LiveAverage

Confirmation: Windstream Over-subscribed in Alachua County areas

JR — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:45:19 +0000

In case anyone in the Alachua County (Gainesville, Alachua, Newberry, etc.) area is inquiring about the sudden latency increase in Windstream-provided bandwidth and internet services (beginning in December 2011), a confirmation from local [Windstream] technicians attributes line over-subscription as the culprit. It appears the company has oversold the amount of bandwidth they’re currently capable of supporting, resulting in degraded service and inadequate speeds. After several (read: 12+) calls to support, I received a tentative “fix” date of January 23, 2012 — over a month with bandwidth speeds lower than dial-up. My initial latency problems began in mid-December 2011 and have yet to subside.

If you experienced problems with slow or high-latency Windstream broadband during the December 2011 to January 2012 time period and have not requested or received a credit for the amount of time you were inconvenienced, I’d suggest immediately contacting their Billing Support staff for a refund or prorated charge. Depending on your billing cycle and the amount of time you were inconvenienced, you may be entitled to multiple reimbursements for inadequate service.

You may also want to suspend any net-dependent services: Netflix, Hulu Premium, etc. They’ll be rendered useless until this problem has been addressed. Thanks, Windstream.

Managing backup retention… with one line of Powershell

JR — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:09:08 +0000

Ok, I used four lines, but my needs for retention might be a bit more complex than most. I also spaced each pipeline command, so it looks longer than it should, but readability is important. Additionally, there’s a good half-page of comments in the script than can safely be ignored, unless you want to know what was going through my mind. Most of these related directly to my desired retention periods.

For testing purposes, the last two “lines” only print out the listing of files that would be deleted.

Param ($backupDir)

######
# Handle 30-day backup recyclables first (no directory recursion since each backup is in its own directory)
# The current backup schedule performs weekly configuration backups with 1-month retention.
######

Get-ChildItem "$backupDir\backup_data" | `
`
Where-Object {(($_.FullName -match "configuration_isxpr01_") -and ( $_.CreationTime -lt ((Get-Date).AddMonths(-1)) ) )} | `
`
ForEach-Object {`
                    Out-File -filepath "$backupDir\log" -inputobject $((Get-Date -format g) + "Removing " + $_.FullName + " from " + $_.CreationTime) -append`
                    Remove-Item $_.FullName -recurse}

######
# Handle 7-day backup recyclables next (no directory recursion since each backup is in its own directory)
# The current backup schedule performs weekly configuration backups with 1-week retention.
# No "overwrite option available, so this script manages removal
######

Get-ChildItem "$backupDir\backup_data" | `
`
Where-Object {(($_.FullName -match "backup_isxpr01_") -and ( $_.CreationTime -lt ((Get-Date).AddDays(-7)) ) )} | `
`
ForEach-Object {(Remove-Item $_.FullName -recurse)}

######
# Handle daily trend data recyclables next (use recursion parameter).
# The current daily trend export schedule requires 1-month retention for 24-hr trend data.
######

Get-ChildItem -include *.zip -recurse -path "$backupDir\trend_data_export" | `
`
Where-Object {(($_.FullName -match "24-hr") -and ( $_.CreationTime -lt ((Get-Date).AddMonths(-1)) ) )} | `
`
ForEach-Object {($_.FullName)}

######
# Handle monthly trend data recyclables next (use recursion parameter).
# The current monthly trend export schedule requires 5-year retention for 30-day trend data.
######

Get-ChildItem -include *.zip -recurse -path "$backupDir\trend_data_export" | `
`
Where-Object {(($_.FullName -match "30-day") -and ( $_.CreationTime -lt ((Get-Date).AddYears(-5)) ) )} | `
`
ForEach-Object {($_.FullName)}

