HP Microserver N54L vs Acer EasyStore H340

Hello folks!

Recently I bought a new micro server, an HP N54L.
It is the last one of the 7th generation of microservers from HP (here you can find all the specs), after the well known and sold N36L and N40L.

I bought it because I need to expand my storage and my actual storage server (Acer EasyStore H340) is too cpu-limited to handle esternal e-sata cases.

As far I can see the HP microserver outperform the Acer microserver in every situation, even on power consumption!

I didn't do a lot of test, I simply copied the same files across the two servers to see the difference: 99 Mbyte/sec for the HP and 65 Mbyte/sec for the Acer.

I'll keep you updated!

EXT4 for large files...

Hello folks!

I love xfs because it can manage very well big file systems (24 Tbyte or more) without loss on speed or file handling but now I'm testing ext4 on a precise situation: manage files above 4 Gbyte.

If you format a partition with mkfs.ext4 with the default options it will create an inode every 16K which is good if you have a lot of small files but it is useless if you store very large files so I googled around how to optimize and I found the creation flags largefile and largefile4.


With the largefile flag the file system will have one inode each megabyte while with the largefile4 flag will have one inode each 4 megabyte which simply means to save about 2 Gbyte every 100 Gbyte of space.
The only drawback I found is the minor number of files you can store.



I'm testing ext4 with the largefile4 flag on a file system of about 16 TB (raid 5 of five 4 TB disks on a HP N54L microserver) to see  how it performs compared to my beloved xfs.

I'll keep you updated!

I know, it was a long absence

Hello World!

Sorry for my long absence but I was very busy at work plus my parents came here to spend the winter holidays  so I didn't have any sort of free time!

But I'll update the blog with a lot of news!

Cheers!

MDADM: Debian Wheezy vs Squeeze...

A few days ago I had to rebuild my storage server due to an hardware upgrade (I created one main storage server with a xeon E5 and sixteen 4 TB disks so the Acer H340 became the secundary storage server) so I re-installed the operating system and create a new 4 disks raid 5 with four 3 TB Seagate disks...

I left all my Wheezy install disks at work so I used the "old-stable" Squeeze disks (64 bit of course!)...
The result was amazing compared to the Wheezy previous installation! The raid rebuild process was three times faster! On Wheezy the rebuild process was done at 38-40 MByte/sec but on Squeeze at 102 MByte/sec!

These were the conditions (the same I always use!):

• /proc/sys/dev/raid/speed_limit_min = 50000
• /proc/sys/dev/raid/speed_limit_max = 200000
• /sys/block/md0/md/stripe_cache_size = 8192
• NCQ disabled on all disks
• raid created on aligned partitions (with parted)

I can only think about a software regression!
More tests to come!

IBM x3630 M4, UEFI e Debian

La Facoltá per la quale lavoro, FISUL, ha comprato su mio suggerimento un nuovo server, un IBM x3630 M4 del quale trovate le specifiche qui, da usare come host ridondante.

Il prodotto é ottimo, dotato di un controller SAS/SATA da 8 porte (ho installato al momento solo 4 HD sata) e di 64 Mbyte di RAM (che diventeranno 128 quando aggiungeró il secondo Xeon E5), ma ha un enorme difetto: firmware UEFI (spiegazione veloce di wikipedia qui!)

Non vi nascondo che ho maledetto tutti i progenitori (dalla prima scimmia caduta dall'albero al padre naturale e non!) di quel genio che ha implementato tale firmare sul server poiché il server si rifiuta categoricamente di effettuare il boot se non trova una chiave secure boot appartenente a RedHat (scordatevi CentOS) o Microsoft! La beffa é evidente perché nel menú di boot il firmware riconosce la partizione uefi di debian ma non procede con l'avvio...

IBM, non contenta di aver rotto i cabacici con il secure boot ha inserito un'altra complicazione: non si puó effettuare un boot da un disco se questo non é configurato come RAID 0 (ossia bisogna creare un RAID 0 su singolo disco... una genialata!!!!!)

Riassumendo, i passi da fare per ovviare alle menzionate minchi@te sono:
- impostare il boot come "legacy only"
- impostare la sequenza di boot con "legacy" come prima voce, seguita da HD0
- creare un RAID 0 sul nostro primo disco di boot (gli altri possiamo pure lasciarli stare)
- installare Debian/Ubuntu/CentOS rimuovendo tranquillamente il volume raid software
- entrare di nuovo nel bios e creare di nuovo il RAID 0 sul disco di boot. Il sistema avvertirá che con l'operazione verranno eliminati tutti i dati ma non abbiate paura poichè ció non succederá.
- godetevi linux...

Nel mio server ho due RAID1 software, uno per il sistema operativo (Wheezy 64 bit) e uno per le VM.

Ora non mi rimane che scoprire come abilitare le altre due schede di rete in maniera gratuita... ma dubito che si possa fare!

Alla prossima!

Firefox (non Iceweasel) in Debian, the easy way!

Adoro Debian e trovo Wheezy meravigliosa ma proprio non riesco a digerire Iceweasel, la versione "pura" di Firefox.
Intendiamoci: Iceweasel funziona benissimo ed é estremamente stabile ma manca dell'appeal e della piena compatibilitá con il plug-in flash che invece possiede Firefox.

Ho velocemente risolto la questione installando Firefox dal repository di Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE).

Come fare? È facilissimo e velocissimo!

Linux Mint é ottimo... ma Debian + Mate sono ancora meglio!

Dopo piú di un anno di utilizzo posso affermare che Linux Mint, nella fattispecie Cinnamon, é una distribuzione ottima sotto tutti i punti di vista e a mio avviso superiore a Ubuntu per semplicitá di utilizzo, immediatezza e pulizia estetica.

Si basa sul kernel di Ubuntu (é presente anche una versione basata su Debian, LMDE, ma al momento non mi sento di consigliarla perchè il desktop manager, Cinnamon, non é ben integrato con le applicazioni) e propone gli ambienti Cinnamon o Mate al posto di Unity.

Da una settimana é stata rilasciata inoltre la versione 15 chiamata Olivia migliorata sotto tutti i punti di vista ed in particolare nell'aspetto grafico; gli screenshots in basso (presi dal sito ufficiale) rendono decisamente l'idea!

Ajenti, una alternativa a Webmin? Puó darsi!

Salve a tutti, dopo un periodo di lungo silenzio dovuto esclusivamente a impegni professionali sono tornato a scrivere sul mio blog.

Questa volta mi soffermeró su Ajenti, un attraentissimo (rispetto a Webmin) pannello di controllo per monitorare remotamente macchine e addirittura routers.

How to boost EXT4

Recently I tried some tweaks to boost the ext4 file system on my small download station (Pentium 3) and the most effective were:

1. deadline scheduler
2. noatime mount option
3. set the journal data as writeback

Let's explain better:

Happy New Year... and some news!

First and most important: Happy New Year to all of you!

Second: I know, I know... It is a long time I don't write something on my blog but due to the excess of work and due to the preparations to the voyage to Italy for Christmas I hadn't free time at all!

Actually we are in Verona (in Veneto, north of Italy) to spend the holidays with my mother in our home but I needed an Internet connection so I bought a Wind 3g sim card. Wind in Italy is very cheap but also very good!

I discovered that after the firmware update my ONDA MT503 HS 3g modem wasn't communicating with my router so I had to buy another modem... I chose a D-Link DWR-730 one and I can say I'm very happy with it: it is wireless, it has an internal lipo battery (about 5 hours of runtime with wireless connection) and it works with every operator.

The speed is great (better than my radio connection in Brazil), please check the photos!

the connection

the download rate...

Cheers...

simple tips for Endian Firewall 2.5.1

1 - How to block Facebook, Orkut, Twitter and Badoo:

It is very simple to do it, you need only the proxy in transparent mode to catch everyone, a simple rule on the proxy and on the outgoing firewall... take a look

HTTP proxy: Policy

Outgoing firewall configuration

It is important to not allow the HTTP service so the proxy will be able filter the outgoing request and block the facebook/orkut/etc. page


2 - Dansguardian service not restarting after some modifications:

It happens I have to modify some proxy rules and sometimes, when the service restart, dansguardian doesn't do it leaving the outgoing connections free. The most simple thing to do is manually restart it! (To do it first you must have the SSH service enabled and, of course, be connected via SSH to the firewall)
The command to restart the service is:

Cheers!

