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up on our desktops for a few days, and then come back one morning and all the data on the screens would be stalled and outdated.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!

(Author’s Note: This post was inspired by a comment on Lifehacker asking which was better when it came to Facebook friends: Quanity or Quality? I personally prefer quality, however, you can’t always enforce that easily)

If you are like me, then you have a Facebook profile (along with most everyone else on the internet in the world) and you have Add as a Friend request from people that you either don’t know, or do not care about. It is these requests that caused me at one point to think twice about adding them. Why? Because I am a quality type of guy when it comes to Facebook friends, and I did not necessarily want everyone who wanted to be my virtual friend to have access to personal information about me (cell phone number, address, current employer, etc).

But I have been burned by people who were offended for denying their request or, doing like I used to do and just keep their request in limbo and not make a decision (which Facebook still allowed them to see your basic profile anyway, and of course they will know eventually if you are not ever among their friends). However, I discovered a way to not offend these people and eat my cake too. Its all about combining the Friends List feature and customizing your Privacy Settings.

1. Login to Facebook if you have not done so already
2. Click Friends in the Top Menu (left side)
3. Create a New Friends List (left sidebar) called Acquaintances (or whatever you want)
4. Add any current friends you do not want to be able to see all the info on your profile
5. Click Privacy Settings under the Settings tab in the Top Menu (right side)
6. Click Profile
7. Click the drop-down of any of the groups you don’t want these people to see (i.e. Personal Info, Photos Tagged of You, Status updates, etc)
8. Click Customize
9. In the “Except These People” textbox, type Acquaintances (or whatever your new friends list name is)
10. Now any of the sections that you don’t want these people to have access to, they will not be able to see
11. From now on, whenever you get an Add Friend request from a person you don’t really know, quickly add them to the Acquaintances list before confirming them.

If you ever want one of these persons to have access to your info, go back to your friends list and remove them.

This technique is extremely useful for limiting what those people see about you, however, it does not limit what you see about them. Remember, they can still message you, chat with you, and interact with you via certain third part Facebook applications. However, I have found that it is annoying to still see status and news feed updates about these people that I don’t really care about. I do wish that Facebook allowed you to exempt Friends Lists from the News Feeds.

I hope this little tutorial has helped keep your frienders happy and eat your cake too!

While reading Mere Christianity, I came across this quote which reminded me of our current state in the nation.

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended–civilisations are built up–excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin. In fact, the machine conks. It seems to start up all right and runs a few yards, and then it breaks down. They are trying to run it on the wrong juice.

-Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis.

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.

I recently found the new House of Heroes cd, The End is Not the End streaming online at Absolute Punk.net (you can also find it at Relevant’s The Drop). A complete review will be coming soon.

However, I did want to touch on one aspect that hit me good. Their second to last (technically third to last, as there is a “secret song” at the end of the last track) song, Voices, vividly describes the haunting of innocent voices that have been disgraced by the singer. Essentially the core of the song is summed up in this quote:

In a graceless world / I was graceless / …how can God show mercy? / I was merciless to them?

This is recounted through cries of regrets of deeds done and not done in life.  Injustice was introduced to the world around. The main crux, the sin that the singer so regrets, is the constant murder required of him while fighting in a brutal war.

Then, after all this lament, a speaker comes in with these profound words:

Your greatest sin is not the abortion you’ve asked forgiveness for
or the adultery or whatever it is you did in your life in your past that you’re ashamed of
that keeps hounding you.

Your greatest sin is not that.
Your greatest sin is not believing God’s Word when God says you’re forgiven!
Your greatest sin is unbelief!

You want to repent of something, friend?
Stop repenting of sins you’ve already repented of
and repent of your unbelief.

Wow. How often do I beat myself up over something that I know I am ashamed of, that I have asked forgiveness for? This is a continuing attack even after I have been forgiven. God has forgiven me, and that is that. Don’t continue to crucify Christ over again by beating myself up over and over again in an attempts to suffer through my own purgatory.

P.S. If you are interested in where that sermon is from, I scoured the internat and finally stumbled upon it among some sermon notes. It is a sermon by Rich Nathan at Vineyard Church of Columbus (Ohio), called The Triumph of the Cross. Clicking that link will take you to the mp3 of that sermon, and that section above is located about 3/4 the way in.