Tag Archives: SAN

Linux

Sense key unit attention & iostat hardware and transport errors on SAN disks

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By TKD

Hello, I’m trying to get to the bottom of SAN disk errors we’ve been seeing.
Server is Sun Fire X4270 M2 running Solaris 10 8/11 u10 X86 since April 2012. SAN HBAs are SG-PCIE2FC-QF8-Z-Sun-branded Qlogic. SAN storage system is Hitachi VSP. We have 32 LUNs in use and another 8 LUNs not brought into Symantec Storage Foundation yet.

We started seeing hardware and transport errors on the LUNs July 2 which lead to corruption of 3 Veritas filesystems. I got that resolved on the third and we had to restore from tape 3 filesystems. The SAN team found no SAN switch errors and Hitachi’s analysis showed no disk errors.
We originally had Solaris MPxIO enabled by default for multipathing, along with Veritas DMP. Symantec was saying that the two multipathing systems could co-exist, but the errors returned so I disabled MPxIO and rebooted on July 17. I didn’t see any more errors until yesterday at 1110am. Is this a problem with the SAN HBAs? What do these errors mean? Any help would be appreciated.

Code:
Jul 22 11:10:26 cscgbwndc004 scsi: [ID 107833 kern.warning] WARNING: /pci@0,0/pci8086,340c@5/pci1077,171@0,1/fp@0,0/disk@w50060e8006fe93bb,17 (sd75):
Jul 22 11:10:26 cscgbwndc004 SCSI transport failed: reason 'tran_err': retrying command
Jul 22 11:10:26 cscgbwndc004 scsi: [ID 107833 kern.warning] WARNING: /pci@0,0/pci8086,340c@5/pci1077,171@0,1/fp@0,0/disk@w50060e8006fe93bb,16 (sd77):
Jul 22 11:10:26 cscgbwndc004 SCSI transport failed: reason 'tran_err': retrying command
Jul 22 11:10:26 cscgbwndc004 scsi: [ID 107833 kern.warning] WARNING: /pci@0,0/pci8086,340c@5/pci1077,171@0,1/fp@0,0/disk@w50060e8006fe93bb,17 (sd75):
Jul 22 11:10:26 cscgbwndc004 Error for Command: write(10) Error Level: Retryable
Jul 22 11:10:26 cscgbwndc004 scsi: [ID 107833 kern.notice] Requested Block: 141200 Error Block: 141200
Jul 22 11:10:26 cscgbwndc004 scsi: [ID 107833 kern.notice] Vendor: HITACHI Serial Number: 50 0FE931367
Jul 22 11:10:26 cscgbwndc004 scsi: [ID 107833 kern.notice] Sense Key: Unit_Attention
Jul 22 11:10:26 cscgbwndc004 scsi: [ID 107833 kern.notice] ASC: 0x29 (power on, reset, or bus reset occurred), ASCQ: 0x0, FRU: 0x0
Jul 22 11:10:26 cscgbwndc004 scsi: [ID 107833 kern.warning] WARNING: /pci@0,0/pci8086,340c@5/pci1077,171@0,1/fp@0,0/disk@w50060e8006fe93bb,16 (sd77):
Jul 22 11:10:26 cscgbwndc004 Error for Command: write(10) Error Level: Retryable
Jul 22 11:10:26 cscgbwndc004 scsi: [ID 107833 kern.notice] Requested Block: 14223776 ...read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at The UNIX and Linux Forums

Linux

Need to remove a disk from zfs pool

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By solaris_1977

I accidently added a disk in different zpool instead of pool, where I want.

Code:
root@prtdrd21:/# zpool status cvfdb2_app_pool
pool: cvfdb2_app_pool
state: ONLINE
scan: none requested
config:
NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
cvfdb2_app_pool ONLINE 0 0 0
emcpower62c ONLINE 0 0 0
emcpower63c ONLINE 0 0 0
emcpower64c ONLINE 0 0 0
emcpower65c ONLINE 0 0 0
emcpower77c ONLINE 0 0 0
emcpower78a ONLINE 0 0 0

I need to remove last disk, emcpower78a. It is coming from SAN. Somebody please suggest.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at The UNIX and Linux Forums

Linux

Can't chgrp. Error – chgrp: changing group of `<file>': Invalid argument

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By venmx

I found that I cannot chgrp for some reason with error:

chgrp: changing group of `’: Invalid argument

This happens on all NFS mounted disks on client machines.

