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• Communication Between Your PC and Azure VM via Windows Azure Connect

  - by Shaun

  With the new release of the Windows Azure platform there are a lot of new features available. In my previous post I introduced a little bit about one of them, the remote desktop access to azure virtual machine. Now I would like to talk about another cool stuff – Windows Azure Connect.   What’s Windows Azure Connect I would like to quote the definition of the Windows Azure Connect in MSDN With Windows Azure Connect, you can use a simple user interface to configure IP-sec protected connections between computers or virtual machines (VMs) in your organization’s network, and roles running in Windows Azure. IP-sec protects communications over Internet Protocol (IP) networks through the use of cryptographic security services. There’s an image available at the MSDN as well that I would like to forward here As we can see, using the Windows Azure Connect the Worker Role 1 and Web Role 1 are connected with the development machines and database servers which some of them are inside the organization some are not. With the Windows Azure Connect, the roles deployed on the cloud could consume the resource which located inside our Intranet or anywhere in the world. That means the roles can connect to the local database, access the local shared resource such as share files, folders and printers, etc.   Difference between Windows Azure Connect and AppFabric It seems that the Windows Azure Connect are duplicated with the Windows Azure AppFabric. Both of them are aiming to solve the problem on how to communication between the resource in the cloud and inside the local network. The table below lists the differences in my understanding. Category Windows Azure Connect Windows Azure AppFabric Purpose An IP-sec connection between the local machines and azure roles. An application service running on the cloud. Connectivity IP-sec, Domain-joint Net Tcp, Http, Https Components Windows Azure Connect Driver Service Bus, Access Control, Caching Usage Azure roles connect to local database server Azure roles use local shared files,  folders and printers, etc. Azure roles join the local AD. Expose the local service to Internet. Move the authorization process to the cloud. Integrate with existing identities such as Live ID, Google ID, etc. with existing local services. Utilize the distributed cache.   And also some scenarios on which of them should be used. Scenario Connect AppFabric I have a service deployed in the Intranet and I want the people can use it from the Internet.   Y I have a website deployed on Azure and need to use a database which deployed inside the company. And I don’t want to expose the database to the Internet. Y   I have a service deployed in the Intranet and is using AD authorization. I have a website deployed on Azure which needs to use this service. Y   I have a service deployed in the Intranet and some people on the Internet can use it but need to be authorized and authenticated.   Y I have a service in Intranet, and a website deployed on Azure. This service can be used from Internet and that website should be able to use it as well by AD authorization for more functionalities. Y Y   How to Enable Windows Azure Connect OK we talked a lot information about the Windows Azure Connect and differences with the Windows Azure AppFabric. Now let’s see how to enable and use the Windows Azure Connect. First of all, since this feature is in CTP stage we should apply before use it. On the Windows Azure Portal we can see our CTP features status under Home, Beta Program page. You can send the apply to join the Beta Programs to Microsoft in this page. After a few days the Microsoft will send an email to you (the email of your Live ID) when it’s available. In my case we can see that the Windows Azure Connect had been activated by Microsoft and then we can click the Connect button on top, or we can click the Virtual Network item from the left navigation bar.   The first thing we need, if it’s our first time to enter the Connect page, is to enable the Windows Azure Connect. After that we can see our Windows Azure Connect information in this page.   Add a Local Machine to Azure Connect As we explained below the Windows Azure Connect can make an IP-sec connection between the local machines and azure role instances. So that we firstly add a local machine into our Azure Connect. To do this we will click the Install Local Endpoint button on top and then the portal will give us an URL. Copy this URL to the machine we want to add and it will download the software to us. This software will be installed in the local machines which we want to join the Connect. After installed there will be a tray-icon appeared to indicate this machine had been joint our Connect. The local application will be refreshed to the Windows Azure Platform every 5 minutes but we can click the Refresh button to let it retrieve the latest status at once. Currently my local machine is ready for connect and we can see my machine in the Windows Azure Portal if we switched back to the portal and selected back Activated Endpoints node.   Add a Windows Azure Role to Azure Connect Let’s create a very simple azure project with a basic ASP.NET web role inside. To make it available on Windows Azure Connect we will open the azure project property of this role from the solution explorer in the Visual Studio, and select the Virtual Network tab, check the Activate Windows Azure Connect. The next step is to get the activation token from the Windows Azure Portal. In the same page there is a button named Get Activation Token. Click this button then the portal will display the token to me. We copied this token and pasted to the box in the Visual Studio tab. Then we deployed this application to azure. After completed the deployment we can see the role instance was listed in the Windows Azure Portal - Virtual Connect section.   Establish the Connect Group The final task is to create a connect group which contains the machines and role instances need to be connected each other. This can be done in the portal very easy. The machines and instances will NOT be connected until we created the group for them. The machines and instances can be used in one or more groups. In the Virtual Connect section click the Groups and Roles node from the left side navigation bar and clicked the Create Group button on top. This will bring up a dialog to us. What we need to do is to specify a group name, description; and then we need to select the local computers and azure role instances into this group. After the Azure Fabric updated the group setting we can see the groups and the endpoints in the page. And if we switch back to the local machine we can see that the tray-icon have been changed and the status turned connected. The Windows Azure Connect will update the group information every 5 minutes. If you find the status was still in Disconnected please right-click the tray-icon and select the Refresh menu to retrieve the latest group policy to make it connected.   Test the Azure Connect between the Local Machine and the Azure Role Instance Now our local machine and azure role instance had been connected. This means each of them can communication to others in IP level. For example we can open the SQL Server port so that our azure role can connect to it by using the machine name or the IP address. The Windows Azure Connect uses IPv6 to connect between the local machines and role instances. You can get the IP address from the Windows Azure Portal Virtual Network section when select an endpoint. I don’t want to take a full example for how to use the Connect but would like to have two very simple tests. The first one would be PING.   When a local machine and role instance are connected through the Windows Azure Connect we can PING any of them if we opened the ICMP protocol in the Filewall setting. To do this we need to run a command line before test. Open the command window on the local machine and the role instance, execute the command as following netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="ICMPv6" dir=in action=allow enable=yes protocol=icmpv6 Thanks to Jason Chen, Patriek van Dorp, Anton Staykov and Steve Marx, they helped me to enable  the ICMPv6 setting. For the full discussion we made please visit here. You can use the Remote Desktop Access feature to logon the azure role instance. Please refer my previous blog post to get to know how to use the Remote Desktop Access in Windows Azure. Then we can PING the machine or the role instance by specifying its name. Below is the screen I PING my local machine from my azure instance. We can use the IPv6 address to PING each other as well. Like the image following I PING to my role instance from my local machine thought the IPv6 address.   Another example I would like to demonstrate here is folder sharing. I shared a folder in my local machine and then if we logged on the role instance we can see the folder content from the file explorer window.   Summary In this blog post I introduced about another new feature – Windows Azure Connect. With this feature our local resources and role instances (virtual machines) can be connected to each other. In this way we can make our azure application using our local stuff such as database servers, printers, etc. without expose them to Internet.   Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

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• What's up with LDoms: Part 1 - Introduction & Basic Concepts

