From strata at virtual.net Thu Nov 4 18:33:11 2004 From: strata at virtual.net (Strata R. Chalup) Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 18:33:11 -0800 Subject: BayLISA Monthly: 11/18/04: Programming the Bourne Again Shell (bash), Mark Soebell Message-ID: <418AE667.4070104@virtual.net> BayLISA Monthly Technical Talk & General Meeting Please RSVP to rsvp at baylisa.org so that we can get an idea of how many will be attending. This event is open to the general public. You do not need to be a member to attend. ********** BayLISA Elections TONIGHT ************** -------- Where: Apple Computer, Town Hall Auditorium Addr: Four Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA http://www.baylisa.org/locations/ -------- Date: Thursday, 18 November 2004 Time: 7:30pm - 9:30pm PST Programming the Bourne Again Shell (bash) Mark Soebell Mark will cover various aspects of bash shell programming, and include tips to help you read and understand scripts that come with a system. Topics include positional (command line) parameters, command substitution, control structures, debugging shell scripts, and checking arguments. In addition to discussing elements of the bash programming language, Mark will walk through some scripts to give an idea of how the elements fit together. Mark G. Sobell, author of many best-selling books, including A Practical Guide to the UNIX System, UNIX System V: A Practical Guide, A Practical Guide to Solaris, A Practical Guide to Linux, and A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux (all from Addison Wesley), as well as A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux 2/e (Prentice Hall), has more than twenty-five years of experience working with UNIX and Linux. He is the president of Sobell Associates Inc., a consulting firm that designs and builds custom software applications for UNIX and Linux systems and provides training and support. -------- BayLISA meets every month on the 3rd Thursday of the month. A short period of announcements of general interest to the sysadmin community is presented, followed by a technical talk. Anyone may make an announcement; typical are upcoming presentations, user group meetings, employment offers, etc. For further information on BayLISA, check out our web site: http://www.baylisa.org/ Directions and details about the current meeting and future events: http://www.baylisa.org/events/ BayLISA makes video tapes of the meetings available to members. Tape library is often available at the general meeting, or for more information on available videos, please send email to "video at baylisa.org". If you have suggestions for speakers, or would like to volunteer to present a talk at one of our meetings, please email the Board and Working Group at "blw at baylisa.org". Thanks! -------- -- ======================================================================== Strata Rose Chalup [KF6NBZ] strata "@" virtual.net VirtualNet Consulting http://www.virtual.net/ ** Project Management & Architecture for ISP/ASP Systems Integration ** ========================================================================= From bill at wards.net Tue Nov 9 12:16:51 2004 From: bill at wards.net (William R Ward) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 12:16:51 -0800 Subject: Peninsula Linux Users' Group, Thursday, Nov 11, 2004 Message-ID: <16785.9651.513557.600888@komodo.home.wards.net> We have a meeting of the Peninsula Linux Users' Group (PenLUG) this week! Here are the details about this meeting. For more information or directions go to http://www.penlug.org/ Our website is a TWiki; please feel free to create a user account and modify the website if you have something to contribute. Thanks! Date: Thursday, November 11, 2004 Time: 7:00 - 9:00 PM Location: 100 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 Room 1op104 Agenda: ======= This month's meeting will use a new format. Instead of having one long presentation by one person, we will have several shorter presentations, each 20-30 minutes long, on topics relating to a common theme. The theme for the meeting is "Collaboration Tools." 7:00 - 8:45 PM: Collaboration Tools presentations 8:45 - 9:00 PM: Business Meeting 9:00 PM: Adjourn to IHOP (Belmont) for social & food time Collaboration Tools presentations ================================= We will have several shorter presentations on various collaboration tools that can be used with Linux: * John McCaughey, "WebHuddle" * Harald Collet, "Oracle Files Online" * Les Kopari, "SVJLL - the Silicon Valley Job Listings List" * Bill Ward, "How Blogging Works" Business Meeting ================ We will have a business meeting to discuss the organizational structure of the group. If you've been wanting to help out with the group behind the scenes, or have ideas for how to run it, please attend and give your ideas. RSVP ==== Although it is NOT required, we like to have an idea of how many people to expect, so if possible please email rsvp at penlug.org if you are planning to attend. -- William R Ward bill at wards.net http://bill.wards.net ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help save the San Jose Earthquakes - http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/ From david at catwhisker.org Tue Nov 9 16:13:51 2004 From: david at catwhisker.org (David