From adamm at menlo.com Thu Jun 1 15:29:47 2006 From: adamm at menlo.com (Adam S. Moskowitz) Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 15:29:47 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] June meeting Message-ID: <20060601192947.1BA70EBD8E@hexogen.explosive.net> Wednesday, June 14; MIT Building E51, Room 149 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. (presentation starts at 7:30) "Enterprise-Class Virtualization with Open Source Technologies" Alex Vasilevsky, CTO, Virtual Iron Full details here: http://www.bblisa.org/ From scott at MIT.EDU Tue Jun 6 08:50:08 2006 From: scott at MIT.EDU (Scott R Ehrlich) Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2006 08:50:08 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] 32 or 64-bit PC? Message-ID: <20060606085008.18xwf3y8x0w8oc0o@webmail.mit.edu> Is there any easy/free way to figure out of a particular PC can support a 64-bit OS, other than visiting the manufacturer's web site and hoping they offer some insight? Thanks. Scott From dave at dpallan.com Tue Jun 6 10:10:20 2006 From: dave at dpallan.com (David Allan) Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 10:10:20 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] 32 or 64-bit PC? In-Reply-To: <20060606085008.18xwf3y8x0w8oc0o@webmail.mit.edu> References: <20060606085008.18xwf3y8x0w8oc0o@webmail.mit.edu> Message-ID: If you already own it, you might try installing 64bit Linux. That will tell you definitively. If you don't own it, I'd check the CPU specs; that's really the limiting factor. Dave On Tue, 6 Jun 2006, Scott R Ehrlich wrote: > Is there any easy/free way to figure out of a particular PC can support a 64-bit > OS, other than visiting the manufacturer's web site and hoping they offer some > insight? > > Thanks. > > Scott > > _______________________________________________ > bblisa mailing list > bblisa at bblisa.org > http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa > From adamm at menlo.com Wed Jun 7 07:21:20 2006 From: adamm at menlo.com (Adam S. Moskowitz) Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 07:21:20 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] Next week's meeting Message-ID: <20060607112120.0EB18EBBE3@hexogen.explosive.net> Wednesday, June 14; MIT Building E51, Room 149 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. (presentation starts at 7:30) "Enterprise-Class Virtualization with Open Source Technologies" Alex Vasilevsky, CTO, Virtual Iron Full details here: http://www.bblisa.org/ From nick.giannotti at gmail.com Wed Jun 7 09:08:24 2006 From: nick.giannotti at gmail.com (Nick G) Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2006 09:08:24 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] Director of IT position open Message-ID: <4486CFC8.6060805@gmail.com> Morning, everyone. My company has a Director of IT Position open. We're based in Lincoln, and experience in a manufacturing environment would be a plus. If you're interested, email your resume to 2376 at avidyne.hrmdirect.com - and yes, I get a referral bonus, so drop my name. ;) *Description* The Director of IT will oversee corporate-wide technology services and infrastructure for a 200 person fast-paced, growing avionics company with multiple branch locations. This person will work closely with Avidyne's senior staff to build and maintain environments that support our sales, development, production, customer service, product support and finance and human resource departments. This person will play a leading role in managing the deployment of and ongoing support of: (a) various business systems, (b) communications and storage infrastructure, and (c) desktops, laptops, engineering workstations and peripherals. *Responsibilities: * * Anticipate future company growth and needs on order to ensure that IT skills, technologies and architecture are adaptable and in-line with company and market needs. * Establish IT policies, standards, practices and security measures to ensure effective and consistent information collection and processing and to safeguard information resources and IT infrastructure. * Understands business requirements and translates them into systems requirements. * Directs implementation and execution of new information systems (including an ERP system) through well-defined plans including procedures, deadlines, accountability and training. * Oversees acquisition, integration, and/or consolidation efforts for all company IT systems. * Acts as the principal liaison between the IT and department heads making sure that we are using technology to meet business needs. * Ensures users/customers are provided professional, courteous, and timely support and service. * Responsible for managing the IT staff of 3-5 people. Structures, leads, trains, and develops IT staff for maximum effectiveness. * Leads teams of contractors and consultants to deliver technical solutions to business. * Stays abreast of trends and regulations to ensure effectiveness and compliance. * Develops and maintains company Disaster Recovery Plan. *Essential Skills and Experience: * * Holds a Bachelor's (required) or Master's (preferred) in computer science, engineering or related discipline. * 7-10 years in an IT Management/Director role with a proven ability to lead a progressive IT staff. Previous IT Director level experience in a manufacturing environment is desired. * Experience in implementing and running an information support organization for 300+ employees. * Proven experience with information systems development and implementation including ERP systems. Recent experience implementing an ERP system is desired. * Ability to organize multiple concurrent priorities and to execute tasks in a high-pressure, fast-paced environment. * Problem analysis and problem resolution skills at both a strategic and functional level. * Effective in communicating with all levels of the company * Adept at dealing with confrontation effectively and driving change. * Strong customer orientation. * Broad knowledge of data processing and information systems, concepts and methodologies. Technical skills and experience in Local and Wide Area Networks. -- - n How can I feel abandoned, even with the world around me? How can I bite the hand that feeds the strangers all around me? How can I know so many, never really knowing anyone? If I seem superhuman, I have been misunderstood...." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.bblisa.org/pipermail/bblisa/attachments/20060607/c08d7eb2/attachment.htm From bblisa2 at nedharvey.com Thu Jun 8 17:30:27 2006 From: bblisa2 at nedharvey.com (Eddy Harvey) Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 17:30:27 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] Recommend cisco resellers? Message-ID: <20060608213039.B8439131A29@spunkymail-a4.dreamhost.com> I've always used pcconnection before. But this time I'd like to compare a couple of quotes because the item is priced high enough. Anyone recommend a cisco reseller? (In this case, it'll be approx. $4,000 switch.) From dean at av8.com Thu Jun 8 18:26:14 2006 From: dean at av8.com (Dean Anderson) Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 18:26:14 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] Recommend cisco resellers? In-Reply-To: <20060608213039.B8439131A29@spunkymail-a4.dreamhost.com> Message-ID: On Thu, 8 Jun 2006, Eddy Harvey wrote: > I've always used pcconnection before. But this time I'd like to compare a > couple of quotes because the item is priced high enough. > > Anyone recommend a cisco reseller? (In this case, it'll be approx. $4,000 > switch.) > > _______________________________________________ > bblisa mailing list > bblisa at bblisa.org > http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa > > -- Av8 Internet Prepared to pay a premium for better service? www.av8.net faster, more reliable, better service 617 344 9000 From xela at MIT.EDU Thu Jun 8 20:16:57 2006 From: xela at MIT.EDU (Carl Alexander) Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:16:57 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] Recommend cisco resellers? In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 08 Jun 2006 17:30:27 EDT." <20060608213039.B8439131A29@spunkymail-a4.dreamhost.com> Message-ID: <200606090016.k590GxT7009755@multics.mit.edu> > I've always used pcconnection before. But this time I'd like to compare a > couple of quotes because the item is priced high enough. > > Anyone recommend a cisco reseller? (In this case, it'll be approx. $4,000 > switch.) A $4k cisco switch is a commodity item.