Grant McWilliams

Recipe originally posted on recessionchef.com

I love rich food and I've come to love the mix of a rich sauce with meat over rice. You get this a lot with Thai curries, Indian Curries, Persian Korescht, and Afghan Quormas. This seems to be a very good format and economical too. Spices cost a lot but you don't need many and rice is cheap. Add meat of some sort and you have a great meal for a decent price. Living in the Pacific Northwest means that we have very limited selection of Persian restaurants and even when you do find one it's probably overpriced and low on quality. When I'm in Orange County I always eat at the Caspian Restaurant in Irvine not only for the environment but for the Fesanjoon. 

Fesenjoon (slang for Khoresht-e Fesenjan) is a "stew" made up of a sauce from walnuts and pomegranate syrup/juice. It's wonderfully tart and deep. You add chicken and serve over Basmati rice. Not everyone likes it but it's one of my favorite things to eat.

 I've eaten Fesenjoon at many restaurants and tried making it on many occasions. I've been somewhat successful but my Fesenjoon doesn't taste like the Caspians which is wonderfully smooth without being too sweet. Last week I ran across kshar.net, a site run by man determined to bring Persian culture to the masses. What brought me to his site was a three part series on Fesenjoon. His cooking style is a bit loose so you have to pay close attention to what he's doing to get similar results. He also doesn't argue about what SHOULD be, it's your food make it how you like it. He seems to be intent on letting a few ingredients talk as apposed to having many ingredients fighting for attention - I agree with this philosophy. 

With that in mind I made Fesenjoon the other day. Following is the pseudo recipe.

1. 2.5 c of walnuts
2. 1 c of water
3. 2 c of pomegranate syrup or 1/4 c pomegranate molasses and 1/4 cup sugar*
4. saffron 
5. turmeric
6. one onion diced
7. 2 lbs of chicken thighs
8. 2 cups of basmati rice
9. salt 
10. oil 

1. For the sauce place a portion of the walnuts in the blender with a little water and blend. If they're too dry to blend add more water. Keep adding water and nuts until they're coursely ground. You don't want a smooth paste here or you won't taste walnuts.

2. Once their ground place them in a pot on the stove and cook them on medium-high while stirring to keep from burning

3. Add pomegranate syrup and sugar - see my note below and turn to medium-low and simmer for 1.5 hours minimum. The sauce will get darker the longer you simmer it

4. Heat oil in saute pan until hot, add onion and saute until browned. Dark sauces want browned onions, not just golden

5. Add perhaps a teaspoon of turmeric, then add chicken thighs, brown on both sides and set aside

6. When the sauce has been simmering for 1.5 - 2 hrs add it to the chicken and simmer again for another 60 minutes. Turn the chicken over on occasion to baste in the sauce

7. The oils from the walnuts will rise to the top (and be green colored like olive oil) and the chicken will get a bit of a crust from the sauce on it

8. Let cool and put in the refrigerator - this is a second day dish

9. The next day put the saute pan back on the heat and warm gently on medium-low for about an hour

10. Serve over basmati rice

* Note on syrup vs molasses. I bought a large jar of pomegranate syrup made in Slovenia. This looks like a jar of cranberry juice but you can tell the liquid is definitely thicker. It was already sweetened with sugar and two cups seemed about right. Adding sugar made the sauce overly sweet. If you have pomegranate molasses (common) you'll want to put in 1/4 cup and add 1/4 cup of granulated sugar as well. Adjust flavors accordingly.

A lot of times Fesenjan cooked at home and sometimes in restaurants is pasty and/or so tart you can't eat it. The pastiness seems to be from people undercooking it. Don't get impatient and eat it too soon, you'll be sorry. This dish can be eaten same day but it's much nicer the next day.

A couple of things that seem to make a difference 

1. Put the pomegranate syrup in with the walnuts from the beginning
2. Don't grind the walnuts too fine so the sauce still has a walnut taste 
3. Cook the sauce for a long time. It will get darker and richer as time goes on
4. Add Pomegranate syrup/sugar according to your taste
5. Don't get crazy with ingredients - you don't need cardemon, coriander or any of that other stuff.

This article is a  response to and article written by David Salaverry,  the founder of the California Conservative Action Group. The article - California High Speed Rail: Part One, Arguments For posted on Fox and Hounds was an interesting slant on California's High Speed Rail project. We take it for granted that liberals will vote for HSR and conservatives won't. David takes a different tone and introduces a few reasons why the GOP should take a lead on building this infrastructure and I've taken it upon myself to add a few thoughts to his words.

Thank you for writing with this perspective David Salaverry.  I'm afraid that if the GOP doesn't start thinking about getting something done they may not be in office anymore. At some point people will see the GOP as the "No you can't have education, No you can't have infrastructure, No you can't have transportation, No you can't live here and work". If you say no to everyone no matter how good your intentions there won't be enough people to vote for you because you're completely ineffective at doing anything but shutting stuff down. The Democrats on the other hand may end up being the "Yes they spent a lot of money but at least some of their stuff worked". It's sad that "some of their stuff worked" would be considered a success but in comparison "none of their stuff worked because they didn't do anything" is a failure to do anything.

At one time in history the GOP was the anti-slavery, pro-American enterprise, pro-infrastructure party. Now they're the "you can't have money unless you're a defense contractor" party. This is a sad state for the GOP party and I think only when they start losing seats in congress will they think about addressing the real issues. You could make the argument that the Democrats aren't doing anything right too but that would be a different topic. Currently we're discussing the GOP and High Speed Rail.

The crazy thing about HSR is that it does work in most nations they build it in. Operating costs are cheaper per passenger mile (7-9 cents) than airlines (12-14 cents) and in those countries the HSR breaks even or even makes money (TGV makes $1.6B a year helping to offset local trains deficit).  I haven't quite figured out why the GOP is so against passenger rail because we're not exactly inventing something new and risky. I've come up some possible reasons. Most are arguments I've heard in forums.

1. It costs money and spending ANY money is bad. This doesn't make sense because just upgrading the freeways and airports for the increased population for the next 30 years costs the same as the HSR as the cost analyses for California showed.
2. Trains are old technology, planes are the way to go. This 1950's era thinking is old technology. HSR has proven to be the most efficient for trips from 100 - 500 miles. Just because these folks have never traveled beyond their local Walmart doesn't make it not so.
3. Environmentalists push trains since they emit less Co2. Is there a negative to lowering Co2 that I don't know about? Even if global warming is a hoax making less pollution is generally considered a good thing.
4. Putting everyone on public transportation is socialism and we don't want to be Russia. Airplanes are public transportation... we all ride together. With trains you ride in comfort.
5. We don't like the idea that the government would own the infrastructure instead of private enterprise. Two words - Freeways and Airports. Both are owned by the state and both work wonderfully for their intended purpose.
6. Liberals like trains and we can't support them. This is how you get nothing done in Congress. At some point people will have had enough and stop electing you. Try to agree on something once in a while. Your career may depend on it.
7. Only rich people could afford to ride it. Like airplanes and cars. Driving your car one mile costs 55 cents. Only a fool thinks their car costs the price of gas. Everyone has to do maintenance, pay for insurance, tires, depreciation etc... The more you drive it the less your car is worth and the closer you get to having to buy a new one. Driving 500 miles (HSR's maximum) will cost you $250 whereas the train would cost you half that. Even planes are cheaper than driving at that distance. Save your car for driving short distances where it's the best mode of transportation.
8. It won't go where I want. Trains go between cities and I'm a conservative so I live in the country. This is actually a VALID reason which is why you should be in the planning process. Trains have the ability to stop in smaller towns whereas planes don't. HSR could have an advantage if you live in the country.
9. I don't want my tax money going toward something I'll never use. Currently about 30% of freeways are paid for directly by people who use them by way of gas tax. The rest comes from taxes collected from people who will never use that freeway. Currently Amtrak's dilapidated network of 70s era trains have an average farebox recovery (ticket sales) of 55% or nearly double that of freeways. Amtrak relies less per passenger on subsidies than freeways. HSR if done right will break even as it does in most countries thus having a lower burden on taxpayers not using it.
10. I'm all for private companies like airlines providing my transportation, not government inefficiencies. If you think those private enterprises are surviving because they're more efficient you may surprised to learn they're heavily reliant on subsidies.  Airports are run by the government as is the FAA, and the TSA. Most every flight is subsidized to keep the airlines solvent. The subsidy varies depending on which airports the flights use and how popular it is. The average flight out of LAX is only subsidized $9. However, a direct flight from Spokane WA to Irvine CA is subsidized roughly $200. 

