Category Archives: Technology

A new beginning…

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Okay, this is my first test of using a blog. Yes, I haven’t used a blog until now, because… well I just didn’t take the time. Yet, I’ve been putting comments online on the Internet since 1991. It was first called the USENET, later I used a simple web site from 1995, and I moved to online rant’s (before the name weblog/blog was used) on this website. Now it’s time to embrace yet another change. Using a nice What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) style system to put my comments online.

So this is a new experience for me. In the past, I never gave my readers the opportunity to reply to my comments. So let’s get started and see where this can lead us.

Cloning Servers in VMware

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On Thu, 10 Jul 2003 16:29:18 -0500, “Rob” <m…@me.com> wrote:
>I am wanting to create 5-6 virtual servers running Windows 2000. Is there an easy way to set up and configure one and then clone it?

Create one good Windows 2000 template (called a Gold Master at VMware)with all the drivers, tools and utilities (winzip,acrobat,newsid) and patches (sp4, WindowsUpdate), but do not include it in a domain.Then you simply copy your Gold Master to another directory, start that system, newsid it, and then only insert it into your target domain.I always keep an updated copy my Gold Master around, so I can get a new server up and running in just the timeframe of copying one directory to another.

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Airsnort & VMware

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On Fri, 18 Apr 2003 20:13:22 +0900, “nightmare” <nightm…@hotmail.com> wrote:

>How can I setup airsnort with a wireless card ( orinoco ) on linux under vmware? (windows XP : host operating system Redhat Linux 7.3 : guest operating system)

 

It’s going to be difficult as VMware does not pass PCMCIA Devices over to the Guest VM machines (unless this is now supported in VMware WS 4 which I haven’t tested). Your only luck would be to have the Orinoco Wireless card on the PCI bus…

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SSL cert request signed by Microsoft CA for Exim 4.10 with TLS

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Here is a post I made to the Exim mailing list, on how to configure secure connectivty with TLS using a Microsoft Windows 2000 Certificate Authority. It’s a combination of using both an Open-Source application and an integrated Microsoft CA.

This is a bit off-topic, but I could not find much information about signing OpenSSL generated certificates with a Microsoft (Win2000 server) Certificate Authority and using these signed certificate for the TLS support in Exim 4.10. So here are the steps I followed to get a successfull result. There might be a better way, or easier one, but this has worked for me. I found myself in the situation of wanting TLS support for Exim 4.10, yet wanting to leverage the Certificate Authority in use in my company. This Certificate Authority runs on Microsoft Windows 2000 Server (SP3), and is in use for Certificate Revocation Lists (CRL) and Encrypted File System (EFS) recovery agents.I proceeded to generate an OpenSSL (0.96b) RSA key. I then moved the certificate.csr to the Microsoft CA and signed it [out of the scope of this email]. I then exported the signed certificate using the Base64 setting and with the Certification Chain (saves the information in the PKCS#7 format). Having moved the certificate.p7b back to my mail server, I used the following command to extract the information from the PKCS#7 to a temporary file and edit it to fit the parameters of a .crt fileopenssl pkcs7 -text -inform PEM -in certificate.p7b -print_certs > certificate.crt

I then edited the certificate.crt file to remove the CA’s certificate information and public key, leaving only the parts between CERTIFICATE and END CERTIFICATE. Extract of certificate.crt is below:

Certificate:
Data:
Version: 3 (0×2)
Serial Number:
12:21:1a:14:00:00:00:00:00:05
Signature Algorithm: sha1WithRSAEncryption
Issuer: Email=someone@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, O=John Doe, CN=Doe CA
Validity
Not Before: Sep 9 08:57:19 2002 GMT
Not After : Sep 9 08:57:19 2004 GMT
Subject:
Subject Public Key Info:
Public Key Algorithm: rsaEncryption
RSA Public Key: (1024 bit)
Modulus (1024 bit):
07:ec:a3:9a:4f:50:9a:a1:f2:eb:f9:ef:3a:8b:44:
…
hu6z5Lm8nkY=
—–END CERTIFICATE—–

One question I’m still considering, and I haven’t found on this mailing list or in some documentation, would it be possible to get EXIM to TLS encrypt outgoing SMTP connections with remote SMTP servers ? I understand that my EXIM server will not have the remote’s
TLS certificate, but does it really matter ? I think encrypting the SMTP traffic would be a nicer than having normal cleartext traffic.

MicroVAX II : UNXINT error msg at boot

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On Tue, 9 May 2000, Erik Bussink wrote:
> I got an old MicroVAX II (KA630) system that hangs at the end of the CPU/MEMORY test process, And I get the UNXINT msg at the 6 countdown. Any ideas what the UNXINT means ?
Either it has detected unix on the internal disk and refused to run it… 😉 or that’s the “Unexpected Interrupt” error.  It means just that, and could be a symptom of more problems than I care to guess at.
Since this is a microvax II, I’d suggest first off that you remove all unnesecarry components, and try booting with only the cpu board. (obviously it won’t boot, but it should get past the self-test)
It the problem is on any other board you’d be able to work it out by process of elemination this way. (remember that qbus is very picky about the order of boards and leaving blank spaces…)

> and it freezes. I haven’t yet started poking inside the system to unplug a device or two to see if one is broken or not, but I surmises that the T?50 is broken.
Again, that’s the best way to do it, I’d guess.  Clean all the contacts while you’re at it… never hurts.Regards,  Christopher Smith

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Looking for MicroVAX 2 (630QB-A3) Console settings Options

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In article <391029e6.300080…@news.iprolink.ch>, e…@bussink.ch.nul (Erik Bussink) writes:

:       Any one got an idea what the Console port (dsub 9pin) settings
:are on a MicroVAX 2 (630QB-A3), there is a switch for the speed, but
:I can’t get any output on a VT320.

Hoff Hoffman answered:

Please take a look at the OpenVMS FAQ — it has a section on the MicroVAX 
console bulkhead and operation, and information on many other topics. 
(This is not the first time this question has been asked, obviously.)

  If you can’t get _any_ output (including simply garbage characters) on
  the console, then you probably have the wrong pinout, or you have a
  hardware or wiring problem.  The OpenVMS FAQ also has the MicroVAX DB9
  pinout — and it’s not the same DB9 pinout that is used on PC systems.

  The OpenVMS FAQ is available via a link at:

    http://www.openvms.compaq.com/

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Looking for 5720M/5724M blades for System 5000 chassis

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“Erik Bussink” <e…@bussink.ch.nul> wrote in message

> Hello,

> I’ve got a System 5000 with a 5328HD ATM EtherSpeed blade and
> two 5328 ATM EtherSpeed blades. Unfortunately I didn’t get the System
> 5000 with a Supervisory module like the 5724M or the newer 5720M. Is
> there anyone out there that could sell me one for cheap. I’d like to
> use the system 5000 at home, so my budget is not as large as I might
> want it to be.
> I’m also looking for a Fast Ethernet switch blade that can stand on
> it’s own in the System 5000.
> Thank you very much for your help.

> Erik Bussink (e…@bussink.ch)
> Geneva, Switzerland

> Erik Bussink (Erik at Bussink dot CH) 

 You used System 5000 at home ? Is it right ? It’s very costly solution.
How many PC’s and file servers work at your home ? ATM is backbone for home
network ?
Write us about your networks. We are all fascinated ! 
Sorry, in this time I have only HSSI router module for sale (but if you
need to connect your home with super-speed channel to Internet, HSSI is
preferred solution for these).

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DNS lookup

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Where do I define DNS ip address for name lookup’s under Solaris 2.5
Well that was a easy question, you can find all the settings for DNS lookup in /etc/resolv.conf

FibreChannel Controllers

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Has anybody got FibreChannel controllers out there ? What kind do
you have, are they expensive. Let’s say that I’m interested in your
comments about FibreChannel controllers and the corresponding
harddrive.
If someone could also post some Adaptec SCSIbench results
for FibreChannel drives, it would be an interesting read.
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