Comments for thinking sysadmin http://andyleonard.com qstat -u aleonard -s z Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:15:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 Comment on New Years Resolution: Stop shouting at my disk arrays by Bob Plankers http://andyleonard.com/2009/01/01/new-years-resolution-stop-shouting-at-my-disk-arrays/comment-page-1/#comment-183 Bob Plankers Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:58:50 +0000 http://andyleonard.com/?p=188#comment-183 Speaking of talking dirty, wasn't the original pronunciation of SCSI supposed to be "sexy" rather than "scuzzy?" :-) Speaking of talking dirty, wasn’t the original pronunciation of SCSI supposed to be “sexy” rather than “scuzzy?” :-)

]]> Comment on New Years Resolution: Stop shouting at my disk arrays by rbrambley http://andyleonard.com/2009/01/01/new-years-resolution-stop-shouting-at-my-disk-arrays/comment-page-1/#comment-182 rbrambley Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:34:50 +0000 http://andyleonard.com/?p=188#comment-182 I'll be sure to keep my temper around hardware from now on. I wonder what happens if you talk dirty to it .... LOL I’ll be sure to keep my temper around hardware from now on. I wonder what happens if you talk dirty to it …. LOL

]]> Comment on Practical Limits of NetApp Deduplication by Storage Short Take #4 - blog.scottlowe.org - The weblog of an IT pro specializing in virtualization, storage, and servers http://andyleonard.com/2008/10/08/practical-limits-of-netapp-deduplication/comment-page-1/#comment-174 Storage Short Take #4 - blog.scottlowe.org - The weblog of an IT pro specializing in virtualization, storage, and servers Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:01:14 +0000 http://andyleonard.com/?p=85#comment-174 [...] Leonard took up a concern about NetApp deduplication and volume size limits a while back. The basic gist of the concern is that in its current [...] [...] Leonard took up a concern about NetApp deduplication and volume size limits a while back. The basic gist of the concern is that in its current [...]

]]> Comment on Practical Limits of NetApp Deduplication by Storage Short Take #4 | Storage Blogs - Storage Monkeys Blogs http://andyleonard.com/2008/10/08/practical-limits-of-netapp-deduplication/comment-page-1/#comment-173 Storage Short Take #4 | Storage Blogs - Storage Monkeys Blogs Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:05:27 +0000 http://andyleonard.com/?p=85#comment-173 [...] Leonard took up a concern about NetApp deduplication and volume size limits a while back. The basic gist of the concern is that in its current [...] [...] Leonard took up a concern about NetApp deduplication and volume size limits a while back. The basic gist of the concern is that in its current [...]

]]> Comment on My NetApp FAS2020 Makes Me Want To Cry by Mike Grice http://andyleonard.com/2008/02/07/my-netapp-fas2020-makes-me-want-to-cry/comment-page-1/#comment-171 Mike Grice Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:34:08 +0000 http://andyleonard.com/2008/02/07/my-netapp-fas2020-makes-me-want-to-cry/#comment-171 That generally won't work. NetApp restrict the disks you can use in a filer via Disk Qualification (ie only NetApp approved devices) for a couple of reasons, the less cynical of them being they have NetApp firmware on there which contains voodoo, tuning, and things like snaplock compliance implementation. You can try putting in unqualified disks, but the filer will reject the disks either immediately or after 24 hours (i can't remember but it all boils down to /etc/qual_devices which will explode the filer if you change it). Also it will likely invalidate your service contract, yada yada. NetApp support is very closely tied in with your purchase, its one of the things I wish they'd seperate (and as a result get a lot more of the lower end of the market I think) M That generally won’t work. NetApp restrict the disks you can use in a filer via Disk Qualification (ie only NetApp approved devices) for a couple of reasons, the less cynical of them being they have NetApp firmware on there which contains voodoo, tuning, and things like snaplock compliance implementation.

You can try putting in unqualified disks, but the filer will reject the disks either immediately or after 24 hours (i can’t remember but it all boils down to /etc/qual_devices which will explode the filer if you change it).

Also it will likely invalidate your service contract, yada yada. NetApp support is very closely tied in with your purchase, its one of the things I wish they’d seperate (and as a result get a lot more of the lower end of the market I think)

M

]]> Comment on VMware about ESX swap on NFS: It’s okay by thinking sysadmin / ESX Swap on NFS or Not? http://andyleonard.com/2008/11/24/vmware-about-esx-swap-on-nfs-its-okay/comment-page-1/#comment-166 thinking sysadmin / ESX Swap on NFS or Not? Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:38:11 +0000 http://andyleonard.com/?p=178#comment-166 [...] 11/24/2008: Keeping ESX swap on NFS with the VMhome directory is considered the current best practice. Post a comment — Trackback URI RSS 2.0 feed for these comments This entry (permalink) was [...] [...] 11/24/2008: Keeping ESX swap on NFS with the VMhome directory is considered the current best practice. Post a comment — Trackback URI RSS 2.0 feed for these comments This entry (permalink) was [...]

