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 I first chose the parts back in January. Now, the push is on to get this system installed […]
Creating a ZFS-only box – the first look Read More »
I woke up to this today. Complicating the matter: this server is destined to be transported tomorrow morning. This is FreeBSD 8.2 I guess the good news is: But wait, is that gpt/disk04-live really /dev/ada5? Yes. Yes it is: After a question from Peter Wemm on Twitter, I added: Full smartctl output follows:
Oh oh, a sector problem Read More »
PGCon 2013 is coming up soon. We’ve had confirmation from EnterpriseDB that they be hosting a social event on the Thursday night. You’ll have heard about this party from 2012, seen the pictures, and wish you’d been there. This year, they are going back to the same venue again this year. Of course, in addition to the great social opportunities, we’re also bringing in some big-name speakers for the tutorials and talks. Do
PGCon 2013 registration is now open Read More »
BSDCan 2013 will be the tenth BSDCan. This will be big. A huge party is planned for the Friday night. We’re also bringing in some big-name speakers for the tutorials and talks. Do not underestimate how much you’ll learn, how much fun you’ll have, and how many good working relationships and friendships you will develop at BSDCan. One word of advice: accommodation. Book it now. I know that on-campus accommodation will sell out
BSDCan 2013 – registration now open Read More »
I’m still seeing a 50% performance hit when I try bonnie++. It’s pretty clear. One system is getting 456MB/s sequential read. While the other is doing 265MB/s. Both machines are using the same type of HDD: The 3TB Toshiba DT01ACA300. The faster server This is on bulldog, the faster machine but destined to have fewer HDD. All HDD are directly connected to the motherboard. $ bonnie++ Writing a byte at a time…done Writing
Even bonnie++ shows the 50% performance hit Read More »
As you’ll no doubt know, I’ve recently bought two new computer, and built them up. I’ve settled on the Toshiba 3TB DT01ACA300 HDD as my drive of choice for these systems. I ran a few tests recently and found some interesting results. I haven’t published them here yet. My main test is a database load. I just take an 8GB text file and create a PostgreSQL database from it. The file in question
same HDD, different server, +50% performance hit Read More »
While on a recent trip, logcheck started telling me about a problem: Mar 19 07:26:55 bast smartd[1573]: Device: /dev/ad0, Failed SMART usage Attribute: 9 Power_On_Hours. Looking at the full output: On line 59, you’ll see that this drive has been in use for 7.4 years. Other than that, it seems to be OK. This link seems to indicate there is nothing to worry about. This system dates from at least October 2005. It
This harddrive is getting on in life Read More »
About a week ago, I was doing some HDD benchmark tests and I accidentally specified the boot drive as the source for a test. Oops. Everything was OK. Until I rebooted. It would not boot. I figured I knew what happend. I’d munged my boot code. And I knew how to fix it. However, I didn’t realize that I’d also deleted the boot partition. I asked on the FreeBSD dev IRC channel. db
Oops, I deleted my boot partition Read More »
From time to time, my Bacula – space and time website shows some old jobs that need to be copied to tape. Stuff from 100 days or more. There’s no reason to copy stuff that old to tape. It’s already been copied to tape. So why does it appear? Last night I swapped some tapes in the tape library. This morning they would have been used and recycled. I’ll bet that those tapes
Deleting old Bacula Volumes Read More »
Sometimes, you need to restore. But you don’t know when the file changed. Here’s a simple SQL query which shows me that information: And here is the output Based on that output, I want to look at restoring from Jan 13 and before. That’s when the filesize change last changed from 172KB.
Bacula: When did that file change size? Read More »