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So, I was deploying a new server and added the default CHECK_HTTP Nagios plug-in as follows:

define service{
use <Preset Service Type>
host_name <Server Name>
service_description HTTP
check_command check_http
}

However, the check would come back as an 403 Forbidden error. I know we have some restrictions set on our http.conf to allow only internal IP addresses to the Apache server, but the Nagios server is in the internal network. Poked around the settings and configurations for awhile and could not see any issues as I was able to browse the default Apache page.

Looked a bit more and found that the CHECK_HTTP is actually looking for an index page in the root html location. So I ended up creating a dummy page for Nagios and the checks came back fine! I’m sure you could make something nicer but this is all I did in the /var/www/html directory:

echo "This is a dummy page for <Server Name>." >> index.html

Works like a charm!

So, tax season is around the corner and I just got my RRSP returns and I was able to get some money to get myself some new toys. I wanted to get a smaller keyboard that had an ergonomic layout along with a number pad that would sit on my left hand side (to allow space for the mouse). So, I decided to get a Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000! The keyboard set looked great, the size was a bit small but all-in-all looked decent and was for once decently packaged!

Then came the hard part, actually trying to get it to work. There was an issue with pairing the devices. I was able to pair them separately and they responded well. However, every time I try to use both devices at the same time, the previous device would stop responding. For example, I was using the keyboard and I turn on the number pad, the keyboard would no longer work. The keyboard would only work after I turned the number pad off! The same was try for the keyboard if I had the number pad on first!

Took me over a few hours and could not find anything. A lot of people had posted online that the way to resolve this was to pair the devices separately. Meaning to pair one, turn it off and then pair the second one. I thought, well, sort of makes sense, why not? I gave it a shot, but knowing how computers work, it is never that easy. The problem continued to stay!

I thought back and forth and couldn’t find a way until I thought, maybe this cheap Bluetooth dongle I bought at the local computer store was the issue. I went and took another dongle I had in the house and plugged it in. Right away, Windows picked it up as a Broadcom Bluetooth device and I thought to myself, well at least it doesn’t say generic Bluetooth device now! Next, I re-paired the devices and guess what? It worked right away!

So in the end, it was the dongle that was causing the issue. Long story short, if you are unable to use more than one device at the same time, take a look at the dongle that you have and try to get it replaced as a solution!

Have fun!

Here’s a fun tip! I just found out today by chance that Google’s Chrome browser will do automatic site searching! If the site you are viewing has a search functionality, all you have to do is type the domain.com follow it by a space and the item you want to search! It will automatically direct you to the search function with your search in the query string! Neat!

For example:

shopbot.ca core i5

pointed me directly to:

http://www.shopbot.ca/m/?m=core+i5

Neat little trick… once again, hope this helps and have fun!

It has been awhile, but I’m still alive. Anyway, installed SBS 4.5 from Jive Software today, however the JDBC for MySQL wasn’t included in the installer.

Downloaded the files from the following link:
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/

Extracted the mysql-connector-java-5.1.12-bin.jar file (versions may be different as there are newer ones available) and copied it to the following folder:
/usr/local/jive/tomcat/lib/

Restarted the Jive application and the connector worked!
service jive-application restart

Hope that helps, and remember to have fun!

We got a new server at work and got some time to play around with Windows 208 R2. One thing I liked most was the new Server Manager UI. This basically gives you a full overview of what the server is set to do and you can add / remove role (services) here.

With that in mind, I started configuring the FTP service. The first thing that occurred to me is that I wanted to isolate users to their own directories. Selecting the “FTP User Isolation”, there were three options for isolation.

1. User name directory
2. User name physical directory

Both options didn’t seem to work even though I had created folders with the user names on the root FTP directory. The reason was that I was missing a root folder “LocalUser” before each of the user directories. So our new directory structure is as follows:

D:\FTP\LocalUser\username

After that, we could log users into the FTP site. However, the next issue popped up. We could not get the users to see any virtual directories (directories which point to certain directories that are outside of the user’s home directory).

In order to accomplish this, we had to right-click on the user’s directory within the IIS manager and select “Add Virtual Directory”. Additionally, we had to select “User name directory (disable global virtual directories) and ensure that virtual directories is enabled in the site’s “FTP Directory Browsing” options.

After all that, it is now working for us! Hope it works for you too!