How To: Give Windows Server more then 4GB of Swap

How To: Give Windows Server more then 4GB of Swap

There are a hundred reasons why people need more then 4gb of swap files on Windows these days. By default this is not always enabled, especially if the computer’s RAM was upgraded to a larger amount. On the same token, if the machine has 8GB of memory, then the swap files need to be increased also.

All instructions are assuming the Service Pack 2 or above is installed. If it’s not, install it.

First step is to upgrade the file system to NTFS, not FAT32 if it is not already done.

At the command line type: convert c: /fs:ntfs /v

Upon the next reboot the computer will automatically change the filesystem. Keep in mind this could take some time depending on how big the hard drive and how full it is. Alternatively if the disc is blank already it’s a easy step to simply reformat and go.

Next is to edit the boot.ini file and add /PAE to it. It may also be a good idea to add /MAXMEM if the physical memory is over 4GB is size.

On the other hand, having swap files larger then 4GB can cause system performance issues. Adding faster drives is a possibility but not always practical. Instead it may be better to create multiple page files.

1.) Create Multiple Empty Directories. These can be on the same drive or even across multiple drives. So it could look something like this:

C:SwapFile1
F:SwapFile2
G:SwapFile3

2.) Open the Registry: Click Start, Click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.

3.) Locate the Key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlSessionManagerMemoryManagement

4.) Delete any entries currently there.

5.) Add:
C:SwapFile1pagefile.sys 3000 4000
F:SwapFile2pagefile.sys 3000 4000
G:SwapFile3pagefile.sys 3000 4000

Or if they’re all on the same drive:
C:SwapFile1pagefile.sys 3000 4000
C:SwapFile2pagefile.sys 3000 4000
C:SwapFile3pagefile.sys 3000 4000

6.) Reboot the computer. Upon boot up it should create these files automatically.

Check the virtual memory settings:
7.) On the desktop, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.

8.) Click the Advanced tab -> Click Performance Options -> Click Change.

At this point there should be a noticeable speed difference, especially on machines that are using large files, such as databases, graphics, IS or similar programs.

How To: Synchronize Blackberry and Zimbra on OS X

How To: Synchronize Blackberry and Zimbra on OS X

At first looks there is no obvious way to synchronize RIM’s Blackberry devices with the Zimbra mail client. Blackberry already has a huge following in the business world while Zimbra is starting to become extremely popular as an Exchange replacement.

But, out of the box neither will talk to each other directly on OS X.

This can be resolved, but it’s actually a two step process so it will take a little bit of extra work to be sure that data does not get out of date.

Zimbra provides Apple iSync Connector which is currently bundled in the Network Edition Professional Server download, available in the trial version (signup required) or from the Admin Console in an already existing Zimbra install.

Install the iSync Connector with the directions here.

Once the connector is installed it’s a good idea to go ahead and do the initial synchronization. This will sync Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and the Address Book to the corresponding OS X Application. Email will of course not sync since the Blackberry can be setup as an email client and can receive the emails directly.

After the initial synchronization between Zimbra and the desktop, it’s now possible to sync the desktop with the Blackberry.

This is done with the PocketMac Application which is a free download for those who already have a Blackberry. It is not free for any other phone or PDA, although it does work with a wide variety of other systems.

Install PocketMac, plug in the Blackberry, hit the sync button on the dock and watch it all happen like magic.

Using this scenario it’s possible to get out of sync very easily though. I highly suggest getting in the habit of only making changes to one device ever, or doing this two step sync process immediately after adding or making changes.

How To: Disable Dashboard in OS X

How To: Disable Dashboard in OS X

Dashboard in Leopard is a love it or hate it application. There are several useful applications that can make life easier. On the other hand, it’s easy to hit the activation buttons on Mighty Mouse by accident. Other people may begrudge Dashboard’s use of memory. It’s not much, but on low end machines every bit counts.

This is how to disable Dashboard:

Open Terminal (as an admin user)

type: defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

Hit Enter

type: killall Finder

When Finder restarts, Dashboard should be gone. To turn it back on follow the same instructions, but replace YES with NO.

The first command is the powerful one. There are a lot of default behaviors that can be changed in OS X if the write command is known.

The second command, killall Finder simply does the same as force quitting Finder from the GUI. It forces the Finder to quit, relaunch and reload everything, including the Dock. In this case it does not relaunch Dashboard though.

Please let me know if you find this helpful. Also suggestions for other terminal commands would be appreciated.

How To: Extract .tgz files with Tar

How To: Extract .tgz files with Tar

.tgz files have been used in Unix for years. Originally created to handle backups to tape, it’s now commonly used to archive groups of files together such as installers for software. This is where most people run across the confusing .tgz, tar.gz, or tar.bz2 file extensions.

These instructions should be universal for most Unix systems, Linux, BSD, OS X, and even Solaris. Please feel free to leave a comment if they’re not.

To get to tar’s help files, simply type: man tar

The output will look something like this:

TAR(1) tar TAR(1)

NAME
tar – The GNU version of the tar archiving utility

SYNOPSIS
tar [options]

Operations:
[-]A –catenate –concatenate
[-]c –create
[-]d –diff –compare
[-]r –append
[-]t –list
[-]u –update
[-]x –extract –get
–delete

Common Options:
-C, –directory DIR
-f, –file F
-j, –bzip2
-p, –preserve-permissions
-v, –verbose
-z, –gzip

So for extracting tar files, we will use the x and f options. Thus:

tar xf filename.tar

Will work fine. Note that the same command should usually work for any file that has the tgz, tar.gz, or tar.bz2 extensions too. The tar command should automatically detect the file type and call gzip or b2zip. If it doesn’t there are two more commands.

For .tgz or tar.gz files, add a z to the command: tar xzf filename.tgz

For .bz2 files, add a j : tar xjf filename.tar.bz2

At this point the file should unzip and untar into the same directory as the archive file. Sometimes an auto installer will come up, but that is still pretty rare.

How To: Check OS X Disk Usage

How To: Check OS X Disk Usage

In OS X there are two ways to do everything. Via the GUI, or Via the command line. Frequently the GUI method does fine for most uses. But sometimes a bit more information is needed.

In the GUI, getting Disc Usage is simple. Open Finder, click on the drive and look at the bottom of the finder window. The number of files selected and the space available is displayed. But, this only shows the current directory and includes ALL sub folders under it.

But with a little use of the command line we can get a lot more information. Opening terminal defaults to the active user’s home directory.

At this point type du -sh * We’re adding the s for “Display an entry for each specified file,” and h for “Human-readable” output.

This will give a readout like this:
28G Desktop
41G Documents
13G Downloads
3.9G Library
0B Movies
5.1G Music
42G Pictures
121M Public
374M Sites

As can be seen this then gives a readout of each directory in the current one and provides the total space it takes up. In cases of low hard drive space this gives a good way to quickly find folders that may be too big. It could also be run in the /Users folder on multi-user machines to find out who it using all the hard drive space.