Or, investigating a slow network 101 Prologue: The office had just completed a migration from an all bare-metal to all virtualized server environment. This was the first time they were performing snapshot style backups using Veeam as opposed to copying the entire server drive 1:1 onto tape. The reasons for this are many, but one of the biggest was to…
vmware converter 98% error
Earlier this week I had spent far too long trying to get an old server 2003 box converted to a VM. It would succeed in creating the vm, block copying the volumes, and all the rest, but fail at the very end at 98% with a cryptic” FAILED: Unable to create ‘\\.\vstor2-mntapi20-shared\$Reconfig$’.”. After much hunting, and tweaking just about every…
A quick note on cisco to hp transceivers
After much debugging, its been discovered that using 3rd party transceivers (gbics) will not form a connection/show status as up if in auto negotiation. On the HP side the connection must be set to 1000-full for the interface using the transceiver before the connection will come online.
Flashing OpenTX on a Flysky TH9X transmitter
Intro: After stumbling my way through flashing OpenTX on a stock Flysky TH-9X transmitter I thought I’d document the steps I took to create easy to follow instructions for anyone about to embark on the same journey. I’m assuming you already know why you want to flash better firmware on your Flysky transmitter, and have basic soldering skills. If you…
Quick iDRAC tips
Setting a Dell iDRAC ip address remotely over ssh: SSH into the Dell iDRAC device Once at the console screen, enter: racadm View the current ip address via: getniccfg Set a new ip address via: setniccfg After the ip address change, restart the iDRAC service: racreset Wait 1-2 minutes for the iDRAC to fully reboot with the new ip address…
Adding custom APC Inrow monitoring to uptime
Today’s challenge — Monitor and graph the air conditioning system to track performance. With an uptime server installation already in place, I set about adding snmp v2 monitoring to track things like air temp, status, etc. By default, the uptime monitoring software doesn’t have built in support for my air conditioning system (apc inrow sc 100) so I had to…
Raspberry pi near space satellite
Getting a Raspberry Pi to near space, Part 1 The Challenge: Get a raspberry pi to near space Have it take pretty pictures using the pi camera Make sure it logs lots of interesting temp/humidity/gps/telemetry data Get it back home safely The Gear: Raspberry pi model B Raspberry pi camera NEO-6M GPS GY-86 attitude meter DHT-11 humidity sensor DS18B20…
Quick tips: Adding driver packs to WDS
Windows giving a BSOD when trying to PXE boot? Windows setup crashing when trying to install over the network? Sounds like you need to get the latest drivers on your boot image! Here’s how. Step 1: Grab the proper driver package from the manufacturer (in my case it was lenovo). Some companies, like Lenovo, roll up all of their drivers…
Colo vs Cloud vs local hosting
A comparison between Cloud hosting, Colo hosting (datacenter hosting), and local on-site hosting At first glance, the low cost of cloud and co-location hosting per month may put them far ahead of on-site hosted servers, and in some cases they are. In today’s post I break down the cost per year, extrapolated out over twenty years, for a server heavy…
How not to provide support, my Neato story
It all began… When I purchased a Neato Signature XV from woot.com in November. This was my first ever robotic vacuum and with woot’s awesome price I figured the top of the line from one of the two most popular brands would be a great way to start…. And it was, at first. The Neato vacuum did a great…