Matraex, Inc Blog

This blog describes some basic commands to repair an array in the case of a failed disk on the Dell 1750 running Linux via Dells afacli command line utility.

The actual manual for afacli can be found here:
http://docs.us.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/57kgr/cli/en/index.htm

Accessing the CLI from the UNIX Prompt

To access the CLI from the UNIX prompt, display a window and type afacli in any directory. The system displays the FASTCMD> prompt, which indicates you can now use CLI commands. The path in the startup file (.login or .cshrc) must include the directory where the software is installed for the command to work in any directory. See your UNIX documentation for information on setting up directory paths in the .login and .cshrc files.

To view all controllers use ‘controller list’
To connect to the controller with the command line utility, execute:

FASTCMD> open afa0

AFA0>

To show the status of all disks in all arrays, execute ‘enclosure show status’.

AFA0> enclosure show status

Executing: enclosure show status

Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) UpTime D:H:M   PowerCycle Interval Door     Alarm
———– ————– ———- ——– ——– —–
0  0:06:0         0:00:00        0       10   UNKNOWN  OFF

Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Fan Status
———– — ————-
0  0:06:0   0   OK
0  0:06:0   1   OK
0  0:06:0   2   OK

Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Power State        Status
———– —– ———— ——-

Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Slot scsiId Insert  Status
———– —- —— ——- ——————————————
0  0:06:0   0   0:00:0     0   OK ACTIVATE
0  0:06:0   1   0:01:0     0   OK ACTIVATE
0  0:06:0   2   0:02:0     0   ERROR FAILED CRITICAL WARNING ACTIVATE
0  0:06:0   3   0:03:0     0   ERROR FAILED CRITICAL WARNING ACTIVATE
0  0:06:0   4   0:04:0     0   ERROR FAILED CRITICAL WARNING ACTIVATE
0  0:06:0   5   0:05:0     0   ERROR FAULTY FAILED CRITICAL WARNING ACTIVATE

Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Sensor Temperature Threshold Status
———– —— ———– ——— ——–
0  0:06:0   0       82 F         120    NORMAL
0  0:06:0   1       86 F         120    NORMAL

Above, the disk in slot 5 is bad, so first de-activate the slot:

AFA0> enclosure prepare slot 0 5

Wait for the lights to go out, then remove the disk. Replace the disk with a functional, identical replacement disk.

Then, activate the slot:

AFA0> enclosure activate slot 0 5

Now, wait for the disk to rebuild. You can view the rebuild process with ‘task list’.

AFA0> task list
Executing: task list

Controller Tasks

TaskId Function  Done%  Container State Specific1 Specific2
—— ——– ——- ——— —– ——— ———
101   Rebuild   0.7%      1      RUN   00000000  00000000

The disk may be ready for use once this is complete however if it’s not try the command ‘disk initialize’

disk initialize

To initialize a SCSI disk for use with the currently opened controller, use the disk initialize command. This command writes data structures to the disk so that the controller can use the disk.

HINT: If you need to actually see which disk to pull out of the server ‘disk blink’ causes the disk drive light to blink.

You may have noticed email addresses showing up when you start typing an email address to send mail to. This is Outlooks auto complete feature. You may want to remove old email addresses or miss typed email addresses from showing up.

Start a new message & click in the To… box

Start typing the email address you want remove & use the down arrow to select it.

Once it’s highlighted hit Delete & it will be removed.

You can delete all auto complete entries from outlook.
The file is here, where username is unique to your installation: “C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook”

Delete or rename all *.nk2 files at this location.

Microsoft has a more detailed how to here:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=287623

I have a scheduled task that is setup to run a command with Cygwin each night to backup files to a Linux machine. I would find Bash and SSH processes left running but the backup didn’t start. This is because I needed permissions to the /cygwin/etc/group and /cygwin/etc/passwd files setup correctly for the user account that’s running the backup.

This is what the task is set to run “c:\cygwin\bin\bash.exe -l -c /home/backup/rbackup_redirect”

To troubleshoot I would schedule the backup for a few minutes ahead. It would fail running under the backup user account. I tried it on an admin account and the backup account, which isn’t an admin, by manually starting it in Cygwin. The admin account would work. The backup account wouldn’t. I then watched the SSH traffic on the Linux server as I manually started the backup. I saw that it would attempt to connect but fail when started from the backup account. It would hang for some time not moving on to the next step then stop trying. On the windows system Bash and SSH would still be running but on the Linux system SSH would stop running.

