Educate our young folks, friends!

It caught my attention when my colleague cum friend Mr. Deepak Singh mentioned to me about the soaring illiteracy rate in India. Let me make this post very simple; our nation is the habitat for the largest illiterate population in the world. Our country being a developing nation along with the burden of a rather poor economic situation in the world cannot do much funding. The world bank is providing India with $1.5 bn dollars but that wont be sufficient to educate the young generation of our country.

Think about it, these kids represent the future of our nation. Certainly not a very bright future here! So do what you can. If you are working in a corporate, the company may have tie up's with organisations who helps in eradicating the illiteracy. If not, check out for the organisations who do this. And if you cannot contribute in currency, then volunteer yourself to teach some kid, provide them clothes or books. Whatever, every drop counts!

While I am working to find out more who does what, here is the contact details of an oraganisation who does this;

1)

Ananda Marga School
Kithandur, Thotli Post, Kolar District 563101
Phone: +91-8152-247350
Mobile: +91-944-831-0979
Website: https://www.amps.org
Email: amschool.kithandur@gmail.com

2)

http://www.unitedwaymumbai.org/intro.html => You can donate here or volunteer for various social service activities.

Reference Links on this topic:
http://beta.thehindu.com/education/issues/article82886.ece?homepage=true
http://beta.thehindu.com/education/article258063.ece

Any help is appreciated people!

Candid Conversations

I loved this poem written by one of my friends. Lyrics from a soul with a strain of melancholy! I am taking the liberty of pasting his poem here.

----------------------------
Anchors weigh me down
yet, I still cannot drown
All the sins I’ve done,
how shall I atone?

Like a failing sun’s moon
I was left to croon
songs from departed friends
to these thight iron brands

Their dreams not yet reality
all because of my frailty
spring showed no mercy
calling it my own heresy

The white hollow bone
which once flesh called home
shall come off with it
the day I shall quit

Singing this mournful song

---------------------------
Courtesy: http://www.candidconversations.wordpress.com

Solaris Live Upgrade - Solaris 8 to Solaris 10.

PART 1: Creation of OS image on the secondary disk

Note Initial steps:-
1. Complete system log need to be provided in case of failures.
2. Unmount datadg’s, comment in vfstab and perform a sanity reboot

1. Remove the mirror disk from the volume manager control.( Recommended to pullout the mirror disk and remove the mirror plex.)
2. Add new harddisk in place of mirror disk,New image will be installed in this secondary disk
3. Remove old SUNWlu* packages and install it from solaris 10 image

After installation install below patch . -

pkgrm SUNWlur SUNWluu (Remove old packages and add solaris 10 live upgrade patches )
Location ->/solaris_image/Solaris_10/Product
pkgadd -d . SUNWlur
pkgadd -d . SUNWluu
patchadd 121430-14

4. Create a manual parttion in new hardisk using format -
Plan and create new root disk ,ensure flag is wm(Even for swap ) & remove tag 14 & 15 if any . { Failure of this step will not let you run the
lucreate successfully }

5. Run the lucreate command to create the OS image. Command is as follows -
e.g : lucreate -c be.org -m /:/dev/dsk/c2t1d0s0:ufs -m -:/dev/dsk/c2t1d0s1:swap -m /var:/dev/dsk/c2t1d0s3:ufs -n new.be

{ Make sure all /etc/vfstab entries except root is #ed. Also the c2t1d0s0 is the new disk }


6. Mount the newly created image. The command is as follows. -
# lumount new.be .
This will mount the new image.
Unencapsulation of secondary disk :-
Next three point are important ,if we do mistakes the original boot image will be effected,We need to edit files in newly created image –

7. comment out all veritas filesystem entries in mounted /.alt.10847 /etc/vfstab -

8. Comment out all "forceload" "vx" entries in mounted /.alt.10847 /etc/system -

9. Touch install-db and remove root-done from /.alt.10847/etc/vx/reconfig.d/state.d directory
`
11.Luumount This will unmount the new image .
12. luactivate {will make and change the boot device}
It’s again a crucial step ,this will activate the new image on next reboot .

13. init 0 { Donot Use REBOOT/HALT}
Bring server to ok prompt

14. boot –s
Note :- this will boot to new image and secondary disk will be unencapsulated .

15. Remove Veritas packages
Pkginfo –i grep VRTS >/veritas
for i in `cat /veritas`; do pkgrm $i; done

We need to remove all packages of VERITAS .

16. init 0

17. Change the boot device back to the original boot environment by typing:
setenv boot-device disk:a {Primary Disk}
Boot to the original boot environment by typing:
Boot

Above message will displayed during lucreate .

