JamesBranam's Blog

NetBeans 6.7 Available

Hi all,

You've probably heard the big news: NetBeans 6.7 is live. Here is the official press release:

NetBeans.org is proud to announce the availability of NetBeans IDE 6.7!

The focus of NetBeans IDE 6.7 is connectivity—helping developers to connect to the latest technologies and to each other. New features include integration with Project Kenai, a collaborative environment for developers to host their open-source projects; native Maven support, and Hudson integration.

Building on the success of previous releases, NetBeans IDE 6.7 offers enhancements for Java, PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, Groovy and C/C++, and more. Additional highlights include a self-diagnostic Profiler, and support for SVG Rich Components, remote debugging in Ruby, and the latest version of GlassFish. The release also provides plug-in support for Zembly, a single registry and repository for popular Web APIs.

Providing superior support for multiple languages and innovative team support through Project Kenai, the NetBeans IDE 6.7 is the ideal tool for developers to stay connected to their teams and to the latest technologies!

NetBeans IDE 6.7 is available in English, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese and Simplified Chinese. There are several community-contributed localization efforts underway to support additional languages. Join the efforts today.

More information about NetBeans IDE 6.7:

• NetBeans IDE 6.7 Features
• NetBeans IDE 6.7 Tutorials and Documentation
• Videos of NetBeans IDE 6.7 in Action

As always, we welcome and encourage feedback about your experience using the NetBeans IDE. Share your thoughts on our mailing lists and forums. If you blog about NetBeans add your blog to Planet NetBeans. Follow NetBeans on Twitter for updates about NetBeans news and development.

NetBeans IDE Connects Developers!

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 12:49PM Jun 30, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[2]

AWS Experience Part 10: Configuring GlassFish in the Cloud

Hi all,

I'm still working on my cloud computing course. Now I'm more into GlassFish, and how to configure it on a virtual server. I'm not finished, but here's what I have so far:

1. The first step in this process is to create a domain. Let's name the domain domain1. Type the following commands in the command line:
   cd /opt/gf21/glassfish
chmod -R +x lib/ant/bin
lib/ant/bin/ant -f setup.xml
   
2. Back up the original domain1 configuration by typing
   cp /opt/gf21/glassfish/domains/domain1/config/domain.xml /opt/gf21/glassfish/domains/domain1/config/domain.xml.org.
3. To put GlassFish tools in the path, type echo export PATH=$PATH:/opt/gf21/glassfish/bin >>~/.profile.
4. Type exit to return to the root user.
5. Start the server by typing /opt/gf21/glassfish/bin/asadmin start-domain domain1.
6. Log in as the user gf21 by typing su - gf21.
7. To tweak GlassFish configuration for use with an AWS EC2 c1.small instance, type
asadmin create-jvm-options -- "-Xmx1024m"
cat /opt/gf21/glassfish/domains/domain1/config/domain.xml | grep Xmx
asadmin delete-jvm-options -- -Xmx512m
cat /opt/gf21/glassfish/domains/domain1/config/domain.xml | grep Xmx
8. Exit gf21 and type the following to determine if GlassFish is running:
   ps -ef |grep gf21
svcs glassfish/domain1
svcs -l glassfish/domain1 | grep logfile


Thanks fo Rudolf Kutina for help with this.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 10:53AM Jun 29, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

Interesting Czech Holiday

Hi all,

Glancing at today's calendar page, I learned that today is "Victims of the Communist Regime Memorial Day." Wow. I'm glad that the Czech government set aside a day for these people, who were for the most part real heroes. They were imprisoned and even executed for their beliefs, or rather for their refusal to accept Communist domination in their country. Most of the charges were trumped up, and were used by the communist to get rid of possible threats (think intellectuals, educators, scientists, etc.).

Recently there was a documentary on such victims on Czech television. They'd found lost footage of the trials (which were a circus). I hope that a lot of young Czechs were able to watch the series and see what heroism really is (think Milada Horakova, who was executed).

A lot of young people in the country today were born after the revolution or are too young to remember it. More should be done to teach them what life under communism was like. Then they might appreciate the life they have a little more.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 08:46AM Jun 27, 2009 by branajam in Personal  |  Comments[1]

Installing Packages on OpenSolaris

Hi all,

I've been working more on my cloud computing course. I'm working on a module for creating a custom OpenSolaris AMI. In a couple of the steps, the user installs software on his virtual machine. It was so easy to do.