We use AD (not my call) for authentication and it also provides groups.

We have a NFS server running Scientific Linux 6.3 which mounts SAN devices on FC connect. These are then exported via NFS. Clients are all CentOS 6.4.

The clients hard mounts the user’s home disk with intr,sync and various tuning options. The other disks use autofs.

AD is configured so that each user has a matching UID and GID, essentially making them the exclusive member of their own group. Not useful for sharing files unless you don’t mind making all your files accessibly by world, o+.

We need groups so that we can add members who are then able to chgrp what ever files they’d like to share with members of the same group. All seems pretty straight forward so far.

I used to run OpenLDAP with Kerberos to do all this, I had LDAP manage autofs and groups. Everything worked perfectly.

But now I cannot chgrp.

The permissions of the exported directories on the NFS server are:
drwx–x–x root root /san/home
drwxrwxrwx root root /san/otherdisks

But under home each user directory is owned by the user:
drwx–x–x user1 user1 /san/home/user1

NOTE: “other” means machines within same organization using same AD but built by other departments, “this” means the machines I built.

In the following scenarios it fails:

1. As AD user on “this” client machine on own home on “this” NFS server.
2. As AD user on “this” client machine on automounted disk on “this” NFS server.
3. As root on “this” client machine on automounted disk on “this” NFS server.

In the following scenarios it works:

1. As AD user on “this” client on local partitions where permissions allow.
2. As AD user logged in directly on “this” NFS server on any partition where permissions allow, including on SAN disks.
3. As root on “this” file server on any partition.
4. As AD user on “other” clients on export from “this” NFS server.
5. As AD user on “other” clients on export from “other” NFS server.
6. As AD user on “this” client on export from “other” NFS server.

This issue shows itself when I extract TAR files whilst on client machines to NFS exported shares as AD user or root, can’t chgrp!

I can do everything else, I can create, delete, even do newgrp and change my default group then create new files belonging to me with GID of new group. But still can’t chgrp

From: http://www.unix.com/red-hat/221091-cant-chgrp-error-chgrp-changing-group-file-invalid-argument.html

Linux

PowerHA(HACMP) full vg loss – cluster hangs on release_vg_fs event

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By vilius

Hello,

AIX 6.1 TL7 SP6
POwerHA 6.1 SP10

I was experimenting with new hacmp build. It’s 3-node cluster build on AIX 6.1 lpars. It contains Ethernet and diskhb networks. Shared vg disk is SAN disk. Two nodes see disk using vscsi, third node sees disk using npiv. Application is db2 server.

Most accidents usually involve some kind of network failure – so I decided to test my cluster against Ethernet failure and SAN failure. Ethernet failure test was successful – when node lost Ethernet connectivity(both cables of course) my resource group jumped to next node with no problem.

Next I did SAN failure test:
I did it in 2 different ways by removing vsci mapping in vios or by removing fcs mapping in vios(npiv case) – results were exactly the same in both cases – cluster reacted correctly and started release_vg_fs event, release_vg_fs script tried to unmount filesystems but since all fs disk devices were gone script just hung, and cluster started issuing config_too_long events..
So clstat reports resouce group as “RELEASING..” and that’s it…

How do I configure PowerHA to handle full vg loss(for example SAN down causes that) correctly ??

thanks,
Vilius M.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at The UNIX and Linux Forums

Linux

Backups using rsyn

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By dpatino

Hello all,

I’m using nas4free as a SAN and am having troubles getting a backup of it’s data to work properly. I’ve posted in the nas4free forums, but haven’t received much help.