OpenFiler errors that only I seemed to experience…

JR — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:51:03 +0000

Well, I’ve finally deployed some production Openfiler ESA 2.99.1 machines as home-brew iSCSI boxes, primarily used for backups or low-stress virtual storage. Yes, they’re great — my basic write speeds on a Core 2 Duo box (recycled Dell Precision 390 workstation with 2GB of RAM and a single 1TB drive *no* RAID):

administrator@mail:/backup-iscsi$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=garbage bs=131072 count=20000
20000+0 records in
20000+0 records out
2621440000 bytes (2.6 GB) copied, 40.8493 s, 64.2 MB/s

I’m pretty happy with that. What I’m not please with is a 56MB log (/var/log/secure) filled with strange messages:

Jul 26 12:25:46 e0-002 sudo: openfiler : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/opt/openfiler/var/www/htdocs ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/uptime
Jul 26 12:25:46 e0-002 sudo: PAM unable to dlopen(/lib64/security/pam_gnome_keyring.so)
Jul 26 12:25:46 e0-002 sudo: PAM [error: /lib64/security/pam_gnome_keyring.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory]
Jul 26 12:25:46 e0-002 sudo: PAM adding faulty module: /lib64/security/pam_gnome_keyring.so

Okay, so the first message isn’t strange. In fact, it’s normal. But I couldn’t figure out why a non-GUI (yes, it has a web interface, but no default window manager) distro was trying to load the Gnome keyring shared object. I still don’t know why. What I do know is how to get rid of this message:

Verify which PAM files reference this shared object:

[root@e0-002 pam.d]# cd /etc/pam.d/
[root@e0-002 pam.d]# grep -i -n 'pam_gnome_keyring.so' *
system-auth:5:# FL: Have (patched) pam_gnome_keyring.so grab the password before pam_unix.so
system-auth:6:auth        optional      pam_gnome_keyring.so
system-auth:16:password    optional      pam_gnome_keyring.so

In this instance, the ‘system-auth’ file contained these troublesome pam_gnome_keyring.so entries.
Fire-up your favorite text editor and comment those lines.
Reboot & enjoy a log without an absurd amount of irrelevant errors.

I found this referenced once on the OpenFiler forums, but no answer or explanation. I hope this helps someone else that might experience a similar problem.

I’ll also be doing a write-up related to OpenFiler volume backups with LVM snapshots.

How-to: GSX650F & Vortex 41mm Clip-ons

JR — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:00:46 +0000

Author Note: I wrote this article when I still owned my GSX650F. I’ve since traded-up for a 2007 GSXR600 (and I couldn’t be happier). I might have some images to post with this tutorial, but I’ll post them when/if I can find them. Hopefully the write-up is enough to help… Good luck, modders.

Prior to my experiences with the Suzuki GSX650F, I was the semi-proud owner of a Hyosung GT250R. I loved the body styling, aggressive riding position, cheap price ($3300 OTD) and gas mileage, but I realized something more powerful was necessary for longer trips (and riding 2-up with the Mrs.). This brought me to my evolving 2008 GSX650F, which has the power, speed, and styling qualities that I was looking for, but still lacked the aggressive riding position I had with the Hyosung.

Vortex Racing had the answer to my commuter bar problem: 41mm clip-ons. They’re available in three different colors: silver (aluminum), black, and gold. Additionally, Vortex manufactures after-market bar ends (weighted or unweighted) for their clip-ons — which are certainly necessary after losing the dampers. The install took less than 45 minutes, but I’ll admit I made the mistake of loosening one of the fork bolts too much while lowering the front-end (required for installation on the GSX650F). This inevitably resulted in a lopsided front after the left fork pushed right through the triple-tree clamp. An extra 10 minutes of jacking the bike up and re-adjustment was required. Here’s a concise set of steps used to complete the project:

Materials:

(1) Pair of Vortex 41mm Clip-on handle bars (clamps and bars)

(1) Pair of new grips (optional)

(1) Pair of bar-end sliders, preferably weighted (optional)

Set of allen keys/wrenches

Philips-head screwdriver

Rubber mallet or lightweight hammer wrapped in cloth

Patience, maybe some coffee

Remove the control housings, levers, and grips from the handlebars. If one or both of your grips happen to be glued/adhered to the handlebars, you may want to remove all the control housings & levers first, then cut the grip(s) off with shears after the bars are away from the bike. To access the (2) phillips-head screws holding the switch housings on the bars, it may be necessary to first loosen the handlebar clamps and rotate the bar toward the front of the bike. The levers should have two-piece clamps holding them to the bars.** Be careful when separating the throttle control housing. It may be best to loosen the housing and slide the throttle control assembly off the bar since the plastic throttle sleeve and throttle control housing are connected with cabling.

