tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:50:55 +0000http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (David Francis)Blogger174125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-1045806400804651560Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:21:00 +00002009-07-03T11:26:53.495+08:00The other day whilst trying to resolve a pathing issue with a blade chassis. I noticed some CRC errors in one of the Fabrics.So I'm now in the process of setting up Brocade Fabric watch (yes you do need a license for it) to monitor and alert me on these errors.Fabric watch goes a bit deeper then the Webtools event view will show you , and anyone out there running Brocade switches should turn it http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/07/brocade-fabric-watch.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-4402429899226997885Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:17:00 +00002009-06-22T21:20:28.031+08:00So it was my 30th a few weeks ago , and on the wish list was to grab myself a Mustang (I got my ESP when I was 21)But with all the dramas with banks etc , I had to put it on the back burner. Anyway my sister and mum got me the next best thing. A ride in a 65 coupe which drop me off at the bday venue.http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/06/getting-there-in-style.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-2305225372397178028Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:32:00 +00002009-06-18T09:33:26.136+08:00http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/06/tour-around-suns-cloud-data-center.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-5990172977866758744Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:47:00 +00002009-06-05T10:03:29.649+08:00So if you have multiple SAN's and you add a brand new SAN into your ESX environment , and you've done a LUN rescan via Virtual Center , and via esxcfg-rescan and you still don't see the storage.Reboot your ESX host as your HBAs Bios will then be reset ( I'm thinking this is something to do with it getting its SCSI id sequencing re-ordered). And then your Vmware guys will be presented with http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/06/where-is-my-lun-vmware.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-1595675001989398269Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:43:00 +00002009-06-05T09:46:14.792+08:00So I got an offical answer to my question from Vmware , as I have multiple SAN's which are presented to the ESX cluster.15 SCSI id targets16 hba's per hosts (ESX 3.5 update4)256 vmfs volumes per host.http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-many-scsi-id-targets-can-i-present.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-8693564686295056577Tue, 26 May 2009 05:40:00 +00002009-05-26T13:42:52.928+08:00Just passed my SNIA "Assessment & Planning" exam , I've now moved up the SNIA ranks to "Architect"It's been a long time coming , but I finally got therehttp://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/05/snia-assessment-planning-design-exam.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-7252295147259932618Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:59:00 +00002009-04-30T18:01:53.600+08:00Today was all about "Performance Tuning" from host/fabric & subsystem level. Learn't alot of good tips and can't wait to try them out when I get back to work.http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/04/snia-assement-planning-day-4.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-2556282670970764164Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:43:00 +00002009-04-29T19:46:52.583+08:00Today was all about ISCSI & FCOE , I've never really been such a big fan of ISCSI but today I saw the SNIA way of incorprating ISCSI into an existing Fiber Channel infrastructure. Because at the end of the day it's all about getting rid of DAS (direct attached storage) so ISCSI can solve those servers we have , sitting out in our data centers that require very little I/O access.Big thanks to an http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/04/snia-assement-planning-day-3.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-7964054722924682787Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:31:00 +00002009-04-28T18:35:15.533+08:00Today we covered ITL stuff (yeah fun :) then started to get into the serious stuff of Fabric Topology design strengths and weakness.Finished up the day with a walk down to Southbank and dinner at the "Crown Casion"http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/04/snia-assement-planning-day-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-338614188516880946Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:35:00 +00002009-04-27T17:38:47.050+08:00Arrived in cold and rainy Melbourne for a week of SNIA "Assement & Planning" training this week. Day 1 was a little slow went through most of the inital project/planning stages.Class is bigger by 2 people from when the last time I did my training in Sydney.http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/04/snia-assement-planning-day-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-8344155185729608215Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:05:00 +00002009-04-08T20:10:44.772+08:00I just noticed the other day that I'm climbing up the ranks on the Brocade Community Fourms.http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/04/climbing-up-brocade-community-ranks.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-247192411107810563Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:55:00 +00002009-04-02T12:57:51.098+08:00Google have finally made a public presentation about there custom build servers , and data centers that they use.Apparently they have been running a sea container style (Sun Blackbox) since 2005.Note check out the battery mounted near the mainboard , apparently they use these instead of buying UPS.http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/04/under-skirt-look-at-google.