Download the software from http://www.starwindsoftware.com and complete the installation steps. Then,

1. Start > All Programs > StarWind Software > StarWind
2. Click on Connect, provide the username and password.
3. Right click on Targets, you will get options to Add a new target.
4. Enable the correct device type.
5. Select the method to add a device (In case the device is already created, use: Mount Existing Device) else, create A Virtual Device.
6. Specify the disk location and size.
7. Specify Image File device parameters (Make sure you enable Allow Multiple Concurrent iSCSI Connections for a cluster environment).
8. Choose a target name and complete the installation.

iSCSI: Internet Small Computer Interface for linking data storage facilities

Uses port : 860 and 3260

The Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service has to be started by running services.msc, where you’ll get the services listed over. To access a virtual disk,

1. Start > Administrative tools > iSCSI Initiator
2. iSCSI Initiator properties will open, then go to Discovery > Click on Discovery Portal > Add the IP or the domain and check the port (default port is 3260)
3. Once IP/domain is added, goto Favourite Targets and refresh to get the list of targets.
4. Under the Targets option you can connect/disconnect a particular virtual disk.

Once this is done, the virtual disks will be available under Server

Manager > Storage > Disk Management.

Hardware requirements

• Front-end Web server and application server computers: a dual-processor computer with processor clock speeds of 2.5-gigahertz (GHz) or higher and a minimum of 2 gigabytes (GB) of RAM.
• Back-end database server: a dual-processor computer with processor clock speeds of 2.0 GHz or higher and a minimum of 2 GB of RAM.

Software requirements Web and Application Server

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, or Web Edition) with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
• Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5
• The Web server and application server computers must be configured as Web servers running Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) in IIS 6.0 / IIS 7.0

Back-End Database Server

The back-end database server computer must be running Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or running Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with Service Pack 3 (SP3) or later

Note : Install standalone sql server or clustered sql server 2008/2005 on a separate machine. It is required during the sharepoint installation.

Security accounts required for the Sharepoint installation

To install Office SharePoint Server 2007 in a server farm environment, at-least 2 accounts are required:

A user account that you can use to install Office SharePoint Server 2007 and run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard. This account must be:

• A domain user account.
• A member of the Administrators group on each of your front-end servers.
• A member of the SQL Server Logins, which grants login access to your SQL Server instance.
• A member of the SQL Server Database Creator server role, which grants permission to create and alter databases.
• A member of the SQL Server Security Administrators server role, which grants permission to manage server logins.

Install and configure IIS

IIS is not installed or enabled by default in Windows Server 2008. To make your server a Web server, you must install and enable IIS.

• Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Configure Your Server Wizard.
• On the Welcome to the Configure Your Server Wizard page, click Next.
• On the Preliminary Steps page, click Next.
• On the Server Role page, click Application server (IIS, ASP.NET), and then click Next.
• On the Application Server Options page, click Next.
• On the Summary of Selections page, click Next.
• Click Finish.

Install and configure 2007 Office SharePoint Server

It is recommended that you install and configure Office SharePoint Server 2007 on all of your front-end servers before you configure Office SharePoint Server 2007 services and create sites. If you want to build a minimal server farm configuration, and incrementally add front-end servers to expand the farm, you can install and configure Office SharePoint Server 2007 on a single front-end server and configure the front-end server as both a Web server and an application server. Regardless how many front-end servers you have in your server farm, you must have SQL Server running on at least one back-end database server before you install Office SharePoint Server 2007 on your front-end servers.

Run 2007 Office SharePoint Server Setup

1. Run Officeserver.exe, on one of your Web server computers.
2. On the Enter your Product Key page, enter your product key and click Continue.
3. On the Read the Microsoft Software License Terms page, review the terms, select the I accept the terms of this agreement check box, and then click Continue.
4. On the Choose the installation you want page, click Advanced.
5. click Complete, and then click Install Now.( that will act as an application server and Web server)
6. When Setup finishes, a dialog box appears telling you that you must complete the configuration of your server. Make sure that the Run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard now check box is selected.

Run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard

After Setup finishes, you can use the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard to configure Office SharePoint Server 2007. The SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard automates several configuration tasks, including: installing and configuring the configuration database, installing Office SharePoint Server 2007 services, and installing SharePoint Central Administration. Use the following instructions to run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard.