Wolfskill) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 16:13:51 -0800 (PST) Subject: rwhois server setup hints & tips? Message-ID: <200411100013.iAA0Dp9s008185@bunrab.catwhisker.org> OK; I've used "whois" for longer than I can recall... but I've never had occasion -- before now -- to set up an rwhois server. Installing the software is (thanks to the FreeBSD "ports" system) just about trivial. And I've got things set up so the server actually runs, and in a chrooted environment, no less (as user "nobody" in an NFS-less environment). But getting all the data put in the right places is seeming a bit daunting about now. I know about and , and I did glance over RFC 2167 briefly. But I'm just trying to get the thing running -- ideally, in a way so that I can ignore it for the rest of my life, because I have an adequate supply of other things to do (as the vast majority of those reading this message undoubtedly do, too). Pointers to information that will help me approximate that ideal will be appreciated. Thanks! Peace, david -- David H. Wolfskill david at catwhisker.org I resent spammers because spam is a DoS attack on my time. See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for public key. From baylisa-local at merlins.org Thu Nov 11 11:39:27 2004 From: baylisa-local at merlins.org (Marc MERLIN) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:39:27 -0800 Subject: Where to buy UPS batteries? Message-ID: <20041111193927.GK32543@merlins.org> Usually, I buy mine at the monthly flea market at Lockheed, but there won't be a new one until next year. I need 3 12V "standard size" batteries (the ones that you get by default in most UPSes). Where would you say I can pick them up without being gauged completely? (i.e. paying as much/more than a new UPS) I'm ok with either new or lightly used (as long as the wear is the same on all of them) Marc -- "A mouse is a device used to point at the xterm you want to type in" - A.S.R. Microsoft is to operating systems & security .... .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking Home page: http://marc.merlins.org/ | Finger marc_f at merlins.org for PGP key From david at catwhisker.org Thu Nov 11 12:04:24 2004 From: david at catwhisker.org (David Wolfskill) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 12:04:24 -0800 (PST) Subject: Where to buy UPS batteries? In-Reply-To: <20041111193927.GK32543@merlins.org> Message-ID: <200411112004.iABK4OOW014862@bunrab.catwhisker.org> >Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:39:27 -0800 >From: Marc MERLIN >I need 3 12V "standard size" batteries (the ones that you get by default in >most UPSes). >Where would you say I can pick them up without being gauged completely? >(i.e. paying as much/more than a new UPS) >I'm ok with either new or lightly used (as long as the wear is the same on >all of them) I recently had occasion to replace the 5 batteries in my main UPS, as well as the 10 in its expansion cabinet. After posting here and getting some feedback, I bought 15 batteries from Rage Batteries, in San Diego (). The price was toward the low end of the range of prices I found online, and shipping wasn't near as bad as I expected it to be (UPS ground). (I happened to be home when they came; I told the UPS driver that she didn't need to carry the second box all the way up the stairs to our front door, as I'd just be taking them into the garage anyway.) The replacement appears to have been successful. I have not had much occasion to test the UPS under its production load (which is fine by me), though I did test it a bit with various test loads before re-deploying it. The batteries appear to be new. Peace, david -- David H. Wolfskill david at catwhisker.org I resent spammers because spam is a DoS attack on my time. See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for public key. From baylisa-local at merlins.org Thu Nov 11 13:20:57 2004 From: baylisa-local at merlins.org (Marc MERLIN) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 13:20:57 -0800 Subject: Where to buy UPS batteries? In-Reply-To: <200411112004.iABK4OOW014862@bunrab.catwhisker.org> References: <20041111193927.GK32543@merlins.org> <200411112004.iABK4OOW014862@bunrab.catwhisker.org> Message-ID: <20041111212057.GM32543@merlins.org> On Thu, Nov 11, 2004 at 12:04:24PM -0800, David Wolfskill wrote: > >I need 3 12V "standard size" batteries (the ones that you get by default in > >most UPSes). > >Where would you say I can pick them up without being gauged completely? > >(i.e. paying as much/more than a new UPS) > >I'm ok with either new or lightly used (as long as the wear is the same on > >all of them) > > I recently had occasion to replace the 5 batteries in my main UPS, as > well as the 10 in its expansion cabinet. After posting here and getting > some feedback, I bought 15 batteries from Rage Batteries, in San Diego > (). Thanks for the link. I found the one I need: http://www.ragebattery.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?LNG=en-US&Session_ID=942597969b8c6380766a37296e930cca&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PSH-1280&Category_Code=ps-12v $12/battery is quite reaonsable. If I don't find anything locally for instant satisfaction :) I'll order from them. Thanks Marc -- "A mouse is a device used to point at the xterm you want to type in" - A.S.R. Microsoft is to operating systems & security .... .