• Xsan

    LUNscaping

    In Xsan you need to plan your LUNs carefully.  I’ve decided to call this process LUNscaping.  Join me with this and feel free to take credit for the term…  😉

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Unix

    Creating Directories Using -p with mkdir

    I was helping someone out the other day and was VNC’d into their server watching them work.  I asked them to make a directory about 5 levels deep into the file system.  They proceeded to make each directory one by one using mkdir.  When they were done, I actually removed them all so I could spend a second to show them how to do so much quicker…  Let’s say the directory you need created is /tmp/usr/tmp.  Rather than using 3 mkdir commands and cd’ing in between it would actually behoove one to go about using the -p option with the mkdir command.  To make this directory structure you could actually…

  • Mac OS X

    Mac OS X: Finder Shortcuts

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal When you’re active application is the Finder then check out these shortcuts: Command-N opens a new finder window Command-Shift-N creates a new folder in the active folder of your finder Command-W closes a window Command-Shift-W closes all the windows (if you have more than one open) Command-Shift-Escape Command-E ejects a disk or mounted volume Command-Tab switches to the previous application Command-Shift-Tab switch to the next application Command-Shift-Delete trashes an item Command-Shift-Option-Delete empties the trash without a warning dialog

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Ubuntu,  Unix

    Mac OS X: tail

    I was on the phone with someone earlier today and they didn’t realize that they could dynamically watch new lines come into log files in Mac OS X.  In order to do this you can use the tail command with the -f switch.  So if you want to watch your system.log file and run some processes you think will cause errors you can use the following command: tail -f system.log When you’re done watching the log file use the Control-C keystroke to stop.

  • Mac OS X

    Monitoring for Mac OS X

    There are a variety of Open Source solutions that can be used to monitor Mac OS X.  Lithium is a great solution that is not Open Source, so comes with a cost attached to it, but is far easier to configure and probably one of the better monitoring solutions for the Mac.

  • Mac OS X,  Unix

    Writing Shell Scripts

    There’s usually a few different steps in the learning process for writing shell scripts.  The first is to figure out how to just do simple things, like write hello world to the screen.  The second is to start using a series of commands.  The third seems to be using variables.  The fourth is to start using libraries to reuse your scripts.  The next is to take variables to the next level, variabalizing everything.  Where are you at with this?