Category: Guide

OpenVMS x86 Initial Installation on VMWare ESXi vSphere Host

2023-10-17 /

I had a lot of trouble trying to get piped serial connector working with ESXi but was finally able to get everything working with the steps below. I should note that the install manual was actually pretty good and helped me figure out the below.

For me I’m running ESXi 7.x with vCenter 7.x

I had issues with getting the piped method to work, and had a lot of issues.

I think a version of these instructions below also exist in the PDF manual but here are my notes as well in case I’m mistaken.

On the server that will be hosting the VM, you need to SSH into it’s shell and run the command:

esxcli network firewall ruleset rule list -r remoteSerialPort

In my case, the inbound/outbound ranges were:

Ruleset           Direction  Protocol  Port Type  Port Begin  Port End
----------------  ---------  --------  ---------  ----------  --------
remoteSerialPort  Outbound   TCP       Dst                 0     65535
remoteSerialPort  Inbound    TCP       Dst                23        23
remoteSerialPort  Inbound    TCP       Dst              1024     65535

So I picked a port like 2020 that falls both in the outbound range, and the inbound range.

But I had to check it was enabled with:

esxcli network firewall ruleset list -r remoteSerialPort

And it said:

Name              Enabled
----------------  -------
remoteSerialPort    false

Because it wasn’t enabled, I had to run:

esxcli network firewall ruleset set -r remoteSerialPort -e true

That took care of the firewall issue for me on the blade hosting the x86 VM.

On the VM, create a new serial but instead of selecting “Use named pipe” select “Use Network“
The direction is set to “Server“
The IP you want to use is the IP of the ESXi host which is hosting the VM, and you can use whatever port falls in the range from the previous step, so in my case the host is 192.168.1.27 and the port used is [b]2020[/b]

So the URI value is: tcp://192.168.1.27:2020

Make sure the check boxes for Connect At Power On is checked, and Yield CPU on poll is checked, but you can uncheck “Use Virtual Serial Port Concentrator“

After that’s all set, you gotta move onto setting up your SSH terminal, in my case I used PuTTY
The putty details are from a PDF manual regarding how to set it up, but it’s a lot less forgiving then usual

From Putty, go to Settings, then

“Terminal”
Then “Local echo”
“Force Off”

AND:

In Terminal settings, check the following boxes:

  • TURN OFF Implicit CR in every LF
  • TURN OFF Implicit LF in every CR
  • TURN OFF Local Echo
  • TURN OFF Local line editing
    1. In Window settings:
      set your Columns and Rows to match the Boot Manager display (typically 120 Columns, 40 Rows)
    2. If you are using a RAW session (recommended):

    • Host Name: 192.168.1.27

    • Port: 2020
    • Connection Type: Raw
    • Terminal → Implicit CR in every LF: UNCHECK
    • Terminal → Implicit LF in every CR: UNCHECK
    • Terminal → Local echo: Force off
    • Terminal → Local line editing: Force off
    • Telnet → Telnet Negotiation Mode: Passive
    • Telnet → Return key sends Telnet New Line instead of ^M: UNCHECK

Upgrading OpenVMS TCP to MultiNet/VSI TCPIP

2020-12-18 /

A few VERY IMPORTANT notes.

  • This guide applies to OpenVMS 8.4.2U1.
  • From what I understand as of this post date, VSI has given up on their purchased Process software Multinet variation and have gone BACK to the original DEC/HPE TCPIP stack instead.
  • This guide doesn’t really have much value at this point but might later if VSI decides to use MultiNet later in the future.
  • This guide walks through how to install it, but does not include steps for “massaging it” to actually work once installed – in fact I had to use the added “switcher” to switch back to the old TCPIP…
    • VSI MultiNet isn’t finished yet so it’s not surprising it doesn’t work, or at least not without extensive continued work.

Source: https://vmssoftware.com/…VSI_TCPIP_INSTALL_QS.PDF

Step 1: Get the KITS files…

First, you’ll need to find the files for the TCPIP2 from the KITS folder under I64LPS. Have this ready to go for later.

Step 2: Update Your MODPARAMS file

Go ahead and edx/edit your SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT file and make sure the following is set within it:

! Setup for VSI TCPIP 11-SEPT-2020 WM
MIN_GH_EXEC_DATA = 1500
MIN_GH_EXEC_CODE = 4200

Then run the below to place the new parameters into action for now and later:

$ @SYS$UPDATE:AUTOGEN SAVPARAMS SETPARAMS FEEDBACK

Step 3: Setting up the Directory

Create a TCPIP2 directory to upload the patches/kits

$ set default sys$common:[000000]
$ create/dir [.tcpip2]

For SFTP/SCP purposes, it’ll be located at:

/$30$dkb3/SYS0/SYSCOMMON/TCPIP2/

Step 4: Pre-Installation

VERY CAREFULLY follow the notes for wbem within it’s own .TXT file.

VERY IMPORTANT: For shared system disks, you’ll need to perform the install on ALL nodes one at a time, not just once!

These notes are for a single node system disk, non-clustered.

Install the pre-patch:

$ @sys$startup:wbem_services$shutdown
$ set default SYS$COMMON:[TCPIP2.pre]
$ unzip *.zipexe
$ PRODUCT INSTALL * /SOURCE=SYS$COMMON:[TCPIP2.pre]

When prompted:

  • Select install All Patches
  • Select defaults to prompts

After it’s done, run:

$ run SYS$COMMON:[WBEM_SERVICES]WBEM_Services$Config.exe

Follow the defaults, do not change the location and refresh the repository. (Not sure what this actually entails behind the scenes, but guessing it’s a localhost wbem thing) This will take roughly 10-20 minutes.

