Monthly Archives: November 2010

Dilbert and Citrix

Back in 1993, the Citrix Engineering team used to get amusement from Dilbert.  I remember posting clippings on the outside of my cubicle wall for others to read.  Later I linked my personal website (1994) to the official Dilbert site.  Many of us had come from IBM and fully understood Dilbert’s world.

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SSL Exploration and Analysis

During the recent investigation of certificates and SSL, a co-worker (Ola) forwarded a web link about an organization that is analyzing web SSL certificates.  The information was very relevant and interesting.

The EFF SSL Observatory


Quote from site:

The EFF SSL Observatory is a project to investigate the certificates used to secure all of the sites encrypted with HTTPS on the Web. We have downloaded a dataset of all of the publicly-visible SSL certificates, and will be making that data available to the research community in the near future.

 

The best way to get started is by looking at the slide deck.  The overall summary indicates that things need to tighten up quite a bit to provide a more secure environment.  It is too easy to make mistakes and open security holes.  The philosophy of exposure reminds me of the work done by W. Richard Stevens for TCP/IP many years ago.  The more an item is explored, the more likely its vulnerabilities and flaws will be seen.

This post resulted from cleaning up the inbox and realizing that this information was valuable enough to share.

XenClient – Configuring XenClient and Virtual Machines

The basics of creating virtual machines on XenClient in a “easy to consume” video format.

XenClient – Unregistering with Synchronizer

XenClient can work with the Synchronizer service to get the latest VM images.  Synchronizer is the hub for publishing VMs and assigning them to users and their devices.  XenClient connects to Synchronizer to download new or updated VMs based on what the Synchronizer administrator has specified.

The model requires an administrator to upload a VM image to Synchronizer.  Later, a user authenticates with Synchronizer and downloads the assigned VMs.  Currently, the assignment of a user to Synchronizer is a one time event.  It appears to be impossible to reassign the laptop to a different user or connect to a different Synchronizer.

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XenClient Shortcuts

Say you want to get somewhere else in XenClient.  How would you do it?  If you are currently inside a VM and want to switch to another VM, what would you do?  One answer is to use the installed selector bar at the top.  Another way is to know the keyboard shortcuts.

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How to Reset a XenServer 5.6 Root Password

Recently I had a problem with a XenServer in my office.  XenCenter would no longer connect. The XenServer was using DHCP and had switched IP addresses. The cached credentials were on the old IP address.

I could not remember the password since it had been automated for so long. Without success I tried to get in but eventually had to search the web.

Found a really good location at http://xtravirt.com/how-reset-root-password-citrix-xenserver-5.  Within a few minutes the server was operational from XenCenter.

The instructions seem a bit alien at first.  The catch is to run the menu.c32 command quickly when prompted early in the boot.  After some extra selection, you get the ability to set the password using passwd.

It appears to work for all versions of XenServer at version 5 or above.

Yes, you need physical access to get this to work.