Install Raspbmc media center on RaspberryPi

[caption id="attachment_719" align="aligncenter" width="225"] RASPBMC[/caption]

Raspbmc  media center for the Raspberry Pi and is based on Raspbian and XBMC.

All credits go to Sam Nazarko, Thanks for excellent media center, works perfectly.

Reference: http://www.raspbmc.com/,

Install raspbmc on SDcard from MAC OSX / Linux / Windows ,

Download the raspbmc, change permission and execute. Make sure that you select the correct disk ( verify the info from disk utilities in MAC OS X)

$ curl -O http://svn.stmlabs.com/svn/raspbmc/testing/installers/python/install.py
$ chmod u+x install.py
$ sudo python install.py 
Raspbmc installer for Linux and OS X
http://raspbmc.com
----------------------------------------
Please ensure you've inserted your SD card, and press Enter to continue.
Enter the 'IDENTIFIER' of the device you would like imaged:
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *120.0 GB   disk0
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk1
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *118.7 GB   disk2
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *17.4 MB    disk3
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *15.9 GB    disk4
Enter your choice here (e.g. 'disk1', 'disk2'): disk4
It is your own responsibility to ensure there is no data loss! Please backup your system before imaging
You should also ensure you agree with the Raspbmc License Agreeement
Are you sure you want to install Raspbmc to '/dev/disk4' and accept the license agreement? [y/N] y
Downloading, please be patient...
Downloaded 16.35 of 16.35 MiB (100.00%)
Unmounting all partitions...
Unmount of all volumes on disk4 was successful
Please wait while Raspbmc is installed to your SD card...
This may take some time and no progress will be reported until it has finished.
0+1173 records in
0+1173 records out
76800000 bytes transferred in 14.809589 secs (5185829 bytes/sec)
Installation complete.
Would you like to setup your post-installation settings [ADVANCED]? [y/N]N

• Once the installation is completed, eject it from the system.


• Insert the sdcard to RaspberryPi.


• Connect the RaspberryPi using Ethernet cable, continue with the post installation steps.

Create NAS/SAN storage with openfiler, work with VMware ESXi as sharedstorage

- Download the openfiler installation ISO , download link

I have downloaded the Installation ISO image (x86/64).

Basically we need to create open filer as a virtual machine with say 20 GB thin provisioning, and attach another disk/datastore to the virtual machine to configure it as SAN.

- Download and install  the Installation ISO image (x86/64) as a virtual machine, noting fancy here just do a normal installation.

- Once rebooted you get a web interface to login on port 446, https://< ip > :446/

- Login with username: openfiler, and password: password

Network access configuration:

set up network access configuration, enter the Network/Host , who are allowed to access.

System --> Network Access Configuration

[caption id="attachment_683" align="alignnone" width="300"] Network Access Config[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_682" align="alignnone" width="300"] Network Access Config[/caption]

Create a new physical volume

Volumes --> Block devices

[caption id="attachment_684" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create Physical Volume[/caption]

Click on Edit devices on the hard disk where we going to create new physical volume, this is the extra hard drive we added to the virtual machine at the beginning. (/dev/sdb)



[caption id="attachment_685" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create Physical Volume[/caption]

Select Physical volume as your partition type ( assuming that you are not using RAID), and set the mode to Primary, click create.

[caption id="attachment_686" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create Physical Volume[/caption]

Create new Volume Group

Let us create a volume group for the physical volumes

Volumes --> Volume groups , enter a group name and select the physical drive and click Add volume

[caption id="attachment_687" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create volume group[/caption]



[caption id="attachment_688" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create volume group[/caption]

Create the Volume

Volume --> Add Volume

Enter Volume Name , Description, required space and select File System block.

[caption id="attachment_689" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create Volume[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_690" align="alignnone" width="300"] Create Volume[/caption]

Now Enable and Add  iSCSI Target

Services --> iSCSI Target Enable, Start

[caption id="attachment_691" align="alignnone" width="300"] Start iSCSI target[/caption]

Volumes --> iSCSI Targets --> Target Configuration --> Add new iSCSI Target

[caption id="attachment_703" align="alignnone" width="300"] Add new iSCSI target[/caption]

Setup the LUN Mapping and allow access to iSCSI target

[caption id="attachment_704" align="alignnone" width="300"] Setup LUN Mapping[/caption]



[caption id="attachment_705" align="alignnone" width="300"] Allow access to iSCSI target[/caption]

Now the open filer is ready to use.

