My South

(Open)Solaris: Getting the serial number of the motherboard?

2010-03-11T17:53:50Z

Easy:

pascal@pgt02:~# smbios -t SMB_TYPE_BASEBOARD
ID    SIZE TYPE
2     202  SMB_TYPE_BASEBOARD (base board)

  Manufacturer: Sun Microsystems
  Product: Sun Fire X4200 M2                     
  Version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.          
  Serial Number: 1005LCB-0807GB0U08              
  Asset Tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.          
  Location Tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.          

  Chassis: 3
  Flags: 0x9
        SMB_BBFL_MOTHERBOARD (board is a motherboard)
        SMB_BBFL_REPLACABLE (board is field-replacable)
  Board Type: 0xa (motherboard)

Just in case you need it...

OpenStorage: It rocks.

2010-02-13T16:58:01Z

I'll write an article about configuration and possibilites of OpenStorage the next day(s), but as an appetizer here are two web configuration screenshots (click on them for original size):

First, the status dashboard, showing system/disk activity:

]]>

Volumes can be shared via

iSCSI block device
NFS (v3 and v4)
CIFS (Windows)

Access via SSH/SFTP is also possible.

After having defined target and initiator groups and created shares the system was rapidly usable. Stay tuned.

Our new OpenStorage arrived

2010-02-03T14:45:31Z

We just installed our new OpenStorage from Sun, consisting of an X7310 RAID (zfs) Storage Controller and a 4400 JBOD case (for SAS).

The X7310 has a 10 GE Ethernet card installed additionally, the lower half is filled with 11 1TB SATA disks and a 16 GB log flash device.

Sun OpenStorage appliances are special OpenSolaris versions installed with a web (and terminal) interface to configure ZFS file systems and block devices (ZVOL) to share them via iSCSI, NFS and CIFS to other SAN members.

]]> On the second picture (back of the OpenStorage system) you see the two SAS cables connecting the JBOD SAS controllers to the OpenStorage appliance.

I'll write more on the configuration and the diagnosis functions the next days.

The devices are running and came up in our test lab without errors, the zpool was created.

More to come.

UNIVERSAL serial bus...

2010-02-03T11:53:32Z

(found on a Dell Blade Chassis, KVM Module - USB for mouse and for keyboard - color coded with colors for PS/2 hardware).

Frostiness is back...

2010-01-31T10:47:56Z

I am back after two weeks in Cameroon. At Zurich Airport "my" town was already shown at the display auf the airport train station - telling me that the frostiness is back.

It is snowing, people are silent, everybody looks down. They don't talk to each other, the white faces are showing a mix between frustration, boredom and unhappiness.
Ok, there are no thieves trying to aggress me, there's no ague (Malaria), there's no chaotic traffic and no "motivation money" or boodle as well - but there isn't a warm family, no beautiful women with their special smile and no lust for life either. Not to mention the extraordinarial food which we substitute here by industrial products.

I thought this time it will be easy - not as last year when I returned from Ivory Coast - but I was proved wrong. It's even tougher. I am back in frostiness - where all seems to pe perfect, where everybody's telling to me that I should be lucky because I am in Europe and I have all I need. But that's not true, I am cold. Frostiness is back.

Pascal

CFA Franc != CFA Franc !

2010-01-29T08:15:06Z

1 Euro (EUR) has the value of 655,957 Francs CFA (XAF). This conversion rate is fixed.

The banknotes however differ:

Banknotes in central african states like Cameroon are issued by the banque des états de l'afrique centrale (BEAC).

The ones used in western african states like Ivory Coast are issued by the banque centrale des états de l'afrique de l'ouest (BCEAO).

It won't work to buy something in a central african CFA state with western states CFA money and vice-versa.

Orange Internet in Cameroon ...

2010-01-26T14:26:29Z

Many internet connections in Cameroon are done via Wimax as there are not many fixed lines available - the structure of the cities are not made for that. Communication is done mostly wireless - as in our case.

Orange offers a "high bandwidth" connection with 512 kbit/sec downlink and 128 kbit/sec uplink for 75000 CFA francs per month (approx 100 euros).

]]> The Wimax antenna and the wimax converter box (offering an Ethernet port to the customer's side) have to be bought for 208688 CFA francs (300 euros more or less).

