Larry Brouwer

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Archives for April 2016

Weaver’s Bamboo “Bambusa textilis” clumping bamboo for sale

April 11, 2016 By Larry Brouwer Leave a Comment

bambusa textilis in 15 gallon containersHello everyone. I usually keep a pretty busy schedule with my day job as an IT consultant, however, there’s just enough Iowa farm boy left in me to maintain a hobby in growing a little something to get my mind off the computer for a while. That something is Weaver’s clumping bamboo (or scientifically named: Bambusa textilis) in my backyard on the northwest side of Houston!

weavers bambooIt all started when I joined the Harris County Master Gardner’s Association back in the early 2000’s. While volunteering there, I was inspired by a giant bamboo plant growing at the back of the gardens. After talking with the County Extension Agent – Horticulture (and then to be future wife, Dr. Carol Cammack), she challenged me by stating how difficult it was to propagate! So, I took a couple root cuttings from the giant clumping bamboo plant, and began experimenting with producing bamboo in my suburban Houston backyard.

weavers clumping bamboo in 5 gallon containersIt took several years of trial and error to perfect my method of propagating Weaver’s bamboo, but nevertheless, I’ve done a pretty good job of it. So much so, that my lovely wife, Carol, tells me it’s time to begin selling some of my surplus supply of the bamboo plants (or hint: she wants her backyard back!). That being the case, I’m now actively marketing the bamboo and have them available in various sized containers from 5 gallon all the way up to 50 gallon, mostly 10 to 15 gallon containers. I’m offering them up for sale at $10/gal., and would be willing to deliver them (around the Houston metro area) for a small fee.

clumping weaver's bamboo in 15 gallon containersWeaver’s bamboo is clumping by nature, and is quite easily contained, so you won’t have to worry about it spreading. Also, it grows very thick and quite tall. It really is a spectacular variety of clumping bamboo, and can get quite pricey if you purchase them directly from a retail nursery. So, if you’re interested in buying a plant or 10 or even 100 of them, please message me, and I’d be happy to work something out with you.

Filed Under: Notable Tagged With: clumping bamboo

configuring NTP Service on FreeNas, XenServer, and virtualized Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller

April 8, 2016 By Larry Brouwer Leave a Comment

Resources used to complete the configuration:

FreeNAS

http://joepaetzel.com/2014/03/03/freenas-naughty-ntp/

 

XenServer

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX121278
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX116307

 

NTP

http://www.pool.ntp.org/zone/us
http://support.ntp.org/bin/view/Support/AccessRestrictions#Section_6.5.1.1

 

Windows Server 2012 R2

http://nefaria.com/2013/03/configure-windows-server-20082012-to-sync-with-internet-time-servers/

 

My network consists of 2 FreeNAS servers, and 3 XenServer virtualization servers (which run most of the Microsoft Server 2012 R2 servers, and 2 CentOS 7 machines), and several Windows 7, 8 and 10 clients.

After some consternation, I determined the best course of action was to set up one of the FreeNAS servers to be the primary NTP Server for the network, with the second FreeNAS Server acting as the secondary NTP Server.

Here’s the configuration changes I made to the primary FreeNAS server:

edit: /conf/base/etc/ix.rc.d/ix-ntpd

add the following line towards the end just above the “EOF”:

restrict 10.1.10.0 mask 255.255.255.0 nomodify notrap nopeer

Using the GUI, log in and navigate to System | General, then click on the “NTP Servers” button at the bottom right.

enter the following NTP servers:

0.us.pool.ntp.org
1.us.pool.ntp.org
2.us.pool.ntp.org
3.us.pool.ntp.org

reboot the box

On the Secondary FreeNAS Server, make the following changes:

edit: /conf/base/etc/ix.rc.d/ix-ntpd

add the following line towards the end just above the “EOF”:

restrict 10.1.10.0 mask 255.255.255.0 nomodify notrap nopeer

Using the GUI, log in and navigate to System | General, then click on the “NTP Servers” button at the bottom right.

enter the following NTP servers:

0.us.pool.ntp.org
1.us.pool.ntp.org
2.us.pool.ntp.org
3.us.pool.ntp.org
10.1.10.x –> IP Address of the Primary FreeNAS Server, make this a “Preferred” NTP Server

reboot the box

On each of the XenServer Servers, using XenCenter, log into the console for each and make the following changes:

Using “xsconsole”,

navigate to “Network and Management Interface”
navigate to “Network Time (NTP)”
log in as root
Remove All NTP Servers
Add the Primary FreeNAS Server’s IP Address
Add the Secondary FreeNAS Server’s IP Address
reboot the box

To verify that NTP is working correctly, log into the XenServer console and enter the following:

ntpq –p 10.1.10.x –> the Primary FreeNAS Server, you should get something like this returned:

     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
+y.ns.gin.ntt.ne 249.224.99.213   2 u   45   64    7   45.388   -2.965   1.896
+104.156.99.226  204.123.2.72     2 u   41   64    7   66.195    5.041   1.599
*clock.xmission. .GPS.            1 u   43   64    7   39.903   -1.483   2.415
time.tritn.com  198.60.22.240    2 u   40   64    7   51.294    1.535   1.984

ntpq –p 10.1.10.x –> the Secondary FreeNAS Server, you should get something like this returned:

     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
+cheezum.mattnor 129.7.1.66       2 u   30  128  377   13.744   -7.718   2.658
+mdnworldwide.co 127.67.113.92    2 u   31  128  377   22.938   -8.589   0.869
-repos.lax-noc.c 206.117.25.20    2 u   41  128  377   50.227   -2.232   2.751
*freeNas.loc.com 198.60.22.240    2 u   73  128  377    0.188   -5.571   1.500
-snotra.fanube.c 132.163.4.102    2 u   66  128  377   54.298    1.640   4.002

 

On the Windows Server 2012 R2 primary domain controller, open a command prompt and enter the following:

 

w32tm /monitor
w32tm /query /status
net stop w32time
w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:”10.1.10.x, 10.1.10.x”
w32tm /config /reliable:yes
net start w32time
w32tm /query /configuration

Filed Under: Daily Log

Recent Posts

  • Weaver’s Bamboo “Bambusa textilis” clumping bamboo for sale
  • configuring NTP Service on FreeNas, XenServer, and virtualized Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller
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