I started playing with cvs2svn, a tool for migrating a CVS repository to Subversion. cvs2svn does more than just Subversion. It also handles git and Bazaar. Why am I moving from cvs? I couldn’t get my existing cvsupd server to run on a new server. Attempts to start cvsupd gave: $ sudo /usr/local/etc/rc.d/cvsupd onestart Starting […]
Converting from cvs to svn Read More »
I attended a few of the talks at PGCon 2013 last month. One talk, for which I took several notes and made a few choice tweets. The main one I’m following up on is using the -Fc option on pg_dump. It was during Magnus Haganders’ talk on PostgreSQL Backup Strategies that I posted that tweet.
Using compression with PostgreSQL’s pg_dump Read More »
I’ve been moving services from one server to another. Manually. My Bacula server is now running in a FreeBSD jail. I just got ready to copy backups from disk to tape. But one aspect was failing: updating my statistics. After each tape job, I collect statistics on that tape, with respect to tape errors. That
Bacula – AfterJob: Host key verification failed Read More »
I’ve been moving some services around lately. A server is dying and I need to move stuff off it. Today I managed to move Bacula and Nagios onto a new server. After a short bit of struggle, I had just one service check that was failing: check_ping. Here’s the example: $ /usr/local/libexec/nagios/check_ping -H bast.example.org -w
nagios – check_ping CRITICAL – You need more args!!! Could not open pipe: Read More »
ezjail is my tool of choice for managing jails. I’ve been using it since 2008. Today, I want to do something which ezjail won’t do for me, but will allow me to do. I created a bunch of jails for a Bacula tutorial at BSDCan. Now that I have that server safely home again, I
ezjail – renaming, moving, and renumbering Read More »
I noticed this in my logs today: May 22 14:04:39 bast smartd[1577]: Device: /dev/ad0, Failed SMART usage Attribute: 9 Power_On_Hours. Oh. Really? I looked at the output of smartctl and found: This HDD is part of a gmirror: $ gmirror status Name Status Components mirror/gm0 COMPLETE ad0 ad2 How’s ad2 doing? That seems OK. Regardless
smartctl: FAILING_NOW Read More »
I have a Planex MZK-RP150N. Sometimes (always), I forget how to change the SSID it connects to. This documents it so I can do this faster next time. Wireless LAN Basic Settings Site Survey select the SSID click on Connect Enter the password OK Apply (saves settings) Apply (again; this time it restarts the unit)
Setting up the Planex MZK-RP150N to act as a wireless ethernet adaptor Read More »
Sometimes, you don’t want just anyone talking to your database. In fact, sometimes, you don’t want anyone accessing your database except very specific applications. In this case, I am setting up about 20 databases, each one dedicated to a specific use, and to be accessed only from one IP address each. In this post, I’ll
Restricting IP addresses to specific databases Read More »
One of the challenges of providing hands-on demonstrations is giving everyone their own sandbox to play in. I don’t want people to spend time on installing software. I want people to learn about the software in question, specifically Bacula. With this in mind, I’ve been building up a solution based on FreeBSD 9.1, ZFS, and
The Bacula Tutorial jail server Read More »
I’m about to start setting up a ZFS-only box using FreeBSD 8.2. There will be no UFS volumes in this system. Every previous server I have set up has always booted from a gmirror’d UFS system first, then mounted a ZFS array. This time, everything will be on ZFS. I’ve described this server previously when
Creating a ZFS-only box – the first look Read More »