Andy Paton's most Technical Adventure

I'm a fan of VxVM, I've use over many years. But I did get to a problem that stumped me recently. I was unable to initialise the disks on AIX, I would get a permission denied error. aix53# /usr/lib/vxvm/bin/vxdisksetup -if DS4700-0_1 format=aixdisk /dev/hdisk3: Permission denied Resolution. The DS4700 storage must use AIX multipath MPIO and that needs the right reserve policy. (VxVM's DMP only sees a single path) aix53# chdev -l hdisk3 -a reserve_policy=no_reserve Config Aix 5.3 TL8 SP2 DS4700 Firmware 9.6x VxVM 5, MP1, Rolling Patch5, HotFix 5

Mount an ISO image on a Solaris/AIX filesystem Solaris lofiadm -a /export/temp/software.iso /dev/lofi/1 The lofi device creates a block device version of a file. This block device can be mounted to /mnt with the following command: mount -F hsfs -o ro /dev/lofi/1 /mnt These commands can be combined into a single command: mount -F hsfs -o ro `lofiadm -a /export/temp/software.iso` /mnt Unmount and close loopback filesystem umount /mnt lofiadm -d /dev/lofi/1 AIX 5.3 mklv -y cdlv -s n -L /dev/cdlv vg00 $(du -m 10gR2.iso|awk '{print int($1+128)"M"}') hdisk2 ## 128M pp say dd if=10gR2.iso of=/dev/cdlv # took hours mount -v cdrfs -o ro /dev/cdlv /mnt/iso

Red Hat 4.6 AS x64_EMT IBM/LSI RDAC LINUX DRIVERS INSTALL Configuration example IBM x3850 2 x Emulex 4Gb FC Cards Redhat 4 AS x64_EMT (lastest patches - up2date) IBM DS4700 Storage - Direct Attached This is required to be done on every kernel update. Install kernel update through normal procedure (up2date) and reboot into new kernel Use "uname -a" to show kernel details. Check you using the correct C complier. ls -ial /usr/bin/gcc should be a link to /usr/bin/linuxEMT_64-gcc If its not please change the link or update the CC flag in the LSI RDAC driver make file. Download RDAC driver from LSI http://www.lsi.com/rdac/ds4000.html Select 2.6 Kernel Version (Suports RHEL 4 U5) Unpack [root@main download]# ls rdac-LINUX-09.01.B5.76-source.tar.gz [root@main download]# gzip -d rdac-LINUX-09.01.B5.76-source.tar.gz [root@main download]# tar xf rdac-LINUX-09.01.B5.76-source.tar [root@main download]# ls linuxrdac-09.01.B5...

Dilbert on Virtualization

T3 Setup for Vmware Config - through SAN switch 5200, zones with multiple targets but single initiators. set ip 192.168.10.198 set gateway 192.168.10.254 vol add v0 data u1d1-4 raid 5 standby u1d9 vol init v0 data vol mount v0 volslice create vmfs -z 116GB v0 sys fc_topology fabric_p2p sys mirror off sys cache writethrough lun default all_lun rw

AIX Increase SAN disk/filesystem See change config cfgmgr chvg -g <volumegroup> chfs -a size=+??G /<filesystem>

The guys over at XenSource have pulled a master stoke, they have announced they will be integrating VxVM & VxFS into their Enterprise product . I'm a VMWARE VCP and it always amazed me that the VMWARE ESX didn't support fibre multipathing with load balancing. I've always taken multipathing for granted with Veritas (Symantec) VxVM DMP ( a must with Photons ) and latter MPXIO in Solaris . I'm sure VMWARE will add EMC PowerPath soon to push along those CLARiiON. Remember you can get Veritas Volume manager for free, check this blog post .

