Unix Revolution

I purchased two Mac Mini Servers a while back to run some VM's, etc... I no longer have a need for one of them and I was pressed to see if the standard version (non-Server) would run on the device. Now, just to note... the install media for Mac OS X "workstation" will not install on this box via CD/DVD. There is a mechanism in the installer which inquires what hardware OS X is being installed on, and that inquiry is not good ;-)... So, with a new Firewire cable and some goofy procedure... I now have Mac OS X Lion running on my Mac Mini Server 1TB. Installing OS X Lion "workstation" on a Mac Mini Server.... What you will need: Mac Book Pro (or another Mac with Firewire) Mac Mini Server 1TB - Intel Core Duo Dual-Ended Firewire Cable (not common) OS X DVD (10.6 or later) OS X Lion Disc Image (download from AppStore - yes.. it ends up on your drive) Backup your Mac Book Pro (I have no idea how messed up things can get). Make sure everyt...

Building Kickstart, in it's entirety, is not an extremely difficult task. You simply need: media tftp, web/nfs server, dhcp server and name server to make things easier ability to configure the above services I have recently become somewhat familiar implementing a Red Hat Network Satellite including how to get my nodes to subscribe to it for updates. Beyond that functionality I am struggling to see how Red Hat intended their Satellite Service to be utilized. More to come...

I had originally planned on this being a lengthy post, detailing my experience with building a 2-node Veritas Cluster Server environment using VMware vSphere 4.1 hosting Red Hat 5.7 and VCS 5.1 SP1GA. Once I had the cluster up and running, it seemed to be somewhat flaky and I decided to focus on more important things.  I might get back to this someday. I guess my greatest surprise is that fencing appears to be working (even though the "hardware test" failed -- Output : Preempt and abort key KeyA using key KeyB on node vcs02 ................ Failed An even greater surprise is why fencing does not work in more environments... Regardless, here it is... [root@vcs01 rhel5_x86_64]# hastatus -sum -- SYSTEM STATE -- System State Frozen A vcs01 RUNNING 0 A vcs02 RUNNING 0 -- GROUP STATE -- Group System ...

The Emulex proprietary drivers and included utilities are extremely helpful. (the only oddity is where they are installed /usr/sbin/lpfc - but, whatever...). I happen to be at a shop that uses the OS multipath and Emulex fiber channel drivers. There is a bunch of good information to be found... # lspci | grep -i emulex 0b:00.0 Fibre Channel: Emulex Corporation Saturn-X: LightPulse Fibre Channel Host Adapter (rev 03) 11:00.0 Fibre Channel: Emulex Corporation Saturn-X: LightPulse Fibre Channel Host Adapter (rev 03) # cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host[2-3]/fwrev 2.00A3 (U3D2.00A3), sli-3 2.00A3 (U3D2.00A3), sli-3 # cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host[2-3]/lpfc_drvr_version Emulex LightPulse Fibre Channel SCSI driver 8.2.0.87.1p Emulex LightPulse Fibre Channel SCSI driver 8.2.0.87.1p # hbacmd listhbas | grep "Port WWN" | awk '{print $4}' | xargs -n 1 hbacmd HbaAttributes HBA Attributes for 10:00:00:00:c9:a6:91:35 Host Name : dbslp0066...

So, not exactly Linux/UNIX related... but I am elated with, oddly enough, AT&T. I went to the AT&T store to purchase a new iPhone 4 to replace my seemingly dying iPhone 3GS. I have been having issues with my phone since May in the house... and now it is basically acting up constantly. I.e. can't make calls even though I have 4 or 5 bars, dropped calls, etc... I have called Customer Service numerous times pleading with them to remedy this situation so that I don't have to go to Verizon for an iPhone that works. As it were: I could get an iPhone 4 from AT&T for $200 and probably need a microcell to make it work in my house... Or, I could simply get a Verizon iPhone 4 for $200 (which currently has a $100 rebate) and be done with it. I explained this to the AT&T people and they didn't seem to "get it". Whatever. Well, when I went to buy my iPhone 4 as a "last ditch" effort, the guy behind the counter was looking at the notes and said ...

Issue : Removing a device, or replacing a device with a different SAN LUN can be a bit challenging. HISTORY : Take this completely hypothetical situation, which may or may not happen to me quite frequently... your customer asked for 3 x 64 and 1 x 16 Gig LUNs... and for some reason the SAN admin assigns 4 x 64 Gig LUNs. You don't know this until you scan the bus and see them from the OS. At which point you have to tell the SAN admin that you need to replace 1 of the 64 Gig LUNs with a 16 Gig. And you also ask the admin to let you know when he/she removes the incorrect LUN so you can do your procedure to then remove the device from the OS view, and then he/she can proceed with adding the 16 Gig. Well, inevitably you will end up with syslog complaining about a SAN device no longer being available and the fun begins (this is because the admin removed the 64 and added the 16 probably in the same keystroke, or click of a button and this will not give you an opportuntiy to str...

As I was installing Windows Vista in a VM on my 5 year-old laptop, I was noticeably pleased with the way the install went, and the look-and-feel of the desktop when it was finished. Then... I thought about the fact that I had planned on installing Fedora Core 15 on this same laptop yesterday and decided just to update the Linux release that was installed because I like the Desktop on FC14 MUCH better than FC15. As I was pondering a write-up about all this I then realized how much I liked Snow Leopard over OS X Lion and how I almost wished I hadn't upgraded my Macs. 2010 was a good year for desktop managers, I guess.  2011... a step backwards? Oh well, back to installing VMware tools.