2010
Add an Email Account to Outlook 2011
26/12/10 19:51 Filed in: Mac
This article describes how to add email accounts to Outlook 2011, part of Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac. It is specific to the domain “ecs.soton.ac.uk”, but many of the settings are generally useful, not just for “ecs.soton.ac.uk”.
There are 2 parts,
Add an Exchange account
Select "Tools / Accounts..." from the menus, then click on the little "+" button in the bottom left corner.
Choose "Exchange..." from the little menu that appears.
Fill in your full ECS email address in the form username@ecs.soton.ac.uk, your username and your ECS password.
Leave the "Configure automatically" box ticked.
Click "Add Account".
If you are inside the ECS network, it will automatically be found and most of the configuration done for you.
In the resulting dialog, click the "Advanced" button in the bottom right corner.
The "Microsoft Exchange" and "Directory Service" server names can be left alone, but you need to enter
ou=ECSUsers,dc=ecs,dc=soton,dc=ac,dc=uk
in the "Search Base" field, and change the "Maximum number of results to return" to 10000 instead of 1000.
Set all the tickboxes as shown above.
Then click "OK".
That's it. Click "OK" to return to the main window showing your email, and open your Inbox.
You should not use the "On My Computer" folders at all. They are not accessible from anywhere else, and are probably not backed up at all. You can easily switch them off. Choose from the menu: Outlook / Preferences. Then click the "Show All" button, select the "General" page and tick the box "Hide On My Computer folders".
Add an IMAP account
This involves a few more stages than adding an Exchange account, in order to set it efficiently and to take full advantage of the advanced things our IMAP server can do for you. But it is straightforward, don't worry.
Select "Tools / Accounts..." from the menus, then click on the little "+" button in the bottom left corner.
Choose "E-mail..." from the little menu that appears.
Set the first box as shown above, putting in your own username and password where shown.
Click "Add Account".
In the resulting dialog, click on the "More Options" button just below the "Outgoing server" settings.
Set all the entries as shown above.
Click "OK".
This takes you back to the main account view screen as you have just seen.
Now click on the "Advanced" button in the bottom right corner.
Set all the settings as shown above.
Then click on the "Folders" tab at the top of the dialog.
Set all the settings as shown above. Note that some of the folder names are different from the default settings.
Then click "OK".
That's it. Click "OK" to return to the main window showing your email, and open your Inbox.
You should not use the "On My Computer" folders at all. They are not accessible from anywhere else, and are probably not backed up at all. You can easily switch them off. Choose from the menu: Outlook / Preferences. Then click the "Show All" button, select the "General" page and tick the box "Hide On My Computer folders".
There are 2 parts,
- Add an Exchange account
- Add an IMAP account
Add an Exchange accountSelect "Tools / Accounts..." from the menus, then click on the little "+" button in the bottom left corner.
Choose "Exchange..." from the little menu that appears.
Fill in your full ECS email address in the form username@ecs.soton.ac.uk, your username and your ECS password.
Leave the "Configure automatically" box ticked.
Click "Add Account".
If you are inside the ECS network, it will automatically be found and most of the configuration done for you.
In the resulting dialog, click the "Advanced" button in the bottom right corner.
The "Microsoft Exchange" and "Directory Service" server names can be left alone, but you need to enter
ou=ECSUsers,dc=ecs,dc=soton,dc=ac,dc=uk
in the "Search Base" field, and change the "Maximum number of results to return" to 10000 instead of 1000.
Set all the tickboxes as shown above.
Then click "OK".
That's it. Click "OK" to return to the main window showing your email, and open your Inbox.
You should not use the "On My Computer" folders at all. They are not accessible from anywhere else, and are probably not backed up at all. You can easily switch them off. Choose from the menu: Outlook / Preferences. Then click the "Show All" button, select the "General" page and tick the box "Hide On My Computer folders".
Add an IMAP accountThis involves a few more stages than adding an Exchange account, in order to set it efficiently and to take full advantage of the advanced things our IMAP server can do for you. But it is straightforward, don't worry.
Select "Tools / Accounts..." from the menus, then click on the little "+" button in the bottom left corner.
Choose "E-mail..." from the little menu that appears.
Set the first box as shown above, putting in your own username and password where shown.
Click "Add Account".
In the resulting dialog, click on the "More Options" button just below the "Outgoing server" settings.
Set all the entries as shown above.
Click "OK".
This takes you back to the main account view screen as you have just seen.
Now click on the "Advanced" button in the bottom right corner.
Set all the settings as shown above.
Then click on the "Folders" tab at the top of the dialog.
Set all the settings as shown above. Note that some of the folder names are different from the default settings.
Then click "OK".
That's it. Click "OK" to return to the main window showing your email, and open your Inbox.
You should not use the "On My Computer" folders at all. They are not accessible from anywhere else, and are probably not backed up at all. You can easily switch them off. Choose from the menu: Outlook / Preferences. Then click the "Show All" button, select the "General" page and tick the box "Hide On My Computer folders".
Comments
Configure Office 2011 for Mac
26/12/10 19:49 Filed in: Mac
This article briefly describes a recommended configuration for Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac.
Advice about adding e-mail accounts to Outlook 2011 is elsewhere on this site.
Uninstall Microsoft Office 2008
This is best done before you install Office 2011.
If you have already installed Office 2011 at this point, then just delete the Microsoft Office 2008 folder from /Applications.
