Challenges setting up a Chef Pagefile Cookbook

I figured this would be simple...I did it is Altiris without an issue. I have done it with reg files easily. How hard could it be? Well it was tricky. I wanted to leverage all the cool information that I got from ohai. So I started out like this using a Windows Server 2012R2 VM to grab the ohai results for the various settings.

Abandoned
default.rb

case node['kernel']['cs_info']['total_physical_memory']
when "2147012608"
  include_recipe "pagefile::2gb"
when "4294496256"
  include_recipe "pagefile::4gb"
when "6441979904"
  include_recipe "pagefile::6gb"
when "6437851136"
  include_recipe "pagefile::6gb"
when "8585334784"
  include_recipe "pagefile::8gb"
when "17171070976"
  include_recipe "pagefile::16gb"
end

Then I had corresponding jobs for - 2gb, 4gb, 6gb, 8gb, & 16gb

2gb.rb
windows_pagefile 'c:\pagefile.sys' do
      initial_size (3072)
      maximum_size (3072)
      system_managed false
      automatic_managed false
      action :set
      not_if {reboot_pending?}
    end

Everything was going great. That was until I decided to set a VM that was on Windows Server 2008 R2. The recipe never ran.. So I proceeded to run ohai >c:\w2k8r28gb.txt. Sure enough, even though both VMs had the same 8GB installed, the total_physical_memory was different. So I proceeded to create additional when statements calling the same include_recipe. Ok so everything was running great on my VMs on CloudStack/XenServer.

I decided to test on vSphere and vCloud, guess what, all different...I couldn't believe it..

So I had to come up a completely different way. I tried making variables with ranges to no avail.

I ended up abandoning using ohai and the case in favor of some POSH and if, elsif, else.

Thanks to my buddy, Ron Oberjohann (ron@advdat.com) for help with the POSH. I was use 'Get-WMIObject -class Win32_PhysicalMemory', but wasn't doing the math.

I am seeing if I can still get the ohai portion to work by trying to round that info...time to revisit my Ruby course from last year :)

But for now here is what works:

def memory
  powershell_script "$ram" do
    code <<-eoh p="">    $computer = Get-WMIObject -class "Win32_ComputerSystem"
    $ram = [math]::Round($computer.TotalPhysicalMemory/1024/1024/1024/0)
    EOH
  end
end

if memory == 2
    windows_pagefile 'c:\pagefile.sys' do
      initial_size (3072)
      maximum_size (3072)
      system_managed false
      automatic_managed false
      action :set
      not_if {reboot_pending?}
    end
elsif memory == 4
    windows_pagefile 'c:\pagefile.sys' do
      initial_size (6144)
      maximum_size (6144)
      system_managed false
      automatic_managed false
      action :set
      not_if {reboot_pending?}
    end
elsif memory == 6
    windows_pagefile 'c:\pagefile.sys' do
      initial_size (9216)
      maximum_size (9216)
      system_managed false
      automatic_managed false
      action :set
      not_if {reboot_pending?}
    end
elsif memory == 8
    windows_pagefile 'C:\pagefile.sys' do
      initial_size  (8193)
      maximum_size  (8193)
      system_managed false
      automatic_managed false
      action :set
      not_if {reboot_pending?}
    end
else memory = 16
    windows_pagefile 'c:\pagefile.sys' do
      initial_size (16385)
      maximum_size (16385)
      system_managed false
      automatic_managed false
      action :set
      not_if {reboot_pending?}
    end
  Chef::Log.error("Can't determine memory and set pagefile")
end

The code is on my github. I thought I'd share my findings.

Developers, if you want more users don’t ask for too much too soon

When it comes to converting interest in your app to downloads, permissions can be a huge stumbling block. Here's how to make the user more comfortable, and more likely to install your app.



via GigaOM http://gigaom.com/2013/09/08/developers-if-you-want-more-users-dont-ask-for-too-much-too-soon/