registry

Quick and Easy Local NPM Registry With Verdaccio and Docker

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container storage

Sometimes it can be useful to be able to npm publish libraries or projects you’re working on to a local npm registry for use in other development projects.

This post is a quick how-to showing how you can get up and running with a private, local npm registry using Verdaccio and docker compose.

Verdaccio claims it is a zero config required NPM registry, and that is pretty much correct. You can have it up and running in under 5 minutes. Here’s how:

Local NPM Registry Quick Start

Clone verdaccio docker-examples and then change directory into the docker-examples/docker-local-storage-volume directory.

git clone https://github.com/verdaccio/docker-examples.git
cd docker-examples/docker-local-storage-volume

This particular sample docker-compose configuration gives you a locally run verdaccio instance along with persistence via local volume mount.

From here you can be up and running by simply issuing the following docker-compose command:

docker-compose up -d

However if you do want to make a few tweaks to the configuration, simply load up the conf/config.yaml file in your editor.

I wanted to change the max_body_size to a higher value to allow for larger npm packages to be published locally, so I added:

max_body_size: 500mb

If you haven’t yet started the local docker container, start it up with docker-compose up.

Usage

Now all you need to do is configure your local npm settings to use verdaccio on http://localhost:4873. This is default host and port that verdaccio is configured to listen on when running in docker locally).

Then add an npm user for local development:

npm adduser --registry http://localhost:4873

To use your new registry at a project level, you can create a .npmrc file in your local projects with the following content:

@shogan:registry=http://localhost:4873

Of course replace the scope of @shogan with the package scope of your choosing.

To publish a module / package locally:

npm publish --registry http://localhost:4873

Other Examples

There are lots more verdaccio samples and configurations that you can use in the docker-examples repository. Take a look to find these, including Kubernetes resources to deploy if you prefer running there for a local development setup.

Also refer to the verdaccio configuration page for more examples and documentation on the possible config options.

Changing Registry entries on multiple systems with PowerShell and Remoting

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A few weeks ago, a colleague asked if I knew of a way to script the change or modification of the Registered Owner / Organization information on a Windows Server system (2003 or 2008). I knew that this could be achieved with PowerShell and had some initial ideas, so I spent a few minutes whipping up the script below.

For this to work, you should ideally have all systems on the same Windows Domain and have enabled PowerShell remoting on each system that needs to be changed. Of course you could also just run the script on a single workstation/server on its own without the need for PSRemoting.

 

# On all remote machines that need their info changed
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
Enable-PSRemoting # Say yes to all prompts
#region This part only needed if machines do not belong to the same domain...
# Note: This can be a security risk, only use if you are sure you want to allow any host as a trusted host. (e.g. fine for lab environments)
cd wsman::localhost\client
Set-Item .\TrustedHosts * # Say yes to all prompts
#endregion
# Run on your management machine/machine you are using to update all others...
$computers = @("SERVER1","SERVER2","SERVER3")

foreach ($computer in $computers) {
    Enter-PSSession $computer
    cd 'HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion'
    Set-ItemProperty -Path . -Name "RegisteredOwner" -Value "Auth User"
    Set-ItemProperty -Path . -Name "RegisteredOrganization" -Value "Lab"
    Exit-PSSession
}

 

So the above should update your registered owner and organization details for each server listed in the $computers array. (Specify your own host names here). The above script should be easy enough to modify if you are looking to change other registry entries. Finally, don’t forget that you should always be careful when updating registry, especially via script – make sure you have backups!

 

Modify your NIC MTU size setting in Windows Registry

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A quick and easy blog post today on how to modify your NIC MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) size setting in the Windows Registry.

By default your MTU won’t be defined in registry. Microsoft state that (Link):

The MTU is usually determined by negotiating with the lower-level driver. However, this value may be overridden.

To change your MTU setting in Windows Server 2003 or 2008 use the following steps:

  • Open regedit as an administrator account on the server in question.
  • Navigate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\[Choose the interface in question] (Do this by checking the correct IP address is in the settings under this key for the adapter you are configuring)
  • Once you are in the correct key for your interface, right-click and select new DWORD value (32 bit).
  • Call it MTU
  • Give this a decimal value equal to the setting you would like your MTU to be (measured in bytes).

For more information about Maximum Transmission Unit sizes, have a look at the official Wikipedia article.

Here is a screenshot of an MTU setting I made on this server using 1400 bytes as an example. This would obviously be tuned to whatever amount you are wanting to use for your NIC and specific application settings.

How to increase the default exchange 2003 SP2 database store limits

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This applies to Exchange 2003 SP2.

Today I had a call from a client complaining that their e-mail would sporadically stop working every day or two. They said that by restarting the server, they could temporarily fix the problem.

I connected up, and took a look at the server’s event viewer application logs, around about the times that the client complained this last happened, which was around 07h30 in the morning. At 05h00 in the morning, when the exchange database runs some checks, I found the problem. A warning event that complains that the exchange logical database is now over the default size allowed. Logical size being the physical size of the .edb and .stm files, less the logical free space (also known as white space). Anyway the defaults size for the entire database is 18GB (16GB + 2GB). We need to adjust these now, as our combined mailboxes and public folders are over the 18GB size limit, or are quite close to breaching the limit. If they are over, then your exchange database would have already dismounted following the next check at 05h00 in the morning. If they have not passed the 18GB limit, then you will probably just be getting warning events at the moment, and should still increase the size limits to avoid any downtime.

This is how…

Open the registry editor – Start – Run, and type : regedit
Click Ok

Now navigate to (Note that the GUID is a unique string of numbers for each server) :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\NameOfYourExchangeServer\Private-GUID

Create a new DWORD entry as follows :

Database Size Limit in GB

Right-click and modify the entry once created, and give it a decimal value of anything between 1 and 75 depending on how many GB you want to limit this size to. Make sure you have enough disk space free on the partition your Exchange database is residing, and then enter something higher than 18. For example I used 60 for 60GB.

Modify the exchange 2003 SP2 default database size

Click OK

Now navigate to the next part (This is to modify the public folders database size) :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\NameOfYourExchangeServer\Public-GUID

Do the same as above, by creating the same DWORD value, and give it a size limit (decimal value) higher than the current public database value. For example I used 15 for 15GB.

Click OK.

Now we need to exit the registry editor, and restart the Exchange Information Store.

Go to start – run, and type : services.msc

Press enter, or click OK.

Navigate to the Exchange Information Store service, and right click it. Select the restart option.

Please note that this will now dismount your store. If your mail store is still online, users will be temporarily disconnected while the store re-mounts itself. Once back online, the database sizes will have increased, and you will get some nice notifications in your application log informing you of the new database sizes.