Puppet - Open Source Data Center Automation and Configuration Management

Puppet is an open source data center automation and configuration management framework. Puppet provides system administrators with a simplified platform that allows for consistent, transparent, and flexible systems management.

Puppet lets System Administrators spend less time on mundane tasks and instead focus on managing their infrastructure strategically.

The following is their website:

http://www.puppetlabs.com/puppet/introduction/

Sitemaps for Blogspot sites

There are two systems in blogspot, the old one and the new one (was previously beta).  To verify, you need to visit to see if you get a XML or a web page.

In the list below, the first three url is the default for sitemap but in the new system, it is redirected to feedburner and will not be recognized by rss readers.  If that is the case then use the last url for the feed.  If it still provide the xml format then you can still continue to use those urls.

Old sitemaps:
http://programmersjournal.blogspot.com/rss.xml
http://programmersjournal.blogspot.com/atom.xml
http://programmersjournal.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

New sitemap.

http://programmersjournal.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full

How to set up automatic alert using Gmail and GCalendar

This is how you can set up an automatic alert that will send out email to a group on a fixed schedule. It is a two step process.

Step 1

Create a Calendar entry in your Google Calendar. Specify the time and also check the repeat, the specify the repeat frequency, daily, weekly, monthly etc.

Make sure to have add Email Reminder.

Step 2

From Step 1, you should receive an email from your calendar about 10 minutes (or what ever time you set before the actual time.

After receiving the first alert, create a filter from it.  The mail will be from calendar-notification@google.com.

So create your filter, as follow:

In the Has the words field, key in the words that match your calendar title. Then click Next Step.

Select Forward it to: and then enter the email you want to forward the alert to.  If you are using a corporate gmail account, you can use groups created by your company admin.  If you are using the free public gmail account, each filter can only be forwarded to one email account and also the recipient need to agree by either clicking on a link or to send you back the authorization code.

Debugging and Testing tools for PHP

This is a bookmark to an article on the above.

http://phpbuilder.com/columns/10-Testing-Debugging-Tools/Jason_Gilmore11172010.php3

Virus on FaceBook and MySpace

I just received a warning that there is a trojan worm is now spreading like wildfire on Facebook and MySpace. The name of the work is known as koobface.

It is designed to steal your info, invade your system and shut it down. In order to avoid it:

• do not open the link to Barack Obama Clinton Scandal. 
• Do not accept any friend request from SmartGirl15. 

I am not sure how accurate the warning is but better to safe then sorry.

How to uninstall Microsoft Choice Guard

Microsoft Choice Guard is automatically installed on your computer when you install Windows Live.  To uninstall Choice guard, follow the following steps (from the following discussion):


Microsoft Choice Guard

Instructions to uninstall Choice Guard

For Windows XP:

1) Start
2) Run
3) Copy the following line into the 'Open' field:
msiexec /x {8FFC5648-FAF8-43A3-BC8F-42BA1E275C4E}
4) OK

Choice Guard will now be uninstalled.

On Windows 7, use the following command:

MsiExec.exe /X{F0E12BBA-AD66-4022-A453-A1C8A0C4D570}

Performing a Find in Google Spreadsheet

You can write scripts for the various modules in Google Apps using JavaScript (just as you do scripts in Microsoft Office using VBScript).    I have not been able to perform a predefined method to perform a find.  This is a code that is provided by Henrique Abreu.  The discussion is found here.

The code is as follow:

function find(sheet,searchKey) {
  var data = sheet.getDataRange().getValues();
  for( var i in data )
    for( var j in data[i] )
      if( searchKey == data[i][j] )
        return sheet.getRange(parseInt(i)+1,parseInt(j)+1);
  return null;
}

To use the code, you can just call it as follow:

function usageExample() {
  //replace 1st occurence of "foo" with "bar"
  var range = find(SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet(),"foo");
  if( range != null )
    range.setValue("bar");
}

HP Expert Day - Nov 10, 2010

From the following page.


Don't miss our first community Expert Day on the topic of Operations Management, which starts tomorrow at 8am Pacific Standard Time.  Simply NAVIGATE HERE and start asking your questions! 

Participating HP Experts will be identified by the HP Expert icon next to their names.


Afraid you'll forget about this great event tomorrow? Download the event to your Outlook calendar. Simply open the linked file and "save and close".


Spread the word!  Give your colleagues and friends this shortcut URL: http://ow.ly/31CWX

Expert Day is a 24-hour forum based event where you can log in and ask questions of HP Operations Management Experts who are ready to help you online.  

Topics appropriate for this Expert Day would include: 

• How to monitor different IT environments (heterogeneous, virtualized, private cloud, etc.)
• Best practices
• Product integrations
• Tips and tricks
• Using agents and agentless monitoring together
• Information on new products (Operations Manager 9, SiteScope 11, Operations Manager i9) 
• Product features
• Resources (requests for case studies, white papers, and collateral)

Portable Apps Suite

The following is a link to some portable applications that makes it easy for testing.

http://portableapps.com/suite

XML Editors

Found a pretty neat XML editor at http://www.exchangerxml.com/index.html but it is very confusing, it claims that there is a free version and a commercial version but I was unable to find the commercial version.  All the features indicated on the commercial is found in the version I downloaded but did not see a way to register.  This is a good editor since it also provides for XSLT editing.

Alternative ones without XSLT debugging capabilities are found in the following:

http://symbolclick.com/index.htm
http://free.editix.com/

Personally I still like XSLTMajic from Microsoft that was discontinued support severals years ago.  Managed to find the link.

Screen capture utility

Windows 7 comes with a built in screen capture utility unless you are using the started edition.  For those using earlier version of Windows you have to find your own.

The following is a good freeware to perform screen capture:

http://getgreenshot.org/

Previously, I was using Printkey but this one looks more stable.

Siteminder Tutorial

The following is a site which provides tutorial on Siteminder:

http://www.sitemindertutorials.com/2010/05/siteminder-tutorial.html

Cheat sheet for Linux commands

This is a bookmark a cheat sheet on Linux commands.

http://www.pixelbeat.org/docs/linux_commands.html

Creating Query as a service using BOBJ

Found this article and bookmarking here.

http://alteksolutions.com/wp/index.php/2009/03/quick-and-dirty-guide-to-creating-qaaws/

Gmail advanced search options

This is a bookmark to Gmail advanced search option.  The original article is found here.

