E.Ravi Blog

How to rename your computer/server name on EC2

E. Ravi — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:58:24 GMT

By default, the EC2config service will attempt to set your computer name for you. You can change this behavior by editing the Config.xml file inside your instance to have the element <Ec2SetComputerName> changed to Disabled. More information on this can be found here:

http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/appendix-windows-config.html

Thanks
E.Ravi

Manually extend the evaluation period of windows 2008 Server

E. Ravi — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:30:06 GMT

Initially you will have 60 days as evaluation period, then if you want to extend the Eval. period - Yes you can do, now with the following simple steps.
Slmgr.vbs script.

1. Click Start, and then click Command Prompt.

2. Type slmgr.vbs -dli, and then press ENTER to check the current status of your evaluation period.

3. To reset the evaluation period, type slmgr.vbs -rearm, and then press ENTER.

4. Restart the computer.

This resets the evaluation period to 60 days.

Micosoft KB here

How to install Windows Server 2008 without activating it

How to manually extend the evaluation period
How to automate the extension of the evaluation period

Please note : You can extend to a max of 240 days only.

Windows Cache for PHP applications on Windows and Windows Server

E. Ravi — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:03:11 GMT

http://www.iis.net/extensions/WinCacheForPHP

This is an PHP accelerator used to increase the performance of the PHP applications running on windows7 and windows 2008 R2 server. It is an extension available in the IIS 7.5 and loaded by the PHP Engine. Major advantage this functions without any code change.

Features

PHP 5.2 and PHP 5.3 support
Configurable file cache
Configurable PHP opcode cache
Relative file path cache
PHP functions to obtain information about the cache status

Thanks
E.Ravi

Hardware Warranty of IBM, HP,Dell

E. Ravi — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:29:40 GMT

Check your Server hardware Warranty (IBM, HP and Dell)

For IBM Server (You will need Serial Number and Type Number)

For HP Server (You will need Serial Number and Product Number)

For Dell Server (You just need the Service Tag number)

Thanks

E.Ravi

Configuring Search Server express on SBS 2008

E. Ravi — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 06:23:13 GMT

"Failed to start the database service MSSQL$OfficeServers. Repair this product by selecting it from the Add/Remove Programs menu "

SBS installs the SQL Express edition on your server. Search server 2008 uses the same during the installation. Once the installation is competed we tried to launch the "SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard " which shouted this error.

The error says it is unable to restart the service of MSSQL , and we concentrated on the permissions to SQL SERVER. No luck.

finally we found a clue - during the installation for search server 2008 we selected the mode of "Standalone installation " and concentrated more on this and searched for articles from MS KB.

yes - we found from akshays blog. - Thanks Akshay.

Changed the Registry Key for server role (HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Shared Tools/Web Server Extensions/12.0/WSS/ServerRole) is set incorrectly. It was set to SINGLESERVER.

we changed the role from SINGLESERVER to APPLICATION and after this we were able to configure and pass the wizard successfully.

Please note: Please take the necessary backup of the registry -before you do anything with the registry.

Thanks
E.Ravi

Size your Server …..

E. Ravi — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:00:13 GMT

Size your SERVER - Load Estimation - Recommendations from IBM

Size your SERVER - Load Estimation - Recommendations from IBM

Customer Input for Size the Webserver:
1.90million page user per month
2.Page wait 10k
3.NO SAN is required
4. NO DB clustering required
5.No Backup solution is required.

Software Details :
1. Operating system : Win 2003
2. Database : MS SQL
3. CMS application.

< >
Thank you for using ASEAN Techline.
Kindly note that the sizing for the web server requested is based on the best-effort basis since we do not standardly support sizing for third
party web server applications.
The sizing is done using the IBM Web-based Workload Estimator, using Microsoft IIS 6.0 with the following assumptions.
1. Which version of Microsoft IIS will you be using? IIS 6.0
2. What is the total number of visits per second? 100 per second (90 mil page/month = 35 page/sec)
3. How many pages will be displayed per visit? 10 pages
4. How many objects will be displayed per page? 200 objects/page
5. How much storage should be allocated for web content? 100 GBs
6. Indicate what percent of the pages are Static and/or Dynamic. Static: 60.0%; Dynamic: 40.0%
7. What percent of pages will use processor-based SSL? Encrypted: 15.0%
8. Select the desired server form factor for this sizing. Rack-optimized
9. RAID Support for this workload: RAID-5
The recommended server as below, included buffer for a 50% growth on the workload and disk capacity.

x3650 with two (2) x 2.0GHz Intel 5140, 2GB Memory, 300GB Internal Disk
Please note that if the sizing results does not fit with the web server application required, kindly consult the software vendor to provide
sizing on the hardware requirement, so that we can provide server recommendation accordingly.
Support from IBM Asia : ASEAN Techline Specialist
Notes: ASEAN Techline/Malaysia/IBM Email: techline@my.ibm.com

