Launching the Performance Monitor from the command line or script

On a Windows 2008 R2 server, I needed to launch the Performance Monitor with a built-in live report. That is targeted to support personnel and I don't want them to have to start it an add counters manually each time.

Man, that task proved to be more complex than I expected.

Here is what I've found in the last few days:

Solution 1: use IE
From the performance manager, the only option offered to save a custom report is to save it to an .HTML file which can then be launched from IE. That is clunky, as it has some ActiveX code and you need to acknowledge running it. Furthermore, when you load up that HTML page, you first have to press on the "play" icon to start the data collection, which is another useless step that I don't want support guys to have to do.

Solution 2: use Typeperf
There is a nice utility named "typeperf.exe" that can be used to dump specific counters to the console. It works, but for an odd reason, it can ONLY output CSV output to the screen. If you specify another format, it insists on dumping in a file. In essence it is a good quick-and-dirty tool for the console but not a terrific all-around solution.

Solution 3: use Perfmon in standalone mode (WE HAVE A WINNER!)
You can launch a standalone Permon using "perfmon /sys". This lets you add counters and, look at the magic, the standalone panel offers the possibility of saving that report in a .PerfmonCfg file. To load the file, simply click on it (or use "start meh.PerfMonCfg" within a batch file) and it will bring up a good old Perfmon report on the screen. That, in my opinion, is the best way to achieve my goal.

Sorry for the lack of details, but that should give you an idea.

The born-again sysadmin

A few weeks ago, I decided to go back to my roots as a systems administrator. While being an architect was a fulfilling experience, I was missing a lot the technical work I used to do in my previous career.

So, I'll be transitioning from my current architecture duties to join a team in charge of a mission critical system that currently runs on - hold your breath - Tru64 Unix. This is a major real-time system for my company, which spans three sites and counts a plethora of servers. Can't say more due to security issues. Many in that team are due to leave for retirement this summer so I'll probably work as a Mr Wolf for a while, fixing what needs to be fixed (and strategically avoiding what doesn't need to).

This Tru64 system is planned to be upgraded to Linux (specifically RHEL 5.8) starting next year, with a go live in 2014. And I'm in the delightful situation of having been one of the architects to document that upgrade -- the difference being that it's ME who will have to live with it for years to come.

I'll be the first to admit that this blog has been slow going between 2010 and 2012. There was simply no content that was "generic" enough to be published here. Things might change over time.

The Microsoft SMTP service doesn't create a log file.

The Microsoft SMTP service doesn't log anything in the SmtpSvc1 directory even though you enabled logging and you're on Windows 2003?

Save yourself some trouble, and install the "ODBC Logging" role service in Server Manager. Although it shouldn't help, it does, and for me the SMTP service started logging automagically after restarting it.

Wasted an hour on that nonsense before finding this trick buried deep somewhere in a forum posting.

A homebrew ATSC multi-room PVR project

I'm not involved in technical matters much at work right now and thus I've fallen back to updating my own home on my spare time. This is a six-month project that will consist of:

Canada has switched to ATSC on September 1st, so my main objective is to cut cable TV and modernize my 2 current standalone cable-company-supported-PVRs which have an interface that dates back to 2001.

In a nutshell, I'll do this in the following weeks:

• No more lightning in the house: Installing and grounding an exterior OTA antenna
• Thank you foxconn and the MediaPortal Team: Building and configuring a "budget" Windows 7 TV Server with MediaPortal
• Rsync now, robocopy later: Dismantling my FreeNAS-based NAS to consolidate data on the TV Server.
• PXE for the masses: Deploying 2-3 MediaPortal client nettops using PXE and OpenWRT

I've got some of the pieces in place. The Win7 server is running and I should be ready to test MediaPortal soon. Why Win7 and not Win2008? The reason is that my ATSC card (an AverTVHD Duet) doesn't have drivers for 2008, and I don't need a domain controller for my house anyway. For the nettops, I have one in hand already, and wish to try installing them using PXE (just for the kicks).

I'll try to post some pictures and details over the coming weeks. They should roughly follow the 4 steps above.

Olivier

Yes, I'm still alive.

Not many posts lately huh?

My older blog, Technocrat-UX, consisted of a way for me to document quirks and techniques related to HP-UX, BladeSystems, and some other technologies. Technocrat-UX enjoyed some success as these were niche, but relevant, subjects.

That model doesn't fit well with The ex-sysadmin where I originally had the intention of documenting my new job as a systems architect. The main problem when designing IT architectures is that the ideas and diagrams that result of my efforts are not generic and reusable enough, thus not interesting. Furthermore, in a security perspective, a lot of work needs to be done to obfuscate the information - any information - before it is released. I can't, for instance, publish a networking topology just like that to the public.

Up until recently I did, however, have the intention of writing a paper and presentation documenting a reference architecture for IED event and measure collection following my 18 month experience with Cooper's products. But due to some restrictions, that has not been possible yet.

In the mean time I'm keeping the blog going with posts that I *think* could be interesting to sysadmins, architects and... ex-sysadmins.

O.

HP's Power Advisor

This morning I had to use HP's Power Advisor to estimate the load of small servers I need to deploy (DL360G7s). I remember using an older tool some years ago but this new one is much better. It's available here:
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/solutions/power/advisor-online/HPPowerAdvisor.html

Dealing with MFT servers: a systems architect versus systems administrator love story

In my past life as a system administrator, I once had to build from a ground up a secure MFT (managed file transfer) server. I've pulled it off by using the HP-UX infrastructure I was comfortable with, and built something from the ground up using OpenSSH. You wouldn't believe, however, how much tweaking had to be done to have the user accounts (which were stored in /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow) synchronized reliabily in a clustered system spanning two sites. It took me a few days to make sure everything was correct.

Now it is time to do it again at a new place. I have to design another highly-available MFT server that will be wedged between two DMZs, and besides supporting SFTP I want it to have an HTTPS-based, "drop box" feature for end-users do be able to upload files easily without needing an SFTP client. Oh, and by the way, I need it to be able to authenticate users with a Windows domain this time.

If I was still a sysadmin, I'd have to extend the first solution further by adding an Apache HTTPD server and some open-source file upload solution. Then, I'd have to find a solution *BOTH* for Apache and OpenSSH to authenticate users. OpenSSH would probably need to rely on PAM, and for Apache I don't have a clue. Yet no problema; I would just shrug and say I can do that, then spend a few days tying everything up. The end.

But, as a system architect, things don't work this way.

Why? Because I have to assume that there is no guarantee the sysadmin who will have to do the grunt work of building this up will be willing, or have enough experience, to install and configure a custom solution. And assuming he/she is willing to do it, I have to consider that each man-hour counts for serious dough within the frame of a project. With custom hacks like this, these can sum up to a lot of hours depending on whose desk the work falls on.

Therefore, I did what system architects do: I tried to pick a turnkey solution, and it will have to be shoved down the IT team's throat.

I always hated this when it happened before. Picture this: The architect goes on a golf course or whatever, and randomly picks a solution based on bullet points and checklist tables. Then the IT operations guy has to take whatever crappy, slow and expensive "enterprise" software the architect purchased at a pharaonic price, and make it work satisfactorily to fulfill a business need. More often than not, such lame software ends up in the garbage bin with the IT team developing its own in-house solution to patch things up.

As I've been on that side of the fence before, I try to do things differently to prevent this from happening. So when I technically can, I actually try out software before choosing it, when it's not too daunting for me to do so.

So back to the MFT. I went searching on the web and picked a market "enterprise" leader to try it out. Not only doesn't it support high availability easily, the software is clumsy and it took 30 minutes to run its installshield sequence on a Windows 2008 VM. Uninstalling took the same. And to have SFTP support, I actually had to pay a premium over the base price. Not good.

Few other vendors had solutions that seemed serious enough, though. By serious I mean that they have to offer technical support, and have some agility in dealing with enteprise customers. Then a colleague of mine found out a very elegant software named JSCAPE MFT Server. Installation is a snap and it's very easy to configure. I was up and running in a few minutes. And as a bonus, its feature set is actually useful and seems to have been designed based on user requests instead of some odd crystal ball. I've been trying it this morning and up to now, it works very well.

The MFT server itself works on Windows, Linux, some Unices and Mac OS X. Installing the RPM went without any problem on CentOS 6. It is managed by a Java-based GUI that I installed on Windows -- I wasn't fond of using a thick-client when compared to a web-based administration GUI, but their GUI is efficient and interface-rich without being clumsy. No bells and whistles, and it is fine that way.

The Java-based "Server Manager" does the job efficiently

Enabling the web-based transfer option was quick and easy to do. What helps is that the software comes with a manual that, without being too detailed, provides lots of screenshots and cookbook-like procedures to configure the server quickly. It took me maybe a minute or so to enable the web server, set up LDAP-based authentication, add a dummy user, and try it out.

The resulting web service might be bland but it does the job, once again no fireworks. This is very important as it will be deployed to users who might not always be too tech-savvy.

The web-based service might be simple, that's exactly what I want

As a system administrator, I would actually want to work with software like this because it's elegant. It does a few things, and it does it well. I like it when software feel natural, and everything works the first time without a glitch. As in every software, I'm sure there are some bugs somewhere, but it sure is a good start.

Is JSCAPE MFT Server, the iPod of MFT's? I'd say it's not far from it. Chances are that if my project is greenlit, I'll be the first in line to purchase it. Whoever wrote this, good work!

O.