MySQL and DNS

Customer complaining about website performance. Load balanced two tier app with IIS on the front end and MySQL on the back end. We support the infrastructure in this particular environment, not the OS or the apps, but we help where we can.

Long story cut short - if you're going to use MySQL, make sure you can resolve the client IPs using DNS.

B

"Secure" Passwords

Why oh why do sites requiring "secure" passwords prevent me from using the non-alphanumeric characters I want to use?!? www.householdcharge.ie is the latest one I've come across.

Sigh.

B

Windows 2003 Corrupt Logon Screen Colours

It's been a while since I came across this one, stumbled upon another one today: the Windows (2003) logon screen colours are corrupt. The logon screen works, you just might not be able to see everything on it.

Here's a reg file to fix it (sourced from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906510):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors]
"ActiveBorder"="212 208 200"
"ActiveTitle"="10 36 106"
"AppWorkSpace"="128 128 128"
"Background"="102 111 116"
"ButtonAlternateFace"="181 181 181"
"ButtonDkShadow"="64 64 64"
"ButtonFace"="212 208 200"
"ButtonHilight"="255 255 255"
"ButtonLight"="212 208 200"
"ButtonShadow"="128 128 128"
"ButtonText"="0 0 0"
"GradientActiveTitle"="166 202 240"
"GradientInactiveTitle"="192 192 192"
"GrayText"="128 128 128"
"Hilight"="10 36 106"
"HilightText"="255 255 255"
"HotTrackingColor"="0 0 128"
"InactiveBorder"="212 208 200"
"InactiveTitle"="128 128 128"
"InactiveTitleText"="212 208 200"
"InfoText"="0 0 0"
"InfoWindow"="255 255 225"
"Menu"="212 208 200"
"MenuText"="0 0 0"
"Scrollbar"="212 208 200"
"TitleText"="255 255 255"
"Window"="255 255 255"
"WindowFrame"="0 0 0"
"WindowText"="0 0 0"

Bonding Intel Pro 1000/MT in Windows Server 2008 R2

Building a vCenter server for a vSphere cluster on Windows Server 2008 R2 on hardware which has two Intel Pro 1000/MT NICs. We're connecting this server to a HA infrastructure so we want to bond the NICs. However it's not possible to bond the NICs using the native Windows drivers (as ever).

A trip over to the Intel site revealed an interesting thread on how to get it working.
You can get the full details here:
Teaming NIC PRO 1000/MT in windows Server 2008 R2
http://communities.intel.com/thread/6529

Bottom line from the thread:
- Get your hands on the Intel Networking Solutions CD v15.3
- Update the NIC drivers from that media
- Run the ProSet install from V15.3_CD\APPS\PROSETDX\Winx64
- Set up the Team(s) via the NIC properties in Device Manager

B

More Kernel Memory Exhaustion

I had occasion to deal with another server today with kernel memory exhaustion issues. Hopefully it's just a coincidence and not a sign of something odd going on...

B

Truncate SQL (SharePoint) Log File

I happened upon a SharePoint server that needed some attention - the Config DB log file was 17GB. Shrunk as follows:

DBCC SHRINKFILE('SharePoint_Config_********-****-****-****-************_log', 1)
BACKUP LOG "SharePoint_Config_********-****-****-****-************" WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY
DBCC SHRINKFILE('SharePoint_Config_********-****-****-****-************_log', 1)
GO

(That's on SQL 2005 btw - somewhat deprecated commands)

B

The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000044)

Troubleshooting a Windows 2003 x86 server today. It failed to respond to a monitoring ping. On logon, got the following error message:

Windows - Application Error
The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000044). Click on OK to terminate the application.
[OK]

Rebooted the server, logged on successfully. Cause:
Event Type: ErrorEvent
Source: SrvEvent
Category: None
Event ID: 2019
Date: 11/6/2011
Time: 7:25:55 AM
User: N/A
Computer: *********2
Description:The server was unable to allocate from the system nonpaged pool because the pool was empty.

i.e. Kernel memory exhausted. Can't tell at this stage what caused it. Last time I looked into one of these it was AV software. At least x64 has higher kernel memory limits.

Interestingly, the last logged server uptime event before the crash showed an uptime of 100743098 seconds. That's 3.19 years. Not bad from an uptime perspective. Terrible from a security perspective.

That server is not under my direct control, but I'm going to see if I can influence the server's owner to patch it on a regular basis.

