Talk2Melbin
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Add join a Computer to Domain Membership or WorkGroup Membership
Sep 8th
There are two types of computer memberships on Windows Operating Systems. They are,
- Domain Membership
- WorkGroup Membership
Domain Membership
Domain Membership joins the computer to a Domain Controller (eg: Samba PDC, Active Directory). Using Domain controller System Administrator can centrally monitor and manage each windows clients. They can even set securities, access policies, group policies etc… from the domain controller.
Domain membership help computers to act like Server – Client model. Each operation on the client systems are controlled by the rules and regulation from the domain controller to which the computer be a member of.
After joining a computer to a domain membership, by default there would be two Administrator users. They are called Local Administrator and Domain Administrator.
WorkGroup Membership
WorkGroup enables the Windows operating systems to communicate each other on a single LAN (Local Area Network). Communication will be carried out depending on the computer workgroup names. Same workgroup allow each other access to their files, printers, Internet connection etc…
After joining a computer to Workgroup membership, by default there would be one Administrator user. He is named as Local Administrator.
How to join a computer to Domain Membership
- Login as Administrator.
- Go to My Computer – Properties
- Click on Computer Name tab
- Click on Change Icon
- Select Member of option
- Check the Radio button on Domain
- Enter the Fully Qualified Domain Name
- Prompt ask for Domain administrator user name and password .
- Enter the user name and password
- Click ok – Machine will restart automatically.
-
Dns should resolve to the full qualified domain name.
-
Network connection between domain controller and client should be proper.
Verify the Domain Membership
- Login into the computer
- Go to My Computer – Properties
- Click on Computer Name tab
- See the computer name
Computer name is now updated with the domain name. Name will display like hostname.domain format.
How to join a computer to WorkGroup Membership
- Login as Administrator.
- Go to My Computer – Properties
- Click on Computer Name tab
- Click on Change Icon
- Select Member of option
- Check the Radio button on WorkGroup
- Enter the workGroup Name
- Prompt ask for Local administrator user name and password .
- Enter the user name and password
- Click ok – Machine will restart automatically.
Verify the WorkGroup Membership
- Login into the computer
- Go to My Computer – Properties
- Click on Computer Name tab
- See the WorkGroup
Cheers!
Melbin Mathew
www.talk2melbin.com
Vmware Esxi 4 Installation And Configuration – Use of Existing Vmware .vmdk on Esxi Server
Sep 5th
VMware ESXi is the easiest way to get started with virtualization—and it’s free. Consolidate your applications onto fewer servers and start saving money through reduced hardware, power, cooling and administration costs. With VMware ESXi you can,
Advantage
1. Run multiple operating systems on a single server and reduce hardware costs.
2. Run a greener data center and reduce your energy cost.
3. Enable easier back-ups and restores for your applications.
4. Run the most resource intensive applications in production.
Disadvantage
1. Need a powerful server.
2. For the full operation we need to purchase some more applications from Vmware.
Here i like to explain,
1. Installation and customization of Vmware Esxi server.
2. Fresh Installation of Operating System.
3. Use existing Vmware from workstation to Vmware Esxi Server.
4. Enabling SSH.
5. Make the imported Vmware compatible to Vmware Esxi server.
6. Run the virtual machines.
Installation Procedure Of Vmware ESXi
I have test Vmware Esxi installation and configuration on my “Hp Compaq dc7700 Convertible Minitower”. The installation and configuration are successful. I have run different flavors of Operating Systems
1. Download the latest Esxi from Vmware site.
http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/
2. Burn the image into a plain cd.
3. Collect the free license from the email.
4. Change the BIOS boot priority
Select the server BIOS boot priority to cd drive.
5. Boot the server with the Esxi Image cd.
6. It will prompt for the installation and start continue the installation.
7. Once the Vmware Esxi installation is completed without errors, we can proceed with others steps.
Configuration Part on Vmware Esxi
One the Vmware Esxi server rebooted we need to set the following parameters,
1. Press F2 for customization on Esxi sever.
2. Assign the root password from “Configure Password” menu. (Password need to meet complexity requirement)
3. Assign a static Ip address from “Configuration Management Network”. (Assigning Ip address from DHCP will cause issue)
4. Assign Dns configuration.
Browse Vmware Esxi Server
1. Now the Esxi server is accessible on the network.
2. Use ping command to test the connectivity.
3. Open the Bowser and call the Vmware Esxi server Url (eg: https://192.168.0.9/). This will open a welcome page.
This mean our Esxi server accessible from the network.