* I'd search for the model number on shopper.cnet.com, pricewatch, and/or froogle, and look for a good price from a vendor I had prior good experience with, or at least had least heard good things about. ---------- * Okay, not _really_ a commodity item. But might as well be in terms of competition in the retail market. From dwight at significant.com Fri Jun 9 11:30:31 2006 From: dwight at significant.com (Dwight A. Ernest) Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 11:30:31 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] OC48 or OC192 Boston area <-> 60 Hudson NYC? Message-ID: <5f66bff30606090830y6f6c68a2s6f1b5a54478c3727@mail.gmail.com> I know of a company that's seeking bids on an OC48 or an OC192 between the Boston area and 60 Hudson Street in New York. If you are aware of any providers who can sell that facility, I'd love to hear about it. Rtmnttl as usual, and I'll summarize. --Dwight -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.bblisa.org/pipermail/bblisa/attachments/20060609/615e2000/attachment.htm From adamm at menlo.com Mon Jun 12 14:17:20 2006 From: adamm at menlo.com (Adam S. Moskowitz) Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 14:17:20 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] This week's meeting Message-ID: <20060612181720.24565EBC0D@hexogen.explosive.net> Wednesday, June 14 <== that's the day after tomorrow! MIT Building E51, Room 149 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. (presentation starts at 7:30) "Enterprise-Class Virtualization with Open Source Technologies" Alex Vasilevsky, CTO, Virtual Iron Full details here: http://www.bblisa.org/ From spamgrinder at gmail.com Mon Jun 12 16:06:39 2006 From: spamgrinder at gmail.com (Paul Beltrani) Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 16:06:39 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] OSS Statistics and trend reporting for Linux/Solaris Message-ID: Does anyone have suggestions for open-source solutions to track server utilization of Linux and possibly Solaris hosts? I'm looking for something that would allow me to quickly begin gathering usage statistics on a few hundred Linux systems. (Mostly RHEL3 and 4). A solution that also supports Solaris and Windows 2K would be nice but is not essential. Feel free to reply directly and I will summarize for the list. - Paul Beltrani From miah at chia-pet.org Mon Jun 12 16:39:43 2006 From: miah at chia-pet.org (miah) Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 16:39:43 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] OSS Statistics and trend reporting for Linux/Solaris In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20060612203943.GA15282@mckenzie.chia-pet.org> Sounds like you want to look into snmpd. -miah On Mon, Jun 12, 2006 at 04:06:39PM -0400, Paul Beltrani wrote: > Does anyone have suggestions for open-source solutions to track server > utilization of Linux and possibly Solaris hosts? > > I'm looking for something that would allow me to quickly begin > gathering usage statistics on a few hundred Linux systems. (Mostly > RHEL3 and 4). A solution that also supports Solaris and Windows 2K > would be nice but is not essential. > > Feel free to reply directly and I will summarize for the list. > > - Paul Beltrani > > _______________________________________________ > bblisa mailing list > bblisa at bblisa.org > http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa > From alfred at schemathings.com Mon Jun 12 16:39:25 2006 From: alfred at schemathings.com (Alfred Werner) Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 16:39:25 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] OSS Statistics and trend reporting for Linux/Solaris In-Reply-To: <20060612203943.GA15282@mckenzie.chia-pet.org> References: <20060612203943.GA15282@mckenzie.chia-pet.org> Message-ID: <20060612203925.GE5150@bzfs.schemathings.com> http://cacti.net/ ? From spamgrinder at gmail.com Tue Jun 13 09:08:18 2006 From: spamgrinder at gmail.com (Paul Beltrani) Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 09:08:18 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] Re: OSS Statistics and trend reporting for Linux/Solaris In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On 6/12/06, Paul Beltrani wrote: > Does anyone have suggestions for open-source solutions to track server > utilization of Linux and possibly Solaris hosts? ... Thank you everyone for your replies. To recap: ----- SNMP/RRDTool/MRTG RRDTool - Round Robin Database A system to store and display time-series data. http://www.rrdtool.org/ http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/ MRTG - Multi Router Traffic Grapher Retrieves stats via SNMP and generates HTML with graphs of that data over time. Works stand alone or with RRDTool http://www.mrtg.org/ http://oss.oetiker.ch/mrtg/ Cacti Front end to RRDTool and MRTG http://cacti.net/ (I hadn't seen this one before. Thanks Alfred.) ----- Nagios: Very powerful monitoring systems. Does much more than just gather stats. http://www.nagios.org/ ----- Orca Plots data from text files to HTML pages. Works in conjunction with data gathering scripts, orcallator (Solaris), procallator (Linux). http://www.orcaware.com/ From pblaszka at cambridgecomputer.com Tue Jun 13 13:30:55 2006 From: pblaszka at cambridgecomputer.com (Parrish Blaszka) Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 13:30:55 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] Invitation to June SNUGNE Meeting--Steve Duplessie to Present Message-ID: <1AA6FCF8887B2B488F9ED37FE24EAC4C328442@mail.int.camcom.com> Dear BBLISA Members, You and your colleagues are invited to attend the June SNUGNE meeting (www.snugne.org), which will be held on Wednesday, June 28th, featuring a presentation on Enterprise Infrastructure Virtualization by Steve Duplessie, Founder and Senior Analyst for Enterprise Strategy Group. There is no charge to attend. We ask that you register for refreshment planning purposes, though you may attend even if you have not registered. Meetings are open to anyone interested in discussing data storage in a vendor-neutral, education-focused environment. We hope to see you there! See below for full meeting details (location, time, directions) Feel free to contact me with any questions. Thank you, Parrish Blaszka Storage Networking Users Group of New England (SNUGNE) 781.250.3240 feedback at snugne.org NEW ENGLAND SNUG MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT DATE: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 TIME: 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM LOCATION: Hyatt Regency Boston One Avenue de Lafayette Boston , Massachusetts 02111 Tel: (617) 912-1234 For a map and directions: http://regencyboston.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp TOPIC: Enterprise Infrastructure Virtualization SPEAKER: Steve Duplessie, Founder and Senior Analyst for Enterprise Strategy Group. SPEAKER BIO: Steve Duplessie is the founder and Sr. Analyst of the Enterprise Strategy Group. Recognized worldwide as the leading independent authority on enterprise storage, Steve has also consistently been ranked as one of the most influential IT analysts. Prior to founding ESG, Steve was the founder and CEO of Invincible Technologies Corp., a manufacturer of fault-tolerant NAS systems. Prior to ITC, Steve held positions at Clearpoint Research and EMC Corp. Steve holds a B.S.B.A. from Babson College. MORE INFORMATION: For recent articles and information on Virtualization, please visit the Avery List: http://www.storagenetworking.org/resources_avery_list.asp#Virtualization MEETING SPONSOR: Meeting is generously sponsored by EMC Corp: http://www.emc.com/ RSVP: To register, please visit our website: http://www.storagenetworking.org/User_Groups/snug_event_rsvp.asp?id=133 We will be raffling off a $50 Best Buy card during the meeting. This meeting is being held in conjunction with the SNIA Summer Symposium. For more information, visit their website: http://www.snia.org/news/events/symposium_summer/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.bblisa.org/pipermail/bblisa/attachments/20060613/a4f6affd/attachment.htm From srevilak at speakeasy.net Thu Jun 15 08:48:21 2006 From: srevilak at speakeasy.net (Steve Revilak) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 08:48:21 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? Message-ID: At my workplace, we have several shared filesystems (a combination of NFS and samba/CIFS). They're adequate, but not without some level of headaches and hassles. (Fedora NFS being a particularly bad headache). I've been starting to look at iSCSI as an alternative. I guess my biggest question is whether it's a viable alternative for NFS/CIFS. I'm also curious as to how well it handles types of work that are traditionally reserved for `local disks' (eg - applications that need reliable file locking). Have any of you had experience with iSCSI? From adamm at menlo.com Thu Jun 15 09:04:58 2006 From: adamm at menlo.com (Adam S. Moskowitz) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 09:04:58 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: from "Steve Revilak" at Jun 15, 2006 08:48:21 AM Message-ID: <20060615130458.62ED6EBC1B@hexogen.explosive.net> Steve Revilak wrote: > I guess my biggest question is whether [iSCSI is] a viable alternative > for NFS/CIFS. You're comparing apples and oranges: NFS and CIFS are file sharing protocols that offer *file* access; iSCSI is a disk access protocol that offers *block* access. There is no sharing built into iSCSI. Think of it this way: NFS runs between two computers, but iSCSI runs between one computer and its disks. Or think of it this way: iSCSI is just a REALLY LONG cable between the CPU and disk. So no, iSCSI is not a replacement for NFS of CIFS. AdamM From bblisa2 at nedharvey.com Thu Jun 15 09:36:00 2006 From: bblisa2 at nedharvey.com (Eddy Harvey) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 09:36:00 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20060615133613.7ACCA7B3B5@spunkymail-a16.dreamhost.com> I