I needed a simple PowerShell script that would keep a bunch of folders in sync. So I wrote this reusable script.

Parameters are defined in the script itself, and it takes source and destination information from an input CSV file.

# =========================================================================================
# Reusable Robocopy script that takes folder source and destination pairs from a CSV file
# Adjust CSV file, flags, options, log file and folder exclusions to suit your requirements
# Encrypted files (EFS) are excluded; include with /EFSRAW but remove the /MT flag
# Script checks if the import CSV file exists, and also checks source/dest folder pairs
# Harish Karayadath, 05 February 2018
# =========================================================================================

$logfile = "C:\Scripts\Robocopy\CopyLog_$(Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd-HHmm).log"
$flags = @{R=1;W=1;MT=64;XA="E";'LOG+'=$logfile}

# "What If" mode. Set the below to "Yes" if you would like Robocopy to list only (no copy/delete)
$whatifmode = "No"

if($whatifmode -eq "Yes") {
    $options = @("/MIR","/B","/COPYALL","/NP","/NFL","/NDL","/NC","/NS","/L")
}
else {
    $options = @("/MIR","/B","/COPYALL","/NP","/NFL","/NDL","/NC","/NS")
}

# Folder exclusions. Special characters must be escaped properly.
$exclude = @("DfsrPrivate","`$RECYCLE.BIN","System Volume Information")

# Specify import file. CSV must be in the below format.
# Name,Enabled,Source,Destination
# Folder1,TRUE,C:\Source1,C:\Dest1
# Folder2,FALSE,C:\Source2,C:\Dest2

$importfile = "C:\Scripts\Robocopy\folderlist.csv"

if(Test-Path $importfile) {
    $folders = Import-Csv $importfile
}
else {
    Add-Content $logfile -Value "======================================================="
    Add-Content $logfile -Value "The import CSV file does not exist. Script terminating."
    Add-Content $logfile -Value "Import CSV: $($importfile)"
    Add-Content $logfile -Value "======================================================="
    exit
}

foreach($folder in $folders) {
    if ($folder.Enabled -eq "TRUE") {
        if((Test-Path $folder.Source) -and (Test-Path $folder.Destination)) {
            # Write-Host "Source and Destination folders exist. Invoking robocopy."
            Add-Content $logfile -Value "========================================================"
            Add-Content $logfile -Value "Source and Destination folders exist. Invoking robocopy."
            Add-Content $logfile -Value "Source: $($folder.Source)"
            Add-Content $logfile -Value "Destination: $($folder.Destination)"
            Add-Content $logfile -Value "========================================================"
            & robocopy.exe $folder.Source $folder.Destination @flags @options /XD @exclude
        }
        else {
            Add-Content $logfile -Value "=============================================================="
            Add-Content $logfile -Value "One or both folders do not exist. Skipping the copy operation."
            Add-Content $logfile -Value "Source: $($folder.Source)"
            Add-Content $logfile -Value "Destination: $($folder.Destination)"
            Add-Content $logfile -Value "=============================================================="
        }
    }
    else {
        Add-Content $logfile -Value "=============================================================="
        Add-Content $logfile -Value "Skipping. Copy of the below folders disabled in the input file"
        Add-Content $logfile -Value "Source: $($folder.Source)"
        Add-Content $logfile -Value "Destination: $($folder.Destination)"
        Add-Content $logfile -Value "=============================================================="
    }
}

Add-Content $logfile -Value "================================================"
Add-Content $logfile -Value "Script execution finished at $(Get-Date -Format "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss")"
Add-Content $logfile -Value "================================================"

It expects an input CSV file called folderlist.csv in this format:

Name,Enabled,Source,Destination
DeptData1,TRUE,D:\Source1,\\remote1\e$\Dest1
DeptData2,TRUE,\\remote2\f$\Source2,H:\Dest2
DeptData3,TRUE,\\remote3\g$\Source3,G:\Dest3

Set column 2 to FALSE if you want the script to skip that row.

How do the various VPS vendors compare? I decided to find out. I'm going to run a series of benchmark tests on VPSes provided by a bunch of different cloud providers. Also included are results from my Raspberry Pi 3.

