VMWare OS X 'Open With' Spam
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Kein Schwein steckt mich an (via @turi2)
Ein schönes Beispiel für virales Marketing (VM) im doppelten Sinne – vor dem Hintergrund der „Schweinegrippe“.
Die Überzeugungskraft einer guten Geschichte
Der Film zeigt, wie Kommunikationsexperten mit einer guten Geschichte selbst skeptische Zielgruppen überzeugen können. Compliment!
Using the Posterous Bookmarklet - Posterous Help
Select text, video, music or photos from any web page and post it instantly to your posterous, just by clicking a special bookmark.Plus, with Posterous Autopost, it can be your universal bookmarklet for Facebook, Twitter, and your other blogs, without ever leaving the page you're already on.
via posterous.com
okay, for selected text I see that the source (domain of the source) is attributed.
Unable to bold/highlight these notes; unable to edit the source text
...ah, once the entry has been posted, can EDIT and choose to bold or strikethrough
(no colors though) {sniffle}
hey! dontcha think the default font for the "add your thoughts" portion of a post ought to be larger than that used to display followup comments?!?
Naw, the "gray line" doesn't provide sufficient visual differentiation between the quoted material and any "add your thoughts" text appended during the "bookmarklet" posting process. At this juncture, I'm feeling like "Why? Why post to a blog here (vs using BlogThis Firefox addon to post to a Wordpress -hosted blog)???
SharePoint Development VM Building
For the past couple weeks I've been building (and rebuilding) a cloneable SharePoint development VM. Had to restart originally when I installed the wrong version of Windows 2003 Server, then again when I realized I installed the wrong version of SQL Server (doh!). Third time's the charm though. This time I've documented all the steps, and taken ubiquitous snapshots (I love you vmware) to make sure this will be the last time. It has taken me a while to find all the different pieces I'm using, so I thought I would compile my step by step process here in case it might be helpful to others.
Create the VMFor this I used VMWare Workstation 6.5. My host machine is a dual core Dell with 4 GB of ram, and this setup seems to run fine without lagging my host down badly. For more details on getting better performance, check out this great article by Scott Hanselman.
- 1 GB of ram
- 40 GB disk (not preallocated)
- Hard disk file split up into 2 GB files on the host (for easy moving and defragmentation)
Installing Windows
For this I used Windows Server 2003 Standard R2 SP2. I didn't do anything special, just let VMWare workstation do the automatic install for me. Once the server came up I did the following:
- Renamed the server to mossDevRoot (to match the name I used on the host side for the VM name)
- Gave the server the Application Server Role
- Turned off IE Enhanced Security (Through "Add Remove Programs" > "Add/Remove Windows Components". Internet Explorer Enhance Security Configuration is an option in this list.)
- Installed .Net 2.0 and 3.5 frameworks, along with 3.5 SP1
- Installed KB 946517 (to fix an IIS bug)
- Installed KB 959209 (this is actually a set of 3 updates for the .Net framework. Make sure to install them in the order specified!)
Create Service Accounts
Here are the various service accounts I created and their purposes. On a side note, after the server is sysprepped and cloned, when you log into it to begin using it, you must first login with the SharePoint service account (svc4shrpnt in my case) so that SharePoint can be configured correctly. Running the SharePoint configuration wizard under a normal user account is BAD!
- svc4sqlagent (SQL Server Agent service account)
- svc4sqldbengine (SQL Server Database Engine service account)
- svc4sqlanalysis (SQL Server Analysis Services service account)
- svc4sqlreporting (SQL Server Reporting Services service account)
- svc4shrpnt (SharePoint service account)
- svc4shrpntfarm (SharePoint farm service account)
- svc4shrpntapppool (SharePoint application pool service account)
- svc4shrpntsearch (SharePoint Search account)
SQL Server
I used SQL Server 2008 Standard for this. After the main install (and entering the sql service accounts created above in the installation wizard), I installed these patches:
-SQL Server 2008 Cumulative Update Package 3 - KB 971491
Microsoft SharePoint 2007
Now it's time for the big mamma-jamma. First you need to get things ready for your slipstream install. First you need to create the slipstream install (for MOSS, or just for WSS). One of the tricks I learned is that when you extract the updates to the updates folder, you need to do them in order, first the WSS update, and then the matching MOSS update (if you are wanting to install MOSS that is). So for example, if you were wanting to slipstream SP2, and the June cumulative updates, you would extract the WSS SP2 file, then extract the MOSS SP2 file, then extract the June Cumulative update for WSS, then extract the June Cumulative update for MOSS. As I'm writing this, the most recent set of patches you need for your MOSS or WSS server to be fresh and up to date is listed on this post from the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog. If you want to keep up to date on SharePoint goings on, subscribing to this is a must. A few other tidbits I did before running the slipstream installation.
- Created folder C:\SharePoint\ with subfolders Indexes, ULSLogs, UsageLogs, SMTPDrop, IISLogs
- Pointed IIS Logs to the C:\SharePoint\IISLogs folder (by right clicking on the "Web Sites" folder and selecting "Properties". This will ensure all future websites' logs go to this folder as well)
Now run the installation only, but DO NOT run the configuration wizard. Since we are planning on sysprepping this server, cloning it, and renaming the machine, we can't run the configuration wizard until the server name is set to what it's going to be, as the SharePoint configuration wizard sets up a lot of things based on the machine name. Once the installation is completed (and it will take a little while, especially on the part where it installs the updates), then we can continue. If you get a message like I did the first couple times that says some of the updates were not installed, you messed up the slipstream somehow and will need to recreate that.
Visual Studio 2008That beautiful tool beloved by developers comes next. After installing Visual Studio 2008 team edition along with the team explorer, here are a couple other patches and addons I installed.
- Service Pack 1
- SharePoint Server 2007 SDK
- ReSharper (not free, but oh so sweet!)
- SharePoint Development Environment Modifications
(external tools for Visual Studio SharePoint development which are very handy. I manually removed the ones that deal with deploying solutions to minimize confusing with stsdev build targets, as that is my solution packaging automation system of choice.)
Etc, Etc...
That concludes all the big installs, now for the little stuff that make a SharePoint development VM feel more like 127.0.0.1. I found a few helpful lists out there on the internets, I picked off my favorite things and added a few others.
- InfoPath 2007
- SharePoint Designer (a.k.a. SharePoint Destroyer, use with care)
- Notepad++ (A notepad alternative with tabs, syntax highlighting, and other coolness)
- Emacs (The true super hero of text editors, dwarfs even Notepad++. Not for the faint of heart)
- PowerShell 1.0 (The Windows command line on steroids. Don't worry, it's legal. I installed this one through the optional section of Windows Update.)
- WinMerge (a useful tool for difference display and merging for both files and directories)
- Red Gate's Reflector (decompiling and reflecting .net assemblies)
- Application Pool Manager (Quickly reset app pools, iis, and SharePoint services)
- Right-click a .wsp to add solution reg hack (allows you to right click a .wsp file and click "Add Solution" which runs stsadm -o addsolution)
- SharePoint Manager 2007 (SharePoint browsing and editing through the object model)
- Fiddler (a web debugging proxy which logs all HTTP(S) traffic between your computer and the internet, and allows you to inspect traffic, set breakpoints, and fiddle with incoming or outgoing data)
- DebugView (See how your code is run by the CLR runtime. You just add instructions like System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(“what I want to display in debug view”), and you see it in DebugView window.)
- Firefox (for all that cross browser testing....or just because I love it!)
- 7-Zip (open source file archiver)
- BgInfo (puts server info on the desktop background)
- Stramit CAML Viewer (nice little tool to get into the SharePoint object model and display CAML queries)
- CAML.NET IntelliSense (adds intellisense for CAML Queries in Visual Studio)
It's Sysprep Time!
This is it, the final countdown, and one of the most frustrating parts for me. There are a couple things you need to do before sysprepping your machine, so that you don't end up slamming your head against your keyboard for hours like I did.
- Add the svc4shrpnt account to the local Administrators group.