1. On the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies page, click Next.
2. Click Yes in the warning dialog box that appears notifying you that some services might need to be restarted during configuration.
3. On the Connect to a server farm page, select the following option
4. If this is the first front-end server that you are configuring in your server farm, click No, I want to create a new server farm, and then click Next.
5. On the Specify Configuration Database Settings dialog box, in Database server, type the name of the computer that is running SQL Server, select the following option
6. If this is the first server that you are configuring in your server farm, type a name for your configuration database in Database name, or use the default database name.
7. In User name , type the user name of the account used to connect to the computer running SQL Server (be sure to type the user name in the format DOMAIN\username).
8. In Password, type the user’s password, and click Next.
9. On the Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application page, select the Specify port number check box and type a port number if you want the SharePoint Central Administration Web application to use a specific port, or leave the Specify port number check box unchecked if you do not care which port number the SharePoint Central Administration Web application uses.
10. On the Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application dialog box, select NTLM authentication (the default), click Next.
11. On the Completing the SharePoint Products and Technologies Wizard page, click Next.
12. On the Configuration Successful page, click Finish.

Adding nodes to the existing server farm

It is very similar to our base installation. we should install share point on the machines which you want to join to the server farm.

1. On the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies page, click Next.
2. Click Yes in the warning dialog box that appears notifying you that some services might need to be restarted during configuration.
3. On the Connect to a server farm page, select the following option
4. If you have already configured your first server in your server farm, click Yes, I want to connect to an existing server farm, and then click Next.
5. On the Specify Configuration Database Settings dialog box, in Database server, type the name of the computer that is running SQL Server, select the following option
6. If this is the first server that you are configuring in your server farm, type a name for your configuration database in Database name, or use the default database name.
7. In User name , type the user name of the account used to connect to the computer running SQL Server (be sure to type the user name in the format DOMAIN\username).
8. In Password, type the user’s password, and click Next.
9. On the Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application page, select the Specify port number check box and type a port number if you want the SharePoint Central Administration Web application to use a specific port, or leave the Specify port number check box unchecked if you do not care which port number the SharePoint Central Administration Web application uses.
10. On the Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application dialog box, select NTLM authentication (the default), click Next.
11. On the Completing the SharePoint Products and Technologies Wizard page, click Next.
12. On the Configuration Successful page, click Finish.

Before starting would like to mention that, Eucalyptus has 3 major packages.

Cluster Controller:  provides support for the virtual network overlay

Cloud Controller: includes the front-end services and the Walrus storage system.

Node Controller: that interacts with XEN to manage individual VMs.

While doing the setup from package installation:

Cloud/Cluster/Storage/Walrus Front End Server(s)

1. Need to install Ubuntu server 10.04.

2. Necessary packages has to be installed

sudo apt-get install eucalyptus-cloud eucalyptus-cc eucalyptus-walrus eucalyptus-sc

While installting these packages we would be getting options to define the IP range and to specify the server’s hostname.

3. On the nodes also we need to install the server and update the archives.

4. Necessary packages has to be installed.

sudo apt-get install eucalyptus-nc

5. Next we need to set the primary interface of the node as a bridge. While creating virtual network interfaces, the node controller will add it to this bridge. Usually a bridge can be set by making below given modifications in the /etc/network/interfaces file.

auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
bridge_ports eth0
bridge_fd 9
bridge_hello 2
bridge_maxage 12
bridge_stp off

Once this is set need to restart the networking daemon.

6. In the /etc/eucalyptus/eucalyptus.conf VNET_BRIDGE has to be changed to $bridge. Then restart the node controller using

/etc/init.d/eucalyptus-nc restart

7. Now, the cloud controller and the all other controller like node, storage and warlus controller should be able to communicate each other via ssh keys. This has to be enabled. While installing cluster using 10.04 UEC cd, ssh-key authentication is done automatically.

To enable ssh keys, on the target controller (node, storage or warlus)

-> temporarily set a password for the eucalyptus user

sudo passwd eucalyptus

-> Then from the cloud controller

sudo -u eucalyptus ssh-copy-id -i ~eucalyptus/.ssh/id_rsa.pub eucalyptus@<IP_OF_NODE>

-> Then we can remove the temporary password.

sudo passwd -d eucalyptus

8. Next step is to define controller’s IP Addresses in the eucalyptus configuration file and then register

In /etc/eucalyptus/eucalyptus.conf file on the cluster controller

Define the shell variable CC_NAME in /etc/eucalyptus/eucalyptus-cc.conf

Define the shell variable CC_IP_ADDR in /etc/eucalyptus/eucalyptus-ipaddr.conf, as a space separated list of one or more IP addresses.

