My notes, things I have learned, and documentation I have created.

How to set internal autoreply:
Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -Identity emailaddress -AutoReplyState Scheduled -StartTime “mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss” -EndTime “mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss” -InternalMessage “message”

How to set external autoreply:
Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -Identity emailaddress -AutoReplyState Scheduled -StartTime “mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss” -EndTime “mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss” -ExternalMessage “message” -ExternalAudience All

Run vs exec:
docker exec is used to run commands in an already running container. docker run is used to create a new container that can be committed to create an updated container.

Here is how execute commands inside a docker container as root:

$ docker exec -u 0 -it runningcontainer bash

The same concept works for docker run too:
Here is how execute commands inside a docker container as root:

$ docker run -u 0 -it dockerimage bash

This will clean up the /var/lib area:

docker system prune -a

Upgrade Mint Linux from 19 to 20:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo shutdown -r now
sudo apt install mintupgrade
sudo mintupgrade check
sudo mintupgrade upgrade
sudo reboot

Upgrade Debian from 10 (buster) to 11 (bullseye):

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove
sudo shutdown -r now
sudo cat /etc/os-release

Replace buster with bullseye and make a change to the security section.
Where the security section had “buster-updates”, it should be changed to “bullseye-security”.
Note: You may be using a different mirror.

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
…
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main
…
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main
…
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-updates main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-updates main
…

Remove any old versions of docker:

sudo apt-get remove docker docker-engine docker.io containerd runc

Install dependencies:

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release

Add the docker key:

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg | sudo gpg –dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg

Add the docker repository to the apt configuration:

echo “deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian $(lsb_release -cs) stable” | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

Update the repository list:

sudo apt-get update

Install docker:

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

Test docker by installing and running the hello-world image from Docker Hub:

sudo docker run hello-world

Install docker-compose from https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/:

Download the docker-compose binary and sha256sum file:

cd /usr/local/src/
wget https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.29.2/docker-compose-Linux-x86_64
wget https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.29.2/docker-compose-Linux-x86_64.sha256

Verify the sha256sum for the binary:

sha256sum -c docker-compose-Linux-x86_64.sha256sum

Copy the binary to your path (/usr/local/bin) and set the execute permissions:

cp -p docker-compose-Linux-x86_64 /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
chmod 744 /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

This will output two columns. One is the original time as an integer and the second as YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss.

select TIMESTAMP, from_unixtime(TIMESTAMP) from my_table;

This will address a few basic MSSQL configuration changes when running MSSQL on a linux platform.

The first one involves changing the default database and log locations:
To set the default directories:

sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf set filelocation.defaultdatadir /{SOMENEWDATADIRECTORY}
sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf set filelocation.defaultlogdir /{SOMENEWLOGDIRECTORY}
sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf set filelocation.defaultbackupdir /{SOMENEWBACKUPDIRECTORY}
sudo systmectl restart mssql-server

For example:

sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf set filelocation.defaultdatadir /Data
sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf set filelocation.defaultlogdir /Logs
sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf set filelocation.defaultbackupdir /Backup
sudo systmectl restart mssql-server

Next up is enabling the SQL Agent:
Enable the SQL Agent:

/opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf set sqlagent.enabled true
sudo systemctl restart mssql-server

Lastly is moving the default databases to a new location. For instance to the default directories you configured above. This is a bit more involved, so you have to pay attention to the details. Unless otherwise specified these are run from the linux command line.

First, you need to ensure that the new directory locations are owned by mssql, and group access is allowed for mssql group as well.

sudo chown mssql.mssql /Data
sudo chown mssql.mssql /Logs
sudo chown mssql.mssql /Backup

Determine where the tempdb data and logs files are currently:
Access the SQL server and update the tempdb location:

sqlcmd -S localhost -U SA -P {PASSWORD}
> SELECT name, physical_name AS CurrentLocation FROM sys.master_files WHERE database_id = DB_ID(N’tempdb’);
> GO

> USE master;
> GO
> ALTER DATABASE tempdb
> MODIFY FILE (NAME = tempdev, FILENAME = ‘/Data/tempdb.mdf’);
> GO
> ALTER DATABASE tempdb
> MODIFY FILE (NAME = templog, FILENAME = ‘/Logs/templog.ldf’);
> GO

Restart the MSSQL server:

sudo systemctl restart mssql-server.service

You can make subdirectories for each database if you want as well. You just have to make certain that the ownership is correct.

sudo mkdir /Data/msdb
sudo mkdir /Logs/msdb
sudo chown -R mssql.mssql /Data/
sudo chown -R mssql.mssql /Logs/

Access the SQL server:

sqlcmd -S localhost -U SA -P {PASSWORD}

Determine where the msdb data and logs files are currently:

> SELECT name, physical_name AS CurrentLocation FROM sys.master_files WHERE database_id = DB_ID(N’msdb’);
> GO

Continuing from the SQL server:
Move msdb:

> USER master
> GO
> ALTER DATABASE msdb
> MODIFY FILE (NAME = MSDBData, FILENAME = ‘/Data/msdb/MSDBData.mdf’);
> GO
> ALTER DATABASE msdb
> MODIFY FILE (NAME = MSDBLog, FILENAME = ‘/Logs/msdb/MSDBLog.ldf’);
> GO

Move the existing database files to their new locations:

sudo sudo cd /var/opt/mssql/data/
sudo systemctl stop mssql-server.service
sudo mv msdbdata.mdf /Data/msdb/
sudo mv msdblog.ldf /Logs/msdb/
sudo systemctl restart mssql-server.service
sudo systemctl status mssql-server.service

Access the SQL server:

sqlcmd -S localhost -U SA -P {PASSWORD}

Determine where the model data and logs files are currently:

> SELECT name, physical_name AS CurrentLocation FROM sys.master_files where database_id = DB_ID(N’model’)
> GO

Continuing from the SQL server:
Move model:

> USE master
> ALTER DATABASE model
> MODIFY file (NAME = modeldev, FILENAME = ‘/Data/model/model.mdf’)
> GO
> ALTER DATABASE model
> MODIFY file (NAME = modellog, FILENAME = ‘/Logs/model/modellog.ldf’)
> GO

Move the existing database files to their new locations:

sudo sudo cd /var/opt/mssql/data/
sudo systemctl stop mssql-server.service
sudo mkdir /Data/model
sudo mkdir /Logs/model
sudo chown mssql.mssql /Data
sudo chown mssql.mssql /Logs
sudo mv msdbdata.mdf /Data/model/
sudo mv msdblog.ldf /Logs/model/
sudo systemctl restart mssql-server.service
sudo systemctl status mssql-server.service

Access the SQL server:

sqlcmd -S localhost -U SA -P {PASSWORD}

Determine where the master data and log files are currently:

> SELECT name, physical_name AS CurrentLocation FROM sys.master_files where database_id = DB_ID(N’master’)
> GO

The master database is a little different than the others. You set the configuration after stopping the mssql-server process and moving the files.

sudo cd /var/opt/mssql/data
sudo mkdir /Data/master
sudo mkdir /Logs/master
sudo chown -R mssql.mssql /Data
sudo chown -R mssql.mssql /Logs
sudo mv master.mdf /Data/master
sudo mv master.mdf /Logs/master
sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf set filelocation.masterdatafile /Data/master/master.mdf
sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf set filelocation.masterlogfile /Logs/master/mastlog.ldf
sudo systemctl stop mssql-server
sudo systemctl start mssql-server
sudo systemctl status mssql-server

The installation itself is not too bad. It is pretty straightforward.
This process worked well on Ubuntu 18.x installing Microsoft SQL 2017 and 2019. The details in this post are for the 2017 version. The only thing that is different is the repository configuration, and in particular what you download configure the repository to support installing 2019.

Download and add the Microsoft public repository GPG key:

wget -qO- https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | sudo apt-key add –

Add the Micorosft apt repository:

sudo add-apt-repository “$(wget -qO- https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/18.04/mssql-server-2017.list)”

Update repository mirror list:

sudo apt-get update

Install MSSQL 2017:

sudo apt-get install -y mssql-server

Run the MSSQL setup:

sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup

The setup will ask just a couple questions. One is which version you want to run. I installed the Developer version. The second this is to accept the license agreement.

Check MSSQL status to verify it is running:

systemctl status mssql-server

Add the MSSQL tools repository:

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/18.04/prod.list | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/msprod.list

Update repository mirror list:

sudo apt-get update

Install MSSQL 2017 tools:

sudo apt-get install mssql-tools unixodbc-dev

Add tools directory to account path:

echo ‘export PATH=”$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin”‘ >> ~/.bash_profile

Add tools directory to account path for non-interactive execution:

echo ‘export PATH=”$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin”‘ >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Connect to MSSQL via command line:

sqlcmd -S localhost -U SA -P ‘‘

I was trying to backup a VM using a Unitrends appliance. I kept getting the following:

WARNING: Did not receive any data!!

I found the following in the vSphere client:

Create virtual machine snapshot
…
The operation is not allowed in the current state.
…

So, it turns out the the issue was not with the Unitrends job, but the snapshot process on the VMware host.

I used ssh to login into the host as root and did the following:
/etc/init.d/hostd restart:

[root@host1:~] /etc/init.d/hostd restart
watchdog-hostd: Terminating watchdog process with PID 572484
hostd stopped.
Ramdisk ‘hostd’ with estimated size of 1053MB already exists
hostd started.

/etc/init.d/vpxa restart:

[root@host01:~] /etc/init.d/vpxa restart
watchdog-vpxa: Terminating watchdog process with PID 573196
vpxa stopped.

Then, I rebooted the VM and tried the backup again. It worked fine.

Here we go again. A completely different way to configure the network using netplan. I used the following on an Ubuntu 18.x LTS server to configure the static IP address:

$ cd /etc/netplan

If this directory, there will be a yaml file. I have seen this have a couple different names, but it has always been the only file in the directory. In this case, the file was named: 00-installer-config.yaml

If you brought the machine using DHCP, you need to change the “dhcp4: yes” line to “dhcpv: no”. Below, is an example setting the IP address, mask via the CIDR designation (subnet bits) after the IP address, the gateway, the nameservers and a search domain.

Note: the format (indentation) of the lines in the file are important.

$ sudo vi 00-installer-config.yaml
…

network:
ethernets:
ens160:
dhcp4: no
addresses: [aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd/mm]
gateway4: eee.fff.ggg.hhh
nameservers:
addresses: [www.xxx.yyy.zzz, mmm.nnn.ooo.ppp]
search: [my.domain, my.otherdomain]
version: 2

For Ubuntu 20.x:

network:
ethernets:
ens32:
addresses:
– aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd/mm
gateway4: eee.fff.ggg.hhh
nameservers:
addresses:
– www.xxx.yyy.zzz
– mmm.nnn.ooo.ppp
search:
– my.domain
version: 2

Note: Make sure you do the following from the console, if modifying the IP address.
Apply the configuration:
$ sudo netplan apply

I was mounting an external drive using the partition device file. I found that over time the mounted partition would give an I/O error. It turned out it was because the device file had changed. I decided to mount it using UUID to see if took care of the issue.

Here what I did to mount it and add it to the startup:

# fdisk /dev/sdc

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.33.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdc: 3.7 TiB, 4000787029504 bytes, 7814037167 sectors
Disk model: One Touch HDD
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: E396A756-646C-40DC-A8F8-59CC11D40FA8

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdc1 2048 7814035455 7814033408 3.7T Linux filesystem

Command (m for help): quit

Use this command to determine the UUID:

# blkid
…
/dev/sdc1: UUID=”20f17e14-71c3-498f-8872-97dcd80c1d3e” TYPE=”ext4″ PARTUUID=”ccbd82af-94e0-431a-a54b-b9100a087133″
…

You can use lsblk as well:

# lsblk -fs
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
…
sdc1 ext4 20f17e14-71c3-498f-8872-97dcd80c1d3e
└─sdc
…

Add the entry to the fstab:

# vi /etc/fstab
…
UUID=20f17e14-71c3-498f-8872-97dcd80c1d3e /external ext4 defaults 0 0

Then mount it:

# mount /external