Finally, you'll get a "Livebox" for free with the Wimax equipment. This box is a low end NAT router for a PPPoE port and an internal network which is NATted to the outside.

This livebox flashes when powering on (see other article) but apart that has nothing special.

Configuration is done via a simple web interface but many interesting features are turned off / branded by Orange. The "root" account is blocked by a password Orange set (which is not told to the customer) and the "admin" account is only for the web interface (no console).

The box is made from SAGEM of France, and there's a sticker on it saying that firmware updates will occur from now and then shutting dowm the internet access without a warning. I wish they were true but no software update seems to be available - the actual release just crashes once a day (normally at night, the next morning you'll get a fast blinking LED) or the web interface just does not act anymore. The box does not save changes automatically (you must choose it to do in a special menu). The reboot option does NOT save changes.
You haven't any possibility to save the configuration to a local PC/host, that's sad.

As Orange tells the PPPoE username and password to the customer other routers can be used. On the wimax line normal PPPoE is used.

A traceroute to this site:

bafoussam:/home/pascal # traceroute southbrain.com
traceroute to southbrain.com (88.198.109.214), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets using UDP
 1  * * *
 2  * * *
 3  10.10.4.2 (10.10.4.2)  272.690 ms   307.780 ms   324.754 ms
 4  10.10.2.1 (10.10.2.1)  344.797 ms   366.668 ms   381.852 ms
 5  195.24.215.101 (195.24.215.101)  452.905 ms   499.529 ms   514.948 ms
 6  195.24.208.152 (195.24.208.152)  536.673 ms   566.944 ms   582.917 ms
 7  lis2-br1-po-2-1.cprm.net (195.8.10.161)  553.839 ms   564.963 ms   575.928 ms
 8  lis2-cr1-gi-3-0-0.cprm.net (195.8.0.213)  587.893 ms   597.950 ms   608.984 ms
 9  195.8.0.234 (195.8.0.234)  675.061 ms   681.717 ms   692.749 ms
10  195.8.0.194 (195.8.0.194)  718.579 ms   729.767 ms *
11  decix-gw.hetzner.de (80.81.192.164)  755.926 ms   768.678 ms   773.751 ms
12  hos-bb1.juniper1.rz4.hetzner.de (213.239.240.200)  823.896 ms 
    hos-bb1.juniper3.rz4.hetzner.de (213.239.240.234)  840.796 ms 
    hos-bb1.juniper1.rz4.hetzner.de (213.239.240.200)  845.959 ms
13  hos-tr4.ex3k12.rz9.hetzner.de (213.239.244.249)  1094.981 ms
    hos-tr2.ex3k12.rz9.hetzner.de (213.239.244.121)  1096.912 ms   1102.021 ms
14  dominion.pascal-gienger.de (88.198.109.214)  1079.961 ms   1097.278 ms   1108.859 ms

Latency is big and it is felt when using interactive connections.

The 512kbit/sec can only be delivered at the evening and at night. On noon and afternoon transfer rates are breaking down to 12-15 kbyte/sec with the loss of many IP packets.

The wimax network seems to be heavily congested during these hours - for a monthly rate which exceeds the salary of most of the workers here!

I hope things will change for this beautiful country and its warm and welcoming people!

Orange, Cameroon and the Livebox...

2010-01-25T21:19:54Z

In Cameroon Orange (France Télécom) offers a "high speed" connection (with 512 kbit/sec download rate and 128 kbit upload) for 75000 CFA francs per month (approx 100 euros!).

A "Livebox" device has to be bought separately which is in fact a simple NAT/WLAN/DSL/Ethernet router. The Wimax antenna (which forms the primary internet interface) is connected to the ethernet WAN port - yes you heard right, here internet connections are done via Wimax - there are nearly no fixed lines at all in most of the parts of the country).

Turning the livebox on it flashes. I managed to take photographs of it (see above, click on the images to get bigger ones).

The Wimax connections works but roundtrip latency is between 350-400ms which is very high and noticeable. The livebox itselfs crashes often - once a day for sure :(

More on this tomorrow!

I'm in Cameroon until Jan 30th

2010-01-17T05:45:33Z

so answers to your questions will be delayed.

Pascal

Happy new year 2010!

2009-12-31T19:09:51Z

To all my dear readers:

I hope you will pass well to the new year 2010 and that your expectations, projects and lucky feelings will succeed in the new year!

