ehowton: (Default)



Back in the day we had just about every fantasy, comic book, and sci-fi fandom covered in our server naming conventions; more often than not clashing when they let us - the system administrators - name the data center servers and the workstations on our desks. Daily, we'd log into wookie from elrond to check the backups from batman the night before. Long gone are those days not only in corporate, but even in my own home lab. I have 150+ entries in my DNS server and all hostnames are utilitarian in nature because there's just too much to keep up with. While it might not be as much fun to log into smt, rmt, susemgr, sles12sp4, dnsmasq, bkpsrv, and hpvm4 its a hell of a lot easier than when I was younger and had fewer boxes.

There is one notable exception: belanna.

My first unix server was a comically heavy HP 9000/755 workstation - with those enormous full height SCSI drives which was reminiscent of turbofans found on large, military transports during initial power-on. I don't know why I settled on B'Elanna as my first server name, but soon a slew of Sun Solaris boxes surrounded her; kes, sesksa, janeway, and 7of9 (yes, even after all this time I remember them all fondly; SPARCstation 5, SPARCstation 10, ULTRASparc 60, and an EnterpriseSPARC 250). doctor was my first IRIX box, an Indigo 2 I no longer have, and the Indy sitting adjacent me as I author this, has inherited its namesake.

At some point I grew weary of lugging around that ridiculously heavy 755/125 with its special HIL-keyboard and mouse and awkward sync-on-green coax-connect monitor - and traded it in on a beautifully light and functional HP 9000 712/80. It was impressively quick given its age when it was running 10.20, much less so when running 11.0. I was like a madman with the upgrades stuffing a 10k RPM drive in its minuscule chassis and maxing out its RAM. The fact that it could use a standard PS/2 keyboard and mouse and regular VGA monitor gave a whole new meaning to the word, "portable." This was belanna for many more years.

I wish I had kept all my pizza box form-factors, I do. I have so few regrets in my life, and that is one of them. I had amassed so many 64-bit boxes, we'd decided to ditch every 32-bit machine we had. Later (and I don't remember the exact circumstances in which Mr. Ernest Cody suggested I take home a couple of rx2600's he'd acquired), belanna evolved to Itanium and has been running on and off ever since, and what a workhorse she's been! I used her to teach myself IVM (Itanium Virtual Machine - later HP Virtual Machine), Service Guard clustering, and have pressed her into service every time we've had an immediate need at work for an HP/UX machine (you may be surprised how often that happens, even now). And this is why every login, and every hpvm carries the notation, "HEC Foundation."

She's down a bank of RAM these days, and HPVMs disallow her from unlocking her hyper-threaded cores, but she's currently running four 11iv3 hpvms for training purposes, and I couldn't be more proud of her.


◾ Tags:
ehowton: (BSD)
Create a partition description file:

# vi /tmp/partitionfile

2
EFI 100MB
HPUX 100%

Use the idisk(1M) command to partition the disk according to this file:

# idisk -wf /tmp/partitionfile /dev/rdsk/c2t1d0

idisk version: 1.2
********************** WARNING ***********************
If you continue you may destroy all data on this disk.
Do you wish to continue(yes/no)? yes
...

Create the new device files for the new partitions (c2t1d0s1 and c2t1d0s2)

# insf -e -C disk

Use mkboot(1M) to format the EFI partition (s1), populate it with the EFI files under /usr/lib/efi/, format the LIF volume (part of s2), and populate it with the LIF files (ISL, AUTO, HPUX, LABEL) under /usr/lib/uxbootlf:

# mkboot -e -l /dev/rdsk/c2t1d0
# efi_ls -d /dev/rdsk/c2t1d0s1
(to check EFI)

FileName Last Modified Size
EFI/ 5/19/2003 0
STARTUP.NSH 5/19/2003 336

total space 103215616 bytes, free space 100076032 bytes

# lifls -l /dev/rdsk/c2t1d0s2 (to check LIF)

Write the contents of the AUTO file to the EFI partition:

# mkboot -a "boot vmunix" /dev/dsk/c2t1d0
# efi_cp -d /dev/rdsk/c2t1d0s1 -u /EFI/HPUX/AUTO /tmp/x; cat /tmp/x
(to check it)

NOTE: Specify -a "boot vmunix -lq" if you want the system to boot up without interruption in case of a disk failure.

Initialize the LVM partition (s2) and add it to vg00:

# pvcreate [-f] -B /dev/rdsk/c2t1d0s2 (take care to use s2)
# vgextend vg00 /dev/dsk/c2t1d0s2

II. Mirror the LVs to the s2 partition

# for i in lvol1 lvol ... lvol8
> do lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg00/$i /dev/dsk/c2t1d0s2
> done


Write the contents of the LABEL file, i.e. set root, boot, swap and dump device:

# lvlnboot -r /dev/vg00/lvol3
# lvlnboot -b /dev/vg00/lvol1
# lvlnboot -s /dev/vg00/lvol2
# lvlnboot -d /dev/vg00/lvol2

# lvlnboot -v (to check it)

Boot Definitions for Volume Group /dev/vg00:
Physical Volumes belonging in Root Volume Group:
/dev/dsk/c3t2d0s2 (0/1/1/1.2.0) -- Boot Disk
/dev/dsk/c2t1d0s2 (0/1/1/0.1.0) -- Boot Disk
Boot: lvol1 on: /dev/dsk/c3t2d0s2
/dev/dsk/c2t1d0s2
Root: lvol3 on: /dev/dsk/c3t2d0s2
/dev/dsk/c2t1d0s2
Swap: lvol2 on: /dev/dsk/c3t2d0s2
/dev/dsk/c2t1d0s2
Dump: lvol2 on: /dev/dsk/c3t2d0s2, 0

Specify the mirrored disk as an alternate bootpath:

# setboot -a
# setboot
(to check it)

Create an EFI boot option. This boot option will be stored in NVRAM

Boot to EFI and enter the Boot option maintenance menu:


--------------------------------------------------------------
| EFI Boot Maintenance Manager ver 1.10 [14.61]
|
| Main Menu. Select an Operation
|
|
| Boot from a File
| >>> Add a Boot Option
| Delete Boot Option(s)
| Change Boot Order
|
| Manage BootNext setting
| Set Auto Boot TimeOut
|
| Select Active Console Output Devices
| Select Active Console Input Devices
| Select Active Standard Error Devices
|
| Cold Reset
| Exit
--------------------------------------------------------------


Select the mirror disk. (Pun1,Lun0) represents SCSI target 1, Lun 0
(c2t1d0) in our case. (Pun2,Lun0) is the original boot disk (c3t2d0):

