Core Switch upgrade

Jeff Miles 2 Comments

PowerConnect 5548Last night I performed a network upgrade, replacing an old and potentially failing 3Com 3848, with a Dell PowerConnect 5548.

 

The network design that my head office has leaves a lot to be desired, but unfortunately I don’t have the resources to do a complete overhaul. Right now we’ve got a single core switch, which is linked to our Sonicwall NSA 2400 by one switch port.
Every other access switch, and all servers directly connect to this core switch. Almost everything is using 2 port Link Aggregation when it makes it’s connection to the core. There’s zero daisy chaining of switches, and since everything connects directly to the core, I’ve got STP off on the core. Our access switches are mostly PowerConnect 2724’s anyways, so they don’t support STP.

This is a very simple and effective network layout, but it’s far from redundant. If that core switch dies, our entire network is down, including every service we provide to external clients.

My future goal is to replace the 2724’s with 2824’s that do support STP, and then instead of LAG groups to a single switch, I’ll use two uplinks to two separate core switches. The only thing that is currently beyond my knowledge is how to link those two core switches to our Sonicwall redundantly without creating a network loop or routing issues.

 

Replacements like this are one of the high points of my job. It seems simple, basic and low on the skill requirements, but there’s something about meticulously planning and then implementing hardware that is very relaxing, very enjoyable. I don’t know if others share this sentiment, but racking things is definitely a job perk that I wouldn’t want to give up.

MD3220i firmware update

Jeff Miles 2 Comments

MD3220i There isn’t too much out on the interwebs about the MD3220i, so I thought I’d share my experience with updating the firmware.

Before the Christmas break Dell called and mentioned that a very important firmware update had been released, and it should be done as soon as possible. Due to scheduling, last week was when I scheduled a maintenance window to do it.

I was previously on firmware 10.70, so to fully update to 10.80 I need to use the bridge firmware to get to 10.75 first.

Luckily I realized that I needed to update the “PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager Client” before doing the firmware update. I uninstalled the previous version, and then reinstalled from this package:

ftp://ftp.dell.com/FOLDER88591M/1/DELL_MDSS_Consolidated_RDVD_3_0_0_18_A00_R314542.iso

However, installing from the setup.exe in that ISO, I had lost the actual “PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager Client”; no where to be found.

Eventually I figured out that from the install source, you also need to go into one of the sub directories, and run a different executable to get the MDSM Client.

Of course, I started drafting this post while I had that install source, and now I realize I must have deleted it so I can’t give the exact path of the executable that is needed. If I download the package again, I’ll make sure I update this post with the right path.

 

Once I had the MDSM updated, I updated to the bridge firmware first, and then the 10.8 firmware second. During this process the MDSM gave specific information about which controller it was updating, and all of my resources running from the MD3220i went uninterrupted.

Firmware updates are always a little stressful, even more so when the company SAN is the one undergoing an update; this one was smooth and painless which I was very glad for.

My Hyper-V cluster logs went wild though, reporting failures of the reach-ability of all hosts. Nothing to worry about since there’s dual controllers, but something to be aware of.

 

Hyper-V Cluster and Windows Server licensing

Jeff Miles Leave a comment

Thanks to Aidan Finn and this blog post, I’ve recently discovered that how I planned the licensing for my Hyper-V cluster is incorrect.

With two Dell R410’s in a Hyper-V cluster, I purchased two licenses of Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise. I figured that as long as I didn’t run more than 4 VMs per host, I’d be good. In the case of a Live Migration or fail over, the VMs weren’t permanently assigned to the other host so it’d be alright. For future VMs, one off purchases of Server Standard would be made to allow for their use.

I really don’t understand why Microsoft doesn’t make it more obvious that Datacenter really is what’s necessary to run a Hyper-V cluster. Unless you’re running 4 VM’s or less across two hosts, Datacenter is the only way to go. Any more than that, and you’ll be doubling up on Enterprise licenses for each host, which by that point you might as well buy Datacenter. For a two host Hyper-V cluster this will cost between $12,000-15,000.

