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Category Archives: Technology

Discussion on any and all tech related items. New tech, tech usage, etc.

Don’t want to spoil this “internet is beautiful” moment, but this is really neat for a guy like me.

http://tridiv.com/

I’ll give you this, the site name is a hint:

  • tri = three
  • div like markup syntax item for defining a division in html (generally used in conjunction with CSS for management/placement)
  • div like D as in dimension
  • tridiv like 3D

 

With the vulnerability and fixes supplied to BASH a few months back there’s been a need to update the service control script I had written for the Configuration Manager client.

The updated client can be found here.

Be sure to read the README file contained within the tarball and modify the cm-installer file as required for your environment.

If you want additional information, please review the original post found here.

Ok, so I didn’t see this documented anywhere, but found a need to reduce additional I/O from our SCCM application folder (thanks RCM and BCP).

Anyway, thanks to Stack Overflow and a random post I ran across about enumerating and changing registry values simply, here’s an example that would move them from e: to a similar folder structure on i:

( I’ve modified these to make them readable within the sites format, be sure to delete any breaks and have them as a single line before copying them into your console.)

get-itemproperty -path HKLM:\software\microsoft\sms\tracing\* tracefilename | 
%{set-itemproperty -Path $_.PSPath TraceFilename -Value 
( $_.TraceFilename -Replace "e:","i:")}

and

get-itemproperty -path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\sms\providers\ "Logging Directory" | 
%{set-itemproperty -Path $_.PSPath "Logging Directory" -value 
( $_."Logging Directory" -Replace "e:","i:")}

( I’ve modified these to make them readable within the sites format, be sure to delete any breaks and have them as a single line before copying them into your console.)

Finally restart the sms_executive service and you should be good to go.

I’m just gonna leave this example right here….

gwmi -Namespace root -class __Namespace -Filter "name = 'ccm'" | rwmi

I updated this last month, and didn’t make a point to highlight it. It’s fairly important that if you are using any of my service control scripts or cron jobs that you update with the newer version.

I updated this within the previous post which can be found here.

So there was a recent security update for RHEL that breaks a library dependency for the Configuration Manager client and OMI.

/opt/microsoft/configmgr/bin/ccmexec.bin: error while loading shared libraries:
 libssl.so.1.0.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

The issue is simple enough to fix with a sym link update.

sudo ln -sf /usr/lib64/libcrypto.so.10 /usr/lib64/libcrypto.so.1.0.0
sudo ln -sf /usr/lib64/libssl.so.10 /usr/lib64/libssl.so.1.0.0

Simple enough.  If you are on x86 then change /usr/lib64 to just /usr/lib/

Special thanks to Morten Vinding for the best library to use.

A really cool graphical representation of the current attakcs occuring all over the world.

Here’s the source page.

Post updated 1/24/15


With the SP1 release of Configuration Manager 2012 support for certain Linux distributions as a client platform has been introduced.  Interestingly enough, they’ve added a WMI type mock up that the client uses to interact with and gather data from these varied distributions.  It’s not a perfect solution, but certainly a step in the right direction.  I’ve spent a fair amount of time working through some of the Linux client problems (within Redhat) and have built an installer, and service control script, along with cron jobs to overcome some of the faults I’ve seen with the client failing to perform certain tasks in a timely fashion.

Before using any of my code, I recommend reviewing the Linux Configuration Manager installation documentation provided via Technet.  I’d also encourage you to read up on managing these clients from the Technet as well.  It’s fairly straight forward, but as I stated before it’s not a perfect solution.  I’ve found problems with zombied threads of the client on the box preventing policy updates, or needs for random restarts of the omiserver etc.

You are welcome to use parts of or all of the provided code as you see fit in your environments of course:

This first portion is a service control script that works for the Redhat distrubtions of the client.  I place this within the bin of all my assets to give simpler control of the services and for simplified cron entries.

#!/bin/bash

#CM Client Script
#Author: Daniel Belcher
#Date: 8/7/13 Modified: 1/19/15
#This script is intended for automation of services by cron and simpler
#asset management through the command line

#LDIR="/var/log/"
#DATE=`date '+%m%d%y'`
RUID=0
CCMEXEC="/opt/microsoft/configmgr/bin/ccmexec"
if [ "$UID" -ne "$RUID" ]
        then
        echo "User needs to be root to run $0 $1"
                exit 1
fi

start () {
$CCMEXEC
        sleep 1
echo
        exit 1
}

stop () {
$CCMEXEC -s
        sleep 1
echo
        if $(ps aux | grep [c]cmexec.bin) > /dev/null
        then
                kill $(ps aux | grep [c]cmexec.bin | awk '{print $2}')
        fi
exit 0
}

restart () {
$CCMEXEC -s
        sleep 2
                if [ $(ps aux | grep [c]cmexec.bin) ]
                then
                        kill $(ps aux | grep [c]cmexec.bin | awk '{print $2}')
                fi
        sleep 1
$CCMEXEC
        sleep 1
echo
        exit 0
}

trimlogs () {
        if [ ! $2 ];then
                SIZE=2048
        else
                SIZE=$(( $2 * 1024 ))
        fi

rollover $SIZE "/var/opt/microsoft/scxcm.log"
rollover $SIZE "/var/opt/mirorosft/scx/log/scx.log"
rollover $SIZE "/var/opt/microsoft/scx/log/scxcimd.log"
rollover $SIZE "/var/opt/microsoft/scxcmprovider.log"
}

rollover () {
FILESIZE=$1
LOGPATH=$2

if [ -f $LOGPATH ];then
LOGSIZE=$(du ${LOGPATH} | awk '{print $1}')
        if [ $LOGSIZE -gt $FILESIZE ];then
                cat /dev/null > $LOGPATH
                        echo "Clearing entries in $LOGPATH"
        fi
fi
}

policy () {
$CCMEXEC -rs policy
        sleep 1
echo
        exit 0
}

hinv () {
$CCMEXEC -rs hinv
        sleep 1
echo
        exit 0
}

sinv () {
$CCMEXEC -rs sinv
        sleep 1
echo
        exit 0
}

case "$1" in
        start)
                start
        ;;
        stop)
                stop
        ;;
        restart)
                restart
        ;;
        policy)
                policy
        ;;
        hinv)
                hinv
        ;;
        sinv)
                sinv
        ;;
        trimlogs)
                trimlogs $2
        ;;
        *)
                echo $"Usage: $0 (start|stop|restart|policy|hinv|sinv|trimlogs)"
                exit 1
esac

This next portion is a simplified installer script that can be used to build a unified installer for your environment that I’m currently using (it also places the script from above, and imports the cron jobs I’ve created).  It’s still required to place the client install files in the folder with this script of course:

#!/bin/bash

RUID=0
MP="management.point.server.com"
SITECODE="ABC"
if [ "$UID" -ne "$RUID" ]
        then
        echo "User needs to be root to run $0"
                exit 1
fi

if [ -f "fix-lib.sh" ]; then
        ./fix-lib.sh
fi

./install -mp $MP -sitecode $SITECODE -clean ccm-Universalx64.tar
        cp configmgr /bin/
#               crontab cm-crontab

sleep 5
configmgr stop
        sleep 30
cp scxcmprovider.conf /opt/microsoft/omi/etc/
if [ -f "/opt/microsoft/omi/scxcmprovider.log" ]; then
        echo "Moving scxcmprovider.log to /var/opt/microsoft/"
                mv /opt/microsoft/omi/scxcmprovider.log /var/opt/microsoft/
fi
configmgr start

These are the cron entries, to be used as an example:

#---Begin Configmgr Jobs---
0 0 * * 2,4,7 configmgr restart
1 * * * * configmgr policy
0 12 * * * configmgr hinv
0 8 * * 3 configmgr sinv
0 * * * * configmgr trimlogs 5
#---End Configmgr Jobs---

For more information regarding cron and what these entries mean, please read this.  They do a nice job of explaining this in a fairly straightforward manner.

Putting it all together….

This following link contains the tar.gz that can be used to install from.  Be mindful to read the README file and update the cm-installer script before you begin to insure you are pointing to a proper site.

Redhat CM12 Client Installer.

A further note that the Red Hat install I’m using here is based off the universal x64 binaries and will work for a lot of different distributions. Be sure to verify your distribution against the required package and substitute as needed.

I’ve just been spending a lot of my limited free time lately (what’s not spent with my family), playing Planetside 2 and Smite.  Both are competitive play games, and being involved with a competitive team, you can imagine the level of  dedication exceeds that of the normal nerd level of play.

Which let me plug my refer-a-friend link in smite while I’m at it.  If you are interested in playing it with me, you can use this link to setup your account.  Just click play for free, and create an account.  If you already played tribes and global agenda you should already have a Hi-rez account and can leverage that.

I know about planetside 2 because you’ve talked about it before, but what is smite?

I’m glad you asked:

Smite is a third-person MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena), a style of action strategy games popularized by DotA (Defense of the Ancients) in the late 90’s early 00’s as a mod for warcraft 3.

The general concept and game mode circles around 2 bases, connected by 3 lanes, that are defended by turrets with a continual line of attackers spawned per lane lovingly referred to as minions.  The minions job is to be countless, and to dive continually to their deaths in the assault on the enemies base.  The job of the player (you) is to insure these minions deaths serve the greater purpose of gaining you experience and gold and to aid in the destruction of turrets and bases by being your fodder.

Sounds easy right?  Yea, it would be if you weren’t facing 5 other players who want to do the same thing, oh, and they want to KILL YOU.  So 5 v 5 action/strategy combat is born.

What separates Smite from other MOBA’s aside from the character concepts is the third person perspective in play and that all abilities and attacks are considered skill shots (meaning you have to aim them).  The games are faster paced than traditional MOBA’s as well which makes it a blast for someone like me to play.

Much like other games in it’s genre there are multiple play types: Arena, Domination, Conquest (traditional mode), Assault (random hero single lane conquest), Joust (1v1), Joust (3v3), and a random game mode referred to as Mode of the Day.  Mode of the day is usually pretty interesting because of some of the silly combinations they come up with forcing some unique character perspectives in play.

If you end up playing, let me know, you can friend me as lot3k (think low tech).

I’m going to make this a very short post, but in a nut shell, sum up my thoughts and primary concern with the chief issue in this upcoming generation right now.

DRM

This isn’t a new issue with gaming.  This has been an issue that the PC gaming scene has largely dealt with, going back as far as requiring the CD in drive to play a game.  However I’m not here for a history lesson, but to address a very serious concern I have with Sony not playing ball on this restrictive model.

Publishers (a.k.a. Satan) view any and all content resale as a direct impact on sales revenue.  With this in mind, the Xbox ONE would appear to be a more preferable platform for developers/publishers.  So my concern is the loss of certain publisher support for the Playstation platform as a whole.

However, my 2 cents.  I don’t care because most of my gaming is done on a PC where I’m already happily a slave (in large part) to this no resale business model (THANKS STEAM FOR MAKING IT SO EASY! <3) .  I (speaking out of the other side of my mouth now) can’t support this business model and will not be contributing money towards it, eventhough 9/10 of my video game purchases are retail.  Perhaps Microsoft will work things out in similar fashion as valve so the consumers see a return through game price drops and crazy summer sales, but from what I’m reading, that doesn’t seem likely.