How To Set Up vsftp for Anonymous Downloads on Ubuntu 16.04

August 25, 2016, 10:41 pm

≫ Next: Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure

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FTP, short for File Transfer Protocol, is a network protocol that was once widely used for moving files between a client and server. It has since been replaced by faster, more secure, and more convenient ways of delivering files. Many casual Internet users expect to download directly from their web browser with https and command-line users are more likely to use secure protocols such as the scp or sFTP.

FTP is often used to support legacy applications and workflows with very specific needs. If you have a choice of what protocol to use, consider exploring the more modern options. When you do need FTP, though, vsftp is an excellent choice. Optimized for security, performance and stability, vsftp offers strong protection against many security problems found in other FTP servers and is the default for many Linux distributions.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to set up vsftp for an anonymous FTP download site intended to widely distribute public files. Rather than using FTP to manage the files, local users with sudo privileges are expected to use scp, sFTP, or any other secure protocol of their choice to transfer and maintain files.

Prerequisites

To follow along with this tutorial you will need:

An Ubuntu 16.04 server with a non-root user with sudo privileges.

Once you have the server in place, you're ready to begin.

Step 1 — Installing vsftp

We'll start by updating our package list and installing the vsftp daemon:


sudo apt update 

sudo apt install vsftpd

When the installation is complete, we'll copy the configuration file so we can start with a blank configuration, saving the original as a backup.


sudo cp /etc/vsftpd.conf /etc/vsftpd.conf.orig

With a backup of the configuration in place, we're ready to configure the firewall.

Step 2 — Opening the Firewall

First, let’s check the firewall status to see if it’s enabled and if so, to see what's currently permitted so that when it comes time to test the configuration, you won’t run into firewall rules blocking you.


sudo ufw status

In our case, we see the following:


Output

Output
Status: active

To Action  From
-- ------  ----
OpenSSH ALLOW   Anywhere
OpenSSH (v6)   ALLOW   Anywhere (v6)

You may have other rules in place or no firewall rules at all. In this example, only ssh traffic is permitted, so we’ll need to add rules for FTP traffic.

With many applications, you can use sudo ufw app list and enable them by name, but FTP is not one of those. Because ufw also checks /etc/services for the port and protocol of a service, we can still add FTP by name. We need both ftp-data on port 20 and ftp (for commands) on port 21:


sudo ufw allow ftp-data 

sudo ufw allow ftp 

sudo ufw status

Now our firewall rules looks like:




Output

Status: active

To Action  From
-- ------  ----
OpenSSH  ALLOW   Anywhere
21/tcp ALLOW   Anywhere
20/tcp ALLOW   Anywhere
OpenSSH (v6)   ALLOW   Anywhere (v6)
21/tcp (v6)ALLOW   Anywhere (v6)
20/tcp (v6)ALLOW   Anywhere (v6)

With vsftp installed and the necessary ports open, we're ready to proceed.

Step 3 — Preparing Space for Files

First, we'll create the directory where we plan to host the files, using the -p flag to create the intermediate directory. The directory structure will allow you to keep all the FTP directories together and later add other folders that require authentication:


sudo mkdir -p /var/ftp/pub

Next, we'll set the directory permissions to nobody:nogroup. Later, we'll configure the FTP server to show all files as being owned by the ftp user and group.


sudo chown nobody:nogroup /var/ftp/pub

Finally, we'll make a file in the directory for testing later.


 echo "vsftp test file" | sudo tee /var/ftp/pub/test.txt

With this sample file in place, we're ready to configure the vsftp daemon.

Step 4 — Configuring Anonymous Access

We're setting up for users with sudo privileges to maintain files for wide distribution to the public. To do this, we'll configure vsftp to allow anonymous downloading. We'll expect the file administrators to use scp, sftp or any other secure method to maintain files, so we will not enable uploading files via FTP.

The configuration file contains some of the many configuration options for vsftp.
We'll start by changing ones that are already set:


sudo nano /etc/vsftpd.conf

Find the following values and edit them so they match the values below:

/etc/vsftpd.conf

. . .
# Allow anonymous FTP? (Disabled by default).
anonymous_enable=YES
#

We’ll set the local_enable setting to “NO” because we’re not going

to allow users with local accounts to upload files via FTP.

The comment in the configuration file can be a little confusing, too,

because the line is uncommented by default. 
# Uncomment this to allow local users to log in.
local_enable=NO
. . .

In addition to changing existing settings, we're going to add some additional configuration.

Note: You can learn about the full range of options with the man vsftpd.conf command.
Add these settings to the configuration file. They are not dependent on the order, so you can place them anywhere in the file.

#
# Point users at the directory we created earlier.
anon_root=/var/ftp/
#
# Stop prompting for a password on the command line.
no_anon_password=YES
#
# Show the user and group as ftp:ftp, regardless of the owner.
hide_ids=YES
#
# Limit the range of ports that can be used for passive FTP
pasv_min_port=40000
pasv_max_port=50000

Note: If you are using UFW, these settings work as-is. If you're using Iptables, you may need to add rules to open the ports you specify between pasv_min_port and pasv_max_port.

Once those are added, save and close the file. Then, restart the daemon with the following command:


sudo systemctl restart vsftpd

systemctl doesn't display the outcome of all service management commands, so if you want to be sure you've succeeded, use the following command:


sudo systemctl status vsftpd

If the final line says look like the following, you've succeeded:


Output

Aug 17 17:49:10 vsftp systemd[1]: Starting vsftpd FTP server...
Aug 17 17:49:10 vsftp systemd[1]: Started vsftpd FTP server.

Now we're ready to test our work.

Step 5 — Testing Anonymous Access

From a web browser enter ftp:// followed by the IP address of your server.
ftp://203.0.113.0

If everything is working as expected, you should see the pub directory:
Image of the 'pub' folder in a browser

You should also be able to click into pub, see test.txt, then right-click to save the file.
Image of the 'test.txt' file in a browser

You can also test from the command-line, which will give much more feedback about your configuration. We’ll ftp to the server in passive mode, which is the -p flag on many command-line clients. Passive mode allows users to avoid changing local firewall configurations to permit the server and client to connect.

Note: The native Windows command-line FTP client, ftp.exe, does not support passive mode at all. Windows users may want to look into another Windows FTP client such as WinSCP.


ftp -p 203.0.113.0

When prompted for a username, you can enter either "ftp" or "anonymous". They’re equivalent, so we’ll use the shorter "ftp":

Connected to 203.0.113.0.
220 (vsftpd 3.0.3)
Name (203.0.113.0:21:sammy): ftp

After pressing enter, you should receive the following:


Output

230 Login successful.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp>

Ensure that passive mode is working as expected:

ls


Output

227 Entering Passive Mode (45,55,187,171,156,74).
150 Here comes the directory listing.
drwxr-xr-x    2 ftp      ftp          4096 Aug 17 19:30 pub
226 Directory send OK.

As the anonymous user, you should be able to transfer the file to your local machine with the get command:


cd pub 

get test.txt


Output

ftp> get test.txt
227 Entering Passive Mode (45,55,187,171,156,73).
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for test.txt (14 bytes).
226 Transfer complete.
16 bytes received in 0.0121 seconds (1325 bytes/s)

This output tells you that you've succeeded at downloading the file, and you can take a peek to see that it’s on your local file system if you like.

We also want to be sure anonymous users won’t be filling our file system, so to test, we will turn right around and try to put the same file back on the server, but with a new name.:


put test.txt upload.txt


Output

227 Entering Passive Mode (104,236,10,192,168,254).
550 Permission denied.

Now that we’ve confirmed this, we’ll exit the monitor in preparation for the next step:

bye

Now that we've confirmed the anonymous connection is working as expected, we'll turn our attention to what happens when user tries to connect.

Step 6 — Trying to Connect as a User

You might also want to be sure that you cannot connect as a user with a local account since this set up does not encrypt their login credentials. Instead of entering "ftp" or "anonymous" when you're prompted to log in, try using your sudo user:


ftp -p 203.0.113.0


Output

Connected to 203.0.113.0:21.
220 (vsFTPd 3.0.3)
Name (203.0.113.0:21:your_user)
530 This FTP server is anonymous only.
ftp: Login failed.
ftp>

These tests confirm that you set up the system for anonymous downloading only.

Conclusion

In this tutorial we covered how to configure vsftp for anonymous downloads only. This allows us to support legacy applications unable to use more modern protocols or widely-published FTP urls that would be difficult to update.

↧

Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure

August 26, 2016, 5:34 am

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≪ Previous: How To Set Up vsftp for Anonymous Downloads on Ubuntu 16.04

Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure is a free solution that provides an easy and efficient way to restore machines to Microsoft Azure from Veeam backups. Microsoft Azure Marketplace customers can instantly provision the Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure appliance, move backup archives to it and start restoring machines to Microsoft Azure.

You can use Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure to complete the following tasks:

Restore machines from backups to Microsoft Azure.
Migrate machines to Microsoft Azure.
Create a test environment in Microsoft Azure for troubleshooting, testing patches and updates and so on.

For restore to Microsoft Azure, you can use backups of physical machines created with Veeam Endpoint Backup and backups of VMs created with Veeam Backup & Replication. You can restore machines from backups of Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware vSphere VMs, as well as VMware vCloud Director VMs.
Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure is delivered as a pre-configured Microsoft Azure appliance.

The appliance runs Veeam Backup & Replication in the free operation mode and the Veeam Azure Recovery utility that lets you restore machines from backups to the cloud. Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure is started immediately and is ready for use when you start the appliance in Microsoft Azure.

About Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure

About Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure

Limitations for Restore to Microsoft Azure

The BETA version of Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure uses the classic deployment model to restore machines. Restored VMs will be available under the Virtual machines (classic) view in the Microsoft Azure portal.
The BETA version of Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure lets you restore only Microsoft Windows machines. Restore of Linux machines is not supported.

The maximum size of one disk for a VM in Microsoft Azure is 1023 GB. You cannot restore a machine that has disks of a greater size. For more information, see https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/azure-subscription-service-limits/.
If the system disk of the initial machine uses the GPT partitioning scheme, the number of partitions on the disk cannot exceed 4. During restore such disk will be converted to a disk using the MBR partitioning scheme.

[For VM backups] Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure supports batch restore. To restore several VMs, you should pass through the Restore to Azure wizard several times.

System Requirements

A Microsoft Azure VM that you plan to use as a Veeam appliance must meet the following requirements:

Specification	Requirement
VM Size	A2 VM size (2 cores, 3.5 GB memory) is minimum, A3 VM size (4 cores, 7 GB memory) is recommended.
Hardware	CPU: x86-64 processor. CPU: 2 cores or more. Memory: 4 GB RAM. Disk Space: 2 GB for product installation and 4.5 GB for Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 installation. Network: 1 Mbps or faster.

Restoring Machines to Microsoft Azure

To restore a machine from a backup to Microsoft Azure, you must perform the following steps:

Deploy the Veeam appliance.

You can deploy a Veeam appliance from the 'Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure' template in Microsoft Azure. The appliance runs Veeam Backup & Replication in the free operation mode and the Veeam Azure Recovery utility that lets you restore machines from backups to Microsoft Azure.

Configure the Veeam appliance.

You must provide information about your subscriptions to let Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure access resources of your subscriptions and make changes to the subscription settings during restore.

Upload a backup to the Veeam appliance.

You must upload a backup from which you want to restore the machine to the Veeam appliance.

Restore a machine from the backup.

After you deploy and set up the Veeam appliance, you can restore a machine from the backup to Microsoft Azure.

Deploying Veeam Appliance

You can deploy a Veeam appliance from a preconfigured image — Microsoft Azure template named ''Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure'. The appliance will run Microsoft Windows 2012 and will have the following software installed:

Veeam Backup & Replication functioning in the free operational mode
Veeam Azure Recovery utility

After you deploy and start the Veeam appliance, Veeam Backup & Replication will display its main view. You can use this view to perform basic operations in Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure.

Note:

To deploy the Veeam appliance, use the Resource Management deployment model and the https://portal.azure.com portal.

To deploy a Veeam appliance from a Microsoft Azure template:

Sign in to the Microsoft Azure portal at https://portal.azure.com.
In the menu on the left, click New.
In the marketplace, search for the 'Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure' template.
Select the template and click Create.
At the Basics step, configure VM basic settings: VM name, user credentials, subscription, resource group and location.
At the Size step, choose the VM size.

Make sure that the VM size and configuration meet minimal requirements to the Veeam appliance.

Review the VM configuration and finish the VM creation procedure.

Configuring Veeam Appliance

Before you can restore machines to Microsoft Azure, you must provide information about your subscriptions to Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure. This step is required to let Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure access resources of your subscriptions and make changes in the subscription settings during restore.

To provide information about your subscriptions, you must run the Initial Configuration wizard. The Initial Configuration wizard lets you download a subscription configuration file from the Microsoft Azure portal and set up it on the Veeam appliance. The subscription configuration file is an XML file in the PUBLISHSETTINGS format that contains information about all subscriptions associated with your Live ID and a management certificate (the certificate is required to authenticate requests from Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure to the Microsoft Windows Azure Management API).

If necessary, you can import to Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure several subscription configuration files for different user accounts. In this case, you will be able to use resources of all subscriptions under these user accounts to restore machines to Microsoft Azure.

Information about your subscriptions and the management certificate is saved to the Veeam Backup & Replication database. You can re-import the subscription configuration file at any time. To do this, you must pass through the Initial Configuration wizard once again.

Note:

When you download a subscription configuration file from the Microsoft Azure portal, Microsoft Azure always generates a new management certificate. The number of management certificates is limited — you cannot create more than 10 management certificates per one subscription or 100 management certificates per all subscriptions under one service administrator’s user ID. If the number of management certificates has reached this limit, you can re-use existing certificates or create an account for a co-administrator who will be able to create new management certificates.

To download a subscription configuration file and set up it on the Veeam appliance:

On the main screen of Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure, click Configuration.

The Initial Configuration wizard will be launched. Click Next.

At the License Agreement step of the wizard, select the I accept the terms in the license agreement option and click Next.

The License Agreement step is displayed only when you configure settings for the first time. If you decide to re-import the subscription configuration file later, the License Agreement step will be skipped.

At the Subscription step of the wizard, click the https://manage.windowsazure.com/PublishSettings link. If you are not logged in to the Microsoft Azure portal, you will be prompted to log in.

Microsoft Azure will generate a subscription configuration file and offer you to download it when the file is ready. Save the file to a local drive on your computer or network shared folder.

Next to the Configuration file field, click Browse and select the saved file. Click Next.

