Thought I would share with you all about how one must take care to avoid shortcuts, especially when it comes to that one item that might just be an exception.

Let me explain: I have been using EMC’s Networker package to perform backups of my unnamed company’s systems. For a while now, we have been having some issue with the GUI frontend of the remote NMC console running on our Windows based boxes. We would leave the GUI up on our desktops for a few days, and then come back one morning and all the data on the screens would be stalled and outdated. In order to view the correct data, we had to restart GST on the NMC UNIX based server manually. This was an issue that I finally decided to break down and call EMC technical support about.

After calling EMC, we discovered that the GUI client backup was not enabled on the NMC server, which meant that the GUI aspect of Networker, and the Networker Management Console database was not getting backed up, as well. We were told to make sure this client is enabled, set aside in a separate group, and running during a time when no other groups are running at all. Ok, no biggie. I got that configured per documented instructions (see below) and setup last week. This is also supposed to truncate the database so that it’s not so big to process on the remote end.

However, with the Thanksgiving holiday and all, I did not get back to checking that this client had run until today. Instead of running  smoothly like other backups, this one failed miserably. Instead of creating a new client, we had copied an already existing client and modified the necessary fields to adjust to what we needed. I had all the fields that the documentation had specified, but it still failed!

savegrp: suppressed 2 lines of verbose output
-b: Backup pool
-C: Compression
-c: NetWorker client name
-E: Encryption
-h: Help
-I: NetWorker Management Console install directory
-l: Backup level
-P: NetWorker Management Console OR NetWorker Dashboard
-s: NetWorker server name
-T: Truncate logs without backup

This was telling me nothing except the fact that the save tried to execute the required savepsm.sh command, but was failing. Was I supposed to add any parameters? It made no sense, especially from the way the documentation read… no other parameters were needed.

Then I stumbled upon this Backup Central Forums post, which the last post clued me into what the problem may be. The poster said that he had

an entry vss:*=off. I deleted it and then my management console backup was successful

This sounds like an issue with Directives. I checked my client, and sure enough we had standard Unix directives selected as part of the standard client setup. On a whim, I changed the directives on the client to the blank selection so that it would not use any directives in backing this client up. After manually running the group, it successfully completed!

Basically, I had shot myself in the foot because I had copied from an existing client to create this client. This process is ok when you are setting up standard clients that are very similar to each other. But not when backing up GST (the GUI and the NMC database). This is a whole different beast, and should have been set up differently. I blame this primarily on myself, as a user who employs shortcuts that wind up taking hours to ultimately complete.

Just so that you don’t make the same mistakes, lets go through the documentation on this exception and learn how to properly setup a backup client for the GUI.

From the Legato Documentation:

To perform an automated save of the database through savegrp(1m), the savepsm.sh
script is used. savepsm.sh is a wrapper script that sets LD_LIBRARY_PATH or equivalent
environment variable and then calls savepsm. In order to configure the database
for an automated save, define a client resource and place the string “NMCASA:/gst_on_<hostname>/lgto_gst” (where hostname is the short name of the host running the NetWorker Management Console server) in the client’s save set attribute. Then place the following command in the ‘backup command’ attribute: savepsm.sh
Note that the transaction log is automatically truncated after the backup is completed.

First things first, create a separate group configured how you need it, and call it GST. Find a media pool and assign the group to that media pool.

Now we need to create a new client on the NMC backup server named the same as the NMC backup server (let’s call this server and client NMCserver), and the only saveset in this client should be “NMCASA:/gst_on_NMCserver/lgto_gst”. Ok, so if you are on the NMC server, click the big Configuration button, and then Clients in the left hand side bar. Right-click in the main listing window, and select New. Now in the Name: field type in the name of the backup server/client: NMCserver. Give it a comment. Under Save set: type: NMCASA:/gst_on_NMCserver/lgto_gst. Do not touch the Directive. Make sure the Scheduled backup: is checked. Assign this client to your group that you will be running it in. Click the Apps & Modules tab. Under Backup command: type: savepsm.sh. Click the Globals (1 of 2) tab, and assign the client any extra aliases that should accompany it. EMC Support highly suggests raising parallelism on this GST client to a high number. So set Parallelism: to a higher number like 20. Click the OK button on the bottom of the window, and your client should be set to run properly.

Well, this would have saved me quite a bit of time if I had someone outline the proper steps for getting this setup. However, experience is worthwhile, and I hope that by sharing this experience, it can help assist others!

LOTR Frodo Goblet

I just made one of my famous fruit smoothies this evening, and am enjoying it from my LOTR Frodo Goblet (circa 2001). And then had a thought that I would post it as my Facebook status, along with the recipe.

