msi Diagnostic logging

Windows Installer supports detailed logging as a powerful diagnostic tool. Logging can be enabled in the following ways:

* Command-line: If installing an MSI package from the command-line, the /L switch can be used to enable logging. For example, the following command installs Package.msi and outputs verbose logging to c:\Package.log:

msiexec /i Package.msi /l*v c:\Package.log

* Windows Registry: The following registry value can be used in Windows Server 2003, Vista, and XP to enable verbose logging:

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer
Value Name: Logging
Type: REG_SZ
Data: voicewarmupx

* Local Policy The following local policy must be changed in Windows Server 2008. The above registry key is no longer used:

Start > Run and type mmc to open a blank management console.
File > Add/Remove Snap-In...
Local Computer Policy, Add, OK, OK
Expand Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Installer
Select "Logging" choose the "Enabled" option box and type "voicewarmupx" without quotes

The resulting log is named MSI#####.log (where "#####" is a unique random identifier) and is placed in the user's Temp directory (the 'temp' directory location is per-user, and is pointed to by the environment variable %temp%).

* Group Policy: The following Group Policy setting can be used to manage logging on multiple systems:

Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Installer -> Logging.

* Windows Installer API: If installing an MSI package programmatically, the MsiEnableLog function call can be used to create a log file and set the logging level for the life of the calling process.

* MsiLogging property: Windows Installer 4.0 introduces the MsiLogging property, which can be set to a list of flags indicating what information to log. The flags are similar to the flags that can be added to the /L switch to msiexec.exe or to the Logging policy setting. If MsiLogging is used, the MsiLogFileLocation property will be set to the location of the log file.

Although verbose logs are very useful for diagnosing Windows Installer problems, they can be very long and difficult to read without practice. A quick way to find the location of a problem in the log is to open it in a text editor (such as Notepad) and search for the phrase "Return Value 3". This entry commonly appears in logs close to the point where a critical error has occurred. The Windows Installer SDK provides a tool called WiLogUtl, which parses and annotates Windows Installer log files.

To output debug information in the log file, pass "x" on the command line or add it to the Logging registry value. For example, the following command installs Package.msi and outputs debug, verbose logging to c:\Package.log:

msiexec /i Package.msi /l*vx c:\Package.log

How to Change User Password at Command Prompt

How to Change User Password at Command Prompt

How to use the net user command to change the user password at a Windows command prompt. Only administrators can change domain passwords at the Windows command prompt. To change a user's password at the command prompt, log on as an administrator and type: "net user * /domain" (without the quotation marks)

When you are prompted to type a password for the user, type the new password, not the existing password. After you type the new password, the system prompts you to retype the password to confirm. The password is now changed.

Alternatively, you can type the following command: net user . When you do so, the password changes without prompting you again. This command also enables you to change passwords in a batch file.

Non-administrators receive a "System error 5 has occurred. Access is denied" error message when they attempt to change the password.

Container is already locked

Sometime when automated OR Manual Virtuozzo backup process gets stuck OR sometime a VPS stuck while starting up OR stopping during this stage its impossible to make any changes on that VPS. You can stop the VPS or kill the process which is running. Making any updates or trying to restart the VPS shows message “Container CTID is already locked”.

Solution:

In case of Linux this error can be fixed by deleting the lock file located at /vz/lock/CTID.lck but in Windows there is no such file.

Following are the steps to unlock the locked Container

1) vzctl stop CTID –-skiplock (try this command twice till it doesn’t show that the container is not running)
This command might throw some ERROR but no need to worry.

2) vzctl start CTID –-skiplock
This Command will throw an error if the VPS is stuck while starting or stopping.

3) After the both the above command the status of the VPS will be locked, so you will have to allow sometime to unlock the stuck processes.

4) If the above command doesn’t start the VPS, stop the VPS using –skiplock option again and kill “vzlpl” process from the Task Manager. After that you will able to start the VPS normally.

5) and restart VZAgent service

net stop vzaop

net start vzaop

http://eitwebguru.com/fix-container-is-already-locked/

Install Plesk Billing standalone on win2008

There are steps that allow to install Plesk Billing standalone on win2008 server with installed on it Plesk 9.X.X

1.Create site via Plesk admin interface
Home>Domains ->Create domain ->
with enabled PHP support ->Version 5.x ->run as CGI Application
with enabled "Use dedicated pool" option
the rest parameters for own consideration
2.Make sure that is installed Zend or Ioncube support
check
C:\Program Files\Parallels\Plesk\Additional\PleskPHP5\php.ini file
for zend_extension_ts
for example I have installed Ioncube dll to C:\Program Files\Parallels\Plesk\Additional\PleskPHP5\ext\ so in php.ini should be at the beginning
zend_extension_ts= "C:\Program Files\Parallels\Plesk\Additional\PleskPHP5\ext\ioncube_loader_win_5.2.dll"
3.Download PleskBilling installation archive http://www.parallels.com/download/plesk/billing/
and extract Plesk Billing to home folder of created site
how example
C:\inetpub\vhosts\pppbs.com\httpdocs
4.Login to Plesk admin CP interface,
Go to Home>Database Servers> Local MySQL server ->WebAdmin
create for pleskbilling mysql user and database via phpmyadmin (with privileges according to installation guide http://download.ppb.parallels.com/6.0/doc/parallels-plesk-billing-6.0-for-windows-installation-guide/index.htm)
5.Start installation of Plesk Billing by usinghttp://download.ppb.parallels.com/6.0/doc/parallels-plesk-billing-6.0-for-windows-installation-guide/index.htm
Latest step - creating of database , so it can fail due to timeout reason, for this please increase values of
default_socket_timeout and mysql.connect_timeout in C:\Program Files\Parallels\Plesk\Additional\PleskPHP5\php.ini
After installation Plesk Billing database can have 214 tables with ~4,601 records.