In VMware ESXi

Create new VMKernel network adapter to use for iSCSI connection

[caption id="attachment_706" align="alignnone" width="300"] VMKernel Adapter[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_707" align="alignnone" width="300"] VMKernel Adapter[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_709" align="alignnone" width="300"] VMKernel Adapter[/caption]

Click on storage adapter --> Add new

[caption id="attachment_710" align="alignnone" width="300"] Add storage adapter[/caption]

Click on properties, add the VMkernel switch and the discover the iSCSI target.

[caption id="attachment_711" align="alignnone" width="256"] Add VMKernel to iSCSI adapter[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_712" align="alignnone" width="256"] Dynamic discovery[/caption]

Now your ESXi will show the openfiler as a datastore :)

[caption id="attachment_713" align="alignnone" width="300"] Openfiler datastore[/caption]

More information about Openfiler:

http://www.openfiler.com/products

Configure static IP on Raspberry Pi

Some access points does not deliver DHCP to the raspberrypi. You could assign the IP statically as follows:

Edit the /etc/network/interfaces file

Comment out the following lines.

> #allow-hotplug wlan0
> #wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
> #iface eth0 inet manual

Add following configs.

auto lo 
iface eth0 inet dhcp
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
address x.x.x.x
netmask x.x.x.x
gateway x.x.x.x
pre-up wpa_supplicant -Dwext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -B

Re-enable the interface.

ifdown wlan0
ifup wlan0

Configure the name server if required.

/etc/resolv.conf
nameserver x.x.x.x

Upgrade, Restore Drupal 7

Shell script to upgrade and restore Drupal 7 website
This script will take care of the necessary actions required for upgrading drupal to higher versions.

USAGE

• Copy the script to your webserver.


• Edit the script and change the variables to match with your setup


• Give execute privilege to the owner of the script (chmod u+x upgrade-restore-drupal7.sh)


• Execute the script ./upgrade-restore-drupal7.sh

UPGRADE

$ ./upgrade-restore-drupal7.sh 
 Please enter your choice:
 1. Update drupal
 2. Restore an old installation from backup
 3. Exit
1
Please enter the new drupal version (eg: 7.15) : 7.18
Downloading drupal-7.18
Downloaded the the drupal version drupal-7.18
Current site backup is created: /home/foo/backups/08-01-2013-0938
Database backup created: /home/foo/backups/08-01-2013-0938.sql
Site is in maintanence mode now
Removed all drupal core files from destination
Copied the new version contents
Drupal updated to drupal-7.18
Site is active again, but please update your database, 

please visit http://<yourwebsite>/update.php   

to finalize the process 

RESTORE

$ ./upgrade-restore-drupal7.sh 
 Please enter your choice:
 1. Update drupal
 2. Restore an old installation from backup
 3. Exit
2
List of available backups
08-01-2013-0753
08-01-2013-0758
08-01-2013-0804
08-01-2013-0841
08-01-2013-0849
08-01-2013-0858
08-01-2013-0900
08-01-2013-0904
08-01-2013-0905
08-01-2013-0938
Please enter the backup file name to restore: (eg: 08-01-2013-0753): 
08-01-2013-0905
Site is offline now
Removed production files
Restored the filesystem backup 
Restored the database
Site is restored

View on github

Upgrading Linux Mint 13 (maya) to Linux Mint 14 (nadia).

Take a backup of the current sources.list, preferably make a full backup of the system.

Edit the sources.list file,
replace the occurrences of maya with nadia and precise with quantal.

$ vi /etc/sources.list

:%s/maya/nadia/g
:%s/precise/quantal/g

Resulting file may look like.

deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ nadia main upstream import
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ quantal partner
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ quantal free non-free

Update the system

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

SAN and Tape backup with bacula

Install and configure bacula for SAN and Tape backup

There is already an excellent document about bacula installation and configurations at bacula website. This article is one way of getting SAN and Tape backup working together with single bacula director installation. It assumes that you already have installed and mounted the SAN and configured the tape device.

This configuration aim at:

• Incremental daily for 20 days


• Differential weekly for 3 months


• Monthly full for 6 months


• Eject the tape to mailslot after the back and notify admin etc.

customise it based on your requirements.

The configurations are tested with HP MSL 2024 Tape library and MSA SAN array.

Bacula server setup

The configurare are done on Redhat Enterprise linux, likely similar for other Linux distros.