At the Summary step of the wizard, review details of the configured settings and click Finish to close the wizard.

Uploading Backups to Veeam Appliance

Before you can start restoring machines to Microsoft Azure, you need to upload backups to the Veeam appliance hosting Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure. You can use the following tools and methods to upload backups:

Veeam FastSCP for Microsoft Azure
Azure File Storage
Remote Desktop Connection
Attaching VM Disk
FTP Server

Veeam FastSCP for Microsoft Azure (Recommended)

Veeam FastSCP for Microsoft Azure is a standalone free solution that allows you to upload and download data to and from Microsoft Azure VMs. With this solution, you can easily copy files securely from onsite to Microsoft Azure VMs and vice versa.

To download Veeam FastSCP for Microsoft Azure, use the following link: https://www.veeam.com/fastscp-azure-vm-download.html

Veeam FastSCP for Microsoft Azure requires that PowerShell Remoting is enabled and configured on the Microsoft Azure VM. When you deploy the Microsoft Azure VM in the Resource Manager deployment model, PowerShell Remoting is not enabled automatically. To take the advantage of Veeam FastSCP for Microsoft Azure, you will need to enable PowerShell Remoting manually first. To do this, follow these recommendations.

Adding Azure VMs
Before you upload backups to the Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure appliance, you need to connect the Veeam appliance to Veeam FastSCP for Microsoft Azure:

In Veeam FastSCP for Microsoft Azure, open the Virtual Machines view.
Click Add Machine on the ribbon.
In the Host field, type a DNS name of the cloud service where the Veeam appliance resides. Alternatively, you can type a public virtual IP address of the cloud service.
In the Port field, type the number of a public port configured for the PowerShell Remoting endpoint on the Veeam appliance.
In the Username and Password fields, specify credentials of the local Administrator on the Veeam appliance.

The username must be specified in the DOMAIN\USERNAME format for domain accounts or HOST\USERNAME for local accounts.

Check information regarding the VM service DNS name or virtual IP address and public port configured for the PowerShell Remoting endpoint in the Microsoft Azure portal.

Cloud Service (Host) : Virtual Machines> Veeam Azure RecoveryVM> DNS name
Endpoint (Port): Virtual Machines> Veeam Azure Recovery VM> Endpoints

Uploading One or More Files Manually
You can manually upload to the Veeam appliance one file or several files that reside in the same folder:

In Veeam FastSCP for Microsoft Azure, open the Virtual Machines view.
In the Machines list on the left, choose the newly added Veeam appliance, expand its folder tree and select a folder to which you want to upload files.
Click Upload Files on the ribbon.
In the Open window, browse to the files that you want to upload, select them and click Open (for multiselect hold [CTRL] or [SHIFT]).
When upload is completed, right-click anywhere in the right pane and choose Refresh to view an updated list of files in the folder.

Uploading One or More Files Automatically
You can upload files with scheduled jobs. Scheduled jobs allow you to automate the upload process and upload backup files to the Veeam appliance on a fixed schedule.

To create a scheduled job, navigate to the Jobs tab in Veeam FastSCP for Microsoft Azure.

Microsoft Azure File Storage

Microsoft Azure File Storage is a service that offers file shares in the cloud using the standard Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol. Both SMB 2.1 and SMB 3.0 are supported.

Sign in to the Microsoft Azure portal.
On the navigation menu, click Storage accounts.
Choose your storage account.
Choose Files service
Click File shares and fill in the file share name and size of the file share (up to 5120 GB) to create your first file share.

Connecting share

Choose the file share you have already created.
Click Connect.
Copy the resulting command.
Run the command from any Microsoft Windows machine to mount the file share.

If mount fails for some reasons, consider creating a VPN gateway. Check the following documentation to see how VPN gateway can be set up: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/vpn-gateway-point-to-site-create/ and https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/vpn-gateway-create-site-to-site-rm-powershell/

Once the share is mounted, you can start uploading and downloading files to and from it.

Note:

You can also upload and download files residing on the Microsoft Azure File Storage using the Microsoft Azure portal (Upload and Download buttons). However, you can use this method only to deliver files of considerably small size.

Remote Desktop Connection

Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft that provides a user with a graphical interface to connect to another computer over a network connection.

Sign in to the Microsoft Azure portal.
Select the Veeam appliance.
Press the Connect button to download an RDP file. You can use this file to connect to the Veeam appliance.

Now you can copy files from your local computer to Veeam Azure Recovery VM over the RDP protocol. Be aware that by default RDP protocol does not allow copying files that are larger than 2 GB: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2258090.

To overcome this limitation, you can configure Drive Redirection:

Right-click the RDP file you have downloaded and choose Edit.
Go to the Local Resources tab and click More… in the Local devices and resources section.
Select the device that you want to map to your remote session.

Now you can see the mapped drive in Windows Explorer as a connected drive and copy files to it.

Attaching VM Disk

You can create an empty VHD disk onsite and copy backup data to this disk.
To create a VHD disk:

Go to Administrative Tools& Computer Management& Disk Management.
Right-click Disk management and select Create VHD. Make sure that you select VHD; VHDX is not supported by Microsoft Azure.

Once a VHD is created, it will be automatically attached to your computer. You should initialize, format and assign a drive letter to it. After that you can copy/move backup files to it.

When the required data is copied, you should upload the VHD to your Microsoft Azure account. For more information, see http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/virtual-machines-create-upload-vhd-windows-server/.

Note:

If the resulting VHD is huge or you have a number of VHDs, you can use the Microsoft Azure Import service to transfer large amounts of file data to the Azure Blob storage. It is recommended that you use this method as uploading over the network is prohibitively expensive or not feasible. For more information, see https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/storage-import-export-service/.

Next, you need to attach the disk to the VM appliance.

Sign in to the Microsoft Azure portal.
In the menu on the left, click Virtual Machines.
Select the VM appliance from the list.
At the bottom right corner of the Essentials blade, click All settings> Disks.
On the Disks blade, click Attach existing.
Under Attach existing disk, click VHD File.
Under Storage accounts, select the account and container that holds the VHD file.
Select the VHD file.
The file you have just selected will be listed under Attach existing disk > VHD File. Click OK.
After Microsoft Azure attaches the disk to the Veeam appliance, the disk will be listed in the VM disk settings under Data Disks.

After the disk is added, you need to prepare it for use in the VM OS. For more information, see How to: initialize a new data disk in Windows Server. After that, you will be able to see this disk in Windows Explorer and get backup files from this disk.

FTP Server

This method requires that you install a solution into the Veeam appliance, which is probably something you don’t want to do frequently.

You can install an FTP server in the Veeam appliance and configure it to use the passive mode and a single port range (multiple-port range is possible, but this can create additional overhead). After that, you can add endpoints to the Veeam appliance to open the firewall ports.

Restoring Machines

For restore to Microsoft Azure, you can use backups of physical machines created with Veeam Endpoint Backup and backups of Microsoft Windows VMs created with Veeam Backup & Replication. You can restore a machine to the latest state or any previous restore point in the backup chain. After you restore the machine from the backup, the machine appears in the Microsoft Azure portal, and you can use it as a regular Microsoft Azure VM.

Restoring Machines Important!
After the restore process is finished, Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure immediately powers on the restored VM.

Before you restore the machine from the backup, check prerequisites. Then use the Restore to Azure wizard to restore the machine.

Launch the Restore to Azure wizard
Select a machine to restore
Select a subscription and location
Specify a VM size
Specify a machine name and cloud service
Select a virtual network
Specify a restore reason
Review the restore summary
Review the restore process

Before You Begin

Before you restore a machine to Microsoft Azure, check the following prerequisites:

You must deploy the Veeam appliance in Microsoft Azure.
You must provide information about your subscriptions to Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure.
You must upload a backup from which you want to restore the machine to the Veeam appliance.
You must check limitations for Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure.

Step 1. Choose Backup File

To begin the restore process, you must choose a backup from which you can restore the machine:

On the main screen of Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure, click Restore.

In the Select backup file to restore window, click Browse next to the Backup file field and select a full backup file (VBK) or backup metadata file (VBM) from the uploaded backup chain.

If you select the VBM file, the import process will be notably faster. It is recommended that you select the VBK file only if the VBM file is not available.

In the Backup Properties window, select the machine that you want to restore to Microsoft Azure.
Click Restore.

Tip:

To launch the Restore to Azure wizard, you can also double-click the full backup file (VBK) in the file browser on the Veeam appliance. Veeam Backup & Replication will start its console and display the Backup Properties window. In the Backup Properties window, select the machine and click Restore > Azure.

Step 2. Select Restore Point

At the Machine step of the wizard, you can select the restore point to which you want to recover the machine.

By default, Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure recovers the machine to latest valid restore point in the backup chain. However, you can recover the machine to an earlier restore point.

Tip:

The Machine step of the wizard is skipped when you start the Restore to Azure wizard. To select the necessary restore point, you must get back to this step from the Subscription step of the wizard.

To select a restore point for the machine:

In the Object to restore list, select the machine.
Click Point on the right.
In the Restore Points window, select a restore point to which you want to recover the machine.

Step 3. Select Subscription and Location

At the Subscription step of the wizard, you must select a subscription whose resources you want to use, and a location for the recovered machine.

From the Subscription list, select a subscription whose resources you want to use. The subscription list is formed based on the information from the imported subscription configuration file and contains all subscriptions associated with your Live ID.
From the Locations list, select a geographic region to which you want to place the recovered machine. Make sure that you select a geographic region with which at least one storage account of your subscription is associated.

Step 3. Select Subscription and Location

Step 4. Specify VM Size

At the VM Size step of the wizard, you can:

Specify the size and storage profile for the recovered machine
Restore only specific disks for the recovered machine

To specify the size and storage account for the machine:

In the AzureVM Configuration list, select the machine and click Edit.
From the Size list, select a size for the recovered VM. The VM size affects the number of CPU cores, memory and disk resources that will be allocated to the recovered machine. For more information about size of VMs in Microsoft Azure, see https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/virtual-machines-size-specs/.
From the Storage account list, select the storage account whose resources you want to use to store VM disks.
Click OK.

Note:

Microsoft Azure subscriptions have default limits on the number of CPU cores. Make sure that the VM size you select does not exceed limits of your subscription.

If necessary, you can restore only specific disks for the machine:

In the AzureVM Configuration list, select the machine and click Exclusions.
In the Disks to Restore window, select check boxes next to machine disks that you want to restore.

Step 5. Specify VM Name and Cloud Service

At the Cloud Service step of the wizard, you can:

Specify a new name for the recovered machine
Select a cloud service for the recovered machine

By default, Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure restores a machine with its original name. However, you can define a new name for the recovered machine if necessary.
To define a name for the machine:

In the Cloud service list, select the machine and click VM Name.
In the Change Name window, enter a new name explicitly or specify a change name rule by adding a prefix and/or suffix to the original machine name.

Step 5. Specify VM Name and Cloud Service

By default, Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure creates a new cloud service for the recovered machine and places the machine to it. If necessary, you can place the machine to an existing cloud service.

In the Cloud service list, select the machine and click Cloud Service.
In the Cloud Service window, select the necessary option for the machine:

Select Choose the existing cloud service if you want to place the machine to an existing cloud service. From the list below, select the cloud service.
Select Create a new cloud service if you want to create a dedicated cloud service for the machine. In the DNS name field, enter a name of the cloud service that you want to create. The cloud service name can be up to 64 characters long, must start with a letter and can contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores.

Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azureautomatically creates a Remote Desktop endpoint for the recovered machine. In the Endpoint field, specify the number of a public TCP port for this endpoint. You will be able to access the recovered machine over this port.

By default, Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure uses port 3389 for Microsoft Windows VMs. Microsoft Azure automatically sets up firewall configuration for ports associated with Remote Desktop.

Note:

Microsoft Azure subscriptions have default limits on the number of cloud services. If you decide to create a new cloud service, make sure that you do not exceed limits of your subscription.

Step 6. Select Virtual Network

At the Network step of the wizard, you can select to which network and subnet the recovered machine must be connected.

Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure can connect the machine only to one virtual network. If necessary, you can configure additional network connections after the machine is recovered.

To define network settings for the VM:

In the Virtual network list, select the machine and click Network.
From the Virtual network list, select a network to which the machine must be connected.
From the Subnet list, select a subnet for the machine.

To connect the machine to the default network of the target cloud service, select the machine in the Virtual network list and click Default.

Step 6. Select Virtual Network

Step 7. Specify Restore Reason

At the Reason step of the wizard, enter a reason for restoring the machine. The information you provide will be saved in the session history in Veeam Backup & Replication, and you can reference it later.

Tip:

If you do not want to display the Reason step of the wizard in future, select the Do not show me this page again check box.

Step 8. Review Restore Summary

At the Ready to Restore step of the wizard, check the specified settings and click Finish. Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure will start the restore process.

Step 8. Review Restore Summary

Step 9. Review Restore Process

At the Progress step of the wizard, you can trace the restore process in the real-time mode.

Step 9. Review Restore Process

You can also use the Restore Session window to trace the restore process. If you need to cancel the machine restore, click the Cancel restore task link in the Restore Session window.

Step 9. Review Restore Process

Using Advanced Mode

If necessary, you can use the main Veeam Backup & Replication UI to restore machines to Microsoft Azure. To start the Veeam Backup & Replication console, on the main screen of Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure, click Advanced Mode. Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure will launch the Veeam Backup & Replication console; the product will run in the free functionality mode.

Using Advanced Mode

↧

How to Prevent WhatsApp From Sharing Your Phone Number With Facebook

August 26, 2016, 6:15 am

≫ Next: How to Flash Android 7.0 Nougat Factory Image on Your Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6, and Nexus 9

≪ Previous: Veeam Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure

Earlier today, WhatsApp announced a major change in its privacy policy that has not gone down well with many people. The updated privacy policy and terms of the company say that it will share your number with Facebook’s system to better track metrics like the number of unique users and show you more relevant ads.

WhatsApp anticipated that many people are not going to be comfortable with this change in its privacy policy and are not comfortable with sharing their number with Facebook, so it provides an opt-out mechanism for such people.

Here’s how you can opt-out of WhatsApp’s new privacy policy thereby not allowing them to share your account information with Facebook.

Method 1

Step 1: The next time you open WhatsApp, you will be prompted to accept the new terms and conditions of the company. Instead of tapping on ‘Agree’, tap Read.

Step 2: At the very bottom, you will see an option that says you are allowing your WhatsApp account information to be shared with Facebook to improve Facebooks ads and product experiences. Uncheck this box and then accept the new terms and conditions of WhatsApp to ensure that your account information is not shared with Facebook.

