Notes from the field

1. go to VMware ESXi Patch Tracker and check for the latest ImageProfile e.g. ESXi-6.5.0-20170404001-standard
2. Shut down all VMs and turn on maintenance mode
3. allow outbound firewall requests

   esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient

4. execute the update:

   esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.5.0-20170404001-standard -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

5. Disable firewall ports

   esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e false -r httpClient

6. Disable maintenance mode
7. Reboot

Some of my docker containers were complaining that they didn’t have enough drive space. This looked odd – so i logged in to the host and checked around:

[email protected]:/$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /dev
tmpfs 394M 12M 382M 3% /run
/dev/sda1 26G 25G 0 100% /
tmpfs 2.0G 2.0M 2.0G 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
//fs.cynexia.net/largeappdata 2.7T 285G 2.4T 11% /mnt/largeappdata
//fs.cynexia.net/video 5.4T 3.0T 2.4T 56% /mnt/video
//fs.cynexia.net/appdata 2.5T 52G 2.4T 3% /mnt/appdata

All space used up. Huh. Wonder why? I did a quick check to see what’s using most space:

[email protected]:/$ sudo du -xh / | grep '[0-9\.]\+G'
8.0K /var/lib/docker/aufs/diff/1dba1b90260105df03d0147c535c104cca0dd24fcc9273f0bc27b725c7cc676f/usr/local/crashplan/jre/lib/locale/zh.GBK/LC_MESSAGES
12K /var/lib/docker/aufs/diff/1dba1b90260105df03d0147c535c104cca0dd24fcc9273f0bc27b725c7cc676f/usr/local/crashplan/jre/lib/locale/zh.GBK
19G /var/lib/docker/aufs/diff
19G /var/lib/docker/aufs
2.2G /var/lib/docker/containers/8c5725f63f681e012fcc479e78133f31ab1c760b7d8d4e0a7e150d213face41f
2.3G /var/lib/docker/containers
21G /var/lib/docker
21G /var/lib
22G /var
25G /

clearly /var/lib/docker/aufs/diff is what’s causing it. Let’s clean that up:

[email protected]:/$ docker rmi $(docker images -aq --filter=dangling=true)
Untagged: [email protected]:9846b7570b5ba6d686be21623446cec8abd9db04cf55a39ce45cabfaa0d63f9f
Deleted: sha256:011bf974552570c536f8f98c73e0ed7d09ef9e2bfcbc7b3f3e02e19682b7480e
Deleted: sha256:a0637dd0588be6aee9f4655260176e6da802fcd92347cdf789ae84f3503322c3
Deleted: sha256:6e21a0999ad14a1cc0ccc8e31611b137793e3614338e01f920e13bfeb4128fdc
Deleted: sha256:b98c7813439119c3d2f859060fe11bf10151f69587f850a48448cae0fa4d9305
Untagged: [email protected]:ad493202d196dfae418769428ba6dea4d576ce1adec7ebe90837d0b965fe9b42
Deleted: sha256:b8df5a1ffa1eedd7be03d4a2a37549bf81699cc6fa1586c1d3510d90d4e9e562
...
Deleted: sha256:07c09e3cb65b3cec786933f882a08d5b0a34cd94f6922ada0d6f0cf779482ee0

Let’s check now…

[email protected]:/$ sudo du -xh / | grep '[0-9\.]\+G'
8.0K /var/lib/docker/aufs/diff/1dba1b90260105df03d0147c535c104cca0dd24fcc9273f0bc27b725c7cc676f/usr/local/crashplan/jre/lib/locale/zh.GBK/LC_MESSAGES
12K /var/lib/docker/aufs/diff/1dba1b90260105df03d0147c535c104cca0dd24fcc9273f0bc27b725c7cc676f/usr/local/crashplan/jre/lib/locale/zh.GBK
4.8G /var/lib/docker/aufs/diff
4.8G /var/lib/docker/aufs
2.2G /var/lib/docker/containers/8c5725f63f681e012fcc479e78133f31ab1c760b7d8d4e0a7e150d213face41f
2.3G /var/lib/docker/containers
7.4G /var/lib/docker
7.6G /var/lib
8.3G /var
11G /

much better! It turns out there are a few great cleanup agents e.g. docker-gc-cron which will do the job for me.

I purchased an IBM M1015 to use as an HBA in my server. As part of that, I wanted to flash it with the IT firmware, however, I was getting errors, even when I used the original IBM firmware from their website:

C:\> megarec -cleanflash 0 M1000FW.ROM

MegaRAID HWR Controller Recovery tool. Version 01.01-004 February 05, 2010
Copyright (c) 2006-2008 LSI Corp.
Supports 1079 controller and its Successors


Erasing Flash Chip (8MB)....
 Completed: 100%
Flashing Image. Please wait...