]]> Comment on The Zenith of VMware by Andy http://andyleonard.com/2007/06/17/an-ode-to-containers/comment-page-1/#comment-165 Andy Sun, 23 Nov 2008 04:41:00 +0000 http://andyleonard.com/2007/06/17/an-ode-to-containers/#comment-165 Hi Steve, First, thanks for the comments! You might be surprised to hear, a year and a half on from writing this post (you know, before ESXi was free ;) ) we've gone for a full-on VI Enterprise deployment. OpenVZ, FreeBSD jails and Solaris containers? Still use 'em, but we needed something that would work across platforms (read: Windows), and VMware still has a step on Xen, Hyper-V (and two on xVM...). The Enterprise features - HA and VMotion - penciled out eventually cost-wise in terms of reducing costs elsewhere (guess I'm eating my words there...). I admit, I still have concerns about VMware - whether Microsoft won't win in the end, and that density isn't better, but also that it's still a relatively young field compared to other IT fields: there aren't any 15-year veteran ESX admins out there, and there aren't the seasoned best practices that other admin disciplines have. (I think VI:OPS could really help in this area, so: Thank you.) As far as being an Open Source zealot? Well *I* don't think I am, but my boss might agree with you (Hi, Tom!)... but, hey, maybe that's part of why he hired me. Hi Steve,

First, thanks for the comments!

You might be surprised to hear, a year and a half on from writing this post (you know, before ESXi was free ;) ) we’ve gone for a full-on VI Enterprise deployment. OpenVZ, FreeBSD jails and Solaris containers? Still use ‘em, but we needed something that would work across platforms (read: Windows), and VMware still has a step on Xen, Hyper-V (and two on xVM…). The Enterprise features - HA and VMotion - penciled out eventually cost-wise in terms of reducing costs elsewhere (guess I’m eating my words there…).

I admit, I still have concerns about VMware - whether Microsoft won’t win in the end, and that density isn’t better, but also that it’s still a relatively young field compared to other IT fields: there aren’t any 15-year veteran ESX admins out there, and there aren’t the seasoned best practices that other admin disciplines have. (I think VI:OPS could really help in this area, so: Thank you.)

As far as being an Open Source zealot? Well *I* don’t think I am, but my boss might agree with you (Hi, Tom!)… but, hey, maybe that’s part of why he hired me.

]]> Comment on ESX Swap on NFS or Not? by Steve Chambers http://andyleonard.com/2008/10/17/esx-swap-on-nfs-or-not/comment-page-1/#comment-164 Steve Chambers Sun, 23 Nov 2008 02:01:15 +0000 http://andyleonard.com/?p=95#comment-164 Hey Andy, your reference to what I said in http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1157 - that actually came from a gentleman called Paul Manning who is our storage expert. I will seek clarification from him. Hey Andy, your reference to what I said in http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1157 - that actually came from a gentleman called Paul Manning who is our storage expert. I will seek clarification from him.

]]> Comment on The Zenith of VMware by Steve Chambers http://andyleonard.com/2007/06/17/an-ode-to-containers/comment-page-1/#comment-163 Steve Chambers Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:53:02 +0000 http://andyleonard.com/2007/06/17/an-ode-to-containers/#comment-163 ...just adding to the last post (sorry, I should do this in one go!) - whilst ESXi is free, Foundation is listed at $1595 - for that you get the hypervisor, consolidated backup, virtual center agent, update manager, VMFS clustered file system, vSMP multi-process VM... and all the other benefits of VMware vs. competitors... I don't think it makes sense to just compare products side by side, feature by feature, because as you have eloquently said - your environment is pretty unique to you and so VMware might not make sense (but it might)... :-) …just adding to the last post (sorry, I should do this in one go!) - whilst ESXi is free, Foundation is listed at $1595 - for that you get the hypervisor, consolidated backup, virtual center agent, update manager, VMFS clustered file system, vSMP multi-process VM… and all the other benefits of VMware vs. competitors…

I don’t think it makes sense to just compare products side by side, feature by feature, because as you have eloquently said - your environment is pretty unique to you and so VMware might not make sense (but it might)…
:-)

]]> Comment on The Zenith of VMware by Steve Chambers http://andyleonard.com/2007/06/17/an-ode-to-containers/comment-page-1/#comment-162 Steve Chambers Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:38:06 +0000 http://andyleonard.com/2007/06/17/an-ode-to-containers/#comment-162 Hey Andy, nice to see you join the new VIOPS community... even though you sound like a hardened sysadmin and possible Open Source zealout (?) - haven't you seen ESXi which is free? You can also buy ESX on a graded scale going upwards. Check out ESXi: http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/ There is also a pricing whitepaper at http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vi_pricing3.pdf If I can help you further in anyway, just let me know. Cheers Steve Hey Andy, nice to see you join the new VIOPS community… even though you sound like a hardened sysadmin and possible Open Source zealout (?) - haven’t you seen ESXi which is free? You can also buy ESX on a graded scale going upwards.

Check out ESXi: http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/

There is also a pricing whitepaper at http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vi_pricing3.pdf

If I can help you further in anyway, just let me know.

Cheers
Steve

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