Operator	Definition	Example(s)
from:	Used to specify the sender	Example: from:amy Meaning: Messages from Amy
to:	Used to specify a recipient	Example:to:david Meaning: All messages that were sent to David (by you or someone else)
subject:	Search for words in the subject line	Example:subject:dinner Meaning: Messages that have the word "dinner" in the subject
OR	Search for messages matching term A or term B* *OR must be in all caps	Example: from:amy OR from:david Meaning: Messages from Amy or from David
- (hyphen)	Used to exclude messages from your search	Example: dinner -movie Meaning: Messages that contain the word "dinner" but do not contain the word "movie"
label:	Search for messages by label* *There isn't a search operator for unlabeled messages	Example: from:amy label:friends
has:attachment	Search for messages with an attachment	Example: from:david has:attachment Meaning: Messages from David that have an attachment
list:	Search for messages on mailing lists	Example: list:info@example.com Meaning: Messages with the words info@example.com in the headers, sent to or from this list
filename:	Search for an attachment by name or type	Example: filename:physicshomework.txt Meaning: Messages with an attachment name "physicshomework.txt" Example: label:work filename:pdf Meaning: Messages labeled "work" that also have a PDF file as an attachment
" " (quotes)	Used to search for an exact phrase* *Capitalization isn't taken into consideration	Example: "i'm feeling lucky"  Meaning: Messages containing the phrase "i'm feeling lucky" or "I'm feeling lucky" Example: subject:"dinner and a movie" Meaning: Messages containing the phrase "dinner and a movie" in the subject
( )	Used to group words Used to specify terms that shouldn't be excluded	Example: from:amy (dinner OR movie) Meaning: Messages from Amy that contain either the word "dinner" or the word "movie" Example: subject:(dinner movie) Meaning: Messages in which the subject contains both the word "dinner" and the word "movie"
in:anywhere	Search for messages anywhere in Gmail* *Messages in Spam and Trash are excluded from searches by default	Example: in:anywhere movie Meaning: Messages in All Mail, Spam, and Trash that contain the word "movie"
in:inbox in:trash in:spam	Search for messages in Inbox, Trash, or Spam	Example: in:trash from:amyMeaning: Messages from Amy that are in Trash
is:important label:important	Search within messages that Priority Inbox considers important.	Example: is:important from:janet Meaning: Messages from Janet that were marked as important by Priority Inbox
is:starred is:unread is:read	Search for messages that are starred, unread or read	Example: is:read is:starred from:David  Meaning: Messages from David that have been read and are marked with a star
cc:	Used to specify recipients in the cc: or bcc: fields*	Example: cc:david
bcc:	*Search on bcc: cannot retrieve messages on which you were blind carbon copied	Meaning: Messages that were cc-ed to David
after:	Search for messages sent during a certain period of time*	Example: after:2004/04/16 before:2004/04/18
before:	*Dates must be in yyyy/mm/dd format.	Meaning: Messages sent between April 16, 2004 and April 18, 2004.* *More precisely: Messages sent after 12:00 AM (or 00:00) April 16, 2004 and before April 18, 2004.
is:chat	Search for chat messages	Example: is:chat monkey  Meaning: Any chat message including the word "monkey".

Addendum (Nov 2012)

Operator	Definition	Example(s)
size:	Search for messages which is equal or greater than the size entered.	Example: size:10M  Meaning all messages that are 10 MB and above

Compiling Samba on Sun Solaris

This is a bookmark for my personal reference to this site.   I searched other sites and this is the one that works.

Main content that is important is as follow:

1. Download and compile Samba from http://www.samba.org.
   Here Kerberos, OpenLDAP, and Samba will be downloaded and compiled.
   Samba will use the idmap_rid facility to map a single ADS domain SIDs to Solaris UIDs and GIDs. You should determine what idmap is suitable for your installation.
   Within this example the samba-highly-available-local-file-system is /local/samba, where the software is installed into /local/samba/software and compiled into /opt/samba.
   For more information using these filenames refer to the following deployment example in Deployment Example: Installing Samba from http://www.samba.org where these commands have been has been taken.
   1. Download, Extract and Install Kerberos.

      Vigor5# cd /local/samba/software Vigor5# wget http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/dist/krb5/1.4/krb5-1.4.3-signed.tar Vigor5# tar -xfBp krb5*tar Vigor5# gunzip -c krb5*.tar.gz | tar -xfBp - Vigor5# rm krb5*tar* Vigor5# cd krb5*/src Vigor5# CC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc ./configure --prefix=/opt/samba \ > --enable-dns-for-realm Vigor5# make Vigor5# make install

   2. Download, Extract and Install OpenLDAP.

      ---

      Note –
      You must obtain a fix for Bug ID: 6419029 which describes a problem when compiling OpenLDAP before proceeding with this step.

      ---

      Vigor5# cd /local/samba/software Vigor5# wget \ > ftp://ftp.openldap.org/pub/OpenLDAP/openldap-release/openldap-2.3.24.tgz Vigor5# gunzip -c openldap-2.3.24.tgz | tar -xfBp - Vigor5# rm openldap-2.3.24.tgz Vigor5# cd openldap* Vigor5# CC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc \ > CPPFLAGS="-I/opt/samba/include" \ > LDFLAGS="-L/opt/samba/lib -R/opt/samba/lib" ./configure --prefix=/opt/samba \ > --disable-slapd --disable-slurpd Vigor5# make depend Vigor5# make Vigor5# make install

   3. Download, Extract and Install Samba.

      Vigor5# cd /local/samba/software Vigor5# wget http://us3.samba.org/samba/ftp/old-versions/samba-3.0.22.tar.gz Vigor5# gunzip -c samba-3.0.22.tar.gz | tar -xfBp - Vigor5# rm samba-3.0.22.tar.gz Vigor5# cd samba*/source Vigor5# CC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc \ > CFLAGS=-I/opt/samba/include \ > LDFLAGS="-L/opt/samba/lib -R/opt/samba/lib" ./configure --prefix=/opt/samba \ > --with-ads --with-krb5=/opt/samba --with-shared-modules=idmap_rid Vigor5# make Vigor5# make install

2. Copy winbind libnss_winbind.so to /usr/lib.

   # cd /local/samba/software/samba*/source # # cp nsswitch/libnss_winbind.so /usr/lib # ln -s /usr/lib/libnss_winbind.so /usr/lib/libnss_winbind.so.1 # ln -s /usr/lib/libnss_winbind.so /usr/lib/nss_winbind.so.1

Windows 7 secrets

You can enable Windows 7 GodMode with the following steps:

1. Create a new folder
2. Rename the folder as follow - GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}  (Make sure to type exactly.
3. The create folder contains a lot of administration short cuts that are useful.

Unix Utilities for Windows

The following are utilities ported from Unix into Windows:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/unxutils/

Unlike other ports, it provides Unix functionalities natively in Windows.  One of the tools touch is used to update the date of the file is useful for those encrypted containers like OFTE so that the backup utilities detect a change and will perform backup.

Setting path in Unix and Windows

Display path

In order to check on existing path, do the following:

in Windows, just type:

echo %path%

in Unix, just type 

echo $PATH

Set path

To add additional folder to the path, do the following:

in Windows, 

for example, to add c:\t2 to front of the path, just do type the following:

set path=c:\t2;%path%

in Unix, if we want to add /usr/sfw/bin to the front of the path, it is a two step process, type:

PATH=/usr/sfw/bin:$PATH

export PATH

to verify type the display path shown above.

Additional Note

A reminder, the paths are evaluated from left to write.  In both Windows and Unix, when we try to execute any program, it will first search for the application in the current folder, then it will traverse the path from left to right.

Xmind vs FreeMind

Mind mapping is a great way to organize my thoughts and I found FreeMind does a great job in doing that.  However, recently I came across Xmind.  I used the free version and found that it provides some features that were missing from FreeMind.

The following are the missing features:

Floating Topics/Floating Central Topic


This allows you to create multiple central centers.  As shown below:

Different Structures


Xmind allows you to shape your mind map into different structures (in addition to the standard map available in Freemind) such as:

• Fishbone.
• Spreadsheet
• Org Chart
• Logic Chart

This is great except, the nodes below will inherit the structure of the node below.  So I was not able to mix the different structures.

Different Shapes

It is nice to be able to change the different shapes of the nodes.   In additional to the standard Elipse, you can have:

• Rounded Rectangle
• Rectangle
• Diamond
• Call out
• Fish head
• Underline

Here are some examples:

Workbook

In Freemind, you can only have one worksheet while in Xmind, you are able to save multiple worksheet as a workbook.

This is useful if you want to separate multiple ideas in a file.

Outline View

There is an outline view that will allow you to view which nodes are at the same level.  

Negatives

There are a few complaints that I have of Xmind.  They are:

• Due to the additional features, the installer is substantially bigger.  Freemind is 7 Mbyte, Xmind is 50 Mbyte.
• It is also compared to Freemind.