Accessing Vmware Esxi Server.
In order to access Vmware Esxi we need to install “vSphere Client” application on a windows machine.
1. Go to Windows machine.
2. Open the Bowser and call the Vmware Esxi server Url (eg: https://192.168.0.9/). This will open a welcome page.
3. Click on Download vSphere Client.
4. Install the application and login into the Vmware Esxi server using user name ‘root’ and assigned root password.
5. From vShere Client, we are able to manage and install new Vmware operating systems.
Choosing the Boot option during Vmware installation.
1. Power on the VM
2. Open a console connection to the VM
3. Wait for it to get to the PXE boot phase
4. Click the Connect CD/DVD button and attach your ISO file
5. In the menu bar goto VM, and then pick Send Ctrl+Alt+Del
**If we need to start the installation from cd, power off the network boot and power on the cd boot on startup. Change according to our installation method.
Once the installation is new vmware installation is completed. We can able to manage the working of the new virtual machine using the vSphere Client
Using existing vmware from workstation to Vmware Esxi Server
1. We need to enable ssh on Vmware Esxi server.
2. Copy the existing Vmware into the Esxi server storage, using ‘scp‘ command or ‘WinScp‘ application from windows machines.
3. Once the copy is completed we need to take a clone of the Vmware. Then only we are able start the copied Vmware on the Esxi server.
4. Keep the cloned Vmware on Esxi server and remove the copied Vmware.
5. Create and new virtual machine and select the newly cloned .vmdk file.
Enable ssh on Vmware Esxi
1. ALT-F1 to change to the main console.
2. Type ‘unsupported’ (you will not be able to see what you’re typing).
3. When prompted, enter the root user’s password.
4. Type: vi /etc/inetd.conf
5. Find the line that begins with #ssh
6. Cursor over the first ‘s’ and press the ‘i’ key (for insert mode)
7. Press backspace
8. Press ESC
9. Type SHIFT+colon (:) and then ‘wq!’ to write and exit.
10. Type ‘ps | grep inetd’ to find the inetd process
11. Send the hang-up signal to the process ID output from step 10 with: kill -s HUP <PID> (Reboot of Esxi server also help to do the same)
12. You can now SSH into your ESXi server.
Copy the existing Vmware into the Esxi server storage
1. Use ‘scp’ command from Linux or use WinScp from windows.
2. Copy the existing Vmware into the data storage (eg: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/).
3. Use SSH to login into the Vmware Esxi server. Use ssh command from Linux or Putty from windows.
Use the command to clone the copied Vmware.
# vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Win2003/windows2003.vmdk
/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Win2003New/windows2003-new.vmdk
# vmkfstools -i /source.vmdk /destination.vmdk
vmkfstools -e this command is used for exporting the Vmware.vmdk from Vmware Exsi server
** Change the path according to the location.
Once the conversion is completed the new .vmdk file is compatible to Esxi Server.
Run the new cloned Vmware .vmdk file from Exsi Server
1. Login into vSphere Client.
2. Create a new virtual machine. Choose custom option while creating the new virtual machine.
3. Select the operating system and architecture according to the newly cloned .vmdk vmware.
4. Browse and choose the cloned .vmdk file.
5. Start the Imported vmware on Vmware Esxi.
Now our Esxi server is ready to manage imported as well as newly installed operating systems.
Cheers!
Melbin Mathew
www.talk2melbin.com
Send, Receive Email Using Telnet Command – Troubleshoot Email Accounts with Telnet Commands
Sep 3rd
Telnet
An Internet communications protocol that enables a computer to function as a terminal working from a remote computer.
Telnet was developed in 1969 beginning with RFC 15, extended in RFC 854, and standardized as Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Internet Standard STD 8, one of the first Internet standards.
Advantage of telnet
1. Easy of use.
2. Allows users to log on to a remote system and run programs on that system.
3. Email account management, send and receive emails.
4. Easy to check ports on servers. (eg: to check email server smtp, telnet servername 25)
Disadvantage of telnet
1. Actions available are very limited.
2. Files cannot be saved.
3. Does not support encryption.
4. Login information and data is send by clear text, unencrypted format.
Telnet on Windows
On windows, we can check send and receive emails using the same commands mentioned here.
To open the command prompt,
Click on Start -> Run -> type ‘cmd’ and Enter.
Sending and Receive Emails Using Telnet
Using telnet commands we are able to troubleshoot the email account with out login into the control panels.
Telnet commands for Receiving emails pop3,
# telnet mail.talk2melbin.com 110 (where mail.talk2melbin is the email server and 110
pop3 service port number)
# user melbin@talk2melbin.com (Specify the user name for login)
# pass **** (Enter the correct Password)
# list (Command list all the emails received on the account)
List command will also show us the id number of your messages (erg. 1 or 2 etc.)
To view the contents of received email type RETR + the id number of the message (e.g RETR 1).
To delete a message use DELE + the id number of the message (e.g DELE 1).
To leave your mailbox and close the connection use QUIT
Telnet commands for Sending emails smtp,
# mail from: melbin@talk2melbin.com
250 ok
# rcpt to:melbin@talk2melbin.com (Both domain names for send and receive emails should be
same or the both domains belong to same server)
250 ok
# data
354 go ahead
Test Email
# .
Telnet commands for checking Open Relay on servers
Enabling Open relay increase the spamming/security risk on the servers. We can check the status of server via telnet commands,
# mail from: melbin@talk2melbin.com
250 wok
# rcpt to:****@gmail.com (Domain name used for sending and receiving emails should be
different)
Relay access denied
Which means the servers is not set for open relay.
Cheers!
Melbin Mathew
www.talk2melbin.com
Manage Directory Size On Linux – Total Number Of Files
Aug 28th
Display or list total number of files on a current directory with users in Linux
It would good to manage the directory size on Linux to make all the applications and system to work smoothly with a good performance.Manage directory size on Linux is easier with a set of commands.
Ina small condition, suppose we have a common share on company and all people on the organization have access/write to the share. At a point Administrator need to see the users usage on the share and like to find out the file count per user or total file on the directory,directory size on Linux.
Use the following commands to manage directory size on Linux,
Both commands displays the total count of the files created by each user.
# find /home -type f -printf “%u\n” | awk ‘{count[$0]++}END{for(i in count)print i, count[i]}’
Out Put :
root 9 melbin 7
# find /home -type f -print0 | xargs -0 stat -c %U | sort | uniq -c
Out Put:
7 melbin 9 root
We can also use a simple command to see the total count on the directory,
# ls -l /home | wc -l
Example:
6
# ls -la /home | wc -l (Display hidden files)
Example:
8
Command find the number of files in a directory, and it will send o/p as pipe to the wc -l, which outputs the number of lines in its input.
*Count will include “. (present) and ..(previous)” directory.
To Find – Directory/File Resource Usage,
# du -sh /home (Display Total Size)
Example:
456K /home/
# du -ah /home (Display Each Files Size)
Example:
4.0K /home/melbin/.mozilla/extensions
4.0K /home/melbin/.mozilla/plugins
# find / -size +1000000c -ls (Display files having more that 1 million characters)
# find /home/melbin -size +1M (Display files having more than 1MB)
# find /home/melbin -size +1k (Display files having more than 1KB)
Example:
687458 4 drwx—— 5 melbin melbin 4096 Aug 29 07:37 /home/melbin/
687459 4 drwxr-xr-x 4 melbin melbin 4096 Nov 11 2008 /home/melbin/.mozilla
687460 4 drwxr-xr-x 2 melbin melbin 4096 Nov 11 2008 /home/melbin/.mozilla/extensions
To Find – Total Hardisk Usage,
# df -h (Display the Present Usage)
Example:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda11 37G 12G 24G 34% /
/dev/sda9 487M 43M 419M 10% /boot
tmpfs 502M 0 502M 0% /dev/shm
# df -hi (List Inode information instead of block usage)
Example:
Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on
/dev/sda11 9.6M 269K 9.3M 3% /
/dev/sda9 126K 73 126K 1% /boot
tmpfs 126K 1 126K 1% /dev/shm
Cheers !
Melbin Mathew
www.talk2melbin.com
Improvement On Internet Explorer 8 Compared To Internet Explorer 7
Aug 26th
Internet Explorer 8
Internet Explorer 8 is more standards compliant than any earlier version of Internet Explorer. This means that pages you have written to standards will work better with Internet Explorer 8. Cross-browser compatibility is much easier because you don’t have to modify your pages as much to display on specific browsers.
Features
CSS Support
Internet Explorer 8 fully supports CSS 2.1 and more of CSS 3.
HTML and DOM Support
Internet Explorer 8 has improved support for HTML 4.01 and 5, also for DOM 2 and 3.
Compatibility
In terms of compatibility between Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8, this area will cause you the most problems. Some objects you used with Internet Explorer 7 have changed to work according the various standards specifications. In other words, some methods, properties, and so on that worked in a non-standard way in Internet Explorer 7 now comply with standards in Internet Explorer 8.
Better AJAX Support
Internet Explorer 8 more easily supports backward navigation of page fragments. It provides better communication between pages, frames, sites, and domains.
Developer Tools Built In
You may have used downloaded and used the Internet Explorer Developer Tool bar.
Accelerators
You can make your Web services available to users as Accelerators. Users can add Accelerators to Internet Explorer 8 and use them anywhere they browse.
Web Slices
Like an RSS feed, you can set up portions of your Web pages that contain frequently updated information as Web Slices for your users.
Search Suggestions
Internet Explorer 8 has improved the search experience for end users. Many search engines offer search suggestions as users type.
Internet Explorer 7
Windows Internet Explorer 7 continues the ongoing Internet Explorer commitment to provide enhanced security and privacy, increased compatibility with industry standards, additional browser features, and improved usability for platform developers.
Building on the broad success of Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 focuses on three key areas:
RSS Feeds
Internet Explorer 7 RSS feeds help you access information quickly and directly on the Web, providing automatic discovery of new feeds on Web pages, basic Web feed reading ability, and basic support for saving Web feeds as favorites.
Microsoft Phishing Filter
Internet Explorer 7 includes functionality to protect users against phishing attacks from hostile sites.
Protected Mode
Windows Vista Protected Mode reduces the severity of threats to both Internet Explorer and extensions running in Internet Explorer by eliminating the ability to silently install malicious code through software vulnerabilities.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
Internet Explorer 7 makes it easier to see if Web transactions are secured by SSL or Transport Layer Security (TLS). A security report icon now appears to the right of the address bar when you view a page using a Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS) connection.
Microsoft ActiveX Opt
In Internet Explorer 7 disables all ActiveX controls that are not used in Internet Explorer 6.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Updates
Internet Explorer 7 features improved CSS, Level 2 (CSS2) support for Selectors (first-child, adjacent, attribute, and child selectors) and Fixed Positioning.
Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
Internet Explorer 7 adds support for Alpha Channel Transparency to PNG, so that Web designers can implement advanced overlays and innovative graphical designs.
XMLHTTP Native Support
Internet Explorer 7 implements a version of XMLHTTP that is a native scriptable object instead of an object. Users can now have ActiveX controls switched off and still maintain a client-side connection with a server.
Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)
Internet Explorer 7 includes complete support for RFC-3490 on Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) World Wide Web link in all browser functions.
Tabbed Browsing
Internet Explorer 7 uses tabs to organize and manage groups of Web pages. Users can select an individual page or a group of pages (a tab group) to open as their home page.
HTML 4.01 Support
Internet Explorer 7 recognizes the ABBR tag from HTML 4.01.
Select Element
The Select control is now a windowless control. This change enables z-order and zoom to work correctly.
Cheers!
Melbin Mathew
www.talk2melbin.com