Currently flashing component = BIOS
Programming Flash....
 Completed: 100%
Verifying the Flashed Data...


Currently flashing component = HIIM
Programming Flash....
 Completed: 100%
Verifying the Flashed Data...


Currently flashing component = APP
Error in downloading the image.
Error code = 64
Failed to flash the image. Please retry recovery

I’d never seen an M1015 before, at least not close up. Closer inspection of the card, however, revealed a code: FRU 46C8927. I know FRU” means “Field Replaceable Unit” i.e. something you can order as a replacement part. So I googled that code, and discovered that this was an IBM M5015, not an M1015. The M5015 cannot be used in IT mode, so I had to send it back.

First things first – you do this at your own risk. I take no responsibility for anything going wrong – and it can go wrong. If you are in doubt – don’t do it. And if it goes wrong – don’t blame me…

1. Make a DOS USB boot stick
   1. download the very useful Rufus from here.
   2. select “Create a bootable disk using FreeDos”:
      
   3. flash the USB.
2. Download the firwmare files from here: sas2008 (see footnote for original source)
3. Extract the files and place them on the root of the USB stick.
4. Download the latest LSI firmware from the Avago site. You’re looking for Firmware for an SAS 9211-8i Host Bus Adaptor. At the time of writing, this is version P20.
5. Extract the LSI firmware to a folder on your machine.
6. Create a subfolder on the USB called P20
7. From the extracted LSI firmware, copy the following to the P20 folder on the USB:
   1. The 2118it.bin file from <zip>\\firmware\\HBA_9211_8i_IT folder
   2. mptsas2.rom from sasbios_rel folder
   3. sas2flsh.exe from sas2flash_dos_rel folder
8. Look at the back of the card and note down the SAS address – it’s something like 500605B0xxxxxxxx.
9. put the card in the machine, and switch it on.
10. Boot to the USB stick – press F11 during POST and select USB.
11. Flash the firmware:
    1. Type the following:

       megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin
       megarec -cleanflash 0

    2. Reboot, again booting from the USB stick
    3. Next, install the P10 or P11 firmware – type the following:

       sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom
       sas2flsh -o -sasadd 500605bxxxxxxxxx (x= numbers for SAS address)
       

    4. Reboot, again booting from the USB stick
    5. Finally, upgrade to the P20 firmware – type the following to change to the folder and execute flash of the new firmware:

       cd p20
       sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom
       

12. Remove the USB stick
13. Reboot.
14. Some people recommend to disable loading the Option ROM. On my machine, loading the option room caused an NMI, so i ignored it, but if you want to do it: Load the Option ROM (press CTRL-C on boot) and set “Boot Support” to “Disabled”

The original instructions for this task are here, with my additions to update to the P20 firmware – I’ve archived them here for my own reference.

I have a clean VM running Ubuntu 16.04 on VWare ESXi 6.5. I have a CIFS share mounted at /mnt/appdata with the noperm flag. The share is writeable.

I installed Docker using the instructions here: https://hub.docker.c…mby/embyserver/

docker run -it --rm -v /usr/local/bin:/target \
     -e "APP_USER=robert" \
     -e "APP_CONFIG=/mnt/appdata/emby" \
     emby/embyserver instl

docker run -it --rm -v /etc/systemd/system:/target \
    emby/embyserver instl services

