After my friend Brian's post about trimming expenses, I've been thinking about my own complete lack of doing so. It's a bit of a problem, potentially.
I've been eating out a lot more than usual, lately. I've been driving more than usual, too, partially as a result of eating out more. I'll need to make repairs to my car pretty soon, and I'm not sure how much those will be yet. Speaking of repairs, I also repaired my file server, to an extent. I bought a couple 2TB hard drives for $99.99 each. I was able to save most of my files, and all of my important files, so that was good. Still, $200.
I'm also thinking of buying things that I really don't need at all. For example, I want to buy another digital camera. Why? Because I keep one in the car to take pictures of personalized license plates. Why does that mean I need two? Because I never have one with me when the cats are doing cute things, and taking videos of cute cats is the quickest way to youtube stardom! I fully recognize that this is not the best investment, but I'll probably end up doing it before too long.
Then there's utilities. The hot weather of late has skyrocketed my power bill along with everyone else's. I've also tried watering my lawn to get some grass seed to grow. That didn't really work, but I'm sure my next water bill will be higher than I've ever seen it. I also bought that new grass seed, some starter fertilizer, and a small spreader at The Home Depot using gift cards. And for the little remaining grass I have combined with the small amount of new grass that came up, I'll need a new lawnmower soon. I'd like a nice quiet electric one, which apparently means $300 or so. I'd also like to avoid the battery problems people have reported, which means $200 or so instead, but having to use an extension cord. So far, I'm leaning toward this cordless 36V mower. We'll see.
Finally, I've been donating (or pledging to donate) more to charity. If that isn't a stupid use of money, I don't know what is! Seriously, though, I'm going to try eating at home more often again. When I do, it tends to be really cheap. Hopefully the fall brings more reasonableness to my power bill, and whatever lawn mower I buy is reliable and durable. You all can hope that I don't buy that extra camera so that you're not flooded with videos of my cats. And you can also thank me for keeping the economy going these past few months!
Showing posts with label hard drive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hard drive. Show all posts
Monday, September 27, 2010
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
New Parts for File Server
I fixed my file server a couple of weeks ago. I now have my 3.5TB of storage space available again! If you'll recall, I've fixed my file server a few times before...
I started trying to fix my file server a couple of months ago by reinstalling Ubuntu. Unfortunately, this would hang at about 5% on the formatting/partitioning step. I suspected a faulty system hard drive, but didn't get around to trying another one until early October. I tried an old (from back in high school, for at least part of the machine) 40GB drive. The installation went through, but the system wouldn't boot from that drive. Since the drive had been in my garage for a number of years, I didn't particularly trust it. So, I went to Micro Center and picked up a 500GB hard drive that was on sale. It, too, allowed the installation to complete but would not boot up. It should be noted that the system hard drive has to be an IDE hard drive because I use all the SATA ports for the RAID array.
I figured it was most likely a faulty motherboard at this point. I went to newegg.com and picked out a cheap motherboard and processor (I always prefer to buy them together to ensure I have the right socket and so I don't have to mess with reapplying thermal grease whenever possible). Along with my new camera, the parts arrived in just a few days. I really do love Newegg.
There's not much else to tell. The installation went well, the raid was recreated without much hassle. I did learn a new command: mdadm --scan --detail /dev/md0 >> /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf. I don't remember having to run this command or having to mess with mdadm.conf at all, in fact, in the past. I'm not sure what has changed, but in order to get the raid device to persist after rebooting, I had to do this. I'm just happy it all works.
And it does all work! I no longer have that noisy north bridge fan (this motherboard doesn't have a north bridge fan to get noisy)! Everything seems much more stable and efficient. I'm really quite pleased with the new motherboard. I'm also happy with the new camera. I took some pictures of the file server, which I can't believe I haven't done before!
I started trying to fix my file server a couple of months ago by reinstalling Ubuntu. Unfortunately, this would hang at about 5% on the formatting/partitioning step. I suspected a faulty system hard drive, but didn't get around to trying another one until early October. I tried an old (from back in high school, for at least part of the machine) 40GB drive. The installation went through, but the system wouldn't boot from that drive. Since the drive had been in my garage for a number of years, I didn't particularly trust it. So, I went to Micro Center and picked up a 500GB hard drive that was on sale. It, too, allowed the installation to complete but would not boot up. It should be noted that the system hard drive has to be an IDE hard drive because I use all the SATA ports for the RAID array.
