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Archive for August, 2009

Trouble with volume management on OpenFiler

Trouble with volume management on OpenFiler

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

I’ve been toying around with OpenFiler a while now and I’ve run into some quirky behavior when it comes to order or operations via the web interface. I had some issues with not being able to unmap an iSCSI LUN to being unable to remove a volume group. I was able to futz around and […]

The best license photo I've ever seen

The best license photo I’ve ever seen

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

When I was a wee lad, I saw the film License To Drive with the “the two coreys” (them then, and now)… and the best license photo I had ever seen at that time was features in the movie. Corey Haim’s character flashed a sideways smile just before the picture was snapped and I always […]

Why doesn't APC stuff work with APC stuff?

Why doesn’t APC stuff work with APC stuff?

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

I was moving some servers into a new APC NetShelter rack the other day, and the first thing I tried to install was an APC 2U 3000VA rackmount UPS. The NetShelter is a square hole rack that comes with rack nuts and screws/bolts to match. The UPS rails have holes in them for these bolts… […]

A cheap router that can do public traffic redirection

A cheap router that can do public traffic redirection

Monday, August 24th, 2009

If you’ve ever had to move a bunch of public facing servers from one IP address subnet to another, you know there is a period of down time while your DNS records update around the world. That down time, as everyone familiar with DNS services knows, is usually between 4-48 hours, depending on TTL values […]

A real time MPG gauge would change driving habits

A real time MPG gauge would change driving habits

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

I have two cars; a VW GTI 1.8T turbo powered mad machine which can get 35 MPG if I drive like grandma, and my Honda Insight which can get 100MPG if I draft behind a semi truck from driveway to parking space and back again. I caught this shaky image on my way to work […]

Using external air to cool a server room

Using external air to cool a server room

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Over the years, I’ve come to inherit and keep watch over several server rooms for various companies around the Pacific Northwest. The recent heatwave got me thinking a lot about AC system design as it relates to server rooms. As is typical for small to medium sized companies, these server rooms have anywhere from 1 […]

District 9 makes me want to welcome an alien apocalypse

District 9 makes me want to welcome an alien apocalypse

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

Yes you idiot, there are spoilers. It’s a very good movie that, in the end, only fans the flames of my evil genius side… you know, that “poison the well”, “launch all nuclear weapons”, “end all humanity” kind of evil genius. Even though they barely touched on it, I like how the aliens are basically […]

Run Dell OpenManage directly off a boot CD

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

Even though I’m transitioning away from Dell PowerEdge servers in favor of HP ProLiant boxes, with their fancy integrated iLO adapters and such, I still find I need to manage a Dell box from time to time. Sometimes, like when I use a Dell NAS 745N box that comes with Windows Storage Server 2003 as […]

Brown sugar is people! You're eating people!

Brown sugar is people! You’re eating people!

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Ok, so the title is a (bad) play on Soylent Green. So what? Today I learned something interesting. If you need to do any RFID testing or research on liquid interference typical of meat or people, brown sugar is a great analogue. An unopened bag has interference properties very similar to that of humans, or […]

Record Seattle heatwave pushes server room AC limits

Friday, August 14th, 2009

With all the record breaking hot weather recently in the Seattle area (up to 109F!), I’ve had to reassess the cooling systems in some of the various server rooms and data closets I’m in charge of. Like many admins, I happened to take over responsibility for most of these server rooms at some point after […]

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