After attempting a repair from the Server 2003 install CD (which failed), I decided to swap out the 120GB main drive for another I had lying around. Then whilst the fileserver was re-installing Server 2003, I put the dead drive into an external enclosure and attached it to the new server. Luckily the drive was still alive and I was able to copy the 50GB+ of Virtual Machines to the new server.

To cut a long story short, everything is up and running now, with my setup split across 4 servers now instead of the previous 3. You’ll notice a slight speed increase from the upgrade - as the slickhouse homepage now takes around 0.5 seconds to generate, rather than the previous 0.7. I’ll look into moving MS SQL Server to a new virtual server, leaving MySQL on its own to occupy the full allocated RAM, in the near future - which may reduce that time even further. The new setup is as follows:

Router:

• Smoothwall O/S
• Mini-itx EPIA 5000 board (~550MHz VIA CPU)
• 512MB RAM
• 40GB HDD

Backupserver (not always on):

• Server 2003 O/S
• AMD Duron 950MHz CPU
• 1GB RAM
• 1 x 80GB O/S HDD
• 4 x 250GB Data HDD

Fileserver:

• Server 2003 O/S
• AMD Athlon XP 2GHz
• 2GB DDR RAM
• 1 x 120GB O/S HDD
• 4 x 250GB Data HDD

Virtualserver:

• Server 2003 O/S
• AMD AM2 4000+ 2GHz (Dual core)
• 6GB DDR RAM (max of 16GB)
• 1 x 250GB O/S and Virtual HDD

The Virtualserver itself still uses Microsoft’s Virtual Server 2005, though I tried installing VMWare’s ESXi, but it doesn’t support the motherboard’s onboard SATA controller (AMD 780G Southbridge). The point to mention is that it can support up to 16GB RAM, using 4 x 4GB modules - however 4GB DDR2 modules are still a rarity. At the moment it’s using about 1/2 of the 6GB RAM running 7 virtual machines (all Server 2003 at 256/512 RAM allocation).

I’ve decided to stick to Virtual Server 2005 for the forseeable future, as it’s very quick to get a Virtual Machine back up and running if I encounter another problem like today’s. It’s simply a case of copying across the vhd and either creating a new machine (pointing to said vhd), or also copying across the vmc file to keep the existing machine’s settings.

Separating the 1TB storage from the virtual servers should make storage upgrades easier in the future and also allow for less downtime when carrying out maintenance. Let’s see?

Since then, the XBOX appeared to be fine and also slightly quieter in operation. That was, until about  3 weeks ago. Anneka started watching one of her DVDs - Mamma Mia or something and the XBOX 360 decided to red light once more. However, when I returned that evening and played on a few games the XBOX was absolutely fine, so I thought nothing of it.

Then progressively over the following weeks until today, the XBOX started crashing at different intervals. To begin with, I had started GTA IV all over again, only to have it crash a few missions in. It then crashed again and again - with the time between switching the 360 on and it freezing reduced each time.

Last Friday, I received my Secret Santa present - Mass Effect for the 360! So over the weekend I sat down once Lily was fast asleep to begin a new game. Unfortunately after spending 10 minutes adjusting Shepard’s features and skills I was met with yet another frozen screen. I didn’t give up though and after a reset I started all over again. However, it crashed another time one I’d decided upon the eye shape. I think in total I tried 10 times, hoping it would improve - but alas, it crashes on demand now.

To prove it wasn’t just a dodgy game, today I tried a DVD (which originally displayed the red lights) - and that produced a different result, as the screen became all pixelated prior to the crash - whereas previous crashes displayed a perfect picture, albeit frozen. So, it definately appears to be broken as nothing is playable for more than a couple of minutes.

I went onto the XBOX site and signed in to check my previous repair. Unfortunately the warranty had expired and after reading through their FAQs it appeared that I would have to pay for a repair, unless the red lights appeared.

So, I phoned their support line to argue my case - that they didn’t accept anything other than VISA/Mastercard and that I would have to pay, even though the XBOX was clearly faulty. The friendly chap on the other end of the line was on my side and went through multiple different things to try to get the 360 to red light once more. But it just wouldn’t budge. I can report that it crashed constantly during the tests, but each one only resulted in a pixelated or frozen screen.

