High Tech Sorcery

I’ve done this enough times to know it by heart but I remember when I tried to find documentation on this step I ran into countless inaccurate and outdated examples.  So here’s what I do to get the Windows GPL PV drivers installed under Xen.

1. Download the drivers from meadowcourt.org.  As of 1/18/2012 the latest version is 0.11.0.308.  You’ll need to get the appropriate drivers for your OS.
2. turn testsigning off on Windows
1. bcedit
• I like to check out the config first
2. bcdedit /set {current} testsigning on
• this turns testsigning on
3. bcdedit
• I usually run this again to make sure “testsigning Yes” appears
3. restart windows. upon restart the system should indicate it is in “Test Mode”
4. install the drivers msi file that was downloaded. I always choose “Typical” installation. I choose not to restart at this point.
5. create new default boot option
1. bcdedit /copy {current} /d “GPLPV
• this will copy the current boot setup into a new one called GPLPV
• pay attention to the id returned here
2. bcdedit /default ID
• replace ID with the id from the copy command
• this sets the new menu to be the default
3. bcdedit /set {default} loadoptions GPLPV
• this makaes this option use GPLPV drivers
4. bcdedit
• double check everything
6. restart windows

I’ve been researching how good a fit Redis might be for a project or 2.  One project needs a memory based key-value store generally without persistence, which would seem to suggest memcached.  However, there may be times where persistence across reboots may be desirable and Redis’ atomic operations and data types may also be useful.  Here’s some links I’ve been checking out:

• Software
• redis – obviously
• redis-rb – gem for accessing redis from ruby
• redis-objects – gem for mapping Redis types to Ruby objects
• ohm – gem for creating Redis based object models
• supermodel – gem for ActiveModel descendant that can store to Redis
  
• Information
• Using Redis with Ruby on Rails
• Datastores with ruby: Redis and Ohm (part 1)
• To Redis or Not To Redis? (Key-Value Stores Part 4) | Engine Yard Blog
• Comparing MongoDB and Redis, Part 1 « While I Pondered…
• Comparing MongoDB and Redis, Part 2 « While I Pondered…
• where_redis_is_a_good_fit
• using_keyvalue_stores_from_ruby

Here is what I’m looking at:

• ISPConfig – been around a long time, seems quite mature
• Froxlor – an active fork of SysCP which has a decent reputation
• I-MSCP – a fork of ispCP which was a fork of VHCS which I know several people who supported