I'm sure there are other arguments but I haven't thought of them yet. Comments?

 This tutorial is for installing XenWebManager on an XCP host but should work just as well for installing XenWebManager on any Redhat based hosts (CentOS/Fedora).

It's best to install XenWebManager on another machine or even a VM for security reasons but I could see installing it on a host for simplicity's sake.

You will need to be root in order to follow the instructions below.

1. Download and install the packages

cd ~
wget http://iweb.dl.sourceforge.net/project/xenwebmanager/xenwebmanager_beta_full.tar.gz
tar -xzvpf xenwebmanager_beta_full.tar.gz 
cd xenwebmanager/tools
bash install_rh.sh

2. Run XenWebManager

Run xenwebmanager service. The install script above already configures it to auto-start on XCP host bootup. To turn auto-start off - chkconfig xenwebmanager off...

service xenwebmanager start

3. Allow port 8080 through the firewall

iptables -A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p tcp --dport 8080 -j ACCEPT
service iptables save
service iptables restart

4. Connect to the XCP Host

Open a web browser and connect to your XCP Host's IP address on port 8080. My host's IP is 192.168.1.147 so I would type http://192.168.1.147:8080/ into my web browser Address bar. 

5. Configure xenwebmanager to manage your XCP pool

Once you've connected to XenWebManager  you need to add your server. Click on the "Add Server" button in the top left hand corner and enter your XCP poolmaster's Hostname, Username and Password.

Possibly the easiest way to get a graphical management interface running on XCP is to use the Xen Web Manager Appliance. The appliance is a complete Virtual Machine with XenWebManager installed and ready to run. 

These commands should be typed into your XCP cloud host.

1. Download and import the appliance 

This is a very long URL from Sourceforge but it does work if you copy and paste it.

cd ~
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/xenwebmanager/appliances/xenwebmanager.xva.gz?r=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Fxenwebmanager%2F&ts=1365405701&use_mirror=superb-dca3
gunzip xenwebmanager.xva.gz
xe vm-import filename=xenwebmanager.xva

2. Verify the appliance and start it 

[root@testcloud1 ~]# xe vm-list name-label=xenwebmanager
uuid ( RO)           : 70f63ce4-b775-22c6-a556-a03a7bea6220
     name-label ( RW): xenwebmanager
    power-state ( RO): halted

[root@testcloud1 ~]# xe vm-start name-label=xenwebmanager

3. Get the IP address of the appliance

Opening a console on the VM is done differently on XCP 1.0/1.1 then it is on XCP 1.5/1.6. Copy and paste these instructions.

On XCP 1.0/1.1 

DOMID=$(xe vm-list name-label=xenwebmanager params=dom-id)
/usr/lib/xen/bin/xenconsole $DOMID

On XCP 1.5/1.6

xe console vm=xenwebmanager

Log with the following credentials

Username: root
Password: xenwebmanager

Get appliance IP address

Once we've logged into our Appliance get the IP address using the ifconfig command.

[root@xenwebmanager ~]# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr B2:5C:69:8C:22:1E  
          inet addr:192.168.1.147  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::b05c:69ff:fe8c:221e/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2377 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:42 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:273930 (267.5 KiB)  TX bytes:7146 (6.9 KiB)

My appliance IP address is 192.168.1.147.  Exit the console by pressing the Control Key and the right square bracket - control ]

4. Connect to the appliance

Open a web browser and connect to your appliance IP address on port 8080. My appliance IP is 192.168.1.147 so I would type http://192.168.1.147:8080/ into my web browser Address bar. 

5. Configure xenwebmanager to manage your XCP pool

Once you've connected to your xenwebmanager appliance you need to add your server. Click on the "Add Server" button in the top left hand corner and enter your XCP poolmaster's Hostname, Username and Password.

Getting VMs to boot up automatically when an XCP host powers up is fairly easy but not entirely logical. With the old Xen we'd just copy the config file into /etc/xen/auto but XCP/Xenserver has no such directory. Using XCP/Xenserver you have to tell the pool to turn on auto_poweron and you also have to set it for the VM you want to autoboot as well. 

1. Get the Pool UUID number

Use xe pool-list to get the UUID of the pool.  We see the pool UUID is d47b4251-60bc-aa36-c572-c425fdc1b897.

[root@testcloud1 ~]# xe pool-list
uuid ( RO)                : d47b4251-60bc-aa36-c572-c425fdc1b897
          name-label ( RW): 
    name-description ( RW): 
              master ( RO): c76a1ba7-8cdd-45a7-8399-38f242355a43
          default-SR ( RW): 735f9d8e-64eb-71b7-9fd4-47c342c7c9e4

2. Set auto_poweron for the pool 

To set the value of a pool parameter we'll use the xe pool-param-set. Use the pool UUID from the previous step here. We'll be setting the auto_poweron item of the other-config map parameter to true.

xe pool-param-set uuid=d47b4251-60bc-aa36-c572-c425fdc1b897 other-config:auto_poweron=true

3. Get the VM UUID number

Use xe vm-list to get the UUID of the VM you'd like to autoboot. We see the VM UUID is  d2e81fdd-e2cd-b0db-8b0e-e280611eb446. 

[root@testcloud1 ~]# xe vm-list
uuid ( RO)           : d2e81fdd-e2cd-b0db-8b0e-e280611eb446
     name-label ( RW): CentOS6
    power-state ( RO): halted

4. Set auto_poweron for the VM 

To set the value of a VM parameter we'll use xe vm-param-set. Use the VM UUID from the previous step here. We'll be setting the auto_poweron item of the other-config map parameter to true.

xe vm-param-set uuid=d2e81fdd-e2cd-b0db-8b0e-e280611eb446 other-config:auto_poweron=true

5. Test

Test your work by rebooting the host.

Xenserver hotfixes are released as patches that need to be applied with patch-pool-apply. Although technically this could work with XCP as long as you got the correct Xenserver patch it's better to apply patches the "new" way using Yum and the default xcp repository.

Any minor software updates to Xen Cloud Platform will be released into the XCP Yum repository at downloads.xen.org.  XCP 1.6 comes with a ready made Yum repository file at /etc/yum.repos.d/xcp.repo although by default the repository is disabled.

To apply updates use the yum update command you have to enable the repo and tell rpm not  to gpg check the packages. Hopefully the latter behavior will change in the future.

yum --enablerepo xcp --nogpgcheck update

If you'd like to enable the repo and turn gpg checking off by default so future updates are easier then change the enabled=0 line to enabled=1. Also add a line to the /etc/yum.repos.d/xcp.repo file to turn gpgchecking off for this ONE repository.

[xcp]
name=XCP 1.6 Updates
baseurl=http://downloads.xen.org/XCP/repo/xcp-1.6.10/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

I don't know if I recommend enabling by default as I like to do my updates manually. I really have issues with turning gpg checking off but currently the packages are distributed without a gpg signature so if you have it turned on the update will fail. Our only choice is to turn it off.

I've been harping on how I predicted that traditional desktop (Windows dominance) would shrink while mobile marketshare (Linux dominance) would go up and that this is important for us to know so we can focus our education better. 

So far this has been me watching the industry and doing a little hocus pocus foretelling of the future based on a lot of data in a lot of areas. Now other analysts are putting the real numbers down. Businessinsider wrote an article about Apple being impacted by Android but there's an interesting graphic in the middle. As you see over the years the Windows/Intel monopoly has had the mass majority marketshare for quite some time but look what it's done in the last couple of years - halved. Also look at the amount Android has made in the exact same time. 

