vmware commands

[root@localhost root]#vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/xxx/ESXVC/ESXVC.vmx start
[root@localhost root]#vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/xxx/ESXVC/ESXVC.vmx getstate
[root@localhost root]#vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/xxx/ESXVC/ESXVC.vmx stop

to be continued...

Conditional URL Redirection using ISA & Apache

During the process of migrating wss2 to moss, we decided to put part of the sites on production whilelist leave some other stuff on old platform, hence there is a need to setup URL redirection.
the scenario is as following:

wss2.mydomain.com/currentSites ==> moss.mydomain.com/sites/currentSites
wss2.mydomain.com/oldsites ==> not diverting
wss2.mydomain.com/* (any other sites except the above) ==> moss.mydomain.com/*

this gave us a challendge to get this done, after playing with iis url rewritter, I realized that it is far less better than Apache URL_Rewritter so I decided to use apache.

for the conditional diversion based on path, I believe that can be done by using url_rewritter's proxy feature but it is bit cumbersome to set it up.

Noticing that ISA can publish sites based on paths, I created two web publishing rules to do the job: first one to publish oldSites and point it to the old server, second on to publish any other requests for wss2 domain and point them to the linux box.

within the linux box, apache is setup to divert all traffic based on the url pattern.
all currentSites URLs will have 'sites' added to them while other request will only get its host name replace.

we also believe that ISA might be able to take care of all this work, however since I am bit lazy to find it out and the current solution works fine. I guess we can live with it.

SQL Agent Job notification via Database Mail

A few things to do before get it to work:
>enable database mail and setup default profile
>test database mail
>setup sql agent to use database mail as alert system
>restart sql agent
>create a test job.

remotely enable remote desktop

http://www.petri.co.il/remotely_enable_remote_desktop_on_windows_server_2003.htm

then you can use shutdown /m \\machinename /r /t XX to remotely restart the computer.

ASP.NET MVC

I learnt a bit about j2ee a while ago and did some small prjects as well...
However, as I am working in the fields of Microsoft products, I haven't touched java ever since that time.
I noticed asp.net MVC a while ago and tried to catch up bit with the new thing, it is quite interesting that asp.net MVC is almost a clone of java MVC stuff....anyway, it is probably a good thing coz it will be easier to switch between asp.net and java now.

Iterating through webparts on sharepoint page

we are in the middle of upgrading wss2 to moss2007, however, some webparts didn't work quite well after the upgrade. I guess part of the reason is because the upgrade was done using third-party software. To fix up the issue, I turned up with a solution of iterating through sites and then webparts on each site, update their properties manually via the program...and it seems to be working fine..