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• Bypass BIOS password set by faulty Toshiba firmware on Satellite A55 laptop?

  - by Brian

  How can the CMOS be cleared on the Toshiba Satellite A55-S1065? I have this 7 year old laptop that has been crippled by a glitch in its BIOS: 'A "Password =" prompt may be displayed when the computer is turned on, even though no power-on password has been set. If this happens, there is no password that will satisfy the password request. The computer will be unusable until this problem is resolved. [..] The occurrence of this problem on any particular computer is unpredictable -- it may never happen, but it could happen any time that the computer is turned on. [..] Toshiba will cover the cost of this repair under warranty until Dec 31, 2010.' -Toshiba As they stated, this machine is "unusable." The escape key does not bypass the prompt (nor does any other key), thus no operating system can be booted and no firmware updates can be installed. After doing some research, I found solutions that have been suggested for various Toshiba Satellite models afflicted by this glitch: "Make arrangements with a Toshiba Authorized Service Provider to have this problem resolved." -Toshiba (same link). Even prior to the expiration of Toshiba's support ("repair under warranty until Dec 31, 2010"), there have been reports that this solution is prohibitively expensive, labor charges accruing even when the laptop is still under warranty, and other reports that are generally discouraging: "They were unable to fix it and the guy who worked on it said he couldn’t find the jumpers on the motherboard to clear the BIOS. I paid $39 for my troubles and still have the password problem." - Steve. Since the costs of the repairs can now exceed the value of the hardware, it would seem this is a DIY solution, or a non-solution (i.e. the hardware is trash). Build a Toshiba parallel loopback by stripping and soldering the wires on a DB25 plug to connect connect these pins: 1-5-10, 2-11, 3-17, 4-12, 6-16, 7-13, 8-14, 9-15, 18-25. -CGSecurity. According to a list of supported models on pwcrack, this will likely not work for my Satellite A55-1065 (as well as many other models of similar age). -pwcrack Disconnect the laptop battery for an extended period of time. Doesn't work, laptop sat in a closet for several years without the battery connected and I forgot about the whole thing for awhile. The poor thing. Clear CMOS by setting the proper jumper setting or by removing the CMOS (RTC) battery, or by short circuiting a (hidden?) jumper that looks like a pair of solder marks -various sources for various Satellite models: Satellite A105: "you will see C88 clearly labeled right next the jack that the wireless card plugs into. There are two little solder squares (approx 1/16") at this location" -kerneltrap Satellite 1800: "Underneath the RAM there is black sticker, peel off the black sticker and you will reveal two little solder marks which are actually 'jumpers'. Very carefully hold a flat-head screwdriver touching both points and power on the unit briefly, effectively 'shorting' this circuit." -shadowfax2020 Satellite L300: "Short the B500 solder pads on the system board." -Lester Escobar Satellite A215: "Short the B500 solder pads on the system board." -fixya Clearing the CMOS could resolve the issue, but I cannot locate a jumper or a battery on this board. Nothing that looks remotely like a battery can be removed (everything is soldered). I have looked closely at the area around the memory and do not see any obvious solder pads that could be a secret jumper. Here are pictures (click for full resolution) : Where is the jumper (or solder pads) to short circuit and wipe the CMOS on this board? Possibly related questions: Remove Toshiba laptop BIOS password? Password Problem Toshiba Satellite..

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• Determining cause of high NFS/IO utilization without iotop

  - by Matt

  I have a server that is doing an NFSv4 export for user's home directories. There are roughly 25 users (mostly developers/analysts) and about 40 servers mounting the home directory export. Performance is miserable, with users often seeing multi-second lags for simple commands (like ls, or writing a small text file). Sometimes the home directory mount completely hangs for minutes, with users getting "permission denied" errors. The hardware is a Dell R510 with dual E5620 CPUs and 8 GB RAM. There are eight 15k 2.5” 600 GB drives (Seagate ST3600057SS) configured in hardware RAID-6 with a single hot spare. RAID controller is a Dell PERC H700 w/512MB cache (Linux sees this as a LSI MegaSAS 9260). OS is CentOS 5.6, home directory partition is ext3, with options “rw,data=journal,usrquota”. I have the HW RAID configured to present two virtual disks to the OS: /dev/sda for the OS (boot, root and swap partitions), and /dev/sdb for the home directories. What I find curious, and suspicious, is that the sda device often has very high utilization, even though it only contains the OS. I would expect this virtual drive to be idle almost all the time. The system is not swapping, according to "free" and "vmstat". Why would there be major load on this device? Here is a 30-second snapshot from iostat: Time: 09:37:28 AM Device: rrqm/s wrqm/s r/s w/s rkB/s wkB/s avgrq-sz avgqu-sz await svctm %util sda 0.00 44.09 0.03 107.76 0.13 607.40 11.27 0.89 8.27 7.27 78.35 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 sda2 0.00 44.09 0.03 107.76 0.13 607.40 11.27 0.89 8.27 7.27 78.35 sdb 0.00 2616.53 0.67 157.88 2.80 11098.83 140.04 8.57 54.08 4.21 66.68 sdb1 0.00 2616.53 0.67 157.88 2.80 11098.83 140.04 8.57 54.08 4.21 66.68 dm-0 0.00 0.00 0.03 151.82 0.13 607.26 8.00 1.25 8.23 5.16 78.35 dm-1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 dm-2 0.00 0.00 0.67 2774.84 2.80 11099.37 8.00 474.30 170.89 0.24 66.84 dm-3 0.00 0.00 0.67 2774.84 2.80 11099.37 8.00 474.30 170.89 0.24 66.84 Looks like iotop is the ideal tool to use to sniff out these kinds of issues. But I'm on CentOS 5.6, which doesn't have a new enough kernel to support that program. I looked at Determining which process is causing heavy disk I/O?, and besides iotop, one of the suggestions said to do a "echo 1 /proc/sys/vm/block_dump". I did that (after directing kernel messages to tempfs). In about 13 minutes I had about 700k reads or writes, roughly half from kjournald and the other half from nfsd: # egrep " kernel: .*(READ|WRITE)" messages | wc -l 768439 # egrep " kernel: kjournald.*(READ|WRITE)" messages | wc -l 403615 # egrep " kernel: nfsd.*(READ|WRITE)" messages | wc -l 314028 For what it's worth, for the last hour, utilization has constantly been over 90% for the home directory drive. My 30-second iostat keeps showing output like this: Time: 09:36:30 PM Device: rrqm/s wrqm/s r/s w/s rkB/s wkB/s avgrq-sz avgqu-sz await svctm %util sda 0.00 6.46 0.20 11.33 0.80 71.71 12.58 0.24 20.53 14.37 16.56 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 sda2 0.00 6.46 0.20 11.33 0.80 71.71 12.58 0.24 20.53 14.37 16.56 sdb 137.29 7.00 549.92 3.80 22817.19 43.19 82.57 3.02 5.45 1.74 96.32 sdb1 137.29 7.00 549.92 3.80 22817.19 43.19 82.57 3.02 5.45 1.74 96.32 dm-0 0.00 0.00 0.20 17.76 0.80 71.04 8.00 0.38 21.21 9.22 16.57 dm-1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 dm-2 0.00 0.00 687.47 10.80 22817.19 43.19 65.48 4.62 6.61 1.43 99.81 dm-3 0.00 0.00 687.47 10.80 22817.19 43.19 65.48 4.62 6.61 1.43 99.82

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• Unmountable boot volume blue screen, what should I do?

  - by Josh

  I was trying to install an update from NVIDIA for my GTX 560, but while it was installing, my computer shut off. After a few minutes, I turned it back on. It got to the Windows boot screen and then had a blue screen error and if left on it would just keep doing that. A few details about my PC: I haven't added any new hardware or software, I'm running Windows XP Professional 32 bit and Windows XP Professional 64 bit on the same hard drive for about 2 years now. I have 2 other hard drives also, but I don't have one large enough to hold everything from my main hard drive, so formatting isn't an option. Now, as for what I've done so far: I've scanned the RAM with "memtest - 86 v3.4" and it said that it was good. I scanned the hard drive in question with chkdsk /r and it gets to 50% and tells me something along the lines of "the drive has one or more unrepairable problems". I also tried to use chkdsk on the drive I installed the new copy of Windows XP on and it got to 75% then jumped back down to 50% and stayed there (I had to reboot the pc). So, after that, I turned off auto reboot and got to read the blue screen error code and I looked it up only to find that nobody seems to have this problem, just problems close to it. The error code is 0x000000ed and I've seen a lot of these online but none that matched the detailed part of the code UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME 0x000000ed (0xfffffadf513c19a0, 0xffffffffc0000006, 0, 0) So, I have installed another copy of Windows XP Professional 32 bit on one of my other hard drives in hopes of accessing the data on the drive in question and when it booted it asked if I wanted chkdsk to scan the drive in question and this is what it found: file record segments 12740, 12741, 12742 and 12743 were reported unreadable. Then it says "recovering lost files" but it sits there for a few seconds and then just boots to Windows. I can't access the drive in question from Windows as far as I can tell, it just says "drive not accessible" and when I go to properties it says that the drive has 100% free space. So, after that failed I didn't give up, I looked for another way to access the drive in question. I used a Ubuntu bootable disk and was able to access the drive in question without any problems. However, I can't access the registry editor because it's a .exe file and that won't load from Ubuntu. I made a copy of the "Windows" folder and put it on one of my other drives and that's where I'm stuck at now. I'm sure my drive works fine, I know chkdsk can't fix the problem with it and I know what caused the problem in the first place for the most part, but I don't know what to do about it. I have a laptop that I can use to download and burn disks if needed and I also have the other copy of Windows XP Professional 32 bit that I can use that's installed on the computer in question (so I know it's not a hardware issue). I'm pretty sure it's a driver issue or the update was editing the registry when it shut off and left me when a broken registry. I've tried accessing C:\Windows\System32\CONFIG only to find that the Windows XP disk repair option can't even access the files on the drive in question. It seems I'll need to be able to do everything from Ubuntu unless there is something I haven't tried with the Windows XP disk. I didn't install the update on Windows XP 64 bit but yet it also has the same blue screen error (that's where the error code above came from but I haven't checked to see if they are the same). They both stopped working at the same time, so I assume it's one problem causing both to not work.

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• reiserfsck on lvm

  - by DaDaDom

  It seems like my filesystem got corrupted somehow during the last reboot of my server. I can't fsck some logical volumes anymore. The setup: root@rescue ~ # cat /mnt/rescue/etc/fstab proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 /dev/md0 /boot ext3 defaults 0 2 /dev/md1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1 /dev/systemlvm/home /home reiserfs defaults 0 0 /dev/systemlvm/usr /usr reiserfs defaults 0 0 /dev/systemlvm/var /var reiserfs defaults 0 0 /dev/systemlvm/tmp /tmp reiserfs noexec,nosuid 0 2 /dev/sda5 none swap defaults,pri=1 0 0 /dev/sdb5 none swap defaults,pri=1 0 0 [UPDATE] First question: what "part" should I check for bad blocks? The logical volume, the underlying /dev/md or the /dev/sdx below that? Is doing what I am doing the right way to go? [/UPDATE] The errormessage when checking /dev/systemlvm/usr: root@rescue ~ # reiserfsck /dev/systemlvm/usr reiserfsck 3.6.19 (2003 www.namesys.com) [...] Will read-only check consistency of the filesystem on /dev/systemlvm/usr Will put log info to 'stdout' Do you want to run this program?[N/Yes] (note need to type Yes if you do):Yes ########### reiserfsck --check started at Wed Feb 3 07:10:55 2010 ########### Replaying journal.. Reiserfs journal '/dev/systemlvm/usr' in blocks [18..8211]: 0 transactions replayed Checking internal tree.. Bad root block 0. (--rebuild-tree did not complete) Aborted Well so far, let's try --rebuild-tree: root@rescue ~ # reiserfsck --rebuild-tree /dev/systemlvm/usr reiserfsck 3.6.19 (2003 www.namesys.com) [...] Will rebuild the filesystem (/dev/systemlvm/usr) tree Will put log info to 'stdout' Do you want to run this program?[N/Yes] (note need to type Yes if you do):Yes Replaying journal.. Reiserfs journal '/dev/systemlvm/usr' in blocks [18..8211]: 0 transactions replayed ########### reiserfsck --rebuild-tree started at Wed Feb 3 07:12:27 2010 ########### Pass 0: ####### Pass 0 ####### Loading on-disk bitmap .. ok, 269716 blocks marked used Skipping 8250 blocks (super block, journal, bitmaps) 261466 blocks will be read 0%....20%....40%....60%....80%....100% left 0, 11368 /sec 52919 directory entries were hashed with "r5" hash. "r5" hash is selected Flushing..finished Read blocks (but not data blocks) 261466 Leaves among those 13086 Objectids found 53697 Pass 1 (will try to insert 13086 leaves): ####### Pass 1 ####### Looking for allocable blocks .. finished 0% left 12675, 0 /sec The problem has occurred looks like a hardware problem (perhaps memory). Send us the bug report only if the second run dies at the same place with the same block number. mark_block_used: (39508) used already Aborted Bad. But let's do it again as mentioned: [...] Flushing..finished Read blocks (but not data blocks) 261466 Leaves among those 13085 Objectids found 54305 Pass 1 (will try to insert 13085 leaves): ####### Pass 1 ####### Looking for allocable blocks .. finished 0%... left 12127, 958 /sec The problem has occurred looks like a hardware problem (perhaps memory). Send us the bug report only if the second run dies at the same place with the same block number. build_the_tree: Nothing but leaves are expected. Block 196736 - internal Aborted Same happens every time, only the actual error message changes. Sometimes I get mark_block_used: (somenumber) used already, other times the block number changes. Seems like something is REALLY broken. Are there any chances I can somehow get the partitions to work again? It's a server to which I don't have physical access directly (hosted server). Thanks in advance!

