tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59612482574397646922024-03-08T15:41:17.205+01:00Oracle: Unbreak my Linux HeartBlog about usage of Oracle's Enterprise Linux (OEL) aka "<em>Unbreakable Linux</em>" in a data center. Installation, configuration, tweaks, hacks, tips and tricks... whatever and all of the above, as we deploy Linux servers as the choice for all non-Microsoft servicesDreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.comBlogger304125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-71824577629729064722020-06-04T12:39:00.001+02:002020-06-04T12:39:39.968+02:00Logbook and Note BookI'm no longer actively working with Linux although I use it privately. This was my work logbook during my job as a Linux Engineer and Architect for KPN Data Centers. <div><br /></div><div>I'm keeping this as a log and note book. Who knows when it comes in handy although much will be outdated. If you find any good resources or more current howtos for what was written here, let me know!</div>Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-79944901857823781962012-03-22T09:44:00.001+01:002020-06-04T12:37:03.742+02:00MySQL TCO Savings CalculatorMySQL created a TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) calculator showing how cheap MySQL is compared to Microsoft MSSQL and Sybase. Interestingly, the parent company Oracle remains out of this picture. I find that sad. Why not be open and let the customer decide? Either way, the savings of MySQL Enterprise Edition to MSSQL are shocking: <a href="http://www.mysql.com/tcosavings/">MySQL TCO Savings Calculator</a>. Add your grain of salt...Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-47731410403137775822012-02-27T14:35:00.000+01:002020-06-04T12:35:55.206+02:00SOAP calls to Dell warranty siteSomeone on the <a href="http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/">Dell PowerEdge mailing list</a> has written a script that uses <a href="http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2012-February/045959.html">SOAP calls to query dell's warranty site</a>. I'm sure it's helpful to someone else to know this.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-37806153640401499762011-10-25T10:49:00.000+02:002020-06-04T12:34:59.142+02:00Dell and Ubuntu Server Edition 11.10Dell has released a statement about <a href="http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/enterprise/b/tech-center/archive/2011/10/17/ubuntu-server-edition-11-10-released-by-canonical.aspx">ubuntu 11.10 on Dell PowerEdge</a>. Dell lists that Ubuntu should work where the previous versions also worked and is currently re-certifying most PowerEdge and PowerEdge-C servers. Check <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/make/Dell/servers/">Canonical's hardware certification page</a> for details. Also good to know is that OpenManage (OMSA) has been <a href="http://linux.dell.com/repo/community/deb/latest/">released for Ubuntu</a>, although it is not officially supported.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-89541647994828161562011-10-25T10:42:00.000+02:002020-06-04T12:34:23.339+02:00pxeconfig to control PXE boot<a href="https://subtrac.sara.nl/oss/pxeconfig">pxeconfig</a>:<br /><br />With pxelinux, which is a derivative of syslinux, you can specify with a PXE configuration file how the node must boot. This configuration is placed in, e.g. /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg directoryDreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-2679507153211835462011-09-07T09:55:00.000+02:002011-10-24T09:36:40.231+02:00Sudoreplay ManualUsing sudoers in Linux to implement security is commonly done. Often administrators or operators allow themselves to 'sudo su -' to become root, without the need to know the root password. This is more comfortable as you don't need to type "sudo" in front of every command and your sudoers file becomes less exhaustive without the need to specify every command operators and sysadmins need.<br /><br />However, enforcing everyone - even sysadmins - to prepend every command with "sudo" creates an audit trail when sudo logs to a file. This often required for compliancy reasons. <br /><br />Now there is a command to playback sudo logs: <a href="http://www.gratisoft.us/sudo/man/1.8.2/sudoreplay.man.html">Sudoreplay Manual</a>.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-29470431651996059072011-09-01T14:53:00.000+02:002011-10-24T09:37:06.639+02:00Dell TechCenter: KVM Virtualization Made EasyDell TechCenter posted a very easy "how to get started" guide for <a href="http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/KVM+Virtualization+Made+Easy#fbid=xBVy8RgNwFt">KVM Virtualization</a> that you may find useful if you're just getting started and know little or nothing about virtualization (in Linux or elsewhere). It's good for the basics.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-9881674808219964022011-08-31T11:22:00.000+02:002011-10-24T09:38:09.707+02:00Dell OMSA LivedDVD using CentOSDell TechCenter has released a <a href="http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/enterprise/b/tech-center/archive/2011/08/17/centos-based-livedvd-to-update-firmware-on-dell-servers.aspx">LiveDVD image with OMSA</a> to update firmware and BIOS on Dell hardware using a CentOS Linux distro.
<br />Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-67639122044533005162011-08-31T11:10:00.000+02:002011-08-31T11:15:04.144+02:00Convert LiveCD ISO to PXE boot imageHowto convert a LiveCD image to a <a href="https://projects.centos.org/trac/livecd/wiki/PxeBoot">PXE Boot image</a>.
To convert the root of the ISO image to an NFS root and save on the RAM requirements when booting the image [RAM=2x(size of ISO in MB) + 60 MB], read this on <a href="http://www.planetgeek.ch/2009/08/03/pxe-boot-environment/">PXE booting in general</a>.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-49489768139639382382011-08-09T14:29:00.000+02:002011-08-31T11:15:53.249+02:00OMSA 6.5.1Dell's released the latest version of OpenManage <a href="http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/">6.5.1</a>. It provides drivers, BIOS and firmware updates from Linux when running Dell PowerEdge hardware.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-88708122194046092352011-08-02T17:35:00.000+02:002011-08-31T11:16:26.504+02:00Removing Duplicate RPM PackagesMy OEL4 servers still have duplicate RPM packages on 64 bit servers. Libs for 32 bit and 64 bit are often installed, even though they may not always be used. When upgrading a package, such as glibc, you run into the error that yum won't touch a package because it finds duplicates.<br /><br />In this case you can try <a href="http://oapeon.blogspot.com/2007/02/removing-duplicate-rpm-packages.html">Removing Duplicate RPM Packages</a> or remove a package using an explicit architecture tag:<br /><tt>yum package.{i386,i686,x86_64}</tt> such as <tt>yum remove glibc.i686</tt>.<br /><br />If you have RHEL/OEL5 or higher, you're in luck because you can try to install the package yum-utils and run <tt>package-cleanup --cleandupes</tt>. yum-utils offer a bunch of useful tools for working with yum repos and so on.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-36214389479247818502011-06-16T10:06:00.000+02:002011-08-31T11:17:01.190+02:00Performance and Provisioning for Virtualized OracleEMC (VMware) has a great technical webcast and PDF online about <a href="http://www.emc.com/events/2011/q2/06-09-11-virtualized-oracle.htm">Performance and Provisioning for Virtualized Oracle</a>. I highly recommend you listen to it or read the sheets. Very informative if you want to use virtualized Oracle databases in a production environment.<br /><br />Most set-ups of virtualizing Oracle databases on VMware fail because storage I/O becomes a bottleneck. It turns out, 50% of all surveyed set-up had storage configured wrong. The problems has to do with storage queues in the VM and subsequently on the ESX host. Additionally, vSphere 4.1 introduces features (<a href="http://www.vladan.fr/new-feature-in-upcomming-vsphere-4-1-sioc/">SIOC</a>) to optimize the I/O better to the SAN and para virtualized SAN drivers can further reduce latency and increase throughput. <br /><br />Then the webcast also mentions Oracle's "native" NFS client (<a href="http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/directnfsclient-11gr1-twp-129785.pdf">dNFS</a>, PDF) inside the database kernel. This reduces the CPU overhead and latency normally observed on NFS client in the OS. By using Oracle's native NFS client, you can use shared storage in a grid computing environment more easily and the same way on Windows as well as Linux.<br /><br />EMC VMAX SAN box has a feature called <a href="http://www.emc.com/products/detail/software2/symmetrix-fast.htm#/1">FAST VP</a> which can optimize and distribute your storage needs from all-SAN to a mix of SSD, SATA and SAN where and when needed.<br /><br />Very interesting read and much stuff to think about your own VMware set-up when using Oracle software.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-54347983617290622422011-05-24T17:08:00.000+02:002011-08-31T11:17:32.416+02:00Seeding Java Authorization and Authentication using /dev/urandomWe had a strange issue during Oracle WebLogic development yesterday. Setting up a secure connection between a client and the WebLogic Admin server took really long on our shiny new hardware (Dell R710) compared the older servers (Dell 2950). After we made sure everything was exactly the same, people started to blame C1 and C1E states and other powersave or cpu throttling measures. However, given the different in setup times (2-6 sec vs 50-90 sec), I suspected it to be something else. Throttling down from 2.23 GHz to 1.6 GHz cannot cause such a great difference. Or at least be unlikely.<br /><br />Lo and behold, it turned out to be related to the seeding of the random number generator in Java. Normally this is linked to <tt>/dev/random</tt> but can be sped up by using <tt>/dev/urandom</tt>, which uses some entropy of your system. Still, the urandom device, while faster, still caused a 20-fold difference.