Friday, January 28, 2011

You cannot make more than one client connection over a NAT device

You cannot make more than one client connection over a NAT device


When two client computers try to use the server message block (SMB) protocol to connect to the same server across a network address translation (NAT) device, the more recent client connection may reset the earlier client connection. If a client and a server that use the SMB protocol over a NAT device are copying files, that session may be reset when another client uses the SMB protocol over the same NAT device to the same server.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

How to install and use Dell OMSA

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/11/how-to-manage-dell-servers-using-omsa-openmanage-server-administrator-on-linux/

1. Download DELL OMSA

Go to DELL support website -> click on “Drivers & Downloads” -> choose your server model (in my case, I selected PowerEdge 2850) -> choose the operating system -> scroll-down and expand ‘Systems Management’ -> Click on ‘OpenManage Server Administrator Managed Node’ -> Click on OM_5.5.0_ManNode_A00.tar.gz to download it. You can directly download it to your Linux server as shown below.

# mkdir -p /usr/local/omsa # cd /usr/local/omsa # wget http://ftp.us.dell.com/sysman/OM_5.5.0_ManNode_A00.tar.gz

2. Install DELL OMSA

Perform an express OMSA installation as shown below. After the installation, check /var/log/srvadmin.log for any installation errors.

# gzip -d OM_5.5.0_ManNode_A00.tar.gz # tar xvf OM_5.5.0_ManNode_A00.tar # sh linux/supportscripts/srvadmin-install.sh --express Installing the selected packages.  Preparing...                ###################################### [100%]    1:srvadmin-omilcore      ###################################### [  8%]      To start all installed services without a reboot,      enter the following command:  srvadmin-services.sh  start    2:srvadmin-syscheck      ###################################### [ 15%]    3:srvadmin-deng          ###################################### [ 23%]    4:srvadmin-omauth        ###################################### [ 31%]    5:srvadmin-omacore       ###################################### [ 38%]    6:srvadmin-jre           ###################################### [ 46%]    7:srvadmin-ipmi          ###################################### [ 54%]    8:srvadmin-hapi          ###################################### [ 62%]    9:srvadmin-isvc          ###################################### [ 69%]   10:srvadmin-cm            ###################################### [ 77%]   11:srvadmin-iws           ###################################### [ 85%]   12:srvadmin-omhip         ###################################### [ 92%]   13:srvadmin-storage       ###################################### [100%]

3. Start DELL OMSA Services

Invoke the srvadmin-services.sh script to start the OMSA services as shown below.

# sh linux/supportscripts/srvadmin-services.sh start Starting Systems Management Device Drivers: Starting dell_rbu:                                         [  OK  ] Starting ipmi driver:                                      [  OK  ] Starting Systems Management Data Engine: Starting dsm_sa_datamgr32d:                                [  OK  ] Starting dsm_sa_eventmgr32d:                               [  OK  ] Starting DSM SA Shared Services:                           [  OK  ] Starting DSM SA Connection Service:                        [  OK  ]

4. Access OMSA from web browser

By default, OMSA web application runs on Port 1311 . Login to OMSA from web using the URL: https://{omsa-server-ip-address}:1311 using root as shown below. Please note that you can login only using HTTPS.

DELL OMSA Login Screen
Fig: DELL OMSA – Web Login Screen

5. Check overall system health of the server

To check the overall system health of various hardware components, expand system menu and click on ‘Main System Chassis’, which will display the health of Memory, CPU etc., as shown below.

DELL OMSA Check System Health
Fig: DELL OMSA – Check System Health

6. Clear System Event Log on DELL PowerEdge Servers

Sometimes you will see hardware error messages on the front side of the server even after the problem is fixed. To clear this false alarm, you have to clear the hardware’s Embedded System Management (ESM) Log. To clear hardware event logs, login to DELL OMSA -> Click on Logs TAB -> click on Clear Log.

7. Create RAID (Virtual Disk) group using OMSA

To create a new raid group, click on Storage -> select “Create Virtual Disk” from the drop-down menu next to “PERC 4e/Di”, as shown below. -> Click on Execute -> and follow the on-screen instructions to create a new RAID group.

DELL OMSA Create RAID
Fig: DELL OMSA – Create RAID


You can also create RAID using PERC/CERC Bios Configuration Utility as explained in Step-by-Step Guide to Configure Hardware RAID on DELL servers with Screenshots.

Once the RAID group is created, to view the RAID, click on Storage -> “PERC 4e/Di (Embedded)” -> Click on “Virtual Disks” -> Click on “Virtual Disks 0″ -> This will display the details of the physical disks of that particular RAID group as shown below.

DELL OMSA View RAID
Fig: DELL OMSA – View RAID

Monday, January 24, 2011

Telnet client missing in Windows 2008 Server?

So, how do you install Telnet in Windows 2008 Server? Either use the “Initial Configuration Tasks” screen or open Server Manager by going to Start -> Administrative Tools -> Server Manager. From there, click on Add a Feature. You want to add the Telnet Client. This will get your CLI telnet application working again.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Export Computer objects from Active Directory with OldCmp

Export Computer objects from Active Directory with OldCmp

I needed to reconcile Active Directory computer objects last login time with a complete list of my company's inventory and found this process to be pretty useful. Please visit http://www.joeware.net/freetools/tools/oldcmp/index.htm to download OldCmp, this utility will export computer objects from AD. I'm paranoid so I used a AD account with no rights to delete or modify objects but just enough rights to read AD, which is just about any account.

  1. Download OldCmp.zip from http://www.joeware.net/freetools/tools/oldcmp/index.htm
  2. Extract the OldCmp.exe file within the zip and place in a directory you can easily navigate to from within the cmd line interface.
  3. Review the OldCmp.exe usage switches on this page: http://www.joeware.net/freetools/tools/oldcmp/usage.htm or with the OldCmp /? command
  4. For the report I needed, I ran the following command:
    C:\Documents and Settings\testr>oldcmp -report -b ou=hosting,dc=subdomain,dc=domain,dc=edu -file oldcmp_export.csv -format CSV
  5. This generated a file called oldcmp_export.csv of all the systems in my domain within the "hosting OU with their last system login time if available.
Note: This tool is VERY POWERFUL and could be VERY DANGEROUS! If you are not sure what you are doing, please find or ask someone who does!

Next, I needed to import this file into Excel and clean up the formatting and run a comparison with MS Access. I did the following:

  1. Rename the csv file you just exported to have a .txt extension (this is done so that Excel will be prompted for delimiters when it tries to open/import its data).
  2. Launch Excel and open the csv file (now renamed as a txt file), select the delimiter as semicolon and then correct formatting and clean up anything that looks strange. I can't tell you how to do this as your naming conventions may collide with the delimiters set. Use your own judgement and save-as a new excel file, you will reference this file from MS Access.
  3. Launch MS Access, create a new DB.
  4. See http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access-help/compare-two-tables-and-find-only-matching-data-HA010205130.aspx for a how to on how to create the comparison in MS Access 2007.