As I keep having to figure this out every time I come to do it I’m leaving it here for reference.
To find a SharePoint feature when you only know part of the name of it the following command can be used:
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Get-SPFeature | where { $_.DisplayName -like "*something*" } | format-list -property displayname |
I’m beginning to hear a lot more about VPN’s (personal use for anonymity) in the press and I’m a bit worried it’s not understood enough.
Sales pitch: Get a VPN and your internet anonymity is restored.
Truth: It can be, but you have to be careful.
Other people will know more than me – there more than likely will be more to worry about than this. My main concern: cookies.
You get a lovely new vpn and then you use the same browser and user account to get on the net. BAM! You’re not anonymous any more!
A lot of the VPN providers sell the fact that it’s good for internet cafes. This is partly true – it will stop the others on the same wifi from snooping. The problem is that as soon as you log on to Facebook via your VPN you’re not anonymous. These are two different uses for a VPN and they’re not compatible. If you’re looking for anonymity what are you doing on a social network?! Scared of your ISP? You should be just as scared of any website you need to log on to!
My steps for a nice clean VPN:
All for now …
I needed to set up a new web application that was a copy of an existing web application. The constraint was that there was only one farm available to work with (I did have other farms but they were running different versions of SQL server).
Approach 1
I’ll first point out that this didn’t work, skip ahead if you’re not interested.
I went through the following steps:
The result was the database attached but it had no site collections in it.
It turns out that this approach could work but only if you attach it to a different farm. You can then backup that database and restore/attach it back on the source farm.
As I stated at the beginning – I didn’t have the luxury of a second farm.
Approach 2
The only option left that I could think of was to backup and restore each site collection manually.
I knocked up the following powershell script to automate this and it worked …
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$sourceApp = "http://source.example.com" $targetApp = "http://target.example.com" $app = Get-SPWebApplication -Identity $sourceApp foreach ($site in $app.Sites) { Write-Host performing backup of $site.URL Backup-SPSite -Identity $site.URL -Path "c:\backup\migration.bak" -force $newurl = $site.URL -replace $sourceApp, $targetApp Write-Host restoring into $newurl Restore-SPSite -Identity $newurl -Path "c:\backup\migration.bak" -force -confirm:$false } |
I needed an easy way to create users in Active Directory.
PowerShell to the rescue … although it didn’t work out.
The PowerShell command New-ADUser depends on AD having web services enabled which is a feature that came out with 2008 R2 – needless to say the AD server I was working with didn’t have this. So I fell back to the good old fashioned command line: dsadd user.
I put together an excel with columns like this:
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A - Company Name B - User Prefix C - First Name D - Last Name E - Email Address F - Password G - a formula to generate the command using data in the row ... |
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=CONCATENATE("dsadd user ""CN=", C2, " ", D2, ",OU=users,OU=my,DC=dc,DC=path"" -samid """, B2, "-", D2, """ -upn """, B2, "-", D2, "@dc.path"" -pwd """, F2, """ -fn """, C2, """ -ln """, D2, """ -email """, E2, """ -desc """, A2, " - User"" -d ""dc.path"" -display """, C2, " ", D2, """") |
So for this data
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A - acme corp B - acme C - John D - Smith E - John.Smith@AcmeCorp.com F - Password1 |
The following command is generated:
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dsadd user "CN=John Smith,OU=users,OU=my,DC=dc,DC=path" -samid "acme-Smith" -upn "acme-Smith@dc.path" -pwd "Password1" -fn "John" -ln "Smith" -email "John.Smith@AcmeCorpm.com" -desc "acme corp - User" -d "dc.path" -display "John Smith" |
This is going to save me minutes – literally minutes – every month!
I wanted to get node.js and mongoDB up and running on my pi. I’ve got a couple of pet projects which I’m going to tackle and I’ve decided to use the MEAN stack (MongoDB, Express, AngularJS and Node.js). The future, for now, is JavaScript and I’m looking to know enough to make informed decisions about my place in that future.
