Just heard from the AC repair guy - looks like the water in the ground floor ducts blocked the airflow, and the dirty filter (that I cleaned yesterday in an attempt to help the situation) contributed to a hard freeze of the entire AC system, from the inside coils to the outside compressor unit. Have to leave the fan running and the AC compressor OFF for 3-4 hours to let it melt out. We did discover that the water level dropped enough to get half the first floor air moving again, but I need to do some intensive shop-vac work tonight.
posted by MikeM at 1:52 PM    

 
Sunday was gaming day - and a wonderful game it was! New characters and great times. After the game, I came home and barbecued some hot dogs and hamburgers, then we watched most of Terminator II on cable. Nice night, even though it was very hot indoors.
posted by MikeM at 9:07 AM    

 
Apparently, something in our AC system blew out Friday, because Saturday was rather warm inside, and Sunday the AC system gave up the ghost. We now have a faintly cool breeze coming from the vents, not enough to keep up. It got to 80 indoors, which is not good. Today I get to miss work part of the day to meet with the AC guys and perhaps make arrangements for a replacement of the entire system - it is 28 years old, after all. We also need to get the water out of the floor ducts, and either waterproof them or block them off and fill them with concrete. If we have to block them off, we will need to install wall/ceiling ductwork for the 1st floor, which will not be fun.

I still haven't even started getting materials to install a new drainpipe at the corner of the house yet either. *sigh*
posted by MikeM at 9:06 AM    

 
Yesterday went well, I configured a new 2.6gb system to replace an old 450 - the users should be highly impressed! Since the office runs weekends, and is considered mission-critical, we didn't put it live at 4pm Friday - I have it running as a burn in test period. I'll replace the old system monday.

Installing and updating W2K with Sp3 and all the other patches and such didn't take as long as installing Office XP. Sheesh!

Today Patty and I went shopping, first for groceries and then for shoes and a few other things. I wore out my old work shoes - to the point of holes in the soles. Now I get to break in both new work shoes and tennies. Oh the joy.

Patty is downstairs now watching "Punch Drunk Love" I had to leave and let her watch it alone, mainly because the character played by Adam Sandler is a complete and utter moron, and I cannot put up with that without making constant comments to the screen. I don't know why, it just irritates me no end. While it may well be a great movie, from what I can hear from up here, I don't think I'm missing much. It takes a lot to drive me out of the room - this is one of the few movies to have done it.


posted by MikeM at 8:01 PM    

 
Wow - I logged into Blogger today and they changed the whole format - so far so good. Hopefully everything will work at least as good as it did before the changes.

The AC is off in the building today, but since we have a raised floor (due to the computer room) and the AC cooler fans blow into the under floor (to cool off the server room through vented floor tiles) - I just moved one of those vented tiles to right under my chair. Nice and cool here now.

Of course, I'll be moving it back once the AC comes on, otherwise I'll be shivering.

The last couple of days have been spent configuring a new computer and otherwise planning for the configuration of about 18 more. Three different system types for 5-6 different applications. Good stuff!
posted by MikeM at 8:00 AM    

 
About a week ago I bought one of those CDs from ebay that have 1800 novels on it. Well, suffice it to say that their definition of 'novel' was slightly different from the mainstream. After culling out all the census reports, cia sourcebooks, and other crap documents from the past 15 years, and deleting the multitude of mathematical proofs, listings of PI, powers of 1 through 10, and square/cube roots of 1-100, I was left with about 1200 'novels'. Of those, I deleted all but 250 or so that were simply not to my taste. (By the way, ALL of these documents were from the Gutenburg project, and were available for free. I wonder if the fellow that sold it to me paid them their 20%?)

So, after distilling 1800 to 250, I was left with 250 text files which varied from 30k to 3mb. I further sorted them into folders by author, and for those without author attribution, sorted by subject or just into 'misc'.

