A Technical I.T./DevOps Blog
Update on 3/30/17: The Puppet IIS module has been updated, and the problem below has been eliminated.
Problem scenario: You want Puppet to install IIS. You install the IIS module and find the README.md file has this Puppet DSL (as of 12/13/16):
class mywebsite {
iis::manage_app_pool {‘my_application_pool’:
enable_32_bit =true,
managed_runtime_version =’v4.0′,
}
iis::manage_site {‘www.mysite.com’:
site_path =’C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mysite’,
…
Problem scenario: You want to install IIS on Windows Server 2016 in an automated way. But you are prevented from using Install-WindowsFeature or Add-WindowsFeature commands for business related reasons.
Normally something like this would work:
Import-module servermanager; Add-WindowsFeature web-server, web-webserver -Verbose
What do you do?
Solution: Use PowerShell with the System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys feature.
servermanager
start-sleep 2
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait{%”M”}
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait{%”M”}
start-sleep 1
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait(“{DOWN}”)
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait({~})
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait({nnn})
start-sleep 1
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait({w})
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait{~~}
start-sleep 1
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait(“%{n}”)
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait(“%{n}”)
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait(“%{n}”)
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait(“%{n}”)
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait(“%{i}”)
…
Problem Scenario
In CloudBolt (the Cloud Management Platform), you run a job to create a server. The job stops progressing. The GUI shows “Failed Order … provisioning nameOfServer” with a bar that has the left most 5% red and the rest of the 95% gray. What do you do to create the server?
Answer
The server may be created; there may have been a small error when the job ran.
…
Problem scenario
You want to download a very large file using PowerShell (from a file share on your network or URL on the Internet). But the file is larger than the available RAM on your server. How do you download a large file using Powershell?
Solution
Invoke-restmethod, Invoke-webrequest, curl and wget (even with the redirect “” command) all put the file being downloaded into memory.
…
Continue reading “How Do You Download Big Files with PowerShell?”
Problem scenario: When trying to use PowerShell to download a file, get you this error ‘Error calling “DownloadFile” with “2” argument(s): “An Exception occurred during a WebClient request.”‘
Solution: Make sure you have ample space on the disk and make sure the destination folder exists. A typo in the path or if the folder not existing could cause this error. Insufficient disk space could also cause the problem.
…
Continue reading “How to Troubleshoot PowerShell Downloading a File From the Internet”
Scenario: On a Linux server, it can be useful to send traffic destined to a certain IP address to a different port on the server. The listening service could be unique insofar as its port number has been designated. The listening service could be a Docker container or a guest virtual machine.
Method: iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth3 -p tcp –dport 80 -j DNAT –to 91.91.91.91:81
Explanation:
…
Problem scenario: When you bring up the web UI for GitLab CE (Community Edition) for the first time, you are prompted to enter a new password twice. This password will be for the admin@example.com username. If someone else set it up and failed to provide you with the username, and the back end email has not been configured, follow these directions.
Prerequisite: You must have root access.
…
Continue reading “How To Enter the Web UI of Gitlab CE without Setting Up Its Backend Email”
Goal: To have Apache start when a Docker container starts running do the following (for Docker containers based on RHEL/CentOS/Fedora).
Prerequisite: The Docker container was created with the “-p 80:80” flag. Other port numbers besides 80 will work. The port numbers do not have to be the same. They can be any number between 1 and 65535. If there is no binding of the Docker host’s TCP ports to the container,
…
Problem scenario
Your PHP code is being displayed in a raw fashion. It is not being rendered or presented nicely as it should. You see raw PHP text when you open a web browser and go to the .php page. What should you do?
Solution
If the PHP page is blank (or completely white), see this posting.
Problem scenario: You are trying to access a file on a website. But you get the 403 Forbidden error every time. What are some different things to look for to fix this problem?
Solution:
If you do not have access to the back-end of the web server, try these:
…
Continue reading “How To Potentially Solve an HTTP 403 Error on An Apache Server”