# aacraid-status
-- Controller informations --
-- ID | Model | Status
c0 | CERC SATA1.5/6ch | Optimal

-- Arrays informations --
-- ID | Type | Size | Status | Task | Progress
c0u0 | RAID1 | 76G | Optimal

-- Disks informations
-- ID | Model | Status
c0u0d0 | SAMSUNG HD080HJ/P | Online
c0u0d1 | WDC WD800JD-75MSA3 | Online

Do you have problems with it? Yes, you do. Microsoft makes it painful. You must make MachineKey match. You must make the IIS W3SVC ID match. You must pray it doesn’t break when you restore your metabase config. You realize some virtual directories work, while others don’t. Some servers, browsers, load balancers, work while others don’t.

Now, do yourself a favor, stop hammering your sysadmin, and get the code below. Paste into a testSession.aspx page in every machine and every virtual directory affected. You’ll get something similar to the shot below. Run it individually and through the load balancer. Check for “AppDomainAppId” mismatches (even the tinyest difference in upper/lowercase makes a difference). Check for “MachineKey” hash. Make sure everything match between servers in the farm (by hand-editing the metabase, machine.config, etc) in every virtual directory (I’ve seen uppercase/lowercase mismatches in the /LM/W2SVC/1/ROOT/VirtualDir AppDomainId string that happen on one Vdir while others are okay).

Here goes the entire code. Attention: remove this from the server after you’re done. You never know what evil people will use it for…

<%@ Page Language="C#" ValidateRequest="false" %>

Current DataTime: <%= DateTime.Now %><br/>
Current Session Mode: <b><%= Session.Mode %></b><br/>
HttpRuntime.AppDomainAppId: <b><%= HttpRuntime.AppDomainAppId %></b><br/>

<%@ Import Namespace="System.Web.Configuration" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Reflection" %>

<%
MethodInfo _encOrDecData;
MethodInfo _hexStringToByteArray;
MethodInfo _byteArrayToHexString;
MethodInfo _HashAndBase64EncodeString;

MachineKeySection  config = (MachineKeySection)ConfigurationManager.GetSection("system.web/machineKey");
Type machineKeyType = config.GetType().Assembly.GetType("System.Web.Configuration.MachineKeySection");

BindingFlags bf = BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Static;

_HashAndBase64EncodeString = machineKeyType.GetMethod("HashAndBase64EncodeString", bf);

if (_HashAndBase64EncodeString == null)
{
	throw new InvalidOperationException("Unable to get the HashAndBase64EncodeString to invoke.");
}
String str = HttpRuntime.AppDomainAppId;
var HashedPiko = (String)_HashAndBase64EncodeString.Invoke(null, new object[] { str });

%>

Hashed with the MachineKey: <b><%= HashedPiko %></b><br/>

Local Machine Name: <b><%= Request.ServerVariables["LOCAL_ADDR"] %></b><br/>

Current Session ID: <b><%= Session.SessionID %></b><br/>

<%
String pikoNaSession = (String)Session["SESSION_TEST_VALUE"];
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(pikoNaSession)) {
	Session["SESSION_TEST_VALUE"] = "Test Value, set on " + Request.ServerVariables["LOCAL_ADDR"] + " " + " at " + DateTime.Now ;
}
%>

Current value in Session: <b><%= pikoNaSession %></b><br/>

You can download the MP3 here: Star One – Earth that was

The original was posted at NoiseCreep – I just ripped the MP3 from the FLV file using FLVExtract.

Not anymore.

First, install the latest stable TortoiseSVN.

Then install my custom build of TortoiseCVS, TortoiseCVS-1.11.6-pardini.exe. It is a custom built CVS-HEAD checkout, without many changes.

Please note that apparently TCVS is the one that decides the icons to use (both TSVN and TCVS will use the same icons), but they all work.

If it’s not working for you, uninstall all TortoiseSVN, TortoiseCVS and TortoiseOverlays you may have installed.

Also delete the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers.

Then reinstall in the order I suggested above.

Thanks to the KAME people!

So off we went to install Debian and Windows 2003 using only DRAC5′s virtual Console (kind of an IP KVM) and virtual media. No physical access to the servers is required. It all works very well, you point DRAC at an .ISO image, configure virtual media to attached in the Ctrl-E screen, hit F11 and choose to boot from “VIRTUAL CDROM”. This is where OS Installation, and problems, begin.

When installing Debian, when virtual media is attached, the PERC controller shifts stuff around so that the virtual media device can fit. That makes my RAID-5 array on the PERC be at /dev/sdc instead of the expected /dev/sda. This seems alright at first, but after the installation is done, GRUB goes insane. You can jackhammer GRUB to work, but then the megaraid_sas driver goes insane. Literally. Lockups, wierd and misleading messages. Insanity reigns.

When installing Windows without the help of the Dell Installation CD, it locks up right at the first “Windows Setup” blue screen, even before the “F6″ driver prompt. The machine literally freezes (you can still restart it using DRAC, sweet). If you try using the Dell Install CD, it goes okay until the first reboot where the same thing happens. Complete lockup.

After spending a lot of time with Dell Support with clueless people (they were about to send us a tech to swap the PERC 6i controller which was “obviously” the culprit), we finally realized the problem was the Virtual Media in DRAC5. When we disabled Virtual Media and used a real, physical, spinning DVD drive, everything was fine. It turns out Windows locked up because it couldn’t figure out the “VIRTUAL CDROM” thing. Nothing was wrong with the PERC. Debian installed like a dream too, on /dev/sda.

If you really need to use the Virtual Media, you have to go through a very boring process. First, attach virtual media in Ctrl-E screen and mount the ISO in your browser. Start installing your operating system. When it’s time for the first reboot, go into Ctrl-E again and dettach virtual media. Now the install should proceed as normal…

All in all, DRAC5 is a very useful thing, it’s KVM capabilities have already paid for themselves if only in gasoline saved in trips to the datacenter. Now a Firefox 3 plugin, and fixes to the Virtual Media problems, would be very nice. Hello Dell?