Update OMD (Open Monitoring Distribution) from 1.20 to 1.30

Open Monitoring Distribution was recently updated to 1.30, here is how to update.  My instance of OMD was installed with the consol.de repo.  I recommend this because it is an easy way to install and update OMD, I am using the stable release, and CentOS 7 as the linux distro.  Bad part is check_mk updates faster than OMD! ;)

Next we can check for update:

Next we will install the 1.30 bits:

With the bits installed we need to log into the monitoring site so it can be updated:

Check current version:

Run omd update

Update!

Start site

With the bits updated and site started the GUI should now be working.  Now its time to update all of my clients from check_mk 1.2.4p5 to 1.2.6p12, the new agents are found in /share/check_mk/agents directory of your site folder.

Windows 10: Fix your broken start menu + apps on a domain, Event ID 1000

Windows 10 was designed around a new user experience that is supposed to close the gap between tablet/mobile and desktop interfaces.  But what if these new graphical elements (the old name was Metro Apps) will not open?  There are a LOT of cased out there about the windows 10 start menu being broken, and plenty of fixes, but no matter what I tried the start menu would not work.

The domain we are on was updated from SBS 2011, there are a lot of group and security policies, and Windows 10 would work fine, until it was added to the domain.  Once on the domain any attempt to access the start menu, Edge, right clicking on the taskbar or accessing any other new UI elements caused an immediate close of the app, or it wouldn't open at all, and a new entry would show in event viewer:

Event ID: 1000 Application Error
Faulting application name: ShellExperienceHost.exe, version: 10.0.10240.16425, time stamp:
Faulting module name: Windows.UI.Xaml.dll, version: 10.0.10240.1643

1, time stamp:

Faulting application path: C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\ShellExperienceHost.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\Windows.UI.Xaml.dll

You get the idea, not good.

I finally found a fix buy using procmon and tracing shellexperiencehost.exe and seeing that there was an exit at the point of the fonts folder.  Ah hah, so after checking the permissions of the fonts folder sure enough, there is not a ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES security group listed.  After adding it the new UI elements and start menu started working immediately.  I rebooted just to see if the new permissions survive a reboot and they did.

Here's how to add this group to the fonts folder:

Open cmd as administrator and run the following, it clears the read only and system file attributes from the folder which allows you to edit it.

 attrib –r –s c:\windows\fonts  

You will see the fonts folder looks a little different:

You can now right click on it, then select Properties.  On the security tab click Edit then Add..

Select Locations and choose the computer, then add the ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES group and then check names:

After clicking OK, I gave the group Full control of the folder, I am not sure what specifically it needs to be set to, but this worked for me.

You can change the Fonts folder back to default read-only by doing

 attrib +r +s c:\windows\fonts  

Apparently the new apps under this identity was not able to access the font required to render the app.  If you are having these issues keep in mind that the ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES group is required for many folders in Win 10 and it might not have the access it needs.

Server Core: Uninstalling an application without control panel

As I spend more time in Windows Server Core and Hyper-V Server I appreciate more of the under-workings of the operation system, I also appreciate GUI more :).  Without a control panel uninstalling an application is not as straightforward.

In a command prompt open up the registry editor:

 c:\>regedit.exe  

Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

Here installed programs are listed by application ID.

Browse through them and look for the Display Name to identify the application you need to uninstall.

There will be a key called UninstallString, right click to Modify and copy its contents:

This value will be used in the command prompt, running msiexec.exe with the /i switch.  /i configures the application.

Depending on the application, the uninstaller will run, which may be a GUI or another automated uninstaller.

You should see the Application ID removed from the Uninstall reg key from above.

List of White Noise / Ambient Sounds to stay focused and increase your productivity

One thing that has helped me stay focused is light background noise and sounds.  It helps drown out possible interruptions and people tend to not bother me with headphones on :). I keep it mixed up by rotating several difference sources; here is a list.

1. myNoise.net - Large collection of hand recorded sounds which are great quality.  Each sound has a mixer with presets that slightly changes the sound and can be 'animated'. 
2. A Soft Murmur - Easy to adjust volumes of different sounds to create your own mixes, with a master volume.
3. Noisli - Good selection of different sounds that can be individually controlled.  Love the railroad track.
4. Coffitivity - Cafe and other environmental sounds.
5. Rainy Cafe - You have Rain, and you have Cafe, simple interface so adjust the volumes how you see fit.
6. raining.fm - Rain, thunder, and lightening, can be mixed together.  The break and sleep timers are a nice addition.
7. ambient-mixer.com - Community driven noise and sound collections, large library.

TrippLite: Upgrading firmware on a SNMPWEBCARD

The TrippLite SNMPWEBCARD allows for remote access and alerting for TrippLite UPS's and PDU's.  Please read the resources below first.  This card I am upgrading is a Generation 3 card, came with version 012.004.052 of the firmware, and it will be updated to 012.006.064.  Download the latest firmware from the card's home page.  This is a folder that contains multiple firmware versions, as well as the massupdate.exe program.  I unpacked it to c:.

Make sure you read the READ ME - RELEASE NOTES, as firmware has to be updated in a certain order, the card can be bricked if it is updated incorrectly.  The update order for my card is to .55 then to .64.  The .55 update we will use FTP, then to go to .64 we will use the recommended massupdate.exe found in the Utility folder of the firmware package.

First connect the serial cable, this is a cable provided by TrippLite, other cables may not work.  Putty into the web card using the serial connection with the following settings:

If you have an issue connecting.  Connect via putty, unscrew and unslot the card, plug in the serial cable between the web card and PC/Server and slot the card back into the UPS/PDU.  This reboots the card and the stream should then output to the putty console.

Once connected to the card, login and reboot it:

We will use the serial stream to keep an eye on what the card is doing, but we will use command prompt with the windows FTP program to upload the new firmware.  Open a command prompt and browse to the firmware folder you unpacked.  Use FTP "IP Address" to open an ftp session with the web card, it will ask you to log in.

Change to binary mode with the 'bin' command and upload the firmware with the 'put' command, .55 in my case.  There is no tab completion, so type accurately.

Once it is uploaded type 'bye'.  The card will install the firmware and restart:

Upon bootup it shows the .55 firmware was uploaded.

Repeat the same steps to upload the pwralert.dat file:

The card will once again reboot, this may take awhile.

Before using massupdate.exe to update to .64, I had an issue with the application logging into the card to upload the new firmware, so I decided to reset the settings on the card.  This is done by rebooting the card and pressing a key on the console before 5 seconds is up.  It asks you if you want to reset the settings.  This changed the IP to dhcp and changed the admin password.  If you have issues with massupdate.exe connecting, this may fix it.

Now that we are on .55 we will use massupdate.exe found in the Utility directory (SNMPWEBCARD-FW-Gen3-12-6-064-RC1\Utility) to update the card the .64.

Open massupdate.exe.  Under Path of Files to Update click browse and select the Version directory (\SNMPWEBCARD-FW-Gen3-12-6-064-RC1\Firmware\Version 12.06.0064)

Click Add Devices at the bottom, enter the IP of the web card.  I used the default login.

Click update on the bottom and click Start on the progress window:

The image will upload and the card will reboot.  Be patient while the firmware installs, its a major upgrade and it takes awhile.

The card will reboot (again this is a long process) and you will be on the latest firmware.

Once the card is fully loaded you can connect to the web admin panel using the DHCP IP.  Also enjoy whitelisting all of the Java stuff, because the panel is Java, the browser will block it.

Resources

Make sure to go through these in detail, as well as the firmware readme file, as it is possible to brick the card.

http://www.tripplite.com/shared/techdoc/Owners-Manual/933179.pdf

Thanks to johndball.com, it seams his website is down, but please read his post on this card before you attempt a firmware update.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140216230929/http://www.johndball.com/2013/01/16/upgrade-the-tripplite-snmpwebcard-firmware/