• Create a user for backup

# useradd -d /home/backup backup

• Install bacula server and create the database and database users : ref: http://www.bacula.org/5.2.x-manuals/en/main/main/Installing_Bacula.html for installation instructions.


• Create the necessary directories:

# su - backup
$ mkdir -p /home/backup/bacula/var/lock/subsys
$ mkdir /home/backup/bacula/var/run/

• Configure the director (bacula-dir.conf)

$ cat ~/bacula-dir.conf

# Define the director, common for SAN and Tape
Director { # define myself
Name = {hostname}-dir # use your hostname
DIRport = 9101 # where we listen for UA connections
QueryFile = "/home/backup/bacula/script/query.sql"
WorkingDirectory = "/home/backup/bacula/wdir"
PidDirectory = "/home/backup/bacula/var/run"
Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 3
Password = "{console_password} # Console password
Messages = Daemon
}

# List of files to be backed up to SAN
FileSet {
 Name = "File Set"
 Include {
 Options {
 signature = MD5
 }
 File = /
 }

 Exclude {
 File = /proc
 File = /tmp
 File = /.journal
 File = /.fsck
 }
}

# List of files to be backed up to tape
FileSet {
 Name = "tape Set"
 Include {
 Options {
 signature = MD5
 }
 File = /
 }

 Exclude {
 File = /proc
 File = /tmp
 File = /.journal
 File = /.fsck
 }
}

# Schedule for SAN backup
Schedule {
 Name = "WeeklyCycle"
 Run = Full 1st sun at 01:00
 Run = Differential 2nd-5th sun at 01:00
 Run = Incremental mon-sat at 01:00
}

# Schedule for tape backup
Schedule {
 Name = "TapeWeeklyFull"
 Run = Level=Full 1st sun at 03:00
}

# Definition of file storage (SAN)
Storage {
 Name = File
# Do not use "localhost" here
 Address = {FQDN} # N.B. Use a fully qualified name here
 SDPort = 9103
 Password = "{sdpassword}"
 Device = FileStorage
 Media Type = File
}

# Define storage (Tape)
Storage {
 Name = msl2024
 Address = {director-address}
 SDPort = 9103
 Password = "{director-password}"
 Device = MSL2024
 Media Type = LTO-4
 Autochanger = yes
 Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 3
}

# Generic catalog service
Catalog {
 Name = MyCatalog
 dbname = "dbname"; dbuser = "dbuser"; dbpassword = "dbpass"
}

# Tape catalog
Job {
 Name = "TapeBackupCatalog"
 JobDefs = "{dir-host-name}-tape"
 Level = Full
 FileSet="Catalog"
 Schedule = "CatalogAfterTapeBackup"
 RunBeforeJob = "/home/backup/bacula/script/make_catalog_backup.pl MyCatalog"
 RunAfterJob = "/home/backup/bacula/script/delete_catalog_backup"
 Write Bootstrap = "/home/backup/bacula/wdir/%n.bsr"
 Priority = 20 # run after main backup
}

# Default pool definition
Pool { 
 Name = Default
 Pool Type = Backup 
 Recycle = yes # Bacula can automatically recycle Volumes
 AutoPrune = yes # Prune expired volumes
 Volume Retention = 365 days # one year
}

# General Tape backup pool
Pool { 
 Name = TapePool
 Pool Type = Backup 
 Recycle = yes # Bacula can automatically recycle Volumes
 AutoPrune = yes # Prune expired volumes
 Volume Retention = 6 months # 6 months
 Recycle Oldest Volume = yes
 Storage = msl2024 
 Volume Use Duration = 4 days
}

## Do the following configurations for each client

# Job definition, define it for each bacula client, replace clientX_hostname, Fileset accordingly
# SAN
JobDefs {
Name = "{clientX_hostname}"
Type = Backup
Client = {clientX_hostname}-fd
FileSet = "File Set"
Schedule = "WeeklyCycle"
Storage = File
Messages = Standard
Pool = File
Full Backup Pool = Full-Pool-{clientX_hostname}
Incremental Backup Pool = Inc-Pool-{clientX_hostname}
Differential Backup Pool = Diff-Pool-{clientX_hostname}
Priority = 10
Write Bootstrap = "/home/backup/bacula/wdir/%c.bsr"
}