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• Troubleshooting unwanted NTP Traffic

  - by Jaxaeon

  A domain controller running Windows Server 2012 is sending NTP and NETBIOS traffic to an address that has never been configured as a time provider. The server logs give no indication that any NTP traffic is failing. The only place I see any evidence of this traffic is in pfSense system logs: (Blocked) Jun 9 08:48:50 DOMAIN 10.0.1.100:123 192.128.127.254:123 UDP (Blocked) Jun 9 08:48:53 DOMAIN 10.0.1.100:137 192.128.127.254:137 UDP As far as I can tell the NTP service is working normally otherwise: DC2.domain.com[10.0.1.101:123]: ICMP: 0ms delay NTP: -0.0131705s offset from DC1.domain.com RefID: DC1.domain.com [10.0.1.100] Stratum: 3 DC1.domain.com *** PDC ***[10.0.1.100:123]: ICMP: 0ms delay NTP: +0.0000000s offset from DC1.domain.com RefID: clock1.albyny.inoc.net [64.246.132.14] Stratum: 2 The time provider NtpClient is currently receiving valid time data from 1.pool.ntp.org,0×1 (ntp.m|0x0|0.0.0.0:123->204.2.134.163:123). The time provider NtpClient is currently receiving valid time data from 0.pool.ntp.org,0×1 (ntp.m|0x0|0.0.0.0:123->64.246.132.14:123). The time service is now synchronizing the system time with the time source 0.pool.ntp.org,0×1 (ntp.m|0x0|0.0.0.0:123->64.246.132.14:123). I've been inside and out of the NTP configuration and cannot find any reason for this traffic. Reverse DNS points the destination address to nothing.attdns.com. pinging nothing.attdns.com from the domain controller in question leads to a response from loopback (127.0.0.2) which makes my head hurt. Any ideas? EDIT1: It should probably be noted that after a dns flush, nslookup 192.128.127.254 returns nothing.attdns.com. 192.128.127.254 is not present in domain.com DNS records. The attdns.com domain is not present in cached lookups. 127.in-addr.arpa is clean of any funkyness. EDIT2: The loopback ping response from nothing.attdns.com is possibly unrelated. Machines on other networks are also displaying this behavior. EDIT3: As mentioned in the comments, I tracked the problem network adapter back to my pfSense VM hosted in esxi 5.5 (I know shame on me for virtualizing a firewall). pfSense was configured to use DC1.domain.com as its primary time provider, but upon changing it back to pool.ntp.org the problem persists. pfSense logs give no indication of NTP misconfiguration. Everywhere I can think to look this VM is identified as 10.0.1.253, so I still have no idea why it’s sending NTP requests as 192.128… Since this firewall was a temporary solution to a problem that no longer exists so I am going to decommission it. EDIT4: The queries were coming from another machine sharing the same virtual adapter as the firewall. The machine has two local adapters: one for LAN, and the other for attached hardware that uses an Ethernet connection. That hardware sits in the the mystery subnet, and the machine is broadcasting NTP requests over both adapters.

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• BluRay audio/video stuttering with PowerDVD 11, WinDVD 11 Pro, etc? Xonar/Auzen HD audio option?

  - by jrista

  I recently upgraded my Windows 7 MediaCenter HTPC due to a motherboard failure (really old motherboard and cpu, it was on its last legs.) I chose to upgrade to an i5 system with everything built into the motherboard. I did my due diligence, researched, and found some hardware that was within my budget. I ended up with: Core i5 2500K (3.3Ghz) Corsair XMS3 2x2Gb DDR3 (4Gb) ASUS P8H 61-M LE/CSM MicroCenter 64Gb SSD (Previous BluRay player, forget the brand) The system is pretty awesome, and plays everything I have perfectly. I almost went with an Atom solution, however there have been numerous notes that they do not play NetFlix Instant Watch well...and I am a heavy Netflix IW user. High definition BluRay rips work well, although they usually contain lower audio quality than the BluRay's they were ripped from. The real problem I am encountering is playing back BluRay video from discs. For some reason, I am encountering rather terrible stuttering problems with both the audio and video. The stuttering is synchronous in both, and occurs at seemingly random intervals. I've used PowerDVD 9, PowerDVD 11 trial, and WinDVD 11 Pro trial. All three have stuttering problems, although PowerDVD 11 seems to have the least. Watching system resource usage, CPU load is never above 20%, and memory usage tends to be a constant 1/3rd the total available system memory. When playback is fine, its superb...the video is crystal clear. The audio quality is ok, certainly not what I would expect from a BluRay disc. I did some research, and it seems that playing BluRay from a PC causes a downsampling of the audio? I am curious if the audio is my primary problem here, the cause of the stuttering I am encountering? When stuttering occurs, the audio gets REALLY bad, while the video just pauses momentarily every second until for whatever reason everything picks up and runs fine (usually after a few seconds to a couple minutes.) The audio chipset is a Realtek HD ALC887 8-channel, supposedly designed to support BluRay playback. Has anyone encountered any issues like this playing back bluray discs on a PC (namely with PowerDVD...WinDVD was FAR worse, and seemed to have real trouble even reading the discs, and I have no interest in fiddling with it further.) Is there any reason to suspect the video decoding as the problem?(Given how bad the audio gets during a stutter, and how clean the video remains, I am inclined to think the issue boils down to audio.) Is it even remotely possible that the motherboard, cpu, or ram are causing the stuttering (all three are pretty blazing fast...faster than the hardware that I replaced, which seemed to play BluRay fine with PowerDVD 9.) I've read a bit about the Asus Xonar HDAV 1.3 and the Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater HD home theater hi-fi audio cards. Seems they are the only way to get true full-quality, uncompressed BluRay audio bitstreaming over HDMI on a PC. None of the usual suspects seem to have these cards in stock, however. Are these cards worth getting? Are they even still available, or have they been discontinued (if so, that would indeed be sad...they sound simply fantastic.)

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• Did a recent WinXP update break CD/DVD read speeds? SP2/SP3

  - by quack quixote

  I have two systems with fresh installations of Windows XP Pro SP3 (SP3 slipstreamed into the installer; fully updated after install). One's a refurbished 2.4GHz Pentium4 system; the other is a new 1.6GHz Atom330 build. Both have brand-new dual-layer CD/DVD burners (one's a LiteOn IDE, the other an LG SATA). Both take a really looooong time to read a single-layer DVD in Windows with Cygwin tools. Specifically, 40 minutes or more. I burn backup data to single-layer DVD+/-R and use MD5 hashes for data verification (made with the standard md5sum tool in Unix or Cygwin). The hashes are burned to disc with the data files, and I use this command to verify: $ cd /path/to/disc/mountpoint ; time md5sum -c < md5.txt Here's how long that takes to run on a full single-layer DVD+/-R disc: Old system (WinXP SP2, 1.8GHz Athlon 2500+, last summer): ~10 minutes Old system (Ubuntu 9.04, 1.8GHz Athlon 2500+): ~10 minutes Old system (Debian 5, dual 550MHz P3): ~10 minutes New Pentium4 system (running Ubuntu 9.04): ~5 minutes New Pentium4 system (running WinXP SP3, file copy from Win Explorer): ~6 minutes New Atom330 system (running WinXP SP3, file copy from Win Explorer): ~6 minutes Now the weird stuff: Old system (WinXP SP2, 1.8GHz Athlon 2500+, today): ~25 minutes New Pentium4 system (running WinXP SP3, read from Cygwin): ~40-50 minutes (?!!) New Atom330 system (running WinXP SP3, read from Cygwin): ~40 minutes (can do it in ~30 minutes ...if i have another program spin up the drive first) Since both systems will copy files in 6 minutes using Windows Explorer, I know it's not a hardware problem. Windows just never spins up the drive during the Cygwin read, so it stays super-slow the whole time. Other programs like EAC and DVD Decrypter seem to spin up the disc just fine during their processing. DMA is enabled on both systems. (Can confirm in Windows' Device Manager on the Atom330, not on the P4.) Nero's DriveSpeed tool doesn't seem to have any effect. Copy times are comparable from commandline with Windows' xcopy. Copying with Cygwin's cp looks more like the problem state -- it will spin up the drive for a short time, never reaches full speed, and lets it spin back down again for most of the copy. What I need is to get full read speeds from Cygwin. Is this a known issue with SP3 or some other recent Windows update? Any other ideas? Update: More testing; Windows will spin up the drive when data is copied with Windows tools, but not when read in place or copied with Cygwin tools. It doesn't make sense to me that Windows spins up the drive for copying, but not for other reads. Might be more of a Cygwin problem? Update 2: GUI activity is sluggish during the problem state -- during the Cygwin verifies, there's a slight but noticable delay when dragging windows or icons around on the desktop, switching windows, Alt-Tabbing through open applications, opening new windows, etc. It reminds me of the delay when opening a Windows Explorer window on My Computer just after inserting a DVD. I've tried updating Cygwin (from 1.5.x to 1.7.x), but no change in the problem behavior. I've also noticed this issue occurs on WinXP SP2, but it's not exactly the same -- some spin-up occurs, so the read happens in ~25-30 minutes instead of 40+. The SP2 system used to run the verifies in ~10 minutes, and when it first changed (not sure exactly when, maybe in late November or early December 2009) I thought it was dying hardware. This is why I suspect an official update of breaking this functionality; this has worked for years on that SP2 box.

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• Cheapest way to connect 20-24 Sata II HDDs in a budget storage server?

  - by Joe Hopfgartner

  I need to assemble a high density storage server for as cheap as possible. It's been a while for me and the last systems I integrated didn't even have Sata yet... During my Research I of course stumbled about Nexsan SATA Beast, the BackBlaze storage Pods as well as some ridiculously overpriced HP Proliant or Dell storage solutions. Finally I choose Norco cases as the way to go. My eye is set on the RPC-4020, which is a 4U 19" Rackmount case with 20 Hot Swap 3.5" SATA/SAS Hdd trays (Backplanes included) and room for two 2.5" OS drives as well as a Slim Line CD-Rom. The backplanes connect with a single SATA port for each drive, so there are 20 internal SATA ports to to be connected. They also have redundant power ports which I think is quite nice. The cheapest price I have found is 290$ + 40$ shipping. In europe the cheapest unfortunately is 370€ (500$) + 40 € shipping... A nice alternative would be the RPC-4224 which has SFF-8087 Mini SAS connectors that bundle 4 SATA trays each. But it doesn't seem to be available in Europe (where i am) anywhere. So here comes my problem: What Mainboard/Controller to choose to connect them for as cheap as possible while still having nice data rates? I have to say that the server is intended as a Storage server with 1gps connectivity and the data transfer will be distributed very evenly across all drives. I also don't require any raid functionality. This is all done at application level, I just need JBOD. So for example if I go for the RPC 4020 Model I need to connect 20 Storage + 1 OS + 1 CDROM Sata ports. I searched a bit and stumbled across this very low priced controller: http://www.intel.com/products/server/raid-controllers/SASWT4I/SASWT4I-overview.htm They sell it for 115 € here and the specs say it can control up to 122 hard discs and has 4 Mini SAS connectors. So I would use 4 Mini SAS 36pin - 4 SATA 7pin cables to connect 4 SATA drives to each port and choose a Mainboard taht has 6 SATA on board (for example this one) and hurray, I can connect my 22 SATA devices for as low as about ~ 220 EUR (cpu, ram, psu, case not counted) Question: WOULD THAT WORK? And if not, why? 2nd Question: If I go for the 4220 or 4224 Model, I have internal Mini SAS connectors. Am I right in assuming that the backplane than acts as a "SAS Expander"? And can I just plug these SAS connectors into any SAS port I can find on my controller / mainboard or are there certain requirements? I know that SATA port multipliers only work with controllers that are ready for that. But isn't this expansion already implemented in the SAS standard? I am sorry that this is a very broad question, but I really spent the last week reading up and it seems to be not so clear! Especially all the controlling hardware specifications! 3rd Question: A lot of hardware specs feature "internal channels" and "internal connectors". The connecors are the physical numbers of places where I can plug a cable in. I got that. But are the "internal channels" always the maximum numbers of physical drives that can be used in the end? Or can I enhance this further by Expanders/Fanouts? 4th and last question: What do you think about the setup so far? Do you know any good alternatives? Maby I am completely going the wrong way and some DAS would be way better? Are there any comparable chassis available in europe? Please feel free to say whatever you think is relevant to the subject!

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• Why my laptop sends ARP request to itself ?

  - by user58859

  I have just started to learn about protocols. While studying the packets in wireshark, I came across a ARP request sent by my machine to my own IP. Here is the details of the packet : No. Time Source Destination Protocol Info 15 1.463563 IntelCor_aa:aa:aa Broadcast ARP Who has 192.168.1.34? Tell 0.0.0.0 Frame 15: 42 bytes on wire (336 bits), 42 bytes captured (336 bits) Arrival Time: Jan 7, 2011 18:51:43.886089000 India Standard Time Epoch Time: 1294406503.886089000 seconds [Time delta from previous captured frame: 0.123389000 seconds] [Time delta from previous displayed frame: 0.123389000 seconds] [Time since reference or first frame: 1.463563000 seconds] Frame Number: 15 Frame Length: 42 bytes (336 bits) Capture Length: 42 bytes (336 bits) [Frame is marked: False] [Frame is ignored: False] [Protocols in frame: eth:arp] [Coloring Rule Name: ARP] [Coloring Rule String: arp] Ethernet II, Src: IntelCor_aa:aa:aa (aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa), Dst: Broadcast (ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff) Destination: Broadcast (ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff) Address: Broadcast (ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff) .... ...1 .... .... .... .... = IG bit: Group address (multicast/broadcast) .... ..1. .... .... .... .... = LG bit: Locally administered address (this is NOT the factory default) Source: IntelCor_aa:aa:aa (aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa) Address: IntelCor_aa:aa:aa (aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa) .... ...0 .... .... .... .... = IG bit: Individual address (unicast) .... ..0. .... .... .... .... = LG bit: Globally unique address (factory default) Type: ARP (0x0806) Address Resolution Protocol (request) Hardware type: Ethernet (0x0001) Protocol type: IP (0x0800) Hardware size: 6 Protocol size: 4 Opcode: request (0x0001) [Is gratuitous: False] Sender MAC address: IntelCor_aa:aa:aa (aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa) Sender IP address: 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0) Target MAC address: 00:00:00_00:00:00 (00:00:00:00:00:00) Target IP address: 192.168.1.34 (192.168.1.34) Here the sender's mac address is mine(Here I have hiden my mac address). target IP is mine. Why my machine is sending ARP request to itself? I found 3 packets of this type. There was no ARP reply for these packets. Can anybody explain me why it is? (My operating system is windows-7. I am directly connected to a wifi modem. I got these packets as soon as I started my connection.) I want one suggestion also. many places I read that RFC's are enough for study about protocols. I studied the RFC 826 on ARP. I personally feel that is not enough at all. Any suggestion regarding this? Is there more then 1 RFC for a protocol? I want to study about the protocols in very detail. Can anybody guide me for this? Thanks in advance.