I will update this post as I run more benchmark tests.

OpenSSL Speed Tests (RSA)

Command: openssl speed rsa

Azure

Spec: Standard A1 (1 core, 1.75 GB memory)

                  sign    verify    sign/s verify/s
rsa  512 bits 0.000127s 0.000009s   7864.4 106226.3
rsa 1024 bits 0.000417s 0.000025s   2397.6  39664.3
rsa 2048 bits 0.002855s 0.000081s    350.3  12282.8
rsa 4096 bits 0.019681s 0.000304s     50.8   3292.4

DigitalOcean

Spec: $5 Droplet (1 core, 512 MB memory)

                  sign    verify    sign/s verify/s
rsa  512 bits 0.000079s 0.000006s  12660.4 177734.0
rsa 1024 bits 0.000232s 0.000018s   4316.9  55457.6
rsa 2048 bits 0.001531s 0.000047s    653.3  21220.3
rsa 4096 bits 0.010604s 0.000166s     94.3   6022.0

Scaleway

Spec: VC1S (2 cores, 2 GB memory)

                  sign    verify    sign/s verify/s
rsa  512 bits 0.000202s 0.000015s   4944.4  66974.1
rsa 1024 bits 0.000694s 0.000043s   1441.2  23023.3
rsa 2048 bits 0.005071s 0.000148s    197.2   6752.7
rsa 4096 bits 0.036268s 0.000556s     27.6   1798.1

Bandwagon Host

Spec: 5G Promo V2 (1 core, 512 MB memory)

                  sign    verify    sign/s verify/s
rsa  512 bits 0.000139s 0.000009s   7201.2 111387.3
rsa 1024 bits 0.000406s 0.000025s   2465.1  40161.1
rsa 2048 bits 0.002881s 0.000086s    347.1  11575.8
rsa 4096 bits 0.020938s 0.000322s     47.8   3104.0

Raspberry Pi 3

Spec: Pi 3 Model B (4 cores, 1 GB memory)

                  sign    verify    sign/s verify/s
rsa  512 bits 0.000769s 0.000066s   1300.3  15056.3
rsa 1024 bits 0.003927s 0.000198s    254.7   5041.6
rsa 2048 bits 0.025000s 0.000705s     40.0   1418.7
rsa 4096 bits 0.172203s 0.002684s      5.8    372.6

OpenSSL Speed Tests (AES-256-CBC)

Command: openssl speed -evp aes-256-cbc

Azure

Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 16 size blocks: 7035747 aes-256-cbc's in 2.99s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 64 size blocks: 1914087 aes-256-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 256 size blocks: 488292 aes-256-cbc's in 2.99s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 1024 size blocks: 310851 aes-256-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 8192 size blocks: 38127 aes-256-cbc's in 2.99s
OpenSSL 1.0.2g  1 Mar 2016
built on: reproducible build, date unspecified
options:bn(64,64) rc4(8x,int) des(idx,cisc,16,int) aes(partial) blowfish(idx)
compiler: cc -I. -I.. -I../include  -fPIC -DOPENSSL_PIC -DOPENSSL_THREADS -D_REENTRANT -DDSO_DLFCN -DHAVE_DLFCN_H -m64 -DL_ENDIAN -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro -Wa,--noexecstack -Wall -DMD32_REG_T=int -DOPENSSL_IA32_SSE2 -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_MONT -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_MONT5 -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_GF2m -DSHA1_ASM -DSHA256_ASM -DSHA512_ASM -DMD5_ASM -DAES_ASM -DVPAES_ASM -DBSAES_ASM -DWHIRLPOOL_ASM -DGHASH_ASM -DECP_NISTZ256_ASM
The 'numbers' are in 1000s of bytes per second processed.
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-256-cbc      37649.48k    40833.86k    41806.94k   106103.81k   104460.33k