Method 2

If you have already accepted the updated privacy policy of WhatsApp, you will still have 30 days to change your decision. Head over to Settings -> Account and uncheck the ‘Share my account info’ option.

Remember that this option will only be available for 30 days from the day you accepted the new privacy policy of WhatsApp after which you cannot change your decision.

Remember that the above steps will only ensure that your account information will not be shared with Facebook to improve your Facebook ads and product experience. Other companies under Facebook will still be able to receive and use this information for improving their infrastructure, delivery systems, fighting spam, and more.

↧

How to Flash Android 7.0 Nougat Factory Image on Your Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6, and Nexus 9

August 26, 2016, 6:38 am

≫ Next: How to enable Night Mode in Android 7.0 Nougat on a Nexus Device

≪ Previous: How to Prevent WhatsApp From Sharing Your Phone Number With Facebook

Google has just released the final version of Android 7.0 Nougat. The latest version of Android comes with many new features including multi-window support, a redesigned notification panel, built-in data saver, and more.

If Marshmallow was more about refining the user experience, Nougat is all about shiny new features. The final release of Nougat is accompanied with Google releasing the factory images of the OS for its compatible Nexus devices. The company will also start rolling out OTA updates to all Nexus users, but that will take its own sweet time (read: couple of weeks). If you cannot wait until then, you always have the option of flashing the factory image on your Nexus device provided you are ready to sacrifice all your data on the phone.

There are some pre-requisites to flashing a factory image on your Nexus devices which are as follows:

The bootloader of your device must be unlocked
Flashing the factory image will wipe your device clean of all your data, so create a backup of all your important data
You must know your way around ADB and fastboot

If the bootloader of your Nexus device is not already unlocked, you can do so right before flashing the factory image. I have mentioned the steps below, just in case this is your first time flashing a factory image.

The steps below will also work on Nexus devices that are already running the developer preview of Nougat.
Android 7.0 Nougat factory images are available for the following devices:

Nexus 6P
Nexus 5X
Nexus 6
Nexus 9
Pixel C
Nexus Player

The popular Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 have reached their end of life and will not be receiving the Nougat update.

Setting up ADB and Fastboot

Windows: Download and install the 15-second ADB/Fastboot installer by following the instructions mentioned. Also, make sure to download and install the ADB drivers from here.

Unlock the bootloader

Step 1: Download the Android 7.0 Nougat factory image for your Nexus (or Pixel) device from here.
(Optional) If the bootloader of your Nexus device is not unlocked, head over to Settings -> About Phone and tap on Build Number 7 times to enable the hidden Developer Options menu. Head back to Settings -> Developer Options and enable on the OEM Unlocking option.

Step 2: On the desktop of your PC, extract the contents of the Android 7.0 factory image file inside a new folder called ”android”. It is extremely important that all the contents of the factory image are present inside it. Only extract contents from the zip file that you downloaded. There is no need to extract contents of various other zip files present inside the archive.

Step 3: If you are on Windows, Shift + right click on the “android” folder and select the ‘Open command window here’ option. On a Mac, open up Terminal, type “cd”, drag ‘n’ drop the “android” folder inside the window, and then press enter.

Step 4: Boot your Nexus device into bootloader mode using the key combination mentioned below:

Nexus 5X: Volume down + Power button
Nexus 6: Volume Down for a few seconds and then press the Power button simultaneously
Nexus 6P: Volume down + Power button
Nexus 9: Volume Down + Power button

Step 5: Confirm that your device is being detected by your PC by running the below command:

fastboot devices

If detected, this command should return the Android ID of your device. If not, restart your Android device and PC. If that fails as well, reinstall the ADB drivers.

Step 6 (Optional): If the bootloader of your Nexus device is not unlocked, run the following command:

fastboot oem unlock

You will have to confirm your selection by pressing the Volume Up button on your device followed by the Power button. Once done, your device should reboot. If not, reboot the handset manually. Once it boots back into Android, skip the setup process, switch it off, put it into bootloader mode and connect it to your PC.

Step 7: Now, run the below command to flash the Nougat factory image on your Nexus device.
Windows:

flash-all.sh

Mac:

./flash-all.sh

The script will automatically flash all the full Android 7.0 Nougat factory image on your Nexus or Pixel device. Once done, your Android device should automatically reboot into Android. If not, manually reboot the device into Android by long pressing the power button. The first boot can take its own sweet time, so be patient.

If you have ran into some issues whilst flashing the Android 7.0 Nougat factory image on your Nexus or Pixel, drop in a comment and we will help you out.

↧

How to enable Night Mode in Android 7.0 Nougat on a Nexus Device

August 28, 2016, 1:02 am

≫ Next: How to Install OxygenOS 3.5 on OnePlus 3

≪ Previous: How to Flash Android 7.0 Nougat Factory Image on Your Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6, and Nexus 9

During the Android 7.0 Nougat Developer Preview, Google experimented with a system-wide Night Mode that offered a number of improvements to compatible Nexus phones to allow them to work better at night and in other low-light situations. Unfortunately for tinkerers (but completely understandable for a variety of reasons), that mode was hidden in the run-up to Nougat's release — but with a little help you can get at least some of those features back.

While the overall dark theme is not available, Nexus devices running Nougat (5X, 6, 6P, 9, Pixel C) can activate a handy blue light filter similar to the one found on the Galaxy Note 7. Here's how.

How to get Night Mode on Android 7.0 Nougat

Open Google Play Store.
Tap Search bar.
Enter Night Mode Enabler. Press Install.
Return to home screen.

Pull down on Notification Shade.
Pull down again to enter Quick Settings.
Hold down on Settings icon (cog icon). You should feel a vibration and see a message saying, "Congrats! System UI Tuner has been added to Settings."
Return to home screen.

Open Night Mode Enabler app.
Tap Enable Night Mode.
Toggle Night Mode to on.
Toggle Adjust tint to enable blue-light filter.

That's it! Now you have what's remaining of Night Mode in Nougat. This certainly isn't the ambitious system-wide dark theme that many people wanted when it was first previewed, but this is really useful nonetheless.

↧

How to Install OxygenOS 3.5 on OnePlus 3

August 29, 2016, 2:38 am

≫ Next: How to Install Spacewalk on Oracle Linux

≪ Previous: How to enable Night Mode in Android 7.0 Nougat on a Nexus Device

Late last week, OnePlus released the community build of OxygenOS 3.5 for the OnePlus 3. The latest build of OxygenOS comes with slight interface tweaks, new system apps, and improved camera software. However, being a community build, the update has not been rolled out to all OnePlus 3 owners out there. This is because OnePlus is still testing the build and squashing the remaining bugs.

A quick change log of the update as provided by the OnePlus team for OxygenOS 3.5 is as follows:

Several UI improvements
New and improved OnePlus apps, including clock, weather and file manager
Improved camera software
More robust settings and customization features

If you don’t mind a few bugs, you can install OxygenOS 3.5 on your OnePlus 3 in a few relatively easy steps. To help make the decision easier for you, OnePlus has also posted some major bugs with the build.

Android Pay is not currently supported
Only English is currently supported in several OnePlus apps
Some performance issues
Some UI issues when using custom themes
System UI tuner is unstable (do not use); using the system UI tuner could cause serious issues that can only be resolved via factory reset
You will need to re-register your fingerprints if you have fingerprint authentication enabled

If the above issues are not really a deal breaker for you, and you are eager to get OxygenOS 3.5 up and running on your OnePlus 3, read the steps below.

Pre-requisites

Installing OxygenOS 3.5 on your OnePlus 3 will not wipe your data in any way. It is, however, still recommended that you create a backup of your data in case something goes wrong.
Installing the build requires that your OnePlus 3 is running the stock build of OxygenOS with no modifications whatsoever i.e. root and TWRP should not be installed.
Once you install the community build, you will continue to receive future community builds of OxygenOS via OTA updates.

Step 1: Download the Oxygen OS 3.5 zip file from here. Transfer it to your desktop and rename it to “oxygenos.zip”. If adb/fastboot are not already set up on your PC, follow the instruction here. If you are Windows, make sure to install the necessary drivers for the handset as well.

Step 2: On your OnePlus 3, head over to Settings -> About Phone and tap on Build Number 7 times to enable the hidden Developer Options. Once the toast notification pops up, head over to Settings -> Developer Options and enable the ‘Advanced Reboot’ option.

Step 3: Long press the Power button to bring up the power menu. Tap on Reboot followed by Recovery. Once your phone boots into recovery, select English as your language followed by Install from ADB. Tap on OK when prompted.

Step 4: On your PC, fire up a new command prompt or Terminal window, and then type in the following command:

adb sideload oxygenos.zip

In case you get a file not found error, simply type in “adb sideload” and then drag ‘n’ drop the Oxygen OS zip file inside command prompt or terminal. You can also copy-paste the location of the file inside the window. Press enter and wait for the file to be sideloaded. Once the transfer is complete, the update will automatically be installed on your OnePlus 3. At the end, you will be prompted to restart your handset.

The first boot after installing Oxygen OS 3.5 on your OnePlus 3 can take a significantly long amount of time, but this should not be any cause of a concern. If you want to restore to OxygenOS 3.2, you will have to flash the factory image on the handset, which means you will end up losing all your installed apps, data, and other files stored on the handset.

↧

How to Install Spacewalk on Oracle Linux

August 29, 2016, 2:56 am

≫ Next: How to Use Secure Folder Protection on the Galaxy Note 7

≪ Previous: How to Install OxygenOS 3.5 on OnePlus 3

Spacewalk is an open source Linux systems management solution. Spacewalk manages software content updates for Red Hat derived distributions such as Fedora, CentOS, and Scientific Linux, within your firewall. You can stage software content through different environments, managing the deployment of updates to systems and allowing you to view at which update level any given system is at across your deployment. A central web interface allows viewing of systems, their associated software update status, and initiating update actions.

Spacewalk also provides provisioning capabilities, allowing you to manage your systems throughout their lifecycle. Via Provisioning, Spacewalk enables you to kickstart provision systems and manage and deploy configuration files. Spacewalk also has virtualization capabilities to enable you to provision, control, manage, and monitor virtual KVM and Xen guests.

Spacewalk is an open community project. Anyone can contribute to the project, including lending a hand with ideas, feedback, contributing a patch, helping draft documentation, sharing your systems management use cases, or even testing.

This article explains how to install Spacewalk on Oracle Linux. You do not need a support contract for Oracle Linux to use this method.

Server Prerequisites
Repositories
Install Spacewalk
Spacewalk Console

Server Prerequisites

Start with a minimum installation of Oracle Linux 6 or 7. You can add the desktop packages if you want, but they are not necessary. Once the OS installation is complete, perform the following tasks as the "root" user.
Make sure the Spacewalk server has a fully qualified domain name, with an entry in the "/etc/hosts" file.

192.168.0.10     ol7-sw.localdomain ol7-sw

Make the necessary firewall changes.

# OL7
firewall-cmd --add-service=https --permanent
firewall-cmd --add-service=http --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload

# OL6
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
service iptables save

Repositories

You will need to install a few repositories before you get started.

Enable the Oracle Linux optional packages repository. For example, on Oracle Linux 7 set "enabled=1" in the following entry of the "/etc/yum.repos.d/public-yum-ol7.repo" file.

[ol7_optional_latest]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever Optional Latest ($basearch)
baseurl=http://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL7/optional/latest/$basearch/
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1

Install the EPEL repository for your version.

# OL7
rpm -Uvh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

# OL6
rpm -Uvh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-6.noarch.rpm

Add the JPackage repository.

cat > /etc/yum.repos.d/jpackage-generic.repo << EOF
[jpackage-generic]
name=JPackage generic
#baseurl=http://mirrors.dotsrc.org/pub/jpackage/5.0/generic/free/
mirrorlist=http://www.jpackage.org/mirrorlist.php?dist=generic&type=free&release=5.0
subscription-manager repos –enable=rhel-7-server-optional-rpms
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://www.jpackage.org/jpackage.asc
EOF

Add the Spacewalk repository for your version.

# OL7
rpm -Uvh http://yum.spacewalkproject.org/2.5/RHEL/7/x86_64/spacewalk-repo-2.5-3.el7.noarch.rpm

# OL6
rpm -Uvh http://yum.spacewalkproject.org/2.5/RHEL/6/x86_64/spacewalk-repo-2.5-3.el6.noarch.rpm

Install Spacewalk

To keep things simple, we'll do a default installation using postgreSQL as the Spacewalk database.

# Configure the Spacewalk database.
yum install spacewalk-setup-postgresql -y

# Install Spacewalk
yum install spacewalk-postgresql -y

Create an answer file for the configuration of Spacewalk, adjusting the values as required.

cat > /tmp/answer-file.txt <


Configure Spacewalk using the answer file created previously.
spacewalk-setup --answer-file=/tmp/answer-file.txt
You can restart the Spacewalk service using the following commands. /usr/sbin/spacewalk-service stop
/usr/sbin/spacewalk-service start

/usr/sbin/spacewalk-service restart
You can now access the Spacewalk console using the following URL on the server. https://localhost
If you want the console to be accessible externally, amend the "/etc/tomcat/server.xml" file as follows.  
# From
 
 
# To
Restart Spacewalk. /usr/sbin/spacewalk-service restart
 
Spacewalk Console
The first time you go to the Spacewalk URL you will be prompted to  create a new organization with administrator login credentials. Enter  the required information and click the "Create Organization" button.    You are now able to start using Spacewalk.

↧

How to Use Secure Folder Protection on the Galaxy Note 7

August 29, 2016, 6:58 am

≫ Next: How To Move the Data Directory for ownCloud on Ubuntu 16.04

≪ Previous: How to Install Spacewalk on Oracle Linux

Samsung KNOX is the proprietary security software bundled with the Galaxy Note 7. Named after Fort Knox, it is supposed to be just as secure when it comes to storing your information. Setting up KNOX for the Secure Folder for the Note 7 is a very simple process.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 comes with a chip that is designed to prevent rooting and in the event a root is successful, it is designed to purge the data found in the Secure Folder.

Setup the Secure Folder:

Tap on the Secure Folder icon found on your Home screen or access it through Lock screen and security under the Settings menu.

You need to link your Secure Folder to your Samsung Account to be able to access it and reset it in the event you forget how to unlock the folder.

It will then request you to set a method to lock the folder.

In the event of using a biometric password, the device will prompt you to set an additional security password.

Once the method of locking is set, the secure folder can be used.

The Secure Folder for the Galaxy Note 7 can store contacts, files, images, videos and apps while keeping the data away from prying eyes. It can also be hidden to prevent others from gaining unauthorised access.