think you mean to compare ... NAS vs SAN. Right? Not nfs vs iscsi. It just so happens that nfs is one protocol that can be used to build NAS. And it just so happens that iscsi is one protocol that can be used to build SAN. NAS is basically file sharing over a network, such as nfs or cifs. SAN uses a specialized set of hardware and drivers to make a disk appear local to the OS, even though the disk is on the other end of some kind of network (usually a fiber brocade switch). A SAN disk can be used simultaneously by more than one computer. SAN is faster and better, but more expensive. What do I mean by that? Faster: Using a bus that's the same speed (probably 1GB) you have much less overhead than nfs, and more dedicated pathway. So you have lower latency and higher sustainable throughput. Put simply, SAN tends to be around twice as fast as NAS, given the same speed hardware. Better: Since the disk appears to be locally attached, you can mount/unmount as if it were a local disk. You can boot from it (if you have the right drivers and whatnot). And in my personal experience, nfs has a tendency to hang up the system whenever there's a network outage or you reboot the nfs server. You don't have that problem with SAN, because the network is more reliable and there is no nfs server. More Expensive: I normally expect a SAN to cost at least 3 times more than NAS of the same size. > -----Original Message----- > From: bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org > [mailto:bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org] On Behalf Of Steve Revilak > Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 8:48 AM > To: bblisa at bblisa.org > Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? > > At my workplace, we have several shared filesystems (a > combination of NFS and samba/CIFS). They're adequate, but > not without some level of headaches and hassles. (Fedora NFS > being a particularly bad headache). > > I've been starting to look at iSCSI as an alternative. I > guess my biggest question is whether it's a viable > alternative for NFS/CIFS. > I'm also curious as to how well it handles types of work that > are traditionally reserved for `local disks' (eg - > applications that need reliable file locking). > > Have any of you had experience with iSCSI? > > > _______________________________________________ > bblisa mailing list > bblisa at bblisa.org > http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa > From adamm at menlo.com Thu Jun 15 09:59:06 2006 From: adamm at menlo.com (Adam S. Moskowitz) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 09:59:06 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: <20060615133613.7ACCA7B3B5@spunkymail-a16.dreamhost.com> from "Eddy Harvey" at Jun 15, 2006 09:36:00 AM Message-ID: <20060615135906.861C4EBBC1@hexogen.explosive.net> "Eddy Harvey" wrote: > SAN is faster and better, but more expensive. We could debate which is faster and why but let's not. I will, however, argue with "better": NAS and SAN -- or more correctly, file sharing versus block access -- serve two different purposes and most often solve different problems. If your requirement is to give multiple hosts read/write access to the same file while preserving locking semantics and the like, block access is almost certainly worse than file access and, in particular, than a file *sharing* protocol such as NFS or CIFS. > . . . in my personal experience, nfs has a tendency to hang up the system > whenever there's a network outage or you reboot the nfs server. You don't > have that problem with SAN, because the network is more reliable and there > is no nfs server. I will match my NetApp NFS server against any SAN box and show you as good if not better numbers for speed and reliability. I will also match my high-end Cisco plain old Ethernet switch against any Fiber Channel switch for reliability and again get as good if not better numbers. As for hanging the system, well, NFS might or might not hang but the system won't necessarily crash. When you SAN switch or network dies, it's like ripping the system disk out from under a running system -- you *will* crash. My point is that, in general, reliability is far more about what hardware you choose and how you connect it up than the protocol and/or access method the hardware provides. > More Expensive: I normally expect a SAN to cost at least 3 times more > than NAS of the same size. While I will be the first to admit that a NFS setup from NetApp is one of the most expensive you can find, it's often less that "equivalent" SAN set-ups. But the great thing is that same hardware can provide SAN service, too (at the same time, no less), so you can build a very reliable SAN for roughly the same cost as a NAS set-up. Well, provided you use iSCSI and not FC, 'cause FC switches are always gonna drive the cost up. AdamM From bblisa2 at nedharvey.com Thu Jun 15 10:40:30 2006 From: bblisa2 at nedharvey.com (Eddy Harvey) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 10:40:30 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: <20060615135906.861C4EBBC1@hexogen.explosive.net> Message-ID: <20060615144043.A3D25FEADE@spunkymail-a1.dreamhost.com> > > . . . in my personal experience, nfs has a tendency to hang up the > > system whenever there's a network outage or you reboot the > nfs server. > > You don't have that problem with SAN, because the network is more > > reliable and there is no nfs server. > > I will match my NetApp NFS server against any SAN box and > show you as good if not better numbers for speed and > reliability. I agree, my netapp is awesome too. But the fault isn't in the server; it's in the client. If you have a Solaris or Linux box mounting nfs on the netapp, and then you reboot the netapp (rare but it happens) the solaris/linux machine will have nfs stale file handles, and sometimes that makes the solaris/linux machine unable to reboot. I've had numerous times I was required to pull the power cord from solaris/linux because it couldn't see the netapp. Not even root could login on the local console. Not even pressing the power button to signal init 0 would help. Also, I spent a fair amount of time measuring file i/o over nfs, and generally found it 1/8 to 1/10 as fast as block-level network access. I dare you to measure and compare. Even with some serious tweaking of parameters, or switching to udp instead of tcp, nfs is much slower than block-level access. In both cases I was running the i/o across a gigabit ethernet. In one case I even used a cross-over cable to eliminate the possiblity if the switch causing the delays. Incidentally, this is the test I was using: time dd if=/dev/zero of=/some/file bs=1024k count=1000 (tried the above using GB nfs, also using GB pleiades san) time ( dd if=/dev/zero of=- bs=1024k count=1000 | rsh somehost "cat > somefile" ) (I'm not sure if this is the right syntax right now, but it was something like that.) Results: nfs was 8-10 times slower than either rsh or san. > As for hanging the system, well, NFS might or might not hang > but the system won't necessarily crash. When you SAN switch > or network dies, it's like ripping the system disk out from > under a running system -- you > *will* crash. I'll admit that a network crash on a SAN is worse than a network crash on a NAS. Plain and simple, you've got to avoid these problems by using decent hardware - cisco, brocade, whatever. As long as it's expensive it's probably good. From dhirsch at pobox.com Thu Jun 15 10:56:50 2006 From: dhirsch at pobox.com (Doug Hirsch) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 07:56:50 -0700 Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: <20060615144043.A3D25FEADE@spunkymail-a1.dreamhost.com> References: <20060615135906.861C4EBBC1@hexogen.explosive.net> <20060615144043.A3D25FEADE@spunkymail-a1.dreamhost.com> Message-ID: Can anyone on this list position AFS with respect to the SAN/NAS descriptions? Is anyone running it these days? Thanks. Doug -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.bblisa.org/pipermail/bblisa/attachments/20060615/0091c1bd/attachment.htm From feenberg at nber.org Thu Jun 15 11:34:43 2006 From: feenberg at nber.org (Daniel Feenberg) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 11:34:43 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: <20060615144043.A3D25FEADE@spunkymail-a1.dreamhost.com> References: <20060615144043.A3D25FEADE@spunkymail-a1.dreamhost.com> Message-ID: On Thu, 15 Jun 2006, Eddy Harvey wrote: > > Also, I spent a fair amount of time measuring file i/o over nfs, and > generally found it 1/8 to 1/10 as fast as block-level network access. I > dare you to measure and compare. Even with some serious tweaking of > parameters, or switching to udp instead of tcp, nfs is much slower than > block-level access. In both cases I was running the i/o across a gigabit > ethernet. > OK, but how do I use a SAN to replace NFS? If I have multiple computers, doesn't each computer have to be assigned it own partitions on the SAN, so that the SAN doesn't enable file sharing across computers, only disk sharing? I haven't looked carefully into SANs for exactly that reason - or have I been wrong? I'd be interested in the speed improvement if the files could be shared. Daniel Feenberg feenberg at nber.org 617-588-0343 From arr at oceanwave.com Thu Jun 15 11:51:41 2006 From: arr at oceanwave.com (A. Rich) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 11:51:41 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: References: <20060615144043.A3D25FEADE@spunkymail-a1.dreamhost.com> Message-ID: <17553.33294.3008.360523@smallberries.office.oceanwave.com> feenberg> OK, but how do I use a SAN to replace NFS? If I have multiple feenberg> computers, doesn't each computer have to be assigned it own feenberg> partitions on the SAN, so that the SAN doesn't enable file sharing feenberg> across computers, only disk sharing? I haven't looked carefully into feenberg> SANs for exactly that reason - or have I been wrong? I'd be feenberg> interested in the speed improvement if the files could be shared. You either set up some sort of active-active clustering amongst your machines, or you have one (possibly set of) designated server that mounts the SAN then exports it out to the rest of your hosts via CIFS, NFS, AFS, whatever. From adamm at menlo.com Thu Jun 15 12:19:56 2006 From: adamm at menlo.com (Adam S. Moskowitz) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 12:19:56 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: <17553.33294.3008.360523@smallberries.office.oceanwave.com> from "A. Rich" at Jun 15, 2006 11:51:41 AM Message-ID: <20060615161956.AEB1CEBC06@hexogen.explosive.net> Daniel Feenberg asked: > OK, but how do I use a SAN to replace NFS? and "A. Rich" replied: > You either set up some sort of active-active clustering amongst your machines, > or you have one (possibly set of) designated server that mounts the SAN then > exports it out to the rest of your hosts via CIFS, NFS, AFS, whatever. I'd like to suggest the following, to avoid confusion . . . Rather than saying "SAN" and "NAS," say "block access" and "file sharing." Block access and file sharing are two different technologies that solve different problems. Yes, both problems involve hosts and disks, but ignore that for now. If you want to give multiple hosts simultaneous access to one or more files then you need something like NFS or CIFS or a clustered file- system. If you want to give multiple hosts access to different parts of the same (logical or physical) disk then you need something like iSCSI or whatever the correct-for-this-situation name of FC is (both of which are based on SCSI). Now, it's entirely likely that a solution to your file sharing problem will include a block access mechanism (just like Amy described above), but in most cases SANs and NASes are not interchangeable. I think I said this before, but I think it bears repeating: iSCSI and the like (i.e., "SAN") is functionally just a really long cable between the CPU and the disk; NAS is one computer acting as a gatekeeper for lots of computers trying to access the same file(s). Yes, this is an over-simplification, but when trying to remember what each technology does best it's a reasonable working model. AdamM From dave at dpallan.com Thu Jun 15 14:01:57 2006 From: dave at dpallan.com (David Allan) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:01:57 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Going back to the question of experience, has anybody on the list actually implemented iSCSI? If so, what OS was the initiator and what did you use for targets? How easy was it to set up, and how stable was the result? Dave On Thu, 15 Jun 2006, Steve Revilak wrote: > At my workplace, we have several shared filesystems (a combination of > NFS and samba/CIFS). They're adequate, but not without some level of > headaches and hassles. (Fedora NFS being a particularly bad headache). > > I've been starting to look at iSCSI as an alternative. I guess my > biggest question is whether it's a viable alternative for NFS/CIFS. > I'm also curious as to how well it handles types of work that are > traditionally reserved for `local disks' (eg - applications that need > reliable file locking). > > Have any of you had experience with iSCSI? > > > _______________________________________________ > bblisa mailing list > bblisa at bblisa.org > http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa > From guillermo.chang at gmail.com Thu Jun 15 14:37:33 2006 From: guillermo.chang at gmail.com (Guillermo Chang) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:37:33 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi, I've been successfully using an Equallogic storage array with Microsoft software initiators for over a year now. It was very easy to set up and the performance is decent when you put it on a separate network. I set up a few volumes that are used by database and email servers. Guillermo On 6/15/06, David Allan wrote: > > Going back to the question of experience, has anybody on the list actually > implemented iSCSI? If so, what OS was the initiator and what did you use > for targets? How easy was it to set up, and how stable was the result? > > Dave > > > On Thu, 15 Jun 2006, Steve Revilak wrote: > > > At my workplace, we have several shared filesystems (a combination of > > NFS and samba/CIFS). They're adequate, but not without some level of > > headaches and hassles. (Fedora NFS being a particularly bad headache). > > > > I've been starting to look at iSCSI as an alternative. I guess my > > biggest question is whether it's a viable alternative for NFS/CIFS. > > I'm also curious as to how well it handles types of work that are > > traditionally reserved for `local disks' (eg - applications that need > > reliable file locking). > > > > Have any of you had experience with iSCSI? > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > bblisa mailing list > > bblisa at bblisa.org > > http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa > > > > _______________________________________________ > bblisa mailing list > bblisa at bblisa.org > http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.bblisa.org/pipermail/bblisa/attachments/20060615/b32d76c8/attachment.htm From arr at oceanwave.com Thu Jun 15 15:14:59 2006 From: arr at oceanwave.com (A. Rich) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 15:14:59 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <17553.45491.488406.758520@smallberries.office.oceanwave.com> I know that we have three EqualLogic boxes in production as well, but I'm not part of the team that administers them (the LAN/Windows group), so I can't really offer any performance/usage details. From dean at av8.com Thu Jun 15 16:42:01 2006 From: dean at av8.com (Dean Anderson) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 16:42:01 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: There was a nifty presentation at a BBLISA a while back on iSCSI. Did they leave this presentation somewhere? I'm not real enthused about iSCSI, but vendors like EMC that make giant disk farms are promoting it. I supposed if I owned a multi-terra EMC array, I might be more interested... But I think Adam got the distinction down. iSCSI gives you block devices that aren't shared, but are network-remote. NFS gives you network-remote file sharing. Both approaches can be used to create diskless computers... Which is good for you depends a lot on what you need to do with your big disk farm, and whether you even want to create/buy a big disk farm. --Dean On Thu, 15 Jun 2006, David Allan wrote: > Going back to the question of experience, has anybody on the list actually > implemented iSCSI? If so, what OS was the initiator and what did you use > for targets? How easy was it to set up, and how stable was the result? > > Dave > > > On Thu, 15 Jun 2006, Steve Revilak wrote: > > > At my workplace, we have several shared filesystems (a combination of > > NFS and samba/CIFS). They're adequate, but not without some level of > > headaches and hassles. (Fedora NFS being a particularly bad headache). > > > > I've been starting to look at iSCSI as an alternative. I guess my > > biggest question is whether it's a viable alternative for NFS/CIFS. > > I'm also curious as to how well it handles types of work that are > > traditionally reserved for `local disks' (eg - applications that need > > reliable file locking). > > > > Have any of you had experience with iSCSI? > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > bblisa mailing list > > bblisa at bblisa.org > > http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa > > > > _______________________________________________ > bblisa mailing list > bblisa at bblisa.org > http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa > > -- Av8 Internet Prepared to pay a premium for better service? www.av8.net faster, more reliable, better service 617 344 9000 From pbg at cptech.com Thu Jun 15 18:32:03 2006 From: pbg at cptech.com (Peter Galvin) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:32:03 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? Message-ID: My company does quite a lot if iSCSI. As far as I know all of our production deployments have been with the Windows as the source and NetApp and Sun as the targets. Works very well. Windows has iSCSI drivers built in, but we tend to use HBAs with TCP acceleration built in for improved performance. --Peter Peter Baer Galvin CTO, Corporate Technologies 781 791 2112 www.cptech.com www.petergalvin.info pbg at cptech.com peter at galvin.info -----Original Message----- From: bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org [mailto:bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org] On Behalf Of David Allan Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 2:02 PM To: Steve Revilak Cc: bblisa at bblisa.org Subject: Re: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? Going back to the question of experience, has anybody on the list actually implemented iSCSI? If so, what OS was the initiator and what did you use for targets? How easy was it to set up, and how stable was the result? Dave On Thu, 15 Jun 2006, Steve Revilak wrote: > At my workplace, we have several shared filesystems (a combination of > NFS and samba/CIFS). They're adequate, but not without some level of > headaches and hassles. (Fedora NFS being a particularly bad headache). > > I've been starting to look at iSCSI as an alternative. I guess my > biggest question is whether it's a viable alternative for NFS/CIFS. > I'm also curious as to how well it handles types of work that are > traditionally reserved for `local disks' (eg - applications that need > reliable file locking). > > Have any of you had experience with iSCSI? > > > _______________________________________________ > bblisa mailing list > bblisa at bblisa.org > http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa > _______________________________________________ bblisa mailing list bblisa at bblisa.org http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa From srevilak at speakeasy.net Thu Jun 15 21:26:50 2006 From: srevilak at speakeasy.net (Steve Revilak) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 21:26:50 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: <20060615130458.62ED6EBC1B@hexogen.explosive.net> References: <20060615130458.62ED6EBC1B@hexogen.explosive.net> Message-ID: > Subject: Re: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? Thanks for all the responses! A number of you really know this stuff. While I'm familiar with CIFS/NFS; SAN, NAS, and iSCSI thing are way out of my comfort zone. [disk on the end of an ethernet cable] Thanks Adam -- that description made makes perfect sense. It sounds like iSCSI is a viable option hooking up disks to a single machine. [NetApps] In a former professional life, we had one. I thought it was one of the most impressive pieces of hardware I'd ever seen. No reliability problems -- it just worked. Plus, the NetApp boot sequence is quite a show to watch -- on those rare occassions where you have to reboot the filer :) [Fedora NFS Headaches] Under light to moderate load, Fedora NFS is actually alright. Under heavier loads, I've found that it simply falls apart. Specifically, this seemed to tied to operations that access large number of inodes in rapid succession. Running `find' or `rm -rf' across a large nfs-mounted directory tree would produce hundreds or thousands of IO Errors (reported by the shell command). In a few cases, things were hung up so badly that we had to unmount the filesystem from the client, and restart the nfs server process to get it functional again. Samba on Fedora has been much more reliable. Although we've had to take some of our java and perl programs that read across samba mounts and put their open()'s in retry loop. (Periodocally, attempt #1 produces an IO Error, but attempt #2 is okay). This is Fedora <= 3. I don't know if things have improved with 4 & 5. Steve From douglas_alan at harvard.edu Thu Jun 15 22:08:00 2006 From: douglas_alan at harvard.edu (Douglas Alan) Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 22:08:00 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: Your message of Thu, 15 Jun 2006 10:40:30 -0400. <20060615144043.A3D25FEADE@spunkymail-a1.dreamhost.com> Message-ID: <200606160208.k5G280C6014163@space.mit.edu> Eddy Harvey wrote: > Also, I spent a fair amount of time measuring file i/o over nfs, and > generally found it 1/8 to 1/10 as fast as block-level network access. Did you try turning off synchronous writes? Or using a server with a battery-backed up write cache? Synchronous writes to disk are sure to make NFS writing slow. For your performance comparisons to SAN block-level access, were you using a cluster filesystem? I've never used a cluster filesystem myself, so I have no idea how they perform, but I would imagine (perhaps incorrectly) that since they are trying to basically solve most of the same problems as NFS, that they would suffer similar performance issues. |>oug From spamgrinder at gmail.com Fri Jun 16 13:26:10 2006 From: spamgrinder at gmail.com (Paul Beltrani) Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 13:26:10 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On 6/15/06, David Allan wrote: > Going back to the question of experience, has anybody on the list actually > implemented iSCSI? If so, what OS was the initiator and what did you use > for targets? How easy was it to set up, and how stable was the result? I wll add my recommendation for the EqualLogic product. see: http://www.equallogic.com/ If you're looking for something to start experimenting with check out the UNH iSCSI implementation for Linux: http://sourceforge.net/projects/unh-iscsi/ They have both an initiator and a target. Fairly easy to setup and stable enough for the testing and development I was doing at the time. i.e. I never had it crash/lockup but I wasn't pushing it to the wall. - Paul Beltrani From oneill at oinc.net Fri Jun 16 13:37:06 2006 From: oneill at oinc.net (Brian O'Neill) Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 13:37:06 -0400 Subject: Equallogic LUN limit? (Was: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences?) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4492EC42.9050201@oinc.net> Given so many people seem to be using Equallogic equipment...I'm relaying this for our Windows group. They are implementing an equallogic iSCSI SAN with Windows 2003 hosts (I'm not up on the terminology - these are the client systems - initiators?) with I'm told Equallogic arrays on the back end (targets?). There seems to be a limit to the number of LUNs that can be attached - 14 is fine, but if you try and attach a 15th LUN, Windows BSODs. Has anyone seen this and found a solution? It's driving them nuts and they can't find anything that says there is any sort of limitation. -Brian From douglas_alan at harvard.edu Fri Jun 16 18:45:30 2006 From: douglas_alan at harvard.edu (Douglas Alan) Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 18:45:30 -0400 Subject: Equallogic LUN limit? (Was: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences?) In-Reply-To: Your message of Fri, 16 Jun 2006 13:37:06 -0400. <4492EC42.9050201@oinc.net> Message-ID: <200606162245.k5GMjU4s025198@space.mit.edu> Brian O'Neill wrote: > There seems to be a limit to the number of LUNs that can be attached - > 14 is fine, but if you try and attach a 15th LUN, Windows BSODs. > Has anyone seen this and found a solution? It's driving them nuts and > they can't find anything that says there is any sort of limitation. When Bill Gates said that 640k ought to be enough for anybody, it's a lesser known fact that he also said that no one should need more than 14 LUNs. |>oug From douglas_alan at harvard.edu Fri Jun 16 19:17:30 2006 From: douglas_alan at harvard.edu (Douglas Alan) Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 19:17:30 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences? In-Reply-To: Your message of Thu, 15 Jun 2006 10:40:30 -0400. <20060615144043.A3D25FEADE@spunkymail-a1.dreamhost.com> Message-ID: <200606162317.k5GNHUR7026326@space.mit.edu> Regarding the SAN vs NAS performace debate, NetApp just announced new NFS servers that they claim can present 6 petabytes of data as one huge filesystem and do so at HPC cluster speeds: http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2006/061206-netapp-targets-storage-for-high-performance.html?code=nllinuxandopenso37352 Of course this still doesn't address the utter lack of security in NFS. Unless they implement NFSv4 sometime soon. |>oug From dean at av8.com Sun Jun 18 22:55:03 2006 From: dean at av8.com (Dean Anderson) Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 22:55:03 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Equallogic LUN limit? (Was: [BBLISA] iSCSI - opinions / experiences?) In-Reply-To: <200606162245.k5GMjU4s025198@space.mit.edu> Message-ID: On Fri, 16 Jun 2006, Douglas Alan wrote: > Brian O'Neill wrote: > > > There seems to be a limit to the number of LUNs that can be attached - > > 14 is fine, but if you try and attach a 15th LUN, Windows BSODs. > > > Has anyone seen this and found a solution? It's driving them nuts and > > they can't find anything that says there is any sort of limitation. > > When Bill Gates said that 640k ought to be enough for anybody, Actually, that 640K problem is the fault of IBM, which thought they were building an Xbox/home game machine, that would expire as fad in a few years. > it's a lesser known fact that he also said that no one should need more than > 14 LUNs. What kind of crazy, utterly insane person would ever have more than 14 LUNS on an Xbox? 4 is probably 2 more than necessary. (ide) ;-) ;-0 doh! --Dean -- Av8 Internet Prepared to pay a premium for better service? www.av8.net faster, more reliable, better service 617 344 9000 From lgj at