I’m assuming this is just as much of a problem for ESXi clusters too; apply a Windows license to each host even though it isn’t running Windows, so that during failover, the licensing is legal.

 

At least now I know that this is incorrect, so for 2012 fiscal two Windows Server Datacenter licenses will be purchased. Of course with Windows 8 around the corner, I’ll be getting these licenses with Software Assurance (assuming Windows 8 isn’t out yet).

Thinking about Datacenter has got me really excited actually, because of the additional Hyper-V features, future improvements to DFS and DFSR (which I’m anxiously awaiting news of) and updated OS for WDS, RDS and a bunch of other services.

Internet Services – Telus sucks

Jeff Miles 4 Comments

image from sxc.huUntil recently, my company had a Managed ADSL service with Telus, but when the contract expired in 2011 we had no hesitation in choosing not to renew it.

Perhaps it was just bad luck in being assigned poor account managers, or perhaps this poor experience is common throughout Telus’ business offerings.

Either way, I saw the fact that I was paying $485/month for a 4Mbps down/1Mbps up with an SLA that was heavily slanted towards advantage for Telus (as most SLA’s are) as unneeded.

Other factors in canceling the Telus contract:

  • Auto-renewal of 3 year term contract, without notice or follow-up
  • Telus “forgetting” to cancel our Managed ADSL contract after receiving signed letters and repeated call-backs, resulting in many months overages despite the fact that we cancelled the contract

 

It is unfortunate Internet service is so expensive in Canada, especially for such low speeds. The amount of data that we’re pushing in and out is growing every year, and single digit Mbps just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Over a year ago we added an Internet connection from a wireless ISP, WiBand. This is a 10Mb sustained (20Mb burstable) connection with unlimited GB/month. We have been very happy with this service, and it’s been rock solid for us. Almost all of our services to external clients run over this connection.

With the cancellation of our Telus line, we brought in a Shaw Business 50 connection that is 50Mbps down, 5 Mbps up. While this isn’t guaranteed throughput, it is very cheap (under $100/month) and provides great access for our head office’s general Internet needs. Because we have our WiBand link with an SLA, we don’t need a highly reliable Internet connection from Shaw for general use.

Funny enough, when I asked what Telus had to compete with this Shaw Business 50 service, I was told we would be much better off with a 5Mbps down/5Mbps up fiber service that cost $800/month. Great job there listening to your client, Mr Telus rep.

Despite these nice links, I still long for the day when Canada gets speeds like they do in Northern Europe, with fiber to the home being common and high-throughput links being used.

Mindtouch – Add links to horizontal link bar in Beechbeta-pale

Jeff Miles Leave a comment

For the Mindtouch wiki at my company, I have taken a copy of Beechbeta-Pale and modified it to closer match our corporate image. Part of this modification includes the horiztonal link bar just below the wiki logo, as identified here:

horizontal menu bar with links

 

These links can be modified quite easily, which is great because this area provides a highly visible spot for common links.

To modify this area you’ll need SSH access to your wiki.

  • Navigate to: /var/www/dekiwiki/skins/beechbeta/pale (or your custom skin)
  • Modify html.php with Nano or your chosen file editor.
  • Find the line containing “<ul class=”nav”>” (around line 43)

If you want to add a static link, it will be in this form:

<li><a href="ftp://ftp.domain.com" title="">FTP</a></li>

You can add the class “first” to the <li> to add a vertical bar on the left, or class “last” to add a vertical bar on the right.

Comment out any predefined php functions (such as Watched Pages) that you don’t want to appear).

Something additional I did on my wiki was separate links from the left and right on the horizontal link bar.

For the links that you want to appear on the right, add a new class name to your <li> such as “customlink”.

Then open the “_style.php” file from the same location as html.php, and jump down to around line 144, which should be “.nav last”.

Add the following with your custom class name just below that:

.nav .customlink{
float:right;
}

 

Now your links should appear something like this: