openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout bla.key -out bla.csr

This syntax does not force you to supply a password, which is convenient.

If you generate a CSR for startcom, you don’t have to fill in any fields; only the public key from the CSR is used. For other vendors, the common name is important; the domain name must be entered there.

This post replaced an older one I made.

First install drbd:

aptitude -P install drbd8-utils

Then make some config files. First adjust /etc/drbd.d/global.conf (I only had to uncomment the notify rules):

global {
        usage-count yes;
        # minor-count dialog-refresh disable-ip-verification
}
 
common {
        protocol C;
 
        handlers {
                pri-on-incon-degr "/usr/lib/drbd/notify-pri-on-incon-degr.sh; /usr/lib/drbd/notify-emergency-reboot.sh; echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger ; reboot -f";
                pri-lost-after-sb "/usr/lib/drbd/notify-pri-lost-after-sb.sh; /usr/lib/drbd/notify-emergency-reboot.sh; echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger ; reboot -f";
                local-io-error "/usr/lib/drbd/notify-io-error.sh; /usr/lib/drbd/notify-emergency-shutdown.sh; echo o > /proc/sysrq-trigger ; halt -f";
                # fence-peer "/usr/lib/drbd/crm-fence-peer.sh";
                split-brain "/usr/lib/drbd/notify-split-brain.sh root";
                out-of-sync "/usr/lib/drbd/notify-out-of-sync.sh root";
                # before-resync-target "/usr/lib/drbd/snapshot-resync-target-lvm.sh -p 15 -- -c 16k";
                # after-resync-target /usr/lib/drbd/unsnapshot-resync-target-lvm.sh;
        }
 
        startup {
                # wfc-timeout degr-wfc-timeout outdated-wfc-timeout wait-after-sb;
        }
 
        disk {
                # on-io-error fencing use-bmbv no-disk-barrier no-disk-flushes
                # no-disk-drain no-md-flushes max-bio-bvecs   
        }
 
        net {
                # snd‐buf-size rcvbuf-size timeout connect-int ping-int ping-timeout max-buffers
                # max-epoch-size ko-count allow-two-primaries cram-hmac-alg shared-secret
                # after-sb-0pri after-sb-1pri after-sb-2pri data-integrity-alg no-tcp-cork
        }
 
        syncer {
                # rate after al-extents use-rle cpu-mask verify-alg csums-alg
        }
}

Then I made a resource for my existing logical volume:

resource r0
{
  meta-disk internal;
  device /dev/drbd1;
 
  startup
  {
    # The timeout value when the last known state of the other side was available.
    wfc-timeout 0;
 
    # Timeout value when the last known state was disconnected.
    degr-wfc-timeout 180;
  }
 
  syncer
  {
    # This is recommended only for low-bandwidth lines, to only send those
    # blocks which really have changed.
    #csums-alg md5;
 
    # Set to about half your net speed
    rate 8M;
 
    # It seems that this option moved to the 'net' section in drbd 8.4.
    verify-alg md5;
  }
 
  net
  {
    # The manpage says this is recommended only in pre-production (because of its performance), to determine
    # if your LAN card has a TCP checksum offloading bug. 
    #data-integrity-alg md5;
  }
 
  disk
  {
    # Detach causes the device to work over-the-network-only after the
    # underlying disk fails. Detach is not default for historical reasons, but is
    # recommended by the docs.
    # However, the Debian defaults in drbd.conf suggest the machine will reboot in that event...
    on-io-error detach;
  }
 
  on top
  {
    disk /dev/universe/lvtest;
    address 192.168.2.6:7789;
  }
 
  on bottom
  {
    disk /dev/universe/lvtest;
    address 192.168.2.7:7790;
  }
}

Copy all config files to the slave machine (and write an rsync-script for it…).

The drbd data is going to be written on the actual LV, so on the primary node, we need to make space:

e2fsck -f /dev/universe/lvtest
resize2fs /dev/universe/lvtest 500M # or however big that's a tad smaller than the actual LV.
drbdadm create-md r0
drbdadm up r0

On the secondary node, make the device as well:

drbdadm create-md r0
drbdadm up r0

Then we can start syncing and re-grow it. On the primary:

drbdadm -- --overwrite-data-of-peer primary r0 # the -- is necessary because of weird option handling by drbdadm.
resize2fs /dev/drbd1

The logical volume has been converted from ext3 to drbd:

# mount /dev/universe/lvtest /mnt/temp
mount: unknown filesystem type 'drbd'

Then, it is recommended you create /etc/modprobe.d/drbd.conf with:

options drbd disable_sendpage=1

I don’t know what it does, but it’s recommended by the DRBD devices docs when you put Xen domains on DRBD devices.

In Xen, you can configure the disk device of a VM like this:

disk = [ 'drbd:resource,xvda,w' ]

Drbd has installed the necessary scripts in /etc/xen/scripts to support this. Xen will now automatically promote a drbd device to primary when you start a VM.

Bewarned: because of that, don’t put the VM in the /etc/xen/auto dir on the fallback node, otherwise whichever machine is faster will start the VM, preventing the other machine from starting it (because you can’t have two primaries).

I noticed that Debian arranges it’s boot process erroneously, starting xemdomains before drbd. I comment on an old bug.

You can fix it by adding xendomains to the following lines in /etc/init.d/drbd:

# X-Start-Before: heartbeat corosync xendomains
# X-Stop-After:   heartbeat corosync xendomains 

Mdadm (software RAID) schedules monthly checks of your array. You can do that for DRBD too). You do that on the primary node with a cronjob in /etc/cron.d/:

42 0 * * 0    root    /sbin/drbdadm verify all

One last thing: the docs state that when you perform a verify and it detects an out-of-sync device, all you have to do is disconnect and connect. That didn’t work for me. Instead, I ran the following on the secondary node (the one I had destroyed with dd) to initiate a resync:

drbdadm invalidate r0

I’ve found some instructions on installing a recent version of VirtualBox and
a number of Internet Explorer versions, all that without requiring a Windows license thanks to a specialized Windows VHD by Microsoft.

I needed to change the first line of Mailscanner in /usr/sbin/Mailscanner:

#!/usr/bin/perl -I/usr/share/MailScanner/ -U 

Source.

Of course, this is far from optimal and it bugs me that Debian didn’t fix this yet, because it’s an old issue.

Usually followed by: “I used to, but I …”
Or: “At least you have (not) …”

Well, I had this conversation, but at least I …
I am writing about it, so that at least you …

You know the truth:
No, he can’t just …
At least, he couldn’t …

Now, you might …
But if it’d be so easy to …
You wouldn’t be congratulating each other that …
You’re just slightly better than him …

How does it feel?
Safe?

If only you would …

Upgrading WordPress and wp-recaptcha to their latest versions (3.3.1 and 3.1.4 respectively) seems to have solved the problem.

Thus: “I am naked and feeling very vulnerable.”

How do the spammers do this? Do they primarily trick visitors of other websites into solving this captchas for them or do they employ spam-sweatshops in third-world countries? Fuck them! I’m trying something new.

I’ve upgraded to the ConfirmEdit extension. (ReCaptcha has also moved into this extension.) This allows me to try different Captcha types. The one I was most interested in is QuestyChaptcha, which allows me to define a set of questions which the user needs to answer. I’m now trying it out with the following question:

$wgCaptchaQuestions[] = array( 'question' => "LDAP stands for ...", 'answer' => "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol" );

I don’t think it’s a particularly good question, since it’s incredibly easy to Google. But, we’ll see, and in the mean time I’ll try to come up with one or two questions that are context-sensitive, yet easy enough to answer for anyone with some knowledge of LDAP. If you have an idea, please leave a comment.