Latest DSfW Health Check Script
I’ve received a great deal of feed back on the DSfW Health Check Script and applied some changes.
I am always looking for suggestions. I’ve created an updated video with the latest script. Watch to to learn about configuring it for your specific needs.
DSfW and eDirectory Health Check
It is a good idea to periodically check the health of DSfW and eDirectory servers.
This video concentrates on a script I wrote that can be ran on both eDirectory and DSfW servers.
The script demonstrated in this video is called dsfw_edir_healthchk.sh. To get the latest version of the script click on the DSfW Health Check link in the download section on DSfWDude.com.
A great TID to start off with for a eDirectory health check is TID 3564075.
On a DSfW server start off with an eDirectory health check as well as TID 7001884 which has DSfW specific commands to check the health and overall operation of a DSfW server.
The script does most of the suggestions in both TIDs mentioned above plus a few more checks.
For eDirectory there are 8 checks the script does and… Continue reading
Diagnostic tool for DNS Records
The DSfW team has a great tool called check-dns.pl to help diagnose DNS issue with DSfW.
The tool validates essential records for forward and reverse lookups. This tool can be found at Novell Coolsolutions.
The tool might incorrectly report PDC and DC records if there is more than one Domain Controller. The Coolsolutions article will be updated with a new check-dns.pl to address this issue.
Until the Coolsolutions article is updated you can download it from dsfwdude.com.
Download
Script to check if ports are listening
If you are concerned about a DSfW service going down and or the port is not accessible, this script will help keep the services up or notify you of a service going down. The script will check if each DSfW service is listening, then telnet to each port. If it can not telnet, the script will log which port is not accessable in the /var/opt/novell/xad/log/dsfw_portchk.log.
The dsfw_portchk.sh script can be ran on PDC or ADC, running Novell DNS or not running Novell DNS.
The script can also e-mail and restart the services if desired.
It will detect if the server has IPv6 enabled so to properly detect the correct port Samba and NetBios is listening on.
The script detects if Novell DNS is configured to start. Some times on ADC servers DNS is not configured or is not set to run. The original script… Continue reading
How to find all DNS Locator objects
When installing DSfW into an environment were Novell DNS is already in use, be sure to use the existing DNS Locator object. It will simplify management for the all the zones and DNS servers. The locator object is used by the DNS/DHCP Console to return all zones and DNS servers the locator object knows about. If there are multiple locator objects then the first locator object discovered by the DNS/DHCP Console will be used. What will happen is only zones and DNS servers the DNS Loctor object knows about will be displayed and managed in the DNS/DHCP Console. This makes managing DNS difficult. Before installing doe a quick search for existing locator objects.
Do the following search to discover existing locator objects
ldapsearch -x -b “” -s sub objectClass=dNIPlocator
How to create DNS forwarders
In order to create a cross forest trust both the DSfW server and the AD server need to resolve each others domains. The video will show you how to create a forward and reverse forwarder for only the AD zone (domain) to the AD server and how to put a forwarder on the AD server to the DSfW DNS server.
Novell DNS Tools – iManager and DNS/DHCP Console
The Novell DNS DHCP Console is what most prefer to use to manager Novell DNS. It allows for easy viewing, modification, and creation of zones, records, and DNS servers.
If there are more than one dns locator objects in the tree use the -C switch after the executable to specify which locator object to use.
-C OESSystemobjects.novell
If updates made in the DNS/DHCP tool are not fast enough for you, loo at the novell_dyn_reconfigure setting on the DNS server object or restart novell-named.
At 6:51 on the video this setting is displayed. 15 minutes is recommend . If the reconfigure is set to 5 minutes in a large environment, the reconfigure might not finish updating cache before the the process is started again.
iManager is the second tool available to use to manage DNS and DHCP. The second video will… Continue reading