27 good reasons to use Linux

In the Istituto Majorana site I found a very interesting post about 27 good reasons to leave Microsoft Windows and use only a Linux distribution.

To be honest I don't think Linux is the good choice for everyone because there are still applications without a good free alternative (Autocad, Photoshop, etc.) and there are too few games... but for someone who needs to navigate on Internet, write documents, play with music and videos Linux Mint and Ubuntu are a very good choice (maybe the best!)

See you!

Free software, a new opportunity even for schools!

A friend of mine sent me a very interesting link: how one teacher built a computer lab for free

It is a good opportunity to show how free software can change the world in better! How many still-good computers in Italy (and allover the world, I think too) are thrown in the trash only because of the operating system (I guess Microsoft Windows...) or maybe because of a virus or a worm?

With one Linux distribution a lot of old computers can have a new life... better for the users and for the environment!

As far I know there is only one institute in Italy who adopted only free software: Istituto Majorana

Is it the beginning of a new future? I don't know but I hope it!

Cheers!

Computer AllInOne DIY? Yes, you can!!!

When I was young(er) I often had the chance to assist a TV program called MacGuyver, about a man able to fix everything using only a Swiss Army knife and his mind.

Today I had the chance to assist something even better: a colleague of mine, Michel Henkel, fixed an old-but-still-good notebook with a double-side-tape and the power (or the madness... :-b) of his mind!

He created a... Frankenstein monster computer!

Here are the images of the artwork:

Linux User Group in Rio Grande do Sul

Thank to my new colleagues I discovered a Linux User Group here in the Rio Grande do Sul state, in the south of Brazil. I'll get in touch with the people of that Linux User Group because I love free software (I don't hate closed source sofware but... I prefer free software!) and because I want to improve my Linux knowledge.

See U!

News: I'm still alive, only more work and less free time!

I'm still alive!!!! I only have less free time... I'm working in the morning as T.I. in a big company called FRINAL and in the afternoon/evening as T.I. in the FISUL University...you know, I need money for the international moving! Cheers!

How-to: 3G modem ONDA MT503HS (aka ZTE MF632) and DD-WRT

--- Warning ---
Do not update the firmware of the usb modem or the following procedure will not work!
----------------------


In December I will be back to Italy with my wife to spend the holidays with my family but I'll need to keep an eye on my servers in Brazil so I will need an Internet connection for 1 month but this is impossible in my country... so I decided to use a 3G modem with my brand new TL-WR1043ND wireless router.

Debian on a 256 MB flash memory? Yes, we can!

While I'm still trying Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon on my notebook I've started a new project: configure a full NAS operating system based on Debian within 256 MB to store on the internal flash memory of my Acer EasyStore H340.

a fresh mint?

After two years of Microsoft Vista on my Sony notebook (these are the specs) I decided to try a Linux distribution. I use Linux on my desktop, on my servers and on my nas but I was reluctant to use on my notebook due to the well known non-optimal power management issue of the penguin but this time I heard the new kernel is doing something very good so I decided to give a try on Linux Mint 13 RC Cinnamon.

I chose Mint Cinnamon because Ubuntu 12.04 with Unity is too heavy for my notebook (even if I have an nVidia 8400m GT!) and uses too much ram for my taste! On the other side Mint 13 RC is very fast (even without the nVidia proprietary drivers installed), very beautiful (I really like the Cinnamon desktop) and it takes only 380 Mbyte of RAM!

I chose the ext4 file system instead of my beloved jfs because I want to give it a try!

In these days I'll install all the programs I usually use and I'll perform some benchmark so stay tuned!

How to: clone an hard disk/partition via network

Some days ago I had to clone an hard disk of a computer into another one but all the hd connections were used... so I decided to clone it via lan!

The process is quite simple and it requires only two linux live cd and a working ethernet connection.