Friday, September 04, 2009

I hate server crashes

Came home yesterday evening and my Linux server was going "grr... CLICK! grrr... CLICK! grrr... CLICK!" Gah, a hard drive crash in my new 3 terabyte RAID array! So I went out today and bought a new hard drive, and then once diagnosing which drive had failed (unplug drives until one of them quit going grr.. CLICK!, heh), replaced it.

Then came the problem of telling Linux about all this. Last time I tried this on Linux, it was a major pain. I had to create a boot disk with a small Linux distro and force the RAID array to assemble, and otherwise do nasty things. However, I'm running the very latest Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition. So I selected 'Recovery Mode' from the boot menu, and 'root prompt with networking' as the recovery mode that I wanted, and it just put me at a prompt. I then told mdadm to fail and remove the missing drive in the RAID array, partitioned the new drive with fdisk to the same layout as the old disk, then told mdadm to add the missing drive to the RAID array. And it all just worked -- the new drive came up in the RAID, the RAID subsystem started rebuilding its ECC codes and data segments, and everyone lived happily ever after. Granted, "just worked" for a geek edition of "just worked" where geeks know what mdadm is and how its arcane syntax works, but hey, I'm a Linux penguin. It's just like herring for me, yum!

So that's what I just spent the past three hours doing - rebuilding my Linux server. I'm seriously thinking about just retiring the thing. All I use it for is my stash of penguin porn nowdays, and some old stuff that I want to keep for historical purposes but which has no need to have an entire server dedicated. And frankly, I don't care enough about my penguin porn stash to worry about it being RAID, I can just stash it on any old USB drive and plug it into my Macbook whenever I want to watch "Debbie Does Antarctica" or "Deep Herring". In the meantime the thing uses an astounding amount of power to keep its high speed array of hard drives spinning, and keeps requiring new pieces and parts as old ones fail -- in the past six months it's required a new hard drive, a new RAM chip, and a new power supply. And it's not because I put bottom of the line parts in there either, the power supply was an Antec and the memory DIMM that failed was a Corsair for cryin' out loud! Maybe I just need to simplify my life some more. Hmm...

-- Badtux the Geeky Penguin

Posted by BadTux at 9/04/2009 10:19:00 PM
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6 comments:

  1. Cirze5/9/09 8:27 AM

    Don't we love those words?

    Congrats!

    S

    And it all just worked

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fergie5/9/09 8:29 AM

    ouch, ouch, ouch. i SO do not miss computers, software, coding. Since I joined that 12-step program (computer geeks anonymous) and changed careers, my life has been so much simpler <^;

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jazzbumpa5/9/09 9:00 AM

    I'm still stuck on Penguin Porn . . .

    Jeers!

    JzB the perverted trombonist

    ReplyDelete
  4. BadTux5/9/09 9:27 AM

    It's an old joke, Jazz. Instead of Friday cat blogging I used to do Friday penguin porn blogging, which just consisted of photos of nude penguins (they're all nude, after all) doing whatever penguins do. I quit doing it because I got bored with it, there's only so many penguin pictures you can post before they all start looking like, well, penguins :). Besides, it's far easier to obtain good photos of cats, since I am owned by two of them...

    So anyhow, penguin porn isn't as racy as you might think. Penguins do not, after all, have external sexual organs, said organs would freeze off in the Antarctic (!). Instead they just rub their cloaca (all-purpose hole used for urination, defecation, and sex) together until they manage to transfer sufficient genetic materials to obtain the desired result. There's not much to see there, since the male is mounting the female from behind as she has her tail stuck in the air and the male is sort of wrapping his tail around her tail. Remember, everything has to happen while they have their feathers merged together in order to keep the, err, genetic material, from freezing in the Antarctic cold.

    So other than some wriggling around as they try to get positioned to do the, err, transfer, penguin porn is rather unexciting. So now you know more about penguin sex than you ever wanted to know :).

    - Badtux the Nasty Penguin

    ReplyDelete
  5. Southern Quebec6/9/09 7:17 AM

    "...and the memory DIMM that failed was a Corsair for cryin' out loud!..."

    Didn't Nader get the Corsair banned?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jazzbumpa6/9/09 6:01 PM

    BT -

    I thought a nude penguin would be one without a tuxedo.

    Anyway, you misunderestimate me. My prurient interest knows no bounds.

    JzB the (expletive deleted) trombonist.

    WV: fascing - not the way penguins do it.

    ReplyDelete

Ground rules: Comments that consist solely of insults, fact-free talking points, are off-topic, or simply spam the same argument over and over will be deleted. The penguin is the only one allowed to be an ass here. All viewpoints, however, are welcomed, even if I disagree vehemently with you.

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