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• Proliant server will not accept new hard disks in RAID 1+0?

  - by Leigh

  I have a HP ProLiant DL380 G5, I have two logical drives configured with RAID. I have one logical drive RAID 1+0 with two 72 gb 10k sas 1 port spare no 376597-001. I had one hard disk fail and ordered a replacement. The configuration utility showed error and would not rebuild the RAID. I presumed a hard disk fault and ordered a replacement again. In the mean time I put the original failed disk back in the server and this started rebuilding. Currently shows ok status however in the log I can see hardware errors. The new disk has come and I again have the same problem of not accepting the hard disk. I have updated the P400 controller with the latest firmware 7.24 , but still no luck. The only difference I can see is the original drive has firmware 0103 (same as the RAID drive) and the new one has HPD2. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance Logs from server ctrl all show config Smart Array P400 in Slot 1 (sn: PAFGK0P9VWO0UQ) array A (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB) logicaldrive 1 (68.5 GB, RAID 1, Interim Recovery Mode) physicaldrive 2I:1:1 (port 2I:box 1:bay 1, SAS, 73.5 GB, OK) physicaldrive 2I:1:2 (port 2I:box 1:bay 2, SAS, 72 GB, Failed array B (SAS, Unused Space: 0 MB) logicaldrive 2 (558.7 GB, RAID 5, OK) physicaldrive 1I:1:5 (port 1I:box 1:bay 5, SAS, 300 GB, OK) physicaldrive 2I:1:3 (port 2I:box 1:bay 3, SAS, 300 GB, OK) physicaldrive 2I:1:4 (port 2I:box 1:bay 4, SAS, 300 GB, OK) ctrl all show config detail Smart Array P400 in Slot 1 Bus Interface: PCI Slot: 1 Serial Number: PAFGK0P9VWO0UQ Cache Serial Number: PA82C0J9VWL8I7 RAID 6 (ADG) Status: Disabled Controller Status: OK Hardware Revision: E Firmware Version: 7.24 Rebuild Priority: Medium Expand Priority: Medium Surface Scan Delay: 15 secs Surface Scan Mode: Idle Wait for Cache Room: Disabled Surface Analysis Inconsistency Notification: Disabled Post Prompt Timeout: 0 secs Cache Board Present: True Cache Status: OK Cache Status Details: A cache error was detected. Run more information. Cache Ratio: 100% Read / 0% Write Drive Write Cache: Disabled Total Cache Size: 256 MB Total Cache Memory Available: 208 MB No-Battery Write Cache: Disabled Battery/Capacitor Count: 0 SATA NCQ Supported: True Array: A Interface Type: SAS Unused Space: 0 MB Status: Failed Physical Drive Array Type: Data One of the drives on this array have failed or has Logical Drive: 1 Size: 68.5 GB Fault Tolerance: RAID 1 Heads: 255 Sectors Per Track: 32 Cylinders: 17594 Strip Size: 128 KB Full Stripe Size: 128 KB Status: Interim Recovery Mode Caching: Enabled Unique Identifier: 600508B10010503956574F305551 Disk Name: \\.\PhysicalDrive0 Mount Points: C:\ 68.5 GB Logical Drive Label: A0100539PAFGK0P9VWO0UQ0E93 Mirror Group 0: physicaldrive 2I:1:2 (port 2I:box 1:bay 2, S Mirror Group 1: physicaldrive 2I:1:1 (port 2I:box 1:bay 1, S Drive Type: Data physicaldrive 2I:1:1 Port: 2I Box: 1 Bay: 1 Status: OK Drive Type: Data Drive Interface Type: SAS Size: 73.5 GB Rotational Speed: 10000 Firmware Revision: 0103 Serial Number: B379P8C006RK Model: HP DG072A9B7 PHY Count: 2 PHY Transfer Rate: Unknown, Unknown physicaldrive 2I:1:2 Port: 2I Box: 1 Bay: 2 Status: Failed Drive Type: Data Drive Interface Type: SAS Size: 72 GB Rotational Speed: 15000 Firmware Revision: HPD9 Serial Number: D5A1PCA04SL01244 Model: HP EH0072FARUA PHY Count: 2 PHY Transfer Rate: Unknown, Unknown Array: B Interface Type: SAS Unused Space: 0 MB Status: OK Array Type: Data Logical Drive: 2 Size: 558.7 GB Fault Tolerance: RAID 5 Heads: 255 Sectors Per Track: 32 Cylinders: 65535 Strip Size: 64 KB Full Stripe Size: 128 KB Status: OK Caching: Enabled Parity Initialization Status: Initialization Co Unique Identifier: 600508B10010503956574F305551 Disk Name: \\.\PhysicalDrive1 Mount Points: E:\ 558.7 GB Logical Drive Label: AF14FD12PAFGK0P9VWO0UQD007 Drive Type: Data physicaldrive 1I:1:5 Port: 1I Box: 1 Bay: 5 Status: OK Drive Type: Data Drive Interface Type: SAS Size: 300 GB Rotational Speed: 10000 Firmware Revision: HPD4 Serial Number: 3SE07QH300009923X1X3 Model: HP DG0300BALVP Current Temperature (C): 32 Maximum Temperature (C): 45 PHY Count: 2 PHY Transfer Rate: Unknown, Unknown physicaldrive 2I:1:3 Port: 2I Box: 1 Bay: 3 Status: OK Drive Type: Data Drive Interface Type: SAS Size: 300 GB Rotational Speed: 10000 Firmware Revision: HPD4 Serial Number: 3SE0AHVH00009924P8F3 Model: HP DG0300BALVP Current Temperature (C): 34 Maximum Temperature (C): 47 PHY Count: 2 PHY Transfer Rate: Unknown, Unknown physicaldrive 2I:1:4 Port: 2I Box: 1 Bay: 4 Status: OK Drive Type: Data Drive Interface Type: SAS Size: 300 GB Rotational Speed: 10000 Firmware Revision: HPD4 Serial Number: 3SE08NAK00009924KWD6 Model: HP DG0300BALVP Current Temperature (C): 35 Maximum Temperature (C): 47 PHY Count: 2 PHY Transfer Rate: Unknown, Unknown

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• What would cause Memcached to Hang for 2+ seconds?

  - by Brad Dwyer

  I'm going nuts trying to scale memcached. From their site: Memcached operations are almost all O(1). Connecting to it and issuing a get or stat command should never lag. If connecting lags, you may be hitting the max connections limit. See ServerMaint for details on stats to monitor. If issuing commands lags, you can have a number of tuning problems. Most common are hardware problems, not enough RAM (swapping), network problems (bandwidth, dropped packets, half-duplex connections). On rare occasion OS bugs or memcached bugs can contribute. Well.. it is most certainly not performing like an O(1) operation for me. Under low to normal load on our site memcached response times for get and set ops are about 0.001 seconds. Not bad. But if we triple the load we get outliers that take 100x (or in rare cases 1000x!) that long. I even had one instance where it took 2.2442 seconds for memcached to store a value. Obviously this is killing our site. Here's the output of Memcached-getStats during one of the slow periods: [pid] => 18079 [uptime] => 8903 [threads] => 4 [time] => 1332795759 [pointer_size] => 32 [rusage_user_seconds] => 26 [rusage_user_microseconds] => 503872 [rusage_system_seconds] => 125 [rusage_system_microseconds] => 477008 [curr_items] => 42099 [total_items] => 422500 [limit_maxbytes] => 943718400 [curr_connections] => 84 [total_connections] => 4946 [connection_structures] => 178 [bytes] => 7259957 [cmd_get] => 1679091 [cmd_set] => 351809 [get_hits] => 1662048 [get_misses] => 17043 [evictions] => 0 [bytes_read] => 109388476 [bytes_written] => 3187646458 [version] => 1.4.13 So things that I have ruled out so far are: Hitting the max connections limit (curr_connections of 84 is well below the default of max of 1024) Swapping - the machine has 900M out of 1024M of memory dedicated to memcached on a dedicated machine. It only appears to be using about 7MB of data as per the bytes stat. How would I diagnose the other hardware problems? prstat doesn't really show a whole lot going on in terms of CPU or memory usage. Not sure how to figure out the network problems but as this is a dedicated server on the same private network as the web box I don't think it's a connectivity issue (ping is less than a millisecond between the boxes). Is there something else I'm missing here? It's driving me nuts. Edit: Also forgot to mention that I've tried both persistent and non-persistent connections with minimal-to-no impact.

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• File Server - Storage configuration: RAID vs LVM vs ZFS something else... ?

  - by privatehuff

  We are a small company that does video editing, among other things, and need a place to keep backup copies of large media files and make it easy to share them. I've got a box set up with Ubuntu Server and 4 x 500 GB drives. They're currently set up with Samba as four shared folders that Mac/Windows workstations can see fine, but I want a better solution. There are two major reasons for this: 500 GB is not really big enough (some projects are larger) It is cumbersome to manage the current setup, because individual hard drives have different amounts of free space and duplicated data (for backup). It is confusing now and that will only get worse once there are multiple servers. ("the project is on sever2 in share4" etc) So, I need a way to combine hard drives in such a way as to avoid complete data loss with the failure of a single drive, and so users see only a single share on each server. I've done linux software RAID5 and had a bad experience with it, but would try it again. LVM looks ok but it seems like no one uses it. ZFS seems interesting but it is relatively "new". What is the most efficient and least risky way to to combine the hdd's that is convenient for my users? Edit: The Goal here is basically to create servers that contain an arbitrary number of hard drives but limit complexity from an end-user perspective. (i.e. they see one "folder" per server) Backing up data is not an issue here, but how each solution responds to hardware failure is a serious concern. That is why I lump RAID, LVM, ZFS, and who-knows-what together. My prior experience with RAID5 was also on an Ubuntu Server box and there was a tricky and unlikely set of circumstances that led to complete data loss. I could avoid that again but was left with a feeling that I was adding an unnecessary additional point of failure to the system. I haven't used RAID10 but we are on commodity hardware and the most data drives per box is pretty much fixed at 6. We've got a lot of 500 GB drives and 1.5 TB is pretty small. (Still an option for at least one server, however) I have no experience with LVM and have read conflicting reports on how it handles drive failure. If a (non-striped) LVM setup could handle a single drive failing and only loose whichever files had a portion stored on that drive (and stored most files on a single drive only) we could even live with that. But as long as I have to learn something totally new, I may as well go all the way to ZFS. Unlike LVM, though, I would also have to change my operating system (?) so that increases the distance between where I am and where I want to be. I used a version of solaris at uni and wouldn't mind it terribly, though. On the other end on the IT spectrum, I think I may also explore FreeNAS and/or Openfiler, but that doesn't really solve the how-to-combine-drives issue.

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• Vista 64-bit, DISK BOOT FAILURE

  - by weka

  So I have this Acer Aspire AX3200-U3600A with Windows Vista (64-bit). Every night I turn it off and turn it back on in the morning. Around three weeks ago, I did a fresh factory reimage. Good as new. Then around two days ago, when I turned it on, I noticed it was running extremly slow. As in, it would often freeze up while I had multiple applications open when it usually never froze up. So I decided to restart my computer. Big mistake. My computer froze right after I clicked shut-down. I waited a while. Nothing. Waited some minutes. Nope. I decided to shut it down by pressing the power button. Here is where the problems begin. When I turned it back on, I saw the Windows logo and loading bar and then it loaded to black. I turned it off again forcefully by power button and then once more... then I got: AMD Data Change... Update New Data to DMI! then later the screen clears and I get: AHCI Option ROM BIOS Revision: 01.05.92 Date: 02-19-2008 Copyright (c) 2006-2008 Phoenix Technologies, LTD Port 01: Reset Port Error!! Port 02: then the screen clears again but this time, this loads from the bottom: Nvidia Boot Agent 249.0542 (copyright stuff... blah blah) PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable. PXE-M0F: Exiting Nvidia Boot Agent DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER. So I try to go into Safe Mode. Well, first of all it doesn't load as fast. After it loads disk.sys from windows/drivers, it will wait a while (2-3 mins) THEN load. However it loads the Acer eRecovery Management Tool. I have three options: Reset computer to factory default, Restore computer from user's backup, or Exit. However, the top two options are gray and disabled where as the Exit is in blue and definitely clickable. So obviously safe mode is not there... A strong thing to note: In the beginning when all of this started, I did a Boot Windows Normal from pressing f8 and I got to my desktop! It logged me in. I could see the icons on my files. However my desktop was extremely slow as in when I clicked on the Start menu, it would wait a while, then load up the menu with JUST the gradient, no text or icons... so as you can see... it saw my HDD? Also, before anyone says, I have NO USB plugged in. My mouse and keyboard are not USB inputs, I assure you. And this came without a recovery CD AND when I went in BIOS, to change the BOOT ORDER, I did NOT see a CD-ROM option. And when I tried pressing ALT+F10 to get into Acer eRecovery Management, the top two options were disabled as well. But sometimes on start-up, I get: Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer. This error can be caused by unplugging a removable storage device such as an external USB drive while the device is in use, or by faulty hardware such as a hard drive or CD-ROM drive that is failing. Make sure any removeable storage is properly connected and then restart your computer. If you continue to receive this error message, contact the hardware manufacturer. Status: 0xc00000e9 Info: An unexpected I/O error has occured. Then I tried Last Known Good Configuration Settings, that gives me a BSOD. What should I do/

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• Tools and Utilities for the .NET Developer

