracle users

- Stop the WC processes

As oracle user do wcstop.

Check with wcstatus if all 3 processes are stopped

Change privilege rights of webcached binary

In the “gobin”(see aliases) directory the privileges of wecached by default are :

#ls –al webcached :
-rwxr-x--- 1 oracle oinstall 17074 Aug 21 17:01 webcached

In order to open ports lower then 1024 (port 80) you need to change ownerschip as root as follows :

[root@wc]# chown root webcached
[root@wc]# chmod 4750 webcached

After this operation the privileges of webached MUST look as follows : (of course, date can be different)

-rwsr-x--- 1 root oinstall 3565001 Aug 21 17:01 webcached

NOT doing this will result that webcached will not have the prvileges to open port 80 ( < 1024) and will not start.

- Running webcached with Root Privilege

Webcached must run as the root privilege in the following cases:

· Privileged port numbers less than 1024 are being used for OracleAS Web Cache listening ports.
· There are more than 1,024 file descriptors being used for connections to OracleAS Web Cache.
· The current opmnctl or webcachectl user does not match the configured user in the Process Identity page (Properties > Process Identity) of OracleAS Web Cache Manager.

To run webcached with the root privilege:

1. Change the process identity of the OracleAS Web Cache processes.

To establish the process identity of a restricted user first connect to the WC from http://localhost:9400 and:

a. In the navigator frame, select Properties > Process Identity.

The Process Identity page appears in the right pane.

b. In the Process Identity page, choose Change IDs.

The Change Process Identity dialog box appears.

c. Enter the new user in the New User ID field and the group ID of the user in the New Group ID field.

d. Click Submit.

e. In the OracleAS Web Cache Manager main window, click Apply Changes.

2. Use the webcache_setuser.sh script as follows to run OracleAS Web Cache as a different user, such as root/root, and add set-user ID permission to the webcached executable:

3. webcache_setuser.sh setidentity <user_ID

4. where <user_ID> is the user you specified in the New User ID field of the Process Identity page.

For example, to run OracleAS Web Cache as root/root, enter:

webcache_setuser.sh setidentity root

5. Log out of the computer, and re-login as the user configured in the Process Identity page.

- Reboot the WC

Make sure that alls WC processes are stopped ( wcstatus or ps –ef | grep oracle) and reboot WC.

Then you will be sure that WC is started up in runlevel 3.

Configuration of WC

Start WC + connect to management port 9400

Make sure that WC processes are running

Now from any windows machine that has IP connectivity to the WC, open the browser and type

http://WCIP:9400

at the right-top of the window screen, select “LOG on to OracleAS Web Cache Manager”

NOTE : The default listening port of the WC for management has been changed from 4000 to 9400.

Optimizing your WEBCache

http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/cd/B14099_19/core.1012/b14001/optwebc.htm#CIHJFBDI

Troubleshooting your WEBcache

http://download-uk.oracle.com/docs/cd/B14099_02/caching.1012/b14046/trouble.htm

RHCE – Day 1

2009-08-18T23:45:00.001+03:00

Before starting this series, I want to tell you a boring story about myself. The story begins at 2000 when I was a high school student making web design/programming to earn my pocket money:) These days I recognised a web page called Brainbench which makes online exams for certification. I passed their exam to get ceritified for HTML 4.0

From that point on, I really understood the necessity of certification because the preparation process gives you much more then the paper you earn at the end. After that, my next step was MCSE 2000. I remember that I was studying the exam on my Intel Pentium 133 running Win2k like a turtle. The preparation phase was funny but in the end as an high school student I didn’t have enough money to pay for the exam fees, so unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to be MCSE at that age :(

And then comes the collage years. This time I have a new target : Networking and Cisco Certifications. And now I have enough money coming from the scholarships ;-) After 3 years of self paced and computer based preparation and with the help of Boson Netsim and Dynamips I passed all the exams (In total 5) that are necessary for CCNA & CCNP + 1 for CCIP (QoS Exam)

After graduating from school I applied a job in a big telco vendor. They were so suprised to see a new graduate with CCNA, CCNP. As there were a lot of paper certified people around, they want to verify this. After a very long technical interview they got convinced and hired me.

