Virtual Infrastructures

Solaris 10 - Useful Links

lalapet — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:55:52 +0000

Service Management Facility How To Guide From SUN

Service Management Facility Blue Print Article from SUN

All Things Virtual

lalapet — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 02:40:13 +0000

An interesting blog on virtualization and cloud computing at www.appliv.com.

Online Backup vs. Tape Backup

lalapet — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:19:40 +0000

With the increased reliance on computers and digital storage, companies across the board find themselves paying a great deal of attention on ensuring that mission critical data is protected to maintain business continuity. Traditionally, tapes were used to backup critical data. However, online backup solutions are widespread these days and offer several advantages over tape backups.

1. There is no hardware or software to buy in most online backup solutions. There is nothing to maintain. Tape backup systems, however, require the purchase of hardware, tape backup software in some cases, and the actual tapes.

2. Online data backup implies that the data is stored safely offsite, typically at a providers data center. With tape backups, the tapes will have to be transported offsite incurring additional costs.

3. Online backup is reliable whereas tape backup is not. There is no guarantee that the data on a tape can be restored when it is needed the most, during disaster recovery. In addition, the time taken to restore data from a tape is far greater than the time taken to restore from an online repository.

4. Tape drives become obsolete in less than a couple of years. Tapes need to be replaced due to wear and tear. With online backup, there is nothing to replace and one does not need to keep up with the changes in technology since the entire process of backing up is handling seamlessly by the service provider.

Creating OpenVZ Containers on Debian Etch

lalapet — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 01:57:18 +0000

1. Add the OpenVZ repository to the /etc/apt/sources.list. To do this, add the line
deb http://download.openvz.org/debian-systs etch openvz in the sources.list file.

2. Run wget -q http://download.openvz.org/debian-systs/dso_archiv_signing_key.asc -O- | apt-key add - && apt-get update. The repository contains six OpenVZ kernels. Choose one and install.

In this example, the fzakernel-2.6.18-686 kernel was selected and installed using the following command
apt-get install fzakernel-2.6.18-686

3. If the GRUB boot loader is not updated, then update it using the command
update-grub

4. Install OpenVZ tools and a minimal Debian Etch template. This minimum OS template will be used to create virtual machines.
apt-get install vzctl vzquota vzctl-ostmpl-debian vzprocps vzdump

5. Create a symbolic link
ln -s /var/lib/vz /vz

6. Open the /etc/sysctl.conf file and make sure the following lines are present
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter=1
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts=1
net.ipv4.conf.default.forwarding=1
net.ipv4.conf.default.proxy_arp = 0
net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
kernel.sysrq = 1
net.ipv4.conf.default.send_redirects = 1
net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects = 0

If you modified the file, run sysctl -p

Edit /etc/vz/vz.conf and set
NEIGHBOUR_DEVS=all

7. Reboot using the new kernel.
uname -r should return 2.6.18-12-fza-686

8. Create a minimal VM form the minimal Debian Etch template (/var/lib/vz/template/cache) by using the command
vzctl create 62 –ostemplate debian-4.0-i386-minimal –config vps.basic

Note: Make sure OpenVZ is running
/etc/init.d/vz status
Start it using
/etc/init.d/vz start

The 62 is a unique ID. Each VM has a unique ID. In our example we used 192.168.1.62 for the IP address and the hostname was open62

Set the hostname, ip address, number of sockets, and nameservers

vzctl set 62 –hostname open62 –save
vzctl set 62 –ipadd 192.168.1.62 –save
vzctl set 62 –numothersock 62 –save
vzctl set 62 –nameserver 68.238.96.12 –nameserver 68.238.112.12 –save

To start on boot
vzctl set 62 –onboot yes –save

9. To start the vm
vzctl start 62
To set a root password
vzctl exec 62 passwd
Login from console using
vzctl enter 62
(or use putty)
To exit console, type exit
To stop the vm
vzctl stop 62
To restart
vzctl restart 62
To delete
vzctl destroy 62
To list vm’s
vzlist -a
To get info about allocated resources
vzctl exec 62 cat /proc/user_beancounters.
The failcnt column should have all zeros. If not, make changes to the vm’s config file.

Using Openfiler Storage Appliance with VMware Workstation 6

lalapet — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:45:34 +0000

1. Download the virtual appliance (iso image) from www.openfiler.com

2. Create a new virtual machine using the VMware Workstation wizard. Create a “Typical” VM but use “Other” for Guest Operating System and Version. Install the Openfiler 2.3 appliance using the downloaded iso image. Add another dedicated hard drive (IDE was used in this example) to the virtual machine for storing data.

3. Assume that the Openfiler VM has a static IP of 192.168.1.20. You can use a browser to access Openfiler’s web management interface using a SSL session and port 446; for example https://192.168.1.20:446. Login using the default username “openfiler” and default password “password”.

4. To create a volume group, you need to have a physical volume. Then go to the Volume Group Management section and create one or more volume groups. Specify a name for the volume group and associate it with the physical volume that will make up the volume group. Then create a Logical Volume under a Volume Group. Give it a name, such as, lv01.

Next create a Share under the Logical Volume. To do this go to the “Shares” tab and create a sub-directory under the logical volume. Click on the sub-directory and share it.

Example Share: /mnt/test/lv01/dog, where

test = volume group; lv01 = logical volumne; dog = shared sub-directory

Click on Accounts tab; go to the Expert View.

If appropriate, add your Workgroup name in the Domain / Workgroup text box even if you are not using a Domain. Leave the Use Windows domain controller and authentication box unchecked.

Share access control mode is set to Public guest access. Enable SMB/CIFS RW option.

Under the Systems tab, under the Network Access Configuration…

Name = Your network’s name; Network/Host = 192.168.1.0 (in this example); Netmask = 255.255.255.0 (in this example); Type = Share

To access the shared folder from, say, Windows Explorer, use \\192.168.1.20\test.lv01.dog. To map this drive, use \\192.168.1.20/test.lv01.dog

Online Backup

lalapet — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:26:22 +0000

With the advent of high speed connectivity to internet, latest encryption technology
and Byte Patching technology, online backup has become a simple and secure
option for data backup. The inherent advantage of online backup is that the backup
data is stored in an offsite location without requiring any transportation or media
handling. Though network based data backup has been in existence for several
years, certain recent key technological breakthroughs have enabled network
based backup to go offsite. The key components are Bandwidth Optimization
and Encryption.

Our online backup is unlike other automated online backup services.
Our support team monitors every client’s backup and notifies them of
any irregularities.

Online Backup Bandwidth Optimization: We use a unique Byte Patching
technology that reduces incremental backup sizes by over 90%. Other
competing techniques, such as block level incremental backup have much
larger incremental backup size. Keeping the incremental backup size to
minimum is critical to ensure daily offsite backup of ever-growing data
using nominal speed Internet connections like DSL or T1.