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-2769747940617780720Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:50:00 +00002009-04-02T12:55:01.938+08:00So it seems the mighty and very cool SGI have officially gone bust. I remember my first experience with SGI back in high school , when I undertook a work experience program and I was placed with a reseller/partner.Going out to install 4GB SCSI hard-disk for all the engineers running CAD , and all the animation guys. I still have an old VHS tape of some of the stuff SGI animation could pump out (http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/04/sgi-accquired-by-rackable-systems.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-3171475291912299253Fri, 20 Mar 2009 03:24:00 +00002009-03-20T12:31:05.385+09:00Just finished installing my new baby @ work specs areHDS AMS2100 Dual Active/Active Controllers8GB Cache16*1TB SATA disk's16*500GB SATA disk'sThe main purpose of this array is to migrate lower I/O hosts from our NCS55 and from our very expensive 15k Fiber channel disk.http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-toys.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-1247442597498140552Thu, 19 Mar 2009 06:40:00 +00002009-03-19T15:41:06.053+09:00Thanks to the Opensolaris Storage Sumit 09 for this pichttp://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/03/thanks-to-opensolaris-storage-sumit-09.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-5819183954872960467Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:35:00 +00002009-03-19T15:39:56.757+09:00So I wake up this morning and turn on Bloomberg news to hear a story about IBM to buy Sun ??Is this just another rumour we all remember the Apple to buy Sun one many years ago , will just have to wait if it's just rumour mill or serious.http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/03/ibm-to-buy-sun.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-5175885664329469898Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:03:00 +00002009-03-03T21:11:53.653+09:00So when your creating your SAN Fabric and your plugging in all your hosts , remember your storage array controllers also need , to be spaced across your switches.Otherwise you could end up with a single point of failure in your fabric , if your ever decide to reboot a switch for any sort of maintenance. A fabric should be highly resilient , and allow you to reboot hosts ( dual pathing software http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/03/fabric-design-101.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-8021877370245494028Sun, 01 Mar 2009 01:43:00 +00002009-03-01T10:44:03.920+09:00Natalija Gros from Jure Breceljnik on Vimeo.http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/03/climbing-goodness.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-5162445841434058153Thu, 26 Feb 2009 01:50:00 +00002009-03-01T10:45:19.942+09:00So poor old MJ has to sell all his toys some of his arcade machines are classic's if you have the cash you can bid for them here.http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/02/michael-jacksons-toys-for-sale.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-6797302730288582632Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:14:00 +00002009-02-16T09:15:39.669+09:00http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/02/happy-velentines-day-from-cisco.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-8659088260744203283Mon, 09 Feb 2009 02:41:00 +00002009-02-09T11:44:53.430+09:00How awesome is this place I've always been a fan of the old pinball machine , still got one on the wishlist for my place.You can check out the complete gallery here http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/02/pinball-hall-of-fame.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-4892324053300246187Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:45:00 +00002009-01-27T11:46:34.054+09:00This is a cool app which lets you manage your ESX Cluster from your iphone , its free at the moment , but when it's out of beta you'll have to pay for it.You can download it from herehttp://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/01/manage-your-vms-from-your-iphone.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-994761266689692245Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:09:00 +00002009-01-06T16:11:50.910+09:00I was watching a Summernats video on Youtube and came across a clip which had the one and only , XE ESP Ghia in the shot.Makes me want to get mine back out on the road asap (ladies included)http://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-was-watching-summernats-video-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-2579606076355052668Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:17:00 +00002009-01-06T15:20:39.633+09:00I got a new video card in my work PC to run dual displays , so what better way of "stress testing" it than to crank up 3dmark.Here are the results , nothing flash but hey what do you expect from a SOE desktophttp://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/01/benchmarking-my-work-pc.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16546195.post-5808843937595245046Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:33:00 +00002009-01-02T11:41:08.364+09:00Happy new year to all , 2009 New Years things to do*Get my lead pass in climbing**Upgrade my old PC**Continue on with my SNIA training**By a bicycle**Get an Aircon installed in my place**Go back to the USA**Play more golf*New Years pic's from Tobyhttp://davidfrancis.blogspot.com/2009/01/happy-new-year.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David Francis)0