uCertify 117-101 Junior Level Linux Professional-I review

Recently, the folks at uCertify requested I review one of their certification test suites.
In my past experiences with certifications I've used a variety of study material, including instructor led classes, books, as well as electronic tools similar to those offered by uCertify.

I prefer instructor led classes, but a mix of books and electronic tools are also a viable option for me.

The uCertify catalog includes a wide variety of test preparation kits for a number of popular certifications, including:  LPIC, Cisco, Zend, Linux, Microsoft, etc. Given I am currently in the process of studying for my LPIC-1, I selected the Junior Level Linux Professional (LPIC-1) track, which provided me access to the 117-101 Junior Level Linux Professional-I preparation kit.

I was able to install the software quickly and easily without any problems.  The activation was also painless, which I expected.

To start out, the tool offers a variety of teaching tools including study notes and practice quizzes, which is what I was really looking forward to. Each of the components is easy to use and follow, although the navigation confused me a bit at first.

The content itself seems accurate. Much of it appears to be snippets of relevant text from the official Linux man pages, with some text with a degree less of technical jargon to it to further explain the topic at hand. There where some areas where the content was a little lacking, but it didn't happen too often.

The practice tests themselves are pretty good. They relate directly to the study material and are worded such that they are easy to comprehend. They also have the same cadence and tone that are on the actual tests.

A couple of nice features that stood out from other tools I have used in the past include the ability to select different test modes and creating custom tests. In addition, within the test itself, the ability to add notes, print items and even provide feedback are all quite helpful. Of course, it also contains other expected features such as bookmarking of questions and a summary of answers for final review prior to submitting for results. The test experience itself was quite good and provided simple methods for reviewing the results and furthering one's understanding of the subject.

Without the benefit of having taken the official exam, it is also a bit difficult to gauge the usefulness of other features such as the Test Readiness Report and Objective Readiness Report, both of which are aimed at providing insight as to how well one might perform on the official test.

Overall, the uCertify tool is a comprehensive and flexible learning tool that is definitely worth considering, specially at the $80 - $100 price point (depends on selected test). Those looking for self-paced preparation kits will find it easy to use, thorough and extremely helpful.

TL;DR
Simple installation
Good Price point
Relevant study material
Comprehensive set of tools
Different learning techniques for varying preferences
Flexible practice tests

uCertify test preparation kits are available at: www.ucertify.com

System Activity Report (sar) and You

sar is an acronym for System Activity Report. It takes a snapshot of the system periodically. On most distributions it comes with the sysstat package. On Redhat and derived distributions the package will install a set of cron jobs in /etc/cron.d/sysstat. There are two cron jobs to take note of. The first one runs every ten minutes as root. It runs the script /usr/lib/sa/sa1 -S Disk 1 1. This script saves its output in report files. The files are written to /var/log/sa/sar[dd], where [dd] is the two digit date for today's date. (e.g. Today is 8/26/2011. The log file is /var/log/sa/sar26)

The second cron job runs at 23:53. This cron job summarizes the days activity. Both of the reports are saved as binary data, so normal tools are useless here.

There are many flags to use with sar when running it interactivly. Some of the flags have additional atguments that are required when used. One example of thses flags is -n which al requires an additional argement suach as DEV or NFS ro IP. This specific example has eightteen (18) potential arguments, not including ALL.

With sar liberal use of the man pages are highly suggested. Not only are the flags and any arguments documented, but the headers for each one and what they represent are explained as well. This comes in handy if you get overzealous with flags and aren't quite sure what you're looking at.

I'm only going to cover some of the most notable flags, what they show and their headers. Be careful however as some flags exist in both upper and lower case and report vastly different metrics. One example of the is -b which reports on I/O transfer but -B reports on paging stats.

First off the plate is -b which as I've already stated reports on I/O transfer stats and has the following headers:
    tps: Transfers per second to a physical device.
    rtps: Read transfers per second to a physical device.
    wtps: Write transfers per second to a physical device.
    bread/s: Blocks (since kernel 2.4 = sectors = 512 bytes) read from devices per second.
    bwrtn/s: Blocks written to devices per second.
Example output from a production server running: sar -b 1 1
  Linux 2.6.18-274 el5PAE (server.domain.com) 8/26/2011
  09:23:57 PM    tps             rtps         wtps          bread/s     bwrtn/s
  09:23:58 PM    7829.00    133.00    7696.00    1528.00    76960.00
  Average:           7829.00    133.00    7696.00    1528.00    76960.00

-B will report paging stats. Some metrics / headers are only available in kernels 2.5 and newer.
    pgpgin/s: Kilobytes paged in from disk per second.
    pgpgout/s: Kilobytes paged out from disk per second.
    magflt/s: Major faults per second (hits to disk, this is a bad thing...)