Anonymous account name you may find in properties of PleskBilling site ->Feature View-> Authentication->Anonymous authentication ->Edit , via IIS Managenment, if will be problems with NTFS permissions this account you may add to the TEMP directory with modify permissions

How to enable SSHd on LinkSys wrt54gl

LinkSys wrt54gl Router provides few ways how to setup and administrate it.

- web interface (http://your-router-ip)

- telnet (Run > CMD > telnet your-route-ip > root > root_pass)

- ssh (by default this feature is disabled)

So to enable this feature download DD-WRT firmware be sure that you download Standard Generic firmware.

After that install it (from web interface Administration > Firmware Upgrade)

!!!!NOTE Please make back up of your curent configuration and backup of you previous firmware!!!!!

After successful installation go to Services > services and enable SSHd

Now you will be able to connect to router via ssh

Removing stored passwords in Windows XP

The Problem

Users have stored user ID and password information on their computer. When visiting a site, the stored IDs and passwords grant access without the user having to reenter information.

The Solution

1.      Click Start and select Run.

2.      Type in rundll32.exe keymgr.dll, KRShowKeyMgr and click OK.

3.      The Stored User Names And Passwords Window will appear.

4.      You can remove an entry by selecting it from the list and clicking Remove.

5.      Click Close.

How To - Reset administrator username and password in SmarterMail

How To - Reset administrator username and password in SmarterMail

Applies to: SmarterMail (all versions)

To reset the primary administrator login and password in SmarterMail, follow the instructions below:

1. Stop the SmarterMail Service
2. Open Windows Explorer (My Computer)
3. Go to C:\Program Files\SmarterTools\SmarterMail (or wherever you installed SmarterMail)
4. Open the Service subdirectory
5. Make a backup copy of the file MailConfig.xml
6. Right-click on MailConfig.xml and choose Open With -> Notepad
7. Find the section that looks like this:
** System Admin ***************************
** To reset admin password, delete these items **
** and then restart the SmarterMail Service. **
*****************************************
< sysadminusername> ... < / sysadminusername>
< sysadminpassword> ... < / sysadminpassword>
*****************************************
8. Delete those lines and save the file
9. Start the SmarterMail Service

You should now be able to log in to SmarterMail by using the following:

Email: admin
Password: admin

Changing MySQL Root Password

1. Login as root to the box with the MySQL server.
2. Stop MySQL server.
3. Open the mysql server startup script. This is the file you have just executed to stop MySQL server.
4. Find the line that contains the mysqld_safe command and add --skip-grant-tables as its parameter.
5. Start MySQL server.
6. Login as the mysql user and connect to the mysql user/permission database and run the update queries:
# mysql -u root mysql
mysql> UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('newrootpassword') WHERE User='root';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
replacing newrootpassword with the new root password to the box with the MySQL server.
7. Exit mysql database by typing \q.
8. Exit mysql user console by typing exit
9. Stop MySQL server.
10. Open the mysql server startup script and remove the --skip-grant-tables parameter you added above.
11. Start MySQL server.
12. Open the file ~mysql/.my.cnf and update the password in the corresponding line.

Helm 4.0.x upgrade to 4.1.x

there is some additional information to this topic: http://forums.webhostautomation.com/showthread.php?p=182350#post182350

Upgrade Instructions
4.0.x to 4.1.1 Upgrade

1. The upgrade to Parallels Helm 4.1.1 requires a valid license with Upgrade Protection, or, in terms of Parallels licensing, a license that provides Software Update Service (SUS) which entitles you to version upgrade licenses throughout the life of your SUS. Read more about SUS: http://www.parallels.com/en/support/sus.
   You can validate your license by going to the Parallels Helm member area: http://www.webhostautomation.com/members.
   If you have a license without SUS, go to http://www.parallels.com/store/support/helm/ and reinstate your license. Otherwise, you will not be able to upgrade to Parallels Helm 4.1.1
2. Download the Parallels Helm 4.0 to 4.1.1 Upgrade Tool from the following location: http://helm.download.webhostautomati...pgradeTool.exe.
3. Run the tool and follow its instructions.

=========

First of all make sure that you have .net framework sp2 installed (for all versions) and your Helm is running. If no http://kb.parallels.com/en/5996 you should patch your helm, and re run helm upgrade

Second you should have ready to upgrade licenses for all your servers (SUS)

If you are ready you can run upgrade tool. Usually upgrade procedure takes about 30-40 mins.

NOTE!!! UPGRADE FROM HELM 3.0 TO HELM 4.0 IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE, IF YOU WANT TO SAVE YOUR TIME AND MONEY DO NOT PERFORM UPGRADE.

mod_dphpbb3_last_topics php warnings

 

Today after installing such pretty tool as  mod_dphpbb3_last_topics I received a ton of such errors

Warning: cannot yet handle MBCS in html_entity_decode()! in helper.php in line 130

After googling I found this article. I tried to replace:

$title = html_entity_decode($title, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8'); with $title = utf8_decode($title);

but it brakes UA/RUS lang. After brainstorm I made following changes in code:

Was:

$title = html_entity_decode($title, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');

Become:

$title = html_entity_decode($title);