Tag: Server

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CentOS Linux VMWare

Install VMware Tools in CentOS 6.1 command line

Here is how I went about installing VMware Tools on CentOS 6.1 using the command line.

1.In VMware Fusion or Sphere Client: Virtual Machine / Guest > Install/update VMware Tools
2. Within the VM – using command line (I’m not using x) at the prompt:
3. mkdir /mnt/cdrom
4. mount the virtual cdrom using; mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
5. cd /tmp
6. tar -xvf /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools* or tab to auto complete
7. cd vmware* or tab to auto complete
8. ./vmware-install.pl; accepting defaults throughout. (If not already installed – yum install perl)
9. umount /mnt/cdrom
10. In Fusion / Vsphere Client VMware tools should now display as installed. Check via Virtual Machine / Guest > Install/VMware Tools > will display as “Reinstall” or “OK” version dependant.

Categories
Plesk

How would you improve Parallels Plesk Control Panel

I’ve used Plesk for over 6 years now, and have grown to rely heavily upon this web server control panel to manage my 3 production web servers – currently hosting around 400 sites.

The interface has always remained fairly consistent, despite the odd hiding of reporting buttons and moving of icons – but several things have always bugged me…

  • Why can’t I enable FTP backup for all clients in batch, or enable for all domains by default
  • Why can’t I report or notify on success or failure of backups
  • I missed out on switching to Power User view when initializing the server – now I seem to be stuck with the Reseller mode

Let me know in the comments how you would change Plesk.

Categories
HowTo Guides Windows Server

Small Business Server 2008 port forwarding

The following ports that are used by SBS�2008 standard services :

SMTP 25 – Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
HTTP 80 – Home Page Web
SSL 443 – Home Page Web Secured HTTPS (RWW, OWA, remote desktop�or Terminal Server sessions)
HTTP2�987 – Second SSL Secured on alternate port for SharePoint (optional)
PPTP 1723 – VPN Connections

Note: With SBS 2003, RWW used port 4125.� Terminal Services Gateway has replaced this method which now uses port 443 over HTTPS.� The new method works a lot better when in remote locations which use proxy servers or only allow certain types of traffic (such as WiFi Hotspots) – as port 443 is a standard SSL port.

As with Port forwarding for Small Business Server 2003 – the above ports cover all the standard services, but should your users still be on a 1st generation iPhone or need POP email, the following ports will need forwarding also :

POP3 110 – If using POP3 mail connections
IMAP 143 – iPhone 1st Generation
IMAP SSL 993 – Even better for iPhone 1st Generation

Categories
Windows Server

Closing terminal server sessions remotely

I had another occasion today where “The terminal server has exceeded the maximum number of allowed connections” due to abandoned sessions and was unable to remotely gain access to a server using Terminal Services because both sessions are used up. I can use another server to check the status of the first one, or in my case I can connect into a client computer remotely. As long as the logged in user has administrative rights on the non-accessible machine I would run this:

qwinsta /server:12.12.12.12

Where 12.12.12.12 is the IP address or name of the non-accessible machine.

This will display something like this:

> qwinsta /server:12.12.12.12
SESSIONNAME USERNAME ID STATE TYPE DEVICE
console 0 Conn wdcon
rdp-tcp 65536 Listen rdpwd
rdp-tcp#470 Bob 1 Active rdpwd
rdp-tcp#471 Jane 3 Active rdpwd

Now I know that Bob and Jane are the two that are logged in. Since Jane left the office 20 minutes ago I know that she forgot to log off. I don’t know where Bob is but I only need one session so I’ll ignore him for now.

To disconnect Jane’s session (number 3 as shown above) I would type this:

rwinsta /server:12.12.12.12 3

Strange names?. This came from the Citrix Metaframe days which Terminal Services has descended from. It stands for:

qwinsta = Query WINdows STAtion
rwinsta = Reset WINdows STAtion