Here is the code I’m using:

Code:
#!/bin/sh
{
#########################################################################################
# File: casedatabackup.sh
# Author: Daryl Patino
# Date: 03-18-2013
# Purpose: Daily incremental backups and weekly archive of backups using rsync
#
#
# Important Usage Notes:
# -cp this file with a different name to retain this file as a template
# -edit logfilename located in BODY variable and end of script to match share
# -view existing scripts for examples
# -end all directory variables with /
# -must run the following command on the file "chmod u+x /path/file"
#########################################################################################

#########################################################################################
# Constant variables, do not change
#########################################################################################

DAY=$(date +%A)
DATE=$(date +%m_%d_%y)
PRINTF=/usr/bin/printf
MSMTP=/usr/local/bin/msmtp
MSMTPCONF=/var/etc/msmtp.conf

#########################################################################################
# Dynamic variables, changeable
#########################################################################################

# Mail settings
FROM="nas4free@usinfosec.com"
TO="helpdesk@usinfosec.com"
MDIR="CaseData"
SUBJECT="$MDIR Backup Report"
BODY="$(cat /mnt/support/logs/casedata.log)"

# Sync settings
RSOURCE="/mnt/POOL/CaseData/"
RDEST="/mnt/syl-s-012/Backups/CaseData/Daily/"
ASOURCE=$RDEST
ADEST="/mnt/syl-s-012/Backups/CaseData/Weekly/"

#########################################################################################
# Backup operations
#########################################################################################

# Daily file sync
rsync -a --stats $RSOURCE $RDEST

# Weekly archive and follow up sync to remove deleted files
if [ $day = "Sunday" ]; then
tar -zcf $ADEST$DATE.tar.gz $ASOURCE
rsync -a --delete --stats $RSOURCE $RDEST
find $ADEST -mtime +14 -exec rm {} ;
fi

# Sends email of log file
$PRINTF "From:$FROMnTo:$TOnSubject:$SUBJECTnn$BODY" | $MSMTP --file=$MSMTPCONF -t

} > /mnt/support/logs/casedata.log

It is scheduled to run as a cron once per day via the nas4free gui. The script runs, and the daily rsync works, but the log file is empty and the weekly commands (in the if statement) do not seem to be working. When I run the tar individually, I get the following:

Quote:

syl-s-030:~# tar -zcfv /mnt/syl-s-012/Backups/CaseData/Weekly/date.tar.gz /mnt/syl-s-012/Backups/CaseData/Daily/
tar: Removing leading ‘/’ from member names

/: write failed, filesystem is full
tar: Write error

I know that the embedded nas4free doesn’t have room to install any additional applications, but the source and destination are mounted shares.

So my questions are this.

Does tar use some kind of temp directory that is local? If so, can it be changed?

My logging syntax might be incorrect. If so, how can I create a log of the scripts output that can be emailed?

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at The UNIX and Linux Forums

Linux

Backups using rsync

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By dpatino

Hello all,

I’m using nas4free as a SAN and am having troubles getting a backup of it’s data to work properly. I’ve posted in the nas4free forums, but haven’t received much help.

Here is the code I’m using:

Code:
#!/bin/sh
{
#########################################################################################
# File: casedatabackup.sh
# Author: Daryl Patino
# Date: 03-18-2013
# Purpose: Daily incremental backups and weekly archive of backups using rsync
#
#
# Important Usage Notes:
# -cp this file with a different name to retain this file as a template
# -edit logfilename located in BODY variable and end of script to match share
# -view existing scripts for examples
# -end all directory variables with /
# -must run the following command on the file "chmod u+x /path/file"
#########################################################################################

#########################################################################################
# Constant variables, do not change
#########################################################################################

DAY=$(date +%A)
DATE=$(date +%m_%d_%y)
PRINTF=/usr/bin/printf
MSMTP=/usr/local/bin/msmtp
MSMTPCONF=/var/etc/msmtp.conf

#########################################################################################
# Dynamic variables, changeable
#########################################################################################

# Mail settings
FROM="nas4free@usinfosec.com"
TO="helpdesk@usinfosec.com"
MDIR="CaseData"
SUBJECT="$MDIR Backup Report"
BODY="$(cat /mnt/support/logs/casedata.log)"

# Sync settings
RSOURCE="/mnt/POOL/CaseData/"
RDEST="/mnt/syl-s-012/Backups/CaseData/Daily/"
ASOURCE=$RDEST
ADEST="/mnt/syl-s-012/Backups/CaseData/Weekly/"

#########################################################################################
# Backup operations
#########################################################################################

# Daily file sync
rsync -a --stats $RSOURCE $RDEST

# Weekly archive and follow up sync to remove deleted files
if [ $day = "Sunday" ]; then
tar -zcf $ADEST$DATE.tar.gz $ASOURCE
rsync -a --delete --stats $RSOURCE $RDEST
find $ADEST -mtime +14 -exec rm {} ;
fi

