Fastcloud's Blog

Solving HDMI droupouts (ATI HD5650 in Acer’s Aspire 3820TG)

fastcloud — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:58:48 +0000

After installing a new version of ATI/AMDs driver and Catalyst Center for the Radeon Mobile HD5650 (hybride) my external screen (connected via HDMI2DVI) would occassionally turn black for a second or less. At first, I blamed my screen. I connected another screen but the problem remained, I still observed short, sporadic dropouts.

The solution was getting rid of any ATI drivers on the system and reinstalling the following Acer driver: “VGA_AMD_8.752.0.0_W7x86x64_A”. I downloaded it from Acer’s support Web site.

The download is called: “VGA Driver (Radeon HD 5650 & Radeon HD 5470) AMD 8.752.0.0 195.3 MB 01/31/2011 “.

Then, I followed this steps to successfully reinstall the driver and get rid of the dropouts:

Uninstalled all ATI related software (Catalyst & Co)
Uninstalled the drivers of your VGA cards in the Device Manager
Deleted all ATI folders on the disk
Booted into safe mode and ran AMD Catalyst TwL Cleaner v3.9.2.cmd
Rebooted and installed VGA_AMD_8.752.0.0_W7x86x64_A

How to uninstall Adobe Drive CS4

fastcloud — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 21:31:54 +0000

To uninstall Adobe Drive CS4 (and thereby remove the annoying context menu entry):

1. Run “regedit” and locate the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
2. Locate the key-folder that contains Adobe Drive CS4 and copy the hex code from its “UninstallString”-key (something like {A3111194-144A-0000-0000-C128FE0D0000}, copy just the hex code without the curly brackets)
3. Run “cmd.exe” with administrator privileges
4. Execute the following command (including curly brackets):
msiexec /x {PASTE-THE-HEX-CODE-FROM-ABOVE-HERE} /qb ADOBE_SETUP=1

This procedure worked fine to properly uninstall Abobe Drive CS4 on Windows 7 x64

How to disable WM 6.5 display lock / use the S2U2 (Slide 2 Unlock 2) lock instead

fastcloud — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:50:25 +0000

There is a nice replacement for the default Windows Mobile 6.5 display lock: S2U2 (Slide 2 Unlock 2) available at: http://s2v.ac-s2.com/
Unfortunately, after installing S2U2 on my HTC Touch 2, both locks locked the display. In order to disable the WM 6.5 lock add the registry entry

“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Keybd\DeviceLockWhenSuspend”

as DWORD and set it to “0″. After a softreset I was able to lock the device with S2U2 by pressing the power/decline-button. Windows did not lock the device any more.

How to start PUTTY or winSCP from Ant (exec task)

fastcloud — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:08:13 +0000

I’ve recently automated the deployment of benchmarks on remote machines using Apache Ant.
And if something doesn’t work as it should it is very helpful to be able to start a SSH-session to the problematic server with a double click.
Here we go:

Please note the double backslashes in the path. And of course, you have to specify the correct path to the executables or store it in a variable or ant property file.

The same works for winscp, too. This time I’m using Ant variables:

How to find a string in zip files

fastcloud — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:30:23 +0000

I have a folder with a lot of subfolders and zip files in it.
Each zip file contains a set of subfolders and textfiles.
I use the following code in order to find a string in files which are stored in zip files:
FIND_THIS_STRING=Mbits # find zip files recursively for mFile in `find . -name "*.zip"` do # unzip each zip file to the pipe # find the string in the extracted content and print the line which contains the string unzip -p "$mFile" | grep "$FIND_THIS_STRING" done

EC2: Bundling an AMI using the AWS eclipse-plugin

fastcloud — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:00:32 +0000

The eclipse-plugin AWS-Toolkit (available from here) is a nice tool for managing your amazon ec2 instances. You can even bundle an AMI from a running machine and store it to your S3-Bucket. Before trying to bundle an AMI make sure that the aws toolkit is configured correctly:
Preferences → AWS Toolkit →Account Number: 111122223333 ← enter your account number here (not your mail address!)
Preferences → AWS Toolkit →Certificate File: path-to\cert-abc.pem ← make sure the path is set correctly
Preferences → AWS Toolkit →Private Key File: path-to\pk-xyz.pem ← make sure the path is set correctly

How to bundle an AMI (Linux):
Start an Instance and make your desired changes.
Right click on the running instance and select “Bundle AMI…”.
Enter your S3 bucket name and path where the AMI will be stored: /mybucketname/AMIs
Enter the desired name of your ami: fedora-11-32bit-perfect-cloud-ami
Click ok.
The eclipse-plugin will transfer your certificate and private key to the /mnt directory of the running instance and then create an image from the running machine.
Finally the image will be segmented and uploaded to the specified S3 bucket.

Important:It looks like the bundling process hangs at 9%, directly after the cert and pk have been transferred. But it doesn’t. It simply takes some time (about 30 minutes) to create the image and upload it to S3. As far as I know the bundling progress bar doesn’t work correctly in eclipse. If you want to make sure that the bundling is still in progress open a bash on the ec2 instance and execute:
ps aux | grep "ec2"
It should list a few processes related to the bundling.