DigitalOcean

Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 16 size blocks: 56063358 aes-256-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 64 size blocks: 12943502 aes-256-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 256 size blocks: 4071276 aes-256-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 1024 size blocks: 905658 aes-256-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 8192 size blocks: 126984 aes-256-cbc's in 3.00s
OpenSSL 1.0.2g  1 Mar 2016
built on: reproducible build, date unspecified
options:bn(64,64) rc4(16x,int) des(idx,cisc,16,int) aes(partial) blowfish(idx)
compiler: cc -I. -I.. -I../include  -fPIC -DOPENSSL_PIC -DOPENSSL_THREADS -D_REENTRANT -DDSO_DLFCN -DHAVE_DLFCN_H -m64 -DL_ENDIAN -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro -Wa,--noexecstack -Wall -DMD32_REG_T=int -DOPENSSL_IA32_SSE2 -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_MONT -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_MONT5 -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_GF2m -DSHA1_ASM -DSHA256_ASM -DSHA512_ASM -DMD5_ASM -DAES_ASM -DVPAES_ASM -DBSAES_ASM -DWHIRLPOOL_ASM -DGHASH_ASM -DECP_NISTZ256_ASM
The 'numbers' are in 1000s of bytes per second processed.
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-256-cbc     299004.58k   276128.04k   347415.55k   309131.26k   346750.98k

Scaleway

Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 16 size blocks: 33162225 aes-256-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 64 size blocks: 11397585 aes-256-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 256 size blocks: 3302439 aes-256-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 1024 size blocks: 857138 aes-256-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 8192 size blocks: 108679 aes-256-cbc's in 3.00s
OpenSSL 1.0.2g  1 Mar 2016
built on: reproducible build, date unspecified
options:bn(64,64) rc4(16x,int) des(idx,cisc,16,int) aes(partial) blowfish(idx)
compiler: cc -I. -I.. -I../include  -fPIC -DOPENSSL_PIC -DOPENSSL_THREADS -D_REENTRANT -DDSO_DLFCN -DHAVE_DLFCN_H -m64 -DL_ENDIAN -g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/build/openssl-wIGtVG/openssl-1.0.2g=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro -Wa,--noexecstack -Wall -DMD32_REG_T=int -DOPENSSL_IA32_SSE2 -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_MONT -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_MONT5 -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_GF2m -DSHA1_ASM -DSHA256_ASM -DSHA512_ASM -DMD5_ASM -DAES_ASM -DVPAES_ASM -DBSAES_ASM -DWHIRLPOOL_ASM -DGHASH_ASM -DECP_NISTZ256_ASM
The 'numbers' are in 1000s of bytes per second processed.
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-256-cbc     176865.20k   243148.48k   281808.13k   292569.77k   296766.12k

Bandwagon Host

Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 16 size blocks: 64041849 aes-256-cbc's in 2.93s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 64 size blocks: 17847712 aes-256-cbc's in 2.94s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 256 size blocks: 4568741 aes-256-cbc's in 2.95s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 1024 size blocks: 1137072 aes-256-cbc's in 2.94s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 8192 size blocks: 143645 aes-256-cbc's in 2.94s
OpenSSL 1.0.2g  1 Mar 2016
built on: reproducible build, date unspecified
options:bn(64,64) rc4(16x,int) des(idx,cisc,16,int) aes(partial) blowfish(idx)
compiler: cc -I. -I.. -I../include  -fPIC -DOPENSSL_PIC -DOPENSSL_THREADS -D_REENTRANT -DDSO_DLFCN -DHAVE_DLFCN_H -m64 -DL_ENDIAN -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro -Wa,--noexecstack -Wall -DMD32_REG_T=int -DOPENSSL_IA32_SSE2 -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_MONT -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_MONT5 -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_GF2m -DSHA1_ASM -DSHA256_ASM -DSHA512_ASM -DMD5_ASM -DAES_ASM -DVPAES_ASM -DBSAES_ASM -DWHIRLPOOL_ASM -DGHASH_ASM -DECP_NISTZ256_ASM
The 'numbers' are in 1000s of bytes per second processed.
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-256-cbc     349716.58k   388521.62k   396473.80k   396041.40k   400251.65k