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking Home page: http://marc.merlins.org/ | Finger marc_f at merlins.org for PGP key From wolfgang+gnus-baylisa at dailyplanet.dontspam.wsrcc.com Fri Nov 12 18:11:28 2004 From: wolfgang+gnus-baylisa at dailyplanet.dontspam.wsrcc.com (Wolfgang S. Rupprecht) Date: 12 Nov 2004 18:11:28 -0800 Subject: Where to buy UPS batteries? References: <20041111193927.GK32543@merlins.org> Message-ID: Seeing how it is the season to refurbish one's UPS and lots of folks had great ideas on where to find high-current UPS batteries, I figured I've venture a question in the same vein. I just got a nice APC Back-UPS RS 1500 and it has a connector on the back for adding external batteries. I'd love to add two large 12v deep-cycle batteries externally if only I could find the proper connector. I'm pretty sure this is the same connector that APC uses internally on their 24v RBC33 (2x 12v 7ah) cartridge. Does anyone know where I can find some dead 24v battery packs they haven't recycled yet and still have the APC cable and connectors on them? -wolfgang -- Wolfgang S. Rupprecht http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/ When you talk to musicians about pirates they think you are talking about the RIAA. From jxh at jxh.com Sat Nov 13 08:56:26 2004 From: jxh at jxh.com (Jim Hickstein) Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 08:56:26 -0800 Subject: Where to buy UPS batteries? In-Reply-To: References: <20041111193927.GK32543@merlins.org> Message-ID: > Does anyone know where I can find some dead 24v battery packs they > haven't recycled yet and still have the APC cable and connectors on > them? Not exactly, but the series is, I think, the Anderson PowerPole?. They have a line of DC connectors. From fscked at pacbell.net Sat Nov 13 09:47:16 2004 From: fscked at pacbell.net (richard childers / kg6hac) Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 09:47:16 -0800 Subject: Where to buy UPS batteries? In-Reply-To: <20041111193927.GK32543@merlins.org> References: <20041111193927.GK32543@merlins.org> Message-ID: <419648A4.5030901@pacbell.net> Radio Shack? (-: Marc MERLIN wrote: >Usually, I buy mine at the monthly flea market at Lockheed, but there won't >be a new one until next year. > >I need 3 12V "standard size" batteries (the ones that you get by default in >most UPSes). >Where would you say I can pick them up without being gauged completely? >(i.e. paying as much/more than a new UPS) >I'm ok with either new or lightly used (as long as the wear is the same on >all of them) > >Marc > > -- Richard Childers / Senior Engineer Daemonized Networking Services 945 Taraval Street, #105 San Francisco, CA 94116 USA [011.]1.415.759.5571 http://www.daemonized.com 'A well-schooled electorate, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and read Books, shall not be infringed.' -- (Attributed to J. Neil Shulman) -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (FreeBSD) mQGiBECGpfsRBACoPJJfIIrWAqjlW92TtYCtY//e7OW8alWylr/1ygtSQzjCCdvC Ysa0fCcx01UenlWV+5YY/zC7KPsX2rQUKAs20fqs9et74dmgMGOj0vMjTzWEs29G FyAsIRSpFioa8zzrjXEUVnU6OFaD9a9eaC+LSTCiKgXjbQySDKM5T1c+vwCg8W3Y RZ83LRIUULGMPlY6zS4fQwUEAIIiTHDdWpbE+HeREJwH+4eDpGVf76XtNlOMXrt9 tJ3ExL+9ezLulg1nCrOYodOB7TEZqzV40R7emDZSX0hI9QEBCv6nW5aDVpw/bf+q UEHwxrUvE2LBi35hoqR2QwqNlagOauSorWj8Qm/31luxJVeLVy1A1czp6B/mvG1T co03A/9a5kzEAebJ5TzWXQC2/4gu/osXQnrw9B9FFpYOtLc0MNQuAFt8VLn5yO5Q 8T58w+FQvFI5FqzI5URmjQeEyWWuyIechknk4RnwIO1UPVjgRTuNgf9/TvNNfqpa aVlbNp+AG21D6VqsFN2zJFFJeUqiYdXw6i+ESL3SZRymIhwYWrQ8UmljaGFyZCBB IENoaWxkZXJzICh3d3cuZGFlbW9uaXplZC5jb20pIDxmc2NrZWRAcGFjYmVsbC5u ZXQ+iF4EExECAB4FAkCGpfsCGwMGCwkIBwMCAxUCAwMWAgECHgECF4AACgkQjGqW TlNTP66KzQCgjf0SQbiK1rgu7hRsmLPSSaGF7X8AoL7Qw/E9kTZr0fntP0XXEnk/ q6nRuQINBECGpvkQCADFzFq+kYbk+KTIhcVBTjTWDbBnjGgmuGR3LGp9hOd6W9SJ i4GD5184ZnMbEgvDZcDEGDNgMcU+f1girwYI2v/o7QA7VQ5bpUbnfOBytzO+bvd7 uCOyJltg8AG5MFLxfhAMHofpNxGlFTEXdVp4M9xyBB+hdLHbJNJqkMGPf+iCUf1W Q86KncU2AK4Sf9I+WYBZwkjaIhi9dQzeEX1c0Um6LxXSBtkjZprIk1M13gVaIJ6E dDN6hrSMbXZL+7yURw38vHXCtRJAKEOyW178rI8MzJzvVNhobvC62uEWD9Idz8sH 5A06fqb2fKJYLQ1keGUpb/qpny7oTmAe0Hx9jOM7AAMGCACdTe1M4U++/7/OVGip 1gnWEtMhHeQQbS7KPh1w8/1kvs5Mml6uGYQI44lKTDP7OHJQ9hIT/+5tfKPHIPhU M/7Mqa8y81c/AK+WUOyY9+uZ0zUxFGMqeU9z5iqJFWSi9QR/f5q/khfmqi5RFVyQ nnVhxBMB8pY1vZHV1CoL7NLK4c/N8mpwCiZ57LTsP8pLfDMWF/OopmM2ulzlfWTr anAdxQohenq/zTgSySX/VGZYSYvyAoXTRuU4USAVGWcUQPnVooA1N7lZP3pawjNP QMSukx9jI1673BPsPXxyQZ1PmmPt9eHKI0G0hNJG+FCmSRLNT/R7hqTzTUmpgMWM yyWPiEkEGBECAAkFAkCGpvkCGwwACgkQjGqWTlNTP642KACeITHq0b42P3oMX7Nj F5U3EaqCgYoAn3HxUB7ELB6vMUugW4aSmZpBJOR6 =ZaJO -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- From baylisa-local at merlins.org Sun Nov 14 07:43:34 2004 From: baylisa-local at merlins.org (Marc MERLIN) Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 07:43:34 -0800 Subject: Where to buy UPS batteries? In-Reply-To: <20041111193927.GK32543@merlins.org> References: <20041111193927.GK32543@merlins.org> Message-ID: <20041114154334.GG29461@merlins.org> On Thu, Nov 11, 2004 at 11:39:27AM -0800, Marc MERLIN wrote: > Usually, I buy mine at the monthly flea market at Lockheed, but there won't > be a new one until next year. > > I need 3 12V "standard size" batteries (the ones that you get by default in > most UPSes). > Where would you say I can pick them up without being gauged completely? > (i.e. paying as much/more than a new UPS) I apologize for missing the pior thread about this (I was behind on some list mail). Anyway, if people are interested: the price online was $12/battery, and $19/battery at Halted by Lawrence and Central. I ended up buying mine at Halted since I wanted the bring the ups back up ASAP, and they had a decent number of new batteries (10 to 20 IIRC) in that size, plus some other sizes Marc -- "A mouse is a device used to point at the xterm you want to type in" - A.S.R. Microsoft is to operating systems & security .... .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking Home page: http://marc.merlins.org/ | Finger marc_f at merlins.org for PGP key From reineman1 at llnl.gov Mon Nov 15 16:37:16 2004 From: reineman1 at llnl.gov (Rick Reineman) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 16:37:16 -0800 Subject: WAN Replicated Service Availability? Message-ID: <41994BBC.1080502@llnl.gov> I've been grinding this problem around in my head for awhile then it occurred to me that this may be a good forum to pose the question. How to deploy a series of replicated services (web, ldap and oracle) across a wide geographical area with the goal being survivability in the event of a significant Internet outage? In other words if (for example) the East coast of the US looses Internet connectivity due to some catastrophe, the rest of the country should still have access to (at least) one of the replicated servers that are still available. With round robin DNS we can hand out IP's to servers in turn but there is no validation that a service is available. A load balancer can do some service availability evaluation but we have the possibility of a load balancer in the geographically affected area. A router can determine availability of a path or paths to an IP, but not a service (as far as I know). It wouldn't take long for a complex routing issue to be outside of my current ability to understand though. I know people do replicated services all the time but I get the idea they are not planning for the same sort of network unavailability that I want to. Most replicated services I am aware of are in one co-lo site with a load balancer, maybe highly available load balancers. Any ideas or comments? Thanks, Rick -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rick Reineman IT Systems Manager Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - NAI/Q/CAS reineman1 at llnl.gov From jeff at drinktomi.com Tue Nov 16 11:34:21 2004 From: jeff at drinktomi.com (Jeff With The Big Yellow Suit) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 11:34:21 -0800 Subject: WAN Replicated Service Availability? In-Reply-To: <41994BBC.1080502@llnl.gov> References: <41994BBC.1080502@llnl.gov> Message-ID: <83EDC522-3806-11D9-8367-000D93C23D80@drinktomi.com> Two approaches immediately pop to mind. 1) Routing magic. If you have control of BGP from the two locations then you could advertise the addresses of the service providers from both locations. The service is provided by machines on network P. Normally router A advertises itself as the path to P. When A goes down B starts advertising itself as the path to P. In both cases the routers sit in front of a network P. The satanic details are in how you determine when a transition should happen. You could do this by running a routing protocol between the two border routers and doing much magic. Another approach is writing an application which monitors the connection and triggers the switching. (You can use RIP with extremely limited parameters as a transit medium between the monitoring host and the routers... or just log into the routers and make the change. Junipers are nice for the latter.) 2) Application magic. If you have control of the application source, then have the application attempt to connect to service provider P1, P2, etc. This could be set in a configuration file or by querying DNS for SRV records. (One of the things the world needs is a simple library to allow server location and connection via SRV records. Does anyone know if such a beast exists?) -jeff From dmack at leviatron.com Tue Nov 16 15:50:51 2004 From: dmack at leviatron.com (Dave Mack) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 15:50:51 -0800 Subject: WAN Replicated Service Availability? In-Reply-To: <41994BBC.1080502@llnl.gov> References: <41994BBC.1080502@llnl.gov> Message-ID: <419A925B.600@leviatron.com> How about round robin DNS with short TTLs (a minute) and each machine dynamically updating its A record every 30 seconds? A dead machine's record stops being handed out fairly quickly and re-enters service equally quickly when it comes back. Rick Reineman wrote: > I've been grinding this problem around in my head for awhile then it > occurred to me that this may be a good forum to pose the question. > > How to deploy a series of replicated services (web, ldap and oracle) > across a wide geographical area with the goal being survivability in > the event of a significant Internet outage? > > In other words if (for example) the East coast of the US looses > Internet connectivity due to some catastrophe, the rest of the country > should still have access to (at least) one of the replicated servers > that are still available. > > With