Then I wrote a short shell script (linux) to work some conversion magic on them. Here it is :

for h in `ls -d */.`;do

 cd $h

 for j in *.txt; do

  k=${j%.txt}

  mkdir $k

  split -C 150k $j $k/$k-

  rm $j

  cd $k

  for i in * ; do

    sed "s/Untitled/$i/g" /pre.htm >/pre1.htm

    cat /pre1.htm $i /post.htm > $i.htm 

    rm $i

  done

  echo finished with $i

  cd ..

 done

 echo done in $h

cd ..

done

To use this, you should be in a folder containing many other folders, each of which has one or several .txt files in it. The script willl not follow subdirectories, it only works one level deep. .TXT only, by the way. You also need to have two html files, one containing the top part of a web-page, just the HTML open, HEAD open and close, BODY open and PRE open tags, call it pre.htm. The other one is the bottom html stuff, called post.htm. The bottom one should just be an closing PRE tag, as well as the closing BODY and HTML tags. I put these in the root, but you can edit the script and put them wherever you wish.

The script lists all of the directories in the current directory (will not work on txt files in the current folder - move them to a misc folder as needed).
For each directory, it moves into it, then lists the TXT files.
For each TXT file, it creates a directory named the same as the TXT file (without the TXT suffix)
Then it runs the 'split' utility, to chop up the txt file into several smaller files, with the largest file being 150k (just a value I picked). It then copies the resulting files into the new folder named for the text file, naming them OLDFILENAME-aa and so on, where the aa increments through aa, ab, ac, etc.
Then it deletes the original TXT file and changes to the folder named for the txt file.
For each file section, it reads the filename and edits the pre.htm file, saving the edited file as pre1.htm. Then it concatenates the pre1.htm, the txt file itself, and the post.htm, saving the resulting file as an htm file. This converts a txt file into an htm file with a custom header containing the filename. The source txtfile with the aa suffix is then deleted.
Then it backs up a directory level and goes to the next txt file.
Once all the txt files in that folder are done, it backs up and moves to the next folder.

All in all, it worked very nicely, and left me with a structure like this:

c:/books/stoker/Dracula/Dracula-aa.htm
c:/books/stoker/Dracula/Dracula-ab.htm
c:/books/stoker/Dracula/Dracula-ac.htm
c:/books/stoker/Dracula/Dracula-ad.htm
c:/books/stoker/Dracula/Dracula-ae.htm
c:/books/stoker/Dracula/Dracula-af.htm
c:/books/stoker/LairWhiteWorm/LairWhiteWorm-aa.htm
c:/books/stoker/LairWhiteWorm/LairWhiteWorm-ab.htm
c:/books/stoker/LairWhiteWorm/LairWhiteWorm-ac.htm
c:/books/swift/GulliversTravels/GulliversTravels-aa.htm
c:/books/swift/GulliversTravels/GulliversTravels-ab.htm
c:/books/swift/GulliversTravels/GulliversTravels-ac.htm
c:/books/swift/GulliversTravels/GulliversTravels-ad.htm

etc. So each large text file was split into several smaller htm files in their own folder, named after the text file. Works very nicely.

Hopefully some of this long and rambling post will be useful to someone!
posted by MikeM at 9:24 AM    

 
Saturday - Dave & Buster's - got a rack of ribs, enjoyed spending the evening with Patty!

Sunday - saw the Hulk. I'll try not to spoil anything for those of you who haven't seen it yet.

Wait for the DVD.

With any luck, they will have an alternative version released along with the full version, they could call it "The Hulk:Green Time", because the only parts of this movie that are interesting, much less exciting, are the times when he is green. The rest of the movie could be cut with no real loss to the story.

Talk about slow, plodding, dull, boring, poorly scripted, poorly acted, etc etc etc - the script and acting get a D- or an F+. The first half of the movie is throw-away - not even enough to hold my attention, and I really wanted to enjoy this movie. The script is contrived and illogical, not even as rational as the other superhero movies were - X-men, Spider-man, and yes, even the older ones like Captain America and The Punisher (being re-made for some reason...).

The editing was horrible, with split screen and picture-in-picture effects so overused it gave the impression that the film-maker just learned how to do that, and wanted to use those techniques as often as possible to show off how ingenious he was. Distracting, and with this movie, any distraction could be fatal.

Now, the good parts! The Green Parts. When Banner is green, the movie rocks - great effects! Not exactly realistic, but VERY close. The combat scenes were well-done, and even if some of the bad guys were abysmally stupid, the fight scenes were still riveting. Stupid, you ask? OK - without a spoiler how can I put this... OK - you fight a guy, he turns huge and green and throws you through a wall before stomping you through a railing and offhandedly kicking you against a fence. You end up with multiple broken bones and can barely walk with many casts and slings and such.

Then you try to make him angry so that he will turn green again? Alone. Locked into a vault. With him. They guy who already hates you. Stupid, see?

Anyway, the effects and green parts get a B+, for an overall score of maybe a C-. The green parts would make a good DVD - maybe about 20 min total, but still worth renting. The rest of the movie? Well, if you like Sarah from the Labyrinth, you will enjoy seeing Jennifer Connelly act again. I could just see her in several scenes telling Ludo that she was his friend. :)
posted by MikeM at 7:45 AM    

 
Watched three more Buffys - Angel turned evil and Oz discovers he is a werewolf. :) Good shows!

Got home and the vents were full of water again, but this time just two 16 gal loads to empty before I started drawing air. Maybe last night it was running in as fast as I was draining it? Doesn't bode well for the foundation. The vents are cut into the concrete slab the house is built on. For that much water to be flowing into the vents, there must be a sizeable crack/hole thru the foundation and into the vents. Not great.

Hopefully I'll be able to build a french drain or maybe just install a drain pipe under the walkway, that should keep the water level below the foundation level. Otherwise we are looking at serious buckage to get the foundation repaired.
posted by MikeM at 10:23 PM    

 
Well, last night was exciting. I was planning on a relaxing evening watching more Buffy episodes, but just after my last post we had a thunderstorm - had to bail out and shut down the computer real quick. At around 8pm we noticed that the rain was VERY hard, and there was a large lake on our back deck - the concrete part. It was spilling into the flower beds under the windows, and had filled them up. Way up. I walked thru the lake and saw that the water was 4" up the vinyl siding in the bottom corner, where the two (2) drains were apparently both clogged. This, of course, flooded the sunken conversation pit.

About 3 years ago it flooded, and we did major water control along the other side of the house, completely re-landscaped, etc - none of this helped in the least. The water is coming thru the fence from our neighbors, running over/through the deck, then onto the concrete, where it skirts the pool and empties into the flower beds. Then it gets deep enough to run over the walkway, but by then it is far up the house, over the foundation.

It then fills the vents under the floor - there must be a number of leaks. Once the vents fill, it overflows into the den, even while the water is seeping in around the foundation of the fireplace. Double whammy.

What this all boils down to is that I spent 3+ hours last night with the shop vac, a 16 gallon model, which I had to lift out of the sunken den (4" drop), roll across the carpet, through the kitchen, out the back door, and dump on the deck. By then, the water level had dropped and was no longer running across the concrete, so I figured the drain under the deck was working fine. Took over 15 trips - I lost count. I cleared the floor and then tried to empty the vents - which took all but two of those trips. Lots of water in the vents. I'll finish up tonight, most likely, unless we get that sort of a storm again. *sigh*

Plans to correct this? Clean the drains? The blockage is farther than I can reach, and stronger than my drain snake.
Install a drainpipe - this might work. We'll see.
posted by MikeM at 8:00 AM    

 
Feeling better, but still have the last remnants of vertigo and nausea. Wonderful day - couldn't use the computer because it made me dizzier. Couldn't sit in the living room because the sunlight flashing thru the spinning ceiling fan made a wonderful strobe effect that made me nauseous, and lying down made it better in the short term, until the room started spinning. *sigh*. I eventually settled for sleeping - once I got to sleep, I wasn't dizzy.

I felt a bit better around 10, but still couldn't do much, but by then the clouds had moved in and blocked the sun so I could sit and read with the TV on the cable "electronica" music channel. Wonderful background music. I am nearly done with Linux Server Hacks, even after reading several sections over and over because I kept nodding off.

Hopefully I'll be better tomorrow - have much planning and research to do at work - the grapevine has it that we are moving to the new site beginning this time next month. The new building is great, modern wiring and such, but there is a LOT of network planning and such to do.
posted by MikeM at 7:25 PM    

 
Woke up, got out of bed, staggered across the room and fell into the wall. Have to use the wall to stay upright - I am so dizzy...

Perhaps this is a signal that I should stay home today. Ah well, perhaps I can read my new books - learn something work-related while I'm out.

I'm supposed to get my hair cut today, and as I feel right this moment, I don't want to drive. Hopefully I will be feeling better at 6pm.
posted by MikeM at 6:58 AM    

 
Well, more rain. We had a few nice days over the weekend, and now there has been some rain every day since, and it is raining now.

On Monday I completed the bootable CD-ROM - the process took about 4-5 hours once I got the basics down - the process of copying the files, compressing the file system, creating the ISO image and burning the CD are very time-consuming. But the end result is that I now have a better idea of exactly how to make my own custom bootable CD's - that could be used for several purposes. I have already fallen prey to that well known mindset that once you have a new hammer, everything looks like a nail. I find myself trying to make a case for bootable CDs for a lot of not-so-useful applications.

Yesterday I got in three books I just ordered : Linux Server Hacks, Hacker's Challenge 2, and Stealing the Network: How to Own the Box - should be some good reading once I get done with my current projects! Right now, I'm reading Sympathy for the Devil, by Holly Lisle in html format on my Zaurus, as well as Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson in softback format.

I'll end up waiting a few months to get the new Harry Potter book - I only want the trade paperback version, not the hardback. I'm still reading the fan fiction from Cassandra Claire - she finished chapter 13 of Draco Veritas just a few days ago!
posted by MikeM at 8:13 AM    

 
Welcome to Monday - got in and first thing I saw was that apparently Norton AV got an update over the weekend, and quarantined part of my security toolset. Lovely. Ah well, never used those tools anyway. I kinda wish they were more selective, the tools they quarantined were not viruses or trojans, just tools for portscanning and such. Intrusive AV.

Sunday was spent with friends, watching TV and having a nice spaghetti dinner, complete with garlic toast.
posted by MikeM at 7:44 AM    

 
Today was spent swimming - first time I have been in the pool all day. I got a little burnt. Yeah. A little. :)

After that, we went to Sam's Club to pick up a couple of lounge chairs, like the cruise ships have, the heavy aluminum ones - very very nice, and not bad for $58 each. Of course, fitting both of them into the back of the Protoge meant a little creative forcing, ugly noises, and multiple ropes with knots. I thought I had scratched one side badly, but I couldn't find any damage after we got them home. Alls well that ends well!

Last night after work, we watched five more Buffy episodes, and we just watched two more. We are into the second season now, and Kendra just made herself known. :)
posted by MikeM at 10:52 PM    

 
Friday I managed to get the preliminaries done on creating a custom bootable knoppix CD - we need a nearly-full version of linux that understands pcmcia scsi cards - tomsrtbt does not, apparently - so I used the back-end partition of my w2k work computer, reformatting it under ext2 in knoppix, setting up a 1gb swapfile, etc. That left 6gb to expand, customize, and re-create the ISO for the knoppix CD. Monday I will finish it off.

We needed it to have a one-CD solution for restoring a Data General system drive if needed. The microcode is 'fragile', in that no normal backup routine will get it right, so we use DD and gzip it from 520mb to about 65mb. That fits nicely on the Knoppix CD once I remove openoffice. :)

The main help site for customizing Knoppix is here, and another one that was very helpful is here.
posted by MikeM at 10:48 PM    

 
After a day or so of running tests, making boot diskettes and cd's and trying New Things... We finally have a backup solution for networked computers that do not need to be backed up very often.

We boot a system on tomsrtbt - and I created a bootable CD of it as well - and then configure the resulting linux system for the network. I have specific IPs available and authorized to connect to the storage server. Once the networking is correct and we can ping the storage server :

On target server : nc -p {portnumber} -l | dd of=filename.dd bs=4096k
On source machine : dd if=/dev/hda1 bs=4096k | nc {ip of target server} {portnumber}

This gives us about 4mb per 2 seconds, or about 10gb in just over an hour and a half. Of course, this is an image, so it will be the same size as the partition you are backing up... We then have a crontab script that bzip2 compresses the resulting dd files later that night.

Recovery promises to be simple, as long as the target drive is partitioned the same as the original one was.

On the con sides, you can't recover specific files, and you really need that network interface. Otherwise you need to copy the (uncompressed) dd file to some portable media that you can read with a linux system (tomsrtbt). I suppose an external usb drive would work fine if needed.

So:
1. We can use this Linux dd-nc method, where we cannot recover files, but complete system restores are easy.
2. We can use Ghost, where we can recover files and do a complete restore easily, but cannot store the image on the network - we have to store it to a local fat partition and then copy it to the network later if we want it there. I understand that perhaps the newer versions allow you to store the image on a local ntfs partition, and the enterprise $$$ version allows network storage. We would like to avoid that.
3. We can use Windows Backup, where we can recover files if needed, but a complete system restore is iffy.
4. We can use a smbtar method, but that only gets files that are not in use or protected by the OS.
5. We can purchase BrightStor licenses and back them up to the tape library, BUT as we have seen from the problems with the existing w2k server, this method is not exactly optimum. It generates a large percentage of errors on the w2k's port on the switch, and can result in network denial from massive numbers of port reconnections.

I'm leaning towards a combination of 1 and 3 - so we have file by file restore for most files, and a good system image to fall back on. We might supplement this with ghost - need to research it more first.
posted by MikeM at 2:37 PM    

 
I forgot to mention a few days ago that I figured out how to make my flashcard reader stable...

The problem was that while the reader was installed correctly and appeared to work fine for SD cards, when I put a CF card in it the system would lock up.

The solution was to leave the reader disconnected from the USB cable. To use it, plug in whatever card you need to read, plug in the reader to the usb cable, and the computer detects it and works perfectly. When you are done, eject the drive (although this does nothing obvious) then use the "unplug or eject hardware' icon on the taskbar to disable the usb card reader, then pull the cards out and unplug the usb cable.

A bit strange, but works fine for me!
posted by MikeM at 1:51 PM    

 
Unfortunately, the Ducks lost. Ah well. Congrats to all those Devils fans whose team brought home the cup!

At work, tinkered with Knoppix - couldn't get it to mount an exported nfs volume from another server - locked up every time, and this on two platforms. Gave up.

Toms Root Boot was working until the diskette somehow got horked. I'll be trying to make a bootable cd-rw from toms root boot images tomorrow, then booting to it, editing the defaults, re-creating the iso, then re-burning a custom boot cd. Hopefully it will work!
posted by MikeM at 11:28 PM    

 
Well, tonight is the last game of the Stanley Cup Finals! New Jersey Devils vs Anaheim Mighty Ducks, both teams have won 3 games out of the 7 game series.

At work today I tinkered with using Tom's Root Boot diskette to do a dd backup from a Windows NT box to a shared folder on a linux server on the network. Worked just fine once I worked the kinks out of the exports file. That and actually used the correct path to mount the volume. *grin*

One problem - if the partition is over 2gb, it won't work. *sigh* Tomorrow, I'll work with Scott on using nc (netcat) to assist the dd transfer. I understand that this might overcome the 2gb limit on nfs mounts. I also need to get some form of compression inline, to avoid having to gzip or bzip2 all of the backup files once they are in place on the network server. This is all an alternative to using Ghost - which works nicely, but not over the network without a lot of hassle.
posted by MikeM at 7:28 PM    

 
OH! A hilarious comic strip - read them all! this one is about the SCO vs IBM & Linux controversy. Too funny!
posted by MikeM at 7:20 PM    

 
Here is another page on Absinthe - la Fee Verte: Absinthe FAQ. Lots of details and information here.
posted by MikeM at 7:10 PM    

 
We watched Moulon Rouge again last night - and just like last time, I was tempted to order some Absinthe. BUT the shipping cost is rather high, and the legality somewhat questionable. *sigh*

I suppose I will never satisfy my curiosity about this drink.
posted by MikeM at 7:06 PM    

 
North Korea - Admits Nuke Plans - country run by idiots?
posted by MikeM at 7:02 PM    

 
Working all weekend sure doesn't leave much room for other things!

