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Using robocopy to backup files to a D-Link DNS-321

2011-10-06T20:25:00.001-07:00

I use robocopy to back up my music collection to my D-Link DNS-321. I use the /xo switch so only new and modified files would be copied – like so: robocopy c:\music\music z:\music /E /xo However, it was taking forever because every file was considered “NEWER” than the existing backup copy. At first, I thought my music program (Media Monkey on Windows) was updating the mp3 tags or touching

Setting up a new Subversion repository and Trac project

2010-08-03T23:51:00.001-07:00

Here are the steps I use each time I need to create a new Subversion repository: Create Repository > sudo svnadmin create /var/svn/MY_PROJECT_NAMECreate TRAC project> sudo trac-admin /var/www/trac/MY_PROJECT_NAME initenvDuring install, you will be prompted for the repository path created above.Set up Apache to serve TRAC project> cd /etc/apache2/sites-enabled> sudo nano 000-default# add each

Using SQL Server to analyze IIS logs

2010-06-24T17:19:00.001-07:00

Rather than using LogParser to analyze IIS logs, you can import your log files in an instance of SQL Server Express. First, create a table that has the same columns as your log file. Depending on what data you were capturing in your log files, you will need a different structure. For example, on my Windows XP IIS 5.1 machine, I had the following fields: CREATE TABLE [dbo].[iis_logtable_1] (

Installing an Ubuntu 9.10 VMware image on ESXi host

2010-06-19T12:42:00.001-07:00

Here’s my process for creating Ubuntu VMs on and ESXi 4.0 host. I downloaded a pre-built VMware 9.10 image from thoughtpolice. I chose the amd64 version and downloaded it via bittorrent. This image won’t run out of the box on ESXi 4.0 – it must first be converted. For this, I needed to download the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone. Convert the .vmx file and deploy it to the ESXi host using

Creating a VMware 4.0 host server with ESXi

2010-03-06T08:56:00.001-08:00

I procured a Power Edge T105 server with the following specs: Dual Core 4450B Processor 2x512K Cache, 2.3GHz Athlon for PowerEdge T105 8GB, DDR2, 800MHz, 4x2GB,Dual Ranked DIMMs 160GB 7.2K RPM SATA 3Gbps 3.5-in Cabled Hard Drive-Entry On board Network Adapter 16X DVD-ROM,SATA, INTERNAL Rather than installing VMware on the (smallish) hard drive, I grabbed a 4GB thumb drive lying around to host

Scalable Internet Architectures: Static Content

2010-02-28T18:31:00.001-08:00

In some of my previous posts, I discussed ways to instrument static content references so their domain is configurable. This small aspect of application-level design makes it possible to offload static content delivery to a separate infrastructure from the application pages. Chapter 6 in Scalable Internet Architectures focuses on Static content, that aspect of web applications that is sometimes

Rewriting references to static CSS, JS, and image content, part 2

2010-02-28T17:38:00.001-08:00

Following up on the previous post, here are a few other options to consider: Use a custom Expression Builder to create a include script and CSS references. This syntax <%$ %> would work in No-Compile pages. Use combres. I tried the demo and really liked it. It automatically renames scripts as they are updated, plus includes minification and compression. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will

Rewriting references to static CSS, JS, and image content

2010-01-26T20:42:00.000-08:00

For static content such as CSS, JavaScript, and image files, it is best practice to serve these items from a separate domain from the main content. Even if this secondary domain points to the same web farm initially, it opens up the possibility of serving the content from other servers at a later date.Other benefits:Static content domain can be cookie-free.Cache settings can be adjusted

Blogger Backup

2010-01-12T20:44:00.001-08:00

May be useful for backing up blogs: http://www.codeplex.com/bloggerbackup May also consider an import to a local Wordpress instance.

Review of some IResourceProvider implementations

2010-01-12T20:34:00.001-08:00

Problem: an ASP.NET website is connected to a CMS which permits users to modify .resx files. Modifying .resx resource files during runtime has the unfortunate consequence of causing the App Domain to reload. This can really kill your scalability since the HttpRuntime.Cache (among other things) is blown away when App Domain is reloaded. I reviewed some options for custom resource providers. First,

Scalable Internet Architectures, part 2

2010-01-05T21:17:00.001-08:00

Chapter 3 covers Mission-Critical (aka Business Critical) environments. The five “key aspects” of a Business Critical environment are: High Availability Monitoring Handling release cycles Controlling Complexity Performance optimization Monitoring In the section on monitoring, the author mentions that SNMP (simple network management protocol) is the industry standard for monitoring of

Scalable Internet Architectures, part 1

2010-01-03T22:18:00.000-08:00

A few interesting points in chapter 1:The only "true" scalability is horizontal, meaning that system capacity is increased by adding more of the same hardware or software. (Scale out, not up)Scaling "vertically" is just adding horsepower (storage, CPU, etc) to an existing machine.One example where horizontal scaling is difficult is large ACID-compliant databases. The current practice to scale

Partial tech reading list for 2010

2010-01-02T15:43:00.000-08:00

Here are a few books I that I need to get through. Some of these I've partially read -- I plan to do a more focused reading in the upcoming months.Microsoft .NET: Architecting Applications for the EnterpriseI've already taken a couple ideas from this book, specifically regarding UML.Code Complete, 2nd editionI've read a bit of this one already - great book that deserves its acclaim.Pro ASP.NET

Some solutions for posting code in blogs

2010-01-01T12:44:00.000-08:00

Geshi is discussed here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/113440/displaying-code-in-blog-posts A few takes on the syntaxhighlighter project, which uses JavaScript to format the code: http://alexgorbatchev.com/wiki/SyntaxHighlighter http://ditrans.blogspot.com/2009/03/using-syntaxhighlighter-20-on-blogger.html http://www.hanselman.com/blog/BestCodeSyntaxHighlighterForSnippetsInYourBlog.aspx

New years 2010

2010-01-01T11:43:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!