the field of converting any manual process into one that can be run mostly, or entirely, "hands-free"
1
vote
0answers
20 views
How to start a data collector upon high CPU load condition?
I have a Windows 2008R2 server that experience high CPU load for several minutes about once every couple of weeks.
Unfortunately, when these events occurs, logging into the system through RDP or at ...
1
vote
3answers
101 views
Automated nightly backup of 1TB drive on Ubuntu Server
How you would set up an automated nightly backup for the whole disk (boot and data partition) running Ubuntu Server?
I have a 1TB drive (current usage 200GB) and I want to have daily clone of this ...
1
vote
2answers
46 views
Automating the creation of SQL servers
VMWare has a tool called vFabric Data Directory which allows you to automate building SQL, Postgress and Oracle servers using VMWare. Is there something simular to this that will work for Hyper-V? I ...
0
votes
1answer
67 views
Automating RDP session availability test
We have a daily procedure when operator logs on via RDP to Windows hosts to ensure the operation is successful so other users can logon at the later stage and to their work.
Putting aside question ...
2
votes
2answers
144 views
How can I automate a new linux server's initial setup?
Every time I setup a new server, I follow a series of steps on each server in order to get updates, set passwd, remove login via root user, customize a familiar environment (bashrc) and secure the ...
0
votes
0answers
59 views
selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException [closed]
I am getting following error while running my selenium tests on Linux as well as on my mac OS.
Version details:
Chrome:- 26.0.1410.43-r189671
ChromeDriver:- chromedriver_linux64_26.0.1383.0
Linux:- ...
-1
votes
1answer
38 views
Labtech Scripting [closed]
This is something I’ve noticed to be somewhat of an issue as LT doesn’t run scripts in a logical way.
I have a script to do ninite updates. As such, the logical command would be:
Shell as Admin:
...
0
votes
1answer
55 views
What tools can run scripts on multiple windows servers? [closed]
I'm looking for a tool that can schedule a job (shell script, vbs, powershell) on 100+ standalone Windows servers.
I know Altiris can do that, but I think it needs an agent on every server. I prefer ...
0
votes
1answer
72 views
Recommendations for bootstrapping Ubuntu server
When I create new Ubuntu 12.10 instances, I typically bootstrap them by manually SSHing onto the machine and editing the sudoers to put a NOPASSWD on the default user (e.g., ec2-user, azureuser, ...
0
votes
1answer
68 views
Hyper-V and Windows Server with Powershell/Automated?
So my work is looking into Automating Hyper-V Servers for Test Environments, Basically in the end we want to have a sort of Web/Form interface for selecting a server spin up. Right now it's done ...
0
votes
1answer
46 views
Trying to automate server tasks, stuck on gathering critical update information from WSUS
I asked this question at Stack Overflow but they said I would have better luck here. I am using VBScript to automate a lot of server tasks, I'm simply checking to make sure the server build team did ...
0
votes
1answer
53 views
Windows batch find folder if statement
Assume a file system with the following format
Folder A
--->Folder 1
--->Folder 2
--->Folder 3 etc..
Folder B
--->Folder 4
--->Folder 2
--->Folder 3
Folder C
--->Folder 1
--->Folder 2
--->Folder 3
...
-1
votes
1answer
58 views
Windows Server Patching: Verification of Windows server coming back up after reboots? [closed]
I have been working towards improving our monthly Windows Server update process. The goal is to remove as much of the manual process as possible. Our process has been 1) Present updates to servers ...
1
vote
1answer
95 views
Automatic changing of local passwords [closed]
This is the third time I've seen this when working on site for a customer, so I know it's possible, I'm just wondering how.
It seems that the Local Administrator account has it's password changed ...
3
votes
1answer
122 views
Idea for taking down half of the servers vs rolling restart?
We're setting up HAProxy to balance our application (ASP.NET MVC 3 running on IIS). We want our process to be without scheduled maintenance for deployment. I'm trying to figure out the correct way to ...
3
votes
2answers
141 views
Tool to collect and read all linux logs in one place [duplicate]
I have two linux servers. I'm an administrator, and part of my daily routine is to check all the logs for errors or strange messages. So, every morning I check:
On server #1:
/var/log/syslog
...
2
votes
2answers
168 views
powershell call operator with multiple arguments?
I am trying to use the powershell call operator to essentially run the following command:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\plink.exe" "-v -agent -m C:\Scripts\idrac_powerup_commands.txt ...
0
votes
2answers
75 views
Automated WSUS reporting
We have WSUS 3.0 SP2 installed and I was wondering if it is possible to schedule
and e-mail reports in pdf format or perhaps place them on a shared folder?
5
votes
2answers
99 views
Windows Update for numerous powered-down Virtual Machines [closed]
Before I dive into the question asking, let me give some background on the question.
I have a VM project I am working on. Sales reps at my company need to have VMs of different configurations to demo ...
1
vote
1answer
65 views
Automation Methods - Templates or Scripting
Background
We setup very large systems which consist of many different types of servers, switches, and routers. These systems are then shipped out to different locations and are turned on ready to ...
1
vote
0answers
31 views
Generic script to print files of various types in Windows
Is there a command or script in Windows to print a file (various file types such as .doc .xls .txt .pdf) to the default printer?
As far as I know one usually has to execute the relevant application ...
3
votes
4answers
134 views
Monitor servers for changes made outside of automation software
The company I work for is currently investigating the deployment of an centralized automation system (like Salt or Puppet) for our servers (all Ubuntu/FreeBSD). We will probably go along with Salt, ...
0
votes
0answers
11 views
Saving WebDeploy settings to a file
I'm looking to move our deployment process (created by our outsourced partner) to WebDeploy, the idea is that I want to move away from our deployment teams having to manually edit the web.config.
...
7
votes
3answers
132 views
Creating a script to install a Perl application and its dependencies automatically
I have a Perl application that needs a lot of dependencies that i need to deploy on numerous servers
I would like to make a script that installs that Perl application automatically and quickly.
To ...
3
votes
1answer
80 views
Chef - how much abstraction is smart?
We have > 20 individual apps that we support. Most do not see changes more than a couple times a year. We think chef will help us down the line.
I am trying to find a happy medium between manual ...
1
vote
1answer
111 views
Opscode Chef nginx compile from source issue reports successful run but does nothing
I am trying to install nginx from source in Opscode Chef and its bit weird, it runs complaining nothing but does not install it either.
This is how my role attributes look like looks like
"nginx":{
...
0
votes
1answer
54 views
ssh remote execution always exits 127
quick question:
I have a program that is spawning a process which executes a basic remote command over SSH such as:
ssh aiden@host /bin/ps
Running this manually from my shell is successful (as you ...
-2
votes
1answer
53 views
Automatic Site Creation [closed]
I have created a platform that i want users to sign up and a new site is created for them instantly. Users will register and afterwards they will receive a username and password for their personal ...
4
votes
2answers
204 views
How to set only specific nginx server block into maintenance mode programmatically
I am looking for a solution to automate one of our application's deployment process. In the beginning of deployment, I would like to programmatically set the specified server into maintenance mode and ...
2
votes
1answer
52 views
How to handle many daily emails from cron efficiently?
With each new server comes at least one more daily crontab email. The FreeBSD servers even send two: a daily and a security run output. Thanks to my obsession with virtualisation the number of emails ...
0
votes
0answers
9 views
Scheduler with support of multitrigger jobs [closed]
I want to learn concepts of event driven job scheduling. Here is the list of even driven job schedulers, but most of them are with commercial license and confidential docs. But for example this one is ...
1
vote
3answers
74 views
Browser Install with Bookmarks
Goal: Install firefox and chrome with a default set of bookmarks on Windows 7 x86. The immediate need is for freshly imaged machines to have bookmarks.
So I'm looking for an msi /flag or something to ...
0
votes
2answers
183 views
Root crontab not executing script
I have a script listed in my roots crontab
07 9 * * * /opt/HLRSDATA_2010_OCT/HLRS_Scheduler_sp.sh > /opt/HLRSDATA_2010_OCT/logs/HLRTKJob.log
This script contains the following
#!/bin/bash
echo ...
2
votes
2answers
518 views
Why can't “knife data bag from file” find existing json file on chef server?
