• Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mass Deployment,  Ubuntu,  Unix,  Xsan

    Disable and Remove .DS_Store Files

    In a number of environments, where SMB, AFP and other file sharing protocols are used with Mac OS X, Windows and Linux clients, there are a number of hidden files that Mac OS X leaves behind. For anyone who has managed an environment like this you’re likely to notice the .DS_Store files and potentially even have tried taking measures to get rid of them. However, try as you might they’re likely to have come back repeatedly. But you don’t have to live with them. You can tell your Windows clients not to show hidden files.  From Windows XP, open an explorer.exe window (Windows Explorer, also accessible by browsing any folder…

  • Xsan

    Uninstalling and Reinstalling Xsan

    There are a number of Xsan troubleshooting scenarios that seem to call for uninstalling and reinstalling the Xsan software to resolve client configuration issues. If you are looking at a configuration issue, such as a single client not mounting a volume then you don’t actually have to uninstall the software, reinstall the software, run Software Update and then reboot and attempt to readd the client to Xsan Admin on the MDC and then attempt to mount. That’s a lot of crap when one step will reset a client back to how it was before it ever joined its first Xsan. Just delete the contents of the /Library/Filesystems/Xsan/config folder (but not…

  • Final Cut Server,  Xsan

    Customizing the Final Cut Server Webstart on Xsanity

    Xsanity just posted an article I did on customizing the Final Cut Server Webstart. This is the page that you go to in order to install the Final Cut Server client software from your server. The article starts with building links and customizing the URL and then touches on a little customization of the pages towards the end. Hope you find it helpful.

  • Final Cut Server,  Xsan

    Accessing the Final Cut Server Database Remotely

    Before I get started: By remote, I mean from another machine – I sincerely hope that you will not be opening your Final Cut Server database to the WAN.  So again, please be careful with this as there is no security around the database and you will be limiting access via IP for now. This article lays the beginning framework for a series (no promises on when the next in the series will be posted) on clustering the stored role of Final Cut Server, which provides the database (back end functionality) of Final Cut Server. All of this is done using built in tools for Final Cut Server. Don’t do…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Xsan

    Quick Tips on ZFS

    ZFS is coming to the Mac, according to the Apple website.  But it isn’t here yet.  In the meantime, you can learn a lot about some upcoming technology without ever downloading a single trial copy of Mac OS X by using the hobbled ZFS implementation on Leopard or a full version hosted on OpenSolaris, or another OS that has full ZFS support.  ZFS on most *nix systems follows the same command line structures for the most part.  For example, running the following command will show you each of your ZFS mount points and if you can’t actually write to any volumes (as is the case with 10.5.x), the OS will…

  • Mac OS X,  Xsan

    Promise Vtrak Battery Reconditioning

    We’ve been noticing since the last Promise firmware that the battery is scheduled to do a reconditioning every other month, on the 1st of that month. May 1st triggered a number of recondition events, starting at 2am and seeming to take about 12 to 24 hours to drain and recharge. When the RAID drains the battery it sets off an alarm, which can be, er, alarming if you’re in the data center. Also, when the hold-time dips the write policy automatically sets to write-thru, which can be changed to Disable Adaptive Write Cache to retain the write-back setting even when the battery drains. No matter the settings that are used,…

  • Unix,  Xsan

    Finding Disk Speeds on a NetApp

    On a NetApp you can determine the disk speeds for drives in your Filer using the following command: storage show disk –a This will show all of the disks.  Each disk has a unique identifier within the NetApp, indicated by a numeric sequence typically starting with a 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, etc.  You can obtain detailed information about each disk by showing disk with the unique identifier in the command.  You can also see a listing of disks by volume using the following command (they will appear in the RPM column): vol status -r This will show a variety of statistics, including the disk type, speed, etc.  The vol command…

  • Mac OS X Server,  Network Infrastructure,  Xsan

    Fibre Channel Switches vs. Hubs

    In the FC-AL (Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop) protocol, when devices enter loops, they send out a Loop Initialization Primitive (LIP) request for an address. All other activity on the loop then comes to a halt as each node reestablishes its connection. Since a hub-based fabric is one large arbitrated loop (which can in many cases similarly be built without the actual hub but with less aggregated speed), it must be entirely rebuilt every time any device is rebooted, added to the loop or removed from it. This causes the potential for processing errors, iNode issues/volume errors and even physical disk failures. A “LIP storm” can also cause multiple devices to…

  • Mac OS X,  Xsan

    Graphically Viewing Xsan Utilization

    As I’ve covered, du and df are great tools for isolating disk utilization, both for HFS+ and for Xsan. When dealing with end users though, it sometimes helps to show them information graphically. Another tool I’ve covered (although not comprehensively) is Disk Inventory X. A connection I had never tried to make until recently is using Disk Inventory X to find the “big fish” in terms of volume utilization with Xsan. When you fire up Disk Inventory X it will ask you to select a volume, or you can click on the Select Folder: button to browse to a folder. Disk Inventory X will then catalog the contents and show…

  • Xsan

    Xsan 2: No Limits (kinda')

    Xsan 2 does remove some of the limitations that you encountered with Xsan 1. But not a ton of them.  There are still a few limitations, most of which can easily be worked around. The first is in the number of storage pools that can be in a single volume, which is 512. The second is the number of LUNs that can be in a storage pool, which is 32. This isn’t to say that you can actually put 512 X 32 LUNs (or 16384 LUNs) in a volume because you can’t.  A volume can actually only have 512 LUNs, whether or not you split them into multiple storage pools.…