Solved – Dell Optiplex 790 2nd HDD disk drive not found in Windows 10 Disk Management but BIOS sees the drive

disk

I have a Dell Optiplex I’m putting together for an IP Camera security system. The security cameras use a lot of disk space, so I connected a 2nd Seagate 2TB drive to the black SATA port labeled SATA1. The BIOS sees the drive, but when I logged into Windows 10 and looked in Disk Management, the drive wasn’t found. If the new hard drive isn’t in Disk Management, but the BIOS does see the drive, there’s something wrong with either the BIOS / SATA / RAID configuration, or there’s something wrong with the drive itself. I attempted to Scan for Hardware Changes in the Device Manager – no luck. I also went into Disk Management -> Action -> Rescan Disks -> no luck.

Here is the SATA Port layout:

SATA 0 (Blue) – Primary HDD 500GB Seagate ST3500413AS

SATA 1 (Black) – Secondary  HDD 2TB Seagate ST2000DM001-1CH164

SATA 2 (White) – CD / DVD

SATA 3 (White) – empty

I went to Dell’s support website, ran the System Detect (for some reason entering the Service Tag didn’t work) and then went to look at the available drivers. I was thinking of updating the BIOS from A09 to A18, but then noticed under Serial ATA there is a Seagate Firmware update named B765JC49.zip – unpacked is 2 folders, DOS and Windows, in the Windows folder is the file B7032100.exe – this is the file I installed. During the setup, the computer is restarted, and like most firmware utilities (I love these), you get a nice old-school 8-bit text interface with a resounding SUCCESS in big blue letters when it’s done.

So this was really all I did, and after flashing the Seagate Firmware, and logging into windows, immediately the drive was detected and prompted me to initialize and format the disk. So I did just that; initialized the drive as MBR, then changed the CD-ROM to drive letter E:, and formatted the new drive as NTFS on drive letter D: labelled as “Data”. Life is good again. Hopefully this post will be found by someone else having difficulty when their computer doesn’t see the new 2nd disk drive and save them a little time and frustration in the process.

 

Modern PHP development environment – Setup of Ansible, pycharm, sourcetree and workflow with bitbucket

When getting started with development with a cloud repository such as git, it may be a little daunting to decide how to get started. With some help from an associate, I put together a short simple guide to setup a development environment on OS X. I hope this information provides someone with a good start to development with bitbucket, version control, and PHP Development in conjunction with a cloud repository.

Bitbucket is similar to git, but allows free repos. We prefer to use bitbucket for a repository of code so that we can manage changes to our ubuntu servers and files. Bitbucket is the “Book of Truth” and will be the keeper of all files and things that are good. Ansible runs on a dedicated management ubuntu server and pushes out changes (playbooks) to either a single, a few, or all of our linux servers. Either way, with pull/push of data from our code repository, we can control what is deployed on our systems, an use our repo as our backup. If a server dies, we can setup a new system, and pull in the good data.

Setup

First, you need a bitbucket account and sign-on. Once signed on to https://bitbucket.org/brooksinstitute/ You should be able to create your first repo. You might want to create your own private repo for notes, configs etc. As mentioned earlier, bitbucket is where we keep our known-good source code, and changes to this should only be done from your own computer’s copy of the repo, and only changed with commits – more on this later.

sourcetree

Next on your local machine, download sourcetree https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/

Once downloaded and installed, tell sourcetree where your repos live at bitbucket (simple username/password login).

Next, SourceTree will ask you which remote repository you want to clone to your local machine. You want to clone the remote repos on bitbucket so that you can make changes to your local versions before you commit them back to bitbucket. If you work with a group of developers you will probably want someone to review your files before you commit. You should also “checkout” local copies within pycharm, if someone else will also be working on your local files.

pycharm

Now it’s time to install and configure pycharm Community Edition https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/ . Pycharm is a Development Environment (IDE) that provides code completion, nice pretty colors and integrates with VCS/Git to do versioning control of your local (cloned) repo. In Pycharm, you want to go to the File → Open menu, browse your local machine, and choose the root folder of the cloned repo of your choice. This will get you to the point where you can begin to edit files.

ansible

Ansible http://www.ansible.com/ is a management utility that helps you easily manage systems and deploy apps. Here is some introductory documentation http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/intro_getting_started.html. Ansible usually runs on a dedicated Admin server, and this is the server that issues commands or “playbooks”. Although your Admin server contains the ansible playbook files, we only want to make changes to the files linked to the bitbucket repo before we pull them into the Admin server and then execute the commands.