JDK 6.

pkg install SUNWj6dev

MySQL.

pkg install SUNWmysql

Apache Ant.

pkg install SUNWant

GlassFish. This is a little tricker:

1. Download GlassFish:

   wget  http://java.net/download/javaee5/v2.1_branch/promoted/SunOS_X86/glassfish-installer-v2.1-b60e-sunos_x86.jar

2. Install GlassFish:

   java -Xmx256m -jar glassfish-installer-v2.1-b60e-sunos_x86.jar

3. Click "A: or "a" to accept the license.

I wish everything were this easy.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 05:56PM Jun 23, 2009 by branajam in Sun  | 

200th Blog Entry for FY2009

Hi all,

Today marks a special milestone for my blog: the 200th entry for FY 2009 (July 1, 2008 - JUne 30, 2009). It's the most I've blogged in a year, and I have to say that I've had a great time doing it. Here is a quick breakdown of my blog activity:

• FY 2006 (Dec-Jun): 27
• FY 2007: 87
• FY 2008: 183
• FY 2009: 200 and counting

The total to date is 470 blog entries (and this doesn't include blog entries made on the NetBeans Community Docs blog). I should reach an even bigger milestone in the first half of August: 500 total blog entries.

Then we'll see what happens. (You'll know what I'm talking about if you've been reading the news.)

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Jun 20, 2009 by branajam in Sun  | 

Check Out NetBeans RC3

Hi all,

Just a quick reminder, be sure to check out NetBeans RC3. Here is the official press release:

NetBeans IDE 6.7 Release Candidate 3 is now available for download.

Download NetBeans 6.7 Release Candidate 3

The focus of NetBeans 6.7 is connectivity--helping developers to connect to each other and to the latest technologies. New features for 6.7 include integration with Project Kenai, a collaborative environment for developers to host their open-source projects; native Maven support; and GlassFish and Hudson integrations. This release also offers enhancements for Java, PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, Groovy and C/C++, and more. Providing superior support for multiple languages and innovative team support through Project Kenai, the NetBeans IDE 6.7 is the ideal tool for developers to connect to their teams and to the latest technologies!

Learn More about NetBeans 6.7 RC3

Tutorials & Videos

The final release of NetBeans IDE 6.7 is planned for late June. Download RC3 today and give us your feedback about your experience using the release. Join discussions about the NetBeans IDE on our mailing lists and forums. If you blog about using NetBeans add your blog to a Planet NetBeans. Follow NetBeans on Twitter for updates about NetBeans news and development.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Jun 19, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[2]

Back from Vacation

Hi all,

I'm finally back at work after a two-week vacation. Lots of email to go through. I took my mother to airport a couple of hours ago, and while I was waiting for her to check in, I thought about her trip from Cincinnati to Prague a couple of weeks ago. It's an interesting story.

She was supposed to leave Cincinnati airport on July 7, and change to her Prague-bound flight in Atlanta. However, she was told that the Cincinnati flight was already delayed 2 and half hours, and that she would miss her flight to Prague. She was offered a flight changing in Paris, but being the inexperienced and monoglot flier that she is, decided to forgo the French connection in favor of taking the Same Cincinnati-Atlanta-Prague flights the following day.

My mother got assistance through Atlanta, but she was deeply concerned about finding her way out of Prague airport. I called her in Atlanta to offer some encouragement, and by chance I was glancing at my Facebook page. An American friend of mine who lives in Prague had just typed a status message, something like: "I'm sitting at the gate, waiting for my flight back to Prague. I had to act fast. I was able to reach him via Facebook, and he offered to make sure my mother got through Prague airport OK.

And he did. He and his fiancee walked with her right up to where I was standing. Thanks, Travis!

If my mother had boarded her original flight, this would have never happened.

Cheers!

--James

P.S. It's good to be back.

Posted at 10:57AM Jun 18, 2009 by branajam in Personal  | 

NetBeans 6.7 RC2 Is Available

Hi all,

NetBeans 6.7 Release Candidate 2 is out. Here is the official message:

NetBeans.org is proud to announce the availability of NetBeans IDE 6.7 Release Candidate 2!

Download NetBeans 6.7 Release Candidate 2

The focus of NetBeans 6.7 is connectivity--helping developers to connect to each other and to the latest technologies. New features for 6.7 include integration with Project Kenai, a collaborative environment for developers to host their open-source projects; native Maven support; and GlassFish and Hudson integrations. This release also offers enhancements for Java, PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, Groovy and C/C++, and more. Providing superior support for multiple languages and innovative team support through Project Kenai, the NetBeans IDE 6.7 is the ideal tool for developers to connect to their teams and to the latest technologies!

Learn More about NetBeans 6.7 RC2 Tutorials & Videos

The final release of NetBeans IDE 6.7 is planned for late June. Download RC2 today and give us your feedback about your experience using the release. Join discussions about the NetBeans IDE on our mailing lists and forums. If you blog about using NetBeans add your blog to Planet NetBeans. Follow NetBeans on Twitter for updates about NetBeans news and development.

NetBeans IDE 6.7 Connects Developers!

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Jun 07, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[6]

AWS Experience Part 9: Uploading and Registering an OpenSolaris Bundle

Hi all,

Success! My bundle was created. Now it's time to upload it to S3 and to register it with AWS for use. Here's how:

1. First, see yesterday's blog entry about setting the environment variables. This saves a lot of time.
2. I changed to the directory hosting the part of my bundled AMI: cd $DIRECTORY/parts.
3. From there, I uploaded the bundle to my S3 bucket, which is created for me as I do it: ec2-upload-bundle -b $BUCKET -m $IMAGE.manifest.xml --url http://s3.amazonaws.com --retry -a $EC2_KEYID -s $EC2_KEY. It took a few minutes, but you can follow the progress as it uploads each bundle part.
4. To register the AMI, I typed the following command: ec2reg -C $EC2_CERT -K $EC2_PRIVATE_KEY $BUCKET/$IMAGE.manifest.xml.
   The next thing you see in the command line is the AMI ID, for example: IMAGE ami-1a2b3c4de. Then you know that the AMI has been registered. Go to the AWS Management Console > AMIs and do a search to see for youself.

I write some more about AWS tomorrow.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Jun 06, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

AWS Experience Part 8: Bundling OpenSolaris

Hi all,

I created the perfect AMI: OpenSolaris with JDK, Ant, MySQl 5 and GlassFish. And then it turns out that OpenSolaris has different directions for bundling than Linux. It took me a while to find them, but I did. Here they are (I'll skip the pre-bundling cleaning up):

1. Connect to the OpenSolaris instance in the same way as Linux (SSH).
2. Execute the following commands: cd /mnt and /opt/ec2/sbin/rebundle.sh -v your-bundle.img. Note: of course you can name the bundle whatever you want.
3. Get some coffee. This could take a while.
4. Set the following environment variables:
   • export BUCKET=<bucket-name>
   • export JAVA_HOME=/usr/jdk/latest
   • export EC2_HOME=/opt/ec2
   • export PATH=$PATH:$EC2_HOME/bin
   • export RUBYLIB=$EC2_HOME/lib
   • export EC2_URL=https://ec2.amazonaws.com
   • export EC2_PRIVATE_KEY=/mnt/keys/<PRIVATE KEY FILE>
   • export EC2_CERT=/mnt/keys/<CERT FILE>
   • export EC2_KEYID=<AWS-personal-key>
   • export EC2_KEY=<AWS-secret-key>
   • export DIRECTORY=/mnt
   • export IMAGE=your-bundle.img
5. Create the parts and keys directories inside the /mnt directory. Here's how:
   • mkdir $DIRECTORY/parts
   • mkdir $DIRECTORY/keys
6. Copy your private key file to the /mnt/keys directory on the AMI.
   • scp -i /*.pem root@:/mnt/keys/
7. In the AMI, bundle the image. ec2-bundle-image -c $EC2_CERT -k $EC2_PRIVATE_KEY --kernel aki-6552b60c --ramdisk ari-6452b60d --block-device-mapping "root=rpool/52@0,ami=0,ephemeral0=1" --user <AWS-acct-no> --arch i386 -i $DIRECTORY/$IMAGE -d $DIRECTORY/parts
8. Get some more coffee... or maybe something stronger.

