Splitting a ZFS pool

Splitting a ZFS mirror is very useful when you need to create a quick copy during runtime without copying the entire file system. My current pool configuration looks like this:

# zpool status orapool
  pool: orapool
 state: ONLINE
 scrub: none requested
config:

        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        orapool     ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c1t0d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c1t1d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-1  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c1t2d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c1t3d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
# zpool list
NAME      SIZE  ALLOC   FREE    CAP  HEALTH  ALTROOT
orapool  1.97G   130K  1.97G     0%  ONLINE  -

Bonding with Linux

Before you begin with bonding you need the command ifenslave. Depending on your distribution you have to compile it by yourself. I am using Slackware as usual where ifenslave is shipped as source only. You can find the source of ifenslave in the kernel sources. To install the kernel sources run installpkg with the package for the kernel source (if not done already):

# installpkg kernel-source-2.6.37.6_smp-noarch-2.txz
...

Solaris disks: ssdX vs cXtXdX

When you work with disks in Solaris then you normally have to deal with disk names like cXtXdX and so on. But sometimes you will see something like ssdX, eg:

# dmesg
...
Sep 08 12:15:56 sol01 scsi: [ID 112529 kern.warning] WARNING: /pci@8,600000/SUNW,qlc@2/fp@0,0/ssd@w2100001862806e43,0 (ssd1):
Sep 08 12:15:56 sol01        offline
...

Bringing a Compaq StorageWorks San Switch 8 back to life

I hope I don't promise to much with this heading...
Here is the situation: I got an old unused Compaq StorageWorks San Switch 8 without any information (IP, username, password cable etc). As usual I wanted to use it, so here is a short description of what I  did to bring the machine back to life. A default serial cable does not work, when the switch was released Compaq had is own pin layout. The only chance to communicate with the switch is via network. When you open the SAN switch you should see a couple of LED's near the ethernet connector like this:

Replacing your SWAP with the memory of your graphics adapter

If you have a server with a more or less big graphics adapter (big in case that the graphics adapter has a lot of memory) than you can replace your SWAP area with it. This might be something real useful for a graphics adapter in a Linux server with no monitor attached to it.

Which port is used by a process in AIX?

Today I installed samba and tried to starting it but it refuses to start:

# /etc/inetd/samba start
Starting SMB services
# ps -ef | grep smb
    root 811496 860488   0 14:15:39  pts/0  0:00 grep smb

Battery state of a LSI MegaSAS 9260

A few days ago a collegue asked me to check the battery status of a raid controller. He gave me the login to his machine and I found this raid controller: 

Measure network traffic with Linux

To measure your network traffic for a specific interface use netstat:

# netstat -i
Kernel Interface table
Iface   MTU Met   RX-OK RX-ERR RX-DRP RX-OVR    TX-OK TX-ERR TX-DRP TX-OVR Flg
eth0   1500 0   7758072      0      0 0       3305512      0      0      0 BMRU
lo    16436 0     79946      0      0 0         79946      0      0      0 LRU

SWAP size and usage in Solaris

If you want to know how large your SWAP area is and how much space currently is consumed then you need to use the command swap:

# swap -l

swapfile                 dev        swaplo blocks   free

/dev/zvol/dsk/rpool/swap 256,2      16     8388592  8388592

Identifying hardware architecture in Solaris

If you ever need to identify your current hardware architecture in Solaris then isainfo may be the right tool:

# isainfo
sparcv9 sparc