Sunday, May 25, 2008

Adobe JRun 4 fails to run on Quad core, Multi-core CPU, requires Updater 7

An attempt to install and run Adobe JRun 4 on Quad core CPU requires "Updater 7"... essentially.
JRun 4 is a J2EE application server. It is now with Adobe. Earlier it was known as Macromedia JRun 4.Before Macromedia, it was with Allaire.

Last month, I handled a typical problem.I decided to port a copy my existing J2EE application to a new server.As the application undergoes major changes,I thought it would be better to run it for testing purpose on different server, other than production one.I identified my new Intel Quad Core CPU as a server.I installed the necessary JRE environment, set the environment variables and tried to install the JRun 4.
As usual installation started and ended without any error.I installed it on path C:\JRun, by default.Next, I tried to start JRun from but it failed.

After a thought I noticed that I have not installed its updater.So I took updater 6 for JRun 4 and tried to install it.

Whenever you run the updater of JRun 4, it updates the earlier copy of installation.I clicked on installer of updater and to my surprise it failed to detect the C:\JRun path. It detected (?) and displayed the path as C:\opt.There was no option to change the path to C:\JRun.It really stumped me as I installed it several times in last 3-4 years, and never came across such basic problem.
I tried to search for a solution to this problem in Google and other forums, but in vain.
Then I hooked to Adobe website and came to know about the new updater i.e. JRun 4 Updater 7, released in November 2007.
I started reading about updater 7.Here I noticed that JRun 4 updater 7 is released for new platforms.
Here lies a problem! I was using old updater version 6 on new hardware i.e. Intel Quad Core CPU system. My earlier installations for JRun 4 were on P-IV systems, which I did 3-4 years back. The update 6 behaves erratically on Quad core CPU or in other words it is not meant for Multi core CPU systems!!

I downloaded the updater 7, installed it and voila!It detected the path C:\ JRun in first attempt! No need to say, rest of installation was successful and I ported my application easily.
Caution: If you are planning to purchase or use Adobe JRun 4, think twice! Adobe announced to discontinue new feature development for JRun 4 .It seems Adobe is planning to discontinue this product. Read more about it on Adobe website. (http://www.adobe.com/products/jrun/productinfo/faq/eod/)
Give your comment

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Installing XP over preinstalled Vista for Dual boot: Vista will not Boot

(If you are planning to install Windows XP on preinstalled Windows Vista , be careful and aware about how to restore Vista Bootmgr.)

You may need to install Windows XP over preinstalled Windows Vista system. But it is not as straightforward as it looks or similar to installation of XP over win 2k or win98 etc.

After installation of XP, the windows Vista no longer starts. In this case, only the Windows XP get booted. So whatsoever operations requires to restore Vista, you have to do it from XP.
Tech Details:
Installation of windows XP over Vista system means you are overwriting the Vista Boot manager Programme known as Bootmgr. Bootmgr remained installed in boot sector in Vista system. Since you are installing windows XP now , so be ready to replace the Vista Bootmgr with XP boot sector. The XP boot sector loads XP Ntldr programme while Vista Bootmgr loads BCD (Boot Configuration database) to load either Vista or XP as per user choice. If user chooses XP the Bootmgr does loading of Ntldr ,and Ntldr parse Boot.ini file to enumerate the XP operating systems.

After installing XP over Vista you may not be able to run Vista at first. The reason is: you donot have Vista Boot manager which take care of Loading of Vista BCD ,as well as XP ‘s Ntldr.Since BCD is not getting loaded hence Vista fails to load.
What if you are able to restore the Vista Bootmgr? Of course it will server the purpose.
How to restore Vista Bootmgr:
Using Vista Boot DVD:


Boot in XP , Type Command at Run prompt( by pressing Windows Key +R)
Insert first Windows Vista DVD/Media.
Type media drive letter, change directory to boot. If your DVD drive is F:, the path should be f:\boot
Now run the following command
F:\boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60 All
It will restore the Vista Bootmgr in boot sector and allows you dual boot.
Use of EasyBCD
EasyBCD is also a very handy utility to restore vista Bootmgr. Download it in your Windows XP system and Install it. But be careful. Make sure that Microsoft DOT Net framework is installed on XP system; otherwise this tool will give you error from installation itself.
EasyBCD is GUI based tool and you can easily restore the Vista Bootmgr .(See the image)

Happy Installation of XP over Vista

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

URL not allowed error: Google Sitemaps error: Blog on Blogspot.com

URL not allowed error: Google Sitemaps error: Blog on Blogspot.com
(The sitemaps addition of your blog (on Blogspot.com) to Google may not be successful as URL got blocked.)

While applying SEO techniques (Search engine Optimisation) to my Blog, I came to know about Goggle Sitemaps.Google Sitemaps let you submit the links from your website to Goggle search engine crawler for better and faster indexing. To take advantages of Goggle Sitemaps, one need a Webmaster account with Google for the sites, which he/she manages.
I created my account in Google Webmaster tools and submitted “atom.xml” and “rss.xml” files, as sitemaps file, initially.

Next day when I checked my Webmaster account for Sitemaps statistics report, I got the errors as follows.
URL not allowed. This url is not allowed for a sitemap at this location. See the image below.

Means Google didn’t found atom.xml and rss.xml file. I clicked on "Help" icon for details of error. Here I got some clue.


It first indicated clearly that atom.xml file should be in root of the website. It also indicated that atom.xml should not be on any other redirected domain or website. Being a Blog on blogspot.com, it is not possible to control the physical location of these files on blogspot server.

I checked the Blogspot Sitefeed entries here I found the entry for "Post Feed Redirect URL" like “http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/fGLf “. See the Image below.
Immediately I guessed what is going wrong. When crawler come to check “rss.xml” file or “atom.xml” file it checks it in the root directory of website. Here, it was getting redirected to feedburner site, and started giving an error. So without wasting a seconds, I deleted feedburner entry (of course for time being) and re-submitted the sitemaps.

Voila! this time within half an hour Google crawler Okayed it. It seems the problem is solved . Rest is depend on Time table of Google which will index my blog. Of course, it is not going to take months time which happens usually.


On further digging, I came to know that there is no need to remove feedburner entry. Instead you can append the sitemaps file name as rss.xml?redirect=false , instead plain rss.xml. It will serve the purpose. Same is true for atom.xml file.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Vista Networking: Disable Auto-Tuning feature

(If file is taking longer time while copying over network, connection getting dropped frequently, Slow Remote desktop ,try to disable Vista’s auto tuning feature and see the difference)
Since vista's arrival on cyber earth, life of network user becomes more difficult. Suddenly there is a realization that networking in vista with other OS system is not as "evolved" as it is with other ‘races’ of operating systems. The main reasons backing such feelings are
1.Vista takes longer time to copy medium to large size files over network.
2.Large File transfer is also not as reliable as in XP networking and other OS
3. If you copy/ move big files even on the same partition, it takes long time to determine how much is data sized, how much time it will take to copy , before beginning the actual task of copying/moving. Whereas even in windows 98 , it is as quick which can be termed as “Instantaneous”.
Why this is happening with Vista? Here lies the answer

Windows Vista equipped with new feature called "Receive Window Auto-Tuning”. It constantly monitors network bandwidth for its capacity and network latency. Based on network conditions, it adjusts the TCP window size on the fly, in real time. If network condition is good it can scale up TCP windows upto whooping 16MB size or more, and if it is poor it can scale it down to default 64K size.

Because of this auto-tuning feature or changing nature of its networking component, Vista causes troubles to other network PCs in network , servers , firewall-systems, software and ultimately users. When it scale up the TCP windows size, it is not necessary that client is also " capable and ready " to accept and work with that data size determined by Vista. Many firewalls also limit the maximum size of TCP packet to prevent DoS kind of attacks. Thus vista's decision to increase in packet size well shot down by such filewalls. There are many such situations in which change in packet size by vista on the fly will not be understood by networking system and ultimately get blocked , which causes dropped connection even in local area network.

So bottomline: If you have small network with all Vista systems, connected via same switch, use this feature. Otherwise keep it disable. In production environment, better keep it disabled.
How to disable:

Log on as Administrator, open Command window and issue the following command
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
It will do rest of the job for you.
If you experience that your Remote Desktop connection is slow , type this too .
netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled
If you have any problems, then to turn auto-tuning back on type the following in
command prompt:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal
Happy Networking