StraightFromHP

Load Test - Apache Jmeter

2015-01-28T02:33:00.001-08:00

There is lots of material to get JMeter up and running. But I wanted something very specific to test my login screen and I found some blazemeter videos very useful.

Find them here... really good. And very good explanation all the components of JMeter.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCISe6e_phEMAvQMhjd7TJ8Q

Using your CPU for global projects !

2015-01-27T02:07:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon something nice. There are projects run for humanity needs to computation cycles due complexity in nature and hugh need for CPU cycles, there is a software which enables you to donate your CPU time when it's idle. Isnt it cool ?

Basically these process run over grids of the donated computers for some good projects. For more details click on below.

I consider this is best donation in the cyber age. And your way to participate in the grid computing.

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/index.php

Liferay Custom webservice client

2014-12-18T06:39:00.000-08:00

As we are migrating to Liferay from WebSphere portal. I was testing if I can create a webservice client and access the remote SOAP bases webservices.

So, I created my Service builder portlet project ( many links on Google will help you to create one ! ), and then deployed on my local liferay server and tried to check if the service is running fine.

I was using http://localhost:8080/api/jsonws/ which is the utility provided by Liferay to check the services. But that was causing issues related to classloader. Like below,

10:43:25,081 ERROR [http-bio-8080-exec-4][JSONWebServiceServiceAction:87] interface com.sun.xml.ws.developer.WSBindingProvider is not visible from class loader

After spending few days on this I thought of not to test it from this utility and rather directly call that service from my portlet. And Voila ! it worked. I could connect to my remote webservice through the client code which was not working on that /jsonws utility.

So, I think there are some issues with that utility. As I understand that utility is part of Portal classloader/codebase and my custom code is loaded through separate class loader. And this might have been causing all problems.

So, best avoid using that utility and check your code from your portlet itself.

More on this on Liferay Forum... (See my response ! ).

https://www.liferay.com/community/forums/-/message_boards/message/39093968

Hope this helps.
Hardik

java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Cannot load 64-bit SWT libraries on 32-bit JVM

2014-11-18T01:10:00.000-08:00

Last time when I tried to open my Eclipse it came with this exception in it's crash report. I did not change anything on my eclipse not with Java version then why would this happen ?

Then I realised I has updated Firefox with the latest version. And when it needed latest JRE it installed new JRE but it also updated the PATH in the environment. And also smart enough it put new path in front of all other paths.

AND Firefox is not available for 64 bit, although I am running on 64 bit machine, Firefox 32 bit got installed and that also installed 32 bit JRE without asking or checking if my machine is 64 bit ! ( or I guess it detected it but didnt found 32 bit as I have a 64 bit one ! ).

Anyway, I removed that path from the PATH and it worked fine for me.

!SESSION 2014-11-17 13:13:47.593 -----------------------------------------------
eclipse.buildId=4.3.0.M20130911-1000
java.version=1.8.0_25
java.vendor=Oracle Corporation
BootLoader constants: OS=win32, ARCH=x86_64, WS=win32, NL=en_GB
Framework arguments: -product org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
Command-line arguments: -os win32 -ws win32 -arch x86_64 -product org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product

!ENTRY org.eclipse.osgi 4 0 2014-11-17 13:13:49.021
!MESSAGE Application error
!STACK 1
java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Cannot load 64-bit SWT libraries on 32-bit JVM
    at org.eclipse.swt.internal.Library.loadLibrary(Library.java:260)
    at org.eclipse.swt.internal.Library.loadLibrary(Library.java:240)
    at org.eclipse.swt.internal.C.<clinit>(C.java:21)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.<clinit>(Display.java:138)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createDisplay(Workbench.java:675)
    at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createDisplay(PlatformUI.java:162)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.application.IDEApplication.createDisplay(IDEApplication.java:154)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.application.IDEApplication.start(IDEApplication.java:96)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:196)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:110)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:79)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:354)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:181)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:636)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:591)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1450)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:1426)

IBM Poodle attack preventive actions

2014-10-29T03:29:00.000-07:00

IBM Security Bulletins - Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption (POODLE)

Specifically for WebSeal, IHS, WebSphere, TDS

TITLE: Security Bulletin: Vulnerability in SSLv3 affects Tivoli Access Manager for e-business and Security Access Manager for Web (CVE-2014-3566)
URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21687954&myns=swgother&mynp=OCSSPREK&mync=E
ABSTRACT: SSLv3 contains a vulnerability that has been referred to as the Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption (POODLE) attack. SSLv3 is enabled in IBM Tivoli Access Manager for e-business and IBM Security Access Manager for Web.

TITLE: Security Bulletin: Vulnerability in SSLv3 affects WebSphere included with Tivoli Access Manager for e-business and Security Access Manager for Web (CVE-2014-3566)
URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21687955&myns=swgother&mynp=OCSSPREK&mync=E
ABSTRACT: SSLv3 contains a vulnerability that has been referred to as the Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption (POODLE) attack. SSLv3 is enabled in the IBM WebSphere product bundled with IBM Tivoli Access Manager for e-business and IBM Security Access Manager for Web.

TITLE: Security Bulletin: Vulnerability in SSLv3 affects Directory Server (CVE-2014-3566)
URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21687611&myns=swgother&mynp=OCSSVJJU&mync=E
ABSTRACT: SSLv3 contains a vulnerability that has been referred to as the Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption (POODLE) attack. SSLv3 is enabled in Tivoli Directory Server (TDS) and IBM Security Directory Server (SDS).

After making chnages one need to check if SSL connection is stopped, you can use below commands if you have OpenSSL installed.

openssl s_client -connect <website_address>:<secureport>-ssl3

openssl s_client -connect <website_address>:<secureport>-tls1

Good Blogs

2014-10-28T08:11:00.001-07:00

http://generalcsproblems.wordpress.com/os-and-linux-related-problems/

http://www.kegel.com/c10k.html

http://nick-black.com/dankwiki/index.php/Network_servers

http://pl.atyp.us/content/tech/servers.html

About Software Designs...
http://www.developerdotstar.com/mag/articles/reeves_design.html

ITIM Workflow Mail notification Issue after 5.0 to 5.1 upgrade

2014-07-16T04:24:00.000-07:00

I was looking into our newly updated ITIM environment. And it was not sending an email as part of new account creation workflow. I debugged it with IBM engineer and found some tips which can be handy for anyone.

1. Check first the mail server is working on the ITIM machine.

          $>telnet localhost 25 ( this can be value from enRoleMail.prop, mail.from property )
             once connected type the commands below in sequence, please note that the backspace key
             won't work, so if you make mistakes you have to drop the connection and reconnect
   HELO admin.xyz.com
             MAIL FROM:<no-reply@admin.xyz.com>
             RCPT TO:<abc@xyz.ac.uk>
             DATA
               write something here, this will be the body of your message
               . <- dot on an empty line will terminate and send your email

             you should receive the email immediately. This makes sure mail server functioning okay

2. In ITIM 5.1, check on WAS Console, Environment -> Shared Library -> ITIM_LIB

As there is no mail.jar in the ITIM_HOME/lib directory, entry for ${ITIM_HOME}/lib/mail.jar should be removed.

Locate $/opt/IBM/Tivoli/IdentityManager/data/enRoleMail.properties and check that parameters have not been overwritten during the upgrade, in particular need you to double check

mail.from="From Admin"<no-reply@admin.xyz.com>
mail.postoffice.aggregate.max.emails=1
mail.host=<FLDN_address_of_your_Mail_server> <.- probably you have localhost here
mail.notification.disabled=false

4. Check enRole.properties for enrole.workflow.notifyoption = 1

5. Check on ITIM console, New Account Template and New Password Template should be disabled. Otherwise this will send default ITIM mails instead the custom workflow mails.

5 6. Now restart the servers

7. Check Post Office test from ITIM console. ITIM console -> Configure System -> Post office. Make sure to check "Enable Store forwarding" and change the value of collection interval to 5.

Check logs at /opt/IBM/Tivoli/common/CTGIM/logs/trace.log

if logs are not getting generated change the level of logs in /opt/IBM/Tivoli/IdentityManager/data/enRoleLogging.properties

handler.file.trace.maxFiles=100

( ideally should be 10, but while debugging trace roles too quickly change it to 100)

handler.file.maxFileSize=20480

( this is to not generate too many file with small size )

logger.trace.com.ibm.itim.workflow.level=DEBUG_MAX

logger.trace.com.ibm.itim.mail.level=DEBUG_MAX

Hope this helps to resolve / debug your issue.

Shibboleth Links

2014-07-11T02:56:00.001-07:00

To setup SSO using shibboleth...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.testshib.org/index.html

https://wiki.shibboleth.net/confluence/display/SHIB2/IdPInstall

https://shibboleth.usc.edu/docs/sp/install/#install

https://wiki.library.ucsf.edu/display/~234877@ucsf.edu/Running+Shibboleth+IDP+and+SP+Locally+in+Windows

http://www.itcs.umich.edu/itcsdocs/s4388/

Scheduling windows task from batch file - Converting a batchfile into exe

2014-03-24T05:05:00.000-07:00

I was looking for an automated solution to do a repetitive search on the internet daily for a certain keyword to increase the hit count.

So, I created a java program which will connect to google and do search for me. And return some JSON data. Which one can format if wish to.

// Insert here : java - google search code - from home workspace.

Next step was to create a batch file which will create a scheduled task and will run this jar everyday at a certain time.

So found a link on how to schedule a task using batch file... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814596

So I created my task using this one as,

schtasks /create /tn "TASKNAME" /tr "java -jar C:\YOURJARNAME.jar" /sc DAILY /st 17:00:00

But for end user to give batch file and asking them to execute was too much. They are happy to do double click and done thing ! So, I searched to convert a batch file into executable. And found good link.

http://www.computerhope.com/dutil.htm - This has a utility bat_to_exe which I used.

And that's it.

Then I distributed the jar and the exe to the end users and asked them to copy both files under C:\ and then click on .exe file. Which will create a scheduled task to execute this jar everyday at 5 pm.

Hope this helps someone !

//Hardik

X11 Application - XServer

2014-02-20T06:36:00.000-08:00

To run X-window/X11 application from remote machine
**********************************************
Install http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/
This is XServer and X11Enabeled.

Now if on remote machine user is not enabeled to use X11 application you will notice something like this...

X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication.
X connection to localhost:11.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).
To solve this problem follow steps below
http://joelinoff.com/blog/?p=729

This one worked for me !

Guice !

2014-01-30T01:53:00.001-08:00

http://code.imagej.net/gbh/arch/Guice.html

http://musingsofaprogrammingaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/from-0-to-guice-in-15-minutes.html

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/google-guice/J2M64gM6Yao

http://www.factorypattern.com/google-guice-tutorial/

http://www.journaldev.com/2403/google-guice-dependency-injection-example-tutorial

http://www.javabeat.net/introduction-to-google-guice/
Check the "Making use of Binding Annotation".
And "Writing a simple provider".

http://blog.crazybob.org/2006/01/i-dont-get-spring.html

Liferay

2013-11-26T01:55:00.001-08:00

Liferay Hook development
http://learntolead-liferay.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/liferay-hook-4-custom-action-prelogin.html

IBM TAM SSO with Liferay
http://www.khau-tech.com/2012/11/19/ibm-tivoli-access-manager-sso-with-liferay/

Which Action class to use to extend the action behaviour
*************************************************
https://www.liferay.com/community/wiki/-/wiki/Main/Struts+Action+Hook+Tips?_36_pageResourcePrimKey=21386817

SPRING MVC Liferay Portlet
--------------------------------------------
http://www.opensource-techblog.com/2012/09/spring-mvc-portlet-in-liferay.html

Some handy Unix/Linux commands

2013-11-14T07:43:00.004-08:00

To find a process with specific string and then kill a series of such processes.
-------------------------------------
kill -9 `ps -ef | grep <string> | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}'`

Make a file void / empty
------------------------------------
cat /dev/null > abc.txt

Super duper command to remove cache/page cache from Linux
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
free && sync && echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches && free

More on this refer...
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/87908/how-do-you-empty-the-buffers-and-cache-on-a-linux-system

Liferay 6.2 - Installations - LDAP integration

2013-11-05T07:08:00.002-08:00

Liferay 6.2 - LDAP Integration
*****************************

Liferay 6.2 has no properties files ! Which were there until previous version. I guess now these are part of database tables.

So, while I was trying to integrate my server with LDAP server (TDS) I could configure the LDAP using the Control panel of liferay. And server was able to connect to LDAP.

But due to some issue I was not able to login using any of my ldap users or the default portal user. I was not able to login to the portal.

In earlier version there was a property file named, portal-ext.properties which used to hold those ldap specific values. But this doesnt exist in Liferay 6.2.

While looking at database ( portal database ), I found a table named portalpreferences, which has those ldap properties.

SELECT preferences FROM lportal.portalpreferences where portalPreferencesId = 10160

So, I changed the values of the parameters,
ldap.auth.enabled and ldap.auth.enabled ( which are two check boxes on the LDAP configuration page needs to be checked to enable LDAP login ) to false.

And that's it.

It worked for me, hope it helps you. This is still work under progress and I am looking to complete this LDAP connectivity with Liferay 6.2. So will keep updating this post.

https://www.liferay.com/documentation/liferay-portal/6.2/user-guide/-/ai/integrating-existing-users-into-liferay-liferay-portal-6-2-user-guide-17-en

WebSphere Portal - Authoring Template - Ephox error IWKAP0009E: Servlet not enabled.

2013-10-10T04:26:00.000-07:00

We upgraded our portal server to use the latest Ephox editor because the old version was giving logs of Java Security errors.

We applied the fix pack (? - will add exact number later ! ).

And restarted the server but was getting strange error while clicking on "New" button in WCM. On click it will show "IWKAP0009E: Servlet not enabled."

After googling came across this article which is exactly the problem we had and it we resolved following it...

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21445801

Another tech note which also suggests to do the same thing...

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/WCML2Thoughts/?lang=en

What is difference between SSL & SSH - SSL & TSL

2013-09-24T03:05:00.000-07:00

Good explanation
http://yet.another.linux-nerd.com/blog/difference-between-ssh-and-ssl

A bit of discussion
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/723152/difference-between-ssh-and-ssl

Some more such acronyms...
http://www.rebex.net/kb/secure-ftp/default.aspx

Good information on SSL Vs TSL ( Very interesting to understand Poodle vulnerability ! )
https://luxsci.com/blog/ssl-versus-tls-whats-the-difference.html

http://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/protocols/ssl-tls-beginners-guide-1029

SSL - Mutual Authentication
-------------------------------------------
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/326574/An-Introduction-to-Mutual-SSL-Authentication

Aggregation Vs Composition - OOD Concept

2013-09-21T15:04:00.001-07:00

I have a very basic example to understand aggregation / composition.

And over a time, thinking about from somewhere I have found a very profound example to explain both concept.

Composition - A composition in which objects forms an entity and that entity cant remain complete if one of the object is removed.

Example : To understand composition, think of a medicinal tablet, which might be made of many elements in various proposition but you cant remove one easily and if you remove one it's wont be same tablet / medicine anymore.

Aggregation - A collection of objects which are loosely connected and can be easily replaces / removed and can be used separately and can be modified easily.

Example : There can be many but I think a car is best one ! One can modify anything in car / replace objects. One can change tire / change color, change wipers / even change engines. And still car will work ! And everything is so loosely coupled that it can be changed easily.

Websphere Virtual Portal - Modify for Virtual Host Name

2013-09-18T06:09:00.001-07:00

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/xpDocViewer.xsp?lookupName=IBM+WebSphere+Portal+7+Product+Documentation#action=openDocument&res_title=Virtual_portals_reference_wp7&content=pdcontent

Using a new host name for an existing virtual portal.

If you want to use a new host name for an existing virtual portal, proceed by the following steps:

Export the contents of the virtual portal by using the XML configuration interface.

/opt/IBM/PortalServer/bin/xmlaccess.sh -in Export.xml -user wpadmin -pwd xxxxx -url http://localhost:<portalPortalNumber>/<yourportalContext>/config/<yourVPContext> -out ExportVP_out.xml

Delete the virtual portal.

Clean up references to the deleted virtual portal by using the Task.xml script of the XML configuration interface.

Create a new empty virtual portal by using the configuration task create-virtual-portal. Use the context of the deleted virtual portal, and specify the new host name as required.

Import the contents to the new virtual portal by using the XML configuration interface.

----------------------------
[wsadmin] VirtualPortal:
[wsadmin] Title:       Institutions
[wsadmin] Description:
[wsadmin] Realm:       defaultWIMFileBasedRealm
[wsadmin] Object ID:   Z18_K99SEH6510KN80IF6GO7973481
[wsadmin] Hostname:    <cannot be retrieved>
[wsadmin] Context:     institutions
[wsadmin] Short ID:    -14001
[wsadmin] _____________________________________________________

Portal Servlet filter - To filter each incoming request / outgoing response from portal server

2013-09-18T06:08:00.000-07:00

Portal Servlet filter - To filter each incoming request / outgoing response from portal server
**********************************************************************

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/0707_lynn/0707_lynn.html

I used this one to create a portal servlet filter to add a response header on each response.

For a specific issue with JSF components being rendered in IE-10, which rurns the validation on although no validation is attached to the input text boxes, on submit all boxes shows compulsory validation.

//Hardik

Everything about XMLAccess - Task.xml

2013-08-22T08:09:00.001-07:00

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/dx/XMLAccess_Frequently_Asked_Questions#What+is+XMLAccess%3F

There is a /opt/IBM/WebSphere/PortalServer/docs/xml-samples/Task.xml - Use this xml script to do clean up after deleting any component and not allowing to create a new component with the same name.

Websphere Portal - Security - SSO

2013-08-22T04:22:00.000-07:00

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/dx/Configuring_%E2%80%98Single_Sign_On%E2%80%99_between_Web_Sphere_Portal_Server_7.0com_Tivoli_Access_Manager_WebSEAL_version_6.1_on_AIX_6.1_?OpenDocument&sa=true#Required+junction+parameters

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pub/info/portal/WebSphere_Port al_Security_overview.pdf

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/tivoli/library/t-ssotam/

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/dx/Web_security_concepts_and_considerations_for_IBM_WebSphere_Portal_administrators#Sessions

RAD 9.0 Maven Plugin

2013-08-19T08:52:00.002-07:00

With RAD 9.0 there are immense improvements in terms of Maven working with RAD for building and deploying portlet based project.

But I found it hard to find a plugin which actually deploys the code to the websphere portal server.

After a lot struggle found the location of the plugin...

https://public.dhe.ibm.com/ibmdl/export/pub/software/websphere/wasdev/maven/repository/com/ibm/tools/plugin/portal-deployment-maven-plugin/1.0/

But somehow cant download so downloaded each file...

maven-metadata.xml
portal-deployment-maven-plugin-1.0.jar
portal-deployment-maven-plugin-1.0.pom

Copied them in a folder named "portal-deployment-maven-plugin" ( this can be anything ! ).

And then copy across that folder into plugin folder where RAD has stored other plugins...

For me it's

C:\IBM\IBMIMShared\plugins

In your project's pom.xml you need to mention this plugin...

<plugin>
<groupId>com.ibm.tools.plugin</groupId>
<artifactId>portal-deployment-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.0</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>integration-test</phase>
<configuration>
<username>wpsadmin</username>
<password>wpsadmin</password>
<hostname>localhost</hostname>
<port>10039</port>
</configuration>
<goals>
<goal>deploy-portlet</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>

After doing all this, restart your RAD.

And that's it.

Go to your project, right click and build. It should build and deploy your portlet to mentioned portal server.

http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/radhelp/v9/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.portal.doc%2Ftopics%2Ft_DeployingMavenPortletProjects.html

Hope this helps.

Leave comments if you get stuck.

//HP

Websphere Portal / Websphere Application Server

2013-08-16T03:22:00.002-07:00

IBM WAS Administrator scripts sample

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/samples/SampleScripts.html#download

WAR Export Script...
http://wpcertification.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/updating-wpsear-using-wsadmin-script.html

WPS Export script...

[root@wput-1 bin]# ./wsadmin.sh -conntype none -host localhost -user wpadmin -password gr\!n.baR1t -port 20033 -lang jython
WASX7357I: By request, this scripting client is not connected to any server process. Certain configuration and application operations will be available in local mode.
WASX7031I: For help, enter: "print Help.help()"
wsadmin>AdminApp.export('PA_MoodleEntryPoint','/tmp/PA_MoodleEntryPoint.ear')
''
wsadmin>AdminApp.export('PA_WCMLRingPortJSR286','/tmp/PA_WCMLRingPortJSR286.ear')
''