-c Process creation stats.
    proc/s: Processes created per second.

-d Activity for each block device.
    tps: Transfers per second
    rd_sec/s: Sectors (512 bytes) read from block device per second.
    wr_sec/s: Sectors (512 bytes) written to block device per second.
    avgrq-sz: Average # of sectors
    avgqu-sz: Average queue length
    await: Average time in milliseconds for queue + servicing request.
    svctm: Average servicing time.
    %util: CPU percentage while I/O requests where issued. Close to 100% = device saturation.
 
-n DEV Network interface stats.
    IFACE: Interface Name
    rxpck/s: Packets received per second.
    tcpck/s: Packets sent per second.
    rxbyt/s: Bytes received per second.
    txbyt/s: Bytes sent per second.
    rxcmp/s: Compressed packets received per second.
    txcmp/s: Compressed packets sent per second.
    rxmcst/s: Multicast packets received per second.

-P ALL Per processor (or core) stats

-p Print pretty device names
    Shows block devices as sda instead of dev8-0. Has no effect on Network device names.
-A same as: -bBcdqrRuvwWy -I SUM -I XALL -n ALL -P ALL

After you install the sysstat package you really need to let it run for a while and gather stats to see the real beauty of it all.  However you can run it interactively if required. When running sar interactively the syntax is sar -FLAGS Interval Duration. (e.g. sar -b 2 60) runs I/O stats every two seconds for a minute.  This is very hand to run if you're troubleshooting a slow system or watching it under load.

Enabling the Administrator user in Windows 7

This is a very simple fix. The reasons to actually log on as the administrator are shrinking, but for my environment I need to log on as the Administrator user occasionally (for software patching).

1. Open up a command prompt as Administrator (not the same thing we are trying to do)
2. Run "net user /active:yes administrator"
3. Now it is a great idea to set a password for the Administrator user so we can do that right now
4. Run "net user administrator password" but replace password with something more complex similar to "Som3C0mpl3xP@$$w0rd"
5. Exit out of the command prompt.

For my situation I need to run commands as the Administrator user on other machines and need the Administrator shell. I did a lot of testing to make sure that the "Run as Administrator" doesn't work as I need.

Mounting a LVM volume in Ubuntu (Live CD)

A while back my testing server crashed. This was no surprise to anyone as it was just a (Very) old workstation. However it was running my nagios install in a production setting. I had been meaning to move it to a proper server, but just hadn't gotten around to it. To make matters worse, I didn't back any of it up. So thankfully it was only the motherboard that failed and not the HDD.

I mounted the HDD in another PC I had sitting around and booted it using Ubuntu Live CD.

First, boot Ubuntu.

Second, install the needed tools:

$ sudo apt-get install lvm2

Third, load the modules to do our task:

$ sudo modprobe dm-mod

Fourth, scan the system for LVM volumes. Look for the volumes you want to mount. Typically this will be VolGroup00:

$ sudo vgscan

Fifth, we need to activate the volume(s):

$ sudo vgtchange -ay VolGroup00

Sixth, Look for the logical volume containing the root file system. Typically this will be LogVol00:

$ sudo lvs

Seventh, create the directory to mount the drive:

$ sudo mkdir /mnt/restore

Eighth, Mount the volume to the directory you just created.

$ sudo mount /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 /mnt/restore -o ro,user

Ninth, Copy your files off of the drive.

$ cp /mnt/restore/some/dir/and/path /some/dir/and/path

Tenth, Setup what ever backup means you have on the new server!

All in all this wasn't a terrible thing, it could have been much worse. I have since moved the nagios setup to a virtual machine and am backing it up nightly.

Upgrading the Firmware on a 3com 4500 switch

Again, this is mostly for my own notes, but someone else may find it useful. Last year we purchased a 3c0m POE switch for our new VoIP phone system. This year I needed to update the firmware on it, but with only 8MB of flash drive I ran into a few problems.

