Xen 3.2 Bridged Networking Explained by Experiment
There exists a lot of documentation explaining how to setup specific network configurations, but nothing that went through a complicated configuration in step-by-step detail. After a day of experimentation I figured out the exact symantics of the bridging configuration. This is still pretty non-advanced stuff, but I am attempting to explain it in detail to help make it clear to new users right from the start.
Windows XP/Vista/7 iSCSI Boot
UPDATE: A lot of people are hitting this searching for Windows 7 iSCSI boot info. It's EASY! Jump to the bottom for some links that should get you going. The bulk of this article is about Windows XP iSCSI booting, which is also easy, but more involved than Windows 7.
It has been awhile now since I have lost my animosity toward people who destroy computers that I administer. Mostly because I get paid money to spend half my time at work un-breaking and tidying *NIX servers. It also means that I have a particular attraction to anything that helps me clean up the users' mess more quickly.
Enter: My home media PC.
This is a computer attached to the TV in my living room. Everyone who uses it is 90% likely to be intoxicated and know nothing about computers. When we get back from the bar or just party at home this thing ends up being used to troll YouTube and email until the wee hours of the morning. It's 3:30am and your drunk friend checks his email and gets a link to download sweetvideo.exe. "Sounds GREAT!"
So I got sick of constantly rebuilding the computer. Linux storage server + LVM snapshots + gPXE + iSCSI boot-from-san Windows solution after the jump.
More Fun With VirtualBox
I upgraded VirtualBox from 2.4.1 to 2.2.0 today. The procedure came with the usual fun I've come to expect from VirtualBox, though overall I am happy with the upgrade. In short, if you upgrade make sure none of your hosts use the PCNet virtual NIC. The Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop virtual NIC works the best on all of my hosts. More details after the jump.
Ubuntu Multipath Boot From SAN Experiment
Today I ran a test of building an Ubuntu 8.10 Server x86_64 system that boots from SAN and has multipath enabled for the boot LUNs. We had run through this exercise on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL5) earlier, and wanted to test the setup on Ubuntu.
I thought I would have a nice long article to write about this. Something complete and detailed to fill the void of information I found when looking for instructions myself. Now I think I understand why there was nothing to be found on this topic; there really is nothing to it.