David Orlo .com | Monthly Archives: May 2014

PC Power Supply Modification /Add SATA Connectors and Cable Wrap

Posted on May 23, 2014 by David Orlo

I had this power supply laying around and am currently building a PC that doesn’t require anything special so I decided I would mod it and add the missing SATA connectors and remove some of the old Molex cables and connectors. The power supply is a little older and didn’t include any SATA connectors but it had a ton of Molex style connectors. I had a few modular cables left from an Enermax power supply that I sold and forgot to include a few cables with it. I hung on to them since I sold it to a friend and

Complete Remote System Administration – IIS Exchange AD DHCP DNS SQL

Posted on May 22, 2014 by David Orlo

This guide shows how you can manage all of your major server roles remotely without ever logging into the servers themselves. To use these tools you will need Windows 7 Pro or higher, I prefer Windows 7 Pro 64bit. If you have a 32bit version of Windows you will be limited on which tools you can use. First lets cover Microsoft IIS Management Open your Control Panel and select Programs and Features, From here select Turn Windows Features On or Off Select Internet Information Services – Web Management Tools From here you can select IIS 6 Management Tools for management

Arduino – Temperature Sensors / Thermistor vs. Analog vs. Digital

Posted on May 20, 2014 by David Orlo

The beauty of choice, but with it brings complexity and confusion. There are several choices of temperature sensors available to the average consumer but which is right for your project and whats the difference between these sensors? Well that’s what I hope to explain in this article. Lets start with a very general overview of the different types of temperature sensors that will be discussed here. Thermistors – Available in NTC and PTC which will be discussed further in depth later in this article. These are very simplistic and fairly accurate sensors. They are cheap and very small which makes

What would you like to see more of? Comment in thread

Posted on May 19, 2014 by David Orlo

Would you like to see more VMWare? iSCSI? Citrix? Server Clustering or other Server Roles? Comment below and I will add more of those types of articles

VMWare ESXi vs. Citrix XenServer vs. Microsoft Hyper-V Performance Comparison

Posted on May 19, 2014 by David Orlo

I performed these tests about 2 years ago now but I would imagine the results would still be similar. I have attached several documents which show my findings for the performance of the 3 different Virtualization platforms running on the same hardware with the same guest OS. Passmark Test Main CPU D Graphics Memory Disk ESXi 54.3 64.3 30.3 68.9 94.1 XenServer 41.7 62.7 13.5 88.3 31.1 Hyper-V 53.9 62.2 61.9 96.8 75.7 IO Meter Summary – IOPS WFS 4KB DSS DB 1MB M STR 64KB SQL SL 64KB OS P 64KB WSL 8KB EXCH 4KB WS 8KB

Intel Atom Specification Comparison Spreadsheet

Posted on May 19, 2014 by David Orlo

I spent a lot of time making this spreadsheet which was used to determine the processor that would be used in a custom firewall appliance for one of my previous employers. I have decided to share this spreadsheet since it would be a shame to let it rot and go to waste. This spreadsheet includes Intel Atom processors, FSB (Front Side Bus), Core Count, Cache Size, TDP (Power Requirement) , Memory Type, Memory Speed, and much more. Enjoy Download Link Atom Comparison Sheet

Write Back vs. Write Through Disk Caching

Posted on May 19, 2014 by David Orlo

Write back vs.Write through? Common wisdom is WB always faster? Not always so! WT is usually faster for heavy loads If you cannot configure an optimal disk configuration: select WT RAID-may be best with WB Only when performing sequential loads WB is usually faster for light loads If server is properly configured: Select WB

Disk Optimization for SQL Servers & Databases

Posted on May 19, 2014 by David Orlo

One of the easiest ways to improve the lifetime performance of a SQL Server database is proper setup of the physical and logical drives. While it’s an easy technique, proper disk subsystem configuration is often overlooked or handled by a member of the IT staff other than a SQL Server DBA. Table of Contents: Storages specific terms Best RAID level for your system? Best practices for drive and physical file layout configuration Drive layout examples for SQL Server systems All too often the disk subsystem, including the disk array, is configured based only on storage capacity, with no question of

Configure Windows as a Local NTP Time Server

Posted on May 19, 2014 by David Orlo

Open the Registry and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time Nearly all of the configuration will take place here First setup the AnnounceFlag to tell the network you are a time server HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config Edit AnnounceFlags Edit Hexadecimal, Value = 5 (This value announces there is an NTP Time Server on the Network) Now we need to configure the server values HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters Edit Type Edit Data, Value = NTP (This value sets the Time Server type as NTP) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpServer Edit Enabled Edit DWORD Value = (This value enables the NTP Server Function) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters Edit NtpServer Edit Data, Value = tick.usno.navy.mil,

Resize Partitions when a server is out of space

Posted on May 19, 2014 by David Orlo

This is a quick guide to resizing partitions when a server is out of space and has multiple partitions on 1 hard drive. First verify the amount of free space on the separate partitions that exist on the hard drive you would like to resize. As you can see here the D drive has plenty of free space that could be used on the C drive. This is a very common scenario on servers such as Dell when they are purchased with Windows preinstalled. I have no idea why Dell thinks this is acceptable and I’d like to know where