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    Thursday
    31Dec2009

    NexentaStor 2.2 with LSI MegaRAID SAS 8888ELP

    DateThursday, December 31, 2009 at 3:41PM

    Fresh install of Nexenta 2.2 running on the following hardware:


    We reused a LSI MegaRAID, and had to set each drive connected, to be a single "virtual" RAID0 drive - in the MegaRAID onboard bios configuration (Ctl - H on startup from memory). Then this presents a bunch of individual drives to Nexenta. NexetaStor 2.2 includes all the mega_sas drivers, so once we had the drives recognized by the controller, they then appeared immediately to NexentaStor.

    Only after we had flashed both the motherboard and the LSI card (by putting it into a Windows computers to flash) to the latest firmware revisions, were we able to get Nexenta installed at all. Please always flash flash flash to the latest firmware and save yourself a bunch of time!

    In the pic below, you can see a pair of 2.5" SSDs which we are using for the Nexenta OS in a RAIDZ mirror config. The mounting kits for these drives on the free PCI slots are from A-Tech Fabrication. I did toy around with running Nexenta off a USB flash stick, and use the SSDs for cache and logs, but will wait until that configuration has been tested by Nexenta.

    Finally, would like to wish all the website visitors, and my clients a Happy and Prosperous New Year for 2010! Also proud to have made end of year contribution to Chatswood Computer Consultants charity of choice: MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES (MSF)

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    Tuesday
    01Dec2009

    Linksys WAG325N + CISCO VPN issues

    DateTuesday, December 1, 2009 at 12:10PM

    I had a long time problem with my client's CISCO VPN connections to the Australian Tax Office - via HandiTax and Simplefund.

    Every time they were lodging to the ATO, they had to retry the lodgement several times before it successfully connected and transmitted.

    The problem was consistent across two different software applications but there was a common component with the CISCO VPN client. After the light bulb light up above my head, I googled "Linksys WAG325N CISCO VPN problem" and came across the following forum post on the Linksys site:

    http://forums.linksysbycisco.com/linksys/board/message?message.uid=113940

    I double checked that the IPSec Passthrough was enabled, but the other part that I needed to add to the router configuration was to put entries under Applications & Gaming -> Port Range Triggering. I did another google search for which ports are used by the CISCO VPN, and put in 500, 4500 and 10000.

    Here is a screenshot (click it for a larger view) of the relevant page on the router setup.

    After I made these changes, lodging returns to the ATO in both HandiTax and Simplefund worked flawlessly each time on first attempt!

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    Monday
    26Oct2009

    VMWare ESXi 4.0 + HP ProLiant DL160 G5

    DateMonday, October 26, 2009 at 11:44PM

    Confirmed - VMWare ESXi 4.0 works on a HP ProLiant DL160 G5

    Sometimes it is frustrating to find out if your non HCL hardware will work with ESXi before shelling out $ on hardware, but in my case, I don't have to commit this hardware just for VM service, so it was more of a test if anything, and if it works, it may even go into light production duty (probably would advise to go for something on the official HCL for mission critical duty).

    For more whitebox and official hardware compatibility info with ESXi, check out:

    The following configuration options worked for me:

    • DL160 firmware up to current version as of Oct 2009
    • SATA RAID disabled
    • Installed onto internal SATA hard drive
    • I had to re-order the boot priority of the SATA hard drives (I have 2 installed) for ESXi 4.0 to boot after the installation (via CD - onto one of the hard drives)
    • Both NICs are seen by ESXi 4.0 as well

    I also confirmed that this 1U server also worked fine with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. But what I didn't count on, is how locked down and inconvenient it is for lab testing compared to VMWare's bare metal product. Hyper-V does look great at first glance with the free vmotion stuff, but it just takes too long to setup in a non domain lab setup (and can only be managed from a Win2k8, Vista or Windows 7 console!). For now, going to stick with VMWare products. :)

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    Wednesday
    21Oct2009

    NexentaStor - increasing swap space

    DateWednesday, October 21, 2009 at 8:19AM

    Here's another tip I forgot to post yesterday. How to increase the swap space on your NexentaStor server.

    When I was trouble shooting our NexentaStore server when it has low available drive space, in the NexentaStor documentation I found that the default swap size is the memory size. For some reason we had a 1 gig swap file, and 4 gig of ram. Perhaps we didn't have all the ram populated on original install, so just to make sure everything was setup correct to help my trouble shooting, I went looking for a way to increase the swap space.

    Since there wasn't any option I could find in the web gui, I was certain it was going to be a CLI thang. After some googling, I came across this:

    http://www.crypticide.com/dropsafe/article/2649

    I ssh-ed into the NexentaStor server as the admin user, and ran:

    zfs set volsize=4G syspool/swap

    This changed the swap space to the same size as the physical ram in the server.

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    Tuesday
    20Oct2009

    Deltek Vision - upgrades and service packs - hold your horses!

    DateTuesday, October 20, 2009 at 3:35PM

    I have a client that has moved over to an accounting/erp/crm/do everything for your consulting company software called Deltek Vision - almost 2 years ago.

    Working with Deltek's tech support crew has been fine. They provided plenty of information on recommended server configuration etc, and have even remoted in via GoToAssist sessions to help us with SQL database tweaks etc.

    With these types of software systems, they are extremely complex, and with this complexity, there are alway little bugs, reports that don't quite work, etc. On top of this problem, there are alway new features in the pipeline. Some of these new features, my client was looking forward to implement (some new reports from memory).

    In my client's case, Deltek took the new service pack/point release out from beta and went gold. Accounting was pushing for the upgrade, and we have Deltek support and our backups as a fall back...lets throw down!

    Now look what happens - You go ahead, take a quick snapshot of your database, go ahead and install the new patch/software. Everything loads up fine, and you think everything is sweet. Then IT gets a bunch of calls from users, and accounting, that this report isn't working etc etc. One of the coolest things, was the new version of Vision went from a nice convenient web based app, to a full on local running app - *sigh*. Each time a new feature is introduced, and new bug appears, a previous bug fixed, and a new bug fix is promised in the next patch/release - and so on it goes.

    Now this has been going on for about a year, and finally, accounting have come to the fact that no longer can they confidently upgrade their primary systems as soon as they go gold. Result - I am in the process of putting together a budget for a virtualized duplicate of their production environment, on which we can run updates, and test as throughly as possible before giving it the green light (or not) on the production boxes.

    I guess the long and the short of it is, encourage your clients/account dept etc, to test test test upgrades and new versions first, preferably in a sandbox/test environment. If they don't have one, let them know what best practices are (ie: give me a test environment), give them your best efforts/milage may vary disclaimer, and proceed accordingly. In my clients case, upgrades have been so counterproductive that they have finally decided to do something about it... and what a better way to do it than with VMs! :)

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