This is taking too long. It's getting late. I'll try again from home (maybe I'll leave my computer on all night).

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Jun 05, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

AWS Experience Part 7: OpenSolaris AMI

Hi all,

Up until now, I've been working with Fedora AMIs in my quest to master working with virtual servers on AWS. Today I jumped over to an OpenSolaris AMI.

I love it! The pkg command makes things very easy.

So far installing things like Ant, JDK, and MySQL have gone perfectly. I'll write more as I learn.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 05:56PM Jun 04, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

AWS Experience Part 6: Creating a Custom AMI

Hi all,

Here is another installment on working in the cloud, the AWS cloud that is. Today's topic: creating a custom AMI. This may sound like as easy task. And it would have been, had AWS documentation been up to scratch. I spent lots of time messing around with this, and I finally got it to work. Here's how:

1. Launch an exiting image (I chose a Fedora 8 image). Modify the /var/www/html/index.html file to something else (thus making it "your unique AMI). I went one step further: I installed JDK 6 and MySQL on mi AMI for use at a later date.
2. Now you have to upload your private key and x509 certificate to the AMI. Here's how to do this in the terminal:

   scp -i ~/.ssh/<yourkeypair.pem> ~/.ec2/<pk-whatever.pem> ~/.ec2/<cert-whatever.pem> root@your-public-DNS:/mnt.

   The private key and x-509 certificate should be uploaded to the mnt directory to prevent them from being bundled with the new AMI.
3. When this has been done, log in to your AMI to check if it is there.
4. While you're logged in to your virtual server, you can perform the next step of the process. (The reason I am even mentioning this is that AWS didn't mention it). Type the following command

   ec2-bundle-vol -d /mnt -k /mnt/<personalkey.pem> -c /mnt/<cert.pem> -u <AWS-acct-no> -r i386 -p sampleimage

5. Get a cup of coffee as this will take a while.
6. Type the following to check if the AMI image is indeed there where it should be:

   ls -l /mnt/sampleimage.*

7. Upload your bundle to AWS S3 Storage. (Make sure that you sign up for S3 before you do this.) To do, type:

   ec2-upload-bundle -b <S3-bucket-name> -m /mnt/sampleimage.manifest.xml -a <AWS-access-key-id> -s  <AWS-secret-access-key> --location EU

   Note: Remember to upload to an S3 bucket in correct region. Also: if the bucket does not exit, it will be created for you. (I've used a European bucket as an example.)
8. Now we get to register the AMI with AWS. Type the following:

   ec2-register <bucket-name>/sampleimage.manifest.xml --region EU-WEST-1

   
   AWS returns the new AMI ID (in my case ami-2faf875b).
9. Go to the AMIs panel of the your AWS Management Console and do a search for part of your AMI. It's there and ready for use! (You can see mine in the screenshot at the top of this blog entry.)

I hope that this information will save a lot of people a lot of time. I have just spent hours scouring AWS documentation, forums and google search results to get this far. The most useful of these: Google by far. Amazon documentation left out key information and variables. Yuck!

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 04:28PM Jun 02, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[3]

NetBeans 6.7 RC Is Out

Hi all,

Here is the official announcement:

NetBeans.org is proud to announce the availability of NetBeans IDE 6.7 Release Candidate 1!

The focus of NetBeans 6.7 RC1 is connectivity--helping developers to connect to each other and to the latest technologies. New features for 6.7 include integration with Project Kenai, a collaborative environment for developers to host their open-source projects; native Maven support; and GlassFish and Hudson integrations. This release also offers enhancements for Java, PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, Groovy and C/C++, and more. Providing superior support for multiple languages and innovative team support through Project Kenai, the NetBeans IDE 6.7 is the ideal tool for developers to connect to their teams and to the latest technologies!

The final release of NetBeans IDE 6.7 is planned for late June. Download RC1 today and give us your feedback about your experience using the release. Join discussions about the NetBeans IDE on our mailing lists and forums. If you blog about using NetBeans add your blog to Planet NetBeans. Follow NetBeans on Twitter for updates about NetBeans news and development.

NetBeans IDE 6.7 Connects Developers!

Wow.

--James

Posted at 10:17PM Jun 01, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |