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NAS/NAS backup from Synology DiskStation to ReadyNAS

2009-07-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

Source is a Synology DS-207+ running DiskStation 2.1; target is a Netgear (Infrant) ReadyNAS 600 running RAIDiator 4.1.5.

On the source:

Using ssh and vi, edit /etc/rsyncd.conf and add a section for the share to be backed up (you will need to know the path to the source folder, e.g. /volume1/web, so get to know the native filesystem and folder locations).
In the web interface, go to Backup - Network Backup Service and activate the Network Backup Service.

On the target, using the web interface:

Go to Services - Standard File Protocols and enable Rsync.
Ggo to Backup - Add a New Backup Job.
In 'STEP1 - Select backup source' specify 'Remote: Rsync server' and enter the hostname and the path name.
For login name use 'root' and for password use your ReadyNAS admin password.
Click 'Test connection' and if it doesn't succeed, you've done something wrong.
Continue on to the next step and decide where you want to put the files and when you want the backup to run, and various options.

The Backup Schedule will then be displayed. You can click "Go" to start the backup now. Be prepared to wait a while, as the ReadyNAS isn't all that fast and it will take quite a while to scan the target to prepare for the backup.

The Walking Store

2009-06-24T23:13:00.001-07:00

Just ran across http://www.thejoyofwalking.com/ while using Google Local to search for references to "walking" - looks interesting and is just a few miles from here. I wonder if they have a showroom....

Two Cool Apps To Work With Open Windows on Your Desktop

2009-06-14T10:35:00.001-07:00

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/keep-your-open-windows-from-cluttering-up-your-desktop/.

HOWTO use adfind and admod to set the Active Directory 'mail' attribute based on the surname and givenName attributes

2009-04-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

adfind -adcsv -b "OU=some-OU,DC=example,DC=com" -f objectCategory=user sn givenName | admod mail::{{givenName}}.{{sn}}@example.com

Renewing a self-signed certificate

2009-03-31T11:19:00.000-07:00

I had to do this today for an Exchange 2003 server which was no longer permitting Outlook RPC over HTTP access. OWA still worked, but remote clients were stuck in a "Connecting" state. I found the following snippet at MSExchange.org:

To renew a certificate, goto Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. Find your "Default Website", right-click on it, and select Properties.

Under the "Directory Security" tab, click the "Server Certificate" button, then click "Next" on the wizard welcome screen and select "Renew the current certificate"

Once I did that, clients immediately reconnected.

Publishing: the industry that was

2009-03-22T20:42:00.001-07:00

Here's a thought-provoking piece on the changes cuerrently being wrought by the Internet on the publishing industry. It's incredibly relevant to these times, and to more media than print - all media is undergoing a revolution that just a decade ago was unthinkable.

Clay Shirky: Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable

Blogger/Google Reader integration

2009-03-18T06:30:00.001-07:00

Google Reader integrates nicely with Blogger, which (considering they're both Google properties these days) is probably to be expected. Still, it's nice to see and certainly makes it easy to share links.

Blogging from my BlackBerry

2009-03-17T14:13:00.001-07:00

So far Blogger seems to be a good blog hosting platform. Decent perks such as posting via email, free custom domains, easy setup...

Too bad about that navigation bar above the blog, but at least I can change the colour somewhat.

The only confusion arose when I discovered that a "Google Apps" account is *not* the same thing as a regular Google account - for example, Blogger requires a Google account and won't work with a Google Apps account.

Once I realized that, things got a little less confusing!

HOWTO Update EasyDNS with wget

2009-03-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

I use hstart.exe and wget.exe in a scheduled task on a Windows server to update my EasyDNS Dynamic DNS records. The command line (all on one line; it's probably split across several lines here) is as follows:

hstart.exe /NOCONSOLE /SILENT /IDLE "wget.exe ""https://MYUSERNAME:MYPASSWORD@members.easydns.com/dyn/dyndns.php?hostname=MYHOST.MYDOMAIN.COM&myip=1.1.1.1"" -q -O c:\temp\easydns.txt"

Replace MYUSERNAME, MYPASSWORD, MYHOST, and MYDOMAIN.COM with your username, password, hostname, and domain name.

myip=1.1.1.1 tells EasyDNS to detect the IP address from which the query is being executed, and use that as the new IP address for the DNS record(s). (There are more optional parameters for "dyndns.php" that let you set MX records for email, and a variety of other items. You may be able to find some documentation about those elsewhere on the web. Google is your friend.)

-q tells wget to reduce it's output verbosity and -O c:\temp\easydns.txt captures the results of the operation into a text file.

From the Hstart web page: "Hidden Start (or Hstart) is a small startup manager that allows console applications to be started without any windows in the background and much more."

From the official wget homepage: "GNU Wget is a free software package for retrieving files using HTTP, HTTPS and FTP, the most widely-used Internet protocols. It is a non-interactive commandline tool, so it may easily be called from scripts, cron jobs, terminals without X-Windows support, etc."

I set this up in a scheduled task configured to run hourly: