It turns out that when you have a decent number of VxFS file systems, there is a particularly nasty bug that can jump out and bite you in the *.
It turns out that Sun Cluster wants the vfstab entries for these file systems to be listed as being in the first fsck pass. This particular bug is Bug ID 6572900. Note that the bug description says that this fix does not work for all sites. Fortunately, the workaround seems to be working here.
This bug report is a good example of what I hate to see in bug reports from vendors (not just Sun). The status on the bug is reported as "fix delivered" (presumably the above workaround, since I don't see any patches), but the bug report notes that the workaround doesn't work for all sites. If customers are still having the problem, I don't see how we can claim that a fix has been delivered.
--Scott
Sun Cluster, HAStoragePlus and VxFS fsck
Enclosure Based Naming and Sun Cluster
As I posted previously, we are working on getting our Sun Cluster installation running. We had originally hoped to use ZFS for this project, which would have made deployment much easier. Unfortunately, the risks associated with the bug discussed in my ZFS Difficulties post are just too high to allow us to deploy it for production use at this time.
Instead, we are moving to Veritas Volume Manager and File System (VxVM and VxFS) for control of the data directories and shared storage.
We hit a hitch associated with Enclosure Based Naming. It turns out that if your storage drivers return devices in a format including the WWN, Enclosure-Based Naming is mandatory. Since the names are assigned based on some obscure, secret algorithm, you are virtually guaranteed that the different systems in your cluster will have different Enclosure Based Names associated with them.
Sun Cluster, on the other hand, insists that all of your devices be named the same way on all systems in the cluster.
Fortunately, Sun Infodoc 215296 describes how to resolve this impasse for VxVM 4.1+.
First, boot the node that you will be fixing in non-cluster mode. You can do this with aboot -x
command. Make sure that no disk groups are imported from the shared storage before proceeding.
The /etc/vx/disk.info file contains a mapping from the WWN-based device names (that you see in OS-based commands like format) to the Enclosure Based Names. You can edit this file directly, changing only the numerical part of the Enclosure Based Name that does not match between the different servers.
After making this change, and before you reboot, run the following command to re-configure the storage:vxconfigd -k
(Note that volumes and disk groups will freak out at this point if you have them imported on the system, since they see the disks being migrated to a "different" location. You really want to have deported the disk groups before you start, or else you may find yourself doing plex recovery.)
You can verify that the changes took effect properly by runningvxdisk -e list
and matching up the disk names to your reference configuration.
Good luck!
--Scott
Ubuntu Hardy Heron - 8.04 LTS Desktop and Server Edition Released
- Wubi Windows Installer - This allows any Windows user to install Ubuntu on their hard disk without any partitioning what so ever and run it from a folder in the 'C:\' drive. It allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way.
- Enhanced security via SELinux
- Integration with Microsoft Active Directory
- Support for KVM out of the box. KVM, or kernel-based virtual machine, is a device driver and userspace component for Linux that utilizes hardware virtualization extensions such as Intel's VT to create virtual machines running on a Linux host.
If you are as excited as I am in this new release, then choose a mirror close to your geographic location and start downloading this excellent Linux distribution. On the other hand, if you already have Ubuntu installed, you can also upgrade following the steps detailed here.100 of the Best Open Source Applications
ZFS Difficulties
We've been evaluating ZFS as a replacement for VxVM and VxFS in some of our production clusters. We encountered some difficulties.
ZFS has supported our development environment for about a year now, and we have enjoyed the flexibility and feature set of ZFS--especially the snapshot management and the ease of volume management. The performance, however, has left something to be desired. We had hoped to demonstrate that we could get adequate performance on ZFS by being more aggressive with tuning.
During the initial testing, we did not use ZFS mirroring or RAIDZ, though we did separate the Oracle log and temp files into separate pools as suggested in the ZFS Best Practices Guide, and we did tweak several tuning parameters as suggested in the ZFS Evil Tuning Guide.
