I recently found out there is a company already doing solar power installations in my area called REC Solar
so I called to talk to one of their sales people. I'm definitely planning to go with solar power on my house, but I had expected the price to be quite a bit larger than it is, so I'd expected it to be several years down the road. However, with this information and a call to my brilliant financial guy, it turns out that there is a good chance I could get this done right now without destroying my finances. So I'm very excited about this. I'm calling today to get the installation estimate done which will give me more specific information.
Here's the info I have from REC Solar so far.
He said it sounded like I was using about 600 kWh electricity per month, which turns out to be drastically too low. But with that as a base, he said that a 3 kW system would provide about 2/3rds of the power I use. Apparently that's about what they shoot for in their installations. I said I wanted at least 100% solar because I was expecting my electricity use to go up in the future due to switching to an electric furnace. He said that was good planning and that I should mention it during the installation estimate. Anyway, here are the cost figures he then gave me (these are very general estimates).
3 kW
$23,000 cost - $13,000 rebate - $2,000 tax credit
6 kW
$16000-$17000 after rebate - $2000 tax credit
9 kW
$22000-$23000 after rebate - $2000 tax credit.
10kW is the largest installation I believe they do, and I might end up needing to get that. Either way, while that's still a lot of money, even the most expensive system from REC is about 1/4 the price I thought I was going to have to pay. Hopefully I'll find out soon.
warranty 10 year from rec on the installation
25 year warranty on panels (this includes specifics like 90% of original power generation at 10 years, 80% at 20 or something like that)
15 year warranty on inverter
The way I understand this to work at this point is that the solar panels will be installed on the roof (happily I have a good quality fairly new roof) and the power then run through an inverter and connected to my main house panel. I remain attached to the local power grid and I'm apparently not allowed to use any sort of power storage devices while attached to the grid.
The panels generate electricity during the day, likely a lot more than I use, and the power company pays me at some very low rate for whatever power I put into the grid. Then when there is no electricity generated by the panels, or when I use more than the panels generate, I pull electricity from the grid at the normal ridiculous power/kW price. Happily electricity is almost always more expensive during the day than during the dark, so the difference in cost will be somewhat in my favor. Still, it's very likely that I'll have to pay the power company money every month anyway. We'll see how that turns out.
There are many questions I still need to ask, details of the installation, options for equipment, shading, all kinds of things. One I need to know is if monitoring software/hardware is included in the installation. I'll definitely want a good power monitoring solution. I have to assume that when I have to get the house re-roofed that the solar will all have to come down and be re-installed. That seems like a fairly significant future cost. I suppose I should consider getting a bio-diesel generator also for times when the grid and it's dark.
If I'm really lucky I'll be able to get a refinance that gives me enough money to install the solar, fix the other small electrical problems, change some things about the plumbing, and get the rock and tile work done that I need. But that might be asking too much.
More as the story develops!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Congratulations are in order.
A very good friend of mine graduated from Med School this weekend. An exceptional being without question, he and his extraordinary wife managed to raise one of the coolest children I've ever met while she worked to support their family and he was in med school. They impress the shit out of me and I'm honored to have them as friends. They are both way smarter than me with at least twice the memory and their kid is likely to become an incarnation of the godhead at any minute.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
The Matrix of the Rings
Agent Elrond: As you can see, we've had our eye on you for some time now, Mr. Baggins. It seems that you've been living two lives. In one life, you're Mr. Baggins, innocent traveller, you have a hole back in the Shire, you pay your taxes, and you help your uncle with his parties and affairs.. The other life is lived in adventures, where you go by the heroic alias Ringbearer and are guilty of transporting stolen artifact quality magic rings. One of these lives has a future, and one of them does not. I'm going to be as forthcoming as I can be, Mr. Baggins. You're here because we need your help. We know that you've been contacted by a certain individual, a man who calls himself Gandalf. Now whatever you think you know about this man is irrelevant. He is considered by many authorities to be the most dangerous man alive. My colleagues believe that I am wasting my time with you but I believe that you wish to do the right thing. We're willing to wipe the slate clean, give you a fresh start and all that we're asking in return is your cooperation in bringing a known wizard to justice.
Frodeo: Yeah. Wow, that sounds like a really good deal. But I think I got a better one. How about I give you the finger -
Agent Elrond: Uhm.
Frodeo: - and you put my ring back.
Agent Elrond: Uhm, Mr. Baggins. You disappoint me.
Frodeo: You can't scare me with this Nazgul crap. I know my rights. I want my ring.
Agent Elrond: Tell me, Mr. Baggins, what good is a ring if you're unable to wear it... You're going to help us, Mr. Baggins, whether you want to or not.
Frodeo: Yeah. Wow, that sounds like a really good deal. But I think I got a better one. How about I give you the finger -
Agent Elrond: Uhm.
Frodeo: - and you put my ring back.
Agent Elrond: Uhm, Mr. Baggins. You disappoint me.
Frodeo: You can't scare me with this Nazgul crap. I know my rights. I want my ring.
Agent Elrond: Tell me, Mr. Baggins, what good is a ring if you're unable to wear it... You're going to help us, Mr. Baggins, whether you want to or not.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
problems with imapsync
Here's something I hadn't thought about doing initially, but when I've got a long term problem, I'll try to post the steps I take to resolve it here also. That'll help me organize things and keep the full solution set for problems I've had around somewhere. So far what I've had to do was first get over a fairly stupid mistake I made, and then figure out how to get the right version of Mail-IMAPClient installed. Imapsync doesn't use the 3.0X Mail-IMAPClient so that was a problem for a while. But the stupid mistake was my misreading the version numbers on the distribution site for imapsync. I took 1.99 to mean 1.9.9 which of course would be a newer version of the software than 1.2.5.2. Unfortunately for me, the real version numbers were 1.99 and 1.252 that I was looking at...clearly 252 is a much higher version number than 99. Sometimes I hate my brain.
Anyway...here's the problems I'm having. I've posted them to the projects freshmeat web page but I have no idea if that is a reasonable approach to getting help or not. Hopefully I'll find solutions to these problems and post them. I've got a huge amount of email I'd like to upload to gmail, and having "most" of it upload isn't nearly as good.
I've got imapsync 1.252 on an opensuse10.3 box. I finally got it to upload to gmail, but I'm having these problems:
+ NO msg #42916 [0qNSHzC8X0ZHBOB9O6qNww:1049] in Sent06
+ Copying msg #42916:1049 to folder Sent06
flags from : [\Seen]["19-Dec-2006 11:01:46 -0600"]
parse_headers want an ARRAY ref
Couldn't append msg #42916 (Subject:[0]) to folder Sent06: Error trying to append: 14796 NO Unable to append message to folder (Failure)
That happens to quite a few messages on initial attempt to sync.
Then this happens when I attempt to run it again:
Warning : no header used or found for message 17524
no header so we ignore this message
I've got another folder that gets to either
the From [Folder] Parse 1 line or the To [Folder] Parse 1 line or actually starts to upload the first message before it crashes with no further output or error messages.
Anyway...here's the problems I'm having. I've posted them to the projects freshmeat web page but I have no idea if that is a reasonable approach to getting help or not. Hopefully I'll find solutions to these problems and post them. I've got a huge amount of email I'd like to upload to gmail, and having "most" of it upload isn't nearly as good.
I've got imapsync 1.252 on an opensuse10.3 box. I finally got it to upload to gmail, but I'm having these problems:
+ NO msg #42916 [0qNSHzC8X0ZHBOB9O6qNww:1049] in Sent06
+ Copying msg #42916:1049 to folder Sent06
flags from : [\Seen]["19-Dec-2006 11:01:46 -0600"]
parse_headers want an ARRAY ref
Couldn't append msg #42916 (Subject:[0]) to folder Sent06: Error trying to append: 14796 NO Unable to append message to folder (Failure)
That happens to quite a few messages on initial attempt to sync.
Then this happens when I attempt to run it again:
Warning : no header used or found for message 17524
no header so we ignore this message
I've got another folder that gets to either
the From [Folder] Parse 1 line or the To [Folder] Parse 1 line or actually starts to upload the first message before it crashes with no further output or error messages.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
adult content
Oh, if anybody wanders across this and wonders why it says there is adult content and yet there really doesn't seem to be, I thought I'd put something up to explain that.
I initially clicked it because I tend to use what some people call "harsh language" a lot. And given my attitude about nudity and pr0n there is always the chance that I'll put something that wouldn't be particularly work safe for some people. So I thought having the adult content flag set would be a reasonable thing to do.
Also, I have an idea kicking around in the back of my head that is somewhat rebellious and dislikes the idea that people have to label something "adult content" because of the ridiculous ideas of propriety in the US. I really hate censorship and the idea that one group of people attempts to keep information from another group. I fully understand that parents want to be able to control what their children see and interact with. I don't agree with it, but I'm not a parent and I'm not about to try to tell anybody how to raise their children, other than the obvious that abusing them is bad. M'kay? So I somewhat set that adult content flag to indicate how stupid it is that such a thing is needed, but mostly just so that people have no legitimate reason to bitch if I decide to post something that is actually adult content.
I also got off into a giant rant about censorship and people pushing their beliefs onto others, but decided to delete it. I tend to over state stuff when I get to ranting, and while I won't put a lot of my opinion on issues in this blog, I'd rather keep away from ranting on here as much as possible.
I initially clicked it because I tend to use what some people call "harsh language" a lot. And given my attitude about nudity and pr0n there is always the chance that I'll put something that wouldn't be particularly work safe for some people. So I thought having the adult content flag set would be a reasonable thing to do.
Also, I have an idea kicking around in the back of my head that is somewhat rebellious and dislikes the idea that people have to label something "adult content" because of the ridiculous ideas of propriety in the US. I really hate censorship and the idea that one group of people attempts to keep information from another group. I fully understand that parents want to be able to control what their children see and interact with. I don't agree with it, but I'm not a parent and I'm not about to try to tell anybody how to raise their children, other than the obvious that abusing them is bad. M'kay? So I somewhat set that adult content flag to indicate how stupid it is that such a thing is needed, but mostly just so that people have no legitimate reason to bitch if I decide to post something that is actually adult content.
I also got off into a giant rant about censorship and people pushing their beliefs onto others, but decided to delete it. I tend to over state stuff when I get to ranting, and while I won't put a lot of my opinion on issues in this blog, I'd rather keep away from ranting on here as much as possible.
google apps
One of the best choices I've made recently was to stop hosting smtp for my domain on my server at home. A friend who always seems to be ahead of me in the computer world told me one day that he'd switched to using google apps for smtp for his domain and that it was great.
I'd been having trouble for a while with my smtp server because it is on a cable mode and so it's IP address changes occasionally, plus almost all rbls have those IP ranges designated as bad sources of spam, so a lot of my email was blocked as coming from spammer IPs. It was annoying. So one day it was causing trouble again, and I thought back to what my friend had said about google apps and just decided to give it a shot, figuring at worst I'd just have to switch my dns settings back to pointing to my home server.
It was amazingly easy to set up. Here's the link:
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/resources/setup/
Now I don't have to worry about whether my email is being black listed by IP (assuming google can fix this problem http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/27/0045242), and I don't have to worry about my sendmail server being hacked, or my home server crashing, or the cable connection going down, etc. Google is always on, always answering, and much faster than my server could ever be.
Also, I've got access to my email through a web interface from anywhere I can get to the net. Very nice, and something I never got around to rigging up on my own server.
The only problem I've found is kind of confusing. I use thunderbird for my email application, and occasionally gmail just refuses to accept my credentials, even though they have been working all along. So I'll signin and check my email and then start surfing or something, and after a while thunderbird will say that the imap server responded that it needs my password or that my password was wrong. Well, it can't have been wrong, because it worked and it hasn't changed since then.
Now, I have no idea if the problem is with gmail, my google apps setup, or more likely a glitch between Thunderbird and gmail. Either way, it only comes up occasionally and it only lasts for short periods of time. Its not even bad enough that I've bothered trying to find what is causing it.
The only other problem I've had is that I haven't found a good way to get my many years of email archives up to gmail. My friend recommended imapsync, but I've not been able to get it to work. It says it can't connect to the imap server on my home server, but I can connect by hand, through thunderbird, or through an "openssl s_client -connect <server>" from the command line. So I know the imap connection works, I just seem to be doing something wrong with imapsync. Hopefully I'll find a different tool that works for me, or I'll figure out how imapsync works and get that working. I tried using thunderbird to just copy the folders up to gmail, but it just takes too long and eventually it gets disconnected and then I don't know which files have been copied and which haven't.