B

PS More info from the Advanced Windows Debugging and Troubleshooting Blog here:
Understanding Pool Consumption and Event ID: 2020 or 2019
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ntdebugging/archive/2006/12/18/understanding-pool-consumption-and-event-id_3a00_--2020-or-2019.aspx

SQL Server Cluster Network Binding Order

When setting up a SQL Server cluster the Setup Support Rules report a Warning for the Network binding order. Specifically:

Rule Check Result
Rule "Network binding order" generated a warning.
The domain network is not the first bound network. This will cause domain operations to run slowly and can cause timeouts that result in failures. Use the Windows network advanced configuration to change the binding order.

However, the binding order is correct. MS KB article 955963 mentions this issue:
You receive a warning about the network binding order on the Setup Support Rules page when you install SQL Server 2008 in a failover cluster
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955963

In this particular instance I do have a disabled network adapter, an IBM USB Remote NDIS Network Device but no ghosted network adapter. I enabled the IBM adapter, but still got the same error message.

Details.txt showed the following:
2011-10-11 18:14:43 Slp: Init rule target object: Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.SetupExtension.NetworkBindingFacet
2011-10-11 18:14:43 Slp: NetworkBindingFacet: Looking up network binding order.
2011-10-11 18:14:43 Slp: NetworkBindingFacet: Network: 'Local Area Connection* 9' Device: '\Device\{BD878763-E1BB-45D6-BFBC-E23DF023E411}' Domain: '' Adapter Id: '{BD878763-E1BB-45D6-BFBC-E23DF023E411}'
2011-10-11 18:14:43 Slp: NetworkBindingFacet: Network: 'Heartbeat' Device: '\Device\{CD08E636-4E30-4AFB-A3B7-513DE2F7EBC9}' Domain: '' Adapter Id: '{CD08E636-4E30-4AFB-A3B7-513DE2F7EBC9}'2011-10-11 18:14:43 Slp: NetworkBindingFacet: Network: 'Production' Device: '\Device\{2BA45633-51E0-4D89-83A1-74DF64B0E9C0}' Domain: 'notpublishingithere.local' Adapter Id: '{2BA45633-51E0-4D89-83A1-74DF64B0E9C0}'
2011-10-11 18:14:43 Slp: NetworkBindingFacet: Network: '(IBM)' Device: '\Device\{4AED0A34-EF02-4AFD-B410-4381462C0C9B}' Domain: '' Adapter Id: '{4AED0A34-EF02-4AFD-B410-4381462C0C9B}'
2011-10-11 18:14:43 Slp: IsDomainInCorrectBindOrder: The top network interface 'Local Area Connection* 9' is bound to domain '' and the current domain is 'notpublishingithere.LOCAL'.
2011-10-11 18:14:43 Slp: Evaluating rule : IsDomainNetworkTopOfBindings
2011-10-11 18:14:43 Slp: Rule running on machine: xxxWSVR004
2011-10-11 18:14:43 Slp: Rule evaluation done : Warning
2011-10-11 18:14:43 Slp: Rule evaluation message: The domain network is not the first bound network. This will cause domain operations to run slowly and can cause timeouts that result in failures. Use the Windows network advanced configuration to change the binding order.

There are only three NICs in the cluster node (Production, Heartbeat and IBM) but details.txt is showing an extra one: "Local Area Connection* 9".

NICs were renamed on the nodes, so perhaps this is some sort of a hangover. I'll revisit it in the future when I have some more time to reproduce the problem in the lab.

B

SharePoint Discard Check Out Problem

Problem
When trying to discard a check out on SharePoint the following error is presented:
- Object reference not set to an instance of an object

Solution
Change the hostname in the browser from a DNS FQDN to a NetBIOS name e.g.:
- Change http://sharepoint.mydomain.local to http://sharepoint/

B

Ports for Joining a Windows 2008 R2 Domain

Here's a list of TCP ports required to facilitate a computer joining a Windows 2008 R2 domain:

88 - Kerberos

139 - NetBIOS

389 - LDAP

445 - SMB

49152 - 65535 RPC

The dynamic range is a bit on the large side. Refer to the following to narrow it:

How to configure RPC dynamic port allocation to work with firewalls

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154596

Service overview and network port requirements for the Windows Server system

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832017

Ports discovered empirically. Your mileage may vary.

B

Windows SharePoint Service SQL Connection

I needed to connect SQL Server Management Studio Express to Windows SharePoint Services databases. Here's the server name:

\\.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query

B

Exception of type vmomi.fault.nopermission was thrown

I was setting up a user with permission to migrate a VM in VirtualCenter. I created a custom role and thought I had all the permissions set correctly, but the user kept getting a 'vmomi.fault.nopermission' exception message at the screen to select the destination datastore. Solved it by creating a custom role with the following privileges:

Virtual Machine - Inventory - Move
Resource - Assign Virtual Machine To Resource Pool
Resource -Migrate
Resource - Relocate

Assigned that role to the necessary Group on the applicable clusters
Assigned the Read Only role to the same Group at the Datacente level

It might help someone else!
B

(Also posted here)

Azure in a box?

On reading some articles, you might have thought that Microsoft would never release Azure "in a box". However, Steve Ballmer seems to be coming around to the idea:

"...it will be many years before many government organizations will grow comfortable with the notion of their data or citizen data living outside of the jurisdiction ... [for example] this company is not likely to build part of our public cloud in Slovenian [sic] anytime soon. So, somebody should be able to implement a Windows Azure cloud in that country."
Source - Steve Ballmer: Cloud Computing

Worth watching.

The Big Switch...

(...the book on cloud computing- not the Bord Gáis campaign that runs in the cloud.)

I've finished reading The Big Switch. It's an interesting read. Carr doesn't get bogged down in the detail but rather provides the reader with a bird's eye view of the topic. This gives the book a pacy feel - so much so in fact that by the time you've finished the book, you might think the world has moved on and your competitors are already running their entire business in the cloud!

There's no doubt that cloud computing is having an impact and is here to stay, but there are a number of issues which are still being ironed out. Carr uses the ubiquitous analogy of electricity companies in his book. However, while you can plug an electric lamp into any socket in your home and buy your electricity from any one of a number of providers, you can't quite do the same with your IT application or infrastructure - yet.

Yes, there are barriers to be overcome e.g. data protection, technical limitations etc., but they will be overcome. (Microsoft are even alluding to Azure in a box to overcome some of the data protection issues.) Then you'll be able to move your infrastructure and/or application at the push of a button.

If you're not already thinking about cloud computing and what it means for your business - time to start.

Perfmon Edits

If you gather a lot of data in a perfmon log (which I do from time to time for troubleshooting purposes) you'll know that vertical bars are displayed on the screen when you view the data. Also, values in the thousands can be difficult to read without the comma separators. To change this behaviour, merge the following registry settings:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\SystemMonitor]
"DisplaySingleLogSampleValue"=dword:00000001
"DisplayThousandsSeparator"=dword:00000001

Happy perfmoning.

B

IIS May Break After Installing KB973917

I got called to look at an IIS Server first thing this morning. Websites were simply saying "Service Unavailable". Looking at the System log, I could see that IIS's Rapid-fail protection was kicking in i.e. five Source W3SVC Event ID 1009 warnings followed by one Source W3SVC Event ID 1002 error. Unsurprisingly, disabling Rapid-fail protection had no positive effect. The logs revealed that a number of patches were automatically installed at 3am, including 973917 which "implements Extended Protection for Authentication in Internet Information Services (IIS)". At the time of writing, 973917 is still at revision 1.0 with no reported known issues. However, I found this blog post on MSDN which points to this KB article (Internet Information Services 6.0 may not function correctly after installing KB973917) which describes the issue.

Moral of the story? In an ideal world, test before patching. In a less than ideal world, be sure you have a known good backup before you patch. And if you have to patch and be damned, I wish you the best of luck.

B

PS Test first or patch asap? Each to their own.

RDP to Console

Ok, so we know to use the /admin switch when running mstsc from the command line if we want to RDP to the console session, but I keep forgetting the RDP file entry to do the same thing, so I'm recording it here for posterity:

administrative session:i:1

B

W2k3 ICMP Types

For reference, here's the ICMP types on Windows 2003:

2 - Allow outbound packet too big.
3 - Allow outbound destination unreachable.
4 - Allow outbound source quench.
5 - Allow redirect.
8 - Allow inbound echo request.
9 - Allow inbound router request.
11 - Allow outbound time exceeded.
12 - Allow outbound parameter problem.
13 - Allow inbound timestamp request.
17 - Allow inbound mask request.
ALL - All types.

Enable ICMP Response on W2k3 Firewall

To enable ICMP response on a Windows 2003 firewall, use the following command:

netsh firewall set icmpsetting type = 8 mode = enable interface = "Local Area Connection"

Watch those spaces!

Select Passive Mode in Windows FTP Client

I always forget what the command is to change the Windows FTP client from Active to Passive mode, so for reference the command is:

LITERAL PASV

Happy FTPing!