Blog
-
Skiferie 2013
Drengene fik en medalje for at køre gennem slalom bakken. På den ene uge blev de virkelig proff kørende.
-
Mama I’m coming home
Times have changed and times are strange
Here I come, but I ain’t the same
Mama, I’m coming home
Times gone by seem to be
You could have been a better friend to me
Mama, I’m coming homeYou took me in and you drove me out
Yeah, you had me hypnotized, Yeah
Lost and found and turned around
By the fire in your eyesYou made me cry, you told me lies
But I can’t stand to say goodbye
Mama, I’m coming home
I could be right, I could be wrong
Hurts so bad, it’s been so long
Mama, I’m coming homeSelfish love yeah we’re both alone
The ride before the fall
But I’m gonna take this heart of stone
I just got to have it allI’ve seen your face a hundred times
Everyday we’ve been apart
I don’t care about the sunshine, yeah
‘Cause Mama, Mama, I’m coming home
I’m coming home(Solo)
You took me in and you drove me out
Yeah, you had me hypnotized
Lost and found and turned around
By the fire in your eyesI’ve seen your face a thousand times
Everyday we’ve been apart
I don’t care about the sunshine, yeah
‘Cause Mama, Mama, I’m coming home
I’m coming home
I’m coming home
I’m coming home -
Windows Server 2012 vs Equallogic
Do you need an guide how to use the VSS/VDS features in Windows Server 2012 when configuring a new volume.
Use this simple guide, and avoid using the JAVA interface of Equallogic when creating new LUNS/volumes.
First of all you need to install the Equallogic HIT/ME toolkit (Host Integration Toolkit/Microsoft Edition), which is downloadable from the Equallogic homepage when you have bought the first array. This little piece of software should be installed on all physical and virtual servers who need access to the SAN.
Second you need to install some additional features from the Server Manager in 2012.
For all the integration to work, install the Enhanced storage, and optional the Data Center Bridging. Then your all set from an installation perspective.
Now you need to start the Snapshot manager, this can be done from CLI, og from the Metro Gui.
There’s 3 parts you need to check.
VSS/VDS access should be same as the CHAP credentials you entered when installing the Equallogic SAN from Remote Setup Wizard.
Smart Copy access should be same credentials as VSS/VDS
Powershell/SMP access should have the grpadmin credentials
All done from the Equallogic part of it. You need to back to the Server Manager in Windows Server 2012 and choose Storage Pools. If you do not see the Equallogic under Storage Pool, you might want to rescan the storage (just like VMware :-)) and it should be shown within a mimute or 2.
Then choose the right storage pool where you want to see volumes and snapshots. They all appear under Virtual Disk part in the lower left hand.
On this screen you see all the preconfigured volumes, and the online snapshots attached available
Now it is finally time to create a new volume, so right-click on TASKS and choose New Virtual Disk
Choose a name for the Volume
Also choose from Thin provisioned volume or a fixed pre-allocated size.
Then check all your selections and go back and correct if anything is wrong.
When done hit Create
Now VDS and Equallogic is working to create your volume.
This is how it is all done, without using the Java interface
Last thing to do is creating the filesystem, and mount the volume as either a folder or a drive letter.
It simply can’t be more simple than this. I do know the Linux-guys out there might correct me, but in my next article I will show the simple steps on an Redhat Enterprise Server.
-
At rejse
Nogle siger at rejse er at leve, dette må jeg give dem så inderlig ret i. Om det er på fødderne, cykel, eller i bil, tog, bus, fly så er rejsen i sig selv en stor fornøjelse.
Det man oplever på en rejse, uanset længden, kan fylde godt op med indtryk og give både ro og kendskab til en masse nye ting.
For det meste foregår mine rejser i min bil, her sætter jeg stor pris på at kunne vælge en anden helt anden vej end den første jeg tænkte på. Man kan ændre ruten undervejs, og få endnu flere fornøjelser.
Tidligere har jeg rejst meget rent professionelt, og set stort set hele europa, her er rejserne foregået i fly og jeg har haft en bil til rådighed de steder jeg har set. Nogle ture har givet større indtryk end andre, blandt andet en tur til Cork i syd-irland hvor vi havde kunder med. Her var turist delen af turen blandt andet et besøg på en bar som lå meget idyllisk ved et lille fiskerleje. Der foregik whisky smagning, hele 21 forskellige whiskyer med tilhørende muslinger der også var tilberedt på lige så mange måder.