Yes...it's a lot of email. In theory I've got every non-spam email I've received since I got my first real unix login in 1992 and all of the email I've sent since about 1996. However, I don't believe that's true anymore. I think somewhere along the lines I whacked an archive I shouldn't have because I haven't seen them in a while. So...it may be significantly less than it used to be, but still much more than I want to move by hand or in small bunches.
I've still got my webserver running on my home server just so I have a convenient and local place to post my photos. I use Gallery2 which I like quite a bit, even though I can never get the damned upload functionality to work, and always have to put all the pictures up on the server, then upload them to Gallery2 via "local directory upload".
I'd been having trouble for a while with my smtp server because it is on a cable mode and so it's IP address changes occasionally, plus almost all rbls have those IP ranges designated as bad sources of spam, so a lot of my email was blocked as coming from spammer IPs. It was annoying. So one day it was causing trouble again, and I thought back to what my friend had said about google apps and just decided to give it a shot, figuring at worst I'd just have to switch my dns settings back to pointing to my home server.
It was amazingly easy to set up. Here's the link:
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/resources/setup/
Now I don't have to worry about whether my email is being black listed by IP (assuming google can fix this problem http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/27/0045242), and I don't have to worry about my sendmail server being hacked, or my home server crashing, or the cable connection going down, etc. Google is always on, always answering, and much faster than my server could ever be.
Also, I've got access to my email through a web interface from anywhere I can get to the net. Very nice, and something I never got around to rigging up on my own server.
The only problem I've found is kind of confusing. I use thunderbird for my email application, and occasionally gmail just refuses to accept my credentials, even though they have been working all along. So I'll signin and check my email and then start surfing or something, and after a while thunderbird will say that the imap server responded that it needs my password or that my password was wrong. Well, it can't have been wrong, because it worked and it hasn't changed since then.
Now, I have no idea if the problem is with gmail, my google apps setup, or more likely a glitch between Thunderbird and gmail. Either way, it only comes up occasionally and it only lasts for short periods of time. Its not even bad enough that I've bothered trying to find what is causing it.
The only other problem I've had is that I haven't found a good way to get my many years of email archives up to gmail. My friend recommended imapsync, but I've not been able to get it to work. It says it can't connect to the imap server on my home server, but I can connect by hand, through thunderbird, or through an "openssl s_client -connect <server>" from the command line. So I know the imap connection works, I just seem to be doing something wrong with imapsync. Hopefully I'll find a different tool that works for me, or I'll figure out how imapsync works and get that working. I tried using thunderbird to just copy the folders up to gmail, but it just takes too long and eventually it gets disconnected and then I don't know which files have been copied and which haven't.
Yes...it's a lot of email. In theory I've got every non-spam email I've received since I got my first real unix login in 1992 and all of the email I've sent since about 1996. However, I don't believe that's true anymore. I think somewhere along the lines I whacked an archive I shouldn't have because I haven't seen them in a while. So...it may be significantly less than it used to be, but still much more than I want to move by hand or in small bunches.
I've still got my webserver running on my home server just so I have a convenient and local place to post my photos. I use Gallery2 which I like quite a bit, even though I can never get the damned upload functionality to work, and always have to put all the pictures up on the server, then upload them to Gallery2 via "local directory upload".
Monday, May 19, 2008
big bunch of random stuff
cold fusion has a file named registry that you can set the admin password to blank and then reset the admin passwd.
---------------------------------------------------
When cloning one sun machine to another with different hardware:
boot from cd/dvd and partition the drives correctly
newfs the drives
ufsrestore from the tape
ufsdump the new drives
modify /etc/hosts /etc/nodename /etc/hostname.<eth#> for new info
ok boot cdrom -s
...
# mount /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0 /a <--- t3 is being used as an example only
# cd /tmp/dev
# tar cvfp - . | ( cd /a/dev; tar xvfp - )
# cd /tmp/devices
# tar cvfp - . | ( cd /a/devices; tar xvfp - )
# cd /tmp/root/etc
# cp path_to_inst /a/etc/path_to_inst
NOTE: The vfstab file may need to be edited at this time to make
any
changes to the target address
# cd /tmp/root; umount /a; halt
...
