Adsense

you know google has adsense? And they say "Turn blogging into money"?

Well, they won't if you "don't have enough content".

Just sayin'.

 - Bret

Ah, and ZFS...

I should write about this, too. Well, the short version goes: "I lost a disk. And thought I'd lost teh data. I didn't lose data and now I have a backup". I also just got a 2TB disk as I'd taken the other 2TB out, so I now have 4TB lying around with backups on and another one for the system next time I bring it down. That should take it back to 5TB net; I've probably got 300GB of data from the summer trip, so if I copy that over, I've got minimal space left as of right now. Other news? the car got a new wheel bearing and now the arguments have started as to whether we need to replace it or not. The car, that is, as the bearing was done in Bonn. I dare say I'll write some more about some photo stuff sooner or later - in the mean time, I have fewer followers on g+ than before and I don't know why. Maybe I'm no longer in some circles? Don't know, I'll take a look and do some interaction on there and see if I can get my numbers up again. - Bret

those summer pics

gear

.. since I've been asked several times what gear the summer photos have been made with, I'll write it here and then refer back...

Pentax K5

Sigma 100-300/4
Tamron 17-50/2.8
Pentax D-FA50 Macro /2.8

and maybe the Monopod (Manfrotto 569+234RC2 head) or Tripod (Manfrotto 055DB with 222RC2 head).
Optional have been the Cokin P series holders and 3 stop ND Grad or ND (though the grad hasn't really been used).

 - Bret

I haz PSU...

Got a Coolermaster GXLite 500W. According to their calcs, 420W should be enough, but it's "only" got 6 SATA plugs. So let's see what happens when I tear the box apart tomorrow. Need to re-tighten the elastic anyway (the disks are *all* suspended) and then I won't put the new 2TB in the array. So it will be just 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1.5, making around 3.7TB net. That's enough to be going on with (it'll be pretty full, mind...)

Deduplication will *not* be turned on this time. Atime will be turned off. The rest? Let's see how the performance goes for the short term. I need stability first and performance second, 60MB/s is fine, thanks.

 - Bret

PSU?!

So, the saga of the data that's not elsewhere continues.

I tried probably 15 times to boot the box yesterday, and every single time after ten minutes or so, it would lock up.

Then I set the PnP OS in the BIOS to "NO" and hey presto, it got better.

Removing one of the disks made it even better. So from here, it looks, smells and feels like there's a heat and PSU issue. I moved it back onto the table this morning (it locked up at 05:11) and in the process took down the NTFS disk attached (grr!) so I've started the copy *again*. If this works, then I'm 99% sure I need a new PSU as the old one seems to struggle under load and again under heat. It's pretty boxed-in back there, so I could sort of understand this.

In the mean time, then, I'll try to re-copy the data for the umpteenth time (lost another NTFS disk yesterday, main file table corrupt so Windows 7 says "NO!") and if I get that fixed, I'll be a happy bunny.

Moral? Sort your backups out before it's too late....

 - Bret

verkkokauppa.com rocks!

teh 7200.11s in the previous post; they were remanufactured disks. Bought from verkkokauppa.com.

I had no receipt, but the original "packaging" (antistatic bags). I took them back.

No issues. No replacements, but the "money" back and I've added €40 to it and got an HD204UI. Nice. No requirements on their part - and their customer service is really rather good.




Now, if only they could sort the transport out to their store...

 - Bret

CHS0 / DRDY / ATA issues under Ubuntu

I've been messing with Ubuntu for a while now, but I'm slowly hitting a brick wall. I had some major problems yesterday with my server box, where two Seagate 7200.11s appear to have died, and so I'm trying to pull the last of the data off that I'm not 100% sure is elsewhere.

1.2TB of it.

That takes time. Now, the disks were running OK yesterday - but the box locked up as soon as I tried to access the Samba share at one point. At another, it was running fine with 45MB/s transfer rates... and now? Now it's running 15 locally to a disk that's on the SATA bus!

Anyways, I don't care if the 2011 directory is copied safely.

The reason I write this post; I appear to have been having major problems with the SATA bus, and changing the graphics card appears to have helped. I do not understand this 100%, but if it's the cure for the issue, I'm not really bothered.

I'll keep you updated...

the new ZFS, by the way, will have Dedup and atime disabled from the start and will probably have either five disks in a single vdev for around 3.5TB of space or maybe two three-disk vdevs. Haven't decided yet, need to do some research. The box "only" has 8GB of memory and 6 disks (potentially 7), and performance is supposed to be best with only five disks. Performance would be nice, but 60MB/s is enough.