To transfer files into the Secure Folder:

Press and hold to select the file that you wish to transfer over.
- A copy of the app used to open the file must be present in the Secure Folder.

Tap the three dots on the upper right hand corner.

Select Move to Secure Folder and the files will be found there.

The files would then appear under Gallery in the Secure Folder.

You can save copies of media files in the secure folder to prevent them from accidentally falling into the wrong hands. It is an easy way to partition your gallery without the need of additional Apps from unknown sources. Any contacts that are stored in the Secure Folder will appear as unknown when you are using the device normally.

To transfer an app into the Secure Folder:

Open the secure folder and tap Add.

Select the Apps you would like to add to the Secure Folder or download them from the Play Store.

The Apps that are selected will have a copy of them appear in the secure folder.

The secure folder keeps a copy of the apps that are moved here, this way the same app can have two uses and also secure the data within it. This allows the device to be used for work and play simultaneously.

We hope this helps secure your data and privatize your device. If you have any queries, let us know in the comments below.

↧

How To Move the Data Directory for ownCloud on Ubuntu 16.04

August 29, 2016, 8:41 pm

≫ Next: How to Setup Fingerprint Scanner on the Galaxy Note 7

≪ Previous: How to Use Secure Folder Protection on the Galaxy Note 7

ownCloud is a capable solution for storing your digital life on a private server. By default, data is saved on the same partition as the operating system, which may lead to a lack of free disk space. For instance, with high-resolution pictures and high-definition videos continuously being backed up, it is easy to run out of space. As your storage needs grow, it may become necessary to move ownCloud's data directory. Whether you are adding more space or just looking to change the default storage location, this tutorial will guide you through relocating ownCloud’s data directory.

Prerequisites

Before you begin using this guide, an ownCloud server needs to be installed and configured. You can set one up by following this guide. If our installation guide was used, then the data directory is in ownCloud’s web root, which by default is located at /var/www/owncloud.

In this example, we are moving ownCloud’s data directory to an attached additional storage volume that is mounted at /mnt/owncloud.

Regardless of the underlying storage being used, this guide can help you move the data directory for ownCloud to a new location.

Step 1 — Moving the ownCloud Data Directory

When ownCloud is in use and backend changes are being made, there is the possibility that data may become corrupt or damaged. To prevent that from happening, we will stop Apache with the systemctl utility:


sudo systemctl stop apache2

Some of the service management commands do not display an output. To verify that Apache is no longer running, use the systemctl utility with the status command:


sudo systemctl status apache2

The last line of the output should state that it’s stopped.

[Output]
. . .
Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.

Warning: It is highly recommended that you backup your data prior to making any changes.

Copy the contents of the data directory to a new directory using the rsync command. Using the -a flag preserves the permissions and other directory properties, while the -v flag provides verbose output so you can monitor the progress. In the example below, we back up our content into a new directory, owncloud-data-bak, within our user's home directory.


sudo rsync -av /var/www/owncloud/data/ ~/owncloud-data-bak/

Now that Apache is stopped, we will move the data directory to the new location using the mv command:


sudo mv /var/www/owncloud/data /mnt/owncloud/

With the data directory relocated, we will update ownCloud so that it’s aware of this change.

Step 2 — Pointing ownCloud to the New Data Location

ownCloud stores its configurations in a single file, which we will edit with the new path to the data directory.
Open the file with the nano editor:


sudo nano /var/www/owncloud/config/config.php

Find the datadirectory variable and update its value with the new location.

/var/www/owncloud/config/config.php

. . .
'datadirectory' => '/mnt/owncloud/data',
. . .

With the data directory moved and the configuration file updated, we are ready to confirm that our files are accessible from the new storage location.

Step 3 — Starting Apache

Now, we can start Apache using the systemctl command and regain access to ownCloud:


sudo systemctl start apache2

Finally, navigate to the ownCloud web interface:

https://server_domain_or_IP/owncloud

ownCloud is a web application and does not have a way to verify the integrity of its configuration. Therefore, access to the web interface means the operation was successful.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we expanded the amount of disk space available to ownCloud. We accomplished this by moving its data directory to an additional storage volume. Although we were using a block storage device, the instructions here should be applicable for relocating the data directory regardless of the technology being used.

↧

How to Setup Fingerprint Scanner on the Galaxy Note 7

August 30, 2016, 7:03 am

≫ Next: How to Setup a Shared Network Printer in Windows 7, 8, or 10

≪ Previous: How To Move the Data Directory for ownCloud on Ubuntu 16.04

One of the easier and more common way to secure your device is to use the fingerprint scanner. For the Galaxy Note 7 there is the new and more secure iris scanner, but in the event you are wearing sunglasses to sneakily check out girls during summer, you might want the fingerprint scanner to be your back-up solution to unlocking the device.

To set up the fingerprint scanner:

Go to Lock screen and security under the Settings menu.

There you would find the option labeled Fingerprints.

Tapping Fingerprints would then require you to confirm your current security pattern, pin or password.
- You need to have a pattern or pin or alphanumeric password set up to use the fingerprint scanner.
- If the pin, pattern or password is not set-up, the device would prompt you to set it before you can go to the next step.

The Note 7 will then show a short animation that instructs you on how to register your fingerprint.
- Ensure that your finger is clean and not oily.

You need to place your finger gently on the home button and lift it up, repeating the procedure a few times while moving the finger up and down until the entire finger has been registered.

Within seconds, your Galaxy Note 7 would have scanned, digitised and stored your fingerprint data.

You then have the option to enable fingerprint lock or do so later.

The Note 7 will then bring you to the fingerprint settings menu, where you can add more fingerprints and toggle additional options.
- You can set your fingerprint scanner to replace passwords for website and to log into your Samsung account as well as use it for Samsung Pay.

You can exit the Settings menu and try unlocking the device using your set finger.

↧

How to Setup a Shared Network Printer in Windows 7, 8, or 10

August 30, 2016, 7:19 am

≫ Next: How to Setup VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.0 Part 3

≪ Previous: How to Setup Fingerprint Scanner on the Galaxy Note 7

Over the years, Windows has gotten much better about how it handles networked printers. But if you want to share a printer over the network, you may still need to do a little legwork to get it all up and running.

Here’s how it all works.

Setting up a printer on your network involves two steps. The first step is getting the printer connected to the network, and there are three ways you can do that:

Connect the printer to the network directly. This is the easiest way to set up a network printer. It doesn’t require that another PC be turned on to print (like the below methods do), and you don’t have to go through the hassle of setting up sharing. And, since most printers made within the last few years have networking built in, there’s a good chance your printer supports this option.
Connect the printer to one of your PCs and share it with the network over Homegroup. If connecting a printer directly to the network isn’t an option, you can connect it to a PC on the network and share it with Windows Homegroup. It’s easy to set up, and is optimal for networks that are made up of mostly Windows computers. This method, however, requires that the computer its connected to be up and running in order for you to use the printer.
Connect the printer to one of your PCs and share it without Homegroup. This is ideal if your network has other computers running different operating systems, if you want more control over file and printer sharing, or if Homegroup just isn’t working very well. Like the Homegroup method, this requires that the computer its connected to be up and running in order for you to use the printer.

The second step, once you’ve hooked up your printer, will be connecting other PCs to the network printer…which depends a lot on how you hooked it up. Confused yet? Don’t worry. We’re about to go over all of this.

Step-1: Connect Your Printer to the Network

First, let’s talk about getting that printer connected to your network. As we mentioned above, you have three options here. You can connect it directly to the network, you can connect it to a PC and share it through a Homegroup, or you can connect it to a PC and share it without using Homegroup.

Connect Your Printer Directly to the Network

Most printers these days have networking built in. Some come equipped with Wi-Fi, some with Ethernet, and many have both options available. Unfortunately, we can’t give you precise instructions for getting this done, since how you do it depends on the type of printer you have. If your printer has an LCD display, chances are you can find the network settings somewhere in the Settings or Tools portion of the menus. If your printer has no display, you’ll probably have to rely on some series of physical button presses to tell it whether it should use its Wi-Fi or Ethernet network adapter. Some printers even have a dedicated easy connect button that can set up the Wi-Fi for you.

If you’re having trouble setting up a printer that connects directly to the network, the manufacturer should have instructions for making it happen. Check the manual that came with your printer or the manufacturer’s web site for information on hooking it up.

Share a Printer Connected to a PC by Using a Homegroup

Sharing a printer with Homegroup is super easy. First, of course, you’ll want to make sure that the printer is connected to one of the PCs on the network and set up properly. If that PC can print to the printer, then you’re good to go.

Start by firing up the Homegroup control panel app. Click Start, type “homegroup,” and then click the selection or hit Enter.

inp_e

What you do next depends on what you see in the Homegroup window. If the PC you have the printer connected to is already part of a Homegroup, you’ll see something like the following screen. If it shows that you’re already sharing printers, then you’re done. You can skip on to step two, where you connect other PCs on the network. If you’re not already sharing printers, click the “Change what you’re sharing with the homegroup” link.

inp_f

On the “Printers & Devices” drop-down menu, choose the “Shared” option. Click Next and then you can close the Homegroup options and move on to step two.

inp_g

If there is already a Homegroup created for other PCs on the network, but the PC you’ve got your printer connected to isn’t a member, the main screen when you start the Homegroup control panel app will look something like the one below. Click the “Join now” button and then click “Next” on the following screen that just tells you a bit about Homegroups.

inp_h

Set your sharing options, making sure that “Printers and devices” is set to “Shared,” and then click “Next.”

inp_i

Type the password for the Homegroup and then click “Next.” If you don’t know the password, go to one of the other PCs on the network that is already a member of the Homegroup, launch the Homegroup control panel app, and you can look it up there.

If you’re connecting from another PC that you’ve signed onto using the same Microsoft account as the PC that’s already a member of the Homegroup, Windows 8 and 10 won’t ask for your password. Instead, Windows will authorize you automatically.

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On the final screen, click the “Finish” button and then you can move on to step two and get your other PCs on the network connected to the printer.

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And finally, if there is no Homegroup at all on your network, you’ll see something like the following screen when you open the Homegroup control panel window. To create a new homegroup, click the “Create a homegroup” button.

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The following screen just tells you a little about Homegroups. Go ahead and click “Next.”

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Choose whatever libraries and folders you want to share with the network from the PC you’re on. Just make sure that you select the “Shared” option for “Printers & Devices.” Click “Next” when you’re done making your selections.

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The final screen shows the password you’ll need for other PCs on your network to connect to the Homegroup. Write it down and then click the “Finish” button.

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Now that you’ve got your Homegroup set up and your PC is sharing its printers with it, you can skip down to step two and get those other PCs on the network connected to the printer.

Share a Printer Connected to a PC Without Using a Homegroup

If you have computers or mobile devices on your network that run an OS other than Windows 7, 8, or 10–or you just don’t want to use Homegroup for some reason–you can always use the sharing tools that have always been a part of Windows to share a printer with the network. Again, your first step is making sure the printer is connected to a PC and that you can print to it.

Click Start, type “devices and printers,” and then hit Enter or click the result.

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Right-click the printer you want to share with the network and then select “Printer properties”.

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The “Printer Properties” window shows you all kinds of things you can configure about the printer. For now, click the “Sharing” tab.

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You are informed that the printer will not be available when your computer sleeps or it is shut down. Also, if you are using password protected sharing, you are informed that only users on your network with a username and password for this computer can print to it. Credentials are a one-time thing you’ll have to enter the first time you connect another PC to the shared printer; you won’t have to do it each time you print. If you’d prefer, you can make sharing available to guests so that passwords aren’t necessary, but that setting will also apply to any files you have shared.

To proceed, enable the “Share this printer” option and, if you want, give the printer a friendlier name so that others on the network can more easily identify the printer.

The other option you can set here is whether you would like to render print jobs on client computers. If this setting is enabled, all the documents that will be printed are rendered on the computers where people are doing the printing. When this setting is disabled, the documents are rendered on the computer to which the printer is attached. If it’s a PC that someone uses actively, we recommend enabling this setting so that system performance is not impacted every time something gets printed.

When you’re done setting things up, go ahead and click “OK.”

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Now that you’ve shared the printer, other PCs on your network should be able to connect to it. So, you’re ready to move on to step two.

Step-2: Connect to Your Printer from Any PC on the Network

Now that you’ve got your printer connected to the network using one of the above methods, it’s time to turn your attention to the second part of the process: connecting other PCs on the network to that printer. How you do that really just depends on whether you’re using Homegroup or not.

Connect to a Printer That’s Shared by a PC Using a Homegroup

This is probably the easiest step in this whole tutorial. If you’ve got the printer connected to a PC and that PC is sharing the printer as part of a Homegroup, all you have to do is make sure that other PCs on the network are also joined to the Homegroup. You can use the same process we went over in Step One to get them joined. When PCs are part of the same Homegroup, Windows will automatically connect to any printers shared from other PCs. They’ll just show up in your Devices and Printers window automatically and any PC in the Homegroup can print to them. Super simple.

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Connect to a Printer Without Using Homegroup

If your printer is connected directly to a network, or is shared from a PC without using Homegroup, you’ll have to do a little more work to connect to it from other PCs on the network. It’s still pretty straightforward, though. Click Start, type “devices and printers,” and then hit Enter or click the result.

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The Devices and Printers window shows a collection of devices on your PC. Click the “Add a printer” link to get started adding your network printer.

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Windows will perform a quick scan of your network for discoverable devices that are not yet installed on your PC and display them in the “Add a device” window. Chances are high that you’ll see your printer on the list, whether it’s directly connected to the network or shared from another PC. If you see the printer you’re looking for, then your job just got super easy. Click the printer you want to install. Windows will handle the installation, download drivers if needed, and ask you to provide a name for the printer. That’s all you have to do.