Define the shell variable WALRUS_IP_ADDR in /etc/eucalyptus/eucalyptus-ipaddr.conf, as a single IP address.

Define the shell variable SC_IP_ADDR in /etc/eucalyptus/eucalyptus-ipaddr.conf, as a space separated list of one or more IP addresses.

9. Now for each controller, we need to start the publication

sudo start eucalyptus-walrus-publication (Warlus controller)

sudo start eucalyptus-sc-publication (Storage controller)

sudo start eucalyptus-cc-publication (Cluster controller)

sudo start eucalyptus-nc-publication (Node controller)

10. Need to start the listeners on the cluster and cloud controllers

sudo start uec-component-listener

The regitration process can be verified by checking the log file /var/log/eucalyptus/registration.log

11. Now since the cloud is setup and the controllers have started communicating, the users of the cloud would need to donwload thier login credentials.

From your web browser access the URL: https://<cloud-controller-ip-address>:8443/

For the first time, username ‘admin’ and password ‘admin’ can be used(you will be prompted to change your password).

Then follow the on-screen instructions to update the admin password and email address.

Once the first time configuration process is completed, click the ‘credentials’ tab located in the top-left portion of the screen.

Click the ‘Download Credentials’ button to get your certificates

Save them to ~/.euca

Unzip the downloaded zipfile into a safe location (~/.euca) unzip -d ~/.euca mycreds.zip

12. Next need to setup EC2 API and AMI tools on your server using X.509 certificates.

For this on the cloud controller sudo apt-get install euca2ools

13. Next step is to install necessary images on the nodes. There will be few default stored images, we can either use it or else usually an image according to the needs would be created and installed.

The cloud is setup and applications are deployed to it, we would need to make changes accordingly.

The main advantage of cloud computing is that both small and medium sized businesses can instantly obtain the benefits of the enormous infrastructure without having to implement and administer it directly. This also permits accessibility to multiple data centers anywhere on the globe. It also means that as the need for resources increases, companies can add additional service as and when needed from the cloud computing vendor.

Basically, we can classify cloud into two:

1. Private cloud: The whole setup would be made at our end itself i.e., within an office or behind a single firewall. This increases the efficiency of the could and managing side becomes easy. Using a private cloud deployments can me made rapidly, can make better use of available resources, better security as the whole setup lies behind a firewall and interaction with internet would be less.

2. Public cloud: In this case, the various services and needs will be hired from third party. Here we do not have to break our head much and just need to make payments for the hired services. The best example is the use of Amazon’s EC2 (Elastic Computing), from where end users can request for a VM image, which they will setup and onto which we can deploy our application. For storage purpose Amazon’s S3 can be used. Charges are made according to compute time, storage, and network bandwidth. With public clouding, deployments will be done instantaneously.

Another open source provider of cloud setup is EUCALYPTUS – Elastic Utility Computing Architecture for Linking Your Programs To Useful Systems. These days VMWare is really gaining popularity and they are providing good options in cloud computing. With the rapid hipe in the demand for cloud computing, clouding can be defined on the basis of service level offerings.

• Software as a Service: SaaS allows us to lease an application and pay only for the time used.

• Platform as a Service: PaaS is IaaS with a custom software stack for the given application. In addition to virtualized servers and storage provides a particular operating system and application set.
• Infrastructure as a Service: IaaS is the leasing of infrastructure (computing resources and storage) as a service. This means not only virtualized computers with guaranteed processing power but reserved bandwidth for storage and Internet access.
• Storage as a Service: We can have enough space for storing our public assets.

Wackamole operates on a cluster of tightly connected machines (all on the same LAN). It works by managing a pool of IP addresses that you expect to be available at all times. These IP addresses are virtual (meaning no machine has any of those IPs as its default IP address). Wackamole will work to ensure that all of the IP addresses in the pool are assigned as virtual IPs to the machines in the cluster. No IP address is held by more than one machine and every IP address is available.