I am now officially sleep-deprived, but hopefully I can take a nap when I get home this afternoon. Yesterday I was at work by 7am, got home around 4pm and watched the last Buffy from season one. Last night we babysat for our friends, and got home around 11:30pm. (The Mighty Ducks won! Stanley Cup Series is tied up 3:3 - Monday Night 8pm on ABC for the FINAL GAME!)

Today, at work by 7am again, but hopefully I will be home by 2-3pm, at which point we may or may not go to a movie - plans are in the hands of the Activities Director (Patty).

I have been over at Baen Books a lot - they have a decent sized collection of fantasy and science fiction books available for FREE download in several formats! These books are the ones I have been reading on my Zaurus. Right now I am reading one of the last mini-novels in Keith Laumer's Odyssey - Dinosaur Planet. Time Travel, well-meaning interference, misguided do-goodery. :)
posted by MikeM at 7:38 AM    

 
Back in March, I found this article - Incident Response Tools For Unix, Part One: System Tools - to be very informative. I have since emailed the edotirs of the website and got a response that the next part of the article should be out in mid June. I'll post that link as well when it becomes available.
posted by MikeM at 10:20 AM    

 
The New Madrid fault in Kentucky just experienced a 4.5 magnitude earthquake. This is the one that is overdue for a large earthquake. Due to the composition of the underlying rocks on the east coast, any earthquake will be felt many times farther away, and do much more damage than an equivalent quake on the west coast.
posted by MikeM at 10:14 AM    

 
Another email virus - Sobig-c
posted by MikeM at 10:09 AM    

 
A new virus - BugBear-B is spreading quickly - be very cautious when opening ANY attachment. I rarely open attachments anymore unless I am expecting them.
posted by MikeM at 10:08 AM    

 
I have been reading through this guy's website - trying to understand the methodology behind creating custom OS boot CDs. I intend to eventually have a Knoppix boot CD that is customized for my needs, and maybe a recovery disk for W2K as well.
posted by MikeM at 3:10 PM    

 
Busy? no time to read? Try Ultra-Condensed Books.
posted by MikeM at 1:16 PM    

 
The test of the full backup went well yesterday - I watched the switch port that the w2k server was on, and at the moment the backup began, the error rate jumped from none to 5+, and varied from 3-10 throughout the duration. No other server caused any errors that I could see. Perhaps next Wed I'll watch again with more monitors active, but I think we have a bad BEB client - causing errors. When I use the MS Backup to copy the 7 gb backup file to another server, no errors at all. Only the BEB backup generates the errors, and only with the W2K server. *sigh* We'll have to watch it closely.

Tonight Patty and I go to a play at the Olney Theatre - Noel Coward's 'Private Lives' - and the 5th Stanley Cup Final game is tonight...VHS to the rescue!

The pool is getting cleaner - I installed the cleaning-bot and started it up, but since I have to empty the bag and line filter every hour or so, I don't have it running right now. Perhaps in a week or so we can actually swim? (BTW - we nicknamed the cleaner-bot 'Felix', after the Odd Couple - because he keeps everything clean...) Maggie knows that name, and if we ask her "Where's Felix?" she runs to the window/door and barks excitedly. She loves to run and chase Felix around the pool, and bites at his tail when it pops up over the edge occasionally. (Scrub-brush tail to scrub the sides and bottom, as well as move the debris around a bit to make it easier to pick up on the next pass). Funny to watch her doing laps around the edge of the pool, especially when she oversteers and slips in. :) She is a great swimmer, and knows to go to the steps to get out, but we still don't let her play with Felix if we aren't out there. Doting parents, that's us!

Played a little Mechwarrior 4 last night - got trounced, so I switched mechs, then got trounced again. *sigh* I enjoy it anyway. :)
posted by MikeM at 7:46 AM    

 
As for personal stuff, over the weekend at some point I completed Keith Laumer's 'On The Lighter Side' - not bad - a bunch of short stories and novellas, and began reading his "Odyssey" series. Very good so far - the Space Opera genre, where a simple human goes interstellar and makes himself a force to be reckoned with. So far I like it a lot! BTW - all this recent reading has been on the Zaurus SL5500 - nice unit! I think I need another memory card though. :) I Keep running out of space!

