Use Taskman I/O counters to aid in storage troubleshooting

Use Taskman I/O counters to aid in storage troubleshooting: "
When you troubleshoot storage problems, it is easy to identify where there is slow storage, but it can be very difficult to determine what specifically is causing the slowdown. In the case of Windows Servers, I recently came across an advanced view within Task Manager that helps aid the troubleshooting of storage consumption processes.

Task Manager does a good job by default of enumerating the processor and memory consumption of a particular service or application, but we have to dig a little deeper to map each processes’ disk usage in real-time. From the View menu within Task Manager in the Select Columns option, we see some really helpful options in the lower half of the screen (Figure A).

Figure A

Click the image to enlarge.

I/O Reads and I/O Writes is a quantified representation of operations performed by the processes. I/O Read Bytes and I/O Write Bytes represents the throughput or consumption of the process. Once you enable these columns, they immediately add value to the display (Figure B).

Figure B

Click the image to enlarge.

Now you can troubleshoot a particular service or application that is consuming the storage I/O on a Windows system. The usual suspects (SQL Server and Exchange) will be likely frontrunners in this category, especially if the display is sorted by bytes. If the process identified as the highest consumer of storage I/O is a surprise, you may need to stop or reconfigure the process to slow down its storage throughput consumption.

How do you utilize the storage I/O feeds within Task Manager? Share your comments in the discussion.




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Configure Linux to boot without a monitor

Configure Linux to boot without a monitor: "
Many administrators/users prefer to set up their servers as headless machines. If you’re not sure what a headless machine is – it’s a PC without a monitor. This is an outstanding way to use Linux as a server as typically people install Linux servers sans GUIs. Thing is, a problem has arisen with recent iterations of Linux distributions. In recent releases (especially with Ubuntu) the distributions do not use an X configuration. This is great for end-users on desktops because the operating auto-detects the graphics chip and monitor for auto-X configuration. This is a problem for a headless server as there will be monitor attached. When Ubuntu >= 10.04 gets to the monitor detection it will freeze and your headless server is worthless.
You could work around this by plugging in a monitor, mouse, and keyboard and letting the OS boot and then removing the monitor when the boot process has finished. This is a far from ideal solution. Fortunately the Linux community has come up with a temporary work around for this issue (I’m confident the distribution developers will come up with a much better solution soon). Let’s take a look at the solution.
Warnings
This solution requires that you create an /etc/X11/xorg.conf configuration file. I assume that anyone wanting to set up a headless server isn’t afraid of manually creating/editing the xorg.conf file. If you are, make sure you back up any pre-existing xorg.conf file that might live in /etc/X11.
This guide also assumes that you already have a working server installation that you can successfully boot with an attached monitor. I will also assume you know what graphics card is in your server. You will need this information momentarily (so if you don’t know it, dig around and find out what card you are using). With that being said, let’s get on with it.
xorg.conf
The first thing you need to do is to set up the xorg.conf configuration. If one already exists, copy it to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.OLD and then erase the contents of the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. The new contents of that file will be:
Section 'Device'
Identifier 'VNC Device'
Driver 'vesa'
EndSection
Section 'Screen'
Identifier 'VNC Screen'
Device 'VNC Device'
Monitor 'VNC Monitor'
SubSection 'Display'
Modes '1024x768'
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section 'Monitor'
Identifier 'VNC Monitor'
HorizSync 30-70
VertRefresh 50-75
EndSection
Once you have saved and closed that file you now need to edit the /etc/default/grub file and add the following line:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX='nomodeset'
You can take this one step further and disable the splash screen for the boot process by setting the line:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=
to “quiet” instead of “quiet splash”
Save the /etc/default/grub file and then issue the command sudo update-grub to rebuilt grub.
To test this setup go ahead and boot the machine without the monitor attached. Once you have given it plenty of time to boot you can either VNC or ssh into the machine. If you get a successful connection you are good to go. If you do not get a successful connection plug the monitor back in and see where in the process it stopped. If you have a black screen revisit the configuration and make sure everything is correct. To further troubleshoot boot the machine with the monitor plugged in and check the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file for any errors. Hopefully you will find the setup above works like a champ.

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© Jack Wallen for gHacks Technology News, 2010. | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit, twitter
Post tags: headless server, ubuntu, ubuntu server, X Windows, Xorg, xorg.conf

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Quick and Dirty Vintage Photo Effect in Photoshop

Quick and Dirty Vintage Photo Effect in Photoshop: "


Looking for a quick way to transform your photos into handsome, convincing vintage art? Lots of programs offer vintage photograph filters, but these are often rough, and give unexciting, unconvincing results. With a few moments in practically any version of Photoshop, you can make realistic-looking vintage photos from nearly any picture you might have on your hard drive. Here’s how to do it.



I came across this pic of the King of Bhutan and thought it had some nice possibilities. You will, of course, be using whatever photo you want. I recommend one with high resolution, and good contrast between lights and darks. You can, of course, use any photo, but some will give you stronger results that others.



Press to do a quick desaturate and turn the image to grayscale.



Then, press to bring up the Hue/Saturation palette and set it to “Colorize” with these Hue/Saturation/Lightness values.



Go to FIlters > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the “Radius” to 1.0, or more if you want.



Our image is looking nicely sepia toned already, with softened edges from the Gaussian blur.



Press to create a new layer.



Fill your new layer with black by going to Edit > Fill and tell the Fill window to “Use” Black. From there, you’ll want to open Filters > Render > Clouds to fill that layer with the texture below.



The layer of clouds should look about like this. If you used Filters > Render > Difference Clouds, it won’t look very different.



Set your Layer Effect to “Screen” in your Layers Palette. And bump the “Opacity” down to 50%.



Make of copy of the layer by right clicking and pressing “Duplicate.”



While on your new duplicated layer, Go to Filters > Noise > Add Noise and use settings similar to this. It’s important to use the “Monochromatic” setting.



This layer of noise will add a reticulation effect to your photo. It’s a little harsh, so let’s look into softening it.



Use Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur again. The same settings as last time will be fine.



At this point, you should have a pretty good look going on in your image. I decide I want some harsher values, so I want to play with my levels a bit.



Click the at the bottom of your layers palette to bring up “Adjustment Layers.” Choose “Levels.”



Set your levels as shown. The black arrow moves to the right, making your darks darker. Your white arrow moves left, increasing the whites in your image. You can also just copy my values if you don’t want to play with the tool (those values are 31, 1.00, 239).



Press to make a complete copy of your image and put it on top of all your layers.



On this new layer, go to Filters > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask and use values similar to these. This will harshen a lot of your darks and lights even further.



Set this layer effect to “Darken.” From there, adjust your “Opacity” to 25%. This will add some harsh, dark values to your image.



Duplicate your layer by right clicking and picking duplicate.



Set this duplicated layer’s effect to “Lighten” with the same opacity.



Our image looks pretty good, but the color is off when you compare it to a real vintage photograph.



Go to your Layers Palette and press the to bring up your adjustment layers again. Create a “Hue/Saturation” layer effect on top. Use values similar to these.



You may need to change around some of the values in the filters to suit your own photo. But the basic steps can remain the same and will give you a similar look.

Image of King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck by Royal Family of Bhutan via Wikipedia. My derivative image free under CC license.
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