Balaji Sowmyanarayanan's dashboard

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on August 02, 2009 04:38 to the problem "Cannot access my island yet!!" in Sim-OnDemand:

Dear Nick,
Here is a screenshot illustrating how to setup a new grid in Hippo viewer based on info in the Sim-OnDemand screen.
Tip: Copy the login url string into a text editor and then copy paste to the hippo viewer.



Feel free to contact me via labsji at gmail dot com for personalized assistance.

Thanks and regards.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on February 23, 2009 23:15 to the question "Any news on upgrading the version of Open Sim?" in Sim-OnDemand:

Excellent idea. New versions for new users are regularly being released. There is a lag in updating the automatic transition mechanism ( using the 'Run with Latest server' checkbox. ) due to the testing involved.
A OAR based transition from one version to another is an excellent idea. In terms of effort, all I need to do is write a step by step how-to in the wiki!

One caveat is that the user is forced to do OAR dump region by region. Saving the files and file transfer back and forth is non-trivial.

Rightnow I'm mulling over it. Will come up with something clean soon.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan started following the question "Any news on upgrading the version of Open Sim?" in Sim-OnDemand.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on February 21, 2009 17:30 to the question "Sim only connects to the OSGrid about 1/3 of the time." in Sim-OnDemand:

I'm attempting to replicate the error. So far not successful in replicating or finding the root cause of the problem.
Meanwhile here are some tips to reduce the frustration of waiting.
First, there is no delay involved in connecting to OSGrid. Once the server is up, it will take less than couple of minutes for the OpenSim server to be up and running. Once the OpenSim server is up, if you have chosen to connect to OSGrid, the Sim will be listed in OSGrid map.

2) You can check the status of the OpenSim server by accessing the OpenSim server console.
One way of accessing the console is via the browser based VNC. You will need a java enabled browser for the web based VNC to work. Simply copy the hostname in the browser. It will load a page with link to the browser based VNC. Since the browser based vnc is via SSL a few security related questions are to be overridden by the user.
Once you are connected via VNC you will find a xterm session with OpenSim console( # prompt).
You can check the status of your sim by issuing the command,
show regions
Which will list the sims along with their OSGrid coordinates.
3) If for some reason, the OpenSim server is not waiting in the # prompt, then the xterm session will be in the bash prompt($). In this case, you can restart the opensim server by issuing the command:
mono OpenSim.exe

It will be really helpful if you can post screen shots of the OpenSim console. Feel free to contact me 1:1 via email: labsji Ahat gmail doot com or via twitter @labsji

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on February 20, 2009 07:03 to the question "Setting up new user accounts?" in Sim-OnDemand:

1) If you are using Sim-OnDemand to hookup to OSGrid.org ( by selecting OSGrid in the Grid Mode dropdown during Sim-OnDemand setup) then account creations is to be done at OSGrid.org. Here is the link: http://osgrid.org/index.php?page=crea...

2) If you are using Sim-OnDemand in Standalone mode, you can create new users by accessing the OpenSim server console.
The easiest way of accessing the OpenSim server console is via VNC. A secure web based VNC(works with java enabled browser) is accessible at http://hostname:5800/ultrasigned.vnc, where hostname is to be substituted with the Amazon assigned hostname of the running instance.
This vnc service is secure ssl based, thus when connecting via browser, few security, certificate related prompts are to be manually overridden.

If you have a VNC viewer( VNC client) program installed in your access machine, pass on hostname:1 as parameter to invoke the VNC session. Where hostname is to be substituted with the Amazon assigned hostname of the running instance.
The password you set for Master Avatar is used for vnc authentication too.

Once you have connected to the VNC session you will see an xterm window with OpenSim server there.
Issue the command
create user
It will prompt for First Name, Last Name, and password along with initial coordinated.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on February 09, 2009 05:28 to the question "Possible broken MONO?" in Sim-OnDemand:

Dear SteveG,
Thanks for the suggestion. Will incorporate it in the next release that will be out in couple of days. I have also identified the root cause of the Script not working problem. Which will get fixed in the release. So until then, you have to restart OpenSim server. Once the release is out, you will be able to upgrade to it by just selecting the option 'Run with latest server' while launching.
[
The root cause BTW, is caused by Sim-OnDemand startup script.
mono /opt/opensim/OpenSim.exe
is how it is presently started.
It has to be
cd /opt/opensim
mono OpenSim.exe

My bad]

VNC Viewer screen session scrolling: Yes, the xterm under iceWM does not allow scrolling. Quirks of screen, xterm and iceWM are causing the problem.
Workaround
If your intent is to keep track of info spewed by OpenSim server, looking at the log directly using a file viewer is a good idea. Issue the command in another (xterm)window:
cd /opt/opensim
less OpenSim.log
You can go to the end of the log by pressing G ( mnemonics Ground) while within less.

Keep the feedbacks and suggestions coming.
Thanks again.
-Balaji S.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on February 03, 2009 13:07 to the question "Possible broken MONO?" in Sim-OnDemand:

Hi SteveG,
I was able to replicate the error.[Well it was hit in the face obvious!]
Very strange, it is looking for dlls in /opt rather than /opt/opensim where all the 'missing' dlls are very much present.
After much hair pulling, re-install and reconfiguration the solution turns out to be simple.[ And strange]
Just restarting the OpenSim using
mono OpenSim.exe
after a shutdown of the opensim server - by issuing
shutdown
in the OpenSim console solves the problem.

Here is the step by step to benefit everyone.
Log on to the the server using VNC. One way of doing it is open
http://hostname:5800/ultrasigned.vnc
using a java enabled browser. [ Will have to ok a few annoying security related questions] Where hostname is the hostname or IP address of your ec2 instance.
The VNC password is same as what you configures as password for the Master Avatar.

You will find 2 xterm sessions of which one will already display the OpenSim console.

To restart opensim server. Shutdown the opensim server by issuing
shutdown
in the Region # prompt.
When successful, it will return to bash prompt.
Start opensim server by issuing command:
mono OpenSim.exe

Now you will find that the scripts compile and start working.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on February 02, 2009 01:14 to the question "How do I find and edit the Sim's config file?" in Sim-OnDemand:

SteveG,
Congrats! And you are most welcome to ask more questions! Your questions and feedback is really useful in shaping the usability features of Sim-OnDemand.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on January 29, 2009 19:01 to the question "How do I find and edit the Sim's config file?" in Sim-OnDemand:

Hi SteveG,
Thanks for the details. Looks like very old /vol structure. I highly recommend that you upgrade to the latest version and then try out the OpenSim.ini modification. [ Some time back I remember you asking about upgrading, And I thought you upgraded!]
Download the latest version of New Improved Sim-OnDemand from http://simondemand.ec29.com/simond.ht...

As mentioned in http://getsatisfaction.com/simondeman... ) there is no automatic upgrade possible from old version.
If you badly need to restore the old data in the new version, let me know. I figured out a manual way to do it.

FYI the new /vol looks like:
.
|-- home
| `-- simond
|-- lost+found
|-- mysql
|-- opt
| `-- opensim
| |-- OpenSim.ini
| `-- Regions
| |-- default.xml
| |-- region.2.xml
| |-- region.3.xml
| |-- region.4.xml
| `-- region.5.xml
|-- var
| |-- log
| | `-- mysqld.log
| `-- run
| `-- mysqld
| `-- mysqld.pid
`-- www
`-- html

-Balaji S.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on January 29, 2009 15:50 to the question "How do I find and edit the Sim's config file?" in Sim-OnDemand:

Hi SteveG,
Make sure the file /opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini is a softlink to a file in /vol/opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini when you do the checking( by starting/stopping/restarting your sim)
Any changes, to persist across runs, will have to be there under /vol
To check if a file is a softlink use the command
ls -al /opt/opensim/Opensim.ini
To check if the changes are indeed in the persistent file, issue the command:
less /vol/opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini
And inspect that the changes are indeed there.

Once the changes are in /vol/opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini it will persist across runs.
If changes reflected in /vol/opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini is not persistent across runs, I'd like to know all details about it so that I can replicate the exact situation and fix the 'Whale' bug.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on January 23, 2009 10:09 to the question "How do I find and edit the Sim's config file?" in Sim-OnDemand:

SteveG,
The filesystem / in an EC2 instance will be reflecting the state of / when the EC2 AMI image was constructed. Changes made in / will not be reflected across runs.
Only files and directory that are softlinked to /vol hierarchy are worth editing and backing up. It is ok edit files in /vol directly. Accessing the file via softlink is more convenient.
No special effort is needed to restore the softlink. In a new instance, the softlinks will be pointing to the right files in /vol anyway.
Think of /opt/opensim as a CDROM like read-only version of OpenSim software.
Best way to backup files is to create a directory in /vol and copy files there. For eg.
mkdir /vol/backup
cp /opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini /vol/backup
vi /opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini
Make your changes and save.

I think, accessing the file using the softlink will be less confusing to not-so-linux-savvy users.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on January 20, 2009 03:16 to the question "How do I find and edit the Sim's config file?" in Sim-OnDemand:

Dear steveg100,
I re-created the sequence you have outlined and unable to replicate the behavior( OpenSim.ini reverting back to original version).
Here is one possible way in which this could happen. Before I go into the details, you must know that /opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini is a softlink to /vol/opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini And /vol is the EBS volume that persist across runs.
Normally when you edit a softlink based file, the file in the destination gets edited. In the sequence you have outlined, the edits must have been reflected in the /vol/opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini

I guess you might have issued a few more Unix commands for backing up the orginal OpenSim.ini file. Like for eg.,
mv /opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini /opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini.0
And then vi /opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini
Did your edits and saved.

This will save in /opt/opensim which is not persistent across runs( That is how AWS ec2 works!) And on the next run, the default links will point to the unchanged /vol/opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini

To cut a long story short, if you wish to backup, backup in /vol. And do not overwrite softlinks.

If above scenario is not the case, please let me know, I will investigate further.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on January 13, 2009 06:46 to the question "How do I upgrade?" in Sim-OnDemand:

BTW, To transition from OpenSim 0.5.8 based old version to OpenSim 0.6.1 based new version, all intermediate versions( 0.5.9, and 0.6.0 ) are to be installed and each version of OpenSim server run at least once. Running the server upgrades the content of the database tables. ( http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Upgrading)
I have a manual, semi-automated process ready. If any of the existing ( OpenSim 0.5.8) users are keen to upgrade from their 0.5.8 servers please get in touch with me via email labsji at gmail dot com.
You will have to run the old and new server and provide me access to them so that I can execute the scripts in the right sequence.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on January 13, 2009 06:06 to the question "How do I upgrade?" in Sim-OnDemand:

Dear steveg100,
In your Sim-OnDemand subscription page( https://aws-portal.amazon.com/gp/aws/...) There will be a 'Go To Application' link. There you will be able to download.
Or you can go directly and download from here: http://simondemand.ec29.com/simond.ht...
Note that the launcher works properly only when you have an active subscription to Sim-OnDemand.

-Balaji S.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on January 11, 2009 21:31 to the question "How do I upgrade?" in Sim-OnDemand:

Dear steveg100,
I have attempted upgrading as per http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Upgrading But so far I was not successful. I will update here when I'm successful.
Here is the approach:
List of files/dir to be copied from old server:
/opt/opensim/mysql_connection.ini
/opt/opensim/OpenSim.ini
/opt/opensim/Regions/default.xml

/vol/mysql/data/opensim58/ [ To be copied when OpenSim and mysql is shutdown - issue 'shutdown' in OpenSim console; To shutdown mysql use command: mysqladmin shutdown ]

A new server is to be started latest Sim-OnDemand launcher. OpenSim server is to be shutdown, mysql is to be shutdown. Copy the files/directories from old server. Make sure the ownership of files/dir does not change due to copy operation.[ possible if doing the copying as root, use chown to set the ownership as before]
Restart mysql using command(as root):
/vol/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &
Restart OpenSim server ( as simond. cmd: screen -r simond/Opensim ):
mono OpenSim.exe

Now Region Named OpenSim Test appears in the map. But Teleoport is not possible.
As said before, if I find a solution. I will post.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan set one of Balaji Sowmyanarayanan's replies as an official response to "over - charging and software problem or just me not knowing something:((((" in Sim-OnDemand

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on January 11, 2009 06:32 to the question "over - charging and software problem or just me not knowing something:((((" in Sim-OnDemand:

Dear david, soprandi,
The main reason for runaway instance is the users inadvertently forgetting to pause *all* the servers they have fired up. Multiple server are typically activated by making copies of the Sim-OnDemand launcher application in different folders. In the (now)old version, there is no feedback mechanism to warn about other active instances. Hence there is a possibility of a forgotten runnaway instance.
New version of Sim-OnDemand is out. The new launcher application gives feedback on the number of ec2 instances alive. This I believe will solve the runnaway instance and the resultant over charging problem. Also Amazon has released the online ec2 console: http://console.aws.amazon.com which will be handy for monitoring and closing down (runaway) instances if any[ Eliminating the need for installing, configuring Elastic Fox].
Thanks for your patience and feedback.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on January 08, 2009 14:02 to the question "over - charging and software problem or just me not knowing something:((((" in Sim-OnDemand:

Dear soprandi,
Very sorry to hear that you missed the runaway instance. If you have downloaded and installed multiple copies of Sim-OnDemand, you need to check with each of your install, if it is shutdown.
A better way of checking will be installing elasticfox. Enter your AWS credentials in elastic fox. In the tab named AMIs and Instances( this is the one that is visible by default) will list instances under Your Instances. Select the running instance, then press the red power button icon. It will ask for confirmation and will terminate the instance.
For other users here is a tip: keep a watch on your AWS usage by checking http://aws-portal.amazon.com/gp/aws/d...
regularly. It is updated an accurate within few hours.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on January 06, 2009 06:36 to the question "Any step by step tutorials how to set this up?" in Sim-OnDemand:

Dear kennyj,
If you are able to Start and Pause, it means that the launcher application is fully functional. There is no further setup necessary.
When the Sim-OnDemand server is running, you must be able log on to the server using the Test User login and test as password.
Can you send a screen shot or give more details of the exact error?
Also for SSH instructions, if you can specify your Platform( Windows, mac, Linux etc) it will be easy to give instructions.
The next version with new improved features and hopefully helpful instructions will be out soon. Meanwhile feel free to contact me via labsji at gmail dot com for personalized assistance!
-Balaji S.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan replied on January 03, 2009 19:42 to the question "Problem running screens" in Sim-OnDemand:

Dear steveg100,
Here are a few things about the inter relationship between Screen and the OpenSim server.
1)The first thing to know is, 'simond' is a username under which the Screen session and OpenSim server program(OpenSim.exe) is run. This is to avoid security risks associated with running OpenSim.exe as root. The Screen session is invoked to run in 'Multi-user' mode so that, when you login as root, you will be able to connect to the screen session using the command:
screen -r simond/Opensim

2) When you issue the command 'Shutdown' to the OpenSim.exe server console, the OpenSim.exe server program shutsdown. And you will be in bash prompt. Note that, only the OpenSim.exe program running under Screen is stopped. The Screen session is still alive. [ Unless you have ended the Screen session by an explicit exit command on the bash prompt]
If you wish to re-start the OpenSim server program. All you need to do is issue the command:
mono OpenSim.exe
from the bash prompt. ( still under the Screen session named simond/Opensim )

3) If you are logged in as root, the command to list Screen sessions by user 'simond' is:
screen -ls simond/

4) If by chance, you have terminated the Screen session ( named simond/Opensim), You can create a new screen session and run OpenSim.exe as follows. First ssh as root and issue the following commands:
screen
su - simond
cd /opt/opensim
mono OpenSim.exe

Note that the screen session is now run as root. And OpenSim.exe is still run as simond.

Let me know if it clarified things to you are made it more murky! [ I suspect the latter! - Ya it is bit complex]

-Balaji S.