Patty and I are keeping up with the Stanley Cup finals - so far the best of seven game series is tied 2:2! Makes for exciting hockey!
Jersey Devils and Anaheim Mighty Ducks, for those who are mildly interested, but don't know who made the finals. :)

We got the pool opened, even though the distribution valve was cracked and had to be replaced - everything is looking good, the water cleared up to a nice clear blue instead of cloudy green, and once it stops raining long enough for me to get the cleaner-bot going, we can get all the silt and leaves out of the bottom and make it perfect. Then after another week of testing and treating, it should be open! Of course, with the recent weather, it could be July before it is warm enough to actually get in!
posted by MikeM at 8:23 AM    

 
Yesterday we decided to try another approach to perhaps resolve the network problems of using BEB to backup the W2K server - we rescheduled the backup for noon instead of 7pm. No other backups are going on, so there is more network bandwidth. Also, if something goes wrong, we will be on-site to correct it before the DG decides to drop its connections.
posted by MikeM at 8:15 AM    

 
Monday was a pretty good day - work went well, with us troubleshooting the difficulties of Friday night. After more work Tuesday, and many tests, we were unable to reproduce the problem, but I think I have at least a rough understanding of what happened:
1> BrightStor connects to W2K server - several months ago, when backups would fail, the connection/port was being dropped due to corrupted packets. We changed the reconnect port and it began functioning.
2> Now it reconnects. A lot. If the network is stressed, and the W2K server is dropping ports to BEB, it reconnects a lot - like 1500+ connections in under 90 min. Each connection termination means another corrupted packet, adding to the ones that caused the port to be dropped.
3> Thus we end up with hundreds of dead ports and only 1 or 2 live ones, huge IP input error numbers on the BEB server side, and huge IP output error numbers on the W2K side.
4> When the network is pushing 70-80% utilization, with 30% retransmits due to errors, and hundreds of ports being occupied by the reconnecting BEB software, the clients that need 24-7 access to this W2K server sometimes get dropped or refused - which takes the client offline.
5> When the client is offline, it doesn't talk to the Data General server, who (since there is no response to queries) decides that its network card is dead and locks up. *sigh*
posted by MikeM at 8:13 AM    

 
I got a call from work Friday night - after troubleshooting the problem, it appears that the 'fixed' backup client on the W2K server is making backups just fine, but really chewing up the network while doing so. After we changed the default reconnect port on it, it now reconnects fine, but it is doing so at such a rate that it is generating 25-40% lost packets and retransmits. Not good. When a 100mb pipe gets so full of malformed packets and retransmits that 10mb clients get kicked off of the network, and thus cause the critical applications to fail... Mucho Not Good.

We get to revisit this Monday, wish me luck.
posted by MikeM at 10:48 PM    

 
As far as computers, I think I will put my Dell 500SC up for sale. It has Red Hat 9 on it, and as it has an 80 gb drive in it, it should be quite useful to someone. 128mb Ram, on-board video (standard-issue server - not up to gaming standards), and a Celeron processor - I think 1.8, but I could be wrong. Would make a good server for someone, or perhaps a desktop for office needs.
posted by MikeM at 10:45 PM    

 
Nice relaxing weekend! Saturday we went out for breakfast (Bob Evans') and then went to Home Depot and picked up some dirt and hardwood mulch. 40 lbs of dirt = 60 lbs of mud. but hey, mud is easy to spread, at least. We got some flowers and such as well. Then we went to Borders and got the latest Linkin Park CD, the Platinum version of the Lord of the Rings : Fellowship of the Ring movie, and a couple of books. The Platinum version of the LOTR movie has 4 DVDs for $35. The super special version (for $75) includes the four Platinum DVDs, two bookends and a bonus DVD of the National Geographic special on the LOTR and movie sites. Whee. We got the $35 one.

Today I went to the AD&D game - we accomplished quite a lot, and if my character actually lives to achieve another level, he will be quite dangerous to small vermin and the occasional fierce lemur.

After I got home, we watched Fierce Creatures again - excellent movie, hilarious and if you like Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, John Cleese and Michael Palin, you will enjoy this movie. The same bunch from 'A Fish Called Wanda' - yet another highly-recommended movie.
posted by MikeM at 10:42 PM