If you have not yet installed Office 2011 at this point, then follow the instructions in this paragraph:
Run the application /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Additional Tools/Remove Office.
Then do a Spotlight search (click on the magnifying glass icon at the very top right corner of your display).
Search for "Microsoft", wait a few seconds and then click on the "Show all" item at the top of the menu of results.
Delete every folder it finds that doesn't contain your documents.
Search for "Office" and do the same as above.
Now run the application /Applications/Font Book.
From the Edit menu, select "Select Duplicated Fonts", then "Resolve Duplicates".
Then empty the Trash.
Then Reboot.
Word
Create a new blank document.
From the menus, choose Tools / Language and set it to "English (UK)".
Click the "Default..." button and select "Yes".
Click "OK".
From the menus, choose View / Toolbox / Styles.
The toolbox will appear. Click on the arrow icon in the top right corner of the toolbox, and set to fade to 40% after 15 seconds.
Tick the "Online" box.
Click "OK" and leave the toolbox open.
From the menus, choose Word / Preferences....
Set the following:
AutoCorrect: AutoFormat as You Type: NO internet and network paths with hyperlinks.
Save: YES always create backup copy.
User Information: Set sensibly for yourself.
Ribbon: Print Layout View: YES Paragraphs indents & spacing.
Click "OK" to close the preferences dialog.
From the menus, choose Word / Quit Word.
Don't save the document, if prompted.
Powerpoint
Create a new blank presentation.
From the menus, choose View / Toolbox / Reference Tools.
The toolbox will appear. Click on the arrow icon in the top right corner of the toolbox, and set to fade to 40% after 15 seconds.
Tick the "Online" box.
Click "OK" and close the toolbox.
From the menus, choose Powerpoint / Preferences....
Set the following:
AutoCorrect / AutoFormat as You Type: NO Internet and network paths with hyperlinks.
Advanced / User Information: Set sensibly for yourself.
Click "OK" to close the preferences dialog.
From the menus, choose Powerpoint / Quit Powerpoint.
Don't save the document, if prompted.
Outlook
Close the "Welcome" dialog.
From the menus, choose Tools / Junk E-mail Protection.
Click on the "None" button.
Click "OK".
From the menus, choose Outlook / Preferences....
Set the following:
Reading / Security / Automatically download pictures: YES In messages from my contacts.
Composing / Replies and Forwards: YES Indent each line of the original message.
Schedules: YES Send & Receive All.
Contacts / Phone Numbers: NO Automatically format phone numbers.
From the menus, choose Outlook / Quit Outlook.
Show All the Welcome Dialogs Again When You Next Open Office Applications
Open a Terminal window. This can be found in /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.
cd ~/Library/Preferences
plutil -convert xml1 com.microsoft.Word.plist
plutil -convert xml1 com.microsoft.Powerpoint.plist
plutil -convert xml1 com.microsoft.Outlook.plist
Edit com.microsoft.Word.plist
Search for "Hide Welcome Dialog"
Set the next line to "
Edit com.microsoft.Powerpoint.plist
Search for "Hide Welcome Dialog"
Set the next line to "0 "
Edit com.microsoft.Outlook.plist
Search for "FirstRunExperienceCompleted"
Set the next line to "
The next time you run any of the Office applications listed above, the "Welcome" dialog will be shown once. This is very useful if you have configured the applications for someone else, but still want them to see the introductory screen so they can learn about Office 2011, or easily add e-mail accounts to Outlook.
Advice about adding e-mail accounts to Outlook 2011 is elsewhere on this site.
Uninstall Microsoft Office 2008
This is best done before you install Office 2011.
If you have already installed Office 2011 at this point, then just delete the Microsoft Office 2008 folder from /Applications.
If you have not yet installed Office 2011 at this point, then follow the instructions in this paragraph:
Run the application /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Additional Tools/Remove Office.
Then do a Spotlight search (click on the magnifying glass icon at the very top right corner of your display).
Search for "Microsoft", wait a few seconds and then click on the "Show all" item at the top of the menu of results.
Delete every folder it finds that doesn't contain your documents.
Search for "Office" and do the same as above.
Now run the application /Applications/Font Book.
From the Edit menu, select "Select Duplicated Fonts", then "Resolve Duplicates".
Then empty the Trash.
Then Reboot.
Word
Create a new blank document.
From the menus, choose Tools / Language and set it to "English (UK)".
Click the "Default..." button and select "Yes".
Click "OK".
From the menus, choose View / Toolbox / Styles.
The toolbox will appear. Click on the arrow icon in the top right corner of the toolbox, and set to fade to 40% after 15 seconds.
Tick the "Online" box.
Click "OK" and leave the toolbox open.
From the menus, choose Word / Preferences....
Set the following:
AutoCorrect: AutoFormat as You Type: NO internet and network paths with hyperlinks.
Save: YES always create backup copy.
User Information: Set sensibly for yourself.
Ribbon: Print Layout View: YES Paragraphs indents & spacing.
Click "OK" to close the preferences dialog.
From the menus, choose Word / Quit Word.
Don't save the document, if prompted.
Powerpoint
Create a new blank presentation.
From the menus, choose View / Toolbox / Reference Tools.
The toolbox will appear. Click on the arrow icon in the top right corner of the toolbox, and set to fade to 40% after 15 seconds.
