KPing - a tool to ping

This is a own-made tool to ping the hosts. It is Mix-Programmed in Win32 C and VB. But still it is not a good tool with full function, no log. It will be added in the future version.

For the network enhancement project, I made this tools for myself to ping servers and network devices in the different IP segments. It shows you the connectivity of the hosts when you make changes to the network.

Any suggestion or interested in the source, please feel free to contact me.

Download link: http://www.badongo.com/cn/file/14005730

Install VMWare tools in Fedora 9

This is the first step into Linux and Unix-like system.

I was preparing Fedora 9 with a SFTP server for banks with limited knowledge of Linux. It took me almost two days to get familiar with it, or let's say, just get start with it.

With these two days knowledge on it, I found Linux is a core OS running with configuration files. Once you know what these configuration files are and how to change them, then you are its master. Another is to install a software in it, it is much more difficult than that in Windows. Not just double click the installation file, but you need more step to do it without guide or help. The only way to do is to yeild "help" in the Google...

I installed VM to contain the Fedora 9 at home. It is quite inconvenient to use without VMWare tools. You need to keep pressing Ctrl + Alt key when you go in and out from the Fedora.

And even you see the graphical interface like Windows in Fedora, many of the tasks you can use the CLI mode in a faster way.

Here are the steps to install the VMWare tools:
1). Before install the VMWare tools, you must install gcc package first. This is the most important part. Without it, the tools can't be intstalled.

# yum -y install gcc gcc-c++ kernel-devel


2). Then install the VMWare tools.

# tar zxvf VMwareTools-6.0.3-80004.tar.gz
# cd vmware-tools-distrib/
# ./vmware-install.pl
..
..
(just keep pressing enter)

3). When choosing the resolution, remember to choose smaller one. It has default value of larger choice.


Refer link:
http://levelive.blog.51cto.com/41/5969

WinDirStat

WinDirStat means Windows Directory Statistics, a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Microsoft Windows (all current variants).

In our server farm, there are over 200 servers and most of them are Window OS. Often, we receive warning messages that there is a system, whose C drive has only 5% usable space left. And we have to cleanup its temp folder and log files. But sometime, you will find that it's hard to locate the folders that use up you disk. And WinDirStat will be the tools to the do the job quick, but don't know if it can do it remotely.

It scans the folder and files in your computer, shows the size and percentage it takes. And it shows with graphical result. It takes about 5 minutes to scan the computers for the first time, and takes about 1minute after that.

It is one of the soureforge projects and a free software. Here below is the link and the example image.

Link: http://windirstat.info/

Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/windirstat/

這半年來的工作整理

　　不知不覺離上次Post已經是半年，說來話長，一句話總結來說：工作真的是太忙啦。計劃中的CCSP，連課本都沒粘過手，真是汗顏～

　　自從上一年12月份開始，工作就開始忙，主要的還是公司的內部網絡進行調整升級，在過程中發生了一個很意外的意外，而公司的網絡就癱瘓了。雖然是屬於內部網絡，但是涉及到外面店鋪，一小段時間內無法連接到公司內部的服務器，影響也是蠻大的。看著VP從樓上很緊張的下來了解情況，他...已經跑了第3趟了，而我們已經是連續24小時沒有休息過。一直到第二天的晚上11點，情況稍微好了一點，和負責升級的Vendor商量好對策，才能回家。

　　到現在已經是3個多月了，期間一直在找網絡癱瘓的原因，很多時候都要通宵去工作。因為白天無法去進行調整，會影響到店鋪和公司的運作，只能在晚上去做。但公司里面有超過200臺的服務器，在晚上都需要備份與其他的工作，所以可以說是整個公司的IT同事都要出動，在網絡整修之後，進行各類的檢查。在壓力之下，我是已經累得不像是個人了～唉，誰叫你是唯一的Network Admin～我的名字從此在公司中不再陌生 -_-''

　　其實網絡升級的最主要動作是，對於2部核心的交換機6509進行軟件升級，從CatOS升級到IOS版本。因為風險的緣故，不能一次性地升級2部，只能升級一部後，運行穩定後，再去升級另一部。但由於負責的Vendor對於升級的風險沒有正確的評估，事前也沒有進行詳細的檢查，結果導致了這次問題的出現。他們自己對整個項目Under-estimate，虧錢了，但真正受害者卻是我們！

　　當然我們自己不會把全部的責任都推給他們，對於本身網絡熟悉程度不高，也是自身的過失。但這個Vendor的確太多的想當然了，而且一開始的時候沒有派經驗較好的RS的人來做，卻是來個專門做Voice的，沒有試過6509的升級。現在回想起，當初怎么這么傻會給他做呢？過後還在那指指點點，說甚麼癱瘓的主要原因是網絡中存在Loop，Access Layer交換器沒有正確地設置等等。

　　爾后用了很長一段時間，對公司內部網絡的徹底檢查之後，移除了一些連接的Hub，重新設置Access Layer交換器，把疑似Loop的情況也移除掉了，但最後問題還是一樣存在。這里說明一下升級後所產生的問題，主要是同一個Vlan不同交換機中的Host有時候無法互相溝通，在6509中不存在相關Host的Mac-Address，這才是最致命的原因(而不同Vlan溝通卻沒有問題)。

　　這個Vendor到現在也沒有給出真正的原因來，我們也不想再去深究，與他們探討了。大約在1月份的時候，我們自己發現VTP Pruning才是主要的原因，而最後也得到證實。Scenario大概就是這樣子的：

連接 6905 <-> 2950 <-> 3548 (交換器類型沒有關系的，只是方便分辨而已)
(1) 6509是VTP Server，VTP Pruning Enable，有全部的Vlan，例如：Vlan 10與20
(2) 2950是VTP Server或者Transparent，只用Vlan10
(3) 3548是6509的VTP Client，只用Vlan20
(4) 三者之間都用Trunk連接起來，用Trunk allow vlan all

　　結果就是因為6509有了VTP Pruning Enable的原因，只與3548VTP Client的Vlan20有聯系，認定連接下面只有Vlan20，而阻止了去2950的Vlan10的broadcast。這就造成了同一個Vlan不同交換機之間有時候無法溝通的後果了。

　　現在項目已經接近尾聲了，昨天晚上進行第二階段的升級，剩下的就在下個星期五設置就完成了。回想一下，整件項目中，最大得益的似乎是我，雖然很累但卻得到了不少珍貴的經驗。再次向著NP與SP前進吧！