round robin DNS we can hand out IP's to servers in turn but there > is no validation that a service is available. > > A load balancer can do some service availability evaluation but we > have the possibility of a load balancer in the geographically affected > area. > > A router can determine availability of a path or paths to an IP, but > not a service (as far as I know). It wouldn't take long for a complex > routing issue to be outside of my current ability to understand though. > > I know people do replicated services all the time but I get the idea > they are not planning for the same sort of network unavailability that > I want to. Most replicated services I am aware of are in one co-lo > site with a load balancer, maybe highly available load balancers. > > Any ideas or comments? > > Thanks, > Rick From woolsey at jlw.com Tue Nov 16 17:45:01 2004 From: woolsey at jlw.com (Jeff Woolsey) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 17:45:01 -0800 Subject: DiskSuite help on new BayLISA webserver machine Message-ID: <200411170145.iAH1j2w2000401@folderol.jlw.com> Synopsis: I'm helping BayLISA upgrade the machine that hosts its mailing lists and web server (and other things). The last thing to do is mirror its disks, yet this is proving nigh-impossible, because the machine always forgets where the metadbs are upon reboot. Is there an esteemed BayLISA member who can provide some insight after reading the details below? Please? Details: The system is a Ultra-2 clone, with two internal disks, running SunOS newwww 5.9 Generic_117171-07 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-2. When the disks were 9GB, mirroring worked just fine. Now they're 73GB, and it doesn't. Some salient features of SLVM over DiskSuite is that /etc/system no longer has the mddb locations (/kernel/drv/md.conf does), and SLVM can figure out what happened if you move disks around. In order to perform this last miracle, SLVM either uses existing diskids, or invents some unique ID for the disk. OpenBoot is 3.25 (latest). I've tried different slices for the metadb, with no effect. We've even set up a couple offsite guinea pig systems to attempt to diagnose the problem, without success. The rc*.d/*svm.* scripts were disabled by JASS yet SLVM worked fine this way with the 9GB disks. Help. -- Jeff Woolsey {woolsey,jlw}@{jlw,jxh}.com,first.last at gmail.com "A toy robot!!!!" -unlucky Japanese scientist "And Leon's getting laaaarrger!" -Johnny "Delete! Delete! OK!" -Dr. Bronner on disk space management "I didn't get a 'Harrumph!' out of _that_ guy." -Gov Le Petomaine From guy at extragalactic.net Tue Nov 16 23:52:42 2004 From: guy at extragalactic.net (Guy B. Purcell) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 23:52:42 -0800 Subject: WAN Replicated Service Availability? In-Reply-To: <41994BBC.1080502@llnl.gov> References: <41994BBC.1080502@llnl.gov> Message-ID: On Nov 15, 2004, at 16:37, Rick Reineman wrote: > How to deploy a series of replicated services (web, ldap and oracle) > across a wide geographical area with the goal being survivability in > the event of a significant Internet outage? F5 has a product, called 3-DNS, that runs on their BigIP load balancers that does what you're looking for. A Cisco Distributed Director will, too, I believe (I'm not a network guy--yet!). The F5 product is essentially a special nameserver that knows about the load balancers it's running on, so can direct traffic appropriately when one of the balanced networks goes offline. It can also balance the load between the various networks, based on several criteria (i.e. it treats the fail-over as just a special case of the more general problem). -Guy From matt at offmyserver.com Wed Nov 17 09:20:01 2004 From: matt at offmyserver.com (Matt Olander) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 09:20:01 -0800 Subject: Reminder: FreeBSD Blade Cluster Presentation Message-ID: <20041117092000.A4383@knight.ixsystems.net> hi everyone, just a reminder that the FreeBSD blade cluster presentation is tonight at 7pm PST at Hurricane Electric, 760 Mission Court, Fremont, CA. here are the details: http://www.offmyserver.com/cgi-bin/store/bladecluster.html cheers, -matt -- Matt Olander (408)943-4100 Phone (408)943-4101 Fax www.offmyserver.com -- "Those who don't read have no advantage over those who can't" -Mark Twain From woolsey at jlw.com Wed Nov 17 10:14:57 2004 From: woolsey at jlw.com (Jeff Woolsey) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:14:57 -0800 Subject: DiskSuite help on new BayLISA webserver machine In-Reply-To: Message from Jeff Woolsey of "Tue, 16 Nov 2004 17:45:01 PST." <200411170145.iAH1j2w2000401@folderol.jlw.com> Message-ID: <200411171814.iAHIEvw2006569@folderol.jlw.com> > > Synopsis: > > I'm helping BayLISA upgrade the machine that hosts its mailing lists > and web server (and other things). The last thing to do is mirror > its disks, yet this is proving nigh-impossible, because the machine > always forgets where the metadbs are upon reboot. Never mind, I figured it out. The refurbed disks we're using do not report serial numbers; there's a workaround for sd.conf that makes the kernel cobble up devids for such disks. -- Jeff Woolsey {woolsey,jlw}@{jlw,jxh}.com,first.last at gmail.com "A toy robot!!!!" -unlucky Japanese scientist "And