Just hoping the data comes off cleanly and then I can work on getting it back on again.

The 7200.11s were giving me the above SATA issue; one of them would drop off the bus five minutes after boot and the other would give the DRDY error every three seconds or so, reducing speeds to 2MB/s.

If the PATA system disk is dying, that's fair enough, I'll have to replace that, too, but at least that can be something slow and it's not a problem.

 - Bret

A2: Wobbles

My A2 has been afflicted for a while with the wobbles at various speeds. Some things have helped (it got much worse around last autumn) and others haven't.
One thing which I'd been assured had been done and obviously hadn't is a decent alignment. My wobbles just got a *lot* better. I'll be taking the wheels to be balanced again this week as we're off up north on Saturday.

So: Alignment can help wobbles, no matter whether you believe it or not. Seems counterintuitive, but that doesn't make it any less true ;)

 - Bret

a2 suspension revisited and extended

Following on from this, I'll expand it : http://kivikuvat.blogspot.com/2011/11/post-on-something-completely-different.html

There are multiple options:
- FSDs are soft-ish
- Bilstein B4s are "standard", B6s a tick harder and B8s shorter
- Monroe reflexes are supposed to be the "same tech" as FSDs, but cheaper
- Spidan springs are as "standard"
 - Weitec springs are harder
 - Eibach / ABT springs are a *tick* harder than standard

Tyre pressures make a huge difference. I was running 2.3 all round on my car and then changed it to 2.7 or so at the back. The crashiness over potholes increased - and massively, too. I drive a set of gravel roads regularly to the stables and the holes don't change *that* much, so I know where they are - and the difference is amazing.

I much prefer the 2.3 setup.

Wheel weights also make a huge difference, so lightweight wheels with low profile 15s, Spidans and FSDs are probably the softest / most effective "magic carpet" combo you will get. B6s will also be not far behind. You will still get roll and nod, but not too much.
FSDs also seem to not be consistent between one batch and another.

From here:
 - minimal roll, nod, squat is probably acheived with Koni Yellows, Oz Ultraleggeras in 17x7 with 205/40R17 and Weitec springs.
Alternative? Silverline with the Stainless parts or it will no longer be adjustable after the first winter ;)
 - medium comfort with some roll, nod, and squat: 16" 195/45R16 Oz Superturismo, B6, Weitec or ABT / Eibach
 - high comfort with some sportiness left: 195/50R15 on, say TD Pro Race or other 6.5 - 7J x15 *light* wheel, B6 or FSD, Eibach, possibly Weitec
 - comfort: B4, Spidan, pepperpots with 185/60R15.

Do not forget to check the droplinks and the antirollbar mounts as if they are loose or worn, you will get crappy handling. You should also think about the lower balljoints and therefore wishbones including their rubber mounts if you want to tighten things up. Rear mounts are more difficult to replace but only about €20 each in Germany.

So:
 - Replace your droplinks
 - replace the ARB mounting points if you haven't already
 - Ensure your tyres / wheels are conducive to the ride you're looking for; note also the relative size of teh tyre to the wheel
 - a 195 tyre on 7J will be nearly stretched, on 6J it will be much softer as a result.
 - Check your wishbone mounts front and rear, they may be OK, maybe not. Replace for optimal results.

Parts list:
8Z0 412 301 - front bump stop (2 pieces)
6Q0 512 131 B - rear bump stop (2 pieces)
6N0 412 249 C - strut bearing (2 pieces)

also recommended to exchange especially in case of high mileage:

8Z0 511 149 A - rear, bottom spring yellow PUR rubber seat (2 pieces)
1J0 512 149 B , rear, top spring black hard-rubber seat (2 pieces)
6N0 413 175 A - dust protection for the front damper piston rod (2 pieces)
1J0 513 425 A - dust protection tube for the rear damper piston rod (2 pieces) -
8Z0 411 315 D - droplink (2 pieces) (REPLACE with MEYLE HD version, but make 100% sure you have the correct tool to tighten them!)

 suggested to exchange due to possible rust pitting:
 N 019 530 3 - screw (6 pieces)
N 101 064 02 - nut (4 pieces)
N 101 389 02 - screw (4 pieces)
N 102 078 03 - screw (4 pieces)
N 102 613 10 - nut (2 pieces)
N 102 861 10 - nut (2 pieces)
N 104 018 01 - nut (2 pieces)
N 905 173 02 - screw (2 pieces)
N 906 484 02 - screw (4 pieces)
N 909 081 01 - nut (2 pieces)

 - Bret

couple of shots from yesterday...

I was out and about yesterday and have a couple of shots I don't find too shabby...

and then for the afternoon:

There will be more in my g+ stream this week. - Bret

quick update about ZFS

another update on my ZFS box; it would appear that the cache disk didn't survive the last reboot. That's not really a problem (it was a slow disk anyway) but still, the machine didn't really say much, just the status of ZFS now brings up a "removed" ... ah well, I don't appear to have lost any data, so there's no problem.

Now to see when we can afford an SSD for cache.

The scrub I ran last night after heading off to bed was the first one in a month. 78kB of errors...  on consumer disks, running 24/7. That's really not too shabby at all.

 - Bret

crashplan - or at least backups

... so now, I need to really, seriously start thinking about backups.

I've got 1.25TB or so left of 4, so I need a decent sized plan. 3TB isn't too far over what I figured would happen, either.

So now I need to get the backup plan sorted and working. Even with a 10Mbit upload (which I don't have), the backup is going to take a while. So I think it will be plan B... which means I need some more storage space.
I think I'll be getting another 6TB of space and then shift that to an external box, so I can add the remaining 2TB to the set while the other data is safe on the 6TB bundle.

Should be easy, right? Well, I should have a very large array at work in the next few weeks to play with, so that will put me in good stead for the speeds I can expect.

100 MB/s --> 6GB / min  --> around 3 hours per terabyte. I won't be copying it over with rsync, either, I have had a couple of interesting experiences with that in the last few days. Maybe set the disks up as a new vdev and then copy everything? But it's only a one-time thing, so maybe I can survive with it taking time.

When I've worked it out, I'll post about it. 150MB over eSATA would help, though. If I can get drivers, the PERC/6 might also work well, as then I could slap all of the disks in the one box. But the box is nearly full as it is, so it needs to be replacements rather than additional disks. Which is another problem I'll deal with when I get to it.
In the mean time, disk prices have also dropped nicely again, so I might even be able to afford the new space.

 -  Bret

My server box -. a quick update

Several months have passed and my ZFS box is running quietly in the corner, supplying me with music, videos and photos as required. It's pretty effective. A couple of things that I've learned and want to pass on: - ZFS is a pain to try and expand. I am aware of that, but I will say it again now. So I'll be spending some time in the near future compressing my data requirements by eliminating duplicates so that I can push everything onto 4TB when I need to and then expand the system as required. - fault tolerance really does work, and it works well.
Amazingly so.

One of the SATA connectors fell off and then a power cable dropped out, too; no problems with data. - you can't get ZFS to sleep, so don't try. Run a scrub once a week and you're good. - Samba can be a pain but now I'm getting 60MB/s plus and that's perfectly adequate for my expectations. Especially as it means I can run several card readers at once and the limitation is the reader / OS and not the network :) It's also really nice to be able to process remotely as it's pretty quick and frees up the laptop for other stuff.

Overall? I'm a pretty happy bunny. No upgrades to 12.04 LTS here, though; I want this system to work properly. I'd strongly recommend anyone who is looking at lots of disks in a case to think about suspending them. This box is currently in the corner of a large room (6-7m long) and I'm working at the other end. If the fan in the E6400 is on, I can't hear the box in the corner. It is running 8 (yes, eight) 3.5" disks and it's virtually inaudible from 5m. That's acceptable, in my book. Before you ask, 6 onboard SATA, one extension card SATA as ZFS, one onboard as Cache, and then the system disk is still EIDE (and maybe limits performance, but I don't think by much, if at all). It now has 8GB of memory and that seems to be enough to allow dedup to work.

- Bret

decent mountain biking video

something I've been sent and posted over on g+... enjoy! http://youtu.be/0zLuqKNKOqs - Bret

so, blogger has a new look and feel..

I've been very busy over on g+, building a following and so I've not really been posting much here. I think I'm going to try and change that and make a rhythm of posting on the blog and not just g+. The stream runs so fast over there that it's extremely difficult to get a post to have a half-life of anything over ten minutes or so... Anyways, right now, I'm arguing with a calibrator. And it doesn't want to work. At least, not on the Laptop screen. The additional 19 is now fine, as is the original profile that was attached to the laptop, but the rest isn't. And I can't work out why. Different combinations of gamma and colour temperature haven't helped, either... meh. Ah well. One more try and then away we go. What I was going to write about: I'll try and start a series on the basics shortly and continue that through. I know there are a few users of the forums I read and contribute to who were looking for this stuff, so I think I'll write some stuff down and then it's done. - Bret

no posts for a while here...

I've been busy. Over on g+....

I'll add some more content shortly. In the mean time? Shooting at -16 is not much fun!