Tick the "Online" box.
Click "OK" and close the toolbox.
From the menus, choose Powerpoint / Preferences....
Set the following:
AutoCorrect / AutoFormat as You Type: NO Internet and network paths with hyperlinks.
Advanced / User Information: Set sensibly for yourself.
Click "OK" to close the preferences dialog.
From the menus, choose Powerpoint / Quit Powerpoint.
Don't save the document, if prompted.
Outlook
Close the "Welcome" dialog.
From the menus, choose Tools / Junk E-mail Protection.
Click on the "None" button.
Click "OK".
From the menus, choose Outlook / Preferences....
Set the following:
Reading / Security / Automatically download pictures: YES In messages from my contacts.
Composing / Replies and Forwards: YES Indent each line of the original message.
Schedules: YES Send & Receive All.
Contacts / Phone Numbers: NO Automatically format phone numbers.
From the menus, choose Outlook / Quit Outlook.
Show All the Welcome Dialogs Again When You Next Open Office Applications
Open a Terminal window. This can be found in /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.
cd ~/Library/Preferences
plutil -convert xml1 com.microsoft.Word.plist
plutil -convert xml1 com.microsoft.Powerpoint.plist
plutil -convert xml1 com.microsoft.Outlook.plist
Edit com.microsoft.Word.plist
Search for "Hide Welcome Dialog"
Set the next line to "
Edit com.microsoft.Powerpoint.plist
Search for "Hide Welcome Dialog"
Set the next line to "
Edit com.microsoft.Outlook.plist
Search for "FirstRunExperienceCompleted"
Set the next line to "
The next time you run any of the Office applications listed above, the "Welcome" dialog will be shown once. This is very useful if you have configured the applications for someone else, but still want them to see the introductory screen so they can learn about Office 2011, or easily add e-mail accounts to Outlook.
Uninstall TeX from a Mac
26/12/10 19:47 Filed in: Mac
This describes how to remove pretty much all of Mac TeX from a Mac, which you might want to do before installing a new version.
You need to do some of this in a Terminal window, and as root (use the command "cd /; sudo su -" to become root properly).
rm -rf /usr/local/texlive
rm -rf /Applications/TeX
rm -rf /Library/TeX
Then open System Preferences, right-click on the the TeX icon and choose "Remove".
That should pretty much do it.
You can leave multiple versions installed and it will cope, you use the TeX preference pane to switch between different versions.
You need to do some of this in a Terminal window, and as root (use the command "cd /; sudo su -" to become root properly).
rm -rf /usr/local/texlive
rm -rf /Applications/TeX
rm -rf /Library/TeX
Then open System Preferences, right-click on the the TeX icon and choose "Remove".
That should pretty much do it.
You can leave multiple versions installed and it will cope, you use the TeX preference pane to switch between different versions.
Uninstall Office 2008 from a Mac
26/12/10 19:46 Filed in: Mac
You may well want to do this before you install Office 2011, unless you really want both versions on your system.
I advise leaving the fonts present so you don't break any of your documents that use them.
Look in /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Additional Tools/Remove Office and run the "Remove Office" application.
It might or might not do anything useful.
Delete
/Applications/Microsoft Office 2008
/Library/Application Support/Microsoft
From your user directory, delete
Library/Application Support/Microsoft
Documents/Microsoft User Data
Then drag all the Microsoft Office icons off your Dock onto the Desktop so they disappear in a puff of smoke.
Now empty your Trash and Restart your Mac.
You are now ready for a clean installation of Microsoft Office 2011.
I advise leaving the fonts present so you don't break any of your documents that use them.
Look in /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Additional Tools/Remove Office and run the "Remove Office" application.
It might or might not do anything useful.
Delete
/Applications/Microsoft Office 2008
/Library/Application Support/Microsoft
From your user directory, delete
Library/Application Support/Microsoft
Documents/Microsoft User Data
Then drag all the Microsoft Office icons off your Dock onto the Desktop so they disappear in a puff of smoke.
Now empty your Trash and Restart your Mac.
You are now ready for a clean installation of Microsoft Office 2011.
Mac OSX: Hide a File or Folder from Finder
26/12/10 19:45 Filed in: Mac
This describes how to set a file or folder so it is hidden in the Finder in Mac OS X.
It is very simple: to hide a file or folder, for example "/private", simply do this as root
setfile -a V /private
It is very simple: to hide a file or folder, for example "/private", simply do this as root
setfile -a V /private
Switching from KMS to MAK Keys in Windows 7
26/12/10 19:43 Filed in: Windows 7
This may be of interest to those who have installed Windows 7 on a laptop and had the problem above, and hardly ever connect their laptop to your corporate network at all. When using KMS, Windows 7 must talk to the KMS server at least once every 6 months. You can remove this requirement by switching to MAK activation.
Note down the Windows 7 Enterprise MAK key.
Note down the Windows 7 Enterprise MAK key.
- Follow the instructions above to open a "Command Prompt" window, then type each of these commands, ending each one with the Return key:
slmgr /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
slmgr /ato
where the "X"s are replaced with the serial number you just noted down. - Close the window by clicking on the "X" in the top right corner of the window.
Shrinking VMDK Virtual Hard Disks
In the process of building a template or using a VM, it is likely you will at some point use a lot more space than you finish with, and you will have also scattered files across the disk. All of this results in the Thin-Provisioned disk growing as free space is written to (and then possibly deleted again).
