Thanks VMTN

by

Thanks for the links, VMTN! For those of you not familiar, the VMTN is the VMware Technology Network. VMware is a pretty cool company, all things considered, and the VMTN is their umbrella for all the community stuff. They’ve really done a great job fostering user groups and whatnot around their products. I know the Wisconsin VMUG is pretty sweet, and much of that is because of the excellent sales/support guys we’ve had over the last couple of years that really helped pull it all together. They mention searching the forums for LBA, and finding a lot of data about the problem. For me, I’m not a big forum guy, and in talking with a number of other VMware admins …

Read More

VMware Workload, Environment, and I/O

by

If there is one thing about the intarweb that really, really sets me off it’s when people reply privately to public inquiries. I usually see this in list archives where someone posted “Hey, I’m seeing a certain problem, has anyone else? Email me off the list.” Hell no. You posted your question publicly, let the response be public, too. Now I have the problem and I have no idea what the solution was, because you kept it private. Why the person replying to you replied privately is beyond me, too. The internet is a big conversation, you idiots, and you’re whispering. If you comment on a post here there are three things that might happen: 1) Nothing. I don’t have …

Read More

Code of the Day: malloc()

by

Today’s nugget of machine-trashing goodness is brought to you by malloc(). #include <unistd.h> int main() { while (1) { malloc(2000); } return 1; } I originally wanted it to stop when it ran out of RAM but you know, it just wasn’t worth the time to fix it. Yes, I’m testing per-user limits on machines. No, I didn’t get them right the first time. Yes, that’s why I love VMware. 🙂

12 shots, 1.73 seconds

by

I’m gonna get me one of these here shotguns ter kill the runnin’ deer gone past me. Now if I can just get the deer to line up in groups of 12… Yup, I’m definitely part redneck. Hell yeah. Pass me another Old Milwaukee. Update: My friend Rich points out that this is why the U.S. of A will never get invaded. Heh. Update 2: Some RSS readers apparently don’t parse object tags, so I’ll remember to link to the video next time.

Code of the Day: Fork

by

It’s amazing that a good ol’ fork bomb can still provide hours of fun: #include <unistd.h> int main() { while (fork()) { fork(); } return 1; } Add a sleep() in there somewhere for additional enjoyment/bewilderment, depending on who you are and who runs the machines you’re on.

VMware I/O Problems

by

I had previously mentioned I/O problems I was having with my VMware ESX Servers. I didn’t really elaborate on the problems I was having, but having been asked, I will. This was happening to me using ESX Server 2.x against EMC CLARiiON CX700s. It also appears to be a problem under ESX Server 3. The problems I was having were caused by logical block addressing (LBA), a feature of the PC BIOS that reworks the disk geometry so that a disk always appears to have 1024 tracks/cylinders and 63 sectors per track/cylinder. It’s a hack around some old limits on PC hardware. On storage attached to PCs the first cylinder is the master boot record (MBR), partition tables, etc. Because …

Read More

+ More Posts +