Configure Spread

Now we need to tell Spread which machines are available inside the cluster. For this example, let’s use a simple two machine cluster (www1 and www2) available under the IP addresses 192.168.1.10 and 192.168.1.11

$ sudo vi /etc/default/spread

# Change to enable spread

ENABLED=1

# Options, see spread.1 for list

OPTIONS=”-n www1″ # www1 or www2 depending on the machine

$ sudo vi /etc/spread/spread.conf

Spread_Segment 192.168.3.255:4803 {

www1 192.168.3.140

www2 192.168.3.141

}

DebugFlags = { PRINT EXIT }

EventLogFile = /var/log/spread.log

EventTimeStamp

DangerousMonitor = false

DaemonUser = spread

DaemonGroup = spread

Once we’ve changed the configuration on one machine, we need to copy it over to the other machines and restart spread:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/spread restart

Configure Wackamole

The next step is to configure Wackamole on all machines. Like we did with Spread, we start by editing /etc/default/wackamole to make sure that Wackamole is enabled and that will run when the machine starts:

$ sudo vi /etc/default/wackamole

# Change to enable wackamole

ENABLED=1

# Options

OPTIONS=”"

The next configuration file (/etc/wackamole.conf) is, luckily, very straight forward and a few changes to the default configurations are enough to get us on the right track.

Spread – Port where Spread is listening

SpreadRetryInterval – Amount of time between attempts to connect to Spread

Group – Spread group to join

Control – Location of Wackamole control socket

VirtualInterfaces – List of Virtual IP addresses that we want to make available

Arp-Cache – Collect and broadcast the IPs in our ARP table every N seconds

Notify – Define which machines to send ARP-spoofs when an IP is acquired

balance – Describes how to balance the IP addresses across the available machines

mature – Amount of time for an instance to join a group and be ready to assume virtual IPs

$ sudo vi /etc/wackamole.conf

Spread = 4803

SpreadRetryInterval = 5s

Group = www

Control = /var/run/wackamole/wackamole.it

VirtualInterfaces {

{ eth4:192.168.3.145/24 }

}

Arp-Cache = 90s

Notify {

eth4:192.168.1.1/32

arp-cache

}

balance {

AcquisitionsPerRound = all

interval = 4s

}

mature = 5s

…Suddenly, a cockroach flew from somewhere and sat on her. I wondered if this was the cockroach’s response to all the glory that was spoken about it! She started screaming out of fear. With panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started doing stationary jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group got cranky to what was happening. The lady finally managed to push the cockroach to another lady in the group.

Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama. The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed and threw it out with his fingers.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, “was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior? If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed? He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. It is not the cockroach, but the inability of the ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies.” I realized even in my case then , it is not the shouting of my father or my boss that disturbs me, but it’s my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me. It’s not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me. More than the problem, it’s my reaction to the problem that hurts me.

Lessons learnt from the story:

” We should not react in life. We should always respond. ” The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded. Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always intellectual !

Though this is just a story but the gesture of the little protagonist in the story is really thought provoking.

Once there was this little boy who went to a telephone booth which was at the cash counter of a store and dialed a number. The store-owner observed and listened to the conversation:

Boy: “Lady, Can you give me the job of cutting your lawn?
Woman: (at the other end of the phone line) “I already have someone to cut my lawn.”

Boy: “Lady, I will cut your lawn for half the price than the person who cuts your lawn now.”
Woman: I’m very satisfied with the person who is presently cutting my lawn.

Boy: (with more perseverance) “Lady, I’ll even sweep the floor and the stairs of your house for free.
Woman: No, thank you.

With a smile on his face, the little boy replaced the receiver. The store-owner, who was listening to all this, walked over to the boy.

Store Owner: “Son… I like your attitude; I like that positive spirit and would like to offer you a job.”
Boy: “No thanks,

Store Owner: But you were really pleading for one.
Boy: No Sir, I was just checking my performance at the job I already have. I am the one who is working for that lady I was talking to!!!”

Now that is really something we should all think about. Isn’t it ? Do share your thoughts on this.

There was this giant ship whose engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure out how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed! A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

“What!”, the owners exclaimed, “He hardly did anything!”

So they wrote to the old man saying, “Please send us an itemized bill.”

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer -                         $       2.00
Knowing where to tap    –                         $  9998.00

Total                            –                         $ 10,000.00

Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your life makes all the difference.

This feature lays the groundwork for providing more flexibility in naming databases and database users.

In the past, cPanel has always appended an account’s username to any database name or database username created by the account (for example, a database might be named “user_dbname”). This changes with the addition of the Database Mapping feature.

In cPanel 11.25.1, Database Mapping provides the following benefits:

1. Accounts transferred from non-cPanel servers, such as those running Plesk or Ensim, will no longer have the cPanel account name added as a prefix to the names of databases and database users. This means applications like blogs and forums should work with minimal (or no) changes after transfer.
2. Server owners can disable use of the database name prefix server-wide. If a server owner chooses this option, databases and database users will no longer be created with the cPanel account as a prefix (for example, a database could be named “dbase” instead of “user_dbase”). This option is not reversible.