When I start Cygwin under the backup user account it would give a message saying that I may not be in the right group and I may need to rebuild /cygwin/etc/group and /cygwin/etc/passwd but it would go on to bash and let me run commands like normal. I tried rebuilding them. That didn’t work. I checked the file permissions on those files and found the issue. Just adding the backup user account didn’t work though. I had to actually delete the files. Make new ones that were blank. Then add the backup user account to have full rights. Then I rebuilt the files & SSH connections work fine.

In our annual tradition we broke away for the afternoon and went Rafting on the South Fork of the Payette River.

It was July 25th, 2008,  a Friday afternoon,  we closed up shop and headed up to Banks, Idaho.
The previous 3 years we rafted the Boise Main but this time around we thought we try something a bit more intense.

Here’s our seating chart in case you don’t recognize us in the hats.

Front Left - John Lyon
Front Right - Andre Nosalsky
Middle Left - Michael Porterr
Middle Right - Becky Gilmore
Back Left - Ryan Smith
Back Right - Michael Blood

Bronco Billy, Staircase, Dog Leg and even a dead elk along the way,  everyone had fun and stopped at the Mexican Restaurant in Horseshoe Bend for dinner and drinks like we do every year. (I dont remember the name it changes every year)

We tossed the idea around of a full day rafting trip with a campout the night before for next years trip.

Thanks to Bear Valley River Co. for the tour.

There are more pictures on Flickr.

Well,  after about a month of construction a couple of weeks of waiting for cubicles and desks we have finally moved our offices across the hall to Suite 150 in the same building (1450 Eagle Flight Way Boise, Idaho 83709)

As we all expected we love it,  Everything is new, It’s more private, there’s more space and natural light, our conference room is big enough for us to use,  the a kitchen has a sink,  the server room is isolated and quieter, the list goes on an on.

We are happy to be in new office and to show it off to anyone that wants to drop by,  consider this an open invitation.

Our original office suite is being slightly remodeled to make an expaned space in our Executive suite.  In the future this office will be layed out to handle growth in our Network Office Support services department.

Matraex, Inc is expanding!  We have signed a new 5 year lease with Sundance Co to double our current office space (Suite 125) by adding a second office space (Suite 150).   After a tenant across the hall moved out from our current location at 1450 Eagle Flight way in Boise, we began watching to see if we could expand to it.  After several months of negotiations and planning the layout was decided, agreements were signed and as of February 4^th renovations have begun.  The schedule move in date will be March 1^st 2008.

The expanded space will have 6 new office spaces as well as a dedicated server room, a conference and break room as well as a reception area.    Long frontage windows will provide 4 offices with full length windows, which will allow a lot more natural light into our lives than Suite 125 did.  The new conference room / break room will have a sink and dishwasher.  While this seems small, it is actually something that we really pushed for, we can now graduate from paper cups and plates to real plates, utensils and coffee cups!  Best of all our conference room will fit all of the employees in the company. 

Here is the new plan, The walls in green will be torn down,  the walls in red will be added to

Customers and Clients can continue to send correspondence, letters and information to Suite 125 however we will transition to using Suite 150 for this in the near future.

As soon as the renovations are complete all of the current employees will head over and stake claim to their space.  While the renovations to our original space have not yet been decided we plan that it will be used for our growing office network support services.   Some of this space will actually be used for our “co-leasors”, SpeedyQuick Networks, Inc.  As their operation has expanded they now have a need for 3 offices within this suite.

The 5 year $280,00+ deal marks our 9^th year in business.  Matraex previously has been in this building for only 2 years but this lease shows our commitment to this building.  The building also houses several other IT companies including Solutions Pro.  Since we have utilized Solutions Pro for our data center over the last 7 years we feel very comfortable here.  The fact that we have up to 1 GB connections to our live and development servers allows us to work quickly and efficiency without a slower less reliable DSL or T1 internet connection in the way.   We can not picture a more ideal location for our business.