  - by mbcrump

  Tweet this list! Add a link to my site to your bookmarks to quickly find this page again! Add me to twitter! This is a list of the tools/utilities that I use to do my job/hobby. I wanted this page to load fast and contain information that only you care about. If I have missed a tool that you like, feel free to contact me and I will add it to the list. Also, this list took a lot of time to complete. Please do not steal my work, if you like the page then please link back to my site. I will keep the links/information updated as new tools/utilities are created.  Windows/.NET Development – This is a list of tools that any Windows/.NET developer should have in his bag. I have used at some point in my career everything listed on this page and below is the tools worth keeping. Name Description License AnkhSVN Subversion support for Visual Studio. It also works with VS2010. Free Aurora XAML Designer One of the best XAML creation tools available. Has a ton of built in templates that you can copy/paste into VS2010. COST/Trial BeyondCompare Beyond Compare 3 is the ideal tool for comparing files and folders on your Windows or Linux system. Visualize changes in your code and carefully reconcile them. COST/Trial BuildIT Automated Task Tool Its main purpose is to automate tasks, whether it is the final packaging of a product, an automated daily build, maybe sending out a mailing list, even backing-up files. Free C Sharper for VB Convert VB to C#. COST CLRProfiler Analyze and improve the behavior of your .NET app. Free CodeRush Direct competitor to ReSharper, contains similar feature. This is one of those decide for yourself. COST/Trial Disk2VHD Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft's Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). Free Eazfuscator.NET Is a free obfuscator for .NET. The main purpose is to protect intellectual property of software. Free EQATEC Profiler Make your .NET app run faster. No source code changes are needed. Just point the profiler to your app, run the modified code, and get a visual report. COST Expression Studio 3/4 Comes with Web, Blend, Sketch Flow and more. You can create websites, produce beautiful XAML and more. COST/Trial Expresso The award-winning Expresso editor is equally suitable as a teaching tool for the beginning user of regular expressions or as a full-featured development environment for the experienced programmer or web designer with an extensive knowledge of regular expressions. Free Fiddler Fiddler is a web debugging proxy which logs all HTTP(s) traffic between your computer and the internet. Free Firebug Powerful Web development tool. If you build websites, you will need this. Free FxCop FxCop is an application that analyzes managed code assemblies (code that targets the .NET Framework common language runtime) and reports information about the assemblies, such as possible design, localization, performance, and security improvements. Free GAC Browser and Remover Easy way to remove multiple assemblies from the GAC. Assemblies registered by programs like Install Shield can also be removed. Free GAC Util The Global Assembly Cache tool allows you to view and manipulate the contents of the global assembly cache and download cache. Free HelpScribble Help Scribble is a full-featured, easy-to-use help authoring tool for creating help files from start to finish. You can create Win Help (.hlp) files, HTML Help (.chm) files, a printed manual and online documentation (on a web site) all from the same Help Scribble project. COST/Trial IETester IETester is a free Web Browser that allows you to have the rendering and JavaScript engines of IE9 preview, IE8, IE7 IE 6 and IE5.5 on Windows 7, Vista and XP, as well as the installed IE in the same process. Free iTextSharp iText# (iTextSharp) is a port of the iText open source java library for PDF generation written entirely in C# for the .NET platform. Use the iText mailing list to get support. Free Kaxaml Kaxaml is a lightweight XAML editor that gives you a "split view" so you can see both your XAML and your rendered content. Free LINQPad LinqPad lets you interactively query databases in a LINQ. Free Linquer Many programmers are familiar with SQL and will need a help in the transition to LINQ. Sometimes there are complicated queries to be written and Linqer can help by converting SQL scripts to LINQ. COST/Trial LiquidXML Liquid XML Studio 2010 is an advanced XML developers toolkit and IDE, containing all the tools needed for designing and developing XML schema and applications. COST/Trial Log4Net log4net is a tool to help the programmer output log statements to a variety of output targets. log4net is a port of the excellent log4j framework to the .NET runtime. We have kept the framework similar in spirit to the original log4j while taking advantage of new features in the .NET runtime. For more information on log4net see the features document. Free Microsoft Web Platform Installer The Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 (Web PI) is a free tool that makes getting the latest components of the Microsoft Web Platform, including Internet Information Services (IIS), SQL Server Express, .NET Framework and Visual Web Developer easy. Free Mono Development Don't have Visual Studio - no problem! This is an open Source C# and .NET development environment for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X Free Net Mass Downloader While it’s great that Microsoft has released the .NET Reference Source Code, you can only get it one file at a time while you’re debugging. If you’d like to batch download it for reading or to populate the cache, you’d have to write a program that instantiated and called each method in the Framework Class Library. Fortunately, .NET Mass Downloader comes to the rescue! Free nMap Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free and open source (license) utility for network exploration or security auditing. Many systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime. Free NoScript (Firefox add-in) The NoScript Firefox extension provides extra protection for Firefox, Flock, Seamonkey and other Mozilla-based browsers: this free, open source add-on allows JavaScript, Java and Flash and other plug-ins to be executed only by trusted web sites of your choice (e.g. your online bank), and provides the most powerful Anti-XSS protection available in a browser. Free NotePad 2 Notepad2, a fast and light-weight Notepad-like text editor with syntax highlighting. This program can be run out of the box without installation, and does not touch your system's registry. Free PageSpy PageSpy is a small add-on for Internet Explorer that allows you to select any element within a webpage, select an option in the context menu, and view detailed information about both the coding behind the page and the element you selected. Free Phrase Express PhraseExpress manages your frequently used text snippets in customizable categories for quick access. Free PowerGui PowerGui is a free community for PowerGUI, a graphical user interface and script editor for Microsoft Windows PowerShell! Free Powershell Comes with Win7, but you can automate tasks by using the .NET Framework. Great for network admins. Free Process Explorer Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded. Also, included in the SysInterals Suite. Free Process Monitor Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. Free Reflector Explore and analyze compiled .NET assemblies, viewing them in C#, Visual Basic, and IL. This is an Essential for any .NET developer. Free Regular Expression Library Stuck on a Regular Expression but you think someone has already figured it out? Chances are they have. Free Regulator Regulator makes Regular Expressions easy. This is a must have for a .NET Developer. Free RenameMaestro RenameMaestro is probably the easiest batch file renamer you'll find to instantly rename multiple files COST ReSharper The one program that I cannot live without. Supports VS2010 and offers simple refactoring, code analysis/assistance/cleanup/templates. One of the few applications that is worth the $$$. COST/Trial ScrewTurn Wiki ScrewTurn Wiki allows you to create, manage and share wikis. A wiki is a collaboratively-edited, information-centered website: the most famous is Wikipedia. Free SharpDevelop What is #develop? SharpDevelop is a free IDE for C# and VB.NET projects on Microsoft's .NET platform. Free Show Me The Template Show Me The Template is a tool for exploring the templates, be their data, control or items panel, that comes with the controls built into WPF for all 6 themes. Free SnippetCompiler Compiles code snippets without opening Visual Studio. It does not support .NET 4. Free SQL Prompt SQL Prompt is a plug-in that increases how fast you can work with SQL. It provides code-completion for SQL server, reformatting, db schema information and snippets. Awesome! COST/Trial SQLinForm SQLinForm is an automatic SQL code formatter for all major databases  including ORACLE, SQL Server, DB2, UDB, Sybase, Informix, PostgreSQL, Teradata, MySQL, MS Access etc. with over 70 formatting options. COST/OnlineFree SSMS Tools SSMS Tools Pack is an add-in for Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) including SSMS Express. Free Storm STORM is a free and open source tool for testing web services. Free Telerik Code Convertor Convert code from VB to C Sharp and Vice Versa. Free TurtoiseSVN TortoiseSVN is a really easy to use Revision control / version control / source control software for Windows.Since it's not an integration for a specific IDE you can use it with whatever development tools you like. Free UltraEdit UltraEdit is the ideal text, HTML and hex editor, and an advanced PHP, Perl, Java and JavaScript editor for programmers. UltraEdit is also an XML editor including a tree-style XML parser. An industry-award winner, UltraEdit supports disk-based 64-bit file handling (standard) on 32-bit Windows platforms (Windows 2000 and later). COST/Trial Virtual Windows XP Comes with some W7 version and allows you to run WinXP along side W7. Free VirtualBox Virtualization by Sun Microsystems. You can virtualize Windows, Linux and more. Free Visual Log Parser SQL queries against a variety of log files and other system data sources. Free WinMerge WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle. Free Wireshark Wireshark is one of the best network protocol analyzer's for Unix and windows. This has been used several times to get me out of a bind. Free XML Notepad 07 Old, but still one of my favorite XML viewers. Free Productivity Tools – This is the list of tools that I use to save time or quickly navigate around Windows. Name Description License AutoHotKey Automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can write a mouse or keyboard macro by hand or use the macro recorder. Free CLCL CLCL is clipboard caching utility. Free Ditto Ditto is an extension to the standard windows clipboard. It saves each item placed on the clipboard allowing you access to any of those items at a later time. Ditto allows you to save any type of information that can be put on the clipboard, text, images, html, custom formats, ..... Free Evernote Remember everything from notes to photos. It will synch between computers/devices. Free InfoRapid Inforapid is a search tool that will display all you search results in a html like browser. If you click on a word in that browser, it will start another search to the word you clicked on. Handy if you want to trackback something to it's true origin. The word you looked for will be highlighted in red. Clicking on the red word will open the containing file in a text based viewer. Clicking on any word in the opened document will start another search on that word. Free KatMouse The prime purpose of the KatMouse utility is to enhance the functionality of mice with a scroll wheel, offering 'universal' scrolling: moving the mouse wheel will scroll the window directly beneath the mouse cursor (not the one with the keyboard focus, which is default on Windows OSes). This is a major increase in the usefulness of the mouse wheel. Free ScreenR Instant Screencast with nothing to download. Works with Mac or PC and free. Free Start++ Start++ is an enhancement for the Start Menu in Windows Vista. It also extends the Run box and the command-line with customizable commands.  For example, typing "w Windows Vista" will take you to the Windows Vista page on Wikipedia! Free Synergy Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s). Free Texter Texter lets you define text substitution hot strings that, when triggered, will replace hotstring with a larger piece of text. By entering your most commonly-typed snippets of text into Texter, you can save countless keystrokes in the course of the day. Free Total Commander File handling, FTP, Archive handling and much more. Even works with Win3.11. COST/Trial Available Wizmouse WizMouse is a mouse enhancement utility that makes your mouse wheel work on the window currently under the mouse pointer, instead of the currently focused window. This means you no longer have to click on a window before being able to scroll it with the mouse wheel. This is a far more comfortable and practical way to make use of the mouse wheel. Free Xmarks Bookmark sync and search between computers. Free General Utilities – This is a list for power user users or anyone that wants more out of Windows. I usually install a majority of these whenever I get a new system. Name Description License µTorrent µTorrent is a lightweight and efficient BitTorrent client for Windows or Mac with many features. I use this for downloading LEGAL media. Free Audacity Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Learn more about Audacity... Also check our Wiki and Forum for more information. Free AVast Free FREE Antivirus. Free CD Burner XP Pro CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Free CDEX You can extract digital audio CDs into mp3/wav. Free Combofix Combofix is a freeware (a legitimate spyware remover created by sUBs), Combofix was designed to scan a computer for known malware, spyware (SurfSideKick, QooLogic, and Look2Me as well as any other combination of the mentioned spyware applications) and remove them. Free Cpu-Z Provides information about some of the main devices of your system. Free Cropper Cropper is a screen capture utility written in C#. It makes it fast and easy to grab parts of your screen. Use it to easily crop out sections of vector graphic files such as Fireworks without having to flatten the files or open in a new editor. Use it to easily capture parts of a web site, including text and images. It's also great for writing documentation that needs images of your application or web site. Free DropBox Drag and Drop files to sync between computers. Free DVD-Fab Converts/Copies DVDs/Blu-Ray to different formats. (like mp4, mkv, avi) COST/Trial Available FastStone Capture FastStone Capture is a powerful, lightweight, yet full-featured screen capture tool that allows you to easily capture and annotate anything on the screen including windows, objects, menus, full screen, rectangular/freehand regions and even scrolling windows/web pages. Free ffdshow FFDShow is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, H.264, FLV1, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, MPEG-4 movies. Free Filezilla FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface. You can also download a server version. 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Even if you have problems uninstalling and cannot uninstall them from "Windows Add or Remove Programs" control panel applet.Revo Uninstaller is a much faster and more powerful alternative to "Windows Add or Remove Programs" applet! It has very powerful features to uninstall and remove programs. Free Security Essentials Microsoft Security Essentials is a new, free consumer anti-malware solution for your computer. Free SetupVirtualCloneDrive Virtual CloneDrive works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, however it exists only virtually. Point to the .ISO file and it appears in Windows Explorer as a Drive. Free Shark 007 Codec Pack Play just about any file format with this download. Also includes my W7 Media Playlist Generator. Free Snagit 9 Screen Capture on steroids. Add arrows, captions, etc to any screenshot. COST/Trial Available SysinternalsSuite Go ahead and download the entire sys internals suite. I have mentioned multiple programs in this suite already. Free TeraCopy TeraCopy is a compact program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed, providing the user with a lot of features. Free for Home TrueCrypt Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux Free TweetDeck Fully featured Twitter client. Free UltraVNC UltraVNC is a powerful, easy to use and free software that can display the screen of another computer (via internet or network) on your own screen. The program allows you to use your mouse and keyboard to control the other PC remotely. It means that you can work on a remote computer, as if you were sitting in front of it, right from your current location. Free Unlocker Unlocks locked files. Pretty simple right? Free VLC Media Player VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats Free Windows 7 Media Playlist This program is special to my heart because I wrote it. It has been mentioned on podcast and various websites. It allows you to quickly create wvx video playlist for Windows Media Center. Free WinRAR WinRAR is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce the size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format. COST/Trial Available Blogging – I use the following for my blog. Name Description License Insert Code for Windows Live Writer Insert Code for Windows Live Writer will format a snippet of text in a number of programming languages such as C#, HTML, MSH, JavaScript, Visual Basic and TSQL. Free LiveWriter Included in Live Essentials, but the ultimate in Windows Blogging Free PasteAsVSCode Plug-in for Windows Live Writer that pastes clipboard content as Visual Studio code. Preserves syntax highlighting, indentation and background color. Converts RTF, outputted by Visual Studio, into HTML. Free Desktop Management – The list below represent the best in Windows Desktop Management. Name Description License 7 Stacks Allows users to have "stacks" of icons in their taskbar. Free Executor Executor is a multi purpose launcher and a more advanced and customizable version of windows run. Free Fences Fences is a program that helps you organize your desktop and can hide your icons when they are not in use. Free RocketDock Rocket Dock is a smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher. It provides a nice clean interface to drop shortcuts on for easy access and organization. With each item completely customizable there is no end to what you can add and launch from the dock. Free WindowsTab Tabbing is an essential feature of modern web browsers. Window Tabs brings the productivity of tabbed window management to all of your desktop applications. Free

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• Parallelism in .NET – Part 5, Partitioning of Work

  - by Reed

  When parallelizing any routine, we start by decomposing the problem.  Once the problem is understood, we need to break our work into separate tasks, so each task can be run on a different processing element.  This process is called partitioning. Partitioning our tasks is a challenging feat.  There are opposing forces at work here: too many partitions adds overhead, too few partitions leaves processors idle.  Trying to work the perfect balance between the two extremes is the goal for which we should aim.  Luckily, the Task Parallel Library automatically handles much of this process.  However, there are situations where the default partitioning may not be appropriate, and knowledge of our routines may allow us to guide the framework to making better decisions. First off, I’d like to say that this is a more advanced topic.  It is perfectly acceptable to use the parallel constructs in the framework without considering the partitioning taking place.  The default behavior in the Task Parallel Library is very well-behaved, even for unusual work loads, and should rarely be adjusted.  I have found few situations where the default partitioning behavior in the TPL is not as good or better than my own hand-written partitioning routines, and recommend using the defaults unless there is a strong, measured, and profiled reason to avoid using them.  However, understanding partitioning, and how the TPL partitions your data, helps in understanding the proper usage of the TPL. I indirectly mentioned partitioning while discussing aggregation.  Typically, our systems will have a limited number of Processing Elements (PE), which is the terminology used for hardware capable of processing a stream of instructions.  For example, in a standard Intel i7 system, there are four processor cores, each of which has two potential hardware threads due to Hyperthreading.  This gives us a total of 8 PEs – theoretically, we can have up to eight operations occurring concurrently within our system. In order to fully exploit this power, we need to partition our work into Tasks.  A task is a simple set of instructions that can be run on a PE.  Ideally, we want to have at least one task per PE in the system, since fewer tasks means that some of our processing power will be sitting idle.  A naive implementation would be to just take our data, and partition it with one element in our collection being treated as one task.  When we loop through our collection in parallel, using this approach, we’d just process one item at a time, then reuse that thread to process the next, etc.  There’s a flaw in this approach, however.  It will tend to be slower than necessary, often slower than processing the data serially. The problem is that there is overhead associated with each task.  When we take a simple foreach loop body and implement it using the TPL, we add overhead.  First, we change the body from a simple statement to a delegate, which must be invoked.  In order to invoke the delegate on a separate thread, the delegate gets added to the ThreadPool’s current work queue, and the ThreadPool must pull this off the queue, assign it to a free thread, then execute it.  If our collection had one million elements, the overhead of trying to spawn one million tasks would destroy our performance. The answer, here, is to partition our collection into groups, and have each group of elements treated as a single task.  By adding a partitioning step, we can break our total work into small enough tasks to keep our processors busy, but large enough tasks to avoid overburdening the ThreadPool.  There are two clear, opposing goals here: Always try to keep each processor working, but also try to keep the individual partitions as large as possible. When using Parallel.For, the partitioning is always handled automatically.  At first, partitioning here seems simple.  A naive implementation would merely split the total element count up by the number of PEs in the system, and assign a chunk of data to each processor.  Many hand-written partitioning schemes work in this exactly manner.  This perfectly balanced, static partitioning scheme works very well if the amount of work is constant for each element.  However, this is rarely the case.  Often, the length of time required to process an element grows as we progress through the collection, especially if we’re doing numerical computations.  In this case, the first PEs will finish early, and sit idle waiting on the last chunks to finish.  Sometimes, work can decrease as we progress, since previous computations may be used to speed up later computations.  In this situation, the first chunks will be working far longer than the last chunks.  In order to balance the workload, many implementations create many small chunks, and reuse threads.  This adds overhead, but does provide better load balancing, which in turn improves performance. The Task Parallel Library handles this more elaborately.  Chunks are determined at runtime, and start small.  They grow slowly over time, getting larger and larger.  This tends to lead to a near optimum load balancing, even in odd cases such as increasing or decreasing workloads.  Parallel.ForEach is a bit more complicated, however. When working with a generic IEnumerable<T>, the number of items required for processing is not known in advance, and must be discovered at runtime.  In addition, since we don’t have direct access to each element, the scheduler must enumerate the collection to process it.  Since IEnumerable<T> is not thread safe, it must lock on elements as it enumerates, create temporary collections for each chunk to process, and schedule this out.  By default, it uses a partitioning method similar to the one described above.  We can see this directly by looking at the Visual Partitioning sample shipped by the Task Parallel Library team, and available as part of the Samples for Parallel Programming.  When we run the sample, with four cores and the default, Load Balancing partitioning scheme, we see this: The colored bands represent each processing core.  You can see that, when we started (at the top), we begin with very small bands of color.  As the routine progresses through the Parallel.ForEach, the chunks get larger and larger (seen by larger and larger stripes). Most of the time, this is fantastic behavior, and most likely will out perform any custom written partitioning.  However, if your routine is not scaling well, it may be due to a failure in the default partitioning to handle your specific case.  With prior knowledge about your work, it may be possible to partition data more meaningfully than the default Partitioner. There is the option to use an overload of Parallel.ForEach which takes a Partitioner<T> instance.  The Partitioner<T> class is an abstract class which allows for both static and dynamic partitioning.  By overriding Partitioner<T>.SupportsDynamicPartitions, you can specify whether a dynamic approach is available.  If not, your custom Partitioner<T> subclass would override GetPartitions(int), which returns a list of IEnumerator<T> instances.  These are then used by the Parallel class to split work up amongst processors.  When dynamic partitioning is available, GetDynamicPartitions() is used, which returns an IEnumerable<T> for each partition.  If you do decide to implement your own Partitioner<T>, keep in mind the goals and tradeoffs of different partitioning strategies, and design appropriately. The Samples for Parallel Programming project includes a ChunkPartitioner class in the ParallelExtensionsExtras project.  This provides example code for implementing your own, custom allocation strategies, including a static allocator of a given chunk size.  Although implementing your own Partitioner<T> is possible, as I mentioned above, this is rarely required or useful in practice.  The default behavior of the TPL is very good, often better than any hand written partitioning strategy.

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• Tips on installing Visual Studio 2010 SP1

  - by Jon Galloway

  Visual Studio SP1 went up on MSDN downloads (here) on March 8, and will be released publicly on March 10 here. Release announcements: Soma: Visual Studio 2010 enhancements Jason Zander: Announcing Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 I started on this post with tips on installing VS2010 SP1 when I realized I’ve been writing these up for Visual Studio and .NET framework SP releases for a while (e.g. VS2008 / .NET 3.5 SP1 post, VS2005 SP1 post). Looking back the years of Visual Studio SP installs (and remembering when we’d get up to SP6 for a Visual Studio release), I’m happy to see that it just keeps getting easier. Service Packs are a lot less finicky about requiring beta software to be uninstalled, install more quickly, and are just generally a lot less scary. If I can’t have a jetpack, at least my future provided me faster, easier service packs. Disclaimer: These tips are just general things I've picked up over the years. I don't have any inside knowledge here. If you see anything wrong, be sure to let me know in the comments. You may want to check the readme file before installing - it's short, and it's in that new-fangled HTML format. On with the tips! Before starting, uninstall Visual Studio features you don't use Visual Studio service packs (and other Microsoft service packs as well) install patches for the specific features you’ve got installed. This is a big reason to always do a custom install when you first install Visual Studio, but it’s not difficult to update your existing installation. Here’s the quick way to do that: Tap the windows key and type “add or remove programs” and press enter (or click on the “Add or remove programs” link if you must).   Type “Visual Studio 2010” in the search box in the upper right corner, click on the Visual Studio program (the one with the VS infinity looking logo) and click on Uninstall/Change. Click on Add or Remove Features The next part’s up to you – what features do you actually use? I’ve been doing primarily ASP.NET MVC development in C# lately, so I selected Visual C# and Visual Web Developer. Remember that you can install features later if needed, and can also install the express versions if you want. Selecting everything just because it’s there - or you paid for it – means that you install updates for everything, every time. When you’ve made your changes, click on the Update button to uninstall unused features. Shut down all instances of Visual Studio It probably goes without saying that you should close a program down before installing it, partly to avoid the file-in-use-reboot-after-install horror. Additional "hunch / works on my machine" quality tip: On one computer I saw a note in the setup log about Visual Studio a prompt for user input to close Visual Studio, although I never saw the prompt. Just to  be sure, I'd personally open up Task Manager and kill any devenv.exe processes I saw running, as it couldn't hurt. Use the web installer I use the Web Installers whenever possible. There’s no point in downloading the DVD unless you’re doing multiple installs or won’t have internet access. The DVD IS is 1.5GB, since it needs to be able to service every possible supported installation option on both x86 and x64. The web installer is 776 KB (smaller than calc.exe), so you can start the installation right away. Like other web installers, the real benefit is that it only installs the updates you need (hence the reason for step 1 – uninstalling unused components). Instead of 1.5GB, my download was roughly 530MB. If you’re installing from MSDN (this link takes you right to the Visual Studio installs), select the first one on the list: The first step in the installation process is to analyze the machine configuration and tell you what needs to be installed. Since I've trimmed down my features, that's a pretty short list. The time's not far off where I may not install SQL Server on my dev machines, just using SQL Server Compact - that would shorten the list further. When I hit next, you can see that the download size has shrunk considerably. When I start the install, note that the installation begins while other components are downloading - another benefit of the web install. On my mid-range desktop machine, the install took 25 minutes. What if it takes longer? According to Heath Stewart (Visual Studio installer guru), average SP1 installs take roughly 45 minutes. An installation which takes hours to complete may be a sign of a problem: see his post Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 installing for over 2 hours could be a sign of a problem. Why so long? Yes, even 25 minutes is a while. Heath's got another blog post explaining why the update can take longer than the initial install (see: A patch may take as long or longer to install than the target product) which explains all the additional steps and complexities a patch needs to deal with, as well as some mitigation steps that deployment authors can take to mitigate the impact. Other things to know about Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Installs over Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Beta That's nice. Previous Visual Studio versions did a number of annoying things when you installed SP's over beta's - fail with weird errors, get part way through and tell you needed to cancel and uninstall first, etc. I've installed this on two machines that had random beta stuff installed without tears. That Readme file you didn't read I mentioned the readme file earlier (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=210711 ). Some interesting things I picked up in there: 2.1.3. Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 installation may fail when a USB drive or other removeable drive is connected 2.1.4. Visual Studio must be restarted after Visual Studio 2010 SP1 tooling for SQL Server Compact (Compact) 4.0 is installed 2.2.1. If Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 is uninstalled, Visual Studio 2010 must be reinstalled to restore certain components 2.2.2. If Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 is uninstalled, Visual Studio 2010 must be reinstalled before SP1 can be installed again 2.4.3.1. Async CTP If you installed the pre-SP1 version of Async CTP but did not uninstall it before you installed Visual Studio 2010 SP1, then your computer will be in a state in which the version of the C# compiler in the .NET Framework does not match the C# compiler in Visual Studio. To resolve this issue: After you install Visual Studio 2010 SP1, reinstall the SP1 version of the Async CTP from here. Hardware acceleration for Visual Studio is disabled on Windows XP Visual Studio 2010 SP1 disables hardware acceleration when running on Windows XP (only on XP). You can turn it back on in the Visual Studio options, under Environment / General, as shown below. See Jason Zander's post titled Performance Troubleshooting Article and VS2010 SP1 Change.

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• JMS Step 4 - How to Create an 11g BPEL Process Which Writes a Message Based on an XML Schema to a JMS Queue

  - by John-Brown.Evans

  JMS Step 4 - How to Create an 11g BPEL Process Which Writes a Message Based on an XML Schema to a JMS Queue ol{margin:0;padding:0} .c11_4{vertical-align:top;width:129.8pt;border-style:solid;background-color:#f3f3f3;border-color:#000000;border-width:1pt;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt} .c9_4{vertical-align:top;width:207pt;border-style:solid;background-color:#f3f3f3;border-color:#000000;border-width:1pt;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt}.c14{vertical-align:top;width:207pt;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000;border-width:1pt;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt} .c17_4{vertical-align:top;width:129.8pt;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000;border-width:1pt;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt} .c7_4{vertical-align:top;width:130pt;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000;border-width:1pt;padding:0pt 5pt 0pt 5pt} .c19_4{vertical-align:top;width:468pt;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000;border-width:1pt;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt} .c22_4{background-color:#ffffff} .c20_4{list-style-type:disc;margin:0;padding:0} .c6_4{font-size:8pt;font-family:"Courier New"} .c24_4{color:inherit;text-decoration:inherit} .c23_4{color:#1155cc;text-decoration:underline} .c0_4{height:11pt;direction:ltr} .c10_4{font-size:10pt;font-family:"Courier New"} .c3_4{padding-left:0pt;margin-left:36pt} .c18_4{font-size:8pt} .c8_4{text-align:center} .c12_4{background-color:#ffff00} .c2_4{font-weight:bold} .c21_4{background-color:#00ff00} .c4_4{line-height:1.0} .c1_4{direction:ltr} .c15_4{background-color:#f3f3f3} .c13_4{font-family:"Courier New"} .c5_4{font-style:italic} .c16_4{border-collapse:collapse} .title{padding-top:24pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#000000;font-size:36pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:bold;padding-bottom:6pt} .subtitle{padding-top:18pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#666666;font-style:italic;font-size:24pt;font-family:"Georgia";padding-bottom:4pt} li{color:#000000;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial"} p{color:#000000;font-size:10pt;margin:0;font-family:"Arial"} h1{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#888;font-size:18pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:normal;padding-bottom:0pt} h2{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#888;font-size:18pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:bold;padding-bottom:0pt} h3{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#888;font-size:14pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:normal;padding-bottom:0pt} h4{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#888;font-style:italic;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Arial";padding-bottom:0pt} h5{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#888;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:normal;padding-bottom:0pt} h6{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#888;font-style:italic;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial";padding-bottom:0pt} This post continues the series of JMS articles which demonstrate how to use JMS queues in a SOA context. The previous posts were: JMS Step 1 - How to Create a Simple JMS Queue in Weblogic Server 11g JMS Step 2 - Using the QueueSend.java Sample Program to Send a Message to a JMS Queue JMS Step 3 - Using the QueueReceive.java Sample Program to Read a Message from a JMS Queue In this example we will create a BPEL process which will write (enqueue) a message to a JMS queue using a JMS adapter. The JMS adapter will enqueue the full XML payload to the queue. This sample will use the following WebLogic Server objects. The first two, the Connection Factory and JMS Queue, were created as part of the first blog post in this series, JMS Step 1 - How to Create a Simple JMS Queue in Weblogic Server 11g. If you haven't created those objects yet, please see that post for details on how to do so. The Connection Pool will be created as part of this example. Object Name Type JNDI Name TestConnectionFactory Connection Factory jms/TestConnectionFactory TestJMSQueue JMS Queue jms/TestJMSQueue eis/wls/TestQueue Connection Pool eis/wls/TestQueue 1. Verify Connection Factory and JMS Queue As mentioned above, this example uses a WLS Connection Factory called TestConnectionFactory and a JMS queue TestJMSQueue. As these are prerequisites for this example, let us verify they exist. Log in to the WebLogic Server Administration Console. Select Services > JMS Modules > TestJMSModule You should see the following objects: If not, or if the TestJMSModule is missing, please see the abovementioned article and create these objects before continuing. 2. Create a JMS Adapter Connection Pool in WebLogic Server The BPEL process we are about to create uses a JMS adapter to write to the JMS queue. The JMS adapter is deployed to the WebLogic server and needs to be configured to include a connection pool which references the connection factory associated with the JMS queue. In the WebLogic Server Console Go to Deployments > Next and select (click on) the JmsAdapter Select Configuration > Outbound Connection Pools and expand oracle.tip.adapter.jms.IJmsConnectionFactory. This will display the list of connections configured for this adapter. For example, eis/aqjms/Queue, eis/aqjms/Topic etc. These JNDI names are actually quite confusing. We are expecting to configure a connection pool here, but the names refer to queues and topics. One would expect these to be called *ConnectionPool or *_CF or similar, but to conform to this nomenclature, we will call our entry eis/wls/TestQueue . This JNDI name is also the name we will use later, when creating a BPEL process to access this JMS queue! Select New, check the oracle.tip.adapter.jms.IJmsConnectionFactory check box and Next. Enter JNDI Name: eis/wls/TestQueue for the connection instance, then press Finish. Expand oracle.tip.adapter.jms.IJmsConnectionFactory again and select (click on) eis/wls/TestQueue The ConnectionFactoryLocation must point to the JNDI name of the connection factory associated with the JMS queue you will be writing to. In our example, this is the connection factory called TestConnectionFactory, with the JNDI name jms/TestConnectionFactory.( As a reminder, this connection factory is contained in the JMS Module called TestJMSModule, under Services > Messaging > JMS Modules > TestJMSModule which we verified at the beginning of this document. )Enter jms/TestConnectionFactory  into the Property Value field for Connection Factory Location. After entering it, you must press Return/Enter then Save for the value to be accepted. If your WebLogic server is running in Development mode, you should see the message that the changes have been activated and the deployment plan successfully updated. If not, then you will manually need to activate the changes in the WebLogic server console. Although the changes have been activated, the JmsAdapter needs to be redeployed in order for the changes to become effective. This should be confirmed by the message Remember to update your deployment to reflect the new plan when you are finished with your changes as can be seen in the following screen shot: The next step is to redeploy the JmsAdapter.Navigate back to the Deployments screen, either by selecting it in the left-hand navigation tree or by selecting the “Summary of Deployments” link in the breadcrumbs list at the top of the screen. Then select the checkbox next to JmsAdapter and press the Update button On the Update Application Assistant page, select “Redeploy this application using the following deployment files” and press Finish. After a few seconds you should get the message that the selected deployments were updated. The JMS adapter configuration is complete and it can now be used to access the JMS queue. To summarize: we have created a JMS adapter connection pool connector with the JNDI name jms/TestConnectionFactory. This is the JNDI name to be accessed by a process such as a BPEL process, when using the JMS adapter to access the previously created JMS queue with the JNDI name jms/TestJMSQueue. In the following step, we will set up a BPEL process to use this JMS adapter to write to the JMS queue. 3. Create a BPEL Composite with a JMS Adapter Partner Link This step requires that you have a valid Application Server Connection defined in JDeveloper, pointing to the application server on which you created the JMS Queue and Connection Factory. You can create this connection in JDeveloper under the Application Server Navigator. Give it any name and be sure to test the connection before completing it. This sample will use the connection name jbevans-lx-PS5, as that is the name of the connection pointing to my SOA PS5 installation. When using a JMS adapter from within a BPEL process, there are various configuration options, such as the operation type (consume message, produce message etc.), delivery mode and message type. One of these options is the choice of the format of the JMS message payload. This can be structured around an existing XSD, in which case the full XML element and tags are passed, or it can be opaque, meaning that the payload is sent as-is to the JMS adapter. In the case of an XSD-based message, the payload can simply be copied to the input variable of the JMS adapter. In the case of an opaque message, the JMS adapter’s input variable is of type base64binary. So the payload needs to be converted to base64 binary first. I will go into this in more detail in a later blog entry. This sample will pass a simple message to the adapter, based on the following simple XSD file, which consists of a single string element: stringPayload.xsd <?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252" ?> <xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://www.example.org" targetNamespace="http://www.example.org" elementFormDefault="qualified" <xsd:element name="exampleElement" type="xsd:string"> </xsd:element> </xsd:schema> The following steps are all executed in JDeveloper. The SOA project will be created inside a JDeveloper Application. If you do not already have an application to contain the project, you can create a new one via File > New > General > Generic Application. Give the application any name, for example JMSTests and, when prompted for a project name and type, call the project JmsAdapterWriteWithXsd and select SOA as the project technology type. If you already have an application, continue below. Create a SOA Project Create a new project and choose SOA Tier > SOA Project as its type. Name it JmsAdapterWriteSchema. When prompted for the composite type, choose Composite With BPEL Process. When prompted for the BPEL Process, name it JmsAdapterWriteSchema too and choose Synchronous BPEL Process as the template. This will create a composite with a BPEL process and an exposed SOAP service. Double-click the BPEL process to open and begin editing it. You should see a simple BPEL process with a Receive and Reply activity. As we created a default process without an XML schema, the input and output variables are simple strings. Create an XSD File An XSD file is required later to define the message format to be passed to the JMS adapter. In this step, we create a simple XSD file, containing a string variable and add it to the project. First select the xsd item in the left-hand navigation tree to ensure that the XSD file is created under that item. Select File > New > General > XML and choose XML Schema. Call it stringPayload.xsd and when the editor opens, select the Source view. then replace the contents with the contents of the stringPayload.xsd example above and save the file. You should see it under the xsd item in the navigation tree. Create a JMS Adapter Partner Link We will create the JMS adapter as a service at the composite level. If it is not already open, double-click the composite.xml file in the navigator to open it. From the Component Palette, drag a JMS adapter over onto the right-hand swim lane, under External References. This will start the JMS Adapter Configuration Wizard. Use the following entries: Service Name: JmsAdapterWrite Oracle Enterprise Messaging Service (OEMS): Oracle Weblogic JMS AppServer Connection: Use an existing application server connection pointing to the WebLogic server on which the above JMS queue and connection factory were created. You can use the “+” button to create a connection directly from the wizard, if you do not already have one. This example uses a connection called jbevans-lx-PS5. Adapter Interface > Interface: Define from operation and schema (specified later) Operation Type: Produce Message Operation Name: Produce_message Destination Name: Press the Browse button, select Destination Type: Queues, then press Search. Wait for the list to populate, then select the entry for TestJMSQueue , which is the queue created earlier. JNDI Name: The JNDI name to use for the JMS connection. This is probably the most important step in this exercise and the most common source of error. This is the JNDI name of the JMS adapter’s connection pool created in the WebLogic Server and which points to the connection factory. JDeveloper does not verify the value entered here. If you enter a wrong value, the JMS adapter won’t find the queue and you will get an error message at runtime, which is very difficult to trace. In our example, this is the value eis/wls/TestQueue . (See the earlier step on how to create a JMS Adapter Connection Pool in WebLogic Server for details.) MessagesURL: We will use the XSD file we created earlier, stringPayload.xsd to define the message format for the JMS adapter. Press the magnifying glass icon to search for schema files. Expand Project Schema Files > stringPayload.xsd and select exampleElement: string. Press Next and Finish, which will complete the JMS Adapter configuration. Wire the BPEL Component to the JMS Adapter In this step, we link the BPEL process/component to the JMS adapter. From the composite.xml editor, drag the right-arrow icon from the BPEL process to the JMS adapter’s in-arrow. This completes the steps at the composite level. 4. Complete the BPEL Process Design Invoke the JMS Adapter Open the BPEL component by double-clicking it in the design view of the composite.xml, or open it from the project navigator by selecting the JmsAdapterWriteSchema.bpel file. This will display the BPEL process in the design view. You should see the JmsAdapterWrite partner link under one of the two swim lanes. We want it in the right-hand swim lane. If JDeveloper displays it in the left-hand lane, right-click it and choose Display > Move To Opposite Swim Lane. An Invoke activity is required in order to invoke the JMS adapter. Drag an Invoke activity between the Receive and Reply activities. Drag the right-hand arrow from the Invoke activity to the JMS adapter partner link. This will open the Invoke editor. The correct default values are entered automatically and are fine for our purposes. We only need to define the input variable to use for the JMS adapter. By pressing the green “+” symbol, a variable of the correct type can be auto-generated, for example with the name Invoke1_Produce_Message_InputVariable. Press OK after creating the variable. ( For some reason, while I was testing this, the JMS Adapter moved back to the left-hand swim lane again after this step. There is no harm in leaving it there, but I find it easier to follow if it is in the right-hand lane, because I kind-of think of the message coming in on the left and being routed through the right. But you can follow your personal preference here.) Assign Variables Drag an Assign activity between the Receive and Invoke activities. We will simply copy the input variable to the JMS adapter and, for completion, so the process has an output to print, again to the process’s output variable. Double-click the Assign activity and create two Copy rules: for the first, drag Variables > inputVariable > payload > client:process > client:input_string to Invoke1_Produce_Message_InputVariable > body > ns2:exampleElement for the second, drag the same input variable to outputVariable > payload > client:processResponse > client:result This will create two copy rules, similar to the following: Press OK. This completes the BPEL and Composite design. 5. Compile and Deploy the Composite We won’t go into too much detail on how to compile and deploy. In JDeveloper, compile the process by pressing the Make or Rebuild icons or by right-clicking the project name in the navigator and selecting Make... or Rebuild... If the compilation is successful, deploy it to the SOA server connection defined earlier. (Right-click the project name in the navigator, select Deploy to Application Server, choose the application server connection, choose the partition on the server (usually default) and press Finish. You should see the message ---- Deployment finished. ---- in the Deployment frame, if the deployment was successful. 6. Test the Composite This is the exciting part. Open two tabs in your browser and log in to the WebLogic Administration Console in one tab and the Enterprise Manager 11g Fusion Middleware Control (EM) for your SOA installation in the other. We will use the Console to monitor the messages being written to the queue and the EM to execute the composite. In the Console, go to Services > Messaging > JMS Modules > TestJMSModule > TestJMSQueue > Monitoring. Note the number of messages under Messages Current. In the EM, go to SOA > soa-infra (soa_server1) > default (or wherever you deployed your composite to) and click on JmsAdapterWriteSchema [1.0], then press the Test button. Under Input Arguments, enter any string into the text input field for the payload, for example Test Message then press Test Web Service. If the instance is successful you should see the same text in the Response message, “Test Message”. In the Console, refresh the Monitoring screen to confirm a new message has been written to the queue. Check the checkbox and press Show Messages. Click on the newest message and view its contents. They should include the full XML of the entered payload. 7. Troubleshooting If you get an exception similar to the following at runtime ... BINDING.JCA-12510 JCA Resource Adapter location error. Unable to locate the JCA Resource Adapter via .jca binding file element The JCA Binding Component is unable to startup the Resource Adapter specified in the element: location='eis/wls/QueueTest'. The reason for this is most likely that either 1) the Resource Adapters RAR file has not been deployed successfully to the WebLogic Application server or 2) the '' element in weblogic-ra.xml has not been set to eis/wls/QueueTest. In the last case you will have to add a new WebLogic JCA connection factory (deploy a RAR). Please correct this and then restart the Application Server at oracle.integration.platform.blocks.adapter.fw.AdapterBindingException. createJndiLookupException(AdapterBindingException.java:130) at oracle.integration.platform.blocks.adapter.fw.jca.cci. JCAConnectionManager$JCAConnectionPool.createJCAConnectionFactory (JCAConnectionManager.java:1387) at oracle.integration.platform.blocks.adapter.fw.jca.cci. JCAConnectionManager$JCAConnectionPool.newPoolObject (JCAConnectionManager.java:1285) ... then this is very likely due to an incorrect JNDI name entered for the JMS Connection in the JMS Adapter Wizard. Recheck those steps. The error message prints the name of the JNDI name used. In this example, it was incorrectly entered as eis/wls/QueueTest instead of eis/wls/TestQueue. This concludes this example. Best regards John-Brown Evans Oracle Technology Proactive Support Delivery

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• Session memory – who’s this guy named Max and what’s he doing with my memory?

  - by extended_events

  SQL Server MVP Jonathan Kehayias (blog) emailed me a question last week when he noticed that the total memory used by the buffers for an event session was larger than the value he specified for the MAX_MEMORY option in the CREATE EVENT SESSION DDL. The answer here seems like an excellent subject for me to kick-off my new “401 – Internals” tag that identifies posts where I pull back the curtains a bit and let you peek into what’s going on inside the extended events engine. In a previous post (Option Trading: Getting the most out of the event session options) I explained that we use a set of buffers to store the event data before  we write the event data to asynchronous targets. The MAX_MEMORY along with the MEMORY_PARTITION_MODE defines how big each buffer will be. Theoretically, that means that I can predict the size of each buffer using the following formula: max memory / # of buffers = buffer size If it was that simple I wouldn’t be writing this post. I’ll take “boundary” for 64K Alex For a number of reasons that are beyond the scope of this blog, we create event buffers in 64K chunks. The result of this is that the buffer size indicated by the formula above is rounded up to the next 64K boundary and that is the size used to create the buffers. If you think visually, this means that the graph of your max_memory option compared to the actual buffer size that results will look like a set of stairs rather than a smooth line. You can see this behavior by looking at the output of dm_xe_sessions, specifically the fields related to the buffer sizes, over a range of different memory inputs: Note: This test was run on a 2 core machine using per_cpu partitioning which results in 5 buffers. (Seem my previous post referenced above for the math behind buffer count.) input_memory_kb total_regular_buffers regular_buffer_size total_buffer_size 637 5 130867 654335 638 5 130867 654335 639 5 130867 654335 640 5 196403 982015 641 5 196403 982015 642 5 196403 982015 This is just a segment of the results that shows one of the “jumps” between the buffer boundary at 639 KB and 640 KB. You can verify the size boundary by doing the math on the regular_buffer_size field, which is returned in bytes: 196403 – 130867 = 65536 bytes 65536 / 1024 = 64 KB The relationship between the input for max_memory and when the regular_buffer_size is going to jump from one 64K boundary to the next is going to change based on the number of buffers being created. The number of buffers is dependent on the partition mode you choose. If you choose any partition mode other than NONE, the number of buffers will depend on your hardware configuration. (Again, see the earlier post referenced above.) With the default partition mode of none, you always get three buffers, regardless of machine configuration, so I generated a “range table” for max_memory settings between 1 KB and 4096 KB as an example. start_memory_range_kb end_memory_range_kb total_regular_buffers regular_buffer_size total_buffer_size 1 191 NULL NULL NULL 192 383 3 130867 392601 384 575 3 196403 589209 576 767 3 261939 785817 768 959 3 327475 982425 960 1151 3 393011 1179033 1152 1343 3 458547 1375641 1344 1535 3 524083 1572249 1536 1727 3 589619 1768857 1728 1919 3 655155 1965465 1920 2111 3 720691 2162073 2112 2303 3 786227 2358681 2304 2495 3 851763 2555289 2496 2687 3 917299 2751897 2688 2879 3 982835 2948505 2880 3071 3 1048371 3145113 3072 3263 3 1113907 3341721 3264 3455 3 1179443 3538329 3456 3647 3 1244979 3734937 3648 3839 3 1310515 3931545 3840 4031 3 1376051 4128153 4032 4096 3 1441587 4324761 As you can see, there are 21 “steps” within this range and max_memory values below 192 KB fall below the 64K per buffer limit so they generate an error when you attempt to specify them. Max approximates True as memory approaches 64K The upshot of this is that the max_memory option does not imply a contract for the maximum memory that will be used for the session buffers (Those of you who read Take it to the Max (and beyond) know that max_memory is really only referring to the event session buffer memory.) but is more of an estimate of total buffer size to the nearest higher multiple of 64K times the number of buffers you have. The maximum delta between your initial max_memory setting and the true total buffer size occurs right after you break through a 64K boundary, for example if you set max_memory = 576 KB (see the green line in the table), your actual buffer size will be closer to 767 KB in a non-partitioned event session. You get “stepped up” for every 191 KB block of initial max_memory which isn’t likely to cause a problem for most machines. Things get more interesting when you consider a partitioned event session on a computer that has a large number of logical CPUs or NUMA nodes. Since each buffer gets “stepped up” when you break a boundary, the delta can get much larger because it’s multiplied by the number of buffers. For example, a machine with 64 logical CPUs will have 160 buffers using per_cpu partitioning or if you have 8 NUMA nodes configured on that machine you would have 24 buffers when using per_node. If you’ve just broken through a 64K boundary and get “stepped up” to the next buffer size you’ll end up with total buffer size approximately 10240 KB and 1536 KB respectively (64K * # of buffers) larger than max_memory value you might think you’re getting. Using per_cpu partitioning on large machine has the most impact because of the large number of buffers created. If the amount of memory being used by your system within these ranges is important to you then this is something worth paying attention to and considering when you configure your event sessions. The DMV dm_xe_sessions is the tool to use to identify the exact buffer size for your sessions. In addition to the regular buffers (read: event session buffers) you’ll also see the details for large buffers if you have configured MAX_EVENT_SIZE. The “buffer steps” for any given hardware configuration should be static within each partition mode so if you want to have a handy reference available when you configure your event sessions you can use the following code to generate a range table similar to the one above that is applicable for your specific machine and chosen partition mode. DECLARE @buf_size_output table (input_memory_kb bigint, total_regular_buffers bigint, regular_buffer_size bigint, total_buffer_size bigint) DECLARE @buf_size int, @part_mode varchar(8) SET @buf_size = 1 -- Set to the begining of your max_memory range (KB) SET @part_mode = 'per_cpu' -- Set to the partition mode for the table you want to generate WHILE @buf_size <= 4096 -- Set to the end of your max_memory range (KB) BEGIN     BEGIN TRY         IF EXISTS (SELECT * from sys.server_event_sessions WHERE name = 'buffer_size_test')             DROP EVENT SESSION buffer_size_test ON SERVER         DECLARE @session nvarchar(max)         SET @session = 'create event session buffer_size_test on server                         add event sql_statement_completed                         add target ring_buffer                         with (max_memory = ' + CAST(@buf_size as nvarchar(4)) + ' KB, memory_partition_mode = ' + @part_mode + ')'         EXEC sp_executesql @session         SET @session = 'alter event session buffer_size_test on server                         state = start'         EXEC sp_executesql @session         INSERT @buf_size_output (input_memory_kb, total_regular_buffers, regular_buffer_size, total_buffer_size)             SELECT @buf_size, total_regular_buffers, regular_buffer_size, total_buffer_size FROM sys.dm_xe_sessions WHERE name = 'buffer_size_test'     END TRY     BEGIN CATCH         INSERT @buf_size_output (input_memory_kb)             SELECT @buf_size     END CATCH     SET @buf_size = @buf_size + 1 END DROP EVENT SESSION buffer_size_test ON SERVER SELECT MIN(input_memory_kb) start_memory_range_kb, MAX(input_memory_kb) end_memory_range_kb, total_regular_buffers, regular_buffer_size, total_buffer_size from @buf_size_output group by total_regular_buffers, regular_buffer_size, total_buffer_size Thanks to Jonathan for an interesting question and a chance to explore some of the details of Extended Event internals. - Mike

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• Open Data, Government and Transparency

  - by Tori Wieldt

  A new track at TDC (The Developer's Conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil) is titled Open Data. It deals with open data, government and transparency. Saturday will be a "transparency hacker day" where developers are invited to create applications using open data from the Brazilian government.  Alexandre Gomes, co-lead of the track, says "I want to inspire developers to become "Civic hackers:" developers who create apps to make society better." It is a chance for developers to do well and do good. There are many opportunities for developers, including monitoring government expenditures and getting citizens involved via social networks. The open data movement is growing worldwide. One initiative, the Open Government Partnership, is working to make government data easier to find and access. Making this data easily available means that with the right applications, it will be easier for people to make decisions and suggestions about government policies based on detailed information. Last April, the Open Government Partnership held its annual meeting in Brasilia, the capitol of Brazil. It was a great success showcasing the innovative work being done in open data by governments, civil societies and individuals around the world. For example, Bulgaria now publishes daily data on budget spending for all public institutions. Alexandre Gomes Explains Open Data At TDC, the Open Data track will include a presentation of examples of successful open data projects, an introduction to the semantic web, how to handle big data sets, techniques of data visualization, and how to design APIs.The other track lead is Christian Moryah Miranda, a systems analyst for the Brazilian Government's Ministry of Planning. "The Brazilian government wholeheartedly supports this effort. In order to make our data available to the public, it forces us to be more consistent with our data across ministries, and that's a good step forward for us," he said. He explained the government knows they cannot achieve everything they would like without help from the public. "It is not the government versus the people, rather citizens are partners with the government, and together we can achieve great things!" Miranda exclaimed. Saturday at TDC will be a "transparency hacker day" where developers will be invited to create applications using open data from the Brazilian government. Attendees are invited to pitch their ideas, work in small groups, and present their project at the end of the conference. "For example," Gomes said, "the Brazilian government just released the salaries of all government employees and I can't wait to see what developers can do with that." Resources Open Government Partnership  U.S. Government Open Data ProjectBrazilian Government Open Data ProjectU.K. Government Open Data Project 2012 International Open Government Data Conference 

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• Stackify Aims to Put More ‘Dev’ in ‘DevOps’

  - by Matt Watson

  Originally published on VisualStudioMagazine.com on 8/22/2012 by Keith Ward.The Kansas City-based startup wants to make it easier for developers to examine the network stack and find problems in code.The first part of “DevOps” is “Dev”. But according to Matt Watson, Devs aren’t connected enough with Ops, and it’s time that changed.He founded the startup company Stackify earlier this year to do something about it. Stackify gives developers unprecedented access to the IT side of the equation, Watson says, without putting additional burden on the system and network administrators who ultimately ensure the health of the environment.“We need a product designed for developers, with the goal of getting them more involved in operations and app support. Now, there’s next to nothing designed for developers,” Watson says. Stackify allows developers to search the network stack to troubleshoot problems in their software that might otherwise take days of coordination between development and IT teams to solve.Stackify allows developers to search log files, configuration files, databases and other infrastructure to locate errors. A key to this is that the developers are normally granted read-only access, soothing admin fears that developers will upload bad code to their servers.Implementation starts with data collection on the servers. Among the information gleaned is application discovery, server monitoring, file access, and other data collection, according to Stackify’s Web site. Watson confirmed that Stackify works seamlessly with virtualized environments as well.Although the data collection software must be installed on Windows servers, it can monitor both Windows and Linux servers. Once collection’s finished, developers have the kind of information they need, without causing heartburn for the IT staff.Stackify is a 100 percent cloud-based service. The company uses Windows Azure for hosting, a decision Watson’s happy with. With Azure, he says, “It’s nice to have all the dev tools like cache and table storage.” Although there have been a few glitches here and there with the service, it’s run very smoothly for the most part, he adds.Stackify is currently in a closed beta, with a public release scheduled for October. Watson says that pricing is expected to be $25 per month, per server, with volume discounts available. He adds that the target audience is companies with at least five developers.Watson founded Stackify after selling his last company, VinSolutions, to AutoTrader.com for “close to $150 million”, according to press accounts. Watson has since  founded the Watson Technology Group, which focuses on angel investing.About the Author: Keith Ward is the editor in chief of Visual Studio Magazine.

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• Next Phase of ECM 11g Now Available - New UCM & URM 11g, & Updated I/PM & IRM 11g

  - by michelle.huff

  We're excited to announce that the Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite 11g is now available! Today, Oracle announced ECM Suite 11g, a part of Fusion Middleware 11gR1 Patchset 2 release, which builds upon the Imaging and Process Management (I/PM) and Information Rights Management (IRM) 11g release earlier this year. Universal Content Management (UCM) and Universal Records Management (URM) 11g are now available with many new features and enhancements. All ECM products are localized into 27 languages, use a single repository, a single installer, centralized administration, and all run on the same Fusion Middleware tech stack. Oracle ECM Suite 11g, is better integrated to fit the way you work, with extreme performance and extreme scalability. Universal Content Management One click Web content management - brings Web content management authoring, design and presentation capabilities directly into how organizations design sites, portals, and custom Web applications. Simply take in the right amount of WCM that meets your needs - all without having to rewrite the application or port it over to a new technology stack or framework. Greater business user empowerment - with next generation desktop integrations and "smart productivity folders", new Web site "design mode" for business users, and enhanced rich media support enabling users to better work with photography, graphics, videos & podcasts created today as well as contribute content within Flash files directly from the Web. Advanced manageability with extreme performance & scalability - centralized system monitoring, installation, logging, performance metrics & diagnostics, with new built in "fast check-in" features, redesigned component management interface - all running on Fusion Middleware infrastructure. Universal Records Management Enhanced user experience: Oracle URM 11g makes records management easier for both business users and records administrators. Simplifications in the end user experience allow the creation of bookmarks into often-used part of the file plan, easy copying of categories and dispositions, and integrated folder and records search. The records management dashboard provides a consolidated view into records administrator tasks and system performance. DoD 5015.02 v3: Oracle URM is fully certified against all part of the US Department of Defense records management standard - baseline, classified, and Freedom of Information and Privacy Act. This enables Federal, state, & local governments & public agencies, as well as private companies, to maintain regulated compliance. Expanded functionality through Oracle integrations: Oracle URM 11g allows for an expanded set of functionality through integration capabilities with other Oracle products. This includes configurable records definition capabilities directly within a UCM instance. An out of the box integration with Oracle BI Publisher provides easily configured and robust reporting. Additionally, 11g offers an out of the box Oracle Secure Enterprise Search integration enabling real time full text discovery across disparate systems in an organization. Read the Press Release Watch the 3 Minute ECM 11g Video Get Up to Speed with the What's New in ECM Suite Datasheet Learn More on OTN with new tutorials, downloads and whitepapers

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• Flashing your Windows Phone Dummies