So when you have cleared off all the junk, you need to reclaim all that free disk space, and take advantage of Thin Provisioning to not have to store loads of copies of the free space as you deploy VMs from the template.
Reclaiming unused free space from thin disks used to be easy.
You just used "sdelete -c" or "wipe" (both attached to this article) to zero all the free space on the disk, then migrated it to a different datastore in thin format, then migrated it back again.
Then VMware released 4.1 and broke it. It no longer skips blocks of zeroes when copying vmdk virtual disks to a thin vmdk. They have acknowledged it is a bug and will fix it in a future patch or release.
For the time being, there is 1 way around it, but it's not simple. This only works with Windows. To shrink a Linux VM, you need to use the converter with the VM running and the source type set to "Powered on machine". See my guide to converting a Linux system to a VM, that works perfectly well with a virtual Linux system instead of a physical Linux system. But do remember, like in the instructions below, that you must change the size of all of the filesystems. You may also need to remove+replace the network adapter, and then re-install the VMware Tools.
Then shutdown the VM.
Remote Desktop to the vSphere administration VM.
Run the VMware Standalone Converter, and login to localhost as administrator. (Or run the Converter locally and connect to the vSphere administration VM)
Convert a machine.
Source is a VMware Infrastructure virtual machine, and find the source VM.
Destination is a VMware Infrastructure virtual machine, also on localhost logged in as administrator. Give it a name you will be able to find later!
Put it on a different host and a different datastore. You can migrate it back where you want it at the very end.
Edit the disk layout, choose "Select volumes to copy", advanced view.
Change the size of the main partition slightly. It doesn't matter if you expand or shrink it, you just have to change it.
Note: If you cannot change the numbers, then cancel the wizard, run vSphere Client, Edit settings to slightly enlarge the size of the disk by a couple of GB. Then switch on the VM, login to it as an administrator, use Start / Computer / Manage / Disk Management to expand the volume to fill the empty space. Then shutdown the VM again and restart the "Convert a machine" wizard. Now you should be able to resize the disk volume.
Set the NIC connection correctly, and just check the other settings, they should all be correct.
Finish the wizard and it will start the conversion.
Migrate the output VM back to the host and datastore you want, and it should now be much smaller than it was.
Next, Edit Settings on the VM and remove and re-add the network adapter as a "VMXNET3" network adapter instead of the "Flexible" adapter you will currently have, with the correct VLAN assigned to it.
Power on the new VM, and do an interactive VMware Tools installation and "Repair" the installation.
Then configure the network settings on the new network adapter, and assign it an IP so you get an internet connection.
Now shutdown the VM again.
So when you have cleared off all the junk, you need to reclaim all that free disk space, and take advantage of Thin Provisioning to not have to store loads of copies of the free space as you deploy VMs from the template.
Reclaiming unused free space from thin disks used to be easy.
You just used "sdelete -c" or "wipe" (both attached to this article) to zero all the free space on the disk, then migrated it to a different datastore in thin format, then migrated it back again.
Then VMware released 4.1 and broke it. It no longer skips blocks of zeroes when copying vmdk virtual disks to a thin vmdk. They have acknowledged it is a bug and will fix it in a future patch or release.
For the time being, there is 1 way around it, but it's not simple. This only works with Windows. To shrink a Linux VM, you need to use the converter with the VM running and the source type set to "Powered on machine". See my guide to converting a Linux system to a VM, that works perfectly well with a virtual Linux system instead of a physical Linux system. But do remember, like in the instructions below, that you must change the size of all of the filesystems. You may also need to remove+replace the network adapter, and then re-install the VMware Tools.
Then shutdown the VM.
Remote Desktop to the vSphere administration VM.
Run the VMware Standalone Converter, and login to localhost as administrator. (Or run the Converter locally and connect to the vSphere administration VM)
Convert a machine.
Source is a VMware Infrastructure virtual machine, and find the source VM.
Destination is a VMware Infrastructure virtual machine, also on localhost logged in as administrator. Give it a name you will be able to find later!
Put it on a different host and a different datastore. You can migrate it back where you want it at the very end.
Edit the disk layout, choose "Select volumes to copy", advanced view.
Change the size of the main partition slightly. It doesn't matter if you expand or shrink it, you just have to change it.
Note: If you cannot change the numbers, then cancel the wizard, run vSphere Client, Edit settings to slightly enlarge the size of the disk by a couple of GB. Then switch on the VM, login to it as an administrator, use Start / Computer / Manage / Disk Management to expand the volume to fill the empty space. Then shutdown the VM again and restart the "Convert a machine" wizard. Now you should be able to resize the disk volume.
Set the NIC connection correctly, and just check the other settings, they should all be correct.
Finish the wizard and it will start the conversion.
Migrate the output VM back to the host and datastore you want, and it should now be much smaller than it was.
Next, Edit Settings on the VM and remove and re-add the network adapter as a "VMXNET3" network adapter instead of the "Flexible" adapter you will currently have, with the correct VLAN assigned to it.
Power on the new VM, and do an interactive VMware Tools installation and "Repair" the installation.
Then configure the network settings on the new network adapter, and assign it an IP so you get an internet connection.
Now shutdown the VM again.