How to install SPECjAppServer2004 on Fedora 8 (JBoss and MySQL)

fastcloud — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:26:36 +0000

Last update: August 25, 2009
Installing the SPECjAppServer benchmark software is not trivial. There are a lot of obstacles and the installation and configuration on fedora is really painful. I spent about 14 man-days on this installation – please don’t underestimate the setup!

Goals:
Since I’ve spent a huge amount of time on this installation, this howto mainly aims to preserve my experiences for myself. But if you find it useful you’re invited to use it. This howto shows how to install the SPECjAppServer2004 V.1.08 on a distributed system under test (SUT) with the following components:
- The main application (SPECjAppServer2004 V.1.08) will run on JBoss 4.0.5 GA
- The database will be hosted on a MySQL 5.1 database server
- The emulator (which isn’t actually part of the SUT) will run on Tomcat 6.0.18
All systems will run Fedora Core 8. We’ll use Sun’s JDK 6 Update 13.

Limitations:
If you plan to install SPECjAppServer on another operating system or another application server or with another DBMS or with different software versions, this howto won’t be of great help to you!

Requirements:
You need at least basic linux knowledge, basic knowledge related to computer networks, basic sql and database knowledge and basic J2EE knowledge.

Preparations:
I advise you to setup 4 virtual machines running Fedora Core 8 with static ip-addresses. All machines will need access to the internet and must be able to communicate with eachother. Make snapshots of the fresh installations after you’ve configured the network settings and ssh daemons. This allows you to easily restore your machines using these snapshots in case of failed installations.

You need 4 computer systems:
The SUT which is comprised of
- the system which hosts the database server (DBHOST)
- the system which hosts the application server (APPHOST)
and the system which hosts the emulator webserver (EMUHOST)
and the Driver system which simulates the clients (DRVHOST).

Installation overview:
The systems should be installed in the following order:
A) DBHOST
B) EMUHOST
C) APPHOST
D) DRVHOST

A) DBHOST:
1. Install MySQL
2. Configure MySQL
3. Setup the databases

B) EMUHOST
1. Install JDK
2. Install Ant
3. Install Tomcat
4. Install JBoss and JBoss-SPECJ-Kit
5. Install SPECjAppServer2004
6. Configure the deployment
7. Build and deploy the application
8. Deploy the Emulator

C) APPHOST
1. Install JDK
2. Install Ant
3. Install SPECjAppServer2004
4. Install JBoss and JBoss-SPECJ-Kit
5. Configure the deployment
6. Load the databases
7. Build and deploy the application

D) DRVHOST
1. Install JDK
2. Install Ant
3. Install SPECjAppServer
4. Install JBoss and JBoss-SPECJ-Kit
5. Configure the deployment
6. Build and deploy the application
7. Configure the Driver

####################### Installation steps #######################
Please note: Each step of these installation instructions is required to get the benchmark up and running!

Installation
Installation | Host: DBHOST
Installation | Host: DBHOST | Task: MySQL
yum -y install wget yum -y install mysql mysql-server mysql-devel mkdir /opt/specj mkdir /opt/specj/database chown -r mysql /opt/specj/database

You have to change the default settings of MySQL in order to:
- enable TCP/IP connections (specify port and bind-address)
- enable transactions (use InnoDB instead of MyISAM)
- disable case sensitivity
- allow spaces between function names and the parenthesis

These settings need to be configured in the /etc/my.cnf file. Change the following settings according to your environment:
echo " [mysqld] datadir=/opt/specj/database socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock user=mysql # Default to using old password format for compatibility with mysql 3.x # clients (those using the mysqlclient10 compatibility package). old_passwords=1 ######################################### # IMPORTANT: bind-address=YOUR-SERVERS-IP-ADDRESS port=3306 ######################################### # lower_case_table_names=1 # MySQL is case-sensitive by default sql-mode=IGNORE_SPACE # Allow spaces between function names and the ( character innodb_data_home_dir = /opt/specj/database innodb_data_file_path=ibdata1:100M:autoextend # Set buffer pool size to 50-80% of your computer's memory innodb_buffer_pool_size=256M innodb_additional_mem_pool_size=20M # Set the log file size to about 25% of the buffer pool size innodb_log_file_size=64M innodb_log_buffer_size=8M innodb_log_group_home_dir=/opt/specj/database/ innodb_log_arch_dir=/opt/specj/database/ innodb_log_file_size=100M innodb_log_buffer_size=64M [mysqld_safe] log-error=/var/log/mysqld.log pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid lower_case_table_names=1 # MySQL is case-sensitive by default sql-mode=IGNORE_SPACE # Allow spaces between function names and the ( character " > /etc/my.cnf
Restart the mysql daemon:
/etc/init.d/mysqld restart

Set the mysql root password:
mysqladmin -u root password YOUR_PASSWORD

Create the database users and databases
mysql -h localhost -u root --password="YOUR_PASSWORD" --execute="GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'specj2004'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'specj2004' WITH GRANT OPTION; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'specj2004'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'specj2004' WITH GRANT OPTION; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'jbossjms'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'jbossjms' WITH GRANT OPTION; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'jbossjms'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'jbossjms' WITH GRANT OPTION; CREATE DATABASE specj2004; CREATE DATABASE jms;"

Download the JBoss-SPECj-Kit to your /tmp directory:
JBoss-SPECj-Kit (download the specj-kit-Oct01.tar.bz2)
Extract the archive and navigate to the directory database/mysql. Copy the file specj.sql to the /tmp directory:
cp specj.sql /tmp/create-specj-tables.sql
Use the editor of your choice (or sed) to replace all occurences of
ENGINE=MyISAM
in /tmp/create-specj-tables.sql with:
ENGINE=InnoDB

Load the sql file:
mysql -h localhost -u root --password="YOUR_PASSWORD" --database="specj2004" < /tmp/create-specj-tables.sql

The installation of the DBHOST is complete.