  - by Stefan Hinker

  LDoms - the correct name is Oracle VM Server for SPARC - have been around for quite a while now.  But to my surprise, I get more and more requests to explain how they work or to give advise on how to make good use of them.  This made me think that writing up a few articles discussing the different features would be a good idea.  Now - I don't intend to rewrite the LDoms Admin Guide or to copy and reformat the (hopefully) well known "Beginners Guide to LDoms" by Tony Shoumack from 2007.  Those documents are very recommendable - especially the Beginners Guide, although based on LDoms 1.0, is still a good place to begin with.  However, LDoms have come a long way since then, and I hope to contribute to their adoption by discussing how they work and what features there are today.  In this and the following posts, I will use the term "LDoms" as a common abbreviation for Oracle VM Server for SPARC, just because it's a lot shorter and easier to type (and presumably, read). So, just to get everyone on the same baseline, lets briefly discuss the basic concepts of virtualization with LDoms.  LDoms make use of a hypervisor as a layer of abstraction between real, physical hardware and virtual hardware.  This virtual hardware is then used to create a number of guest systems which each behave very similar to a system running on bare metal:  Each has its own OBP, each will install its own copy of the Solaris OS and each will see a certain amount of CPU, memory, disk and network resources available to it.  Unlike some other type 1 hypervisors running on x86 hardware, the SPARC hypervisor is embedded in the system firmware and makes use both of supporting functions in the sun4v SPARC instruction set as well as the overall CPU architecture to fulfill its function. The CMT architecture of the supporting CPUs (T1 through T4) provide a large number of cores and threads to the OS.  For example, the current T4 CPU has eight cores, each running 8 threads, for a total of 64 threads per socket.  To the OS, this looks like 64 CPUs.  The SPARC hypervisor, when creating guest systems, simply assigns a certain number of these threads exclusively to one guest, thus avoiding the overhead of having to schedule OS threads to CPUs, as do typical x86 hypervisors.  The hypervisor only assigns CPUs and then steps aside.  It is not involved in the actual work being dispatched from the OS to the CPU, all it does is maintain isolation between different guests. Likewise, memory is assigned exclusively to individual guests.  Here,  the hypervisor provides generic mappings between the physical hardware addresses and the guest's views on memory.  Again, the hypervisor is not involved in the actual memory access, it only maintains isolation between guests. During the inital setup of a system with LDoms, you start with one special domain, called the Control Domain.  Initially, this domain owns all the hardware available in the system, including all CPUs, all RAM and all IO resources.  If you'd be running the system un-virtualized, this would be what you'd be working with.  To allow for guests, you first resize this initial domain (also called a primary domain in LDoms speak), assigning it a small amount of CPU and memory.  This frees up most of the available CPU and memory resources for guest domains.  IO is a little more complex, but very straightforward.  When LDoms 1.0 first came out, the only way to provide IO to guest systems was to create virtual disk and network services and attach guests to these services.  In the meantime, several different ways to connect guest domains to IO have been developed, the most recent one being SR-IOV support for network devices released in version 2.2 of Oracle VM Server for SPARC. I will cover these more advanced features in detail later.  For now, lets have a short look at the initial way IO was virtualized in LDoms: For virtualized IO, you create two services, one "Virtual Disk Service" or vds, and one "Virtual Switch" or vswitch.  You can, of course, also create more of these, but that's more advanced than I want to cover in this introduction.  These IO services now connect real, physical IO resources like a disk LUN or a networt port to the virtual devices that are assigned to guest domains.  For disk IO, the normal case would be to connect a physical LUN (or some other storage option that I'll discuss later) to one specific guest.  That guest would be assigned a virtual disk, which would appear to be just like a real LUN to the guest, while the IO is actually routed through the virtual disk service down to the physical device.  For network, the vswitch acts very much like a real, physical ethernet switch - you connect one physical port to it for outside connectivity and define one or more connections per guest, just like you would plug cables between a real switch and a real system. For completeness, there is another service that provides console access to guest domains which mimics the behavior of serial terminal servers. The connections between the virtual devices on the guest's side and the virtual IO services in the primary domain are created by the hypervisor.  It uses so called "Logical Domain Channels" or LDCs to create point-to-point connections between all of these devices and services.  These LDCs work very similar to high speed serial connections and are configured automatically whenever the Control Domain adds or removes virtual IO. To see all this in action, now lets look at a first example.  I will start with a newly installed machine and configure the control domain so that it's ready to create guest systems. In a first step, after we've installed the software, let's start the virtual console service and downsize the primary domain.  root@sun # ldm list NAME STATE FLAGS CONS VCPU MEMORY UTIL UPTIME primary active -n-c-- UART 512 261632M 0.3% 2d 13h 58m root@sun # ldm add-vconscon port-range=5000-5100 \ primary-console primary root@sun # svcadm enable vntsd root@sun # svcs vntsd STATE STIME FMRI online 9:53:21 svc:/ldoms/vntsd:default root@sun # ldm set-vcpu 16 primary root@sun # ldm set-mau 1 primary root@sun # ldm start-reconf primary root@sun # ldm set-memory 7680m primary root@sun # ldm add-config initial root@sun # shutdown -y -g0 -i6 So what have I done: I've defined a range of ports (5000-5100) for the virtual network terminal service and then started that service.  The vnts will later provide console connections to guest systems, very much like serial NTS's do in the physical world. Next, I assigned 16 vCPUs (on this platform, a T3-4, that's two cores) to the primary domain, freeing the rest up for future guest systems.  I also assigned one MAU to this domain.  A MAU is a crypto unit in the T3 CPU.  These need to be explicitly assigned to domains, just like CPU or memory.  (This is no longer the case with T4 systems, where crypto is always available everywhere.) Before I reassigned the memory, I started what's called a "delayed reconfiguration" session.  That avoids actually doing the change right away, which would take a considerable amount of time in this case.  Instead, I'll need to reboot once I'm all done.  I've assigned 7680MB of RAM to the primary.  That's 8GB less the 512MB which the hypervisor uses for it's own private purposes.  You can, depending on your needs, work with less.  I'll spend a dedicated article on sizing, discussing the pros and cons in detail. Finally, just before the reboot, I saved my work on the ILOM, to make this configuration available after a powercycle of the box.  (It'll always be available after a simple reboot, but the ILOM needs to know the configuration of the hypervisor after a power-cycle, before the primary domain is booted.) Now, lets create a first disk service and a first virtual switch which is connected to the physical network device igb2. We will later use these to connect virtual disks and virtual network ports of our guest systems to real world storage and network. root@sun # ldm add-vds primary-vds root@sun # ldm add-vswitch net-dev=igb2 switch-primary primary You are free to choose whatever names you like for the virtual disk service and the virtual switch.  I strongly recommend that you choose names that make sense to you and describe the function of each service in the context of your implementation.  For the vswitch, for example, you could choose names like "admin-vswitch" or "production-network" etc. This already concludes the configuration of the control domain.  We've freed up considerable amounts of CPU and RAM for guest systems and created the necessary infrastructure - console, vts and vswitch - so that guests systems can actually interact with the outside world.  The system is now ready to create guests, which I'll describe in the next section. For further reading, here are some recommendable links: The LDoms 2.2 Admin Guide The "Beginners Guide to LDoms" The LDoms Information Center on MOS LDoms on OTN

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• Windows Azure: Announcing release of Windows Azure SDK 2.2 (with lots of goodies)