Yours, Pascal

Merry christmas!

2009-12-24T12:08:53Z

In Germany, we begin to celebrate Christmas at the evening of Dec 24th, as opposed to many other countries (celebrating Christmas due to Christianity).

On 24th, children get their presents which are put under a christmas tree, which is decorated with glass balls and (mostly electric) candles.

Dec 25th and 26th are national holidays.

Windows dynamic disks and Sun xVM

2009-12-24T10:51:48Z

The dynamic disk feature of Windows Server is quite efficient when it comes to work into a Sun xVM environment. The 30 GB disk "Disk 0" is handled by the OpenSolaris Dom-0 as a ZFS block volume:

]]> pascal@teroknor:~# zfs list xvmpool/bajor.zvol
NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
xvmpool/bajor.zvol 30.1G 327G 30.1G -

To grow this "disk", just set the volsize property:

pascal@teroknor:~# zfs set volsize=60G xvmpool/bajor.zvol

Result:

pascal@teroknor:~# zfs list xvmpool/bajor.zvol
NAME                       USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
xvmpool/bajor.zvol        60.1G   327G  30.1G  -

After a Windows Dom-U reboot, the disk is "bigger":

The additional space appears as unallocated:

Sure enough, you can expand the volume (right-click, "Expand...").

End result:

dladm: VLANs with OpenSolaris (and Sun xVM)

2009-12-18T13:55:49Z

"dladm" also allows to define VLAN trunking and VLAN usage with OpenSolaris.

You may assign specific VLANs to xVM virtual domains/machines (DomU) as well as use them in Dom0 or in your bare OpenSolaris using zones or not.

The physical interface (e1000g0) will act as the native vlan interface in this example, producing packets without a 802.1q vlan tag.

Defining VLANs with dladm is simple:

]]> To define a vlan to be trunked over a physical link use this command (example):

# dladm create-vlan -l e1000g0 -v 3 mynet0

Packets originating from virtual interface mynet0 will be passed to the outside by the physical interface e1000g0 with vlan tag 3.

Example:

# ifconfig mynet0 plumb
# ifconfig mynet0 10.1.0.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.1.0.255 up
# ping 10.1.0.2

(in another window:)

# snoop -r -d e1000g0

VLAN#3:      10.1.0.1 -> (broadcast)  ARP C Who is 10.1.0.2, 10.1.0.2 ?
VLAN#3:      10.1.0.1 -> (broadcast)  ARP C Who is 10.1.0.2, 10.1.0.2 ?
VLAN#3:      10.1.0.1 -> (broadcast)  ARP C Who is 10.1.0.2, 10.1.0.2 ?

The "xvm_19" interface was created by Sun xVM after starting a DomU.
To define a virtual machine to be connected to vlan 3 via e1000g0, just use this virt-install command:

# virt-install [.... your options ...] --network="vlanid=3,bridge=e1000g0"

The other interfaces were defined like this in the graphical example above:

# dladm create-vlan -l e1000g0 -v 22 mynet1
# dladm create-vlan -l e1000g0 -v 42 mynet2

They will all show up in

# dladm show-link

Note:
You may NOT assign a vlan interface to a bridge nor to an etherstub. All virtual/vlan interfaces in the same vlan connected to the same physical interface are in the same broadcast domain - like if they were connected to a switch.

http://127.0.0.1:8795/?id=

2009-12-11T04:51:24Z

What's that? From time to time I see this referrer in my log statistics. Which application is causing this? I found nothing on the net to solve this puzzle.

dladm: Virtual networks with Sun xVM

2009-12-10T17:57:23Z

Solaris has a nifty utility named "dladm" which creates "dynamic" links.

It can be used to:

work with virtual network interfaces
work with wireless interfaces (WiFi)
work with virtual switches (named etherstubs and bridges)

For our Xen-based xVM environment, a virtual switch to connect DomU's to an internal network is a common configuration. This virtual switch may even have an interface to the Dom0 system - the path to the outside world.