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If you don’t see the printer you want to install–and you’re sure you’ve got it properly connected to the network–click the “The printer that I want isn’t listed” link. The next window will present you with several options for helping you find it:

My printer is a little older. If you select this option, Windows will perform a more thorough scan of your network looking for the printer. In our experience, though, it rarely finds anything that it didn’t already find during its initial scan. It’s an easy enough option to try, but it may take a few minutes.
Select a shared printer by name. If the network computer is shared from another PC, this is the best option for finding it. If you know the exact network name of the computer and printer, you can type it here. Or you can click the “Browse” button to look through the PCs on your network that have sharing enabled and see if you can find the printer that way.
Add a printer using a TCP/IP address or hostname. If your printer is attached directly to the network and you know its IP address, this is probably the simplest and surest option. Most network printers have a function that lets you determine their IP address. If your printer has an LCD display, you may be able to find the IP address by scrolling through the printer settings. For printers without a display, you can usually perform some sequence of button presses that will print the settings for you. If all else fails, you can always use an IP scanning app like Wireless Network Watcher to locate devices on your network
Add a Bluetooth, wireless, or network discoverable printer. If you choose this option, Windows will scan for those types of devices. Again, we’ve rarely seen it pick up a device that it didn’t find during the initial scan. But, it still may be worth a try.
Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings. This option may help you get a printer added if nothing else works. It’s mostly for configuring a local printer by specifying exact port information, but there is one setting in particular that can help with network printers if you know the model. When asked to specify a port, you can choose a Windows Self Discovery option, which is listed toward the bottom of the available ports as “WSD” followed by a string of numbers and letters. When you choose that, Windows will ask you to specify a model so that it can install drivers. When you’re done, Windows will then monitor the network for that printer. It’s a longshot, but it’s worth a try if all else fails.

You’ll find all these options are pretty straightforward and feature short wizards for walking you through the process. Since TCP/IP is the surest way to get a printer added, we’re going to continue with that as our example. Select “Add a printer using a TCP/IP address or hostname” and then click “Next.”

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Type the IP address for the printer into the “Hostname or IP address” box. Make sure the “Query the printer and automatically select the driver to use” check box is selected and then click “Next.”

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Type a new name for printer if the default name doesn’t suit you and then click “Next.”

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Choose whether to set the new printer as the default, print a test page if you want to make sure everything’s working, and then click “Finish” when you’re done.

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Hopefully, you never need to bother with most of this stuff. If your network printer is properly connected to the network, the chances are high that Windows will pick it up and install it for you right off the bat. And if your network is mostly Windows machines and you use Homegroup for sharing files and printers, things should also happen mostly automatically. If it doesn’t–or if you have a more complicated setup–at least you know you have some options.

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How to Setup VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.0 Part 3

August 30, 2016, 10:20 pm

≫ Next: How to Setup VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.0 Part 2

≪ Previous: How to Setup a Shared Network Printer in Windows 7, 8, or 10

In this part of article series, we will walk you through Site Recovery Manager inventory mappings. Inventory mappings involves in mapping the resources (clusters and resource pools), folders, and networks of the Protected Site to the Recovery Site. This step is required because we use 2 differenet vCenter servers installed that are not linked by common data source.

When your Recovery Plan is invoked for testing or for real DR, the SRM server at the Recovery Site needs to know your preferences for bringing your replicated VMs online. Although the recovery location has the virtual machine files by virtue of third-party replication software, the metadata that comprises the vCenter inventory is not replicated. It is up to the SRM administrator to decide how this “soft” vCenter data is handled. The SRM administrator needs to be able to indicate what resource pools, networks, and folders the replicated VMs will use.

This means that when VMs are recovered they are brought online in the correct location and function correctly. Specifically, the important issue is network mappings. If you don’t get this right, the VMs that are powered on at the Recovery Site might not be accessible across the network. out of that we will going to discuss about SRM resource mapping in this particular post.

Resource mappings define which compute resources are used at the recovery site ,when virtual machines are recovered. For Example, You have the Specific cluster or Resource pool in which Exchange mailboxes are hosted in your protection site called “Exchange”. You need to define the mapping to bring that particular Exchange Mailboxes in the Specific Cluster or Resource Pool called “Exchange-DR” in recovery site during test recovery or in actual disaster recovery. For achieve this, you need to configure the Resource mapping at SRM.

To configure resource mapping: Login to your Protected site vCenter using vSphere Web Client -> SRM plugin -> Select the Protected site and Click on Create Resource Mapping

This step involves in mapping the resources from your protected site to recovery site. For example, I have Production ESXi host called “Prod-esxi1” and I am going to creating resource mapping for my prod esxi host in DR site by mapping the esxi host “dr-esxi1” in my recovery site. This step will ensure that all the VM’s running in my Prod-esxi1 host will be powered on dr-esxi1 host with the help of storage replication. This is just an front end. We need to ensure that the replication LUN’s are mapped to the dr esxi host to bring the VM’s on the DR host.

To configure Mapping,Select the the Esxi host in protected site and Select the mapping object in the recovery site and click on Add Mapping.

In specific cluster or host, you may be running various applications under resource pools for resource reservations or for manageability reasons. You may need the same structure of resource pools in your DR site to manage your recovered virtual machines. To achieve that, Create the resource pools in your DR site first and then configure the resource mapping between protected site and recovery site. For Example, I want the vm’s in the resource pools “prod-App”, “Prod-DB” & “Prod-web” in my protected site to be powered on under “DR-App”, “DR-DB” & “DR-web” during test recovery or actual DR recovery, So i have selected the resource pool in Protected site with the appropriate mapping object in recovery site and click on Add mappings.

Select the objects to configure the reverse mappings. This step automatically create reverse mapping on the paired site. This help you during failover of your vm’s from recovered site back to protected site. For examples, vm’s running under my DR-APP resource pool after recovery will be powered back on under Prod-App during failback from recovery to protected site. To configure reverse mapping for all the mapped objects, click on Select all applicable and click on Finish.

We can notice that resource mappings are created between protected site and recovery site. You can view or reconfigure the resource mappings by browsing Protected site ->Manage Tab -> Resource Mappings.

We have completed Site Recovery Manager Resource mapping configuration. Remember, whenever you create new resource pools or clusters in your protected site, we need to configure the resource mapping for that newly created object in your recovery site.

Configuring SRM Folder Mapping

In most vSphere environments, Virtual machines and data centers organized into folders in vCenter server. In real production environment, There are thousands of virtual machines running in your production vCenter server. Without folder mapping, all your virtual machines will be dumped under datacenter at recovery site during the test recovery or during actual DR recovery. Folder mapping will help you for better management and planning.

This Folder hierarchies are used to help you organize which virtual machines are only local and whichones come from the protected site. These hierarchies also help you categorize virtual machines by their purpose, their recovery point objective and recovery time objective, or some other important factor.

To configure the Folder mapping, Login to your Protected site vCenter server using vSphere web client.Click on SRM plugin -> Select Protected site vCenter and Click on Create Folder mapping under inventory mappings.

You have 2 options to configure the folder mapping either automatically prepare mappings for folders with matching names or to prepare mappings manually. I am choosing the option to prepare folder mappings manually and click on Next.

Select the Datacenter or folder from the protected site and select appropriate mapping folder in the right side from recovery site and click on Add Mappings to add the folder mappings.

Below screen i have selected the folder mapping between my protected site and DR site. click on Next.

Select all applicable to configure the reverse mappings. Reverse mappings option will automatically create reverse mappings on the paired site. Click on Finish.

Once Folder mappings are created, you can view or edit the folder mappings under Manage tab -> Folder mappings.

We are done with configuring the SRM folder mappings. In the Next step, we will setup Site Recovery Manager Network mappings.

Configuring SRM Network Mapping

One of the important step in SRM inventory mappings. Network mapping needs to configured properly. If you don’t get this configured correctly, the VMs that are powered on at the Recovery Site might not be accessible across the network. Network mappings can only be related to Virtual machine port groups.You cannot map management network or VMkernel port groups.

You need to more cautions with network mappings on recovery site because Site Recovery manager does not validate whether the port group that you map is correct portgroup or not. I would recommend you to create the similar Port groups names with some prefix like Prod_ or DR_ in the virtual machines Port group in protected site and recovery site. It will help you to easily configure the network mappings.

To configure the network mapping, Login to your Protected vCenter server using vSphere Web client and click on SRM in the home page, Select Protected site vCenter in the list and Select Configure Network mapping under inventory mapping.

There are two options to configure the network mapping first one is automatically prepare mappings for networks with matching names and second one is prepare mappings manually. I want to configure the networks mapping manually between protected site and recovery site.

As i recommended earlier, it would be best to name your port which can be easliy identify from the port group names. I have named production network with prefix Prod_ and recovery site network with the prefix DR_. Select the network from the protected site in the left side and select the appropriate network port group in the recovery site and Click on Add mappings.

Similarly configure the network mappings between protected site and recovery site networks and click on next.

Select all applicable to configure the reverse mapping for the paired site. Which creates the network mapping between DR site and protected site. Click on Finish.

Once network mappings are created, you will be able to view and edit the network mappings under manage -> Network mappings.

We are done with configuring Site Recovery Manager Network mapping. In the next step, we will discuss about configuring Placeholder datastore.

Configuring SRM Placeholder Datastores

A placeholder datastore is used to store the placeholder virtual machines at the recovery site. A placeholder datastore reserves a place for protected virtual machines in the recovery sites inventory. Placeholder datastores does not need to be replicated and it must be visible to all esxi hosts in the cluster. Placeholder datastore needs to established in both primary and secondary sites to facilitate the reprotection.The placeholder datastore can be on local storage or shared storage available to all ESXi hosts in the cluster.

A placeholder virtual machine is nothing but a subset of virtual machine files that is created ,when a virtual machine is added to a recovery plan. It cannot be powered on. A placeholder virtual machine provides a visual cue in the recovery site inventory that a virtual machine is protected. Only function of placeholder virtual machine is to reserve a place in the inventory of the recovery site. Placeholder virtual machines are composed only of very few files *.vmx, *.vmxf, and *.vmsd files. The disk files (*.vmdk) are not present. The placeholder virtual machine files have a size of approximately 1KB each.

When you add vm’s to the SRM protection group, SRM creates a placeholder virtual machine at recovery site . It also derives its folder and compute assignmnets from the inventory mappings which we have configured in our previous posts. You can easily identify the placeholder virtul machines by their unique icon on the recovery site.

To configure the Site Recovery Manager Placeholder Datastore, Click on Configure Placeholder datastore option under guide to Configure SRM.

Select the datastore from the list to be used as Placeholder datastore for your production cluster. Placeholder datastore can be local or remote. You should use the non-replicated lun. I would recommend you to name the datastore to match up with the cluster name along with keyword “Placeholder” to easily identify it. Once you have selected the datastore, click on ok.

Placeholder is configured and it is appearing under Manage-> Placeholder Datastores.

We have done configuring Placeholder datastore for your protected site cluster. Similarly we need to choose the non-replicated datastore to configure placeholder datastore for your recovery site cluster. Click on Ok.

We are done with creating SRM placeholder datastore. In the next step, we will discuss about creating SRM protection groups.

Creating SRM Protection Group

Site Recovery Manager Protection groups can be created to group virtual machines for protection. SRM protection groups will be different for array-based replicated virtual machines and vSphere replication replicated virtual machines. You cannot create protection groups by grouping both types of replication. In simple terms, A protection group is a group of virtual machines that fail over together at the recovery site during a test or a actual recovery using VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager. In actual Production environment, you can create protection group based on Cluster or application type or array based replication groups based on the datastore groups. An array-based protection group can contain one or more datastore groups.

To create a new protection group, Click on “Create Protection Group” under guide to configure SRM in the SRM homepage of the vSphere Web Client. Specify the name and location for the protection group.

Select the Protected site and type of replication for this protection group. I have configured array based replication for my 3-Tier applications servers and all the 3 tier application virtual machines are stored on the datastores, which are configured as part of array based replication. So that I have selected Array based replication(ABR) under the replication type and select the array pair and click on Next.

Select the datastore groups from the below list to be grouped to use for this protection group. All the virtual machines stored on these datastore groups will be recovered together as part of this protection group. Click on Next.

Review all the information, which you have selected to create this SRM protection group and click on Finish.

We are done with creating SRM protection group. In the next step, we will discuss in detail about creating SRM recovery plans.

Creating SRM Recovery Plans

vCenter Site recovery manager recovery plan is a automated plan for recovering protected virtual machines to the recovery site. SRM recovery plan includes one or more protection groups. You can include a protection group in more than one recovery plan. You create one recovery plan to handle a planned migration or other can be created only to recovery specific application or services by only including specific protection groups as part of the recovery plan. Recovery plans can be used for Test recovery,planned migration to the recovery site or for disaster recovery.

A vCenter Site Recovery Manager recovery plan includes the following information:

A list of virtual machines from protection groups
A startup and priority order for those virtual machines
Any custom steps added before or after virtual machine startup

You can configure the recovery plans to include custom actions during recovery like IP customization for virtual machines, Custom scripts before vm start up and you can define the priority of virtual machines, etc. Recovery plans can be configured to use an isolated internal network for testing. Automatically generated virtual switches have no physical adapters. When you are performing the test recovery, You can use the isolated network for the recovered virtual machines to connect to avoid disturbance to the production virtual machines.

To create SRM recovery plan, Click on Create Recovery plan under recovery plans in the SRM section of vSphere Web client. Enter the name and description for the recovery plan and select the location for this recovery plan. Click on Next.

Select the recovery site in which the vm’s will be recovered as part of this recovery plan. My DR site is “win-dr-vc”. Si i have selected it as recovery site. Click on Next.

Select the list of protection groups which will be included as part of this recovery plan. I have created only one Protection group called “3Tier-PG”. So i have selected that protection group to use for this recovery plan. if you have multiple protection groups, please select the protection groups based on your need and click on next.

You can the specify the test networks to use while running tests of this recovery plan. You can manually select the test networks if you have created for the test purposes or you can leave the default auto created test network called “isolated network”. Automatically generated virtual switches have no physical adapters. When you are performing the test recovery, You can use the isolated network for the recovered virtual machines to connect to avoid disturbance to the production virtual machines. I am keeping the auto created isolated network as my test network. Click on Next.

Review all the settings selections specified during the recovery plan creation and click on finish to create the recovery plans.

Once the recovery plan is created, you will be able to see the recovery plans created under the recovery plans. You can edit the recovery plans to include the custom steps and vm priority ,etc.

We are done with creating SRM recovery plan. In the next step, we will take a look at how to run a test recovery using this recovery plans.

Running SRM Test Recovery

Test recovery is nothing but a testing a recovery plan exercises with every aspect of recovery plan. Site recovery manager ensures that test recovery will avoid disruption in ongoing operations on the protected and recovery site. You can run test recovery at time like every hour, every day, every month or quarter. Recovery plans that suspend local virtual machines do so for tests and for actual recoveries. With this exception,running a test recovery does not disrupt replication or ongoing activities at either site. It is always recommended to run recovery plan test as often as needed to ensure that your actual DR plan is working as expected.

You can run the test recovery, once all the SRM configuration is done. You can verify in the summary tab that all the configuration steps for SRM is displayed with Green tickmark.

