Posts Tagged ‘long time’

Saint Reverend Martyr Jacob Kosturski and his two disciples Deacon Jacob and Monk Dionysius † November 1, 1520

Tuesday, November 1st, 2022

Icon_of_Jacob_of_Kostur-and-his-2-desciples-Yakov-and-Dyonisios_19_Century

Holy Reverend Martyr Yakov ( Jacob) was born in one of the Bulgarian village of the Kostur region in ex-Bulgarian Macedonia in the distance year 1520.
His parents names were Martin and Parascheva.

He was an experienced cattle breeder and through hard work became quite rich, but his own brother, out of envy, slandered him to the Turkish authorities for hearing the false rumor he allegedly found a hidden fortune. Saint Yakov is a saint of the pleiad of great Bulgarian saint martyrs, sadly little known today in Bulgaria today.

Therefore, Jacob sold his sheep, left his native land and went to Constantinople, where he became even richer.
Once he heard a Turk praising Christianity and telling how his wife was cured of madness through the prayers of Saint Patriarch Niphont.
Yakov was very interested in this and went to the patriarch.

The conversation they had so touched his soul that he gave away all his wealth and retired to the Agios Oros Holy Mount Athos monk republic.

There he revived the deserted Iverion old skete "Saint John the Forerunner" and lived under the guidance of a certain elder Ignatius.

Jacob labored so diligently and reached such a high spiritual perfection that he was honored with heavenly revelations: he was shown the abodes of heaven and the dungeons of hell, he began to penetrate the secret feelings and thoughts of his visitors, e.g. received by God the gift of clairvoyance.

The Lord also honored him with the gift of miracles: at his prayer, spring water flowed into the renewed hermitage, which has been called "the agiasma of Saint Jacob" ever since; twice the jar of oil filled itself when run empty by his prayers;
With his prayer he healed a Vatopedian novice monk who was seized with rabies; once rain fell from heaven in a time of drought; another time watered thirsty travelers with the stream that came out of earth but his prayers springed waters.

Desiring to give himself up to complete solitude, he and six of his disciples retired to the inner part of Mount Athos, where he spent days and nights in complete silence except on Saturdays and Sundays.

Finally he wished to go into the world to preach piety. His disciples followed him.
Everywhere the people flocked to receive his blessing and listen to his sermon.
He also performed many miracles with his prayers: he healed the insane, handed over to Satan an unrepentant Christian sorcerer to weaken the flesh (1 Cor. 5:5).

But the local Bishop Akakios, out of envy, reported to the Turkish authorities that this old foreigner was gathering a lot of people around him and could cause some rebellion.
The monk foresaw the rising danger and spent the whole night in prayer and calmly waited for the divine liturgy to end.

Early in the morning, 18 Turkish soldiers surrounded the church and captured the elder Jacob with two of his disciples – deacon Jacob and monk Dionysius (some other Biographers speak about 6 desciples).

The Turkish bey (local place governor) investigated the reverend for a long time, sometimes with exhortations, sometimes with threats, sometimes with torture, but finding no guilt in him, threw him into prison for 40 days, until he reported him to the High Gate (highest authority in the Ottoman Turkish Empire) and received an order from there.

After some time, an order came from Sultan Selim to bring the saint and his disciples to Edirne (Odrin), so that he himself could judge them.

The Sultan strictly investigated them. Venerable Jacob calmly spoke only the truth.

The Sultan ordered that he and his disciples be beaten with whips.
Not a word, not a groan was heard from the reverend.
Then they tightened Yakov and desciples deacon Jacob and Dyonisios heads with screws.

The saint did not suffer from this torture, but one of Deacon Jacob's eyes popped out of orbit.
In the meantime, the Sultan learned that the old martyr was prophetically predicting the future and jokingly asked St. James: "How many more years will I live?"
The reverend replied, "Nine months!"

holy-martyrs-Iakovos_Kastorias_Kosturski-and-his-desciples-Jacob-and-Dyonisios

His prophecy came true.
In order to find a sufficient reason to kill the innocent, the embittered sultan sent one of his pashas (bashaw – higher rank in the Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, generals, dignitaries, and others ) to them in prison to ask them questions about Christ and Muhammad.

Venerable Jacob boldly confessed that only Jesus Christ is the true God, which enraged the sultan and served as an occasion for new cruel tortures:

they tore apart the bodies of the martyrs, broke their jaws, cut thongs from their skins and then watered their wounds with vinegar and salt, they beat them cruelly with whips, burned their thighs with fire.

They were tortured in this way for 17 days. At last the Sultan sentenced them to be hanged (perhaps because he knew about Jude the Escariot and wanted to mock the saints).

Before the sentence was carried out, Venerable Jacob stood among his disciples and invited them to pray for the world and for the Church, thanking the Lord for honoring them to inherit the kingdom of heaven.

All three fell on the ground and worshiped God.

Then Venerable Jacob took out three hidden particles from the life-giving Mysteries of Christ and with them he gave communion to himself and his disciples.

Then he raised his hands and eyes to heaven and cried out with a loud voice:

"Lord, into Your hands I commit my spirit!" And immediately, to everyone's surprise, quietly died.

This happened on November 1st, year 1520 A.D.
Some Christians bought their honest holy relics and buried them with honors.
Over their tombs on Sundays and holidays light appeared and miracles took place.

Later, their holy relics were transferred to Mount Athos by christians, and took them three kilomers away from their in the village of Albani and laid them in three separate graves.

Over their graves on Sundays and holidays, light appeared and miracles took place!

Later from there to the area of ​​Galatista near Thessaloniki, where the rest of the monk's students settled in the monastery "St. Anastasia (Deliverer from Potions) Uzorushitelnica".

Some Christians bought their holy relics and took them three kilometers away from their homeland, in the village of Albani, and laid them in three separate graves. Over their graves on Sundays and holidays, light appeared and miracles took place. Later, their relics were transferred to Mount Athos, and from there to the village of Galatista, Thessaloniki. There was a small monastery "St. Athanasius Uzorushitelnica", which the rest of the disciples of the martyr Jacob revived. The memory of the martyrs is celebrated on November 1.

There is a special service for the Reverend Martyr Jacob and his disciples, which is served on the day of their memory in the Iverion skete "Saint John the Forerunner" on Mount Athos and in the monastery "Saint Anastasia".

The Biography compiled out of:

1. © Lives of the Saints. Synodal Publishing House, Sofia, 1991, edited by Parthenius, Bishop of Levkia and Archimandrite Dr. Athanasius (Bonchev).
2.
Hristo Temelski From the collection Saints and spiritual leaders from Macedonia

Create Linux High Availability Load Balancer Cluster with Keepalived and Haproxy on Linux

Tuesday, March 15th, 2022

keepalived-logo-linux

Configuring a Linux HA (High Availibiltiy) for an Application with Haproxy is already used across many Websites on the Internet and serious corporations that has a crucial infrastructure has long time
adopted and used keepalived to provide High Availability Application level Clustering.
Usually companies choose to use HA Clusters with Haproxy with Pacemaker and Corosync cluster tools.
However one common used alternative solution if you don't have the oportunity to bring up a High availability cluster with Pacemaker / Corosync / pcs (Pacemaker Configuration System) due to fact machines you need to configure the cluster on are not Physical but VMWare Virtual Machines which couldn't not have configured a separate Admin Lans and Heartbeat Lan as we usually do on a Pacemaker Cluster due to the fact the 5 Ethernet LAN Card Interfaces of the VMWare Hypervisor hosts are configured as a BOND (e.g. all the incoming traffic to the VMWare vSphere  HV is received on one Virtual Bond interface).

I assume you have 2 separate vSphere Hypervisor Physical Machines in separate Racks and separate switches hosting the two VMs.
For the article, I'll call the two brand new brought Virtual Machines with some installation automation software such as Terraform or Ansible – vm-server1 and vm-server2 which would have configured some recent version of Linux.

In that scenario to have a High Avaiability for the VMs on Application level and assure at least one of the two is available at a time if one gets broken due toe malfunction of the HV, a Network connectivity issue, or because the VM OS has crashed.
Then one relatively easily solution is to use keepalived and configurea single High Availability Virtual IP (VIP) Address, i.e. 10.10.10.1, which would float among two VMs using keepalived so at a time at least one of the two VMs would be reachable on the Network.

haproxy_keepalived-vip-ip-diagram-linux

Having a VIP IP is quite a common solution in corporate world, as it makes it pretty easy to add F5 Load Balancer in front of the keepalived cluster setup to have a 3 Level of security isolation, which usually consists of:

1. Physical (access to the hardware or Virtualization hosts)
2. System Access (The mechanism to access the system login credetials users / passes, proxies, entry servers leading to DMZ-ed network)
3. Application Level (access to different programs behind L2 and data based on the specific identity of the individual user,
special Secondary UserID,  Factor authentication, biometrics etc.)

 

1. Install keepalived and haproxy on machines

Depending on the type of Linux OS:

On both machines
 

[root@server1:~]# yum install -y keepalived haproxy

If you have to install keepalived / haproxy on Debian / Ubuntu and other Deb based Linux distros

[root@server1:~]# apt install keepalived haproxy –yes

2. Configure haproxy (haproxy.cfg) on both server1 and server2

 

Create some /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg configuration

 

[root@server1:~]vim /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg

#———————————————————————
# Global settings
#———————————————————————
global
    log          127.0.0.1 local6 debug
    chroot       /var/lib/haproxy
    pidfile      /run/haproxy.pid
    stats socket /var/lib/haproxy/haproxy.sock mode 0600 level admin 
    maxconn      4000
    user         haproxy
    group        haproxy
    daemon
    #debug
    #quiet

#———————————————————————
# common defaults that all the 'listen' and 'backend' sections will
# use if not designated in their block
#———————————————————————
defaults
    mode        tcp
    log         global
#    option      dontlognull
#    option      httpclose
#    option      httplog
#    option      forwardfor
    option      redispatch
    option      log-health-checks
    timeout connect 10000 # default 10 second time out if a backend is not found
    timeout client 300000
    timeout server 300000
    maxconn     60000
    retries     3

#———————————————————————
# round robin balancing between the various backends
#———————————————————————

listen FRONTEND_APPNAME1
        bind 10.10.10.1:15000
        mode tcp
        option tcplog
#        #log global
        log-format [%t]\ %ci:%cp\ %bi:%bp\ %b/%s:%sp\ %Tw/%Tc/%Tt\ %B\ %ts\ %ac/%fc/%bc/%sc/%rc\ %sq/%bq
        balance roundrobin
        timeout client 350000
        timeout server 350000
        timeout connect 35000
        server app-server1 10.10.10.55:30000 weight 1 check port 68888
        server app-server2 10.10.10.55:30000 weight 2 check port 68888

listen FRONTEND_APPNAME2
        bind 10.10.10.1:15000
        mode tcp
        option tcplog
        #log global
        log-format [%t]\ %ci:%cp\ %bi:%bp\ %b/%s:%sp\ %Tw/%Tc/%Tt\ %B\ %ts\ %ac/%fc/%bc/%sc/%rc\ %sq/%bq
        balance roundrobin
        timeout client 350000
        timeout server 350000
        timeout connect 35000
        server app-server1 10.10.10.55:30000 weight 5
        server app-server2 10.10.10.55:30000 weight 5 

 

You can get a copy of above haproxy.cfg configuration here.
Once configured roll it on.

[root@server1:~]#  systemctl start haproxy
 
[root@server1:~]# ps -ef|grep -i hapro
root      285047       1  0 Mar07 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/haproxy -Ws -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg -p /run/haproxy.pid
haproxy   285050  285047  0 Mar07 ?        00:00:26 /usr/sbin/haproxy -Ws -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg -p /run/haproxy.pid

Bring up the haproxy also on server2 machine, by placing same configuration and starting up the proxy.
 