---------------------------------------------------------------------
| EFI Boot Maintenance Manager ver 1.10 [14.61]
|
| Add a Boot Option. Select a Volume
|
| >>> IA64_EFI [Acpi(HWP0002,100)/Pci(1|0)/
| Scsi(Pun1,Lun0)/HD(Part1,SigB45A0000)
| IA64_EFI [Acpi(HWP0002,100)/Pci(1|1)/
| Scsi(Pun2,Lun0)/HD(Part1,Sig958B0000)
| EFI DISK [Acpi(HWP0002,600)/Pci(1|0)/Pci(0|0)/Pci(0|0)/
| Pci(0|0)/Scsi(Pun0,Lun0)/
| HD(Part1,Sig 119E1A60-0B4C-01C3-507B-9E5F8078F531)
| Removable Media Boot [Acpi(HWP0002,0)/Pci(2|0)/
| Ata(Primary,Master)]
| Load File [EFI Shell [Built-in]]
| Load File [Acpi(HWP0002,0)/Pci(3|0)/Mac(00306E3809C6)]
| Load File [Acpi(HWP0002,100)/Pci(2|0)/Mac(00306E3889E3)]
| Exit
---------------------------------------------------------------------


Now navigate to the HP-UX bootloader, HPUX.EFI, on the disk:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
| EFI Boot Maintenance Manager ver 1.10 [14.61]
|
| Select file or change to new directory:
|
| >>> 05/28/03 09:38a
512 EFI
| [Treat like Removable Media Boot]
| Exit

| Select file or change to new directory:
|
| 05/28/03 09:38a
512 .
| 05/28/03 09:38a
0 ..
| >>> 05/28/03 09:38a
512 HPUX
| 05/28/03 09:38a
512 Intel_Firmware
| 05/28/03 09:38a
512 DIAG
| 05/28/03 09:38a
512 HP
| 05/28/03 09:38a
512 TOOLS
| Exit

| Select file or change to new directory:
|
| 05/28/03 09:38a
512 .
| 05/28/03 09:38a
512 ..
| >>> 05/28/03 11:52a 419,545 HPUX.EFI
| 05/28/03 11:52a 24,576 NBP.EFI
| Exit
|
|
| Filename: \EFI\HPUX\HPUX.EFI
|
| DevicePath:[Acpi(HWP0002,100)/Pci(1|0)/Scsi(Pun1,Lun0)/
| HD(Part1,SigB45A0000)/\EFI\HPUX\HPUX.EFI]
| IA-64 EFI Application 05/28/03 11:52a 419,545 bytes
|
| BootFFFF: Acpi(HWP0002,100)/Pci(1|0)/Scsi(Pun1,Lun0)/
| HD(Part1,SigB45A0000)/\EFI\HPUX\HPUX.EFI
---------------------------------------------------------------------


Now enter a description for this boot option, e.g. "HP-UX mirror boot
disk":


---------------------------------------------------------------------
| Enter Description: HP-UX mirror boot disk
|
| Current BootOption-->Main Menu. Select an Operation
| New BootOption Data. ASCII/Unicode strings only, with max of
| 240 characters
| Enter BootOption Data Type [A-Ascii U-Unicode
| N-No BootOption] : N
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally save the setting to NVRAM:

| Save changes to NVRAM [Y-Yes N-No]: Y


Try to boot from the mirror disk by choosing the appropriate boot option.
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (SGI Octane)
Where the did cursor go? No one knows. How do you get it back?

echo -en "\e[?25h"
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (BSD)
lvchange -a n /dev/vgHPVM/lvvmtest

lvreduce -L 0 /dev/vgHPVM/lvvmtest

in HP/UX I had to "init s" into single-user mode first

lvremove -f /dev/vgHPVM/lvvmtest
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (BSD)
/var/spool/sw

When swinstall analysis phase errors with "Could not open remote depot/root "/cdrom" due to an RPC or
network I/O error."

Check hostname/IP in /etc/hosts
Check hostname/IP in /etc/rc.config.d/netconf
/sbin/init.d/swagentd stop
/sbin/init.d/swagentd start

No reboot required.
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)

Not a lot is as convoluted as HP/UX pathing. It was easier with SCSI-attached drives in 9.05, but 11iv3 + AVIO + multipathing + SAN-attached storage and I always start with a headache behind my left eye and a sudden need to drink an entire bottle of Nyquil and take a nap. Mostly because I don't understand the logic behind it. You see, 0/0/0/0/0/0/0 never equals /dev/dsk/c0tod0. Add in AVIO_STOR(age) and /dev/dsk/disk0 doesn't equal what you think it should either. Its madness, and I hate it.

That said, we were working a Production Maintenance in the middle of the night here recently, and the HOWTO I'd written from the SCSI-attached storage Itanium box in my 5th-bedroom-turned-data-center didn't quite align with the external SAN array I don't own and am not running.

They say necessity is the mother of convention.

That's when I discovered hpvmdevinfo.

hpvmdevinfo essentially displays the mapping from the HPVM host and which path it is on the HPVM guest:

[/] root@belanna# hpvmdevinfo
Virtual Machine Name    Device Type   Bus,Device,Target    Backing Store Type   Host Device Name     Virtual Machine Device Name
====================    ===========   =================    ==================   ================     ===========================
vmtest                  disk          [0,0,0]              lv                   /dev/vgHPVM/rlvvm    Not available
vmtest                  disk          [0,1,1]              disk                 /dev/rdsk/disk5      /dev/rdsk/disk1


Now we can be sure when we newfs /dev/dsk/disk1 we're formatting the correct drive without having to run through all the calisthenics!

You're welcome.
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and OpenSUSE have recently been including, free-of-charge, the entire IANA registered port list in /etc/services! Long gone are the days of old when we either had to commit ports to memory, or look up the IANA registered ports, and manually add them to the /etc/services file. Because really, who wants to do all that time-consuming labor? In short, me! Why?

Because its more work to comment out the 999,999 services I don't need, than to add the couple hundred I do need. Especially when the couple hundred conflict with the entire IANA registered port list pre-populated into the /etc/services file. Now what I could see as being awesome is including the entire IANA registered port list already commented out because that would allow a quick-and-easy lookup, and a quick-and-easy port entry with a single keystroke. But that's not what is happening here.

So I have a list of 57 non-production hosts (not even going to count the production numbers yet), with 57 discrete /etc/services files, all requiring 397 blocks of conflicting ports disabled. Some suggested awk, some suggested sed, but each file being unique made attempting this arduous.

Until one enterprising young man introduced us to vi substitution using absolute line numbers.