To run a test recovery, Select the recovery Plans -> Monitor tab -> Recovery Steps -> Click on Green Arrow (Play button) to run the test recovery. Please be cautious in selecting the Test recovery option. if you have selected the actual recovery instead of test recovery, will start recovery of your production virtual machines and it creates the impact to the production. You can view the lists of recovery steps which will be executed as part of this recovery plan.

Once you have clicked on the Green Arrow button to start the test recovery, recovery will run in test mode and it will recover the virtual machines in a test environment on the recovery site. You have storage option whether to replicate recent changes to the recovery site or not. This process may take several minutes to complete the replication of recent changes to recovery site. It is up to you run the test recovery with recent changes or not. I have selected the option to replicate recent changes to recovery site. Click on Next.

Review your settings selections before initiating the recovery test and click on Finish.

Once test recovery is executed, you will be able to see the series of recovery steps involved as part of this recovery plans and its progress percentage. Since i have selected the option to “Replicate recent changes to recovery site”, i can see that Synchronize Storage step is going on as part of this test recovery plan execution.

I am curious to monitor the background process of “Synchronize Storage” recovery step from the storage console. I have configured HP StoreVirtual VSA as my array based replication storage. When i monitor it from the HP StoreVirtual Centralized management console, It can notice that ongoing replication between my Production volume and DR volume. It can see the replication chain established between the Volumes.Replication and protection of the protected environment are not affected during tests.

Temporary snapshots of replicated storage are created at the recovery site. For array-based replication, the arrays are rescanned to discover replicated VMFS datastores.

You can monitor the Progress Percentage of each recovery steps before Test recovery is getting completed.

Once test recovery is completed, You can see the Plan status will display “Test Complete”. and status of each recovery steps will be Success.

Each recovery steps in recovery plan will have substeps involved. For example, When i expan the Power on VMs will have around 7 sub steps including Configure storage, Test network, Guest startup, Customize IP if you have added, Guest shutdown, Power on and Wait for VMware tools. All this steps in test recovery don’t cause any distribution to actual virtual machines.

Once the test recovery is completed, I can see the virtual machines part of the protection group as part of this recovery plan is powered on in both protected and recovery site without interruption to your production virtual machines. This is beauty of the SRM.

We are done with running the test recovery and ensured that our DR recovery plan is working as expected. In the next step, we will see how to clean up the test recovery.

Cleaning up Test Recovery

Once your test recovery is completed and you have validated that your recovery plan is working as expected. You can run a recovery plan cleanup. Recovery plan cleanup returns virtual machines to their initial state before the recovery plan test was run. The recovery plan is reset to a ready state. You can run a forced cleanup, if you experience errors during a recovery plan.

Recovery Plan Cleanup has series of steps and below are the cleanup steps:

Test virtual machines that were started during recovery plan testing are powered off.
Virtual machines that were suspended during the recovery plan test are resumed.
The recovery site storage is reset to the pre-test state.
Placeholder virtual machines are restored.
Replicated storage snapshots that were used by the virtual machines during the test are discarded.

To Cleanup the test recovery, Click on the Brush symbol under Recovery plan -> Monitor -> Recovery steps to clean up the recent test recovery.

Running a cleanup operation on this plan will remove the test environment and remove the test environment and reset the plan to ready state. Click on Next after reading the Cleanup Confirmation.

Review the clean information and click on Finish to start the start the Recovery test cleanup.

Monitor the progress of the test recovery cleanup process.

Recovery plan cleanup returns virtual machines to their initial state before the recovery plan test was run and it reset it to “Ready” state.

You can notice that Virtual machines recovered as part of the test recovery in recovered site are in powered off state now. All done. Recovery plan is ready to test again.

We are done with cleaning up our test recovery and recovery plan is ready to test again or for actual recovery.

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How to Setup VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.0 Part 2

August 30, 2016, 10:38 pm

≫ Next: How to Setup VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.0 Part 1

≪ Previous: How to Setup VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.0 Part 3

First step after the Site Recovery Manager installation is pairing the SRM Protected and Recovery sites. This process is called as Site Pairing. Once site pairing is completed, you will be able to see both the 2 SRM sites start appearing under site recovery plug-in in vSphere web client. Site pairing can be done either at the protected site or the recovery site. SRM site pairing is a straight forward and simple procedure.

This article will walk you through step by step procedure to configure SRM site pairing.

Login to your Protected Site vCenter server using vSphere web client and click on “Site Recovery” Plug-in in the home page. Select Sites.

Under Sites, You will be able to see the Protected Site name. Click on Summary Tab and Click on “Pair Sites” under Guide to Configure SRM.

Provide the Platform service controller address of your SRM remote site (recovery site).The address that you provide for the Platform Services Controller must be an exact match of the of address that you provided when you installed Site Recovery Manager Server on the remote site. Leave the Port number as default ,if you dont have any custom port for PSC. Click Next.

This page displays the vCenter Server instance in which Site Recovery Manager Server is registered on the remote site. Enter the vCenter server Single sign-on (SSO) credentials and click on Finish. The connection process proceeds automatically after authentication with the correct privileges established.

Once site Pairing is established between protected and recovery site. You will be able to see the remote site appears under Sites in the Site Recovery Manager interface. It displays the information about the primary site and Paired site.

You will be able to see the same information even if you connect to the remote site vCenter server using vSphere Web client. Whereas it displays the paired site as your primary site.

We have completed Site Recovery Manager site pairing.

Installing Storage Replication Adapters (SRAs)

Storage Replication Adapters (SRA) is a program provided by a storage array vendor that enables vCenter Site Recovery Manager to work with the vendors array. An SRA is used by an array manager, a vCenter Site Recovery Manager component that helps to identify available arrays and replicated LUNs.

Once you have paired the Protected site and recovery site, You must configure an SRM array manager for array based replication. Configuring Array manager is not required if you have used VMware’s native replication “vSphere Replication”. An array manager uses a storage replication adapter (SRA). An SRA communicates with an array manager over a communication port that is defined by the storage vendor.

You must download and install the suitable Storage replication adapter for your storage array. SRA should be installed on the same server where VMware SRM is installed. You can download the Storage Replication Adapters for your VMware SRM in the list.

Storage Replication Adapters(SRAs) performs the below functions:

Array Discovery
Recognize the replicated logical unit number (LUNs)
Initiation of recovery plan tests and execution

Download the suitable SRA software for your storage vendor and model. Double-click SRA installer to begin the installation. I will be installing SRA adapter on my Protected site first. SRA should be installed on the server, where SRM is installed.

Click on Next to begin the HP StoreVirtual Storage Replication Adapter software.

Accept the End-User License agreement and click on Next.

Provide the Username and Company name for the SRA installer and click on Next.

Click on Install to begin the SRA installation.

Once installation is completed, click on Finish to close the installation wizard.

We are done with the installation of HP StoreVirtual SRA on the Protected site. You can see the status of the SRA installation from the vSphere Web client. My primary site detected the SRA installation and it showing error about the SRA at the paired site i.e recovery site.

Follow the same SRA installation procedure on your DR site (recovery site) SRM server. Once both the protected and recovery site are installed with Storage Replication Adapters, You will notice the Green Check Mark in the status of SRAs.

We have completed the installation of Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) on both Protected and recovery site.

Configuring SRM Array Manager

During the Array Manager configuration, you need to specify the information about the storage array that you want to use. VMware site recovery manager uses this information to discover the array available to SRM host and the replicated LUNs for it. Array manager configuration causes VMware SRM to compute datastore groups based on set of replicated storage devices that it discovers.

If you are using arrays from multiple vendors, you need to install SRA from each storage vendor on the SRM server. You typically configure array mangers only once. You do not have to reconfigure array managers, unless array manager connection information or credentials change or to use a different set of arrays.

Adding SRM Array Manager:

To add an Array Manager, Login to vSphere Web client, Click on SRM and Select the Protected site -> Array Based Replication -> Click on “+” to launch Add Array Manager Wizard.

To add array managers for both my Protected and recovery site at one shot, Click on Add a pair of array managers. You will be prompted to add two array managers, one for each site. You then enable the discovered array pairs for use with SRM. Click on Next.

Since i have selected add pair of array managers, Select the pair of sites i.e your protected site and recovery site. Verify the displayed site information and click on Next.

It automatically detects the type of Storage Replication Adapters (SRAs) installed on both the site and status of SRA. Click on Next.

Enter the display name , IP address and credentials for you primary site array manager. In my case, my protected site HP StoreVirtual VSA IP is 192.168.0.160. Click on Next.

Enter the display name , IP address and credentials for you recovery site array manager. In my case, my recovery site HP StoreVirtual VSA IP is 192.168.0.170. Click on Next.

Select the check box to enable the array pairs and click on Next.

Review the specified information for array manager and click on Finish.

Once adding array manager task is completed, you will be able to see the both the array managers with status OK under Array based Replication objects.

You will be able to monitor the replicated storage information by selecting the array manager and Manage tab-> Array Pairs. It will display the direction of replication either outgoing or incoming replication. From my Production array manager, I have one LUN being replicated to the DR site and direction of the replication is outgoing replication.

Below screen is the replication information for my DR array manager, It shows the replication direction as incoming replication. DRvolume1 is getting replication from my Prod-volume.

We have completed configuration of SRM array manager. In the part 3 of this article series, we will be creating SRM resource mappings.

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How to Setup VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.0 Part 1

August 30, 2016, 10:42 pm

≫ Next: How to Setup VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.0 Array Based Replication

≪ Previous: How to Setup VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.0 Part 2

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) is a disaster recovery and business continuity solution from the VMware,which automates the transfer of virtual machines to a local or remote recovery site. SRM works perfectly with the existing vSphere software and it operates as an extension of vCenter server. SRM automates the recovery or migration of virtual machines between protected site and a recovery site.

Protected site is nothing but your primary site where active production workloads are running and recovery site is the datacenter location where you want to move your production workloads in case of Disaster like natural calamities in your primary datacenter. Virtual machines are moved to recover from a disaster or as a planned migration. vCenter Site Recovery Manager facilitates the clean shutdown of virtual machines at the protected site for a planned migration.

VMware SRM is used with array-based replication software. You can also use VMware’s native replication, called VMware vSphere Replication. vSphere Replication copies virtual machines from one host to another, using the power of the hosts involved rather than the storage system. Below are the high level recommendation to setup SRM:

vSphere environment including vCenter should be deployed on both Protected site and recovery site.
Array based replication is established between protected and recovery site using third party storage vendors. Optionally you can utilize vSphere Replication as a native solution, if you don’t have array based replication.
VMware Site recovery manager software needs to be installed on both Protected and recovery site.
VMware Administrators use SRM to create disaster recovery plans.
VMware Administrator can use recovery plans to initiate Recovery tests or actual recovery.

Architecture of VMware Site Recovery Manager:

As we already discussed, VMware SRM can be used along with array based replication or vSphere Replication or combination of both. Below architecture diagram is the combination of both array based replication and vSphere replication.

You need to have same version of vCenter and SRM installed on both protected and recovery site. SRM plug-in must be added to vSphere web client. Since SRM 5.8, SRM plugin integrated only with Web Client and no plug-ins available for vSphere client.

Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) is the Code written by our storage partners to allow SRM to communicate with storage arrays. You need to install Storage replication adapter (SRA) from the respective vendor in the SRM server to use array based replication. In case of using array-based replication, the same replication technology must be available at both sites, and the arrays must be paired. If you are using vSphere Replication, it’s required a vSphere Replication appliance on both sites. The vSphere Replication appliances must be connected to each other and be the same version.

VR Appliance (vSphere Replication Appliance)– this used to be called the “VRMS”, and provided management capabilities for the VR framework. This function persists in the VR Appliance, and “VRS” functionality has been integrated with the appliance.

VR Server (VRS) is vSphere Replication Server – an optional scaling component.This provides a replication target. This functionality is included in the VR Appliance, but to scale to higher than 100 replications, additional VR Server instances can be deployed.

vSphere Replication Agent (VRA) Present on every vSphere 5.x host, it only becomes active when a protected VM is writing data.

Network file copy (NFC) protocol is used to commit network based disk writes by vSphere. The VRS receives replicated blocks and distributes them via NFC to the vSphere hosts for writing to storage.

In this entire series of article, we will show you step by step procedure on how to configure VMware SRM 6.0 using array based replication

VMware SRM 6.0 installation

VMware Site Recovery Manager is a software component and it can be installed separately on dedicated server or installed with the same server in vCenter server is installed. I would recommend to install SRM on dedicated server for production scenarios.

Pre-requisites

Install the same version of Platform Services Controller,vCenter Server and Site Recovery Manager on both sites(Protected and Recovery site)
Site Recovery Manager can be installed on Dedicated server or on the same system as vCenter server is installed. SRM requires supported version of Windows operating system. In case vCenter Server appliance, You need to install SRM on dedicated windows server.
Make use of fully qualified domain names (FQDN) rather than IP addresses when you install and configure Platform Services Controller , vCenter Server , vSphere Replication and Site Recovery Manager.
You should have Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server ready before installing SRM 6.0. Obtain the address of the Platform Services Controller instance for both sites. The Platform Services Controller must be running and accessible during Site Recovery Manager installation.
Obtain the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user name and password for both of the local and remote sites
Make use of centralized NTP servers to synchronize the clock settings of the systems on which Platform Services Controller, vCenter Server,vSphere Replication and Site Recovery Manager Server. Maintain the consistence time between all systems.
Obtain a Windows user account with the appropriate privileges to install and run SRM service. You can configure the Site Recovery Manager service to run under a specified user account. The account can be a local user or a domain user.
Site Recovery Manager requires a database. SRM can be installed either with embedded Embedded vPostgres Database or an external database sources like Microsoft SQL or Oracle. If you are using external database for SRM installation, Site Recovery Manager requires a database source name (DSN) for 64-bit open database connectivity (ODBC). You can create the ODBC system DSN before you run the Site Recovery Manager installer, or you can create the DSN during the installation process
To use Site Recovery Manager with vSphere Replication, deploy the appropriate version of vSphere Replication on both of the protected and recovery sites before you install Site Recovery Manager Server.
Download the Site Recovery Manager 6.0 installation file to a folder on the machine on which to install Site Recovery Manager on both primary site and recovery site.

Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.0 Installation:

I have 2 vCenter servers (one in Production and other one as recovery site (DR site)). We need to run the SRM setup in both protected and recovery site. I will be running the SRM installation on my Protected vCenter first (protection site).

To run the setup, double click SRM installation file to start the installation.

In the SRM installation wizard, Click on Next to start the installation and followed by standard license agreement.

Select the destination folder for the Site Recovery Manager installation and click on Next.

For SRM 6.0 installation, We need to specify the Platform Services Controller address to register SRM with PSC. You can specify hostname or IP address of PSC during the installation. As a best practice, It is recommend to use FQDN names throughout the installation of all components like vCenter, SRM, vSphere Replication etc. Specify the Single sign-on (SSO) administrative credentials to perform administrative actions on the Platform services controller.

Select the vCenter Server instance from the drop-down to register Site Recovery Manager and click Next. My Production vCenter server is “win-vc-01”.

Specify the Local Site name for the SRM site. This specified name will appear in SRM interface. By default, vCenter Server address will be used, if you didn’t specify any name during the installation. Enter administrator email address for this site and Select the IP address of the local host from the drop-down to be used by SRM. If you have dual IP address in the server, Select the appropriate IP address for the SRM installation.

Select the default Site Recovery Manager plug-in identifier (if you are installing SRM with standard configuration with one protected site and one recovery site) or select create a Custom Site Recovery Manager Plug-in identifier (when you install Site Recovery Manager in a shared recovery site configuration, with multiple protected sites and one recovery site). In my Lab , I am going to install with standard configuration i.e one Protected and one recovery So selected the option of default SRM Plug-id and Proceed with Next step.

You can either use the option to automatically generate a certificate or Use Custom certificate file, if you have any and click on Next.

Specify the Organization and Organization Unit. Click on Next.

You can use either the embedded database (vPostgres database) or a custom external database for the SRM installation. To use an external database, Select an existing 64-bit DSN from the drop-down menu or Click on DSN setup to create a new 64-bit DSN for SRM database. I am going to use embedded database option for my SRM installation.

Proceed with the next step

Provide the data source name, DB username and password. Leave the remaining settings to default and click on next.

Select the user account under which to run the Site Recovery Manager Server service and click Next. It can be a Local system account or an Active directory domain account. Click on Next.

Click on Install to start the SRM installation.It will take few minutes to complete the Site Recovery Manager installation.

Click on Finish to complete the Site recovery manager installation.

Once installation is completed, you can notice the 2 windows related services “VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Server” & VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Embedded database” running on the server , where SRM is installed. Ensure both the services are started.

Once installation completed and SRM related services are started, Login to your Protected site vCenter Server using vSphere Web Client. You can notice the Site Recovery Icon will start appearing in the Web Client. NOTE: From SRM 5.8, there are no plug-in available with vSphere c# client.

Once SRM installation is Completed on your production site (Protected site), initiate the SRM installation on your recovery site using the same procedure. My recover site vCenter server is “win-dr-vc.md.local”.

Once SRM installation completed on the both protected and recovery site. Login to vSphere Web Client of both vCenter server using web client. Click on “Site Recovery” plug-in. You will be able to see your SRM site names which you specified during the installation under sites in each vCenter server.

We have completed with installation of Site Recovery Manager on both Protected and recovery site and we verified that SRM plugin and site name is appearing under sites in both vCenter. Next step is to Pair the both protected and recovery site.

If you don't know How to Setup VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.0 Array Based Replication, please go through the step by step guide.

↧

How to Setup VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.0 Array Based Replication

August 31, 2016, 8:44 am

≫ Next: How to Use Windows 10 “Quick Assist” to Remotely Troubleshoot a Remote PC

≪ Previous: How to Setup VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.0 Part 1

In the Previous posts of SRM series, We have discussed about SRM architecture , SRM installation and SRM Site Pairing. Before we add Array Manager at the SRM configuration, we need to have the storage replication setup ready. VMware Site Recovery Manager supports two type of replication:

Storage array based replication
VMware’s native vSphere Replication

As we already discussed in previous posts, we are going to utilize the array based replication for this SRM series of posts. For lab or testing purpose, Storage based replication using enterprise SAN storage is not feasible. You can go for vSphere Replication based replication or another option if you would like to test the array based replication in your SRM lab setup is using HP Storevirtual VSA. HP StoreVirtual VSA is a Virtual Storage Appliance that provides complete array functionality for VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V environments without need of external storage array hardware.

HP StoreVirtual VSA transforms your server’s internal or direct-attached storage into a fully-featured shared storage array without the cost and complexity associated with dedicated storage. StoreVirtual VSA is a virtual storage appliance optimized for VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V environments.It creates a virtual array within your application server and scales as storage needs evolve. The ability to use internal storage within your environment greatly increases storage utilization, and eliminates the costs and complexity associated with dedicated external storage.Its built-in high availability and disaster recovery features ensure business continuity for the entire virtual environment.

You can regsiter for the HP storeVirtual VSA and download from HP website. You need to download 2 packages 1. HP StoreVirtual VSA installer for vSphere and 2.Centralized Management console for Windows (CMC), Which is the management console for performing all storage related activities like Provisioning, Lun allocation and replication configuration.

Deploying HP StoreVirtual VSA on VMware vSphere:

Double click the HP StoreVirtual VSA Installer for VMware vSphere installer. Specify the location to extract all the necessary files.

Once all the necessary files are extracted, you will be provided with Virtual_SAN_Appliance_launcher. Select any one of the option to run the Virtual SAN appliance installer. I have entered 2 to begin the installation using HP Lefthand Graphical User Interface (GUI) wizard.

HP StoreVirtual Installer wizard will start. It will be same experience as deploying any virtual appliance in your VMware vSphere. Click on Next to begin the installation.

Accept the End user license agreement and click on Next.

HP VSA installer will also provide you the option to install Centralized Management console (CMC) but we will install it later. Select Skip CMC installation checkbox and click on Next.

Specify the IP address or hostname of the vSphere ESXi host or vCenter server on which virtual appliance will be deployed. As i am deploying this VSA in my protected site first, I specified one of the ESXi host from the Protected site vCenter. Specify the credentials for it and click on Next.

It displays the all the information about the specified ESXi like ESXi build version and datastore details,etc . Click on Next to proceed.

Select HP StoreVirtual under the Installation type. You can also choose to enable the additional features like Space reclamation feature and multi-tier storage support. Click on Next.

Select the datastore on which HP StoreVirtual VSA virtual machine to be deployed and click on Next.

Specify the Virtual appliance DNS name and IP address details for this VSA virtual appliance. Select the virtual machine portgroup for this VM to connect to. Click on Next.

Since I am deploying it first in protected site, I named it as VSA01. Select the drive type to VMDK and click on Next.

This step allows you to add the additional virtual data disks. This will be the storage that will be used to create volumes and present as LUN to ESXi hosts. For this Lab environment deployment, I have added 80 GB disk. Click on Next.

The below wizard “Configure and Install another virtual appliance” allows to deploy a second appliance from the same deployment wizard. As i discussed already, we need to deploy 2 HP StoreVirtual VSA. one for Protected site and one recovery site to establish a replication between them. I selected “I am done” because i will deploy the second VSA on my recovery site later after this deployment. Click on Next.

It will take few minutes to complete the HP StoreVirtual VSA virtual machine deployment. Once you see the message “Successfully deployed” Click on Finish to complete the installation.

HP StoreVirtual VSA in the Protected site deployment is completed. You need to follow the same procedure for your recovery site. Specify the ESXi host from your recovery vCenter server to deploy the second HP VSA. I have named it as VSA02 and deployed. In the next step,we will take a look at the procedure for installing centralized Management Console.

Installing HP Store Virtual VSA Centralized Management Console (CMC)

Installation of HP CMC is straight forward process and simple. The HP VSA centralized management console allows us to centrally manage VSA appliances and other tasks like adding hosts, presenting storage to host, configuring replication between VSA appliance, etc.,which will help you to make everything happen via GUI. HP CMC needs to be installed on the Windows server. Since it is lab environment, I have installed it on one of my vCenter server.Let’s discuss in detail about the setp by step procedure of installation HP Centralized management console (CMC).

To begin the installation of HP StoreVirtual CMC, double click the setup file.

Click on OK to begin the installation of HP StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console.

Click on Next.

You can customize the installation of HP CMC. I am going with the typical settings for my installation. Click on Next.

Click on Next to complete the installation of the HP Centralized Management Console.

We have completed the installation of HP StoreVirtual Centralized Management Console (CMC). We will go through in detail about configuring HP VSA and other tasks in the next steps.

Configuring HP StoreVirtual VSA Management Group

After the installation of CMC,when you launch the CMC for first time, it automatically detects the VSA appliances, which are all part of the same subnet. I have deployed 2 HP StoreVirtual VSA appliance. VSA1 for my Protected site and VSA2 for my recovery site. If the CMC console didn’t detected your VSA, you need to discover it using the “Find” menu.

Once your VSA is discovered, click on “Log in to view” to connect to the VSA and to view more information about it.

Once you logged into VSA, you will be able to see the IP Address, Model,RAID status,software version,Disk type,etc.

Creating Management Group

As we already discussed, We have deployed 2 HP StoreVirtual VSA one for protected and other for recovery site.I am going to use this HP StoreVirtual VSA as my array based replication for my SRM setup. I am going to create 2 management group “Production-Group” for protected site and “DR-Group” for recovery site. Add VSA01 to Production-Group and VSA02 to DR-Group.A Management Group is a logical container which allow the management of one or more HP StoreVirtual VSAs, as well as physical appliances counterpart, both on single-site and multi-site configurations.

To add the VSA to management group, right click the VSA node and select, “Add to new management group”.

Enter the management group name and select the VSA from the below list to add it into the group. I am creating “production-Group” management group and adding VSA01 into it. Click on Next.

Add an administrative user for the management group. Specify the username, description, password. Click On Next.

Once you configured the NTP and DNS settings.Click on next to select the type of cluster. Select Standard or Multi-Site Cluster. A Multi-Site cluster is necessary if site fault tolerance is needed. Since i have only VSA node in this management group. I have selected Standard cluster.

Specify the cluster name and select the VSA which is going to be part of this cluster. I specified the name “Prod-Cluster” and added VSA01 node into it.

Enter the Virtual IP and subnet mask for this cluster. We will use this Virtual IP ,when connecting ESXi hosts to the storage. with standard cluster type, we will have only one VIP and subnet mask.

In the below screen, you will be able to create the Volume. I have created a volume called “Prod-volume” with the size of 40 GB. which will be later presented to ESXi host in upcoming posts.

We are done with creating management group for Protected site. I have followed the same procedure to create the recovery site management group “DR-group” and cluster called”DR-cluster” and volume “DR-volume”. Thats’it. In the next step, we will take a look at adding ESXi host to management group and allocating storage to ESXi hosts.

Adding ESXi Host to HP VSA Management Group and Presenting Storage to ESXi

To add the new server into management group. Right-click the Servers under the management group and Select New Server.

I'm going to add my esxi host “Prod-esxi1” in the protected site into the “Production-Group” management group. Specify the name of the ESXi host and controlling Server IP address is your vCenter Server IP address. additionally you can also enable the CHAP authentication for the security purpose. Click on Ok to add the server into management group.

You need to perform the same procedure to add your the ESXi host in the DR site. I have added my DR esxi host “dr-esxi1” into the management group “DR-group. Both the Prod and DR esxi server are appearing under the servers under management group.

Assigning Storage to the ESXi host:

We have added the ESXi host into the management group. Now we need to assign the access to the storage volumes for the ESXi host. To assign the volume to the server, Right-click the volume and select “Assign and Unassign Servers”.

Select the “Prod-esxi1” from the Server list and Select the Check mark “Assigned” and Permission from the drop-down.We are done from the HP CMC.

Adding HP VSA Storage to the ESXi host

Once volume has been assigned to the server from HP StoreVirtual CMC,Click on iSCSI initiator properties from your ESXi host and add the Virtual IP address (VIP) address of your Management cluster. I have assigned the VIP of 192.168.0.251 for my Prod-cluster in the above step.

Click OK

Click on Rescan All for the iSCSI software Adapter. Once rescan is completed, you will be able to see the assigned storage under the Devices tab.

Create the datastore from the visible storage.

In the next step , we will take a look at configuring the storage replication between the storage in Protected site and your DR site. i.e Replication between your Prod-Volume and DR-volume.

Configuring HP StoreVirtual VSA Replication

To configure the replication, Right-click the volume in your primary site and Select “New Schedule to Remote Snapshot a Volume”

Specify the replication Schedule name and select your DR site management group and DR site volume under Remote Snaphot setup. You can configure replication recurrence and maximum time to retain a snapshot and Click OK

Once you have configured the replication, you can notice in HP StoreVirtual VSA CMC, replication will be established between your Production site and DR site.

We are done with the SRM Array Based Replication Configuration.

If you don't know How to Setup VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.0, please go through the step by step guide.

↧

How to Use Windows 10 “Quick Assist” to Remotely Troubleshoot a Remote PC

September 1, 2016, 9:22 pm

≫ Next: How to Cast Your Windows or Android Display to a Windows 10 PC

≪ Previous: How to Setup VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.0 Array Based Replication

Windows 10’s Anniversary Update brings a new “Quick Assist” feature. Built into Windows 10, Quick Assist allows you to take remote control of another person’s computer so you can help them troubleshoot it.

It works similarly to Remote Desktop, but is available on all editions of Windows 10.

Quick Assist is really just the modern replacement for Windows Remote Assistance. It’s similar, but simpler and easier to use. You don’t have to email an invitation file back and forth.

When You Should Use Quick Assist

This tool is designed for quickly assisting someone with a problem (as the name implies). If you’re talking to a family member or friend on the phone, for example, and they say they have a computer problem, you can use Quick Assist to quickly connect to their PC, view their desktop, and interact with it to solve the problem–or just show them how to use their PC.

Because it’s built into Windows and is easy to use, it should be easy for you to talk the other person into setting up the connection.

However, this feature requires the other person help initiate the connection. You can’t just remotely connect whenever you want–your family member or friend must be sitting at the PC to grant you access when you connect. You’ll need a different remote desktop solution if you want to connect whenever you like without needing the other person’s help.

To do this, both your PC and the other PC will need to be running Windows 10 with the Anniversary Update installed. The older Remote Assistance feature is required for older versions of Windows.

What You Need to Do

First, open the Quick Assist application by searching your Start menu for “Quick Assist” and launching the Quick Assist shortcut. You can also navigate to Start > Windows Accessories > Quick Assist.

Assuming you want to help someone else by remotely accessing their computer, click “Give Assistance”.

You’ll then have to sign in with your Microsoft account. After you do, you’ll receive a security code that expires in ten minutes.

If your code expires, you can always just click “Give assistance” again to get a new one that will be valid for another ten minutes.

What the Other Person Needs to Do

You’ll then need to talk your friend or family member through opening the Quick Assist application on their PC. You can do this over email, via text message, or on the phone.