Ikke særlig tit tager jeg muligheden for at rejse med tog hvilket er meget befriende i forhold til at skulle sidde i en bil på tværs af fyn. Med 55-60.000 km om året i bilen, er toget en fornøjelse at kunne taqge mod det jyske. Da jeg var i beredskabskorpset i Herning brugte vi også toget til at komme mellem landsdelene, og det var på det tidspunkt hvor man skulle med færge over storebælt.
I toget kan man iagttage næsten alle samfundslag, og befolkningstyper, og man ved aldrig hvilken personalitet eller type der kommer til at sidde på sædet ved siden af.
Det kan være en lille gut som må sidde på knæ for at kunne se spændt ud af vinduet, det kan også være den trætte forretningsmand der efter en lang dag med møder sætter sig ned, godt lugtende af indeklemt armsved, og derefter højlydt begynder at snorke de 2½ time på turen mod København.
Der er også pensionisten som efter et besøg hos sine børn, sætter sig ned og åbner for skuldertasken hvor en bette hund stikker hovedet op af og smiler sødt til resten af selskabet.At rejse er at leve, at rejse er at få nye indtryk som man kan leve videre på.
-
Det er ferietid
Meget snart er det vores tur til at holde ferie, som I kan se på billedet skal vi være ved en meget stor swimmingpool, og middelhavet som nærmeste nabo.
-
Equallogic and IOPS
I do see a lot of questions regarding Equallogic and IOPS, especially after the Hybrid arrays surfaced in to the public. The XVS from the PS6000-series and the new XS from the 4100 and 6100 series are those arrays I get an IOPS request for most often.
But it is not so simpel to state an IOPS number for these arrays, I do know the simple math when adding IOPS performance from all disks. This though, does not take a lot of things into calculation like how much can the mirrored cache on the controllers add in performance, what are the read/write ratio etcetera.
If you talk with some of the Dell partners who are certified in Dell storage, they are able to help with sizing of the Equallogic platform, but also take the above mentioned points into consideration. Dell has an on-line sizing tool, where the partner can create both existing environment (of Equallogic) and show the predicted performance when you buy additional arrays. The same tool certainly also show what a new setup will look like from performance perspective.
Before you do that why not run Dpack analyse ?
Dpack is Dell’s Performance Analysis Collection Kit which runs for 4 to 24 hours as usual, but is also able to log for up to 7 days if needed. Dpack runs in memory, so you don not need to install anything and after collecting is done you simply send in the collected data and get a nice performance report back from your Dell partner.
After reading the report, just tell your Dell Partner to size an Equallogic platform based on the Dpack outcome. Now you’re done and problably get a fine quote with a number of Equallogic arrays. This can be made so simple.
I’m sorry for not detailing the IOPS for the XVS or XS arrays, but at Dell we use a thing called RPS score which is very dependent of the read/write ratio and the arrays choosen.
-
Client Hyper-V
I`m playing around with the new client hyper-v role in Windows 8 Pro ,and it seems like Windows is not just for the mainstreame user. The last couple of days there’s been a lot of writing for and against Hyper-V for the professional users.
From my view Microsoft finally got it right, I do not have anything against the Metro surface of Win8 it, it simply works well, both with a keyboard or a touchscreen, and people instantly knows where the windows key is.
This hurts just a little a bit for an old Linux guy like my self, but the when I realized that Microsoft have made it easy for me to create and manage virtual machines in a simple Windows 8, I was thrilled.
I’m doing a lot of demo stuff for different partners and customers, and often has to reset my environment back to “last known good configuration” when making a new demo ready. So using the builtin snapshots makes it less painful than before. I’ve been using VMware workstation for many years to run my demo environment which consists of both Microsoft and Redhat servers and a virtual Equallogic. This environment is going to be moved to the Microsoft Client Hyper-V with only my Redhat and Linux machines being the outstanding points I need to ensure is working.
Playing around with an Fedora 17, I came across some issues when trying to install the VM tools, the Fedora wouldn’t start but i might be an graphic driver issue.
This being said my demo platform is also being “refurbished” to a Windows 2012 Core installation with Equallogic Hit/ME tools installed and all managed from Server manager in the Windows 8. This is a an add-on for Windows 8 and when running this kind of setup it should make my demos less painfull as I will be able to manage all from my native laptop and from a virtualized server.
