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  • Printer spools but doesn't print

    - by DKNUCKLES
    I am having a bizarre issue with an end user who is unable to print to a USB attached printer. The environment is as Windows 7 machine with a Canon Pixma iP90 printer. The driver is installed (and has been re-installed several times), but whenever a print job is sent the printer spools but no printing ever occurs. The following is some relevant information I can confirm that the printer is spooling as the spool folder fills up, and the job "releases" and the spool folder empties I have turned off print spooling with no luck None of the features from the Canon utilities (ie Turn Printer Off) features work Computer recognizes the printer as being installed. When the cable is unplugged the printer icon grey's out in Devices and Printers Printer and cable are confirmed working as they work with other PC's in the office I have deleted the USB Root Hub devices and rebooted the machine with no luck No error messages are displayed or logged in the event viewer. The Canon diagnostics utility doesn't detect any problem and states the printer is functioning properly Printer is not shared User is able to print to other shared printers in the office Any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

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  • SVN very slow over HTTP (seems auth related)

    - by Sydius
    I'm using SVN version 1.6.6 (r40053) via the command-line in Ubuntu 10.04 and connecting to a remote repository over HTTP that is in the local network. For a while, it worked fine, but has recently become very slow for any operation that requires communication with the repository, however it does eventually work after several minutes (~3m for svn up). Looking at Wireshark, it appears to be taking a full minute between the HTTP auth denied and the subsequent request containing credentials. The issue is local to my machine because other coworkers running Ubuntu are not having the issue and I've tried using my credentials from another machine and it was very fast. I tried deleting the .subversion folder in my home directory and checking everything out fresh, but it didn't help. Update: I think it's auth related. When I check out SVN repositories off of the Internet over HTTP (from Google Code, for example), everything is very fast until I do something that requires a password. Before prompting for the password for the first time, it stalls for at least a minute. Update 2: I set the neon-debug-mask in the SVN settings (in /etc/subversion/servers under [Global]) to 138 and it seems to spending a lot of time on 'auth: Trying Basic challenge...'

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  • Server periodically freezing - Help Stabilizing

    - by JonDog
    We run an asp.net/sql server data collection website with a hand full of clients dumping data in and running reports. We moved to a new server (specs below) and have had issues with it freezing and having to reboot it a dozen times over the pass six months. The hosting company has mentioned possible causes (listed below) but cant give a definite answer on what is going wrong. They have offered to reconfigure how ever I like. We have benefited from having a much faster system and really dont want to get rid of the ssd's unless they are the issue. Two possible setup changes that I've talked with them about are also listed below. Any suggestions on what maybe causing the freezing issue as well as suggestion on a new setup would be great. My main questions are: Do SSD generally have problems running the OS & SQL Server on the same RAID Array? and Are the new SSD's still unrefined enough to be running in a production environment? Thanks Current: Xeon Quad Core E3-1270 3.40 Ghz 16 GB DDR3-1333 ECC SDRAM First Hard Drive: 120GB Intel SSD Second Hard Drive: 120GB Intel SSD Third Hard Drive: 120GB Intel SSD Fourth Hard Drive: 120GB Intel SSD SAS 4 Port RAID Card Windows 2012 Standard Edition - 64 Bit MSSQL 2008 Web Edition Possible Causes: Running Sql Server & OS on same RAID Array OS Software Issues Using SSD's CPU Underpowered Not enough RAM Option 1 2x Xeon Quad Core E5-2603 1.80 GHz 16 GB DDR3-1333 ECC SDRAM 1 x 240GB Intel SSD - OS 3 x 1 TB SATA HDD (7200 RPM) - SQL Server SATA 4 Port RAID Card Windows 2012 Standard Edition - 64 Bit Option 2 Dell PowerEdge E3-1270v2 3.5GHz 4 Cores 16 GB DDR3-1600 UDIMM 4 x 128 GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD Add-in H200 (SAS/SATA Controller), 4 Hard Drives - RAID 10 Windows 2012 Standard Edition - 64 Bit

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  • Load Balancing is unusual in Apache in round-robin mode when one of the tomcat is brought down

    - by srayker
    We are facing a unusual behavior with round-robin load balancing on apache when one of the tomcat server is brought down. Our Setup: we have 2 apache web servers on the front end using mod_jk module for load balancing using round robin for load distribution. We also have enabled session stickyness. This is followed by 4 tomcat servers on which the applications are running. Sometimes under heavy load, if there is a slowness in our DB tier we find that eventually one of the tomcat goes into a hung state and would need a restart. The moment we bounce the tomcat we see a spike in requests in one of the server and this would also go into hung state and need a restart. Eventually all the server will face similar condition. What beats me is why does the Apache transfer the whole load to one server instead of distributing the load. We are now trying the worker.balancer.method=B to see if this helps to resolve our issue. Any thoughts on resolving the issue is greatly appreciated. regards, srayker

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  • Windows Server 2008 Alerting to Low memory

    - by t1nt1n
    I have a file and print server running on Windows 2008 R2 fully patched in a VSphere environment (ESXi 5.1 fully updated). Every evening between 19:20 and 19:30 our monitoring software reported that the available memory is 1% and performance is dire. There is nothing in the event logs to point to an issue. At this point in the evening I am general the only user on the system to check to see why these alerts are going off. Things I have done; Checked to see if any backups are running – None at all. Checked Scheduled tasks – None before or during this time period. Moved the VM to another host. AV is disabled to rule out that as the issue. The server does not have any problems during the day with memory when fully loaded with about 50 users. The server did have 4GB ram provisioned but I have increased this to 5Gb. Running PrefMon at the time (I will save the graphs tonight) There very little CPU usage at the time but RAM usage goes up.

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  • Computer Turns on Briefly then right back off again.

    - by goddamnyouryan
    So yesterday I came home from work and went to turn my computer on....it turned on for about 5 seconds then promptly turned right back off again...before I ever saw anything on the screen. I tried again, same result. After several attempts, I've found that the length at which it turns on differs. After trying multiple times in a row, it only stays on for about 3 seconds. If I let it rest for a bit it sometimes will stay on for up to a minute (though it never boots, the screen stays black the whole time). I'm not sure what is causing this issue...I built this computer a little more than 2 years ago and this is the first issue I have ever had with it. I did all the usual checks: -It's not the power switch -The capacitors on the motherboard all seem to be in working order -The PSU seems to be fine as it lights up, fan spins, and will sometimes stay on for about a minute period My hope is that the thermal paste on the cpu has degraded and just needs to be re-applied. Does that seem like a reasonable assumption? I'm going to tear the thing apart and do a minimum system build when I get home, but any heads up as to what I should be looking for would be much appreciated. Any thoughts?

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  • Mysql InnoDB and quickly applying large updates

    - by Tim
    Basically my problem is that I have a large table of about 17,000,000 products that I need to apply a bunch of updates to really quickly. The table has 30 columns with the id set as int(10) AUTO_INCREMENT. I have another table which all of the updates for this table are stored in, these updates have to be pre-calculated as they take a couple of days to calculate. This table is in the format of [ product_id int(10), update_value int(10) ]. The strategy I'm taking to issue these 17 million updates quickly is to load all of these updates into memory in a ruby script and group them in a hash of arrays so that each update_value is a key and each array is a list of sorted product_id's. { 150: => [1,2,3,4,5,6], 160: => [7,8,9,10] } Updates are then issued in the format of UPDATE product SET update_value = 150 WHERE product_id IN (1,2,3,4,5,6); UPDATE product SET update_value = 160 WHERE product_id IN (7,8,9,10); I'm pretty sure I'm doing this correctly in the sense that issuing the updates on sorted batches of product_id's should be the optimal way to do it with mysql / innodb. I'm hitting a weird issue though where when I was testing with updating ~13 million records, this only took around 45 minutes. Now I'm testing with more data, ~17 million records and the updates are taking closer to 120 minutes. I would have expected some sort of speed decrease here but not to the degree that I'm seeing. Any advice on how I can speed this up or what could be slowing me down with this larger record set? As far as server specs go they're pretty good, heaps of memory / cpu, the whole DB should fit into memory with plenty of room to grow.

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  • How to push changes from Test server to Live server?

    - by anonymous
    As a beginner, I finally noticed the issue with making changes to the live server I've been working on, now that I have a couple users on it, since I bring it down so often. I created an EC2 image of my live server and set up a separate instance on EC2, so now I have 2 EC2 instances, Stage and Production. I set up GitHub and push changes to stage and test my code there, and when it's all done and working, I push it to the production branch, and everything is good. And there is a slight issue here since I name my files config_stage.js and config_production.js and set up .gitignore on each server, and in my code, I would have it read the ENV flags and set up the appropriate configs, is this the correct approach? And my main question is: how do you keep track of non-code changes to the server? For example, I installed HAProxy, Stunnel, Redis, MongoDB and several other things onto the Stage server for testing and now that it's all working and good, how do I deploy them to production? Right now, I'm just keeping track of everything I installed and copying configuration files over, which is very tedious and I'm afraid I may have missed a step somewhere. Is there a better way to port these changes over from my test server to my live server?

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  • Profile not loaded correctly (Cannot access registry)

    - by xaav
    Every so often, I log on and get the Following Message: User profile was not loaded correctly. You have been logged on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log off. Please see the event log for details or contact your administrator This almost always happens when somebody else has been on the computer for a while, and then I log on. This never used to happen, but now it happens pretty often. My profile is not permanently corrupted, all I have to do is restart my computer, but this annoys me, and I would like to fix it. I was curios about the reason of this cause, so I looked into the Event Log, and found the root of the problem was the ntuser.dat file in the profile that I was logging on to was locked at logon time. This resulted in the current users registry not being loaded, resulting in failure to load the profile. I just found a microsoft article that mentions this exact issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960464/ The problem is that I do not want to delete this profile; and this issue does not come up every time that I log on, only when somebody else has been on a long time before me. What could be locking this file? Is there any way to get a process list without logging on so that I can identify which process has the file locked? Any other suggestions?

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  • Old network login passed to IIS

    - by 300 baud
    Let me start by saying that I am not a server guy - I am a developer. But I develop and manage an ASP.NET application that uses Windows authentication. I've run into the problem I am about to describe before, and I would just like to understand how to remedy it since I am the one who always gets the original support request. A user, let's call her JaneDoe, has just gotten married and her login has been changed to JaneJones. We have an application that uses Windows authentication to store the user's login name to a table and then redirects the user to another non-Windows authenticated site with a GUID which points to the table entry we just made. When the user reaches the second site, we read in the login name from the database using the GUID that was passed. Then, we look up the login name in another database where we track application permissions. The problem is that the user is logging into her workstation as JaneJones, but the Windows authenticated site is still receiving a login name of JaneDoe. Is this a domain controller issue? Is it a workstation issue? What's the best way to resolve this?

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  • How can I find which logon script is being run?

    - by user2517266
    I'm having an issue with network drives. Suddenly some computers and users aren't getting their mapped network drives from the logon script. I am NOT a domain admin, I don't have permission to login to the domain controller. And I know very little about Active Directory. The issue seems random, some users this day, different users tomorrow. Some computers run fine and some won't map no matter who logs in. They are mixed OS's XP (SP3), Vista, and 7. I was looking at the domain in windows explorer and I have found the batch file(s) that maps the drives in several locations, how do I know which one is actually being ran? The .bat file is located in \DOMAIN\NETLOGON\script.bat and \DOMAIN\SYSVOL\DOMAIN\scripts\script.bat and \DOMAIN\SYSVOL\DOMAIN\policies\GUID(Right? It's a crazy string)\User\Scripts\Logon\script.bat So, how can I figure out which one is actually being ran per computer or user? Cause they are all slightly different from each other and one of them doesn't map properly. Do all the files in NETLOGON get ran? Cause there are 15+ files in there. Or is it specified in Group Policy which one(s) get ran? EDIT: I am able to access a program called Active Directory Users and Computers, but the properties tab for any user is blank for the logon script.