Certification has great importance in my life. I found certification as a great tool to advance expertise about technical areas. Currently I have IWA HTML 4.0, CCNA, CCNP, CCIP, MCTS Windows Server 2008 Active Directory: Configuration, MCTS Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure: Configuration, MCTS Windows Server Virtualization Hyper-V and MCITP : Windows 2008 Server Admin. All of these certification tacks helped me build knowledge on varios technologies in a very proper way. But will I stop ? Of course not :) Next step is RHCE (RedHat Certified Engineer)

Why RHCE ?

- As a network and system admin the middleware I was working on is mostly UNIX based (Redhat, Solaris, Secureplatform etc..) I have enough hands on and expertise but I don’t have a real proof.
- My interview with Google reminded me the importance of Linux again.
- RHCE is lab based not one of these paper certifications.
- One of the most recognised certification by the industry.

Enough pep talk let’s begin. First the preparation materials :

1. RHEL 5 Unleashed by Tommy Fox
2. RHCE Red Hat Certified Engineer Linux Study Guide (Exam RH302), Fifth Edition byMichael Jang
3. Slides from RH033, RH133, RH253 Classes

and the tools :

1. VmWare Workstation/Server for my laptop prep.
2. Vmware ESXi for the lab. (maybe also Hyper-V with RH Integration tools)

and of course RHEL5 iso from RHN and a new wallpaper for motivation :D

http://spinix.deviantart.com/art/LINUX-CCCP-84492543

Installation Methods

CD/DVD-ROM : Classical method for installing
Hard Disk : Requires an HD partition(xt2/3,vfat) accessible by the installer.
Network Install : NFS, FTP or HTTP based using PXE/Boot.iso
Kickstart : Unattended method of installation

NOTE : Boot.iso file can be located under RHELInstall CD1 / DVD ./images folder.

In order to choose for an installation method use “linux askmethod” at the boot prompt

Install Phases :

- Select Language
- Select Keyboard Layout
- Installation number. (This allows us to use additional components like virtualization)
- Partition layout and RAID

IMPORTANT NOTE : If /boot or /boot/efi is a RAID. It must be RAID1.

- GRUB (Boot loader) config
- Network Config
- Packages to be installed

After Install those 2 files are created :

1. /root/install.log -- Install Log File
2. /root/anaconda-ks.cfg -- Sample Kickstart File based on the parameters used during the installation. I will examine this file in a future session.

Yes I know this was a less technical more personal session but next days I will enrich the content and add more notes about my preparation track. Hope to see you in the next part of the RHCE series.

Blogspot.com & Windows Live Writer & Images

2009-08-17T21:31:00.001+03:00

I updated my Hyper-V post using Windows Live Writer. My first trial resulted with : HTTP 403 (Not Authorized) message. After a quick search in my dear friend Google, I learned that you need to create a Web Album under Picasa Web Albums (also a Google product) named : “Windows Live Writer” to overcome this issue.

Hyper-V Tagging & Teaming with HP NCU

2009-08-17T21:12:00.001+03:00

Yes, finally the first real post of my blog :) This article summarize the NIC Teaming & Tagging support on Hyper-V. Scenarios has been tested on HP Blade systems with HP NCU utility. Windows 2008 Datacenter Core Edition has been used for the parent partition.

In order to check VLAN tagging with teaming 2 scenarios have been tested :

1. NIC Teaming and Tagging with HP NCU (Works OK)
2. NIC Teaming with NCU and Tagging at HyperV Level (NOK)

As stated above only the first scenario works. This scenario creates lots of adapter overhead on the OS level. For instance lets assume that you have 2 physical interfaces which are teamed and you create 4 VLANs on top. After making the necessary configurations you have :

2 Interface for the actual pNICs.
1 Interface for Teamed NIC
4 Interface For the VLANs
4 Interface For the Virtual Switches

This creates some management overhead for the interfaces but this is the only supported scenario by Hyper-V currently.

Also with this setup the parent partition always have L2 access to all VLANs because the virtual network adapter at parent partition level is connected to the Virtual Switch by default. In order to create a External network without parent partition attached you can use the Poweshell scripts mentioned on the below pages.

