printf and types

This blog started as a notepad for lessons learnt. My career requires me to live in fluffy architect land (it's like real life except there's lots of whiteboards and clouds) and sometimes I struggle to remember how to solve hands-on problems. I started by keeping a notepad. Several lost notepads later, I upgraded to the  Evernote online notepad service. I like to keep a unique password for each online service. Having a unique password means that if a single site is compromised, your credentials on other sites remain secure. To make a long story short, I started blogging my problems so I wouldn't have to recall a password to access the knowledge that should have been in my head in the first place.

This blog post is about a basic printf problem in C which is different from the usual virtualization/architecture/licensing content on this blog. Hey, this is my blog, I can write about anything I want: next blog post is all cake recipes! I'm learning C because I want a challenge and I'm sick of Java. I'm blogging about it so I can remember my mistakes and serve as a warning to others not to learn C. If several months have passed and this is the only blog post on C, you can assume I've given up and that you shouldn't learn C either.

Anyway, now it's time to spot the error in my code. The following code stores records the temperature of three bagels and stores them in array bagelTemperature.

bagelTemperature[0] = 15;
bagelTemperature[1] = 17;
bagelTemperature[2] = 12;


printf("The bagel temperatures are\n");
printf("%d\n", bagelTemperature[0]);
printf("%d\n", bagelTemperature[1]);
printf("%d\n", bagelTemperature[2]);


printf("The bagel temperatures are\n");
printf("%x\n", *(bagelTemperature));

printf("%x\n", *(bagelTemperature+1));

printf("%x\n", *(bagelTemperature+2));

will output

The bagel temperatures are
15
17
12
The bagel temperatures are
17
22
41

Why are the two bagel temperatures different?

Simple mistake: the type field in the second set of printf statements is incorrect. Replace the %x and %d and the bagel temperatures will be good. %d is for signed decimal integers and %x is for unsigned integers written with hexadecimal. If you don't select the correct type, your output might be different to what you expect. Until I realised the problem was with the type, I was scratching my head wondering if there was a problem with my pointer arithmetic.

VMware 5 Host Profiles prompts for MAC address

The good news is, host profiles in VMware 5 have been improved significantly. The bad news is, they still suck.

When trying to apply a host profile to a server, you may be prompted for a MAC address.

Wow, a bug in VMware host profiles! Who’d thought! At least it isn’t a crippling like the vSphere 4 “swap the vmkernel IP addresses around” bug.

Anyway, you should need to enter a MAC address every time you want to apply a host profile. That’s ludicrous. To get around this, go to the Host Profiles console (Home > Host Profiles).

Right-click on your Host Profile and click Edit Profile.

Navigate to the Determine how MAC address for vmknic should be decided setting

Select User must explicitly choose the policy option, then click OK.

If you have a separate port for VMotion, Fault Tolerance, management traffic, iSCSI, you will have to repeat this step for each of those port groups.

Done! Now remember to do this every time you create a host profile.

Basic ISO-Schematron functions

Every blogger loves Google Analytics: oh, the voyeuristic joy of knowing what search terms people misspelled for Google to return your blog as a 'top' result is irresistible! My blog isn't popular because it's about VMware, it's because I keep misspelling VMware as WMware. Did you know my blog is the most popular WMware blog in the world?! Actually, that's not true. My blog isn't popular at all. But I'm hoping today's post about ISO-Schematron will turn more fortunes around. I'll be grabbing some search terms out of Google Analytics and answering the questions you never asked me, which is not dissimilar to hosting an unpopular talk back radio show.

I seem to get a lot of ISO-Schematron-related hits, so if you're uninterested in this topic, close your browser window now and throw your computer into a fountain. If you're interested in the XML validating magic of ISO-Schematron, feel free to read on or throw your computer into a fountain as well.

What is ISO-Schematron?

ISO-Schematron is an XML schema language. Schema languages are ways of making sure your XML is valid. Take a look at the following XML code

<dog id="500">
     <name>Chop Chop</name>
     <breed>Silky Terrier</breed>
     <dob>2012-01-05</dob>
</dog>

It's well formed XML. Without knowing too much about the XML, you can tell it describes a dog named Chop Chop. The dog has the breed Silky Terrier and a date of birth sometime in 2012. This reminds me, I better change my password reset questions now. Let's look at the same snipplet of XML code except with some creativity.


<dogPASTA
     <name>Chop Chop</name
     <breed>Silky Terrier
     <dob>2012-01-05</date fo birth y'all>
<dog> PASTAPASTASPTA


This is definitely not well formed! Not every opening tag has a closing tag, there are slashes missing and there's pasta everywhere! You don't use an XML schema language to determine whether this XML is well formed or not well formed: you use an XML syntax checker and common sense. Let's look at yet another snipplet of XML.


<dog id="500">
     <name>Chop Chop</name>
     <name>Choppy</name>
     <breed>Silky Terrier</breed>
     <dob>2012-01-05</dob>
</dog>


It's easy to tell that this XML is well formed (there's no pasta lying around, for starters). But is the XML valid? Is a dog allowed to have two names? Whether or not a dog is allowed to have two names is the decision of the owner. I, for one, welcome our multi-named dog overlords! But what if you don't? What if you believe that a dog can have one name only?! We'd be in disagreement! We'd both agree that the XML is well formed, but we would disagree on whether the XML was valid.

What is ISO-Schematron? (no really, answer my question this time).

I need to test XML code to see whether it meets some rules.

• A dog has an ID attribute
• A dog can have multiple names, but has to have at least one name.
• A dog definitely has a date of birth
• A dog must have a breed
• A dog's date of birth cannot be in the future

With ISO-Schematron, I can write rules. Each rule will contain one or more assertions. Writing these assertions gets tricky.

Alright! Let's write assertions!

Let's start by ripping search terms out of analytics like uncreative Law & Order writers rip stories out of headlines and back episodes.

Google search term: count elements schematron children must have
Translation: Señor Paul, what ISO-Schematron could check whether an element has the correct amount of child elements?

What you're looking for is the count() function. The following snipplet will make sure you have 5 child elements.

<iso:rule context="dog">
<iso:assert test="count(breed) = 1">The dog element must have one breed element only!</iso:assert>
</iso:rule>

With a simple and, you can check for the correct amount of multiple types of child elements.

<iso:rule context="dog">

<iso:assert test="count(breed) = 1 and count(dob) = 5">The dog element must have 1 breed element and 1 dob element</iso:assert>

</iso:rule>

Easy, next!

Google search term: check schematron first element
Translation: Señor Paul, I too use ISO-Schematron to verify the validity of my XML files, possibly because I'm a student trying to cheat on my homework! Please assist me by explaining how to check if the first child element within an element is of a certain type.

Try this buster. This will check if the first element in a DiskSection element is Info.

<iso:rule context="dog">
<iso:assert test="*[1][self::name]">The first element within dog must be name</iso:assert>
</iso:rule>

Google search term: check existance of attribute schematron
Translation: do my homework for me please

First of all, you spelled existence incorrectly. I'm guessing you want to check if an element had an attribute. This snipplet checks whether the dog element has a name attribute

<iso:rule context="dog">
<iso:assert test="@id">The dog element doesn't have an ID attribute!</iso:assert>
</iso:rule>


Easy! If you have any other tricky ISO-Schematron questions, put them in the comments and I'll try to help you and then make fun of you.

FlexLM and Furious: setting up a license server

FlexNet is a licensing framework used to control access to software. Negative people like to call it the worst piece of software ever made by human kind, but I like to think of it as the best piece of software ever made by lobotomised parakeets. This blog post demonstrates the tedious process of setting up a FlexNet license server. Although I've only described how to install a single license server, you can repeat steps 2 to 8 to serve license for as many FlexEnabled products as you like. Lucky you!

If you're unfamiliar with any of the terms in this blog post (license server, license file, vendor daemon, grand royal with cheese), read my previous blog post on the topic.

Scenario
You work for Contoso. Contoso has purchased licenses for Autodesk AutoCAD and MATLAB. You have been asked to set up a license server so the products work and your boss doesn't fire you.

Before you begin…
Software vendors usually package FlexNet with their products. Unfortunately, vendors almost universally package FlexNet in a way that prevents you from using the license server to serve other products. So don't install the FlexNet from the vendor's installer. Use my instructions instead! All your wildest dreams will come true!

Step 1 - Install the FlexNet License Manager

FlexNet is a stand-alone application that does not require installation process. This step involves downloading the latest versions of the FlexNet binaries and placing them in a folder on your server. All you need to do is

1. Download the latest versions of the following files from the Flexera website
   1. lmtools.exe
   2. lmutil.exe
   3. lmgrd.exe
2. Create the folder C:\Program Files\FlexNet
3. Copy lmtools.exe and lmutil.exe to C:\Program Files\FlexNet

While I suggest using C:\Program Files\FlexNet, tossing all the files into C:\Program Files\StarCraft is okay too.