- In SQL 2008 Manager, add builtin\Administrators to the logins section of security and give it sysadmin rights. (this one is huge, and took me forever to figure out, but thanks to an excellent post, I was saved from doing further damage to myself and my defenseless dell lappy. Check out the post for the reasoning behind it.)
Now for the actual sysprepping. I found this helpful article with some downloadable files, but not enough explanation for my lowly developer brain. It took me a bit of digging through the Google, so I'll provide the details that I assume most admins consider common knowledge for the rest of us.
- Head on over to this blog post and download the Clonable Assets at the bottom of the post. (If you are already familiar with sysprep, feel free to skip the rest of these instructions, as they are meant for us developer types)
- Create the folder C:\Sysprep on your virtual server and copy in the sysprep.inf file.
- Create another folder, C:\Scripts, and copy in mossconfig.bat and startsql.bat.
- Update the sysprep.inf file
- Make sure the paths to the .bat files are correct
- If you indend to rename your server after you sysprep it, make sure that under the [UserData] section you remove the * after "ComputerName=". That way you will be prompted for a new computer name when you boot up the server after sysprep.
- Also if you don't have a volume license key, make sure to clear out everything after "ProductKey=" so you will be prompted to add a key when booting up the server after sysprep.
- Update startsql.bat
- Under the "dropping SQL Server" section, update the server name with your current VM server name
- Update %COMPUTERNAME%\adminmoss to whatever user name you plan on using to configure SharePoint (I used %COMPUTERNAME%\svc4shrpnt)
- Install the latest version of sysprep (for Windows Server 2003 SP2)
- Browse to C:\Windows\System32 and open deploy.cab
- Copy sysprep.exe and setupcl.exe to the C:\Sysprep folder.
- Shutdown your server and create a snapshot (if you use VMWare) or backup the thing (if you're using VPC). (I've heard a rumor that you can only re-sysprep a server 3 times before it won't work anymore. I didn't take the time to verify that, but I just decided to create a snapshot that I can go back to in case I need to install any more updates in the future.
- Start the server back up and run sysprep.exe. Click on the Reseal button, and let it shut your server down.
- Create another snapshot or backup of the server (if you don't have troubles, this is the part you will clone or copy and give out to others on your team, or use in the future when spinning up new servers)
- Start up the server, give it a new name, and watch the command prompt as it should successfully configure SQL and SharePoint.
If at this point everything works, then take that last snapshot and clone it off (or if it's a VPC copy, copy it off) and share it out or save it off someewhere else for later use. Then restore the snapshot prior to the last snapshot on the original VM. This will allow you update the root of the VM as new patches come out, then sysprep it up again and copy off the sysprepped server for yourself and others.
If things didn't work, take a deep breath, get up and walk around, get a glass of water, get a good night sleep, then hop back to the snapshot before the last snapshot, and the process we all so effectionatly call troubleshooting.Lastly...
Here are a couple handy SharePoint solutions you might want to install...
- Log Viewer (for viewing the Unified Logging Service (ULS) logs from within Central Admin)
- SharePoint Warmup Job
VirtualBox - Virtual Machine Client
I looked around and tried various VM Clients before finding one that suited my needs. I wanted something free, actively developed and a forum that was active (there's always teething problems). Ideally they embraced the OVF standard for VM's and supported the "in-development" OS's from both MS and the Open Source Community -- in the end there was only one choice - VirtualBox
One of the great things about the VirtualBox client is that it supports headless virtual machine and implements an RDP interface to them. Allowing you to easily connect & control it from both Windows and *nix.
Just point the RDP client to the IP Address of VM Host & using the port displayed - you essentially have a console connection to it. There's some handy extras like clipboard and folder sharing, private networks and dynamic virtual HD's.
Virtual Machine for Frameworks (Symfony & Zend)
I've just launched a new website aimed at helping developers have a cleaner environment for developing & testing their Symfony applications at Sipx.ws. Thanks to the great guys at ServerGrove - I managed to get the site up and running in no time.
The website contains all the details about the what, where and how and there will be some followup articles on my blog in the next couple of days. If you find any issues with the image - then the Project Management URL is on the site.
