How To Register OES and SLES Servers Using Command Line and a Script
It is important to keep your servers at the current patch level. Usually there are many bugs fixed and if you come across a new issue it helps Novell Support the the Developers.
I like to use the command line to register my servers. It is easy and relatively fast compared to the GUI. Even easier is to use a script. Just copy the script to the server, modify the e-mail account and registration codes and run the script. If something happens to the update services and repositories just run the script to clean up the old and re-register.
Below is a video demonstrating the register.sh script
TID 3030847 goes over the command line process.
Note: do not include < > for email or regcodes in the examples below
The command to register a OES server is
suse_register -a email=<user@email.com> -a regcode-sles=<your sles code>… Continue reading
Updated dsfw_processchk script 2.1.5
I updated the dsfw_processchk script to not only check all essential DSfW processes, but to handle multiple pids for the xadsd process. The script is great to use if you are worried that a DSfW process will stop and you don’t want to receive several phone calls alerting you to the problem or the DSfW server has been unstable you you need to time track down the invalid requests hitting the DSfW server.
The script will report which processes are running or have stopped. It works by validating that a PID exists for each process. If a process is not running the script has the option to restart the services, send an e-mail that a process has stopped, and update the syslog.
Key configuration
# Set RESTART_DSFW to 1 to reload DSfW services if one or service is not running,
# Set RESTART_DSFW to 0 to leave the services… Continue reading
VMWare and best practices for Timekeeping
Lately I’ve been getting a lot of requests for timekeeping best practices for VMWare
VMWare has a great support article on this. Below are the SLES recommendations. The article can be found here
| SLES 11 (All updates) | No additional kernel parameters required. | |
| SLES 10 SP4 on ESX 5.0 and later | clock=pmtmr hpet=disable |
|
| SLES 10 SP4 on ESX 4.x | Use a VMI enabled kernel. | |
| SLES 10 SP3 on ESXi 5.0 | clock=pmtmr hpet=disable |
|
| SLES 10 SP3 on ESX 3.5 and 4.x | Use a VMI enabled kernel. | |
| SLES 10 SP3 on ESX 3.0.x and earlier | clock=pmtmr hpet=disable |
|
| SLES 10 SP2 on ESXi 5.0 | clock=pmtmr hpet=disable |
|
| SLES 10 SP2 on ESX 3.5 and 4.x | Use a VMI enabled kernel. | |
| SLES 10 SP2 on ESX 3.0.x and earlier | clock=pmtmr hpet=disable |
|
| SLES 10 SP1 | clock=pmtmr hpet=disable |
|
| SLES 10 | clock=pmtmr hpet=disable |
|
| SLES 9 (All updates) | clock=pmtmr hpet=disable |
|
| SLES 8 | No additional kernel parameters required.… Continue reading |
Script to check DSfW Processes
I have a updated script to check all essential DSfW processes. The name of the script is dsfw_processchk. The script is great to use if you are worried that a DSfW process will stop and you don’t want to receive several phone calls alerting you to the problem or the DSfW server has been unstable you you need to time track down the invalid requests hitting the DSfW server.
The script will report which processes are running or have stopped. It works by validating that a PID exists for each process. If a process is not running the script has the option to restart the services, send an e-mail that a process has stopped, and update the syslog.
Key configuration
# Set RESTART_DSFW to 1 to reload DSfW services if one or service is not running,
# Set RESTART_DSFW to 0 to leave the services… Continue reading
Creating a SLES11 Install source
Creating an install source is extremely easy to do with YaST. Just follow the installation server wizard.
To create a single SLES+OES DVD follow Simon’s Coolsolution Article