usenix.org Mon Jun 19 12:35:29 2006 From: lgj at usenix.org (Lionel Garth Jones) Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 09:35:29 -0700 Subject: [BBLISA] SRUTI '06 Workshop Registration Now Open to Public Message-ID: <4496D251.2090506@usenix.org> ---------------------------------- 2nd Workshop on Steps to Reducing Unwanted Traffic on the Internet (SRUTI '06) July 6?7, 2006 San Jose, CA, USA Sponsored by USENIX http://www.usenix.org/sruti06/proga ---------------------------------- Join us for the second SRUTI workshop, to be held in San Jose on Friday, July 7. The 2nd Workshop on Steps to Reducing Unwanted Traffic on the Internet (SRUTI '06) brings together networking and systems researchers and practitioners to explore new and promising directions in the reduction of unwanted traffic in its many forms. http://www.usenix.org/sruti06/proga The program includes a keynote talk by Rob Thomas of Team Cymru about the underground Internet economy. Plus the latest research on: * denial-of-service attacks * spam * botnets SRUTI is a highly interactive workshop, with substantial time devoted to questions and answers. We look forward to seeing you in San Jose. Steven M. Bellovin, Columbia University SRUTI '06 Program Chair ---------------------------------- 2nd Workshop on Steps to Reducing Unwanted Traffic on the Internet (SRUTI '06) July 6?7, 2006 San Jose, CA, USA Sponsored by USENIX http://www.usenix.org/sruti06/proga From dave at dpallan.com Thu Jun 22 11:56:01 2006 From: dave at dpallan.com (David Allan) Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 11:56:01 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] Feedback requested: possible July BBLISA talk Message-ID: I'd like to get everybody's feedback on a potential talk for the July 12 meeting. Garrett Rooney, author of Practical Subversion and member of the Apache Software Foundation, is willing to give a talk on writing portable C code with the Apache Portable Runtime. Personally, I think this would be a very interesting topic because I write a lot of C code these days, but I also recognize that it's very different from our usual subjects. What does everybody think? HERE'S WHAT I REALLY NEED FROM YOU: The datapoint I'm most interested in is how many people would be interested enough to show up if I schedule this talk, so if you or someone you know has at least a reasonable chance of showing up, would you drop me an email today or tomorrow? Dave From feenberg at nber.org Thu Jun 22 12:09:26 2006 From: feenberg at nber.org (Daniel Feenberg) Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 12:09:26 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] Feedback requested: possible July BBLISA talk In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I will come. If you do hold this meeting, you might ask that each member of bblisa post a notice at his/her place of work where the actual c programmers might see it. I will make a simple poster if no one with talent/training is available. Dan Feenberg On Thu, 22 Jun 2006, David Allan wrote: > I'd like to get everybody's feedback on a potential talk for the July 12 > meeting. > > Garrett Rooney, author of Practical Subversion and member of the Apache > Software Foundation, is willing to give a talk on writing portable C code > with the Apache Portable Runtime. Personally, I think this would be a > very interesting topic because I write a lot of C code these days, but I > also recognize that it's very different from our usual subjects. What > does everybody think? > > HERE'S WHAT I REALLY NEED FROM YOU: The datapoint I'm most interested in > is how many people would be interested enough to show up if I schedule > this talk, so if you or someone you know has at least a reasonable chance > of showing up, would you drop me an email today or tomorrow? > > Dave > > _______________________________________________ > bblisa mailing list > bblisa at bblisa.org > http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa > From scott at MIT.EDU Thu Jun 22 18:46:52 2006 From: scott at MIT.EDU (Scott R Ehrlich) Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:46:52 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] rfb (vnc) playback? Message-ID: <20060622184652.qfrh8ue1mog8wkg4@webmail.mit.edu> I have an rfb recorded file via a VNC client that I wish to play back. What are my options? A lot of google (groups.google and www.google) searching hasn't yielded much help. I have a Mac G3 running Tiger and a Win XP box. I could put together a Linux box if that helps the cause. Thanks. Scott From twp at rnktel.com Wed Jun 28 10:08:51 2006 From: twp at rnktel.com (Tim Pierce) Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 10:08:51 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] 3ware RAID controllers & 1U servers Message-ID: <20060628140851.GE25429@pobox.rnktel.com> Hi all - I am bringing up some new 1U servers, running FreeBSD 6.1, that have 3Ware 9550SX RAID controllers. These controllers have battery backup mounted on the card. I'm relatively new to system administration on this scale and have a couple of questions about whether my experience here is typical for 1U machines with cards like these: 1. Yesterday we got syslog warnings that the battery temperature was too high. The 3ware cards mount to the mainboard by means of a daughtercard, and the construction of the cards means that the Battery Backup Unit is mounted on the underside of the 3ware card. That puts the battery between the controller card and the motherboard. The 3ware manual recommends against installing a PCI card next to the battery because it restricts airflow. However, I can't figure out any way to install this controller in a 1U box without sandwiching the battery between the controller and the mainboard. Has anyone had experience with 3ware controllers with battery backup in 1U boxes? Is this fundamentally an unwise idea or is it worrying about nothing? 2. Yesterday before leaving work I ran a battery capacity test (by running tw_cli and entering "/c0/u0 bbu test"). The test completed without any apparent incident, but immediately afterward we received a couple hundred of these messages in syslog: Jun 28 06:44:50 kernel: twa0: WARNING: (0x04: 0x0045): Battery voltage is low: Jun 28 06:44:50 kernel: twa0: ERROR: (0x04: 0x0047): Battery voltage is too low: followed by a couple hundred of these: Jun 28 06:45:22 kernel: twa0: WARNING: (0x04: 0x0045): Battery voltage is low: Jun 28 06:45:22 kernel: twa0: INFO: (0x04: 0x0044): Battery voltage is normal: The 3ware manual (http://www.3ware.com/support/UserDocs/3ware9590SEUsrGuide.pdf) says that because a battery capacity test involves completely discharging the battery and then completely recharging it, the controller will report a low battery voltage during the course of the test and will return to normal status. So I am guessing that these messages were generated over the 12 hours of the test and were cached somewhere (by syslog? by the controller?) before being written to disk, which is why they all appeared in a big clump at the end. Does that sound right, or should I be concerned about the battery misbehaving? Thanks in advance, --twp From bblisa2 at nedharvey.com Fri Jun 30 10:53:21 2006 From: bblisa2 at nedharvey.com (Eddy Harvey) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 10:53:21 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] Wifi guest access Message-ID: <20060630145338.9EAD320794@spunkymail-a9.dreamhost.com> Does anybody know of any wifi guest-access solutions, like ... When you are a guest in somebody's office, and you connect to their wifi network, you have to enter a password into a webpage before you are allowed to reach the internet. I'm not interested in wep, or wpa, or any of those other encryption standards (they're not very standard, and have poor compatibility from one pc to the next.) I am interested in guest access. I want the wifi network to be unsecured unencrypted wifi network, but the router won't allow traffic to go anywhere until they enter a password into a webpage. I know that sonicwall has guest services on their stuff. That's exactly what I'm looking for, but I would like to compare sonicwall against others who do the same thing. From bblisa2 at nedharvey.com Fri Jun 30 10:54:43 2006 From: bblisa2 at nedharvey.com (Eddy Harvey) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 10:54:43 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] Anyone use netversant? Message-ID: <20060630145459.96F7874679@spunkymail-a17.dreamhost.com> I'm basically looking for a customer review on Netversant -- What did you use them for? What was the scope? Would you recommend them to an IT friend at a different location? Stuff like that. Anyone here have personal experience with Netversant? Thanks... From bblisa2 at nedharvey.com Fri Jun 30 10:58:13 2006 From: bblisa2 at nedharvey.com (Eddy Harvey) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 10:58:13 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] High speed internet in Kendall Sq Message-ID: <20060630145830.1B4EB5BAFE@spunkymail-a7.dreamhost.com> I'm just guessing, since MIT is the center of the New England communications universe, that there's got to be a better way to get high-speed internet at 1 Cambridge Center, instead of ordering a verizon T1. I've