And then I had another thought: Go ahead and post it on your blog that no one reads so you can keep it handy for archival purposes and later reference when you have forgotten how to make it again at the beginning of next summer.

Thus, the topic of this blog post. Here we go.

First off, get your blender ready. Make sure its clean from all the pancake gook that was sitting in it three days ago from your roommate’s experiments in the kitchen.

Next, fill the blender with precisely six (6) ice cubes of medium density. It must not be four(4)  or five (5), but six (6) shall be the number of ice cubes you fill the blender. Seven (7) is one (1) ice cube too many, thus the number shall be six (6), and six (6) alone.

Now you must get a banana. Be sure to peel the banana the right way, from the bottom up. I would not recommend making the smoothie without following this crucial step. Put the innards of the banana in the blender with the six (6) ice cubes.

Grab an apple. Doesn’t matter if its red or green, or yellow or a mixture of both. Just as long as its not brown. Or wormy. No one likes worms in their famous fruit smoothies. Here, you have a choice on how you do this, but I would recommend putting the apple in the blender in pieces as opposed to just throwing the whole thing in there. I prefer to use my handy dandy knock off apple wedger (here’s the real original product from years ago) to cut the apple into eight (8) nifty wedges without the core. Or you can just use a regular knife and cut the apple up by hand. Put the pieces in the blender with the banana innards and six (6) ice cubes.

Look in your freezer for your bag of frozen strawberries. Or if its the season, try looking in your fridge for your fresh hand-picked strawberries. Place five (5) (not six (6)!) strawberries in the blender with the six (6) ice cubes, banana innards, and eight (8) apple wedges.

Now open your refrigerator and take out your orange juice. At least that is where I hope you store your orange juice. That is where I store mine. I would imagine if might taste pretty nasty if you kept it anywhere else for any length of time. Pour the orange juice into the blender with the six (6) ice cubes, banana innards, eight (8) apple wedges, and five (5) strawberries until it fills about three-fourths (3/4) the amount of blender already filled. Note: this is not three-fourths (3/4) of the entire blender, but instead three-fourths (3/4) the amount of space already taken up in the blender by the six (6) ice cubes, banana innards, eight (8) apple wedges, and five (5) strawberries.

Put the blender on its stand, ensuring that it is fully situated in its base and ready for operation.

Lastly, turn on the blender. If your blender has an Ice Crush feature, I would recommend using it at this point to crush up the six (6) ice cubes, banana innards, eight (8) apple wedges, five (5) strawberries and orange juice. At some point when you feel that the blender is ready, you can try putting it on Smoothie mode, and let it run.

If the blender freezes up and does not spin the crushed six (6) ice cubes, banana innards, eight (8) apple wedges, five (5) strawberries and orange juice, turn the blender off. Try shaking the blender and put it back on its stand. Turn the blender back on again. If this continues to happen repeatedly, try adding more orange juice in the blender along with the six (6) ice cubes, banana innards, eight (8) apple wedges, and five (5) strawberries.

Let the blender run for a couple minutes on the Smoothie setting. Once the six (6) ice cubes, banana innards, eight (8) apple wedges, five (5) strawberries and orange juice seem like they are sufficiently smoothieized, get out your favorite LOTR goblet and pour the smoothie made up of six (6) ice cubes, banana innards, eight (8) apple wedges, five (5) strawberries and orange juice into the awesome collectable.

Finally, sit back, kick up your feet and enjoy this awesome and famous fruit smoothie made up of six (6) ice cubes, banana innards, eight (8) apple wedges, five (5) strawberries, and orange juice in a LOTR goblet. You’ll be thanking me all summer long.

P.S. A LOTR goblet is purely optional, if you have another drinking recepticle you would prefer to use, you have my permission to utilize such a lower form of recipticles if you so choose.

We’ve all heard about the recent push by the government to pass quickly a bill that would bailout the large corporations that are coming up short with crap mortgages and junk bonds and such. Apparently this bailout solution is supposed to keep the economy from an apocalyptic meltdown, and is supposed to completely fix the economy as it is. However, this action is not what the government and media have made it out to be. This is a quick fix that will not last.

Let me tell you my story about what happened today.

I signed a 2 year contract back in January ‘07, and bought a Razr. It had been working just fine until a month ago when I noticed it started randomly dropping calls (even when it reported having four bars in a densely populated area). I have about a month and a few days before I am eligible to upgrade to a new phone, and so I figured I could stick it out (sometimes it worked fine).Then this past week, the Razr would just randomly shut off on its own (even did this during one or two conversations). Finally today, it seemed to die…at least when it wasn’t on a charger. So I broke down and took it into my friendly local Verizon store.

