The last couple days I have been struggling a lot while setting up NLB (Network Load Balance) between two web servers.  I was beating my head up against the desk when I was trying to add the second host to the cluster inside the Network Load Balancing Manager on Windows Server 2003.

For background, I have a web server that we will call ws1.  It is working fine and is a guest on an ESX server.  I wanted to make two more servers out of this one so I used VM’s Converter.  This worked great.

Now I had ws2 and ws3.  The next step was to some how get the ESX Host to assign these VM’s with new UUID’s.  I ended up in the datastore renaming the folder with the VM’s in them.  What this does is it copies the entire folder, renames it and then deletes the old folder.  I think it does this because ESX is running on Linux server.

Once this is done, I can add the VM’s back into the inventory and it prompts me to do something with the UUID.

I chose to Create a new identifier.

Once this was done, I came across a different issue when I tried to create the NLB cluster.  I was able to create the cluster fine.

I also could add the first VM just fine.

But as soon as I tried to add ws3, I had an issue.  When I tried to connect to the host (ws3) I go the following error. “No interfaces are available for installing a new cluster”

What I found out was that their was an issue between the Network Connections.  Since they were actually both the same machine (since I converted both VM’s from the same server (ws1)), the Network Load Balance Manager was seeing the Network Connections as being the same.  In order to fix this I had to go into the VM settings for both ws2 and ws3 and add another network connection as seen below.

Once I started the VM up, I just changed the IP settings for the new Network Connection and named it External, and renamed the old Network Connection “Do-Not-USE”

After all that I could now add both servers to my Network Load Balance Manager and to the cluster.  I am not sure if this all makes sense, but for those who come across the same issue, I hope this will help. 

~Michael Silva - MikePixel

This sounds like a NO brainer but today I found out that someone had created an account and changed one of my skin pages.  They erased all the JavaScript I was using to allow users to change the background image.

I found out I hadn’t changed the configuration key for security/new-account-role. 

This could have been a BIG problem.  Hopefully my readers won’t have this issue.  To avoid this make sure to go to your Control Panel.  Click on the System Settings tab.

Once there Click on the Configuration sub menu and scroll down to the configuration key you see in the above picture.  (the one by the red arrow)  Change that to Viewer or whatever you want to change it to.

You can also keep people from registering by changing the security/allow-anon-account-creation to false.  You can also see this configuration key in the picture above.

Well I hope this helps.  It is something small, but could really get you in a bind REAL quick.  I think the default is set to Contributor, so PLEASE check this out right away.

~MikePixel (Michael Silva)

This weekend I am on cloud 9.  On Friday I was asked if I wanted to do a "Guest Blog" at mindtouch.com.  I was very honored and happy to do it.  I spent some time to formulate my opinions and late Friday my blog post was live.

Basically I went into the reasons I like Deki Wiki's skinning model.  Oh well, I don't have much to say here except for I am happy. 

~MikePixel (Michael Silva)

The Pixel-Season Deki Wiki skins are now available for download and to view at deki.cornerpixel.net.  These skins are available for the popular Deki Wiki web application made by MindTouch. 

MindTouch has an awesome product in their Deki Wiki.  I have enjoyed using it and am very happy to be able to provide the community with some extra skin options. 

Once at CornerPixel’s Deki Wiki site, you can view the Pixel-Season skins which come in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.  You can view alternate backgrounds and templates there too.

Have fun with the skins, used them for free, and if you like them, or even hate them, please email me at admin@cornerpixel.net or comment to this blog post.

Thanks,
MikePixel  (Michael Silva)