I was toying around with this for a way to automate a backup but do it over a secure connection. Here is the basic instructions that I have for at least setting up the key authentication. Also, WordPress mangles apostrophes so if you copy the commands from here and paste them into a shell it may put them as periods.
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Category: SoftwareI am generally the type that only uses Google for searching. I have a Google email account, that I do not use, and have been playing with Wave a bit but never really wanted to branch out past that.
At home I tend to use Outlook for my calendar. It works great but is not easily transferable to other devices or easy to access remotely. A couple of days ago I decided to look at the Google calendar web application just for grins. I noticed it had a simple downloadable application that would connect with Outlook and do 1 way or 2 way sync between Outlook calendar and the Google one. After testing it out things seem to work great with it so far.
I also downloaded Sunbird since while I was reading on getting Outlook to sync with Google it said it would work with the Mozilla calendar software. I figured why not. So far I have had good initial success with it. Today I connected to it and everything showed up, but a good 10 minutes or so later, some of the events were gone. I was a little irritated about this but after checking the web based method of looking at the Google calendar I was relieved that the events were still there. Sunbird would just not show them for some reason. I closed Sunbird and reopened it. After it logged back in the events would show back up for a little while before disappearing again. It seems that Sunbird or Google needs to figure out what exactly is going on.
I think that at least the Outlook syncing portion will be very useful. Also, if I get a Droid it will work with the Google calendar so I will not have to directly sync my home Outlook with the phone when I one day can afford it.
Well, so far getting ESXi installed on my IBM was rather easy once I got a CD drive hooked up to install it on the server. I am thinking there was maybe a compatibility problem with the SATA controller and the Dell. It could have been a voltage incompatibility because it started having issues when it was originally hooked to the IBM and it was in a 64bit slot. I don’t think the 64bit was the issue but the voltage could have been it on the IBM. I plugged it into the IBM on the single 32bit PCI slot and plugged a 500GB drive into it, for VM storage. I had NO problems getting ESXi installed on the two SCSI drives acting as a mirror and then creating a datastore on the WD Enterprise 500GB drive. Since everything on the server is now development and testing work I am not too worried if the 500GB drive crashes. I will be irritated of course but that will be it. The IBM currently has 4GB of RAM in it so I may take the 2GB of RAM I pulled from the Dell to put in the IBM. The Dell only needs 4 even with all that it does. Anyway, hopefully I will continue to have decent luck with this new configuration on the IBM.
Original configuration
Originally I had a desktop computer running Windows 2003 Server as a DC. I ran it in ’2000-Mixed mode’ for Samba’s sake as I was told it was important to do so. I eventually used the VMware Converter to make the DC a VM to run on my IBM as a guest. Samba ran underneath it authenticating off of the guest DC. That was not the most ideal solution but it worked mostly well. Due to some recent drive troubles on the IBM I had to come up with another solution. It was the SATA drives, not the SCSI, starting to have problems.
Dell Server status at the time
I was trying to get everything working on the Dell as a VMware ESXi Server. Most of the things were working right but a storage solution for the data was not coming up properly due to the limited driver support of SATA controllers and of course my budget. I still needed to have a workable solution so I could try to keep my data safe.
New configuration for the Dell
Finally I got tired of the whole BS since, at the same time, I was trying to make sure my backups were good that I had pulled often enough from the IBM. I backed up the VMs and then installed Windows 2008.
Once I had it installed and updated I tried the SATA controllers that I had and had to use the Vista drivers as I could not find official 2008 drivers. When the controller would get saturated it would cause a weird memory error and that would make Windows do a blue screen. As soon as I removed the controller everything else worked fine.
Once I got the machine updated and removed the offending hardware things started to calm down. I attached it to my domain and then created the shares and all that. I copied the data to the server in the specific shares and altered my VB login script to point to the new server. Once I made sure things worked properly it was then time to make it a DC.
As I said earlier, it was running in ’2000 Mixed mode’ so there was more work to do. I changed it to native and let things calm down. I then updated it to 2003 on both the forest and domain. Once I did that I ran the deploy script, from the 2008 Server DVD, on the schema master and that updated the schema. It took a good ten minutes or so since it was running as a guest and not doing too well due to the hard drive problems. Once it was updated I set the 2008 machine up as a DC. Once I made sure any possible errors were ironed out I then removed the old DC after a day of running. Once the old DC was removed I made sure no errors were popping up and then changed the Forest and Domain to 2008 mode.
After ironing out any lingering issues on the DC I went ahead and installed VMware 2.x Server and put two of my backed up VMs on the server. Once is a Linux Shell server with 512M of RAM. The other is a Windows XP Professional SP3 running 512M of RAM. They both seem to run fine as guests on the server and do not load it up too much.
The other day at work I needed to upgrade the functional level of the AD Forest from Windows 2000 to 2003 R2. I was going to add another server and make it the main AD server. It is running 2003 R2 but the rest in the domain controllers are running 2003 RTM with service pack 2 of course. Anyway, from what I remembered, upgrading the level would not be a rebootable procedure but I could not find absolute proof even on Microsoft’s technet site. I proceeded to do every check in the book that I could to make sure that AD was working great. Everything checked out and so I went and upgraded it to plain ol’ 2003 first. On a side note, the domain level was already 2003. After that I had to use the second CD that came with 2003 R2 and run the ‘adprep /forestprep’ on the schema master. It made me a little nervous but it worked fine and still no reboots were required which I was thankful for and expected but with Microsoft you don’t always know. Just make sure you run the adprep command from the Schema Master. That part is important to the success of the upgrade. After that I was able to install AD on the new server. With Windows 2003 R2 the adprep command is located on the second CD in the path of ‘CMPNENTS\R2\ADPREP’.
It looks like I just needed a good nights sleep to get it working properly. It definitely was a character building moment though. I will put it in my “Book of Crazy Info” so I can get it working later in case my mind does not hold onto the solution. 
Today at work one of the things I was trying to do was figure out how to enable SSL on Apache Tomcat 6. I am still working on that as the things I have tried so far have not worked. Good thing I am trying this on a test machine but it is irritating me. Good thing I do not give up easily. Hopefully I will have some better news after tomorrow. Anyway, time to hit the hay so my mind will be fresh.
I have been using Windows 7 RC1 for a little while on my laptop, as it’s only OS, and for the most part I think it is ready. There were a few issues I noticed but hopefully they got them ironed out before they put the code to RTM(Release to Manufacturing). Honestly, if you held off getting Vista but want to upgrade one day, wait until 7 comes out. It does take care of some of the nagging issues of Vista and overall seems faster. If I can afford to drop the coin necessary to get it, I will soon after it is released.
Normally I am fine with Exchange, being the resource hog it is, but I was having to uninstall the damn thing the other day and it was being a huge pain. Let me set the stage, I had an Exchange 2007 server running as a VM and I had another one that was running full on the hardware of another server. I wanted to keep the latter one and remove the former. The problem was, I had to remove all replicas and everything else before uninstalling. I got everything removed except something that was replicating in the Public Folders database. I never could get it to replicate fully. For months off and on I was looking for answers that would not leave me hacking away at the low level parts of Active Directory. I finally found instructions that made some sense. Move the replicas. Well, I ran the script from the ‘Exchange Management Shell’ and it finished. I checked the status with another command and it showed it was not working still. There was nothing important in the database so I read that you could delete the database when it was not mounted and then when you remount the database it would recreate the public folders from scratch. I figured it was worth a shot. After it recreated the database I did the move replicas again and that seemed to move them. It did take a little bit before it was done. After that I deleted the public folders database and I was able to uninstall Exchange and remove that VM from the domain. Normally I do not get very upset at the little odd Microsoft quirks but man, that really did irritate me a lot.
Not too long ago I went to a Microsoft Event to learn more about Windows 2008 and of course get a copy of it so I will be able to set it up and learn about it even more than I already knew. The reason I said ‘already knew’ is because not too long before I came to the event I was able to work on Windows 2008 Standard up at work. I got it running on a new server and it will be our Terminal Server.
It has a few new features that I find very useful. One is the TS Gateway. It allows you to use the Remote Desktop Connection to burrow through a TS from the Internet using only port 443(https) and either connect to the TS itself or to other servers(and workstations). Of course you can lock it down and it actually works rather well. It works the same way that Outlook 2003 and 2007 fully connect to an Exchange 2003 or 2007 server safely over the Internet. It uses what is called RPC over HTTP(s). Let me just say that the TS Gateway makes things easier on the remote connection front. No need to mess with VPN bs or anything like that. Of course you would want to always make sure the TS Gateway is up to date. The TS Gateway requires at least RDC version 6.0. Windows XP SP2 with the RDC update or Vista come with it. Part of the settings are under the advanced tab on the configuration portion of RDC.
Anyway, another neat trick is something they seemed to have swiped(at least the idea) from Citrix. You can have a Web page, authenticated and encrypted of course, set up to share programs. This works well and allows you to run the program from the TS like it is running on your workstation. It even natively supports Dual Monitors. It is actually called RemoteApp. It is a bit more limited than it’s Citrix counterpart but it works just fine for regular usage. It does not support sharing applications per user. When you share an application, all users that are allowed to bring up the RemoteApp can run those apps. One glaring irritation is that the RDC version required is 6.1(partially due to the ActiveX plugin that comes with that version only). It currently is not being released as a separate product or update. It is part of Vista SP1 or XP SP3. SP1 for Vista has been released and seems to work well but XP3 has not been released but is scheduled to this month. We will see how well XP SP3 works…
I had the chipset fan on my motherboard go out a few weeks ago which started to cause rebooting issues every few days on my main desktop. I found a replacement the day before Thanksgiving. It is a huge heatsink without a fan which seems to be doing the job. I think that the job was done to Windows before I got a chance to fix the problem. Before, the reboots were so sudden Windows could not do a BSOD and now Windows seemed to be doing BSOD’s on me. After debugging the dump file it looked like it was the network driver(I hope). So far things seem to be stable after updating all the chipset drivers and network drivers. While I was at it I went ahead and updated my video drivers. I will be hoping that things are stable this coming week. If not then I may have to reinstall Windows. If that does not fix it then I think my MB may be crap and I will have to rip hardware from my secondary workstation. That is something I really do not want to do. Anyway, later…
I got a copy of the newest beta of Microsoft’s most recent offering of Windows. The install is beyond simple from what I have seen so far. I am installing it on my Dell Latitude C640. All the specs are fine for it except for the video card so I will find out how bad the new GUI runs on it. I may post a few more items with it as the topic with my thoughts and comments soon.
It has been a little while since I have done any posting to the blog. When I have not been busy I have been tired of doing too much with computers. I know that sounds scary if you know me, but I am doing better now. I updated some of the software running houstonjuggalos.com. It is a site that I am just the ‘code monkey’ for so don’t get any ideas. heh… I am enjoying things mostly. I am also slimming down my pile of computer junk slowly. I may have trouble not accepting old computer hardware but once I mess with it and make something useful I am finding it easier to get rid of it. The same can be said for hardware that does not work or is flaky. I am tired to dealing with that crap. Anyway, while I am typing this I am putting the finishing touches on my laptop image that I am creating. When I am done I will never have to reinstall Windows on my laptop again because I will have it set to just need a restore DVD put in the drive to get it back working in case I hose the OS.
Well, I finally got my Niece’s gallery upgraded to the newest version. She was using Gallery 1. She is now using Gallery 2. I also set up one of my nephews with a Gallery 2 set up of his own.
For my Niece, Jessica, it is http://seeker.theuncle.com/
For my Nephew, Charlie, it is http://chucknasty.theuncle.com/
It was interesting doing the import from Gallery 1 to 2 and it was actually really easy… Only a few differences exist that can be irritating but oh well. Got to go…
Well, I am going to try my hand at getting a replacement site going for the slightly aging look of the Lone Star Spirits site. I am going to try and use Drupal as it seems to be very versatile and yet clean and modular. I think I can get something whipped out in a few weeks or a month or so. Lates.
Most of my growing up years I was not a fan of Apple. It is widely known by friends and family of my thoughts about not just the company but the awkwardness of the OS. That was until OSX came along. I have found it to be mostly clean and not too bad of an Operating System which brings me to the title of this entry. A few months back I had the pleasure of test driving a couple of these units. I found that the Mini is worth the sticker price. In fact, I may one day soon get one of my own. w00t!! Below is the specs of what I want.
• 1.25GHz PowerPC G4
• 512MB DDR333 SDRAM – 1 DIMM
• 40GB Ultra ATA drive
• 4x SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• Internal Bluetooth + AirPort Extreme Card
• 56K v.92 Modem
• Mac OS X – U.S. English
Those options jump it up to $748.00 but I would still find that worth it…
If anyone is in doubt or outright does not know, phpbb2 is a message board system. I had to update it on two sites today. One of them I used as a test since it is not being used yet. It is www.digitalsheep.org. The other is used a lot so I did it second which is www.houstonjuggalos.com/board. Even though it went smooth on the first domain I was kinda spooked about the second one because it stays kinda busy. I ended up putting up an index.html file to block any new visitors to the page and explained that it was being worked on and waited until everyone was out. I am glad it worked out. It is kind of irritating when security issues come up. I am just glad this was easy to update.
I don’t know about you but I plan to start using it asap to see how the whole version number handles. I almost never use Internet Explorer now except for the Windows Update.
One of the many things on my plate is trying to get a Linux-based kiosk working for where I work. I have to get it stable then lock it down but make it still useable. I plan to use Firefox as the browser as it works rather well in Windows and Linux. I wanted to use Debian because of how easy it is to update but it is a pain to use new stuff in package format. I am trying out the distrobution named “Ubuntu”. It is based off of Debian and offers regular security updates for 18 months per release. Each release comes out every 6 months so this should be interesting.
A question was presented to me today regarding authentication methods for Windows 2000 servers(and *nix ones) across the Internet so only one login is necessary. While I think there are a few fielded answers, finding one to implement that is secure is not necessarily easy. RADIUS was proposed but Windows 2000 I am not sure supports it. I have found it can run a server for that auth. method so when I do further research maybe it will be viable. Another possible type is LDAP. The problem with LDAP is that from what I have been looking at, you have to rig Windows a bit differently to auth. on it but might be worth a shot if done through SSL or some other secure method. Kerberos might show some promise. It looks like no easy way exists but I do not plan to give up that easily.
More on this later…maybe…