Using Dell SUU on RHEL 64 Bit

Part of many systems admins jobs is to update firmware and drivers on the servers. This is needed to keep systems stable and avoid nasty crashes and OS incompatibilities.

The best time is when you build the system and also when you can get the time when you can take the system offline to give it much needed patches.

Dell provides a downloadable DVD ISO for their Server Update Utility (SUU), which runs on Windows and Linux systems. It can be downloaded from support.dell.com and search for drivers. After you enter your server’s Service Tag, you will have a list of available downloads. Expand the + Systems Management tree, and click Download Now for the Dell DVD ISO – Dell Server Updates.

There is an issue with RedHat 64 bit systems fail to run SUU when it is collecting inventory to determine what to update. This is due to the fact that SUU requires compat-libstdc++-33.i686 which is not installed by default. To fix the issue just install the following packages.

yum -y install glibc.i686 compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 zlib.i686 libxml2.i686 libXp.i686 libXtst.i686 ncurses-libs pam.i686 procmail

From this point the tool is simple. Insert and mount the DVD with the updates and SUU.

mount /dev/dvd /mnt

Change to the directory and use the -c parameter to see what updates are applicable.

./suu -c

Now use -u to install the updates. This will take time so you can move on to other items like browsing the Internet for cool blogs like this one!!!.

./suu -u

Once the updates have finished un-mount your DVD and reboot.

Dell offers other products to manage and automate updates and alerts with IT Assistant which I will cover in future posts!

How To Update Asus EeePC 1001P Bios

Recently an issue occurred on a very trusty Asus EeePC 1001P Netbook in which a Bios upgrade was needed. Newer systems are usually not an issue to update as it is a download , double-click on the executable and away you go.

This one was a bit different as the download file was a ROM binary and there was no double-click.

Here’s the steps to update the bios.

Obtain a USB stick, 1 GB is sufficient
Format the stick as FAT and not FAT32
Download the latest BIOS (version 1202 currently)
Unzip and copy the .ROM file to the USB stick
Rename the .ROM file to 1005P.ROM
Insert the USB stick and reboot or power on the netbook.
Click Alt-F2 at startup to run the BIOS update utility
The system will search for a USB device, find it and look for the 1005P.ROM and apply it.
After completed the system will prompt you to power off.

That’s all there was too it and issue resolved and back to using the Netbook. Hope this helps you as well!

Introspect error The name org.freedesktop.Hal was not provided Running RHN_REGISTER

You would think something as simple as running rhn_register would just run and register for updates without any issues. There are times when this is not the case and today was one of them.

The issue occurred when running rhn_register on RedHat EL 5.4 (Tikanga) servers when after selecting next on teh review screen I received the error. “Introspect error: The name org.freedesktop.Hal was not provided by any .service files”

From the error I noticed Hal in the name and upon a friendly search in the RedHat forums noticed reference to haldaemon not running. So the correction is simple.

# service haldaemon start

Now re-run rhn_register and you are golden!!

How To Increase the Maximum Number of File Descriptors RHEL / CentOS

Recently ran into a issue where a program running on RHEL was using up all the available File Descriptors. First we need to find out what the maximum number of open file descriptors is set to. We accomplish this by running the command:

# cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max 589420

The output tells us it is set to 589420.

The vendor asked for this to be increased to 1639200. We can add change the value immediately by executing:

# sysctl -w fs.file-max=1639200

To make this a permanent setting applied everytime the system reboots an edit of /etc/sysctl.conf file is required. Add:

fs.file-max = 1639200

Save the changes to the file and execute sysctl -p, this will put the changes into effect.

# sysctl -p net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0 net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1 net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0 kernel.sysrq = 0 kernel.core_uses_pid = 1 net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1 net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-ip6tables = 0 net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-iptables = 0 net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-arptables = 0 kernel.msgmnb = 65536 kernel.msgmax = 65536 kernel.shmmax = 68719476736 kernel.shmall = 4294967296 fs.file-max = 1639200

Thats all there is to it!

VirtualBox 4.1.20 Released

VirtualBox 4.1.20 Released !!! make sure to update your installation to get the latest bugfixes,!
This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

VMM: fixed a crash under rare circumstances for VMs running without hardware virtualization
VMM: fixed a code analysis bug for certain displacement instructions for VMs running without hardware virtualization
VMM: fixed an interpretion bug for TPR read instructions under rare conditions (AMD-V only)
Snapshots: fixed a crash when restoring an old snapshot when powering off a VM (bugs #9604, #10491)
VBoxSVC: be more tolerant against environment variables with strange encodings (bug #8780)
VGA: fixed wrong access check which might cause a crash under certain conditions
NAT: final fix for crashes under rare conditions (bug #10513)
Virtio-net: fixed the problem with receiving of GSO packets in Windows XP guests causing packet loss in host-to-VM transfers
HPET: several fixes (bugs #10170, #10306)
Clipboard: disable the clipboard by default for new VMs
BIOS: the PCI BIOS was not properly detected with the chipset type set to ICH9 (bugs #9301, #10327)
Mac OS X hosts: adaptions to Mountain Lion
Linux Installer: fixes for Gentoo Linux (bug #10642)
Linux guests: fixed mouse integration on Fedora 17 guests (bug #2306)
Linux Additions: compile fixes for RHEL/CentOS 6.3 (bug #10756)
Linux Additions: compile fixes for Linux 3.5-rc1 and Linux 3.6-rc1 (bug #10709)
Solaris host: fixed a guru meditation while allocating large pages (bug #10600)
Solaris host: fixed possible kernel panics while freeing memory
Solaris Installer: fixed missing icon for menu and desktop shortcuts

Download the latest here and don’t forget to download the latest extensions as well.

How To Retrieve and edit MOD Movies off Panasonic Camorders

There are days that there is something you see makes you just scratch your head and go What?? Well one of those came to me when I was given a Panasonic Camcorder in which there was no software just the device and USB cable and asked to retrieve the movies and make a DVD.

Upon connecting to the device I found files with the .MOD extension. Since I am running VLC I was able to double-click and was able to watch the videos. With a bit of digging I found that .MOD extension is used by JVC, Canon and Panasonic on various models of their camcorders. Here is a list of some of the models saving SD (Standard Definition) with .MOD extension.

Canon FS100
Canon FS10
Canon FS11
JVC GZ-MG30
JVC GZ-MG70
JVC GZ-MG37
JVC GZ-MG77
JVC GZ-MG50
JVC GZ-MG130
JVC GZ-MG155
JVC GZ-MG255
JVC GZ-MG555
Panasonic SDR-S100
Panasonic SDR-S150
Panasonic SDR-S10
Panasonic SDR-H18
Panasonic SDR-H200
Panasonic SDR-H40
Panasonic SDR-H60
Panasonic SDR-SW20

I found many posts of confused users on what to do with the files and how to play and convert. What .MOD file extension really is just a standard MPEG2 file, so really all you need to do is just rename to .MPG and you can edit the files with you favorite editor. To get to the files with a Windows Vista / 7 system you only need to connect the USB cable to the PC and put the camcorder in the correct USB connection mode. With the Panasonic camcorder set the camcorder to play mode and select PC\Recorder for the USB connection type and Windows will install the drivers and show a selection of what to do with the recently discovered device.

Navigated to the directory on the camcorder that has the MOD files and copy them to a place on your hard drive and just press F2 or right click, select rename and replace .mod with .mpg and that’s all.

Next step is to use your favorite editor (Sony Vegas, Adobe Premier, Kdenlive, and many others) and chain the files together into one. For details on doing that refer to the documentation and posts by others for the program if you don’t know it already. Also look for future posts here on the subject.

Hopefully this will help to clear confusion on .MOD file extension!!

Create VM’s from the Command Line with VirtualBox 4

In an earlier post on creating screenshots using vboxmanage command in VirtualBox. Building on using vboxmanage command I discovered that I could create and modify a VM at the command line. This is an awesome feature if you are always building and deleting VM’s for testing an other purposes.

