Posted on

04-Oct-2007

Remote Development
This evening I started the IDE-serrver, but only after I changed the startup procedure to use the classic VM, not the FAST one. It slows down the program, but will allow other processes to work nicely, without too much intervention by the java garbage collector. at least, that’s the hope.
Of course, a number of processes get swapped out, but less than when using the FAST VM.

The installation of the modules was no problem, but connecting to the server takes time. I got some trouble with login, settings etcetera. But after a few logicals were set, and I could wait, the connection was there. It’s faster that version 1 – a lot faster, so very workable. The only thing I have to do is set up a logical environment in which compilation and link can take place. It’s not unlikely i have to create a procedure to set all logicals and than do the compilation.
It’s a pity not all files are handled properly. Include files in the project are typed “.BLK” or “.INT”, and the project’s message file (.MSG extension) are not properly recognized and not treated as text file. So it seems, at least. Not is the .MSG file formatted, but that is not really a problem – it can be handled.

It works nicely, it’s just that the server needs to be started in advance, and , preferably be shutdown after use.

For the rest, the system is running nicely. paging is not as excessive as I feared, nor are CPU usage and disk IO. I may try the FAST engine tomorrow.

Posted on

FTP: I’ve seen it all before

It has been some time ago that I have seen this, but it’s all too familiar:

%%%%%%%%%%% OPCOM 3-OCT-2007 08:58:52.20 %%%%%%%%%%%
Message from user TCPIP$FTP on DIANA
User Name: anonymous
Source: 41.22-244-81.adsl-dyn.isp.belgacom.be
Status: NOPRIV -- File access violation
Object: WEB_DISK2:[public.anonymous.071003094018p]

It is another script: this time it starts with the attempt to create a directory – signalled in OPERATOR.LOG – where the directory is read-only:

%TCPIP-I-FTP_SESCON, FTP SERVER: session connection from 41.22-244-81.adsl-dyn.isp.belgacom.be at 3-OCT-2007 08:58:51.62
%TCPIP-I-FTP_NODE, client host name: 41.22-244-81.adsl-dyn.isp.belgacom.be
%TCPIP-I-FTP_USER, user name: anonymous
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: WEB_DISK2:[public.anonymous.071003094018p]
%TCPIP-I-FTP_CHINFO, TCPIP$FTPC0001A: Failed to create directory
%SYSTEM-F-NOPRIV, insufficient privilege or object protection violation
%TCPIP-I-FTP_NODE, client host name: 41.22-244-81.adsl-dyn.isp.belgacom.be

Accessing directories simply doesn’t work. Mainly, because I didn’t setthings up as a Windows (or Linux) box:

%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /pub/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /public/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /_vti_pvt/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /_vti_txt/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /_vti_cfg/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /_vti_log/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /_vti_cnf/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /_private/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /incoming/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /pub/incoming/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /public/incoming/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /public_html/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /upload/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /wwwroot/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /mailroot/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /ftproot/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /home/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /images/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /web/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /www/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /html/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /cgi-bin/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /usr/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /usr/incoming/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /temp/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /~temp/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /tmp/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /~tmp/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /outgoing/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /anonymous/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /anonymous/_vti_pvt/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /anonymous/_vti_cnf/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /anonymous/incoming/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /anonymous/pub/
%TCPIP-I-FTP_OBJ, object: /anonymous/public/

all fail with:

%TCPIP-I-FTP_CHINFO, TCPIP$FTPC0001A: Failed to set default directory
%SYSTEM-W-BADIRECTORY, bad directory file format
%TCPIP-I-FTP_USER, user name: anonymous

It all took just over 2 seconds:

%TCPIP-I-FTP_SESDCN, FTP SERVER: session disconnection from 41.22-244-81.adsl-dyn.isp.belgacom.be at 3-OCT-2007 08:58:53.47

Would belgacom.be be able to track the kid?

UPDATE
They did. Not that they can do a lot, but at least they replied.

UPDATE 2
And they stated they will take action to prevent this happening again.
They have send a responding message telling what action is taken upon the abuse-signal: They will track the person down, monitor his behaviour and remove the account on next abuse. I would even have accepted “We won’t do anyting because … “. Perfect! A lot of companies can take Belgacom as an example of how to react properly.

Posted on

03-Oct-2007

Installations
To be able to do some development, where an integrrated environment would be really helpful, I installed Distributed Netbeans again. That is: Netbeans 5.5.1 on Aphrodite (and Demeter), the IDE Server (FT2, FT3 still to come) on Diana – which requires Java to be (re)installed as well (using the version (1.5.0-3)).
Diana fits the minimal requirements of the package: 256Mb memory and a 500Mhz Alpha chip: memory is just right, the processor is a 20% faster…

To use it, additions to the startup commandprocedures were needed, and that gave me the opportunity to do some cleanup there as well. One thing I had forgotten earlier, was starting the T4 batch queue, now it should wakeup after reboot as well.

In itself, installation was no problem (of course).
Running the IDE server, however, requires some system parameters to be changed: WSMAX must be extended (to 300000, over twice the current value) and CHANNELCOUNT must be tripled. (Could be much less, but since AdvancedServer is still in the pipeline, I’ll have to take care of that as well).
I also anticipated a heavier load on the pagefiles, I pumped them to a massive 1.5 Gb all together. Stupidly high for a 256 Mb machine, I know. Knowing Java – and my previous PHP trouble in mind, what’s against it? Bcause all secondary pagefiles are on the local 9Mb disk, I had to do some cleanup there as well but that was due to be done anyway. A full INIT would have been nice, I just didn’t have time enough to do so, I would have to do yet another boot (to a minimal system).

Anyway, AUTOGEN gave me new settings with no real surprises. Since both SYSGEN parameters are non-dynamic, I had to reboot Diana. More than once, to be true, since I put the pagefiles specs in MODPARAMS.DAT as well and made some mistakes and had to remove the mistakes – and forgot to generate new files so after reboot, the pagefile sizes weren’t changed ~)

After reboot, all came up nicely. Including the IDE server, causing about a third of all processes fall into some OUTSWAPPED mode. It turns out that this new JAVA kit turns on the FAST VM by default and that requires a lot of memory.

So I shutdown the IDE server, and will fire it only when really needed.

The net result of these settings? I don’t know yet – that’s where T4 comes in. I don’t think there will be a lot of problems, there are a few processes swapped out but that could well be caused by the PHP engine being busy at the moment 🙂
I think the minimal requirements are for a system that dowes nothing else but the IDE (and some minor tasks, perhaps). I think I’ll have to take Meg Watson’s advise: get myself an Itanium box, with at least 1Gb of memory….