First off, BACK UP EVERYTHING!

I used the TFTP method to transfer files to and from the switch. I used Solarwinds TFTP Server on my PC.

File name Prefix / Suffix

s3n / .app = 4500 application software.

s30 / .btm = 4500 boot ROM software

s3p / .web = 4500 web file (HTTP management interface)

3comOScfg.def / .def = 4500 config file

So first things first backing up via TFTP:

<4500>tftp [IP OF TFTP SERVER] put flash:/s3004_01.btm

<4500>tftp [IP OF TFTP SERVER] put flash:/s3p04_03.web

<4500>tftp [IP OF TFTP SERVER] put flash:/s3n03_03_02s56p05.app

<4500>tftp [IP OF TFTP SERVER] put flash:/3comOScfg.def

Please change these files as you see fit. Do a dir on the root directory to get the listing for your particular switch.

Now that we have that backed up we need to clean up the flash:/ drive to make room for the updates.

<4500>delete s3004_01.btm

<4500>delete s3p04_03.web

<4500>detete s3n03_03_02s56p05.app

Now we also have to empty the recycle-bin. This is where I got stuck as I didn't know a CLI could have a recycle-bin, or have never seen it done before.

<4500>reset recycle-bin

See as we now have the free space we need to get the new files we can pull them down from the TFTP server.

<4500>tftp [IP OF TFTP SERVER] get s3p02_01.web

<4500>tftp [IP OF TFTP SERVER] get s3o01_01.btm

<4500>tftp [IP OF TFTP SERVER] get s3n03_02_00s56.app

Again, you will need to use the files that are the current firmware update.

One of the last steps is to tell the switch what files to use on next boot.

<4500>boot boot-loader flash:/s3n03_02_00s56.app

<4500>boot bootrom flash:/s3o02_01.btm

Finally we will save the configuration and reboot the switch.

<4500>save

<4500>reboot

Thats it! After the switch reboots you will be running the newest software, except for the .web file. For some reason this is left out of all of the documentation that comes with the update. I didn't write down the commands I used to get it to update, and I honestly don't think they worked.

Bash: Finding files between two dates in the current directory

Today my boss asked me for a bash command (or script) to find some files between two dates.

Thanks to Jadu Saikia over at Unstableme his post UNIX BASH scripting: Find Files between two dates, I had a starting point.

This will find all files between the two dates (20071019 & 20071121) in this case.

find . -type f -exec ls -l --time-style=full-iso {} \; | awk '{print $6,$NF}' | awk '{gsub(/-/,"",$1);print}' | awk '$1>= 20071019 && $1<= 20071121 {print $2}'

Now, if you want just PGP files you would do:

find *.pgp -type f -exec ls -l --time-style=full-iso {} \; | awk '{print $6,$NF}' | awk '{gsub(/-/,"",$1);print}' | awk '$1>= 20071019 && $1<= 20071121 {print $2}'

The second request that my boss was looking for with this is the file size, something that was being left out by awk. So we can fix that by updating the command to:

find *.pgp -type f -exec ls -lh --time-style=full-iso {} \; | awk '{print $6,$NF,$5}' | awk '{gsub(/-/,"",$1);print}' | awk '$1>= 20090624 && $1<= 20090901 {print $2,$3}'

We added in a $5 to the first awk command, and the final one had $3 added to it. Also I like human readable file sizes so I added -h to the ls command.

Howto Make a T1 Crossover Cable

I learned this one about a month ago while turning up the T1 connection for my fax server. The tech that installed the Cisco equipment left us with a crossover cable, but a data one, so I cut the ends off and re-crimped the cable like so:

You only have to worry about 4 of the 8 wires if you are using typical cat-5 cable like I did.

1 <—> 4
2 <—> 5
4 <—> 1
5 <—> 2
Or if you go by colors like I do
Side 1 (left is cable end, clip underneath):
Pin 1: Orange White
Pin 2: Orange Solid
Pin 3: none
Pin 4: Blue Solid
Pin 5: Blue White
Pin 6: none
Pin 7: none
Pin 8: none

Side 2 (left is cable end, clip underneath):
Pin 1: Blue Solid
Pin 2: Blue White
Pin 3: none
Pin 4: Orange White
Pin 5: Orange Solid
Pin 6: none
Pin 7: none
Pin 8: none

Then you are done!

