Category Archives: Technology

Technology, Windows Server 2008

Log file zipper – Part 2

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Its been almost a year since my first post on this subject.  Over the past year I have moved from hosting all of my websites with Server 2003 to Server 2008, and in the course of that I had to re-setup my log zipping application.

In the course of that, I found that the previous script did not work with IIS7 logfiles.  The difference being the default naming convention of the files.  In IIS 6 the name was exYYMMDD.log, in IIS7 the name is u_exYYYYMMDD.log.  that extra u_ was throwing off the script as it tried to parse the date out to create the zip file.  So I got back in touch with my buddy who originally wrote the script and requested some features.

What we came up with is a script that determines the offset of the date in the filename and can parse the date regardless of the convention.   This will allow you to run it against IIS6 or IIS7 logs without modification.  (In theory you could use this against any type of log file that includes a date, but I have not tested it)

We also threw in a variable that allows the user to set how many days of logfiles to keep on the drive unzipped.  In this fashion you can keep the most recent X days of logs uncompressed for troubleshooting.

I also included a batch file that will allow you to run, and/or schedule a task to run the script as needed.  The files are located here.  Give it a shot and let me know if it helps!

 

Technology, VMWare

ESX 4.0 and USB devices

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I’m having trouble getting USB to work on one of my ESX 4.0 hosts.  I did a bunch of research and found that in the initial release of ESX 4 USB was ‘supposed’ to work but didn’t.  All the posts I read indicated that this was fixed in subsequent releases so I went about the task of upgrading my host to the newest release.

After quite a bit of fiddling I was able to get Update 3 installed.  After this I still have not had any luck getting my USB device to connect.  I’m tryinmg to connect a Serial to USB adapter so that I can connect to a Cisco console cable, or other serial devices.  I do have it working just over the regular com/serial port onboard, but I want it to work via USB so that I can more easily move the connection around to other boxes/laptops/etc.

Much of the info that I read dealt with USB HDs so perhaps they work but not these other types of devices/adapters?  If anyone has any ideas I sure would appreciate it!

Ham Radio, Solar, Technology

DIY Solar Power – The Results

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Now that is has been a full 4+ months since my previous post I’ve finally made some progress  with my solar power supply.

I have picked up several pieces that are key to getting a fully off grid low voltage power supply.  I was able to get a Kyocera KC50t Solar Panel,  a Xantrex c35 Charge Controller, a DC breaker box and breakers, interconnect wire, and mounting hardware.

Xantrex C35 an breaker mounted
Xantrex C35 with Baby Big Box DC Breakers

I mounted a piece of 1/2″ plywood to my garage wall as a backer board, and there I mounted the DC breaker box along with the Xantrex C35 about half a foot above that.  Then onto the wiring from there.

Wiring together all of the components took longer than I had expected.  Due to the distance of my panel from the electrical components I needed 10g wire. I was actually right on the cusp of needed 8g wire and the cost jump was double, so I was happy to be in the 10g range.  After some effort I finally got everything wired together.

So now I have 10g leads from my battery pair to a DC breaker in the box as a cutoff.  From there more leads went to the Xantrex on the battery terminal and common ground.  Then another lead from the PV Array terminal and common ground on the Xantrex to another DC breaker.  From the other end of that breaker was my long lead up to the roof where the panel would be mounted.  Also I have incorporated a ground wire interconnecting all of the pieces together with a grounding stake that is just outside my garage.

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Technology, Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 Task Error 0x1

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I’ve been working with Windows Sever 2008 and 2008 R2 only for a couple of months now.  Generally the OS is greatly improved over 2003.  There are many quirks that are frustrating though.  They are generally little things, but there is nearly zero documentation and only extensive web searches reveal the fix.

One issue I’ve been struggling with is the Task Scheduler not working on what I had assumed were basic tasks.  I have a script that I run to clean out files of a certain age from a specified folder.  I use it for deleting log files and some backups etc.  The task simply executes a batch file which calls a .vbs script.  The task was failing with error code 0x1 without any farther details.  After some time spent searching and trying different things I found the trick that worked.

When running a batch file at least, it seems that when setting up a task you cannot just specify the file to be run, you also have to specify the ‘start in’ parameter.  For example if you specify c:\temp\script.bat you also have to specify c:\temp as the start in parameter.  I did this and my task is now working like a charm!

Technology

Windows 7 Offer Unsolicited Remote Assistance

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I have a number of remote users that I support, and sometimes walking through things over the phone is just difficult.  I have used Remote Assistance a few times, but walking a user through requesting help can be slow and troublesome sometimes.  I started searching around for way to do unsolicited remote assistance sessions and found this post that walked me through setting up a GP for it.  Worked like a charm and has already saved my bacon!

Offer Unsolicited Remote Assistance GPO