got some buying power on this, and I'd like to do better than a T1. Can anyone offer any advice or solution in this case? Thanks... From nfaust at merchantwarehouse.com Fri Jun 30 11:18:18 2006 From: nfaust at merchantwarehouse.com (Nathan Faust) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 11:18:18 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] High speed internet in Kendall Sq Message-ID: <4622D14D213DE342A0478D9030CD8927105A6962@MI8NYCMAIL01.Mi8.com> Eddy, Your building looks like it is serviced by Cogent Communications. They offer 100mb or 1Gb fiber to the office. This will blow the sox off any T1 you have. I had their service when I worked at 1 Main St, Cambridge and found it fast and reliable. The tech draped fiber from the floor wiring closet to my server room. In the server room, you can patch directly into a router or use a fiber to copper converter (which is what I did). The copper Cat5e went into my border router and then firewall. I hope this helps. Since I left that company, I don't have the information for my contact anymore. http://www.cogentco.com/htdocs/dedicated.php - City - Boston, MA To re-verify that your building is on the "on-network" list. List of services. http://www.cogentco.com/htdocs/internet.php?current=1 Dedicated Internet Access Services On Net Services Cogent's On Net services can only be compared to the wide open road. We offer pure bandwidth, unhindered by traffic bottlenecks caused by over-subscription. 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Flat rate or burstable billing available. NO LONG TERM COMMITMENTS: You can stay with us as long as you like, but we don't require multi-year commitments as part of our great prices. Product Types: Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps): Our flagship product. Price competitive with a T1, but 65 times more bandwidth. This service has fundamentally changed the business and productivity levels of our customers. You can afford more bandwidth than you ever thought possible. And with 100 Mbps guaranteed 100 percent of the time, you can run the applications you want when and how you want them. GigE (1,000 Mbps): A favorite among our Enterprise customers and the NetCentric crowd. Our GigE connection provides all of the advantages of Fast Ethernet, just multiplied by 10! Cogent's GigE service gives you all the bandwidth you need. You can take it all at once, or burst until your business grows. Fiber500 (500 kbps): Popular for offices with just a few people, Fiber500 competes with business DSL pricing but far exceeds it in quality and reliability. Why connect over copper when you can have fiber? Cogent is Smart Business Internet Contact us today or Call 1-877-875-4432. ----------------------- Nathan Faust Systems Administrator Merchant Warehouse 55 Court Street, 3rd Floor Boston, MA 02108 Phone: 617.896.5558 http://www.merchantwarehouse.com/ -----Original Message----- From: bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org [mailto:bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org] On Behalf Of Eddy Harvey Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 10:58 AM To: 'Back Bay LISA' Subject: [BBLISA] High speed internet in Kendall Sq I'm just guessing, since MIT is the center of the New England communications universe, that there's got to be a better way to get high-speed internet at 1 Cambridge Center, instead of ordering a verizon T1. I've got some buying power on this, and I'd like to do better than a T1. Can anyone offer any advice or solution in this case? Thanks... _______________________________________________ bblisa mailing list bblisa at bblisa.org http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa From bblisa2 at nedharvey.com Fri Jun 30 12:59:46 2006 From: bblisa2 at nedharvey.com (Eddy Harvey) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 12:59:46 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] Wifi guest access In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20060630170003.C4B93B80D0@spunkymail-a11.dreamhost.com> I don't feel the need for overwhelming security in this case. I plan to place the wifi network outside of the firewall, and then when users need to access internally, they'll use their vpn software. I am ok with one shared guest password, just enough to prevent unintelligent moochers from hogging the bandwidth. We can stick a sign on the wall inside the company, saying "Wireless guest password: icecream" > -----Original Message----- > From: Bob Keyes [mailto:bob at xa.net] > Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 11:47 AM > To: Eddy Harvey > Cc: 'Back Bay LISA' > Subject: Re: [BBLISA] Wifi guest access > > > > On Fri, 30 Jun 2006, Eddy Harvey wrote: > > > Does anybody know of any wifi guest-access solutions, like ... When > > you are a guest in somebody's office, and you connect to their wifi > > network, you have to enter a password into a webpage before you are > > allowed to reach the internet. > > > > I'm not interested in wep, or wpa, or any of those other encryption > > standards (they're not very standard, and have poor > compatibility from > > one pc to the next.) > > > > I am interested in guest access. I want the wifi network to be > > unsecured unencrypted wifi network, but the router won't > allow traffic > > to go anywhere until they enter a password into a webpage. > > Do you mean one password that gives access for anyone, or > individual accounts? How secure does it have to be? > From nicholas.kathmann at kathmannconsulting.com Fri Jun 30 14:01:13 2006 From: nicholas.kathmann at kathmannconsulting.com (nicholas.kathmann at kathmannconsulting.com) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:01:13 -0500 Subject: [BBLISA] Wifi guest access In-Reply-To: <20060630170003.C4B93B80D0@spunkymail-a11.dreamhost.com> References: <20060630170003.C4B93B80D0@spunkymail-a11.dreamhost.com> Message-ID: <20060630130113.zudgkjqzmok88g8w@webmail.kathmannconsulting.com> NoCatSplash and NoCatAuth will probably work for what you need. You can either run it on a physical machine, or on embedded hardware made just for APs (pretty cheap). If you need help getting up a linux AP with NoCat let me know, I have several APs already configured for it. www.nocat.net Thanks, Nicholas Kathmann, CISSP Kathmann Consulting, LLC Quoting Eddy Harvey : > I don't feel the need for overwhelming security in this case. I plan to > place the wifi network outside of the firewall, and then when users need to > access internally, they'll use their vpn software. > > I am ok with one shared guest password, just enough to prevent unintelligent > moochers from hogging the bandwidth. We can stick a sign on the wall inside > the company, saying > "Wireless guest password: icecream" > > > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Bob Keyes [mailto:bob at xa.net] >> Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 11:47 AM >> To: Eddy Harvey >> Cc: 'Back Bay LISA' >> Subject: Re: [BBLISA] Wifi guest access >> >> >> >> On Fri, 30 Jun 2006, Eddy Harvey wrote: >> >> > Does anybody know of any wifi guest-access solutions, like ... When >> > you are a guest in somebody's office, and you connect to their wifi >> > network, you have to enter a password into a webpage before you are >> > allowed to reach the internet. >> >> >> > I'm not interested in wep, or wpa, or any of those other encryption >> > standards (they're not very standard, and have poor >> compatibility from >> > one pc to the next.) >> > >> > I am interested in guest access. I want the wifi network to be >> > unsecured unencrypted wifi network, but the router won't >> allow traffic >> > to go anywhere until they enter a password into a webpage. >> >> Do you mean one password that gives access for anyone, or >> individual accounts? How secure does it have to be? >> > > _______________________________________________ > bblisa mailing list > bblisa at bblisa.org > http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa > ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. From nicholas.kathmann at kathmannconsulting.com Fri Jun 30 14:06:07 2006 From: nicholas.kathmann at kathmannconsulting.com (nicholas.kathmann at kathmannconsulting.com) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:06:07 -0500 Subject: [BBLISA] Suggestions for Datacenter in Boston Area Message-ID: <20060630130607.sxqnm70b8k4kcocc@webmail.kathmannconsulting.com> I am working with a company that wants to have a datacenter somewhere in or around Boston to use for DR purposes. Ideally they would already have servers and a SAN available, even more ideally with VMWare ESX. Space requirements are in the ~2.5 - 3.5TB range. Any suggestions? Thanks, Nicholas Kathmann, CISSP Kathmann Consulting, LLC ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. From bblisa2 at nedharvey.com Fri Jun 30 14:11:03 2006 From: bblisa2 at nedharvey.com (Eddy Harvey) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 14:11:03 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] High speed internet in Kendall Sq In-Reply-To: <4622D14D213DE342A0478D9030CD8927105A6962@MI8NYCMAIL01.Mi8.com> Message-ID: <20060630181120.BCE397BB07@spunkymail-a16.dreamhost.com> > Your building looks like it is serviced by Cogent Communications. > They offer 100mb or 1Gb fiber to the office. > This will blow the sox off any T1 you have. Very cool to know. Incidentally, how did you find that my building is serviced by Cogent? Also, should I expect the price for such a network linearly higher than the price of the T1? From nfaust at merchantwarehouse.com Fri Jun 30 15:07:15 2006 From: nfaust at merchantwarehouse.com (Nathan Faust) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:07:15 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] High speed internet in Kendall Sq Message-ID: <4622D14D213DE342A0478D9030CD892710639FCC@MI8NYCMAIL01.Mi8.com> Eddy, If you go to: http://www.cogentco.com/htdocs/dedicated.php Put in region and city (USA and Boston), your building 1 Cambridge Ctr, Cambridge is listed. As for pricing, I don't know what their commercial rates are, but educational rates (since I was working for subsidiary company of MIT) were a little under $1000 month for the 100mb package. If your looking for speed and an alternate option, I felt they were a good choice. My suggestion is getting in touch with their sales reps for specifics for pricing. 877-875-4432 -- from the webpage. Nathan. ----------------------- Nathan Faust Systems Administrator Merchant Warehouse 55 Court Street, 3rd Floor Boston, MA 02108 Phone: 617.896.5558 http://www.merchantwarehouse.com/ -----Original Message----- From: bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org [mailto:bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org] On Behalf Of Eddy Harvey Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 2:11 PM To: 'Back Bay LISA' Subject: RE: [BBLISA] High speed internet in Kendall Sq > Your building looks like it is serviced by Cogent Communications. > They offer 100mb or 1Gb fiber to the office. > This will blow the sox off any T1 you have. Very cool to know. Incidentally, how did you find that my building is serviced by Cogent? Also, should I expect the price for such a network linearly higher than the price of the T1? _______________________________________________ bblisa mailing list bblisa at bblisa.org http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa From john at stoffel.org Fri Jun 30 16:12:42 2006 From: john at stoffel.org (John Stoffel) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 16:12:42 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] Wifi guest access In-Reply-To: <20060630145338.9EAD320794@spunkymail-a9.dreamhost.com> References: <20060630145338.9EAD320794@spunkymail-a9.dreamhost.com> Message-ID: <17573.34234.840783.980274@stoffel.org> Eddy> Does anybody know of any wifi guest-access solutions, like Eddy> ... When you are a guest in somebody's office, and you connect Eddy> to their wifi network, you have to enter a password into a Eddy> webpage before you are allowed to reach the internet. the m0n0wall router will do this, with a service called 'captive portal'. Goto http://www.m0n0.ch for more details. This can run on a nice low powered WRAP board, or even a Soekris or a PC. You can even use off the shelf APs to do the work. It will authenticate against a RADIUS server if you like as well. John From bob at xa.net Fri Jun 30 11:46:59 2006 From: bob at xa.net (Bob Keyes) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 11:46:59 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [BBLISA] Wifi guest access In-Reply-To: <20060630145338.9EAD320794@spunkymail-a9.dreamhost.com> References: <20060630145338.9EAD320794@spunkymail-a9.dreamhost.com> Message-ID: On Fri, 30 Jun 2006, Eddy Harvey wrote: > Does anybody know of any wifi guest-access solutions, like ... When you are > a guest in somebody's office, and you connect to their wifi network, you > have to enter a password into a webpage before you are allowed to reach the > internet. > I'm not interested in wep, or wpa, or any of those other encryption > standards (they're not very standard, and have poor compatibility from one > pc to the next.) > > I am interested in guest access. I want the wifi network to be unsecured > unencrypted wifi network, but the router won't allow traffic to go anywhere > until they enter a password into a webpage. Do you mean one password that gives access for anyone, or individual accounts? How secure does it have to be? From bblist at rootme.org Fri Jun 30 19:51:29 2006 From: bblist at rootme.org (bblist at rootme.org) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 19:51:29 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] Suggestions for Datacenter in Boston Area In-Reply-To: <20060630130607.sxqnm70b8k4kcocc@webmail.kathmannconsulting.com> References: <20060630130607.sxqnm70b8k4kcocc@webmail.kathmannconsulting.com> Message-ID: <20060630235129.GA2603@hosting.lewmanracing.com> On Fri, Jun 30, 2006 at 01:06:07PM -0500, nicholas.kathmann at kathmannconsulting.com wrote 0.6K bytes in 18 lines about: : I am working with a company that wants to have a datacenter somewhere in or : around Boston to use for DR purposes. Ideally they would already have servers : and a SAN available, even more ideally with VMWare ESX. Space requirements are : in the ~2.5 - 3.5TB range. I'm sure Vericenter, AT&T, or MCI/Verizon Business could handle this. All three are within 128 more or less. -- Andrew email: andrew at lewman.com web: http://www.lewman.com pgp key: 31B0974B jabber: phoboslabs at jabber.org fortune: National security is in your hands - guard it well. From bblisa2 at nedharvey.com Fri Jun 30 22:25:22 2006 From: bblisa2 at nedharvey.com (Eddy Harvey) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 22:25:22 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] Wifi guest access In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20060701022539.D37C65BB03@spunkymail-a7.dreamhost.com> I don't feel the need for overwhelming security in this case. I plan to place the wifi network outside of the firewall, and then when users need to access internally, they'll use their vpn software. I am ok with one shared guest password, just enough to prevent unintelligent moochers from hogging the bandwidth. We can stick a sign on the wall inside the company, saying "Wireless guest password: icecream" > -----Original Message----- > From: bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org > [mailto:bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org] On Behalf Of Bob Keyes > Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 11:47 AM > To: Eddy Harvey > Cc: 'Back Bay LISA' > Subject: Re: [BBLISA] Wifi guest access > > > > On Fri, 30 Jun 2006, Eddy Harvey wrote: > > > Does anybody know of any wifi guest-access solutions, like ... When > > you are a guest in somebody's office, and you connect to their wifi > > network, you have to enter a password into a webpage before you are > > allowed to reach the internet. > > > > I'm not interested in wep, or wpa, or any of those other encryption > > standards (they're not very standard, and have poor > compatibility from > > one pc to the next.) > > > > I am interested in guest access. I want the wifi network to be > > unsecured unencrypted wifi network, but the router won't > allow traffic > > to go anywhere until they enter a password into a webpage. > > Do you mean one password that gives access for anyone, or > individual accounts? How secure does it have to be? > > _______________________________________________ > bblisa mailing list > bblisa at bblisa.org > http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa > From bblisa2 at nedharvey.com Fri Jun 30 23:40:12 2006 From: bblisa2 at nedharvey.com (Eddy Harvey) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 23:40:12 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] Another unusual question -- Message-ID: <20060701034029.4DCCA1319DD@spunkymail-a4.dreamhost.com> I helped run network cabling in a small office. But I don't know where to get that grayish-brownish conduit that runs from the cubicles up into the ceiling. Right now the blue network cables are exposed hanging from the ceiling down to one of the cubicle islands. Is there a supply outlet or something, where people buy this kind of stuff? I already tried home depot. From ehansen at worldmachine.com Fri Jun 30 23:54:48 2006 From: ehansen at worldmachine.com (Eric J. Hansen) Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 23:54:48 -0400 Subject: [BBLISA] Another unusual question -- In-Reply-To: <20060701034029.4DCCA1319DD@spunkymail-a4.dreamhost.com> Message-ID: <000e01c69cc2$19a1a410$86850905@ejhlaptop> You might try a modular furniture vendor (i.e. the conduit might be a component to the cubes). Also you could try Graybar: 345 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA 02118 617/406-5000 HTH Eric > -----Original Message----- > From: bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org > [mailto:bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org] On Behalf Of Eddy Harvey > Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 11:40 PM > To: 'Back Bay LISA' > Subject: [BBLISA] Another unusual question -- > > > I helped run network cabling in a small office. But I don't > know where to > get that grayish-brownish conduit that runs from the cubicles > up into the > ceiling. Right now the blue network cables are exposed > hanging from the > ceiling down to one of the cubicle islands. > > Is there a supply outlet or something, where people buy this > kind of stuff? > I already tried home depot. >