Here I am, with a faulty XBOX 360 a couple of days before Christmas - when I know we’ll be needing to watch DVDs, or I’ll want to play on a game. Thankfully though, I didn’t renew my subscription to Live as it ran out last week. But I know I’ll have a game or two from Christmas itching to be played.

Now, I either need to locate a VISA/Mastercard and pay up the £60 repair fee, or look to purchasing a 2nd hand/new XBOX to replace my faulty one. Looking around the ‘net an arcade can be picked up for a mere £124.99 and the premium (60GB) for £159.99. Unfortunately, the Elite is still at an Elite price of £225 or so, which makes the repair cost more appealing. What would you opt for?

1. £60 repair, on an already repaired XBOX?
2. Another £64.99 for a new replacement?
3. A further £35 for an upgrade (60GB)?
4. Or even more for an Elite (120GB/HDMI)?

Choices choices - ones that I don’t want to make this side of Christmas…

The problem is, you’ll later wish you’d created your own user account, which would have been tied in with each of your posts and comments. Up until 2 minutes ago, all my posts were created by admin and all comments written by me had the name admin assigned to them.

There are several options if you’re in this scenario - including creating a new account and ensuring all future posts/comments use it or updating all existing records with your new account details. I opted for the 2nd option and began by working out what users were currently in the slickhouse WordPress database:

SELECT ID, user_login FROM wp_users

This will return a list of all IDs and user_logins from the wp_users table within the database. In my case, slickhouse has just the one user - admin. It’s then a case of updating the user as necessary. Start by selecting all columns for the previously returned record (which had an ID of 1):

SELECT * FROM wp_users WHERE ID = 1

This returns all columns for the user admin in my case. From the results, I chose to update the following columns:

• user_login
• user_nicename
• display_name
• user_firstname
• user_lastname
• user_nickname

To do this, you’d run the following SQL command:

UPDATE wp_users SET user_login = ‘example’, display_name = ‘example’, user_firstname = ‘example’, user_lastname = ‘example’, user_nickname = ‘example’ WHERE ID = 1

Replace example with what you’d like each column to be updated to. As we’ve just updated the existing user, there’s less work to do - the wp_posts table doesn’t need to be touched, as it references the wp_users by the ID field, that hasn’t changed. However, wp_comments is a different story and does need updating:

UPDATE wp_comments SET comment_author = ‘Example’, comment_author_email = ‘example@example.com’, comment_author_url = ‘http://example.com’ WHERE user_id = 1

This will update all comments that are associated with your admin account, to the new details. Replace example in the above with all of the information you updated the admin user to previously.

And that should be it! I carried out all of the above using the MySQL Query Browser, which can be downloaded from the MySQL site. One word of warning - ensure you’ve got a backup of your database prior to carrying out any of the above. Make a note of what you update, so that if you do run into difficulties you can update the records back to what they were originally - or if all else fails, restore from your backup. Again, a backup can be accomplished using the MySQL Administrator.

“Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.”

As the message suggests, I thought it was to do with permissions, so began trying to solve it by amending permissions on the fileserver, the active directory domain server and the mailserver that this error message was appearing on. I tried everything, from logging on as different active directory users, leaving/joining the domain and re-creating the shares/permissions too. The thing that completely confused my testing was that the non-active directory users didn’t see the message (such as the local administrator). Also, logging on as the same user, but on a different server yielded different results - as I was able to execute the .exe without any issues.

After several hours of trawling forum posts with similar issues, I read that some people uninstalled the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration, which seemed to solve things:

This is found within control panel > add/remove programs > windows components. After removing it, the error message still appeared, but I had previously read that executable files are blocked if moved from one location to another, preventing them from being used until unblocked:

If you right-click on the .exe and choose properties - you’ll see something similar to the above. Click on unblock and you’ll be able to execute the file once again!

So, what originally appeared to be a permissions error, limited to the active directory domain - turned out to be linked to Internet Explorer’s Enhanced Security Configuration. I suppose in a production environment you’d trust the share(s) prior to trying to execute files on them, but even so - it just goes to show how unrelated error messages can be!

I’ve checked myself and unfortunately Lincoln isn’t able to currently get the increased speed, but Virgin have confirmed that all customers will be able to receive it by Summer 2009!