Leon's getting laaaarrger!" -Johnny "Delete! Delete! OK!" -Dr. Bronner on disk space management "I didn't get a 'Harrumph!' out of _that_ guy." -Gov Le Petomaine From sigje at sigje.org Wed Nov 17 10:39:06 2004 From: sigje at sigje.org (Jennifer Davis) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:39:06 -0800 (PST) Subject: BayLISA Newsletter - November 2004 Message-ID: November General Meeting BayLISA's November general meeting is this Thursday, November 18 from 7:30pm-9:30pm. This month Mark Sobell (author of many well known 'Practical Guide to' books) will be presenting on "Programming bash". We also have our yearly Board elections. If you are a member (and you can join at the meeting!), you can vote. ( You can also still run for Board! ) This year's candidates are Mark C. Langston, and Heather Stern. To view their candidate statements: http://www.baylisa.org/board/elections/2004/ Please show up before the meeting officially starts at 7:30 to vote. BayLISA meetings are held in the Apple Town Hall auditorium at Four Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014 (on the Apple Campus in Cupertino). Directions can be found here: http://www.baylisa.org/locations/ Two lucky attendees will win a copy of Mark's latest book "A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux Fedora Core and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, 2nd Edition", thanks to Prentice Hall! BayLISA members can also get 30% off this book and free UPS ground shipping when ordered through http://www.phptr.com/title/0131470248 with the promotion code SOBELL. All that we ask of the lucky winners of the book is that they provide us with some thoughts of the book, a short (or long) review to be included on the BayLISA website, as well as sent on to Prentice Hall. Review and Recommend Books We also have a number of books donated by O'Reilly and Prentice Hall up for grabs. BayLISA members get first dibs, but all are welcome. Send an email to blw at baylisa.org with book requests. Currently, we have some covering SpamAssassin, Snort, MySQL advanced tuning, Unix Shells, Linux in the Business Enviornments and many others. We just ask that the recipients send us a review of the book, what they thought about it, how it helped, or what you learned. O'Reilly Book Contribution Opportunity Ever been frustrated by Microsoft Word? If so, send your frustrations and irritations with the program (include the version of Word and OS you are using) to blw at baylisa.org. The list will be summarized, with a list of members who contributed to our O'Reilly contact. Currently, O'Reilly is working on a book called "Word Annoyances". In return, BayLISA will get copies of the book when it gets published. December is our yearly Short but Cool topics. Is there something you've been working on that you want to share? Or some cool useful tool that you've discovered? This year's best topic will win a prize! Please send an email to blw at baylisa.org expressing your wish to participate (or see Heather Stern at the November general meeting tomorrow). 50% discount to Intermediate Perl training taught by Randal Schwartz at Hurricane Electric in Fremont for BayLISA members (only $99 after the discount!). Attendees will receive a free copy of Randal L. Schwartz's O'Reilly Nutshell book, Learning Perl Objects, References & Modules. If interested in attending please call Tiffany Morales at 510.580.4141 or email tmorales at he.net. You need to let her know that you are a BayLISA member to get the discount. Upcoming Talks! Alan DuBoff, a Sun Solaris x86 Evangelist, will be discussing Solaris x86 and Open Source in January. Zach Levow, VP of Engineering for Barracuda Networks will be presenting on Building your own Spam Firewall using Open Source and free packages in February. From matt at offmyserver.com Wed Nov 17 12:45:11 2004 From: matt at offmyserver.com (Matt Olander) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 12:45:11 -0800 Subject: [Announce] Reminder: FreeBSD Blade Cluster Presentation In-Reply-To: <419BB30D.4090605@elischer.org>; from julian@elischer.org on Wed, Nov 17, 2004 at 12:22:37PM -0800 References: <20041117092000.A4383@knight.ixsystems.net> <419BB30D.4090605@elischer.org> Message-ID: <20041117124511.H96296@knight.ixsystems.net> On Wed, Nov 17, 2004 at 12:22:37PM -0800, Julian Elischer wrote: > I know this was an RSVP event, but suddenly I can make it, so is it too > late to RSVP? it's never to late! if quite a few more people sign up, I'll go get more sandwiches ;) -matt > > > Matt Olander wrote: > > >hi everyone, > > > >just a reminder that the FreeBSD blade cluster presentation is tonight > >at 7pm PST at Hurricane Electric, 760 Mission Court, Fremont, CA. > > > >here are the details: > >http://www.offmyserver.com/cgi-bin/store/bladecluster.html > > > >cheers, > >-matt > > > > > > > > -- Matt Olander (408)943-4100 Phone (408)943-4101 Fax www.offmyserver.com -- "Those who don't read have no advantage over those who can't" -Mark Twain From star at starshine.org Wed Nov 17 14:23:19 2004 From: star at starshine.org (Heather Stern) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 14:23:19 -0800 Subject: my Candidate statement Message-ID: <20041117222319.GA6506@starshine.org> Sorry this Candidate Statement is so late, been drawn into things... Those