[root@server1:~]vim /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg


 

3. Configure keepalived on both servers

We'll be configuring 2 nodes with keepalived even though if necessery this can be easily extended and you can add more nodes.
First we make a copy of the original or existing server configuration keepalived.conf (just in case we need it later on or if you already had something other configured manually by someone – that could be so on inherited servers by other sysadmin)
 

[root@server1:~]# mv /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf.orig
[root@server2:~]# mv /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf.orig

a. Configure keepalived to serve as a MASTER Node

 

[root@server1:~]# vim /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf

Master Node
global_defs {
  router_id server1-fqdn # The hostname of this host.
  
  enable_script_security
  # Synchro of the state of the connections between the LBs on the eth0 interface
   lvs_sync_daemon eth0
 
notification_email {
        linuxadmin@notify-domain.com     # Email address for notifications 
    }
 notification_email_from keepalived@server1-fqdn        # The from address for the notifications
    smtp_server 127.0.0.1                       # SMTP server address
    smtp_connect_timeout 15
}

vrrp_script haproxy {
  script "killall -0 haproxy"
  interval 2
  weight 2
  user root
}

vrrp_instance LB_VIP_QA {
  virtual_router_id 50
  advert_int 1
  priority 51

  state MASTER
  interface eth0
  smtp_alert          # Enable Notifications Via Email
  
  authentication {
              auth_type PASS
              auth_pass testp141

    }
### Commented because running on VM on VMWare
##    unicast_src_ip 10.44.192.134 # Private IP address of master
##    unicast_peer {
##        10.44.192.135           # Private IP address of the backup haproxy
##   }

#        }
# master node with higher priority preferred node for Virtual IP if both keepalived up
###  priority 51
###  state MASTER
###  interface eth0
  virtual_ipaddress {
     10.10.10.1 dev eth0 # The virtual IP address that will be shared between MASTER and BACKUP
  }
  track_script {
      haproxy
  }
}

 

 To dowload a copy of the Master keepalived.conf configuration click here

Below are few interesting configuration variables, worthy to mention few words on, most of them are obvious by their names but for more clarity I'll also give a list here with short description of each:

 

  • vrrp_instance – defines an individual instance of the VRRP protocol running on an interface.
  • state – defines the initial state that the instance should start in (i.e. MASTER / SLAVE )state –
  • interface – defines the interface that VRRP runs on.
  • virtual_router_id – should be unique value per Keepalived Node (otherwise slave master won't function properly)
  • priority – the advertised priority, the higher the priority the more important the respective configured keepalived node is.
  • advert_int – specifies the frequency that advertisements are sent at (1 second, in this case).
  • authentication – specifies the information necessary for servers participating in VRRP to authenticate with each other. In this case, a simple password is defined.
    only the first eight (8) characters will be used as described in  to note is Important thing
    man keepalived.conf – keepalived.conf variables documentation !!! Nota Bene !!! – Password set on each node should match for nodes to be able to authenticate !
  • virtual_ipaddress – defines the IP addresses (there can be multiple) that VRRP is responsible for.
  • notification_email – the notification email to which Alerts will be send in case if keepalived on 1 node is stopped (e.g. the MASTER node switches from host 1 to 2)
  • notification_email_from – email address sender from where email will originte
    ! NB ! In order for notification_email to be working you need to have configured MTA or Mail Relay (set to local MTA) to another SMTP – e.g. have configured something like Postfix, Qmail or Postfix

b. Configure keepalived to serve as a SLAVE Node

[root@server1:~]vim /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf
 

#Slave keepalived
global_defs {
  router_id server2-fqdn # The hostname of this host!

  enable_script_security
  # Synchro of the state of the connections between the LBs on the eth0 interface
  lvs_sync_daemon eth0
 
notification_email {
        linuxadmin@notify-host.com     # Email address for notifications
    }
 notification_email_from keepalived@server2-fqdn        # The from address for the notifications
    smtp_server 127.0.0.1                       # SMTP server address
    smtp_connect_timeout 15
}

vrrp_script haproxy {
  script "killall -0 haproxy"
  interval 2
  weight 2
  user root
}

vrrp_instance LB_VIP_QA {
  virtual_router_id 50
  advert_int 1
  priority 50

  state BACKUP
  interface eth0
  smtp_alert          # Enable Notifications Via Email

authentication {
              auth_type PASS
              auth_pass testp141
}
### Commented because running on VM on VMWare    
##    unicast_src_ip 10.10.192.135 # Private IP address of master
##    unicast_peer {
##        10.10.192.134         # Private IP address of the backup haproxy
##   }

###  priority 50
###  state BACKUP
###  interface eth0
  virtual_ipaddress {
     10.10.10.1 dev eth0 # The virtual IP address that will be shared betwee MASTER and BACKUP.
  }
  track_script {
    haproxy
  }
}

 

Download the keepalived.conf slave config here

 

c. Set required sysctl parameters for haproxy to work as expected
 

[root@server1:~]vim /etc/sysctl.conf
#Haproxy config
# haproxy
net.core.somaxconn=65535
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1024 65000
net.ipv4.ip_nonlocal_bind = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_tw_reuse = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 10240
net.ipv4.tcp_max_tw_buckets = 400000
net.ipv4.tcp_max_orphans = 60000
net.ipv4.tcp_synack_retries = 3

4. Test Keepalived keepalived.conf configuration syntax is OK

 

[root@server1:~]keepalived –config-test
(/etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf: Line 7) Unknown keyword 'lvs_sync_daemon_interface'
(/etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf: Line 21) Unable to set default user for vrrp script haproxy – removing
(/etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf: Line 31) (LB_VIP_QA) Specifying lvs_sync_daemon_interface against a vrrp is deprecated.
(/etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf: Line 31)              Please use global lvs_sync_daemon
(/etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf: Line 35) Truncating auth_pass to 8 characters
(/etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf: Line 50) (LB_VIP_QA) track script haproxy not found, ignoring…

I've experienced this error because first time I've configured keepalived, I did not mention the user with which the vrrp script haproxy should run,
in prior versions of keepalived, leaving the field empty did automatically assumed you have the user with which the vrrp script runs to be set to root
as of RHELs keepalived-2.1.5-6.el8.x86_64, i've been using however this is no longer so and thus in prior configuration as you can see I've
set the user in respective section to root.
The error Unknown keyword 'lvs_sync_daemon_interface'
is also easily fixable by just substituting the lvs_sync_daemon_interface and lvs_sync_daemon and reloading
keepalived etc.

Once keepalived is started and you can see the process on both machines running in process list.

[root@server1:~]ps -ef |grep -i keepalived
root     1190884       1  0 18:50 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/keepalived -D
root     1190885 1190884  0 18:50 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/keepalived -D

Next step is to check the keepalived statuses as well as /var/log/keepalived.log

If everything is configured as expected on both keepalived on first node you should see one is master and one is slave either in the status or the log

[root@server1:~]#systemctl restart keepalived

 

[root@server1:~]systemctl status keepalived|grep -i state
Mar 14 18:59:02 server1-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[1192003]: (LB_VIP_QA) Entering MASTER STATE

[root@server1:~]systemctl status keepalived

● keepalived.service – LVS and VRRP High Availability Monitor
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/keepalived.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: inactive (dead) since Mon 2022-03-14 18:15:51 CET; 32min ago
  Process: 1187587 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/keepalived $KEEPALIVED_OPTIONS (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 1187589 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Mar 14 18:15:04 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[1187590]: Sending gratuitous ARP on eth0 for 10.44.192.142
Mar 14 18:15:50 server1lb-fqdn systemd[1]: Stopping LVS and VRRP High Availability Monitor…
Mar 14 18:15:50 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived[1187589]: Stopping
Mar 14 18:15:50 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[1187590]: (LB_VIP_QA) sent 0 priority
Mar 14 18:15:50 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[1187590]: (LB_VIP_QA) removing VIPs.
Mar 14 18:15:51 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[1187590]: Stopped – used 0.002007 user time, 0.016303 system time
Mar 14 18:15:51 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived[1187589]: CPU usage (self/children) user: 0.000000/0.038715 system: 0.001061/0.166434
Mar 14 18:15:51 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived[1187589]: Stopped Keepalived v2.1.5 (07/13,2020)
Mar 14 18:15:51 server1lb-fqdn systemd[1]: keepalived.service: Succeeded.
Mar 14 18:15:51 server1lb-fqdn systemd[1]: Stopped LVS and VRRP High Availability Monitor

[root@server2:~]systemctl status keepalived|grep -i state
Mar 14 18:59:02 server2-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[297368]: (LB_VIP_QA) Entering BACKUP STATE

[root@server1:~]# grep -i state /var/log/keepalived.log
Mar 14 18:59:02 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[297368]: (LB_VIP_QA) Entering MASTER STATE
 

a. Fix Keepalived SECURITY VIOLATION – scripts are being executed but script_security not enabled.
 

When configurating keepalived for a first time we have faced the following strange error inside keepalived status inside keepalived.log 
 

Feb 23 14:28:41 server1 Keepalived_vrrp[945478]: SECURITY VIOLATION – scripts are being executed but script_security not enabled.

 

To fix keepalived SECURITY VIOLATION error:

Add to /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf on the keepalived node hosts
inside 

global_defs {}

After chunk
 

enable_script_security

include

# Synchro of the state of the connections between the LBs on the eth0 interface
  lvs_sync_daemon_interface eth0

 

5. Prepare rsyslog configuration and Inlcude additional keepalived options
to force keepalived log into /var/log/keepalived.log

To force keepalived log into /var/log/keepalived.log on RHEL 8 / CentOS and other Redhat Package Manager (RPM) Linux distributions

[root@server1:~]# vim /etc/rsyslog.d/48_keepalived.conf

#2022/02/02: HAProxy logs to local6, save the messages
local7.*                                                /var/log/keepalived.log
if ($programname == 'Keepalived') then -/var/log/keepalived.log
if ($programname == 'Keepalived_vrrp') then -/var/log/keepalived.log
& stop

[root@server:~]# touch /var/log/keepalived.log

Reload rsyslog to load new config
 

[root@server:~]# systemctl restart rsyslog
[root@server:~]# systemctl status rsyslog

 

rsyslog.service – System Logging Service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/rsyslog.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
  Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/rsyslog.service.d
           └─rsyslog-service.conf
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2022-03-07 13:34:38 CET; 1 weeks 0 days ago
     Docs: man:rsyslogd(8)

           https://www.rsyslog.com/doc/
 Main PID: 269574 (rsyslogd)
    Tasks: 6 (limit: 100914)
   Memory: 5.1M
   CGroup: /system.slice/rsyslog.service
           └─269574 /usr/sbin/rsyslogd -n

Mar 15 08:15:16 server1lb-fqdn rsyslogd[269574]: — MARK —
Mar 15 08:35:16 server1lb-fqdn rsyslogd[269574]: — MARK —
Mar 15 08:55:16 server1lb-fqdn rsyslogd[269574]: — MARK —

 

If once keepalived is loaded but you still have no log written inside /var/log/keepalived.log

[root@server1:~]# vim /etc/sysconfig/keepalived
 KEEPALIVED_OPTIONS="-D -S 7"

[root@server2:~]# vim /etc/sysconfig/keepalived
 KEEPALIVED_OPTIONS="-D -S 7"

[root@server1:~]# systemctl restart keepalived.service
[root@server1:~]#  systemctl status keepalived

● keepalived.service – LVS and VRRP High Availability Monitor
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/keepalived.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Thu 2022-02-24 12:12:20 CET; 2 weeks 4 days ago
 Main PID: 1030501 (keepalived)
    Tasks: 2 (limit: 100914)
   Memory: 1.8M
   CGroup: /system.slice/keepalived.service
           ├─1030501 /usr/sbin/keepalived -D
           └─1030502 /usr/sbin/keepalived -D

Warning: Journal has been rotated since unit was started. Log output is incomplete or unavailable.

[root@server2:~]# systemctl restart keepalived.service
[root@server2:~]# systemctl status keepalived

6. Monitoring VRRP traffic of the two keepaliveds with tcpdump
 

Once both keepalived are up and running a good thing is to check the VRRP protocol traffic keeps fluently on both machines.
Keepalived VRRP keeps communicating over the TCP / IP Port 112 thus you can simply snoop TCP tracffic on its protocol.
 

[root@server1:~]# tcpdump proto 112

tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on eth0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 262144 bytes
11:08:07.356187 IP server1lb-fqdn > vrrp.mcast.net: VRRPv2, Advertisement, vrid 50, prio 53, authtype simple, intvl 1s, length 20
11:08:08.356297 IP server1lb-fqdn > vrrp.mcast.net: VRRPv2, Advertisement, vrid 50, prio 53, authtype simple, intvl 1s, length 20
11:08:09.356408 IP server1lb-fqdn > vrrp.mcast.net: VRRPv2, Advertisement, vrid 50, prio 53, authtype simple, intvl 1s, length 20
11:08:10.356511 IP server1lb-fqdn > vrrp.mcast.net: VRRPv2, Advertisement, vrid 50, prio 53, authtype simple, intvl 1s, length 20
11:08:11.356655 IP server1lb-fqdn > vrrp.mcast.net: VRRPv2, Advertisement, vrid 50, prio 53, authtype simple, intvl 1s, length 20

[root@server2:~]# tcpdump proto 112

tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
​listening on eth0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 262144 bytes
11:08:07.356187 IP server1lb-fqdn > vrrp.mcast.net: VRRPv2, Advertisement, vrid 50, prio 53, authtype simple, intvl 1s, length 20
11:08:08.356297 IP server1lb-fqdn > vrrp.mcast.net: VRRPv2, Advertisement, vrid 50, prio 53, authtype simple, intvl 1s, length 20
11:08:09.356408 IP server1lb-fqdn > vrrp.mcast.net: VRRPv2, Advertisement, vrid 50, prio 53, authtype simple, intvl 1s, length 20
11:08:10.356511 IP server1lb-fqdn > vrrp.mcast.net: VRRPv2, Advertisement, vrid 50, prio 53, authtype simple, intvl 1s, length 20
11:08:11.356655 IP server1lb-fqdn > vrrp.mcast.net: VRRPv2, Advertisement, vrid 50, prio 53, authtype simple, intvl 1s, length 20

As you can see the VRRP traffic on the network is originating only from server1lb-fqdn, this is so because host server1lb-fqdn is the keepalived configured master node.

It is possible to spoof the password configured to authenticate between two nodes, thus if you're bringing up keepalived service cluster make sure your security is tight at best the machines should be in a special local LAN DMZ, do not configure DMZ on the internet !!! 🙂 Or if you eventually decide to configure keepalived in between remote hosts, make sure you somehow use encrypted VPN or SSH tunnels to tunnel the VRRP traffic.

[root@server1:~]tcpdump proto 112 -vv
tcpdump: listening on eth0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 262144 bytes
11:36:25.530772 IP (tos 0xc0, ttl 255, id 59838, offset 0, flags [none], proto VRRP (112), length 40)
    server1lb-fqdn > vrrp.mcast.net: vrrp server1lb-fqdn > vrrp.mcast.net: VRRPv2, Advertisement, vrid 50, prio 53, authtype simple, intvl 1s, length 20, addrs: VIPIP_QA auth "testp431"
11:36:26.530874 IP (tos 0xc0, ttl 255, id 59839, offset 0, flags [none], proto VRRP (112), length 40)
    server1lb-fqdn > vrrp.mcast.net: vrrp server1lb-fqdn > vrrp.mcast.net: VRRPv2, Advertisement, vrid 50, prio 53, authtype simple, intvl 1s, length 20, addrs: VIPIP_QA auth "testp431"

Lets also check what floating IP is configured on the machines:

[root@server1:~]# ip -brief address show
lo               UNKNOWN        127.0.0.1/8 
eth0             UP             10.10.10.5/26 10.10.10.1/32 

The 10.10.10.5 IP is the main IP set on LAN interface eth0, 10.10.10.1 is the floating IP which as you can see is currently set by keepalived to listen on first node.

[root@server2:~]# ip -brief address show |grep -i 10.10.10.1

An empty output is returned as floating IP is currently configured on server1

To double assure ourselves the IP is assigned on correct machine, lets ping it and check the IP assigned MAC  currently belongs to which machine.
 

[root@server2:~]# ping 10.10.10.1
PING 10.10.10.1 (10.10.10.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.10.10.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.526 ms
^C
— 10.10.10.1 ping statistics —
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.526/0.526/0.526/0.000 ms

[root@server2:~]# arp -an |grep -i 10.44.192.142
? (10.10.10.1) at 00:48:54:91:83:7d [ether] on eth0
[root@server2:~]# ip a s|grep -i 00:48:54:91:83:7d
[root@server2:~]# 

As you can see from below output MAC is not found in configured IPs on server2.
 

[root@server1-fqdn:~]# /sbin/ip a s|grep -i 00:48:54:91:83:7d -B1 -A1
 eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:48:54:91:83:7d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 10.10.10.1/26 brd 10.10.1.191 scope global noprefixroute eth0

Pretty much expected MAC is on keepalived node server1.

 

7. Testing keepalived on server1 and server2 maachines VIP floating IP really works
 

To test the overall configuration just created, you should stop keeaplived on the Master node and in meantime keep an eye on Slave node (server2), whether it can figure out the Master node is gone and switch its
state BACKUP to save MASTER. By changing the secondary (Slave) keepalived to master the floating IP: 10.10.10.1 will be brought up by the scripts on server2.

Lets assume that something went wrong with server1 VM host, for example the machine crashed due to service overload, DDoS or simply a kernel bug or whatever reason.
To simulate that we simply have to stop keepalived, then the broadcasted information on VRRP TCP/IP proto port 112 will be no longer available and keepalived on node server2, once
unable to communicate to server1 should chnage itself to state MASTER.

[root@server1:~]# systemctl stop keepalived
[root@server1:~]# systemctl status keepalived

● keepalived.service – LVS and VRRP High Availability Monitor
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/keepalived.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: inactive (dead) since Tue 2022-03-15 12:11:33 CET; 3s ago
  Process: 1192001 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/keepalived $KEEPALIVED_OPTIONS (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 1192002 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Mar 14 18:59:07 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[1192003]: Sending gratuitous ARP on eth0 for 10.10.10.1
Mar 15 12:11:32 server1lb-fqdn systemd[1]: Stopping LVS and VRRP High Availability Monitor…
Mar 15 12:11:32 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived[1192002]: Stopping
Mar 15 12:11:32 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[1192003]: (LB_VIP_QA) sent 0 priority
Mar 15 12:11:32 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[1192003]: (LB_VIP_QA) removing VIPs.
Mar 15 12:11:33 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[1192003]: Stopped – used 2.145252 user time, 15.513454 system time
Mar 15 12:11:33 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived[1192002]: CPU usage (self/children) user: 0.000000/44.555362 system: 0.001151/170.118126
Mar 15 12:11:33 server1lb-fqdn Keepalived[1192002]: Stopped Keepalived v2.1.5 (07/13,2020)
Mar 15 12:11:33 server1lb-fqdn systemd[1]: keepalived.service: Succeeded.
Mar 15 12:11:33 server1lb-fqdn systemd[1]: Stopped LVS and VRRP High Availability Monitor.

 

On keepalived off, you will get also a notification Email on the Receipt Email configured from keepalived.conf from the working keepalived node with a simple message like:

=> VRRP Instance is no longer owning VRRP VIPs <=

Once keepalived is back up you will get another notification like:

=> VRRP Instance is now owning VRRP VIPs <=

[root@server2:~]# systemctl status keepalived
● keepalived.service – LVS and VRRP High Availability Monitor
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/keepalived.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2022-03-14 18:13:52 CET; 17h ago
  Process: 297366 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/keepalived $KEEPALIVED_OPTIONS (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 297367 (keepalived)
    Tasks: 2 (limit: 100914)
   Memory: 2.1M
   CGroup: /system.slice/keepalived.service
           ├─297367 /usr/sbin/keepalived -D -S 7
           └─297368 /usr/sbin/keepalived -D -S 7

Mar 15 12:11:33 server2lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[297368]: Sending gratuitous ARP on eth0 for 10.10.10.1
Mar 15 12:11:33 server2lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[297368]: Sending gratuitous ARP on eth0 for 10.10.10.1
Mar 15 12:11:33 server2lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[297368]: Remote SMTP server [127.0.0.1]:25 connected.
Mar 15 12:11:33 server2lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[297368]: SMTP alert successfully sent.
Mar 15 12:11:38 server2lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[297368]: (LB_VIP_QA) Sending/queueing gratuitous ARPs on eth0 for 10.10.10.1
Mar 15 12:11:38 server2lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[297368]: Sending gratuitous ARP on eth0 for 10.10.10.1
Mar 15 12:11:38 server2lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[297368]: Sending gratuitous ARP on eth0 for 10.10.10.1
Mar 15 12:11:38 server2lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[297368]: Sending gratuitous ARP on eth0 for 10.10.10.1
Mar 15 12:11:38 server2lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[297368]: Sending gratuitous ARP on eth0 for 10.10.10.1
Mar 15 12:11:38 server2lb-fqdn Keepalived_vrrp[297368]: Sending gratuitous ARP on eth0 for 10.10.10.1

[root@server2:~]#  ip addr show|grep -i 10.10.10.1
    inet 10.10.10.1/32 scope global eth0
    

As you see the VIP is now set on server2, just like expected – that's OK, everything works as expected. If the IP did not move double check the keepalived.conf on both nodes for errors or misconfigurations.

To recover the initial order of things so server1 is MASTER and server2 SLAVE host, we just have to switch on the keepalived on server1 machine.

[root@server1:~]# systemctl start keepalived

The automatic change of server1 to MASTER node and respective move of the VIP IP is done because of the higher priority (of importance we previously configured on server1 in keepalived.conf).
 

What we learned?
 

So what we learned in  this article?
We have seen how to easily install and configure a High Availability Load balancer with Keepalived with single floating VIP IP address with 1 MASTER and 1 SLAVE host and a Haproxy example config with few frontends / App backends. We have seen how the config can be tested for potential errors and how we can monitor whether the VRRP2 network traffic flows between nodes and how to potentially debug it further if necessery.
Further on rawly explained some of the keepalived configurations but as keepalived can do pretty much more,for anyone seriously willing to deal with keepalived on a daily basis or just fine tune some already existing ones, you better read closely its manual page "man keepalived.conf" as well as the official Redhat Linux documentation page on setting up a Linux cluster with Keepalived (Be prepare for a small nightmare as the documentation of it seems to be a bit chaotic, and even I would say partly missing or opening questions on what does the developers did meant – not strange considering the havoc that is pretty much as everywhere these days.)

Finally once keepalived hosts are prepared, it was shown how to test the keepalived application cluster and Floating IP does move between nodes in case if one of the 2 keepalived nodes is inaccessible.

The same logic can be repeated multiple times and if necessery you can set multiple VIPs to expand the HA reachable IPs solution.

high-availability-with-two-vips-example-diagram

The presented idea is with haproxy forward Proxy server to proxy requests towards Application backend (servince machines), however if you need to set another set of server on the flow to  process HTML / XHTML / PHP / Perl / Python  programming code, with some common Webserver setup ( Nginx / Apache / Tomcat / JBOSS) and enable SSL Secure certificate with lets say Letsencrypt, this can be relatively easily done. If you want to implement letsencrypt and a webserver check this redundant SSL Load Balancing with haproxy & keepalived article.

