Virtualization Fun with AoE

I think I will put fun in the title but I know our team would think of other descriptive words to put in its place. It has definitely been quite a learning experience, I will give you that much. A little background on what we had in mind with this.

The time had come to start thinking about replacing our aging servers with some more youthful, more vibrant servers but instead of just swapping out one for one we really started to think about the benefits of virtualizing our environment would give us. So the plan was made and everything was ordered but putting those pieces together of is not as easy as expected.

Here is what we have hardware wise:

Dlink DGS-3100-24
Custom Untangle Server
Dell Poweredge 1950 III
Dell R805 Dual Quad Core Xeon, 16GB RAM
Dell R805 Dual Quad Core Xeon, 16GB RAM
Coraid VS21
Coraid SR1521 (Raid 10 w/ 1TB drives)

We have the SR1521 on a separate VLAN for storage, the VS21 is on the storage VLAN and also a production VLAN, the poweredge is the management server and is on a management VLAN as well as the production VLAN, the R805 are on all VLANs, management, storage, production and lab. When we are done this will server around 30 internal users and around the same amount of users externally. We are trying to virtualize all of our servers and a few desktops for right now.

For the software side of the equation we looked at XenServer and possibly Vmware but we ended up with Virtual Iron because of the promise we saw in the solution. As of right now the storage is not fully supported with their software but we have been working with them to try and get things working. In the meantime we didnt want to sit around so we tried to find another solution that would work as well. We looked up OpenQRM and again things are looking very promising, AoE is supported but the Coraid boxes themselves are not specifically working as you would think but we are trying to work with them so that hopefully in the future it will be with now problems.

So right now we are not really doing too well with a solution that will support our setup but there is hope. The next step after this would be just using straight Xen for the solution, we'll see...

Once this is working then we'll start looking for more ways to increase redundancy and availability

More SMTP errors

I'll eventually start putting up more information that I have regarding the various smtp errors that I seem to run into on a daily basis. It's never until someone's email server starts throwing up error messages do you really get that full realization of what the hell is going on with the server or your mail.

I hate spam and I hate viruses so coming up with a layered approach to prevent the incoming and outgoing crap is much needed. Once your email reputation goes down the tubes tempers will rise just as quickly.

::: Bad Boy of Tech :::: IgniteRFQ - My attempt at PHP development

::: Bad Boy of Tech :::: IgniteRFQ - My attempt at PHP development

All Desktop Icons Open at Once

We have been having the weirdest issues with two computers in our office. At seemingly random times every icon on the computer desktop opens and every application is represented by a rectangle button tabby thing. This happens on Windows XP.


Anyone else have any issues like this?

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients

Working with different customers we always seem to run into the same type issues over and over. In a previous post I talked about the 4.4.7 Could Not Deliver Message error, this time has to do with not having permission to send.

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients. Subject: test Sent: 10/2/2007 8:33 AM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

ruth@testdomain.com on 10/4/2007 8:58 AM
You do not have permission to send to this recipient. For assistance, contact your system administrator.
... Access temporarily denied. IP name lookup failed [196.25.11.101]>

The message failed going over to Ruth at testdomain coming from testo at 196.25.11.101. For this customer we actually found out that it was again a combination of missing reverse DNS records and possible blacklisting. You can do a Reverse DNS lookup on www.dnsstuff.com or on www.openrbl.org using either the CGI or JS client.

If you have Exchange 2003 at the site you are trying to research this for then another great tool to use would be SMTPDIAG. You can download it from here and read an article on how to use it here. It really helps with testing so you’re not sending 50 messages and then having to wait for them to bounce back or error out eventually.

Construction and Use of a Passive Ethernet Tap

This Tech Tip provides straightforward instructions on how to construct and use a passive Ethernet tap. The end product may be used with any hub or switch and any operating system. A passive Ethernet tap is useful when installing an intrusion detection system (IDS) sensor or when snooping Ethernet traffic.
by Michael Peters

Hardware Requirements

• A single 4-port Ethernet housing such as the Versatap AT44 Surface Jack Housing from Allen Tel Products
• 4 Category 5e modular snap-in jacks such as the AT55 Category 5e Modular Snap-In Jacks from Allen Tel Products
• A small section, about 6 inches, of Category 5e cable

Construction

Figure 1 represents the AT55 Category 5e jack. The wire termination pin positions and associated wire color codes are also shown.

Figure 1: AT55 Category 5e Jack

This diagram is usually included with new Category 5e jacks from any other vendor.

Disassemble the section of Category 5e wire that you have into eight separate wires. These wires should have the same color codes as in Figure 1.

The next step should be to partially assemble the Ethernet housing with the four jacks. These should snap into position easily. Once mounted, begin wiring the first jack position using the solid orange wire. Use the next diagram as a guide. The wires can be inserted with a small screwdriver or some other small flat tool.
Once you have terminated all eight wires, trim off any excess wire that remains. Snap the housing closed, and you should now have a completed passive Ethernet tap (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Passive Ethernet Tap

Instructions for Use

Place the passive Ethernet tap inline between a host machine and the Ethernet switch using the two outside positions labeled "HOST". Verify that the link status indicators on your host Ethernet interface and the Ethernet switch are connected again. You may now connect the Ethernet port of your sniffer or IDS sensor into the Tap A and/or Tap B connectors of the passive Ethernet tap.

Note: Keep in mind that when you have a full-duplex Ethernet connection, Tap A will show half-duplex traffic and Tap B will show the remaining traffic. You will need to use two Ethernet interfaces to examine both halves of the full-duplex signal. If you use Sun Trunking software, the traffic can be reassembled. See sun.com for information on Sun Trunking software.

Create your own virtual private network with Hamachi

By Gina Trapani of LifeHacker

"You can do things between computers on your local network you can't from out on the internet: like listen to a shared iTunes library or access files in shared folders. But using the free virtual private network application Hamachi, you can access your computer from anywhere on the internet as if you were home on your local network."

Microsoft follows Oracle into Linux Market

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Microsoft Corp. is expected to announce Thursday that it's partnering with Novell Inc. to support Linux, an open-source software alternative to Microsoft's own computer operating system, according to a report on the Wall Street Journal's Web site.

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