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2009/02/19/script-creating-an-external-only-virtual-network-with-hyper-v.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/robertvi/archive/2008/08/27/howto-create-a-virtual-swich-for-external-without-creating-a-virtual-nic-on-the-root.aspx

Also after creating a virtual network you can disable this virtual interface. On server Core :

netsh interface show interface
netsh interface set interface name=”Name of Interface” disabled

HYPER-V NETWORKING

In order to understand the networking logic in Hyper-V it’s strongly recommended to check the below document :

http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/details.aspx?FamilyID=3fac6d40-d6b5-4658-bc54-62b925ed7eea&displaylang=en

As stated by the above diagram when you bind a virtual network to a physical interface, a Virtual Network Adapter has been created on OS level. This virtual adapter has all the network binding like TCP/IP. After this operation the existing Network Adapter for the pNIC has only a binding for the HyperV Virtual Switch protocol.

In order to make OS level application work over the new created virtual adapter make sure appropriate tagging has been created also on host level.

IMPORTAT NOTE: Make sure you don’t create any Virtual Switch on the pNIC that is used for communication between SCVMM and Hyper-V host. Leave at least one NIC or Teamed Interface for this communication.

NIC Teaming and Tagging with HP NCU

HyperV has NO teaming capability at Hypervisor level like VmWare ESX/ESXi as mentioned in KB968703 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968703) :

Since Network Adapter Teaming is only provided by Hardware Vendors, Microsoft does not provide any support for this technology thru Microsoft Product Support Services. As a result, Microsoft may ask that you temporarily disable or remove Network Adapter Teaming software when troubleshooting issues where the teaming software is suspect.

If the problem is resolved by the removal of Network Adapter Teaming software, then further assistance must be obtained thru the Hardware Vendor.

This support has to be maintained at Hardware Level. For HP we used HP NCU for teaming purpose.

IMPORTANT NOTE : HP NCU have to be installed AFTER enabling HyperV role.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01663264/c01663264.pdf

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950792

OS Level Settings For Teaming+Tagging

In order to check HyperV with Teaming + tagging :

1. Windows 2008 Datacenter Core installed
2. HyperV role activated with necessary KB Updates.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=950050
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=956589
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=956774

3. Using HpTeam Utility NFT based teaming has been configured.
4. NCU Installed together with Broadcom and Intel Drivers.

5. VLAN1,1101,1102,1103,1104 has been setup on the teamed interface.

Hyper-V Level Settings For Teaming+Tagging

1. Create a Virtual Network on the Hyperv host for each VLAN and bind this network to each logical tagged interface that has been created by NCU.

NOTE : Access host through VLAN option enables the parent partition talk with that VLAN.

2. On the HOST created to VMs for testing. Each VM has been connected to different virtual switch as below

3. After setting tagging both on Host and VM level ping between different VLANs is possible. (The switch has been configured for interVLAN routing)

NIC Teaming with NCU and Tagging at HyperV Level

1. Windows 2008 Datacenter Core installed
2. HyperV role activated with necessary KB Updates

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=950050
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=956589
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=956774

3. NCU Installed together with Broadcom and Intel Drivers.
4. Only Teaming has been configured with NCU.
5. A virtual switch has been created at HyperV level and necessary tagging made for the Host Virtual Adapter.
6. Virtual guest machines has also configured with tagged vNICs.
7. Network connectivity between the VMs does NOT work.

To Blog or Not to Blog

2009-08-16T19:56:00.000+03:00

It's been a long time since I was thinking about starting a blog. Short time ago my dear friend O.O.K. (who is an internet celebrity :D ) triggered me to start a blog and share my useless technical knowhow with everyone.

He is so convincing that, from that time on I decided take daily notes on my blog instead of taking them locally on my laptop. One of my mentors told me that your knowledge has no meaning until you transfer it to others.(He is not Kung fu Tzu) This blog will be a tool to make my knowhow more meaningful :)

To be honest, currently I have no idea what will be the content of the next post. Let's see what will tomorrow bring to us ;-)

NOTE : It's a strange feeling to know that none will read this post :)