NaveOSS

This walked up on a friend and I while we were talking in the parking lot at work.  At first we thought it was 2 crawdads mating.  However, in the simple terms available to us while we are talking about available pipelines of bandwidth in the Southern Illinois area and how to maintain the ability to serve out data under our constant load. We simply described it as a creature that moved like a semi-truck.

Photos taken with my LG eNV camera phone because at the time I didn’t have my camera or the HTC Incredible I have now.  After many hours of diligently looking, my wife (who is a biology major) stumbled upon this creatures identity as a nocturnal sub-terrain insect of the family Gryllotalpidae thats sometimes used as food in Asia. Which was obviously way to much information for my taste.

A surprisingly simple task presented itself this week. How to make an Apache2 server send its access log files over the network to a centralized syslogd server.  I won’t disappoint by not sharing the details so here we go. On Ubuntu 10.04.

Server Side Configuration

1. Enable syslog to allow network connections by:
   

   ubuntu-server:~# sudo nano -w /etc/rsyslog.conf
   Uncomment the following sections:
   # provides UDP syslog reception
   $ModLoad imudp
   $UDPServerRun 514

   # provides TCP syslog reception
   $ModLoad imtcp
   $InputTCPServerRun 514

2. Then add the new config to the rsyslog configuration files.
   

   ubuntu-server:~# sudo nano -w /etc/rsyslog.d/40-apacheaccess.conf
   logserv1.notice /var/log/remote-apache-access.log

3. Restart related services
   

   1. ubuntu-server:~# sudo service rsyslog restart

Client Side Configuration

1. Add line to new rsyslog.d config file on the apache server. Change the IP to your log server’s ip address.
   

   apache-server:~# sudo nano -w /etc/rsyslog.d/40-apacheaccess.conf
   logserv1.notice @192.168.1.2

2. Configure apache to output access logs to new remote server. Find the CustomLog line and modify it as it appears below. You can specify multiple locations so here I tee the file to the local file system and to the remote log server. Step 2 is all on one line.
   

   1. apache-server:~# sudo nano -w /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
   2. CustomLog “|/usr/bin/tee -a /var/log/apache2/access.log | /usr/bin/logger -thttpd -plogserv1.notice” combined

3. Restart all Services related to apache and rsyslog
   

   1. apache-server:~# sudo service rsyslog restart
   2. apache-server:~# sudo service apache2 restart

I recently ran into an issue with upgrading Dell PowerEdge servers. Having many old PowerEdge 1750, PowerEdge 2850, PowerEdge 2900, and many others I needed a quick and easy way to update the bios while in Ubuntu and Debian. Official options from Dell consist of:

• Floppy Image (only you need windows to make the floppy)
• Windows exe install
• Redhat Enterprise Linux (non-free)

Since reformatting and installing Windows or Redhat seems completely dumbfounding just for a bios update, I found there is actually a really good and easy way to do this using smbios2.

In Ubuntu or Debian run “sudo apt-get install libsmbios-bin” after this installs run:

ubuntu-server:~# getSystemId

Libsmbios version:      2.2.13

Product Name:           PowerEdge 1750

Vendor:                 Dell Computer Corporation

BIOS Version:           A11

System ID:              0x014A

Service Tag:            XXXXXXX

Express Service Code:   XXXXXXXXXX

Asset Tag:

Property Ownership Tag:

Note the System ID: value. This server is 0x014A.

Visit http://linux.dell.com/repo/firmware/bios-hdrs/ and you will see a lot of directories listed such as:

• system_bios_ven_0x1028_dev_0x014a_version_a11
• system_bios_ven_0x1028_dev_0x00a6_version_a07
• system_bios_ven_0x1028_dev_0x00a6_version_a08

The end number a11, a07, a08 is the Bios version number. Its always a good bet to choose the highest number. Take the SystemID noted earlier and find the system_bios_ven_0x1028_dev_ that matches.  Since my system ID was 0x014a that means system_bios_ven_0x1028_dev_0x014a_version_a11 is the link that applies to my hardware.  Click that link to get a list of files for your hardware. Once the file list is available, choose to download the bios.hdr to your machine.  Then run the following command:

dellBiosUpdate -u -f bios.hdr

Some data will appear on the screen, and it will indicate when it is ready to reboot.  Do so by typing “sudo reboot” or by pressing ctrl-alt-delete.  As the machine comes back up, the bios will be flashed so don’t shut the system off!!  You will know when its done when your machine starts booting again.

You’ve now upgraded your bios!

I am a new Verizon wireless customer.  On May 24th I signed up for my account, and ordered the HTC Droid Incredible.  What has happened to me is nothing horrible, but when you think about how many people this happens to that don’t even notice it makes me sick.  On July 10th 2010 I received my first bill.  Unfortunately, it was incredibly higher amount due than advertised and expected.  Further inspection I found that I had been billed for Cellular Service -Activation even though on my Order Confirmation it said “Free”. As pictured in these two images, first is my order confirmation and second is my bill.

Order Confirmation

Verizon First Bill

“You say your order was placed on 05/24/2010. Your order was not inserted into the billing system and your credit card wasn’t billed until 06/09/2010. On 06/09/2010 there was no special for free activation so you were charged the fee when your account was created.”

The Facts: I placed my order and have my confirmation email on 05/24/2010. I ordered the HTC Incredible which was on backorder. My phone shipped on 06/09/2010 which was the same day my account was created and credit card charged.

Action: Verizon personnel credited my account $35.00 for the fee. However, he stated he didn’t believe that the $35 was incorrectly charged because his only record of the account is on 06/09/2010.

My Feelings: Computers don’t make mistakes like this. Computers are programmed to act and respond a specific way based on events generated by human interaction. The system was designed so that YOU the customer are scammed a little off the top in cases like this. If busted Verizon can go, oops sorry, heres some money back. For all the people that don’t catch it, thats more money in their pocket.

When did companies start feeling that nabbing $35 here and there from customers was worth the company image damage? Is it really worth it long term? I know that the moment another service comes up that has a few better features, I’m going to switch away from Verizon after this. If they had treated me well, I might have stayed regardless of competitions features.

As so many have said before, Wireless Companies. FAIL.