At this rate Android may be the majority OS in a couple of years. I don't know if I like that or not since I'm not really an Android fan but it shows that Linux is making massive progress in marketshare because the MARKET is changing. This year will be an interesting one as more mobile Operating Systems enter the fray. With Samsung (who makes 25% of all smartphones) is investing heavily in Tizen, Firefox releases Firefox Mobile, Ubuntu releases Ubuntu Mobile and Jolla brings out SailfishOS (outgrowth of Nokia's Meego) it will be an interesting year. All of these operating systems are Linux. If Android loses marketshare it will be to other versions of Linux.

Ethiopian food is a treat for us locally. Although Seattle based Ethiopian restaurants can't hold a candle to those in the other Washington (D.C.) they're still pretty decent and it's hard to argue against Ethiopian food in general. However, none of the local restaurants are very near me meaning I need to get in the car and face traffic to have Doro Wat. Now that I can get Injera from Amy's Mercato (http://www.yelp.com/biz/amys-merkato-seattle-2) I don't have to do the hard part - make Injera (or source Teff).  To save time/energy I also picked up about half pound of Berbere spices from a local African market. These two time saving measures make Doro Wat possible at home. 

• 3 tbs chopped garlic
• 2 tbs chopped ginger
• 1 cup berbere spices
• 1 cup water (as needed)
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 3 lbs of chicken thighs/legs
• 4 hard boiled eggs

Using my tutorials it's fairly easy to install Linux... as long as I've written a tutorial for it. It's also fairly easy to start and stop your VMs... if you understand the XE command or you've installed xenapi-admin-tools. If you're the type of person who appreciates a good graphical interface you can run Citrix' own Xencenter software which does a great job. However it's a Windows application so if you (like me) don't run Windows then you can't easily run Xencenter. There is a free GUI based management tool named XVP that allows you to do simple administration of your VMs like starting and stopping them. It also handles the messiness of tunneling through network and firewalls to provide a VNC console on your local desktop which can be very handy if you want to do a graphical install.

There are two ways to getting XVP to run on your xapi cloud:

1. Create a CentOS VM and install/configure all of the XVP packages
2. Download the XVP Appliance VM image and run it

We will choose the latter as it's a great deal easier to do. 

Creating a download location large enough for the xvpappliance VM image

You have an issue with just downloading the XVP Appliance and importing it into XCP as the image is too big for the stock XCP Operating System drive so we will remedy this by creating an ext3 formatted Logical Volume to store the image in temporarily.

Get the name of your  Storage Repository named "Local Storage". This would be the default SR created on install. 

[root@testcloud1]# xe sr-list
uuid ( RO)                : 735f9d8e-64eb-71b7-9fd4-47c342c7c9e4
          name-label ( RW): Local storage
    name-description ( RW): 
                host ( RO): testcloud1
                type ( RO): lvm
        content-type ( RO): user

Now get the name of the LVM Volume Group associated with it. 

[root@testcloud1]# vgs
  VG                                                 #PV #LV #SN Attr   VSize   VFree  
  VG_XenStorage-735f9d8e-64eb-71b7-9fd4-47c342c7c9e4   1   7   0 wz--n- 181.91G 115.84G

We can see the Volume Group is named VG_XenStorage-<UUID of Local Storage SR>.  We can also see that there is 115.84 GB of free space on it which is perfect. Now we will create a new Logical Volume 10 GB in size named TESTLV in the Volume Group named VG_XenStorage-735f9d8e-64eb-71b7-9fd4-47c342c7c9e4. NOTE: Your  Volume Group will be named something different. Due to the long lines a break (\) has been inserted.

[root@testcloud1 share]# lvcreate -L 10G -n TESTLV \
 VG_XenStorage-735f9d8e-64eb-71b7-9fd4-47c342c7c9e4
  Logical volume "TESTLV" created

Format the new Logical Volume as ext3. Due to the long lines a break (\) has been inserted.

[root@testcloud1 ]# mkfs -t ext3 \ 
/dev/VG_XenStorage-735f9d8e-64eb-71b7-9fd4-47c342c7c9e4/TESTLV
mke2fs 1.39 (29-May-2006)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
1310720 inodes, 2621440 blocks
131072 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=2684354560
80 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
16384 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
	32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632

Writing inode tables: done                            
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 32 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

Now make a mountpoint (/media/TESTLV) and mount the new Logical Volume. After being mounted we use the df command to check for free space. Due to the long lines a break (\) has been inserted.

[root@testcloud1]# mkdir /media/TESTLV
[root@testcloud1]# mount /dev/VG_XenStorage-735f9d8e-64eb-71b7-9fd4-47c342c7c9e4/TESTLV \ 
  /media/TESTLV/
[root@testcloud1]# df -h /media/TESTLV
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/VG_XenStorage--735f9d8e--64eb--71b7--9fd4--47c342c7c9e4-TESTLV
                      9.9G  151M  9.2G   2% /media/TESTLV

Installing XVP

Now that you have a place to put the VM image we can download the zipped image to your new formatted Logical Volume. Go to http://www.xvpsource.org/?topic=releases&page=download and copy and paste the xvpappliance link. At the time of this writing it was http://xvpmirror.webguyz.net/xvpappliance-1.15.0-1.zip. 

[root@testcloud1]# cd /media/TESTLV/
[root@testcloud1 TESTLV]# wget http://xvpmirror.webguyz.net/xvpappliance-1.15.0-1.zip

Once xvpappliance is downloaded unzip it and import the image into XCP. This may take a while as the xva formatted image file is 1.9 GB extracted.

[root@testcloud1 TESTLV]# unzip xvpappliance-1.15.0-1.zip 
Archive:  xvpappliance-1.15.0-1.zip
inflating: xvpappliance-1.15.0-1.xva  
[root@testcloud1 TESTLV]# xe vm-import filename=xvpappliance-1.15.0-1.xva 

Verify the xe vm-import worked by listing the xvpappliance VM.

[root@testcloud1 TESTLV]# xe vm-list name-label=xvpappliance[root@testcloud1 TESTLV]# cd ..
[root@testcloud1 media]# umount /media/TESTLV 
[root@testcloud1 media]# lvremove /dev/VG_XenStorage-735f9d8e-64eb-71b7-9fd4-47c342c7c9e4/TESTLV
Do you really want to remove active logical volume TESTLV? [y/n]: y
  Logical volume "TESTLV" successfully removed
[root@testcloud1 TESTLV]# cd ..
[root@testcloud1 media]# umount /media/TESTLV 
[root@testcloud1 media]# lvremove /dev/VG_XenStorage-735f9d8e-64eb-71b7-9fd4-47c342c7c9e4/TESTLV
Do you really want to remove active logical volume TESTLV? [y/n]: y
  Logical volume "TESTLV" successfully removed
[root@testcloud1 TESTLV]# cd ..
[root@testcloud1 media]# umount /media/TESTLV 
[root@testcloud1 media]# lvremove /dev/VG_XenStorage-735f9d8e-64eb-71b7-9fd4-47c342c7c9e4/TESTLV
Do you really want to remove active logical volume TESTLV? [y/n]: y
  Logical volume "TESTLV" successfully removed

uuid ( RO)           : 2d3fb5e7-4ea7-69f4-e652-1895995ca4b6
     name-label ( RW): xvpappliance
    power-state ( RO): halted
 

Turn off VNC so our commandline console works on the xvpappliance VM and boot it up. We will need the xvpappliance UUID for this.

[root@testcloud1 TESTLV]# xe vm-list name-label=xvpappliance
uuid ( RO)           : 2d3fb5e7-4ea7-69f4-e652-1895995ca4b6
     name-label ( RW): xvpappliance
    power-state ( RO): halted

[root@testcloud1 TESTLV]# xe vm-param-set uuid=2d3fb5e7-4ea7-69f4-e652-1895995ca4b6 \
  other-config:disable_pv_vnc=1
[root@testcloud1 TESTLV]# xe vm-start name-label=xvpappliance 

Configure XVP

Connect to the console and configure the xvpappliance

[root@testcloud1 TESTLV]# xe console name-label=xvpappliance
Connecting to console on VM xvpappliance. Press Ctrl + ']' to quit.