  - by ScottGu

  Earlier today I blogged about a big update we made today to Windows Azure, and some of the great new features it provides. Today I’m also excited to also announce the release of the Windows Azure SDK 2.2. Today’s SDK release adds even more great features including: Visual Studio 2013 Support Integrated Windows Azure Sign-In support within Visual Studio Remote Debugging Cloud Services with Visual Studio Firewall Management support within Visual Studio for SQL Databases Visual Studio 2013 RTM VM Images for MSDN Subscribers Windows Azure Management Libraries for .NET Updated Windows Azure PowerShell Cmdlets and ScriptCenter The below post has more details on what’s available in today’s Windows Azure SDK 2.2 release.  Also head over to Channel 9 to see the new episode of the Visual Studio Toolbox show that will be available shortly, and which highlights these features in a video demonstration. Visual Studio 2013 Support Version 2.2 of the Window Azure SDK is the first official version of the SDK to support the final RTM release of Visual Studio 2013. If you installed the 2.1 SDK with the Preview of Visual Studio 2013 we recommend that you upgrade your projects to SDK 2.2.  SDK 2.2 also works side by side with the SDK 2.0 and SDK 2.1 releases on Visual Studio 2012: Integrated Windows Azure Sign In within Visual Studio Integrated Windows Azure Sign-In support within Visual Studio is one of the big improvements added with this Windows Azure SDK release.  Integrated sign-in support enables developers to develop/test/manage Windows Azure resources within Visual Studio without having to download or use management certificates.  You can now just right-click on the “Windows Azure” icon within the Server Explorer inside Visual Studio and choose the “Connect to Windows Azure” context menu option to connect to Windows Azure: Doing this will prompt you to enter the email address of the account you wish to sign-in with: You can use either a Microsoft Account (e.g. Windows Live ID) or an Organizational account (e.g. Active Directory) as the email.  The dialog will update with an appropriate login prompt depending on which type of email address you enter: Once you sign-in you’ll see the Windows Azure resources that you have permissions to manage show up automatically within the Visual Studio Server Explorer (and you can start using them): With this new integrated sign in experience you are now able to publish web apps, deploy VMs and cloud services, use Windows Azure diagnostics, and fully interact with your Windows Azure services within Visual Studio without the need for a management certificate.  All of the authentication is handled using the Windows Azure Active Directory associated with your Windows Azure account (details on this can be found in my earlier blog post). Integrating authentication this way end-to-end across the Service Management APIs + Dev Tools + Management Portal + PowerShell automation scripts enables a much more secure and flexible security model within Windows Azure, and makes it much more convenient to securely manage multiple developers + administrators working on a project.  It also allows organizations and enterprises to use the same authentication model that they use for their developers on-premises in the cloud.  It also ensures that employees who leave an organization immediately lose access to their company’s cloud based resources once their Active Directory account is suspended. Filtering/Subscription Management Once you login within Visual Studio, you can filter which Windows Azure subscriptions/regions are visible within the Server Explorer by right-clicking the “Filter Services” context menu within the Server Explorer.  You can also use the “Manage Subscriptions” context menu to mange your Windows Azure Subscriptions: Bringing up the “Manage Subscriptions” dialog allows you to see which accounts you are currently using, as well as which subscriptions are within them: The “Certificates” tab allows you to continue to import and use management certificates to manage Windows Azure resources as well.  We have not removed any functionality with today’s update – all of the existing scenarios that previously supported management certificates within Visual Studio continue to work just fine.  The new integrated sign-in support provided with today’s release is purely additive. Note: the SQL Database node and the Mobile Service node in Server Explorer do not support integrated sign-in at this time. Therefore, you will only see databases and mobile services under those nodes if you have a management certificate to authorize access to them.  We will enable them with integrated sign-in in a future update. Remote Debugging Cloud Resources within Visual Studio Today’s Windows Azure SDK 2.2 release adds support for remote debugging many types of Windows Azure resources. With live, remote debugging support from within Visual Studio, you are now able to have more visibility than ever before into how your code is operating live in Windows Azure.  Let’s walkthrough how to enable remote debugging for a Cloud Service: Remote Debugging of Cloud Services To enable remote debugging for your cloud service, select Debug as the Build Configuration on the Common Settings tab of your Cloud Service’s publish dialog wizard: Then click the Advanced Settings tab and check the Enable Remote Debugging for all roles checkbox: Once your cloud service is published and running live in the cloud, simply set a breakpoint in your local source code: Then use Visual Studio’s Server Explorer to select the Cloud Service instance deployed in the cloud, and then use the Attach Debugger context menu on the role or to a specific VM instance of it: Once the debugger attaches to the Cloud Service, and a breakpoint is hit, you’ll be able to use the rich debugging capabilities of Visual Studio to debug the cloud instance remotely, in real-time, and see exactly how your app is running in the cloud. Today’s remote debugging support is super powerful, and makes it much easier to develop and test applications for the cloud.  Support for remote debugging Cloud Services is available as of today, and we’ll also enable support for remote debugging Web Sites shortly. Firewall Management Support with SQL Databases By default we enable a security firewall around SQL Databases hosted within Windows Azure.  This ensures that only your application (or IP addresses you approve) can connect to them and helps make your infrastructure secure by default.  This is great for protection at runtime, but can sometimes be a pain at development time (since by default you can’t connect/manage the database remotely within Visual Studio if the security firewall blocks your instance of VS from connecting to it). One of the cool features we’ve added with today’s release is support that makes it easy to enable and configure the security firewall directly within Visual Studio.  Now with the SDK 2.2 release, when you try and connect to a SQL Database using the Visual Studio Server Explorer, and a firewall rule prevents access to the database from your machine, you will be prompted to add a firewall rule to enable access from your local IP address: You can simply click Add Firewall Rule and a new rule will be automatically added for you. In some cases, the logic to detect your local IP may not be sufficient (for example: you are behind a corporate firewall that uses a range of IP addresses) and you may need to set up a firewall rule for a range of IP addresses in order to gain access. The new Add Firewall Rule dialog also makes this easy to do.  Once connected you’ll be able to manage your SQL Database directly within the Visual Studio Server Explorer: This makes it much easier to work with databases in the cloud. Visual Studio 2013 RTM Virtual Machine Images Available for MSDN Subscribers Last week we released the General Availability Release of Visual Studio 2013 to the web.  This is an awesome release with a ton of new features. With today’s Windows Azure update we now have a set of pre-configured VM images of VS 2013 available within the Windows Azure Management Portal for use by MSDN customers.  This enables you to create a VM in the cloud with VS 2013 pre-installed on it in with only a few clicks: Windows Azure now provides the fastest and easiest way to get started doing development with Visual Studio 2013. Windows Azure Management Libraries for .NET (Preview) Having the ability to automate the creation, deployment, and tear down of resources is a key requirement for applications running in the cloud.  It also helps immensely when running dev/test scenarios and coded UI tests against pre-production environments. Today we are releasing a preview of a new set of Windows Azure Management Libraries for .NET.  These new libraries make it easy to automate tasks using any .NET language (e.g. C#, VB, F#, etc).  Previously this automation capability was only available through the Windows Azure PowerShell Cmdlets or to developers who were willing to write their own wrappers for the Windows Azure Service Management REST API. Modern .NET Developer Experience We’ve worked to design easy-to-understand .NET APIs that still map well to the underlying REST endpoints, making sure to use and expose the modern .NET functionality that developers expect today: Portable Class Library (PCL) support targeting applications built for any .NET Platform (no platform restriction) Shipped as a set of focused NuGet packages with minimal dependencies to simplify versioning Support async/await task based asynchrony (with easy sync overloads) Shared infrastructure for common error handling, tracing, configuration, HTTP pipeline manipulation, etc. Factored for easy testability and mocking Built on top of popular libraries like HttpClient and Json.NET Below is a list of a few of the management client classes that are shipping with today’s initial preview release: .NET Class Name Supports Operations for these Assets (and potentially more) ManagementClient Locations Credentials Subscriptions Certificates ComputeManagementClient Hosted Services Deployments Virtual Machines Virtual Machine Images & Disks StorageManagementClient Storage Accounts WebSiteManagementClient Web Sites Web Site Publish Profiles Usage Metrics Repositories VirtualNetworkManagementClient Networks Gateways Automating Creating a Virtual Machine using .NET Let’s walkthrough an example of how we can use the new Windows Azure Management Libraries for .NET to fully automate creating a Virtual Machine. I’m deliberately showing a scenario with a lot of custom options configured – including VHD image gallery enumeration, attaching data drives, network endpoints + firewall rules setup - to show off the full power and richness of what the new library provides. We’ll begin with some code that demonstrates how to enumerate through the built-in Windows images within the standard Windows Azure VM Gallery.  We’ll search for the first VM image that has the word “Windows” in it and use that as our base image to build the VM from.  We’ll then create a cloud service container in the West US region to host it within: We can then customize some options on it such as setting up a computer name, admin username/password, and hostname.  We’ll also open up a remote desktop (RDP) endpoint through its security firewall: We’ll then specify the VHD host and data drives that we want to mount on the Virtual Machine, and specify the size of the VM we want to run it in: Once everything has been set up the call to create the virtual machine is executed asynchronously In a few minutes we’ll then have a completely deployed VM running on Windows Azure with all of the settings (hard drives, VM size, machine name, username/password, network endpoints + firewall settings) fully configured and ready for us to use: Preview Availability via NuGet The Windows Azure Management Libraries for .NET are now available via NuGet. Because they are still in preview form, you’ll need to add the –IncludePrerelease switch when you go to retrieve the packages. The Package Manager Console screen shot below demonstrates how to get the entire set of libraries to manage your Windows Azure assets: You can also install them within your .NET projects by right clicking on the VS Solution Explorer and using the Manage NuGet Packages context menu command.  Make sure to select the “Include Prerelease” drop-down for them to show up, and then you can install the specific management libraries you need for your particular scenarios: Open Source License The new Windows Azure Management Libraries for .NET make it super easy to automate management operations within Windows Azure – whether they are for Virtual Machines, Cloud Services, Storage Accounts, Web Sites, and more.  Like the rest of the Windows Azure SDK, we are releasing the source code under an open source (Apache 2) license and it is hosted at https://github.com/WindowsAzure/azure-sdk-for-net/tree/master/libraries if you wish to contribute. PowerShell Enhancements and our New Script Center Today, we are also shipping Windows Azure PowerShell 0.7.0 (which is a separate download). You can find the full change log here. Here are some of the improvements provided with it: Windows Azure Active Directory authentication support Script Center providing many sample scripts to automate common tasks on Windows Azure New cmdlets for Media Services and SQL Database Script Center Windows Azure enables you to script and automate a lot of tasks using PowerShell.  People often ask for more pre-built samples of common scenarios so that they can use them to learn and tweak/customize. With this in mind, we are excited to introduce a new Script Center that we are launching for Windows Azure. You can learn about how to scripting with Windows Azure with a get started article. You can then find many sample scripts across different solutions, including infrastructure, data management, web, and more: All of the sample scripts are hosted on TechNet with links from the Windows Azure Script Center. Each script is complete with good code comments, detailed descriptions, and examples of usage. Summary Visual Studio 2013 and the Windows Azure SDK 2.2 make it easier than ever to get started developing rich cloud applications. Along with the Windows Azure Developer Center’s growing set of .NET developer resources to guide your development efforts, today’s Windows Azure SDK 2.2 release should make your development experience more enjoyable and efficient. If you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, you can sign-up for a free trial and start using all of the above features today.  Then visit the Windows Azure Developer Center to learn more about how to build apps with it. Hope this helps, Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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• Right-Time Retail Part 3