of you who made it to the general meeting last month know that I announced my candidacy with something even shorter than this :D I'm Heather Stern, a specialist in Linux, but I've also at times been a sysadmin for FreeBSD and Sun servers, and have been working with computers overall just a little longer than I can remember. I've forgotten more about mswin than most of us here at BayLISA ever really wanted to know in the first place, and still know enough to help and/or scare people who are current sysadmins in that OS. I've been very active in the local techie community since I moved to this area in 1995. I feel I've served the Board reasonably well during my time with it. I'm currently President but that's not what matters to me. I will continue to serve BayLISA to the best of my ability whether you elect me back onto the Board or not; I find this fun (yes, I must be a masochist ;> ) and it's something useful I can do for my fellow sysadmins. But I assure you, if elected I won't run away. -* Heather Stern * President - BayLISA Board * http://www.baylisa.org/ *- From mark at bitshift.org Wed Nov 17 18:35:22 2004 From: mark at bitshift.org (Mark C. Langston) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 18:35:22 -0800 Subject: Candidate statement Message-ID: <20041118023522.GI63548@bitshift.org> I presented a very short and rather flustered version of this at October's meeting. Below is the full text. What does BayLISA need? 1) People willing to talk about interesting things 2) People willing to come hear people talk about interesting things 3) A place to bring those two groups together on a regular basis 4) People willing to pay to be a member of a group that deals with #1-3 5) People willing to deal with all the back-office stuff associated with #1-4 (e.g., finances, insurance, communication, sysadmin work, etc. -- all the unglamorous stuff) I want to be one of the people in that last group. Why would anyone want to do that? Simple: Without people doing the stuff I listed, doing all the other stuff becomes more difficult, particularly when you try to scale beyond a few people in a restaraunt. Ok, so why would you want /me/ to do that? Because, as with any effort, there are people who think what's being done is cool. There are people who think what's being done is cool enough to participate. And there are people who think what's being done is cool enough to support through time, money, and energy. I've come to the realization that I'm in that last category. I'm not particularly qualified to deal with finances, or with insurance, or other such things. However, I'm well-qualified to donate my time, money, and energy to a cause I believe in. I've paid my BayLISA membership fee. If you elect me, I'll be better able to donate my time and energy as well. If not, I'll still donate my time and energy to BayLISA. Board membership just increases the ways in which I may spend that time and energy. -- Mark C. Langston The GOSSiP Project mark at bitshift.org http://sufficiently-advanced.net Factotum Distributed, Peer-to-Peer http://bitshift.org E-mail Reputation System From strata at virtual.net Thu Nov 18 10:08:28 2004 From: strata at virtual.net (Strata R. Chalup) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 10:08:28 -0800 Subject: TONIGHT: BayLISA: Programming the Bourne Again Shell (bash), Mark Soebell Message-ID: <419CE51C.3020508@virtual.net> BayLISA Monthly Technical Talk & General Meeting Please RSVP to rsvp at baylisa.org so that we can get an idea of how many will be attending. This event is open to the general public. You do not need to be a member to attend. ********** BayLISA Elections TONIGHT ************** -------- Where: Apple Computer, Town Hall Auditorium Addr: Four Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA http://www.baylisa.org/locations/ -------- Date: Thursday, 18 November 2004 Time: 7:30pm - 9:30pm PST Programming the Bourne Again Shell (bash) Mark Soebell Mark will cover various aspects of bash shell programming, and include tips to help you read and understand scripts that come with a system. Topics include positional (command line) parameters, command substitution, control structures, debugging shell scripts, and checking arguments. In addition to discussing elements of the bash programming language, Mark will walk through some scripts to give an idea of how the elements fit together. Mark G. Sobell, author of many best-selling books, including A Practical Guide to the UNIX System, UNIX System V: A Practical Guide, A Practical Guide to Solaris, A Practical Guide to Linux, and A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux (all from Addison Wesley), as well as A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux 2/e (Prentice Hall), has more than twenty-five years of experience working with UNIX and Linux. He is the president of Sobell Associates Inc., a consulting firm that designs and builds custom software applications for UNIX and Linux systems and provides training and support. -------- BayLISA meets every month on the 3rd Thursday of the month. A short period of announcements of general interest to the sysadmin community is presented, followed by a technical talk. Anyone may make an announcement; typical are upcoming presentations, user group meetings, employment offers, etc. For