:set number

:6015,6030s/^/#

This essentially replaces (s) the first of the line (^) with a comment (#) for all ports listed between lines numbers 6015 and 6030.

example )
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)
Running no less than 7 different versions at home:


eric-howtons-power-mac-g5:~ root# bash --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.17(1)-release (powerpc-apple-darwin9.0)

ehowton@sles4sap:~/Desktop> bash --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.51(1) -release (x86_64-suse-linux-gnu)

[root@ehowton ~]# bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.1.2(1)-release (i386-redhat-linux-gnu)

ehowton@xenchunk:~$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.2.25(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)

ehowton@susevm:~> bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.2.42(1)-release (i586-suse-linux-gnu)

ehowton@suse4ext:~$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.2.45(1)-release (x86_64-suse-linux-gnu)

[/home/ehowton] ehowton@belanna: bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.3.22(1)-release (ia64-hp-hpux11.31)


And then something WONDERFUL HAPPENED! I discovered - for the first time ever - A FREAKING ONLINE SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT REPOSITORY FOR HP/UX! I was beside myself with joy and wonder! Check out this shiznit:

[/var/tmp/packages] root@belanna# env x='() { :;}; echo vulnerable' bash -c "echo this is a test"
vulnerable
this is a test

[/var/tmp/packages] root@belanna# depothelper bash
===============================================================================
Package-version Comment Download Install
===============================================================================
ia64-11.31 Package list OK OK
bash-4.3.022 Uninstall old ver. N/A OK
bash-4.3.025 Requested OK OK
===============================================================================

[/var/tmp/packages] root@belanna# env x='() { :;}; echo vulnerable' bash -c "echo this is a test"
bash: warning: x: ignoring function definition attempt
bash: error importing function definition for `x'
this is a test

[/var/tmp/packages] root@belanna#

Magic.

Its called depothelper. Nice of them to roll this out now that Intel is no longer making Itanium chips and everyone is migrating to x86 linux. Oh well.

EDIT:

You can find it here:  http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Sysadmin/depothelper-2.20/ (it says it downloads in .gz but just untar it). Even you already have depothelper (v2.0) it no longer works, you need v2.2 and sadly you can't just # depothelper depothelper (I tried lol):

[/var/tmp/packages] root@belanna# depothelper bash
======================================================================================================================================================
Package-version Comment Download Install
======================================================================================================================================================
ia64_64-11.31 Package list Using cache OK
gettext-0.19.5 Uninstall old ver. N/A OK
gettext-0.20.1 Dependency (01/04) OK OK
libiconv-1.14 Uninstall old ver. N/A OK
libiconv-1.16 Dependency (02/04) OK OK
libunistring-0.9.10 Dependency (03/04) OK OK
readline-8.0.004 Dependency (04/04) Downloading...
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)




Things have calmed down now that the builds are complete, the server is patched, and all the user accounts have been created. I still need to get with (as of yesterday) a former co-worker on the best way to patch the HPUX HPVM - I'm convinced it should be easier than it is, and I'll have the added benefit of a best-practices outside an ignite sever landscape. And speaking of former co-workers I finally touched base with [livejournal.com profile] yabanjin62 after far, far too long.

You know what else has been a long time? Seeing a CDE login screen! The Itanium server accepts Radeon 7500 series framebuffers and I just happened to have one laying around. I immediately modified the login screen (below) but while fun and wistful, I have zero use for CDE - I can launch X from my SUSE VirtualBox VM, and redirecting output to the screen disabled the MP console!!! At some point I'll have to find the EFI path to redirect it back, but right now, its kinda nostalgic.


◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)




There was an immediate need to experiment on a non-production HPVM (Hewlett Packard's name for their now-depreciated Itanium Virtual Machine nomenclature) in order to have questions answered for Sunday Maintenance, so I got started right away by adding an HP2120 SCSI-attached disk tray in which to house them - which completely masked the boot drives, no matter the setting. Referring back to The Great HP Virtual Machine MC/ServiceGuard Cluster Experiment of 2010, I noticed I'd used a Sun 711 12-pack (as clustering takes lots and lots of disks). So why wouldn't the 2120 work? Just in case, I installed an old Apdaptec 29160 which has drivers for every known operating system on the planet - except HP/UX (of course). Further investigation (and an enlightening conversation with the UNIX MAN BEAST ERNEST) revealed:

•SCSI ID:
• May not use SCSI ID 2 when a drive is installed in internal bay 2
• May use SCSI ID 2 for the external port if there is no drive in bay 2

I decided to remove all but a single boot drive, so first had to reduce the logical volume, the volume group, and ultimately, the physical volume to pull the drives.

[/] root@belanna# vgdisplay -v vg00
--- Physical volumes ---
PV Name /dev/disk/disk6_p2
PV Status available
Total PE 4319
Free PE 0
Autoswitch On
Proactive Polling On

PV Name /dev/disk/disk4
PV Status available
Total PE 4375
Free PE 4375
Autoswitch On
Proactive Polling On

PV Name /dev/disk/disk5
PV Status available
Total PE 4375
Free PE 4375
Autoswitch On
Proactive Polling On

[/] root@belanna# vgreduce /dev/vg00 /dev/disk/disk5
Volume group "/dev/vg00" has been successfully reduced.
Volume Group configuration for /dev/vg00 has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vg00.conf
[/] root@belanna# vgreduce /dev/vg00 /dev/disk/disk4
Volume group "/dev/vg00" has been successfully reduced.
Volume Group configuration for /dev/vg00 has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vg00.conf

[/] root@belanna# pvcreate -f /dev/rdisk/disk5
Physical volume "/dev/rdisk/disk5" has been successfully created.
[/] root@belanna# pvcreate -f /dev/rdisk/disk4
Physical volume "/dev/rdisk/disk4" has been successfully created.

[/] root@belanna# rmsf -a /dev/rdisk/disk5
[/] root@belanna# rmsf -a /dev/rdisk/disk4

I then removed a drive and shuffled the boot drive to a different slot:

root@belanna# setboot -p /dev/disk/disk6_p2
Primary boot path set to 0/1/1/0.0.0 (/dev/disk/disk6_p2)

Despite this, I still couldn't get the disk tray to be seen! I first swapped cables, then swapped the HP2120 for a Sun StorEdge S1. When neither of those substitutions worked, I delved into SCSI, as it has been many, many years since hands-on hardware. Turns out, if you use LVD drives, the S1 self-terminates. Sure enough, as soon as I pulled the terminator, the EFI picked them right up (Note to self, the S1 requires a reboot if changing Base SCSI ID, and an EFI `reset` command will re-read the devices).


Voilà, super-fast boot drives, and a half terabyte of storage for hosting the HPVMs!

Then I mirrored the boot drives and created a 2-disk (distributed) volume for the vm's to call home. The only thing I couldn't quite figure out why some commands wouldn't allow you to run them on the agile-view devices, or which ones required it. That part was a bit of a kluge!

[/] root@belanna# pvcreate /dev/rdisk/disk10 /dev/rdisk/disk11
[/] root@belanna# mkdir /dev/vgHPVM
[/] root@belanna# vgcreate -s 8 -g DISTRIB /dev/vgHPVM /dev/disk/disk10
[/] root@belanna# vgextend -g DISTRIB /dev/vgHPVM /dev/disk/disk11
[/] root@belanna# lvcreate -D y -s g -L 51200 -n lvvmtest /dev/vgHPVM
[/] root@belanna# mkfs /dev/vgHPVM/lvvmtest

I did lose an entire bank of memory if anyone out there has four, 1GB sticks of PC2100-R. She's currently running at 8GB down from 12. Although some versions of the rx2600 can use 2GB sticks for a max of 24GB, I'm not sure on this one.

[/iso] root@belanna# hpvmmodify -P vmlinux -a dvd:scsi::file:/iso/SLES-11-SP3-DVD-ia64-GM-DVD1.iso




◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)

Downloaded and unziped depots from the HP/UX Porting and Archiving Centre (because hpux still doesn't have an online package management/repository)...

[/] root@belanna# cd /var/tmp/packages

[/var/tmp/packages] root@belanna# for x in `ls`; 
do swcopy -vv -x autoselect_dependencies=false 
-x enforce_dependencies=false 
-s /var/tmp/packages/$x \* @/var/spool/sw/PORT_ARCH; 
done

[/var/tmp/packages] root@belanna# swinstall -s /var/spool/sw/PORT_ARCH \*

[/var/tmp/packages] root@belanna# swinstall -s /var/tmp/packages/depothelper-2.00-ia64-11.31.depot \*



FREAKING KORN SHELL...

/etc/.profile

stty erase "^?"
export PS1="[\$PWD] $(whoami)@`hostname`: "

...to look like BASH (which is also installed)


PS1="[\w] \u@\h: "

SMH = Port:2301
   .-------------..--.                   _.--------.___
  |  ==========> ||   )             _.--'              `--._
   `-------------'`--'           .-'   \                    `-._
      /--.     /               .'       \.--------.__           `.
     /---'    |      _____.--.'`-.__     \  ___      `-._         `.
  .-'   ____.-------'      .'     __`-._.--'__ `-.       `.         \
.'  |.-'    ___________.--'------'  _ |  .-/[_],  `.   |   `.        \
|---' | .--'  _____________[|___   | || |]]]/ \|   |   | .-----.  .--.|
|---. | `--.___________    [|      |_|| |]]]\_/|   |   | `-----'  `--'|
`.  |`-.____           `--.------.__  |_ `-\[_]`  .'   |   .'        /
  `-.       `-------._____ `.     __.-' `--.___.-'      _.'         /
     \---.    |           `--`..-'       /         __.-'          .'
      \--'     \               `.       /`--------'            _.'
   .-------------..--.           `-._  /                   _.-'
  |  ==========> ||   )              `--._          ___.--'
   `-------------'`--'                    `--------'

HP-UX belanna B.11.31 U ia64 1645094063 unlimited-user license

◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)

The Management Processer (MP) on most Hewlett-Packard unix hardware is the lights-out controller to remotely install and gain console access to the running operating system, and there are plenty of official and unofficial HOWTOs on how to gain access to one which is otherwise inaccessible.

None of them helped me.

The missing piece was nmap which is the only way I could query the MP for it to reach out to the DHCP server. So, once again, for my own notes should this plague me at some point in the future -

  1. Add the MAC address to your router's LAN ADDRESS RESERVRATION with the IP you'd like to assign it, and the embedded hostname:

    • mp[MAC_ADDRESS] - example, "mp000306e3ad313"

  2. Assign the MAC address an IP in your arp table:

    • suseq:~ # arp -s 192.168.0.138 00:30:6E:3a:d3:13

  3. Run an nmap against the IP once powered on:

    • suseq:~ # nmap -sS -O 192.168.0.138

      • Starting Nmap 6.40 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2014-07-29 16:54 CDT
        Nmap scan report for 192.168.0.138
        Host is up (0.0050s latency).
        Not shown: 996 closed ports
        PORT STATE SERVICE
        22/tcp open ssh
        23/tcp open telnet
        80/tcp open http
        443/tcp open https
        MAC Address: 00:30:6E:3A:D3:13 (Hewlett Packard)
        Device type: switch|printer|specialized
        Running: HP embedded, Symmetricon embedded
        OS CPE: cpe:/h:hp:procurve_switch_2524 cpe:/h:hp:jetdirect_175x cpe:/h:symmetric
        OS details: HP ProCurve 2524 switch, HP JetDirect 175x print server, or Symmetri
        Network Distance: 1 hop


  4. suseq:~ # telnet 192.168.0.138







The Ernest man-beast HP rx2600/2 x 1.3GHz hyperthreaded CPU/12GB RAM

◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)
I hate that Oracle bought Sun. I despise Oracle and all that they're doing to the accesses I could easily and readily utilize.

And speaking of ass things to do, when HP turned down their weatlth-of-information ITRC knowledgebase forum, they made all fifty billion links unusable, and pointed everything to a uselessly flaccid Portal page.

Is there no honor anymore?
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)


The Great HP Virtual Machine MC/ServiceGuard Cluster Experiment


I place system architects into two categories. Former system administrators, and managers. Out of these two groups, only one designs entire infrastructures, wide-eyed, based on vendor's incredible tales of prowess and ability. And any sysadmin who's ever sat in on a vendor new-product briefing has experienced, with disappointment, the awe of watching your manager's toothy grin spreads across his face as he's spoon-fed anything he wants to hear about performance while the sales guy's eyes turn into dollar signs and start rolling around his sockets like a slot machine. Two star-crossed lovers meeting for the very first time.

And if any of it were real...well, that would be awesome.

The truth, however, usually lies somewhere in between. As a system administrator, I used to be wholly responsible for the cradle-to-grave life-cycle of an entire system; hardware and software both. We would receive the system in boxes, and carefully assemble our own interleaved memory configuration, torque our own CPUs, and rack our own servers. It was our responsibility to troubleshoot our own hardware, order it, and replace it, along with all our operating system duties.

But in all of this technology-awesomeness, we've somehow lost our way.

I'm not allowed to assemble hardware any more, nor replace my own memory or CPUs. Many times the vendor won't support a system in which they haven't had "authorized" personnel do the work. Worse still, there seems to be a trend in corporate America to disallow system architects from actually touching the systems. They're allowed to design, yes, but without any tactile feedback. In fact, the supposition is that these so-called architects will be able to design systems solely based upon the vendor claims. See where I'm heading with this? On the other side of the coin - and in their defense, I no longer have 40 boxes to support. I now have one-hundred and forty!

Yet, there are still those among us who thirst for knowledge.

Next week we have a vendor coming in to school us on the pros-and-cons of clustering virtual machines across discrete hardware versus clustering inside virtual machines on the same hardware :/ Because my group has no hands-on with this technology, I got with our clustering expert who furtively handed me his post-millennium student guide in hopes I could introduce him to HPVMs (formerly Integrity Virtual Machines) as he would introduce me to clusters. And where did I get all my hardware? From the system architect who'd like to have just a little real-world knowledge of such an design prior to the vendor showing up. So I dusted off my trusty rx2600, acquired another Sun 711 "six [disk] pack" (I'd given my other one away to [livejournal.com profile] mr_dowg's cousin-in-law after seven years of disuse) and...eventually went through EVERY SINGLE SCA HARDDRIVE IN THE HOUSE because...well dude, I learned that clustering requires disks. Lots, and lots of disks.

It took me 72-hours:

Bask in the fruits of my labor.

I'll publish a HOWTO for instant hpvm-cluster gratification once I polish it up.

Fini.
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)


The 1968 Dodge Coronet 440


Wherever does the time go?

I've started reading The Hobbit to my children. Again. There's not many of you left here who remember when I attempted this back in 07. They weren't ready then - but despite my youngest's protestations, she managed to giggle quite a bit at the trolls in Chapter Two. Or at least the Cockney accent I gave them - either way, its a start.

My next door neighbor, who is a gadget-freak and bought the iPhone 4 the day it came out, sold us his 3G. The timing was perfect, as my wife's phone was getting a little long in the tooth and she'd mentioned looking to replace it. I simply put her SIM car in it and she's up and running - no data plan, but we have wifi at the house so she's thrilled. I'm only a little jealous, because its way cooler than the blackberry.

I dreamed last night two of my long-time coworkers, both with engineering backgrounds (Yo, SJ! & Ernest), had discovered a new unix operating system and had written a program for it. They were eager to try it out but had no hardware. I'd come home late to find them standing in my house arguing, so dusted off my rx2600 to present to them. It loaded like IRIX but looked a lot like BeOS. Weird.

I was late because I was in high school again! God I hated that. I was all like, "Now what." Anyway, so there I was, much as I am today, 40-years-old, and I'm in high school. I found I had zero tolerance for the drama, so just cynically made my way from class to class without speaking to anyone. My only friend - Chris Richardson - another real life coworker - was a band geek, and I didn't want to be caught dead anywhere near the band room. Or whatever that place is called where they practice their instruments. By the time I found him, most everyone else has left - the parking lot was mostly empty. We both lived in Rhome (which is where I *actually* lived when I was attending high school) which is why he was riding with me, but the high school was MASSIVE and had seven inter-connected parking lots...My 1968 Dodge Coronet 440 was in the last one.

I'm burning the covers of my spooky albums onto the surface of their respective discs with lightscribe, but as I inserted Interlunation: Lullabies of the Damned it was identified in Gracenote as "Four-Day Workweeks: Legal And Practical Guidance For Employers."

I've been working odd hours and weekends, evenings, overnights and whatnot this week and last, not to mention a summer cold which knocked me out of work two days last week. Once again I find myself behind the curve where my livejournal FL is concerned. Thankfully a lot of you post also to Facebook and Twitter which both go directly to my blackberry, but I do plan to settle in this weekend a little bit and catch up.

And maybe drink a little beer.



The HP Integrity rx2600
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)




So look what happened when I tried to install VMWare Workstation on Windows 2008 Server IA64. Guess what I think will? VirtualBox! (Which, given Sun Microsystem's control of it, makes my plan especially nefarious...) So now I'm going to install Ubuntu 8.04 IA64 and see about compiling it on that architecture.

Ultimately, I'll end up using IntegrityVM (think ESX hypervisor vs Workstation, or better yet, Solaris Containers [big] Zones) providing my rx2600 does that - but knowing what I now know, I bet I can coax it into working.

And sadly once again, Google is only filled with simple answers to common questions. Nothing (and I mean nothing) I search for regarding any of this returns an answer. The good news is I will make my own answers - the bad news is once I submit this post, within three minutes Google will start displaying my own post to me as a valid return.

Such a burden I carry.
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)

So not only have I managed to unofficially create a 'linux group' with the Wintel guy here at work (and for a unix shop, that's big news) but I'm now also (apparently) the Integrity VM dude - that is, HP/UX's proprietary virtual machine solution. Something we've never used, let alone deployed before. This came about rather abruptly when one of the projects found they were a host short during the discovery of a flaw in their design. They've asked us to completely engineer a VM environment while trying to maintain our current project dates. Yeah, that second part - not gonna happen. Anyway, after an entire day of setbacks...

Historically, the filesystem on HP/UX which houses the kernel configuration and binary files was required to be HFS - HP's legacy Hi Performance FileSystem. That has changed in 11iv3 (11.31) but by default, the system is still created with an HFS /stand partition. Unfortunately Integrity VM won't install on any box which has even a single HFS filesystem.

So this week I'm deploying an Integrity VM host and two guests on an IA64 Blade chassis.

Firstly, there are three ways to convert a filesystem from HFS to VXFS with varying degrees of downtime, length, and accuracy. Here's the FAST AND DANGEROUS way which worked like a chiz-amp!

# grep -i hfs /etc/fstab
# umount /stand
# fsck -F hfs /dev/vg00/lvol1
# fbackup -f /opt/stand_fbackup.090915.egh -i /stand
# vxfsconvert -y /dev/vg00/lvol1
# vi /etc/fstab
# fsck -F vxfs -y -o full /dev/vg00/lvol1
# mount -o rw,suid,delaylog -F vxfs /dev/vg00/lvol1 /stand
# fsadm -ed /stand
# frecover -r -y -f /opt/stand_fbackup.090915.egh

** IMPORTANT **
Don't forget to run the restore before you reboot, else you've lost your kernel and there's no easy way to mount up your volumes like in Solaris. Yeah, I had to re-ignite.

Secondly, 11iv3 "unlocked" the hyperthreading on the Itanium chips, but Integrity VM will not run with it enabled. Another kernel parameter change, another reboot. And for those of you not in the know - HP/UX servers do not reboot quickly.

Now for the nuts & bolts. We have one of those cutsey point-and-click SAS array SANs; I previously created two mirrored volumes - one for each of the two VMs (raw SAN devices can be presented). I have to first create the first virtual switch, start it (-b) and create the first VM:

# hpvmnet -c -S switch1 -n 2
# hpvmnet -b -S swtich1
# hpvmnet -v
Version B.04.10.00
Name     Number State   Mode      NamePPA  MAC Address    IPv4 Address
======== ====== ======= ========= ======== ============== ===============
localnet      1 Up      Shared             N/A            N/A               
switch1       2 Up      Shared    lan2                    [IP ADDRESS] 


# hpvmcreate -P hostname -a disk:scsi::disk:/dev/rdisk/disk9 -a network:lan::vswitch:switch1 -B auto -O HPUX:11.31 -c 4 -r 10G
# hpvmstatus -v
Version B.04.10.00
Virtual Machine Name VM #  OS Type State     #VCPUs #Devs #Nets Memory  Runsysid
==================== ===== ======= ========= ====== ===== ===== ======= ========
hostname                1 HPUX    Off            4     1     0   10 GB        0


Now all we have to do is fire it up, and gain access to it through a virtual management processor (hpvmconsole -P hostname) in order to tell it where to boot from to install an operating system. In this example, we're going to boot it from the same ignite image from which we installed the host O/S. But first we need to create a dbprofile followed by the boot command. Sadly, in the virtual console you can't turn off xchar :(

dbprofile -dn ignite -sip ignite_server_ip -m netmask -gip gateway -cip client_ip -b /opt/ignite/boot/nbp.efi

lanboot select -dn ignite

Let me try to explain to you just how freaking fast this performs as compared to a standard Ignite. I was downright giddy. I've never seen anything install this quickly. My Itanium box at home? THREE HOURS from DVD. A standard Ignite? ONE HOUR. This took half that.

So it took me 12-hours to grasp the technology and deploy it, but I can now clone this one as many times as I need, anywhere, configuring CPU/memory on-the-fly (hpvmclone). I simply boot it, run a set_parms against it, and its its own machine.

Best part?

I don't need a GUI which only runs on Windows.
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)

I usually do magnificent work because I stay ahead of the curve. When I discover I'm going to be performing a task, I ensure everything I'll need is in place, put in place if its not, verify the steps I'll be running through, write a script or two, move them into place, open my tabs, track down my consoles, verify my logins, setup my environment and wait for go-time.

When the starting gun fires, I'm well on my way to a quick and efficient conclusion. Praise, often undeservedly so, is heaped upon my head. But I merely stand on the shoulders of giants. That is, those who can do these things off-the-cuff.

I'm not as smart as everyone else, so I work twice as hard. I've not the training others have, so I write everything down. I've not been doing this as long as some, so I do it during my spare time as well. All these tips and tricks help me survive in my environment.

But today, I wasn't given a heads-up. I was simply expected to perform - and the results, while not disastrous, caused much cursing and gnashing of teeth. Patch four systems. Easy enough. But all those same rules still apply, and this was in-between my other numerous tasks for the week.

My login had expired on two boxes, and the root password was several revs back to fix once I got the right console combination - Tracking down which virtual partition is on which frame requires multiple logins onto other boxes and grep'ing through frame serial numbers. Then the patches wouldn't load from the primary repository...The four boxes were split in pairs to two discrete storage nodes which act as secondary, firewalled patch repositories, and the depots on the primary was unbundled. The patches required numerous dependencies (something like 5500 individual files) so I had to scp entire directories to the different storage nodes and register them separately. I don't know how to install multiple patch-sets non-interactively from the command line on HP/UX, so I had to launch the ncurses gui.

I completed my task, but not easily.

I started my day at 0600 from an alert sent to my cell phone, and left at 2100, only to work the three hours I was home, and go back into the office at midnight because a frame had shat one half of its npars. Yes, production.

A 24-hour day today.

And I have more work to do tomorrow.

And Sunday.

True character is rarely revealed when things are easy.

So I don't bitch. I just work. And dream of sleep.

Little light shining,
Little light will guide them to me.
My face is all lit up,
My face is all lit up.
If they find me racing white horses,
They'll not take me for a buoy.

Let me be weak,
Let me sleep
And dream of sheep.




My King Size Beautyrest pillowtop awaits, like a slumbering lover
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)

Boy was suffering from a variety of infections due to a decreased immune system brought on by the flu, which he apparently contracted without us being aware of it. The doctor put him on bedrest for the entire week and I worked from home - for a week. A very long week. I've been hopped up on MONSTER and scooby-snack, and last night I was dancing the Numa Numa Dance along with that chunky kid from NJ for hours on end after [livejournal.com profile] bsdcat sent me the URL.

Usually, I don't like working from home unless I have something to do, so I begged for work, and it was given to me tenfold. Perhaps more than I wanted to do, nonetheless, I managed to accomplish everything by Friday afternoon. I had to get a environment ready for production. Fortunately the machines had already been built, so all I was doing was readying them. It was pretty basic sysadmin stuff, but the proof, as they say, is always in the pudding. No, the manually intensive part boiled down to access:

  • One terminal concentrator

    • Seven ports

      • Two domains per port

        • Half a frame on each port

          • Six servers on each frame


Each requiring a root passwd reset (I was provided a list of 50 possible previous root passwords to work from) and thus began my access hurdle. I knew I wanted tabbed terminal windows for this activity (opening each frame's six servers in a single window) and PuTTy is a touch behind the times on this, and my work laptop which is a dual-monitor setup running ubuntu doesn't do well on my awkwardly aspected 16:10 widescreen home monitor. So...I turned to OSX which handled the job flawlessly. That is, once I found a VPN client for OSX, imported the settings, and killed all the CPU-sapping processes (telnet [to my HP/UX box's (hereafter referred to as belanna) Management Processor] had apparently hung driving utilization to 100%). But then that's why I have a KVM, and my stalwart XP box - for the heavy loading. I really would like one of those new Psystar boxes. Oh the wonderful things [livejournal.com profile] ehowton could do!



New 320MB/sec SCSI drives in the previously empty drive slots


Ever since harddrives went over 9GB, I stopped breaking out discrete filesystems, a practice which has served me well in Solaris. Not so much in HP/UX. My 11iv2 (11.23) installation filled up, just prior to that feudal hardware-excreting lord Ernest asking me to perform an 11iv2 to 11iv3 (11.31) upgrade out of curiosity to see if the full-version VxVM which was included on the "Mission Critical Operating Environment" (MCOE) would be retained. Because this coincided with work's decision to start rolling out and testing 11iv3, rather than repair the existing filesystem problem prior to performing the upgrade, I just installed 11iv3 standalone, and was surprised to discover in the "Data Center Operating Environment" (DCOE) a plethora of installations options ranging from a full-scale High-Availability Suite, to a workstation-level install ("Technical Computing Operating Environment" (TCOE)) - which not only includes the full VxVM, but now also bundles their Auto Port Aggregate (APA) NIC-load balancing/failover software. There are probably many other packages included that I'm not yet aware of which were previously unbundled, but for me, the sweet spot was the inclusion of the VSEOE, or "Virtualization Server Operating Environment" which not only fully supports virtual partitions (vPars) and virtual machines, but 11iv3 now takes advantage of a previously unknown feature of the Itanium 2 (ia64) architecture: Hyerpthreading! In theory (and I'm a long way from practical application) I would be able to carve out a linux instance, running within HP/UX, and assign it a portion of a processor.

Here's where things get dicey. In Solaris, any machine which can run Solaris 10 is capable becoming a host for other Solaris "zones" or virtual servers. With HP/UX, only specific hardware is supported. Now I'm no fool and learned a long time ago that 'supported' is merely a term used by companies when they no longer want to technically sustain an application. In other words, just because its not supported doesn't mean it won't work. HP/UX vPars however, while different from nPars (electrically-separated servers in the same machine) are not "zones" as in Solaris. They require a specific 'frame' in which to reside, and apparently the rx2600 *actually* won't run them. But I'm still running that down. Also, the VSEOE's "virtual machine" being mentioned outside of vPar leads me to believe that a Solaris zone-like build is now possible.

Lastly, SAM has been almost entirely deprecated, having been replaced with SMH - System Management Homepage. As I'm running this headless, I've only seen its cli interface. If you can believe it, its actually slower than SAM, but does seem to have a more intuitive interface.




One last story about Ernest. Today I rec'd an invitation to "connect" with this attractive lady on Yahoo:





Yet she has no profile and I don't know who she is. How did she find me? What does she want with me? I'm all for expanding my friend base and interacting with new people - I actively seek it out - but with no note or clue as to who she is, or why, frankly I'm baffled.

Which brings me to Ernest. Awhile back his wife found my Facebook page and invited me to join her network. Before I could accept, however, I was directed to chose from a small set of circumstances which explained how I knew her. Unable to proceed without this data, and without an accurate choice for depicting our relationship, I chose what I thought at the time was the most ambiguous explanation, "We hooked up."

Apparently in the parlance of our times, that was the wrong box to check.
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)




I remember now why I moved everything off my mac and onto my XP box. Speed. My generations-old G4 PPC is being crushed under the demands I put it through. I get the little spinning pinwheel three-quarters of the time I'm on the box. Even scrolling down a web page, it pauses. As adept as I am at multi-tasking, this really cramps my style. So...I've made a few changes until my iSCSI vault is up and running.

That mystical byte-munching cruncher Ernest loaned me a new gigabit switch for the iSCSI project, which I will detail fully once up and running. I need to figure out HP's Auto Port Aggregation (APA) so that the primary interface is the Gig-E and the failover is the 100base. And though I don't yet know in which capacity I am going to use it, I recently scavenged a Sun D240 media tray. I has a DVD-ROM, a DDS4, and I have a matched pair of 72GB 10k SCA drives for it. I also snatched the Very High Density (VHDCI) SCSI card from which to run it.

Back to the mac, I couldn't seem to find a stable bittorrent client. My favorite client isn't available for OSX, and my favorite OSX client (Bits on Wheels) kept crashing, as did Tomato, X-Torrent, Transmission, et. al. So I went back to Azureus (now called Vuse) which is 100% stable. And uses 100% of my CPU. To help things along, I used a separate physical volume as my swap drive (not an easy thing to do in OSX) and I've stopped browsing completely on my mac, now doing that and Photoshop work solely on my XP box.

And, despite wanting to purchase a computer in the next six months, I bit the bullet and bought an HP external dual-layer lightscribe burner, which, after some cursing and gnashing of teeth, works flawlessly with Toast on the mac, and will ultimately make my life much, much easier.

[livejournal.com profile] mr_dowg is coming over tonight to assist me in absinthe-drinking while my wife and daughter are off to a girls party. Hell of a guy, [livejournal.com profile] mr_dowg.



◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)




I plugged an Ethernet cable into the replacement rx2600's Management Processor and waited for my router to provide it a DHCP address. Using telnet, I supplied the default username and password and gained access into the standalone daughterboard, familiarizing myself with the menus before using the embedded ARM processor equipped MP to boot the server. It came alive from my laptop, connected to the wireless router, and I was able to bring the box to life from the comfort of my bed, and without pants.





I went through the installation process to identify any issues, discovering that the two processors ran at 1.3GHz and that all 3GB of RAM was showing up. I'd used the Technical Computing Operating Environment (TCOE) as the install medium as it contained a full Vertias Volume Manager (VXvM) install instead of HP/UX's less-robust LVM, and I'm woefully inadequate with VXvM. When the installation was complete I went through several troubleshooting steps on the other chassis and determined that not only had both power supplies failed, but the MP was also either locked out or non-functional. I could've pulled my Wyse Terminal from the garage, but I don't know where my null modem cable for it is. Probably hanging off the back of my rack now that I think about it. I got the rx2600 (now named belanna) racked and reinstalled.





Outside of this activity, which took most of the day, I've been listening to the fourth and final book of the Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn. I can read much faster than these audio books, and they really slow me down. Its soooooo frustrating. Well, that and this book is teh bore. 28 hours worth. I planned to get the last book from my mother-in-law last weekend but she hadn't read it yet, so I downloaded the audiobooks. Its nice to have them, just in case anyone else wants them.





My wife has spent the last two days in my boy's room re-imagining it. She's turned it into 'Shadow the Hedgehog' with paint; wild black points outlined with orange and obtuse orange triangles surrounded with red. All this upon his gray walls. It looks really good, but I think its wearing her out. I have next week off, she doesn't. She comes to bed after I'm already asleep, and is at it again before I awake.

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas.
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)




Meet the IA-64 Itanium processor. I'd tell you more about him, but I experienced yesterday what was probably catastrophic hardware failure. The box emitted what it calls an 'e-buzzer' troubleshooting code for issues which are too either too severe or occur too early to init the LED lights. It provides between one and seven 'beeps' a second, for you to time to determine where the issue is. As there were beeps evenly spaced throughout the time alloted without pause, I can only assume that one meant one thing: 'fux0red' which of course was not on HP's troublehshooting page. As it turns out, that unix creature of mythical proportions Ernest is going to provide me a second identical box for the purposes of getting this up and running. I've taken over my wife's sewing table in the interim, for the build-out and load.

The rx2600 can hold a maximum of 64GB of RAM, but it needs a minimum of 4x256 PC2100R (registered, ECC) to boot. Betwixt Ernest and I, we found exactly one set of matched pairs. Like the 712/80, this box does not require a proprietary keyboard, mouse or monitor. Unlike the 712/80 however, it can use USB for those devices, which is a nice addition. The 712/80 actually required those items to be present to boot, as it was a desktop rather than a server. Once I get this built, its going into my server rack, as I've already replaced the space previously occupied by belanna with an ubuntu 8.10 server. I put together three other x86 boxes yesterday from junk parts, and loaded two of them. [livejournal.com profile] drax0r ended up with a 2.8GHz 1GB RAM ubuntu desktop, and for myself I built a 2.6GHz 1GB RAM ubuntu server. I gave him my even older parts, and put together his old 1.6GHz box which was my linux server for a long time. The only thing it needs is a power supply.

And while I was thrilled to discover that I could now simply apt-get gallery2 (preventing me from re-compiling it everytime I update the linux-headers) my hopes were quickly dashed when I saw that just because you can apt-get a thing and all its dependencies simultaneously, doesn't mean it will *actually* work. I was up until 0100 trying to get PHP to play nice with MySQL. And that's another thing - before I decommissioned the old gallery, I'd made a database backup. And while it was easy enough to restore, the versions are different enough to cause my grief as well.





I have not yet received my soundtracks from La-La Land Records. I was hoping to have them before we leave for Wichita tomorrow. I'll be sitting on pins and needles until the mail arrives.

Tonight - hamburgers! Fresh sliced yellow onions, thick sliced hot house tomatoes, sandwich sliced dill, and jalapeno rings atop a quarter-pound grilled angus beef patty with your choice of provolone, chipotle, or horseradish cheese between a soft, whole wheat bun. Yeah, I'm excited. Better get that grill started...
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)

Drank precisely one ounce of Lucid last night with a helping of ice cold spumante and slipped into a dream. An uneasy dream about my recent past, but surely that was just images from the disturbing storylines in the third season of Criminal Minds courtesy [livejournal.com profile] mr_dowg. Surely.

This morning I slept in exactly two hours, gave my undercarriage a bit of a 'how's your father' after consuming nearly a full pot of coffee my wife had left for me (Thank you sweetheart!) and finished my morning with eggs before leisurely driving into work, where my day began at 1000 hours.

In a tremendous move of glory, that magical man-beast Ernest provided me a 64-bit Itanium rx2600 as a replacement for belanna. I am thrilled beyond words. I snagged a copy of HP/UX 11iv3 (11.23) and despite having to work this Sunday, will attempt to get everything in place to begin building this out. As cameras are not authorized in the building or parking lot, I can't provide you an image of it sitting in my car, so please accept this vendor photo as my offering until I can take my own:





The day has passed far too quickly for me.
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)
HP/UX 712/80


The 712/80 is a 32-bit machine. I got rid of all my SPARC32 machines some time ago, yet held on to this, my sole HP/UX box. Unfortunately, the HP Porting & Archive Center no longer contains binaries for 32-bit machines. So, I had to compile everything from source. Including the compiler. Can you say, "Old skool?"
In theory, it is possible to use an older (binary) version of HP-UX gcc to build this release, but we have not done this ourselves and cannot help if you have problems with such a build. It also creates a "chicken and egg" situation (i.e. you'd need gcc to build gcc) that users starting from scratch may find hard to solve.

On my first day as an HP/UX admin we lost a production vPar in a nPar. That is to say, a virtual software partition inside a discrete hardware partition. These are new since I left HP/UX so I've been simultaneously reading the vPar and nPar handbooks side-by-side. At 300 pages filled with concepts and commands, its unlikely I'll remember much of it, but its a great introduction. Anyway, production outages are a fantastic way to quickly learn these things, so despite its severity, I was thrilled it happened. (the vPar lost its disk header information (LIF) and we used Ignite to 'boot' the partition and restored its boot sector.)

This group is genuinely happy to have me on the team, which is surprising since I spent the majority of these last weeks with my old group doing nothing but paperwork. I was feeling quite useless. Of course the rumors surrounding my sudden departure mostly revolve around me hating one or more of my co-workers or bosses. While entirely untrue and baseless, the grapevine also reveals that my former co-workers and bosses don't dare approach me themselves. Its all quite humorous. Sad, but humorous. Regardless, I'm excited to get my hands back on HP's unix and hope to be a great asset to the team.

Back to belanna - the tarball kept failing with a checksum error; usually indicative of using tar vs. gnu tar on Sun (due to path length) - yet I obviously couldn't compile gtar without gcc...users starting from scratch may find hard to solve. So I untar'd it with 7zip on my PC and then added .rhosts entries and rcp'd over the directory. No, I'm not kidding. And it took me FOREVER to set up, and then to turn everything back off. But no, even that builds a 64-bit architecture binary by default. It gave me the compiler flag to add for 32-bit compiling, but didn't *actually* include the gmake in which it needed to run. I just don't understand what the point was.

I did eventually find an older version binary, and used that. However: [package] requires both HP's ANSI C and HP's ANSI C++ compiler to build. That and 80Mhz is awfully, awfully slow. If I don't soon get a 64-bit machine I may choose to just walk the Earth, like Kane in Kung-Fu.

This sucks. I'm going to bed.
◾ Tags:
ehowton: (Default)

I'll be the first to admit that Blastwave's pkg-get (for Solaris) and Debian's apt-get have spoiled me rotten. With the issuance of a single command, the pre-compiled binary of your whim is automatically paired with its dependencies, checked against already installed programs, and installed, along with any other necessary packages if need be. Seconds after hitting 'Enter' the program is already auto-configured and ready to use, or in applicable cases, the daemon is already not only running but sitting in your init.d directory as well.

BRILLIANT!

Gone are the days of meticulously pouring over patchsets which affect your particular environment as prudent security practices now dictate frequent and massive patch 'bundles' be installed to thwart any suspected threat. I love it, I really do. And while I was one of the last people on earth to jump aboard the linux bandwagon, I now sing its praises aloud to the people from its platform. Timely GNU ports to Solaris and...vise-versa? Previously unheard of a decade ago, yet here we are. The winds of change have constructed very exciting times for the likes of us, and I plan to stick around awhile and see how it all plays out.

However...

There are those ancient monoliths which remain with us to this day. Large, imposing proprietary systems whose very name is spat from the lips as if a curse: SGI. (less so since they went linux, but since they have no concept of marketing...) AIX. HP/UX. While their 'unofficial' GNU binary sites were, once upon a time, on par with http://sunfreeware.com many packages have not been updated, or worse - removed. But in SGI's defense, I will say this - installing packages directly from the webpage was freaking awesome!. Mind you, all the same dependency woes were there...actually, I can see that being much easier now with tabbed browsing, but I digress.

WHY ARE THERE NO ONLINE AUTOMATED PACKAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FOR HP/UX?



Please state the nature of the medical emergency.
◾ Tags: