Computers

MegaRAID i4 Makes Me Stabby

Posted on by Timothy Foreman

It’s official. The MegaRAID i4 is a true Pain In The Ass.

Last night I upgraded the firmware in the hope that it would solve my drive rebuilding issues.

No such luck.

So I swapped in another 80GB drive and started the rebuild again. Then I went to bed.

When I awoke this morning and checked the status, I was surprised to find that it had failed again. (Insert sarcasm tags here.)

Okay. So I went to LSI Logics support page and downloaded the manual for the card. Maybe I’m doing the rebuild wrong?

The manual says (paraphrased):

  1. Replace the drive.
  2. Select the drive and then select ‘Rebuild’ from the menu

Sounds suspiciously like what I have been doing.

So I searched the LSI Logic Knowledge base for “megaraid i4 rebuild fails” and got 9 hits. The only one that seems really applicable is this one:

The newly installed hard drive does not have the same size/capacity in Megabytes as the other drives in the array. There is an option in the DACCF configuration utilty that will display the size of the hard drive as reported to the Mylex controller. In some cases drives from the same manufacturer, even with the same nominal capacity, can have slight differences in size. Get the hard drive with the same size and then rebuild the hard drive. It’s best to use an identical replacement (same brand/model/firmware revision) to replace failed drives.

So, in essence, I’m screwed.

The likelihood of finding another WD80 drive with the exact same firmware and sizing parameters as the one that I originally build the array with is NIL.

So there are a couple of options here, only one of which is really feasible at this point:

  1. Install the WD80 drive that I think is good and recreate the RAID – losing all the data and OS already installed – and starting over. This is the only feasable option, as I don’t have any data on this filer yet that is not copied elsewhere and it’s cost is $0. It’s feasible, but not painless.
  2. Buy 5 new, hopefully matched, 120GB drives. Build a RAID 5 array out of 4 of them with one as a hot spare. This would be the correct way to do this, but it costs $$ and I don’t have any for this type of stuff. (Unless I won the lottery last night, lemme check – nope, no such luck.)

Soooo… In addition to possibly moving my server around this weekend, I may end up rebuilding my Openfiler box.

Some days I hate computers, other days, I REALLY hate computers. Guess that’s why I’m a computer professional.

BTW, the title to this post was stolen from FreeBSDGirl.

Computers

Openfiler – CPU Upgrade and Rebuilding (again)

Posted on by Timothy Foreman

The heatsink for my 333MHz Pentium II processor came in the mail today, so when I removed the cover from the Openfiler box to plug in a floppy drive to flash the RAID controller firmware I swapped in the pair of 333MHz CPUs.

I had a pair of 350MHz CPUs in there, but this motherboard only supports a 66MHz frontside bus, so it reported them at 233MHz no matter what jumper setting I used.

But the 333MHz CPUs report at full speed, so that’s good to go!

I got the firmware flashed on the RAID controller (took it from C511 to N511) and am rebuilding the RAID container again.

Hopefully it will work this time and I’ll be all done with this BS.

BTW, the Openfiler box is named Hobbes. My main server is named Calvin and the new firewall is named Spiff. Just in case you were wondering.

Blogging

Tagging is working

Posted on by Timothy Foreman

Okay, after a few back and forths with the developer over at the forums, tags are now working on my blog.

Looks like I need to upgrade to MySQL 4.x at some point though. 🙁

But there isn’t really a huge hurry for that.

Anyway, tags are now fully functional.

Blogging

Playing with Tagging and other S9Y stuff

Posted on by Timothy Foreman

Well, following Coolleen’s and Sean’s lead, I upgraded to Serendipity version 0.9. It’s got a couple of new features.

Oh hell, as I write this I see they have already released 0.9.1. Damn, looks like time to upgrade again.

In addition I’ve added a plugin that allows me to tag entries. I think tagging is better than catagories (or maybe it enhances them) because an entry can have multiple tags.

But the event plugin was busted. You would think that by version 2.30 of a plugin it would work, but no. There was an error in a SQL query. So I posted a forum question last night and had a fix this morning. So that’s all cool.

But now the sidebar plugin is busted. Apparently the SQL query for the display is busted too. So I have posted another forum question and we’ll see.

So for now I’m adding tags, but you can’t filter or query on them.

Computers

Openfiler RAID – Grrrrr

Posted on by Timothy Foreman

Well, it built to 60%, then it said it was finished.

Then it failed the drive. The new one.

Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot?

So I powered it down and swapped the IDE cable.

Now it’s rebuilding. Again.

Wheeee.

Just remember the mantra: All hardware sucks. All software sucks.

Oh, I suppose I should really point out that this has nothing to do AT ALL with Openfiler itself. The RAID is being handled by an LSI Logic MegaRAID i4 card. Openfiler is running pretty well. Except for a few errors on boot that I really should track down…

Computers

Openfiler RAID is rebuilding… Slowly

Posted on by Timothy Foreman

Got the new drive in the Openfiler box and it’s rebuilding slowly.

It’s about 48% done right now and it’s been running the rebuild since about 5:45. At that rate it will be done around 1:30 in the morning!

At least it sends me an email after each 1% finishes! That’s sooooo useful. Not.

Turns out the drive that failed was one that I already had and stuck in there (not one that Nate sold me) and the warrantee expired in Feburary, so it’s on the scrap heap now.

At least I didn’t stick it in my main server and build up the mirror there just to have it die right away!

Computers

Coming to you wireless!

Posted on by Timothy Foreman

I am making this post from my lappy in the kitchen dining room (the wireless doesn’t really reach from the computer room to the kitchen – I’ll have to experiment with AP placement) with no cables attached whatsoever!

Thanks to Nate, I now have 802.11b running in my house using 128 bit WEP.

I had to do a little googling to find Jon Sevy’s Java based configurator (which is the only tool you can use after doing the 128 bit upgrade) as a lot of people have busted links to it. But it’s here.

Now to go stick that 80GB drive in my Openfiler…

Computers

Nate Comes to the Rescue!

Posted on by Timothy Foreman

Nate came in this morning with not only the power supply for the WAP, but also an 80GB hard drive!

He read my blog entry and dug around before coming in to work this morning.

And I didn’t really expect any support when I bought his RAID card. 🙂

Thanks again Nate!

Computers

Before the Sony rootkit there was MediaMax

Posted on by Timothy Foreman

Before Sony started installing rootkits on everybodys computers using the First 4 Internet DRM, they were installing other DRM software called SunnComm MediaMax. This is the infamous DRM software that could be bypassed by just holding down the shift key as you inserted the CD (thus bypassing the AutoRun feature of Windows.)

Ed Foster has an interesting column about Sony’s behaviour.

While Halderman found no evidence of SunnComm’s MediaMax using a rootkit, some of the things he did discover provide considerable grist for our behavioral profile of Sony. For one thing, before users can even say yes or no to accepting the Sony EULA, MediaMax has already installed a dozen files on their hard drive and started running the copy protection code. The files remain even if the user rejects the EULA, and the Sony CDs provide no option for uninstalling the files at a later date.

Boing Boing has also published their Part III of the Sony rootkit roundup. (Part I and Part II)