Installation | Host: EMUHOST
Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: Prepare machine
mkdir /opt/specj mkdir /opt/specj/jboss mkdir /opt/specj/SPECjAppServer mkdir /opt/specj/tomcat mkdir /opt/specj/jboss-specj-kit

Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: JDK

The first obstacle is that Fedora doesn’t ship with Sun’s JRE and/or JDK. It can’t be installed using yum. You have to download the JDK (*-rpm.bin) manually for your operating system’s architecture from Sun’s website: Download JDK
Download the JDK to the /tmp directory of your APPHOST, EMUHOST and DRVHOST and install it:
cd /tmp wget DOWNLOAD-URL-OF-SUN-JDK-RPM.bin
Execute the following commands to install the jdk:
# remove existing jdk and jre yum -y remove java yum -y remove jdk

cd /tmp # make it executable chmod 755 FILE-NAME-OF-SUN-JDK-RPM.bin
# uncomment/execute the following code if you want to perform a silent installation: # echo "yes" > jdkanswerfile.txt #./FILE-NAME-OF-SUN-JDK-RPM.bin < jdkanswerfile.txt &>/dev/null # shred --remove jdkanswerfile.txt

# otherwise just execute the bin file and follow the instructions. ./FILE-NAME-OF-SUN-JDK-RPM.bin
# set environment variables export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_13/ echo " export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_13/" >> /etc/profile

Make sure that Java is installed correctly:
java -version

Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: Ant
The next obstacle is ant. Don’t try to install the packages ant and ant-optional using yum. You need to download the ant binaries manually:

yum -y install xml-commons-apis # download ant: visit the ant site and choose another url if this one doesn't work for you wget http://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/mirrors/apache/ant/binaries/apache-ant-1.7.1-bin.tar.gz tar xfz apache-ant-1.7.1-bin.tar.gz mkdir /usr/share/ant cp -r -f apache-ant-1.7.1/* /usr/share/ant/ export ANT_HOME=/usr/share/ant/ export PATH=$PATH:$ANT_HOME/bin # Set environment variables export ANT_HOME=/usr/share/ant export PATH=$PATH:$ANT_HOME/bin echo " export ANT_HOME=/usr/share/ant export PATH=$PATH:$ANT_HOME/bin " >> /etc/profile

You’ll need Junit to install SPECjAppServer. Download the lastest junit jar from Download JUnit (Sourceforge) and rename it to junit.jar. Then, copy the jar into the ANT_HOME/lib directory:
cp junit.jar $ANT_HOME/lib/

Make sure that ant is installed correctly:
ant -version

Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: Tomcat
cd /tmp wget http://apache.mirror.clusters.cc/tomcat/tomcat-6/v6.0.18/bin/apache-tomcat-6.0.18.tar.gz tar xfz apache-tomcat-6.0.18.tar.gz cp -r -f apache-tomcat-6.0.18/* /opt/specj/tomcat/ export CATALINA_HOME=/opt/specj/tomcat echo " export CATALINA_HOME=/opt/specj/tomcat " >> /etc/profile

Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: JBoss
Download the JBoss 4.0.5 binaries from Sourceforge to the /tmp directory of your machine:
cd /tmp wget http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=22866&filename=jboss-4.0.5.GA.zip&a=85732289
Unzip and move its content to /opt/specj/jboss/:
unzip jboss-4.0.5.GA.zip mv /tmp/jboss-4.0.5.GA/* /opt/specj/jboss/

Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: SPECjAppServer2004
In order to install SPECjAppServer2004 copy the SPECJAPPSERVER2004-ZIP-FILE to the /tmp directory of your machines and unzip it (don’t run the SPECjAppServer2004 installer).
cd /tmp unzip SPECJAPPSERVER-ZIP-FILE.zip cp -rf /tmp/SPECJAPPSERVER-UNZIPPED-DIRECTORY/* /opt/specj/SPECjAppServer/

Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: JBoss-SPECJ-Kit
Download the JBoss-SPECj-Kit to your /tmp directory:
JBoss-SPECj-Kit (download the specj-kit-Oct01.tar.bz2)

Unpack the archive and copy its content to /opt/specj/jboss-specj-kit:
cp -rf /tmp/UNPACKED-JBOSS-SPEC-KIT/* /opt/specj/jboss-specj-kit

Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: Configure the deployment
You have to modify the following files according to your environment:
/opt/specj/jboss-specj-kit/jboss-MySQL-run.properties
/opt/specj/SPECjAppServer/config/default.env
/opt/specj/SPECjAppServer/bin/setenv.sh