I figured it was most likely a faulty motherboard at this point. I went to newegg.com and picked out a cheap motherboard and processor (I always prefer to buy them together to ensure I have the right socket and so I don't have to mess with reapplying thermal grease whenever possible). Along with my new camera, the parts arrived in just a few days. I really do love Newegg.
There's not much else to tell. The installation went well, the raid was recreated without much hassle. I did learn a new command: mdadm --scan --detail /dev/md0 >> /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf. I don't remember having to run this command or having to mess with mdadm.conf at all, in fact, in the past. I'm not sure what has changed, but in order to get the raid device to persist after rebooting, I had to do this. I'm just happy it all works.
And it does all work! I no longer have that noisy north bridge fan (this motherboard doesn't have a north bridge fan to get noisy)! Everything seems much more stable and efficient. I'm really quite pleased with the new motherboard. I'm also happy with the new camera. I took some pictures of the file server, which I can't believe I haven't done before!
The old, very dusty, motherboard.
My newly installed motherboard. So pretty.
The entire case. This is my first Micro ATX motherboard, and it is surprisingly tiny.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Fileserver drama
It's been an exciting few days here in Geekland. I successfully installed my two new hard drives. That involved routing cables in an ugly manner, but was otherwise uneventful. I was not able to replace my north bridge fan, though - the wiring for the current one goes under the heatsink, but to remove that I think I need to remove the motherboard from the case. Anyway, at that point, I was all ready to grow my raid5 array.
But wait! How could this be? My 4-disk raid5 array is only running with 3 active disks1. It would appear that sometime on December 17, a power outage or similar caused a hard drive to be marked as failed. I should really set up some sort of notification. Well, I took the opportunity to learn all about recovering a dirty raid array. Good ol' mdadm was marvelous!2
With a fully functioning, clean, 4-disk raid5 array, it was time to grow the array. I called upon mdadm once again3 and got my two new drives added as hot spares. Just one more command4 to grow the array --
What's this? Linux and mdadm require versions 2.6.17 (2.6.19 according to some) and 2.4.1 and later, respectively, in order to grow a raid5 array? Surely Ubuntu, the most user-friendly linux version available will have a convenient upgrade mechanism - well, sort of. Upgrading reported a few errors, but I was running 2.6.20 and mdadm4 wasn't throwing an error anymore. Huzzah, my raid array was growing!
Kernel Panic? Aiee! Oh god oh god oh god. 2TB of data lost! Please let this reboot erase this bad dream... Eep! /dev/md0 no longer exists! There has to be a way to fix this - it's linux! Why, of course! I can always rely on mdadm. Why, once you reassemble the array5, it goes right on growing! Kernel Panic, again? Screw this.
After tiring of kernel panics and screaming "Aiee!" I downloaded an installation CD for the latest Ubuntu distribution. I had to reformat /root and /boot (and opted to format /home while I was at it), but I had a clean installation. In fact, it made everything easier. Once I reinstalled the mdadm package, /dev/md0 magically reappeared and was growing once again. It's now 56.7% done growing. After that, I need to resize the ext3 file system6, but I think that will go smoother.
At least I know the data is still there (at least mostly). After another while reinstalling and configuring samba and mounting /dev/md0, I have successfully watched an episode of TV. Indeed, I can still use my 2TB of file storage while it's growing into 3.5TB! If it weren't for a faulty upgrade, I probably wouldn't have had to reboot except for the hardware installation (and I admit that can even be avoided given proper cable planning in the case). I'm still amazed that mdadm can handle a bad disk, adding two disks, a faulty OS upgrade, kernel panics interrupting a reshape, reassembling unclean disks and making them clean again, resuming an interrupted reshape operation from a different version, and almost all while allowing the drive to remain accessible. Simply amazing.
Commands to remember:
But wait! How could this be? My 4-disk raid5 array is only running with 3 active disks1. It would appear that sometime on December 17, a power outage or similar caused a hard drive to be marked as failed. I should really set up some sort of notification. Well, I took the opportunity to learn all about recovering a dirty raid array. Good ol' mdadm was marvelous!2
With a fully functioning, clean, 4-disk raid5 array, it was time to grow the array. I called upon mdadm once again3 and got my two new drives added as hot spares. Just one more command4 to grow the array --
What's this? Linux and mdadm require versions 2.6.17 (2.6.19 according to some) and 2.4.1 and later, respectively, in order to grow a raid5 array? Surely Ubuntu, the most user-friendly linux version available will have a convenient upgrade mechanism - well, sort of. Upgrading reported a few errors, but I was running 2.6.20 and mdadm4 wasn't throwing an error anymore. Huzzah, my raid array was growing!
Kernel Panic? Aiee! Oh god oh god oh god. 2TB of data lost! Please let this reboot erase this bad dream... Eep! /dev/md0 no longer exists! There has to be a way to fix this - it's linux! Why, of course! I can always rely on mdadm. Why, once you reassemble the array5, it goes right on growing! Kernel Panic, again? Screw this.
After tiring of kernel panics and screaming "Aiee!" I downloaded an installation CD for the latest Ubuntu distribution. I had to reformat /root and /boot (and opted to format /home while I was at it), but I had a clean installation. In fact, it made everything easier. Once I reinstalled the mdadm package, /dev/md0 magically reappeared and was growing once again. It's now 56.7% done growing. After that, I need to resize the ext3 file system6, but I think that will go smoother.
At least I know the data is still there (at least mostly). After another while reinstalling and configuring samba and mounting /dev/md0, I have successfully watched an episode of TV. Indeed, I can still use my 2TB of file storage while it's growing into 3.5TB! If it weren't for a faulty upgrade, I probably wouldn't have had to reboot except for the hardware installation (and I admit that can even be avoided given proper cable planning in the case). I'm still amazed that mdadm can handle a bad disk, adding two disks, a faulty OS upgrade, kernel panics interrupting a reshape, reassembling unclean disks and making them clean again, resuming an interrupted reshape operation from a different version, and almost all while allowing the drive to remain accessible. Simply amazing.
Commands to remember:
- cat /proc/mdstat
- mdadm --add /dev/md0 /dev/sdd1
- mdadm --add /dev/md0 /dev/sde1 /dev/sdf1
- mdadm --grow /dev/md0 -n 6
- mdadm --assemble /dev/md0 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sde1 /dev/sdf1
- resize2fs /dev/md0 (theoretically)
Friday, February 29, 2008
Dungeons and Dragons
I was featured in yesterday's Internet Video of the Day, which was quite fun. I am indeed playing Dungeons and Dragons for the first time on Saturday. I'm really looking forward to it. My friend's wife helped me create an initial character and told me about some of the basics. Since then, I've been reading up in more detail on the D&D Wiki.
I still have quite a few questions, and I'm sure some things will end up being like the Free Parking in Monopoly - things aren't always done according to the rules. It should be a fun experience regardless.
In other nerdy news, my hard drives arrived! I think I will install them on Sunday. I'm quite excited. I just hope I don't lose all my data when I try and expand the raid array.
I still have quite a few questions, and I'm sure some things will end up being like the Free Parking in Monopoly - things aren't always done according to the rules. It should be a fun experience regardless.
In other nerdy news, my hard drives arrived! I think I will install them on Sunday. I'm quite excited. I just hope I don't lose all my data when I try and expand the raid array.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Computer Upgrades
I placed an order on Newegg yesterday for two more 750GB hard drives for my fileserver. I'm very excited because they arrive tomorrow! Newegg is fast! I'm thinking of making a trip up to Microcenter at some point in the next couple of days to get a new north bridge fan. I figure as long as my machine is going to be off while I add new hard drives and the like, I might as well get rid of the one loud fan that's in the box. I still need to figure out exactly how to expand a linux raid5 array, but that should be fun. Also cool: my hard drives were each part of a combo deal, so I get two free USB drives - one is 2GB and the other is 4GB. Perhaps I'll actually use one sometime.
I also did some research for my next primary machine while I was shopping. I've picked out a likely case and memory, but beyond that I ran into some troubles. There wasn't any clear best choice on processor/motherboard/graphics combinations. In the end, I decided that since I won't be buying a new machine until at least June, that I'll postpone any research until then, too.
The only lasting decision I made was to name my new computer Nora. In fact, this will be the first computer I will have named. I chose the name when it immediately popped into my head when Newegg asked me what I should name the wish list of parts I'd created. So, I'm not sure what the significance is yet, but Nora has some potential to be special.
I also did some research for my next primary machine while I was shopping. I've picked out a likely case and memory, but beyond that I ran into some troubles. There wasn't any clear best choice on processor/motherboard/graphics combinations. In the end, I decided that since I won't be buying a new machine until at least June, that I'll postpone any research until then, too.
The only lasting decision I made was to name my new computer Nora. In fact, this will be the first computer I will have named. I chose the name when it immediately popped into my head when Newegg asked me what I should name the wish list of parts I'd created. So, I'm not sure what the significance is yet, but Nora has some potential to be special.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)