Fix Jenkins SMTPSendFailedException on Windows and Ubuntu 16.04

Intro

By default, Jenkins has disabled mail.smtp.starttls option and if you want to send notifications through any SMPT service which requires TLS, for example, through Gmail SMTP server, you need to enable this option. If the option is disabled you receive the following exception:

com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPSendFailedException: 
530 5.7.0 Must issue a STARTTLS command first. q15sm1393424wra.91 - gsmtp 

Fixing SMTPSendFailedException on Windows

1. Navigate to Jenkins installation folder. To find out exact installation folder you need to navigate to 'Manage Jenkins' page and check 'Home directory' property. By default home directory should be 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins'

2. Open 'jenkins.xml' and add '-Dmail.smtp.starttls.enable=true' to arguments. See XML-code snippet below:

<executable>%BASE%\jre\bin\java</executable>
<arguments>-Xrs -Xmx256m -Dhudson.lifecycle=hudson.lifecycle.WindowsServiceLifecycle -Dmail.smtp.starttls.enable=true -jar "%BASE%\jenkins.war" --httpPort=8080 --webroot="%BASE%\war"</arguments>

3. Restart Jenkins by navigating to {base_jenkins_url}/restart URL.

Fixing SMTPSendFailedException on Ubuntu 16.04

Basically, the steps are pretty the same as for Windows. First of all you need to figure out where Jenkins stores it configuration. By default, it should be '/etc/default/jenkins' file.

1. Open '/etc/default/jenkins' file.

2. Add '-Dmail.smtp.starttls.enable=true' to Java arguments.

# arguments to pass to java

# Allow graphs etc. to work even when an X server is present
JAVA_ARGS="-Djava.awt.headless=true -Dmail.smtp.starttls.enable=true"

3. Restart Jenkins by navigating to {base_jenkins_url}/restart URL.

Configure Jenkins and Xvfb plugin on Ubuntu

Introduction

Some build workflows in Jenkins require the display. If you run the build of Java application in console following exception might happen.

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.InternalError: Can't connect to X11 window server using '' as the value of the DISPLAY variable.

I found a solution how to fix it using  Xvfb.

Installation of Xvfb

1. To install Xvfb run following command in terminal.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xvfb

Installation of Xvfb Plugin

1. I have an assumption that Jenkins is installed and running on Ubuntu 16.04. Please follow installation instructions to install Jenkins in case you do not have running Jenkins. 

2. Install Xvfb plugin. Please follow instructions for plugins installation.

Configuration of Xvfb Plugin

If plugin configured incorrectly you might have the following exception:

ERROR: No Xvfb installations defined, please define one in the configuration. Once defined you’ll need to choose one under Advanced options for Xvfb plugin job settings and save job configuration.

To fix it:
1. Navigate to  Manage Jenkins → Global Tool Configuration → Xvfb installation
2. Set Name: Xvfb
3. Set Directory in which to find Xvfb executable: /usr/bin

Troubleshooting

1. In case you still have the issue, try to play with the configuration of 'Start Xvfb before the build, and shut it down after.' step. E.g.

Recursively copy files of a specific folder into a single flat folder on Windows

Recursively copy files of a specific folder into a single flat folder on Windows

Use following script, with appropriate folders.

@echo off
for /r "{full path to source dir}" %%a in (*) do copy "%%a" "{full path to flatten dir}"

VirtualBox: Accessing shared folder from Ubuntu guest

Preconditions

• VirtualBox is installed.
• Ubuntu 16.04 is running in VirtualBox.

Instruction

1. Create shared folder. Click settings → Shared Folders → Click 'Add a new shared folder' button.

2. Specify name and path to the folder you want to make shared.

3. In VirtualBox click 'Devices' → Insert Guest Additions CD image → Run with sudo permissions VBoxLinuxAdditions.run program from mounted disk.

4. Make folder

sudo mkdir /home/{user_name}/shared-folder 

5. Mount the folder with the command:

sudo mount -t vboxsf {folder_name_from_step_2} /home/{user_name}/shared-folder

6. Done.

Creating local network with internet access using VirtualBox and Ubuntu 16.04

Preconditions

VirtualBox is installed. Download link.

Ubuntu 16.04 server is downloaded. Download link.

Creating a virtual machine

1. Run VirtualBox and click 'New' button.

2. Specify virtual machine name.

3. Set RAM (Depending on your purpose it could be any value).

4. Select 'Create a virtual hard drive now'.

5. Select VDI.

6. Select 'Dynamically allocated'.

7. VirtualBox tries to store the image of the hard drive on disk C, so I recommend to change that and save the image on another logical hard drive.

8. Click 'Create' button.

Installing Ubuntu 16.04 server

1. Select the virtual machine and click 'Settings' button on the left top corner of the window.

2. Open 'Storage' settings → for IDE controller select download Ubuntu 16.04 image.

3. Make sure that network settings have 'Attached to' set as NAT. We need this for ubuntu installation, in other mode operation apt-get might not work (see Troubleshooting section for more info).

4. Start the virtual machine and follow Ubuntu installation instructions, they are pretty straightforward.

Configuring the virtual machine to work on the local network with internet access.

Now we are ready to configure our virtual machine. To do that follow instructions below:

1. Select the virtual machine and click 'Settings' button on the left top corner of the window.

2. Open 'Network' settings → in 'Attached to' select 'Bridged Adapter'.

3. Boot the server.

4. Open /etc/network/interfaces with any text editor.

 sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

5. Set Ip address and DNS server for the server using the following configuration (NOTE: change IP address in case you are configuring multiple servers).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto <your network>
iface <your network> inet static
        address 192.168.1.2
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        gateway 192.168.1.1
        dns-nameservers 75.75.75.75 75.75.76.76
        dns-search local

Troubleshooting

1) If apt-get command does not work due to IPv6 issue. Please follow instructions below to fix it.
https://askubuntu.com/a/787491/733897 

Online stopwatch

00:00:00.000

Start Stop Reset

S - start or stop, ESC - reset

Creating SQL Server database project from existing database

Many enterprise solutions have an existing database in place. To start working with SQL Server project developers have to migrate existing database in it. In this article, I will describe how to migrate the existing database to the database project.

Creating schema compare files

Using Schema comparison tool in Visual Studio, it is possible to compare existing database schema and the schema presented in the project. To start comparison process right-click on project → Schema Compare.

 

After that new windows will open. On that screen, we need to select the source and the target databases. Click on 'Select source' drop-down list, then select 'Select source' option.

On opened dialog select 'Database' radio button and press 'Select Connection' button. After that, you have to provide database connection information.

For 'Target database' select project option.

Click on 'Compare' button. It might take some time to generate differences, but after that, you will see all items which should be updated in the target database.

We will save this Schema compare in our solution. It is better to do that because you will rather frequently run the comparison. It will save some time for you in future. You can have multiple 'schema compare' items, e.g., for local database, staging or production databases. I create the _schemaCompare folder in solution to store schema compare items there. Click save schema and save it to created folder and after that add a new item to solution folder.

Configuring schema compare

Sometimes you need to exclude some objects from schema compare or set it in some specific way. It is possible to do. Click on 'Gear' button on the top panel. 

After you configure the schema compare save it and check into project repository. Your schema compare will be available for all team members.

Creating database project from existing database

Now we are ready to create new database project from existing database. Double-click on local.compare.scmp file → Click Compare button → Click Update button → Done!

Conclusion 

In this article, I showed how to work with schema compare in SQL Server database project and how to create database project from existing database using schema compare.  Source code example for this tutorial could be found using the following link: https://github.com/aliakseimaniuk/blog-examples/tree/master/WideWorldImporters/05-Create-Database-Project-from-Database.