  - by David Dorf

  This is part three of the three-part series.  Read Part 1 and Part 2 first. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Right-Time Marketing Real-time isn’t just about executing faster; it extends to interactions with customers as well. As an industry, we’ve spent many years analyzing all the data that’s been collected. Yes, that data has been invaluable in helping us make better decisions like where to open new stores, how to assort those stores, and how to price our products. But the recent advances in technology are now making it possible to analyze and deliver that data very quickly… fast enough to impact a potential sale in near real-time. Let me give you two examples. Salesmen in car dealerships get pretty good at sizing people up. When a potential customer walks in the door, it doesn’t take long for the salesman to figure out the revenue at stake. Is this person a real buyer, or just looking for a fun test drive? Will this person buy today or three months from now? Will this person opt for the expensive packages, or go bare bones? While the salesman certainly asks some leading questions, much of information is discerned through body language. But body language doesn’t translate very well over the web. Eloqua, which was acquired by Oracle earlier this year, reads internet body language. By tracking the behavior of the people visiting your web site, Eloqua categorizes visitors based on their propensity to buy. While Eloqua’s roots have been in B2B, we’ve been looking at leveraging the technology with ATG to target B2C. Knowing what sites were previously visited, how often the customer has been to your site recently, and how long they’ve spent searching can help understand where the customer is in their purchase journey. And knowing that bit of information may be enough to help close the deal with a real-time offer, follow-up email, or online customer service pop-up. This isn’t so different from the days gone by when the clerk behind the counter of the corner store noticed you were lingering in a particular aisle, so he walked over to help you compare two products and close the sale. You appreciated the personalized service, and he knew the value of the long-term relationship. Move that same concept into the digital world and you have Oracle’s CX Suite, a cloud-based offering of end-to-end customer experience tools, assembled primarily from acquisitions. Those tools are Oracle Marketing (Eloqua), Oracle Commerce (ATG, Endeca), Oracle Sales (Oracle CRM On Demand), Oracle Service (RightNow), Oracle Social (Collective Intellect, Vitrue, Involver), and Oracle Content (Fatwire). We are providing the glue that binds the CIO and CMO together to unleash synergies that drive the top-line higher, and by virtue of the cloud-approach, keep costs at bay. My second example of real-time marketing takes place in the store but leverages the concepts of Web marketing. In 1962 the decline of personalized service in retail began. Anyone know the significance of that year? That’s when Target, K-Mart, and Walmart each opened their first stores, and over the succeeding years the industry chose scale over personal service. No longer were you known as “Jane with the snotty kid so make sure we check her out fast,” but you suddenly became “time-starved female age 20-30 with kids.” I’m not saying that was a bad thing – it was the right thing for our industry at the time, and it enabled a huge amount of growth, cheaper prices, and more variety of products. But scale alone is no longer good enough. Today’s sophisticated consumer demands scale, experience, and personal attention. To some extent we’ve delivered that on websites via the magic of cookies, your willingness to log in, and sophisticated data analytics. What store manager wouldn’t love a report detailing all the visitors to his store, where they came from, and which products that examined? People trackers are getting more sophisticated, incorporating infrared, video analytics, and even face recognition. (Next time you walk in front on a mannequin, don’t be surprised if it’s looking back.) But the ultimate marketing conduit is the mobile phone. Since each mobile phone emits a unique number on WiFi networks, it becomes the cookie of the physical world. Assuming congress keeps privacy safeguards reasonable, we’ll have a win-win situation for both retailers and consumers. Retailers get to know more about the consumer’s purchase journey, and consumers get higher levels of service with the retailer. When I call my bank, a couple things happen before the call is connected. A reverse look-up on my phone number identifies me so my accounts can be retrieved from Siebel CRM. Then the system anticipates why I’m calling based on recent transactions. In this example, it sees that I was just charged a foreign currency fee, so it assumes that’s the reason I’m calling. It puts all the relevant information on the customer service rep’s screen as it connects the call. When I complain about the fee, the rep immediately sees I’m a great customer and I travel lots, so she suggests switching me to their traveler’s card that doesn’t have foreign transaction fees. That technology is powered by a product called Oracle Real-Time Decisions, a rules engine built to execute very quickly, basically in the time it takes the phone to ring once. So let’s combine the power of that product with our new-found mobile cookie and provide contextual customer interactions in real-time. Our first opportunity comes when a customer crosses a pre-defined geo-fence, typically a boundary around the store. Context is the key to our interaction: that’s the customer (known or anonymous), the time of day and day of week, and location. Thomas near the downtown store on a Wednesday at noon means he’s heading to lunch. If he were near the mall location on a Saturday morning, that’s a completely different context. But on his way to lunch, we’ll let Thomas know that we’ve got a new shipment of ASICS running shoes on display with a simple text message. We used the context to look-up Thomas’ past purchases and understood he was an avid runner. We used the fact that this was lunchtime to select the type of message, in this case an informational message instead of an offer. Thomas enters the store, phone in hand, and walks to the shoe department. He scans one of the new ASICS shoes using the convenient QR Codes we provided on the shelf-tags, but then he starts scanning low-end Nikes. Each scan is another opportunity to both learn from Thomas and potentially interact via another message. Since he historically buys low-end Nikes and keeps scanning them, he’s likely falling back into his old ways. Our marketing rules are currently set to move loyal customer to higher margin products. We could have set the dials to increase visit frequency, move overstocked items, increase basket size, or many other settings, but today we are trying to move Thomas to higher-margin products. We send Thomas another text message, this time it’s a personalized offer for 10% off ASICS good for 24 hours. Offering him a discount on Nikes would be throwing margin away since he buys those anyway. We are using our marketing dollars to change behavior that increases the long-term value of Thomas. He decides to buy the ASICS and scans the discount code on his phone at checkout. Checkout is yet another opportunity to interact with Thomas, so the transaction is sent back to Oracle RTD for evaluation. Since Thomas didn’t buy anything with the shoes, we’ll print a bounce-back coupon on the receipt offering 30% off ASICS socks if he returns within seven days. We have successfully started moving Thomas from low-margin to high-margin products. In both of these marketing scenarios, we are able to leverage data in near real-time to decide how best to interact with the customer and lead to an increase in the lifetime value of the customer. The key here is acting at the moment the customer shows interest using the context of the situation. We aren’t pushing random products at haphazard times. We are tailoring the marketing to be very specific to this customer, and it’s the technology that allows this to happen in near real-time. Conclusion As we enable more right-time integrations and interactions, retailers will begin to offer increased service to their customers. Localized and personalized service at scale will drive loyalty and lead to meaningful revenue growth for the retailers that execute well. Our industry needs to support Commerce Anywhere…and commerce anytime as well.

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• In which cases Robolectric is a relevant solution?

  - by Francis Toth

  As you may now, Robolectric is a framework that provides stubs for Android objects, in order to make tests runnable outside the Dalvik environment. My concern is that, by doing this, one can fake a third party library, which is, I believe, not a good practice (it should be encapsulated instead). If you make assumptions about an interface you don't own, which is changed once your test has been written, you won't be always noticed about the modifications. This can lead to a misunderstanding between your implementations and the interface they depends on. In addition, Android use mostly inheritance over interfaces which limits contract testing. So here's my question: Are there situations when Robolectric is the way to go? Here are some links you can check for further information: test-doubles-with-mockito in-brief-contract-tests

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• Oracle ERP Cloud Solution Defines Revenue Recognition Software Market