 

Vagrant

Vagrant https://www.vagrantup.com/ provides easy to configure, reproducible, and portable work environments built on top of industry-standard technology and controlled by a single consistent workflow to help maximize productivity. First download, install, and run VirtualBox https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads , then open a terminal, and startup a vagrant “box” with the following:

   $ vagrant init hashicorp/precise32
   $ vagrant up

Vagrant will download and install the ‘precise32’ “box”. And now, in virtualbox you will see the new virtual machine. Then next from the command line you can issue the command ‘vagrant ssh’ which will open a shell to your new precise32 vm. You can use this vm to test your configurations and playbooks against before you roll them out to your production servers.

Workflow

When you’ve changed something in your local (cloned) repo, and you want to have that become the “truth” on bitbucket, do the following:

  1. Open the file from your local repo in pycharm (double-click on the file icon in the menu tree)
  2. Edit the file
  3. When done editing, right-click on the file → Git → Commit file
  4. Now you want to push this edited file up to bitbucket. Review the code, make comments and then push.

 

How to create and shrink partitions in Windows 10 – video

I’ve posted a new video here that demonstrates how to shrink an existing partition with Disk Management and then create a new partition with the empty space in Windows 10.

Sometimes you’d like to have a separate partition for data or scratch drives to keep your data safe when you run backups or re-install an operating system or software. Other times you create new partitions to install a different operating system and do a “Dual Boot” with the extra partition. Let me know if you’d like to see a video or a post about dual-booting Windows 10 and Linux/Debian/Ubuntu.

Suing for unwanted phone calls txts and faxes

I found a great AskMeAnything from a lawyer who sues TCPA violators here: TCPA Lawyer AMA
Here’s a snippit from the post:
About the TCPA
The TCPA was a law meant to protect people from unwanted telephone calls and faxes. It provides for an award of $500-$1500 per call. The rules are a little different depending on whether you’re getting calls on your cell phone, landline, VoIP, or if you’re getting junk faxes. See this quick cheatsheet. Basically:
Cell phones: Prerecorded voice and calls (and texts) made using an “automatic dialer” are illegal without consent. For non-telemarketing calls, the consent required can be oral or written, and simply giving your phone number = consent. For telemarketing, consent must be in writing. Political callers and charities are not exempt. This law also includes debt collectors, even for debt you owe, as well as repeated wrong number calls.
Landlines: Prerecorded telemarketing calls are illegal without express written consent.
VoIP: If you pay per minute or per call, treat like cell phones. If pay monthly for unlimited (or free), treat like landline.
Fax: Unsolicited fax advertisement? Illegal. Faxes also need a detailed opt out notice, even if solicited. If not there? Illegal.
CONSENT CAN BE REVOKED.
EDIT TO ADD I forgot the do not call list. If you receive two or more telemarketing calls in a 12-month period to your cell or landline and your cell or landline number is on the do not call list, that’s a separate violation, and potentially an additional $500-$1500 per call (meaning up to $3000 per call).
Of course, not all calls are worth suing about. Many “companies” that continue to call are scammers spoofing their caller ID that will be impossible to track down and recover from. It’s unfortunate. My short hand? Two of the following must be present to be worth investigating further:
the call must be from a live number (when you call it back it connects you with the company that called);
the caller or the person that answers at the number must identify the company;
a live company website.
With that said, happy to answer any questions you may have. I am a daily redditor…

Spammy phone calls from 281-806-5695, 725-696-3397, 650-722-1909

Apparently I am approved for a large loan for my business, although I don’t even own a business… block these numbers too: 281-806-5695 , 725-696-3397 from yesterday, and from the day before,  650-722-1909 . I wonder why I seem to be getting so many of these spam phone calls when there are heavy penalties for violating the “Do not call” list? Time to check the National Do Not Call registry again and re-register.

If you’re also getting annoying spam calls from these numbers please go to https://complaints.donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.aspx and file a complaint.

Adding users to Active Directory with a bulk import

 

One of the tasks a system administrator will probably have to tackle at one point in their careers, is to quickly add a large amount of users to Active Directory. Without too much difficulty or money, one can accomplish the feat using the following  powershell script: Active Directory User Creation Tool: http://community.spiceworks.com/scripts/show/1917-active-directory-user-creation-tool 

So a quick kudos to [email protected] and Jim Smith for making this tool available for free online.