When all the controls and levers are safely away from the bars (and bike body), loosen and remove the handlebar clamps using the appropriate allen wrench. Set the bars aside and re-tighten the clamps back to the triple-tree, or you may want to completely remove the clamp assembly. Your choice.

Next you need to very carefully (and I can’t stress this enough — very carefully) loosen the (3) fork bolts [ (1) on the triple-tree clamp, (2) above the front fender] on one side of the bike. It is strongly recommended to only perform this procedure on one side of the bike at a time to prevent your entire front-end from sliding down the forks (like mine!). You’ll want to leave the three bolts fairly snug, then use the rubber mallet to hammer on the triple-tree clamp until the fork begins to push through the top of the triple-tree. Keep your clip-ons nearby to measure how much of the fork you’ll require above the triple-tree.

Once the clip-on clamp gap is filled from top-to-bottom with the fork, re-tighten the (3) fork bolts to prevent the front-end from sliding. Leave the clip-on clamp loose for later adjustments (trust me, you’ll be making plenty of them).

Repeat these same steps for the other side of the bike, making certain you don’t loosen the (3) fork bolts too much. Again, don’t over-tighten the clip-on hardware until all controls are remounted and all adjustments are made. Go ahead and tighten the the bar clamps, making sure the bars are positioned the furthest distance from the bike/tank (the black bar end near the dash should almost be under the bar clamp) .

Next, begin remounting your control housings and levers onto the new clip-on bars. Don’t tighten hardware completely. Instead, tighten just enough to wiggle or move the housings/levers across the bars for adjustments.

Now here comes the tedious step: adjustment. If you have a motorcycle jack or center stand (I don’t), put the bike on it if you haven’t already. You need to find the sweet-spot for clip-on positioning… You should be able to cut hard-left or hard-right without pinching your hands between the bars and the tank and without hitting the control housings or levers on the bike’s dash. Yes, it can be done. I was more worried about my hands getting pinched between the bars and tank, so my controls are very close (millimeters) to the dash, but they do clear them without rubbing or scraping.

If you don’t have a jack, you’ll be doing a lot of tightening/loosening and turning to test for clearance. The only constant is the bar positioning on the clip-on clamps. The black, plastic bar end near the center of the dash should be as close as possible to the clamp (without actually clamping down on it).
Adjust the angle of the clip-ons by rotating them around the forks.
Adjust the x-axis positioning of the controls by sliding them back and forth across the clip-on bars. Any scratches on the bars can generally be polished out with Mother’s Aluminum polish.NOTE: you may need to mount the plastic throttle assembly a bit more inside if you’re installing bar-ends (weighted or unweighted). Otherwise, the grips (once installed) may rub on the inside of the bar-end, causing the throttle to stick (uh… not good).
Adjust the y-axis positioning of the controls by rotating them up and down on the bars.
Keep turning the bars left and right to test for clearance, repeat as needed.** NOTE: It is extremely helpful to sit on the bike while making some of these adjustments. It may also help to temporarily remove your cables and tubing from the cable management arm(s) to permit a more free range of movement while adjusting. Once the positioning is correct, be sure to test for adequate cable/tubing slack and safe movement when turning hard-left or hard-right.

Whenever your adjustment are complete, it’s time to tighten the control housings and clip-on clamps. You may need a socket wrench with a bit adapter to tighten some of the control housing(s) due to their awkward position.

Lastly, install your grips (pre-existing or new) according to their instruction guide (i.e. using adhesive, soapy water, etc.). Depending on the type and style of grips, and whether or not you purchased bar-ends, you may need to cut the end-cap on the grips. I used fairly generic Pro-Grip grips that required me to cut the ends off so I could mount my Vortex bar-ends.

As mentioned elsewhere, make sure to take it slow and easy on your first ride. Turning is much easier (and quicker) with the new bars. Also be sure to carry a set of allen keys for any adjustments (or clamp tightening) while out on your first ride.

Sources:

http://www.gsx650f.biz/lowering-t915.html?highlight=triple

http://www.squidbusters.com/sb/showthread.php?threadid=682

Ripping Play.FM Streams with Firefox and FlashGot

JR — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:44:50 +0000

I’ve recently stumbled across Play.FM, a flash-based music streaming service similar to Pandora but exclusively featuring Electronic and Dance Music. Friendly site with sensational tunes, but many of the songs, particularly those uploaded by independent DJs or artists, are not available for sale or download, making it difficult to listen on portable devices or offline. I tried the usual methods of download/capture for Flash-based music, but nothing was saved to my cache directory, and FreeMusicZilla detected no active streams… I gave the popular FlashGot Firefox plug-in a try and found it to work great. There was one catch: you have to hit play within the Flash player to capture the stream URL, then hit pause for the download to start. I assume Play.FM limits the number of active simultaneous connections from one computer/IP, so you’ll need to toggle the player so FlashGot detects the MP3 URL, then download the file. Here’s the quick breakdown on pulling a Play.FM stream:

Fire up your Firefox web browser and navigate to the Play.FM player streaming the music you’d like to save.
Start playing the stream until you see the FlashGot icon show up in Firefox status bar (see image below).
Right-click the icon and select the Flash stream you’d like to download. There is likely only one entry to select.
FlashGot will automatically add this stream download to your “Downloads,” window/queue. However, it won’t start downloading until you pause the stream or close the window.

Getting Married Soon…

JR — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:39:59 +0000

I’ve recently sent out invites for our [local] wedding ceremony/reception . Along with custom-designed invites (and RSVP cards), we’ve created an informational website for attendees:

http://wedding.liveaverage.com

It mostly hosts info related to directions, accommodations, registries, etc., but we were pleased with the outcome of the site and invites. In case anyone asks, the invites were printed by Rush Flyers (a great printing outfit from Florida).

Accessing VMare Disks — without VMware Server or Workstation

JR — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:23:59 +0000

I spent more time than necessary looking for a VMware disk mount utility to use on a Linux-based distribution. For windows, there’s the VMWare Workstation Disk Mount Utility (5.5) that can installed with the VMWare DiskMount GUI, but I couldn’t find the simple vmware-mount.pl program for Linux distros. Instead, I had to dig it out of a compatible VMWare Server package [for Linux], copy it to /usr/bin/ and create the necessary symlinks for operation. Here’s a quick breakdown of the steps:

If you don’t already have it, grab a release of the VMWare Server for Linux — make sure you download the correct version for your distribution (32-bit or 64-bit). You do not need to install the package, simply download it and extract the contents. Alternatively, you could download the package to a Windows workstation and transfer the vmware-mount utility to your Linux workstation/server via SFTP, SCP, FTP, etc..
After downloading the VMWare Server package, extract the vmware-mount utility from the following directory in the archive:
```
\vmware-server-distrib\bin\vmware-mount
```
Copy vmware-mount to /usr/bin
```
cp ~/vmware-mount /usr/bin/
```
The disk mount utility requires a couple of dependencies to run. You can try and run vmware-mount to determine what it needs. In my case, on Ubuntu 8.04LTS 64-bit, it required libcrypto.so.0.9.8 and libssl.so.0.9.8. The utility was looking for these files in a non-existent directory structure:
```
/usr/bin/libdir/lib/lib*
```
Go ahead and create this directory structure (beats installing the VMWare server package), then provide symlinks to the actual lib files required by vmware-mount:
```
sudo mkdir -p /usr/bin/libdir/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8; sudo mkdir -p /usr/bin/libdir/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8
```
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 /usr/bin/libdir/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8 /usr/bin/libdir/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8/libssl.so.0.9.8
That’s it! Now you should be able to run ./vmware-mount to determine proper command usage.

Lenovo RS110 Review

JR — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:34:01 +0000

I recently had the [unfortunate] opportunity of rolling-out (2) Lenovo RS110 servers targeted for SMBs. We seemed to fit the market for this relatively new Lenovo offering, but the product failed to meet the needs and expectations of my environment. The intention was to launch one of these two units with an Ubuntu/Debian-based Linux distribution to host our Zimbra mail server (currently residing virtual Ubuntu 6.06 LTS machine, with a host OS of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS 64-bit). Here’s some brief hardware highlights:

Intel® Xeon® Dual Core Processor E3110
3.00Ghz
6MB cache
2GB (we upgraded to 4Gb of PC26400 RAM)
Rack(2×2) — Rails and mounting hardware included
LSISAS1064e Raid Controller (0,1,10) — Hardware RAID, NOT fakeRAID
16x Max DVD-ROM
Dual Gigabit Ethernet, +1 Ethernet Management Port
no preload for OS

Yes, it looks pretty decent for a $800-$900 price-tag. But note some caveats: to obtain hard-disk carriers for this RS110, you have purchase Lenovo hard-disks. You cannot purchase the carriers independent of a hard-disk. You can, however, make your own brackets or use hard-disk brackets from another manufacture that fit in the hot-swap bay(s). This was unknown to me before my purchase. Had I know this, I would have kept looking at other options. Another snag: the hardware RAID controller is/was only [fully] supported by one of the four different Linux distributions I attempted to install. The comprehensive list of attempted distro installs:

Debian Server 5.03 Lenny	[Joy]
Ubuntu Server 6.06.1 LTS	[No go]
Ubuntu Server 6.06.2 LTS	[No go]
Ubuntu Server 8.04 LTS	[No go]
Ubuntu Server 9.04	[No go]
Red Hat Fedora 11	[No go]
CentOS Server 5.3	[No go]

I won’t lie — I did complete successful installs on Ubuntu 8.04 and Ubuntu 9.04; however, when attempting to copy large files to a Samba share (or via SCP, didn’t matter what protocol), the RS110 would crash… hard… with perpetual disk i/o errors until a hard reset was completed. Debian 5.03 was the only distribution that installed successfully and operated normally under a commonplace workload. Unfortunately, Zimbra offers no support for Debian 5.03 at this time. The RS110 claims support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Suse, but I’m not in the mood to start mixing too many Linux distros in my environment (I’m already running Debian, Ubuntu, and flavors of OpenBSD), nor do I feel up for paying a yearly RHEL subscription/support fee. So, I executed my last option for utilizing an RS110 as my physical mail server: throw in a supported RAID card. I installed a 3Ware (AMCC) 9650SE-2LP card in the available PCI-E riser-card slot. Note that the hot-swap back-plane does NOT use generic SATA/SAS data or power connections, which means I had use a molex to SATA Y-connector for power and two separate, standard SATA data cables. This meant the back-plane was not being used at all…

Apparently this “configuration,” is what Lenovo Support staff called an “unsupported,” hardware configuration. A generic PCI-E RAID controller in a PCI-E slot on the RS110 is unsupported. The 3Ware RAID bios never did post, regardless of several Lenovo BIOS setting changes and physically removing the LSI card from the RS110. Following this last bit of frustration, I contacted the vendor I purchased from and indicated my dissatisfaction with the Lenovo RS110. I’ve decided to keep one as a Windows 2003 R2 VMWare host, but I’ve already packaged the other 110 for return.