That's all folks, hope you enjoyed.
If you need to configure keepalived Cluster or a consultancy write your query here 🙂

Saint Holy Rightous Joachim and Anne the partents of The Virgin Mary Mother of God feast in the Eastern Orthodox Church

Thursday, December 9th, 2021

Saint-Joachim-and-Anna-and-Jesus-Virgin-Mary-the-Mother-of-God

Feast day is cebelrated today in our Mother Church the Holy Eastern Bulgarian Orthodox Church 9th on December 9th December.
The name Joachim as derived from (/ˈdʒoʊəkɪm/; Hebrew: יְהוֹיָקִיםYəhōyāqīm, means "he whom Yahweh has set up"; Greek Ἰωακείμ Iōākeím)..
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Saint Joachim has been a descendent of the bloodline of Saint King David (the one to whom the Psalms section of the Bible are ascribed) and Anna descends out of the Aaron the brother of Moses (who is the father of priests family line in Judaism).

Saint Joachim and Saint Anne are two less known saints in nowatimes even though in the Middle Ages this feast has been enormously popuplar in Both the Orthodox Christian East and the Roman Catholic West.  

St. Joachim and St. Anne (Anna) has been called Holy Righteous by the Church for a good reason. For they have possessed immerce sanctity that only of the born on earth ever have. They were called Saint Holy and Righteous, for a reason, and perhaps little might know but their is a sanctity hierarchy in the Church and the reason this accent of 3 words of the Church fathers is to emphasize the couple of St. Joachim and St. Anne had exceeding grace.
Saint Joachim and Saint Anne just like the Holy Family of Holy Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph are the Christian model for perfect famly in virtues, which all Christian families should try to follow to their maximum. The celebration of St. Joachim and St. Anne feasts seems to have been on purpose put to be done during the Christmas Fasting period for a reason, as for another preparation for the Great feast of Christ-mass known in the Church as Nativity (which improperly is unknowingly profanized by many with the abbreviation XMAS).

Lets shortly see few details of the Earthly Living of the two saints and why the Holy Fathers who prepared their Living we read today, call them with this grandiose epithets – Saint, Holy and Righteous.


Holy

  • They have lived all their live in servitude for the sick poor the hungry and the weak and dedicated all their God given lifetime in service for all whose begged in need.
  • They have been praying regularly and longly for the goodness of Mankind and families all around
  • They have been strictly following God's Old Testamental Jewish laws


Righteous


The english word Righteous stems from the Word 'Right' for a good reason as in the light of the Holy scriptures the Right side has been always associated with Good and the Salvation for the reason we know from Revelations that when time comes for God to judge the nations and everyone's individual deeds and rights as Christ has told in the Gospel those who have been done right (e.g. they have done good) and persevered to do good things throughout their short lifetime, will be put on the Right side of God – those are the so called Sheeps of Christ, the Unrighteous one will be put at the Left hand on the Judgement and will be cast out of the face of God because of their own undesire to receive and reflect the light of Christ (just like the Moon reflects the Light of the Sun) and transfers it to the earth and gives Light at night, each mans eternal God's predestination is to be like this receivers and reflectors of the Grace of The Holy Spirit.
Saint Joachim and Saint Anne has been such reflectors in such a enormous size that most of the Light they have emitted from God was transferred to rest of their relatives and people to whom they were continuously at help and as we believe in the Orthodox Church this process of re-emission of light is continuing even today. As we believe those who have departed from this life and have been favorable for God are staying in front of the face of God and praying fervently incessantly to God for the good of mankind. 

Saint-Anne-detail-national-from_Faras_National-Museum-Warsaw

Saint Anne fresco from Faras Gallery in Warsaw


True Saints

The saintship is a quality one receives as a Gift from God as we read in the patristic literature and cannot be attended by deeds, however the greatest gifts of God due to the practice were given to those who have persevered to suffer, greatest trials, persecution, shaming, hatred and lack of reception in society for their confession of the faith – this as we know in the New Testamental Church of Christ is mostly seen in the Holy Martyrs who confessed Christ to the degree they preferred to give out their life and bodies to martyrdom than to reject Christ.
Saint Joachim and Saint Anne even not a physical martyrs has the same perseverance even before the age of the Martyrs (that had been at highest degree in the first  centuries 1-st, 2nd, and Third century until Christianity has been legalized in the Roman Empire by Saint Constantine).

They longed for a child but remained childless into their old age (which can be equalled to martyrdom – many couples even today know how uneasy it is to live together for a very long time and not to be able to have inheritance).

Because of their continuous fasting periods they have followed, St. Joachim and St. Anne did not have much of physical intimacy (or sexual life) as we use to call it today, we know today that the lack of intimacy doesn't bring babies, plus the fact that it was obviously Gods desire for them be childless  until their very old age.
However  not realizing this once they have bring their Thanks Giving offerings according to Jewish law they have been ashamed by the Jewish Priest in the Solomon Temple in Jerusalen, even in their old age – (the jewish priests, just like our Christian priests are absolutely forbidden to insult anyone, and insulting an old person was a taboo back then just like it is considered bad today) being blamed for not being able to carry out a Child. 
Being shamed by a Priest at the community of jews was a terrible thing and some would even commit suicide.

Saint_Joakim_Joachim-Orthodox-icon

Others who had children jostled Joachim, thrusting him back as unworthy. In despair, he consulted the geneological records of the tribes of Israel and discovered every righteous man in the nation had been blessed with children, except him. 
This caused the aged saints great grief, and he and his wife left with heavy hearts.

However as the couple was saintly their reaction was to seclude from people and pray secretly to God. 
Saint Joachim went to the desert and fasted and prayed grieving with inhumally for 40 days, and saint Anne stayed and grieved in her garden thrice as first she has never had the chance to become a mother and she was publicly ashamed at their community and did not know where her Husband has been, perhaps thinking he might passed out somewhere because of his exceeding grief.

Sts. Joachim and Anna had been married for fifty years, and were barren. They lived devoutly and quietly, using only a third of their income for themselves and giving a third to the poor and a third to the Temple. Joachim had done this since he was 15-years-old, and God multiplied his flocks, so the couple was well provided for. 


The Miracle of Faith, Hope and Love – The Birth of the God-Mother the Queen of Heaven Virgin Mariam
 

Saint-Joachim-and-Anne-Chanter_Angelos_Akotandos_-_St_Anne_with_the_Virgin

God has seen the great grief of the two and as he is merciful worked a great miracle just like with  Abraham and Sarah, and give them a blessed child to comfort their old age, which will become later the Holy Virgin Mary (Theotokos / Богородица), to become the Mother and Hope and all Humanity from which the Light of the World and Saviour Christ was born. 

Holy-Righteous-Joachim-and-Saint-Anne-Birth-of-Virgin-Mary

God sent the Archangel Gabriel to each of them, who gave them tidings of the birth of "a daughter most blessed, by whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed, and through whom will come the salvation of the world." Each promised to have their child raised in the Temple as a holy vessel of God. The archangel told St. Joachim to return home, where he would find his wife waiting for him in the city gate. St. Anna he told to wait at the gate. When they saw one another, they embraced, and this image is the traditional icon of their feast.

Saint-Joachim-and-Anne-with-Holy-Virgin-Mary

St. Anna conceived shortly thereafter, and in the ninth month gave birth to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This Conception of the Most Holy Mother of God is celebrated by the Church on December 9 and the Nativity of the Theotokos is celebrated on September 8.

God sent the Archangel Gabriel to each of them, who gave them tidings of the birth of "a daughter most blessed, by whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed, and through whom will come the salvation of the world." Each promised to have their child raised in the Temple as a holy vessel of God. The archangel told St. Joachim to return home, where he would find his wife waiting for him in the city gate. St. Anna he told to wait at the gate. When they saw one another, they embraced, and this image is the traditional icon of their feast.

Ikona_Kopiya_Sveta_Pravednaya_Anna

St. Anna conceived shortly thereafter, and in the ninth month gave birth to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This Conception of the Most Holy Mother of God is celebrated by the Church on December 9 and the Nativity of the Theotokos is celebrated on September 8.

Sts. Joachim and Anna took Mary, at the age of three, to the temple to be dedicated to the service of the Lord, and presented her to the priest Zechariahs. The parents then, after offering up her sacrifice (according to the custom of the time), left the Virgin with other maidens in the apartments of the temple to be brought up therein. The Church commemorates the Presentation of the Theotokos on November 21.

 Although Anne receives little attention in the Latin Church prior to the late 12th century, dedications to Anne in Eastern Christianity occur as early as the 6th century.

Bistritsa Monastery of Saint Jaochim and Saint Anne (near Sofia, Bulgaria)

The Bistritsa monastery "St. Yoakim and Anna" is located in the Mali dol part of the Vitosha mountain, about 2 km to the south-east of the village of Bistritsa.

Bistrishki-monastery-st-Joachim-and-st-Anna

Short History

According to priest Dragomir Kotev, author of regional studies of Bistritsa, during the time of Tsar Boris I or later during the rule of Simeon, a great temple was built there and was expanded during the Second Bulgarian Kingdom. It was part of the monastery complex called "The Little Mount Athos."

Bistritsa-monastery-st_Ioakim-Anna-Church

During the siege of the Ottomans and after strong resistance, the fortress and monastery were destroyed, and during the Ottoman domination the ruins of the old monastery were buried deep in the ground. The site was marked by a stone cross and people continued to gather at the sacred place. During excavations in the 20 century, the cross was discovered erect placed in what is today's holy throne in the temple. Now the cross can be seen outside the church.

Saint-Joachim-and-Anne-Bistritsa-near-Sofia-monastery-Cross

During the period of the Bulgarian Revival the memory for the monastery continued to exist.
The monastery "St. Peter" which had existed on its present place in the IX—X century, was destroyed by the turks in the XIV century. Its foundations were discovered in 1925 and the present church was sancrified in 1950. After the Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule in 1878 the church was rebuilt as a chapel. The construction of the present monastery is connected with the visions of the prophet Bona Velinova. On Orthodox Sunday (the first Sunday of Lent) in 1925 she spent the night in fasting and prayer, and in the morning gave a detailed explanation of how the church destroyed by the Ottomans looked like. Bona ordered people to dig and foundations of the old temple were discovered. She said that it should be rebuilt, and called after the holy family pf Sts. Joachim and Anna. Since then, every year on Orthodox Sunday a solemn service takes place here. The new church was built with funds and volunteer work from local people in the period from 1936 to 1950 and was consecrated on August 6, 1950. Legend has it that the treasures of the last Bulgarian kings are buried somewhere around. Not far from the monastery there is a a spring. Here on Christian holidays, after services in the monastery, pilgrims come to drink water from the holy spring. They believe that this water cures eye diseases. 
During the period 1965-77 residential buildings were built. The complex consists of a parish church, the St. Ivan Rilski chapel and a massive building to its right, a kitchen and rooms. 

At present the monastery functions regularly. It is a complex including a church, one-nef, one-apse, with a cupola and inner and outer narthex, residential and farm buildings. The church was built over a mound necropolis, and under the church nef there is a preserved ancient vault from the end of the IV – the beginning of the V century (3,35 x 2,99 x 2,28 m), to which a stone staircase from the narthex.

Bistritsa-Monastery-saint-Joachim-and_Anne-near-Sofia-Church-view-to-altar

The iconostasis of on the picture is from the palace (chapel) of last Bulgarian King Boris III. It was brought to the monastery after 1944.

Let by the Holy Prayers of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne God grants mercy and Grace to All families everywhere and to everyone that is grieving
God provides his abundant consolation of the Holy Spirit so we can endure the temptations and hardships of life !

Amen

Saint Georgi of Sofia “the Newest” Bulgarian Confessor Christian saint martyred 1534 AD during reign of Turkish Sultan Selim in Medieval Serdika (Sofia)

Tuesday, June 1st, 2021

Saint-Martyr-George-of-Sofia-Georgi-Sofijski-in-traditional-wear-kalpak

Troparion, voice 4
With a soul wounded by the love of your God, the wise George the Glorious, he preached to the ungodly, Christ God, trampled with his feeth, the Turkish heresy; and when he adorned himself with the crown of martyrdom, you ascended to the heavenly multitudes: ask Christ God to preserve your homeland, this city (Sofia) and the people who always worship your deeds.