By following the instructions on the download page, it’s a few hours work to get the xml file and the csv template to work together to bulk import the users into AD.

Download the script, change then name to a .ps1 file and then execute the script with powershell (right-click on the powershell icon and choose “Run as Administrator”.) Because this is an unsigned script, and in case you can’t recall, the command to run first is:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

One thing to note is when building your csv file, all cells must be quoted.  An easier way to do this, rather than struggling with Excel functions, is to use Libre Office.

Open your csv file with Libre Office, do a Save As -> csv -> check ‘use filter’ -> check ‘Quote all text cells’ -> finish save to a new location with a new filename. Then open the file in a text editor to make sure all cells are quoted.

In the XML file, the most difficult part to configure is the canonical name used to populate the OU you want with the users. In our case we used:

Domain=
subdomain.domain.domain.com
Path=
OU=ImportedUsers,DC=subdomain,DC=domain,DC=domain,DC=com

This will make more sense once you are configuring your XML file. Before you do a big bulk import, generate a template with the script/tool, fill out the essential fields with test accounts (first, last, username, password, etc.), then re-import the template, configure your XML file, and then submit the import. Then test your imports with just a few users at a time.

If you can’t find your test user accounts  that you imported in Active Directory, you might need to right-click on the root in Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) and do a “Find…” then search for the test user accounts. They may have been added to the wrong OU. Again, this will take some tweaking, but at least if you can get the users into an OU, later you can select the users, right-click and choose Move… to put them in the correct OU container.

Once your test accounts are being imported correctly, go back, edit your bulk user lists according to the template specifications, and have at it.

Another issue that came up is that in our source file for our users, we only had the First Name, Last Name in the same cell. In order to split the names into two separte columns, we used the following tips:

Split full name to first and last name with Text to Column command – http://www.extendoffice.com/documents/excel/829-excel-split-first-last-name.html
For the First Name/Last name split, create a temporary column named General to the right of the Last name column

This project on spiceworks looks like it’s actively developed so it might be worth while to contact the developer if you run into any trouble or have a feature request.

 

Ubuntu Linux Server setup guide – Setup ssh, keygen, brew, and ssh-copy-id on Mac OS X

 

 

iTerm on OS X
ssh config file in iTerm on OS X

What follows is a ubuntu/linux server setup guide that can be used to configure, 1. A new linux server and 2. setup an OS X workstation to easily connect to your linux servers with preshared keys.

  • Build the server on Hyperv, then setup your initial account during the Ubuntu LTS 14.04.2 setup.
  • Log in as the initial user and add accounts as necessary:
    • “sudo su -“ – this does a sudo and copies root path and all environmental variables
    • useradd -m -s /bin/bash jcoltrin
    • passwd jcoltrin
    • vi /etc/sudoers
      • (end of file) add line: jcoltrin ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL
    • su jcoltrin – make sure you can su.
    • sudo su – this sequence has allowed you to sudo without having to type in your password.
    • Just a note: modifying /etc/group – putting users in here is the wrong way of adding sudoers – no granular control – users here will be required to enter their password when doing sudo.
  • ctrl+l clears screen
  • Add static IP address and dns-nameservers to /etc/network/interfaces
    • Get the name of your network interface with command:
    • ifconfig -a

      In my case, the network interface name is ens33. So to make my ens33 interface a static interface, I configure the /etc/network/interface with the text editor vi. The first interface is lo, which is the loopback interface. The line ‘auto ens33’ is necessary because it is used to start the interface when the system boots.

    • 
source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto ens33
iface ens33 inet static
        address 10.0.10.151
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        gateway 10.0.10.254
        dns-nameservers 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4

       

  • apt-get:
    • apt-get update – checks online for updates
    • apt-get upgrade – installs updates and security patches
    • apt-get dist-upgrade – note: make sure /boot dir is not more than 80% full. If it’s full it may have old kernel upgrades so google ubuntu clean old kernels.
    • reboot
Setup ssh, keygen, brew, and ssh-copy-id on Mac OS X

Now we need to establish a secure and easy connection from our mac to the new server. On our Mac issue the commands:

  • Install iTerm on your Mac. Configure to your liking, but it’s a good idea to set, in the Terminal settings, the scroll-back limit to either 99,999 or unlimited. Now in our new iTerminal, issue the command: ssh-keygen – this generates both public and private keys in our .ssh directory in our home directory.
    • Install HomeBrew on your Mac in order to get unix tools installed on your mac:
      • Make sure your account on your Mac is an administrator by going into System Preferences → Users and Groups → (unlock) → Select Account → checkmark Allow user to administer this computer.
      • First install XCode, then open a terminal again and paste in the command for installing homebrew from http://brew.sh
      • ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)“
      • Install homebrew as it prompts, and run brew doctor so that we know we’re ready to install homebrew
      • brew install nmap ssh-copy-id wget htop ccze – this installs the linux tools we want on our mac
  • ssh-copy-id jcoltrin@serverIPaddress (password) – this copies our public key into the server we connected to. Now we can log into the servers from our mac terminal without having to type in the password.
    • Also on the mac we want to make it easy to ssh into, for example, server.domain.com.
    • vi .ssh/config
    • Line 1: host server
    • Line 2: hostname server.domain.com
    • Line 3: User jcoltrin
    • Line 4: KeepAlive yes
    • ctrl+wq!
    • The result should look like the following:

jcmbp:.ssh jcoltrin$ cat config

Host	    server
    Hostname server.domain.com
    User jcoltrin
    KeepAlive yes
    ServerAliveInterval 15

Host    myAmazonAWS1
    Hostname jasoncoltrin.com
    user ubuntu
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/jasoncoltrin_keypair1.pem
    KeepAlive yes  
    ServerAliveInterval 15
  • ssh server – now we are able to issue this command and get in immediately without having to enter a password and also we can run sudo commands without having to enter our password again. As you can see in the config file above, we can also copy our .pem files into our .ssh directory and have config point to them so that we can easily ssh into our amazon AWS servers as well.
  • If we will be running websites, we now want to install virtualmin. Go to http://www.virtualmin.com/download.html#gpl and follow instructions here for downloading install.sh
Adding a new remote Administrative User’s ssh keys to a Linux Server

useradd -m -s /bin/bash newadmin1
mkdir ~newadmin1/.ssh
echo ssh-dss ****key data***..xxblahblahACBAM……kpucyrGw== [email protected] » ~newadmin1/.ssh/authorized_keys
chown -R newadmin1:newadmin1 ~newadmin1/.ssh
chmod 700 ~newadmin1/.ssh
chmod 600 ~newadmin1/.ssh/authorized_keys

vi /etc/sudoers

newadmin1 ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL

While this guide is not meant to be a comprehensive step-by-step guide, it should provide you with enough to setup an OS X workstation with pre-shared keys, and copy those keys to your new server. Working with iTerm and pre-shared keys, I think, is vastly superior to Putty on Windows. I hope this guide helps a few admins become more efficient and versatile working on OS X and linux.

 

Another spam number 218-595-4572

When I pick up there is a dead line. The caller id says the call originates from Minnesota. A quick search online says others have listened to a automated message for Card Holder services to lower rates. Definitely going to block this one.

Getting started with Bitcoin – Coinbase.com and Changetip.com

Plug: Since I’ve put a lot work into my site and sharing my knowledge and troubleshooting skills on jasoncoltrin.com, please consider leaving a bitcoin “tip” at the bottom of this page. Thanks!

bitcoin
.
So perhaps you’ve read about Bitcoin and don’t know how to get started? Read below to get a REAL quick overview and links to get a Bitcoin wallet.

Bitcoin seems to be here to stay, and it’s acceptance and list of Merchants that use Bitcoin is growing.

According to coinbase.com, Bitcoin is digital money used for instant transfer of value anywhere in the world. Bitcoin was developed to make payments methods for the internet age an improvement over traditional banking.

Bitcoin is safe because the Bitcoin protocols, algorithms, and sourcecode is open and has been audited and vetted by thousands of security researchers around the world.

Bitcoin is not tied to or pegged to any other currency’s value. Bitcoin value is determined by buying and selling of Bitcoins on the open market, much like stocks or property.

Bitcoin can change value because it is traded for dollars, Euros, Yen and other currencies 24 hours a day. Depending on demand, the price can fluctuate. Bitcoin value can be volatile because it is an emerging technology.

Unlike credit cards or Paypal, bitcoin is not owned by a company. Bitcoin is the world’s first completely open payment network which anyone with an internet connection can use. Bitcoin was designed to be used on the internet, and doesn’t depend on banks or private companies to process transactions.

Bitcoin allows you to instantly send any amount of money to anyone without needing a bank. It allows you to access your money without needing an ATM or credit card – bitcoin gives you back control over your money. Plus you can pay friends back for dinner, buy your next computer, and donate to charity, all using bitcoin.