So in this post I want to cover how to create an modify a VM in VirtualBox from the command line. So let’s get typing.

cd C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\
vboxmanage createvm --name winxp --ostype WindowsXP --register

Get a list of available ostypes use the vboxmanage list ostypes command. The output will scroll off the screen so add | more to the command so it is easy to move down by using the enter key.

VBoxManage list ostypes | more

Now we have a vm but it has no attached storage and has the defaults, so we need to make changes, this is where the createhd, storageattach, storagectl and modifyvm parameters come in to play.

First lets create a disk and attach it to the system.

There are many parameters that you can pass to modifyvm, for greater detail you should refer to the online user manual or execute vboxmanage modifyvm | more and page through the various options. Since we are modifying the VM we just created we will just need to modify parameters.

network (--nic<1-N> none|null|nat|bridged|intnet|hostonly|generic)
memory (–memory)
Video Ram (–vram)
boot1 (installation)

For our setting we want 512 MB ram, the nic to use NAT, video ram at 128 MB and set first boot to installation DVD. So our syntax is as below.

VBoxManage modifyvm "winxp" --memory 512 --boot1 dvd --nic1 nat --vram 128

Next we need to create a virtual hard disk for the VM and set it to 10 GB.

VBoxManage createhd --filename "winxp.vdi" --size 10000

Now lets add an IDE controller to the VM.

VBoxManage storagectl "winxp" --name "IDE Controller" --add ide --controller PIIX4

Next we will need to assign the vdi (HD) we create earlier to the IDE Controller we added.

VBoxManage storageattach "winxp" --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium "winxp.vdi"

Attach the ISO file that contains the operating system installation that you want to install later to the virtual machine, so the machine can boot from it.

VBoxManage storageattach "winxp" --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 1 --type dvddrive --medium /path_to/winxp.iso

Finally lets start the VM using the VBoxHeadless command to start the installation. If successful you will see a copyright notice.

VBoxHeadless --startvm "winxp"

Thats all there is to create a VM in VirtualBox from the command line. There are other settings that have to be set through the GUI that cannot be set from the command line. There are also more settings that can be done from the command line. Explore and see what else is possible by using vboxmanage!!

Gathering Open Systems System information with cfg2html

As systems administrators we are always wanting a way to gather information on your Open Systems, you can do this with various different systems commands and add them in scripts and set as cron jobs, or whatever method you prefer.

Now if there is a program that can do that for us and output in txt or html or both, then thats better. Well, such a program does exist call cfg2html (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cfg2html/).

According to the site:
Cfg2html is a UNIX shell script that creates a HTML (and ASCII) system documentation for HP-UX 10+11++, AIX, SCO-UX, SunOS and Linux systems. Plugins for SAP, Oracle, Informix, MC/SG, FibreChannel, TIP/ix, Mass Storage like XP48/128/256/512/1024/1×000, EVA3000-EVA8000, Network Node Manager and OmniBack/DataProtector etc. are included.

So were do I get it and how does it work?
URL: http://www.cfg2html.com/

Current version: http://www.cfg2html.com/cfg2html-linux-2.50-20120601_all.zip

Download and unzip the zipped installation files and install it.

$ sudo yum localinstall -y cfg2html-linux-2.50-2.noarch.rpm

Now that cfg2html is installed run it with root privileges to generate the files. We need to pass -o for the output directory, otherwise it will create the files in the directory you execute the command.

[mlinux@mhlinux3 /]$ sudo cfg2html -o /etc/cfg2html

--=[ http://come.to/cfg2html ]=-----------------------------------------------
Starting          cfg2html-linux version 2.50-2012-06-01
Path to Cfg2Html  /usr/bin/cfg2html-linux
HTML Output File  /etc/cfg2html/mhlinux3.td.afg.html
Text Output File  /etc/cfg2html/mhlinux3.td.afg.txt
Partitions        /etc/cfg2html/mhlinux3.td.afg.partitions.save
Errors logged to  /etc/cfg2html/mhlinux3.td.afg.err
Started at        2012-08-14 13:21:27
WARNING           USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!  )           
--=[ http://come.to/cfg2html ]=-----------------------------------------------

Collecting:  Linux System (Fedora release 16 (Verne))  ......................
Collecting:  Cron and At  ...........
Collecting:  Hardware  .....................
Collecting:  Software  .......
Collecting:  Filesystems, Dump- and Swapconfiguration  ..........
Collecting:  LVM  ............
Collecting:  Network Settings  ...................................
Collecting:  Kernel, Modules and Libraries  ..............
Collecting:  System Enhancements  ..
Collecting:  Applications and Subsystems  ...........
Collecting:  Custom plugins  .
Collecting:  Local files  .