Raspberry Pi 3

Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 16 size blocks: 5547024 aes-256-cbc's in 2.96s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 64 size blocks: 1609019 aes-256-cbc's in 2.96s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 256 size blocks: 426448 aes-256-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 1024 size blocks: 107881 aes-256-cbc's in 2.99s
Doing aes-256-cbc for 3s on 8192 size blocks: 13519 aes-256-cbc's in 3.00s
OpenSSL 1.0.1t  3 May 2016
built on: Fri Sep 23 22:38:09 2016
options:bn(64,32) rc4(ptr,char) des(idx,cisc,16,long) aes(partial) blowfish(ptr)
compiler: gcc -I. -I.. -I../include  -fPIC -DOPENSSL_PIC -DOPENSSL_THREADS -D_REENTRANT -DDSO_DLFCN -DHAVE_DLFCN_H -DL_ENDIAN -DTERMIO -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wl,-z,relro -Wa,--noexecstack -Wall -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_MONT -DOPENSSL_BN_ASM_GF2m -DSHA1_ASM -DSHA256_ASM -DSHA512_ASM -DAES_ASM -DGHASH_ASM
The 'numbers' are in 1000s of bytes per second processed.
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-256-cbc      29983.91k    34789.60k    36390.23k    36946.54k    36915.88k

VPSBench

Command: bash <(wget --no-check-certificate -O - https://raw.github.com/mgutz/vpsbench/master/vpsbench)

Azure

CPU model:  AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 4171 HE
Number of cores: 1
CPU frequency:  2094.674 MHz
Total amount of RAM: 1675 MB
Total amount of swap:  MB
System uptime:   8 days, 5:50,
I/O speed:  40.9 MB/s
Bzip 25MB: 12.74s
Download 100MB file: 31.3MB/s

DigitalOcean

CPU model:  Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630L v2 @ 2.40GHz
Number of cores: 1
CPU frequency:  2399.998 MHz
Total amount of RAM: 488 MB
Total amount of swap:  MB
System uptime:   22:51,
I/O speed:  185 MB/s
Bzip 25MB: 6.30s
Download 100MB file: 94.7MB/s

Scaleway

CPU model:  Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU  C2750  @ 2.40GHz
Number of cores: 2
CPU frequency:  2393.902 MHz
Total amount of RAM: 2002 MB
Total amount of swap:  MB
System uptime:   1:25,
I/O speed:  124 MB/s
Bzip 25MB: 13.71s
Download 100MB file: 87.6MB/s

Bandwagon Host

CPU model:  Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           L5639  @ 2.13GHz
Number of cores: 1
CPU frequency:  2133.382 MHz
Total amount of RAM: 512 MB
Total amount of swap:  MB
System uptime:   28 days, 4:01,
I/O speed:  134 MB/s
Bzip 25MB: 9.23s
Download 100MB file: 20.7MB/s

Raspberry Pi 3

Note: Download speed is limited by the speed of my home internet connection

CPU model:  ARMv7 Processor rev 4 (v7l)
Number of cores: 4
CPU frequency:  MHz
Total amount of RAM: 925 MB
Total amount of swap: 99 MB
System uptime:   7 days, 7:52,
I/O speed:  9.2 MB/s
Bzip 25MB: 30.49s
Download 100MB file: 8.45MB/s

My image processing workflow involves opening RAW images in Canon DPP (Digital Photo Professional), making the necessary adjustments to the RAW file, and then transferring them to Adobe Photoshop using the Tools > Transfer to Photoshop (Alt+P) option in DPP for further processing.

Because DPP is a 32-bit application, this only works if the 32-bit version of Photoshop is installed on the computer. For years, I've installed both the 32 and 64-bit versions of Photoshop on the same computer just so I can use this option for transferring TIFF files to Photoshop.

I only ever use the 64-bit version of Photoshop so if you use that option in DPP while Photoshop was not running, it would fire up the 32-bit version. To get around that, I fire up the 64-bit version of Photoshop first before hitting the transfer button. This fools DPP into transferring the image to the (already running) 64-bit instance of Photoshop.

A bit clunky, but it worked.

All that changed recently when I installed Adobe Photoshop CC (2014) using the Adobe Creative Cloud installer program. That thing only installed the 64-bit version of Photoshop which (as expected) broke the Transfer to Photoshop option in DPP.