On 26-th of May the Bulgarian Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of one of the great Bulgarian Martyr saints Saint Georgi the Newest.
С~тый Геԝ̀ргїй Софїѝскїй Новѣ̀йшїй) St. Georgi (The Bulgarian equivalent name of George) is one of the 3 saints holding the name Georgi which has confessed Christianity refused to accept islam and accepted Martyrdom for Christ in period of 1396 till year 1530 and one of the 9 famous Sofia city saints. Saint Georgi of Sofia the Newest was named after the highly venerated in Bulgarian just like in whole Christian world saint George.

saint-Georgi-Sofijski-saint-great-martyr-George-and-The-Mother-of-God-iconostasis

St. Georgi was born in the city of Medieval Sofia (Sredetz), fortress of Serdika today’s Sofia in a family of Ivan and Maria – a wealthy and society recognized family of that time. He has born after a fervent and lengthly prayers of his parents who couldn’t have children for a long time and has been given a kid by the prayers of Saint Great Martyr George
It is important to say Georgi (the newest) celebrated on 26-th of May is a different saint from St. Georgi called “the new” whose memory in the Church is commemorated on 11-th of February.

saint-Georgi-Sofijski-noveishij-icon

Miracle making icon of saint Georgi Sofiyski (currently in the Church in yard of Alexandrovska Hospital Sofia)

The young Georgi quickly learned to write and read, a skills that only the most educated people usually coming from noble families could do. His favourite activity
in his free time when he was not in help of his parents was reading the Holy Scriptures.
He was grown by his parents in Christian goodness and fervency for the Christian faith.

Sveti_Georgi_Novi-Sofijski-wall-painting-icon-st-George-Sofia
Aged 25 he orphaned as his beloved father passed away to Christ. Georgi posessesed an extraordinary beauty, sharp mind and virtues, seeing the young man in his grief the local Turkish authorities tried as they usually do to attract the youngster to the islamic faith to make their way to interact with Georgi and do their business easier and most importantly have Georgi in their auhotirities congregation consisting only of people belonging to the islam as it was up to the Ottoman Turkish consistution law of the day.

To attract Georgi, turks first tried with hypocritical kindness and a care for the young to help him raise in the power of authorities of the city, not succeeding with that they have, they have forcefully wrapper the Muslim turban on his head and proclaimed him officially Muslim. Feeling offended by the ungodly deed of this enemies of Christ, immediately the saint throw the imposed turban on the ground and trampled on it.
The enraged muslim crowd seing his public offence for the prophet Muhammed handed him over to the Qadi in the court.

Neither the seductive promises of high office nor the cruel tortures could break the unshakable firmness of his Christian faith. The judge ordered that his body be cut into strips from head to toe and that the wounds received be scorched with dirty candles, which made the martyr’s body so hot that his face could not be seen. But all efforts were in vain.

The final verdict of the judge followed – Georgi to be hanged on the main barn in the city of Sofia, where there was a furnace for melting iron and copper ore. The execution command also stated that his body should remain on the gallows for three days in order to begin to decay, so that the faith of the Christians in the incorruptible relics of the saints and in the resurrection of the dead to be refuted and hence disgrace christianity. However, exhausted from his suffering mrtr. Georgi died at the hands of the executioners before they managed to hang him. To fulfill the command turks, anyhow hung him on a rope to show the sentence has been successfully carried out.

For three days the body hung on the gallows without any sign of decomposition, and on the contrary, an unusual fragrance of the holy relics of the martyr wafted through the barn. His mother sat under the gallows and grieving his beloved son hugged her son’s legs, staying next three three days to her son. The hanging took place on May 26, 1530 (according to other document sources in 1534). Thus on 26th of may the Church set a service in memoriam.

Ancient-Church-ROtonda-St-George-Sofia-Bulgaria

5-th Century Church of Rotonda St. George Centre of Sofia

The-Grave-of-Saint-Georgi-Sofiyski-Grobat-na-sv-Georgi-nai-novi

Saint Georgi Sofiyski / Saint George of Sofia the Newest grave near Rotonda Church Saint George in City Center of Sofia, Bulgari

After the expiration of the sentence, the kadi handed over the body of the martyr to be buried in a Christian way, and the burial was solemnly performed by the then Metropolitan of Sofia Jeremiah in the church “St. the great martyr George the Victorious ”. Now these relics are in obscurity. The mother of the martyr died on the 40th day of George’s death and was buried at her son’s feet.

These events took place during the reign of Sultan Suleiman I Kanuni (the Legislator) also known as Suleiman the Magnificent. This “Golden Age” for the Ottoman Empire was a time of unheard of atrocities against Christians in the territory of the empire and very difficult times for the Bulgarian people. The reign of Suleiman I and his father Selim I was a time of obscurantism and severe persecution of the Christian population, a time during which many Christian new martyrs on Balkans had the courage to defend their faith.

saint-Georgi-Sofijski-newest-icon-painting

The capture, trial and torture of St. George of Sofia The latest took place near the then Sofia. Today the place is located in the yard of the famous Alexandrovska Hospital which was a King’s hospital during the times of Kingdom of Bulgaria after liberation took place from the Turks in 1878 y.. The exact location where martyrdom occured is between street St. Georgi Sofiyski ”and“ Pencho Slaveykov ”Blvd.

There was a large stone cross with an inscription on the site, which a few years after 1944, due to the risk of being destroyed, was collected by Sofia priests and is still preserved in the altar of the church “St. Georgi Pobedonosets ”on Blvd. Partriarch Euthymius”. Until the 1940s, a liturgical procession was held from the place of death of the saint to the Rotunda on May 26.
Nowadays happily, the old Lithia tradition is being renewed and a small Lithia is conducted by Bulgarian Orthodox Christian clergy and layman.

In the garden next to the building of the Second Surgical Clinic there was a stone cross, which indicated the place and history of the martyrdom of the saint, and today a temple was built in honor of the saint.

Church-of-saint-Georgi-Sofijski-in-Alexandrovska-hospital-Sofia-Bulgaria-the-place-of-martyrdom-of-saint-Georgi-Sofijski
source: Lives of the Saints. Synodal Publishing House, Sofia, 1991, edited by Parthenius, Bishop of Lefkada and Archimandrite Dr. Athanasius (Bonchev).

Saint_Georgi-naj-novi_Sofijski

HOLY MARTYR GEORGE OF SOFIA THE NEWEST, PRAY GOD FOR US!

Deny DHCP Address by MAC on Linux

Thursday, October 8th, 2020

Deny DHCP addresses by MAC ignore MAC to not be DHCPD leased on GNU / Linux howto

I have not blogged for a long time due to being on a few weeks vacation and being in home with a small cute baby. However as a hardcore and a bit of dumb System administrator, I have spend some of my vacation and   worked on bringing up the the www.pc-freak.net and the other Websites hosted as a high availvailability ones living on a 2 Webservers running on a Master to Master MySQL Replication backend database, this is oll hosted on  servers, set to run as a round robin DNS hosts on 2 servers one old Lenove ThinkCentre Edge71 as well as a brand new real Lenovo server Lenovo ThinkServer SD350 with 24 CPUs and a 32 GB of RAM
To assure Internet Connectivity is having a good degree of connectivity and ensure websites hosted on both machines is not going to die if one of the 2 pair configured Fiber Optics Internet Providers Bergon.NET has some Issues, I've rented another Internet Provider Line is set bought from the VIVACOM Mobile Fiber Internet provider – that is a 1 Gigabit Fiber Optics Line.
Next to that to guarantee there is no Database, Webserver, MailServer, Memcached and other running services did not hit downtimes due to Electricity power outage, two Powerful Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPS)  FPS Fortron devices are connected to the servers each of which that could keep the machine and the connected switches and Servers for up to 1 Hour.

The machines are configured to use dhcpd to distributed IP addresses and the Main Node is set to distribute IPs, however as there is a local LAN network with more of a personal Work PCs, Wireless Devices and Testing Computers and few Virtual machines in the Network and the IPs are being distributed in a consequential manner via a ISC DHCP server.

As always to make everything work properly hence, I had again some a bit weird non-standard requirement to make some of the computers within the Network with Static IP addresses and the others to have their IPs received via the DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) and add some filter for some of the Machine MAC Addresses which are configured to have a static IP addresses to prevent the DHCP (daemon) server to automatically reassign IPs to this machines.

After a bit of googling and pondering I've done it and some of the machines, therefore to save others the efforts to look around How to set Certain Computers / Servers Network Card MAC (Interfaces) MAC Addresses  configured on the LAN network to use Static IPs and instruct the DHCP server to ingnore any broadcast IP addresses leases – if they're to be destined to a set of IGNORED MAcs, I came up with this small article.

Here is the DHCP server /etc/dhcpd/dhcpd.conf from my Debian GNU / Linux (Buster) 10.4

 

option domain-name "pcfreak.lan";
option domain-name-servers 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4, 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220;
max-lease-time 891200;
authoritative;
class "black-hole" {
    match substring (hardware, 1, 6);
    ignore booting;
}
subclass "black-hole" 18:45:91:c3:d9:00;
subclass "black-hole" 70:e2:81:13:44:11;
subclass "black-hole" 70:e2:81:13:44:12;
subclass "black-hole" 00:16:3f:53:5d:11;
subclass "black-hole" 18:45:9b:c6:d9:00;
subclass "black-hole" 16:45:93:c3:d9:09;
subclass "black-hole" 16:45:94:c3:d9:0d;/etc/dhcpd/dhcpd.conf
subclass "black-hole" 60:67:21:3c:20:ec;
subclass "black-hole" 60:67:20:5c:20:ed;
subclass "black-hole" 00:16:3e:0f:48:04;
subclass "black-hole" 00:16:3e:3a:f4:fc;
subclass "black-hole" 50:d4:f5:13:e8:ba;
subclass "black-hole" 50:d4:f5:13:e8:bb;
subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        option routers                  192.168.0.1;
        option subnet-mask              255.255.255.0;
}
host think-server {
        hardware ethernet 70:e2:85:13:44:12;
        fixed-address 192.168.0.200;
}
default-lease-time 691200;
max-lease-time 891200;
log-facility local7;

To spend you copy paste efforts a file with Deny DHCP Address by Mac Linux configuration is here
/home/hipo/info
Of course I have dumped the MAC Addresses to omit a data leaking but I guess the idea behind the MAC ADDR ignore is quite clear

The main configuration doing the trick to ignore a certain MAC ALenovo ThinkServer SD350ddresses that are reachable on the Connected hardware switch on the device is like so:

class "black-hole" {
    match substring (hardware, 1, 6);
    ignore booting;
}
subclass "black-hole" 18:45:91:c3:d9:00;


The Deny DHCP Address by MAC is described on isc.org distribution lists here but it seems the documentation on the topic on how to Deny / IGNORE DHCP Addresses by MAC Address on Linux has been quite obscure and limited online.

As you can see in above config the time via which an IP is freed up and a new IP lease is done from the server is severely maximized as often DHCP servers do use a max-lease-time like 1 hour (3600) seconds:, the reason for increasing the lease time to be to like 10 days time is that the IPs in my network change very rarely so it is a waste of CPU cycles to do a frequent lease.

default-lease-time 691200;
max-lease-time 891200;


As you see to Guarantee resolving works always as expected I have configured – Google Public DNS and OpenDNS IPs

option domain-name-servers 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4, 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220;


One hint to make is, after setting up all my desired config in the standard config location /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf it is always good idea to test configuration before reloading the running dhcpd process.

 

root@pcfreak: ~# /usr/sbin/dhcpd -t
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Server 4.4.1
Copyright 2004-2018 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Config file: /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf
Database file: /va/home/hipo/infor/lib/dhcp/dhcpd.leases
PID file: /var/run/dhcpd.pid
 

That's all folks with this sample config the IPs under subclass "black-hole", which are a local LAN Static IP Addresses will never be offered leasess anymore from the ISC DHCP.
Hope this stuff helps someone, enjoy and in case if you need a colocation of a server or a website hosting for a really cheap price on this new set High Availlability up described machines open an inquiry on https://web.www.pc-freak.net.

 

My long lasting study university dilemma is it really worth Investment to study in University? Don’t study – invest your money in something more meaningful

Thursday, December 13th, 2012

I'm trying to graduate for a really long time, so far. Let me in short perephrase my story, as I'm sure there are probably plenty of people out there who are into the same shitty situation as I.

I graduated school while being 17 years old (one year earlier than supposed), studied in a Mathematical oriented High School with majors Informatics and Mathematics with itensified English language studying. 

While turning 17 I had my regular fancy-dress carnival (ball) as we have it each year near the end of May and beginning of June in Bulgaria, in those joyful times plenty of High School graduates has their celebrations. I don't know how it is in other countries but in Bulgaria, graduates are often mislead and does not have clear idea what exactly they want to study, because schools do less to properly orientate the student on what kind of study stream field or what kind of sphere of life he would like to be employeed (maybe it was just my alumni) or the alumnis student generations that emerged just 10 years after Communism regime fall, maybe it is just my individual case. Or maybe it was like this everywhere? Anyways I graduated desiring only to study informatics for the only reason, Informatics was fashionable and it was thought the future of existence will be fulyl pre-dominated by informatics. Therefore in my school me and many classmates thought graduating in informatics is the best thing one can do. Computers back in the day was not so heavily spreaded (every person did not have a computer), so still computers were perceived by Bulgarian people with high dose of mysticism and interest. And those interested in computers were much more interested into learning something and much less consumer oriented society … but doesn't matter, I can write a lot of this but will stop here as this is not the ultimate goal of this article ….

Once graduating in PMG Ivan Vazoff – The High School where i graduated, I tried to apply for a student by following the standard student entrance exams for the study stream of Computers and Information Technologies as this was my primary field of interest back in the day. Back in the day the only way to enter for study stream of Computer Engineering was lay exam solving 4 mathematical complex problems, mathametics. I'm a very bad mathematician and bad in counting, since my childhood I guess I had some bad teachers which didn't spend enough time explaining, I was lazy or just I don't have the talent to be good in mathematics, so following the exams in few mainly Technical Universities in few Bulgarian cities produced no good results. Because of my bad exam marks (my best one was 3 out of 6, where 2 is negative and 6 is positive – yeah the standard education system in Bulgaria is from 2 (poor) to 6 (excellent), I was not accepted in any of the universities to study informatics. You can understand my high disappointment, I was so keen to study informatics really! but the stupid system never allowed me to do so! Hoping I will be able to transfer to another study stream I signed in Varna TU (Technical University) in a study stream called "Machine Building and Instruments Construction". I was received in student with a very low mark of just 3 out of 6, there was practice back in the day that the students with worst marks entered into the Machine Building and Instruments Construction or Automation specialties. I was a total user, as the name of the specialty sounded not so bad and I hoped the specialty should be closely related to Informatics, I had hope. Spending just the first semester in the University I realized this specialty – as it was taught back then has almost nothing to do with Computing; besides that it had plenty of Engineer Drawings. As a graduate from a High School where accent was Mathematics, I never did even one Engineer Drawing! So it was a complete, mess I tried hard to learn  it but it was not possible, even though I tried my best I couldn't properly Draw. After all I never had the habit and even the basic knowledge on How Engineer Drawing is done. It was sad and stressful times, besides that I had to follow two University Higher Mathematics (Chapter 1 and 2) in 1st semester and University Technical Mathematics (Chapter pt. 3 and 4). First semester I couldn't pass Mathematics exam  1 and 2. Because of the reason the teacher was mostly terrible in explaning and also the level of mathematics required to know was very high; for me it was even harder as I never ever had good understanding or knowledge in mathematics. I failed the exams I hardly passed 2 out of 4 exams, I had troubles with few subjects certification (in those university studyign students, had to be certified by the teacher to go to the exam – if you don't attend the lectures you don't get certification and you can't go for the exam). It was a mess. After the end of 1st year I realized, I cannot in any way make it, to move myself to study in some study specialty that has to do more with Computer Science, so I stopped studying. 

During the summer I visited some private Mathematics lessons and tried my best to apply again to study for informatics this time for another University (The Economic University of  Varna). Though my hard attempts to learn a set of model mathematical tasks to solve, on the exam in June I only could achieve again a low mark 3.80 out 6. I needed at least 5 in order to be approved to enter the pre-selected number of students which would study Informatics. Here a note to make here is most of the students who studied informatics did not hold even basic understanding in computers or did not even been keen on computers ….

So in practice again I couldn't enter the study stream I wanted so I was accepted in a study stream called Commodity Knowledge (which consisted of a lot of Chemistry doing chemical analysis of products testing, if they're suitable for putting in store things like this). As a bad mathematician my knowledge in Chemistry was also not good, not to mention I had a very short life memory, so sciences with a lot of formulas (and a lot to remember) are so unsuitable for me …. Anyways I was trying to be very diligent in this Commodity Knowledge study, and I could even pass all my  exams in the first year with not so bad overall marks of around 4.30 out of 6.

I should say I spoke with administration and in first semester I was told it is possible to transfer in Computer Technology specialty if I have relatively good marks, they blutantly lied to me, since after talking with them in the end of the first year I was told the two study systems of Commodity Knowledge and Computer Technology has difference, so the only option is to start again from year 1!!!!! I was mad and disappointed, but decided to just study Stock Knowledge for the reason I already started it with hard intention this time I will graduate. Somewhere in the middle of year 2 in University, I was totally pissed off the studies, besides that at home there were plenty of family problems, so I was devastated. My mother and father was hardly urging me to find a job immediately because they cannot (or will not)  financially support me anymore. After some search on the Internet I was referred by a friend (from my school years who lived in Sofia) about a company called Design.BG which is looking for a Linux system administrator. I already had plenty of experience with Linux and Operating System as this was my hobby and most of my free time was invested in learning Linux, advancing my knowledge in Operating Systems, learning Computer Programming etc. etc. I went to the interview and was approved !!! Hooray I had job but I was paid a very funny money 250 lv (125 EUR) – of course I was just starting in this job but come on 125 EURO for a system administator responsible for 6 servers – 125 EURO per month was meakly ridiculous….

I worked in this company Design.BG for overall of 7 years. After 4.5 year of working and a working sallary of 450 lv I just quit, they were plainly using me as a Robot is used, ridiculous and stupid. I had some good times in the company made some friends, advanced my knowledge this is true. But after all after 4.5 years working in an office I had neither savings, neither achieved something and living on rent – working month by month for my rent and monthly food (very similar to people in Africa). A friend of mine who lived in Dobrich and also was very disappointed from his started Education and quit, told me he will be signing to study in a (comparatively new College) located in Dobrich (Holland-Dutch College ICA – International College Albena). I went to this college and signed up for the studies, usually the students were asked to study 1 preparation year, because they need to advance their English (all subjects were taught in English). As I had a relatively normal English I went to an interview in the College and to one Intelligence test exam and I was approved to start studying immediately without following preparation year 1.

The days while being in the College was relatively good, as somehow I managed to pass two years there in the specialty of International Business and Management (IBMS). After year 2 it appeared there was not enough students in my student group, so there couldn't be year 3. We were only 6 students in IBMS and 3 of them had plans to transfer to continue their studies in another Business School (Arnhem, Business School) in the Netherlands. I was again in a difficult situation, from one side I wanted very  much to go and see how living is abroad from Bulgaria, since I never went out of Bulgaria, but from other side I didn't have enough money to do it, so I had to ask for financial support from my parents, I went to banks asking for Student Credit but since my parents had little of earnings, the banks were not willful to provide me a student credit of 10000 lv. (5000 EUR) which even will not be enough for graduating; however I was dreaming to go and study abroad so I make plans that I can gradute with maybe only 7500 EURO. It was just after I realized how my plans are wrong I needed much more to graduate. The good news I had job as I continuously worked for Design.BG (as remote system administrator). so I was earning 650 euro – a money I hoped will be enough to support my studies, as well administrating few other Servers for Winner Ltd (a smal.l company started and owned by my best friend from my youth years). After a lot of "disputes" with my family

I was able to convince them to help me with money to go to the Netherlands.. I went here in Holland, thinking it is all like a bed of roses. I thought here I will be able to find a good job make a good earning. But guess what it was nothng like this. I realized it is pretty hard to find a good job in Netherlands, besides that Bulgaria was not in Shengen so we Bulgarians could only work if we have a special issued work permit document – the Employer however issues this only in case if there is no suitable Dutch person for the job + issuing this document is often seen as problematic by employeer. Thus as a consequence most of Bulgarians even if they find job have to "work in the dark" in the grey economy without being officially employed with a contract or paying a social security or taxes. Such kind of jobs are mainly provided by Turkish or Kurdish and often even those who get job are underpaind or the employeer lies him with money, and you have nothing to do since officially you have no employment contract ….

I signed up for itjobboard.nl a website providing some resources for people who are involved in IT searching for job but nothing decent poped up.

In Arnhem Business School I signed up under Human Resources and Quality Management specialty – this was one of the biggest mistakes in my life (from current perspective) – was always interested in social studies, so I thought HR will be good. However it might be, but the people I meet in face of teachers in University of Arnhem and Nijmegen (ABS) in HRQM was a hell. They were even worser than the ones in Bulgaria (and I always thought in Bulgaria people are narrow minded), here in Holland they were even more narrow minded. They were preaching what they believe, trying to impose themselves on the student constantly trying to manipulate you. Trying all kind of techniques which are against the normal people code of ethics. Experimenting hardly with experimental Psychology, Hypnosis, NLP – what can I say just a bunch of totally crazy ungodly people. Education, here in the Netherlands was a hell.

Teachers didn't care for the student even more than they don't care in Bulgaria. Teachers failed to identify brilliant minded students, but was forcing ahead only students, which somehow was pretending to be smart. Besides that my colleagues in study group's IQ and experience was far from the even minimal for a serious study and scientific thinking (of course this are just my 5cents), I had troubles with money. What made it even more of a nightmare was the fact in Netherlands people though being smiling and ethical was not too much believing in God and there was no regular Orthodox Church services. There is just one Orthodox Church here in Arnhem and they had 1 Church service per month  …. I have studied plenty of Bullshit subjects in Arnhem Business School. The only so-so reasonable was Counceling and International Labour Law. What made my studying situation even more hellish was the fact. The subjects taught here in Arnhem Business School are not identical as content to the ones I was taught over the 2 years I studied in Holland-Bulgarian College (International College Albena). The style of teaching was also very different. Here the student is left on his own to spend his nerves on shit issues, most of which are caused by the badly architectured university system and the unwillingness of teachers to be helpful to students. From my overall experienced in Arnhem Business School in HRQM. I urge you don't sign and Study for HRQM. This might be the biggest mistake you will make. The nerves,. the lost times and the brainwashing you're about to get with a shit content is not worthy the time and the price of tuition fee of 1672 euro per year. I've studied 1 year here in Arnhem Business School somehow managing it and I was totally devastated for the reason I spend 1 year with Teacheres who constantly practice brainwashing techniques doing lecture over the students. Besides that all system in the specialty is centered around a false Philosophy of Brainwashing. The teachers claim, they do all to help the student – they even have a study-buddy system but in practice it is totally opposite. Teachers do opposite to what they speak, acting often totally devilish. It is not a place for ethical people with high morale. Besides that I was amazed about the stupidity of information system in Arnhem Business School, all is built very complex and hard for the student; Whole information system is based on Proprietary Microsoft software. Even the wireless access to the Internet from the University is not officially supported for Free Opearting systems like GNU / Linux or FreeBSD. This  is a good indicator on how narrow minded the whole university is …. well it is the same old story with almost all education I have faced in my life. You pay and you get "shit" for your money, if hopefully you graduate you're not prepared so it is just like spending a lot of money on almost nothing.

The investments one does for his whole studying is another story, very often you spend about lets say 10000 to 15000 EURO for studies and the ROI could come someday or maybe not. With the harsh economic crisis and the reduce of management positions and increase of technology, the likeness of not getting a job or getting a shit underpaid job with or without Higher Education is quite high. Even the knowledge you get in moment of graduating is already out date due to the high dynamics of economics throughout the world and globalization. 

I have planned to complete Arnhem Business School for just 2 years of time, but the teachers and subjects make me stumble, so it is already almost 4 years and I still haven't graduated. Where I'm a position where I had to take two accounting exams. Here the subjects in Arnhem Business School has all fuzzy names like ILLW / (ACF1, ACF5Z0) / HRA. What makes situation even worser is this code names are changed with time. As I didn't studied for an year and half I had issues re-signing for studying. Even after I was said I can continue my studies from the moment where I stopped, there was plenty of issues that might be because the fact they changed the HRQM study content and even the specialty name HRQM was changed to IBS. Now I'm in a situation, where I need to pass two accounting exams they were used to be called under the fuzzy names ACF5 and ACF7 (Accounting and Finance). Again I'm a big troubles because I'm so bad with numbers and the university is so unflexible so they don't give you any alternative option to following the two accounting Exams. After all there are plenty of HRQM Managers out there which have not a good idea about numbers, besides that being an HR does not require you to have the knowledge of a professional accountant. But according to the exams I have to follow I have to study from a book which seems like for professional accountants ….. Passing the 2 accountings would have not been such an issue but the big problem is this two accountings ACF5 and ACF7 are a continuous ones from a previous ACF1,2,3,4 and I never studied ACF1,2,3,4 in Bulgaria but instead studied a different kind of accounting, which besides that was poorly taught by the teacher who didn't speak a good English and the Exam content has nothing as prior said nothing to do with the Accountings in ABS. Even though I spoke with the teachers and explained my situation numerous times, noone wants to take my big issue seriously and now I'm suffering trying to learn for this exams, but with my knowledge it seems hardly possible to pass the exams. Besides that which is mostly ridiculous is just for passing this 2 exams the university wants to charge me to pay them for a whole Study Year enrollment (via StudieLink – an online based system through which the student Sign ups for studying in Holland Universities – in Holland there is a commission of people who approves if one will study or not). It could be my bad luck, maybe my temper which is freeedom loving or the complexity of modern life, but I didn't like it.

Even if I graduate after some time find the enormous sum of about 1650 EURO, I don't know if I will be able to find job after that. Just to give you an idea about the approximate sallary in Bulgaria is about (150 to 200 EUR) MAX. Where only the IT jobs and some managers take like 1000 EUR of sallary. It is ridiculously high, what is even more ridiculous I forgot to mention is even though in year 2011 (January – June) I didn't studied or attended even one lecture the university required me to pay the Semester Tuition fee of 836 EUR (the second part of the normal study year). My explanation that I couldn't go to school because of health issues and financial reasons was not taken in consideration at all. I come to the conclusion that all studying are just made to drain your money and nobody really cares of you. And even at the end who cares what kind of diploma you have you only find Job in 80% of cases only if you have a person to refer you , recommend you  and place you in company. It is just sad how stupid and fragile the education system is in the EU.

Moreover this stupid European Union helps me nothing, they just say they help the countries but what I see happening in Bulgaria and across most of the European Countries speaks the opposite. 

Mass Media equals Mind Control / Watching Television or Movies can put you into a Hypnotic like state

Monday, May 21st, 2012

mass-media-and-mind-control-the-modern-slaves

I'm still heavily researching on Mind Control Applications as well as how the our brains could be intentionally mislead to do not our will.
I myself am not watching TV for years now and I know pretty well the TV programs are one big non-sense. Loosing interest into television came natural for me as sometime in my development in life I found I can use computer to gather a data of my preference. As computers and internet gave me more control over choice what I want to learn I quit watching TV completely. However now I'm starting to realize even though I haven't watched TV for a long time the fact that I have watched plenty of Television as a child has unintentionally influenced me as a purpose.

The real way how television influence us and makes us prone to suggestability is through putting the watched in a state similar to a hypnosis. I personally don't believe in the hypnosis as it is an occult practice and I think Christians are not suspectable to be influenced in the same way as non-Christians as it is up to God to decide how a certain technology will influence the individual. However most of us people nowdays are not a regular church attendants and we don't regularly pray and ask God for mercies and blessings therefore this makes us away from God and makes us more vulnerable to satanic agendas like hypnotism to be able to have influence on us….
Also by TV and modern pop culture, we have been encouraged to not stick to our cultural roots but to separate ourselves and accept an empty non-sense ideology that doesn't have any core besides money and consumerims.
In that sense the TV and medias plays the most significant role nowdays.

Mass Media = Mind Control – a video explaining in short how the TV and Mass medias are used to create similar or identical ideas in masses

The internet as lately we're hearing about PIPA, SOPA and all kind of legislations regulations corrupted 0politicians try to vote for could be soon filtered too. If that happens the situation with using computers to inform ourselves will be not so much different than with TV's and other medias.
Anyways even today the internet is heavily regulated as the biggest newspapers like New Your Times, BBC, Guardian are only publishing materials approved by the directors and compatible with the companies owners agendas…

Anyways we are not helpless as we can educate people and show them the real face of the things, so they can finally realize that this whole deception and anti-religious propaganda on the TV and vows for a life without rules is the greatest deception of our age.

WIth TVs, radios, music, Mobiles, Ipads, IPhones or nomatter what kind of latest technology we can never be happy while living without God.

Another good video worhty to see I've found on youtube is called
TV = Mind Control, unfortunately the video is not emebeddable so to see it you would have to copy paste this link: http://youtu.be/Nq9Gg7A-YEE

Trip to Eindhoven airport and city center – few city impressions on city Cathedrals and centre

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

at_Eindhoven

Today, for its my 3rd time I go to Eindhoven. My first time was when I flied from Sofia, Bulgaria to Eindhoven (Holland) Airport in September, second time I was there was December 22-nd as I had to go there to take my girlfriend Svetlana from the airport; today it was the first time as unfortunately her Belarusian visa was expiring and she had to travel back to Belarus.

We travelled with Svetla from Arnhem to Eindhoven, the whole trip takes about approximate 1 hour. There is no direct train from Anrnhem to Eindhoven; thus we had to change train in 's-Hertogenbsoch. The trip thanks God went smoothly and the train was late with only few minutes (something very unusual for trains here in Holland). About 12 o'clock we were in the Train station. The bus station allowing a number of bus lines travelling to different destinations of the city is located right infront of train station, just like in Arnhem, Nijmegen (and probably a lot of other Dutch cities). Dutch architects did obviously a very good job by designing such a good road architecture in Holland, along with the ability to travel through absolutely all country on bike, the train and bus architecture is designed very well too. The bus to Airport is arriving and departing every 7 minutes, so there was no need we wait for long time for the next bus to arrive. I had to pick-up a bus tickets from a special bus tickets sell-office. The bus per person costs 3.50 EURO as of time of writing this post – something to mention is I have memorybus ticket in 22 december 2012 from train-station to Airport was 3 EUR – 50 cents less. Actually a curious fact to mention from 22 dec 2012 is I went to take the bus very early in the morning and bus-tickets office (located on the right of the entrance of Train Station entrance), were closed. I went to buy a bus ticket from the driver (a kind lady) and she told me their ticketing system is not working so "everybody is for free :)". This was quite a fun, since here in Holland they're so advanced and high-tech and they put most of their "lives" in the hands of technology and suddenly something as important as a bus-ticketing system is off and everyone in bus travels for free – absolutely ridiculous story …

My whole impression from Eindhoven is not very different from other cities I've seen in holland. The architecture of most of the streets and houses is no different. The brown beautiful houses build of little blocks with plenty of beautiful outside house decorations, green grass etc. There is however an evident difference from Arnhem and Nijmegen as many of the company buildings  near the city center and on the way while in the bus to Airport were built in a very modernistic style. Something noticable was buildings belonging to the so famous Philips company as well as the Philips stadium. Few of the buildings were quite tall looking a bit like New York's sky-scrapers. On the way to train-station, the most noticable thing I've seen was the Evuliona modernistic building build in the shape of scifi movies UFO 🙂

Evoluion Eindhoven UFO like building one of the most notable buildings in Eindhoven - Symbol of Human knowledge evolution

The eindhoven's attraction Unidentified Flying Object futuristic building

The rest was just a lot of company buildings and industrial equipment or markets, the whole city as long as I saw it is very technological and industrial. I derive this conclusion as  I've seen buildings of many of the most famous world IT companies, as well as a lot of industrial vehicles on the way to train station. After I had to leave my dear Svetlanka on airport. I've took the bus back to the train station. BTW, the bus number as of time of writting which goes from Train Station to Airport and Airport to Train-Station is bus number 401. The bus looks a bit more modern than the usual bus-es I've seen in Arnhem and Nijmegen. One thing which is different also from the regular bus-es in many other cities and towns in Holland is the driver in the bus going to and from Airport to tr. station, refuses to sell you tickets, but instead one has to buy the ticket from a ticket selling machine, which is accepting debit and credit cards, as well as probably the Dutch OV Chipcard as well as supports buying by coins. The ticket selling machine is made to work complicated, as there are few ticket types one can choose using a touch-screen computer interface; I tried inserting 3.50 euro to buy ticket for myself but the machine is just spitting the money. It is good a lady I asked on how she bought helped me showing me I first have to select the ticket type from the touch-screen as the touch screen is very much on the left side of the ticket-selling machine and I was in a hurry I didn't even noticed it. I've seen other people having the same problem with the machine, wondering why it happens – so it might be a good idea the high-tech guys who constructed it to make ticket buying using a 3 or 5 simple buttons, through which one can select the ticket type. It will save people time as well as not confuse probably multitude of foreigners like me who came to holland and get a first impression that Holland's sophisticated IT structure is not working 🙂

After Svetka check-in her laggage in around 12:40 and we had to say each other good buy in 13:10, she went inside the usual Airport Security check – metal detector scanner and I took the bus back to Eindhoven train-station. As the train station is located 3 minutes walk from the city center. I decided to take a quick look in the city center to see if there is something nice to see on centre – I was more interested to take a look at some Churches and my main idea was to see if I can find the Orthodox Church Parish of Saint Nectarios of Aegina as well as take a look at the Gothic style built Roman Catholic or Protestant Church buildings. About 10-15 minutes walk from train-station I've noticed two huge cathedrals. Both of them was heavily decorated with towers with the usual 3 enormous windows repeating pattern and the many other architectural patterns containing 3 elements (probably symbolizing) the Holy Trinity. What was new for me on both of the Cathedrals is the of Virgin Mary and Jesus or Saints? statues located on top of the Gothic Cathedrals. I checked the time schedule and it seemed both of cathedrals were functional, but only the second one I went to (St. Catherine) was opened.

Catharina kerk Roman Catholic city center church Cathedral Eindhoven

I've red the short history of the Cathedral and walked around it to check the wall paintings, statues, roman catholic crucifixes, the mosaics on the Church windows and generally the Church decoration. Many of the things in the Church seemed very unusual to me. The thing I most disliked was the ugly modern art reproductions mosaics of Jesus and various evangelica scenes. Though I'm happy I could have entered a Christian Church, I couldn't have not say how grotesque the crucifix means. There was a separate room in where it seemed people from the Church was doing something it looked a bit like an office. Though this was a still Church, for me it was somehow missing the light and feeling of spiritual deepness. There was an icon of Virgin Mary holding the most pure body of our Saviour Jesus Christ. One can clearly distinguish it is a Slavonic icon by the "МР ОУ" – abbreviation for Marry Mother of God.
I've red the Church story and it seems the earliest Church there is from the 12th century – meaning that it is possible an Orthodox Holy Liturgy was never served there.
A very short story of the Church is very similar to many of the Roman Catholic Cathedrals in Holland;

In short, Church building was taken from Roman Catholics and used by protestant in 16th / 17th century, just like with many other of the Roman Catholic Churches during the 16th – 18th century protestant reformation. In 19th century Catholics used it again, but then in 20th century it was almost completely destroyed during World War II, later rebuild and now again owned by Roman Catholics.

One thing to mention is though, I've only been in few Roman Catholic Cathedrals so far, it seems almost every one was keeping an Orthodox icon (usually Russian one), or an icon at least looking like Orthodox. Usually I would not be interested into entering a Roman Catholic Church, as we are prohibited to pray with them and I know about their errs in faith, however I know many of the Churches contain Holy Relics of saints / martyrs and bishops who preached and lived an extremely holy life, before the great schism thus I walk in Roman Catholic Churches with the hope and desire that the Church might contain Holy Relics of saint in their alter or somewhere kept and through that I might a blessing of the respective saint ….

After, walking out, I've walked through the city center, and most I saw was modernistic buildings shops and just few houses with more interesting oldish architecture. Some interesting building on city center is an Iglu shaped like called "Iglus".

Eindhoven Holland Iglus Massive Shopping Center Winkel in form of Escimos (Eskimo) Iglu

I didn't saw all of the city center but from what I've seen it seemed to me the city center of Eindhoven is less interesting to see than Arnhem and Nijmegen's. Eindhoven's city center looks modern and maybe this was main thing why I was not impressed.

Steentjeskerk church Eindhoven Holland architecture like Orthodox Church

I've seen one Church building, while traveling with the bus from Eindhoven Airport to Train-Station, and this building looked very much like Orthodox, also from the far the cross of it and the overall architecture looked very much Orthodox. I very much hoped it is an Orthodox so from Train Station walked about 20 minutes to the Church to check if it is not the Nectarios of Aegina Orthodox Church I mentioned earlier. The Steentjeskerk  Church was closed and on the main entrance doors. I've later found out the Church is not used for Roman Catholic Holy Liturgy since 1971.

It was quite striking to see shops selling souvenirs or something on the exact place where the Church entrance door used to be;  just 15 meters from the Church was a Coffee-Shop (i.e. a place here in Holland, where people go to Smoke Ganja, Mushrooms, alcohol and other light drugs ….

After checking on the Internet for the Steentjeskerk building is relatively new and had nothing to do ever with Orthodoxy. What however made me happy is it used to be dedicated to st. Anthony the Great – the saint who is considered as a father of Christian monks life.
The scenery right in front of my eyes was striking, I made a walk through the Church to see well its Architecture and in hope I can understand if it used to be Protestant or Roman Catholic. According to the Virgin Mary statue on top of Church I derived conclusion the Church used to be Roman Catholic. i've seen some text written somewhere on the back of the Church speaking the Church is used for some kind of exhibition. Even though the Church was not Orthodox, I felt sad for the poor Church being abandoned and being almost pranked with by allowing a place which was used for regular prayer to shop / exhibition …..

On the back of the Majestic Church, My amazement doubled when I saw a big mosque with a high Minaret (space ship rocket – as a friend likes to joke). The working Muslim Mosque built according to architecture norms of Muslims on the backstage of the unworking poort closed Roman Catholic Church turned to shop / exhibition was one of the saddest things I've seen. This whole scenery also explained, why Muslim faith is blooming and Europe it also explains, why Muslims are currently "taking over" Europe – just until recently the largest Christian continent.

 

How to Remove Firefox TABS all time Moving Backward / Forward (Waiting) Wheel cursor – Browser and OS Wheel Ring cursor might affect hypnotically

Monday, September 7th, 2015

remove-firefox-tabs-all-time-annoying-moving-back-forward-waiting-wheel-cursor-browser-and-ring-cursor-might-affect-you-hypnotically

I've been annoying for quite a long time by the the Clockwise moving backward and Forward Wheel (Ring) on Top of browser Tabs everytime I navigate to a new Internet domain or request a resource on the Net.

I'm aware that seeing the wheel all the time move back and forward is a very bad manipulation technique that is often used in advertisements in old movies and some advertisements in the start of the video . I'm talking about the infamous backward counting technique in a Circle (it was moer commonly used in the dawn of Television) aiming to induce watchers mind into hypnotic state …

back-counting-10-9-8-7-manipulation-technique-to-make-your-mind-susceptible

Those who have a degree in psychology or have been into marketing or human resources fields or any field involved where you have to influence the masses are already aware of the backward counting methology which has been practiced heavily by hypnosis practisioners such as Sigmund Freud, to induce any kind of hypnotic state the hypnotist always asks the object of hypnotism to watch closely into a moving back and forwards clock, often accompanied by counting backwards …

Well my Theory here is that the same techniques is well aware of those who planned Windows OS in which if you remember the Sand Clock has been substituted in Windows 7 / 8 and Windows 10 with the rotating back and foward Wheel for the reason that this aims to influence people mind to go into Alpha state from Beta state and thus make them feel more relaxed while doing stuff on the PC.

One thing to mention here is Back and Forward wheel is not only into OS level it has been heavily adopted by leading Software as a Service (SAS) UIs such as Google's and probably more importantly Youtube (have you noticed the Cycling Wheel when waiting for a Youtube movie to Load), the Wheel is also heavily incoruprated in most if not all biggest Websites on the Net. Even If you have noticed these days Google's Cycling (Waiting) Wheel is not only Cycling but has the colorful programming incorporated.

google-wheel-color-programming-example

Well probably many people who use computers daily did not really realize that the Computer OS and Programs GUI Interface they're using is influencing their mind and some famous psychological methods such as color programming and hypnotic tricks could be used more or less.

In that regard as a Firefox user I decided to change tne Back and Forward Wheel with another one which will not trigger my subconsciousness / mind all the time while browing on the Net into Alpha State. As I'm not a Firefox expert and my quick research on search Engines on how to achieve changing or removing the Browser Tabs all time turning wheel did not led me to nothing positive, I've consulted the experts in irc.freenode.net #firefox.

As always the guys were helpful and pointed me out to UserStyles.org website's Static-Throbbler CSS. I've mirrored the CSS script under a name remove-firefox-tab-wheel-script.css in case if UserSpace.org disappears in future, below is also a paste of the script:

@namespace url(https://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul); @-moz-document url(chrome://browser/content/browser.xul) { .tab-throbber { list-style-image: url('data:image/png;base64,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') !important; animation-name: none !important; } .tab-throbber[progress] { list-style-image: url('data:image/png;base64,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') !important; } }

To use the script you will first need to install the Stylish FF plugin, then:

Stylish-FireFox-plugin-screenshot-Windows-7-OS
 

1. Enable Stylish plugin and Restart firefox when prompted
2. Click on Write New Style
3. Paste above CSS script and click on Save button

 

stylish-static-throbbler-css-script-change-back-forward-rotating-tab-wheel-on-Firefox-howto

Now instead of the moving wheel you will get just a circle appearing as a static image while the page is loading.

If you want to absolutely remove any circles or images and show nothing when loading, e.g. not have any mean to monitor whether page is loaded or not, but also make it easier for the eye I even finally decided to completely remove the all time moving Wheel from Firefox Tabs even the static picture out using below CSS script with Stylish:
 

@namespace url(https://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul); @-moz-document url(chrome://browser/content/browser.xul) { .tab-throbber { list-style-image: none !important; animation-name: none !important; } .tab-throbber[progress] { list-style-image: none !important; } }

After all even after removing the FF Tabs wheel, there is the Status being printed down the webpage, showing text based the connection status. I find this kind of page loading status much less agressive and preferrable, than the current verions Firefox 4 onwards ..

One other thing I do to prevent the annoying Windows OS default Theme wheel is to change it to the old fashioned sand clock as well as bring back the theme of Windows 7 / 8 to Classic Theme of Win 2000, as I believe this reduced the level of zoombification the PC imposes on self 🙂

Enjoy!

Resume sftp / scp cancelled (interrupted) network transfer – Continue (large) partially downloaded files on Linux / Windows

Thursday, April 23rd, 2015

resume-sftp-scp-cancelled-interrupted-file-transfer-download-upload-network-transfer-continue-large-partially-downloaded-file-howto-linux-windows
I've recentely have a task to transfer some huge Application server long time stored data (about 70GB) of data after being archived between an old Linux host server and a new one to where the new Tomcat Application (Linux) server will be installed to fit the increased sites accessibility (server hardware overload).

The two systems are into a a paranoid DMZ network and does not have access between each other via SSH / FTP / FTPs and even no Web Access on port (80 or SSL – 443) between the two hosts, so in order to move the data I had to use a third HOP station Windows (server) which have a huge SAN network attached storage of 150 TB (as a Mapped drive I:/).

On the Windows HOP station which is giving me access via Citrix Receiver to the DMZ-ed network I'm using mobaxterm so I have the basic UNIX commands such as sftp / scp already existing on the Windows system via it.
Thus to transfer the Chronos Tomcat application stored files .tar.gz archived I've sftp-ed into the Linux host and used get command to retrieve it, e.g.:

 

sftp UserName@Linux-server.net
Password:
Connected to Linux-server.
sftp> get Chronos_Application_23_04_2015.tar.gz

….


The Secured DMZ Network seemed to have a network shaper limiting my get / Secured SCP download to be at 2.5MBytes / sec, thus the overall file transfer seemed to require a lot of time about 08:30 hours to complete. As it was the middle of day about 13:00 and my work day ends at 18:00 (this meant I would be able to keep the file retrieval session for a maximum of 5 hrs) and thus file transfer would cancel when I logout of the HOP station (after 18:00). However I've already left the file transfer to continue for 2hrs and thus about 23% of file were retrieved, thus I wondered whether SCP / SFTP Protocol file downloads could be resumed. I've checked thoroughfully all the options within sftp (interactive SCP client) and the scp command manual itself however none of it doesn't have a way to do a resume option. Then I thought for a while what I can use to continue the interrupted download and I remembered good old rsync (versatile remote and local file copying tool) which I often use to create customer backup stragies has the ability to resume partially downloaded files I wondered whether this partially downloaded file resume could be done only if file transfer was only initiated through rsync itself and luckily rsync is able to continue interrupted file transfers no matter what kind of HTTP / HTTPS / SCP / FTP program was used to start file retrievalrsync is able to continue cancelled / failed transfer due to network problems or user interaction activity), that turned even pretty easy to continue failed file transfer download from where it was interrupted I had to change to directory where file is located:
 

cd /path/to/interrupted_file/


and issue command:
 

rsync -av –partial username@Linux-server.net:/path/to/file .


the –partial option is the one that does the file resume trick, -a option stands for –archive and turns on the archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X) arguments and -v option shows a file transfer percantage status line and an avarage estimated time for transfer to complete, an easier to remember rsync resume is like so:
 

rsync -avP username@Linux-server.net:/path/to/file .
Password:
receiving incremental file list
chronos_application_23_04_2015.tar.gz
  4364009472   8%    2.41MB/s    5:37:34

To continue a failed file upload with rsync (e.g. if you used sftp put command and the upload transfer failed or have been cancalled:
 

rsync -avP chronos_application_23_04_2015.tar.gz username@Linux-server.net:/path/where_to/upload


Of course for the rsync resume to work remote Linux system had installed rsync (package), if rsync was not available on remote system this would have not work, so before using this method make sure remote Linux / Windows server has rsync installed. There is an rsync port also for Windows so to resume large Giga or Terabyte file archive downloads easily between two Windows hosts use cwRsync.