--=[ http://come.to/cfg2html ]=-----------------------------------------------

Output files are stored in /etc/cfg2html in text and html format.

Add to /etc/cron.monthly
Now let’s create a script and place it in /etc/cron.monthly and have it email it to us. Let’s call it collect_config.sh.

#!/bin/bash
MAILTO=admins@mycompany.com
/usr/bin/cfg2html -o /etc/cfg2html
cat /etc/cfg2html/*.txt|mail -s "cfg2html `uname -n`" $MAILTO

That’s all there is to it!

Uninstall NetBackup 6.5.3 Blue Screen Error Stop 0x0000007B

Recently while in process of cleaning up systems running Symantec NetBackup 6.5.3 ran into the issue of after uninstalling the application and rebooting was greeted by a blue screen with Windows Server 2003-based computer: “STOP: 0x0000007B”

This is due to the VSP.sys driver still being referenced in the Windows registry. If you have received this error it is easy enough to fix but you will need to boot the server into safe mode. Once in perform the following steps.

Open regedit
Delete the key HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\VSP
Delete the key HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\services\VSP
Navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}\UpperFilters and delete value of the key called VSP.
Reboot

If you have not uninstalled NetBackup open Control Panel and uninstall Add/Remove Programs > Veritas NetBackup 6.5.3 (6.5 Release Update 3) & Veritas NetBackup Client then perform the same steps listed above.

References:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947480
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH125786

Windows 7 Firewall error code 0x80070424c

Recently came across a Windows 7 PC with McAfee firewall had stopped running and would stop immediately after trying to restart. When attempting to start the firewall server I received an error 0x80070424c.

Uninstalled McAfee and tried a re-install with the same results. So after uninstalling again I found Windows firewall service and the Base Filtering Engine were missing as well.
What I has found was the system had just been cleaned of malware which had deleted the services and the registry keys associated to them and had also removed Windows update service.
Here is how I was able to restore the system back to working order. First, make sure that PC is clean of any rootkits, malware, etc.. Use a good tool like Malwarebytes to remove the malware and empty out temporary Internet files and old files with a tool like CCleaner.

Next you can either export the following keys from a good clean Windows 7 system or download abd install the ones I have here. Just make sure when working with the registry that you back it up!
Download the registry files. Note: All the files are text files. Same them and rename to .reg.

Windows firewall - mpssvc
Base filtering engine - BFE

Launch them,You should get a UAC prompt now
Click YES & Restart your PC

Now,Press Windows+ R key or Start > Run and type

regedt32 and click ok go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\BFE

Right click on it-permissions
Click on ADD and type
Everyone and click ok
Now Click on Everyone

Below you have permission for users
Select full control and click ok
Now,open RUN and type services.msc and click ok. Start base filtering engine service and then windows firewall service.

If you still have this error.

Windows could not start Windows Firewall on local Computer. See event log, if non-windows services contact vendor. Error code 5.

Download and launch this key and save it as sharedaccess.reg. Once downloaded, double-click on the saved file and click YES when it asks if you want to import it into the registry.
SharedAccess

Give full control permission to this key similar to previous one

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\SharedAccess

Right click on it -permissions. Click on Add and type

Everyone and select Full control
You should able to start firewall now.

You may also be missing security center windows defender ,BITS and windows update services
Download

Security center – wscsvc
Windows defender – WinDefend
BITS - BITS
Windows update - wuauserv

Launch them and click YES when you get a UAC prompt. Now try to start the services.

Life of a Geek Admin

The Daily adventures of a true geek administrator

Monthly Archives: August 2012