VMware Delete Consolidate Helper Snapshot
Sometimes a VM, particularly a VDR VMware Data Recovery VM can gain a huge snapshot with a name like "consolidate helper". You cannot simply delete this snapshot, VMware will not let you.
Shutdown the guest operating system on the VM, to shut it down.
Once it has completely stopped, add a new snapshot.
Then open the Snapshot Manager (from the right-button menu in the VM index).
Then "Delete All" snapshots.
Don't worry if that times out and produces an error, this can happen but it is just the GUI timing out, it will still delete all the snapshots.
Power on the VM.
Shutdown the guest operating system on the VM, to shut it down.
Once it has completely stopped, add a new snapshot.
Then open the Snapshot Manager (from the right-button menu in the VM index).
Then "Delete All" snapshots.
Don't worry if that times out and produces an error, this can happen but it is just the GUI timing out, it will still delete all the snapshots.
Power on the VM.
VMware Data Recovery (VDR) Setup
This is a description of the setup and use of VMware Data Recovery (known as VDR).
You can only have 1 VDR VM per CPU host.
Each VDR VM can backup 100 VMs at most.
Each VDR VM can have 2 Destinations at most.
In strict terms, a "destination" is a "deduplication store".
Each destination can be 1 Tbyte at most.
Each destination should be a virtual hard disk stored inside the VM.
Do not use "thin" provisioning for destination vmdk disks.
Do not use independent disks for destination vmdk disks.
Set the SCSI id of each destionation vmdk to be (1,0) or (2,0) or (3,0) and so on. The second digit must always be 0.
Before you start you must install the "VMwareDataRecoveryPlugin.msi" program. Download the msi file from datastore "ugstore1-vol1"/ISOs onto your PC, quit the vSphere Client and double-click on the file to install it. Restart the vSphere Client and on the bottom row of "Home" you will now have the VMware Data Recovery solution.
You can then connect to any one of the VDR VMs.
There are currently 2 VDR VMs:
The actual backup and restore operations are pretty intuitive, the on-line help will answer most of the obvious questions.
The backup time window is shifted from the default to not backup during 9am-7pm Mon-Fri, and 11am-9pm Sat-Sun.
The Reports and Configuration tabs will show you what is going on, any warnings and errors, and how much space is available in the destinations deduplication stores.
The VDR system checks the integrity of the destinations daily automatically.
When looking at the list of destinations in the Configuration tab, the line for each destination will list a low figure for free space, but a very different figure for the "Deduplicated Size" at the bottom of the pane.
The VDR system automatically consolidates identical and unused blocks daily automatically.
Creating a New VDR VM
You need a Virtual Appliance (ovf file) from the download of "VMwareDataRecovery-....-i386.iso" which is on ecsvm-admin in Administrator's Downloads directory. Mount this iso as a new drive letter using MagicISO (installed on ecsvm-admin) or Daemon-Tools.
Using vSphere Client, File / Deploy OVF Template... and point it to the file \VMwareDataRecovery-ovf-i386\VMwareDataRecovery_OVF10.ovf.
Set the VM's name to something useful like "VMware Data Recovery UG1", and put the location somewhere sensible.
Set the host to a CPU server that doesn't already have a VMware Data Recovery VM on it, there must only be 1 VM per server.
Set the datastore to the place you want all the backups to go.
Use Thick Provisioned format.
Set the Destination Network appropriately for the IP you have.
Set the Timezone to Europe/London.
Finish.
Edit the settings to add a new Hard Disk, which will become the destination/deduplication store.
Make it thick provisioned, SCaSI id (1:0) or (2:0) and so on (2nd digit must be 0).
In Options / VMware Tools, tick "Synchronize guest time with host".
You can install the VDR VM from the OVF file on the vSphere iso image which you can download from your account on www.vmware.com.
Power on the VDR VM. Remember to place it on the correct host (only 1 VDR VM per host).
Open a console window on it.
Once it has booted, set the network configuration to use a static IP.
The username is "root" and the default password is vmw@re.
As soon as you have configured the networking, login using the console window and change the root password to something secret.
Now use the vSphere Client Home / Solutions and Applications / VMware Data Recovery to set it up.
It will walk you through a wizard.
Format the Physical Disk which is the VMDK you created earlier. It will mount it automatically.
Create a new backup job.
If you are trying to select to backup another VDR VM, open the tree on that VM and only backup the 5GB VMDK and not the whole VM!
Set the times so it is *not* backed up 9am-8pm Mon-Fri and 11am-10pm Sat-Sun.
Set the number of backups to keep to something sensible, which may be less than the supplied defaults. We use 6,4,3,0,0.
Manually run a first backup by right-clicking on the job name and using the popup menu.
You can only have 1 VDR VM per CPU host.
Each VDR VM can backup 100 VMs at most.
Each VDR VM can have 2 Destinations at most.
In strict terms, a "destination" is a "deduplication store".
Each destination can be 1 Tbyte at most.
Each destination should be a virtual hard disk stored inside the VM.
Do not use "thin" provisioning for destination vmdk disks.
Do not use independent disks for destination vmdk disks.
Set the SCSI id of each destionation vmdk to be (1,0) or (2,0) or (3,0) and so on. The second digit must always be 0.
Before you start you must install the "VMwareDataRecoveryPlugin.msi" program. Download the msi file from datastore "ugstore1-vol1"/ISOs onto your PC, quit the vSphere Client and double-click on the file to install it. Restart the vSphere Client and on the bottom row of "Home" you will now have the VMware Data Recovery solution.
