CertUtil to verify MD5 and SHA256 checksum

When we download files from vendor, we use 3rd party tool to verify the checksum. With Windows 10, you can use CertUtil. 

1) Open Command Prompt in Windows Desktop 

2) Then, enter command CertUtil -hashfile "path to the file" hash-function-type 

Below show the example of MD5 and SHA256. No need to download 3rd party tool to verify the checksum.

Update firmware for MDS 9700 switches

 You can find the steps at Cisco site to perform non-disruptive upgrade on MDS 9000 switches.  I add some additional steps.  

1) Read release notes and discuss with support to determine which version to upgrade.  Then, download the correct firmware file.  Supervisor 3 and supervisor 4 in MDS 9710 firmware files are different.  

2) Confirm running config is applied to startup config

copy running-config startup-config

3) Copy running config to bootflash

copy running-config bootflash:$(SWITCHNAME)-$(TIMESTAMP).cfg

4) Backup config, existing kickstart and firmware to tftp.  Other than startup config, I make sure I have a copy of the current version of kickstart and firmware in the TFTP server.

copy bootflash: tftp:

5) Save a copy of show tech-support detail.  In case something goes wrong, support can compare the switch condition before and after upgrade.  

6) confirm bootflash free space before uploading new firmware.  I will delete firmware and kickstart file older than the current version.  

dir bootflash:

dir bootflash://sup-standby/ 

7) upload image and kickstart files using tftp

copy tftp: bootflash:

8) Verify the MD5 checksum

show file bootflash:filename md5sum

9) Run the command below to see the impact of the upgrade.  

show install all impact kickstart bootflash:kickstart.bin system bootflash:image.bin (check if upgrade is non-disruptive)

Run commands below for basic health check

show system redundancy status 

show module

10) Confirm no TFTP / SFTP session (CSCvu52058)

In order to see if there are open file transfer sessions, you can run

show users | inc ssh | wc l

and

show processes | inc dcos_ssh | wc l

to compare the number of ssh users logged in and the number of sshd processes running.

If the values are different, you may have an open file transfer connection.

11) Run command below to see if the existing config incompatible with image.  

show incompatibility system bootflash:image.bin

12) Run command below to start upgrade

install all kickstart bootflash:kickstart.bin system bootflash:image.bin 

Once again, you see the impact of the upgrade.  

It lists the current and target version of modules

Then, type y and enter to proceed the upgrade.

Wait for the switchover message

Login again thru putty.  Now, the active director is module 6.

To show installation process.  Run the command below.

show install all status

Once it shows "Install has been successful", run the command below to confirm new version of firmware is applied to the switch as expected.  

show version

show module

Isilon NDMP throttle

 There are 3 shares in the Isilon with very complex folder structure.  They are deep and contain lots of small files.  Again, you need to follow tech spec guide.  You cannot have more than 1 million files per folder.  We have a NFS share with over 100,000,000 files but we have a folder created under the share each year.  

Only issue is backup.  When NDMP backup is run, it uses a lot of CPU when it reaches some folders.  It can reach 80% CPU usage.  Same thing when we use Datadobi to migrate to Isilon.  When it reaches those folders, scan speed will drop by 50%.  

I have Gen 6 nodes with OneFS 9.1.  From the doc below, it requires Gen 6 nodes and the command is available in OneFS 8.2 (see link below).  Looks like this setting can be modified thru CLI only.  At least with 9.1, I don't see it in the GUI.  

Isilon OneFS Help

1. Run the following command through the command line interface to enable NDMP Throttler:  

isi ndmp settings global modify --enable-throttler true

2. View the setting by running the following command:

isi ndmp settings global view

3. Default settings are 50% for CPU throttle threshold.  I use command below to change it to 65.  

isi ndmp settings global modify –throttler-cpu-threshold 65

Isilon spare settings

 Open SmartPools settings

Enable Global Spillover pool if you have more than 1 pool.  

Make sure Virtual hot spare is selected.  Our environment is small and use 1 virtual drive.  For bigger environment, use % of total storage instead.  EMC tech suggests 10% of total storage.  

PowerMax: embedded Unisphere with Solution Enabler

Just finish setup of PowerMax and decide to use the embedded Unisphere instead of installing one.  Besides, you can use it as SE server too.  You will need to complete the steps below.  Same info can be found in "Dell EMC PowerMax and VMAX All Flash: Embedded Management"  or 

1) Add the Solution Enabler client IP and user to the Nethost settings (don't remove the default ones)

2) Have support to check the certificate matching the FQDN of the management port if there is issue

3) Make sure SYMAPI server daemon is running.  If it is not running, engage support to start the daemon.  Unfortunately, there are restriction on what you can do on the embedded Unisphere.  

4) Make sure Solutions Enabler Base Configuration > Use Access ID, set this value to ANY.  Again, you need support to dial in to make the change.

5) Edit netcfg in SYMAPI directory in the SE Client.  Add the entry of both management IP and primary IP first.  In the case below, if you manage two PowerMax, you can add the 2nd site to netcfg file.  

SITEAEMGMT Ordered TCPIP FQDN 10.1.1.2 2707 SECURE

SITEAEMGMT Ordered TCPIP FQDN 10.1.1.3 2707 SECURE

SITEBEMGMT Ordered TCPIP FQDN 10.2.1.2 2707 SECURE

SITEBEMGMT Ordered TCPIP FQDN 10.2.1.3 2707 SECURE

If you need to manage only one PowerMax, you can setup the env var.  If you need to manage multiple PowerMax, create a batch file for site A and another one for site B.

set SYMCLI_CONNECT=SITEAEMGMT

set SYMCLI_CONNECT_TYPE=REMOTE

symcli -def

symcfg list

Connect USB to VirtualBox guest

To connect USB device to guest in VirtualBox.  First is to install Oracle VM extension pack.  I download it from VirtualBox site.  Follow instructions to try to install thru GUI with host running Bodhi 6.0 but it gives me some weird error msg.  So, I try command below instead and it works fine.  

VBoxManage extpack install

After successful installation, I can see option to select USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 in VirtualBox.  

However, it is still not discovering my USB devices.  I check /var/log/dmesg to confirm the USB devices are discovered correctly.  Then I add bodhi to vboxusers group.    

usermod -aG vboxusers bodhi

reboot the host and now, I can see the USB devices.  

Bodhi Linux as Virtual Box host

I have a desktop with AMD-FX8320 and 32G of memory for a long time to do testing. Because older version of VMware Workstation no longer supported in Windows 10, I decide to install Linux on the desktop. Besides, VMware Workstation only support 1 NAT. I would like to setup more than one NAT. So, I decide to go with Bodhi Linux 6. Installation is quite straight forward. 

All my old hardware are detected including equipment below. 

NetGear WIN111v2 USB wireless adapter (driver is Atheros AR9710 + AR9101) 

NVIDIA GeForce GT630 (driver is version 390) Latest one from vendor is version 470. 

Only problem is motherboard. It is a GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3P v1. I cannot get the USB 3.0 ports working. This seems to be an issue with Debian and Ubuntu, and there are lots of posts in forum without solution. I test different favour of Linux, and only RHEL family can discover them fine. 

However, I decide to stick with Bodhi because it is lightweight. Then just follow the Bodhi website for instructions to install Virtual Box. 

sudo apt-get install virtualbox 

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-additions-iso 

Import couple of old VMware images for XP and W2K. First boot up then uninstall VMtools. Reboot and install the VB guest integration software. Everything works fine. Besides, I install xfburn. That's basically all I need on the physical host. 

Rest of the stuffs will be run in VM. From the Bodhi website, to update the OS, just run the command below. 

sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

===================================================================

After doing more search on Google, I do find a solution to enable the USB 3.0 ports.  The link below shows the solution for the same issue with GA-970A-DS3 motherboard.  I apply it and now the USB 3.0 ports are up.  

GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3 USB3 fix for Ubuntu x64 · GitHub

Basically, first step is to update /etc/default/grub.  

Look for the line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

Add "amd_iommu=on iommu=pt" to the end of it so now the line now looks like this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash amd_iommu=on iommu=pt"

Then update grub:

sudo update-grub

Hit Del to goto the BIOS and confirm the settings as below.

IOMMU: enabled 

XHCI handoff: enabled

EHCI handoff: disabled

USB Legacy support: enabled

OS type: Windows 8 

CSM support: enabled (Compatibility Support Module) 

Boot Mode Selection: Legacy (I set this one up since the disk is only 2TB).  

(Updated on 9/23)

====================================================================

For the Bodhi host, I ran the following commands to install graphics card for GeForce GT630 and other tools I need on the host.  Most of the time, I run the test and have my desktop in VM.

sudo apt-get install xfburn epdfview gdebi file-roller nvidia-driver-390

There is a new driver (version 470) released recently.  Not sure if it is tested yet and I believe it is not available in repository yet.  