Creating a RAID 5 Array in software on CentOS 5.3

In order to create a RAID 5 array entirely in software on Linux you need to do a few things.

First I used three Identical drives, same speed, size, make, and model. This may not be a requirement, but

it will defiantly help the process. For RAID 5 you will need at least three partitions of the same size.

I picked up a four disk internal hot-swap enclosure from Addonics (http://www.addonics.com/products/raid_system/ae4rcs35nsa.asp) and

a hot-swap capable raid card. Once I got everything physically installed in the server case I booted into CentOS 5.3

and got on the command line. The first thing you need to do is create partitions on the blank drives and set them to be

Linux raid autodetect (Hex value of fd). To do this run fdisk /dev/sdX where X is the drive(s) that you want to partition for the RAID array.

For me this was SDC, SDD, SDE but you results will vary.

fdisk /dev/sdc

n [ENTER]

e [ENTER]

4 [ENTER]

[ENTER]

[ENTER]

n [ENTER]

l [ENTER]

t [ENTER]

5 [ENTER]

fd [ENTER]

w [ENTER]

You will want to create an Extended partition so choose n for New partition. If you get stuck you can hit m to get the help menu.

After you hit n type e for Extended. Then you will have to enter a partition number, I choose 4 for all of my drives.

After that you n again and then choose l for logical partition type. Again it will ask for a partition number 1-4 are for primary and thus not an option,

so I choose 5 for all of my drives.

Once the logical partitions are created hit t to change the partition type. If you are unsure what to use hit l, but in this case we already know that we want to

use type fd for the Linux RAID auto.

Once the type has been changed you can type w to write this info to the drive and start on the next one.

fdisk /dev/sdd

n [ENTER]

e [ENTER]

4 [ENTER]

[ENTER]

[ENTER]

n [ENTER]

l [ENTER]

t [ENTER]

5 [ENTER]

fd [ENTER]

w [ENTER]

fdisk /dev/sde

n [ENTER]

e [ENTER]

4 [ENTER]

[ENTER]

[ENTER]

n [ENTER]

l [ENTER]

t [ENTER]

5 [ENTER]

fd [ENTER]

w [ENTER]

Now that we have three (the minimum) partitions for our RAID device we have to create it in CentOS. Here we will use a tool called mdadm to create the

actual RAID device in Linux.

/sbin/mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md0 --level=5 --raid-devices=3 /dev/sdc5 /dev/sdd5 /dev/sde5 [ENTER]

Once this returns back, and it should be pretty quick, you will have a RAID 5 device. To check the status of it run:

/sbin/mdadm --detail /dev/md0

/dev/md0:

Version : 00.90.03

Creation Time : Wed Jul 8 09:14:19 2009

Raid Level : raid5

Array Size : 2930271744 (2794.52 GiB 3000.60 GB)

Used Dev Size : 1465135872 (1397.26 GiB 1500.30 GB)

Raid Devices : 3

Total Devices : 3

Preferred Minor : 0

Persistence : Superblock is persistent

Update Time : Fri Jul 10 11:20:02 2009

State : clean

Active Devices : 3

Working Devices : 3

Failed Devices : 0

Spare Devices : 0

Layout : left-symmetric

Chunk Size : 64K

UUID : 53f6f95a:9e33f5ba:7ac8ef3e:0a40921a

Events : 0.2

Number Major Minor RaidDevice State

0 8 21 0 active sync /dev/sdc5

1 8 37 1 active sync /dev/sdd5

2 8 53 2 active sync /dev/sde5

Now for me after I first created the RAID device the state was listed as clean, degraded, rebuilding. There was a place for the percentage rebuilt and

/dev/sde5 was listed as spare. It took the better part of a day for the rebuild to finish, given that it was a three terabyte device I am not surprised by that.

Once the rebuild was done I had to create a Physical volume for LVM to be able to manage the RAID device.

pvcreate /dev/md0

After that I was able to use system-config-lvm to create the storage volume and format the drive.

Copy Directory Structure Only

This is a simple one liner for copying a Directory structure, and not the contents.

find * -type d -exec mkdir /new_directory/\{\} \;

Now there are a few caveots to this of course, but they are simple.

First the /new_directory/ has to exist.