sudo systemctl enable emby-server@.service

?2016-12-04T09:49:04.572948238Z Error, Main, UnhandledException
52016-12-04T09:49:04.573027012Z  *** Error Report ***
42016-12-04T09:49:04.573039000Z  Version: 3.0.8500.0
2016-12-04T09:49:04.573049078Z  Command line: /usr/lib/emby-server/bin/MediaBrowser.Server.Mono.exe -programdata /config -ffmpeg /bin/ffmpeg -ffprobe /bin/ffprobe -restartpath /usr/lib/emby-server/restart.sh
@2016-12-04T09:49:04.573081031Z  Operating system: Unix 4.4.0.31
32016-12-04T09:49:04.573090300Z  Processor count: 4
02016-12-04T09:49:04.573097909Z  64-Bit OS: True
52016-12-04T09:49:04.573105143Z  64-Bit Process: True
;2016-12-04T09:49:04.573112588Z  Program data path: /config
b2016-12-04T09:49:04.573119889Z  Mono: 4.6.2 (Stable 4.6.2.7/08fd525 Mon Nov 21 15:56:40 UTC 2016)
h2016-12-04T09:49:04.573127634Z  Application Path: /usr/lib/emby-server/bin/MediaBrowser.Server.Mono.exe
=2016-12-04T09:49:04.573135097Z  One or more errors occurred.
:2016-12-04T09:49:04.573142348Z  System.AggregateException
2016-12-04T09:49:04.573151009Z    at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.WaitAll (System.Threading.Tasks.Task[] tasks, System.Int32 millisecondsTimeout, System.Threading.CancellationToken cancellationToken) [0x00242] in <8f2c484307284b51944a1a13a14c0266>:0 
2016-12-04T09:49:04.573161976Z    at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.WaitAll (System.Threading.Tasks.Task[] tasks, System.Int32 millisecondsTimeout) [0x00000] in <8f2c484307284b51944a1a13a14c0266>:0 
2016-12-04T09:49:04.573172331Z    at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.WaitAll (System.Threading.Tasks.Task[] tasks) [0x00000] in <8f2c484307284b51944a1a13a14c0266>:0 
>2016-12-04T09:49:04.573181859Z    at MediaBrowser.Server.Mono.MainClass.RunApplication (MediaBrowser.Server.Implementations.ServerApplicationPaths appPaths, MediaBrowser.Model.Logging.ILogManager logManager, MediaBrowser.Server.Startup.Common.StartupOptions options) [0x000cf] in <8385af0cf454438f8df15fa62f41afa4>:0 
2016-12-04T09:49:04.573191220Z    at MediaBrowser.Server.Mono.MainClass.Main (System.String[] args) [0x0008a] in <8385af0cf454438f8df15fa62f41afa4>:0 
S2016-12-04T09:49:04.573199399Z  InnerException: System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteException
32016-12-04T09:49:04.573206751Z  database is locked
32016-12-04T09:49:04.573213834Z  database is locked

docker run -d --name="EmbyServer" \
      --net="host" \
      -e TZ="UTC" \
      -e HOST_OS="ubuntu" \
      -e "TCP_PORT_8096"="8096" \
      -v "/mnt/appdata/emby/":"/config":rw \
      emby/embyserver

[email protected]:~$ ls /mnt/appdata/emby
abc config data localization logs
[email protected]:~$ du -sh /mnt/appdata/emby
3.4M /mnt/appdata/emby

docker run -d --name="EmbyServer" \
      --net="host" \
      -e TZ="UTC" \
      -e HOST_OS="ubuntu" \
      -e "TCP_PORT_8096"="8096" \
      emby/embyserver

//fs.cynexia.net/appdata /mnt/appdata cifs iocharset=utf8,credentials=/root/.smbcredentials,nobrl,dir_mode=0775,nofail,gid=10,noperm 0 0

During the process of installing VMWare on to my Gen8 Microserver, I had trouble writing data to the internal SD card – in fact, I couldn’t even see it. Looking in the ILO Event Logs I saw this:

Embedded Flash/SD-CARD: Embedded media manager failed initialization.

googling this didn’t get me much – just forum posts with people complaining about it, but then i found this HPE Customer Advisory, which lists out the steps needed to reset the error. Basically:

1. create an XML file with the following content:

   <!-- RIBCL Sample Script for HP Lights-Out Products --> 
   <!--Copyright (c) 2016 Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Development Company,L.P. --> 
   
   <!-- Description: This is a sample XML script to force format ll --> 
   <!-- the iLO partitions. --> 
   <!-- iLO resets automatically for this operation to take effect --> 
   
   <!-- Warning: This command erases all data on the partition(s) --> 
   <!-- External providers will need to be re-configured if --> 
   <!-- partition is formatted --> 
   
   <!-- Input: VALUE tag: all - format all available partitions --> 
   
   <!-- NOTE:You will need to replace the USER_LOGIN and PASSWORD values --> 
   <!-- with values that are appropriate for your environment --> 
   
   <!-- See "HP Integrated Lights-Out Management Processor Scripting --> 
   <!-- and Command Line Resource Guide" for more information on --> 
   <!-- scripting and the syntax of the RIBCL XML --> 
   
   <!-- Firmware support information for this script: --> 
   <!-- iLO 4 - Version 2.42 or later. --> 
   <!-- iLO 3 - None. --> 
   <!-- iLO 2 - None. -->
   
   <RIBCL VERSION="2.0"> 
   <LOGIN USER_LOGIN="Administrator" PASSWORD=""> 
   <RIB_INFO MODE="write"> 
   <FORCE_FORMAT VALUE="all" /> 
   </RIB_INFO> 
   </LOGIN> 
   </RIBCL>

2. run that file against the server using HPQLOCFG.exe:

   hpqlocfg -s <server IP> -l c:\hpqcfg.log -f c:\Force_Format.xml -v -t user=Administrator,password=<password>

3. some other steps to reinstall intelligent provisioning, if you use it.

All well and good – but where do you get HPQLOCFG from? If you follow the link in the article, it refuses to install because i don’t have the full PSP installed. So how can I apply the change?

Well, in my case, I installed VMWare to an internal USB stick and then ran the command from there – you could even do this with all of your other existing drives removed so that they don’t get erased. You could then restart the process. Problem solved!