# Tape

JobDefs {

 Name = "{clientX_hostname}-tape"
 Type = Backup
 Client = {clientX_hostname}-tape-fd
 FileSet = "tape set"
 Schedule = "TapeWeeklyFull"
 Storage = msl2024
 Messages = Standard
 Pool = TapePool
 Full Backup Pool = TapePool
 Priority = 10
 Write Bootstrap = "/home/backup/bacula/wdir/%c.bsr"
}

# Define Job, replace clientX_hostname
# SAN
Job {
 Name = "{clientX_hostname}"
 JobDefs = "{clientX_hostname}"
}

# Tape
Job {
 Name = "{clientX_hostname}"
 JobDefs = "{clientX_hostname}-tape"
}

# Define restore job
# SAN
Job {
 Name = "RestoreFiles-{clientX_hostname}"
 Type = Restore
 Client={clientX_hostname}-fd
 FileSet="File Set" 
 Storage = File
 Pool = Default
 Messages = Standard
 Where = /home/backup/archive/bacula-restores
}

# Tape
Job {

 Name = "RestoreFiles-{clientX_hostname}-tape"
 Type = Restore
 Client={clientX_hostname}-tape-fd
 FileSet= "tape set"
 Storage = msl2024
 Pool = TapePool
 Messages = Standard
 Where = /home/backup/archive/bacula-restores
}

# Client (File Services) to backup
# SAN
Client { 
 Name = {clientX_hostname}-fd
 Address = {client_address}
 FDPort = 9102
 Catalog = MyCatalog
 Password = "{client_password}" # password for FileDaemon
 File Retention = 60 days # 60 days
 Job Retention = 6 months # six months
 AutoPrune = yes # Prune expired Jobs/Files
}

# Tape
Client {
 Name = {clientX_hostname}-tape-fd
 Address = {client_address}
 FDPort = 9202 # use different port
 Catalog = MyCatalog
 Password = "{client_password}" # password for FileDaemon
 File Retention = 6 months
 Job Retention = 6 months
 AutoPrune = yes
}

# Pool for each client
# SAN
Pool {
 Name = Full-Pool-{clientX_hostname}
 Pool Type = Backup
 Recycle = yes
 AutoPrune = yes
 Volume Retention = 6 months
 Maximum Volume Jobs = 1
 Label Format = Full-Pool-{clientX_hostname}-
 Maximum Volumes = 9
}

Pool { 
 Name = Inc-Pool-{clientX_hostname}
 Pool Type = Backup 
 Recycle = yes # automatically recycle Volumes
 AutoPrune = yes # Prune expired volumes
 Volume Retention = 20 days
 Maximum Volume Jobs = 6
 Label Format = Inc-Pool-{clientX_hostname}-
 Maximum Volumes = 7
}

Pool { 
 Name = Diff-Pool-{clientX_hostname}
 Pool Type = Backup
 Recycle = yes
 AutoPrune = yes
 Volume Retention = 40 days
 Maximum Volume Jobs = 1
 Label Format = Diff-Pool-{clientX_hostname}-
 Maximum Volumes = 10
}

# Tape, no extra definition required.

• Make sure you label the tape and add it to the TapePool, if you tape drive has barcode device available, use

$ bconsole

* label barcode

then select the TapePool

If you have mailslot enabled you could configure the bacula to eject the tape to mailslot after backup finished and will notify.

$ cat /home/backup/bacula/script/delete_catalog_backup
# Unload the tape for storage
mtx -f /dev/sg1 unload 24 # replace 24 with your mailslot

# Send mail
/home/backup/bacula/script/mail.sh | mail -s "Tape backup done" admin@example.com

Configure storage daemon

Storage 
{ # definition of myself
 Name = {director_hostanme}-sd
 SDPort = 9103 # Director's port 
 WorkingDirectory = "/home/backup/bacula/wdir"
 Pid Directory = "/home/backup/bacula/var/run"
 Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 20
}

#
# List Directors who are permitted to contact Storage daemon
#
Director {
 Name = {director_hostname}-dir
 Password = "{director_password}"
}

# SAN
Device {
 Name = FileStorage
 Media Type = File
 Archive Device = /media/san/bacula/ # SAN volume
 LabelMedia = yes # lets Bacula label unlabeled media
 Random Access = yes
 AutomaticMount = yes # when device opened, read it
 RemovableMedia = no
 AlwaysOpen = no
}

