Month: July 2011

good bye debian, welcome Arch

I have been using debian OS for close to ten years now, anywhere there was a need for a linux set-up. There are many good things about debian like the fact that you can have a working machine in less than you can say “ctrl alt delete”. For me though it was the right time for a change.

I have decided to go with Arch for my next re-install. Things I like about Arch Linux so far: fairly well documented, more transparent about what is installed, the latest packages, less bloat.

This is also my second compiz adventure; so far so good:

I listed below the steps required to achieve this: compiz, transparency, semi-transparent Conky, cairo-dock and a panel bar (tint2).

install:
edit rc.conf:
LOCALE=”en_GB.UTF8
KEYMAP=”uk”
MOD_AUTOLOAD=”yes”
HOSTNAME=”[your hostname]”
ineterface=eth0

check:
/etc/hosts
/etc/locale.gen
/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

test networking:
#ping -c 3 example.com

# pacman-db-upgrade

# pacman -Syy

upgrade system:
#pacman -Syu

add a user:
# adduser
additional groups (comma separated) []: audio,lp,optical,storage,video,wheel,games,power,scanner

install sudo:
pacman -S sudo
visudo (uncomment as appropriate – group wheel)

install X:
pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-utils xorg-server-utils mesa mesa-demos

setup Nvidia:
pacman -S xf86-video-nouveau
pacman -S nouveau-dri libgl

touchpad:
pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics

set-up keyboard in X:
#vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.con
add to [Identifier “evdev keyboard catchall”]:
Option “XkbLayout” “gb”

pacman -S dbus
add dbus to Daemons in rc.conf

pacman -S ttf-dejavu

# pacman -S compiz-core ccsm emerald fusion-icon compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-fusion-plugins-extra

# pacman -S tint2 conky gnome-terminal

install cairo-dock from AUR
$ sudo pacman -S base-devel
$ wget http://aur.archlinux.org/packages/cairo-dock/cairo-dock.tar.gz
$ tar xvfz cairo-dock.tar.gz
$ cd cairo-dock
$ makepkg -s
$ pacman -U cairo-dock-2.3.0-3-i686.pkg.tar.xz
cairo-dock-themes is installed in the same way.

my .xinitrc:
tint2 &
cairo-dock -o &
conky -o ~/.conkyrc &
exec ck-launch-session fusion-icon

my .conkyrc:
alignment top_right
background no
border_width 1
cpu_avg_samples 2
default_color white
default_outline_color white
default_shade_color white
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders yes
draw_outline no
draw_shades no
use_xft yes
xftfont DejaVu Sans Mono:size=12
gap_x 5
gap_y 60
minimum_size 5 5
net_avg_samples 2
no_buffers yes
nvidia_display yes
out_to_console no
out_to_stderr no
extra_newline no
own_window yes
own_window_class Conky-semi
own_window_type normal
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
own_window_argb_visual yes
own_window_argb_value 49
stippled_borders 0
update_interval 1.0
uppercase no
use_spacer none
show_graph_scale no
show_graph_range no
double_buffer yes

TEXT
$nodename – $sysname $kernel on $machine
$hr
${color 494949}Uptime:$color $uptime
${color 494949}Frequency (in MHz):$color $freq
${color 494949}Frequency (in GHz):$color $freq_g
${color 494949}RAM Usage:$color $mem/$memmax – $memperc% ${membar 4}
${color 494949}Swap Usage:$color $swap/$swapmax – $swapperc% ${swapbar 4}
${color 494949}CPU Usage:$color $cpu% ${cpubar 4}
${color 494949}Processes:$color $processes  ${color grey}Running:$color $running_processes
$hr
${color 494949}File systems:
/ $color${fs_used /}/${fs_size /} ${fs_bar 6 /}
${color 494949}Networking:
Up:$color ${upspeed eth0} ${color 494949} – Down:$color ${downspeed eth0}
$hr
${color 494949}Name              PID   CPU%   MEM%
${color lightgrey} ${top name 1} ${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1} ${top_mem mem_res 1}
${color lightgrey} ${top name 2} ${top pid 2} ${top cpu 2} ${top_mem mem_res 2}
${color lightgrey} ${top name 3} ${top pid 3} ${top cpu 3} ${top_mem mem_res 3}
${color lightgrey} ${top name 4} ${top pid 4} ${top cpu 4} ${top_mem mem_res 4}

Setting up auto mounting of devices
$ sudo pacman -S autof
$ sudo vi /etc/autofs/auto.master
uncomment the last line
$ cp /etc/autofs/auto.misc /etc/autofs/auto.media
$ vi /etc/rc.conf
add ‘autofs’ to DAEMONS section and ‘autofs4’ to modules
$ sudo reboot
make sure that the modules load and that’s it, auto-mounting sorted.

exchange 2010 notes

I have just taken an exchange 2010 install (two nodes dag, two CAS/Hub transport servers) from 2010 RTM to 2010 SP1 Rollup 3v3 released on 27th of June 2011 I think.

The updates took way longer than anticipated. When SP1 is applied without any preparation will highlight a lot of pre-reqs. In practice I found the following were required:

– apply all Windows high priority updates
– install the filterpack64bit.exe

applying the service pack itself, happened without any problems on the non-mailbox server.

On the DAG it is important to:
– make sure that there are no mounted copies on the server on which the SP is applied.

the CAS servers may go into a frenzy, processing the queues accumulated in the process, no need to panick, things will go back to normal fairly quickly.

————–

exporting mailboxes to pst’s. Exchange 2010 SP1 has a nice allows export of mailboxes to pst files, without the need for an outlook installation on the server, as it was the case on Exchange 2010 RTM.

the following steps will accomplish this:
– set the permissions:
New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Name “[name of the role assignment]” -SecurityGroup “[security group in AD]” -Role “Mailbox Import Export”
the AD security group needs to be universal; at least that was my case
– set a network path – make sure that “Exchange Trusted Subsystem” is given appropriate permission on the share
-the actual export of the mailbox to pst:
New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox [mailbox name] -FilePath “[the path to the desired pst file on the storage]”

get-MailboxExportRequest will display the status of the current exports

you can do this in bulk in two steps:

first identify the users (disabled users for example)

$mailboxname = get-mailbox -Server [Server Name] | where { &_.ExchangeUserAccountControl -match “AccountDisabled” }

then operate the export request on the variable:

$mailboxname | foreach-object {New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox $_ -filepath [the path to the pst storage]