I want this to be added on my Make money online blog later

On this post we will take a closer look at this veritas volume manager error when trying to display the available disk space in an existig datagroup. The error is “VxVM vxassist ERROR V-5-1-5455 Operation requires a disk group”

This is a draft post as I currently have no answer yet.. Weird thing is, the vxassist command works on one server and not in the other.. which is spitting out the error in subject.

Take this example:

Working server:


# vxdg list
NAME STATE ID
datadg1 enabled 1169455228.81.sgtjcpb1
datadg2 enabled 1169455429.95.sgtjcpb1
# vxassist -g datadg1 maxsize layout=concat
Maximum volume size: 390506496 (190677Mb)
# vxassist -g datadg2 maxsize layout=concat
Maximum volume size: 676767744 (330453Mb)
# vxassist -g datadg1 maxsize layout=raid5
Maximum volume size: 270483456 (132072Mb)
# vxassist -g datadg2 maxsize layout=raid5
Maximum volume size: 375160832 (183184Mb)


Looks fine right? But when I tried the same syntax on the other sever, I got this:

# vxdg -g sysdg free
DISK DEVICE TAG OFFSET LENGTH FLAGS
sysdg05 emcpower5s2 emcpower5 16777216 2029952 n
sysdg06 emcpower3s2 emcpower3 16777216 2029952 n
sysdg07 emcpower4s2 emcpower4 167772160 2020352 n
# vxassist -d sysdg maxsize layout=concat
VxVM vxassist ERROR V-5-1-5455 Operation requires a disk group
#


I suspect it has something to do with the Veritas VX version or the OS it is running. Will investigate further and let you know.
—

UPDATE.. saw the error after 5 minutes.. saw it? I found “d” error.

This is some kind of a followup from the first post about ufsdump – how to backup solaris filesystem

1. Replace and partition the disk if it has failed.

2. Because the system cannot be booted from the boot disk, boot from the CD-ROM and re-create the failed file system by issuing the newfs command:

newfs /dev/rdsk/

is the name of the raw disk partition that contains the corrupted file system.

3. Check the new file system by using fsck:

fsck /dev/rdsk/

4. Mount the new file system on a temporary mount point:

mount /dev/dsk//mnt

5. Change to the /mnt directory:

cd /mnt

6. Write protect the tapes so that you don’t accidentally overwrite them.

7. Load the tape and issue the following command:

ufsrestore rf /dev/rmt/0

The entire content of the tape is restored to the file system. All permissions, ownerships, and dates remain as they were when the last incremental tape was created.

8. Verify that the file system is restored:

ls

9. Remove the restoresymtable file that is created and used by ufsrestore to checkpoint the restoration:

rm restoresymtable

10. Change to the root (/) directory:

cd /

11. Unmount the newly created file system:

umount /mnt

12. Check the new file system with fsck:

fsck /dev/rdsk/

The restored file system is checked for consistency.

13. If you are recovering the root (/) file system, create the boot blocks on the root partition by using the installboot command:

installboot /usr/platform/’uname-I’/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk\
/dev/rdsk/

The installboot command installs the boot blocks onto the boot disk. Without the boot blocks, the disk cannot boot.

14. Insert a new tape into the tape drive and back up the new file system:

ufsdump 0uf /dev/rmt/n /dev/rdsk/

A level 0 backup is performed. You should immediately make a backup of a newly created file system because ufsrestore repositions the files and changes the inode allocation.

15. Reboot the system with a reconfiguration reboot:

# shutdown -y -g0 -i0
ok boot -r

The system is rebooted.

Extra Notes on UFSrestore

When you restore files in a directory other than the root directory of the file system, ufsrestore re-creates the file hierarchy in the current directory. For example, if you restore to /home files that were backed up from /users/bcalkins/files, the files are restored in the directory /home/users/bcalkins/files.

When you restore individual files and directories, it’s a good idea to restore them to a temporary directory such as /var/tmp. After you verify that you’ve retrieved the correct files, you can move them to their proper locations. You can restore individual files and directories to their original locations; however, if you do so, you should be sure that you do not overwrite newer files with older versions from the backup tape.

You should not forget to make regular backups of your operating system. Losing all the customization you dosuch as adding user accounts, setting up printers, and installing application softwarewould be disastrous. Whenever you make modifications that affect the root (/),/usr, /opt, or other operating system directories, you should bring down the system into single-user mode and perform a level 0 dump.

Yep, another personal reference and to think that I should know these stuff by heard. Well, most of the servers I am handling now are solaris and for particular example, it’s for Linux..

I guess there will be some similarities but for this post, we’ll take Redhat linux as an example:

The command is chage (looks like a misspelled ‘change’ right? It’s actually “Change” “Age”)

/etc/shadow stores actual password in encrypted format for user’s account with additional properties related to user password.

The password expiration information for a user is contained in the last 6 fields. Password expiration for a select user can be disabled by editing the /etc/shadow file

However I recommend using chage command. The chage command changes the number of days between password changes and the date of the last password change. This information is used by the system to determine when a user must change his/her password.

To list current aging type chage command as follows:

# chage -l rg49945
Minimum: 0
Maximum: 99999
Warning: 7
Inactive: -1
Last Change: Jun 07, 2011
Password Expires: Never
Password Inactive: Never
Account Expires: Never
#
# chage -l ct92623
Minimum: 0
Maximum: 99999
Warning: 7
Inactive: -1
Last Change: Jun 07, 2011
Password Expires: Never
Password Inactive: Never
Account Expires: Never
#
# passwd rg49945
Changing password for user rg49945.
New password:
Re-enter new password:
Password changed.
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
#
# passwd ct92623
Changing password for user ct92623.
New password:
Re-enter new password:
Password changed.
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

Alright, here’s one of many tutorial you will find here at SysadmindayPH. This post is all about how to turn your colorful pictures and images into black and white, or grayscale using GIMP …Of course using GIMP!

For those who do not know what GIMP is, is short GNU Image Manipulation Program. What’s GNU? It’s GNU Not UNIX. What’s GNU? It’s GNU Not UNIX.. What’s.. you know.

Most of the tutorials I’ll mentioned here is based / borrowed /stolen from this link, so be sure to check it out and bookmark that one too

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Color2BW/

No matter how you ask it, how to make your computer faster, or how to make computer faster, we all want the same thing.. to make more out of our computer.

A number of people are asking, specially those folks not so familiar with computer or with technology in general – “how do i make my computer run faster?”

Reasons a computer runs Slow

Here are a couple of reason why a computer run slow:

1. Old model
2. Not enough ram to accommodate application
3. A computer virus

First of all, if you bought a hand me down, second hand, used computer from a few years back, that is a pretty good chance that the applications that you installed or want to install in your PC will run slow as the computer hardware industry is very fast paced that the hardware of today will become obsolete in a year. With that said, if you have an old computer, there is no other way of making it faster but replacing it with a new one or upgrading the main components of it like the system board, memory or the central processing unit.

Second, there are many software application today that is very memory extensive that it eats up most of the RAM (Random access memory) of the computer which leaves nothing for the Operating System or for other application.

Third possible reason is that the unit is infected by a virus which also consumes a lot of your computer’s processing power. Viruses can come from an external drive or from online in the websites that you are visiting.

How to make a new computer run faster?

From the same reason given above, the same things can be done to make a computer run faster.

For the first and second point or item, like mentioned, there is no better way than to upgrade.

The third one is to have a antivirus scan and clean the computer up. But in my experience it is better or completely erase the computer (format the system) and reinstall the OS and application to make sure that the virus is completely removed. (Of course, you have to make backup of your important files)

You may definetly need to clean up your PC.
Here is instructions about how to clean your PC: http://www.wikihow.com/Clean-Your-Comput…
1. Download a nice PC cleaner from http://www.pc-registry-repair.cc
(System cleaner is a best choice)
2. Run the cleaner and clean up your PC.
3. Restart your PC

Alright, here’s how – usfsdump – How To Backup Solaris/Linux Root Filesystem. use ufsdump

Say for example you have this:

$ df -k /
Filesystem kbytes used avail capacity Mounted on
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 673951 415497 197799 68% /
$ df -k /CMS
Filesystem kbytes used avail capacity Mounted on
/dev/dsk/c0t8d0s0 35009161 32305691 2353379 94% /CMS
$

yeah, the /CMS file system is almost full, but I think it can still accomodate a 674MB root filesystem from the slice /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0, right?

Anyway, not sure if the 2GM limit is applicable to Solaris 8,9 or 10 but since this example is less than 1GB, we are ok to proceed.

myserver# cd /CMS
myserver# ufsdump -f dumpfile /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0
DUMP: Date of this level 0 dump: Tue Jul 20 16:41:50 2004
DUMP: Date of last level 0 dump: the epoch
DUMP: Dumping /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 (myserver:/) to dumpfile.
DUMP: Mapping (Pass I) [regular files]
DUMP: Mapping (Pass II) [directories]
DUMP: Writing 32 Kilobyte records
DUMP: Estimated 366 blocks (183KB).
DUMP: Dumping (Pass III) [directories]
DUMP: Dumping (Pass IV) [regular files]
DUMP: 318 blocks (159KB) on 1 volume at 963 KB/sec
DUMP: DUMP IS DONE
krypton# ls -l
total 340
-rw——- 1 root other 163840 Jul 20 16:41 dumpfile
-rw-r–r– 1 haefnr2 instrume 11 Jul 20 16:38 test1
-rw-r–r– 1 haefnr2 instrume 21 Jul 20 16:38 test2
krypton# file dumpfile
dumpfile: ufsdump archive file

ufsrestore should do the trick in recovering the system.. hopefully

What diskgroups are Available:

vxdg list

Finding free space in Veritas diskgroups

vxdg -g oradg free
vxassist -g oradg maxsize layout=concat

list the existing filesystem in datagroup

# vxinfo -g datadg1
oracle raid5 Started
database raid5 Started
u05 raid5 Started
u07 raid5 Started
# vxinfo -g datadg2
database raid5 Started
index raid5 Started
u06 raid5 Started
u08 raid5 Starte

To Create a Filesystem
– create volume first (if disk group is there already, that is, just another request for another filesystem from free space)

–

# vxdg init datadg disk01=c1t1d0s2 disk02=c1t2d0s2 disk03=c1t3d0s2 disk04=c1t4d0s2
# vxassist -g datadg make vol01 2g layout=raid5

or
# vxassist -g DG1 make VolS 10m layout=stripe c1t1d0 c1t2d0s2

bash-3.00# mount -F vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/DG1/VolS /stripe/
bash-3.00# mount -F vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/DG1/VolM /mirror/

—

Reason: RFC13585613
# vxdg list
NAME STATE ID
orapdg enabled 1140953419.50.nsgct2-ivm01
# vxassist -g orapdg maxsize layout=concat
Maximum volume size: 872189952 (425874Mb)
# vxinfo -g orapdg
oralib fsgen Started
archive fsgen Started
redolog08 fsgen Started
archivelog fsgen Started
usertable fsgen Started
indextable fsgen Started

—–
# create volume for /DBA01
# vxassist -g orapdg make dba01 350g layout=fsgen # <<-- fsgen ?? # create filesystem from volume # mkfs - F vxfs /dev/vx/rdks/orapdg/dba01 # mount point # mkdir /DBA01 # mount -F vxfs /dev/vx/dsk/orapdg/dba01 /DBA01 # ownership # chown -R appdbmnt:appdba /DBA01

HMC is an abbreviation which expands to Hardware Management Console. The term HMC is normally used with context to IBM pSeries Servers.

What is HMC?
HMC is a Linux based desktop PC workstation which is dedicated to a number of pSeries servers. It’s is used to manage LPARs. There can be several LPARs or a single full partition on physical pSeries server system. HMC provides GUI (Graphical User Interface) and CLI (Command Line Interface) to manage LPARs.

7040-681, 7040-671, 7039-651, 7038-6M2 etc. are some of the models of HMC.

Uses of HMC
HMC is used in a number of ways to manage LPARs. Few of its uses are listed below:

1. HMC is used to start, stop, reset and shutdown an LPAR.
2. pSeries servers systems can be booted started and stopped using HMC.
3. HMC can be used to open virtual console for every partition or pSeries server connected to the HMC. It looks like original console of the server.
4. HMC can be used to create partition profiles. Each profile contains information on processor, memory and I/O resources allocated to that particular partition. It also helps to switch between various profiles of LPAR. If you want to choose different profile for an LPAR, you need to reset the LPAR.
5. HMC can be used to carryout DLPAR operations between specific LPARs. This way memory, processor etc. resources can be allocated/de-allocated dynamically without the need to restart any LPAR.
6. Physical System resources and the status of system can be displayed by HMC.
7. HMC itself can be managed through its GUI and CLI tools.
8. HMC software level can be managed by HMC itself. That’s called microcode management.
9. Some problem determination and service support are also provided by HMC which include supports like call-home and error log notifications through phone line.

Â
Connection Interface For HMC
HMC connects to the server using serial interface and the protocol used is RS232. More serial ports to connect to multiple servers can be provided by Asynchronous Adapters

Credits

Sun Solaris – Restoring root file system (/) – Solaris 9, Solaris 10 provides steps we need to follow to restore the root file system (/ system) in SPARC and x86 (intel) machines.
1) Log in as root user. It is a security practice to login as normal user and perform an su to take root user (super user) role.
2) Appearance of # prompt is an indication that the user is root
3) Use who -a command to get information about current user
4) When / (root filesystem) is lost because of disk failure. In this case we boot from CD or from the network.
5) Add a new system disk to the system on which we want to restore the root (/) file system
6) Create a file system using the command :
newfs /dev/rdsk/partitionname
7) Check the new file system with teh fsck command :
fsck /dev/rdsk/partitionname
8) Mount the filesystem on a temporary mount point :
mount /dev/dsk/devicename /mnt
9) Change to the mount directory :
cd /mnt
10) Write protect the tape so that we can’t accidentally overwrite it. This is an optional but important step
11) Restore the root file system (/) by loading the first volume of the appropriate dump level tape into the tape drive. The appropriate dump level is the lowest dump level of all the tapes that need to be restored. Use the following command :
ufsrestore -rf /dev/rmt/n
12) Remove the tape and repeat the step 11 if there is more than one tape for the same level
13) Repeat teh step 11 and 12 with next ddump levels. Always begin with the lowest dump level and use highest ump level tape
14) Verify that file system has been restored :
la
15) Delete the restoresymtable file which is created and used by the ufsrestore utility :
rm restoresymtable
16) Change to the root directory (/) and unmount the newly restored file system
cd /
umount /mnt
17) Check the newly restored file system for consistency :
fsck /dev/rdsk/devicename
18) Create the boot blocks to restore the root file system :
installboot /usr/platform/sun4u/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/devicename — SPARC system
installboot /usr/platform/`uname -i`/lib/fs/ufs/pboot /usr/platform/`uname -i`/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/devicename — x86 system
19) Remove teh last backup tape, and insert a new tape onto which we can write. Make a dump level 0 backup of the newly restored system by issuing the following command :
ufsdump 0ucf /dev/rmt/n /dev/rdsk/deviceName
This step is needed because ufsrestore repositions the files and changes the inode allocations – the old backup will not truly represent the newly restored file system
20) Reboot the system :
#reboot (or)
# init 6
System gets rebooted and newly restored file systems are ready to be used.