  - by Steve Dalton

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Revenue is a fundamental yardstick of a company's performance, and one of the most important metrics for investors in the capital markets. So it’s no surprise that the accounting standard boards have devoted significant resources to this topic, with a key goal of ensuring that companies use a consistent method of recognizing revenue. Due to the myriad of revenue-generating transactions, and the divergent ways organizations recognize revenue today, the IFRS and FASB have been working for 12 years on a common set of accounting standards that apply to all industries in virtually all countries. Through their joint efforts on May 28, 2014 the FASB and IFRS released the IFRS 15 / ASU 2014-9 (Revenue from Contracts with Customers) converged accounting standard. This standard applies to revenue in all public companies, but heavily impacts organizations in any industry that might have complex sales contracts with multiple distinct deliverables (obligations). For example, an auto dealer who bundles free service with the sale of a car can only recognize the service revenue once the owner of the car brings it in for work. Similarly, high-tech companies that bundle software licenses, consulting, and support services on a sales contract will recognize bundled service revenue once the services are delivered. Now all companies need to review their revenue for hidden bundling and implicit obligations. Numerous time-consuming and judgmental activities must be performed to properly recognize revenue for complex sales contracts. To illustrate, after the contract is identified, organizations must identify and examine the distinct deliverables, determine the estimated selling price (ESP) for each deliverable, then allocate the total contract price to each deliverable based on the ESPs. In terms of accounting, organizations must determine whether the goods or services have been delivered or performed to the customer’s satisfaction, then either book revenue in the current period or record a liability for the obligation if revenue will be recognized in a future accounting period. Oracle Revenue Management Cloud was architected and developed so organizations can simplify and streamline revenue recognition. Among other capabilities, the solution uses business rules to efficiently identify and examine contracts, intelligently calculate and allocate deliverable prices based on prescribed inputs, and accurately recognize revenue for each deliverable based on customer satisfaction. "Oracle works very closely with our customers, the Big 4 accounting firms, and the accounting standard boards to deliver an adaptive, comprehensive, new generation revenue recognition solution,” said Rondy Ng, Senior Vice President, Applications Development. “With the recently announced IFRS 15 / ASU 2014-9, Oracle is ready to support customer adoption of the new standard with our Revenue Management Cloud,” said Rondy. Oracle Revenue Management Cloud, an integral part of Oracle Financials Cloud, helps organizations comply with accounting standards, provides them with confidence that reported revenue is materially accurate, and simplifies the accounting process for revenue recognition. Stay tuned to this blog for regular updates on Oracle Revenue Management Cloud. We also invite you to review our new oracle.com ERP pages @ oracle.com/erp. We will be updating these pages very soon with more information about Oracle Revenue Management Cloud.

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• When pointing to new DNS servers is there any chance of E-mails being lost if the old E-mail hosting service is still up?

  - by LaserBeak

  I am changing webhosts and will be using the new hosts mail servers instead of the old ones. I have created all the correctly named mailboxes on the new service but have also not yet cut ties with the old webhost. I am expecting that even if the new DNS values which point to the new hosts DNS servers and respective SOA\zone file with the new MX values have not yet propagated and an E-mail is directed at the old hosts mail servers as per the mx records in the SOA\zone records which the old hosting provider holds, the E-mail would still come through to the mailbox that's on the old host providers mail servers. So I am just trying to reaffirm if I got this right and it's essentially impossible for me to loose an E-mail since it will hit either the old hosts mail servers or the new ones ? Also is it possible to configure the same E-mail account to check and collect mail from different mail servers by entering multiple pop3 addresses ? And if I choose to keep the old web hosts mail hosting services as a backup by specifying the mx records for it with a lower priority in the SOA records hosted by the new webhost, is it possible to have any incoming E-mails sent to both servers by the mail daemon so I have two copies? Or is my only option having the primary mail server forward the E-mail somehow to the old mailserver ?

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• Ports do not open after rules appended in iptables

  - by user2699451

  I have a server that I am trying to setup for OpenVPN. I have followed all the steps, but I see that when I try to connect to it in Windows, it doesn't allow me, it just hangs on connecting, so I did a nmap scan and I see that port 1194 is not open so naturally I append the rule to open 1194 with: iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 1194 -j ACCEPT followed by service iptables save and service iptables restart which all executed successfully. Then I try again, but it doesn't work and another nmap scan says that port 1194 is closed. Here is the iptables configuration: # Generated by iptables-save v1.4.7 on Thu Oct 31 09:47:38 2013 *nat :PREROUTING ACCEPT [27410:3091993] :POSTROUTING ACCEPT [0:0] :OUTPUT ACCEPT [5042:376160] -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE -A POSTROUTING -j SNAT --to-source 41.185.26.238 -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE COMMIT # Completed on Thu Oct 31 09:47:38 2013 # Generated by iptables-save v1.4.7 on Thu Oct 31 09:47:38 2013 *filter :INPUT ACCEPT [23571:2869068] :FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0] :OUTPUT ACCEPT [27558:3656524] :vl - [0:0] -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 5252 -m comment --comment "SSH Secure" -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p icmp -m icmp --icmp-type 8 -m state --state NEW,RELATED,ESTABLISHED -$ -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -m state --state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 22 -m comment --comment "SSH" -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -m comment --comment "HTTP" -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 8080 -m comment --comment "HTTPS" -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 443 -m comment --comment "HTTP Encrypted" -j ACCEP$ -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 1723 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -i eth0 -p gre -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p udp -m udp --dport 1194 -j ACCEPT -A FORWARD -i ppp+ -o eth0 -j ACCEPT -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o ppp+ -j ACCEPT -A FORWARD -m state --state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT -A FORWARD -s 10.8.0.0/24 -j ACCEPT -A FORWARD -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-port-unreachable -A OUTPUT -p icmp -m icmp --icmp-type 0 -m state --state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j A$ COMMIT # Completed on Thu Oct 31 09:47:38 2013 and my nmap scan from: localhost: nmap localhost Starting Nmap 5.51 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2013-10-31 09:53 SAST Nmap scan report for localhost (127.0.0.1) Host is up (0.000011s latency). Other addresses for localhost (not scanned): 127.0.0.1 Not shown: 996 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE 22/tcp open ssh 25/tcp open smtp 443/tcp open https 1723/tcp open pptp Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.06 seconds remote pc: nmap [server ip] Starting Nmap 6.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2013-10-31 09:53 SAST Nmap scan report for rla04-nix1.wadns.net (41.185.26.238) Host is up (0.025s latency). Not shown: 858 filtered ports, 139 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE 22/tcp open ssh 443/tcp open https 8008/tcp open http Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 15.70 seconds So, I do not know what is causing this, any assistance will be appreciated! UPDATE AFTER FIRST ANSWER::: [root@RLA04-NIX1 ~]# iptables -A FORWARD -m state --state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT [root@RLA04-NIX1 ~]# iptables -A FORWARD -s 10.8.0.0/24 -j ACCEPT [root@RLA04-NIX1 ~]# iptables -A FORWARD -j REJECT [root@RLA04-NIX1 ~]# iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE [root@RLA04-NIX1 ~]# service iptables save iptables: Saving firewall rules to /etc/sysconfig/iptables:[ OK ] [root@RLA04-NIX1 ~]# service iptables restart iptables: Flushing firewall rules: [ OK ] iptables: Setting chains to policy ACCEPT: filter nat [ OK ] iptables: Unloading modules: [ OK ] iptables: Applying firewall rules: [ OK ] [root@RLA04-NIX1 ~]# lsof -i :1194 -bash: lsof: command not found iptables -L -n Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination ACCEPT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:5252 /* SSH Secure */ ACCEPT icmp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 icmp type 8 state NEW,RELATED,ESTABLISHED ACCEPT all -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 ACCEPT all -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state RELATED,ESTABLISHED ACCEPT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:22 /* SSH */ ACCEPT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:80 /* HTTP */ ACCEPT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:8080 /* HTTPS */ ACCEPT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:443 /* HTTP Encrypted */ ACCEPT tcp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 tcp dpt:1723 ACCEPT 47 -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 ACCEPT udp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:1194 Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination ACCEPT all -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 ACCEPT all -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 ACCEPT all -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state RELATED,ESTABLISHED ACCEPT all -- 10.8.0.0/24 0.0.0.0/0 REJECT all -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 reject-with icmp-port-unreachable ACCEPT all -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 state RELATED,ESTABLISHED ACCEPT all -- 10.8.0.0/24 0.0.0.0/0 REJECT all -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 reject-with icmp-port-unreachable Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination ACCEPT icmp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 icmp type 0 state RELATED,ESTABLISHED Chain vl (0 references) target prot opt source destination [root@RLA04-NIX1 ~]# nmap localhostt Starting Nmap 5.51 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2013-10-31 11:13 SAST remote pc nmap [server ip] Starting Nmap 6.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2013-10-31 11:11 SAST Nmap scan report for rla04-nix1.wadns.net (41.185.26.238) Host is up (0.020s latency). Not shown: 858 filtered ports, 139 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE 22/tcp open ssh 443/tcp open https 8008/tcp open http Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 4.18 seconds localhost nmap localhost Starting Nmap 5.51 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2013-10-31 11:13 SAST Nmap scan report for localhost (127.0.0.1) Host is up (0.000011s latency). Other addresses for localhost (not scanned): 127.0.0.1 Not shown: 996 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE 22/tcp open ssh 25/tcp open smtp 443/tcp open https 1723/tcp open pptp Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.06 seconds UPDATE AFTER SCANNING UDP PORTS Sorry, I am noob, I am still learning, but here is the output for: nmap -sU [server ip] Starting Nmap 6.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2013-10-31 11:33 SAST Nmap scan report for [server address] ([server ip]) Host is up (0.021s latency). Not shown: 997 open|filtered ports PORT STATE SERVICE 53/udp closed domain 123/udp closed ntp 33459/udp closed unknown Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 8.57 seconds btw, no changes have been made since post started (except for iptables changes)