You can then connect to any one of the VDR VMs.
There are currently 2 VDR VMs:
- Teaching / Backups / VMware Data Recovery UG1 - DNS name ecsvm-vdr-ug1 - backs up teaching VMs
- Systems / VMware Data Recovery Infra1 - DNS name ecsvm-vdr-inf1 - backs up infrastructure VMs
The actual backup and restore operations are pretty intuitive, the on-line help will answer most of the obvious questions.
The backup time window is shifted from the default to not backup during 9am-7pm Mon-Fri, and 11am-9pm Sat-Sun.
The Reports and Configuration tabs will show you what is going on, any warnings and errors, and how much space is available in the destinations deduplication stores.
The VDR system checks the integrity of the destinations daily automatically.
When looking at the list of destinations in the Configuration tab, the line for each destination will list a low figure for free space, but a very different figure for the "Deduplicated Size" at the bottom of the pane.
The VDR system automatically consolidates identical and unused blocks daily automatically.
Creating a New VDR VM
You need a Virtual Appliance (ovf file) from the download of "VMwareDataRecovery-....-i386.iso" which is on ecsvm-admin in Administrator's Downloads directory. Mount this iso as a new drive letter using MagicISO (installed on ecsvm-admin) or Daemon-Tools.
Using vSphere Client, File / Deploy OVF Template... and point it to the file \VMwareDataRecovery-ovf-i386\VMwareDataRecovery_OVF10.ovf.
Set the VM's name to something useful like "VMware Data Recovery UG1", and put the location somewhere sensible.
Set the host to a CPU server that doesn't already have a VMware Data Recovery VM on it, there must only be 1 VM per server.
Set the datastore to the place you want all the backups to go.
Use Thick Provisioned format.
Set the Destination Network appropriately for the IP you have.
Set the Timezone to Europe/London.
Finish.
Edit the settings to add a new Hard Disk, which will become the destination/deduplication store.
Make it thick provisioned, SCaSI id (1:0) or (2:0) and so on (2nd digit must be 0).
In Options / VMware Tools, tick "Synchronize guest time with host".
You can install the VDR VM from the OVF file on the vSphere iso image which you can download from your account on www.vmware.com.
Power on the VDR VM. Remember to place it on the correct host (only 1 VDR VM per host).
Open a console window on it.
Once it has booted, set the network configuration to use a static IP.
The username is "root" and the default password is vmw@re.
As soon as you have configured the networking, login using the console window and change the root password to something secret.
Now use the vSphere Client Home / Solutions and Applications / VMware Data Recovery to set it up.
It will walk you through a wizard.
Format the Physical Disk which is the VMDK you created earlier. It will mount it automatically.
Create a new backup job.
If you are trying to select to backup another VDR VM, open the tree on that VM and only backup the 5GB VMDK and not the whole VM!
Set the times so it is *not* backed up 9am-8pm Mon-Fri and 11am-10pm Sat-Sun.
Set the number of backups to keep to something sensible, which may be less than the supplied defaults. We use 6,4,3,0,0.
Manually run a first backup by right-clicking on the job name and using the popup menu.
Unable to query the live linux source machine
You may get this error message from an installation of the VMware Converter Standalone Client or Server.
All you need to do is put a copy of the PuTTY plink.exe and pscp.exe programs into
C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware vCenter Standalone Converter
All you need to do is put a copy of the PuTTY plink.exe and pscp.exe programs into
C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware vCenter Standalone Converter
Disable SELinux on RedHat RHEL 6
26/12/10 19:33 Filed in: Linux
Disable IPv6 on RedHat Enterprise RHEL 6
26/12/10 19:32 Filed in: Linux
Add a new file /etc/modprobe.d/ECS.conf containing
alias net-pf-10 off
alias ipv6 off
Edit /etc/sysconfig/network and add a line saying
NETWORKING_IPV6=off
Then do
chkconfig ip6tables off
then reboot.
alias net-pf-10 off
alias ipv6 off
Edit /etc/sysconfig/network and add a line saying
NETWORKING_IPV6=off
Then do
chkconfig ip6tables off
then reboot.
Apple iTunes DRM-free Songs
24/05/10 09:26 Filed in: Mac
They may be free of DRM, but they certainly are not free of information identifying exactly who bought them from iTunes and when! If you buy DRM-free, or “iTunes Plus” songs from the iTunes Store, and then share them with anyone else, you can still easily see exactly who originally bought them and therefore whether any copyright theft has taken place.
Fortunately, with a bit of hackery, it’s very simple to remove all the identifying information from iTunes Plus tracks.
Firstly, you need to download and install the developer tools “XCode” from Apple. The bits you really need are the command-line compilers. Unfortunately you have to register as a developer with Apple, but that only takes a few moments. Or you might have a friend who is already registered. Beware, XCode is a pretty big download!
Once all that is installed, log out of your Mac and log back in again to be safe, then open up a Terminal (in Applications / Utilities), and run this command:
sudo cpan install Audio::M4P::QuickTime
You will have to type in your password, after which it will start doing all sorts of magic stuff to install this little bit. Just say “y” to all the prompts. Don’t worry, it won’t do any harm
Then download anontree.zip, put it on your Desktop and double-click on it to unpack it (if your web browser hasn’t already done so!). You will get a file “anontree.pl”, put that on your Desktop.
Now go to the Terminal window (open a new one if you closed it), and run these two commands:
cd ~/Music/iTunes
perl ~/Desktop/anontree.pl 'iTunes Music'
and don’t forget those single quotes (apostrophes) in that second command, or it won’t work.
It should now sit and process all the *.m4a files in your iTunes Music Library, removing all identifying marks from them. They will still work just fine in iTunes, nothing will break. This can take a few minutes to run, but it will keep showing you what it’s doing.
That’s it! That wasn’t so hard now, was it. And now you can even tell your friends you’re a Perl hacker.
Fortunately, with a bit of hackery, it’s very simple to remove all the identifying information from iTunes Plus tracks.
Firstly, you need to download and install the developer tools “XCode” from Apple. The bits you really need are the command-line compilers. Unfortunately you have to register as a developer with Apple, but that only takes a few moments. Or you might have a friend who is already registered. Beware, XCode is a pretty big download!
Once all that is installed, log out of your Mac and log back in again to be safe, then open up a Terminal (in Applications / Utilities), and run this command:
sudo cpan install Audio::M4P::QuickTime
You will have to type in your password, after which it will start doing all sorts of magic stuff to install this little bit. Just say “y” to all the prompts. Don’t worry, it won’t do any harm
Then download anontree.zip, put it on your Desktop and double-click on it to unpack it (if your web browser hasn’t already done so!). You will get a file “anontree.pl”, put that on your Desktop.
Now go to the Terminal window (open a new one if you closed it), and run these two commands:
cd ~/Music/iTunes
perl ~/Desktop/anontree.pl 'iTunes Music'
and don’t forget those single quotes (apostrophes) in that second command, or it won’t work.
It should now sit and process all the *.m4a files in your iTunes Music Library, removing all identifying marks from them. They will still work just fine in iTunes, nothing will break. This can take a few minutes to run, but it will keep showing you what it’s doing.
That’s it! That wasn’t so hard now, was it. And now you can even tell your friends you’re a Perl hacker.
Dropbox
13/05/10 22:21 Filed in: Linux
Update 24 May 2010: I have added some more features to Dropbox and I have released my new “Dropoff” over at www.dropoff.me. Get all the latest and greatest there in future!
I have found a great solution to the common problem of sending and receiving files from other sites and research partners, and generally sending large files around the web where email won’t do the trick.
It’s called “Dropbox” and was originally written by the University of Delaware.
I am launching it as a service at work called “Dropoff” in order that people don’t think you are talking about the service provided by www.dropbox.com which is a totally different thing.
The idea is that you don’t even need to login to send a file to a user within your site/company/University/institution, so external people can use it to send files to people in your institution. It can handle arbitrarily large files, there are no fixed limits. If you log in to the Dropbox website, you can send files to people outside your institution. People who cannot log in can only send files to people within your institution. This stops the rest of the world using it to send people to other people who aren’t members of your institution.
I have added various extra features to it:
I have customised it quite a bit just for our site, so if you want a copy of my patched version, along with a guide as to what changes I have made, then please contact me.
I have found a great solution to the common problem of sending and receiving files from other sites and research partners, and generally sending large files around the web where email won’t do the trick.
It’s called “Dropbox” and was originally written by the University of Delaware.
I am launching it as a service at work called “Dropoff” in order that people don’t think you are talking about the service provided by www.dropbox.com which is a totally different thing.
The idea is that you don’t even need to login to send a file to a user within your site/company/University/institution, so external people can use it to send files to people in your institution. It can handle arbitrarily large files, there are no fixed limits. If you log in to the Dropbox website, you can send files to people outside your institution. People who cannot log in can only send files to people within your institution. This stops the rest of the world using it to send people to other people who aren’t members of your institution.
I have added various extra features to it:
- Active Directory AD authentication (to multiple AD sites at once if needed)
- Virus scanning of uploaded files, using ClamAV
I have customised it quite a bit just for our site, so if you want a copy of my patched version, along with a guide as to what changes I have made, then please contact me.
Cannot copy files from Mac to Samba
There is a new bug in MacOS 10.6.3 which presents problems when you copy files and directories from a Mac to any Samba server or NAS box using Samba or providing Windows (or CIFS or SMB) shares.
When you try to copy files and directories onto the Samba/NAS, you will get an error message about you not having permission.
The following workaround appears to work:
1. Copy all the files you want to put on the filestore into a new directory on your Mac, this just makes things easier. For this example we will call this directory "/Users/Jules/Documents/MyNotes".
2. Open the Applications folder in Finder, go into "Utilities" and run "Terminal".
3. Type the following commands exactly (even better: copy and paste them from here!), replacing the directory name with the location you used in step 1. Do not miss the dot at the end of 3 of the lines.
cd /Users/Jules/Documents/MyNotes
xattr -d -r com.apple.quarantine .
xattr -d -r com.apple.FinderInfo .
xattr -d -r com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms .
exit
You should now be able to copy your directory MyNotes over to the Samba server.
When you try to copy files and directories onto the Samba/NAS, you will get an error message about you not having permission.
The following workaround appears to work:
1. Copy all the files you want to put on the filestore into a new directory on your Mac, this just makes things easier. For this example we will call this directory "/Users/Jules/Documents/MyNotes".
