2011 – Dan Langille's Other Diary

Pentabarf fix

1 Comment / Pentabarf, PostgreSQL / By Dan Langille / December 30, 2011

After a very long effort, this is the solution: CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION conflict.conflict_statistics(conference_id integer, OUT conflict_level text, OUT conflicts integer) RETURNS SETOF record LANGUAGE plpgsql AS $function$ #variable_conflict use_variable DECLARE conflict TEXT; conflict_rows INTEGER; BEGIN FOR conflict_level IN SELECT conflict_level.conflict_level FROM conflict.conflict_level WHERE conflict_level.conflict_level ‘silent’ ORDER BY rank LOOP conflicts = 0; FOR conflict […]

Pentabarf fix Read More »

Such devious spam

Leave a Comment / Open Source / By Dan Langille / October 6, 2011

Today I received this rather devious spam. Invoke education, children, libraries, and hope that someone will link to their site. I’m not sure *why* they want this particular site promoted. There’s not much useful information there. No attempt to sell anything. I’m confused. Perhaps this was legit. But then, if you search for certain phrases

Such devious spam Read More »

When is a cleaning tape needed?

1 Comment / Backups / By Dan Langille / June 20, 2011

As part of my magical Bacula website, I wanted to know when my tape drive required a cleaning tape. It appears that smartctl will reveal this information: [dan@kraken:/usr/home/dan] $ sudo /usr/local/sbin/in/smartctl -d scsi -x /dev/nsa0 Password: smartctl 5.39.1 2010-01-28 r3054 [FreeBSD 8.2-STABLE amd64] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net Device: DEC TZ89

When is a cleaning tape needed? Read More »

ZFS details – just in case

Leave a Comment / FreeBSD, Open Source, ZFS / By Dan Langille / May 31, 2011

I use a ZFS array for backups. The data is first copied to this array, and later copied to tape. This post contains some information which might be useful should I need to replace one of the drives in the array. We have 10 HDD in this system. Two are used in a gmirror for

ZFS details – just in case Read More »

Bacula – Removing labels, then labeling tapes

Leave a Comment / Bacula / By Dan Langille / May 27, 2011

I have been using Bacula since 2004. I started off on DDS tapes, then moved to DLT. Now I’m backing up to a ZFS array and the copying to tape. About a year ago, I obtained about 200 DLT tapes from a friend. They were no longer used at his place of work. He used

Bacula – Removing labels, then labeling tapes Read More »

PGCon 2011 begins

Leave a Comment / Conferences, Open Source, PGCon, PostgreSQL / By Dan Langille / May 15, 2011 / PostgreSQL

PGCon 2011 has started. The formal schedule says Tuesday, but people have already started to arrive in Ottawa and many more start their journeys today. Late last week, there was another flurry of registrations coming in. I saw some today. I expect another peak on Monday as last minute decisions are made. There have been

PGCon 2011 begins Read More »

Bacula run-after scripts

Leave a Comment / Bacula / By Dan Langille / May 15, 2011

Bacula is a backup and restore solution which I’ve been using and contributing to since 2004. Recently, I started backing up to disk and then copying to tape later. This approach, combined with a scratch pool, has proven to be very low maintenance, from a sysadmin point of view. I think all sysadmin will agree:

Bacula run-after scripts Read More »

PGCon – we’re ready. Are you?

4 Comments / Conferences, PGCon, PostgreSQL / By Dan Langille / May 6, 2011 / PostgreSQL

I’ve been in Ottawa for a week now, preparing for both BSDCan 2011 and for PGCon 2011. Pretty much everything is done. The t-shirts are ordered. The lanyards, tote bags, and Google goodies are ready to go. The hard stuff is done. What’s left is mostly logistics, coordination, timing, and organization. And for you to

PGCon – we’re ready. Are you? Read More »

PGCon 2011 is just two weeks away

Leave a Comment / Conferences, PGCon, PostgreSQL / By Dan Langille / May 2, 2011 / PostgreSQL

PGCon is just two weeks away. Based on previous years, half of you register between today and the conference. I don’t know why… it just happens that way. Yes, it means our attendance will double in the next two weeks. PGCon 2011 will be on 19-20 May 2011 at University of Ottawa, with two days

PGCon 2011 is just two weeks away Read More »

PGCon 2011 update

Leave a Comment / Conferences, Open Source, PGCon, PostgreSQL / By Dan Langille / April 19, 2011 / PostgreSQL

PGCon is an annual conference for users and developers of PostgreSQL, a leading relational database, which just happens to be open source. PGCon is the place to meet, discuss, build relationships, learn valuable insights, and generally chat about the work you are doing with PostgreSQL. If you want to learn why so many people are

PGCon 2011 update Read More »