They’ll need to open the Start menu, type “Quick Assist” into the search box, and launch the Quick Assist application that appears. Or, they can navigate to Start > Windows Accessories > Quick Assist.

They’ll then need to click “Get Assistance” in the Quick Assist window that appears.

At this point, they’ll be prompted to enter the security code you received. They must enter this code within ten minutes from the time you received it, or the code will expire.

The other person will then see a confirmation prompt, and they’ll have to agree to give you access to their PC.

You’re Now Connected

The connection will now be established. According to the Quick Assist dialog, it may take a few minutes before the devices connect, so you may have to be patient.

Once they do, you’ll see the other person’s desktop appear in a window on your computer. You’ll have full access to their entire computer as if you were sitting in front of it, so you can launch any programs or access any files they could. You’ll have all the privileges the computer’s owner has, so you won’t be restricted from changing any system settings. You can troubleshoot their computer, change settings, check for malware, install software, or do anything else you would do if you were sitting in front of their computer.

At the top right corner of the window, you’ll see icons that let you annotate (draw on the screen), change the size of the window, remotely restart the computer, open the task manager, or pause or end the Quick Assist connection.

The other person can still see their desktop as you use it, so they can see what you’re doing and follow along. The annotation icon at the top right corner of the window allows you to draw annotations on the screen to help communicate with the other person.

At any time, either person can end the connection simply by closing the application from the “Quick Assist” bar at the top of the screen.

Watch out when modifying network settings. Some network setting changes may end the connection and require you re-initiate the Quick Assist connection with the other person’s help.

The “remote reboot” option is designed to reboot the remote computer and immediately resume the Quick Assist session without any further input. This may not always work properly, however. Be prepared to talk the other person through signing back into their PC and re-initiating the Quick Assist session if there’s problem and this doesn’t happen automatically.

↧

How to Cast Your Windows or Android Display to a Windows 10 PC

September 4, 2016, 8:22 am

≫ Next: How to upgrade XenServer 6.5 to XenServer 7.0

≪ Previous: How to Use Windows 10 “Quick Assist” to Remotely Troubleshoot a Remote PC

Windows 10’s Anniversary Update brings an interesting new feature: Any PC can now function as a wireless receiver for Miracast, allowing you to view the display from another Windows PC, an Android smartphone or tablet, or a Windows phone.

How to Turn Your PC Into a Miracast Receiver

To turn your PC into a Miracast receiver, just open Windows 10’s Start menu and open the “Connect” app. If you don’t see this app, you need to upgrade to the Anniversary Update.

With the app open, you’ll see a message that your PC is now ready for you to connect wirelessly. That’s it. You don’t need to mess with any firewall or network server settings. Just open the app whenever you want to cast.

On most PCs, you’ll likely see a “This device might have trouble displaying your content because its hardware wasn’t specifically designed for wireless projection” message. The application will still work, but it would likely work better if the PC’s hardware and hardware drivers was specifically designed to function for wireless projection.

How to Cast From Another Windows 10 PC

To connect from another PC running Windows 10, head to Settings > Display on that PC and select “Connect to a wireless display”. This setting should be in the same place on a phone running Windows 10 Mobile.

The PC running the Connect app should appear in the list. Click or tap it to connect.

After it connects, you’ll see a few more settings. Enable “Allow input from a keyboard or mouse connected to this display” and the PC functioning as the receiver will be able to interact with the PC through the Connect app.

To change the project mode, select “Change projection mode”. By default, it functions in “duplicate” mode and duplicates the contents of your screen. You can instead choose to extend the screen and treat the remote display as a second monitor, or only use the second screen.

Whichever option you choose, you can enable full-screen mode by clicking the “full screen” button on the window title bar.

How to Cast From an Android Device

To connect from an Android device, you can use the built-in Cast feature…as long as your phone supports it. This is Android, so things aren’t always simple. Your manufacturer may or may not include Miracast support on your phone or tablet. In fact, even Google has removed Miracast support from its latest Nexus devices. But, if your device does support Miracast, this should work.

To cast on Android, head to Settings > Display > Cast. Tap the menu button and activate the “Enable wireless display” checkbox. You should see your PC appear in the list here if you have the Connect app open. Tap the PC in the display and it’ll instantly start projecting.

Don’t see the option here? Your phone or tablet’s manufacturer may have put it in a different place. Look up how to use Miracast on your specific device for more information.

The Settings app is considered “protected content” for security reasons, however, so you’ll have to leave the Settings app before your Android device’s screen will appear in the Connect app. You’ll just see a black screen into the Connect app until then.

The Connect app will produce notifications that you’ll find an the action center. For example, when we connected an Android device, we saw a message saying protected content can’t be displayed, and that we couldn’t use the mouse on our PC to control the Android device’s screen.

To stop projecting, just close the Connect window on the PC receiving the remote display or end the remote display connection on the device projecting to it.

↧

How to upgrade XenServer 6.5 to XenServer 7.0

September 4, 2016, 10:02 pm

≫ Next: How to Setup Citrix Provisioning Services 7.8

≪ Previous: How to Cast Your Windows or Android Display to a Windows 10 PC

The purpose of this article is to help you upgrade Citrix XenServer 6.5 to newly released 7.0. First of all, let’s have a look at some new features in Citrix XenServer 7.

What’s new in Citrix XenServer 7:

Intel Iris Pro Graphics GPU support
NVIDIA GRID vGPU support for Linux Applications
Up to 128 vm’s per host with the NVIDIA vGPU M6/M60 graphics card
Windows Update integration for XenTools

These are a few things I like. There are far more new features, take a look at the Citrix XenServer site here.

Requirements for the upgrade:

Citrix XenServer 6.5 with SP1 and all the latest hotfixes
Citrix XenServer 7 ISO (www.citrix.com)

Upgrade XenServer 6.5

Check the version of XenServer using the console.

Check the version of XenServer using Citrix XenCenter. Note that I am still using XenCenter 6.5. When I’m done updating the XenServer host to version 7, I will install XenCenter 7.

So everything is looking great. Let’s mount the Citrix XenServer 7 ISO using the properties of the virtual machine.

We can now reboot the host. Make sure it boots from the XenServer 7 ISO, so set it to boot from CD.

Click on Yes to reboot the server.

The host will now boot from the Citrix XenServer 7 ISO. Press Enter to start the upgrade proces.

Choose your keyboard layout. Then choose OK.

You will be prompted to load additional drivers. I don’t have any so I choose OK.

Accept the EULA.

If you run XenServer as a virtual machine, you will get a warning that Hardware Virtualization Assist is not available. This is correct since it is a virtual machine and cannot provide virtualization support for vm’s on it. Choose OK.

The installer will now detect your Citrix XenServer 6.5 installation, and will provide you with the upgrade option. How great is that! Choose Upgrade XenServer and then OK.

The installer will need to create a backup. Choose OK to continue.

Select the installation source. Because I am using a ISO I choose Local media. Choose OK to continue.

I will not be installing any supplemental packs. Choose NO to continue.

I choose not to verify the media, because I am sure it is ok since I just downloaded it successfully from the Citrix website. Choose OK to continue.

The installer has collected all the required information now to perform the upgrade. Choose Install XenServer to continue.

The installation will now start.

It will run trough a couple of screens, and then present you with the screen where it says Installation complete. At this point you can unmount the ISO from the virtual cd, and choose Enter to reboot.

After reboot you will be presented with the GRUB bootloader. Select the first option and press Enter. If you do not press a key during the GRUB bootloader, it will automatically choose the first option and start XenServer.

Wait for XenServer to load.

After it has booted completely you will be presented with the xsconsole. As we can see the upgrade went great and XenServer is running happily in my vm.

Setup XenCenter 7

To manage your new XenServer host you have to install XenCenter 7. Download the installer from Citrix (www.citrix.com) and start the setup. Click on Next.

The defaults work fine for me. Check that you set them according to your needs. Click Next to continue.

Click on Install to start the installation.

After the installation has finished, click on Finish.

Now it is time to start XenCenter.

As you can see it has detected my connection to my XenServer 6.5 host. Right-click that and click Connect.

You can then choose to enrol Health Check. I did not, so I just clicked on Close.

And we can see the XenServer host version information using XenCenter now.

That's All For Now.

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How to Setup Citrix Provisioning Services 7.8

September 5, 2016, 9:54 pm

≫ Next: How to Stream From VLC Media Player to Your Chromecast

≪ Previous: How to upgrade XenServer 6.5 to XenServer 7.0

Citrix has released its latest version of Citrix Provisioning Services 7.8 (PVS). Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) eliminates the need to manage, update and patch individual systems. Instead it allows us to use a master image to provision computers. This master image (vDisk) can be used simultaneously by multiple computers.

This article will show how to install and configure Citrix provisioning services 7.8 step by step.

Requirements:

Virtual or Physical Machines
Windows 2012 R2 server with patches and updates
Downloaded PVS ISO from www.citrix.com
Service Account in Active Directory
Local domain (techsupportpk.com)
Domain controller (dc01.techsupportpk.com)
Hypervisor Hyper-V 2012 R2
SQL server (sql01.techsupportpk.com)
Citrix License Server (dc01.techsupportpk.com)

Install Citrix Provisioning Services 7.8

Mount the ISO to using Hyper-V manager on your virtual server and start the setup. Click on Server Installation.

The setup wizard will automatically detect the required components and will prompt to install them. Click on Install.

Click on Yes to install the SQL components.

Click on Next on the welcome screen.

Accept the license agreement and click on Next.

Enter the username and organization name. Select the all users option and click on Next.

Choose the installation folder. In my case I left this default. Then click on Next.

Click on Install to start the installation.

Click on Finish to finish the installation.

You will get a warning message about the PVS Console. We will install this later. Click on OK.

Now the Provisioning Services Configuration Wizard will automatically start. Click on Next.

You will now be prompted to choose a DHCP option. When the PVS server is running DHCP (local service), choose The service that runs on this computer. In my case my DHCP is running on my router, so I choose The service that runs on another computer. Click on Next.

Choose the PXE options. If your virtual machines will boot using the PXE service, enable this. In my environment I will be using a bootable ISO for all the virtual machines running from PVS. So I choose The service that runs on another computer and click on Next.

Now we have to create a new farm since this is my first PVS server. Choose Create farm and click on Next.

The wizard will create the database now. The active directory account running the configuration wizard should have rights to create the database on the SQL server. Otherwise make sure the database is created beforehand and that you have the correct account to login to the database. Enter the SQL fqdn and click on Next.

Enter the database name. If this is an existing database, choose the name using the dropdown menu. Make sure to select the correct Active Directory group to manage the PVS server (Farm Administrator group). Enter the other information needed to create the farm and click on Next.

Select the destination to store the virtual disks for the virtual machines running from PVS. Give it a name and click on Next.

Enter the license server fqdn. Click on Next.

Now we have to specify an account for running the PVS service. This will be used to run the Stream and Soap service. Enter the correct information and click on Next.

The target devices running from PVS cannot update their own password in the Active Directory, so we must enable PVS to do this for us. Make sure this is enabled and click on Next.

Check the network communication settings for management and streaming. Select the correct interface, check with your network admin in case this is not clear. In my case my PVS server has one NIC. Click on Next.

Next you will be prompted to enter the TFTP options. Enable it and click on Next.

Now everything is setup to finish the configuration wizard. Click on Finish.

If you have Windows Firewall running on your server, you will get a message about that. Make sure you disable it later or open the necessary ports. Click on OK.

Click on Done after the configuration wizard has finished.

Install the Citrix Provisioning Services Console

In order to manage Citrix Provisioning Services you need to install the console. Run the setup from the Citrix Provisioning Services ISO and this time click on Console Installation.

Click Next in the welcome screen.

Accept the License Agreement and click on Next.

Enter the Customer Information and click on Next.

Choose the installation path and click on Next.

Click on Install to begin the installation.

Now go to the Start Menu and start the Provisioning Services Console.

Right click Provisioning Services Console and click on Connect to Farm….

Enter the correct fqdn, select Auto-login on application start or reconnect to automatically connect to the PVS server and then click on Connect.

Now you should be able to manage the PVS server.

That's all for now.

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How to Stream From VLC Media Player to Your Chromecast

September 6, 2016, 9:32 pm

≫ Next: How to Setup Citrix Licensing Server 11.13.1.2

≪ Previous: How to Setup Citrix Provisioning Services 7.8

VLC’s developers have been working on Chromecast support for some time, and it’s finally here. In the latest bleeding edge Windows versions of VLC, you can stream video and audio files from VLC media player on your PC to your Chromecast.

Warning: this feature is unstable. Some people report it works perfectly for them, while others report it doesn’t and has problems with certain types of media files. Your experience may vary, but this feature is definitely in the early stages. Even so, it’s worth trying to see if it works for you–and it should only get better over time.

This feature is currently only available in the latest unstable “nightly” builds of VLC 3.0. At the time this article was written, the latest stable version of VLC was VLC 2.2.4.

At the moment, this feature is also only available in the Windows builds of VLC. You can’t use the Mac, Linux, or Android versions of VLC for this. You’ll need a Windows PC for now.

To get started, download and install the latest nightly build of VLC for 64-bit Windows or VLC for 32-bit Windows, depending on whether your Windows operating system is 64-bit or 32-bit. Download the .exe file from the pages linked here and run it to install that version of VLC.

How to Cast Video From VLC

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the appropriate version of VLC, you can get started. First, ensure your Chromecast is on. If you’ve connected it to the USB port on your TV for power, this means you’ll need to turn your TV on.

You won’t find a “Cast” icon in VLC–at least, not at the moment. To find your Chromecast, you’ll need to click Video > Render > Scan.

VLC will scan for nearby devices. You’ll then need to click Video > Renderer > Your Chromecast. VLC will connect to your Chromecast.

Open a video file in VLC and click the “Play” button. Use the Media > Open File menu or just drag and drop a video file from your file manager onto the VLC window.

After you try to play the video, you’ll see an “Insecure site” prompt. Click “View certificate” to view your Chromecast’s security certificate.

Click “Accept Permanently” to accept your Chromecast’s certificate.

The video file should immediately begin playing on your Chromecast after you agree, with your Chromecast streaming the file from the VLC player on your computer.

Use the controls in the VLC window to pause, fast forward, rewind, and otherwise control playback.

When you try streaming in the future, you’ll just need to use the Video > Render menu to scan and connect. Afterwards, you can play video files without accepting the certificate prompt again.

Help, It Didn’t Work!

If you’d like to downgrade back to a stable version of VLC, visit VLC’s homepage, download the current stable build, and install it.

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