Summary:
I'm running into a problem with "knife data bag from file", where knife doesn't recognize the .json data bag file pulled down from a remote git repo.
Background:
I'm currently trying to ...
14
votes
8answers
3k views
Method to integrate Powershell scripts with non-Windows workflow?
I love the smell of new machines in the morning.
I'm automating a machine creation workflow that involves several separate systems across my infrastructure, some of which involve 15 year old perl ...
1
vote
1answer
193 views
Can I use adsutil.vbs to remove the 'X—Powered-By' response header from IIS6
Can I use adsutil.vbs to remove the X—Powered-By response header from IIS6 configuration?
We have a site that is running on some IIS6 servers. Migration to IIS7 is a few months away at least. In the ...
0
votes
0answers
88 views
Create an Outlook 2010 Quick Step for every user on a certain computer? [closed]
I need to create a quick step that shows up on every Outlook account on a certain computer. It shouldn't be added to the user's roaming profile, although it's not terrible if that happens. It would ...
1
vote
1answer
72 views
SFTP (or similar) server automated setup for group spaces
I need to build a dedicated machine which will be used to allow our clients to upload and download files in a secure manner.
Each client has multiple users, and I would rather not hand out generic ...
2
votes
5answers
468 views
How do I automate OS installation on 500+ machines?
My company has to image a large amount of machines by the end of the year. Each of the machines will have hardware RAID 1 and running CentOS 6.
What options do I have for automating the OS ...
7
votes
4answers
582 views
How to automate slipstream?
Since years I use slipstreamed Windows installations. This works very well, but preparing them is tedious :
1 - install a Windows with the last slipstreamed version we have (automated install)
2 - ...
2
votes
2answers
287 views
My powershell script wont save a file when run using Task Scheduler, do I need to specify a specific argument?
I have a script that downloads a temporary Excel file, copies parts of it to a new file, and saves it to a specific location on the network. The problem I'm having is that the new file is never ...
-1
votes
1answer
67 views
Server config management tool [closed]
I am building an n-tier architecture on AWS.
We have different accounts for multiple dev accounts, multiple test accounts, and staging prod. Dev/test use smaller instance sizes and application memory ...
1
vote
0answers
87 views
HPSA (HP Server Automation)
Using HP SA (HP Server Automation) version 9 for automation and its Oracle database consumes inordinately large amounts of CPU resources. Anyone have a similar experience?
2
votes
1answer
155 views
Disabling reverse dns lookup for ssh connections; Why not..?
Upon seeing some failure with initial ssh connections timing out; I narrowed it down to the reverse dns lookup on ssh. I've found many articles articulating how to disable the lookup; but none saying ...
-3
votes
1answer
83 views
How can i set new domains to respond to my server [closed]
I would like to create a page for new clients in my hosting.
When someone register a domain, sometimes that person don't have a dns, or the hosting didn't created the account.
So the page will not ...
2
votes
2answers
274 views
How to detect APC UPS battery usage and run a script when on battery
I have a couple APC UPS -
Smart-UPS RT 6000 RM XL
Smart-UPS RT 5000 RM XL
Unfortunately the power in my office likes to go out (out of my control) and hence the equipment powered by these UPS ...
0
votes
0answers
72 views
Disabling a NIC on Dell Server using iDRAC 6
I want a NIC to be disabled via a script so as to automate the process of remotely installing a server so that i can PXE boot via one NIC. I could power on the server and do some basic stuff with ...
2
votes
1answer
262 views
How can I systematically shut down Windows services in order?
We have this open source application that has three (3) services. For the purpose of this question, let's call them A, B, and C.
Now, they have to be shut down in a specific order. That order would ...
2
votes
3answers
100 views
Control scheduled tasks execution
We are a small shop. I am mainly a programmer, but due to being the only one that risks to manage our servers, the task has fallen on me (yet I it is still a secondary function so I cannot give it too ...
0
votes
0answers
117 views
Ubiquity automatic install stops at keyboard layout chooser
I am trying to automate an Ubuntu (12.04.1 64-bit) installation using Ubiquity and preseed on a desktop live CD. It almost works fine. I edited the txt.cfg and added
label unattended
menu label ...
