I’ve been using a KeySpan USB server for years with my various workstations, but I figured it would be a good way to connect USB devices to virtual Win2k3 R2 servers running on VMware ESX hosts, since connecting directly to a USB port on the host is not an option. After an hour of fighting […]
Tags: software
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Updating a server’s RAID controller firmware the other day, I got an odd dialog window. The dialog window said that the installed version was “2.8.0.64” and the update being installed was “2.24.0.64”, which looks like a downgrade. However, after checking the management console it became clear that the installed version was actually “2.08.0.64”… so my […]
Tags: software
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Mark Russinovich is like a legend… half of the dynamite due that used to be SysInternals. They put out tons of utils for Windows admins. With machine cloning technologies that came of age during the last administrative epoch, and virtualization cloning become commonplace, the NewSID util is probably the most used utility they ever put […]
Tags: psychology, software, stupid
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I run several HP DL360 servers with iLO cards in them, and one day I tried to access one of those servers via the iLO card and couldn’t authenticate. I thought “Hmm, I must have set the password incorrectly”, then started to search the web for a solution. The accepted solution was to power down […]
Tags: security, software
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In one of the server rooms I manage I’ve got a few VMware ESX 3.5 hosts attached to an OpenFiler 2.3 iSCSI SAN, running through an HP 2848 switch. I wanted to enable jumbo frames throughout the logical storage path to see how it would affect virtual disk speeds. Unfortunately, it is not possible to […]
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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 […]
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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… […]
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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 […]
Tags: hack
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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 […]
Tags: green, hack
Posted in Server Management | 11 Comments »
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 […]
Tags: hack, software
Posted in Server Management | 2 Comments »
