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How to Change the Default Installation Path for FTP and the Web

Posted on by wooway
If you’ve installed IIS 4.0, you’re accustomed to being asked where you would like the default website and sample files to be located.  Like you, many administrators are surprised to find that IIS 5.0/6.0 is installed by default to the %systemroot% folder without asking you where you would like for Inetpub to be located.
 
 
To change the default installation paths for FTP and the Web during an unattended component installation (this applies to Windows Server 2003), you must follow this procedure:

  1. Create an unattended install file and name it Iis.txt. This file will be accessed during the unattended component installation. The answer file can be any Windows 2000 answer file. It must contain a "Components" and an "InternetServer" section header. For example: 
    [Components]
iis_common = on
iis_inetmgr = on
iis_www = on
iis_ftp = on
iis_htmla = on

[InternetServer]
PathFTPRoot=D:\Inetpub\Ftproot
PathWWWRoot=D:\Inetpub\Wwwroot
  2. Use the Sysocmgr.exe command to start the installation of the FTP or Internet Information Services components. Assuming the answer file that you created in step 1 was named Iis.txt, the command line to execute the installation would be:
    sysocmgr /i:%windir%\inf\sysoc.inf /u:c:\iis.txt

    Note that you could also use a batch file to execute the setup. The batch file must contain a command similar to the command above.

And other references:
 

“The client could not connect. You are already connected to the console of this computer. A new console session cannot be established.”

Posted on by wooway
 
How did I find this problem?  There was a power outage, my Workstation in the basement rebooted and hanged at POST.  I turned on my Dimension upstairs as usual when I came back home, and tried to remoted to Workstation, I got this error.  I went to the basement, let the Workstation boot up and logged in, didn’t see anything unusual.  Have read a lot of articles and posts, finally, I found the IP address I thought is used by Workstation is actually used by Dimension – I was literally connected to the console of this computer! 
If you really have a problem in connecting to your Windows server or other machine, the following links may give a hint.

SECURE FTP (SFTP, SSH, FTP over SSL)

Posted on by wooway

 

There are many ways to send files over the internet.   You can just ftp a file, email a file, upload a file, or even share via a vpn.   This easy task of sending a file gets difficult when the information in the file needs to be secured.  I have seen / used many solutions to make a secure file transfer. Some use custom code (http and .net) others just use https and an upload feature, some add the use of file encryption (PGP or similar).  I have never found the best mix because it always depends on requirements or needs.  I have however found what works well with Windows / IIS.

There are 3 or 4 ftp servers I would recommend using with IIS that allow for secure ftp.  I won’t go into the benifits of each type of secure ftp (FTP over ssl, ssh, or sftp).  I will mention some of the products I have evaulated and used in my past projects:

Globalscape Secure ftp server (http://www.cuteftp.com/gsftps/) – This was the first secure ftp server I have ever installed an used.  I found it very easy to configure and integrate into an environment.  I was very successful using the Active Directory user model as well.  I think this may be the only product that can integrate with AD (don’t quote me)  The price for globalscape is also reasonable – $490 is not that much to pay for a reliable and supported server software.  I have used this product since the early days and found that version 2.0 was a bit buggy on 2003 (when Server 2003 came out)  However the Globalscape team updated the software and corrected the issues very quickly.  The newer version have been able to handle 1000’s of transactions for me in the past, with great reliability.  The secure part of the server worked well with almost any client, Filezilla (more on Filezilla to come) and also other vendors ftp clients.

Glub Tech – Secure FTP (http://www.glub.com/products/secureftp/) – This is the only product I have not used in a production environment.  The install is fairly painless, but I found the configuration and use a bit cumber sum. I also liked the price (25) but was not sure on the licensing if that was for the client or the server.  I only list this one because it is found on most searches.

Ipswitch – WS FTP server –  (http://www.ipswitch.com/products/ws_ftp-server/index.asp?t=features)  Ipswitch also makes a fine product.  The cost $395 is very reasonable.  I found it was very easy to install but hard to navigate through the options.  I also have used this in a production environment for a few years and found the reliability very good.  The secure section of this product did not work well with other client than the IPswitch client.  I never got over the fact that it did not play well with other clients.

