Author Archives: Jason Matthews

Reconfiguring OI/Solaris 11 for full reboot instead of Fast Reboot

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Jason Matthews

Buried deep in the repository is an entry named ‘boot-config.’ This control how your system reboots when you type ‘reboot.’ Sounds simple right? Good. The svcs(1) reports the service as follows: jason@heimdall:/home/jason/smf% svcs boot-config STATE STIME FMRI online Mar_23 svc:/system/boot-config:default … Continue reading →

Posted in IllumOS, OpenIndiana, OpenSolaris, Nexenta, & Solaris, Intel Server, OpenIndiana | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Los Hicimos! We Did It! We broke the bonds of Amazon (AWS, EC2)

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Jason Matthews

Moving out of Amazon is no small feat. After a couple of months preparation we finally moved out of Amazon Web Services ([AWS], aka. the Roach Motel) on December 12th, 2011. And not a moment too soon. In the end, … Continue reading →

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How to PXE Boot Systems on LACP (802.3ad) using Juniper Switches

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Jason Matthews

The real trick here is that Juniper supports an option called ‘force-up.’ Since the PXE images are generally too small and dumb most operating system are unable to leverage LACP during the boot process. Historically this means the switch has … Continue reading →

Posted in Juniper, OpenIndiana | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

How to configure Time-Slider/autosnap without using the GUI

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Jason Matthews

This is a straight forward process with a twist. The twist is setting an un-obvious ZFS property. Here are the highlights: Configure Snapshot Properties in SMF repo Set super secret ZFS property to enable snapshots Enable related services Voila! Okay, … Continue reading →

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How to check the size of the ZFS ARC and L2ARC

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Jason Matthews

  ZFS Fun Fact The ZFS ARC is the Adaptive Replacement Cache. There is a simply way check the size of the cache on any OpenIndiana, Solaris, OpenSolaris, or Nexenta system. Simply run the following command as root or equivalent … Continue reading →

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Creating USB boot media on OpenIndiana or Solaris for OpenIndiana

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Jason Matthews

Today I was rather irritated with the USB build instructions for OpenIndiana. Someone had taken the time to write excellent directions for the Mac but didn’t write anything for Solaris, Opensolaris, or OpenIndiana. I thought this might be useful for … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 2 Comments

Creating automated installer for OpenIndiana 151

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Jason Matthews

After a brief consultation from Joshua Clulow via the OI discussion mail list i was able to build an automated installer (AI) image using Clulows XML config file. Here is how I did it. root@heimdall:~# pkg install install/distribution-constructor curl -k … Continue reading →

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OpenIndiana doesn’t recognize system_locale in sysidcfg when creating zones

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Jason Matthews

Using openindiana 151, I found that it blatantly ignores my sysidcfg config files complaining that system_locale wasnt valid. The work around is simple. Remove system_locale from sysidcfg altogether. The system will happily create the zone, skip kdmconfig, and the dreaded … Continue reading →

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How to make Intel server boards shut the f* up

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Jason Matthews

I recently took possession of some sample servers based on an Intel S5520R motherboard as part of the SR2625URLX chassis SKU. I outfitted it with an RMM3 and when I powered the thing on it blew all of its fans … Continue reading →

Posted in Intel Server | 2 Comments

Using HPN OpenSSH to flee the roach motel (AWS)

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Jason Matthews

I have a number of sharded databases in AWS (aka the roach motel). Since our experience has been one marked by instability, high variability amongst instances, and AWS related mishaps we are eager to out. One might think it is … Continue reading →

Posted in Performance, ZFS | Tagged , | 1 Comment