"The mind of a Mad Tech!"

This article covers both Windows workstations and servers.

Windows does not include a function that lets you mount an ISO into the Operating System, which normally would force you to convert that ISO to a CD. However there are utilities that will allow you to mount an ISO, which comes in handy, especially if you are wanting to convert CD’s to ISO’s  for transfer to your server.

Virtual Clone Drive

Virtual Clone Drive is a free to use ISO mounting utility that will work on Windows 98/XP/7/Vista and Windows 2000/2003/2008 server. You just install it and it will associate with your ISO’s which you can then can simply double click on an ISO or right click on it and choose to mount it.

Installing Virtual Clone Drive

1. You can download Virtual Clone Drive by going to http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html. This install file works for both 32-bit and 64-bit, so there\’s no need to look for different versions of the install. Downclick the application and follow the directions.
2. Either elect to take the default assoications or choose to manually selection the associations.

   

3. You will need to specify a directory if you choose not to use the default location.

   

4. Once installed, you will need to click on the icon that was placed on your desktop or choose the application from your programs list. There you will be able to set the options for Virtual Clone Drive, such as the amount of drives to emulate and how long the mount history can be seen.

   

5. Finally to mount an ISO, you will need to click on one of the drives you created and choose “Mount”. You will then be able to browse to the ISO and mount it.

Now you can view the contents of the ISO now by opening the drive, just like you would with a CD or DVD.

To enable PAE in Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 (and Windows XP), append the /PAE switch to the end of the line of operating system in the Boot.ini file. To disable PAE, use the /NOPAE switch. The Boot.ini normally located in the root folder (i.e. C:\) with Read-Only and Hidden attributes, which are required to be removed before the file can be edited.

For example,

Original Boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT=”Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server”
/fastdetect

Change the Boot.ini to become:

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT=”Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server”
/fastdetect /PAE

For Bootcfg command, use:

bootcfg /raw "/pae" /A /ID 1

Restart the computer after modification to make the change effective.

Note that even with PAE enabled, there is still memory limit imposed by the operating system itself. The table below list the maximum memory support with PAE enabled for Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. Most 32-bit client based Windows operating system, such as Windows XP and Windows Vista (see way to use large memory of more than 4GB in 32-bit Windows Vista), has OS level limit that restricts the maximum amount of memory able to be used to 4GB.

Credit to http://www.thewebhostinghero.com

Installing FastCGI And PHP on Windows Server 2008

As opposed to previous versions of Windows Server, the FastCGi module is already bundled with Windows Server 2008 so you don’t have to install it.

First of all, let’s make sure that the CGI role service is installed. Click on Start => Programs => Administrative Tools => Server Manager. Expand Roles, right-click on Web Server (IIS) and select Add Role Services. Make sure that CGI is checked and if not proceed with its installation.

Next head over to PHP.net’ download page and download the PHP Non-thread-safe Win32 binaries. At the time of this writing, the latest version of PHP is 5.2.5. Extract the content from the PHP archive into c:\php.

Launch the Internet Information Server Manager by clicking on Start => Programs => Administrative Tools => Internet Information Server Manager. Select your server from the left panel and then double-click on the Handler Mappings icon.

Click on Add Module Mapping from the right column:

Fill-in the PHP module mapping information as illustrated below and click on OK when done:

At this point PHP should now be working even though there no php.ini configuration file yet. To find out if PHP files are parsed correctly, create a new file at the root of website’s folder and name it phpinfo.php. Insert the following content into the file and save it:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Now try pointing your web browser to http://yourserver.com/phpinfo.php. If everything works properly you should see this page:

Configuring PHP

By default, IIS will look for PHP’s configuration file (php.ini) in c:\windows. To change this, launch the registry editor (Start => Run => regedit) and add a new key named PHP in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\. Under the newly created key, create a new value named IniFilePath and set its value data to c:\php.

Close the registry editor when you’re done. Using the Windows Explorer, rename c:\php\php.ini-recommended to c:\php\php.ini and open it with your favorite text editor (no word processor). Find the extension_dir parameter and set its value to “c:\php\ext”. You might also want to uncomment extension=php_mysqli.dll and / or extension=php_mssql.dll if you plan to use MySQL or MS-SQL.

Once you’re done editing PHP’s configuration file, save it and close your file editor. You will need to restart IIS in order to apply the changes. This can be done through the IIS Manager:

If you ever encounter a error similiar to this;
C:\>vzctl start 11111
Starting VPS ...
Virtuozzo API function call 'VZVolumeMount' failed err = 183
Virtuozzo API function call 'dq_mount' failed
Cannot set disk quota for VPS 11111

The issue is that Virtuzzso is not able to determine which filesize is correct. It first looks at the file size from the primary *.efd file and also the quota limit that is set in the quotalimit for the VEID. However at times if the *.efd is changed the quotalimit at times will not and vice versa. So far I’ve only ever noticed it in Virtuzzso 3.5.1, but it could also occur in 4.0.

The fix is to manually set a quotalimit to the veid. To do this you will need to drop down to a command line. Once you do that you will need to force the change as I’ve done in the example;

C:\vzquota setlimit 11111 -B 5242880 –drive C:\

You can change this accordingly, as long as you use the vzquota command to set the correct quota size. You can also set it higher first and then change it back to the correct size.

This command updates limits for the running Container quota. It requires at least one limit to be
specified.The syntax of this command is:
vzquota setlimit CT_ID -B num [--drive name]
The following options can be used with the command:
-B, –block-hardlimit num Required. Specifies the disk quota block hard limit, in 1 Kb
blocks. This limit cannot be exceeded by the Container.
–drive name Optional. Specifies the disk drive inside the Container for
which the disk quota limit is to be set.

For its execution, vzquota setlimit requires only the ID of the Container and the disk
quota limit to be specified. However, you can additionally use the –drive option to specify
to what Container disk drive the defined quota limit is to be applied.

To verify it set you can then run vzquota stat VEID or vzquota show VEID (VEID is the number of the VPS).