2. Open the Applications folder in Finder, go into "Utilities" and run "Terminal".
3. Type the following commands exactly (even better: copy and paste them from here!), replacing the directory name with the location you used in step 1. Do not miss the dot at the end of 3 of the lines.
cd /Users/Jules/Documents/MyNotes
xattr -d -r com.apple.quarantine .
xattr -d -r com.apple.FinderInfo .
xattr -d -r com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms .
exit
You should now be able to copy your directory MyNotes over to the Samba server.
Resending Unix Mbox Files
Unfortunately someone screwed up the installation of one of our servers so that mail to local addresses was being delivered into /var/spool/mail/ instead of being sent onwards to our SMTP server.
Getting the sendmail.mc correct was the easy bit, there is a simple “null client” sendmail.mc file I wrote years ago which does that nicely.
The hard bit was taking all the Unix mbox files in /var/spool/mail and /var/mail and re-delivering them all to their intended recipients. The bit most people get wrong is the separator between messages. The separator is not a line starting with “From “. The separator is a blank line followed by a line starting with “From “. So I wrote my own script to do it which you are very welcome to download and use.
Getting the sendmail.mc correct was the easy bit, there is a simple
The hard bit was taking all the Unix mbox files in /var/spool/mail and /var/mail and re-delivering them all to their intended recipients. The bit most people get wrong is the separator between messages. The separator is not a line starting with “From “. The separator is a blank line followed by a line starting with “From “. So I wrote my own script to do it which you are very welcome to download and use.
Windows 7 God Modes
29/01/10 11:08 Filed in: Windows 7
In Windows 7, there are a whole bunch of shortcuts you can build to really useful places such as a Monster Control Panel, and other useful links that will save you a lot of searching.
To get access to these “God Modes”, all you need to do is open a “cmd” Command Prompt window, and paste in this bunch of commands:
cd \
mkdir GodModes
cd GodModes
mkdir "Monster Control Panel.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}"
mkdir "Enter a default location.{00C6D95F-329C-409a-81D7-C46C66EA7F33}"
mkdir "Use biometric devices with Windows.{0142e4d0-fb7a-11dc-ba4a-000ffe7ab428}"
mkdir "Select a power plan.{025A5937-A6BE-4686-A844-36FE4BEC8B6D}"
mkdir "Select which icons and notifications appear on taskbar.{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}"
mkdir "Store credentials for automatic logon.{1206F5F1-0569-412C-8FEC-3204630DFB70}"
mkdir "Install a program from the network.{15eae92e-f17a-4431-9f28-805e482dafd4}"
mkdir "Choose the programs that Windows uses by default.{17cd9488-1228-4b2f-88ce-4298e93e0966}"
mkdir "Assembly Cache Viewer.{1D2680C9-0E2A-469d-B787-065558BC7D43}"
mkdir "Manage wireless networks.{1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD87}"
mkdir "Network.{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}"
mkdir "Computer.{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}"
mkdir "Devices and Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}"
mkdir "RemoteApp and Desktop Connections.{241D7C96-F8BF-4F85-B01F-E2B043341A4B}"
mkdir "Windows Firewall.{4026492F-2F69-46B8-B9BF-5654FC07E423}"
mkdir "Windows Explorer.{62D8ED13-C9D0-4CE8-A914-47DD628FB1B0}"
mkdir "System.{78F3955E-3B90-4184-BD14-5397C15F1EFC}”
Then just open “Computer” from the Start Menu, double click on C: then on “GodModes” and you will see the list. Double click on any one of them to see what it can do for you!
To get access to these “God Modes”, all you need to do is open a “cmd” Command Prompt window, and paste in this bunch of commands:
cd \
mkdir GodModes
cd GodModes
mkdir "Monster Control Panel.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}"
mkdir "Enter a default location.{00C6D95F-329C-409a-81D7-C46C66EA7F33}"
mkdir "Use biometric devices with Windows.{0142e4d0-fb7a-11dc-ba4a-000ffe7ab428}"
mkdir "Select a power plan.{025A5937-A6BE-4686-A844-36FE4BEC8B6D}"
mkdir "Select which icons and notifications appear on taskbar.{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}"
mkdir "Store credentials for automatic logon.{1206F5F1-0569-412C-8FEC-3204630DFB70}"
mkdir "Install a program from the network.{15eae92e-f17a-4431-9f28-805e482dafd4}"
mkdir "Choose the programs that Windows uses by default.{17cd9488-1228-4b2f-88ce-4298e93e0966}"
mkdir "Assembly Cache Viewer.{1D2680C9-0E2A-469d-B787-065558BC7D43}"
mkdir "Manage wireless networks.{1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD87}"
mkdir "Network.{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}"
mkdir "Computer.{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}"
mkdir "Devices and Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}"
mkdir "RemoteApp and Desktop Connections.{241D7C96-F8BF-4F85-B01F-E2B043341A4B}"
mkdir "Windows Firewall.{4026492F-2F69-46B8-B9BF-5654FC07E423}"
mkdir "Windows Explorer.{62D8ED13-C9D0-4CE8-A914-47DD628FB1B0}"
mkdir "System.{78F3955E-3B90-4184-BD14-5397C15F1EFC}”
Then just open “Computer” from the Start Menu, double click on C: then on “GodModes” and you will see the list. Double click on any one of them to see what it can do for you!