Welcome to my blog.  Hopefully here you will find some interesting and detailed articles relating to Windows Home Server, Home Computing and General IT.

Upgrading Centos from 7 to 8 with ZFS

yum install -y epel-release 
yum install -y yum-utils
yum install -y rpmconf
rpmconf -a
package-cleanup --leaves
package-cleanup --orphans
yum install -y dnf
dnf -y remove yum yum-metadata-parser
rm -Rf /etc/yum
dnf upgrade
dnf -y upgrade http://mirror.bytemark.co.uk/centos/8/BaseOS/x86\_64/os/Packages/centos-release-8.0-0.1905.0.9.el8.x86\_64.rpm
dnf -y upgrade https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm
dnf clean all
rpm -e zfs
rpm -e kmod-zfs
rpm -e \`rpm -q kernel\`
rpm -e --nodeps sysvinit-tools
dnf -y --releasever=8 --allowerasing --setopt=deltarpm=false distro-sync 
dnf -y install kernel-core
dnf -y groupupdate "Core" "Minimal Install"
cat /etc/redhat-release
yum install http://download.zfsonlinux.org/epel/zfs-release.el8\_0.noarch.rpm
yum -y update
yum -y install zfs
zpool upgrade -v
zpool scrub geekpool 
```Your pool name instead of geekpool in the last command

random blocking Java database connections

So I came across a problem with a Java App not being able to open a connection to an Oracle Database.  It wasn’t a problem with Credentials or the SID but a failure to connect.  After a bit of digging I found that there wasn’t enough entropy in the system to get the required amount of bytes from /dev/random - the solution is to edit java.security to use /dev/urandom instead:

[Read More]

Compress VHD Files in Hyper-V

Yeah you can’t do it - so don’t think you can save space compressing VHDs or VHDXs

Splitting and Tagging FLAC

Use my special docker image:

docker run -ti -v /FLAC/The\\ KLF/Chill\\ Out/:/opt albal/cuetools /bin/bash

In the container run:

shnsplit -f Chill\\ Out.cue -t %n-%t -o flac Chill\\ Out.flac
cuetag Chill\\ Out.cue \[0-9\]\*.flac

Adding USG PBR Entry for Second WAN

The following commands run on the USG will use the pppoe1 WAN for the two source addresses specified.

configure
set firewall modify LOAD\_BALANCE rule 2500 action modify
set firewall modify LOAD\_BALANCE rule 2500 modify table 5
set firewall modify LOAD\_BALANCE rule 2500 source address 192.168.0.102
set firewall modify LOAD\_BALANCE rule 2500 protocol all
set firewall modify LOAD\_BALANCE rule 2501 action modify
set firewall modify LOAD\_BALANCE rule 2501 modify table 5
set firewall modify LOAD\_BALANCE rule 2501 source address 192.168.0.115
set firewall modify LOAD\_BALANCE rule 2501 protocol all
set protocols static table 5 interface-route 0.0.0.0/0 next-hop-interface pppoe1
commit;save;exit

Setting up Windows Server Essentials 2016 Clients

You possibly don’t want your client computer joined to a domain nor any messing around with your client computer DNS settings either.  So here are the three commands you need to run in an elevated command prompt on your client computer.

reg add "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows Server\\Networking\\ClientDns" /v SkipAutoDnsConfig /t REG\_DWORD /d 1
reg add "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows Server\\Networking\\ServerDiscovery" /v SkipAutoDNSServerDetection /t REG\_SZ /d true
reg add "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows Server\\ClientDeployment" /v SkipDomainJoin /t REG\_DWORD /d 1

Setting up graphical Centos 7

yum group install "KDE Plasma Workspaces" grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args="video=hyperv_fb:1920x1080" systemctl set-default graphical.target

Pointing ESX to Syslog server

It has been possible for a while to send system logs to a syslog server over the network.  In your Linux server edit syslog server to enable listening on port 514 for both UDP and TCP connections.  Restart rsyslog and make the following changes to your ESX Cluster using PowerCLI:

Connect-VIServer 192.168.0.10 
Get-VMHost | Set-VMHostSysLogServer -SysLogServer 'udp://192.168.0.130:514' 
Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostFirewallException -Name syslog | Set-VMHostFirewallException -Enabled:$True 
$esxcli = Get-ESXCLI -VMHost 192.168.0.17 
$esxcli.system.syslog.reload()

Deleting old ZFS signatures from a disk

If you wish to reuse a disk for ceph it has to be clear of previous filesystem signatures such as ZFS.  To clear all the signatures use wipefs:

sudo wipefs --all --force /dev/vdb