After explaining the situation, and asking them to resolve the issue, the tech support guy told me that they do not fix phones (anymore), and that my phone was fried (he had tried to install a system update, but said that my onboard mini-USB was flaky, which prevented the update). My only options were to either purchase another Razr refurb for $50, or upgrade to a new phone….Then I got a bunch of mixed hoopla from him and another sales associate about how I would only get a $50 credit instead of the $100 credit that was written on the contract I originally signed towards an upgrade. This was either because of their new two tier plan ($50 credit for less than $79.99 per month plan, $100 for $79.99 or more), or because I was upgrading early ($50 new every year, $100 new every two years), I got both answers, but not any consistency. Frankly, the people I interacted with were pretty jerkish. I decided to walk out and try a different Verizon store across town.

My hunch was correct, I walked in and told them about my issue. I mentioned the fact that I had come from the other store, and told her what they had said. She immediately handed me off to the manager, Kenny. Kenny looked at my phone, and told me I had the two options the other store had first mentioned. I questioned him on the $50 upgrade credit, and he said it was the two-tier policy change that Verizon recently made, and I reasoned with him about what I signed in my original contract. I also mentioned the fact that the people at the other store had been jerks, and that I had heard that the people at this store would treat you right. He still did not budge, but he did take my old phone to see about an update. While I was waiting for the update to occur, he mentioned to me that he made a note on my file to go ahead and give me the $100 credit when I did come into upgrade (”since apparently you didn’t know about the new policy” were his words). A few minutes later, he let me know that they were unable to upgrade my phone, so they were going to give me a new refurb to last me the last month, for free, since I was having all this trouble. Just 10 more minutes of waiting, and downloading my contacts from Backup Assistant, and I was on my way. Thanks so much for the help Kenny! You are awesome!

My advice, if one store is harassing you, try another one. Be sure to tell them that the other store were jerks, and that you heard that the people at this store would treat you right. Be polite, firm, but realize that these are people too. And be sure to give them accolades when they do go out of their way to help you.

P.S. Users can also use this website to submit comments about what Verizon can do better: https://www.survey.verizonwireless.com/vzwsurvey/

Microsoft just decided to pull off a ridiculous PR stunt with their “Mojave Experiment” this past week.

Apparently the word-of-mouth campaign that us techie people have initiated without any real organization has informed all of our non-geek friends of our innate dislike of Vista. Yeah, everyone knows that Vista is crappy, from the media, from us IT people, from actual users.

Microsoft decided that our friends needed a second opinion.

Their answer was the “Mojave Experiment” where they talked to 140 non-Vista users about their thoughts on Vista, and then had them “test-drive” the “newest” version of Windows, Windows Mojave. I’m guessing that Microsoft hacked their own system to replace all occurrences of “Vista” with “Mojave” for these purposes.

After watching the intro video, click on some of the other faces to get different *select* reactions. Also, be sure to check out the “facts” where Microsoft propagates what a truly awesome product Vista is, and tells us *some* of the stats and methods used in this experiment.

According to the site, they used an HP Pavillion DV2000, with 2GB of RAM…that is all the info given about the computer used. Let it be known that base model specs only come with 1GB of RAM, and use integrated graphics card, but I would bet that they upgraded to the Nvidia GeForce Go 7200 for this model, if not a higher end card. But you don’t get the kind of hardware you need to run Vista on a brand new computer. You know they probably maxed out the notebook as much as possible, installed the O/S without all the extra junk you get on a new computer these days, ensure that all the correct drivers were working before allowing the users to test spin it.

Tell me, do you really think they would let the test users experience awful tasks such as hooking up external devices to the computer for the first time, trying to configure a network, installing new software (thank you UAC!), or try to run multiple high performance programs (i.e. Firefox…or, ahem, I mean, IE7 and Adobe Photoshop and AIM, er, I mean, Windows Messenger, and Outlook, etc) all at the same time. See if there is no slow down there.

According to the site, which you can verify for yourself, most of the users were completely surprised that what they were being showed was actually Vista. I am guessing that like I said, these users were probably allowed to do simple tasks one at a time like play a card game of Spider Solitaire, check their Hotmail email, and type up a simple document, without any heavy duty testing that might happen in a real world environment.

But this guy, though the site calls him a skeptic, probably shows these true colors of this PR stunt.

Claim: “Windows Mojave really is Windows Vista.”

Response: “But why is it faster?”

He saw through these phonies. Obviously, these experimenters weren’t playing quite fair as I have stated.

UPDATE:
A couple of other thoughts I had: Why is the site created in Adobe Flash? Why not use their own Silverlight? I’ll tell you why. Because they want people to actually see the videos and people don’t want to have to download another plugin to view the website. I don’t have Silverlight.
Also, which version of Vista did they actually show users? I guarantee you it wasn’t Vista Basic, even though that is the prime operating system that comes on new computers now.