This is the content of my /opt/specj/jboss-specj-kit/jboss-MySQL-run.properties which may serve as an example for your configuration:
#------------------------ #SPECJ distribution home #------------------------ JAS_HOME=../SPECjAppServer #---------------------- #Driver configuration #---------------------- TXRATE=5 OUTDIR=../output DUMPDIR=/tmp TRIGGERTIME=30 RAMPUPTIME=600 STDYSTATETIME=3600 RAMPDOWNTIME=300 # Number of dealerEntry threads to start. NUMDEALERENTRY=2 DOAUDIT=1 DRIVER_JAVA_PARAMETERS=-Xmx512m -Dsun.net.inetaddr.ttl=0 -Dnetworkaddress.cache.ttl=0 -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true #---------------------- #This value determines the number of threads #used for loaddb. #---------------------- THREADS=8 #---------------------- #SUT configuration #---------------------- JBOSS_HOME=../jboss JBOSS_URL=http://192.168.0.71:8080 APPLICATION_HOST=192.168.0.71 APPLICATION_PORT=8080 server-name=SPECjAppServer POOLED_INVOKER_SOCKET_TIMEOUT=300000 POOLED_INVOKER_CLIENT_MAXPOOL=600 POOLED_INVOKER_MAXPOOL=600 SERIALIZATION_TYPE=jboss SERIALIZATION_SOCKET_TIMEOUT=3600000 SERIALIZATION_CLIENT_MAXPOOL=5000 SERIALIZATION_MAXPOOL=5000 TOMCAT_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT=300000 TOMCAT_MAXTHREADS=2000 FIRSTREADTIMEOUT=-1 POLLTIME=2000 POLLERSIZE=5000 #----------------------- #EMULATOR configuration #----------------------- JBOSS_EMULATOR_HOME=../jboss JBOSS_EMULATOR_HOST=192.168.0.72 JBOSS_EMULATOR_PORT=8080 JBOSS_EMULATOR_SERVER_NAME=Emulator #------------------------- #DATASOURCES configuration #------------------------- #The JDBC mapping used into JBoss-CMP JDBC_DATASOURCE_MAPPING=mySQL server-database=mysql #Pool size JDBC_DATASOURCE_NAME_RC.MIN=80 JDBC_DATASOURCE_NAME_RC.MAX=80 #specj database JDBC_URL=jdbc:mysql://192.168.0.70:3306/specj2004 JDBC_DRIVER=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver JDBC_USER=specj2004 JDBC_PASSWORD=specj2004 #jms database JMS_JDBC_URL=jdbc:mysql://192.168.0.70:3306/jms JMS_JDBC_DRIVER=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver JMS_JDBC_USER=jbossjms JMS_JDBC_PASSWORD=jbossjms JMS_JDBC_DATASOURCE_NAME=SpecjJMSDS #The datasource that will be deployed, after applied changes for JDBC_URL, JDBC_DRIVER and JDBC_USER JDBC_DATASOURCE_NAME_RC=SpecjDS_RC JDBC_DATASOURCE_NAME_RR=SpecjDS_RC


This is the content of my /opt/specj/SPECjAppServer/config/default which may serve as an example for your configuration:

JAS_HOME=/opt/specj/SPECjAppServer

JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_13/jre

J2EE_HOME=/opt/specj/jboss

JAVAX_JAR=/opt/specj/jboss/client/jboss-j2ee.jar

FS=:

BINDWAIT=3

CLASSPATH=${J2EE_HOME}/lib/j2ee.jar${FS}${JAS_HOME}/jars/corp.jar${FS}${JAS_HOME}/jars/mfg.jar${FS}${JAS_HOME}/jars/orders.jar${FS}${JAS_HOME}/jars/supplier.jar${FS}${JAS_HOME}/jars/util.jar${FS}${J2EE_HOME}/lib/otherAppServerJars.jar${FS}${J2EE_HOME}/properties${FS}

JDBC_CLASSPATH=

JAS_HOST=192.168.0.71

JAS_PORT=8080

JAS_PREFIX=/

EMULATOR_HOST=192.168.0.72

EMULATOR_PORT=8080

EMULATOR_PREFIX=/

NAMING_PROVIDER=

JNDI_CLASS=

JVM_OPTIONS=

JAVA="${JAVA_HOME}/bin/java ${JVM_OPTIONS} -Dorg.omg.CORBA.ORBInitialHost=${JAS_HOST} -Djava.naming.factory.initial=${JNDI_CLASS} -Djava.naming.provider.url=${NAMING_PROVIDER}"

JVM_LOADOPTIONS=

JAVA_LOADER="${JAVA_HOME}/bin/java ${JVM_LOADOPTIONS} 
This is the content of my /opt/specj/SPECjAppServer/bin/setenv.sh which may serve as an example for your configuration:

JAS_HOME=/opt/specj/SPECjAppServer

JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_13/jre

J2EE_HOME=/opt/specj/jboss

CONFIG_DIR=${JAS_HOME}/config

APPSSERVER=default

ENVFILE=${CONFIG_DIR}/${APPSSERVER}.env

echo The following environment settings are in effect:

echo \* ========================= \*

echo    JAVA_HOME=${JAVA_HOME}

echo     JAS_HOME=${JAS_HOME}

echo   CONFIG_DIR=${CONFIG_DIR}

echo   APPSSERVER=${APPSSERVER}

echo \* ========================= \*


Copy the tools.jar to the lib directory of jboss/server/all/lib (otherwise jboss will fail to compile some classes):

cp /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_13/lib/tools.jar /opt/specj/jboss/server/all/lib/
Copy the reference deployment config files to the deploy/jboss directory:

cp -r  /opt/specj/SPECjAppServer/src/deploy/reference/* /opt/specj/SPECjAppServer/src/deploy/jboss/
Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: Build and deploy the application

This steps will take some minutes. Execute each command separately!

cd /opt/specj/jboss-specj-kit

ant clean

ant

ant run-tests


After you've executed the above ant tasks you'll have to change the jndi datasource in the login-config.xml:

sed -i 's/DefaultDS/SpecjJMSDS/g' /opt/specj/jboss/server/SPECjAppServer/conf/login-config.xml
Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: Deploy the war-File

Copy the generated emulator war file to the webapps directory:

cp /opt/specj/SPECjAppServer/jars/emulator.war /opt/specj/tomcat/webapps/Emulator.war

Please note the different war-filenames!
Start Tomcat:

sh /opt/specj/tomcat/bin/startup.sh
Open the following URL in your Browser to check if the EmulatorServlet is up:

http://YOUR-SERVERS-IP-ADDRESS:8080/Emulator/EmulatorServlet

The Servlet should produce something like this:



Emulator Servlet seems to work OK

JAS_HOST : YOUR-SERVERS-HOSTNAME

JAS_PORT : 8080

Servlet URL : Supplier/DeliveryServlet

Number of Transactions : 0

Servlet invoked without command specified


The installation of the emulator host is complete.
Installation | Host: APPHOST

Installation | Host: APPHOST | Task: Prepare machine

mkdir /opt/specj

mkdir /opt/specj/jboss

mkdir /opt/specj/SPECjAppServer

mkdir /opt/specj/jboss-specj-kit
Installation | Host: APPHOST | Task: JDK

→ see "Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: JDK"
Installation | Host: APPHOST | Task: Ant

→ see "Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: Ant"
Installation | Host: APPHOST | Task: JBoss

→ see "Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: JBoss"
Installation | Host: APPHOST | Task: SPECjAppServer2004

→ see "Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: SPECjAppServer2004"
Installation | Host: APPHOST | Task: JBoss-SPECJ-Kit

→ see "Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: JBoss-SPECJ-Kit"
Installation | Host: APPHOST | Task: Configure the deployment

→ see "Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: Configure the deployment"
Installation | Host: APPHOST | Task: Build and deploy the application

This steps will take some minutes. Execute each command separately!

cd /opt/specj/jboss-specj-kit

ant clean

Execute this target only once and only on the APPHOST. The mysql server on the DBHOST must be running.

ant -DSCALE=5 loaddb

Important: the DSCALE argument is crucial to the setup, since it defines the so called "injection rate" at which the SPECjAppServer2004 benchmark will run. A injection rate of 5 as specified in the statement above is only intended for debugging. 

Read more about the injection rate here: http://www.spec.org/jAppServer2004/docs/RunRules.html#Scaling_Benchmark
You should see something like the following output:

 [java] STARTING loading of tables in the Corp domain...

     [java]     Launching 6   threads to execute LoadCorp.loadCustomers() concurrently

     [java]             Starting thread: Thread[CustomerThread-0,5,main]  For range 1 - 6250

     [java]             Starting thread: Thread[CustomerThread-1,5,main]  For range 6251 - 12500

     [java]             Starting thread: Thread[CustomerThread-2,5,main]  For range 12501 - 18750

     [java]             Starting thread: Thread[CustomerThread-3,5,main]  For range 18751 - 25000

     [java]             Starting thread: Thread[CustomerThread-4,5,main]  For range 25001 - 31250

     [java]             Starting thread: Thread[CustomerThread-5,5,main]  For range 31251 - 37500

     [java]     Launching 5   threads to execute LoadCorp.loadParts() concurrently

...

After the database has been loaded build the application:



ant

ant run-tests


After you've executed the above ant tasks in order to load the db and build the application you'll have to change the jndi datasource in the login-config.xml:

sed -i 's/DefaultDS/SpecjJMSDS/g' /opt/specj/jboss/server/SPECjAppServer/conf/login-config.xml
Open the following URL in your Browser to check if the SPECJAPPSERVER Application is up:

http://YOUR-SERVERS-IP-ADDRESS:8080/SPECjAppServer/

Click on "Atomicity Tests" on the left side and wait for the results to be presented in the right frame.

If one of the tests fails try to find out why and fix the problems until all three tests passes without errors.
The installation of the APPHOST is complete.
Installation | Host: DRVHOST

Installation | Host: DRVHOST | Task: JDK

→ see "Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: JDK"
Installation | Host: DRVHOST | Task: Ant

→ see "Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: Ant"
Installation | Host: DRVHOST | Task: JBoss

→ see "Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: JBoss"
Installation | Host: DRVHOST | Task: SPECjAppServer2004

→ see "Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: SPECjAppServer2004"
Installation | Host: DRVHOST | Task: JBoss-SPECJ-Kit

→ see "Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: JBoss-SPECJ-Kit"
Installation | Host: DRVHOST | Task: Configure the deployment

→ see "Installation | Host: EMUHOST | Task: Configure the deployment"
Installation | Host: DRVHOST | Task: Build and deploy the application

This steps will take some minutes. Execute each command separately!

cd /opt/specj/jboss-specj-kit

ant clean

ant

ant run-tests


After you've executed the above ant tasks in order to load the db and build the application you'll have to change the jndi datasource in the login-config.xml:

sed -i 's/DefaultDS/SpecjJMSDS/g' /opt/specj/jboss/server/SPECjAppServer/conf/login-config.xml
Installation | Host: DRVHOST | Task: Configure the Driver

The driver.sh script uses nawk to set/determine JAVA_HOME. This causes problems because nawk is not available for Fedora as far as I know.

Open the file /opt/SPECjAppServer/bin/driver.sh in your favorite editor and look for the line

JAVA_HOME=`nawk -F"=" '{ if ($1 == "JAVA_HOME") { print $2 }}' ${ENVFILE}`

replace it with:

JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_13/jre
Important: Open the file /opt/SPECjAppServer/config/run.properties in your favorite editor and look for a line containing the researchMode property. If the line is missing or commented out add:

researchMode=false
The installation of the DRVHOST is complete.
####################### Running the benchmark #######################
Running the benchmark

You have to start the SPECjAppServer components in the following order (assuming that the mysql daemon is already running on the DBHOST):

1. Emulator

2. JBoss/SPECjAppServer

3. Driver
Running the benchmark | Host: EMUHOST | Task: start Tomcat

Start tomcat (in case it is not yet running):

sh /opt/specj/tomcat/bin/startup.sh
Running the benchmark | Host: APPHOST | Task: start JBoss

Start JBoss on the APPHOST using the following arguments (this will take some time):

cd /opt/specj/jboss/bin

./run.sh -c SERVER-NAME-PROPERTY_OF_SPECJAPPSERVER -b APPHOST-IP-ADDRESS

The SERVER-NAME-PROPERTY_OF_SPECJAPPSERVER is specified in the /opt/specj/jboss-specj-kit/jboss-MySQL-run.properties file. Look for the property "server-name".
Running the benchmark | Host: DRVHOST | Task: run the driver

Start the driver script on the DRVHOST:

cd /opt/specj/SPECjAppServer/bin

./driver.sh


####################### Troubleshooting #######################
Problems you might encounter:
Problem: you receive error messages during the startup of the main SPECjAppServer application (JBOSS), Emulator or Driver

Solutions: 
Check the logs in /opt/specj/jboss/server/name-of-your-jas-server/log/server.log for warnings (WARN) or errors (ERROR). Solve these problems. 
Double check that the config files (i. e. default.env, run.properties, jboss-MySQL-run.properties) do not contain spaces after variable values (especially "server-name" and "JBOSS_EMULATOR_SERVER_NAME")!

Problem: JBoss fails to compile the Servlets/JSPs (Jasper Exceptions)

Solution: Copy the tools.jar from the JAVA_HOME/lib directory to the /opt/specj/jboss/server/all/lib directory and restart the application
Problem: SPECjAppServer produces Exceptions related to MDB security (not authenticated TestQueue, BuyerMDB, etc.)

Solution: The datasource configuration is incorrect. Set the correct value:

sed -i 's/DefaultDS/SpecjJMSDS/g' /opt/specj/jboss/server/SPECjAppServer/conf/login-config.xml
Problem: the loaddb target doesn't use the specified injection rate.

Solutions: the DSCALE-argument is case-sensitive. The correct command looks like this: ant -DSCALE=12 loaddb
Problem: Atomicity-tests fail.

Solution: Use the INNODB engine instead of the MyISAM engine. For details see above.
Problem: The driver prints the following stack trace:

Output directory for this run is : ../output/2

Exception in thread "main" java.rmi.RemoteException: Failure in calling validateInitialValues() java.rmi.RemoteException: Invalid initial Order DB State

        at org.spec.jappserver.driver.Auditor.validateInitialValues(Auditor.java:205)

        at org.spec.jappserver.driver.Driver.configure(Driver.java:337)

        at org.spec.jappserver.driver.Driver.(Driver.java:163)

        at org.spec.jappserver.driver.Driver.main(Driver.java:1150)

Calling getLog as master



Solution: It is likely that the database either isn't loaded (correctly) or isn't reachable at all. Make sure that the atomicity tests don't fail. Check every configuration file on DRVHOST in /opt/specj/SPECjAppServer/config/ and make sure that the IP address and credentials of the various databases are set to the correct values.
Problem: The driver throws ClassNotFoundExceptions

Solution: It is likely that you haven't built the SPECjAppServer Application correctly on the DRVHOST. You have to build and deploy the application as described above.
Problem: The driver throws NullPointerExceptions:

sleeptime is 22841 note this is time in excess needed for trigger

Starting Ramp Up...

Exception in thread "Thread-1" Exception in thread "Thread-1" java.lang.NullPointerException

java.lang.NullPointerException  at org.spec.jappserver.driver.DealerEntry.doPurchase(DealerEntry.java:441)

        at org.spec.jappserver.driver.DealerEntry.run(DealerEntry.java:245)

        at org.spec.jappserver.driver.DealerEntry.doPurchase(DealerEntry.java:441)

        at org.spec.jappserver.driver.DealerEntry.run(DealerEntry.java:245)

Exception in thread "Thread-3" java.lang.NullPointerException

Solution: the Property researchMode in DRVHOST/$JAS_HOME/config/run.properties is not set correctly. Set it to false. If it is missing add the line: researchMode=false and restart the driver.
Problem: The driver throws UnknownHostExceptions:

Error: Connection: UnknownHostException: 192.168.0.71

Error: Connection: UnknownHostException: 192.168.0.71

Error: Connection: UnknownHostException: 192.168.0.71



Solution: There are several possible solutions to this problem:
1. The Property researchMode in DRVHOST/$JAS_HOME/config/run.properties might not be set correctly. Set it to false. If it is missing add the line: researchMode=false and restart the driver.

2. It is likely that SPECjAppServer has opened too many connections:
Check the standard output of jboss on the APPHOST for errors. If it says "Too many connections" you need to increase the value of the mysql property "max_connections" in the /etc/my.cnf and restart everything (mysqld, jboss, driver, emulator)
If the DRVHOST or the APPHOST complain about too many connections or too many open files, set the limits to higher values.

Important: it is crucial to set these "limits" on all your machines! You have to restart your SSH sessions afterwards in order to apply the limits!

ulimit -n 999999

ulimit -Hn 999999

echo "

ulimit -Hn 999999

ulimit -n 999999

" >> /etc/profile



3. If this doesn't solve your problem uncomment the line

# rmiCommand = /usr/java/bin/rmiregistry

in DRVHOST/$JAS_HOME/config/run.properties and set the path to the correct (existing!) value and restart the driver.



4. It seems that the driver has a problem resolving the IP-address if the APPHOST is on another network (e.g. DRVHOST = 192.168.0.74, APPHOST = 125.167.0.71).

If this is the case, specify the APPHOST's IP-address (instead of the hostname) in DRVHOST/$JAS_HOME/config/run.properties:

# Url is the url of the SPECjAppServer2004 web application.

Url=http://APPHOST-IP-ADDRESS-GOES-HERE/SPECjAppServer/app?

Restart the driver.


Problem: the driver throws ConnectExceptions:Error: Connection: IOException: java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out

Solutions: As far as I have experienced these Exceptions may occure during a testrun and don't need to be fixed.
Problem: The driver hangs during startup after printing:Apps server is jboss

Driver Host: 122.123.124.125



What's wrong?

It is most likely that there is a problem with the name resolution. Java's handling of reverse lookups and dns caching in general is discussed very controversely in various mailing-lists. AFAIK the Driver executes the class "ControllerImpl" where the following code InetAddress.getLocalHost()).getHostName() makes a reverse dns lookup for the command `uname -n` (which returns the machine's hostname).

This will lead to problems, if:
the hostname doesn't resolve to a valid hostname or IP-address or if
the hostname actually does resolve to a valid hostname or valid IP-address but the JVM or OS have cached a former dns query which didn't resolve to a valid name in the past.
This might lead to problems, if:
the resolved hostname resolves to a IP-address from another subnet.

Solutions: there are several possible solutions:

1. Make sure that your dns is working correctly.

2. If you know that it is not working as it should and/or if you don't have control over it, just disable the dns for the DRVHOST: Comment out all nameservers listed in /etc/resolv.conf and restart the driver. Warning: Be aware of the negative side-effects! Web browing for instance doesn't work since web addresses can't be resolved any more! But for the duration of the test run, disabling the nameservers is a workaround. 
And don't waste your time playing around with the commandline properties -Dsun.net.inetaddr.ttl=0 and -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true!


Problem: The driver hangs during startup after printing:Calling switchLog as master

RunID for this run is : 1

Output directory for this run is : ../output/1



Solutions:

1. This is likely to be a firewall issue which prevents the driver from connecting to RMI ports. Open all ports on your firewall.

2. There could be an error in your database configuration. Please check if the usernames and passwords in the jboss-MySQL-run.properties are specified correctly.

3. The driver just seems to hang. Depending on your injection rate the driver spends quite a lot of time on initializing the database connections before starting the Dealer Threads. Wait some minutes and check the cpuload on the DBHOST.
Problem: you receive error messages like

WARN  [com.arjuna.ats.jta.logging.loggerI18N] [com.arjuna.ats.internal.jta.resources.arjunacore.norecoveryxa] [com.arjuna.ats.internal.jta.resources.arjunacore.norecoveryxa] Could not find new XAResource to use for recovering non-serializable XAResource