If I hit that button, I get this dialog:

To fix this, you need to add some Photoshop registry entries in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node part of the registry that fools DPP into thinking that the 32-bit version of Photoshop is installed on the machine.

Warning: Please don't attempt the instructions below if you are not comfortable editing the registry of your computer. If you get it wrong, you can do some serious damage. You have been warned!

To do that:

1. Open up Registry Editor
2. Navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop
3. Right click the Photoshop key, click 'Export'
4. Save the reg file to somewhere convenient
5. Open the exported reg file for editing (right click, 'Edit')
6. Edit all lines (4 in my file) that contain SOFTWARE\Adobe and replace them with SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Adobe
7. You are basically inserting the word Wow6432Node between SOFTWARE and Adobe on all lines that contain the registry path in the exported reg file. Don't forget the trailing \
8. After all replacements have been made, save the file
9. Double click on the file, say yes to the UAC prompt and yes again to registry editor
10. And you're done!

These are the reg files (for my computer of course, don't use these as they may not apply to your environment!):

Before

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop\80.0]
"ApplicationPath"="C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Photoshop CC 2014\\"
"PluginPath"="C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Photoshop CC 2014\\Plug-Ins\\"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop\80.0\ApplicationPath]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Photoshop CC 2014\\"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop\80.0\PluginPath]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Photoshop CC 2014\\Plug-Ins\\"

After

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Adobe\Photoshop]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Adobe\Photoshop\80.0]
"ApplicationPath"="C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Photoshop CC 2014\\"
"PluginPath"="C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Photoshop CC 2014\\Plug-Ins\\"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Adobe\Photoshop\80.0\ApplicationPath]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Photoshop CC 2014\\"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Adobe\Photoshop\80.0\PluginPath]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Adobe Photoshop CC 2014\\Plug-Ins\\"

Hope this helps!

Edit (31 May 2015)

The original solution worked, but after a while, the option 'Transfer to Photoshop' got completely greyed out. Follow the below steps to restore the option (from: http://digitol.free.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=22).

1. Open up Registry Editor
2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID
3. Create a new key called {6DECC242-87EF-11cf-86B4-444553540000}
4. Under the key {6DECC242-87EF-11cf-86B4-444553540000}, create a new key called ProgID
5. Double click (Default) under ProgID and add the value Photoshop.Application.80.1

Restart DPP and the option Transfer to Photoshop should now be available again.

A quick how-to on file sharing using SMB on Linux Mint

A friend of mine was having trouble setting up file sharing between his two Linux workstations. So I decided to give it a go myself and do a quick how-to guide.

He runs Mint on one of his machines and PinguyOS on the other. Both machines are configured to dual-boot Linux and Windows.

I created a Linux Mint VM (17 "Qiana", Cinnamon, 64-bit) on VMware ESXi (1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 16 GB Thin Provisioned disk, PCSCSI, vmxnet3 adapter). Very straight-forward install, basically selected all the defaults. Disk encryption was not enabled. Gave it the hostname 'castor' and enabled DHCP. It picked up the IP address 192.168.1.84. Created an account called 'harish' during the install.

Once it was up and running, I installed VMware Tools, and updated the system.

Sharing a folder

Created a folder called 'shared' on the desktop. Then right click, select 'Sharing Options'.

Gave it a share name, added a commment, and selected 'Allow others to create and delete files in this folder'.

Because I had selected the 'Allow others...' option, upon hitting the 'Create Share' button, I got another prompt telling me that Nemo needed to add some permissions to the folder to allow write permission by others.

I selected 'Add the permissions automatically' and it did its thing.

At this point, from a Windows machine, I tried pinging the Linux machine using its name 'castor'. It was able to resolve it.

On the Windows machine, from a run prompt, I typed "\castor\shared" and hit enter.

On the security dialog, I tried entering my credentials (the username and password of the Linux account on Mint).

It didn't work. I then remembered that I had to create an SMB account on the Linux machine.

The -a option tells it to add the new user to the local smbpasswd file and prompt for a new password.

Tried again, and this time, it worked.

Created a new file in that folder from the Windows machine to confirm that I had 'write' access.

