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{ Category Archives } software

software installations or general ranting

embedding html 5 videos for universal consumption

This is surprisingly easy. Throw your video into handbrake. I usually select ipod template, the video will end up 320 x 176. Once that is done, covert the video using ffmpeg2theora videoName.m4v videoName.ogg Check the video size by getting info in finder. Now you are ready to upload the videos and embed it using: <div […]

extend full partitions on aix

By default AIX installs on several very small partitions, they fill up fast. The good news is, they are easy to extend and no reboot or install media is required. Just use this to see what you have available: # lspv hdisk0 # lspv hdisk1 Find out which partitions are full using: # df -k […]

allow root ssh login solaris 11 express

vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config PermitRootLogin = yes vi /etc/default/login #CONSOLE =/dev/login rolemod -K type=normal root

disable RPC service via Group Policy

I found a great way to lock yourself out of every machine in your domain, just disable the RPC service. Since the netlogon service relies on RPC, if you disable RPC on your domain you will no longer be able to log into a domain account. Furthermore, the client won’t be able to talk to […]

convert a .vhd to vsphere virtual machine

Every quarter the Federal Desktop Core Configuration folks release new GPOs and VHD files which you can use to build machines which they deem ‘secure’. You can use these machines to test FDCC products (like Qualysguard). The machine they provide should show a ‘passing’ statement for each of the secure configuration items. Once you’ve downloaded […]

build a backup server with OpenDeDup

With this server you can backup large amounts of data (like VMWare VCB backups) and all duplicate data will be ignored. This will usually make 10 TB of backups less than 1TB. First calculate how much memory you’ll need using this calculation: <Size of your DeDup Volume in MB> / <blocksize (4 for VMWare images) […]

configure a secondary dns (slave) server on linux

I have a master DNS server at 10.10.10.1 and a slave at 10.10.10.2 The master server needs this for each zone: type master; allow-transfer {10.10.10.2}; also-notify {10.10.10.2}; notify yes; The slave server needs this for each zone: type slave; masters {10.10.10.1;}; Now whenever you modify a dns record on the master, increment the serial number […]

ubuntu 9.10 print server with mac 10.6 client

I have a Samsung ML-2010 connected to a ubuntu desktop. Sharing it with my macbook was surprisingly easy. First make sure you can print locally on your ubuntu desktop. Then go to System-> Administration-> Printing Right click on the printer and check the box “Shared” Then make go to Server -> Settings… and check the […]

Setup an http load balancer in 20 seconds

Setup a http load balancer in about 20 seconds using pen. First, make sure the server you are on is NOT running anything on port 80. Next install pen with “yum install pen” (or apt-get install pen) and then you just start it using this: # pen 80 web1.domain.com web2.domain.com web3.domain.com Say you ran this […]

ipv6 default gateway on AIX

Configuring ipv6 with AIX was pretty easy, I used “smitty tcpip” to configure everything. The challenge came when I attempted to configure a default gateway. I couldn’t find this on google. Through trial an error I found the answer: Smitty tpcip -> IPV6 Configuration -> IPV6 Static Routes -> Add an IPV6 Static Route Destination […]

vCenter global search error and fix

I wasn’t able to find this on google so here you go: If you see “Could not acquire an authentication ticket for the query service: https://vcenter.example.com:8443/vms” try restarting the services VMWare VirtualCenter Management Webservices & VMWare vCenter Orchestrator Configuration. This error is received when trying to use the new global search box located in the […]

vSphere Client on windows 7

It is a known issue that the vSphere client doesn’t work on win7 yet. You’ll see the following error message: Error parsing the server “<Server name>” “clients.xml” file. Login will continue, contact your system administrator. The type initializer for ‘VirtualInfrastructure.Utils.HttpWebRequestProxy’ threw an exception. The fix (some of this info was obtained from the vmware forums): […]

Installing windows 7 on nvidia raid controller

I have an ECS C51GM-M motherboard and I run two 500GB hard drives in RAID-0 to give me 1TB of fast storage. The problem with this is that when you try to install any form of windows, it doesn’t see any available disk. There are ways around this- 1. When installing XP, you press F8 […]

MicroManage your network with Netdisco

Netdisco is a great network management tool created by our friends at UCSC, it will tell you which devices are plugged into which ports on every network device you have. It keeps track of devices by mac address and IP. It also will automatically create a network map of all your routers and switches (maybe). […]

installing windows 7 RC1

The first thing I noticed was the change in the boot partition from 200mb to 100mb (interesting but insignificant). In the previous windows7 beta it was 200mb. For formatting/partitioning, quick format is now the standard (yes!). The next thing I noticed was that a password isn’t required but (if you use one) a password hint […]

why legacy shortcut keys?

Something that has puzzled me for many years- why was the control key chosen as a primary shortcut key for windows and *nix? Why would you forcibly abuse pinky-fingers around the world? It makes us all slower, less accurate and generally just hurts me. Apple knows theres no reason for this, which is why their […]

going mouseless because of hyper-v

Today I was importing an image into hyper-v, found out some interesting things. You can’t install the integration tools for the client if an old version of integration tools is installed (for example, the image came from MS Virtual Server 2005). The reason were going mouseless is because Hyper-V doesn’t allow any use of the […]

Oh Acrobat, why oh why?

I’ve never had anything against Adobe products. There is one exception, Acrobat Reader. There are many reasons why their PDF standard is excellent. Features such as platform interoperability and OCR integration have made it a gold standard. The odd thing is, why can’t they make Reader a reasonable program? It will lock up and crash […]