Step 5: Patch Installation

You can now run the TCPIP Install.

$ set default SYS$COMMON:[TCPIP2.patch]
$ unzip *.zipexe
$ PRODUCT INSTALL * /SOURCE=SYS$COMMON:[TCPIP2.patch...]

When prompted with the below…

   1 - VSI I64VMS VMS842L1I_CLUCONFIG V1.0 Patch (remedial update)
   2 - VSI I64VMS VSI_TCPIP V10.6          Layered Product
   ? - Help
   E - Exit

Choose one or more items from the menu:

You should type:

1,2

and press enter.

You should then see:

The following products have been selected:
    VSI I64VMS VMS842L1I_CLUCONFIG V1.0    Patch (remedial update)
    VSI I64VMS VSI_TCPIP V10.6             Layered Product
    
Do you want to continue? [YES]

Step 6: Before Reboot

Prior to rebooting, ensure that you comment out all commands in your system startup procedure that start the TCP/IP stacks within:  SYS$MANAGER:SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM 

Such as:

$ @TCPIP$STARTUP
$ @START_MULTINET
$ @TCPWARE:STARTNET

You must also comment out any corresponding START/NETWORK commands from your IP network stack.

In this example, the startup file: SYS$MANAGER:SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM

Had the following line:

$ @TCPIP$STARTUP

Changed to:

$ @SYS$STARTUP:IP$STARTUP

Step 7: Shutting it down…

TREAD LIGHTLY HERE! Don’t forget, if you’re not already working from the MP, you’ll need to connect to that instead of directly to the node via SSH.

Once you’re connected to the MP you can run the following shutdown command to shut it down…

$ @SYS$SYSTEM:SHUTDOWN

This is because you may not be able to connect with TCIP through SSH directly to the node if something goes wrong.

After rebooting, in my personal case, I had issues with the network having configuration errors still.

So I had to run:

@SYS$MANAGER:IP$SET_STACK

It then gave me a menu that allowed me to set the TCPIP stack back to how it previously was, and it gave an option to reboot now which I selected yes to perform.

End.

The lesson is, don’t use VSI Multinet aka VSI TCPIP.

How To Create a SSL Certificate on Apache for Ubuntu 12.04

2017-04-24 /

This guide is intended to serve as documentation and is practically a copy and paste of the guide found on DigiCert website.
Source: https://www.digicert.com/ssl-certificate-installation-ubuntu-server-with-apache2.htm

With that said this guide is a great one for generating a self signed certificate on an Ubuntu server running Apache.

Let’s Begin!

What the Red Means

The lines that the user needs to enter or customize will be in red in this tutorial! The rest should mostly be copy-and-pastable.

About SSL Certificates

A SSL certificate is a way to encrypt a site’s information and create a more secure connection. Additionally, the certificate can show the virtual private server’s identification information to site visitors. Certificate Authorities can issue SSL certificates that verify the server’s details while a self-signed certificate has no 3rd party corroboration.

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Install Skype for Arch Linux (as of April 2017)

2017-04-13 /

I discovered through trial-and-error and then finally from a response on a forum that the pacman -S skype won’t work for installing Skype these days since it’s too old and outdated. (Or something along those lines)

Instead, download the snapshot file from here: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/skypeforlinux/

Extract the files to a folder.

CD into the directory and then: (NOT using sudo) Run:

$makepkg -si

This will make everything, install dependencies, make the package, install the package.

Source: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_User_Repository

Installing packages

Installing packages from the AUR is a relatively simple process.

Essentially:
  1. Acquire the build files, including the PKGBUILD and possibly other required files, like systemd units and patches (often not the actual code).
  2. Verify that the PKGBUILD and accompanying files are not malicious or untrustworthy.
  3. Run makepkg -si in the directory where the files are saved. This will download the code, resolve the dependencies with pacman, compile it, package it, and install the package.

Increase Upload File Size for Apache Ubuntu 14

2016-10-11 /

This documentation/guide is for how to modify Ubuntu 14’s Apache PHP5 so that a larger file size can be uploaded.
In this example, I modified the file size limit of 2mb to 4mb, as well as increased the max_execution_time so that there’s enough time to actually upload the larger file size to the server.

The process can be achieved several ways.

The easiest method is to modify php.ini.

sudo nano /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Modify the following lines:

upload_max_filesize = 4M
post_max_size = 8M #default
max_execution_time = 300

After saving the file, restart apache:

sudo service apache2 restart

Apache and PHP for Raspberry Pi

2016-03-30 /
(Source from: stewright.me)

Step 3 – Install Apache

Here’s where the fun begins. We’re going to start by installing Apache and some other packages. To do this its begin with entering:

sudo bash

This means we’re not having to type sudo each time we run a command. When you’ve done this, enter the following:

apt-get install apache2 apache2-doc apache2-utils

This shouldn’t take long. Once we’ve done that we’re going to install a few support packages including PHP. Once complete, enter the following command:

apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 php5 php-pear php5-xcache

This too shouldn’t take too long. Follow up with installing the support package for database connectivity:

apt-get install php5-mysql

Now we’re going to install MySQL server. Do this by entering the following command:

apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client

As part of the installation, you’ll be asked to set a root password. Enter a password and then confirm it when prompted in the blue screen.

THEN!

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5
sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

#At the end of the file add: (if it’s not there)

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

Welcome To Pascal

2016-01-22 /

For reasons related to work, I will soon begin learning Delphi and Pascal.

Lately I’ve been using Ubuntu more often than my Windows 8.1 OS.

As such, I decided to see if I could compile and run my first Pascal code snippet in Ubuntu.

And well… here’s how to do just that!

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