ok boot -rv
------------------------------------------------------------------
find cd rom on solaris
cfgadm -al | grep CD
then as an example of vfstab:
/dev/dsk/c1t6d0s0 - /cdrom hsfs - no -
--------------------------------------------
setting up mirrors on v210s
format drives to make partitions the same
metadb -a -c3 -f c1t0d0s7
metadb -a -c3 c1t1d0s7
vi /etc/lvm/md.tab and list mirrors
metainit -f d11
metainit -f d21
metainit -f d31
metainit -f d41
metainit d10
metainit d20
metainit d30
metainit d40
edit vfstab to boot to meta devices instead of slices and preserve / slice vfstab entry
metaroot d10
init 6
metainit d12
metainit d22
metainit d32
metainit d42
metattach d10 d12
metattach d20 d22
metattach d30 d32
metattach d40 d42
metastat d10
swap -l
dumpadm
dumpadm -d /dev/md/dsk/d20
metastat | grep -v "State: Okay"
If you have to boot back to the slice instead of the metadevice remember that /etc/system has a line about the root boot device or use "metaroot /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s0"
---------------------------------------------------------
jobs is the command to see fg/bg jobs
smpatch analyze to get a list of patchs available.
showrev -p then grep for patch number to see current patchs
updatemanager is the patch manager on solaris 10
<cfgadm -c [un]configure c1> configs or unconfigs device list c1 shown by
command <cfgadm -al>
devfsadm finds new hardware attached
iostat -En displays all device errors in descriptive format
-----------------------------------------
netbackup commands:
bpps -a shows all running processes
jnbSA is the graphical interface to netbackup
bp.kill_all to kill all processes (not elegant)
get_license_key to add/delete/list licenses
sgscan to scan for devices
---------------------------------------
When mysql gets the error:
"Database page corruption on disk or a failed
InnoDB: file read of page"
delete the ibdata1, ib_logfile* and then restart mysql and it should work.
There may also be:
"Warning: an inconsistent page in the doublewrite buffer" errors.
----------------------
mrtg for throughput thru switchs
robtest - netbackup robot test software
--------------
ma - to mark a spot in vi
d'a - deletes back to that spot
---------------------------------------------------
When cloning one sun machine to another with different hardware:
boot from cd/dvd and partition the drives correctly
newfs the drives
ufsrestore from the tape
ufsdump the new drives
modify /etc/hosts /etc/nodename /etc/hostname.<eth#> for new info
ok boot cdrom -s
...
# mount /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0 /a <--- t3 is being used as an example only
# cd /tmp/dev
# tar cvfp - . | ( cd /a/dev; tar xvfp - )
# cd /tmp/devices
# tar cvfp - . | ( cd /a/devices; tar xvfp - )
# cd /tmp/root/etc
# cp path_to_inst /a/etc/path_to_inst
NOTE: The vfstab file may need to be edited at this time to make
any
changes to the target address
# cd /tmp/root; umount /a; halt
...
ok boot -rv
------------------------------------------------------------------
find cd rom on solaris
cfgadm -al | grep CD
then as an example of vfstab:
/dev/dsk/c1t6d0s0 - /cdrom hsfs - no -
--------------------------------------------
setting up mirrors on v210s
format drives to make partitions the same
metadb -a -c3 -f c1t0d0s7
metadb -a -c3 c1t1d0s7
vi /etc/lvm/md.tab and list mirrors
metainit -f d11
metainit -f d21
metainit -f d31
metainit -f d41
metainit d10
metainit d20
metainit d30
metainit d40
edit vfstab to boot to meta devices instead of slices and preserve / slice vfstab entry
metaroot d10
init 6
metainit d12
metainit d22
metainit d32
metainit d42
metattach d10 d12
metattach d20 d22
metattach d30 d32
metattach d40 d42
metastat d10
swap -l
dumpadm
dumpadm -d /dev/md/dsk/d20
metastat | grep -v "State: Okay"
If you have to boot back to the slice instead of the metadevice remember that /etc/system has a line about the root boot device or use "metaroot /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s0"
---------------------------------------------------------
jobs is the command to see fg/bg jobs
smpatch analyze to get a list of patchs available.
showrev -p then grep for patch number to see current patchs
updatemanager is the patch manager on solaris 10
<cfgadm -c [un]configure c1> configs or unconfigs device list c1 shown by
command <cfgadm -al>
devfsadm finds new hardware attached
iostat -En displays all device errors in descriptive format
-----------------------------------------
netbackup commands:
bpps -a shows all running processes
jnbSA is the graphical interface to netbackup
bp.kill_all to kill all processes (not elegant)
get_license_key to add/delete/list licenses
sgscan to scan for devices
---------------------------------------
When mysql gets the error:
"Database page corruption on disk or a failed
InnoDB: file read of page"
delete the ibdata1, ib_logfile* and then restart mysql and it should work.