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  The rate at which vendors release new updates for the HD2 is ridiculously slow. You have to wait for Microsoft to release the new OS, then you wait for HTC to build it into a ROM, and then you have to wait up to 6 months for your operator to badly customise it for their network. Once Windows Phone 7 is released this problem should go away as Microsoft is likely to be able to update the phone over the air, but what do we do until then? I want Windows Mobile 6.5.5 now!   I’m an early adopter. If there is a new version of something then that’s the version I want. As long as you accept that you are using something on a “let the early adopter beware” and accept that there may be bugs, sometimes serious crippling bugs the go for it. Note that I won't be responsible if you end up bricking your phone, unlocking or flashing your radio or ROM can be risky. If you follow the instructions then you should be fine, I've flashed my phones (SPV, M300, M1000, M2000, M3100, TyTN, TyTN 2, HD2) hundreds of times without any problems! I have been using Windows Mobile 6.5.5 before it was called 6.5.5 and for long enough that I don’t even remember when I first started using it. I was using it on my HTC TyTN 2 before I got an HD2 a couple of months before Christmas, and the first custom ROM’s for the HD2 were a couple of months after that. I always update to the latest ROM that I like, and occasionally I go back to the stock ROM’s to have a look see, but I am always disappointed. Terms: Soft Reset: Same as pulling out the battery, but is like a reboot for your phone Hard Reset: Reinstalls the Operating system from the Image that is stored on it ROM: This is Image that is loaded onto your phone and it is used to reinstall your phone whenever you do a “hard reset”. Stock ROM: A ROM from the original vendor… So HTC Cook a ROM: Referring to Cooking a ROM is the process a ROM developer goes through to take all of the parts (OS, Drivers and Applications) that make up a running phone and compiling them into a ROM. ROM Kitchen: A place where you get an SDK and all the component parts of the phone: OD, Drivers and Application. There are usually lots of Tools for making it easier to compile and build the image. Flashing: The process of updating one of the layers of your phone with a new layer Bricked: This is what happens when flashing goes wrong. Your phone is now good for only one thing… stopping paper blowing away in a windy place. You can “cook” you own ROM using one of the many good “ROM Kitchens” or you can use a ROM built and tested by someone else. I have cooked my own ROM before, and while the tutorials are good, it is a lot of hassle. You can only Flash new ROM’s that are specifically for your phone only so find a ROM for your phone and XDA Developers is the best place to look. It has a forum based structure and you can find your phone quite easily. XDA Developer Forum Installing a new ROM does have its risks. In the past there have been stories about phones being “bricked” but I have not heard of a bricked phone for quite some years. if you follow the instructions carefully you should not have any problems. note: Most of the tools are written by people for whom English is not their first language to you will need concentrate hard to understand some of the instructions. Have you ever read a manual that was just literally translated from another language? Enough said… There are a number of layers on your phone that you will need to know about: SPL: This is the lowest level, like a BIOS on a PC and is the Operating Systems gateway to the hardware Radio: I think of this as the hardware drivers, and you will need a different Radio for CDMA than GSM networks ROM: This is like your Windows CD, but it is stored internally to the Phone. Flashing your phone consists of replacing one Image with another and then wiping your phone and automatically reinstall from the Image. Sometimes when you download an Image wither it is for a Radio or for ROM you only get a file called *.nbh. What do you do with this? Well you need an RUU application to push that Image to your phone. The RUU’s are different per phone, but there is a CustomRUU for the HD2 that will update your phone with any *.nbh placed in the same directory. Download and Instructions for CustomRUU #1 Flash HardSPL An SPL is kind of like a BIOS, and the default one has checks to make sure that you are only installing a signed ROM. This would prevent you from installing one that comes from any other source but the vendor. NOTE: Installing a HARD SPL invalidates your warranty so remember to Flash your phone with a “stock” vendor ROM before trying to send your phone in for repairs. Is the warranty reinstated when you go back to a stock ROM? I don’t know… Updating your SPL to a HardSPL effectively unlocks your phone so you can install anything you like. I would recommend the HardSPL2. Download and Instructions for HardSPL2 #2 Task29 One of the problems that has been seen on the HD2 when flashing new ROM’s is that things are left over from the old ROM. For a while the recommendation was to Flash a stock ROM first, but some clever cookies have come up with “Task29” which formats your phone first. After running this your phone will be blank and will only boot to the white HTC logo and no further. You should follow the instructions and reboot (remove battery) and hold down the “volume down” button while turning you HD2 on to enter the bootloader. From here you can run CustomRUU once the USB message appears. Download and Instructions for Task29 #2 Flash Radio You may need to play around with this one, there is no good and bad version and the latest is not always the best. You know that annoying thing when you hit “end call” on your phone and nothing happens? Well that's down to the Radio. Get this version right for you and you may even be able to make calls. From a Windows Mobile as well Download There are no instructions here, but they are the same as th ROM, but you use this *.nbh file. #3 Flash ROM If you have gotten this far then you are probably a pro by now Just download the latest ROM below and Flash to your phone. I have been really impressed by the Artemis line of ROM’s but it is no way the only choice. I like this one as the developer builds them as close to the stock ROM as possible while updating to the latest of everything. Download and Instructions for  Artemis HD2 vXX Conclusion While updating your ROM is not for the faint hearted it provides more options than the Stock ROM’s and quicker feature updates than waiting… Technorati Tags: WM6

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• Oracle collaborates with leading IT vendors on Cloud Management Standards

  - by Anand Akela

  During the last couple of days, two key specifications for cloud management standards have been announced. Oracle collaborated with leading technology vendors from the IT industry on both of these cloud management specifications. One of the specifications focuses "Infrastructure as a Service" ( IaaS )  cloud service model , while the other specification announced today focuses on "Platform as a Service" ( PaaS ) cloud service model. Please see The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing to learn more about IaaS and PaaS . Earlier today Oracle , CloudBees, Cloudsoft, Huawei, Rackspace, Red Hat, and Software AG   announced the Cloud Application Management for Platforms (CAMP) specification that will be submitted to Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) for development of an industry standard, in an effort to help ensure interoperability for deploying and managing applications across cloud environments.  Typical PaaS architecture - Source : CAMP specification The CAMP specification defines the artifacts and APIs that need to be offered by a PaaS cloud to manage the building, running, administration, monitoring and patching of applications in the cloud. Its purpose is to enable interoperability among self-service interfaces to PaaS clouds by defining artifacts and formats that can be used with any conforming cloud and enable independent vendors to create tools and services that interact with any conforming cloud using the defined interfaces. Cloud vendors can use these interfaces to develop new PaaS offerings that will interact with independently developed tools and components. In a separate cloud standards announcement yesterday, the Distributed Management Task Force ( DMTF ), the organization bringing the IT industry together to collaborate on systems management standards development, validation, promotion and adoption, released the new Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface (CIMI) specification. Oracle collaborated with various technology vendors and industry organizations on this specification. CIMI standardizes interactions between cloud environments to achieve interoperable cloud infrastructure management between service providers and their consumers and developers, enabling users to manage their cloud infrastructure use easily and without complexity. DMTF developed CIMI as a self-service interface for infrastructure clouds ( IaaS focus ) , allowing users to dynamically provision, configure and administer their cloud usage with a high-level interface that greatly simplifies cloud systems management. Mark Carlson, Principal Cloud Strategist at Oracle provides more details about CAMP  and CIMI his blog . Stay Connected: Twitter |  Face book |  You Tube |  Linked in |  Newsletter

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• Invitación a evento de Oracle sobre Transformación del CPD

  - by Eloy M. Rodríguez

  Ahora que se acaba el año y se van dejando atrás los últimos empujones a los temas que hay que cerrar, es un buen momento para hacer un pequeño alto en el camino y asistir a este evento que organiza Oracle y reflexionar sobre los enfoques innovadores que se plantean ya que la actual situación reclama actuaciones diferentes y, a veces, el árbol tapa al bosque. Adjunto la invitación oficial, con la agenda y acceso al registro automático.. Oracle Transformación del Centro de Datos: Acelerando la adopción eficaz de la Cloud Transformación del Centro de Datos: Acelerando la adopción eficaz de la Cloud Únase a nosotros en el evento Transformación del Centro de Datos y descubra cómo implementar un centro de datos que esté diseñado para promover la innovación, ofreciendo un mayor rendimiento y fiabilidad, simplificando la gestión y reduciendo significativamente los costes. Venga a conocer los últimas novedades tecnológicas aplicables a su negocio que Oracle acaba de anunciar en Oracle Open World, su conferencia mundial por excelencia, como el Supercluster, el nuevo procesador T4 y las soluciones de Storage Pillar. Sólo Oracle diseña hardware y software, para que estos trabajen conjuntamente desde las aplicaciones al disco, lo que permite reducir la complejidad, impulsar la productividad en toda la empresa y acelerar la innovación empresarial. Únase a nosotros para descubrir cómo transformar su centro de datos para maximizar la eficacia y restablecer IT como una ventaja competitiva del negocio de su empresa. Comparta ideas y experiencias con los mejores expertos y ejecutivos y descubra como: Acelerar la transformación del centro de datos a través de la tecnología que proporciona un rendimiento espectacular y una mayor eficiencia Reducir costes, acelerar y simplificar el despliegue y la consolidación de bases de datos y aplicaciones Optimizar el rendimiento a través de la utilización de los productos Oracle con la tecnología de virtualización incorporada sin coste adicional Minimizar el riesgo durante los despliegues de cloud empresarial con el apoyo de los productos líderes del mercado en materia de seguridad Aumentar la productividad y responder rápidamente a los cambios del mercado con las soluciones optimizadas de Oracle Transforme su centro de datos para optimizar el rendimiento, incrementar la agilidad de su negocio y maximizar sus inversiones en IT. No deje pasar esta oportunidad e inscríbase hoy mismo a este evento que tendrá lugar el próximo 14 de diciembre en Madrid. Inscríbase hoy mismo Para más información, contacte con [email protected] Inscríbase ahora 14 de diciembre de 2011 09:00 - 16:00 CÍRCULO DE BELLAS ARTES DE MADRID C/ Alcalá, 42 28014 MadridEntrada por c/ Marqués de Casa Riera Programa 09:00 Registro 09:30 Bienvenida e IntroducciónJoão Taron, Vice-President & Hardware Leader, Oracle Iberia 09:45 Estrategia OracleGerhard Schlabschi, Business Development Director, Oracle Systems EMEA 10:20 Como transformar su centro de datos eficazmente Manuel Vidal, Director Systems Presales, Oracle Iberia 10:45 Caso de Éxito 11:15 Café 11:45 Consolidacion en Private Cloud Rendimiento extremo con Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud & Exadata Lisa Martinez,Business Development Manager, Oracle  Aceleración de las aplicaciones empresariales con SPARC SuperClusters y servidores empresariales T4                                     Carlos Soler Ibanez, Principal Sales Consultant, Oracle 13:15 Almuerzo 14:15 Optimización del Centro de Datos Cómo maximizar el potencial de su infrastructura con sistemas virtualizados de Oracle Javier Cerrada, Senior Sales Consultant, Oracle Optimización de los recursos de almacenamiento con Data Tiering Miguel Angel Borrega, Storage Architect, Oracle 15:00 Gestión del Centro de Datos Oracle Solaris 11                                                                             Javier Cerrada, Senior Sales Consultant, Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c                                                                     Jesus Robles, Master Principal Sales Consultant, Oracle 15:45 Preguntas & respuestas 16:00 Conversaciones con sus interlocutores de Oracle & sorteo de iPAD If you are an employee or official of a government organization, please click here for important ethics information regarding this event. Copyright © 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Contacte con nosotros | Notas Legales y | Política de Privacidad

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• Announcing Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite 11g

  - by [email protected]

  Today Oracle announced Oracle Enterprise Content Management Suite 11g. This is a major release for us, and reinforces our three key themes at Oracle: Complete New in this release - Oracle ECM Suite 11g is built on a single, unified repository. Every piece of content - documents, HTML pages, digital assets, scanned images - is stored and accessbile directly from the repository, whether you are working on websites, creating brand logos, processing accounts payable invoices, or running records and retention functions. It makes complete, end-to-end management of content possible, from the point it enters the organization, through its entire lifecycle. Also new in this release, the installation, access, monitoring and administration of Oracle ECM Suite 11g is centralized. As a complete system, organizations can lower the costs of training and usage by having a centralized source of information that is easily administered. As part of this new unified repository release, Oracle has released a benchmarking white paper that shows the extreme performance and scalability of Oracle ECM Suite. When tested on a two node UCM Server running on Sun Oracle DB Machine Half Rack Hardware with an Exadata storage server, Oracle ECM Suite 11g is able to ingest over 178 million documents per day. Open Oracle ECM Suite 11g is built on a service-oriented architecture. All functions are available through standards-based services calls in Web Services or Java. In this release Oracle unveils Open Web Content Management. Open Web Content Management is a revolutionary approach to web content management that decouples the content management process from the process of creating web applications. One piece of this approach is our one-click web content management. With one click, a web application builder can drag content services into their application, enabling their users to also edit content with just one click. Open Web Content Management is also open because it enables Web developers to add Web content management to new and existing JavaServer Pages (JSP), JavaServer Faces (JSF) and Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) Faces applications Open content distribution - Oracle ECM Suite 11g offers flexible deployment options with a built-in smart cache so organizations can deliver Web sites or Web applications without requiring Oracle ECM Suite as part of the delivery system Integrated Oracle ECM Suite 11g also offers a series of next generation desktop integrations, providing integrations such as: New MS Office integration with menus to access managed content, insert managed links, and compare managed documents using standard MS Office reviewing tools Automatic identity tagging of documents on download - to help users understand which versions they are viewing and prevent duplicate content items in the content repository. New "smart productivity folders" to show a users workflow inbox, saved searches and checked out content directly from Windows Explorer Drag and drop metadata pop-ups Check in and check out for all file formats with any standard WebDAV server As part of Oracle's Enterprise Application Documents initiative, Oracle Content Management 11g also provides certified application integrations with solution templates You can read the press release here. You can see more assets at the launch center here. You can sign up for the announcement webinar and hear more about the new features here. You can read the benchmarking study here.

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