Update Feb 2021: See my newer article on extending an LVM volume group on Ubuntu Focal using either the same physical disk or a new disk using parted. It is common for a virtualized Guest OS base image to have a generic minimal storage capacity. But this capacity can easily be exceeded by production … Ubuntu: Extending a virtualized disk when using LVM
We live in a multi-platform world, and the ability to easily share folders of content between users in the same protected network is a function made very convenient in the Windows world with CIFS shares (e.g. \\mydesktop\sharedfolder). Luckily for Ubuntu users, it is pretty easy to setup CIFS shares to offer that same interoperability with … Ubuntu: Creating a Samba/CIFS share to quickly share files with Windows
Content Packs are plugins that allow you you to create pre-packaged knowledge about specific event types. For example, you can create a content pack that knows how to extract fields from one of your custom log sources. Beyond extracted fields, you can also add saved queries, aggregations, alerts, dashboards, and visualizations. Incoming Events from Agent … vRealize Log Insight: Creating your own content pack for field extraction
When flashing an OpenWrt image to your newer versioned WRT1900AC/S, be aware that instead of using ‘setenv firmware_name’, you should instead use ‘setenv firmwareName’. The command will not fail, but the router will not understand that it should look for a non-default name for the image and your tftp transfer will fail. This change appears … OpenWrt: Use setenv firmwareName for newer versions of Linksys WRT1900AC/S
Whether you are updating the official LinkSys router firmware or taking it a step further and installing open-source firware like OpenWrt, serial level access to your Linksys router is the most dependable way of guaranteeing a connection. And if you have tried to flash the firmware via the web admin interface and after a reboot … Ubuntu: Serial level access to your Linksys WRT1X00AC/S
It is common for a virtualized Guest OS base image to have a generic minimal storage capacity. But this capacity can easily be exceeded by production scenarios, performance testing, logging, or even the general cruft of running a machine 24×7. For this reason, extending a virtualized disk can be extremely helpful. Here is a walk … Ubuntu: Extending a virtualized disk using fdisk when not using LVM
When building your logstash filter, you would often like to validate your assumptions on a large sampling of input events without sending all the output to ElasticSearch. Using Logstash metrics and conditionals, we can easily show: How many input events were processed successfully How many input events had errors An error file containing each event … Logstash: Using metrics to debug the filtering process
Before virtualization, there was a stronger argument for using a swap partition instead of a swap file for servers. A fragmented swap file could lead to performance issues that a statically sized and placed partition did not have consider. But once virtualization comes into play, unless you go to great lengths to segment your storage … Ubuntu: Using a swap file instead of swap partition for virtualized server VMs
There are many consumer side printers that provide the ability to scan a document to PDF. But unless you have a high-end series, the printer may only be capable of scanning one side at a time, which means you end up with a “front.pdf” and “back.pdf”. If you have a Linux desktop or laptop, luckily … Ubuntu: Using pdftk to stitch together two-sided PDF
In my previous posts, I have shown how to test grok patterns locally using Ruby on Linux and Windows. This works well when your VM do not have full internet access, or only have console access, or any reason that you want to test it locally. If you have access to a graphical web browser … Logstash: Testing Logstash grok patterns online
If the logs you are shipping to Logstash are from a Windows OS, it makes it even more difficult to quickly troubleshoot a grok pattern being sent to the Logstash service. It can be beneficial to quickly validate your grok patterns directly on the Windows host. Here is an easy way to test a log … Logstash: Testing Logstash grok patterns locally on Windows
It is time consuming to restart the entire Logstash service and refeed it input when working on a grokparsefailure. Here is an easy way to test a line of input or log file against a grok pattern:
Updated Feb 2019 based on Spotify updates that broke this functionality. If the keyboard media keys do not work from your Ubuntu desktop, you can use D-Bus support to send the proper commands to Spotify. Validate the following commands from the console:
A vital piece of information that often goes overlooked is the load created by standard and custom methods run on the Java Method Server. In some applications (such as D2), the JMS is used extensively for application functionality and this can have performance implications to your end users. You can capture this information by enabling … Documentum: JMS Access Logs to Analyze Custom Method Load
In the world of microservices and containers, it is often desirable to keep settings such as those found in dfc.properties outside of the jar or war so that the deployment binary is the same no matter which environment it is deployed into. The settings in dfc.properties can be externalized by specifying the location of dfc.properties … Documentum: Separating dfc.properties from your WAR
Troubleshooting LDAPSync issues are often much easier at the command line where you can do an immediate invocation of the job without having to continually refresh DA and wait for the job to be executed.
When working from the Windows command line, you can do a quick test to validate your SMTP connectivity using PowerShell: c:\> Powershell -executionpolicy bypass PS c:\> Send-MailMessage –to <TO> –from <FROM> –subject “testing123” –body “this is a test” –smtpserver <SMTPServer> -port 25 And if the mail server is accessed over TLS/SSL with SMTP authentication … Sending SMTP Mail from Windows Using PowerShell
The most common way of integrating your existing Identity Management system with Documentum is to offer SSO (Single Sign-On) via the LDAP Synchronization job. This requires that you set a Base DN for Documentum to search through, but it is not uncommon when dealing with real-world LDAP servers to have LDAP referrals in that search … Documentum: Ignoring Referrals from the LDAP Synch Job
Identity Management for On-Premise Applications Our industry today has some very proven technologies for providing a single set of login credentials to applications installed on-premise. Most commonly, companies use a central Identity Management system (e.g. Microsoft Active Directory/Oracle Internet Directory/IBM Tivoli), and these systems implement an LDAP interface that 3rd party applications can call to … EMC OnDemand: Federated Identity Management and Silent SSO
The concept of custom methods which run directly on the Java Method Server has proven an extremely useful extension point for Documentum developers and solutions architects. Whether used in a workflow activity to integrate with an enterprise message queue or as an action for Webtop users who need temporarily escalated privileges to apply legal retention, … EMC OnDemand: Best Practices for Custom Methods
Content delivery is one of the primary use cases for a Content Mangement system. When users are spread across six different continents, you must have an implementation that ensures timely access for all users – not just those in the local network. A typical scenario involves the database and primary Content Server deployed in the … EMC OnDemand: Enabling Distributed Content Features and BOCS
As you can imagine, potential customers have a lot of very legitimate questions when considering the move to EMC OnDemand. For both new customers as well as those who are migrating their existing content into the EMC secure private cloud one of the questions we hear a lot is, “Why would I choose EMC OnDemand … EMC OnDemand: OnDemand versus Amazon EC2
The Documentum Foundation Services (DFS) introduced developers to the ‘DFS Data Model’, a rich object model that is capable of representing complex repository objects and relationships during interactions with content services. For those with a DFC programming background, it can be a challenge to shift into the DFS paradigm which focuses on service oriented calls … Documentum: Enterprise use of the DFS Data Model