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• Pre order Nokia Lumia 900 from AT&T for $99.99 and Walmart for $49.99

  - by Gopinath

  Nokia Lumia 900, the flagship Windows Phone OS smartphone from Nokia is available for pre-order from AT&T Stores. With a two year contract, you can grab the phone by paying $99.99 online and they are expected to ship a day or two earlier than their official launch in AT&T stores across US. Walmart in an aggressive move, is selling Nokia Lumia 900 for just $49.99 with a two year contract. So you save $50 more. Earlier in January of this year, Nokia unveiled its plans of Lumia 900 launch exclusively for American market. Nokia Lumia 900 features a 4.3 inch Clear Black display, sporting a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, 1.4 GHz Snapdragon processor, Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) OS, 8 megapixel rear camera with f2.2/28mm Carl Zeiss lens and dual LED flash, auto-focus and HD (720p) video recording, 1 megapixel front-facing camera for video calls, 512 MB RAM, 16 GB internal memory, 14.5 GB user memory and more. Pre-order Nokia Lumia 900 from AT&T and Walmart

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• Should I pay for my training? [closed]

  - by user65883

  I work at a company that made me sign a contract to pay for my training should I decide to leave within my 3 months probation. I never went on a formal course and didn't get any proof of undergoing the course. They stated if I don't sign the contract then I wouldn't receive training and I won't be able to do my job. If their training is to watch what other employees do then I took the course. I'm wondering if it's allowed for them to ask me for money when I didn't receive any proof of training?

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• Programming language features that help to catch bugs early

  - by Christian Neumanns

  Do you know any programming language features that help to detect bugs early in the software development process - ideally at compile-time or else as early as possible at run-time? Examples of well-known and effective bug-reducing features are: Static typing and generic types: type incompatibility errors are detected by the compiler Design by Contract (TM), also called Contract Programming: invalid values are quickly detected at runtime (through preconditions, postconditions and class invariants) Unit testing I ask this question in the context of improving an object-oriented programming language (called Obix) which has been designed from the ground up to 'make it easy to quickly write reliable code'. Besides the features mentioned above this language also incorporates other Fail-fast features such as: Objects are immutable by default Void (null) values are not allowed by default The aim is to add more Fail-fast concepts to the language. If you know other features which help to write less error-prone code then please let us know. Thank you.

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• My Client wants to convert me from a Contractor to an Employee. I'd like part of the Headhunter's fee. Is this fair?

  - by Bob Kaufman

  I am happily working on a contract for a good, solid company. This client is very happy with my work and has asked me to consider converting to full-time employment. My problem is the headhunter. This firm has not been entirely upfront with me throughout this contract. A mistake was made by the firm that benched me for several days, costing me those days' pay. Inadequate healthcare coverage left me with a bill of several thousand dollars after my wife's brief hospital stay. My feeling is that I did the work that earned me the invitation to work full-time for this company. Asking for 1/3 of the commission I figure they're going to receive would nicely counterbalance the inequities that I perceive were dealt to me. Is this an (un)reasonable or (in)appropriate request?

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• SIM card number swap

  - by DaGhostman Dimitrov

  Is it possible to swap two numbers between two sim cards (I am just got an new phone and it is using a micro sim) And I have a old number that I want to use but it is on standart sim card. Is it possible to swap the numbers between the cards using a SIM Card reader. What software and hardware should I use? Note: I have talked with my provider but I have to cancel my old numbers contract but I like it and do not want to pay the remaining period of the contract to turn it in to PayAsYouGo and then swap ..

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• Example: Controlling randomizer using code contracts

  - by DigiMortal

  One cool addition to Visual Studio 2010 is support for code contracts. Code contracts make sure that all conditions under what method is supposed to run correctly are met. Those who are familiar with unit tests will find code contracts easy to use. In this posting I will show you simple example about static contract checking (example solution is included). To try out code contracts you need at least Visual Studio 2010 Standard Edition. Also you need code contracts package. You can download package from DevLabs Code Contracts page. NB! Speakers, you can use the example solution in your presentations as long as you mention me and this blog in your sessions. Solution has readme.txt file that gives you steps to go through when presenting solution in sessions. This blog posting is companion posting for Visual Studio solution referred below. As an example let’s look at the following class. public class Randomizer {     public static int GetRandomFromRange(int min, int max)     {         var rnd = new Random();         return rnd.Next(min, max);     }       public static int GetRandomFromRangeContracted(int min, int max)     {         Contract.Requires(min < max, "Min must be less than max");           var rnd = new Random();         return rnd.Next(min, max);     } } GetRandomFromRange() method returns results without any checking. GetRandomFromRangeContracted() uses one code contract that makes sure that minimum value is less than maximum value. Now let’s run the following code. class Program {     static void Main(string[] args)     {         var random1 = Randomizer.GetRandomFromRange(0, 9);         Console.WriteLine("Random 1: " + random1);           var random2 = Randomizer.GetRandomFromRange(1, 1);         Console.WriteLine("Random 2: " + random2);           var random3 = Randomizer.GetRandomFromRangeContracted(5, 5);         Console.WriteLine("Random 3: " + random3);           Console.WriteLine(" ");         Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit ...");         Console.ReadKey();     } } As we have not turned on support for code contracts the code runs without any problems and we get no warnings by Visual Studio that something is wrong. Now let’s turn on static checking for code contracts. As you can see then code still compiles without any errors but Visual Studio warns you about possible problems with contracts. Click on image to see it at original size.  When we open Error list and run our application we get the following output to errors list. Note that these messages are not shown immediately. There is little delay between application starting and appearance of these messages. So wait couple of seconds before going out of your mind. Click on image to see it at original size.  If you look at these warnings you can see that warnings show you illegal calls and also contracts against what they are going. Third warning points to GetRandomFromRange() method and shows that there should be also problem that can be detected by contract. Download Code Contracts example VS2010 solution | 30KB

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• Oracle went back to school !....

  - by Cristina Ciocoiu

  I am Georgiana, Contracts Manager for Oracle University and Advanced Customer Services in Romania. I started working for Oracle for 4 years ago as a Contracts Specialist. Two years ago I became a manager of a team of 9 Contracts Specialists. On a sunny day in March some members of my team visited the students of the Academy of Economic Studies, accompanied by Recruitment colleagues. This was part of a new initiative to raise awareness on career opportunities at Oracle. We spent approximately 2 hours illustrating and explaining different aspects of the day-to-day activities of an Oracle Contracts Specialist to the future graduates of the Academy. Role Play Since a role play is worth 1000 job descriptions, the audience witnessed an entertaining performance on the contracting process from the phase of the negotiation with the customer to actual signing of the contract. The main focus was on the role of Contracts Specialist liaising with all the groups involved and ensuring that the contract is compliant with Oracle policies while generating the expected revenue. However, the team took other roles as well i.e. Sales Representative, Customer, Business Approver and Lawyer to demonstrate their role in the process. As each of these roles only have a small slice of the big pie, it is vital to understand what happens before and after you come on stage as a Contract Specialist. Contracts Specialist Being a Contracts Specialist goes beyond simply knowing what policies apply, it means understanding Oracle’s core business model, understanding customers’ requests and addressing them in the most effective way. The job also involves connecting smaller teams that are often geographically dispersed across multiple regions so that they become a bigger, stronger and successful team. You are the expert in this key position that can facilitate the closing of a deal or stop it from happening if the risk is too high. The role play provided insights on both. Why I love this job Events of this kind are sometimes just as useful for the “recruiters” as for the “recruits”. For me, as a presenter, it was an excellent opportunity to think about the many reasons why I love what I do in the Contracts department every day and to share this with the students. I wanted to explain to the audience, who are still considering education and career possibilities, that what we do in Contracts DOES make a difference. You have the power to achieve targets that you did not think reachable before. Working in the dynamic Oracle environment shapes you as a person and there is a lot to take away from this experience. Looking back to my years in the Academy (I graduated from the Academy myself), I wish I could have listened to more people talking about their great jobs and about how I could get there. If those were Oracle people I might have been writing this article sooner. J If you are interested to join the Contracts team please click here for more information or contact lavinia.protopopescu-AT-oracle-DOT-com. You can find all openings in Romania via http://campus.oracle.com

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• Sams Teach Yourself Visual C# 2010 in 24 Hours at TechEd 2010

  - by Scott Dorman

  We are still ironing out some contract issues with Microsoft legal to include the Express Edition DVD with the book, but in the meantime there will be about 9 galley copies of the book which Sams will be giving away during TechEd 2010. If you’re going, be sure to stop by the Sams booth for the details on the giveaway*. Once the contract issues are resolved, the book will be officially available for purchase, but you can pre-order it now from Amazon or your favorite online book-seller. Be sure to become a fan too. *Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend TechEd this year to help promote the book so please help me by spreading the word. Technorati Tags: Books,Sams Teach Yourself C# 2010

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• Attention All Procurement Buyers!

  - by LuciaC

  Have you discovered the power of the Buyer Work Center?   Released in Procurement 12.0 the Professional Buyer Work Center (BWC) is a web based interface that provides a central 'launch pad' from which you can efficiently perform your daily tasks, including:  You can manage your requisitions and create them to Purchase Orders (like manual autocreate) Create new standard purchase orders, blanket purchase agreements, or contract purchase agreements Create and maintain supplier information If Oracle Sourcing is licensed and implemented, you can create buyer's auctions or sourcing RFQs If Oracle Services Procurement is licensed and implemented you can create and maintain purchase orders for complex work payments If Oracle Procurement Contracts is licensed and implemented you can handle author contract terms and manage deliverables Globally for the BWC: Create and personalize your own document views including list of columns, where conditions and sort sequences. You can additionally use predefined document views. Accessed from the Purchasing responsibility as we see in the screenshot here, the Buyer Work Center has links to launch to the areas you want to access. See these documents for more information on the BWC: Doc ID 1301969.1: FAQ - Buyer Work CenterDoc ID 1394392.1: Assistant: Oracle Purchasing Purchasing Buyer Work Center Search Helper.

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• Forced to be trained [closed]

  - by steeb

  is it OK to force employees to take a training in order to make them sign a contract to stay in the job for X years? Here I'm the only developer in the company and before this job I've developed in VB6, VB.Net and others. There are others technicians here but they query the database server to make reports and make little programs but do not spend all day in programming. I was hired here to manage some legacy data to be migrated to a new system and I used my experience to accomplish the task. I also have made some utilities and other developments. Since we went live with the new system I've been developing a lot of side programs, add-ons and changed the source code of it and basically I've been learning from it since then and became some sort of jack of all trades when some feature needs to be changed or corrected. I have one and a half year in this company but during the last 8 months I've been entirely programming in the system. There have been times when even the implementers ask me how I accomplish certain things. The issue here is that the company has come and told me and other co-workers (which do not program in the system but know basic programming and databases) to have a basic training to program for the new system's platform and when we finish it we will sign a contract to stay in the company for an unspecified time. They have offered also an unspecified better salary. I'm feeling very suspicious cause I know the basics of system and I don't understand why I have to take it, being known by everybody all developments I've made. I gathered with my boss and told him that I should not take that course because I feel that I can learn more with all the daily requirements I've been asked and they should save that money. But he responded me that I have to take it and sign after that. I think they want me to be with them for a long time, and I'd like to, but my opinion is that I would like to stay in the company because I feel comfortable in all laboral aspects (including salary) but not because I signed a contract forced to do more tasks and forced to say no if I have others and better job offers. What advice can you give me in this kind of situation?

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• HP System to Help Air Force Fight Cyber Threats

  Contract is for a Cyber Control System (CCS) that will help the Air Force gather strategic information and identify cyber threats.

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• career change : non-functional to test automation

  - by centennial

  I started my Career as core-Java developer 6 years ago and stayed as developer for 6-7 month and then moved to performance testing (actualy pushed into this for short term and later I started liking it). I have done all sort of non-functional testing like performance, load, stress, soak, compatibility, failover etc on many performance test tools accross many industries. I was doing contracting all these years which means I kept moving to new projects after every 3-6 months. Now personal situation has been changed, married man now so looking for something long term. Performance testing generally comes at the end of the development life cycle hence very short term contracts so I was wondering if I can move into functional/test automation side I can earn myself good length of contract. I had some exposure of QTP but I am sure to learn all other tools very quickly as I am quite good in programming and concept of testing. in short I want to move into functional test automation to get long term contract without leaving my love for programming . any thoughts please ?

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• I was going to get an iPhone, BUT ..

  My cell phone contract expires in a couple weeks and I was all set to buy an iPhone. The iPhone had started to take off when I got my current phone / contract but at that the time Microsoft paid for a significant portion of my phone bill so staying with a Windows powered phone was appropriate (I like to be a good team player.)  Budget tightening as changed the expense policy and now Microsofts contribution to my cell phone expenses is limited to $35. So, I figured Id get an iPhone, its...Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Combined SOAP/JSON/XML in WCF, using UriTemplate

  - by gregmac

  I'm trying to build a generic web service interface using WCF, to allow 3rd party developers to hook into our software. After much struggling and reading (this question helped a lot), I finally got SOAP, JSON and XML (POX) working together. To simplify, here's my code (to make this example simple, I'm not using interfaces -- I did try this both ways): <ServiceContract()> _ Public Class TestService Public Sub New() End Sub <OperationContract()> _ <WebGet()> _ Public Function GetDate() As DateTime Return Now End Function '<WebGet(UriTemplate:="getdateoffset/{numDays}")> _ <OperationContract()> _ Public Function GetDateOffset(ByVal numDays As Integer) As DateTime Return Now.AddDays(numDays) End Function End Class and the web.config code: <services> <service name="TestService" behaviorConfiguration="TestServiceBehavior"> <endpoint address="soap" binding="basicHttpBinding" contract="TestService"/> <endpoint address="json" binding="webHttpBinding" behaviorConfiguration="jsonBehavior" contract="TestService"/> <endpoint address="xml" binding="webHttpBinding" behaviorConfiguration="poxBehavior" contract="TestService"/> <endpoint address="mex" contract="IMetadataExchange" binding="mexHttpBinding" /> </service> </services> <behaviors> <endpointBehaviors> <behavior name="jsonBehavior"> <enableWebScript/> </behavior> <behavior name="poxBehavior"> <webHttp /> </behavior> </endpointBehaviors> <serviceBehaviors> <behavior name="TestServiceBehavior"> <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true"/> <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false"/> </behavior> </serviceBehaviors> </behaviors> This actually works -- I'm able to go to TestService.svc/xml/GetDate for xml, TestService.svc/json/GetDate for json, and point a SOAP client at TestService.svc?wsdl and have the SOAP queries work. The part I'd like to fix is the queries. I have to use TestService.svc/xml/GetDateOffset?numDays=4 instead of TestService.svc/xml/GetDateOffset/4. If I specify the UriTemplate, I get the error: Endpoints using 'UriTemplate' cannot be used with 'System.ServiceModel.Description.WebScriptEnablingBehavior'. But of course without using <enableWebScript/>, JSON doesn't work. The only other thing I've seen that I think will work is making 3 different services (.svc files), that all implement an interface that specifies the contract, but in the classes specify different WebGet/WebInvoke attributes on each class. This seems like a lot of extra work, that frankly, I don't see why the framework doesn't handle for me. The implementation of the classes would all be the same, except for the attributes, which means over time it would be easy for bugs/changes to get fixed/done in one implementation but not the others, leading to inconsistent behaviour when using the JSON vs SOAP implementation for example. Am I doing something wrong here? Am I taking a totally wrong approach and misusing WCF? Is there a better way to do this? With my experience doing web stuff, I think it should be possible for some kind of framework to handle this ... I even have an idea in my head of how to build it. It just seems like WCF is supposed to be doing this, and I don't really want to reinvent the wheel.