Second, you have to run the command from within the directory that you want to copy the structure from.

For example, if I need to copy the structure of /Storage to /newStorage I would:

mkdir /newStorage

cd /Storage

find * -type d -exec mkdir /newStorage/\{\} \;

Failed to modify password entry for user while adding user with smbpasswd

I was trying to create a user today in samba and was getting the error "Failed to modify password entry for user [USER]".

I read over the man pages for smbpasswd and saw that I needed to add the -n switch because this user will not have a password. So again I tried to add the user with "smbpasswd -a -n [USER]" and got the same error.

A quick Google search lead me to a newb mistake on my part... I didn't have the user I was trying to add in my UNIX password file. A quick "useradd [USER]" followed by the same "smbpasswd -a -n [USER]" and I was all set.

Granted there are other reasons why this process might fail, but for me this was the reason.

Things learned over time, Part 1

This is going to be an on going series of quick posts.  Some of those quick little tid bits of information that once you know you never forget, but up until that point it makes things harder than they need to be.

I typically change directories to where I want files to end up if say I am using wget or xcopy.  I used to do xcopy z:\some\directory\* c:\Users\Steve\Desktop\Directory 

now I have either realized or learnd from someone that you can do 

xcopy z:\some\directory\* .

Saves a lot of typing and reduces mistakes.  Again you have to be in the directory for it to work.

Alternatively if you open a command prompt by default you are in your home directory, so if I wanted the same outcome but didn't want to change directories I would do 

xcopy z:\some\directory Desktop\Directory

Of course this works on Linux as well as Windows but the paths and slashes will be different.

uCertify Test Engine Review

To be totally up front I was asked to do this review by the company uCertify.com, but I won't let that affect my opinion of the product offered.

The download and installation of the product was straight forward. They even offer you a chance to do some practice tests for free to test out the software. The test itself is inexpensive coming in at $49.99 for a single user. Not bad in my opinion. So far I have only gone through the 15 question diagnostic test once, but the questions where challenging none the less.

I will be using this practice test for my 70-284 exam to truely test it out and to be honest I think it will work. I have to go through all of the exams first and then start using the "Adaptive Test" to really hone in on areas I have trouble in. Also the custom test allows you to pick areas of the exam that you are really struggeling with so you can "turn your weakness into stenght".

Fixing a bad Master Boot Record (MBR) in Microsoft Vista

A few months ago I installed CentOS on my laptops second hard drive. During this process it installed GRUB as my boot loader. Since the inital installation I have not booted back in to CentOS at all, so I removed the linux partitions from the second drive and hoped for the best. I was so wrong.

Removing those partitions removed GRUB as well, so my laptop (now my main computer) would no longer boot into Microsoft Vista Home Premium. To fix this I used the Vista DVD to boot into Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and used a tool new to me Bootrec.exe.

Microsoft has a very handy article on how to use Bootrec.exe to fix just such an occasion. For my situation I had to use the /fixMBR switch and reboot. It was literally that simple!

Handy Microsoft related blogs

Over time I have found some Microsoft team web sites to be very handy. These include the Microsoft Exchange Team, the IIS team and most recently the Open Source Software lab team. Below I have the links to these sites so you can check them out and add them to your favorites.

Port 25 The Open Source Software Lab at Microsoft

Microsoft Exchange Team Blog (You had me at EHLO...)

Microsoft Internet Information Services Homepage
Also if you have sites that you find useful please leave them in the comments so I can addt them.

Testing Outlook Web Access from the PowerShell

As any of my readers know I check things on a daily basis, typically in the morning. As part of these checks I fire up Internet Explorer 7 and go to our Outlook Web Access page and log in.

Today I figured out how to do all of this from a PowerShell, which has already cut my daily monitoring duties down about 90%. This is a pretty simple oneliner that will test one OWA url. It does however require you to enter a password in a dialog box.

Test-OWAConnectivity -url https://mail.yourdomain.com/owa -mailboxcredentials:)Get-Credential domail\user)

After you run that it will ask you for the password of the user and report back success or failure.

Troubleshooting Tips: RPC over HTTP

While getting "Outlook Anywhere" to work in our Microsoft Exchange 2007 environment I had to do a little trouble shooting. Here are some things to look for if things are not working.