There may also be:
"Warning: an inconsistent page in the doublewrite buffer" errors.
----------------------
mrtg for throughput thru switchs
robtest - netbackup robot test software
--------------
ma - to mark a spot in vi
d'a - deletes back to that spot
Friday, May 16, 2008
Symantec netbackup on Solaris 10
My current backup server is an E450 (I know...control your covetousness) running solaris 10 with symantec netbackup enterprise server on it attached to a robot. When I started all of this I was running 6.0. During the process of figuring out what was going on with the server I upgraded to MP6. I was doing a lot of stuff at the same time, which complicated things later (yes...I know...shut up) but this is what happened and how it was resolved.
I used updatemanager to perform an update. One of the patches was 120011-14 which was a manual only kernel patch. I also got out a standalone tape drive to add to my robot so I could start doing offsite backups in a more reliable/organized way.
After all the patches were done, I rebooted the server and when it came up it no longer recognized the robot. After a ton of looking around we determined that it wasn't generating the SG drivers because NetBackup wasn't recognizing that the robot was there. I could probe it from the boot prompt, I could write to it and read from it (well, the tape drive in it) from the command line, but the NetBackup software just would not recognize it.
So after doing all of the troubleshooting I knew how to do for it, and all I had time to do with a consultant I work with at times, I ended up spending a couple of hours a day several days in a row on progressively higher level tech support with Symantec. Here's the things we did to try to regenerate the SG drivers. I must have gone through various versions of this 20 times or so all with no success.
(DO NOT PERFORM THESE COMMANDS WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE DOING! )
cp /kernel/drv/st.conf /kernel/drv/st.conf.`date +%m%d%y_%H%M%S`
cp /kernel/drv/st.conf /kernel/drv/st.conf.`date +%m%d%y_%H%M%S`
cp /kernel/drv/st.conf /kernel/drv/st.conf.`date +%m%d%y_%H%M%S`
mv /kernel/drv/sg.conf /kernel/drv/sg.conf.`date +%m%d%y_%H%M%S`
cp /etc/devlink.tab /etc/devlink.tab.`date +%m%d%y_%H%M%S`
cd /kernel/drv/
vi st.conf
cd /etc
vi devlink.tab
cd /usr/openv/volmgr/bin/driver
../sg.build all -mt 15 -ml 2
cat st.conf >> /kernel/drv/st.conf
rem_drv sg
./sg.install
sgscan
At this point I was waiting for 3rd level or 4th level tech support to call back and it just kept bugging me that I'd done a kernel update right before this happened. I searched the kernel patch and couldn't find anything that seemed to have anything to do with the sg drivers but it just kept bugging me. So while I was waiting I uninstalled the patch and rebooted. Just as it was coming up and before I could retry the set of commands to regenerate the sg commands Symantec called back and we went through a slightly modified version of the commands above and this time the sg drivers were there, and after a bit of re-configuring everything worked just fine.
The difference in the last set of commands is that the last time all we ran was:
sg.build all
mv /kernel/drv/sg.conf /kernel/drv/sg.conf20Mar08
./sg.install
sgscan
And there they were...so it seems unlikely that it was the "sg.build all" instead of the way I ran it before, but I can't rule that out. I guess I would suggest trying it instead of removing the patch first, but expect to have to remove the patch to get it to work.
Some commands I learned/relearned/whatever during this process:
devfsadm
Maintains /dev
tpconfig -d
Shows NetBackup tape configuration
/usr/openv/volmgr/bin/scan
Shows detailed tape drive information
cfgadm -al > cfgadmout.txt
Shows dynamically reconfigurable resources listing with attachment points
iostat -En
Gives a descriptive output of all errors reported by terminal, disk, tape and cpu utilization.
I used updatemanager to perform an update. One of the patches was 120011-14 which was a manual only kernel patch. I also got out a standalone tape drive to add to my robot so I could start doing offsite backups in a more reliable/organized way.
After all the patches were done, I rebooted the server and when it came up it no longer recognized the robot. After a ton of looking around we determined that it wasn't generating the SG drivers because NetBackup wasn't recognizing that the robot was there. I could probe it from the boot prompt, I could write to it and read from it (well, the tape drive in it) from the command line, but the NetBackup software just would not recognize it.
So after doing all of the troubleshooting I knew how to do for it, and all I had time to do with a consultant I work with at times, I ended up spending a couple of hours a day several days in a row on progressively higher level tech support with Symantec. Here's the things we did to try to regenerate the SG drivers. I must have gone through various versions of this 20 times or so all with no success.
(DO NOT PERFORM THESE COMMANDS WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE DOING! )
cp /kernel/drv/st.conf /kernel/drv/st.conf.`date +%m%d%y_%H%M%S`
cp /kernel/drv/st.conf /kernel/drv/st.conf.`date +%m%d%y_%H%M%S`
cp /kernel/drv/st.conf /kernel/drv/st.conf.`date +%m%d%y_%H%M%S`
mv /kernel/drv/sg.conf /kernel/drv/sg.conf.`date +%m%d%y_%H%M%S`
cp /etc/devlink.tab /etc/devlink.tab.`date +%m%d%y_%H%M%S`
cd /kernel/drv/
vi st.conf
cd /etc
vi devlink.tab
cd /usr/openv/volmgr/bin/driver
../sg.build all -mt 15 -ml 2
cat st.conf >> /kernel/drv/st.conf
rem_drv sg
./sg.install
sgscan
At this point I was waiting for 3rd level or 4th level tech support to call back and it just kept bugging me that I'd done a kernel update right before this happened. I searched the kernel patch and couldn't find anything that seemed to have anything to do with the sg drivers but it just kept bugging me. So while I was waiting I uninstalled the patch and rebooted. Just as it was coming up and before I could retry the set of commands to regenerate the sg commands Symantec called back and we went through a slightly modified version of the commands above and this time the sg drivers were there, and after a bit of re-configuring everything worked just fine.
The difference in the last set of commands is that the last time all we ran was:
sg.build all
mv /kernel/drv/sg.conf /kernel/drv/sg.conf20Mar08
./sg.install
sgscan
And there they were...so it seems unlikely that it was the "sg.build all" instead of the way I ran it before, but I can't rule that out. I guess I would suggest trying it instead of removing the patch first, but expect to have to remove the patch to get it to work.
Some commands I learned/relearned/whatever during this process:
devfsadm
Maintains /dev
tpconfig -d
Shows NetBackup tape configuration
/usr/openv/volmgr/bin/scan
Shows detailed tape drive information
cfgadm -al > cfgadmout.txt
Shows dynamically reconfigurable resources listing with attachment points
iostat -En
Gives a descriptive output of all errors reported by terminal, disk, tape and cpu utilization.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Jeffrey Rowland and his All Star Band of Ragamuffins
I'm going to start off this probably pointless blog with the highest of high praises for the phenomenal people at TopatoCo.
Really, all the people that manage to keep up funny, creative, interesting, artistic, etc webcomics impress me. And entertain me a great deal.
Mostly what you'll see here if you're bored enough to look will be things I've learned about computers. Some of it simple, hopefully some of it will be complex. Occasionally I'll probably spout a bunch of nonsense about some subject that's bugging me. Feel free to ignore it.
nmap -sV -n your.computer.name
Probes open ports on the computer and reports what it finds and what it thinks is living there.
amap -bd server port
Probe a port on a server and return the ASCII banner and a hex dump of the response from the port.
egrep "foo|bar"
Grep for logically ORd things. Finds any line with foo OR bar on it.
Really, all the people that manage to keep up funny, creative, interesting, artistic, etc webcomics impress me. And entertain me a great deal.
Mostly what you'll see here if you're bored enough to look will be things I've learned about computers. Some of it simple, hopefully some of it will be complex. Occasionally I'll probably spout a bunch of nonsense about some subject that's bugging me. Feel free to ignore it.
nmap -sV -n your.computer.name
Probes open ports on the computer and reports what it finds and what it thinks is living there.
amap -bd server port
Probe a port on a server and return the ASCII banner and a hex dump of the response from the port.
egrep "foo|bar"
Grep for logically ORd things. Finds any line with foo OR bar on it.
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