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• Problems with shutting down JBoss in Eclipse if I change JNDI port

  - by Balint Pato

  1st phase I have a problem shutting down my running JBoss instance under Eclipse since I changed the JNDI port of JBoss. Of course I can shut it down from the console view but not with the stop button (it still searches JNDI port at the default 1099 port). I'm looking forward to any solutions. Thank you! Used environment: JBoss 4.0.2 (using default) Eclipse 3.4.0. (using JBoss Tools 2.1.1.GA) Default ports: 1098, 1099 Changed ports: 11098, 11099 I changed the following part in jbosspath/server/default/conf/jboss-service.xml: <!-- ==================================================================== --> <!-- JNDI --> <!-- ==================================================================== --> <mbean code="org.jboss.naming.NamingService" name="jboss:service=Naming" xmbean-dd="resource:xmdesc/NamingService-xmbean.xml"> <!-- The call by value mode. true if all lookups are unmarshalled using the caller's TCL, false if in VM lookups return the value by reference. --> <attribute name="CallByValue">false</attribute> <!-- The listening port for the bootstrap JNP service. Set this to -1 to run the NamingService without the JNP invoker listening port. --> <attribute name="Port">11099</attribute> <!-- The bootstrap JNP server bind address. This also sets the default RMI service bind address. Empty == all addresses --> <attribute name="BindAddress">${jboss.bind.address}</attribute> <!-- The port of the RMI naming service, 0 == anonymous --> <attribute name="RmiPort">11098</attribute> <!-- The RMI service bind address. Empty == all addresses --> <attribute name="RmiBindAddress">${jboss.bind.address}</attribute> <!-- The thread pool service used to control the bootstrap lookups --> <depends optional-attribute-name="LookupPool" proxy-type="attribute">jboss.system:service=ThreadPool</depends> </mbean> <mbean code="org.jboss.naming.JNDIView" name="jboss:service=JNDIView" xmbean-dd="resource:xmdesc/JNDIView-xmbean.xml"> </mbean> Eclipse setup: About my JBoss Tools preferences: I had a previous version, I got this problem, I read about some bugfix in JbossTools, so updated to 2.1.1.GA. Now the buttons changed, and I've got a new preferences view, but I cannot modify anything...seems to be abnormal as well: Error dialog: The stacktrace: javax.naming.CommunicationException: Could not obtain connection to any of these urls: localhost:1099 [Root exception is javax.naming.CommunicationException: Failed to connect to server localhost:1099 [Root exception is javax.naming.ServiceUnavailableException: Failed to connect to server localhost:1099 [Root exception is java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect]]] at org.jnp.interfaces.NamingContext.checkRef(NamingContext.java:1385) at org.jnp.interfaces.NamingContext.lookup(NamingContext.java:579) at org.jnp.interfaces.NamingContext.lookup(NamingContext.java:572) at javax.naming.InitialContext.lookup(InitialContext.java:347) at org.jboss.Shutdown.main(Shutdown.java:202) Caused by: javax.naming.CommunicationException: Failed to connect to server localhost:1099 [Root exception is javax.naming.ServiceUnavailableException: Failed to connect to server localhost:1099 [Root exception is java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect]] at org.jnp.interfaces.NamingContext.getServer(NamingContext.java:254) at org.jnp.interfaces.NamingContext.checkRef(NamingContext.java:1370) ... 4 more Caused by: javax.naming.ServiceUnavailableException: Failed to connect to server localhost:1099 [Root exception is java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect] at org.jnp.interfaces.NamingContext.getServer(NamingContext.java:228) ... 5 more Caused by: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method) at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.doConnect(PlainSocketImpl.java:305) at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(PlainSocketImpl.java:171) at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(PlainSocketImpl.java:158) at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:452) at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:402) at java.net.Socket.<init>(Socket.java:309) at java.net.Socket.<init>(Socket.java:211) at org.jnp.interfaces.TimedSocketFactory.createSocket(TimedSocketFactory.java:69) at org.jnp.interfaces.TimedSocketFactory.createSocket(TimedSocketFactory.java:62) at org.jnp.interfaces.NamingContext.getServer(NamingContext.java:224) ... 5 more Exception in thread "main" 2nd phase: After creating a new Server in File/new/other/server, it did appear in the preferences tab. Now the stop button is working (the server receives the shutdown messages without any additional modification of the jndi port -- there is no opportunity for it now) but it still throws an error message, though different, it's without exception stack trace: "Server JBoss 4.0 Server failed to stop."

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• PostgreSQL triggers and passing parameters

  - by iandouglas

  This is a multi-part question. I have a table similar to this: CREATE TABLE sales_data ( Company character(50), Contract character(50), top_revenue_sum integer, top_revenue_sales integer, last_sale timestamp) ; I'd like to create a trigger for new inserts into this table, something like this: CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION add_contract() RETURNS VOID DECLARE myCompany character(50), myContract character(50), BEGIN myCompany = TG_ARGV[0]; myContract = TG_ARGV[1]; IF (TG_OP = 'INSERT') THEN EXECUTE 'CREATE TABLE salesdata_' || $myCompany || '_' || $myContract || ' ( sale_amount integer, updated TIMESTAMP not null, some_data varchar(32), country varchar(2) ) ;' EXECUTE 'CREATE TRIGGER update_sales_data BEFORE INSERT OR DELETE ON salesdata_' || $myCompany || '_' || $myContract || ' FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE update_sales_data( ' || $myCompany || ',' || $myContract || ', revenue);' ; END IF; END; $add_contract$ LANGUAGE plpgsql; CREATE TRIGGER add_contract AFTER INSERT ON sales_data FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE add_contract() ; Basically, every time I insert a new row into sales_data, I want to generate a new table where the name of the table will be defined as something like "salesdata_Company_Contract" So my first question is how can I pass the Company and Contract data to the trigger so it can be passed to the add_contract() stored procedure? From my stored procedure, you'll see that I also want to update the original sales_data table whenever new data is inserted into the salesdata_Company_Contract table. This trigger will do something like this: CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION update_sales_data() RETURNS trigger as $update_sales_data$ DECLARE myCompany character(50) NOT NULL, myContract character(50) NOT NULL, myRevenue integer NOT NULL BEGIN myCompany = TG_ARGV[0] ; myContract = TG_ARGV[1] ; myRevenue = TG_ARGV[2] ; IF (TG_OP = 'INSERT') THEN UPDATE sales_data SET top_revenue_sales = top_revenue_sales + 1, top_revenue_sum = top_revenue_sum + $myRevenue, updated = now() WHERE Company = $myCompany AND Contract = $myContract ; ELSIF (TG_OP = 'DELETE') THEN UPDATE sales_data SET top_revenue_sales = top_revenue_sales - 1, top_revenue_sum = top_revenue_sum - $myRevenue, updated = now() WHERE Company = $myCompany AND Contract = $myContract ; END IF; END; $update_sales_data$ LANGUAGE plpgsql; This will, of course, require that I pass several parameters around within these stored procedures and triggers, and I'm not sure (a) if this is even possible, or (b) practical, or (c) best practice and we should just put this logic into our other software instead of asking the database to do this work for us. To keep our table sizes down, as we'll have hundreds of thousands of transactions per day, we've decided to partition our data using the Company and Contract strings as part of the table names themselves so they're all very small in size; file IO for us is faster and we felt we'd get better performance. Thanks for any thoughts or direction. My thinking, now that I've written all of this out, is that maybe we need to write stored procedures where we pass our insert data as parameters, and call that from our other software, and have the stored procedure do the insert into "sales_data" then create the other table. Then, have a second stored procedure to insert new data into the salesdata_Company_Contract tables, where the table name is passed to the stored proc as a parameter, and again have that stored proc do the insert, then update the main sales_data table afterward. What approach would you take?

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• Xen hipervisor 4.1 Kernel Panic on Ubuntu 12.04

  - by rkmax

  I have a fresh Ubuntu 12.04.1 amd64 server install following this guide I have used LVM option used all disk and make 2 LV /dev/mapper/vg-root / (80GB) vg-swap swap (4GB) now i install xen with apt-get install xen-hypervisor-4.1-amd64 and config /etc/default/grub like the guide and add GRUB_CMDLINE_XEN_DEFAULT="dom0_mem=768M" later all this i exec update-grub and reboot. but when i try to boot with Xen 4.1-amd64 always i get a kernel panic with the message Domain-0 allocation is too small for kernel image my questions are: this error is about what? where i can grow this allocation for avoid this error? grub.cfg menuentry 'Ubuntu GNU/Linux, with Xen 4.1-amd64 and Linux 3.2.0-29-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os --class xen { insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 set root='(hd0,gpt2)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 3541e241-7f39-4ebe-8d99-c5306294c266 echo 'Loading Xen 4.1-amd64 ...' multiboot /xen-4.1-amd64.gz placeholder dom0_mem=768M echo 'Loading Linux 3.2.0-29-generic ...' module /vmlinuz-3.2.0-29-generic placeholder root=/dev/mapper/backup--xen-root ro rootdelay=180 echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' module /initrd.img-3.2.0-29-generic } Note: I've followed this guide too

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