Solutions: to be added
Important related websites:

http://www.jboss.org/community/wiki/SPECjAppServer2004Setup

SPECjAppServer2004 UserGuide

http://cwiki.apache.org/GMOxDOC11/specjappserver2004.html

http://www.jboss.org/community/wiki/WhydoIgetCouldnotfindnewXAResourcetouseforrecoveringnon-serializableXAResource;jsessionid=549958262B1F9E02E3A506E01E790AE2

https://jira.jboss.org/jira/browse/JBBENCH-21
################# Running SPECjAppServer ################# 
Start with a very low transaction rate (i.e. 5). If the benchmark ran successfully, steadily increase the rate (10,25,100,200,...) until the system under test gets overloaded. After each test run, study the results (especially Dealer.summary) in the output folder. If the system was overloaded during a test run, the qos requirements will fail and the system may become unresponsive. In order to determine the maximum transaction rate that can be used by the driver have a look at the Dealer.summary file. The dealer transaction rate in this file usually is a good indicator for the maximum transaction rate that may be used by the driver without overloading the SUT. However, this approximation only works, if the system was overloaded or at least under heavy load before.
####################### Feedback #######################
Feedback/Contact:

If you have any questions or just want to send me some feedback please feel free to contact me:   mail[at]thecloud.e4ward.com



How to install apache ant on Fedora 8
fastcloud — Thu, 14 May 2009 07:34:51 +0000
If you just want to run ant, install it using yum:
yum install ant
But if you need to execute the optional ant tasks like scp, junit, etc. you need to “install” ant manually. Please make sure that a java runtime is installed and the variable JAVA_HOME points to the root directory of the java installation.
Save this script as “install-ant.sh” and execute it as root:

yum install wget

cd /tmp

wget http://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/mirrors/apache/ant/binaries/apache-ant-1.7.1-bin.tar.gz

tar xfz apache-ant-1.7.1-bin.tar.gz

mkdir /usr/share/ant

cp -r -f apache-ant-1.7.1/* /usr/share/ant/

export ANT_HOME=/usr/share/ant/

export PATH=$PATH:$ANT_HOME/bin

echo"

export ANT_HOME=/usr/share/ant

export PATH=$PATH:$ANT_HOME/bin:$JDK_HOME/bin

" >> /etc/profile

echo "apache ant has been installed."

exit;
If the script fails to download the tarball visit http://ant.apache.org/bindownload.cgi , coose another mirror and replace the url in the script above.

         


Centreon reporting module shows states as “undetermined”
fastcloud — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:34:28 +0000
Problem: 

The hosts and services are correctly monitored in the “Monitoring” module but in the “Reporting” module all states are shown as undetermined.

Solution: 

To get straight to the point: it is most likely, that a single setting is not configured correctly in the ndomod.cfg:

In the Centreon 2.0 webinterface go to

Configuration > Centreon > ndomod.cfg > Poller Prinzipal (or however it is named)

Now have a look at “Data processing options”. If it is set to “-1” nothing will be written to the database. In order to get it working you need to enter the correct value. Use “67108863” if “everything” should be written to the database. The German company Consol offers a free online calculator for the data_processing_options-setting.

If changing this value doesn’t fix your problem you need to check that your installation meets the following requirements:

1. Nagios is installed (preferably built from source!)

2. NDOUtils is installed

3. The NDO/Nagios database has been created and is accessible by the nagios db user

4. The NDO-daemon (ndo2db) is running

5. The settings for database name, db user, db password, log files, socket, buffer files, etc. are configured correctly in all configuration files (i. e. the values are equal)

         


How to remove line breaks/new lines in files using “tr”
fastcloud — Sun, 10 May 2009 22:56:38 +0000
A google search for “remove line breaks linux” returns 637000 results. I’ve tried at least ten approaches using sed, tr and awk in different combinations.

However, on my Fedora 8 machine only the following command works (in bash scripts):

cat oldfile | tr -d '\n ' > newfile

         


mysql -h localhost -u root -p myrootpassword produces “access denied” (or similar) errors
fastcloud — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:22:19 +0000
If the following command doesn’t work for you

mysql -h localhost -u root -p myrootpassword 

and produces errors like:

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' 

or

ERROR 1049 (42000): Unknown database 'myrootpassword '

try the following command:

mysql -h localhost -u root -p Note: NO password is passed to the -p parameter!

You’ll be prompted for your password -> Enter it. 
You could also try:

mysql -h localhost -u root --password="myrootpassword"
How to execute sql-script with the mysql console?

If you want to execute a *.sql-file you might try the following command:

mysql -h localhost -u root --password="myrootpassword" --database="mydb" < /path/to/my/sqlfile.sql  -- Note: single line!   

         


eclipse-plugin for editing bash scripts
fastcloud — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:47:49 +0000
There is a nice eclipse-plugin called ShellEd  for editing bash scripts. The most important functionality is syntax highlighting.

Download from SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/shelled

         


create and format ntfs partitions without using windows tools -> use Knoppix
fastcloud — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:50:43 +0000
WARNING: this may damage your computer and waste your data! Do not follow these instructions unless you’re a computer expert and have recently made a backup of your data! I cannot be made responsible for any damages!
If you cannot or do not want to use the windows cd for creating and formatting ntfs partitions you can also use a Knoppix live cd:

Download and burn the ISO-image to a cd and boot your computer with it.

Wait until the Knoppix desktop has loaded:

If you just need to format an existing partition, use qtparted. Click on “Root-Shell” (in one of the menus in the taskbar) and type:

qtparted and format the desired partition.
If you also need to create/delete a ntfs partition before formatting it, use gparted. Open a root shell (see above) and type:

gparted

After creating the partition with gparted accept/apply the changes and start qtparted to format the partition.