Step 2 - Identify the vendor daemon name

For this step, you’ll need to open your license file in Notepad. The license file is provided to you by the vendor in exchange for money.

The vendor daemon name is specified on the VENDOR line of the license file. This is illustrated in the following tiny screenshot. In this example, the vendor daemon name is MLM.



The vendor daemon is an executable file. If you look in your license file, the vendor name will be located after the DAEMON keyword. Now that you know what the vendor daemon name is, you can…


Step 3 – Create a subfolder under FlexNet for the vendor daemon
In this case, you’d create a folder called C:\Program Files\FlexNet\mlm


Step 4 – Find the vendor daemon
If the vendor name is MLM, the vendor daemon will be mlm.exe. If the vendor daemon name is ADSKFLEX, the vendor daemon will be adskflex.exe. Vendors typically publish the latest version of their vendor daemon in their website. If you can’t find it, try looking on your source media.


Step 5 – Assemble license server files in folder
Now copy the following files into your folder

• the vendor daemon (which you downloaded from the vendor website)
• lmgrd.exe (which you downloaded)
• the license file (provided to you by the vendor)

Once you’ve done that, create the following blank files

• vendorDaemon.debuglog
• vendorDaemon.log
• vendorDaemon.opt

where vendorDaemon is the vendor daemon name. Once you’ve done all this, your folder should have 6 files.



Step 6 – Register the license server as a Windows service
If you don’t register the license server as a Windows service, it won’t start when your server starts. To register a license server as a service, you’ll need to use the LMtools (lmtools.exe) utility you downloaded in step 1.


Caution: follow these instructions carefully! The LMtools application is the Ralph Wiggum of management consoles. If you click Save Service at the wrong time you'll end up with a useless Windows service called Flexlm Service 1.

1. Open the LMtools utility (lmtools.exe)
   
   
   
   The picture of the world symbolizes the world of pain you will be in.
   
2. Select the Config Services tab.
   
3. Delete the contents of the Service Name field and enter whatever Windows service name you like. If your license server is for Autodesk, you might want to use Autodesk License Server
   
   
   
4. In the Path to the lmgrd.exe file text field, click the Browse button and select the lmgrd.exe file you copied into the vendor daemon subfolder in step 5.
   
5. In the Path to the license file text field, click the Browse button and select the license file you copied into the vendor daemon subfolder in step 5.
   
6. In the Path to the debug log file text field, click the Browse button and select the lmgrd.exe file you copied into the vendor daemon subfolder in step 5.
   
7. Click the Use Services checkbox.
   
8. Enable the Start Server at Power Up checkbox.
   
9. Click the Save Service button.

This will create a Windows service. You can verify the service has been created by using the Computer Management console.

Step 7 – Set the service to automatically restart
In the unlikely event of a license server failure, you’ll want the license service to automatically restart so you won’t be pestered by users. To do this,

1. Open the Computer Management console
   (Start > Run > compmgmt.msc)
   
2. Click on the Services node
   
3. Right-click on the license server service and edit the Properties of the service.
   
   
   
4. On the Recovery tab, set the first failure, second failure and subsequent failure action to Restart the service.
   
   
   
5. Start the service
   
6. Close the Computer Management console.

Step 8 – Prevent users from shutting down license server
By default, any user has the ability to stop a license server remotely. I’m not sure why this functionality exists, but it can (and should) be disabled with a registry setting.

1. Open the Registry Editor
   (Start > Run > regedit.exe)
   
2. Navigate to the key
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\FLEXlm License Manager
   
3. Click on the application license manager
   
4. Change the value of the cmdlineparams entry to
   
   -local
   Important note: there is a space before the dash
   
5. Close the Registry Editor.

Done! You’ve set up a license server manually! How boring. If you want your license server to serve licenses for multiple products, simply repeat steps 2 to 8. Just wait, didn't I write that in the introductory paragraph?

Eternally entering Maintenance Mode

I was rebuilding my lab and found a host that had been entering maintenance mode for 4 hours!

If this happens, the first step is to restart the management agent on the server. You can do this via the console (ESX Console > Troubleshooting Options > Restart Management Agents)

Did it work? If it did, count yourself lucky! If the task still exists, you’ll need to restart your vCenter service.