BAD PASSWORD: it is WAY too short
Retype new UNIX password: 
Sorry, passwords do not match.
New UNIX password: 
Retype new UNIX password: 
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

Currently set timezone is Europe/London

Do you want to change this? [n]: 
Appliance hostname including domain: xvpappliance.test.com
Appliance IP address: 192.168.1.15
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway address: 192.168.1.1
First DNS server IP address: 192.168.1.1
Do you want to specify a second DNS server? [n]: 
Shutting down interface eth0:  [  OK  ]
Shutting down loopback interface:  [  OK  ]
Bringing up loopback interface:  [  OK  ]
Bringing up interface eth0:  [  OK  ]
Reloading sshd: [  OK  ]

Please specify an existing email address to receive email notifications
from this appliance, and the name of an SMTP email gateway through which
this appliance may send emails.  You can change these settings again later
and send test emails using the "Configure email" menu option.

Enter email address: 
 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 

Hostname of outgoing email gateway: test.com
Does this gateway require authentication? [n]: 
Starting sendmail: [  OK  ]
Starting sm-client: [  OK  ]

Use a proxy server when fetching software updates? [n]: 

How frequently do you want to check for software updates:

    1. Hourly
    2. Daily[root@testcloud1 TESTLV]# cd ..
[root@testcloud1 media]# umount /media/TESTLV 
[root@testcloud1 media]# lvremove /dev/VG_XenStorage-735f9d8e-64eb-71b7-9fd4-47c342c7c9e4/TESTLV
Do you really want to remove active logical volume TESTLV? [y/n]: y
  Logical volume "TESTLV" successfully removed

    3. Weekly
    4. Monthly
    5. Neverhttp://grantmcwilliams.com/item/654-install-xvp-appliance

Please enter selection: 2
Schedule successfully updated
Starting yum-updatesd: [  OK  ]

Redirect users from HTTP to HTTPS for security? [y]: 
Tunnel VNC console connections via HTTP/HTTPS? [n]: 
Create new SSL certificate for HTTPS? [y]: 

You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [GB]:US
State or Province Name (full name) [Berkshire]:WA
Locality Name (eg, city) [Newbury]:Seattle
Organization Name (eg, company) [My Company Ltd]:TEST           
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:http://grantmcwilliams.com/item/654-install-xvp-appliancehttp://grantmcwilliams.com/item/654-install-xvp-appliance
Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:xvpappliance      
Email Address []:
Use LDAP-based user authentication (e.g. Active Directory)? [n]: 
Starting httpd: [  OK  ]
Please add one or more XenServer or Xen Cloud Platform pools or standalone
servers you wish the appliance to manage.  For each, you will need to specify
a server hostname or IP address (for a pool, this can be any pool member
that's running), and an existing server username (usually "root") and
associated password.

You may also specify a tag prefix, used to group VMs when displaying in web
browsers.  For details see the manual page for xvpdiscover.  If you don't
want a tag prefix, just hit Enter when asked for one.

Select an option:

    1. Add a pool
    2. Finish configuring pools

Please enter selection: 1
Group tag prefix (optional): 
Server hostname or IP address: 192.168.1.11
Server username: root
Server password: 

Discovered 1 servers and 2 VMs in pool "testcloud1"
Display with a different pool name? [n]: 
Are you sure you want to add this pool? [y]: 

Select an option:

    1. Add a pool
    2. Schedule regular rediscovery of pool details
    3. Finish configuring pools

Please enter selection: 3
Starting xvp: [  OK  ]

Users of the web interface to xvp must specify a username and password
to connect.  Please specify an initial user, who will be granted full
access to all virtual machines.  You can add more users later using the
"Configure xvp users" menu option.

Username: admin
Password: 
Retype password: 

Basic configuration complete.

