IT on A.J. Elsinga

MySQL database replication

Thu, 29 Dec 2016 23:00:00 +0000

For our home I wanted to create a good and stable DNS infrastructure. I could’ve gone with the default router-based DNS service, but I wanted something different.

I had a couple of wishes and demands for my DNS infrastructure:

It has to be fast and reliable
It should be something different than BIND
Editing via web interface and command-line should be possible

The solution I chose in the end was a PowerDNS server on a virtual machine and the same on a physical machine. Data is stored in a MySQL database on both machines and replicated between each other.

First PowerShell post

Sat, 15 Aug 2015 22:00:00 +0000

I wanted a place to put up my PowerShell (and perhaps other stuff). So, here it is 🙂

Watch this site for more information while it develops.

If you want to see more PowerShell/PowerCLI scripts, check out VMGuru for my PowerShell Friday

Thoughts on high availability

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This is an archived article. It was originally published on VMGuru . This article may contain outdated information.

With all the news and buzz around vSphere it’s easy to get carried away by all the new stuff appearing. But even with all these new features we still need to think about High Availability and how to design the infrastructure.

PowerShell (aka going coldturkey on cmd.exe)

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 22:00:00 +0000

I finally decided to go cold turkey on my vbscript and cmd.exe
I’m gonna start running the Windows PowerShell as my primary shell. I think I will change all my links to cmd.exe to PowerShell just to remind myself.

PowerShell is positioned as replacement for cmd.exe, vbscript and more. Within PowerShell you can use .NET calls and WMI.
Even tools like the management console for Exchange 2007 rely heavily on the PowerShell.

New era of (digital) interaction

Thu, 31 May 2007 22:00:00 +0000

Not that I want to praise Microsoft into heaven, but this time they promise us a product that has the ability to change the way we interact with information and each other.
You probably already seen it on TV or on other sites, but I’m sooo flabbergasted by this device I just have to repeat it again :)

The thing I’m talking about is the Microsoft Surface, a salon table in which has a 30″ screen fitted.
You can interact with pictures right on your table, flipping through your CD collection and play some music, copy phone numbers between two phones you place on the table, and more nifty stuff.

Vista pre-release about to stop working

Wed, 30 May 2007 22:00:00 +0000

Today’s the day that the pre-release versions of Vista before the RTM (january 2007) will stop functioning.

The Customer Preview Program versions of Vista stop working on May 31, this includes Vista Beta 2 and both release candidates.

Starting Friday you can only log on for about two hours. After that Vista will automatically reboot without giving you the chance to save your documents and other stuff.

What this means is that you have about two hours to get all your stuff from the computer onto another media/computer. It’s a short period, but it’s doable ;)

MOM optimization

Tue, 29 May 2007 22:00:00 +0000

In my ever continuing quest to reduce the number of (unwanted) events in our MOM and reporting database I turned my attention to the events that are entered in the database.

From time to time I’m running some SQL queries on the MOM reporting database to check which servers are the top event generators.
I know there are some nice reports for it, but the SQL approach gives me some extra info I don’t get when running the reports.

Ticket to virtualization

Mon, 28 May 2007 22:00:00 +0000

I finally made, I finally have a ticket to the virtual world.

Today I passed the Virtual Certified Professional exam from VMware.
It’s all about virtualization on the VMware flagship product VI3 (Virtual Infrastructure 3), which contains ESX server, Virtual Center, DRS, HA and stuff like that.

I’m not going into detail why virtualization is a must :) If you wanna know more about VMware and virtualization in general, check the websites below.

Portable Apps

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:00:00 +0000

With all these large new USB sticks it’s hard to fill them with data. My 2GB USB drive has more than 1GB of free space :S

Some of the free space I use for portable apps, to have my favorite tools and application always with me.

A couple of tools I have on my stick are: VideoLan audio/videoplayer, KeePass password safe (tnx Tazz), KDiff3 (for file and folder differences), ClamAV virusscanner, Putty for SSh and telnet and Sumatra for viewing PDF’s.
All these programs function without installing and leaving no trace on the computer you run it on.

Ask the Performance Team

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 22:00:00 +0000

The Windows Server Performance Team keeps a nice blog on TechNet.

Think the name of the team says it all, they go into the performance of your Windows environment, like why shouldn’t you use the /3GB switch on all your servers and why it isn’t a good idea to put PST files onto the network.

Thanls to the Exchange blog for the link ;)

http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/default.aspx

Pasting as unformatted text in Word

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 23:00:00 +0000

I really got annoyed when copying text from an HTML page to Word. I really use a lot of cut ‘n paste from the keyboard in Word.
Pasting unformatted text is possible in Word, but you have to go through the menus. As a keyboard jockey I don’t like that.

In the hope to replace the “paste” to a “paste unformatted text” on the keyboard I recorded a macro and placed it under ctrl-v. At least the ctrl-v executed my macro, but the macro really didn’t do what it should. It pasted my text like always, but formatted.

Windows 2003 Service Pack 2 RTM Available

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:00:00 +0000

You probably already read it somewhere else, but can’t stay behind ;)

Windows Service Pack 2 is out.
Checkout what’s new at the link below.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/cda7d603-fdd6-4a48-b045-89adac6e519e1033.mspx?mfr=true

MOM and SMS reporting

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 23:00:00 +0000

While looking for some information on reporting for MOM 2005 I found the following Microsoft presentation.

It gives a quick insight in reporting for SMS 2003 and MOM 2005.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/4/9/2499f950-b208-4770-8bee-2adf80d7118f/Reporting-v1.ppt

Windows Home Server Beta, decent operating system for home?

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 23:00:00 +0000

weeee, invited for the Microsoft Windows Home Server beta.
I already here a lot of people going like: WTF, why do I need another software package from Microsoft? Another license to pay?The product itself won’t be available in stores on CD, but instead it will be delivered to hardware manufacturers to preinstall it on specific storage hardware.

These days there are a lot of products that give you storage just by plugging in the power and network cable and connect to the device (Network Attached Storage – NAS). A lot of these devices run under Linux. Microsoft aims to deliver the same functionality and more.
The purpose of WHS to give you a device on your home network on which you can share information between computers and users. It also makes it very easy to create backups of your home computer(s).

ICT rising again, salary sop?

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 23:00:00 +0000

ICT is one of the fastest-growing industries of the past year.
This is reflected in this year’s Christmas packages. The packages were bigger and I must say that the content pleasantly surprised me. It has been worse before.

The pay raises this year were finally at an adequate level. It might be too little too late for some people, but I can’t really complain.
And let’s hope that it wasn’t just a sop, but that it is finally realized that the people in the field are your capital and not a cost item.

The Home Stretch

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 23:00:00 +0000

There’s such a difference in various companies. You notice this now as it comes to the last leg of the year.
At one company, employees are starting to get stressed because there was a budget left over. All sorts of things have been designed and purchased for this, which often have to be implemented before the end of the year. They work up to the last minute. Despite fewer and fewer people being present, it seems as if there are more and more tasks and people’s fuses become shorter and shorter.