# Sends email of log file
$PRINTF "From:$FROMnTo:$TOnSubject:$SUBJECTnn$BODY" | $MSMTP --file=$MSMTPCONF -t

} > /mnt/support/logs/casedata.log

It is scheduled to run as a cron once per day via the nas4free gui. The script runs, and the daily rsync works, but the log file is empty and the weekly commands (in the if statement) do not seem to be working. When I run the tar individually, I get the following:

Quote:

syl-s-030:~# tar -zcfv /mnt/syl-s-012/Backups/CaseData/Weekly/date.tar.gz /mnt/syl-s-012/Backups/CaseData/Daily/
tar: Removing leading ‘/’ from member names

/: write failed, filesystem is full
tar: Write error

I know that the embedded nas4free doesn’t have room to install any additional applications, but the source and destination are mounted shares.

So my questions are this.

Does tar use some kind of temp directory that is local? If so, can it be changed?

My logging syntax might be incorrect. If so, how can I create a log of the scripts output that can be emailed?

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at The UNIX and Linux Forums

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

2 Banks to Look at Post-Cyprus

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By Alex Dumortier, CFA, The Motley Fool

SAN Chart

Filed under:

On the back of yesterday’s losses, stocks are moderately higher this morning, with the S&P 500 and the narrower, price-weighted Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.45%% and 0.53%, respectively, at 10:15 a.m. EDT.

Investors still have an eye on Cyprus. Although the Southern European island state has a bailout in hand, the full ramifications for the eurozone are not yet known, and the situation is fluid — the Cypriot government announced only last night that banks, which were meant to reopen today, will remain shut until Thursday.

Crisis and opportunity
Yesterday, I encouraged investors clinging to asset allocation as the sole determinant of investment risk to throw out their risk framework and embrace a contrarian attitude. This morning, I’m going to give more examples of how to apply that attitude.

The Cypriot bailout has produced a vivid example of the risks associated with banks — for customers, investors, and creditors. A protracted bank holiday, customers lining up around the block to withdraw money from ATMs, and a massive levy on large bank depositors — these are unsettling thoughts even for U.S. investors, as they dredge up the fears we experienced at the worst of the financial crisis in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.

Cyprus‘ bailout debacle is the latest event to reinforce investors’ aversion to owning bank shares. Naturally, Southern European banks bear the greatest burden; just have a look at the performance of Spain‘s two largest banks, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and Banco Santander , since March 15 — the Friday prior to the weekend during which Cyprus came up with its first failed bailout program:

SAN data by YCharts.

Both shares have woefully underperformed both the MSCI EAFE Index and Spain‘s IBEX 35 Index. That may be warranted — to an extent — as the ultimate impact of Cyprus is not yet clear. However, keep in mind that excessively depressed valuations can mitigate a lot of risk. Both banks trade at a discount to their book values and a relatively modest premium to tangible book values (roughly one-fifth). On an earnings basis, they trade on less than 9.5 times the estimate for the next 12 months’ earnings per share.

I’m not recommending that investors rush out and massively overweight their portfolios with these two banks. However, in a situation like this, these are precisely the type of stocks that contrarian, value-oriented stock-pickers should immediately gravitate to. Ultimately, you may decide they’re not worth buying, but they’re certainly worth a look.

With even large U.S. financials still trading at deep discounts to their historic norms, investors everywhere are wondering if this is the new normal or if finance stocks are a screaming buy today. The answer depends on the company, so to help you figure out whether JPMorgan is a buy today, I invite you to read our premium research report on the company today. Click here …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Brocade's Doing Well, but Needs Better Catalysts

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By Richard Saintvilus, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

It’s been several weeks since Brocade reported its fiscal first-quarter 2013 results. I felt the numbers were, on balance, pretty good. But the company received no standing ovation from the Street. In fact, the stock is now trading slightly lower than before the earnings announcement, which compels me to believe that the Street has a very short attention span.

Brocade needs a catalyst. There has not been a constant stream of positive news, and the stock has languished for quite some time. Granted, Brocade is not as flashy as Cisco, but the company has certainly outperformed Juniper and Riverbed. And with the possibility of a buyout always around the corner, patient investors can do well here.