Users may now access the web interface at:

    http://xvpappliance.test.com
[root@testcloud1 TESTLV]# cd ..
[root@testcloud1 media]# umount /media/TESTLV 
[root@testcloud1 media]# lvremove /dev/VG_XenStorage-735f9d8e-64eb-71b7-9fd4-47c342c7c9e4/TESTLV
Do you really want to remove active logical volume TESTLV? [y/n]: y
  Logical volume "TESTLV" successfully removed

If you wish to change anything, please use the menu items below.

After you quit, you can see this menu again by running:

    /usr/sbin/xvpappliance

For further assistance, visit the xvp website at:

    http://www.xvpsource.org

Press Enter to continue ...

Main menu:

    1. About this program
    2. Configure timezone
    3. Configure network
    4. Configure email
    5. Configure xvp pools
    6. Configure xvp users
    7. Configure web server
    8. Manage software updates
    9. Unconfigure appliance
   10. Quit from program

Press control ] to exit the console.

Remove the temporary Logical Volume (if don't have a need for it).

[root@testcloud1 TESTLV]# cd .. [root@testcloud1 media]# umount /media/TESTLV [root@testcloud1 media]# lvremove /dev/VG_XenStorage-735f9d8e-64eb-71b7-9fd4-47c342c7c9e4/TESTLV Do you really want to remove active logical volume TESTLV? [y/n]: y Logical volume "TESTLV" successfully removed

Using XVP 

To use XVP just point your web browser to the IP address you specified above. In my case it was 192.168.1.15.  It will ask you to accept the unsigned certificate and log in. Login with the username and password you entered above as well.

Have fun!

I've been wanting to revive some equipment from the garage. I have some old dual Xeon machines that I picked up from a contract a while back. I also bought some "Designed for Google" dual CPU Xeon boards that I haven't used for anything. I've been using one of these boards in a server that's been running non-stop for probably 6 years and it's always been rock solid. Now that I'm documenting Xen Cloud Platform as part of the Xenapi Admin Project I wanted to put together a multi-host cloud using Xen Cloud Platform and it's best if your hosts match thus the renewed interest in getting this machine up and going.

However, there's been a few problems. 

1. The CPUs from the Google boards don't work in the ASUS boards due to different FSB
2. I only had three CPUs for four sockets
3. I was missing a heat sink too
4. They use DDR2 ECC Registered ram which isn't common
5. Intel should have their teeth kicked in for designing three (count them) different heat sink/fan designs for one socket.
6. I needed backplates for two CPUs, the ones that arrived had no spring clips
7. My replacement heatsink came with one spring clip
8. Only one retailer had spring clips

So I started by ordering a new copper heatsink because at the time I thought I could use the CPUs out of the Google boards.  The heatsink arrived with one spring clip, I needed two. After I realized that I couldn't use the CPUs from the Google boards I then ordered a new CPU.  Armed with a new CPU and heatsink I installed them only to find out that I needed a spring clip to keep the heat sink ON the CPU. Only one retailer even carried it so I ordered one.  Now if only I had a power supply strong enough to run the board. Back to the garage again. 

In the garage I found a brand new computer case which surprisingly also had a brand new Pentium D motherboard in it. More booty from contracts. I wasn't concerned with the Pentium D but it had a Sparkle Power 600 watt power supply... Score!! 

As of today I now have a dual Xeon server in a 4u case to match it's duplicate. I need to score some ddr2 ecc registered ram as it only has 2 GB in it. That crap is expensive so I went to Ebay and I have bids on a couple batches of 8GB. We'll see if I get them.

The board was too big for the case too. I had to get out the hacksaw and cut away at the drive cage so it would fit. and drill new holes in the side of the case to mount a fan for more direct airflow.

This board is a little interesting.  It has...

1. Two Ultra-SCSI 320 channels
2. A zero channel raid slot
3. 64 bit, 133 mhz PCI-X slots
4. 8x PCI Express slot
5. 133 MB/sec IDE
6. SATA2
7. 8 Dimm slots
8. 2 CPU sockets

The Xeons don't have VT in them so I'll only be able to paravirtualize but that's all I ever do anyway. However Xeon 7030s have VT and will fit the board if anyone has any they want to get rid of cheap.