Jeffreys Ruminations - Network Blog

My Experiences with HyperV and Linux

jeffreycentex — Tue, 25 May 2010 01:21:16 +0000

I thought I would post a few tidbits about my recent experience with HyperV and various Linux distributions. As some of you know, I self host my websites on my Windows 2008 R2 server at my house. In the past 6 months or so, I have rotated through many different linux distributions to host my websites, but each attempt ended with abject failure.

I have tried the following combinations of distributions and HyperV extensions:

Ubuntu 9.04 using the Microsoft HyperV extensions
Ubuntu 9.10 using the 2.6.32 kernel modules
Ubuntu 10.04 using the 2.6.32 kernel modules
Debian Lenny using the 2.6.32 kernel modules
CentOS 5.4 using the Microsoft HyperV extension v2
CentOS 5.4 using the Microsoft HyperV extension v2.1
Debian Lenny without using any extensions
CentOS 5.4 without using any extensions
Ubuntu 9.04 without using any extensions

All of these were running the 64-bit version of the operating system, but I also tried a 32-bit version to the same avail. Each attempt ended with a system failure (kernel_hung_task) usually after about 2~3 days. This is running on hardware that can handle a full Windows 2008 R2 load or an individual Linux install with no hiccups. I allocated each VM 100 GB hard drive partition, the synthetic NIC device (on those running extensions, otherwise the legacy NIC was used), and 3 GB of RAM. The systems that did not exhibit the kernel_hung_task error just stopped functioning in a hung state without any logging of any type.

Running VMWare, Virtual PC, or VirtualBox works just fine – other than the inconvenience of having to use an application type of virtualization versus a hypervisor-based system.

So where does that leave me? I no longer use HyperV for running Linux boxen. HyperV works wonderfully for Windows-based systems and (much) earlier Linux builds (i.e., I’m running a Fedora Core 9 box at work for spam filtering that has no hiccups, but running a Fedora 12 box causes the system hang issues).

TCPIP Fundamentals E-Book

jeffreycentex — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:36:53 +0000

I’ve been waiting a bit too long to update here and missed a few things…

First, Joseph Davies (aka “The Cable Guy” on Technet) has released the entire TCP/IP Fundamentals for Microsoft Windows in PDF format.

Click here for the ebook

More to come later today or early tomorrow…

Quick Vista Networking Tips

jeffreycentex — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:23:05 +0000

After spending the past two months wading through the Vista Networking public newsgroup over at msnews.microsoft.com, I have come up with the following tips that will save the users from many problems:

1. If you are having network access/connectivity issues AND you have a Norton or McAfee network security (not AV, but I won’t go there on that one) product, your issue is more than likely the Norton or McAfee product. I haven’t been answering these questions as I made a conscious decision years ago to never let either of these software manufacturers near any computer system I own/manage. However, there have been countless posts in which Norton/McAfee security products are either blocking communications altogether, or have otherwise made networking the PC’s virtually impossible.

2. Make sure you disable network autotuning to get faster file copying/network access to other workgroup/domain computers.

This is easy, though. Run the following command from a Command Prompt as an administrator:

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

netsh int tcp set global rss=disabled

3. If you can’t enable sharing, make sure that you have identified your network as Private. If it is unidentified or Public, you will not be able to enable sharing (without hacking).

I would hazard to guess that these three issues probably represent about 50% of the issues on an average day.

Want Multiple Outlook Sessions at one time?

jeffreycentex — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 03:31:40 +0000

This is from a mailing list that I am on:

So, without further adieu, we are proud to present you with our “ExtraOutlook” tool that allows you to launch as many Outlook instances as you want. All you have to do is configure the profiles you want, and then type: ExtraOutlook.exe “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE” (after you download it, of course).
Attendees of past Microsoft Ninjitsu classes have been using it for some time now (as all attendees get special access to the Hammer of God Member’s Site) and we’ve not heard of any catastrophic failures (you know, like having all mailbox data destroyed without any hope of recovery).

I’ve wanted this for a while now and have bugged it in Office 10 and Office 11. I have both a personal exchange account and a work exchange account and have not liked having both. Thusfar, I have coped by using my smartphone for my personal account (as the office does not provide me with cellphone service) and use Outlook for work email.

Click here for more information.

Quick Site Update

jeffreycentex — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 03:08:32 +0000

I want to post a quick update. As some of you noticed, the site had a bit of downtime late last week. I’m sorry that I was unable to post a notice before hand, but I had to undergo emergency server maintenance and I needed to recreate all of my websites from scratch. In the process, I optimized everything and I hope that the site will run much faster for you.

Besides that, I want to wish all of you a happy new year and may this year shower with good fortune (and no server crashes).

I have been spending the past few weeks playing with Windows Home Server, Hyper-V virtualization, and finalizing my Windows Server 2008 beta testing. I also have deployed a CentOS based Voice-over-IP system, created a website for work, and a whole host of fun and not-so-fun activities. I’ve also resumed being active in the newsgroups, primarily around Vista networking and DFS-Replication.

Whats on tap in the near future? I want to review two Linksys router firmware packages – my new all-time favorite Tomato and a new public access point firmware known as Coova. I’m implementing Tomato at home and have used Coova as our new wireless guest portal at the office. Second, I need to update my pfSense review – actually give a 1 year overview. Finally, I want to discuss some of the issues with Samba and Windows Vista.

Again, I would like to thank you for visiting the site. If you have comments, questions, etc, feel free to contact me via any of the mechanisms listed at the top of the site.

