website safe to browse

You can check if the website is safe to browse.  Visit the following pages to find out.

http://safeweb.norton.com/
http://sitecheck.sucuri.net/scanner/

Unzip 7zip file in Centos

Download a VMware appliance recently and copy it to my notebook for web browsing.  However, I am not sure how to extract it.  Search in Google and find the following steps (thegeekstuff).

Install p7zip package as shown below.
Install p7zip to unzip *.7z files on CentOS
# yum install p7zip

Uncompressing a *.7z 7zip files in Linux using 7za
$ 7za e myfiles.7z

7-Zip (A) 9.04 beta Copyright (c) 1999-2009 Igor Pavlov 2009-05-30
p7zip Version 9.04 (locale=C,Utf16=off,HugeFiles=on,1 CPU)

Processing archive: ../../myfiles.7z

Extracting myfiles/test1
Extracting myfiles/test2
Extracting myfiles/test
Extracting myfiles

Everything is Ok

Folders: 1
Files: 3
Size: 7880
Compressed: 404
7za – command name
e – specifies the 7z to be extracted
myfiles.7z – is the file that is to be extracted



Creating a 7zip compression file in Linux
$ 7za a myfiles.7z myfiles/

7-Zip (A) 9.04 beta Copyright (c) 1999-2009 Igor Pavlov 2009-05-30
p7zip Version 9.04 (locale=C,Utf16=off,HugeFiles=on,1 CPU)
Scanning

Creating archive myfiles.7z

Compressing myfiles/test1
Compressing myfiles/test2

Everything is Ok

rpm for ATI video card

You can download latest executables to create rpm from the AMD website. 
Or you can download the rpm from pkgs.org.  Two required rpm are
flgrx-kmod
flgrx-x11-drv

My machine is running CentOS 5.7. 
I ran rpm -i flgrx-kmod flgrx-x11-drv to install the packages.

If fglrxinfo says “mesa3d.org” instead of “ATI” Like below: (found in Madathil Unni's Blog)


you may need to type this command as root:

#set opengl ati

Now, opening the VM running Windows XP, you should not have no trouble enabling 3D accelerations on your XP VM. 

Virtualizing backup server

When I worked in backup projects, I was always asked "Can I virtualize my backup server?"  The answer to that is not recommended.  You should consider the following before virtualize the backup server.

1) Backup requires CPU and network.  Can the ESX host handle it?  Is it shared with other busy VM on the ESX host
2) Why do you want to virtualize the backup host?  If environment is busy, backup server is not a good candidate for virtualization.
3) If you plan to virtualize the master server for replicating it continuously to remote site, the media server should be physical in this case.  The master server should only handle backup software database and indexing only.  If you have huge NDMP job, the index will take away a lot of CPU from the master server.
4) Are you plan to connect FC library to your master server?  Keep in mind, connecting FC tape drives / library to VM is not supported by VMware.  (Reference: VM KB1016407 and 1000024)
5) If you connect SCSI tape library, what if there is hardware fails and requires vMotion?!  Your backup will not work.

Please consider the above before even thinking about virtualizing your backup server. 

No option to format USB memory stick as NTFS

I just reformat my memory stick for Data Domain memory upgrade.  Now, I need to re-format it back as NTFS.  When I try to do that, NTFS is not an option under filesystem.  After searching in Google, I find the solution in http://www.ntfs.com/quest22.htm.

Basically, you need to open Device Manager and locate the USB memory stick.  Open up the properties of memory stick and select "Optimize for performance" under policies.  Now, I can format my memory stick with NTFS partition. 

Reset counters for Brother Colour Laser Printer HL3070

This is not really a Storage or VM issue but it will useful to document it for future.  My laser printer complains it runs out of black toner.  I have reset the toner cartridge as mentioned in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0XplIuGhHo but that does not work. 

The following instructions are found in google by mizlang.   I never try the drum reset, but you can try.

Toner Reset Menu for Brother HL3070:
1. Open Cover where you access toner cartridges
2. Press CANCEL & SECURE PRINT buttons at one time and you'll see the toner menus on screen
3. Press + or - to navigate through to the toners you need to reset. Note that each toner has 2 entries here, and I'm not sure why. Would love to hear what each one does, if anyone knows.
4. I'm guessing that the OK button will be the actual reset of the toners, if not then the go button would be I guess, but I couldn't confirm this, since my toners didn't currently need reset.

I also found the reset menu for the durable parts counters:
1. Open cover where you access toners
2. Press GO and + button at once, you'll see menu come up displaying reset counters for drum, fuser, etc.

DD880 with 10Gb ethernet

If you plan to use 10GB NIC on your DD880 with twinax calbe, make sure you are using 7 ft.  Don't use 10 ft twinax cable because the card will not respond and only reboot of DD880 can clear it (sorry, it works like this by design and no workaround).  This can be found in Intel website.

http://www.intel.com/support/network/adapter/pro100/sb/CS-030612.htm

What if you must use longer cables?   Intel Ethernet SFP+Optics will be the anwser.  Cable length depends on the speed, cable specifications, and which optical module is used. Cable Lengths for Intel Ethernet SFP+ Optics provides the operating range in meters for optical cables used with Intel Ethernet SFP+ Optics.

http://www.intel.com/support/network/adapter/x520server/sb/CS-031094.htm

What are the SFP+ direct attach cable requirements for the Intel Ethernet Server Adapter X520 Series?
A: Any SFP+ passive or active limiting direct attach copper cable that comply with the SFF-8431 v4.1 and SFF-8472 v10.4 specifications Maximum cable length for passive cables is 7 meters Support for active cables requires Intel Network Connections software version 15.3 or later

Turn off TCP chimney in Windows 2008

TCP chimney has caused more problem in Windows 2008.  ifgroup and failover do not work on Datadomain.  Windows 2008 client loses connectivity intermittently with backup server.  Once turned off TCP chimney, failover works fine on the media server.   There are new patches available from Microsoft for TCP chimney.  I have not tired it yet but don't plan to enable TCP chimney in the near feature since it causes more headache for me.

To turn off TCP chimney, run the following command
netsh int tcp set global chimney=disabled

To confirm it is turned off, run the following command
netsh int tcp show global

restore to proxy on VADP

With VADP out in 2010, VCB will be out of the picture. However, one thing I don't like about VADP is the lack of restore of the whole image to the proxy host. I know it is not available in NetWorker. When I check the NetBackup guide, I don't see that option too. It will be required to restore directly to ESX host.

Believe it or not, when I work in support, I always discover customer has no space in the SAN for recovery of large VM and they want to keep existing VM. Now, I cannot recover the whole image to proxy and then use VMconverter to move it to a VM Workstation. It has to be recovered to ESX. I will consider it a lack of feature when comparing it with VCB.

NTFS read/write in Linux

I have a USB drive formated as NTFS and need to mount it to my CentOS laptop.  To enable read and write in NTFS, you can download NTFS-3g from http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-download/.  The instruction to configure it is on http://linuxconfig.org/How_to_mount_partition_with_ntfs_file_system_and_read_write_access

You can also use older version for CentOS and save you time by installing the rpm.  Run the following command
yum list fuse-ntfs-3g
yum update fuse-ntfs-3g

Once completed, run rpm -qa | grep "ntfs" to confirm the installation of rpm.  Now, you can read and write on your NTFS formatted USB drive.