We were able to get performance that met our requirements, but we experienced a much more serious problem when our test system blew a CPU. One of our pools became corrupted, which resulted in a panicked server. This was unexpected; we had isolated our test environment on a non-global zone and used dataset to delegate the zpool administration to the zone. We had expected a corrupted zpool to cause problems that were isolated to the zone, not to cause problems to the entire server.
This server was part of a nascent Sun Cluster configuration that we were also testing; the failover server attempted to import the zpool and promptly panicked. Investigation with zdb -lv revealed that the metadata had become corrupted as a result of the processor failure and resulting panic. We opened a call with Sun, and I posted message with the details to the ZFS Discuss list.
The upshot is that Solaris 10u5 and earlier do not have a way to prevent a panic on zpool corruption. Nevada allows you to specify how the OS will react to zpool corruption, but this will not be brought forward to Solaris 10 until update 6.
We could have reduced the likelihood of zpool metadata corruption by having more than one zdev in each pool (allowing the metadata replicas to have copies on different zdevs). Sun tells us that this would have narrowed the window in which we could have corrupted the metadata, but that the problem itself will not be fixed until update 6 later this year.
Until we get this problem resolved, I don't see being able to use ZFS in a critical production environment. If you have any light to shine on any of these issues, please post a comment here or on the ZFS Discuss list.
--Scott
Update on Book Project
I'm in the process of re-writing a couple of the chapters, which is going slower than I would like. It is getting closer to finished. If you send me your email address, I will let you know when the book is released.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People who are Linux Users
- Never login as root - This is redundant if you are using a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu which uses sudo to elevate a user temporarily to super user mode. Nevertheless a valid point.
- Properly name your files - I usually stick with that but even if you have spaces in the names of your files, bash completion helps you in getting the names of the files right.
- Place /home in its own partition - I concur with that wholeheartedly. Read this article to know more about partitions.
- Proper crash management - Use xkill and the likes to close a misbehaving application.
- Try out multiple distributions - You have got a whole lot of them to choose from.
- Brush up your command line skills - Learn to use command line tools to accomplish complex tasks. It is a big time saver. Don't forget to pick up some bash scripting skills on the way.
- And finally, always be ready to unleash the power within - in other words experiment.
HP 2133 sub-notebook powered by Linux
HP 2133 Sub Notebook Specification
- VIA C7-M ULV processor
- 512 - 1 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
- 120 - 160 GB SATA hard drive
- USB 2.0 ports - 2 Nos
- VGA External monitor port
- Audio in/ Microphone Jack
- Audio out/ Headphone Jack
- Express Card 54 Slot
- SD Card slot
- RJ-45 network jack
- 1 AC Power connector
- Kensington Lock slot
- VGA webcam (Optional)
- Stereo speakers and
- Stereo microphones and
- is wireless enabled
A video of HP 2133 Sub-Notebook - Courtesy: Notebook.com
Adobe AIR for Linux - An Overview
Fig: Adobe AIR installation setup for Linux
Fig: Installing an AIR application- Officially, it can be installed only on the following Linux distributions : Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SuSE and Ubuntu. But since Ubuntu is derived from Debian, I presume, Debian users can also install it on their machine (I haven't checked). And so should numerous other Linux distributions derived from Debian.
- AIR currently supports only Gnome or KDE desktop environments.
- Only RPM and Debian package management systems are supported.
- There is support for transparency in AIR applications but you have to enable Compiz or equivalent compositing window managers.
Fig: An RSS reader AIR application running on UbuntuBest Movies - My pick
This article is a continuation of the movies that I have enjoyed watching. The movies listed here are every bit worth watching and value for your money spent.
Bolt (2008)
Bolt, an American White Shepherd, has lived his whole life on the set of his action TV show, where he believes he has superpowers. When separated from the studio by accident, he meets a female alley cat named Mittens and a hamster named Rhino. Along the way, he learns that he doesn't have superpowers and that the show is not real.A fun animation movie from Walt Disney for the whole family to watch and enjoy. The dialogs are at times, exceptional. Even though it is an animation movie, the scenery and special effects are vivid and enthralling. The voice of Bolt has been imparted by none other than Hollywood actor John Travolta.
Watch Bolt
Genere: Adventure, Comedy
Cast: John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman, Mark Walton, Malcolm McDowell
KungFu Panda (2008)
A CG-animated comedy about a lazy, irreverent slacker panda named Po, who is mad about KungFu - the ancient art of martial combact. Po must somehow become a Kung Fu Master in order to save the Valley of Peace from a villainous snow leopard, Tai Lung. Set in the legendary world of ancient China, this is the story of Po, our unlikely hero, who enters the rigid world of Kung Fu and turning it upside down. Po ultimately becomes a Kung Fu hero by learning that if he believes in himself, he can do anything. Watch KungFu Panda
Genres: Martial Arts, Children's/Family, Family-Oriented Comedy
Cast: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen
Harold & Kumar go to White Castle (2004)
Harold Lee and Kumar Patel are second-generation Americans of Oriental and Asian descent respectively. While Harold is employed as a Stock Analyst, Kumar is a medical student. Harold is the neat and clean person while Kumar is the exact opposite.The title characters, while stoned on a Friday night crave for some burgers from White Castle, that too after seeing a TV advertisement. So from here, follows a journey for the burgers they require. On their way they encounter many obstacles including a raccoon, a racist officer, and a horny Neil Patrick Harris.Watch Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
Very funny movie to say the least. You will love this movie.
Best selling Movies of all times
These are some of the movies I have enjoyed watching. The movies listed here are exceptional in many ways and your money is well spent watching it. I have provided a brief synopsis of the story line for each movie and my reasons for liking it. So read on ...
Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Andy Dufresne is a young and successful banker whose life changes drastically when he is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover. Set in the 1940's, the film shows how Andy, with the help of his friend Red, the prison entrepreneur, masterminds an escape from captivity; in the process corrupting the very same prison officers who are in charge of the prison. Shawshank Redemption is a must see film.
The acting is exceptionally original. The story is genuine and captivates the audience till the end. One of the best English movies I have ever seen. If you are looking for an entertaining evening with your family, this is the one movie to pick assuming you haven't seen it before. Imdb.com gives it a high rating of 9.1/10.
The Dark Knight (2008)
In The Dark Knight, Christian Bale returns as Bruce Wayne, the billionaire playboy who moonlights as Batman. In this movie, Batman raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as The Joker.Anyone who likes reading comic books will enjoy watching Dark Knight. This batman movie is chock full of action and crime. But what sets it apart from the other comic book movies is the wonderful narration, magnificent acting, and beautifully shot scenes. This movie ranks amongst one of the best films released in 2008.
Star Wars (1977-2005)
Star Wars is an epic space opera franchise conceived by George Lucas. The entire story spans 6 films including 3 sequels and 3 prequels. Ironically, the sequels preceded the prequels. If you want to enjoy the story, you should watch the films in the following order - The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith,A New Hope,The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.One of the best things about Star Wars are its special effects. Since the story happens in a galaxy far far away, every thing depicted is out of this earth - Alien life forms, vehicles that defy gravity, ships that move faster than light and what not. Truly captivating, and a feast for your senses.
Ratatouille (2007)
In Ratatouille movie, a rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great French chef despite his family's wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in the sewers of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau. Despite the apparent dangers of being an unlikely - and certainly unwanted - visitor in the kitchen of a fine French restaurant, Remy's passion for cooking soon sets into motion a hilarious and exciting rat race that turns the culinary world of Paris upside down.This is a really nice movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it. An animation movie, it also has a simple but inspirational message for everyone - that is, not everyone can become a great artist. But a great artist can come from anywhere. Ratatouille is a product of Pixar Animation Studios which has given us such classics as Cars, Toy Story yet all.