<br /><br />As a workaround, you can tell your JVM which seed generator to use and prevent JVM from waiting or looking or whatever it does. See also the <a href="http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/guide/security/jaas/JAASRefGuide.html">JAAS Reference Guide</a> for more information.<br /><br />If you call your JVM with the command line switch<br /><tt>-Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom</tt><br />it will go much speedier! And yes, there is a dot "." inside that path, in order to work around another bug. :)Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-78328445373744729412011-05-05T09:02:00.001+02:002011-05-05T09:42:12.998+02:00Dell Hardware repo mirrorThe kind people of the German university of Göttingen have mirrored the <a href="http://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/linux/dell/">Dell OMSA hardware and firmware repo</a> for us.<br />
<br />
This way, we have a European mirror available that is also much faster than Dell's native server.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-12917920924540535182011-04-27T17:15:00.001+02:002011-05-05T09:43:09.350+02:00OpenManage 6.5 releasedDell has released version 6.5 of their OpenManage <a href="http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/">repository</a>with firmware and BIOS updates as well as Linux monitoring of hardware found in Dell servers.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-81773651024299107502011-04-27T12:37:00.001+02:002011-05-05T09:43:30.298+02:00VMware: VAAI sweetnessAt work we are in the process of upgrading our VMware infrastructure to vSphere with new Vmax storage from EMC. One of the new features is <a href="http://www.vmware.com/products/vstorage-apis-for-array-integration/overview.html">VAAI</a>, vStorage APIs for Array Integration. This abstracts certain aspects of storage to the SAN layer, where e.g. cloning can be a mere functional call that is then handled transparantly for the layer above.<br />
<br />
Yellow Bricks has a great post on <a href="http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2011/03/24/vaai-sweetness/">VAAI sweetness</a> collected from twitter and gathered or our convenience. Awesome!Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-4267617821897764752011-02-23T17:20:00.001+01:002011-05-05T09:43:56.429+02:00Fixing failing BIOS updates on R710 in LinuxDell's OMSA is great for maintaining and updating a Dell server's firmware, if it works... Dell does a great job so far, but sometimes little quirks mess up small parts and suddenly OMSA will update all or nothing or only a few and then call it quits.<br />
<br />
pjwelsh has written a handy little summary of the various ways with which you can try to still get working, albeit manually: <a href="http://pjwelsh.blogspot.com/2011/02/failed-bios-update-on-r710-with-centos.html">Failed BIOS update on Dell R710 with CentOS 5.5 solved! (Worked around, really)</a>Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-76792996444340216552011-02-23T16:22:00.001+01:002011-05-05T09:44:11.926+02:00Dell's Ubuntu certification detailsDell recently published a little more details about what Ubuntu Certified and Ubuntu Ready <a href="http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/enterprise/b/tech-center/archive/2011/02/15/ubuntu-server-edition-hardware-certification-details.aspx">means</a>. Even though Dell does not officially support Ubuntu, their hardware is labelled as Certified by Canonical and they can also provide with paid support for Enterprises that require it.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-7544917236132679482011-02-23T09:53:00.001+01:002011-05-05T09:44:39.451+02:00Oracle Public Yum ServerBesides having the option to <a href="http://edelivery.oracle.com/linux">download</a> installation media from Oracle (for which you must register), you can use the <a href="http://public-yum.oracle.com/">Oracle Public Yum Server</a> to get packages. For instance, to help solve ad-hoc dependencies. This alleviates you from the need to keep a local mirror available for all Linux releases.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-20816638956040475992011-02-15T15:54:00.001+01:002011-05-05T09:45:10.834+02:00Tuning Journaling File SystemsAlso found this great but slightly dated resource on <a href="http://www.r71.nl/kb/technical/102-tuning-journaling-file-systems">Tuning Journaling File Systems</a>.<br />
<br />
We had a crash of a VM recently with 3 million small files in a single directory. Tuning some mounts with <tt>noatime</tt> and <tt>dir_index</tt> helped a lot. Still tinkering with journaling options, though.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-79593756457142451372011-02-15T15:52:00.002+01:002011-02-23T10:02:54.238+01:00Oracle Linux 6 Release NotesA few days ago, Oracle followed suit by Red Hat and released OEL6. Here are the <a href="http://oss.oracle.com/ol6/docs/RELEASE-NOTES-GA-en.html">Oracle Linux 6 Release Notes</a>.<br />
<br />