PART 2: Upgrading the OS .

1. Upgrading your newly created Alternate Boot Environment (ABE) from a shared image on the network
luupgrade -u -n new.be -s /solaris_image

2. luactivate
It’s again a crucial step, this will activate the new image on next reboot .

3. init 0
Bring server to ok prompt
4. boot
This will boot new image upgraded with Solaris 10 .

PART 3: Apply Latest Kernel patch

In single user mode install the latest Sun recommended kernel patch.


PART 4: Install VERITAS 5 with MP1 – IDC

After installation with necessary reboots, encapsulate the secondary disk and import all other disk groups.

While Encapsulation, please have a standard naming convention as per all server.

Veritas Volume Manager Upgrade from 3.x series to 5

Symantec does not recommend Vxvm upgrade from 3.5 or lesser version to be upgraded directly to version 5. However, this has been tested and implemented in 200 odd boxes in the environment I have worked. So far, I have faced issues only in one box for which upgrade was done from version 3.5 to version 4 and then from 4 to 5.

One important thing to be noticed here is after the upgrade the veritas maintains the licence in the old format. ( version 3.x series are in numerical format while in version 5 it is in alpha numeric ) This may cause issues if you are working on CDS. ( cross data sharing ). One needs to talk to Symantec and get the new licence in alpha numeric format in this case.

For Solaris 8
----------------

Prerequisite

Kernel Patch - Generic_117350-39 ( 36 and above recommended )
Other Patches - 113201-05, 110435-08 ( or higher versions )


Solaris 10

-------------

Recommended latest cluster patch.


1. Sanity boot
#reboot

2. Confirm the patches are present.
#showrev –p grep 113201-05
#showrev –p grep 110435-08

3. Deport all disk groups connected to the box from storage.
#vxdg deport dgname
#vxdg deport appsdg ( Example )

4. Detach the mirror disks. ( Extremely important. As the upgrade may
sometimes result in unexpedted output it is wiser to detach the disks. )

OPtion 1 : Just pull out the mirror disk without running any commands
from OS level. By this , when things go bad, you can insert the disk and
directly boot it from mirror disk

Option 2 : Detach from veritas level using the command. The problem
with this method is , when you try to boot the disk from mirror, the disk will not boot since the volumes are detached. Hence you need to go to single user mode and unencapsulate the disk and then boot the mirror disk without veritas. Time consuming and hence not recommended by me. Remote admins can do this if you do not access to DC at the time of upgrade.

#vxplex –g rootdg dis rootvol-02 swapvol-02 var-02
#vxprint -vht rootvol; vxprint -vht swapvol; vxprint -vht var { Confirm
the mirror is detached.

Note: Ensure that the plex that is detached is NOT the boot disk by checking the prtconf output. The boot disk may have been changed to mirror
due to some reason. Hence confirm and detach.

5. Unencapsulate the root disk
cd /etc/vx/bin
./vxunroot

Note: If any error messages are returned for this output, then one needs to do the unencapsulation manually. If notes are needed for manual encapsulation leave a message with your email id and I will post it across.
Please also note that if you volumes other than root, swap and var configured under rootdg then the vxunroot command will not work. You need to remove it from rootdg and then run the command. ( Ensure that while you remove the extra volumes from veritas, underlying data is intact )

6. Remove current veritas packages.

pkgrm VRTSvxvm VRTSvxfs VRTSvlic { Advice you to run a script and get all
the veritas packages first and then remove them )

7. cd to the path where the veritas volume manager software is downloaded.

8. Run the installation script

Option 1:

#./installer
select veritas volume manager installation first and then veritas file system

Option 2:
#./installvm
#./installfs

To install veritas volume manager and fs seperately

9. Confirm that veritas 5 is installed.

pkginfo –l VRTSvxfs
pkginfo –l VRTSvxfs


10. Reboot { This will reboot twice }

11. Vxinstall { Will review the license and start processes , Give no if it asks any questions}
12. Encapsulate the disk
#vxdiskadm , option 2.
13. Reboot
14. Import the disk group back
#vxdg import appsdg


Note: If T3 storage is attached, then do not apply Mp1 patch. Apply the following commands for T3.Mp1 is mandatory for EMC connected storage.


1. Configure the T3 or T3+ array in autotrespass mode. (Set for
mode:rw)
2. Add the array as a JBOD of type A/P:
# vxddladm addjbod vid=SUN pid=T300 policy=ap
# vxdctl enable
# vxddladm listjbod
#Mount filesystems and ReStart all applications