Author: Greg

Greg is the head cat at JumbleCat, with over 20 years of experience in the computer field, he has done everything from programming to hardware solutions. You can contact Greg via the contact form on the main menu above.

Building a new VM server Part 1: Intro and Hardware

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:hardware-category ]At the moment, my servers at home consist of two VMWare host servers and several VMs on each. The hardware specs are:

  • Server 1: Quad core 3.2 ghz AMD processor with 8 gig of RAM. 3 250g disks (OS and VM partitions) and 1 2tb drive for file storage.
  • Server 2: Dual core 2.2 ghz AMD processor with 8 gig of RAM. 3 250g disks (OS and VM partitions) and 1 2tb drive for file storage.

Both servers run Windows Server 2008 R2 with VMWare Server 2.0.2 for the Hypervisor.

The file storage disk is currently shared and replicated between the two Windows servers using DFS for redundancy.

The current workload for these servers has pretty much stretched them to their limits and it’s time to upgrade to something with a little more oomph.

And so…

The Plan

My mandatory upgrade criteria includes:

  • At least 4 cores
  • 16 gig of RAM
  • Standard ATX form factor
  • AMD based

On the nice to have list includes:

  • Remote KVM management
  • Two processor slots

I usually build my home servers from standard PC motherboards, but currently most of those top out at 16 gig of RAM so I’ve had to expand my search a little bit.

I’ve been using AMD processors for many years now and my preference to keep them now has more to do with ensuring all the VM guests transition smoothly more than anything else.  However this may break this time as it looks like I’ll be moving to the Opteron processor.

VMWare server will likely be making an exit at this time as VMWare seems to have pretty much abandoned updating the product and the limitations on how many processors it can support.  Which leaves me choosing between ESXi (now renamed VMWare vSphere Hypervisor), MS’s Hyper-V or the various Linux based virtualization solutions.

The Motherboard and Hardware

After looking around quite a bit, I’ve settled on the ASUS KCMA-D8 motherboard, some of the reasons are:

  • Standard ATX form factor
  • Standard ATX power supply
  • Support for greater than 16g RAM
  • Remote KVM support with optional module
  • 2 processor support with 4 or 6 cores

Of course finding the MB and buying the MB turns out to be two completely different things.  The vendor I was looking to purchase it from turns out to not have ANY CPU heat sink and fan that supports the Opteron 4100 series processors.  I’ve had to order the heat sink and fan from a vendor I have never used before however it turns out they were a very good choice and I’ve received all the parts without incident.

So the server components are as follows:

  • MB: KCMA-D8
  • KVM Option: ASMB4-iKVM
  • RAM: 4 x KVR1333D3E9S/4GHB (16g total)
  • CPU: 2 x AMD Opteron 4122 2.20 GHz
  • CPU Fan: 2 x Dynatron F555

I picked up a basic mid-tower case and power supply from the local computer shop and I’ll be using disks from the existing server when I finally move everything over to the new system.

Currently my disk configuration on the VM’s is spread out over two disks.  Each Windows VM has at least two virtual disks on separate physical disks to allow for backups to reside on a separate disk in case of hardware failure.

I expect to change this to instead use disk mirroring to support redundancy in case of hardware failure.  My current thought is to use the built in Windows RAID support, but the D8 motherboard does support hardware raid on the SAS ports.  There is conflicting statements in the manual if the SATA ports are supported but it would seem likely they are, however, using the built in Windows raid functionality will allow me to change motherboards without have to rebuild the entire raid disk set.

After assembling the components on the motherboard I hit my first snag with the hardware build.  The KCMA-D8 motherboard is a standard ATX form factor, however it uses pretty much every inch of the ATX spec and the generic mid-tower case need a little TLC with a pair of tin snips to remove some of the 5.25 drive bays.  The mid-tower case won’t work for a long term solution as with the motherboard installed, only two of the five 3.5 drive bays are available.  I’ve ordered a large tower case that claims it’s “silent”, so we’ll see how that works.

After getting everything installed in the case and hooking up a keyboard and mouse, the second hardware issue came up.  The F555 heat sinks have a high speed fan on them, which sounds kind of like a front load washer running at full steam inside of the case, times two for the dual processors Smile.

The MB has several fan settings, from full to whisper mode, however they seem to have no effect on the fan speed, which runs at a constant 5000 rpm.  By accident it turns out I had plugged one of the fans in to a case connector instead of the cpu connector, which ran the fan at ~3000 rpm.  This had the effect of making the system livable, however it was still too loud to be a long term solution.

After checking the temperature of the CPU while running and their thresholds, I pulled the stock fans off of the CPU heat sinks and installed a low speed 80mm case fan on each.  These run virtually silently and after stressing the server for a bit, it looks like I loose about 5-10 degrees of cooling, still well within the thermal limits for the AMD 4100 CPUs.

The only issue I’ve found with the motherboard so far is the extremely basic video card that is on board, it’s pretty much just a frame buffer, no 2d or 3d acceleration at all.  Screen redraws are slow and painful to watch, however dropping in a replacement video card means that the IP KVM no longer works.  Luckily the console isn’t used much so its a trade off I’ll have to live with as the KVM functionality is more important then the video performance on the server.

Next up in part 2… selecting a new hypervisor!

Windows Phone 7 “NoDo” update…

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:mobile-category ]The first significant WP7 update is finally here!

Microsoft has posted what they updated here.  OS version 7.0.7390.0.

Below is the list of updates that MS lists and my thoughts on each one:

Copy & paste

It’s top billed for a reason, it should have been in the original release.

Copy and paste is the kind of functionality that you don’t know how much you use until you don’t have it and even in the couple of months I have had the HD7 without C&P, it nearly drove me insane.

The implementation is pretty slick, taping on a word selects it and then you can drag the selection either left or right.  The only issue I have with it is that sometimes selecting the first word is a challenge, either the wrong word is selected or WP7 doesn’t pick up the selection at all.  I suspect I’ll get better at it over time, even in the last few hours it seems to have become easier to hit the sweet spot.

One slightly strange C&P item is that for text messages you can only copy the entire message, there is no selection interface for copying just part of the message.

Otherwise, it’s exactly what WP7 needed.

Faster apps and games

I haven’t really seen any real difference here, but I don’t use a lot of apps so it could be good for those that switch between apps a lot.

Better Marketplace search

I’ve commented on it before, the Marketplace is a mess to find applications in, search or not.  A couple of quick searches really didn’t seem to return better results for me.

Other Marketplace improvements

The other improvements are mostly bug fixes, one of which I had run in to around upgrading to a newer version of an app.  We’ll see if it happens again next time it has a new version released.

I couldn’t test the ability to create an Xbox live account from the games as I already have an account setup.

Wi-Fi improvements

Ok, MAC address in the about box is a BIG improvement and should never have been left out in the first place.

And of course unlimited is always better than limited so support for unlimited Wi-Fi profiles is good, though I never personally hit the limit.

Outlook improvements

I’ve never received an iPhone photo attachment but I’m sure those that have are quite happy about this.  Likewise the rest of these improvements seem mostly to be bug fixes.

Messaging improvements

This is interesting, when MS originally posted the list of updates it included this grouping, but it has now disappeared from the list.  I haven’t seen any improvements in this area so that’s that I guess.

Facebook integration

I don’t know what they changed here, everything seems the same as before…

Camera improvements

Nothing to see here either, just some bug fixes.

Audio improvements

I have a set of Bluetooth headsets, but haven’t received a call yet since the update while using them (or before actually) so I don’t know what they changed, but I’m sure it was an improvement Winking smile.

Other performance improvements

And of course the grab bag of anything else.  It’s impossible to say what if anything changed on the HD7.

Conclusion

So in general the changes fall in to three categories:

  1. Feature additions
  2. Bug fixes
  3. System updates

The feature additions are highlighted by Copy and Paste, the rest are pretty minor and in some cases (like Xbox account creation) invisible except in certain situations.

The bug fixes are great and the low level system updates are welcome but really, other than C&P, everything else is mostly invisible, which leads to the question…

If an update falls in the ecosystem and nobody is there to hear it does it make a sound?

I’m not sure, but perhaps the IE9 update will make some more noise Winking smile.

Some of the things that I would have really liked to see:

  • Unlock codes over 4 numbers
  • Ability to disable calendar and contact sync for Live accounts
  • More calendar view modes
  • SMS sync to Exchange
  • Notes sync to Exchange
  • Some kind of network live tile, so you could toggle Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/Cell network without drilling down through settings
  • Time based profiles
  • Custom ringtones
  • Support for more than just call forwarding (call hunt, etc.)

The Good:

  • Copy and Paste, yea!
  • Faster app loads

The not so bad/not so good:

  • Lots of bug fixes

The Bad:

  • How much was left out of the update
  • How many updates are completely invisible to most users

Browser wars… 2011

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:software-category ]Way back in the early days of the Internet, back before the web even existed, people used text based systems to get information from the net.  Newsgroups, e-mail, etc. all thrived in this kind of environment and the first reaction I had to Netscape 1.0 was “Why would anyone want to do that?”.

