Albal's Blog

With an already functioning TFTP server and PXE boot environment for Debian 7 network install with files also being served over http from the same path as the TFTP server it is straightforward to boot UrBackup over the network.  The same method applies to many Linux live cds.

Adding to pxelinux.cfg/default

Add the following to your default fiile in pxelinux.cfg

LABEL URbackup
    Menu Label ^UrBackup
    kernel vmlinuz append initrd\=initrd.img boot\=live config username\=urbackup toram fetch\=http://tftp/urbackup/filesystem.squashfs

Ensure you change the hostname to the ip or host of your tftp server and that you are serving the squashfs file over http.  Note that the initrd and vmlinuz are from the debian network boot sources.

No need to describe it – google Quadstor to find out more.  Here is a simple way to install on Debian 7 Net Install (64 bit of course):

apt-get install uuid-runtime build-essential sg3-utils apache2 psmisc linux-headers-`uname -r` ntp git sudo
vi /etc/ntp.conf
service ntp restart
cd /root
git clone --branch opensource https://github.com/quadstor/quadstorvirt.git quadstor
cd quadstor
./installworld debian7 

First browse to:

http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/latest/repos

And pick your repo

In linux wget and then rpm –Uvh the item

Then you can use the package manager to install vmware-tools-esx-nox or whichever package you want.

If you run Jira behind a http proxy, namely https (ssl) then you need to add three options to the server.xml file in /opt/atlassian/jira/conf:

scheme=“https”
proxyName=“sub.domain.tld”
proxyPort=“443”

The only change needed to vanilla Jira.  Then in something like nginx you have the line:

proxy_pass              http://192.168.1.123:8080;

SImple you would think but there are a few steps more than what you may first think to getting SSO through Windows Azure Active Directory working. 

Next you need to install Active Directory Federated Services.  You do this through Server Manager->Roles on your WSE box.  The go to the flag in Server Manager and select the post deployment details.  Follow the wizard creating new managed service user and creating the KDS root key as instructed.

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.shutdown ID

esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e yes

esxcli software vib update –dry-run -d http://vibsdepot.hp.com/index.xml

esxcli software vib install –dry-run -d http://vibsdepot.hp.com/index.xml

esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e no

reboot

Renaming a domain can break things and generally is unsupported.  One reason you may wish to do this is to keep an old domain server around but want to reuse the NetBIOS name when installing a new domain.  My requirements were for experimentation and should not be used in production.  Proceed at your own risk and it’s possible you will stop functions that rely on AD, user, certificate and computer authentication from working.  If you are just trying to make room then all may be well.

More for me as an aid to memory.  A lot of forums use BBCode and the following will do a cut down version of the YouTube embed optimised for widescreen. You might want to adjust the height until the black bars appear or fade – up to you.

**[**video height=228``type``=youtube**]**``tak2JxBsjLM?theme=dark&color=white&start=38.5&end=72.1&rel=0&modestbranding=1&showinfo=0&controls=0&version=3&fs=1**[**``/video**]**`

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tak2JxBsjLM?start=39&end=72&controls=0&showinfo=0&rel=0&modestbranding=1&version=3\]

PowerCLI has a function to remove a USB device from a host, Remove-UsbDevice. However, what if you need to add a usb device to a VM.  Well you can with a bit of PowerCLI magic.  This solution assumes the device you wish to add remains in the same USB port and that the VM will be on the same host as the USB device of interest.  If you wish you can hack around to insert the host ID and change from path: option to pid: and vid: options.  You can read more about the option at VMware pubs.

Windows Live Writer is a great blogging App if you like to do things on the computer and out of the browser.  It is part of the Live Essentials Pack and works fine with Windows 8 or Windows 8.1.  For a list of all the language versions of Live Essentials go here:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/download-windows-essentials

You will need to have .NET 3.5 Framework installed – but it should prompt you if you haven’t