Tommy B.'s questions

I've been using AWS for decades at this point and I started using spot instances for various reasons including professional reasons such as testing software I develop, etc. I mostly use Windows Server 2022 instances to which I connect to using RDP.

I've built myself a set of scripts to spawn new instances based on snapshots when I need to and automatically saves them back into snapshots when I don't need them.

For the last year or so, it's been going very well. I've had a few instances where they would suddenly get shut down and I always assumed it was because of the servers needing more resources to give to users who are willing to pay more or use on demand instances.

These past two months, I've had several shut downs sometimes back-to-back. Sometimes it happens multiple time within a short span of time and then it goes weeks without happening at all.

I tried raising the price of the spot request to as high as I can just for testing purposes and it would still go down after a while. If I look at pricing history, everything is low and I see a very stable and flat line indicating that the prices are not fluctuating. Each time I look into it in more details I see :

• Details of the instance in EC2: I would see State transition reason / User initiated
• Details of the spot requests in EC2: I would see Status failed, bad-parameters
• But in Cloudtrail what I see tells a different story. In the logs I would see:

​

// most of this is redacted but here are some relevant parts: 
"invokedBy": "spot.amazonaws.com", 
"eventType": "AwsApiCall", 
"managementEvent": true, 
"eventCategory": "Management"

So Cloudtrail is basically telling me that it is NOT user initiated which tells me that the problem is not with my instance. Because at first I thought, maybe my Windows Server instance is just crashing and that's why it says "user initiated" but no.

It has been very annoying, and yes the solution I guess would be to use on demand instances instead but I'm spending a lot of money on AWS and would like to keep using spot instances instead.

Anyone has had similar experiences? Anyone could help debugging this issue further?

Thanks!

I have a custom embedded Linux device that I need to connect to using SSH for work.

This device uses DHCP to get its own IP from the network (using an Ethernet cable).

I used to use a router in between them but now I'd like to plug both together directly, if possible.

I'm using Windows 10 Pro and would like to hook it up with an Ethernet cable directly to the embedded device.

I tried all kind of network configuration but to no avail. (setting up static IP in advance, etc)

I also tried to let Windows get its own "IP" (funky looking i.e. 169.254.72.105) and use that one but I can only see data being SENT to the device but none is received.

Other weird fact: if I open a command line prompt and ping it. It replies 100% of the time. So I'm wondering if that IP is even leading to the proper place or it's only Win10 playing tricks with me.

Pinging 169.254.72.105 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 169.254.72.105: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 169.254.72.105: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 169.254.72.105: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 169.254.72.105: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

This is similar as if I'd be connecting some Raspberry Pi directly to my workstation but for some reason I can't seem to figure out what I'm missing to get it working.

Any suggestion?

I'm using mod_deflate to server gzip content for js and css files.

Using curl I can see that it works and I can see the code but Chrome still thinks it's gzip content and NOT stylesheets/javascript so it won't render them.

Chrome says: Resource interpreted as Stylesheet but transferred with MIME type application/x-gzip.

So I guess that's apache sending wrong headers. But I don't know how to fix it.

Anyone has an idea?

Server is running Ubuntu 12 64 bits, with apache2.

Thanks!

I'm currently having a lots of difficulties trying to play with socket.io which needs websockets support from the server (reverse-proxying).

I was wondering, is there any other web servers out there that supports websockets?

The errors I'm having with nginx:

2012/05/22 02:19:34 [error] 28159#0: *5 connect() failed (111: Connection refused) while connecting to upstream, 
client: my.ip.ad.dr,
server: localhost,
request: "GET /socket.io/1/?t=1337653158192 HTTP/1.1", 
upstream: "http://127.0.0.1:3000/socket.io/1/?t=1337653158192", 
host: "lifestore.brainpad.org", referrer: "http://mywebad.dr/"

I'm currently hosting some websites on my server, and I use Lighttpd for this.

Now I'm currently developing a web application using Node.js and I'd like to be able to create vhosts which would point to the Node.js application.

Let's say, I'd like test.com:80 to point out to myserver.org:3000. I don't believe it is possible to directly use Node.js for this since the port 80 is already registered on the machine. So the only way I'm seeing is using some kind of reversed proxy with Lighttpd. But I don't know how and with what I'm going to do so.

I'm starting a very little hosting company for a few friends and little clients, nothing big.

I want to give my "clients" the right to manage their files on the server. I hate FTP as it is not secure and it's in my opinion obsolete.

So I'd like to allow my users to connect through SFTP but not allow them to connect through SSH. (I know, I know, SFTP is using SSH). But I was just wondering, is it possible?

So I wouldn't have to install a FTP service on the server and everything would be awesome!

I have a small windows VPS running IIS7 and SQL Server. But I'd like to do mail as well.

The only functionality I'd like to add to it would be to: Be able to make catch-all for my domains and make the received mail redirect to another email address.

So *@domain1.example would be sent to my Gmail. *@domain2.example would be sent to my colleague's Gmail, etc.

I just want it to be fast and lightweight. Free would be cool, too.

I hate FTP because it is not secure, passwords are cleartext, etc. I want something safe for my windows server and I used to use sftp on linux for a while but now I turned to windows solution so I'm a bit of a newbie about it.

I'd like to know, what's the best and or most secure solution for transering file to my server? I'll be the only one transfering files to it so I don't really care about user quotas etc.

I just want a secure and stable connection to my server so I can easily and rapidly transfer files. (I use web deploy for visual studio projects hosting).

I'm currently running Windows Server 2008 on my 1024mb VPS. Everything is fine but the memory tends to stay high a little.

1. I want to run a web and mail server. So here are my questions :

2. Is there any major drawbacks like missing technologies? Will I be able to run Web Deploy, ASP.NET MVC 3, iis7, etc ?

3. Will there be a noticeable difference in speed and memory?

4. Is it as easy to configure as 2008?

5. Non-related question : I'm looking for a good free mail server, any suggestions? (pop, imap, smtp, webmail)

I'm trying to setup my domain name for my new windows 2008 server and everything has been working well so far except for one little thing :

When I send emails to my domain, I received email delayed message the day after. I'm pretty sure it's something about my MX. This is my configuration:

#   type    host    value   prior(MX)

1   A   @   
199.19.212.38
--
2   CNAME   www 
brainpad.org
--
3   CNAME   webmail 
brainpad.org
--
4   MX  @   
mail.brainpad.org
(10)
5   A   mail    
199.19.212.38

-

I did a test on my domain and those are the results: e

mailtalk.org is getting list of mail servers using k.gtld-servers.net
 'brainpad.org' has 1 mail server

Mail server details
Host Name   IP  Priority
mail.brainpad.org.  199.19.212.38   10


emailtalk.org is now testing mail server configuration


Checking mail.brainpad.org.
Checking PTR record
PTR record exists(node-1j8j1uu.cloud9.ymq1.ca.layeredge.net.) but does not point back to mail.brainpad.org.
A record does not exists for PTR host name

Checking RBL server for blacklisting
Mail server is not black listed
********** Mail server configuration check is complete **********

Any idea about what's going on and how to fix it?

Thanks!

I know that can be done with the hosts file and that it should be done with it but for some reason I'd really have to make Apache act this way.

The problem is: the hosts are already in the DNS which I can't modify at all but they lead to my network's web server.

I'd like to receive requests from that IP, and simply shoot them to another IP. Is there any way of doing so with Apache2?

Thanks a lot!

I currently work in a place where every developer programs on the same server and I don't believe it is a very good usage since I have to work on a network share, so it's a bit slow.

I setup a copy of BitNami MAMPstack and everything is working pretty good on port 8080 (I don't have any admin rights on my workstation).

The only problem is: I don't always work on the same project so I have to work on multiple local network vhosts. I'd like to make local vhosts that would point on my local machine. (Usually done simply by editing the hosts file). But since I don't have any admin rights, I can't edit /etc/hosts...

I use Firefox for development and I saw an add-on that was supposed to do so, but still at the end it edits the hosts file and needs admin rights...

Any ideas? Anyone knows how to do so?

Thanks a lot!

I set up a VPN on my server, everything seems okay but when I connect to it from Mac (didn't try windows) I can connect, I can send data and from the server I see that it receives it but it does not send any data back...

Did you ever happened to see this? Thanks a lot!

I'm trying really hard since two hours to install ssh2 with pecl... But all I get is:

/bin/sh /root/ssh2-0.11.0/libtool --mode=compile cc  -I. -I/root/ssh2-0.11.0 -DPHP_ATOM_INC -I/root/ssh2-0.11.0/include -I/root/ssh2-0.11.0/main -I/root/ssh2-0.11.0 -I/usr/include/php -I/usr/include/php/main -I/usr/include/php/TSRM -I/usr/include/php/Zend -I/usr/include/php/ext -I/usr/include/php/ext/date/lib  -DHAVE_CONFIG_H  -g -O2   -c /root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c -o ssh2.lo 
mkdir .libs
 cc -I. -I/root/ssh2-0.11.0 -DPHP_ATOM_INC -I/root/ssh2-0.11.0/include -I/root/ssh2-0.11.0/main -I/root/ssh2-0.11.0 -I/usr/include/php -I/usr/include/php/main -I/usr/include/php/TSRM -I/usr/include/php/Zend -I/usr/include/php/ext -I/usr/include/php/ext/date/lib -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -g -O2 -c /root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c  -fPIC -DPIC -o .libs/ssh2.o
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c:52: error: duplicate 'static'
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c: In function 'zif_ssh2_methods_negotiated':
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c:503: warning: passing argument 4 of 'add_assoc_string_ex' discards qualifiers from pointer target type
/usr/include/php/Zend/zend_API.h:360: note: expected 'char *' but argument is of type 'const char *'
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c:504: warning: passing argument 4 of 'add_assoc_string_ex' discards qualifiers from pointer target type
/usr/include/php/Zend/zend_API.h:360: note: expected 'char *' but argument is of type 'const char *'
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c:508: warning: passing argument 4 of 'add_assoc_string_ex' discards qualifiers from pointer target type
/usr/include/php/Zend/zend_API.h:360: note: expected 'char *' but argument is of type 'const char *'
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c:509: warning: passing argument 4 of 'add_assoc_string_ex' discards qualifiers from pointer target type
/usr/include/php/Zend/zend_API.h:360: note: expected 'char *' but argument is of type 'const char *'
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c:510: warning: passing argument 4 of 'add_assoc_string_ex' discards qualifiers from pointer target type
/usr/include/php/Zend/zend_API.h:360: note: expected 'char *' but argument is of type 'const char *'
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c:511: warning: passing argument 4 of 'add_assoc_string_ex' discards qualifiers from pointer target type
/usr/include/php/Zend/zend_API.h:360: note: expected 'char *' but argument is of type 'const char *'
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c:516: warning: passing argument 4 of 'add_assoc_string_ex' discards qualifiers from pointer target type
/usr/include/php/Zend/zend_API.h:360: note: expected 'char *' but argument is of type 'const char *'
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c:517: warning: passing argument 4 of 'add_assoc_string_ex' discards qualifiers from pointer target type
/usr/include/php/Zend/zend_API.h:360: note: expected 'char *' but argument is of type 'const char *'
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c:518: warning: passing argument 4 of 'add_assoc_string_ex' discards qualifiers from pointer target type
/usr/include/php/Zend/zend_API.h:360: note: expected 'char *' but argument is of type 'const char *'
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c:519: warning: passing argument 4 of 'add_assoc_string_ex' discards qualifiers from pointer target type
/usr/include/php/Zend/zend_API.h:360: note: expected 'char *' but argument is of type 'const char *'
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c: In function 'zif_ssh2_publickey_add':
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c:1045: warning: passing argument 1 of '_efree' discards qualifiers from pointer target type
/usr/include/php/Zend/zend_alloc.h:46: note: expected 'void *' but argument is of type 'const char *'
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c: In function 'zif_ssh2_publickey_list':
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c:1104: warning: passing argument 4 of 'add_assoc_stringl_ex' discards qualifiers from pointer target type
/usr/include/php/Zend/zend_API.h:361: note: expected 'char *' but argument is of type 'const unsigned char *'
/root/ssh2-0.11.0/ssh2.c:1105: warning: passing argument 4 of 'add_assoc_stringl_ex' discards qualifiers from pointer target type
/usr/include/php/Zend/zend_API.h:361: note: expected 'char *' but argument is of type 'const unsigned char *'
make: *** [ssh2.lo] Error 1

I looked on google a lot, I found some patches which didn't worked at all. So if you think you could help me, go ahead!

Thanks!