Projects

As many of you know i run Solaris 10 x86 on my fileserver, so i can use ZFS and RAIDZ. I recently ran out of storage space so off i went and bought three new 1Tb Samsung Spinpoint F1′s to add to the array.

I figured it would be as simple as plugged the disks in, then running the command

zpool add -f <poolname> raidz <newdisk1> <newdisk2> <newdisk3>

But alas no, the disks were not detected! Normally running ‘format’ at the command will list all the disks attached to the system but this time it did not. However, running iostat -En did, but they had mangled names – sd4, sd5 and sd6 instead of doing that the -n parameter is supposed to and show up the actual system disk name.

After some digging and researching you have to run the command ‘disks’ in order for the disks to be usable. Once i’d run this – which has no user output, running format displayed all the disks. Then it was a matter of running the zpool command above and hey presto, my usable storage space as up to 3.12Tb!

In summary:

-bash-3.00# disks

-bash-3.00# format
Searching for disks...done

AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
 0. c0d0 <DEFAULT cyl 9726 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
 /pci@0,0/pci-ide@2,5/ide@0/cmdk@0,0
 1. c2t0d0 <ATA-SAMSUNG HD753LJ-1107-698.64GB>
 /pci@0,0/pci11ab,11ab@d/disk@0,0
 2. c2t1d0 <ATA-SAMSUNG HD103UJ-1113-931.51GB>
 /pci@0,0/pci11ab,11ab@d/disk@1,0
 3. c2t2d0 <ATA-SAMSUNG HD753LJ-1107-698.64GB>
 /pci@0,0/pci11ab,11ab@d/disk@2,0
 4. c2t3d0 <ATA-SAMSUNG HD103UJ-1118-931.51GB>
 /pci@0,0/pci11ab,11ab@d/disk@3,0
 5. c2t4d0 <ATA-SAMSUNG HD753LJ-1107-698.64GB>
 /pci@0,0/pci11ab,11ab@d/disk@4,0
 6. c2t5d0 <ATA-SAMSUNG HD103UJ-1118-931.51GB>
 /pci@0,0/pci11ab,11ab@d/disk@5,0
Specify disk (enter its number): ^C

-bash-3.00# zpool add -f MAIN raidz c2t1d0 c2t3d0 c2t5d0
-bash-3.00# zpool list
NAME                    SIZE    USED   AVAIL    CAP  HEALTH     ALTROOT
MAIN                   4.77T   1.98T   2.79T    41%  ONLINE     -

And you’re done!

So i am!

Back indeed. Once again i have returned to the Wirral and Be* Unlimited internet. I’m more or less settled into my new home – although i have a few DIY jobs that i need to be getting along with, i just hadn’t had my first pay cheque until last week so i couldn’t afford to spend, well, anything. Now that’s sorted i’ve spent a small fortune in Tesco and sorted out all my bills as well as the internet.

Internet wise it’s another Be* Pro package – this time achieving about 13Mb instead of 18, but it’s still pretty good, the support is still good too. How long this remains a good service for remains to be seen – it’s become far more popular than it used to be. They’ve also cheapened the modems – they look better, but lack the VOIP FXO/FXS support the old ones had. Luckily it doesn’t matter all that much for me as i use a Linksys AM200 which i just plugged in, configured my router (Linux/IPTables) and it just worked. No hassle. No fuss.

Now i have internet again, i need to get back into the habit of reading the forums, blogging and other general technical wizardry. I’ve been busy sorting out my rack and networking – see my Flickr page for pics. It all looks very professional with proper sockets in every room and no trailing wires.

I also bought a Cisco 3524XL-PWR POE Switch, unfortunatly it decided to break, i’m currently trying the latest IOS on it, in a last desperate attempt to save the £60 i shelled out on it. POE is really rather nice and works with the Cisco phones very well, just not any other kind of phones as this is a pre-802.1af Implementation by Cisco.

Anyway, that’s it for now, i’ve got all sorts to write about – MediaBrowser, Cisco Switch, Asterisk/Trixbox, Work and more. But i’ll get to all that later on, in more detail.