Filezilla server  (http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/) – I did not discover this product until I had been using globalscape for about a year and a half.  When I fisrt stumbled upon it after using the Filezilla ftp client with the globalscape server.  I did not know what to make of beta ftp servers running in a production environment.  Since that time I have deployed this server in about 3- 5 environments with great success.   It is a fantastic FTP server as well as a Secure ftp server.   It allows you to use all the mentioned protocols above. If you are in need of sending secure files I would recommend trying this out.  You cannot beat the cost (FREE).

I hope this information helps out the next Admin that is in need of some secure file transfers.

It is worth mentioning some other products available. They may not be the same as Secure ftp but they do allow for secure communication.

OPEN SSH on windows – (http://sshwindows.sourceforge.net/ )  this is a little gem if you are willing to work through a tough install and configuration.  Once you have this running you can use Filezilla (client) and connect to a windows machine via SSH and use it like an ftp server.

SSL Explorer – (http://www.sshtools.com/showSslExplorer.do) – this is more of a vpn solution, but it works very well.  It creates a SSL based vpn and you can transfer files via that.  They offer a free solution for non commercial use.

Source: http://www.iisinformation.com/blogs/jimiz/archive/2007/04/25/secure-ftp-sftp-ssh-ftp-over-ssl.aspx

Two CPU usage cases

Posted on by wooway
 
1, HPSMHD.EXE – HP System Management Homepage service
Since last night, clients keep complaining about on-and-off performance issues regarding one of the ISA proxy arrays.  At the time, we just restarted the application server that published behind the ISA array, and client told that the speed was improved.  But today, the same thing happened again, then I started to take a look at the performance in the task manager on one of the servers in this two-server array, checked the CPU and memory usage of each process.  The overall CPU usage was around 30%, looked pretty normal on this dedicated reverse proxy server.
Later, compared to the CPU usage on another server in the array, I found the HPSMHD.EXE was always taking 25% of the CPU, which is quite suspicious.  Recalled another case several months ago, this HP System Management Homepage service took 60% of CPU on a server, which made its response very poor, and restarting the service resolved the problem.  I was told there could be a memory leak that caused this issue.
There is very few information on the Internet about this service.  Even Hewlett-Packard themselves don’t put much information on their website, except a bunch of desprate sys admins asking similar questions in its IT resource centre forum, like this thread – hpsmhd.exe running at 50% CPU.
Known the issue, I just restarted HP System Management Homepage service, and CPU usage went down to 5%.  Although we’re still not able to determine if this is the root cause of the slowness, if this is, it can also explain why the issue was intermittent – because one of the servers in the array had this issue, if user hit another server, there was no slowness.
Just be aware of the symptom of this process, in some circumstances, when it happens, the server will be very very slow.
 
2, DAILYSUM.EXE
According to Microsoft, Dailysum.exe May Use 100% of CPU or Disk Resources.  In my case, it just took 50% of CPU on one of our ISA 2000 servers.
Here is how to find the PID and what the proper command to kill the process in Windows Server 2003.
Microsoft says ‘The Process Identifier (PID) number for Dailysum.exe can be determined either by using the command list or by using Task Manager.‘  What’s the command line?  How to show PID in Task Manager?
(1) Command line: tasklist, offical syntax in TechNet XP TechCentre.
(2) In Task Manger, View – Select Columns, check PID.
In MS/KB it just says ‘KILL – F PID number‘, but this is obviously a pre-2003 command, now we should use taskkill command.  You can find the syntax in New and Removed Tools.  Here is the command I used to kill the DAILYSUM.EXE process:
> taskkill /f /pid 4164                    #4164 is the Process Identifier (PID).
 
p.s. I don’t know why Hewlett-Packard don’t put more official document or KB on their website, like Microsoft or even Dell, instead, it just let users or their engineers post unofficially in online communities, same as in Visio stencil information I collected earlier.  Maybe that is the HP way.