- Blind-sysadmins - lists.hodgsonfamily.org

Custom server monitor application.
by Darragh Ó Héiligh 23 Nov '15

23 Nov '15

I'm writing an application at the moment. It started as a thing that I really needed but it's evolving into something a bit more generic. I'm looking for suggestions on useful ways that it could be developed further to make it useful. It's primary purpose is as a monitoring tool. It isn't meant as a data analytics utility. It's current functions are: 1. Restart services. These services can either be given fully in the application config or a number of service prifixes can be used. For example: If I want to restart all report services on an application server and I know these services start with the letters RPT I can restart them with a minimum of configuration. 2. Check services. If a service is set to start up automatically but it's currently stopped, alarm bells should wring. The application Emails an address or list of addresses in the application config when services are not started. The SMTP host, sender address and port are also configurable. This check can also be configured to start any services that are not running but should be. 3. Delete temp files from specific directories. Again, specifically useful for application servers. Let's say you have a folder called SBS with dozens of temp sub folders with files ending in .xml, .pdf, .csv, .cab etc. This will go and delete everything in there ending with these extensions. Of course, these extensions are configurable in... You've guessed it, the application config. However, let's say you have a sub folder within your temp folder called DoNotTouch or Services or something like that. An exclusion or list of exclusions can be added to the application.config so that these folders won't be touched. 4. Log archiving. There are applications that handle log role overs really well but there are also applications that just write to the one log file for years. This becomes impossible to open never mind read! Using the application config you can specify the base folder that these are found in then a name or partial name so that the application will recursively look through and move all of these log files to an archive location. This location is set in the application config but it's also dated and in a folder corresponding to the server name that the application is run on to allow for use on multiple servers connecting to the one NAS for example. 5. Check utilization. Again, this is configurable. Set the threshold of percent free space or percent RAM or CPU available using the application config and the application will Email you and write to the event log when this threshold is reached. 6. Of course there's also a debug mode that will show you what it will do with each function without actually performing any action. There's also a help list so you can check the available options right from the command line. What else would you like? I'll make it freely available. Darragh

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Automated deployment of Windows: which tool is best?
by Katherine Moss 23 Nov '15

23 Nov '15

Hey all, Was running through my available options and I've discovered a few ways to spin up VMs including automating the Windows install. For Windows automated installation, for the moment I've got a couple of LTI prospects going with all user input screens skipped (per the rules in the .ini file on the properties of the deployment share in MDT). Is that a good way to deploy Windows automatically as a blind person? Is there an easier tool you'd recommend (I say screw Winstaller for that piece of crap never worked anyway, and due to the fact that MDT integrated smoothly with SCCM when that becomes our automation tool). And then for the deployment of roles and settings (MDT can integrate PowerShell scripts into the task sequences, so should I run a DSC setup afterwards, or should I include the setup within the task sequence itself?) How are you guys handling this situation? (for the first server, unfortunately because I just want her up, I had to get a template off of a sighted friend of mine).

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Virtual box.
by Darragh Ó Héiligh 18 Nov '15

18 Nov '15

Hello, I have a powerfull Dell R810 here that I don't need to put into production for another week or two. I'm planning to take some time over the next few days to try a few things out on it. One of my objectives is to use something like Virtual box as I haven't used it yet. I'm going to attempt to learn how to provision up to a dozen or two Linux servers with Apache and Postfix running in a cluster. The purpose of this is to try to determine how attainable this is and to see if I still remember my Bash scripting etc. If you have any suggestions around Virtual box and what automation tool I should use I'm very interested. I could use Hyper-V or ESXI but as I'm very comfortable with both of these platforms I wouldn't gain as much as if I use something very different for a change. Darragh

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Accessible recovery partition programs
by ms98kasia＠gmail.com 18 Nov '15

18 Nov '15

Hi all Does anyone know of any accessible recovery partition programs? I need to create a recovery partition on the hard drive. I tried the Aimee line of products but nvda does not read any of the controls. I heard there is an add on for nvda for recognizing some of the controls. Does anyone know where to find it? Thanks, Kathryn Sent from my iPad

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exchange 2010 and cashing
by Mike and Jenna 17 Nov '15

17 Nov '15

Hi, I have a few users who all connect to one mailbox running exchange2010 when they use cashing mode they are not always getting e-mails and they can't see what others are adding to the sub folders. If they turn it off they can see everything. The pro to them using cashing mode is that they have better performance on their main e-mail accounts. Is there a way to get everything to show up when cashing mode is on?

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exchange2010 and caching
by mike 16 Nov '15

16 Nov '15

Hi, I have a few users that need to use the same mailbox however when they having caching mode turned on they are not able to see all the e-mails in this box. Having cach mode on seams to give them better performance however. Any ideas to get them to be able to see all the e-mails in this box with caching mode on?

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Virtual box.
by Darragh Ó Héiligh 16 Nov '15

16 Nov '15

Hello, I have a powerfull Dell R810 here that I don't need to put into production for another week or two. I'm planning to take some time over the next few days to try a few things out on it. One of my objectives is to use something like Virtual box as I haven't used it yet. I'm going to attempt to learn how to provision up to a dozen or two Linux servers with Apache and Postfix running in a cluster. The purpose of this is to try to determine how attainable this is and to see if I still remember my Bash scripting etc. If you have any suggestions around Virtual box and what automation tool I should use I'm very interested. I could use Hyper-V or ESXI but as I'm very comfortable with both of these platforms I wouldn't gain as much as if I use something very different for a change. Darragh

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smart beetle
by mattias 12 Nov '15

12 Nov '15

has anyone get a smart beetle work under win 8.1 under xp no problems

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Mac and PC VM/KVM
by Fermin, German 10 Nov '15

10 Nov '15

Just wanted to get thoughts from folks around here. I have to use both Mac and PC on a daily basis for my current job. My set up right now has been a KVM which I can switch quickly from my windows machine to my Mac and vice versa. My employer is going to be upgrading me but I have to decide which way I should go. Should I stay with a KVM with updated computers or get some sort of VM either on the Mac or my windows machine. I have heard good things about using fusion for windows running on the Mac. I tried using Parallels but didn't get very far Herman

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Recommendations for partitioning software!
by Mailing Lists 05 Nov '15

05 Nov '15

Hi All, I wondered if anyone here knows of a good accessible partitioning software package or uses one that they find works well with say JAWS or NVDA. Many thanks for suggestions. Paul.

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