Mounting the share on a Linux machine

This was really simple. On one of my other machines (Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS, hostname 'bellatrix'), I mounted the SMB share.

harish@bellatrix:~$ sudo apt-get update
harish@bellatrix:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
harish@bellatrix:~$ sudo apt-get install cifs-utils
harish@bellatrix:~$ cd /mnt
harish@bellatrix:/mnt$ sudo mkdir mint
harish@bellatrix:/mnt$ smbclient -L 192.168.1.84
Enter harish's password:
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 4.1.6-Ubuntu]

        Sharename       Type      Comment
        ---------       ----      -------
        IPC$            IPC       IPC Service (castor server (Samba, Linux Mint))
        print$          Disk      Printer Drivers
        shared          Disk      Shared folder on Mint
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 4.1.6-Ubuntu]

        Server               Comment
        ---------            -------
        CALLISTO
        CASTOR               castor server (Samba, Linux Mint)

        Workgroup            Master
        ---------            -------
        WORKGROUP            CALLISTO

harish@bellatrix:/mnt$ sudo mount -t cifs -o sec=ntlm,username=harish,password=Password1,rw //192.168.1.84/shared /mnt/mint/
harish@bellatrix:/mnt/mint$ ls -al
total 16
drwxrwxrwx  2 harish harish     0 Jun 22 17:01 .
drwxr-xr-x  6 root   root    4096 Jun 22 17:04 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 harish harish     0 Jun 22 16:59 TestFile1
-rw-r--r--  1 harish harish     0 Jun 22 16:59 TestFile2
-rwxrwxr--+ 1 harish harish 11284 Jun 22 17:01 Test Word Doc.docx

In the 'mount' command, the username and password you provide must match the username and password of the account you added to smbpasswd.

That was it!

Just a quick guide on how to download and install patches for VMware ESXi (free version).

Go to the VMware Patch Portal, select the product and version to view and download available patches:

https://www.vmware.com/patchmgr/findPatch.portal

In this example, I'm going from ESXi 5.5.0 build 1474528 to 5.5.0 build 1623387 (Update 1).

When the download is complete, upload the entire zip file to a datastore on your ESXi host.

SSH to your host.

Enter maintenance mode.

# vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter

Verify the patch file.

# cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Patches/
/vmfs/volumes/52ed3575-a67d75d2-17ab-001cc4d54e5f/Patches # ls
ESXi550-201312001.zip                 update-from-esxi5.5-5.5_update01.zip

Run the update.

# esxcli software vib update -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Patches/update-from-esxi5.5-5.5_update01.zip

Verify.

# esxcli software vib list

Reboot.

# reboot

Exit maintenance mode.

# vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit

Done.

The default installation routine of Receiver does not give you a 'Custom' install option which makes it quite difficult to select all the bits you need.

This is the command line I use for installing Receiver that works pretty well for me.

Note: The below command must be run on an elevated command prompt. Otherwise some components will fail to install.

CitrixReceiver.exe /includeSSON ADDLOCAL="ReceiverInside,ICA_Client,SSON,AM,SELFSERVICE,USB,DesktopViewer,Flash,Vd3d" ENABLE_DYNAMIC_CLIENT_NAME="Yes" ALLOWADDSTORE="A" ALLOWSAVEPWD="A" ENABLE_SSON="Yes"

The various options are explained in detail on the Citrix support site so I'm not going to repeat them here:

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/receiver-windows-40/receiver-windows-cfg-command-line-40.html

After installation, I follow it up with this tweak:

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX136339

I use a XenDesktop VDI at work and the first time I fire up a published application using Receiver, it disconnects my VDI session!

This happens because, as explained in the article, Receiver installation defaults to "Reconnect apps when I start or refresh apps". Since my VDI is also an "app", it tries to reconnect to itself within itself. Yeah.

You have to kill Receiver and restart it for the change to take effect.

Edit: I've slightly modified the command line parameters I use for Receiver 4.2.

CitrixReceiver.exe /includeSSON ADDLOCAL="ReceiverInside,ICA_Client,SSON,AM,SELFSERVICE,USB,DesktopViewer,Flash,Vd3d" ENABLE_DYNAMIC_CLIENT_NAME="Yes" ALLOWADDSTORE="A" ALLOWSAVEPWD="A" ENABLE_SSON="Yes" ENABLE_KERBEROS="Yes" AM_CERTIFICATESELECTIONMODE="Prompt" STARTMENUDIR=\Receiver\

Filtering the list of published applications on a XenApp Web Site is something we've done for many years now. Recently we had a request to set up a XenApp Services Site where the list of displayed applications is controlled by an "allowed" list.

There is a Citrix Knowledge Center that helpfully tells you how to achieve exactly that:

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX123969

This approach involves putting a "#" as the first character in the Application Description field on a published application that you wish to hide. It works perfectly, but it was not suitable in our environment for two main reasons:

• We have already used the Application Description field for something else (involves NetScaler policies - long story)
• We have over 400 published applications split across multiple farms so amending pretty much all of them was going to be rather painful

We wanted to list just a small, specific list of apps to users connected to that Services site. So a few people pitched in and we came up with some modified Java code.

This was tested on Web Interface version 5.4 but should work on all 5.x variants (but we have not tested on anything other than v5.4).

Edit: Tested successfully on CWI v5.3 as well.

Steps

Create a new XenApp Services Site (or use one you already have). On our server, we created the website in the path C:\inetpub\FilteredPN.

Locate the file Enumeration.java in the path C:\inetpub\FilteredPN\Citrix\PNAgent\app_code\PagesJava\com\citrix\wi\pna. You might want to take a backup of this file before you start messing with it.

Locate the line import java.io.IOException; at the beginning of the file and alter it.

Before: import java.io.IOException;
After: import java.io.*;

Next, locate the following line in the same file (nearly at the very end of the file):

ResourceInfo[] resources = enumRequest.getAllResources();

Just below that line, insert the following block of code:

java.util.ArrayList listofapps = new java.util.ArrayList();
java.util.ArrayList filteredapps = new java.util.ArrayList();

FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream("C:\\inetpub\\FilteredPN\\AllowedApps.txt");
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader ( new InputStreamReader(in));
String line;
while ((line = br.readLine()) != null)
	listofapps.add(line);
		for (int i=0; i<resources.length; i++) {
			for (int j=0; j<listofapps.size(); j++){
				String checkapp = (String)listofapps.get(j);
				checkapp = checkapp.trim();
				if(resources[i].getDisplayName().equals (checkapp)){
					filteredapps.add(resources[i]);
				}
			}
		}
resources = (ResourceInfo[]) filteredapps.toArray( new ResourceInfo[0] );

Create a text file called C:\inetpub\FilteredPN\AllowedApps.txt.

Edit the text file and add the apps you want displayed, one per line.
For example, something like this:

Notepad
Microsoft Word
My Corporate App
Helpdesk App

That's pretty much it! You should now have a working Services site that only displays an explicitly defined list of applications.

If you want to hide specific apps and display everything else, use this block of code instead.

java.util.ArrayList listofapps = new java.util.ArrayList();
java.util.ArrayList filteredapps = new java.util.ArrayList();

FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream("C:\\inetpub\\FilteredPN\\HiddenApps.txt");
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader ( new InputStreamReader(in));
String line;
while ((line = br.readLine()) != null)
		listofapps.add(line);

		for (int i=0; i<resources.length; i++) {
					boolean inlist = false;
					for (int j=0; j<listofapps.size(); j++){
								String checkapp = (String)listofapps.get(j);
								checkapp = checkapp.trim();
								if(resources[i].getDisplayName().equals (checkapp)){
											inlist = true;
								}
					}
		  if (!inlist) {
				filteredapps.add(resources[i]);
		 }           
		}
		resources = (ResourceInfo[]) filteredapps.toArray( new ResourceInfo[0] );

Create a text file called C:\inetpub\FilteredPN\HiddenApps.txt.

Edit the text file and add the apps you want hidden, one per line.
For example, something like this:

Notepad
Microsoft Word
My Corporate App
Helpdesk App

That's it. Hope that was useful.

For some reason, Session Reliability was not working on a bunch of 32-bit Windows Server 2003 servers running XenApp 5.0. When you tried to connect to a published desktop with Session Reliability switched on, you would get a generic 1030 error.

The 'Citrix XTE Server' service was started and running correctly and it was listening as expected on port 2598.

So what gives? Upon digging deeper, found some interesting information in the XTE error log file. The log file is located at: C:\Program Files\Citrix\XTE\logs\error.log

[Tue Jan 14 14:55:33 2014] [error] [client 10.2.2.25] client denied by server configuration: 127.0.0.1:1494
[Tue Jan 14 14:55:33 2014] [error] CH 0: ACCESS DENIED to destination address 127.0.0.1:1494

Why was access denied? A bit more digging revealed this Citrix article:

http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx106531

Cracked open: C:\Program Files\Citrix\XTE\conf\httpd.conf

In the CGP Configuration section, I noticed the line Allow to 10.8.2.135:1494. Full section below.

<VirtualHost *:2598>

      #CGP Protocol State
      CgpProtocol  On

      #Max TCP Channels Per Session
      CgpTcpChannelsPerSession 50

      #Disconnected Sessions Timeout (msec)
      CgpInterruptedSessionTimeout 180000
      CgpHandshakeTimeout 100000
      CgpInterruptedSessionsThreadWakeupInterval 60000
      <Location /destination/cgp>
      Order Allow,Deny
      Allow to 10.8.2.135:1494
      </Location>

</VirtualHost>

On a working server, that line read Allow to 127.0.0.1:1494. It was quite clear that this was causing the Access Denied error. The next step was to find out why this line was different on some servers and not others.

After a bit of digging, we figured out that this was caused by the Network Adapter binding in the ICA-tcp Terminal Services Connection.

As you can see in the screenshot, the protocol is bound to the adapter 'vmxnet3 Ethernet Adapter'. On the working server, this was set to 'All network adapters configured with this protocol'.

Switched it back and a reboot later, the httpd.conf file was looking as it should.

<VirtualHost *:2598>

      #CGP Protocol State
      CgpProtocol  On

      #Max TCP Channels Per Session
      CgpTcpChannelsPerSession 50

      #Disconnected Sessions Timeout (msec)
      CgpInterruptedSessionTimeout 180000
      CgpHandshakeTimeout 100000
      CgpInterruptedSessionsThreadWakeupInterval 60000
      <Location /destination/cgp>
      Order Allow,Deny
      Allow to 127.0.0.1:1494
      </Location>

</VirtualHost>

And CGP was working again!

Hit an interesting problem recently where certain SSL enabled websites would not load up on a Windows Server 2003 published desktop.

The browser used was Internet Explorer 8 and it didn't give us a meaningful error message. Just a generic and thoroughly unhelpful "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" error.

The website our users were trying to reach was the login page for Websense Secure Email.

https://voltage-pp-0000.secure-mailcontrol.com/login

To troubleshoot the issue, I installed Google Chrome on an affected server and visited the same website. Chrome was a lot more helpful and it told me that the SSL certificate was "corrupt". Hmm... Curious.

I was able to visit the website without any problems on my Windows 7 machine so I had a closer look at the certificate. On my Windows 7 machine, I could see that the Digest Algorithm was one from the SHA2 family (specifically SHA-256).

When the same fields on the certificate were viewed using the affected Windows Server 2003 machine, it was displaying something else - the OID instead of 'sha256RSA' and 'sha256' respectively for fields 'Signature algorithm' and 'Signature hash algorithm' that was displayed on my Windows 7 machine.

It was fairly evident by that point that the issue was down to lack of support for the SHA2 family of hash algorithms on Windows Server 2003.

The Fix

A quick bit of Google-fu led me to this KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938397

However, instead of installing this update, I installed a later update (which includes a newer version of crypt32.dll):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2868626

Problem solved!

After installing Ghost, I discovered that I couldn't upload images larger than 1 MB. The problem is not with Ghost itself but with a configuration setting on the reverse proxy Nginx.

To fix this, edit nginx.conf.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Add this line to the http section.

client_max_body_size 5m;

I chose 5 MB but you can choose whatever you feel is appropriate for your environment. Setting it to 0 disables the limit.

Then...

sudo service nginx stop
sudo service nginx start

Done!