Make sure you are using Basic Authentication with the RPC proxy.
Triple check that Outlook Anywhere is enabled on the Microsoft Exchange 2007 server and that the RPC Proxy is installed.
Close Outlook and open it backup with the switch /rpcdiag (Start, Run, Outlook.exe /RPCDIAG).

Also since you are using Basic Authentication you must be using SSL. The SSL certificate must be trusted by the computer that is running Outlook, so I suggest it is a third party certificate that came from a reputable online source. You can only use self-signed certificates if all the computers that will be connecting to Outlook Anywhere are also part of the domain that created them.

Maybe I should do a complete series of how to's in regards to Outlook Anywhere and RPC over HTTP.

Microsoft Exchange 2007 Distribution Group Security

Today I found out that Distribution Groups within Microsoft Exchange 2007 have security placed on them that requires users to authenticate when sending emails to them. I understand having this feature, but I would argue against it being on by default.
With this setting on users outside your company cannot email to the distribution group. For some of my groups this is what I want. But for specific groups I want people outside my enterprise to be able to send them email.

To change this setting open up the "Exchange System Console" and go to the Recipient Configuration, Distribution Group. Then right click on the distribution group you wish to edit and choose properties. Next click the "Mail Flow Settings" tab and select the "Message Delivery Restrictions" and then hit the "Properites" button. On the "Message Delivery Restrictions" screen uncheck the "Require that all senders are authenticated" option and you will be all set.

To do all of the above from the "Exchange Management Shell" you can use the one-liner below.
Set-DistributionGroup -identity "DisplayNameOfDistributionGroup" -RequireSenderAuthenticationEnabled $False
It's really that easy.

When I first got my hands on Microsoft Exchange 2007 I did not like the idea of doing alot of things by the command line, but as time goes on I have found out that the Management Shell is a very powerful tool that every Exchange admin should learn how to use and fall in love with.

How to: Update the Global Address List in Microsoft Exchange 2007

This is a simple one liner that you can use to update the default Global Address List when running Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. It should be noted that this can take a long time in a large enterprise so use with caution during normal business hours.

Update-GlobalAddressList -identity "Default Global Address List"

Microsoft Exchange TCP/IP Ports List

This is just going to be a list of all the TCP & UDP IP ports that you could possibly need to use (or open in your firewall(s)).

TCP port 25 - SMTP
TCP port 26 - SSL secured SMTP
TCP port 110 - Post Office Protocol v. 3 (POP3)
TCP port 995 - SSL secured POP3
TCP port 143 - Internet Message Access Protocol v. 4 (IMAP4)
TCP port 993 - SSL secured IMAP4
TCP port 80 - HTTP for Outlook Web Access
TCP port 443 - SSL secured HTTP for Outlook Web Access (HTTPS)
TCP/UDP port 389 - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
TCP port 3268 - LDAP communications with an Active Directory Global Catalog Server
TCP port 119 - Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
TCP port 563 - SSL secured NNTP
TCP port 135 - Remote Procedure Protocol (RPC) however it will also use ports 1024 and up as needed.
TCP/UDP port 53 - Domain Name System (DNS)
TCP port 102 - Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) *Only used in X.400 connections.
TCP/UDP port 88 - KERBEROS
Additionally if you are secureing any servers such as front-end / back-end servers with IPSEC you will need to allow IP protocol 51 for the Authenitcation Header, IP protocol 50, TCP/UDP port 88 for KERBEROS, and UDP port 500 for Key Exchanges.

That's a pretty decent sized list "JUST" for one network service. On the plus side most of those are not needed in a default setup as POP3 and IMAP4 are rarely used in a pure Microsoft network.

Also hopefully this will help me remember some of the less used ports and let me ace my test!

-EDIT: Thanks to the commenter I updated this post to have the correct Global Catalog server port.

How to Delete the Undeletable File!

There comes a point in every Network Admins life that you must delete a file that is always locked, even those pesky files that won't go away after a reboot or going into safe mode.

Geeks are Sexy has a good article on how to delete pesky undeletable files. I already knew about #1. I always first try to kill "Explorer.exe" from task manager before I do anything drastic. If that doesn't work I move on to number three if I have Unlocker handy.

I typically have either unlocker installed or an Internet connection to download a copy so I have never had to resort to using the Recovery Console on my computer. Also it is far more likely that I would have those then a Windows CD around to use the recovery console as I always forget to install it before hand.