# Tape
Autochanger {
 Name = MSL2024
 Device = lto4drive
 Changer Command = "/home/backup/bacula/script/mtx-changer %c %o %S %a %d"
 Changer Device = /dev/sg1 # change it based on your setup
}

Device {
 Name = lto4drive
 Drive Index = 0
 Media Type = LTO-4
 Archive Device = /dev/nst0
 AutomaticMount = no # when device opened, read it
 AlwaysOpen = no
 RemovableMedia = yes
 RandomAccess = no
 AutoChanger = yes
}

Client configuration

• Install the bacula package on the client machines, except use --enable-client-only


• Remove the director and storage daemon startup scripts

rm /etc/init.d/bacula-dir
rm /etc/init.d/bacula-sd

• Create necessary directories

mkdir -p /home/backup/bacula/wdir /home/backup/bacula/var/run  /home/backup/bacula/var/lock/subsys/

• Create bacula-filedeamon configuration for tape and san seperately

SAN (bacula-fd.conf)

FileDaemon { # this is me
 Name = {clientX_hostname}-fd
 FDport = 9102 # where we listen for the director
 WorkingDirectory = /home/backup/bacula/wdir
 Pid Directory = /home/backup/bacula/var/run
 Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 20
 }

Tape  (bacula-fd-tape.conf)

FileDaemon { # this is me
 Name = {clientX_hostname}-tape-fd
 FDport = 9102 # different port than the san
 WorkingDirectory = /home/backup/bacula/wdir
 Pid Directory = /home/backup/bacula/var/run
 Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 20
 }

• Edit the bacula-fd startup script and add the extra line to start the tape file daemon

daemon /home/backup/bacula/sbin/bacula-fd $2 ${FD_OPTIONS} -c /home/backup/bacula/etc/bacula-fd-tape.conf

./arun

Host group based access restriction - Nagios

This is useful especially when you have different host groups belongs to different entities and you need to have access separation.

The basic idea is to use the same login user name in the contact groups. I assume that you have Apache htaccess authentication or LDAP authentication in place.

You may create new contact group of use the already existing one , just make sure your username and contact_name matches.

- Create a contact group
define contactgroup {

 contactgroup_name customer1
 alias Customer1 Servers
 members customer1
}

- Create the contact
define contact {
 contact_name customer1 #make sure this matches with the username
 alias Customer1 Contact
 service_notification_period 24x7
 host_notifications_enabled 0
 host_notification_period 24x7
 service_notification_options w,u,c,r
 host_notification_options d,u,r
 service_notification_commands notify-by-email
 host_notification_commands host-notify-by-email
 email customer1@example.com
}

- Use this contact group in host definition

define host {
 use generic-alerted-host
 host_name customer1-host
 address 8.8.8.8
 contact_groups customer1 # make sure this matches with the contactgroup_name
 max_check_attempts 3
}

Just restart nagios and try to login with the new user account. You may give more privileges to this user if required from cgi.cfg

./run

Delete mailman archieves

If required take backup of the archives

$ cp -a /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/<listname>/* <backup_directory>

Remove the archives

$ rm -rf <listname>/*

Once it is removed recreate the html archive files

$ mailman/bin/arch <listname>

./arun

Detected bug in an extension! Hook FCKeditor_MediaWiki

Detected bug in an extension! Hook FCKeditor_MediaWiki::onCustomEditor failed to return a value; should return true to continue hook processing or false to abort.

Backtrace:

#0 mediawiki/includes/Wiki.php(497): wfRunHooks('CustomEditor', Array)
 #1 mediawiki/includes/Wiki.php(63): MediaWiki->performAction(Object(OutputPage), Object(Article), 
Object(Title), Object(User), Object(WebRequest))
 #2 mediawiki/index.php(114): MediaWiki->initialize(Object(Title), Object(Article), Object(OutputPage), 
Object(User), Object(WebRequest))
 #3 {main}

Edit the following file to fix this issue:

"FCKeditor/FCKeditor.body.php"
 -- public function onCustomEditor(&$article, &$user) {
 ++ public function onCustomEditor($article, $user) {

reference: http://dev.ckeditor.com/ticket/3530
./arun

svn: Can't convert string from 'UTF-8' to native encoding:

"svn: Can't convert string from 'UTF-8' to native encoding:"

This usually happens with special characters in the file name, which the client cannot understand.

Just set proper locale in the client to fix this issues,

$ export LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
// make sure the locale is properly set.
$ locale
LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8

./arun