Generate PFX file using OPENSSL on Windows

Had a situation where a client needed a PFX with password for a particular setup. This is something I have not done before, so here are the steps

Generate the key and the CSR 

Enter the password when requested. Please ensure you remember this.

Replace domain with your domain name for simplicity.

openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout domain.key -out domain.csr

Once validated, you have should have access to these in the package.

• The root cert files
• intermediate cert files
• the domain crt from the  TLS/SSL certificate provider.

Run the command to import the files, root, intermediate and domai. 

Note in some cases you will have 2 or more intermediate files, please combined into one file and call intermeidate.crt. Rename the "root" cert, rootca.crt. 

Generate the PFX

openssl pkcs12 -export -out domain.pfx -in rootca.crt -in intermediate.crt  -in domain.crt -inkey domain.key

You will now have the pfx file for use along with the password.

Possible Fix for BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO 75736e6a726e6c2e 500

 Today I woke up to this error on a Dell Precision 3541 Laptop. For some reason it was asking for the Bitlocker Key.

After entering the key, received the following error on boot up

BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO

After searching around I was advised to start here 

chkdsk C: /f /r /x

It did showed 1 bad file cluster that was fixed.

However, we  ran into another error. 

"unspecified error 75736e6a726e6c2e 500

Somewhere a user advised to simple run chkdsk C: /r  again.  (a user in reference #3)

That I did, and this time it ran without error and the issues was resolved.

The PC booted without any issue.

References

1. windows-10-bad-system-config-info
2. bad-system-config-info-windows-10-on-boot-up
3. An unspecified error occurred (75736e6a726e6c2e 500)

Audio Noise Removal

Many times in record clips we end up with unwanted background noise. Recently faced with the situation, I needed to clean up some audio and as usual I went to Google looking for tools.

These are what I found and my thoughts

Free

• Audio Denoise - https://audiodenoise.com/
• Aspose  - https://products.aspose.app/audio/remove-background-noise

Paid with Free Trials

• Adobe Enhance - https://podcast.adobe.com/enhance
  Good with Limitations
• Media AI - Noise Reducer - https://noisereducer.media.io
  
  
• MyEdit Audio Tools - https://myedit.online/en/audio-editor
  Has some interesting tools.

Results 

Overall, I found Audio Denoise to be the best overall and in the free category. In the paid category Adobe 

MYSQL Error: Lock wait timeout exceeded; try restarting transaction

I have not seen this error in a while with MySQL replication, " Lock wait timeout exceeded; try restarting transaction"

Check the slave status

 show slave status \G; and noticed the following.

Slave_IO_Running: Yes

  Slave_SQL_Running: No 

 Slave_IO_Running: Yes

  Slave_SQL_Running: No

   Last_SQL_Errno: 1205

   Last_SQL_Error: Lock wait timeout exceeded; try restarting transaction

Solution

Stopped the Slave

stop slave;

Restarted the Slave

start slave;

Check the status and all is well

MYSQL and New IP for Master in Replication

There comes a time you might need to change the IP of a Master in a MySQL Replication setup. The steps are fairly simple.

You will need to know the IP of the Master.

Important!

When you’re using CHANGE MASTER TO to set start position for the slave you’re specifying the position for SQL thread and so you should use Relay_Master_Log_File:Exec_Master_Log_Pos. 

Otherwise, you’re going to ruin your replication.

SSH into the MYSQL SLAVE and run SHOW SLAVE STATUS

Slave_IO_State: Reconnecting after a failed master event read
Master_Host: 10.0.0.1
Master_User: replicate
Master_Port: 3306
Connect_Retry: 60
Master_Log_File: binlog.002933
Read_Master_Log_Pos: 832187423
Relay_Log_File: mysql-relay-bin.000230
Relay_Log_Pos: 832187707
Relay_Master_Log_File: binlog.002933
Slave_IO_Running: Connecting
Slave_SQL_Running: Yes
Replicate_Do_DB:
Replicate_Ignore_DB:
Replicate_Do_Table:
Replicate_Ignore_Table:
Replicate_Wild_Do_Table:
Replicate_Wild_Ignore_Table:
Last_Errno: 0
Last_Error:
Skip_Counter: 0
Exec_Master_Log_Pos: 832187423
Relay_Log_Space: 832188044
Until_Condition: None
Until_Log_File:
Until_Log_Pos: 0
Master_SSL_Allowed: No
Master_SSL_CA_File:
Master_SSL_CA_Path:
Master_SSL_Cert:
Master_SSL_Cipher:
Master_SSL_Key:
Seconds_Behind_Master: NULL
Master_SSL_Verify_Server_Cert: No
Last_IO_Errno: 2003
Last_IO_Error: error reconnecting to master 'replicate@10.0.0.1:3306' - retry-time: 60  maximum-retries: 86400  message: Can't connect to MySQL server on '10.0.0.1' (110 "Connection timed out")
Last_SQL_Errno: 0
 Last_SQL_Error:
Replicate_Ignore_Server_Ids:
Master_Server_Id: 1
Master_SSL_Crl:
Master_SSL_Crlpath:
Using_Gtid: No
Gtid_IO_Pos:

Look for the values

• Read_Master_Log_Pos:
• Exec_Master_Log_Pos:

These should be the same, note them and note Relay_Master_Log_File

• Exec_Master_Log_Pos: 832187423
• Relay_Master_Log_File: binlog.002933

SSH into SLAVE and run SHOW SLAVE STATUS

STOP SLAVE
CHANGE MASTER TO MASTER_HOST='xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx', MASTER_LOG_FILE='binlog.002933', MASTER_LOG_POS=832187423;
START SLAVE
SHOW SLAVE STATUS

Reference

• How the Slave Status Relates to Change Master
• MYSQL Replication and IP Address Change

Paypal

1.  Log in to your PayPal account at https://www.paypal.com. The My Account Overview page appears. 
2. Click the Profile subtab. 
3. The Profile Summary page appears. Click the My Selling Tools link in the left column. 
4. Under the Selling Online section, click the Update link in the row for Website Preferences. The Website Payment Preferences page appears 
5. Under Auto Return for Website Payments, click the On radio button to enable Auto Return. 
6. In the Return URL field, enter the URL to which you want your payers redirected after they complete their payments. 

NOTE: PayPal checks the Return URL that you enter.
 If the URL is not properly formatted or cannot be validated, PayPal will not activate Auto Return.

Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click the Save button.

References

• setting-paypal-return-url-and-making-it-auto-return
• Multiple Return URls
• Paypal Standards

Sleeping MySQL threads

Saw this interesting script on how to deal with sleeping MySQL connections. From the beginning I would say this should only be used as a temporary solution until you can fix the real issue.

I have modified the original script somewhat.

$link = @ mysql_connect('localhost', 'xxxx', 'xxxxxxxx');
if (!$link) {
    die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully'."\n";

$result = mysql_query("SHOW processlist");
while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
if ($myrow['Command'] == "Sleep" && $myrow['Time']>0 && $myrow['User']!="root") {
//if ($myrow['Command'] == "Sleep" && $myrow['Time']>0) {
//mysql_query("KILL {$myrow['Id']}");
echo  $myrow['User']." ".$myrow['Command']." ".$myrow['Time']." ".$myrow['State']."\n";
if($myrow['Time']>20){
//mysql_query("KILL {$myrow['Id']}");
echo "Killed process id: ". $myrow['Id']."\n";
}
}
}
mysql_close($link);
?>

For starters you can see all the sleeping MySQL processes by running the command

show processlist

You will need to look out for all the threads with state being 'sleep. MySQL 5.1.7 allows filtering  For e.g. you can find  sleeping processes running over 5 seconds using the command below.

SELECT user, time, state, info FROM information_schema.processlist WHERE command = 'Sleep' AND time >5 ORDER BY time DESC, id;

What causes

Most sleeping MySQL connections are caused by queries initiated client side that not be properly closed on the clients side. Most times these are cleaned up by wait_timeout variable. Sometimes depending on the query a sleeping connection can lock up a table (MyISAM) or row(InnoDB) and lead to problems especially to the timeouts are high and the number of connections waiting on the locked resource,

References

• MySql Proccesslist filled with “Sleep” Entries leading to “Too many Connections”?
• Show MySQL process list without sleeping connections