Server Sizing. Independent & Easy -http://www.sizinglounge.com

This website is really usefull to size the hardware when you have the Pageviews/ users/concurrent users on IIS. To size a server lot of parameters being focussed.This is some extend accurate when we do a Manual size of server (Ram,HDD,CPU).

http://www.sizinglounge.com

Calculate your Pipe requirement for hosting a soltuion : http://www.netmakers.com/bandwidth.htm

Sizing the network

Network sizing provides the most formulaic approach to Web server sizing and capacity planning. The goal of network sizing is to ensure that no bottleneck occurs between the Web server, the network cards, and network and client requests/response.

Determining the size of the network is based on the server use and characteristics. For example:

The amount/frequency of a request sent to the server (hits)
The size of that request (client request)
The size of the request (Web server response), total size of average Web page, including all objects

At a high level, basic network calculation can be expressed as follows:

bps = h x s

where:

b is the required network bandwidth per second (bits per second)
h is the number of Web server hits per second
s is the average size of each hit in bits

Bits and bytes

Networking components measure traffic differently from servers and storage components. Networking components usually measure traffic in bits/second, while servers and storage measure it in bytes/second. For example, a 100 Mbps network can transfer 12.5 MB per second. See calculations in Figure 1 . Figure 2 shows the utilization.

Figure 1. Calculating transfer rate for network

Figure 2. Network utilization

Finally, network overhead accounts for approximately 30 percent network utilization. This overhead results from all communications such as packet headers. Several vendors offer network card solutions that provide Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) acceleration; that is, network overhead can be off-loaded to a hardware card optimized for establishing and tearing down TCP connections.

Estimating number of hits

Accurate sizing requires a good estimate of the average number of hits per day. There are two approaches to estimating the number of hits per day. The first approach presumes that you have access to Web traffic information. In this case, calculate Web traffic and break the day into four-hour windows. Select the number of hits in the highest four-hour window. Multiply this figure by 6 (see Figure 3 ).

Figure 3. Web server traffic: 24 hours

Use the peak four-hour period as the reference point. Multiply it by 6 to determine hits per day. Then divide by 24 to determine hits per hour.

The second approach most likely applies to building an infrastructure from scratch, which requires a different set of steps. Identify the architecture of the Web site, including number of pages, objects per page, and the target customer. If it is an internal site on an intranet, your calculations can be based on the customer base and company or department size. If the Web site is an Internet site, talk with other people who have similar Web sites and can help you to estimate traffic characteristics.

Determining the processor size

Processor sizing is straightforward if steady state CPU utilization of less than 80 percent is assured. This is crucial to maintaining efficient response times, because the higher the CPU utilization, the longer the queue, and consequently, the longer the response time per request. If the CPU utilization is above 80 percent, queues grow exponentially rather than linearly. (See Little's Law for more information about queues).

Server-generated dynamic content, such as CGI or Java^TM servlets, makes it difficult to size the processor. The processing costs of this dynamic content will be high enough so that the Web server processing cost is not significant. This assumes that the Web server has been correctly configured.

Benchmarking data for the dynamic content generation processing that will be performed is essential. This data can be used to estimate the number of CPUs and CPU speed necessary to serve the dynamic content. This estimate requires an understanding of the proportion of hits that will cause dynamic content to be served to allow the average computational effort per hit to be calculated.

Sizing the memory

Knowing the resources to be used can help to determine the amount of memory required. For Web servers, consider the byte size of all the software resources running on the processor, beginning with the operating system. The Available Bytes counter can serve as a guide to the size of the unused portion of memory. Allow for 10 percent of memory to be free; this is also known as memory freespace.

As a rule of thumb, you can never have too much memory, because server performance degrades heavily when the system has insufficient memory. The amount of memory is generally a balance with the monetary cost. The availability of sufficient memory prevents the server from accessing the disk frequently. It also enhances the end-user experience while resulting in less work on the server.

If users request information that is stored in memory, that information can be retrieved directly from memory rather than accessing the disk.

To calculate memory requirements, add the required memory for the following consumers of RAM:

Operating system and Web server memory usage. See documentation for the applicable operating system and Web server to determine memory usage. In addition, remember that memory is directly affected by the number of concurrent connections.

Generating dynamic content. Generating dynamic content requires extra memory compared to serving static pages. If applicable, consider the amount of memory required to generate dynamic pages and the number of concurrent connections to estimate how much memory is required.

Calculating dynamic and static content ratios. When calculating the ratio of dynamic to static content served on a site, it is easy to overestimate the percentage of dynamic material, particularly because some content that appears dynamic is actually served as static content. A good rule of thumb is that dynamic content is loaded from a database, while static content loads from HTML, text, or other static types of files. Note that many Web sites today have a dynamic front-end and link to static pages. For example, visit www.microsoft.com and drill down a level or two and you will find Active Server^TM Pages (ASP) delivering the documents.

Financial sites that provide up-to-the-minute stock market quotations are good examples of a high dynamic content ratio. These sites typically provide 30-40 percent dynamic to 60-70 percent static content. Look closely at your site to assess the ratio of dynamic to static content.

Operating system and Web server caching. Two key types of caching are key to Web server performance: operating system file system caching and Web server caching. Be sure to allocate and account for memory for these processes. The system administrator usually controls these settings.

Putting it all together

Once the memory requirement is determined, this should be considered an absolute lower limit beyond which the server will fail. Add some contingency, then track the actual memory performance (especially the amount of disk access) when the site is implemented. Use the guidelines in Figure 4 .

Figure 4. Calculating lower limit of acceptable memory

Sizing the hard disk drive

Sizing the disk drives and number of drives is as important as determining memory and processor speed. It is important to never exceed 85 percent usage of disk drive space. Base the selection on 85 percent of used space and 15 percent free space. For example, with 8 GB of data: 8 (data size = GB) + 1.2 (15 percent free space based on 8 GB = 1.2) = 9.2. In this case, select one disk drive close to the 9.2 GB calculation or two smaller disks with capacity equal to 9.2.

Optimizing disk performance. Sizing and performance are not the same. Sizing is based on a conservative percentage of performance capabilities to allow for peaks and spikes in usage. Industry practice supports using no more than 80 percent of disk capacity and maintaining 20 percent of disk space for other network requirements. Choose the size of the disk based on the site size, considering the 80/20 ratio. However, Dell recommends employing a 60/40 ratio for multiple data centers-existing or planned for the future.

RAID

RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) is a disk subsystem that provides disk performance, reliability, or both. RAID is a set of two or more hard disks and a specialized disk controller that contains the RAID functionality.

The theory behind RAID is that instead of using one large drive to store all of the data, a set of smaller drives provides the flexibility to add redundancy and/or increase performance. There are many varieties of RAID, but the most commonly used RAID types are 0, 1, and 5.

RAID-0 offers better performance. RAID-0 is disk striping only, interleaving data across multiple disks for better performance. It does not provide safeguards against failure. For that reason, it is technically not "true" RAID because it does not provide fault tolerance. RAID-0 requires at least two hard disk drives (HDDs) and a RAID controller card.

RAID-1 provides high reliability. RAID-1 is disk mirroring that provides 100 percent duplication of data and provides a small performance benefit. Because both drives contain the same information, the RAID controller can read data from one drive while concurrently requesting data from the other drive. However, write speeds are slower since the controller must write all data twice. While RAID-1 offers high reliability, it doubles storage cost. The system will keep running if a hard disk fails. RAID-1 requires at least two HDDs and a RAID controller card.

RAID-5 provides both performance and fault tolerance. RAID-5 is one of the most commonly used RAID types. Data is striped across three or more drives for performance, and parity bits are used for fault tolerance. The parity bits from two drives are stored on a third drive. RAID-5 requires at least three HDDs and a RAID controller card.

Scalability, availability, and planning for growth

Business requirements increase over time. By adding processors, memory, and disks, Dell's PowerApp.web servers and general-purpose servers can scale up within each server, then scale out modularly. Businesses then have the option to scale their network by purchasing servers as needed, thereby realizing a return on investment (ROI) in a shorter time, rather than purchasing one large Web server and hoping to realize ROI.

Recent tests show that the PowerApp.web 120 Windows Powered systems were able to handle 1,110 concurrent users with 30,940 ASP request/minute with moderate load on the processors. See the article in Dell Power Solutions² for details.

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/power/en/ps3q01_graham?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz

Thanks

E.Ravi

SQL Server -Get A Traffic Report: Analyze Your Database Usage With System Tables

E. Ravi — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:56:13 GMT

This article really useful to take the reports on

1. Who's connected to your SQL Server

2. Dealing with blocked processes

3. Performance killers

4. Clues to SQL Server performance problems

5. Process Management

6. SQL Server

7. Database Performance

You can use with System tables built in with SQL server 2005 - which does these performance tasks for you. Check on sp_who, sp_who2, and Enterprise Manager are simply presenting data from the master.sysprocesses table.

Here go with the article from Microsoft which gives lot of info on this.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc160786.aspx

Thanks

E.Ravi

How to connect TATA Indicom – CDMA 1x USB modem on ubuntu 9.04

E. Ravi — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:37:18 GMT

I tried with the lot of options given in the forums.- No luck.

