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Introduction
When working with NDS/eDirectory Replicas (NetWare 6.x) you need to have one that is the Master Replica. This is a flag but it's an important flag because it ensures at least one replica has the control, that if the synchronisation process is in doubt, it will use the objects/properties from the Master Replica.


Usually
Sometimes when you are upgrading or migrating to new hardware you may need to change the Master Replica to one on another server. Usually you can do this easily with DSREPAIR | Advanced options menu | Replica and partition operations | Designate this server as the new master replica server.


However...
I have found that sometimes this is not enough. After using DSREPAIR (as above) it appears as if the server's replica is the Master. But look on the other server, the one that used to be the Master. It is possible that it has not changed to Read/Write. In fact the designation of the new server to Master has not happened! It just didn't work. If you don't notice this you can get yourself into some more problems later - I am speaking from experience!


Solution
Instead of using DSREPAIR to change the Master flag, use ConsoleOne. You can run ConsoleOne on the server console - here's what to do:

Go to the server
Press Ctrl-Esc, 1-System Console
STARTX [Enter]
Click ConsoleOne (on the Novell menu)
Click View | Partition and Replica View
Click on the server object you want to set as Master
Right click and click Master
Wait... also you may need to close ConsoleOne and reopen it before it reappears correctly on the screen set to Master.


Conclusion
This is by no means the solution to all such situations. Of course you need to ensure your replicas are sychronised properly and use DSREPAIR to ensure there are no errors before you start. The best advice is to always check that an operation such as changing the Master designation, has actually worked. Even if it appears to have worked, look at it from a different angle or using a different tool (such as ConsoleOne or DSREPAIR on another server). Be sure you understand what is happening before you continue. Take your time and you should be fine - although that is good advice for everything to do with computers! ;-)

Introduction
NAS means Network Attached Storage. It's an easy way to quickly add disk space to a network, without the need for installing a complicated, expensive server with a network operating system. Typically in the shops you can easily buy a NAS, a hard disk in a box that can be plugged into your network. It's like a simple self-contianed server.

FreeNAs is a free operating system that comes pre-configured with file sharing features. You can install FreeNAS on nearly any PC. Typically, if you have an older computer you no longer use, you could install FreeNAs on it, this is because FreeNAS doesn't need a high-spec computer. For more information on the specifications that FreeNAS can support visit the website http://www.freenas.org/

As an example I'm going to take you step-by-step through installing and configuring FreeNAS. We'll assume
this is a typical home network and the computer I'll use is an old IBM ThinkPad T42 with a 40GB hard disk
and 512MB RAM. At the time of writing FreeNAS 7 was the latest version, that's what I'll be using in this guide but the principals should be the same for later versions of FreeNAS too.


Download
Download the latest ISO image from www.freenas.org. An ISO image is a single file that can be written to a CD to make a bootable CD to install FreeNAS. On the FreeNAS website there are two types of file you can download, either X86 or AMD64. For most computers, including the computer I have, the X86 image is the one to get.

Once you've downloaded it, insert a new CD-R 700MB disc. Burn the ISO to the disc, use your CD writing software to do this (CD Burner XP is excellent and free). Write "FreeNAS" on the CD.


Planning and Requirements
Before you install FreeNAS you should plan how you want to install and use it. Here are some considerations:

- When you install FreeNAS all files currently on the target computer will be destroyed. Before you begin, backup/copy any files from your target (old) computer to somewhere safe.

- The target computer cannot use WiFi to connect to your network (at least not initially). You will need a
working RJ-45 UTP LAN cable.

- You may need a USB flash drive, if it has any data on it, back it up first.

Why would a USB flash drive be useful? This is where FreeNAS is clever and where the planning comes in. It is possible to install the FreeNAS system files to a USB flash drive (even a small 256MB one!). The idea
of this is that you keep the operating system (system files) separate from the data. Your data could be stored exclusively on the hard disk drive of the computer. The advantage of this is that it is very easy to upgrade FreeNAS without endangering your data files. It makes upgrading your storage easy too. Let's say you start with a 40GB disk but later you want more space, you can add the extra space or easily replace it without having to worry about reinstalling the operating system (FreeNAS)!

It is also possible to install FreeNAS onto the hard disk or even run it from CD. My feeling is that installing to a USB flash drive is the most flexible approach and probably the most popular so that's what I'll focus on in this guide.


Installation
Insert the FreeNAS CD you created into your target computer.

Restart the computer, it should boot from the CD (if it doesn't, you'll have to enter the BIOS setup and change the boot order).

You'll see the 'Console setup' menu

Select 9 - Install/upgrade to hard drive/flash device, etc.

Insert a USB flash drive - FreeNAS will detect and mount it.