Bottom-line: If you’re running a low-load Windows 2003 server, this product might be ideal for your environment. If you intend to run anything else on the hardware, stay away. Support was unclear about the “unsupported,” configuration, so I wouldn’t plan on even using the one available PCI-E slot. The forced purchase of Lenovo hard-disks versus just the disk carriers feels like extortion…

Add ‘Submitted Tickets’ Listing Page for Joomla! RSTickets

JR — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:15:21 +0000

If you haven’t heard, RSTickets! is an advanced Joomla! Help Desk ticketing system that allows you (or a team of yous) to manage and keep track of your clients’ issues. It’s actually one of the few effective, useful Help Desk systems available for the Joomla! 1.5+ framework that I would personally recommend. Unfortunately, it’s still under development and lacks certain features that one may desire, such as a read-only listing page that displays tickets already submitted to you or your department.

My Problem:

I noticed internal network clients were submitting several duplicate tickets related to a shared problem (i.e. printer trouble, network outages, etc.). I couldn’t blame them since they couldn’t view previously submitted tickets, so I decided to create a quick + dirty page that pulls “open,” or “on-hold,” tickets from a specific department’s table of submitted [active] tickets and displays them on a Joomla! article page (using the Sourcerer plug-in to execute custom PHP with {source} tags). Pasting this code into an article without the Sourcerer plug-in [or some sort of plug-in for executing PHP] will do nothing. Also note the include file for making a raw connection to your MySQL database. This is required (and should be stored in a directory with the appropriate permissions to prevent outside read access).

If you’d like to simply list the number (amount) of tickets (open, closed, on-hold) for all departments, you might want to check the unreleased version of RSJoomla!’s RSTicket Module.

{source}
';

echo 'Please check the open, pending, or on-hold tickets listed below before submitting a support ticket. The list below can be utilized as an informal gauge for IT response times. If a duplicate support ticket is submitted, you may cancel it yourself or it will be deleted by the IT Department upon review. Thank you for your cooperation.';

echo 'SUBMITTED SUPPORT TICKETS:';

echo 'Submitted:Username:Ticket Code:Subject:Status:Priority:';

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result2))

{

$custid =  $row['CustomerId'];
$userquery= mysql_query("SELECT name FROM jos_users WHERE id=$custid") or die(mysql_error());

$username = mysql_fetch_array($userquery);

echo '' . date("Y-m-d H:m", $row['TicketTime']) .  '' . $username['name'] . '' . $row['TicketCode'] . '' . $row['TicketSubject'] . '' . strtoupper($row['TicketStatus']) . '';

if ($row['TicketPriority']=='high'){

echo '';

} else if ($row['TicketPriority']=='normal'){

echo '';

} else if ($row['TicketPriority']=='low'){

echo '';}

echo strtoupper($row['TicketPriority']) . '';

}

echo '
SUBMIT A NEW SUPPORT TICKET';

echo '
';

?>
{/source}

connect_custom.php :

New fun with old toys: Adtran Atlas 550 + Free 411

JR — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:10:26 +0000

As a result of my frugality, I got my hands on an Adtran Atlas 550 to be used for partitioning a single PRI into two PRIs at my workplace. In addition to the partitioning, this system provides the added bonus of dynamic number substitution. What’s this mean for me? Substituting costly 411 directory service for free Goog-411 service (which I prefer over traditional 411). I’m also able to create a number rejection list to block those NSFW 900* calls [or variation thereof], but the number substitution templates seem much more interesting…

How to do it:

Telnet to yohost.yodomain and log-in

Dial Plan > Network Term > Interface # (1 in my case) > Enter

Select Substitution Template

Enter the Original DNIS number (the phone number originally dialed)

Enter the Substitution DNIS number (the phone number you’d like to dial)

Go back to the main menu and log-out

Remember, this change is transparent (and instant — no need to write/commit the config to startup), so the next time callers decide to hit up the 411 directory service, their call should be automagically routed to 1-800-goog411 (1-800-4664411). Since we’re a fairly small office I don’t think this number substituion presents a problem with Googles Terms of Service, but if you’re considering this change on a massive scale I’d consider reading over Google’s TOS agreement (particularly section 5.3).