This week I hope to move back to spending more time on Active Directory move testing. We also have some new matlab toolboxes to install.
- Installing ssl certificates
- Active Directory testing
- Printer testing on macs
- switching hydra from up2date to yum
Sept 22 to 26th
September 23rd, 2008The little binary that could: Dellmgr
September 19th, 2008The cluster downtime was avoided, thanks to some helpful advice from Dell. Our cluster uses a pair of PowerVault 220S enclosures which are configured in a RAID 5 array. When two of the drives in each enclosure went into predictive failure mode, we needed to replace them to ensure the integrity of our data. Since we’re running Rocks for the cluster os, the dell openmanage tools that would allow us to do the hotswap while the cluster was running weren’t available.
I didn’t want to install the openmanage software since it seemed to have a large number of modules and really looked like it might be work (which I try to avoid). A dell rep I talked to recommended DELLmgr instead. He told me to ignore the other rpms, and install only the following: Dellmgr-5.25-0.i386.rpm . It installs one file, dellmgr.bin, that talks to the PERC controller card and gives you an interface very similar to the one used in the card’s BIOS, no restart required. I was able to fail the faulty drives and do the rebuild without having to alter the cluster’s running state at all.
It’s a shame that dell no longer supports it and hasn’t released a version for the new controller cards.
Sept 15 to 19th
September 15th, 2008A warning about some impending drive failures in our cluster on Friday means I’m going to need to schedule some downtime for it this week. We’re also having an orientation meeting today for lab students. The details are in your email.
- Installing ssl certificates
- Cluster downtime and updates
- Vista installation and testing
Directx issues with group policy
September 8th, 2008I’ve been experiencing problems putting together a silent directx installation that will work with group policy. I can get it to run correctly when it is run silently but in an interactive session, only to have it fail when it is run as a startup script from a group policy object. It usually fails to copy some files from a temporary location into the system folder. I’m going to continue looking into this to see if a work-around is possible.
Sept 8 to 12th
September 8th, 2008It looks like the strike at UofT has been avoided. The sony work and some other, grant related work ended up taking the majority of my week, so I’m still working on the Active Directory move.
- test imap server
- new ssl certificates
- new student machine setup
Sept 2 to 5th
September 2nd, 2008This week will probably be concerned mostly with new student setup, although I hope to continue to make headway on the Active Directory tests I’ve been working on.
- test imap server
- Sony warranty work on laptops
- Additional XP sp3 tests and new software rollout (related to Maya, 3DS and others) on reinstalled computers. (update)
PBRT on Rocks Cluster OS tests
August 6th, 2008We’re trying out PBRT (Physically Based Rendering) on our cluster for some of the students. Rocks OS doesn’t include it as part of the installation package (it has to be installed from source) and it depends on openexr, a package that was developed at ILM to provide high dynamic-range (HDR) image file format.
Openexr does have a rpm package available, but not in the repository Rocks OS uses. I downloaded it from DAG along with openexr-devel, uses the version which corresponds to CentOS 4 (RedHAT EL 4) since I belive that is the source for the Rocks OS version I am using. The only gotcha during the compile was having to change the include directories for Openexr in pbrt’s Makefile from /usr/local/include to /usr/include and the lib directory to lib64, since we’re running 64 bit.
If pbrt works okay on the test node, I’ll install it on the rest of the cluster.
August 5th to 8th, Away until 18th
August 5th, 2008Next week I’ll be away, and this week is shortened because of the holiday so my ambition will most likely exceed my reach. Most of last’s week tasks are still works in progress for this week.
- reorganizing windows scratch space
- using new network as Active Directory rename testbed
- installing test imap server
Maya 3DS Max Auto install
July 29th, 2008I think I’ve figured out why my autoinstallers for 3DS Max 9 and Maya 2008 didn’t work – they required the directx redistributable package to run, specifically d3dx9_34.dll for Maya and some earlier version for 3DS Max. In addition to the isscript autoIt install (required because the installshield msi file will break all other versions of isscript.msi if installed via group policy), a directx silent install will be required to ensure the installation can roll out on lab machines.
July 28 – 30, away until 4th
July 28th, 2008As I mentioned above, I’m away for most of this week, so it’s likely I won’t get to many things on the list:
- reorganizing windows scratch space
- using new network as Active Directory rename testbed
- downgrading from vista to xp
- installing test imap server