]]>

Look at the configuration example on the picture above (click to enlarge it).
This configuration would appear like this on our Solaris host:

pascal@teroknor:~# dladm show-link
LINK        CLASS     MTU    STATE    BRIDGE     OVER
nge0        phys      1500   up       --         --
nge1        phys      1500   up       --         --
e1000g0     phys      1500   up       mybridge   --
e1000g1     phys      1500   up       mybridge   --
xenswitch1  etherstub 1500   unknown  --         --
xenswitch2  etherstub 1500   unknown  mybridge   --
loveit0     vnic      1500   up       --         xenswitch1
xvm17_1     vnic      1500   up       --         xenswitch1
xvm19_1     vnic      1500   up       --         xenswitch2
xvm14_1     vnic      1500   up       --         nge0

First some Solaris definitions:

A physical interface (phys) is an interface controlled by a hardware driver. These interfaces are physically present. Examples include an ethernet interface or a fiber channel ip interface.
A virtual interface (vnic) is a network interface only known by the kernel which can be used in software like a real interface. You may use them in Dom0 or in any DomU you want (the latter by assignment via xm or virsh).
An etherstub is like an unmanaged dumb ethernet switch for virtual interfaces, traffic originating from connecting virtual links to the etherstub is directed to the right direction (layer 2) to other virtual interfaces "connected" to this etherstub. A virtual interface MUST be connected to an etherstub OR a physical hardware interface otherwise it will not work - you may even not define it, the dladm command will abort with an error.
A bridge is a 802.1d instance making a real bridge instance out of an etherstub. Physical interfaces can be "connected" directly to a bridge while virtual ones must be connected to an etherstub which itself is member of the bridge.

The first example on the graphic is easy: A virtual interface is directly connected to a physical one. The kernel acts like an unmanaged switch between these two interfaces. You may "connect" as many virtual interfaces as you want to a real interface.

Our vnic "xvm14" was easy to accomplish:

# dladm create-vnic -l nge0 xvm14

And voilà, our xvm14 network interface is ready. In fact, this is exactly what the xen daemon does when starting a virtual machine - it hooks dynamically virtual interfaces to the appopriate "bridges" (be careful: In Xen terminology a "bridge" is not a "bridge" in the Solaris terms: For Xen it just means a virtual switch - so remember: a Xen bridge is a Solaris etherstub).

The second example has been configured like this:

# dladm create-etherstub xenswitch1
# dladm set-linkprop -p mtu=1500 xenswitch1
# dladm create-vnic -l xenswitch1 loveit0

The vnic xvm_17 was created automatically by the xen daemon.
The "dladm set-linkprop -p mtu=1500" is IMPORTANT because etherstubs are created with a default MTU of 9000 bytes - OpenSolaris just crashes badly when you try to use a vnic with this MTU as a Xen interface...

In the Dom0 Solaris the new interface "loveit0" can be used just like any other one:

# ifconfig loveit0 plumb
# ifconfig loveit0 192.168.200.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 255.255.255.0 up
# ifconfig loveit0
loveit0: flags=1100843 mtu 1500 index 4
        inet 192.168.200.1 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.200.255
        ether 2:8:20:8a:35:b5

This interface can be used to route/forward, including NAT (refer to routeadm and ipnat/ipf).

The third example includes a real bridge between vnic(s) and physical interfaces:

# dladm create-bridge mybridge
# dladm create-etherstub xenswitch2
# dladm set-linkprop -p mtu=1500 xenswitch2
# dladm add-bridge -l xenswitch2 mybridge
# dladm add-bridge -l e1000g0 mybridge
# dladm add-bridge -l e1000g1 mybridge

If you want to install a DomU using "virt-install" just use the "--bridge" (Xen-bridge -> etherstub) commandline option to select the right etherstub to connect to.

Example:

# virt-install --hvm --cdrom=/rpool/ISO/windows2008r2.iso --ram 2048 --disk path=.... --bridge xenswitch1 --vnc --os-type windows --os-variant windows --name "testdomu"

This installation will connect a Xen interface to the "xenswitch1" etherstub. If this Windows DomU has the IP address 192.168.200.2/24 it will be able to talk to the Dom0 by using 192.168.200.1 as a target. To connect this Windows host to the outer network you will have to turn IP forwarding on the OpenSolaris Dom0 and - depending on your network configuration - you'll have to turn on NAT (via /etc/ipf/ipnat.conf and svcadm enable ipfilter).

If you omit the "--bridge" parameter virt-install will just define a vnic connected directly to the first configured hardware interface in your machine - if that's your network link to your LAN the virtual machine will be part of that LAN.