Finally i want to try on packages on PPP available on the Gnome. yes got one package called "Gnome-PPP".

Let us see the steps to get connected using the TATA Indicom ..

Step 1

Install the package Gnome using your " synaptic package Manager" from the administration tab.

Search for Gnome-PPP package and install it.

Step 2

Go to -> Applications->Internet->Gnome-ppp

Launch the Gnome-PPP and add configure the settings using the setup tab.

Launch and add the username and pw and phone number.

username : internet

Pw: internet

phone number #777

Step3

Check these items are enabled. Detect the type of the modem you are using "Detect" Option - this will fetch the Device and its type and speed.

Disable the "wait for Dialtone" mode.

Then check the options tab

Enable " Auto Reconnect" and Ignore terminal strings(Stupid mode)

Step4

Now you are set with the settings of the Dialer. Try to connect

yes - you are connected now.

Step 5

Due to some reasons Firefox goes "offline" - Disable the offline and try surfing with success.

Thanks

E.Ravi

FAQ for Network Load Balancing

E. Ravi — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:58:44 GMT

Good FAQ document from Microsoft for the NLB :

nlbfaq.doc

Thanks

E.Ravi

Capacity Planner 2007 for SharePoint 2007, Exchange 2007, System Center

E. Ravi — Tue, 19 May 2009 06:49:34 GMT

Are you designing a architecture for the Sharepoint , Exchange - then these tools will be useful. This is only for Architects.

Capacity Planner 2007 :http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sccp/bb969059.aspx - You can find the tools here.

First install the SCCP 2007 the install the Sharepoint capacity planner as add on.
To access the System Center Capacity Planner 2007 download, click here.

The SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool is a software extension of the System Center Capacity Planner 2007 (SCCP2007).

Then install Sharepoint Capacity tool - Download here http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=93029.

Now start using the Sharepoint Capacity Planning tool.

input the configurations of the Hardware

Input the redundancy required in the WEB and SQL server ends.

Once done with the inputs run the Simulation where you get the results

Thanks
E.Ravi

Create VHDs in 15 Minutes – Windows image(WIM) to Virtual HDD (WIM2VHD)

E. Ravi — Wed, 13 May 2009 05:37:46 GMT

Now you can create a pre-installed OS on VHD in 15 Mins max using WIM2VHD.

Requirements.

A computer running one of the following Windows operating systems:

Windows 7 Beta or RC
Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta or RC
Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V RTM enabled (x64 only)
The Windows 7 RC Automated Installation Kit (AIK) or Windows OEM Pre-Installation Kit (OPK) installed.
A Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 installation source, or another Windows image captured to a .WIM file.

Let is see the steps to create the VHD

Step 1

Download the Windows 7 RC Automated Installation Kit (AIK) and install on the base machine.

Step2

Download the WIM2VHD and save in D:\ or E: where you have enough space to create the VHDs. Minimum of 20GB.

WIM2VHD 6.1.7033.0 Beta Windows(R) Image to Virtual Hard Disk (WIM2VHD) Converter

Let us see how we are going to use these.

Usage: ( Work with administrator rights)

WIM2VHD.WSF /wim: /sku:
[/vhd: ] [/size: ] [/disktype:]
[/unattend: ] [/qfe:]
[/ref:] [/copylocal: ]
[/passthru: ] [/signdisk:]
[/mergefolder: ]

Required parameters:
/wim:
The path of the WIM file to use when creating the VHD. For example:
X:\sources\install.wim
Where X: is the drive letter of your DVD ROM drive.

Step 3
Commands i used and worked :

E:\>cscript wim2vhd.wsf /wim:d:\sources\install.wim /SKU:ULTIMATE /QFE:C:\Windows6.1-KB961367-x86.MSU /VHD:C:\TEMP\MYDESKTOP1.VHD

D: is the Windows 7 RC DVD on the DVD Rom
SKU : used to put the name of the WIM ULTIMATE OR ServerStandard .
QFE : QFEs is to apply to VHD after the WIM is applied. Windows6.1-KB961367-x86.MSU
Download this MSU file and save it in C:\

Now the script started to build the VHD ..

Yes after max 10~ 15 mins i got the VHD of the WIM.
Step 4

Mount this VHD using the Microsoft VPC and start using..

Few Examples for other SKUs

Create a Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Standard Core VHD, named foo.vhd
CSCRIPT WIM2VHD.WSF /WIM:X:\sources\install.wim /SKU:SERVERSTANDARDCORE /VHD:C:\foo.vhd

Create a Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Standard VHD with an automatically generated name
CSCRIPT WIM2VHD.WSF /WIM:X:\sources\install.wim /SKU:SERVERSTANDARD

Thanks

E.Ravi