When installing Webmin, I’ve sometimes come across an error installing a dependency package, apt-show-versions:

Setting up apt-show-versions (0.22.7) ...
** initializing cache. This may take a while **
FATAL -> Failed to fork.
dpkg: error processing package apt-show-versions (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 100
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of webmin:FATAL -> Failed to fork.

This is caused by the fact that apt-show-versions can’t read compressed index files. Thankfully, the solution is quite simple:

First, we need to tell APT not to compress the index. To do this we create an entry in a file called /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02compress-indexes:

sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/02compress-indexes

If the file is empty (mine was), simply put this line in it:

Acquire::GzipIndexes "false";

if the file has some text, check if this parameter is in there as “true” and if so change to false. If it’s missing, just add it.

Then, we need to delete the existing indexes and re-download them:

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/apt-show*

followed by

sudo apt-get update

Finally, we just need to complete the installation:

sudo apt-get -f install webmin

And job done.

As I’ve been playing around with Azure Functions I’ve slowly outgrown the web-based editor. It’s not that it’s not useful, it’s just that I miss intellisense (I’ll come back to this in a later post), and I accidentally deployed a change which broke one of my functions. I’d made dozens of tiny changes, but I simply could not figure out which one it was. Not having a version history, I was kinda screwed.

I had seen the “Configure Continuous Integration” option before, but never really looked at it. I keep my source code in private GitHub repos, so it was relatively trivial to set up a new repo tied to this function app. After reading the setup instructions, however, I was a little confused by what exactly to do to put my existing functions in to repo, but it was actually much simpler than I thought. It turns out one of the best features is the ability to roll back to a previous commit with a single click:

First, I created a new private GitHub repo and cloned it to my local machine. I chose not to use branching – but I guess you could map different function apps to different branches to support a separation between “dev”, “test”, “production” etc. In the root of my repo, I created a folder for each of the functions I wished to deploy, named exactly the same as the existing functions (I assume they’re not case sensitive but I kept to the same case).

Then, I needed to put the actual code in there. Under the visual editor for each of the functions is a “view files” link: . Clicking this, I was able to see the function.json and run.csx files within each function. I simply cut and pasted the code from there to a file of the same name in the relevant folder.

Next, I needed to find the host.json file. That’s a bit more tricky. In the end, I figured the easiest way was to use the Dev Console. Navigate to Function App Settings, and select “Open dev console”. After a few seconds, the dev console appears:

This appears to be a Linux shell. You should start in the d:\home\site\wwwroot folder – that’s where host.json lives. Just type cat host.json to see the contents. It turns out mine was empty (just an open and close curly brace):

D:\home\site\wwwroot

> ls
D:\home\site\wwwroot
QueueTriggerCSharp1
fetchDepartureBoardOrchestrator
host.json
postToTwitter
> cat host.json
D:\home\site\wwwroot
{}
>

I created this in the root of my repo, then committed the changes and pushed them back to GitHub. Within a few seconds, I was able to see the change by clicking “Configure continuous integrations” in Function App Settings. My changes deployed immediately. And when I next screw up, because I’m forced to push changes via GIT, I know I’ll be able to roll back to a known-good configuration.

I accidentally deployed a dodgy bit of code to one of my function apps. Then, even when I tried to revert to a “known good” version of my code via the GUI, it still didn’t work. No matter what I did, I kept getting the dreaded “Compilation Failed” error – but there was no more information. No useful compilation errors…

2016-10-23T20:35:46.853 Function started (Id=5ededb27-6144-40d1-8d14-8db77d70b771)
2016-10-23T20:35:47.901 Function compilation error
2016-10-23T20:35:47.901 Function completed (Failure, Id=5ededb27-6144-40d1-8d14-8db77d70b771)
2016-10-23T20:35:48.369 Exception while executing function: Functions.fetchDepartureBoardOrchestrator. Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs.Script: Script compilation failed.

It was so frustrating. Until I worked out that you can actually restart the power app host – just go to the Function App Settings then click “Go To App Service Settings” at the bottom.  You’ll see the traditional “full” properties and settings blade, and at the top is a “Restart” button. Then I was able to save my updated code.

I’ve been playing around with my Nextion and a Particle Photon for a while. The idea is to pull data from a variety of services and have it available on a display by the front door – things like the weather, the outside temperature (from my Netatmo), and the next 3 trains to Seven Sisters from our station. Living, as we do, at the end of the Enfield Town branch line, it can be a bit hit and miss as to whether or not you make the train, or if it’s even running.

Anyway, I got the first part of this working. I regularly poll the National Rail SOAP API, parsing the content in to a simple minified JSON format using a Power App. Took me a while.

Then I discovered that someone has written a JSON proxy for the LDBWS. I’ll try that next.