Tips, tricks, & insight from people who know.
You can easily determine the status of your cluster members from a simple command line / DOS shell. Just run the following command:
cluster group
Simple but useful. It is worth noting that the cluster server must be running on the system that you run the command from.
–Himuraken
For anyone that is not a Linux command-line expert (myself included!) webmin is an invaluable tool. A very quick install of this allows advanced administration from any web browser that can access the IP address of the server. Version 1.480 is the current release. Check it out and you will be pleasently surprised…
Instructions provided here are specifically for Ubuntu but can be adapted for any distro. (thanks to Himuraken for the proper syntax)
1.sudo apt-get install perl libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl libmd5-perl
2.wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin_1.480_all.deb
3.sudo dpkg -i webmin_1.480_all.deb
4: open web browser, point to IP address of server on port 10000
For more info: Webmin
Clearly Symantec is NOT open source. The solution to a common data backup problem can be found with open source tools however.
Issue: Backup2Tape provided long backup windows and an unreliable media. Soloution must use open source tools and existing hardware.
Solution: Ubuntu 9.04 (64-bit) NFS share running on Dell 2950 with six Seagate 1.5TB SATA drives in RAID5 configuration. Windows Services for Unix installed on Windows 2003 Server with Symantec Backup Exec 12.5.
NOTE: This will not work without this Symantec command: (verified in BE 11d and 12.5)
bemcmd -o116 -v -f”Name of your backup to disk folder” -e0 -m1 -d\\NFS-Server-Name\export-name
While the backup2disk is running fine, backups of Exchange Storage Groups are currently failing. All other data writes to the NFS share with no errors. Research continues…
Visit Righteous Hack Blog for a complete recap of the project: http://www.righteoushack.net/?p=384
Been working on a backup project and needed to use a NFS export as a backup to disk destination in Backup Exec. The best (read free) way to accomplish this is to setup Windows Services for Unix so that your server can map a network drive to the NFS export. Backup Exec does not allow B2D targets to be located on mapped drives but there is a simple work around. Here is the rough break down on what you need to do:
1. Install NFS and export the directory that you want to use as your backup target. Ubuntu users can use the following to install NFS server:
sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server nfs-common portmap
Export your directoy however you see fit. I won’t describe the steps necessary to setup /etc/exports as it has been documented numerous times.
2. Download and install Windows Services for Unix 3.5 on your Backup Exec server. You can find that download here. Again, not to be overly redundant, follow the instructions provided on ubuntuforums.org to install SFU 3.5 here. Proceed to step 3 after verifying that you can manually map a network drive to your NFS export and read/write/etc.
3. Create the backup to disk folder in Symantec Backup Exec. In order to create a backup to disk folder on NFS, you must run a simple command. Open up the Windows command line/cmd and make your way over to: c:\program files\symantec\backup exec. Finally, run the following command:
bemcmd -o116 -v -f"Name of your backup to disk folder" -e0 -m1 -d\\NFS-Server-Name\export-name
A fair amount of research and testing went into this setup and the end result was well worth it. We are now using our Ubuntu 9.04 server as a backup to disk target and it is moving some serious IO.
–Himuraken
Sitting in on a Sonicwall technical today and thought that I would just rapid post anything that has value. To kick off I will share a URL that lists all of the WWAN devices that are supported in Sonicwall devices. The layout is nice because it lists per model / per connection / per provider. Check it out here.
–Himuraken
Twitter has been running terribly for the past couple of days and I wasn’t really sure why. You can check on their status and updates by visiting this link.
–Himuraken
Sitting in the Marriot World Center hotel in Orlando, FL tonight. Perched up in the back of the bar with a Long Island Ice Tea and the ball game on the big screen. I will be attending a Sonicwall Technical Day tomorrow which is being held here in the hotel. I am excited to see some of the new products that I haven’t had the chance to play with yet.
The Marriot has an interesting approach to internet access. You can get wired or wireless access for $15 dollars a day, or sit in the bar. It really depends on who you are as to which is the more affordable option XD
–Himuraken
Drove up to Tampa today to attend my first VMUG (VMware User Group) meet-up. The meeting was held at Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Tampa location and was really good. Representatives from SWFLWMD, VMware, EMC, Data Domain, Veeam!, and Symantec were present. The presentations were kicked off by the Senior System Administrator of SWFLWMD which was followed by presentations by VMware, EMC, and Data Domain. Overall the meeting was neat for me because it wasn’t the normal sales pitch / PowerPoint you to death onslaught that is normally standard fair for these type of gatherings. Apparently the Tampa area VMUG meetings are held quarterly. I am going to be attending more of these meetings in the future, it is worth the drive.
–Himuraken