'FeeNAS installation' - select OK

'Choose installation media' - select acd0 (your CD/DVD drive) and OK

'Choose destination media'

ad0 38155MB (this is usually the hard disk, your MB size will vary)
da0 1828MB (this is your USB flash drive, the MB size will vary)

Select da0 (the USB flash drive) and OK

FreeNAS has been installed.
You can now remove the CDROM and reboot the PC.
Press Enter to continue.

Press Enter (as it says on screen)

Remove the CD (leave the USB flash drive plugged in).

'Install & Upgrade' - select Exit

Select Reboot

It will boot from the USB flash drive for the first time. If it does not, check in the computers BIOS setup that the USB flash drive is the first in the boot order.

Plug-in the RJ-45 LAN cable (if it's not already plugged in)

'Console setup' - select 2 - Set LAN IP address

'Do you want to use DHCP for this interface?' - select No (you could select yes if you wish but it's best to set a static IP address for your FreeNAS computer)

'Enter new LAN IPv4 address' - enter the IP address you want for your FreeNAS computer. For example, it should be on the same sub-net and with a unique IP address. If you are on a home network, this is what you can do to decide which IP address to use:

a) Go to your Windows PC
b) Click Start | Run
c) Type CMD [Enter]
d) Type IPCONFIG /all [Enter]
e) Where it says 'IP address' it'll read something like 192.168.0.18, that's the address of your Windows PC. The address you should enter for the FreeNAS should be the same but the last number should be different, like .250. For example, on your FreeNAS computer enter 192.168.0.250

'Enter new LAN subnet mask' - the default is 24, this should be correct in most cases, select OK

'Enter IPv4 default gateway' - enter your default gateway, typically your Router, the same IP address as before but ending in .1. Take a look on your Windows PC, the default gateway is listed on the IPCONFIG
information. In our example I will enter 192.168.0.1

'Enter DNS IPv4 address' - again you can find this in the IPCONFIG information from your Windows PC. Often this is the same as your default gateway. In my example my DNS address is 192.168.0.1

'Do you want to configure IPv6 for this interface?' - select No

Press Enter

The FreeNAS computer is ready!


Configure and Share
Go to your Windows PC

Start your browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome, etc)

Enter the IP address of your FreeNAS (the 'LAN IPv4 address' you entered earlier)
Username: admin
Password: freenas


Disks | Management



Click Disks | Management

Click the + to add a disk

Select ad0 (ad0 is typically the first hard disk in your computer)

Description: DATA

Click Add

Click Apply changes

Click Disks | Format

Disk: ad0
File system: UFS
Volume label: 40GB (I used the label 40GB because my disk was 40GB in size, this doesn't matter, you can enter anything you like as a label)

Click Format disk

Click Disks | Mount Point

Click the + to add a mount point

Type: Disk
Disk: ad0
Partition type: GPT
Mount point name: DATA

Click Add

Click Apply changes

Click Services | CIFS/SMB

[X] Enable

[X] Enable Asynchronous I/O (AIO)

Click Save and restart


Services | CIFS/SMB | Shares


Click the Share tab

Click + to add a share

Name: files
Comment: FreeNAS

Path: click [...]
Click DATA
/mnt/DATA/

Click OK

Click [X] Enable recycle bin

Click Add

Click Apply changes

Click System | Reboot

The FreeNAS will restart - wait for the beep!

Once the FreeNAS computer has restarted, shut down and restart your Windows PC

Click Start

Click My Network Places

Click Entire Network (if you don't see it in the list, click Folders)

Click Microsoft Windows Network

Click Workgroup

Click FreeNAS

Click Files

You can use this just as you would any other drive.


Conclusion
The instructions above are just to set up a simple FreeNAS for sharing files on your LAN. However, I do hope this introduction to FreeNAS has been helpful. As you've probably seen, there are many options, many
ways you can configure your FreeNAS system, you can add users and control what access they have to
different files. FreeNAS is an excellent way to use an old computer you have or maybe to make a robust
file sharing server without having to buy expensive hardware.


References
http://www.freenas.org/
http://www.freebsd.org/
http://www.qnap.com/
http://cdburnerxp.se/

Using NetWare 6.5, in ConsoleOne, double click a user object and it shows the following error:
(Error -618) The server has detected an inconsistent database

Novell's support site has a page that might be helpful, click here.

If that advice doesn't help you (it didn't help me!) then restart the server! That solved it for me. After restarting the error didn't occur. But of course you should also ensure you run DSREPAIR until you get 0 (zero) errors.

I had a self-extracting archive made using 7-Zip SFX. I had many files inside the compressed file. There was one exe file, let's called it A.exe, it was the one run on extraction. In addition A.exe ran another file B.exe. The problem was that upon extraction the B.exe wasn't there! Why didn't it execute, why wasn't it there?

Problem
When installing the latest Flash Player 10 for Internet Explorer did you get this error?
ActiveX control for Flash Player could not be registered

If you had the above error then try the following:
(these instructions have been tested on a Windows XP SP3 computer, I can't guarantee anything but it worked for me!)


Solution
To start with I recommend you uninstall the Flash Player you currently have installed. You can do this via the Control Panel or use the special utility Adobe have made:

uninstall_flash_player.exe
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html
 
1.  Logon as Administrator or a Windows user that has Administrator permissions.
2.  Run uninstall_flash_player.exe (this will uninstall the current Flash Player)
3.  Shut down, restart the computer


The installation error: "ActiveX control for Flash Player could not be registered" typically appears if the registry permissions are not set to administrator. To do this you'll need a utility from Microsoft called SubInACL.exe and a file called reset_fp10.cmd from Adobe. Links to these files can be found under 'References' at the bottom of this article, or follow the instructions on the following Adobe knowledge base article: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/494/cpsid_49419.html

When you've followed the above instructions and you've run reset_fp10.cmd, did it fix it? I had a situation where it still didn't solve this problem! If you still have a problem, here's my solution:


Extended Solution
Click Start | Run
Type CMD  [Enter]
Type the following command lines:
CD\ [Enter]
CD "Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools"   [Enter]
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f  [Enter]


AutoIt Script
If you deploy solutions you may wish to create a 'fix' script. Here's some code to get you started with AutoIt:





References
Adobe knowledge base article:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/494/cpsid_49419.html

uninstall_flash_player.exe
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html
 
SubInACL.exe (subinacl.msi)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e8ba3e56-d8fe-4a91-93cf-ed6985e3927b&displaylang=en

reset_fp10.cmd (reset_fp10.zip)
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/494/cpsid_49419/attachments/reset_fp10.zip

I have an Asus Eee PC 700 4G, I got it back in 2008. It was the first popular and truly cheap netbooks to emerge a few years ago. It's a cute little machine that I use mostly for casual web browsing. Originally its built-in 4GB SSD (solid state drive) came pre-loaded with a Linux distribution from Asus specially for the Eee PC. It was ok, I used it for a while but it was clunky and it got on my nerves after a while because it was always forgetting my WiFi connection's WPA key.

I tried Ubuntu's netbook release but it didn't have the drivers included for my old Eee PC. I had a look around and found Eeebuntu (since renamed Aurora), an Ubuntu distribution that came pre-configured for use on the Eee PC with the drivers included for the network, WiFi, webcam, etc. I used Eeebuntu for a while and found it good but it was a little fiddly.

Next I tried EasyPeasy from http://www.geteasypeasy.com/ - again a Linux Ubuntu based distribution. This I have found to be a nice little OS (operating system). It installed relatively easily. I had no driver problems, everything worked immediately. A large selection of popular software is installed such as Firefox, OpenOffice, etc. Unfortunately most of the main storage, the 4GB SSD is taken by all this software but having said that, I never really used the main storage anyway, I always used an SD card for data.

The EasyPeasy interface is excellent, it is clear, easy to use and the mouse pointer travels around it without having to finger the track pad too much. The interface is well designed for the small screen of your netbook, the Eee PC must have one of the smallest and EasyPeasy manages work fine with the limited space. I'm writing this using my Eee PC now, in Firefox on the Blogger online editor. The text is large enough and there is no horizontal scroll bars. My only headache is the annoyingly small Eee PC keyboard, which I can hardly blame on EasyPeasy ;-)

There is a small thin bar at the top of the screen that has a button to get back to the main menu, there are indicators for WiFi strength, battery power remaining, speaker volume, e-mail, date, time and a logoff/shut down menu. This bar is visible the whole time unless you press F11 in Firefox to go full screen.

The only negative thing about EasyPeasy's interface is that sometimes dialogue boxes are too big and the buttons (OK, Cancel, etc) at the bottom of the dialogue window are not visible, they are off the screen and there's no way to move the window up far enough to see them. It is frustrating!

Apart from the overly big dialogue box problem, EasyPeasy is just about flawless. At least it has a very slick looking interface that is easy to use and navigate on a small screen, it boots fast, it can be updated easily (Ubuntu updates and software packages), it's great. I have no problems with the WiFi connection, it automatically connects every time without any fuss. The battery indicator seems to work and the OS rarely crashes.

According to the EasyPeasy website it is for all netbooks so whatever you have try it out.
http://www.geteasypeasy.com/

Of course Aurora is also worth a look, I've not tried it recently. For the time being I'll stick with EasyPeasy as it does what I need which is all you want from a netbook OS. EasyPeasy is again another wonderful piece of open source work. They've adapted the already great Ubuntu so well to the tiny screen of the netbook, especially my little Eee PC.

My rating: 8/10