Built in NIC works fine.  Only issue with h/w is WiFi (NetGear WN111v2).  Performance is not very good.  I will try to connect to a different router and see.  

For VirtualBox, couple of performance issue was discovered.  

1) Windows 2000 takes a few min to boot up.  

2) For immutable disk, the more changes I have, the longer it takes to start up on the next power on.  I create a snapshot and it helps a bit.  However, there is still delay on power up.  Not a big deal.....just go out and grab a cup of coffee.  5 min later, I will see the login screen.   

(Updated on 9/25)

==================================================================

Google and it seems the Ubuntu driver for NetGear WN111v2 does not work well with video and heavy download.  Connection is choppy.  It is ar9170 driver and seems to be an old bug that was never fixed.  I use ethernet instead.    

(Update 3/7/2022)

NetWorker NDMP backup for Isilon failed after upgrade from 19.4.0.1 to 19.4.0.3

All NDMP backup for Isilon failed after upgraded from 19.4.0.1 to 19.4.0.3. There is no change and firmware update on Isilon side. From NetWorker log, handshake is fine, and backup seems to start. 

42617:nsrndmp_save: NDMP Service Log: 

Filetransfer: Transferred 1271296 bytes in 0.125 seconds throughput of 9969.966 KB/s 

Total 1271296 bytes in this backup stream 

However, the log shows error below. When I monitor from Isilon, I don't see read activity after first few min. 

42923:nsrndmp_save: NDMP Service Error: Failed to write data at offset 220672 

42738:nsrndmp_save: Data server halted: Error during the backup. 

The error seems to point to write issue on DataDomain side. However, all other backup is fine writing to the same DD. The workaround is to disable client direct and use the old trick to use -P option to specify the storage node for NDMP backup command in NetWorker.

==================================================================== 

Forget to mention: we have 2 sites with the same upgrade. The other site works fine. Only difference between them is multi-home. The site with issue is multihome. The site that works fine after upgrade setup with dedicated backup network.

To check from Isilon side, look for NDMP logs in /ifs/.ifsvar/modules/ndmp/trade/node<ID>-ndmpd.trace

custom firmware with old TP-LINK WR1043ND

It has been 3 yrs from my last update.  Pretty busy with storage and backup migration.  Now, prepare for next migration ..... probably hybrid cloud.

Recently, I try to update my old TP-LINK WR1043ND v1.6 for my lab.  Doing some research in the forum and confirm couple of old firmware version are ok with h/w ver 1.x.  The latest version that has been tested successfully is r39290 based on the link below.
https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=319186&highlight=r39230

So, I take a chance and flash r39296 using factory to ddwrt image.  The router boots up successfully.  Power cycle it again to confirm.

Looks like WEB GUI upgrade will not work after version r33375.  My future upgrade will have to go thru tftp option. 
https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=62217&start=2445

I will test the rest of the function this weekend.

*** Tested the ethernet connection for a week.  No issue.  Will test the WiFi. (Aug 28, 2019)

*** Tested WIFI for a week and no issue found so far (Sep 8, 2019)
*** WIFI sometimes freeze after 6-8 hr of use.  Need a complete reboot of the router  (Sep 13, 2019)
=========================================================================

To flash Gargoyle firmware, first upload the original firmware vendor firmware back following the link below.
https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=315817&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Then, follow https://www.gargoyle-router.com/wiki/doku.php?id=tp-link-install to install the 1.10 stable version of the firmware.

*** Tested Gargoyle 1.10 and ethernet works great.  Management GUI responses much faster than ddwrt (Nov 10, 2019)

*** Tested WIFI next week.  WiFi is not great.  Perhaps due to insufficient CPU power.  

=========================================================================

Best option seems to be libreCMC.  Response and performance seem to be the best.  However, WiFi is not great as the others but libreCMC seems to be the best.  This is just a router for me on the 2nd network at home for testing.  So, WiFi is off most of the time.  You can also setup different VLAN with libreCMC.    (Sep 23, 2021)

Update Raspberry Pi and basic commands

I have purchased a Raspberry pi 4 with 4GB RAM for my dad as a desktop replacement.  He only uses it to login to the bank, check news and look for deal.  

Here are some commands I used to update the Raspberry OS.

sudo apt update

sudo apt full-upgrade

Use commands below to check temp of the board and CPU

sudo vcgencmd measure_temp

sudo vcgencmd measure_volts

To read Chinese in the browser, run the command below to install the fonts.

sudo apt-get install fonts-arphic-uming