Price wise, it’s £50 standalone, with the price reducing depending on other packages. Our existing 20mb XL package, which also includes V+ and their telephone line comes in at £56, so it’s a big price to pay - but could be worth it.

To see if you’re able to receive the 50mb broadband in your area, visit Virgin Media.

All my domains are registered with GoDaddy and the DNS is handled by ZoneEdit - but the aformentioned domain is provided by another Dynamic DNS provider - DynDNS. The reason for this is clear, if an update on ZoneEdit fails, I can fall back to DynDNS and force an update - and vice versa.

However, after finding a forced updated of the IP via DynDNS didn’t work, I realised my account no longer existed either. It appears the DynDNS had deleted my account without any prior written notice!

And to think, 12 months ago, I was tempted to purchase their services for all of my domains. Imagine if you woke up one day to find your account (along with the related domains) had disappeared?

If any of you out there are currently using DynDNS’ free service, let me know if you’ve experienced similar issues. If not, I’d recommend you look for an alternative Dynamic DNS service, as you too could end up in the same situation, without any written notice.

For those of you still looking for my ‘fall-back’ domain, it has been moved to hosting.slickhouse.com

To cut a long story short (40+ hours of game time short), I’ve come across a glitch that a Google search showed many others have experienced too. The Final Interview mission requires that you meet up with Francis at the police station, who instructs you to get an interview at a local law firm. Once inside, you’ll have to take down the interviewer. Sounds fairly simple, however it involves submitting your resume at the Internet Cafe (TW@T) and waiting for a phone call, which never arrives.

Tonight I attempted the mission for probably the 100th time, with many of my saves dating back to June with the same issue. I opted for a save from a previous mission, to see if that bypassed it. Once I submitted the resume and received the text message from the law firm, there was no phone call.

Reading through countless forum threads regarding the same glitch, the only way around it appears to be starting the game from scratch again - something I’m not fond of.

Instead, I’m tempted to trade the game in for Saints Row 2…

The first time, I had setup a new virtual server (2003), equipped with Active Directory and DNS. After testing AD locally on my workstation, I decided to roll it out by connecting each server in turn to the domain. Unfortunately, I forgot about Windows Update, which proceeded to install updates on each server in turn - which was the first stage of the downtime. Once the main host server had restarted, it then performed a chkdisk that I had scheduled some months ago (to begin on the next restart). This took the whole night!

As the host server is a single core affair, the start-up of each virtual server takes a good 30 minutes, to ensure everything is back up and running as before. So that added more downtime, to the already growing 12+ hours.

The second set of downtime was last night - I had moved the anti virus (Symantec AV) from the host server itself, to one of the virtuals. Bad mistake. When the scheduled scan kicked in at 3am, it brought the whole platform down, 4 virtuals and the host. So that was another 18+ hours!

I’ve since switched the anti virus back to the host server and have opted for Clamwin, a great Open Source program, that works on Windows workstation and server operating systems. If all goes to plan, it will do its stuff tonight without a blip of performance loss.

So, the moral of the story? There are several in this instance:

1. Regularly install updates on servers, so that when it comes to a shutdown/restart they won’t interfere with things
2. Plan downtime a good few hours before you go to bed, in case anything goes wrong in the process
3. Use chkdisk startup scans with caution - and remember when you’ve scheduled them
4. Don’t break something if it already works, such as moving anti virus duties from a host server to a virtual, when the host was scanning them fine for the past 2 years without a hiccup
5. Don’t port forward RDP to a virtual server, so that when the platform goes down, you cannot connect externally to restart it all

The last point [5] is particularly important - ensure that you can still access the main host server (Server 2003 w/Microsoft Virtual Server in this instance) if all virtual servers are down.

Be patient if you experience downtime in the near future - at least now you know it’s most likely due to a human error on my behalf!

Think of Santa sitting by a warm fire, with his big white beard hanging from his chubby chin. Maybe a pipe in one hand and a list of presents to deliver in the other…

Visit the Summer House or jump to the last reply!

It’s interesting to see how both search engine algorithms and the internet has evolved in the few years since.

So far, I’ve found that I didn’t exist on the Internet in 2001, facebook was unheard of and wikipedia didn’t feature as highly in the search results as today.