further information on BayLISA, check out our web site: http://www.baylisa.org/ Directions and details about the current meeting and future events: http://www.baylisa.org/events/ BayLISA makes video tapes of the meetings available to members. Tape library is often available at the general meeting, or for more information on available videos, please send email to "video at baylisa.org". If you have suggestions for speakers, or would like to volunteer to present a talk at one of our meetings, please email the Board and Working Group at "blw at baylisa.org". Thanks! -------- -- ======================================================================== Strata Rose Chalup [KF6NBZ] strata "@" virtual.net VirtualNet Consulting http://www.virtual.net/ ** Project Management & Architecture for ISP/ASP Systems Integration ** ========================================================================= From mark at bitshift.org Fri Nov 19 10:06:20 2004 From: mark at bitshift.org (Mark C. Langston) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 10:06:20 -0800 Subject: GOSSiP available on sourceforge.net Message-ID: <20041119180620.GZ63548@bitshift.org> I'd like to make a brief announcement: GOSSiP 0.8-beta is available on sourceforge.net. Please see http://sourceforge.net/projects/gossip-project/ if you're interested. Also, and perhaps as importantly, I'd like to announce that I'm stepping down from leading the GOSSiP Project, and need to find someone willing to take my place developing, guiding development, and evangelizing GOSSiP. I've accepted a new position, and as part of my employment contract, I've agreed to cease my involvement in GOSSiP to preclude any possibility of conflict-of-interest in a potentially competing product. If you'd like to assume command of GOSSiP, please email me privately, explaining how you intend to continue the work I've started. If chosen, you'll receive administrative access to the sourceforge.net project (I'll need your sourceforge.net account name). Thanks for your interest and support. -- Mark C. Langston The GOSSiP Project mark at bitshift.org http://sufficiently-advanced.net Factotum Distributed, Peer-to-Peer http://bitshift.org E-mail Reputation System From jgross at stimpy.net Fri Nov 26 14:32:02 2004 From: jgross at stimpy.net (Joe Gross) Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 14:32:02 -0800 Subject: Where to buy UPS batteries? In-Reply-To: <20041114154334.GG29461@merlins.org> References: <20041111193927.GK32543@merlins.org> <20041114154334.GG29461@merlins.org> Message-ID: <20041126223202.GA13662@felix.stimpy.net> I just ordered some replacement UPS batteries from someone on ebay but my wife reminded me that I can't (shouldn't) just throw out the old batteries. This really defeats the purpose of buying online if I still have to *drive* somewhere. :) What is the proper thing to do with old SLA batteries? Is there a place on the peninsula where I can deposit them? Thanks, Joe From guy at extragalactic.net Mon Nov 29 22:27:35 2004 From: guy at extragalactic.net (Guy B. Purcell) Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 22:27:35 -0800 Subject: Where to buy UPS batteries? In-Reply-To: <20041126223202.GA13662@felix.stimpy.net> References: <20041111193927.GK32543@merlins.org> <20041114154334.GG29461@merlins.org> <20041126223202.GA13662@felix.stimpy.net> Message-ID: On Nov 26, 2004, at 14:32, Joe Gross wrote: > What is the proper thing to do with old SLA batteries? Is there a > place on the peninsula where I can deposit them? Hmm, I was going to say, "yes!" but then reconsidered given the SLA stipulation. BFI maintains a recycling center in San Carlos--see . They take "household batteries," which likely means they don't take lead-acid batteries. I'd suggest talking to your favorite auto shop to find out what they do with dead car batteries; you should be able to do something similar with your UPS batteries. -Guy From david at catwhisker.org Tue Nov 30 16:30:37 2004 From: david at catwhisker.org (David Wolfskill) Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 16:30:37 -0800 (PST) Subject: We were discussing UPSen & batteries a while back.... Message-ID: <200412010030.iB10UbaG010509@bunrab.catwhisker.org> Some of you may recall that I recently posted a query about a source for UPS batteries, and that I selected one suggested, replaced the batteries, then brought the UPS back on line, though I had never given it a full test under load. That lack is being rectified (so to speak; pardon the pun) as I type: we lost power here at the house about 35 minutes ago. The machine on which I am composing this messages, as well as a couple of others & some network infrastructure devices are all placing a full (for my purposes) load on the UPS. I am somewhat gratified to see that things are still up so far. :-} The aggregate battery voltage has dropped to 59.9 V, per the UPS. (Nominal is 60.0.) The UPS states that its load is about 34% of its rating. Anyway, I should send this before I need to shut things down quickly; the batteries I got were from Rage Battery (ragebattery.com). Getting hard to see in here.... Peace, david -- David H. Wolfskill david at catwhisker.org I resent spammers because spam is a DoS attack on my time. See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for public key.