The following will tell you whether Xsan has been installed on a client system. Here we’re checking if the file exists using the [] for a file (I always quote paths that aren’t variables when doing this type of thing) and and then echoing a response that it does. [ -f "/Library/Preferences/Xsan/uuid" ] && echo "Xsan is installed" If the file exists, we could also perform some other tasks or use an else and make changes, like copying an authorization and fsnameservers file into the directory when installing StorNext clients on OS X. The way I would likely do this, if I were saying if the uuid file doesn’t exist,…
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5 Ways To Manage Background Jobs In A Shell Environment
When running commands that are going to take awhile, I frequently start them with the nohup command, disown the command from the current session or queue them for later execution. The reason is that if I’m running them from a Terminal or SSH session and the session is broken I want to make sure they complete. To schedule a job for later execution, use at. For example, if I want to perform a simple command, I can schedule it in a minute by running it as an echo piped to at: echo "goldengirlsfix.sh" | at now + 2 minutes Note, if using 1 minute, you’ll need that to be singular.…
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Migrate Metadata From Xsan to StorNext
I’ve written about moving Metadata LUNs from one LUN to another with Xsan in the past, available at https://krypted.com//unix/replacing-xsan-metadata-luns. There, we were using sndiskmove, which works when moving Metadata LUNs from Xsan to Quantum appliances as well (e.g. a 440 or 662). However, the drives that Quantum provides in these appliances are much smaller (and much faster) than those in a traditional Xsan environment. Therefore, the sndiskmove approach would fail as you’re moving from a larger to a smaller LUN. Because the amount of space that you’re using on a Metadata LUN, you should be able to gracefully move metadata to a much smaller LUN. To do so, Quantum provides…
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Xsan Command Line Options In Mavericks Server
Before I get started, I just want to point out that the old commands all still work. There are some newer things, but nothing earth shattering. Let’s start out with what’s actually available in the Server Admin CLI: serveradmin. The serveradmin command, followed by settings, followed by san shows a few pieces of information: bash-3.2# serveradmin settings san san:computers = _empty_array san:primaryController = "95C99FB1-80F2-5016-B9C3-BE3916E6E5DC" san:ownerEmail = "krypted@me.com" san:sanName = "krypted" san:desiredSearchPolicy:_array_index:0 = "" san:serialNumbers = _empty_array san:dsType = 0 san:ownerName = "Charles Edge" san:managePrivateNetwork = yes san:metadataNetwork = "10.0.0.0/24" san:numberOfFibreChannelPorts = 2 san:role = "CONTROLLER" Here, we see the metadata network, the GUID of the primary (active) MDC, the name…
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Configure Xsan in Mavericks Server
The first thing you should do when installing Xsan in any OS, much less Mavericks, is make sure your hostnames are awesome. Forward, reverse, views if you use them, etc. You have to have a dedicated metadata Ethernet network, so you should have a zone entry for both your primary and metadata network interfaces. You should also have fibre channel and storage configured and ready to use. Given that a lot of storage arrays take a long time to configure these days, I like to actually start that and then do my server setups while my LUNs/arrays are baking. Setting Up Xsan Once you have DNS entries, storage and fibre…
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New Startup Profiles In OS X 10.9 Mavericks Profiles Command
I wrote an article on using the profiles command awhile back, available at https://krypted.com//mac-security/profile-manager-and-profiles/. There is a nifty new feature in the profiles command in Mavericks, where you can configure profiles to install at the next boot, rather than immediately. Use the -s to define a startup profile and take note that if it fails, the profile will attempt to install at each subsequent reboot until installed. To use the command, simply add a -s then the -F for the profile and the -f to automatically confirm, as follows (and I like to throw in a -v usually for good measure): profiles -s -F /Profiles/SuperAwesome.mobileconfig -f -v And that’s it. Nice…
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AFP548.com Podcast, Episode 2
I’m honored that the good people at AFP548 decided to have me in the second episode of their podcast. Thanks to all the people (@sacrilicious @bruienne etc) involved and hopefully you enjoy it! It’s available at http://www.afp548.com/2013/10/16/episode-two-eco-sphere or:
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Xsan Guide
I’ve published a guide to managing Xsan at https://krypted.com//guides/xsan. This guide is a collection of older articles and a couple that I haven’t yet published (for obvious reasons). I hope you find it helpful, once complete (it’s almost there, just waiting for a little while).
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Using the xsanadmin Command
There are some commands where you just have to wonder why. Sure, I see what this command does, but why bother? Well, I’m not going to say that xsanadmin is one of those commands, but I’m not going to say that it isn’t. At first glance, you might think that the list, stop, start and other verbs look promising. Like maybe you can actually administer a volume from a much simpler to use command line interface. However, if you want a quick and dirty of what xsanadmin does, look no further than just running the command without any verbs or operators: xsanadmin The result is help information from the serveradmin…
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Promise X30 Ethernet Setup Woes
The Promise Vtrak requires 3 IP addresses. There are two controllers and each has an IP for maintenance. There’s also a 3rd, virtual IP. When you initially setup the devices, they pull a DHCP or APIPA address and then you typically use Bonjour to log into the WebPAM for the first time. Once in, you configure the addresses and then viola, you’re good. However, what if something happens? What if you configure the virtual IPs and something happens before you get the maintenance IPs configured. Or what if you never set the maintenance IPs in the first place and always relied on the virtual? Well, the Vtrak used to come…