Giving credit where credit is due
It has not been a great earnings season for enterprise IT companies. Except for Cisco, the entire sector has gotten punished for poor results, disappointing guidance, or both. Needless to say, heading into the Q1 report, Brocade’s investors were chewing their nails to hear what management had to say. This is even though management had already guided for revenue of $565 million to $585 million.

To that end, Brocade did not disappoint. In fact, the company beat its own target by posting revenue of $588.7 million, representing an increase of 5% year over year, and 2% sequentially. For that matter, from a percentage standpoint, Brocade’s year-over-year and sequential improvement were the exact growth levels of Cisco, which, by contrast, the Street applauded. Fairly or unfairly, this has been Brocade’s reality.

In terms of profitability,  Brocade posted a GAAP loss per share of $0.05, down from a profit of $0.12 per share in Q1 2012. However, management said that the net loss was the result of non-cash tax charge, which reduced Brocade’s deferred tax assets due to change in California’s tax code. But when these charges are adjusted out, non-GAAP earnings arrived at $0.21 per share, $0.01 better than Q1 2012.

However, from an operational standpoint, it seems the Street is still overlooking how well managed this company is. That gross margin was able to advance 2% in this environment is not easy, especially when the likes of Juniper and Riverbed have been cutting costs to grow market share. This means that Brocade is able to withstand the pressure.

Management also attributed the improved margin to a more favorable revenue mix to SAN, or storage area network, products. Likewise, operating margin advanced more than 3% year over year, to 15.8%, helped by (among other things) better cost management. While bears continue to cite Brocade’s strong competition as reason to avoid the stock, management has now proven for consecutive years that Brocade fears no one.

Can Brocade overcome doubt?
In the tech sector, a strong focus is always placed on top-line growth. However, I think it’s a mistake to judge Brocade solely on this basis. This is a company that has produced solid free cash flow for eight consecutive years, while margins have always been strong. That the company continues …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Cyprus Deposit Seizure Hitting Euro and PIIGS Banks

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By 24/7 Wall St.

bank vault

Filed under: , , ,

I already have gone on the record that the taxation of deposits in Cyprus is nothing short of theft. Regardless of a bloated banking system that was in shambles, taking depositors’ assets under this method is wrong and it does not just target Russians and offshore depositors evading taxes. It does not even just target the wealthy. This also targets the average person on the ground. The ripples are being felt elsewhere throughout Europe (and here in America) as it poses secondary and tertiary bank and regulatory risks.

Here is how the ADRs of the European banks are being hit in New York trading.

National Bank of Greece S.A. (NYSE: NBG) is at a new 52-week low with a drop of more than 7% to $0.92.

Banco Santander S.A. (NYSE: SAN) is down 4% at $7.47, and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. (NYSE: BBVA) is down 4% at $9.69.

The Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE) is down almost 3% at $8.75.

The iShares MSCI Italy Capped Index (NYSEMKT: EWI) represents all of Italy and is down 3% at $12.20, as this nation has no government at the moment and is too big to bail out.

Even the major banking stocks are down: Deutsche Bank A.G. (NYSE: DB) is down 4% at $42.80, UBS A.G. (NYSE: UBS) is down 3% at $15.90, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (NYSE: RBS) is down 4.3% at $8.87, Lloyds Banking Group PLC (NYSE: LYG) is down 2% at $2.97, Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) is down 3.6% at $18.53 and Credit Suisse Group A.G. (NYSE: CS) is down 3.5% at $27.42.

Before you stress too much about this, the impact is being overblown by the doomsday crowd and it is being made fun of as inconsequential by some of the financial media. Cyprus is a nation of 800,000 or so inhabitants with an economy of less than 20 billion euros. Its banking system was extremely large compared to the economy and was in shambles. The nation needs its bailout dollars.

This is just not how to fix things.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Active Trader, ADR, Banking & Finance, International Markets, Regulation Tagged: BBVA, BCS, CS, DB, EWI, IRE, LYG, NBG, RBS, SAN, UBS

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Linux

Backupios Failing

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By Nazar_KA

Hi Team,

Please help me to resolve the below backup (backupios) issue on my VIO.

My VIO is a SAN booted from EMC and powerpath has been installed on this.

We already run pprootdev fix and linked the /dev/ipldevice to rootvg hdisk.

==================================================================================================== ==========
/home/padmin]>lsvg -p rootvg
rootvg:
PV_NAME PV STATE TOTAL PPs FREE PPs FREE DISTRIBUTION
hdisk3 active 809 220 01..49..00..08..162

[/home/padmin]>bootinfo -b
hdisk1

/home/padmin]>lspv | grep -i rootvg
hdisk1 00f6860ba154b2b3 rootvg active
hdisk3 00f6860ba154b2b3 rootvg active

==================================================================================================== ===========
After this we are able to successfully add bosboot from AIX root prompt.

But when we exit and run backupios from VIO prompt ,it is failing with the same error.

==================================================================================================== =======
[/home/padmin]>backupios -file /viosbkup/backups/hostname_031413.mksysb -mksysb

/viosbkup/backups/hostname_031413.mksysb doesn’t exist.
Creating /viosbkup/backups/hostname_031413.mksysb
Backup in progress. This command can take a considerable amount of time to complete, please be patient…
0301-168 bosboot: The current boot logical volume, /dev/hd5,does not exist on /dev/hdisk1.

0512-008 savevg: The mkvgdata command failed. Backup canceled.
==================================================================================================== ============**

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at The UNIX and Linux Forums

Linux

No local disk in format in Solaris

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By solaris_1977

I have Solaris-10 server. During troubleshooting of some storage issue, I removed disk entries from /dev/dsk and /dev/rdsk

HTML Code:
rm /dev/vx/dmp/*
rm /dev/vx/rdmp/*
rm /dev/dsk/*
rm /dev/rdsk/

And rebooted the box. That recreated device tree for SAN disks, but I do not see c1t0d0s0 and c1t1d0s0 disk in format output.

HTML Code:
root@oradbprod_apps01:/# ls -l /dev/dsk | grep -i c1t1d0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 51 Mar 5 22:02 c1t1d0s0 -> ../../devices/ssm@0,0/pci@18,700000/scsi@2/sd@1,0:a
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 51 Mar 6 09:50 c1t1d0s7 -> ../../devices/ssm@0,0/pci@18,700000/scsi@2/sd@1,0:h
root@oradbprod_apps01:/# ls -l /dev/dsk | grep -i c1t0d0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 51 Mar 5 22:02 c1t0d0s0 -> ../../devices/ssm@0,0/pci@18,700000/scsi@2/sd@0,0:a
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 51 Mar 6 09:50 c1t0d0s7 -> ../../devices/ssm@0,0/pci@18,700000/scsi@2/sd@0,0:h
root@oradbprod_apps01:/# ls -l /dev/rdsk | grep -i c1t1d0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 55 Mar 6 09:50 c1t1d0s7 -> ../../devices/ssm@0,0/pci@18,700000/scsi@2/sd@1,0:h,raw
root@oradbprod_apps01:/# ls -l /dev/rdsk | grep -i c1t0d0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 55 Mar 6 09:50 c1t0d0s7 -> ../../devices/ssm@0,0/pci@18,700000/scsi@2/sd@0,0:h,raw
root@oradbprod_apps01:/# echo | format | grep -i c1t1d0
root@oradbprod_apps01:/# echo | format | grep -i c1t0d0
root@oradbprod_apps01:/#

Due to this reason, I can not label and mirror disks.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at The UNIX and Linux Forums

Linux

GlusterFS: First impressions

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Recently I fooled around with GlusterFS, a distributed file system especially intended for use as backend storage. The first impression is quite good – as long as you use it for the right task.

Background

GlusterFS is a distributed file system which is supposed to scale to large storage sizes. Besides file distribution it also offers “RAID” like features: if you have two GlusterFS servers you can either stripe the data on both of them, or mirror them. Or, if you got more servers, you can even create more complex setups with a mixture of striping and mirroring. The client protocol is very similar to NFS, and thus clients can GlusterFS servers via GlusterFS-Fuse or directly via NFS.

The advantage of a distributed file system is obvious: if one server goes down, the clients fail over to another server, and you still have the data. Also, you can add more servers in case you need more storage. A distinct advantage of GlusterFS compared to for example AFS or Ceph is that you do not need to worry about setting up special servers dedicated to processes like addressing the data. Each GlusterFS server has the same rights and tasks as the next (in simple setups, highly complex setups may vary.

Competition

GlusterFS faces competition first of all in its own field: distributed file systems as mentioned above (Ceph, AFS, etc.). But for simpler setups you can also create similar results with a shared block level device like DRBD and and NFS or even cluster file systems like GFS and OCFS. And in the end GlusterFS steps up to fight against high cost storage systems (SAN, …).

The Setup

For my tests of GlusterFS I used a couple of CentOS 6 VMs in KVM on my main machine. I followed the well written GlusterFS-CentOS-Howto by falco. However, one thing which is probably not outlined enough in the howto: GlusterFS really depends on host name resolution. And really depending means that an entry in /etc/hosts on the GlusterFS machines is not enough. You should have a working DNS!

That said, the easiest way to accomplish this with a running KVM test setup is to just add the necessary entries to /etc/hosts on the host side (!). These information are forwarded to the VM guests and provide a reliable name resolution.

Tests and Results

I run a couple of tests: shutting down a server, shutting down the interfaces, shutting down the GlusterFS services, etc. The data on the machines were a couple of various text files, nothing fancy.

And all in all, I must say I was impressed with the features and capabilities: the setup was reliable, files where automatically distributed, servers started offline where resynced automatically, and so on. The collision detection is pretty neat, it works on file level: even if there occurs a split brain, i/o is only blocked for files which are actually affected. This is – of course and by design – a huge advantage over shared block devices which block the access to the entire …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet KDE

Linux

PowerHA HACMP on VIOS servers

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By filosophizer

Few questions regarding Power HA ( previously known as HACMP) and VIOS POWERVM IVM ( IBM Virtualization I/O Server )

[1] Is it possible to create HACMP cluster between two VIOS servers

Physical Machine_1
VIOS_SERVER_1
LPAR_1
SHARED_DISK_XX

VIOS_SERVER_2
Physical Machine_2
LPAR_2
SHARED_DISK_XX

In this scenario, You will have to assign the shared disk first to the VIOS server and from there it will be assigned to LPAR.

Would HACMP work on this shared disk ?

[2] Can you have DLPAR ( Dynamic LPAR ) capabilities in IVM , that is assign one physical Fiber Adapter card to LPAR directly ? IVM VIOS ( which is you are running VIOS without HMC = Hardware Management Console )

in this scenario, you can give the LPAR , shared disk directly from the Storage ? ( provided feature is supported ?! )

[3] DO I need HMC for NPIV or can it run on IVM only ?

What is NPIV?
N_Port ID Virtualization(NPIV) is a standardized method for virtualizing a physical fibre channel port. An NPIV-capable fibre channel HBA can have multiple N_Ports, each with a unique identity. NPIV coupled with the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) adapter sharing capabilities allow a physical fibre channel HBA to be shared across multiple guest operating systems. The PowerVM implementation of NPIV enables POWER logical partitions (LPARs) to have virtual fibre channel HBAs, each with a dedicated world wide port name. Each virtual fibre channel HBA has a unique SAN identity similar to that of a dedicated physical HBA.
The minimum requirement for the 8 Gigabit Dual Port Fibre Channel adapter, feature code 5735, to support NPIV is 110304

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at The UNIX and Linux Forums

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Ex-Div Reminder for Banco Santander SA's Floating Rate Series 6 Guaranteed Preferred Securities

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By DividendChannel.com

On 2/13/13, Banco Santander SA’s Floating Rate Non-Cumulative Series 6 Guaranteed Preferred Securities (NYSE: SAN.PRB) will trade ex-dividend, for its quarterly dividend of $0.25, payable on 3/5/13. As a percentage of SAN.PRB‘s recent share price of $20.72, this dividend works out to approximately 1.21%, so look for shares of SAN.PRB to trade 1.21% lower ? all else being equal ? when SAN.PRB shares open for trading on 2/13/13. On an annualized basis, the current yield is approximately 4.96%, which compares to an average yield of 5.55% in the “Financial” preferred stock category, according to Preferred Stock Channel.
Click here to learn which S.A.F.E. dividend stocks also have preferred shares that should be on your radar screen » …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Santander's German Operations Increase Profit to EUR355 Million in 2012 -Newspaper

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Banco Santander S.A.’s (SAN.MC) German arm has increased net profit to EUR335 million ($447 million) in 2012, up EUR100 million from a year earlier according to preliminary figures, newspaper “Handelsblatt” cites the unit’s Chief Executive Ulrich Leuschner as saying in a pre-released interview Sunday.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox Business Headlines