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    Entries in hp (4)

    Monday
    Oct262009

    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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    Thursday
    May142009

    NexentaStor - n00by tips and tricks

    DateThursday, May 14, 2009 at 9:29AM

    I now have a full licensed version of NexentaStor up and running for a client.

    During the testing phase, I had run the trial software to make sure it had all the features as advertised and functioned in a way that would be practical for contractors like us, that prefer a slick solution that minimizes the tweaking around as much as possible!

    Trail software was successfully run on:

    • VMWare Player/Fusion
    • Sun VirtualBox
    • ASUS P5W DH Deluxe mobo - with additional PCIe Intel E1000 nic (onboard nics not supported)
    • SuperMicro X6DVA series mobo

    Had no problems joining it to a Windows 2003 Active Directory (mixed mode - with a legacy Windows 2000 DC), setting ACLs, snapshots, browsing the .zfs folder, etc, etc.

    When it came to running on production hardware, we were unsuccessful getting it to run on:

    Next we tried:

    • SuperMicro X7SBL-LN1
    • This was put into a Supermicro 4ru Jbod chassis - 16 x 1tb drives
    • LSI SAS HBA - LSISAS3081E-R - set in jbod mode
    • If you need help with SAS cables - these guys are great help: http://www.cs-electronics.com

    No problems at all booting into NexentaStor now!

    During this time, the production network did have a domain controller upgrade. The old Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 domain controllers were demoted and fresh new Windows 2008 domain controllers took over AD tasks for the network.

    This is when I had the next challenge - I was able to get Nexentastor to join, and sometime NOT join the domain. Everything I did, could not get a AD user that was logged into a Windows box to access a CIFs share on NexentaStor.

    After hitting a Nexenta support, DNF Storage support, and reading every detail in the Nexenta User Guide, I figured there was a problem with our AD upgrade. Soooo, if you have a domain joining issue, I urge you to check every bit of your DNS server setup in AD.

    Even though in the forward zones, _msdcs.domain.lan all the relevant entries were correctly populated, the _msdcs zone within the domain.lan zone was incorrectly populated with old DCs entries.

    Once this was created, everything was good to go.

    One more gotcha... When setting ACLs on the CIF shares, don't just click every box in haste! If I did, I was still denied access to the share.

    Set as follows:

    • execute
    • read
    • create
    • write
    • delete
    • but NO inherit

    the inherit permission seemed to lock out access...

     

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    Friday
    Jul272007

    Procurve Trunk for nic bonding

    DateFriday, July 27, 2007 at 12:10AM

    HP Procurve Switches -> 802.3ad - LACP

    • Setup up your Procurve for 802.3ad for ports going to bonded (team) nics
    • in linux -> /etc/modprobe.conf -> mode=4

    To create the trunks make sure you are still logged on in manager mode with telnet in text menu mode.

    1. press number 2 "Switch Configuration"
    2. press number 2 "Port/Trunk Settings"
    3. scroll to Edit option with the arrow keys and press enter.
    4. scroll to the ports that you are using for your teamed NICs. I always put these NICs in sequential order. So for example port 13 and 14 will be for Trk1
    5. scroll over to "Group" and press the space bar to change the trunk number. If this is the first truck then I would recommend "Trk1"
    6. scroll to the right to the "Type" column and press the space bar until you see "LACP".
    7. scroll to the port of second NIC in the team and follow the same procedure as the first NIC
    8. Repeat steps 5 -7 until you have all of the teamed NICs in separate trunks.
    9. Once finished press enter and save.

    You should check on the server to see what mode the NIC team is running.

    Alternatively, goto the switch via Telnet, then menu, CLI, and type "show lacp".

    If the  NIC team is set for 802.3ad, then it should say yes for active lacp connection.

    To further confirm that it is working, try hitting it with another computer that has teaming up to see the throughput.

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    Tuesday
    Jul242007

    HP Proliant hw + HP System Management Homepage installation

    DateTuesday, July 24, 2007 at 7:44AM

    If you get System Type: Unknown - when you go to your freshly installed Proliant's Management Homepage... do this

    Install SNMP

    then...

    • Administrative Tools
    • Go to Services
    • look for SNMP Services
    • click on it - Properties
    • Go to Traps Tab
    • Comunity name: public - Add to list
    • Trap Destination: 127.0.0.1 - Add Button
    • Trap Destination: localhost - Add Button
    • Comunity name: private - Add to list
    • Trap Destination: 127.0.0.1 - Add Button
    • Trap Destination: localhost - Add Button
    • Go to Security Tab
    • Add Button
    • Write public
    • Select READ WRITE or it can be READ ONLY
    • Add Button
    • Write private
    • Select READ WRITE or it can be READ ONLY

    From here.

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