These are the steps that I followed to get it going …
First up, node.js …
Credit to: http://blog.rueedlinger.ch/2013/03/raspberry-pi-and-nodejs-basic-setup/
Before doing this step you want to check what the latest version is – go to http://nodejs.org/dist/ and browse, starting from the biggest number backwards, looking for a release that includes “linux-arm-pi” in the title. That’s the one to use in the following code snippet, for me it was v0.10.24/node-v0.10.24-linux-arm-pi.tar.gz
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sudo mkdir /opt/node wget http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.24/node-v0.10.24-linux-arm-pi.tar.gz tar xvzf node-v0.10.24-linux-arm-pi.tar.gz sudo cp -r node-v0.10.24-linux-arm-pi/* /opt/node sudo nano /etc/profile |
add the following before “export PATH”
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NODE_JS_HOME="/opt/node" PATH="$PATH:$NODE_JS_HOME/bin" |
That’s it! Next let’s get a server running so we can make sure it’s working … create the following content in a file called nodejs.sh
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#!/bin/bash NODE=/opt/node/bin/node SERVER_JS_FILE=/home/pi/app/server.js USER=pi OUT=/home/pi/nodejs.log case "$1" in start) echo "starting node: $NODE $SERVER_JS_FILE" sudo -u $USER $NODE $SERVER_JS_FILE > $OUT 2>$OUT & ;; stop) killall $NODE ;; *) echo "usage: $0 (start|stop)" esac exit 0 |
then do the following to get it to run on pi boot
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chmod 755 nodejs.sh sudo cp nodejs.sh /etc/init.d sudo update-rc.d nodejs.sh defaults |
now for the server.js that will run our server
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mkdir /home/pi/app cd /home/pi/app nano server.js |
put the following in the server.js file
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var http = require('http'); http.createServer(function(req,resp) { resp.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"}); resp.write("Hello World"); resp.end(); console.log("sample output to console"); }).listen(8080); |
then start the server
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sudo /etc/init.d/nodejs.sh start |
A quick visit to http://192.168.0.123:8080 should result in a nice “Hello World” message.
Finally a bit of tidying up in /home/pi/
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rm nodejs.sh rm -rf node-v0.10.24-linux-arm-pi rm node-v0.10.24-linux-arm-pi.tar.gz |
Next up – mongoDB
Credit to: https://github.com/RickP/mongopi and http://ni-c.github.io/heimcontrol.js/get-started.html
Note, the scons commands performs the build and will take a few hours each
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sudo apt-get install git-core build-essential scons libpcre++-dev xulrunner-dev libboost-dev libboost-program-options-dev libboost-thread-dev libboost-filesystem-dev git clone git://github.com/RickP/mongopi.git cd mongopi scons sudo scons --prefix=/opt/mongo install scons -c sudo nano /etc/environment |
add this before “export PATH”
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PATH=$PATH:/opt/mongo/bin/ |
Then set up a new db and configure it to start on boot:
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sudo useradd mongodb sudo mkdir /var/lib/mongodb sudo chown mongodb:mongodb /var/lib/mongodb sudo mkdir /etc/mongodb/ sudo sh -c 'echo "dbpath=/var/lib/mongodb" > /etc/mongodb/mongodb.conf' cd /etc/init.d sudo wget -O mongodb https://gist.github.com/ni-c/fd4df404bda6e87fb718/raw/36d45897cd943fbd6d071c096eb4b71b37d0fcbb/mongodb.sh sudo chmod +x mongodb sudo update-rc.d mongodb defaults sudo service mongodb start |
You can test everything went ok by launching the MongoDB shell with the command “mongo” … see the docs for more info.
Job Done!
Ever since google axed their Reader product my news consumption hasn’t been the same. I tried out a few at the time and settled on theoldreader.com but I’ve come to realise that I wasn’t using it like I wanted to – google reader used to be the first thing I loaded whereas theoldreader was loaded only once a week.
I’ve made a switch to feedly to see how that goes instead – first impressions are promising – time will tell.
At the same time I tried out instapaper as I saw that feedly could add articles to that service – my trial was short and the account is now cancelled. I like the idea … but the first few articles I saved all had important images or videos embedded, not something that instapaper is targetting. I’ve resolved to use the feedly “save for later” feature and see how that goes.
After ensuring the following modules are loaded in the httpd.conf
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LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so |
The following was added as virtual host:
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<VirtualHost *:80> ServerName subdomain.myserver.com:80 ProxyPass / http://192.168.0.123:8080/ ProxyPassReverse / http://192.168.0.123:8080/ </VirtualHost> |
Job Done!
After a bit of research I found a product called GateOne that would enable me to use a web browser to connect to ssh using standard https – cool!
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sudo apt-get install python-setuptools git clone https://github.com/liftoff/GateOne.git cd GateOne sudo python setup.py install cd .. sudo rm -rf GateOne sudo gateone |
Then ctrl+c so we can edit the config
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sudo vi /etc/gateone/conf.d/10server.conf |
at the end of the line with origins, add the IP of the Pi, i.e. , “192.168.0.123” then restart the daemon:
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sudo /etc/init.d/gateone restart |
to check it out browse to https://192.168.0.123/
All that remains is to ensure it starts automatically on reboot – I think the update-rc.d script must be a bit buggy on the Pi. I ended up doing all of this as I was having some trial and error fun:
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sudo update-rc.d gateone defaults sudo update-rc.d gateone start 20 2 3 4 5 . stop 80 0 1 6 . cd /etc/rc2.d/ sudo mv K01gateone S01gateone |
Next up – some authentication …
within /etc/gateone/conf.d/20authentication.conf the authenication type was changed to google
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"auth": "google", |
and the terminal configuration (/etc/gateone/conf.d/50terminal.conf) was modified to turn off the terminal for all users (allow: false) and then add it back on just for me:
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// This is Gate One's Terminal application settings file. { // "*" means "apply to all users" or "default" "*": { "terminal": { // These settings apply to the "terminal" application "commands": {"SSH": {"command": "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gateone-1.2.0-py2.7.egg/gateone/applications/terminal/plugins/ssh/scripts/ssh_connect.py -S '%SESSION_DIR%/%SESSION%/%SHORT_SOCKET%' --sshfp -a 'oUserKnownHostsFile=\\\"%USERDIR%/%USER%/.ssh/known_hosts\\\"'", "description": "Connect to hosts via SSH."}}, "default_command": "SSH", "dtach": true, "enabled_filetypes": "all", "environment_vars": {"TERM": "xterm-256color"}, "session_logging": true, "syslog_session_logging": false, "allow": false } }, // "*" means "apply to all users" or "default" "user.upn=(my.email@gmail.com)": { "terminal": { // These settings apply to the "terminal" application "commands": {"SSH": {"command": "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gateone-1.2.0-py2.7.egg/gateone/applications/terminal/plugins/ssh/scripts/ssh_connect.py -S '%SESSION_DIR%/%SESSION%/%SHORT_SOCKET%' --sshfp", "description": "Connect to hosts via SSH."}}, "default_command": "SSH", "dtach": true, "enabled_filetypes": "all", "environment_vars": {"TERM": "xterm-256color"}, "session_logging": true, "syslog_session_logging": false, "allow": true } } } |
Back in /etc/gateone/conf.d/10server.conf I added my external dns to the list of allowed origins and forwarded port 443 on my router to my Pi
Job done!
After downloading the latest wheezy image from the raspberry pi site and flashing it onto the SD card using Win 32 Disk Imager I transferred the card into the Pi and powered it on. To use my approach it must have both the WiFi usb adaptor and an ethernet cable plugged in.
I then go to my router’s admin page and take a look to see what IP address has been allocated to the Pi’s ethernet link.
Then, using Putty, connect to the ssh using the credentials username: pi password: raspberry (all lowercase).
Once on, the following command were run:
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sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install wicd-curses sudo wicd-curses |
Then navigate down (using the arrow keys) to my home network, then use the right arrow key to go and configure it. The only thing I put in the configuration was the setting to “Automatically connect” and the key to the network – then pressed F10 to save the config, the Q to quit.
Having done all that I shutdown the pi, unplug the ethernet cable and power it back on.
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sudo shutdown -h now |
Back in my router’s admin page I can find out the new IP address of the Pi (and reserve it for future if I want).
Job done!
In one of my C# Windows Forms Applications I had a problem whereby a third-party component was throwing an exception in another thread. The exception wasn’t causing any problems but it wasn’t being handled by anything.
Basically I wanted to catch the exception, log it for reference and possible future investigation, and then ignore it and carry on.
I started by adding event handlers to the exception events:
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Application.ThreadException += Application_ThreadException; Application.SetUnhandledExceptionMode(UnhandledExceptionMode.CatchException); AppDomain.CurrentDomain.UnhandledException += CurrentDomain_UnhandledException; |
And then I added log4net to simply log the error and move on (added via NuGet Package Manager)
So my app.config had the following added:
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<configSections> <section name="log4net" type="log4net.Config.Log4NetConfigurationSectionHandler,Log4net"/> </configSections> <log4net> <root> <level value="DEBUG" /> <appender-ref ref="LogFileAppender" /> </root> <appender name="LogFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender" > <param name="File" value="C:\WebRotator\log.txt" /> <param name="AppendToFile" value="true" /> <rollingStyle value="Size" /> <maxSizeRollBackups value="10" /> <maximumFileSize value="1MB" /> <staticLogFileName value="true" /> <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout"> <param name="ConversionPattern" value="%d{yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss} - %-5p - %m%n" /> </layout> </appender> </log4net> |
And my main Program.cs ended up looking like this:
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static class Program { public static readonly ILog Logger = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(Program)); [STAThread] static void Main() { XmlConfigurator.Configure(); Application.ThreadException += Application_ThreadException; Application.SetUnhandledExceptionMode(UnhandledExceptionMode.CatchException); AppDomain.CurrentDomain.UnhandledException += CurrentDomain_UnhandledException; Application.EnableVisualStyles(); Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false); Application.Run(new frmRotator()); } static void CurrentDomain_UnhandledException(object sender, UnhandledExceptionEventArgs e) { LogException("CurrentDomain_UnhandledException", (Exception)e.ExceptionObject); } static void Application_ThreadException(object sender, ThreadExceptionEventArgs e) { LogException("Application_ThreadException", e.Exception); } private static void LogException(string exceptionArea, Exception e) { Logger.ErrorFormat("{0}: {1}", exceptionArea, e); } } |
Job done!