At first glance, most notable changes are default ext4 file system. Better performance monitoring and tracking using <tt>perf</tt> and new user space "top" tools, and it no longer uses up2date but instead relies totally on yum. Yummie! Last but not least: the Unbreakable Kernel kernel-uek-2.6.32-100.28.5.el6 is installed and activated by default! This shouldn't matter much, unless you run the latest state-of-the-art hardware and use SSDs a lot. But 3rd party software vendors may like you stepping away from the Red Hat default kernel-2.6.32-71.el6 kernel. So check first!<br />
<br />
OL6 is the first Linux distribution from Oracle where they no longer patch the Red Hat kernel. Instead, they provide the Red Hat kernel as-is as an option to be configured for use in /etc/grub/menu.lst. The default kernel in OL6 is the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel that Oracle maintains itself. As far as I know, this kernel is an OEL5u5 kernel plus fixes and patches.<br />
<br />
Update: <a href="http://blogs.oracle.com/linux/2011/02/oracle_linux_6_dvds_now_available.html">DVDs now online</a> tooDreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-29999338372716013332011-02-03T10:43:00.001+01:002011-05-05T09:50:37.482+02:00Byte-aligning Linux partitions on modern disksLinux uses 512-byte sectors. Hard disks used to too. The emergence of huge TB-sized disks has caused manufacturers to changed to 4096-byte sectors. This change can cause performance degradation on Linux as it's partitions may not be aligned with these bigger sectors. The additional overhead for the disk causes a performance drop.<br />
<br />
This raises the need for aligning your Linux partitions to the new sector size. However, many tools such as fdisk and parted are not yet doing this for you easily. IBM DevWorks has a great in-depth article on the topic: <a href="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-4kb-sector-disks/">Linux on 4KB-sector disks: Practical advice</a>Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-87264327683889488122011-02-03T10:11:00.001+01:002011-02-03T10:20:24.143+01:00Scripting Partition Creation In LinuxI knew I could use fdisk in Linux to create partitions for me from a script. This can come in handy during kickstart for (re)deployment of a server and you don't want to let anaconda handle partitions for you. Or you simply want to be absolutely sure things go as you want, instead of relying on software with unknown bugs or quirks.<br />
<br />
I knew you can use something like:<br />
<pre>fdisk /dev/sda << EOF
n
p
1
t
8e
q
EOF
</pre>
to partition /dev/sda for you with one large partitions and give it type 8e (LVM). (The 'q' is so that those who simply copy this, don't immediately wipe some disk.)
But I was looking for somewhat cleaner, more intuitive style. James Stephens pointed out the <a href="http://www.sns.ias.edu/~jns/wp/2006/03/17/scripting-partition-creation-in-linux-using-fdisk/">use of sfdisk from scripts</a>. While I don't know if sfdisk is less reliable than fdisk or parted, or how to handle byte-aligning disks [<a href="http://people.redhat.com/msnitzer/docs/io-limits.txt">1</a>] [<a href="http://www.sfnomad.com/?p=68">2</a>] [<a href="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-4kb-sector-disks/">3</a>] from these scripts, it's a good place to start and I wanted to document it here.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-38780488182905194182011-01-28T09:57:00.000+01:002011-02-23T09:59:32.757+01:00Oracle Linux 5.6 DVD availableOracle Linux 5.6 makes Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel the default kernel after installation unless you perform a custom installation. Note that Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is available for the x86_64 platform only. The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is delivered via the package <tt>kernel-uek</tt>.Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961248257439764692.post-38059350878343361502010-12-01T09:57:00.002+01:002010-12-02T18:19:07.308+01:00iDRAC6 source codeDell has made the source code to iDRAC6 available online, at least somewhat...You can find the code on <a href="http://support.us.dell.com/support/opensource/Default.aspx">Dell Support</a>. That is code only, no build environment or firmware image creation scripts as required by GPLv3.<br />
<br />
New versions of iDRAC can be found on <a href="http://ftp.us.dell.com/esm/">http://ftp.us.dell.com/esm/</a>. Many thanks to <a href="http://yo61.com/">yo61.com</a> for finding it and publishing it on the <a href="https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge">Dell Linux mailing list</a>.<br />
<br />
Update: Dell gave a better working Dell Support link.<br />
Update: All official Dell <a href="http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smdrac3/">DRAC manuals</a>Dreamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05824087496822119504noreply@blogger.com0