Mug of VI, what every PFY should drink from. Available from noStarch.com

Created a simple guide for all on setting up Microsoft Windows SFU (Services For UNIX) - NFS Server. Note: it doesn't cover user mapping. http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcxf52h3_32ckjkbh http://tinyurl. com/2pyswk

I have a central jumpstart server delivering Solaris 8 , 9 & 10 to the engineering workshop. Its recently been upgraded from an Ultra 2 to a V20z running Solaris 10 x86. A colleague came over a problem with the Solaris 8 add_install_client , producing adb errors. On closer observation the add_install_client incorrectly parses output from the ifconfig command, but only when zones are running. ifconfig list which zone owns the interface and this what Solaris 8 add_install_client script fails to cope with. Workaround, make the following changes in blue at line number 1939 to add_install_client read inet ipaddr netmask mask broadcast broadaddr if [ "${ifname}" = "lo0:" ]; then continue; fi if [ "$inet" = "zone" ]; then # Found an interface dedicated to a local zone. # Read in the real "inet" line and continue. read inet ipaddr netmask mask broadcast broadaddr continue; fi

I've got to worry about this attack. My MD was sent a USB pendrive in a box with corporate literature from " Tune-into-it.com ". Unusually :-D the literature didn't express what Tune-into-it.com does, so my MD trashed the literature and kept the pen drive for later viewing. Today he viewed the USB pendrive and instantly the Trend Anti Virus found TROJ_SMALL.EAK in "AutoSvr.exe" PE_Chir.B in "IT Newsletter PC.exe" Now what worries me is was either a, A targeted attack aimed my MD. A attack against my company. or a mass junkmail attack. Or Tune-into-it.com is vaild company and have unfortunately been infected with a virus. Either way it was well funded with glossy corporate literature, USB pendrive with Tune-into-it.com printed on it and sent in the post!. Check their website , it looks professional but doesn't tell you what they actually do! Unfortunately I didn't get to the pendrive before it was formatted and blanked by a colle...

A turning point in cryptography happen 30 years ago. Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman released a paper titled New Directions in Cryptography . This paper goes on to define ideas around public-key cryptography plus more! Listen to podcast of Diffie , Hellman and other panellist at the event to mark the occasion.

Oracle has announded that it will be supporting Redhat under the Unbrakable Linux program. Redhat have responded with an unfakeable advertisement.

An excellent hack, what did they hack into, the sign its self or the backend computer? More details can be found at The Register

We lost 3 - 0.

A football match has never caused me to blog until now. Wolves are playing away at the Hawthorns against West Bromwich Albion on Sunday 22nd October 2006, High Noon kick off!. It's been 4 years, 10 months, 21 days since the last game and I couldn't get tickets for the game :-( . I'm missing out on the most eletric atmosphere ever". I'm planning to drive by the Hawthornes just to hear it! Now, the result is key, Mick McCarthy's Wolves must draw or win so I can hold my head up high on work Monday morning. Albion are on form and are scoring goals with new manager ( Tony Mowbray ) , assist manager ex wolves ( Mark Venus ) all lines up for us to get beat! But I have FAITH ! Come on ye WOLVES

Play those old NES games within our browser http://vnes.thatsanderskid.com/ Loads of time guaranteed to be wasted reminiscing over those old games. My favorite is Kung Fu.

This is how I got the latest available FreeNX server and Windows Client to work on Gentoo. I've found FreeNX invaluable for administration remote Gentoo/Linux and Solaris servers. Install FreeNX software USE="nxclient" ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" emerge -avt "=nxserver-freenx-0.5.0.20060311-r1" Create a node configuration file. cp /usr/NX/etc/node.conf.sample /usr/NX/etc/node.conf Define authorization file in node configuration. vi /usr/NX/etc/node.conf add line SSH_AUTHORIZED_KEYS="authorized_keys" Add a remote user to FreeNX. As default FreeNX use PAM to authenticate user's password. The behavior can be changed by enabling internal FreeNX password in node configuration file. /usr/NX/bin/nxserver --adduser <username> FreeNX, uses a default public key for initial communication to the FreeNX server. (user nx) Replacing the key is more secure but the private key has to be installed on all clients which access th...

I've been a long time user of Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) and File System (VxFS), since version 2.6 Now there is a restricted version available for free, support Solaris SPARC, Solaris x64 and Linux. http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/sfbasic/index.jsp Andy

As fan of serial port consoles on my Sun SPARC servers, I do get fedup with slow console baud speeds. Setting console to 19200,8,n,1 on Solaris 10 Change console speed in the eeprom $ eeprom ttya-mode=baud-rate,8,n,1,- Set the console for ttymon $ vi /etc/ttydefs console:19200 hupcl opost onlcr:19200::console Repace /kernel/drv/options.conf with the following # 19200 :be: ttymodes="2502:1805:be:8a3b:3:1c:7f:15:4:0:0:0:11:13:1a:19:12:f:17:16";