It really amazes me that people actually take the time to enter comments into a blog (especially my blog) just to get their website to have links to it in the search engines! But, just like spam, I have to believe it works or people wouldn't be doing it.

Anyway, when I get some time, I'll upgrade BlogCFC to the new version which allows comment moderation. I just have done so much tweaking to this version that it will take some time to replicate all of them.

Ken.

When running Plesk 8.3 (Windows) with Symantec AntiVirus (SAV) 10.2 (on Windows 2003 R2 SP2), you will receive the following error message whenever you delete a domain: "Error: Unable to remove domains: Problems occured while removing domains: Unable to remove hosting: Unable to delete system user: SysUser->systemRemove() failed: usermng failed: Unable to open process token: (5) Access is denied."

The solution is to disable process-level tamper protection in SAV by: Start > All Programs > Symantec Client Security > Symantec Antivirus > expand Configure > Tamper Protection > Uncheck Protection: Processes.

Hopefully someone else won't need to waste as much time as I did fully reinstalling the server using an iterative process to find this solution.

On a side note, Parallels (company that makes Plesk) was entirely UNHELPFUL and UNCOOPERATIVE! After waiting 3 days for a response, I was told that my Windows was corrupt and to wipe it and start over. Only after my own diagnosis was I able to identify this issue. I don't know who to blame here because SAV shouldn't have been so aggressive toward Plesk's code, but Plesk should have ensured SAV didn't identify their code as an attack. But I do know that Parallels could have treated me MUCH better and been much more helpful.

I tried to identify a competitive product to buy instead, after this experience, but it appears Parallels has bought the entire market! Amazing!

One final note: If you're thinking of using Ensim Pro (as we were), don't bother. It is truly an old and inferior product as compared to Plesk. There have been no real updates to it in 5 years! While they market it as a single-server version, it is not even close. My sales person at Parallels, Terry Henretty, even told me that they never sell Ensim Pro, that they just keep it around for the current users and that everyone ends up buying Plesk. But for 134% MORE money, I'd call it bait-and-switch. When I contacted three Parallels executives, Jack Zubarev, Serguei Beloussov, and Kurt Daniel about this tactic, I received no reply whatsoever. Be warned!

RAID 6 provides 2 parity drives, so any 2 drives can fail simultaneously without taking down the array/server. I used to run RAID 5 with a hot spare, so this is sort of like having a live hot-spare. With a 5-drive RAID 6 array, you get 3x the space of one drive and can take 2 hits.

Reports I read recently indicate that much more common is double drive failure in RAID 5, because the drives are now so large that it takes a long time to rebuild the array (sometimes 12-24 hrs!) and because during this time the other drives are so heavily taxed that a waring drive might fail during the rebuild of the array.

In addition, I have heard that while RAID 5 costs approx 7-12% write overhead, RAID 6 can cost 15-30% write overhead. Of course, reading has no overhead performance cost.

I'm wondering if anyone has used RAID 6 and can share their experience, specifically using a PERC 6/i w/ 256 MB RAID controller.

Thanks! Ken.

One of the key components of the program is to drink a lot of water. To ensure I do this, I set up 2 rules for myself:

• As soon as I get in to the office, I completely fill up a mug with water and keep it in front of me. By doing this, I find myself just picking it up and drinking. I even seem to be more aware of my thirst than ever before.
• Whenever I have to go to the bathroom (which happens more when drinking water!) I must first completely finish and fill my mug again. Usually, there's only a bit left, so drinking it down is no problem. By going to the water cooler first and putting the mug back on my desk, before using the restroom, it's always there again for me.

By using these rules, I often drink 6-12 mugs of water a day, with each mug being about 1.5 cups! This is really amazing for me, because I often wouldn't even drink anything during my work day. By doing this, I feel better, think more clearly, have more energy, and support my weight loss by actively engaging in the Weight Watcher's water drinking component of the program.

Hope this helps someone. Please let me know if you find these rules helpful for you!