Netexceed blog by Jason Mohan» Netexceed by Jason Mohan

Create ICA files with Citrix Quick Launch Tool

Jason Mohan — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:18:19 +0000

Creating ICA files is usually pretty easy, but not all the time. I had an instance where I couldn’t create an ICA file with the access management console. So I used the ICA file creator from citrix, however it kept throwing up errors, and generic errors at that. I was fed up trying to find a solution. Then I found this Citrix Quick Launch tool, which allows you to directly connect to a published application on a citrix server, and creates and ICA file. So for my purposes bascially it did the same thing create an ICA file, but this one actually tells you what the error actually is instead of throwing something generic at you. Low and behold once I found out what the error was, the fix was to remove all my Citrix clients off of my machine and download the latest version (the one with the agent and the web). Then the ICA file creator worked and so did the Citrix Quick Launch tool.

Citrix Quick Launch Tool: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX122536

Citrix ICA file Creator: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX113472

Use the Quick Launch, it looks and works better at least in my opinion.

How to backup WSS 3.0 automatically

Jason Mohan — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 20:52:41 +0000

So how do you backup WSS 3.0 automatically? Well you know you can go into the operations center and backup manually, by setting the destination. However this will not automatically backup your sharepoint farm on a daily basis. There is a simple command to backup your sharepoint farm via command line. Once you have a command line then you can create a batch file and backup however your want.

Here’s the backup command: stsadm -o backup -directory c:\backup -backupmethod full

Here’s my batch file, I’m backing up to the local hard drive and then copying it to a share (my share is not a Windows computer, so I can’t backup directly to it, but if you want to backup to a share you can as long as it’s on the domain).

cd “c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\bin”
stsadm -o backup -directory c:\backup -backupmethod full
net use s: \\192.168.0.21\backups
xcopy c:\backup s:\wss /e /h /y
net use s: /delete

How to start a full crawl on sharepoint

Jason Mohan — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:20:23 +0000

If you trying to get sharepoint to start a full crawl of your site, or you need to diagnose a problem you have to wait for sharepoint to start it’s full crawl interval. However with the below command you have it start immediately.

Stsadm -o spsearch -action fullcrawlstart

How to access embedded SQL on WSS 3.0

Jason Mohan — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:54:32 +0000

I wanted to access the SQL databases on my WSS 3.0 server, however I was using the embedded edition of SQL. So I downloaded SQL Management Server studio, but I couldn’t still access the databases. It kept saying it can’t make a remote connection to the server though I was trying to access it via local to the machine. Then I found this. Type it in as the server name, and violia!

Server Name: \\.\pipe\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\SQL\QUERY

iPhone Jailbreak for 3.1.3 is here!

Jason Mohan — Mon, 03 May 2010 13:16:32 +0000

The iPhone spirit Jailbreak for 3.1.3 is here. Much thanks goes to the Dev Team and @comex for this release. Works on iPhone 3G, 3GS, and the iPad. Jailbreak is very easy, attach your iphone or ipad and click jailbreak that’s it. Below are the screenshots for the mac version of spirit. The download links for Windows and Mac are below.

1. Download link for iPhone Spirit Jailbreak.

Screenshots for Spirit on a mac.

iPhone Jailbreak 3.1.3 spirit is coming

Jason Mohan — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:51:15 +0000

The iPhone Jailbreak 3.1.3 is coming soon here from the Dev Team possibly in a few days, or maybe a couple of weeks. If you have a iPhone 3GS 3.1.2 you probably have jailbroken, but have to constantly tether it back to a computer and run blackra1n again everytime the iPhone resets. The new Spirit jailbreak from the Dev Team will allow you to jailbreak your iPhone without tethering everytime you reset your iPhone. The spirit jailbreak works on iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS with 3.1.3. Stay tuned for the download link from the Dev site. It will be updated here also. Note this new jailbreak will not unlock your phone to use on another carrier, only jailbreak. Before the jailbreak comes out make sure you’ve done the following:

1. Make sure backup you SHSH Blobs. I’ve written a guide here.

2. Make sure you do not upgrade iTunes to the new 9.1.1 version.

Spirit Jailbreak Details

Spirit is an untethered jailbreak
Spirit works on all devices
Spirit does not have a carrier unlock
Spirit requires your device to be activated

Apply Citrix Password Manager per application or per AD group only

Jason Mohan — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:59:08 +0000

Most people like me don’t see the benefits of running Citrix password manager on the whole farm. I want only have it run based on a published application, or based on a AD group. Citrix password manager it’s a love hate relationship for me. I hate it most of the time, except for like one application in our whole Citrix farm. I have like 50 out of 3000 users that could only benefit from Citrix password manager, the rest don’t need it. So how do I apply Citrix password manager to a subset of users, or application. Below is the step by step. Bascially what you are doing is removing it from startup, and only applying it to startup based on an application, or AD group (via VB logon script). I’ve given you two ways to launch Citrix password manager, based on a published application or via a AD group on logon.

Run Citrix password manager based on a published application

1. Regedit, and go to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\AppSetup

2. Modify it, and remove only just this (nothing else). C:\Program Files\Citrix\MetaFrame Password Manager\wts\ssolauncher.exe /nossoshutdown

3. Close regedit

4. Now you can apply it to a published app like notepad with the following command. “C:\Program Files\Citrix\MetaFrame Password Manager\wts\ssolauncher.exe” /application “C:\Windows\notepad.exe”. The working doesn’t change either, in this case it would be C:\Windows\notepad.exe.

Run Citrix password manager based on a AD group at logon using a VBScript.

Here’s the logon vbscript I used, use at your discretion. If a user was in the Citrix Password Manager AD Group (I created this security group in AD, it’s not a standard group that comes with Citrix or anything) then the Citrix password manager would run.

For Each strGroup in objUser.MemberOf
strGroupPath = “LDAP://” & strGroup
Set objGroup = GetObject(strGroupPath)
strGroupName = objGroup.CN

Select Case strGroupName

Case “Citrix Password Manager”

Dim aWshShell
Set aWshShell = WScript.CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)
Return = aWshShell.Run(“c:\progra~1\citrix\metafr~1\wts\ssoLauncher.exe /nossoshutdown”, 1, true)
Set aWshShell = Nothing

End Select

Backup your iPhone SHSH Blobs, before the spirit jailbreak

Jason Mohan — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:23:19 +0000

The Dev Team will soon be releasing an iPhone 3.1.3 jailbreak without tethering. I’ll update this post as soon as the update is released. However this jailbreak is a userland jailbreak called Spirit. This is a jailbreak not an unlock (unlock means you can use the iPhone on tmobile also). A userland jailbreak is a security hole that was found and being used to jailbreak a phone. Apple will usually patch such holes in a day or so by releasing a new software update (like maybe 3.1.4). So before the jailbreak is released, and apple updates the firmware on their site, you will need to backup you SHSH Blobs. This will allow you to restore to an older software version, in case you need to erase your iPhone, or somehow you accidentally upgraded. Once a the new software version is released, and you need to restore your iPhone (or accidentally upgrade), it will only restore to the latest version provided by apple. The latest version may not have a jailbreak though, so you’ll be screwed. However you can bypass this if you backup your SHSH Blobs. Once Apple releases a new software version you can no longer create the SHSH Blobs for the older software version, even if you didn’t upgrade. To backup you need a software called umbrella, and your phone’s eccid. It’s not complicated

1. Get your iPhone’s eccid, to find out how to do that click here.

2. Now download umbrella, by going here.

3. Now run the exe, or dmg depending if you are a mac or windows user.

4. Put in the ECCID you got from step 1.

5. Choose 3.1.3 (or whatever the latest version is that’s jailbroken), and pick apple.

6. Find the file that was saved, and keep it somewhere safe, you will need it in the future.

Reboot your server remotely with IPMI using Dell’s BMC

Jason Mohan — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:51:13 +0000

I bought a new poweredge T110 server, it came with BMC (Baseboard management controller) already installed. I needed to reboot the system, because it was unresponsive (Windows 2008 server crashed). However I can’t RDP into it, and I’m not at the site where the physical machine is located. All I needed was someone to power cycle it, but no one was available. That’s when I did some research. Apparently all new poweredge servers come with at least BMC installed. I couldn’t purchased an iDrac for that server because it wasn’t available. So after some research I found the Dell BMC supports IPMI. However you need something to access the BMC using IPMI, and I don’t have linux so I can’t use the impitool. That’s when I found this software, IPMIView from Supermicro. Now you have to first configure the BMC, physically on the box before you can do all this (usually when the server boots up you’ll see this message press ctrl – e to configure BMC within 5 seconds). Luckily I configured this when I installed the server initially.

1. Install the software.

2. Go to File > New System

3. Put in the IP Address for the BMC controller, this should be different that your ip address for the server.

4. Double click on your the newly created system, and put in your username and password (again you should’ve configured this initially on the BMC controller when you installed the server).

5. Now go to IPM Device, and pick reset.

6. Now you server should reboot, like if you were on site pressing the power button.

Turning webpages into applications on a mac

Jason Mohan — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:30:07 +0000

There are some web applications out there, that you wish were actually applications instead of firing up a web browser and navigating to the web application. Well you can if you have a mac, with a program called Fluid. It’s simple and easy. I recently converted a weather web app into a full blown application. If you live in Houston, you know the weather changes drastically from one day to the next. Like yesterday, it was warm in the 70’s and then last night it was in the 30’s. However I wanted a weather app that was easy and simple to use. So I created one with Fluid and Weather Underground and put the instructions below. This will work for any webpage, if you can navigate to it, it will work. Now I’m not sure if there is an application like this for windows, but if you know of any please let us know via comments. EDIT: Check out Prism for Windows which does pretty much the same thing.

1. First download Fluid and install it on your mac.

2. Now navigate to the webpage you want to turn into a app. I used this site from weather underground. http://www.wunderground.com/auto/wxmap/.

3. Now I navigated to Houston, because I wanted Houston to be the main focus in the web application which was the following URL.

4. Now fire up Fluid.

5. Insert the URL you want to convert, give the application a name, and a icon (if you want, otherwise it will pull the favicon from the website URL)

6. Now just hit create and your application should look like the one below I made for the weather app. Simple as that, place the new app in your dock or wherever you want.

Note: You can also make the app part of your desktop, by going to your newly created app and converting it to an embedded SSB. Here is a Youtube video link for more instruction regarding SSBs.