Here are some businesses that accept Bitcoin:

overstock.com

Expedia.com

Dell.com

Below is a larger list of merchants and partners of Bitcoin and Coinbase.com:

https://www.coinbase.com/clients

Coinbase.com is one of the first US-Based Bitcoin exchanges, and according to Business Insider:  “Of all the startups in the bitcoin ecosystem, Coinbase is probably most prominent. Early in 2015, it closed a $75 million funding round — the largest ever for the industry at the time — at a (unconfirmed) $400 million valuation. It then went on to launch the first US-based bitcoin exchange. ”

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/25-most-exciting-bitcoin-startups-in-the-world-ethereum-21-coinbase-coindesk-2015-3?op=1#ixzz3VGSi2HCb
The signup for a Coinbase.com account is easy and I funded money into my account within 10 minutes. The transaction won’t complete with my bank until approximately 4 business days later, however. Coinbase.com does have a Mobile App, but doesn’t appear to have a way to add funds into your wallet from your bank within the app.
Lastly, I wanted a way to monetize jasoncoltrin.com without adding annoying advertisements and found that the “tipping” application changetip.com fits this necessity to a “t”. According to changetip.com, “ChangeTip allows you to send small amounts of money all over the web and it’s free! All of the social platforms you can send money via ChangeTip include Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Github, YouTube, Slack, WordPress, Google+, Tumblr, and StockTwits.“
So there you have it, now you can get started with Bitcoin by creating a US-Based Bitcoin account through coinbase.com, buy goods with Bitcoin, and “tip” jasoncoltrin.com, as well as any other user’s videos, content, or blog posts through the use of changetip.com.

WP-Filebase plugin for WordPress – changing maximum upload file size limits in php

WP-Filebase
WP-Filebase

So my new favorite plugin for WordPress is WP-Filebase; a free, easy way to upload files into WordPress that makes those files easy for others to download. While the plugin seems a little daunting at first to manage, it pretty much follows the typical methods other plugins employ such as shortcode. While editing a page or post there is a WP-Filebase button next to the other editing buttons such as “insert link” or “Italic”. Once the basic concepts are mastered, it becomes a pleasure to create categories, upload, and post files for download. There are a ton of other features to categorize, post and track hits with WP-Filebase if you want.

One issue I encountered when using WP-Filebase is that by default the upload size for files in php and WordPress are pretty small, and that the upload size for my entire site had to be increased. When I tried to upload a file with WP-Filebase of any size larger than 2MB, the upload would quit and fail without much information or error messages. When you’re expecting to see “File added”, and instead the page just refreshes without an error, it can be a little frustrating. Here are the steps I took to increase the file upload size:

Login to an ssh session on the server running WordPress.

Before you edit php.ini, it’s always a good idea to make a copy of the original file with a command of something like:

cp /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini /home/jcoltrin/php.ini.original

edit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini with the command:

sudo vi /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Below this paragraph are the php settings to find and change in the vi editor. To find the settings, it can be useful for vi to be in command mode (the vi editor starts in command mode by default). While in command mode, hit the forward slash key /, and then type the keyword, then hit [enter/return]. The vi editor will jump to the first instance of the keyword it finds. You can then simply hit the n key to cycle to the next instance of that keyword. Then hit the i key to go into insertion mode. Now you can hit the delete/backspace keys and use your arrow keys to edit the settings. When you’re done editing, hit the Escape key, then the : key, then type wq, then hit enter. There are ton of other shortcuts, tips and cheats for vi you can find here: http://www.lagmonster.org/docs/vi.html .

upload_max_filesize = 20M
post_max_size = 20M
max_execution_time = 500
max_input_time = 500

After making these changes, I wanted to be sure they stuck if apache restarts. I did this by restarting apache and then viewing the php settings coming from the web browser itself.

Restarted apache2 with:
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Made sure these limits stuck by creating a new file in the root of my apache website files location:
sudo touch /var/www/phpinfo.php

Insert the following line into phpinfo.php (only):
<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Then visited the file by going to http://domainname.com/phpinfo.php

I found that the settings were active and applied successfully by looking at the phpinfo settings website.

I then tested uploads of 12.9MB files which were previously unable to upload and can now upload successfully.

Delete the phpinfo.php you created (you probably don’t want this file hanging around for the world to find.)

That’s it, enjoy using WP-Filebase, and uploading/downloading files of any size to your heart’s content.