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  • Accessing CIFS shares from an OS X machine incredibly slow

    - by Aron Rotteveel
    This is a longshot, because this issue seems over-reported and unanswered on the internet (see references below), but it is about time this issue is permanently solved. The facts: Server: Windows Server 2008, acting as a file server Client: OS X Lion 10.7.3. Method of connecting: directly via IP through Finder: smb://192.168.1.100/share The problem: The initial connection attempt takes about a minute. After the connection is made, it takes one more minute to show the directories in Finder. After navigating to any other directory, it takes several seconds/minutes to parse the directory, seemingly based on the size of the contents. Actually, my entire Finder has this problem after connecting. When using Finder to show my desktop, it can literally take up to a minute to load. Obviously, this is not right. I have no clue how to fix this and would appreciate any help I can get. I am unsure about other relevant information I can provide, but if there is any, please let me know so I can update the post. I seem to be not the only one having this problem: Most importantly, an apple.stackexchange.com entry. Unsolved and unanswered. Several users on the Apple support forums. Users on EduGeek.

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  • Intermittent 403 errors when using allow to limit access to url with both explicit IP and SetEnvIf

    - by rbieber
    We are running Apache 2.2.22 on a Solaris 10 environment. We have a specific URL that we want to limit access to by IP. We recently implemented a CDN and now have the added complexity that the IP's that a request are shown to be coming from are actually the CDN servers and not the ultimate end user. In the case that we need to back the CDN out, we want to handle the case where either the CDN is forwarding the request, or the ultimate client is sending the request directly. The CDN sends the end user IP address in an HTTP header (for this scenario that header is called "User-IP"). Here is the configuration that we have put in place: SetEnvIf User-IP (\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+) REAL_USER_IP=$1 SetEnvIf REAL_USER_IP "(10\.1\.2\.3|192\.168\..+)" access_allowed=1 <Location /uri/> Order deny,allow Allow from 10.1.2.3 192.168. allow from env=access_allowed Deny from all </Location> This seems to work fine for a time, however at some point the web server starts serving 403 errors to the end user - so for some reason it is restricting access. The odd thing is that a bounce of the web server seems to resolve the issue, but only for a time - then the behavior comes back. It might be worthwhile to note as well that this URL is delegated to a JBoss server via mod_jk. The denial of access is, however; confirmed to be at the Apache layer and the issue only seems to happen after the server has been running for some time.

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  • Wireless connection silently dies randomly

    - by Force Flow
    I have two WAP4410N wireless access points powered using Power-Over-Ethernet. They are both connected to the same LAN and broadcasting the same SSID with a WPA2 password. One is using channel 1, while the other is using channel 11. There is coverage overlap where the signal from both access points hover around -75db to -85db while standing in the same physical location. DHCP is disabled, and is being provided by another network device. Every day or so, devices can connect and authenticate to the access points, but are not granted an IP address (and subsequently are unable access to the LAN or Internet). For devices that had already retrieved an IP address prior to the issue exhibiting itself, the devices simply stop communicating with LAN and Internet. However, I can still access each access point's web admin interface from the LAN. If I reboot both devices, the problem vanishes and devices are once again able to get an IP address and connect to the LAN and Internet. Are these symptoms of signal interference between the two WAPs or is this a completely different issue?

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  • NFS server hangs after 3 minutes

    - by John P
    I have a VPS running Centos 6.3 with a fully updated NFS. When I mount the NFS directory from the client, everything works perfectly fine for approximately 3 minutes, then the client hangs attempting to see the directory. nfs-utils-1.2.3-26.el6.x86_64 service nfs status rpc.svcgssd is stopped rpc.mountd (pid 2544) is running... nfsd (pid 2609 2608 2607 2606 2605 2604 2603 2602) is running... rpc.rquotad (pid 2540) is running... cat /etc/exports /home/user XX.XX.XX.20(rw,async,no_root_squash) The client is running Centos 5.8. The directory is mounted using mount x.x.x.6:/home/user /mnt When everything is working, I get the following on the client: /usr/sbin/rpcinfo -p X.X.X.6 | grep mountd 100005 1 udp 892 mountd 100005 1 tcp 892 mountd 100005 2 udp 892 mountd 100005 2 tcp 892 mountd 100005 3 udp 892 mountd 100005 3 tcp 892 mountd When it stops working, rpcinfo just hangs on the client, however running the above command on the server does return data. There are no logs on the NFS Server side that would indicate an issue. On the client side, I see: cat /var/log/messages kernel: nfs: server X.X.X.6 not responding, still trying The client and server are plugged into the same switch, however they are on different networks. The server is a VPS while the client is a dedicated box. SELINUX is in permissive mode on both client and server, and I've turned iptables off on the server to make sure that was not causing an issue. Any ideas would be helpful - right now I'm having to restart NFS every two minutes in a cron job to keep it semi working. Thanks

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  • How to ensure local file is up-to-date or ahead (dropbox sync) before truecrypt auto-mount it?

    - by user620965
    There are a lot tutorials out there that states that dropbox build-in encryption is not secure enought. That tutorials recommands to sync a truecrypt container file to have all files in it securely encrypted. This setup is know to be limited. You can NOT have that truecrypt container file mounted on the same time on more than one location - if you have inserted changes to the contents of the container in more then one location at a time then this setup produces a conflict on the container file in the dropbox system - resulting in one container file for each location. In my case that issue is not relevant - i do not use my data on more than one location at a time. I want to use the auto-mount feature of truecrypt on startup of windows 7 to have a zero configuration environment - and start working right away. But i want to ensure that the local truecrypt container file is up-to-date before truecrypt mounts it automatically - imagine you updated the contents of the container on your primary location and your secondary location was off for a long time. In that case it can take "a long time" till dropbox sync is complete (e.g. depending on your internet connection and the size of the container file). There is a option in truecrypt that ensures that truecrypt do not update the timestamp of the container file - which speeds up the sync, because dropbox client is doing a differential sync then instead of a time consuming full-sync. That is an improvement to that setup, but this do not fix my issue. The question is how to make the auto-mount function wait for the container file to be up-to-date (updated by dropbox)? In contrast: if the file was changed local, but remote file (in the dropbox cloud system) is still old (not jet updated by the sync process / or process is progress), should not make truecrypt to wait for the sync. Suggestions?

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  • DropDownList Value not changing with UpdatePanel and ModalPopupExtender

    - by Richard
    Greetings, I have an asp.net webpage with an modalpopupextender inside of an updatepanel. When I click Ok on the popup, I can get the textbox values from the popup just fine, but the DropDownLists have the old/default value, not the new value I have selected for them. All the controls on the popup are set to enableviewstate = true, and autopostback = false (I just want to make the trip to the server when I click the ok button, not every time I change the value of the popups). Here is the relevant code. ========================== Client Side <asp:UpdatePanel ID="UpdatePanel1" runat="server"> <ContentTemplate> <asp:Panel ID="EditIssuePanel" runat="server" CssClass="modalPopup" Style="display:block;" > <table style="width:500px;"> <tr style="height:50px;"> <td colspan="2" align="center"> <asp:Label ID="lblEditIssueHeader" runat="server" Text="Edit Issue"></asp:Label> </td> </tr> <tr style="height:30px;"> <td class="labelscolumn"> <asp:Label ID="lblIssueName" runat="server" Text="Name:"></asp:Label> </td> <td class="datacolumn"> <asp:TextBox ID="txtName" runat="server" Width="250px" MaxLength="50"></asp:TextBox> </td> </tr> <tr style="height:30px;"> <td class="labelscolumn"> <asp:Label ID="lblDescription" runat="server" Text="Description:"></asp:Label> </td> <td class="datacolumn"> <asp:TextBox ID="txtDescription" runat="server" Width="250px" MaxLength="1000"></asp:TextBox> </td> </tr> <tr style="height:30px;"> <td class="labelscolumn"> <asp:Label ID="lblType" runat="server" Text="Type:"></asp:Label> </td> <td class="datacolumn"> <asp:DropDownList ID="ddlType" runat="server"> <asp:ListItem Selected="True" Value="B">Bug</asp:ListItem> <asp:ListItem Value="R">Request</asp:ListItem> <asp:ListItem Value="O">Other</asp:ListItem> </asp:DropDownList> </td> </tr> <tr style="height:30px;"> <td class="labelscolumn"> <asp:Label ID="lblStatus" runat="server" Text="Status:"></asp:Label> </td> <td class="datacolumn"> <asp:DropDownList ID="ddlStatus" runat="server"> <asp:ListItem Selected="True" Value="L">Logged</asp:ListItem> <asp:ListItem Value="I">In Process</asp:ListItem> <asp:ListItem Value="C">Complete</asp:ListItem> </asp:DropDownList> &nbsp; </td> </tr> <tr style="height:30px;"> <td class="labelscolumn"> <asp:Label ID="lblPriority" runat="server" Text="Priority:"></asp:Label> </td> <td class="datacolumn"> <asp:DropDownList ID="ddlPriority" runat="server" EnableViewState="true" AutoPostBack="false"> <asp:ListItem Selected="True" Value="L">Low</asp:ListItem> <asp:ListItem Value="M">Medium</asp:ListItem> <asp:ListItem Value="H">High</asp:ListItem> </asp:DropDownList> &nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr style="height:30px"> <td class="labelscolumn">Logger</td> <td class="datacolumn"> <asp:Label ID="lblEnteredByClientUserID" runat="server" Text=""></asp:Label> </td> </tr> <tr style="height:30px;"> <td class="labelscolumn"> <asp:Label ID="lblDateResolutionRequested" runat="server" Text="Requested Complete Date:"></asp:Label> </td> <td class="datacolumn"> <igsch:WebDateChooser ID="wdcRequestCompleteDate" runat="server"> </igsch:WebDateChooser> &nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr style="height:30px"> <td class="labelscolumn">Logged Date</td> <td class="datacolumn"> <asp:Label ID="lblLoggedDate" runat="server" Text=""></asp:Label> </td> </tr> <tr style="height:30px"> <td class="labelscolumn">In Process Date</td> <td class="datacolumn"> <asp:Label ID="lblInProcessDate" runat="server" Text=""></asp:Label> </td> </tr> <tr style="height:30px"> <td class="labelscolumn">Resolved Date</td> <td class="datacolumn"> <asp:Label ID="lblResolvedDate" runat="server" Text=""></asp:Label> </td> </tr> <tr style="height:30px;"> <td class="labelscolumn" valign="top"> <asp:Label ID="lblEmailCCList" runat="server" Text="Email CC:"></asp:Label> </td> <td class="datacolumn"> <asp:TextBox ID="txtEmailCCList" runat="server" MaxLength="2000" Rows="0" TextMode="MultiLine" Height="83px" Width="250px"></asp:TextBox> &nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr> <td> <asp:Label ID="lblIssueID" runat="server" Text="" Visible="false"></asp:Label> <asp:Label ID="lblClientID" runat="server" Text="" Visible="false"></asp:Label> </td> <td align="right"> <asp:Button ID="btnEditOk" runat="server" Text="Ok" onclick="btnEditOk_Click"/>&nbsp;&nbsp; <asp:Button ID="btnEditCancel" runat="server" Text="Cancel" onclick="btnEditCancel_Click" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </td> </tr> </table> </asp:Panel> . . . THEN THERE IS A WEBGRID HERE. . . This modal popupextender here got mangled. I cant get stackoverflow to show it right. It shows the properties here though. " BackgroundCssClass="modalBackground" DropShadow="true" OkControlID="btnEditOk" CancelControlID="btnEditCancel" Animations="" </ContentTemplate> </asp:UpdatePanel> ========================================= Server Side protected void btnEditOk_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { IssueDAO issueDAO = new IssueDAO(); string client = "Eichleay"; string name = null; string description = null; string type = null; string status = null; DateTime? resolvedDate = null; string enteredByClientUserName = User.Identity.Name.ToString(); DateTime? loggedDate = DateTime.Now; DateTime? inProcessDate = null; DateTime? completeDate = null; DateTime? requestCompleteDate = null; string priority = null; int? prioritySort = null; string emailCCList = null; name = txtName.Text.Substring(txtName.Text.Length > 0 ? 1 : 0, (txtName.Text.Length > 0 ? txtName.Text.Length : 1) - 1); description = txtDescription.Text.Substring(txtDescription.Text.Length > 0 ? 1 : 0, (txtDescription.Text.Length == 0 ? 1 : txtDescription.Text.Length) - 1); type = ddlType.SelectedValue; status = ddlStatus.SelectedValue; resolvedDate = string.IsNullOrEmpty(lblResolvedDate.Text) == true ? null : new Nullable<DateTime>(Convert.ToDateTime(lblResolvedDate.Text)); inProcessDate = string.IsNullOrEmpty(lblInProcessDate.Text) == true ? null : new Nullable<DateTime>(Convert.ToDateTime(lblInProcessDate.Text)); completeDate = string.IsNullOrEmpty(lblResolvedDate.Text) == true ? null : new Nullable<DateTime>(Convert.ToDateTime(lblResolvedDate.Text)); requestCompleteDate = wdcRequestCompleteDate.Value == null ? null : string.IsNullOrEmpty(wdcRequestCompleteDate.Value.ToString()) == true ? null : new Nullable<DateTime>(Convert.ToDateTime(wdcRequestCompleteDate.Value.ToString())); priority = ddlPriority.SelectedValue; emailCCList = txtEmailCCList.Text.Substring(txtEmailCCList.Text.Length > 0 ? 1 : 0, (txtEmailCCList.Text.Length > 0 ? txtEmailCCList.Text.Length : 1) - 1); if (lblEditIssueHeader.Text.Substring(0, 3) == "New") { issueDAO.InsertIssue(client, name, description, type, status, resolvedDate, enteredByClientUserName, loggedDate, inProcessDate, completeDate, requestCompleteDate, priority, prioritySort, emailCCList); } else { Issue issue = new Issue(Convert.ToInt32(lblIssueID.Text), lblClientID.Text, txtName.Text.Substring(txtName.Text.Length > 0 ? 1 : 0, (txtName.Text.Length > 0 ? txtName.Text.Length : 1) - 1), txtDescription.Text.Substring(txtDescription.Text.Length > 0 ? 1 : 0, (txtDescription.Text.Length == 0 ? 1 : txtDescription.Text.Length) - 1), ddlType.SelectedValue, ddlStatus.SelectedValue, string.IsNullOrEmpty(lblResolvedDate.Text) == true ? null : new Nullable<DateTime>(Convert.ToDateTime(lblResolvedDate.Text)), lblEnteredByClientUserID.Text, string.IsNullOrEmpty(lblLoggedDate.Text) == true ? null : new Nullable<DateTime>(Convert.ToDateTime(lblLoggedDate.Text)), string.IsNullOrEmpty(lblInProcessDate.Text) == true ? null : new Nullable<DateTime>(Convert.ToDateTime(lblInProcessDate.Text)), string.IsNullOrEmpty(lblResolvedDate.Text) == true ? null : new Nullable<DateTime>(Convert.ToDateTime(lblResolvedDate.Text)), string.IsNullOrEmpty(wdcRequestCompleteDate.Value.ToString()) == true ? null : new Nullable<DateTime>(Convert.ToDateTime(wdcRequestCompleteDate.Value.ToString())), ddlPriority.SelectedValue, null, txtEmailCCList.Text.Substring(txtEmailCCList.Text.Length > 0 ? 1 : 0, (txtEmailCCList.Text.Length > 0 ? txtEmailCCList.Text.Length : 1) - 1)); issueDAO.UpdateIssue(issue); } // wdgIssues.ClearDataSource(); // UpdatePanel1.Update(); lblIssueID.Text = null; lblClientID.Text = null; txtName.Text = null; txtDescription.Text = null; ddlType.SelectedValue = null; ddlStatus.SelectedValue = null; lblLoggedDate.Text = null; lblInProcessDate.Text = null; lblResolvedDate.Text = null; wdcRequestCompleteDate.Value = null; ddlPriority.SelectedValue = null; txtEmailCCList.Text = null; }

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  • Part 2&ndash;Load Testing In The Cloud

    - by Tarun Arora
    Welcome to Part 2, In Part 1 we discussed the advantages of creating a Test Rig in the cloud, the Azure edge and the Test Rig Topology we want to get to. In Part 2, Let’s start by understanding the components of Azure we’ll be making use of followed by manually putting them together to create the test rig, so… let’s get down dirty start setting up the Test Rig.  What Components of Azure will I be using for building the Test Rig in the Cloud? To run the Test Agents we’ll make use of Windows Azure Compute and to enable communication between Test Controller and Test Agents we’ll make use of Windows Azure Connect.  Azure Connect The Test Controller is on premise and the Test Agents are in the cloud (How will they talk?). To enable communication between the two, we’ll make use of Windows Azure Connect. With Windows Azure Connect, you can use a simple user interface to configure IPsec protected connections between computers or virtual machines (VMs) in your organization’s network, and roles running in Windows Azure. With this you can now join Windows Azure role instances to your domain, so that you can use your existing methods for domain authentication, name resolution, or other domain-wide maintenance actions. For more details refer to an overview of Windows Azure connect. A very useful video explaining everything you wanted to know about Windows Azure connect.  Azure Compute Windows Azure compute provides developers a platform to host and manage applications in Microsoft’s data centres across the globe. A Windows Azure application is built from one or more components called ‘roles.’ Roles come in three different types: Web role, Worker role, and Virtual Machine (VM) role, we’ll be using the Worker role to set up the Test Agents. A very nice blog post discussing the difference between the 3 role types. Developers are free to use the .NET framework or other software that runs on Windows with the Worker role or Web role. Developers can also create applications using languages such as PHP and Java. More on Windows Azure Compute. Each Windows Azure compute instance represents a virtual server... Virtual Machine Size CPU Cores Memory Cost Per Hour Extra Small Shared 768 MB $0.04 Small 1 1.75 GB $0.12 Medium 2 3.50 GB $0.24 Large 4 7.00 GB $0.48 Extra Large 8 14.00 GB $0.96   You might want to review the Windows Azure Pricing FAQ. Let’s Get Started building the Test Rig… Configuration Machine Role Comments VM – 1 Domain Controller for Playpit.com On Premise VM – 2 TFS, Test Controller On Premise VM – 3 Test Agent Cloud   In this blog post I would assume that you have the domain, Team Foundation Server and Test Controller Installed and set up already. If not, please refer to the TFS 2010 Installation Guide and this walkthrough on MSDN to set up your Test Controller. You can also download a preconfigured TFS 2010 VM from Brian Keller's blog, Brian also has some great hands on Labs on TFS 2010 that you may want to explore. I. Lets start building VM – 3: The Test Agent Download the Windows Azure SDK and Tools Open Visual Studio and create a new Windows Azure Project using the Cloud Template                   Choose the Worker Role for reasons explained in the earlier post         The WorkerRole.cs implements the Run() and OnStart() methods, no code changes required. You should be able to compile the project and run it in the compute emulator (The compute emulator should have been installed as part of the Windows Azure Toolkit) on your local machine.                   We will only be making changes to WindowsAzureProject, open ServiceDefinition.csdef. Ensure that the vmsize is small (remember the cost chart above). Import the “Connect” module. I am importing the Connect module because I need to join the Worker role VM to the Playpit domain. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceDefinition name="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition"> <WorkerRole name="WorkerRole1" vmsize="Small"> <Imports> <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" /> <Import moduleName="Connect"/> </Imports> </WorkerRole> </ServiceDefinition> Go to the ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg and note that settings with key ‘Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.%%%%’ have been added to the configuration file. This is because you decided to import the connect module. See the config below. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="1" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> </ConfigurationSettings> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>             Let’s go step by step and understand all the highlighted parameters and where you can find the values for them.       osFamily – By default this is set to 1 (Windows Server 2008 SP2). Change this to 2 if you want the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. The Advantage of using osFamily = “2” is that you get Powershell 2.0 rather than Powershell 1.0. In Powershell 2.0 you could simply use “powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted ./myscript.ps1” and it will work while in Powershell 1.0 you will have to change the registry key by including the following in your command file “reg add HKLM\Software\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell /v ExecutionPolicy /d Unrestricted /f” before you can execute any power shell. The other reason you might want to move to os2 is if you wanted IIS 7.5.       Activation Token – To enable communication between the on premise machine and the Windows Azure Worker role VM both need to have the same token. Log on to Windows Azure Management Portal, click on Connect, click on Get Activation Token, this should give you the activation token, copy the activation token to the clipboard and paste it in the configuration file. Note – Later in the blog I’ll be showing you how to install connect on the on premise machine.                       EnableDomainJoin – Set the value to true, ofcourse we want to join the on windows azure worker role VM to the domain.       DomainFQDN, DomainControllerFQDN, DomainAccountName, DomainPassword, DomainOU, Administrators – This information is specific to your domain. I have extracted this information from the ‘service manager’ and ‘Active Directory Users and Computers’. Also, i created a new Domain-OU namely ‘CloudInstances’ so all my cloud instances joined to my domain show up here, this is optional. You can encrypt the DomainPassword – refer to the instructions here. Or hold fire, I’ll be covering that when i come to certificates and encryption in the coming section.       Now once you have filled all this information up, the configuration file should look something like below, <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="2" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="45f55fea-f194-4fbc-b36e-25604faac784" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="WIN-KUDQMQFGQOL.play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="************************" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="OU=CloudInstances, DC=Play, DC=Pit, DC=com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="Playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> </ConfigurationSettings> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration> Next we will be enabling the Remote Desktop module in to the ServiceDefinition.csdef, we could make changes manually or allow a beautiful wizard to help us make changes. I prefer the second option. So right click on the Windows Azure project and choose Publish       Now once you get the publish wizard, if you haven’t already you would be asked to import your Windows Azure subscription, this is simply the Msdn subscription activation key xml. Once you have done click Next to go to the Settings page and check ‘Enable Remote Desktop for all roles’.       As soon as you do that you get another pop up asking you the details for the user that you would be logging in with (make sure you enter a reasonable expiry date, you do not want the user account to expire today). Notice the more information tag at the bottom, click that to get access to the certificate section. See screen shot below.       From the drop down select the option to create a new certificate        In the pop up window enter the friendly name for your certificate. In my case I entered ‘WAC – Test Rig’ and click ok. This will create a new certificate for you. Click on the view button to see the certificate details. Do you see the Thumbprint, this is the value that will go in the config file (very important). Now click on the Copy to File button to copy the certificate, we will need to import the certificate to the windows Azure Management portal later. So, make sure you save it a safe location.                                Click Finish and enter details of the user you would like to create with permissions for remote desktop access, once you have entered the details on the ‘Remote desktop configuration’ screen click on Ok. From the Publish Windows Azure Wizard screen press Cancel. Cancel because we don’t want to publish the role just yet and Yes because we want to save all the changes in the config file.       Now if you go to the ServiceDefinition.csdef file you will see that the RemoteAccess and RemoteForwarder roles have been imported for you. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceDefinition name="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition"> <WorkerRole name="WorkerRole1" vmsize="Small"> <Imports> <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" /> <Import moduleName="Connect" /> <Import moduleName="RemoteAccess" /> <Import moduleName="RemoteForwarder" /> </Imports> </WorkerRole> </ServiceDefinition> Now go to the ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg file and you see a whole bunch for setting “Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.%%%” values added for you. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="2" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="45f55fea-f194-4fbc-b36e-25604faac784" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="WIN-KUDQMQFGQOL.play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="************************" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="OU=CloudInstances, DC=Play, DC=Pit, DC=com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="Playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.Enabled" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountUsername" value="Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountEncryptedPassword" value="MIIBnQYJKoZIhvcNAQcDoIIBjjCCAYoCAQAxggFOMIIBSgIBADAyMB4xHDAaBgNVBAMME1dpbmRvd 3MgQXp1cmUgVG9vbHMCEGa+B46voeO5T305N7TSG9QwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEBBQAEggEABg4ol5Xol66Ip6QKLbAPWdmD4ae ADZ7aKj6fg4D+ATr0DXBllZHG5Umwf+84Sj2nsPeCyrg3ZDQuxrfhSbdnJwuChKV6ukXdGjX0hlowJu/4dfH4jTJC7sBWS AKaEFU7CxvqYEAL1Hf9VPL5fW6HZVmq1z+qmm4ecGKSTOJ20Fptb463wcXgR8CWGa+1w9xqJ7UmmfGeGeCHQ4QGW0IDSBU6ccg vzF2ug8/FY60K1vrWaCYOhKkxD3YBs8U9X/kOB0yQm2Git0d5tFlIPCBT2AC57bgsAYncXfHvPesI0qs7VZyghk8LVa9g5IqaM Cp6cQ7rmY/dLsKBMkDcdBHuCTAzBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwFAYIKoZIhvcNAwcECDRVifSXbA43gBApNrp40L1VTVZ1iGag+3O1" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountExpiration" value="2012-11-27T23:59:59.0000000+00:00" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteForwarder.Enabled" value="true" /> </ConfigurationSettings> <Certificates> <Certificate name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.PasswordEncryption" thumbprint="AA23016CF0BDFC344400B5B82706B608B92E4217" thumbprintAlgorithm="sha1" /> </Certificates> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>          Okay let’s look at them one at a time,       Enabled - Yes, we would like to enable Remote Access.       AccountUserName – This is the user name you entered while you were on the publish windows azure role screen, as detailed above.       AccountEncrytedPassword – Try and decode that, the certificate is used to encrypt the password you specified for the user account. Remember earlier i said, either use the instructions or wait and i’ll be showing you encryption, now the user account i am using for rdp has the same password as my domain password, so i can simply copy the value of the AccountEncryptedPassword to the DomainPassword as well.       AccountExpiration – This is the expiration as you specified in the wizard earlier, make sure your account does not expire today.       Remote Forwarder – Check out the documentation, below is how I understand it, -- One role in an application that implements a remote desktop connection must import the RemoteForwarder module. The two modules work together to enable the remote desktop connections to role instances. -- If you have multiple roles defined in the service model, it does not matter which role you add the RemoteForwarder module to, but you must add it to only one of the role definitions.       Certificate – Remember the certificate thumbprint from the wizard, the on premise machine and windows azure role machine that need to speak to each other must have the same thumbprint. More on that when we install Windows Azure connect Endpoints on the on premise machine. As i said earlier, in this blog post, I’ll be showing you the manual process so i won’t be scripting any star up tasks to install the test agent or register the test agent with the TFS Server. I’ll be showing you all this cool stuff in the next blog post, that’s because it’s important to understand the manual side of it, it becomes easier for you to troubleshoot in case something fails. Having said that, the changes we have made are sufficient to spin up the Windows Azure Worker Role aka Test Agent VM, have it connected with the play.pit.com domain and have remote access enabled on it. Before we deploy the Test Agent VM we need to set up Windows Azure Connect on the TFS Server. II. Windows Azure Connect: Setting up Connect on VM – 2 i.e. TFS & Test Controller Glad you made it so far, now to enable communication between the on premise TFS/Test Controller and Azure-ed Test Agent we need to enable communication. We have set up the Azure connect module in the Test Agent configuration, now the connect end points need to be enabled on the on premise machines, let’s have a look at how we can do this. Log on to VM – 2 running the TFS Server and Test Controller Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on Virtual Network Click on Virtual Network, if you already have a subscription you should see the below screen shot, if not, you would be asked to complete the subscription first        Click on Install Local Endpoints from the top left on the panel and you get a url appended with a token id in it, remember the token i showed you earlier, in theory the token you get here should match the token you added to the Test Agent config file.        Copy the url to the clip board and paste it in IE explorer (important, the installation at present only works out of IE and you need to have cookies enabled in order to complete the installation). As stated in the pop up, you can NOT download and run the software later, you need to run it as is, since it contains a token. Once the installation completes you should see the Windows Azure connect icon in the system tray.                         Right click the Azure Connect icon, choose Diagnostics and refer to this link for diagnostic detail terminology. NOTE – Unfortunately I could not see the Windows Azure connect icon in the system tray, a bit of binging with Google revealed that the azure connect icon is only shown when the ‘Windows Azure Connect Endpoint’ Service is started. So go to services.msc and make sure that the service is started, if not start it, unfortunately again, the service did not start for me on a manual start and i realised that one of the dependant services was disabled, you can look at the service dependencies and start them and then start windows azure connect. Bottom line, you need to start Windows Azure connect service before you can proceed. Please refer here on MSDN for more on Troubleshooting Windows Azure connect. (Follow the next step as well)   Now go back to the Windows Azure Management Portal and from Groups and Roles create a new group, lets call it ‘Test Rig’. Make sure you add the VM – 2 (the TFS Server VM where you just installed the endpoint).       Now if you go back to the Azure Connect icon in the system tray and click ‘Refresh Policy’ you will notice that the disconnected status of the icon should change to ready for connection. III. Importing Certificate in to Windows Azure Management Portal But before that you need to import the certificate you created in Step I in to the Windows Azure Management Portal. Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on ‘Hosted Services, Storage Accounts & CDN’ and then ‘Management Certificates’ followed by Add Certificates as shown in the screen shot below        Browse to the location where you saved the certificate earlier, remember… Refer to Step I in case you forgot.        Now you should be able to see the imported certificate here, make sure the thumbprint of the certificate matches the one you inserted in the config files        IV. Publish Windows Azure Worker Role aka Test Agent Having completed I, II and III, you are ready to publish the Test Agent VM – 3 to the cloud. Go to Visual Studio and right click the Windows Azure project and select Publish. Verify the infomration in the wizard, from the advanced settings tab, you can also enabled capture of intellitrace or profiling information.         Click Next and Click Publish! From the view menu bar select the Windows Azure Activity Log window.       Now you should be able to see the deployment progress in real time.             In the Windows Azure Management Portal, you should also be able to see the progress of creation of a new Worker Role.       Once the deployment is complete you should be able to RDP (go to run prompt type mstsc and in the pop up the machine name) in to the Test Agent Worker Role VM from the Playpit network using the domain admin user account. In case you are unable to log in to the Test Agent using the domain admin user account it means the process of joining the Test Agent to the domain has failed! But the good news is, because you imported the connect module, you can connect to the Test Agent machine using Windows Azure Management Portal and troubleshoot the reason for failure, you will be able to log in with the user name and password you specified in the config file for the keys ‘RemoteAccess.AccountUsername, RemoteAccess.EncryptedPassword (just that enter the password unencrypted)’, fix it or manually join the machine to the domain. Once you have managed to Join the Test Agent VM to the Domain move to the next step.      So, log in to the Test Agent Worker Role VM with the Playpit Domain Administrator and verify that you can log in, the machine is connected to the domain and the connect service is successfully running. If yes, give your self a pat on the back, you are 80% mission accomplished!         Go to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on Virtual Network, click on Groups and Roles and click on Test Rig, click Edit Group, the edit the Test Rig group you created earlier. In the Connect to section, click on Add to select the worker role you have just deployed. Also, check the ‘Allow connections between endpoints in the group’ with this you will enable to communication between test controller and test agents and test agents/test agents. Click Save.      Now, you are ready to deploy the Test Agent software on the Worker Role Test Agent VM and configure it to work with the Test Controller. V. Configuring VM – 3: Installing Test Agent and Associating Test Agent to Controller Log in to the Worker Role Test Agent VM that you have just successfully deployed, make sure you log in with the domain administrator account. Download the All Agents software from MSDN, ‘en_visual_studio_agents_2010_x86_x64_dvd_509679.iso’, extract the iso and navigate to where you have extracted the iso. In my case, i have extracted the iso to “C:\Resources\Temp\VsAgentSetup”. Open the Test Agent folder and double click on setup.exe. Once you have installed the Test Agent you should reach the configuration window. If you face any issues installing TFS Test Agent on the VM, refer to the walkthrough on MSDN.       Once you have successfully installed the Test Agent software you will need to configure the test agent. Right click the test agent configuration tool and run as a different user. i.e. an Administrator. This is really to run the configuration wizard with elevated privileges (you might have UAC block something's otherwise).        In the run options, you can select ‘service’ you do not need to run the agent as interactive un less you are running coded UI tests. I have specified the domain administrator to connect to the TFS Test Controller. In real life, i would never do that, i would create a separate test user service account for this purpose. But for the blog post, we are using the most powerful user so that any policies or restrictions don’t block you.        Click the Apply Settings button and you should be all green! If not, the summary usually gives helpful error messages that you can resolve and proceed. As per my experience, you may run in to either a permission or a firewall blocking communication issue.        And now the moment of truth! Go to VM –2 open up Visual Studio and from the Test Menu select Manage Test Controller       Mission Accomplished! You should be able to see the Test Agent that you have just configured here,         VI. Creating and Running Load Tests on your brand new Azure-ed Test Rig I have various blog posts on Performance Testing with Visual Studio Ultimate, you can follow the links and videos below, Blog Posts: - Part 1 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate - Part 2 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate - Part 3 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Videos: - Test Tools Configuration & Settings in Visual Studio - Why & How to Record Web Performance Tests in Visual Studio Ultimate - Goal Driven Load Testing using Visual Studio Ultimate Now that you have created your load tests, there is one last change you need to make before you can run the tests on your Azure Test Rig, create a new Test settings file, and change the Test Execution method to ‘Remote Execution’ and select the test controller you have configured the Worker Role Test Agent against in our case VM – 2 So, go on, fire off a test run and see the results of the test being executed on the Azur-ed Test Rig. Review and What’s next? A quick recap of the benefits of running the Test Rig in the cloud and what i will be covering in the next blog post AND I would love to hear your feedback! Advantages Utilizing the power of Azure compute to run a heavy virtual user load. Benefiting from the Azure flexibility, destroy Test Agents when not in use, takes < 25 minutes to spin up a new Test Agent. Most important test Network Latency, (network latency and speed of connection are two different things – usually network latency is very hard to test), by placing the Test Agents in Microsoft Data centres around the globe, one can actually test the lag in transferring the bytes not because of a slow connection but because the page has been requested from the other side of the globe. Next Steps The process of spinning up the Test Agents in windows Azure is not 100% automated. I am working on the Worker process and power shell scripts to make the role deployment, unattended install of test agent software and registration of the test agent to the test controller automated. In the next blog post I will show you how to make the complete process unattended and automated. Remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. Hope you enjoyed this post, I would love to hear your feedback! If you have any recommendations on things that I should consider or any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment. See you in Part III.   Share this post : CodeProject

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  • InternalsVisibleTo attribute and security vulnerability

    - by Sergey Litvinov
    I found one issue with InternalsVisibleTo attribute usage. The idea of InternalsVisibleTo attribute to allow some other assemblies to use internal classes\methods of this assembly. To make it work you need sign your assemblies. So, if other assemblies isn't specified in main assembly and if they have incorrect public key, then they can't use Internal members. But the issue in Reflection Emit type generation. For example, we have CorpLibrary1 assembly and it has such class: public class TestApi { internal virtual void DoSomething() { Console.WriteLine("Base DoSomething"); } public void DoApiTest() { // some internal logic // ... // call internal method DoSomething(); } } This assembly is marked with such attribute to allow another CorpLibrary2 to make inheritor for that TestAPI and override behaviour of DoSomething method. [assembly: InternalsVisibleTo("CorpLibrary2, PublicKey=0024000004800000940000000602000000240000525341310004000001000100434D9C5E1F9055BF7970B0C106AAA447271ECE0F8FC56F6AF3A906353F0B848A8346DC13C42A6530B4ED2E6CB8A1E56278E664E61C0D633A6F58643A7B8448CB0B15E31218FB8FE17F63906D3BF7E20B9D1A9F7B1C8CD11877C0AF079D454C21F24D5A85A8765395E5CC5252F0BE85CFEB65896EC69FCC75201E09795AAA07D0")] The issue is that I'm able to override this internal DoSomething method and break class logic. My steps to do it: Generate new assembly in runtime via AssemblyBuilder Get AssemblyName from CorpLibrary1 and copy PublikKey to new assembly Generate new assembly that will inherit TestApi class As PublicKey and name of generated assembly is the same as in InternalsVisibleTo, then we can generate new DoSomething method that will override internal method in TestAPI assembly Then we have another assembly that isn't related to this CorpLibrary1 and can't use internal members. We have such test code in it: class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { var builder = new FakeBuilder(InjectBadCode, "DoSomething", true); TestApi fakeType = builder.CreateFake(); fakeType.DoApiTest(); // it will display: // Inject bad code // Base DoSomething Console.ReadLine(); } public static void InjectBadCode() { Console.WriteLine("Inject bad code"); } } And this FakeBuilder class has such code: /// /// Builder that will generate inheritor for specified assembly and will overload specified internal virtual method /// /// Target type public class FakeBuilder { private readonly Action _callback; private readonly Type _targetType; private readonly string _targetMethodName; private readonly string _slotName; private readonly bool _callBaseMethod; public FakeBuilder(Action callback, string targetMethodName, bool callBaseMethod) { int randomId = new Random((int)DateTime.Now.Ticks).Next(); _slotName = string.Format("FakeSlot_{0}", randomId); _callback = callback; _targetType = typeof(TFakeType); _targetMethodName = targetMethodName; _callBaseMethod = callBaseMethod; } public TFakeType CreateFake() { // as CorpLibrary1 can't use code from unreferences assemblies, we need to store this Action somewhere. // And Thread is not bad place for that. It's not the best place as it won't work in multithread application, but it's just a sample LocalDataStoreSlot slot = Thread.AllocateNamedDataSlot(_slotName); Thread.SetData(slot, _callback); // then we generate new assembly with the same nameand public key as target assembly trusts by InternalsVisibleTo attribute var newTypeName = _targetType.Name + "Fake"; var targetAssembly = Assembly.GetAssembly(_targetType); AssemblyName an = new AssemblyName(); an.Name = GetFakeAssemblyName(targetAssembly); // copying public key to new generated assembly var assemblyName = targetAssembly.GetName(); an.SetPublicKey(assemblyName.GetPublicKey()); an.SetPublicKeyToken(assemblyName.GetPublicKeyToken()); AssemblyBuilder assemblyBuilder = Thread.GetDomain().DefineDynamicAssembly(an, AssemblyBuilderAccess.RunAndSave); ModuleBuilder moduleBuilder = assemblyBuilder.DefineDynamicModule(assemblyBuilder.GetName().Name, true); // create inheritor for specified type TypeBuilder typeBuilder = moduleBuilder.DefineType(newTypeName, TypeAttributes.Public | TypeAttributes.Class, _targetType); // LambdaExpression.CompileToMethod can be used only with static methods, so we need to create another method that will call our Inject method // we can do the same via ILGenerator, but expression trees are more easy to use MethodInfo methodInfo = CreateMethodInfo(moduleBuilder); MethodBuilder methodBuilder = typeBuilder.DefineMethod(_targetMethodName, MethodAttributes.Public | MethodAttributes.Virtual); ILGenerator ilGenerator = methodBuilder.GetILGenerator(); // call our static method that will call inject method ilGenerator.EmitCall(OpCodes.Call, methodInfo, null); // in case if we need, then we put call to base method if (_callBaseMethod) { var baseMethodInfo = _targetType.GetMethod(_targetMethodName, BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance); // place this to stack ilGenerator.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_0); // call the base method ilGenerator.EmitCall(OpCodes.Call, baseMethodInfo, new Type[0]); // return ilGenerator.Emit(OpCodes.Ret); } // generate type, create it and return to caller Type cheatType = typeBuilder.CreateType(); object type = Activator.CreateInstance(cheatType); return (TFakeType)type; } /// /// Get name of assembly from InternalsVisibleTo AssemblyName /// private static string GetFakeAssemblyName(Assembly assembly) { var internalsVisibleAttr = assembly.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(InternalsVisibleToAttribute), true).FirstOrDefault() as InternalsVisibleToAttribute; if (internalsVisibleAttr == null) { throw new InvalidOperationException("Assembly hasn't InternalVisibleTo attribute"); } var ind = internalsVisibleAttr.AssemblyName.IndexOf(","); var name = internalsVisibleAttr.AssemblyName.Substring(0, ind); return name; } /// /// Generate such code: /// ((Action)Thread.GetData(Thread.GetNamedDataSlot(_slotName))).Invoke(); /// private LambdaExpression MakeStaticExpressionMethod() { var allocateMethod = typeof(Thread).GetMethod("GetNamedDataSlot", BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Public); var getDataMethod = typeof(Thread).GetMethod("GetData", BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Public); var call = Expression.Call(allocateMethod, Expression.Constant(_slotName)); var getCall = Expression.Call(getDataMethod, call); var convCall = Expression.Convert(getCall, typeof(Action)); var invokExpr = Expression.Invoke(convCall); var lambda = Expression.Lambda(invokExpr); return lambda; } /// /// Generate static class with one static function that will execute Action from Thread NamedDataSlot /// private MethodInfo CreateMethodInfo(ModuleBuilder moduleBuilder) { var methodName = "_StaticTestMethod_" + _slotName; var className = "_StaticClass_" + _slotName; TypeBuilder typeBuilder = moduleBuilder.DefineType(className, TypeAttributes.Public | TypeAttributes.Class); MethodBuilder methodBuilder = typeBuilder.DefineMethod(methodName, MethodAttributes.Static | MethodAttributes.Public); LambdaExpression expression = MakeStaticExpressionMethod(); expression.CompileToMethod(methodBuilder); var type = typeBuilder.CreateType(); return type.GetMethod(methodName, BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Public); } } remarks about sample: as we need to execute code from another assembly, CorpLibrary1 hasn't access to it, so we need to store this delegate somewhere. Just for testing I stored it in Thread NamedDataSlot. It won't work in multithreaded applications, but it's just a sample. I know that we use Reflection to get private\internal members of any class, but within reflection we can't override them. But this issue is allows anyone to override internal class\method if that assembly has InternalsVisibleTo attribute. I tested it on .Net 3.5\4 and it works for both of them. How does it possible to just copy PublicKey without private key and use it in runtime? The whole sample can be found there - https://github.com/sergey-litvinov/Tests_InternalsVisibleTo UPDATE1: That test code in Program and FakeBuilder classes hasn't access to key.sn file and that library isn't signed, so it hasn't public key at all. It just copying it from CorpLibrary1 by using Reflection.Emit

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  • ASP.NET Creating a Rich Repeater, DataBind wiping out custom added controls...

    - by tonyellard
    So...I had this clever idea that I'd create my own Repeater control that implements paging and sorting by inheriting from Repeater and extending it's capabilities. I found some information and bits and pieces on how to go about this and everything seemed ok... I created a WebControlLibrary to house my custom controls. Along with the enriched repeater, I created a composite control that would act as the "pager bar", having forward, back and page selection. My pager bar works 100% on it's own, properly firing a paged changed event when the user interacts with it. The rich repeater databinds without issue, but when the databind fires (when I call base.databind()), the control collection is cleared out and my pager bars are removed. This screws up the viewstate for the pager bars making them unable to fire their events properly or maintain their state. I've tried adding the controls back to the collection after base.databind() fires, but that doesn't solve the issue. I start to get very strange results including problems with altering the hierarchy of the control tree (resolved by adding [ViewStateModeById]). Before I go back to the drawing board and create a second composite control which contains a repeater and the pager bars (so that the repeater isn't responsible for the pager bars viewstate) are there any thoughts about how to resolve the issue? In the interest of share and share alike, the code for the repeater itself is below, the pagerbars aren't as significant as the issue is really the maintaining of state for any additional child controls. (forgive the roughness of some of the code...it's still a work in progress) using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Text; using System.Data; using System.Web; using System.Web.UI; using System.Web.UI.WebControls; [ViewStateModeById] public class SortablePagedRepeater : Repeater, INamingContainer { private SuperRepeaterPagerBar topBar = new SuperRepeaterPagerBar(); private SuperRepeaterPagerBar btmBar = new SuperRepeaterPagerBar(); protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e) { Page.RegisterRequiresControlState(this); InitializeControls(); base.OnInit(e); EnsureChildControls(); } protected void InitializeControls() { topBar.ID = this.ID + "__topPagerBar"; topBar.NumberOfPages = this._currentProperties.numOfPages; topBar.CurrentPage = this.CurrentPageNumber; topBar.PageChanged += new SuperRepeaterPagerBar.PageChangedEventHandler(PageChanged); btmBar.ID = this.ID + "__btmPagerBar"; btmBar.NumberOfPages = this._currentProperties.numOfPages; btmBar.CurrentPage = this.CurrentPageNumber; btmBar.PageChanged += new SuperRepeaterPagerBar.PageChangedEventHandler(PageChanged); } protected override void CreateChildControls() { EnsureDataBound(); this.Controls.Add(topBar); this.Controls.Add(btmBar); //base.CreateChildControls(); } private void PageChanged(object sender, int newPage) { this.CurrentPageNumber = newPage; } public override void DataBind() { //pageDataSource(); //DataBind removes all controls from control collection... base.DataBind(); Controls.Add(topBar); Controls.Add(btmBar); } private void pageDataSource() { //Create paged data source PagedDataSource pds = new PagedDataSource(); pds.PageSize = this.ItemsPerPage; pds.AllowPaging = true; // first get a PagedDataSource going and perform sort if possible... if (base.DataSource is System.Collections.IEnumerable) { pds.DataSource = (System.Collections.IEnumerable)base.DataSource; } else if (base.DataSource is System.Data.DataView) { DataView data = (DataView)DataSource; if (this.SortBy != null && data.Table.Columns.Contains(this.SortBy)) { data.Sort = this.SortBy; } pds.DataSource = data.Table.Rows; } else if (base.DataSource is System.Data.DataTable) { DataTable data = (DataTable)DataSource; if (this.SortBy != null && data.Columns.Contains(this.SortBy)) { data.DefaultView.Sort = this.SortBy; } pds.DataSource = data.DefaultView; } else if (base.DataSource is System.Data.DataSet) { DataSet data = (DataSet)DataSource; if (base.DataMember != null && data.Tables.Contains(base.DataMember)) { if (this.SortBy != null && data.Tables[base.DataMember].Columns.Contains(this.SortBy)) { data.Tables[base.DataMember].DefaultView.Sort = this.SortBy; } pds.DataSource = data.Tables[base.DataMember].DefaultView; } else if (data.Tables.Count > 0) { if (this.SortBy != null && data.Tables[0].Columns.Contains(this.SortBy)) { data.Tables[0].DefaultView.Sort = this.SortBy; } pds.DataSource = data.Tables[0].DefaultView; } else { throw new Exception("DataSet doesn't have any tables."); } } else if (base.DataSource == null) { // don't do anything? } else { throw new Exception("DataSource must be of type System.Collections.IEnumerable. The DataSource you provided is of type " + base.DataSource.GetType().ToString()); } if (pds != null && base.DataSource != null) { //Make sure that the page doesn't exceed the maximum number of pages //available if (this.CurrentPageNumber >= pds.PageCount) { this.CurrentPageNumber = pds.PageCount - 1; } //Set up paging values... btmBar.CurrentPage = topBar.CurrentPage = pds.CurrentPageIndex = this.CurrentPageNumber; this._currentProperties.numOfPages = btmBar.NumberOfPages = topBar.NumberOfPages = pds.PageCount; base.DataSource = pds; } } public override object DataSource { get { return base.DataSource; } set { //init(); //reset paging/sorting values since we've potentially changed data sources. base.DataSource = value; pageDataSource(); } } protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer) { topBar.RenderControl(writer); base.Render(writer); btmBar.RenderControl(writer); } [Serializable] protected struct CurrentProperties { public int pageNum; public int itemsPerPage; public int numOfPages; public string sortBy; public bool sortDir; } protected CurrentProperties _currentProperties = new CurrentProperties(); protected override object SaveControlState() { return this._currentProperties; } protected override void LoadControlState(object savedState) { this._currentProperties = (CurrentProperties)savedState; } [Category("Status")] [Browsable(true)] [NotifyParentProperty(true)] [DefaultValue("")] [Localizable(false)] public string SortBy { get { return this._currentProperties.sortBy; } set { //If sorting by the same column, swap the sort direction. if (this._currentProperties.sortBy == value) { this.SortAscending = !this.SortAscending; } else { this.SortAscending = true; } this._currentProperties.sortBy = value; } } [Category("Status")] [Browsable(true)] [NotifyParentProperty(true)] [DefaultValue(true)] [Localizable(false)] public bool SortAscending { get { return this._currentProperties.sortDir; } set { this._currentProperties.sortDir = value; } } [Category("Status")] [Browsable(true)] [NotifyParentProperty(true)] [DefaultValue(25)] [Localizable(false)] public int ItemsPerPage { get { return this._currentProperties.itemsPerPage; } set { this._currentProperties.itemsPerPage = value; } } [Category("Status")] [Browsable(true)] [NotifyParentProperty(true)] [DefaultValue(1)] [Localizable(false)] public int CurrentPageNumber { get { return this._currentProperties.pageNum; } set { this._currentProperties.pageNum = value; pageDataSource(); } } }

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  • Authoritative sources about Database vs. Flatfile decision

    - by FastAl
    <tldr>looking for a reference to a book or other undeniably authoritative source that gives reasons when you should choose a database vs. when you should choose other storage methods. I have provided an un-authoritative list of reasons about 2/3 of the way down this post.</tldr> I have a situation at my company where a database is being used where it would be better to use another solution (in this case, an auto-generated piece of source code that contains a static lookup table, searched by binary sort). Normally, a database would be an OK solution even though the problem does not require a database, e.g, none of the elements of ACID are needed, as it is read-only data, updated about every 3-5 years (also requiring other sourcecode changes), and fits in memory, and can be keyed into via binary search (a tad faster than db, but speed is not an issue). The problem is that this code runs on our enterprise server, but is shared with several PC platforms (some disconnected, some use a central DB, etc.), and parts of it are managed by multiple programming units, parts by the DBAs, parts even by mathematicians in another department, etc. These hit their own platform’s version of their databases (containing their own copy of the static data). What happens is that every implementation, every little change, something different goes wrong. There are many other issues as well. I can’t even use a flatfile, because one mode of running on our enterprise server does not have permission to read files (only databases, and of course, its own literal storage, e.g., in-source table). Of course, other parts of the system use databases in proper, less obscure manners; there is no problem with those parts. So why don’t we just change it? I don’t have administrative ability to force a change. But I’m affected because sometimes I have to help fix the problems, but mostly because it causes outages and tons of extra IT time by other programmers and d*mmit that makes me mad! The reason neither management, nor the designers of the system, can see the problem is that they propose a solution that won’t work: increase communication; implement more safeguards and standards; etc. But every time, in a different part of the already-pared-down but still multi-step processes, a few different diligent, hard-working, top performing IT personnel make a unique subtle error that causes it to fail, sometimes after the last round of testing! And in general these are not single-person failures, but understandable miscommunications. And communication at our company is actually better than most. People just don't think that's the case because they haven't dug into the matter. However, I have it on very good word from somebody with extensive formal study of sociology and psychology that the relatively small amount of less-than-proper database usage in this gigantic cross-platform multi-source, multi-language project is bureaucratically un-maintainable. Impossible. No chance. At least with Human Beings in the loop, and it can’t be automated. In addition, the management and developers who could change this, though intelligent and capable, don’t understand the rigidity of this ‘how humans are’ issue, and are not convincible on the matter. The reason putting the static data in sourcecode will solve the problem is, although the solution is less sexy than a database, it would function with no technical drawbacks; and since the sharing of sourcecode already works very well, you basically erase any database-related effort from this section of the project, along with all the drawbacks of it that are causing problems. OK, that’s the background, for the curious. I won’t be able to convince management that this is an unfixable sociological problem, and that the real solution is coding around these limits of human nature, just as you would code around a bug in a 3rd party component that you can’t change. So what I have to do is exploit the unsuitableness of the database solution, and not do it using logic, but rather authority. I am aware of many reasons, and posts on this site giving reasons for one over the other; I’m not looking for lists of reasons like these (although you can add a comment if I've miss a doozy): WHY USE A DATABASE? instead of flatfile/other DB vs. file: if you need... Random Read / Transparent search optimization Advanced / varied / customizable Searching and sorting capabilities Transaction/rollback Locks, semaphores Concurrency control / Shared users Security 1-many/m-m is easier Easy modification Scalability Load Balancing Random updates / inserts / deletes Advanced query Administrative control of design, etc. SQL / learning curve Debugging / Logging Centralized / Live Backup capabilities Cached queries / dvlp & cache execution plans Interleaved update/read Referential integrity, avoid redundant/missing/corrupt/out-of-sync data Reporting (from on olap or oltp db) / turnkey generation tools [Disadvantages:] Important to get right the first time - professional design - but only b/c it's meant to last s/w & h/w cost Usu. over a network, speed issue (best vs. best design vs. local=even then a separate process req's marshalling/netwk layers/inter-p comm) indicies and query processing can stand in the way of simple processing (vs. flatfile) WHY USE FLATFILE: If you only need... Sequential Row processing only Limited usage append only (no reading, no master key/update) Only Update the record you're reading (fixed length recs only) Too big to fit into memory If Local disk / read-ahead network connection Portability / small system Email / cut & Paste / store as document by novice - simple format Low design learning curve but high cost later WHY USE IN-MEMORY/TABLE (tables, arrays, etc.): if you need... Processing a single db/ff record that was imported Known size of data Static data if hardcoding the table Narrow, unchanging use (e.g., one program or proc) -includes a class that will be shared, but encapsulates its data manipulation Extreme speed needed / high transaction frequency Random access - but search is dependent on implementation Following are some other posts about the topic: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1499239/database-vs-flat-text-file-what-are-some-technical-reasons-for-choosing-one-over http://stackoverflow.com/questions/332825/are-flat-file-databases-any-good http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2356851/database-vs-flat-files http://stackoverflow.com/questions/514455/databases-vs-plain-text/514530 What I’d like to know is if anybody could recommend a hard, authoritative source containing these reasons. I’m looking for a paper book I can buy, or a reputable website with whitepapers about the issue (e.g., Microsoft, IBM), not counting the user-generated content on those sites. This will have a greater change to elicit a change that I’m looking for: less wasted programmer time, and more reliable programs. Thanks very much for your help. You win a prize for reading such a large post!

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  • How do I prove I should put a table of values in source code instead of a database table?

    - by FastAl
    <tldr>looking for a reference to a book or other undeniably authoritative source that gives reasons when you should choose a database vs. when you should choose other storage methods. I have provided an un-authoritative list of reasons about 2/3 of the way down this post.</tldr> I have a situation at my company where a database is being used where it would be better to use another solution (in this case, an auto-generated piece of source code that contains a static lookup table, searched by binary sort). Normally, a database would be an OK solution even though the problem does not require a database, e.g, none of the elements of ACID are needed, as it is read-only data, updated about every 3-5 years (also requiring other sourcecode changes), and fits in memory, and can be keyed into via binary search (a tad faster than db, but speed is not an issue). The problem is that this code runs on our enterprise server, but is shared with several PC platforms (some disconnected, some use a central DB, etc.), and parts of it are managed by multiple programming units, parts by the DBAs, parts even by mathematicians in another department, etc. These hit their own platform’s version of their databases (containing their own copy of the static data). What happens is that every implementation, every little change, something different goes wrong. There are many other issues as well. I can’t even use a flatfile, because one mode of running on our enterprise server does not have permission to read files (only databases, and of course, its own literal storage, e.g., in-source table). Of course, other parts of the system use databases in proper, less obscure manners; there is no problem with those parts. So why don’t we just change it? I don’t have administrative ability to force a change. But I’m affected because sometimes I have to help fix the problems, but mostly because it causes outages and tons of extra IT time by other programmers and d*mmit that makes me mad! The reason neither management, nor the designers of the system, can see the problem is that they propose a solution that won’t work: increase communication; implement more safeguards and standards; etc. But every time, in a different part of the already-pared-down but still multi-step processes, a few different diligent, hard-working, top performing IT personnel make a unique subtle error that causes it to fail, sometimes after the last round of testing! And in general these are not single-person failures, but understandable miscommunications. And communication at our company is actually better than most. People just don't think that's the case because they haven't dug into the matter. However, I have it on very good word from somebody with extensive formal study of sociology and psychology that the relatively small amount of less-than-proper database usage in this gigantic cross-platform multi-source, multi-language project is bureaucratically un-maintainable. Impossible. No chance. At least with Human Beings in the loop, and it can’t be automated. In addition, the management and developers who could change this, though intelligent and capable, don’t understand the rigidity of this ‘how humans are’ issue, and are not convincible on the matter. The reason putting the static data in sourcecode will solve the problem is, although the solution is less sexy than a database, it would function with no technical drawbacks; and since the sharing of sourcecode already works very well, you basically erase any database-related effort from this section of the project, along with all the drawbacks of it that are causing problems. OK, that’s the background, for the curious. I won’t be able to convince management that this is an unfixable sociological problem, and that the real solution is coding around these limits of human nature, just as you would code around a bug in a 3rd party component that you can’t change. So what I have to do is exploit the unsuitableness of the database solution, and not do it using logic, but rather authority. I am aware of many reasons, and posts on this site giving reasons for one over the other; I’m not looking for lists of reasons like these (although you can add a comment if I've miss a doozy): WHY USE A DATABASE? instead of flatfile/other DB vs. file: if you need... Random Read / Transparent search optimization Advanced / varied / customizable Searching and sorting capabilities Transaction/rollback Locks, semaphores Concurrency control / Shared users Security 1-many/m-m is easier Easy modification Scalability Load Balancing Random updates / inserts / deletes Advanced query Administrative control of design, etc. SQL / learning curve Debugging / Logging Centralized / Live Backup capabilities Cached queries / dvlp & cache execution plans Interleaved update/read Referential integrity, avoid redundant/missing/corrupt/out-of-sync data Reporting (from on olap or oltp db) / turnkey generation tools [Disadvantages:] Important to get right the first time - professional design - but only b/c it's meant to last s/w & h/w cost Usu. over a network, speed issue (best vs. best design vs. local=even then a separate process req's marshalling/netwk layers/inter-p comm) indicies and query processing can stand in the way of simple processing (vs. flatfile) WHY USE FLATFILE: If you only need... Sequential Row processing only Limited usage append only (no reading, no master key/update) Only Update the record you're reading (fixed length recs only) Too big to fit into memory If Local disk / read-ahead network connection Portability / small system Email / cut & Paste / store as document by novice - simple format Low design learning curve but high cost later WHY USE IN-MEMORY/TABLE (tables, arrays, etc.): if you need... Processing a single db/ff record that was imported Known size of data Static data if hardcoding the table Narrow, unchanging use (e.g., one program or proc) -includes a class that will be shared, but encapsulates its data manipulation Extreme speed needed / high transaction frequency Random access - but search is dependent on implementation Following are some other posts about the topic: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1499239/database-vs-flat-text-file-what-are-some-technical-reasons-for-choosing-one-over http://stackoverflow.com/questions/332825/are-flat-file-databases-any-good http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2356851/database-vs-flat-files http://stackoverflow.com/questions/514455/databases-vs-plain-text/514530 What I’d like to know is if anybody could recommend a hard, authoritative source containing these reasons. I’m looking for a paper book I can buy, or a reputable website with whitepapers about the issue (e.g., Microsoft, IBM), not counting the user-generated content on those sites. This will have a greater change to elicit a change that I’m looking for: less wasted programmer time, and more reliable programs. Thanks very much for your help. You win a prize for reading such a large post!

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  • Opening Skype, Opera, OpenOffice logs me off

    - by anjanesh
    Whats common among Skype, Opera, OpenOffice in Ubuntu ? Whenever I open these applications I get logged off and shows back me the login screen. This started happening since the 10.10 upgrade. Forgot to mention : Yes, its x64.Each time I open these applications, the UI shows and then crashes. I started each app & logged the last few lines of /var/log/syslog after each crash. Looks like something to do with sound drivers ? Opera :Jan 8 09:33:20 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11532]: pid.c: Daemon already running. Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_avail_delay() returned strange values: delay 0 is less than avail 8. Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_hda_intel'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers. Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_dump(): Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: Soft volume PCM Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: Control: PCM Playback Volume Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: min_dB: -51 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: max_dB: 0 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: resolution: 256 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is: Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: stream : CAPTURE Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: format : S16_LE Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: subformat : STD Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: channels : 2 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: rate : 44100 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: exact rate : 44100 (44100/1) Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: msbits : 16 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: buffer_size : 88192 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: period_size : 44096 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: period_time : 999909 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: tstamp_mode : ENABLE Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: period_step : 1 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: avail_min : 87310 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: period_event : 0 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: start_threshold : -1 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: stop_threshold : 6205960286516543488 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: silence_threshold: 0 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: silence_size : 0 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: boundary : 6205960286516543488 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: Slave: Hardware PCM card 0 'HDA Intel' device 0 subdevice 0 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is: Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: stream : CAPTURE Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: format : S16_LE Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: subformat : STD Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: channels : 2 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: rate : 44100 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: exact rate : 44100 (44100/1) Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: msbits : 16 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: buffer_size : 88192 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: period_size : 44096 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: period_time : 999909 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: tstamp_mode : ENABLE Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: period_step : 1 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: avail_min : 87310 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: period_event : 0 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: start_threshold : -1 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: stop_threshold : 6205960286516543488 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: silence_threshold: 0 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: silence_size : 0 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: boundary : 6205960286516543488 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: appl_ptr : 87320 Jan 8 09:33:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[11429]: alsa-util.c: hw_ptr : 87320 Jan 8 09:33:22 al-ubuntu kernel: [ 4962.078306] opera[11036]: segfault at 261 ip 0000000000000261 sp 00007fffed7cd9a8 error 14 in opera[400000+122b000] anjanesh@al-ubuntu:~$ SkypeJan 8 09:40:21 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12602]: pid.c: Daemon already running. Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_avail_delay() returned strange values: delay 0 is less than avail 8. Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_hda_intel'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers. Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_dump(): Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: Soft volume PCM Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: Control: PCM Playback Volume Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: min_dB: -51 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: max_dB: 0 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: resolution: 256 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is: Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: stream : CAPTURE Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: format : S16_LE Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: subformat : STD Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: channels : 2 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: rate : 44100 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: exact rate : 44100 (44100/1) Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: msbits : 16 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: buffer_size : 88192 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: period_size : 44096 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: period_time : 999909 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: tstamp_mode : ENABLE Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: period_step : 1 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: avail_min : 87310 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: period_event : 0 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: start_threshold : -1 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: stop_threshold : 6205960286516543488 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: silence_threshold: 0 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: silence_size : 0 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: boundary : 6205960286516543488 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: Slave: Hardware PCM card 0 'HDA Intel' device 0 subdevice 0 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is: Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: stream : CAPTURE Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: format : S16_LE Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: subformat : STD Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: channels : 2 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: rate : 44100 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: exact rate : 44100 (44100/1) Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: msbits : 16 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: buffer_size : 88192 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: period_size : 44096 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: period_time : 999909 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: tstamp_mode : ENABLE Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: period_step : 1 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: avail_min : 87310 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: period_event : 0 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: start_threshold : -1 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: stop_threshold : 6205960286516543488 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: silence_threshold: 0 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: silence_size : 0 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: boundary : 6205960286516543488 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: appl_ptr : 87312 Jan 8 09:40:23 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[12485]: alsa-util.c: hw_ptr : 87312 anjanesh@al-ubuntu:~$ Open OfficeJan 8 09:43:46 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13157]: pid.c: Daemon already running. Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_avail_delay() returned strange values: delay 0 is less than avail 16. Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_hda_intel'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers. Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_dump(): Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: Soft volume PCM Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: Control: PCM Playback Volume Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: min_dB: -51 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: max_dB: 0 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: resolution: 256 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is: Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: stream : CAPTURE Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: format : S16_LE Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: subformat : STD Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: channels : 2 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: rate : 44100 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: exact rate : 44100 (44100/1) Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: msbits : 16 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: buffer_size : 88192 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: period_size : 44096 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: period_time : 999909 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: tstamp_mode : ENABLE Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: period_step : 1 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: avail_min : 87310 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: period_event : 0 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: start_threshold : -1 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: stop_threshold : 6205960286516543488 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: silence_threshold: 0 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: silence_size : 0 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: boundary : 6205960286516543488 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: Slave: Hardware PCM card 0 'HDA Intel' device 0 subdevice 0 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is: Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: stream : CAPTURE Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: format : S16_LE Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: subformat : STD Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: channels : 2 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: rate : 44100 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: exact rate : 44100 (44100/1) Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: msbits : 16 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: buffer_size : 88192 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: period_size : 44096 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: period_time : 999909 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: tstamp_mode : ENABLE Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: period_step : 1 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: avail_min : 87310 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: period_event : 0 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: start_threshold : -1 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: stop_threshold : 6205960286516543488 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: silence_threshold: 0 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: silence_size : 0 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: boundary : 6205960286516543488 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: appl_ptr : 87320 Jan 8 09:43:48 al-ubuntu pulseaudio[13064]: alsa-util.c: hw_ptr : 87320 anjanesh@al-ubuntu:~$

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  • Week in Geek: New Security Flaw Confirmed for Internet Explorer Edition