Now, clearly, everyone wants to do exactly that Smile.  So having lived through multiple rounds of the browser wars, how does the current one stack up?

There are currently five (yes, that’s a lot) major browsers for Windows:

  • Internet Explorer
  • Firefox
  • Opera
  • Chrome
  • Safari

That’s an astounding number really and it doesn’t take in to consideration the multitude of others that exist, but just don’t have the market share to be considered here (some might argue that Opera doesn’t, but it’s my blog so live with it Winking smile).

Out of these five browsers, there are actually only 4 engines in use (Chrome/Safari are both built on WebKit) and each has been trying to out perform each other over the last few years.

Over the last few months, IE, Firefox and Opera have all released new, significant, versions of their browsers, and well, Chrome releases one every couple of days don’t they?

Over the last several years, I have focused on using three browsers:

  • The Daily Driver: Opera
  • The Convertible: Firefox
  • The Classic: IE

Opera is what I use to do the vast majority of my browsing with, by default Javascript is turned off and browsing the web is fast, secure and reliable.

However, sometimes, there’s just a site that doesn’t work in Opera, I won’t say who’s fault it is, but Opera’s commitment to standards does suggest a culprit Winking smile

When this occurs, Firefox becomes the next choice and finally IE if that fails as well.

When Chrome came out I pulled down a copy to see what it was like, but I just didn’t need a fourth browser so while I do keep an eye on it’s development, it’s not used in my day to day browsing.  Safari is similar to Chrome in this regard, it’s not good enough to replace any of the others, and a fourth browser is overkill.

Opera 11

My first install of Opera was way back in version 3.1.  That was even before it was free, when I purchased a license it was so good. My how far it’s come since then.

Today’s Opera is a far cry from back then, but the core values have remained the same.  Fast, stable and standards compliant.  These core values have proved to be invaluable to Opera’s development and has created a browser unlike any other.

IE just doesn’t have the features and Firefox needs so many addon’s to get to it that it’s almost like a new browser.

Some of the features I use most in Opera include:

  • Tab groups
  • Site specific Javascript configuration
  • Search provides in the address bar
  • SpeedDial
  • Opera Link

But the list of features is truly astounding.

Onequirk I have with Opera is:

  • By default tabs do not show up in the Windows 7 taskbar.

Firefox 4

The just released Firefox 4 brings to the table a much needed visual update to the browser along with a host of under the hood improvements.

My browsing habits don’t really show off the updates they made under the hood, but boy is the interface a refreshing update.  Firefox 3 on Windows 7 looks very long in the tooth and the 4.0 update makes short work of that issue.

In general the upgrade process was without issue, however on one of my systems the upgrade failed to detect an incompatible theme I was using and let’s just say the result was… amusing Winking smile.

One of the best new features in Firefox 4 is the Sync feature.  Opera has had Link for quite a while and while using xmarks did the job, a fully integrated system in to the core software is nice.  Firefox actually goes one better than Opera in this case as the data is encrypted before it is sent to the servers so Mozilla cannot see the data that you store on their servers.

One of Firefox’s greatest strengths is its add-ons, here’s what I use with Firefox:

  • Adblock Plus
  • Add Bookmark Here 2
  • Flagfox
  • InstantFox
  • NoScript
  • SearchWith
  • Speed Dial
  • Tab Mix Plus
  • Tab Scope
  • text2link

As you can see, it takes quite a few add-ons to bring Firefox up to where Opera is by default.  This of course brings up my chief reason not to use Firefox as my default browser, the continual upgrade cycle.  It seems like every day I end up restarting Firefox to update one of the add-ons.

Two quirks I have with 4.0 are:

  • By default tabs do not show up in the Windows 7 taskbar.
  • The new “do not track” option is disabled by default.

Both of these defaults seem odd to me.

One of the big new features in 4.0 is the Tab Groups, but as I seldom have more than 3 tabs open at any given time in Firefox, I haven’t had much use for this yet.  I suspect if Firefox was my primary browser, this would be a must have feature, much like Opera’s.

Internet Explorer 9

Aaaahh, IE.  So warm and comforting to know you will never leave us! Winking smile

But IE9 is not like any other version of IE out there.  In fact its so good, its scary.

I started using the RC’s of IE9 several months ago and found it was a big improvement over IE8 and leaps and bounds of IE6 (which work still has me using).  The clean interface, reduced down to the bare minimum like Opera, Firefox and Chrome makes IE an actual contender again.

But if Firefox is burdened by too many add-ons, then IE is burdened by none at all.

IE9 seems downright spartan in comparison to Opera and with enough add-ons, Firefox.  There was noise at one point of IE being able to use Firefox add-ons but nothing seems to have come of that for the 9.0 release.

IE9 is a major step up, support for standards and a new clean interface make it good enough to complete in the new ware of 2011, but its limited options and lack of expansion do still make it feel like there’s a long way to go.

If we use the standard “3 versions to get it right” rule of thumb for Microsoft, then IE8 was version one(I don’t count IE7 here simply because it was clearly a desperate move to get ANYTHING to market after the long wait from IE6), IE9 is version two and what comes next will likely give everyone a run for their money.

Summary

In summary, the new browser wars are just getting started and this time it looks like the winners will be the users.

I am starting to think that I can finally move to just two browsers, certainly Opera is going to remain my primary browser, but perhaps IE can be sole secondary browser… Nah, I guess Firefox will have to remain for a while yet.

KeePass for Windows and 7Pass for Windows Phone 7

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:software-category ]Password management has always been a challenge and over the years the password vault has come a long way.  Currently KeePass is my vault of choice as it is open source, support for multiple platforms and is actively developed.

But I use KeePass to store more than just my computer account information, I store any important passcodes I have in it, including phone backing details, credit card pass codes and pretty much anything else that is sensitive.

However, like all vaults, sometimes you don’t have direct access to it.  This can be because you are off site at a clients, on vacation or at a friends house.  This is when a portable version of KeePass comes in handy and fortunately there is a number of ports for most major mobile OS’s.

When I had my Windows Mobile 6.5 device, I had a port of KeePass installed and used it infrequently but it provided a value service and a handy backup of my database at the same time.  Moving to Wnidows Phne 7  knew I’d be losing this but low and behold when I went to upgrade my local KeePass installation, two separate WP7 apps support KeePass files.

KeePassWP which seems to have stalled and 7Pass.

7Pass has one big limitation, its read only at the moment, but that is not a showstopper for me.

Installing 7Pass from the Marketplace was simple and the “Trial” version is actually fully functional with a simple nag notification on startup.  It otherwise uses the standard interface conventions of WP7 and provides a straight forward interface to the user.

Unlike Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7 does not support any kind of user access to the file system, so getting a KeePass database on the phone is not quite as straight forward as it might otherwise be.

To get around this limitation, 7Pass support two options:

  1. Web Server Location
  2. DropBox

I don’t use DropBox (no other reason than I’ve never had a need for it) and while I believe KeePass has a secure file format, I see no reason to test that theory as I have a webserver I can use to host the database.

7Pass has little in the way of documentation (it’s a young project,  don’t blame it Winking smile) and nothing on how to configure the web server to support it.  7Pass does support user authentication on the web server and has fields for username, password and domain name.  So, I created a folder on my internet accessable webserver (II7), configured SSL as a requirement, and set authentication to basic, digest and Windows.  Dropped a copy of my KeePass database in the folder and pointed 7Pass to it.

If only it were so easy Smile.  7Pass came back with a file not found error.  Using IE on the phone worked without an issue (though it didn’t know what to do with the file).

Looking through the IIS logs it became apparent that the username/password were not being passed to the webserver from 7Pass, having been whacking at SharePoint and Windows Phone 7 a few weeks ago (which is still not working by the way) I remember a few posts I had found around what authentication modules were supported by Windows Phone 7 and most seemed to indicated Windows Auth was not one of them.

Take a stab in the dark, I left basic and digest on and turned off Windows.  7Pass promptly found the file but complained about it not being a valid KeePass file.

One step forward, one step backward Sad smile.

I found one reference on the 7Pass site about the issue, but no resolution.

Now I’ve had my KeePass database for quite a while, since early version 1, and it’s been upgraded to 2, I figured it might be something in the older version that did the conversion that might be the culprit, so in KeePass I exported the database to a new file and tried that.

Hazzah!  7Pass promptly loaded the file successfully and I was then prompted for my database password.

I don’t know if it’s a bug in 7Pass or a limitation/bug in WP7 but either way it works now.

The Good:

  • Trial version fully functional
  • Clean WP7 interface
  • Support for KeePass databases
  • DropBox support
  • Webserver support

The not so bad/not so good:

  • Cheap to get rid of the nag screen

The Bad:

  • Little documentation around webserver setup
  • No editing at the moment

Waiting for NoDo…

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:mobile-category ]Over the last couple of months since I’ve had my Windows Phone 7, it has been apparent how much I miss copy and paste, but that’s all about to change!

Microsoft released the NoDo update today which adds copy and paste and many other updates, but now the wait for Bell to release it to my phone begins…

How often can you hit “Check for update” before you wear out your mouse? Winking smile