Both the above features will make a server incompatible with older versions of cPanel. If either
1) a non-cPanel account is transferred to an 11.25.1 server ; or
2) the server owner opts to disable prefixing, then that server will not be able to later downgrade to 11.25.0.

Likewise, transferring an account from a cPanel system that does not use the database prefix to one that does (e.g., cPanel 11.25.1 with prefixing disabled, to cPanel 11.25.0) will result in support issues. Databases and database users whose names lack the prefix will not be manageable in the cPanel interface.

Source : cPanel forums

Following error appears in the bounce back message while trying to send out an email :

550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable or not local

Solution :

This issue can be resolved in the following way :

1) Log in to the windows server with RDP( Remote desktop)

2) Start-> Run -> cmd

3) cd %plesk_bin%

4) mchk.exe –domain –domain-name=

mchk.exe is an utility which allows you to restore mail server configuration based on the data stored in the Plesk database.

How can emails going out from a particular domain be copied to a common email address ?

Solution :

In order to set up a forwarder for outgoing emails from a particular domain to another email address, use the following steps :

First, open the file /etc/cpanel_exim_system_filter using any of your favorite editors.

Add the following content to it :

if (
$received_protocol is “local” or
$received_protocol is “esmtpa” or
$received_protocol is “smtp”
) and (
$header_from contains “@domainname.com” )
then
unseen deliver username@domainname.com
endif

Now, if you DO NOT want to forward outgoing emails from a particular email address on that domain, you can add the following code in the /etc/cpanel_exim_system_filter file :

if (
$received_protocol is “local” or
$received_protocol is “esmtpa” or
$received_protocol is “smtp”
) and (
$sender_address is not ” username_escape@domainname.com
and (
$header_from contains “@domainname.com” )
then
unseen deliver username@domainname.com
endif

Finally, you should replace the values of the variables used in the above codes.

domainname.com – the actual domain
username@domainname.com – email address to which you want to forward.
username_escape@domainname.com – email address that you don’t want to forward

Save and exit the file.

Restart Exim using any of the the following commands :

/scripts/restartsrv_exim or

/etc/init.d/exim restart or

service exim restart

While performing the System Requirement Check for the above, following error occurred :

File Uploads Enabled : Failed

However, in the server file_uploads was On.

Fix :

To fix this issue, edit the file install/include/sanity.php

Replace the following line:
$global_i18n[‘check_upload’]=>_sanity_checkTemp(ini_get(‘upload_tmp_dir’)),

with
$global_i18n[‘check_upload’]=>_sanity_checkTemp(BASE.’tmp’),

InstaCarma hopes to put up a booth that will advertise its services and spread awareness about what it does. Our booth would be a great place to learn about operating web hosting support processes with maximum efficiency, quality and cost-effectiveness. In addition, we will also be launching an array of new services and innovative solutions. We also hope visitors find our booth a great place to make conversation about web hosting support operations, and also to spend an enjoyable few minutes!

We’re also working out details of our HostingCon special promotions. Do stop by at our booth — we look forward to meeting you!

Nagios was set up for the server recently and the following warning shows up regularly :

===================================================
Server Last Stats WARNING 03-10-2010 19:25:46 0d 7h 17m 53s 3/3
WARNING on /var/cpanel/lastrun/ – Last updated 161545 seconds ago.
===================================================

Solution :

First, try running the script /scripts/runstatsonce
If that doesn’t work then go to /var/cpanel/lastrun/ & touch the files in the folder.

#cd /var/cpanel/lastrun/
#touch *

If this does not resolve the issue either then kill cpanellogd & restart it.

#pkill cpanellogd
#/usr/local/cpanel/cpanellogd

This should fix the issue!

It seems that by default, it is set to reject mails with a spam score of more than 20 at SMTP time. How to change the value of spam score for rejecting the mails at SMTP time ?

Solution :

You can do that by doing the following :

1. Go to WHM >> Main >> Service Configuration >> Exim Configuration Editor
2. Look for the section ‘ACL Options’ .
3. The first parameter under that deals with the spam score setting at SMTP time. De-select the check box corresponding to that.
4. When you de-select the check box, it will give you the other available options. Check the box corresponding to the desired value.
5. Click on ‘Save’ at the bottom to save the settings.