    - by Asian Angel
    This week we learned how to use a PC to stay entertained while traveling for the holidays, create quality photo prints with free software, share links between any browser and any smartphone, create perfect Christmas photos using How-To Geek’s 10 best how-to photo guides, and had fun decorating Firefox with a collection of Holiday 2010 Personas themes. Photo by Repoort. Random Geek Links Photo by Asian Angel. Critical 0-Day Flaw Affects All Internet Explorer Versions, Microsoft Warns Microsoft has confirmed a zero-day vulnerability affecting all supported versions of Internet Explorer, including IE8, IE7 and IE6. Note: Article contains link to Microsoft Security Advisory detailing two work-arounds until a security update is released. Hackers targeting human rights, indie media groups Hackers are increasingly hitting the Web sites of human rights and independent media groups in an attempt to silence them, says a new study released this week by Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. OpenBSD: audits give no indication of back doors So far, the analyses of OpenBSD’s crypto and IPSec code have not provided any indication that the system contains back doors for listening to encrypted VPN connections. But the developers have already found two bugs during their current audits. Sophos: Beware Facebook’s new facial-recognition feature Facebook’s new facial recognition software might result in undesirable photos of users being circulated online, warned a security expert, who urged users to keep abreast with the social network’s privacy settings to prevent the abovementioned scenario from becoming a reality. Microsoft withdraws flawed Outlook update Microsoft has withdrawn update KB2412171 for Outlook 2007, released last Patch Tuesday, after a number of user complaints. Skype: Millions still without service Skype was still working to right itself going into the holiday weekend from a major outage that began this past Wednesday. Mozilla improves sync setup and WebGL in Firefox 4 beta 8 Firefox 4.0 beta 8 brings better support for WebGL and introduces an improved setup process for Firefox Sync that simplifies the steps for configuring the synchronization service across multiple devices. Chrome OS the litmus test for cloud The success or failure of Google’s browser-oriented Chrome OS will be the litmus test to decide if the cloud is capable of addressing user needs for content and services, according to a new Ovum report released Monday. FCC Net neutrality rules reach mobile apps The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) finally released its long-expected regulations on Thursday and the related explanations total a whopping 194 pages. One new item that was not previously disclosed: mobile wireless providers can’t block “applications that compete with the provider’s” own voice or video telephony services. KDE and the Document Foundation join Open Invention Network The KDE e.V. and the Document Foundation (TDF) have both joined the Open Invention Network (OIN) as licensees, expanding the organization’s roster of supporters. Report: SEC looks into Hurd’s ousting from HP The scandal surrounding Mark Hurd’s departure from the world’s largest technology company in August has officially drawn attention from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Report: Google requests delay of new Google TVs Google TV is apparently encountering a bit of static that has resulted in a programming change. Geek Video of the Week This week we have a double dose of geeky video goodness for you with the original Mac vs PC video and the trailer for the sequel. Photo courtesy of Peacer. Mac vs PC Photo courtesy of Peacer. Mac vs PC 2 Trailer Random TinyHacker Links Awesome Tools To Extract Audio From Video Here’s a list of really useful, and free tools to rip audio from videos. Getting Your iPhone Out of Recovery Mode Is your iPhone stuck in recovery mode? This tutorial will help you get it out of that state. Google Shared Spaces Quickly create a shared space and collaborate with friends online. McAfee Internet Security 2011 – Upgrade not worthy of a version change McAfee has released their 2011 version of security products. And as this review details, the upgrades are minimal when compared to their 2010 products. For more information, check out the review. 200 Countries Plotted Hans Rosling’s famous lectures combine enormous quantities of public data with a sport’s commentator’s style to reveal the story of the world’s past, present and future development. Now he explores stats in a way he has never done before – using augmented reality animation. Super User Questions Enjoy looking through this week’s batch of popular questions and answers from Super User. How to restore windows 7 to a known working state every time it boots? Is there an easy way to mass-transfer all files between two computers? Coffee spilled inside computer, damaged hard drive Computer does not boot after ram upgrade Keyboard not detected when trying to install Ubuntu 10.10 How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap Have you had a super busy week while preparing for the holiday weekend? Then here is your chance to get caught up on your reading with our five hottest articles for the week. Ask How-To Geek: Rescuing an Infected PC, Installing Bloat-free iTunes, and Taming a Crazy Trackpad How to Use the Avira Rescue CD to Clean Your Infected PC Eight Geektacular Christmas Projects for Your Day Off VirtualBox 4.0 Rocks Extensions and a Simplified GUI Ask the Readers: How Many Monitors Do You Use with Your Computer? One Year Ago on How-To Geek Here are more great articles from one year ago for you to read and enjoy during the holiday break. Enjoy Distraction-Free Writing with WriteMonkey Shutter is a State of Art Screenshot Tool for Ubuntu Get Hex & RGB Color Codes the Easy Way Find User Scripts for Your Favorite Websites the Easy Way Access Your Unsorted Bookmarks the Easy Way (Firefox) The Geek Note That “wraps” things up for this week and we hope that everyone enjoys the rest of their holiday break! Found a great tip during the break? Then be sure to send it in to us at [email protected]. Photo by ArSiSa7. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Use the Avira Rescue CD to Clean Your Infected PC The Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials Is Your Desktop Printer More Expensive Than Printing Services? 20 OS X Keyboard Shortcuts You Might Not Know HTG Explains: Which Linux File System Should You Choose? HTG Explains: Why Does Photo Paper Improve Print Quality? Simon’s Cat Explores the Christmas Tree! [Video] The Outdoor Lights Scene from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation [Video] The Famous Home Alone Pizza Delivery Scene [Classic Video] Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Theme for Windows 7 Cardinal and Rabbit Sharing a Tree on a Cold Winter Morning Wallpaper An Alternate Star Wars Christmas Special [Video]

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  • Parallelism in .NET – Part 3, Imperative Data Parallelism: Early Termination

    - by Reed
    Although simple data parallelism allows us to easily parallelize many of our iteration statements, there are cases that it does not handle well.  In my previous discussion, I focused on data parallelism with no shared state, and where every element is being processed exactly the same. Unfortunately, there are many common cases where this does not happen.  If we are dealing with a loop that requires early termination, extra care is required when parallelizing. Often, while processing in a loop, once a certain condition is met, it is no longer necessary to continue processing.  This may be a matter of finding a specific element within the collection, or reaching some error case.  The important distinction here is that, it is often impossible to know until runtime, what set of elements needs to be processed. In my initial discussion of data parallelism, I mentioned that this technique is a candidate when you can decompose the problem based on the data involved, and you wish to apply a single operation concurrently on all of the elements of a collection.  This covers many of the potential cases, but sometimes, after processing some of the elements, we need to stop processing. As an example, lets go back to our previous Parallel.ForEach example with contacting a customer.  However, this time, we’ll change the requirements slightly.  In this case, we’ll add an extra condition – if the store is unable to email the customer, we will exit gracefully.  The thinking here, of course, is that if the store is currently unable to email, the next time this operation runs, it will handle the same situation, so we can just skip our processing entirely.  The original, serial case, with this extra condition, might look something like the following: foreach(var customer in customers) { // Run some process that takes some time... DateTime lastContact = theStore.GetLastContact(customer); TimeSpan timeSinceContact = DateTime.Now - lastContact; // If it's been more than two weeks, send an email, and update... if (timeSinceContact.Days > 14) { // Exit gracefully if we fail to email, since this // entire process can be repeated later without issue. if (theStore.EmailCustomer(customer) == false) break; customer.LastEmailContact = DateTime.Now; } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } Here, we’re processing our loop, but at any point, if we fail to send our email successfully, we just abandon this process, and assume that it will get handled correctly the next time our routine is run.  If we try to parallelize this using Parallel.ForEach, as we did previously, we’ll run into an error almost immediately: the break statement we’re using is only valid when enclosed within an iteration statement, such as foreach.  When we switch to Parallel.ForEach, we’re no longer within an iteration statement – we’re a delegate running in a method. This needs to be handled slightly differently when parallelized.  Instead of using the break statement, we need to utilize a new class in the Task Parallel Library: ParallelLoopState.  The ParallelLoopState class is intended to allow concurrently running loop bodies a way to interact with each other, and provides us with a way to break out of a loop.  In order to use this, we will use a different overload of Parallel.ForEach which takes an IEnumerable<T> and an Action<T, ParallelLoopState> instead of an Action<T>.  Using this, we can parallelize the above operation by doing: Parallel.ForEach(customers, (customer, parallelLoopState) => { // Run some process that takes some time... DateTime lastContact = theStore.GetLastContact(customer); TimeSpan timeSinceContact = DateTime.Now - lastContact; // If it's been more than two weeks, send an email, and update... if (timeSinceContact.Days > 14) { // Exit gracefully if we fail to email, since this // entire process can be repeated later without issue. if (theStore.EmailCustomer(customer) == false) parallelLoopState.Break(); else customer.LastEmailContact = DateTime.Now; } }); There are a couple of important points here.  First, we didn’t actually instantiate the ParallelLoopState instance.  It was provided directly to us via the Parallel class.  All we needed to do was change our lambda expression to reflect that we want to use the loop state, and the Parallel class creates an instance for our use.  We also needed to change our logic slightly when we call Break().  Since Break() doesn’t stop the program flow within our block, we needed to add an else case to only set the property in customer when we succeeded.  This same technique can be used to break out of a Parallel.For loop. That being said, there is a huge difference between using ParallelLoopState to cause early termination and to use break in a standard iteration statement.  When dealing with a loop serially, break will immediately terminate the processing within the closest enclosing loop statement.  Calling ParallelLoopState.Break(), however, has a very different behavior. The issue is that, now, we’re no longer processing one element at a time.  If we break in one of our threads, there are other threads that will likely still be executing.  This leads to an important observation about termination of parallel code: Early termination in parallel routines is not immediate.  Code will continue to run after you request a termination. This may seem problematic at first, but it is something you just need to keep in mind while designing your routine.  ParallelLoopState.Break() should be thought of as a request.  We are telling the runtime that no elements that were in the collection past the element we’re currently processing need to be processed, and leaving it up to the runtime to decide how to handle this as gracefully as possible.  Although this may seem problematic at first, it is a good thing.  If the runtime tried to immediately stop processing, many of our elements would be partially processed.  It would be like putting a return statement in a random location throughout our loop body – which could have horrific consequences to our code’s maintainability. In order to understand and effectively write parallel routines, we, as developers, need a subtle, but profound shift in our thinking.  We can no longer think in terms of sequential processes, but rather need to think in terms of requests to the system that may be handled differently than we’d first expect.  This is more natural to developers who have dealt with asynchronous models previously, but is an important distinction when moving to concurrent programming models. As an example, I’ll discuss the Break() method.  ParallelLoopState.Break() functions in a way that may be unexpected at first.  When you call Break() from a loop body, the runtime will continue to process all elements of the collection that were found prior to the element that was being processed when the Break() method was called.  This is done to keep the behavior of the Break() method as close to the behavior of the break statement as possible. We can see the behavior in this simple code: var collection = Enumerable.Range(0, 20); var pResult = Parallel.ForEach(collection, (element, state) => { if (element > 10) { Console.WriteLine("Breaking on {0}", element); state.Break(); } Console.WriteLine(element); }); If we run this, we get a result that may seem unexpected at first: 0 2 1 5 6 3 4 10 Breaking on 11 11 Breaking on 12 12 9 Breaking on 13 13 7 8 Breaking on 15 15 What is occurring here is that we loop until we find the first element where the element is greater than 10.  In this case, this was found, the first time, when one of our threads reached element 11.  It requested that the loop stop by calling Break() at this point.  However, the loop continued processing until all of the elements less than 11 were completed, then terminated.  This means that it will guarantee that elements 9, 7, and 8 are completed before it stops processing.  You can see our other threads that were running each tried to break as well, but since Break() was called on the element with a value of 11, it decides which elements (0-10) must be processed. If this behavior is not desirable, there is another option.  Instead of calling ParallelLoopState.Break(), you can call ParallelLoopState.Stop().  The Stop() method requests that the runtime terminate as soon as possible , without guaranteeing that any other elements are processed.  Stop() will not stop the processing within an element, so elements already being processed will continue to be processed.  It will prevent new elements, even ones found earlier in the collection, from being processed.  Also, when Stop() is called, the ParallelLoopState’s IsStopped property will return true.  This lets longer running processes poll for this value, and return after performing any necessary cleanup. The basic rule of thumb for choosing between Break() and Stop() is the following. Use ParallelLoopState.Stop() when possible, since it terminates more quickly.  This is particularly useful in situations where you are searching for an element or a condition in the collection.  Once you’ve found it, you do not need to do any other processing, so Stop() is more appropriate. Use ParallelLoopState.Break() if you need to more closely match the behavior of the C# break statement. Both methods behave differently than our C# break statement.  Unfortunately, when parallelizing a routine, more thought and care needs to be put into every aspect of your routine than you may otherwise expect.  This is due to my second observation: Parallelizing a routine will almost always change its behavior. This sounds crazy at first, but it’s a concept that’s so simple its easy to forget.  We’re purposely telling the system to process more than one thing at the same time, which means that the sequence in which things get processed is no longer deterministic.  It is easy to change the behavior of your routine in very subtle ways by introducing parallelism.  Often, the changes are not avoidable, even if they don’t have any adverse side effects.  This leads to my final observation for this post: Parallelization is something that should be handled with care and forethought, added by design, and not just introduced casually.

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