Home Server Rant!

jeffreycentex — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:18:31 +0000

As I said in my first weekend roundup, I was going to install a copy of Windows Home Server this past week. Well, I ended up doing so, using VMWare Server on my “real” home server that runs Windows Server 2008 RC0 beta (and I will reserve the future rant of VMWare NOT SIGNING the kernel drivers for VMWare Server, thus causing me nothing but pain) and dedicated two physical drives to the virtual machine. Everything is up and running after I got the setup driver issues figured out (VMWare SCSI support).

My first thoughts:

Lack of x64 Connector support! This rules out two of my machines. Actually, what I would prefer is the ability to add the computers running x64 to the “Computer” list so I can get the RWW-like Remote Desktop feature to work. But alas, I couldn’t hack it to get this support.
The enforcement of what MS considers to be strong passwords. I can disable password complexity for normal computer accounts, but not for any that are accessible remotely. My password is as secure as I want it to be, but WHS is demanding that I change it to work remotely and even to use the computer. There should be a way to relax the password requirement from the current requirement to something that is a bit more reasonable.

I’m still playing with it, but it is a good product, even with these limitations….

Weekend Roundup 2

jeffreycentex — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:09:02 +0000

This week, I’m a day late, but I have some new links to some interesting software products, a virus warning, and more news:

New Applications:

”Open Data Center Network Management System” – Late last week, I got an email asking me to evaluate and comment on this new application. I haven’t had a chance to install or look at it yet, but I wanted to throw it out to everyone until I have time to review it myself.
This appears to be an ideal solution for documenting network data centers, racks, patch panels, routers, etc. – especially for those of us who have to maintain a frugal IT environment (like my office).
This one isn’t new, but I just found it for the first time today. “Royal TS“. This is a good replacement for the “Remote Desktops” MMC applet that isn’t available (at least not easily available) on Windows Vista. It allows you to organize your Remote Desktop sessions in a nice console list.

Exploit / Virus Warning:

This item was more tailored for delivery on Friday, but it doesn’t hurt to reinforce the importance of making sure that your Adobe Acrobat software (either the reader or the creator) is up-to-date. Last Friday, there was an open exploit using PDF files of the Adobe Acrobat (or Microsoft Windows, if you prefer) flaw that allowed your computer to run exploited code. I noted two attempts of this virus emailed to my office early morning Saturday morning, but my spam/virus gateway was updated to filter it out.

More News:

I’m posting in the Microsoft Newsgroups once again (primarily in Vista Networking, Server Networking, DFS, and DNS). It’s about time that I got back to my “roots”.
I had the joy of helping someone install Leopard this weekend. It seems nice and quick, but I don’t know if I could stand using the Mac OS X user interface long enough to use it. Also, Parallels was not working properly on the machine I saw, so that would preclude me from using it in an office situation (AutoCAD doesn’t exist in Mac OS X, nor will it ever).

That’s it for today. Have a great week if I don’t post again this week. I’ll try to be more active than that.. And feel free to send comments. I’m open to criticism…

Weekend Roundup 1

jeffreycentex — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 01:45:11 +0000

This is the first of (hopefully) a continual series of what is new in the Networking and IT World for the past week:

MS Internal use of Network Access Protection Channel 9 Video – Jeff Sigman (of the NAP team) and Brent Atkison (of MS-IT) talk about how NAP is implemented on the Microsoft network.
Ubuntu 7.10 (GutsyGibbon) has been released, both in Desktop and Server releases. For the benefit of others at the office, we have implemented some of our public web servers on Ubuntu (although I am more a Centos or BSD dude…). Downloads are still rather slow due to the Slashdot effect.

Weekly Wishlist:

x64 version of PageDefrag for my servers.
A working version of Veridian on two of my AM2 systems that should support Virtualization, but are disabled due to processor stepping level.

Task List for the week:

Installing the RTM build of Windows Home Server at home…
Upgrade my Trixbox installation and implement OpenWingo softphones…

Photos and Contact Information

jeffreycentex — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 04:43:13 +0000

Last week, I attended the “Winstock 07″ tour/seminar held on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA. Although we weren’t allowed to take any pictures during the event due to our non-disclosure agreements, I did take some pictures of campus, Seattle fall colors, and some nice views of Mt. Rainier. If you are so interested, these are posted on my personal blog photo gallery here.

While there, we learned much, shared much, and everyone mutually benefited from the experience. Thank you to Wendy and Jessep for getting everything setup for us and to the presenters for sharing information with us and for listening to us for our suggestions and constructive criticism. My highlight sessions? The NAP and the PNRP/IPV6 presentations. Jeff Sigman is an “energetic presenter” and the IPV6 presentation reinforced some of the things I am currently using/deploying with Vista and Windows Server 2008. Thank you to the Windows Home Server team for the awesome reception.

While at Winstock, I started to think about communication. I’m not very good at it. I’m trying to improve on it, though. I will set that as my “Halloween” resolution (since New Years resolutions never seem to stick past January 4). So in that vein, I do want to mention that you can communicate with me via any of the following methods:

Twitter – jeffreycentex
AOL IM – jeffreycentex
Yahoo IM – jeffreycentex (notice a pattern here?)
MSN Messenger – jeffrey at jeffreyrandow dot com (you know what to correct)

I won’t always be available to talk, but I’ll try to be accommodating when possible.

Also, please pass on any suggestions, tips, or leads. Thanks for reading!

Jeffrey

Site Update

jeffreycentex — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 02:31:34 +0000

I have upgraded this site to the last development version of WordPress. This is in preparation for the (hopefully) simple upgrade to 2.3 on Monday (if I had to update during the week, it would never happen…)

This is a sanity test posting.