CommsCentral

Installing Web Farm Framework 2.0 with Web Platform installer 4.0 results in error Web Platform Installer is a pre-requisite for installing Web Farm Framework 2.0

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 15:41:08 +1000

I�ve recently being building a proof of concept for a customer of Web Farm Framework 2.0 and found an interesting problem that doesn�t seem to have been greatly noticed yet.

The Issue
Web farm framework 2.0 requires the web platform installer to already be installed on the system, nothing greatly new here.
However the way that the web farm framework 2 installer checks for web platform installer (webpi) doesn�t work with the version 4 of web platform framework (4.0) and will result in the web farm frame work throwing the following error: Web Platform Installer is a pre-requisite for installing Web Farm Framework 2.0

The Cause
The web farm framework installer checks for web platform installer by checking the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WebPlatformInstaller\3

However, somewhat unsurprisingly, web platform installer 4 ( which seems to be the only version one can now download) only puts keys into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WebPlatformInstaller\4

In a nutshell, MS have written a bad installer for web farm framework.

The Solution

Export registry hive HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WebPlatformInstaller\4

Edit the exported key and change any reference to 4 back to 3

Reimport back into the registry.
------------

I�ve included a the registry file I ended up with, this does assume that you have installed web platform into the default directory location:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WebPlatformInstaller\3]
"Install"=dword:00000001
"InstallPath"="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft\\Web Platform Installer\\"
"Version"="7.1.1622.0"

...

Resizing the disks of a linux virtual machine

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 17:11:36 +1000

So recently I had the situation where I needed to resize (or grow a linux partition)

If your using an EXT2 EXT3 or EXT4 partition in native mode without LVM.

1. Allocate the additional space (normally done in a virtual server)

2. Work out which partition needs to be grown. This can be done with fdisk �l, although you MAY need to rescan the scsi disks prior to seeing the full space (see http://commscentral.net/tech/?post=44)

3. One you know the volume, run resize2fs -p /dev/sda2

4. Run df �h to confirm the disks have resized

This can all be done without a reboot of the VM.

Caveman
...

Rescanning disks in linux

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 16:57:13 +1000

So in windows disk, rescanning disks is as simple as going to disk management, right clicking and hitting rescan.
Linux its not so simple.

How to rescan disks in linux

first you have to find the scsi folders, for that search
find /sys -name scan

In my case this gave me the following results

root@xxxx:/# find /sys -name scan
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:07.1/host0/scsi_host/host0/scan
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:07.1/host1/scsi_host/host1/scan
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.0/host2/scsi_host/host2/scan
/sys/module/scsi_mod/parameters/scan

The first 3 look like devices, the last one looks like a module so we'll ignore that.

Now run the following three lines, this forces each scsi device to rescan

echo - - ->/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:07.1/host0/scsi_host/host0/scan

echo - - ->/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:07.1/host1/scsi_host/host1/scan

echo - - ->/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.0/host2/scsi_host/host2/scan

with the echo - - -> note the spaces. so its echoSPACE-SPACE-SPACE->/sys.....

fdisk -l will now show the additional device!

Phew, really should be easier than that ...

Direct Access using UAG - ipv6 to ipv4 and dns routing notes

Mon, 17 May 2010 17:25:22 +1000

A good article came on on technet the other day.
It explains clearly the ins and outs of Direct Access and how the NAT64 works when doing the NAT of a 64bit packet.

There is also a good tip about fixing a DNS issue for users on wireless cards.

http://blogs.technet.com/edgeaccessblog/archive/2010/04/30/directaccess-mobile-connections-dns-records-and-more.aspx

Cheers

Caveman
...

Advanced setting preference pane add-in for OS X

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:48:09 +1000

Hi All,

So a few weeks back I found a really useful application for mac OS X that allows setting of some advanced settings in OS X.
Now I can already hear the hardcore command line guys, saying, but you can do this at a command line level. yes I know! However this makes it easy, knows what the default was (incase you want to go back) but also tells you what advanced settings there are!

The program is called Secrets and its a preferences plugin. The site is http://secrets.blacktree.com/ and they also have a really handly list of all the secrets, plus the command line commands to set them! Which is almost as handy as the program!

I've certainly found it useful for a few bits and pieces!

Enjoy!

Caveman...

Changing ESX virtual centre server when original virtual host no longer available

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:53:04 +1000

Just a quick post today but I wanted to share something useful I discovered.

I've got a vmware esx server that is setup and is managed using virtual centre. Due to hardware limitations we have virtual centre running inside a vmware on the esx server.

I know this isn't best practice, however it is a supported configuration by vmware.
Recently we had a power outage that rebooted the server and the vm running virtual centre wasn't setup to start automatically so the virtual centre server didn't come back up.
This virtual centre server also handles the licensing for the esx host. Due to there being no licensing server available, after the 14 day grace period, esx wouldn't allow any new vm's to be started as it didn't have a license.
This presented me with a problem, I needed to start up the virtual centre server to fix the licensing issue, however esx didn't have any licenses to start the vm up........ URHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

I figured the only solution would be to bring up another server with virtual centre installed and point the esx server at that so it would have a license and then allow me to boot up the vm before repointing the esx host back to its vm virtual centre.

However there is a problem a I quickly discovered, ESX won't let you remove a virtual centre from managing it, unless it can contact that virtual centre server to say "goodbye".
You can add the ESX host into the other virtual centre however it quickly disconnects and you can't manage it at all.

After a bit of head scratching I found a solution.
1. ssh to your esx host.

2. Edit your license.cfg file in /etc/vmware/license.cfg (vi /etc/vmware/license.cfg as root will do it)

3. Here we have 2 possible solutions. 1, empty the file or 2, modify the line that reads like SERVER=27000@192.168.1.10 to something else.
I've found that solution 2 doesn't seem to work, I found solution 1 worked for me, but from the vmware docs option 2 should work.

4. Then run /sbin/service mgmt-vmware restart

Your ESX host will now reboot and if you went option 1 at step three you will be able to add the ESX host back into another virtual centre server.

Problem solved!...