I ran into this problem this week and found some pretty neat commands to help with the process. The commands a quite long and/or annoying so I’m going to run through it here so I have something to look back to and so it can help someone else.

First of all, the card I’m working with is a: MegaRAID SATA 150-4D

You’ll need this file (which should be downloaded onto the machine itself)

ut_linux_megarc_1.11.zip

Unzip this and you’ll find a file called megarc.bin – This is what we’ll use

OK so, to check the status of the RAID run:

./megarc.bin -ldInfo  -a0 -Lall

Which will show:

Logical Drive 0 : SpanLevel_0 Disks
Chnl  Target  StartBlock   Blocks      Physical Target Status
—-  ——  ———-   ——      ———————-
0      00    0×00000000   0x12a17800   FAIL
0      01    0×00000000   0x12a17800   ONLINE
0      02    0×00000000   0x12a17800   ONLINE

So we now, open the server and replace disk in port 00. The RAID card will state the port numbers on it, trace back the SATA cable to the drive.
When the server boots, hit Ctrl+M or press Enter when prompted by the RAID card. Hit the “Rebuild option” then hit F10.

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

If you wish to use TextMate very easily from the terminal, for example if you are in a folder typing

mate .

will open TextMate with the contents of that folder, the method to do so is very simple.

Open terminal and add in a symbolic link as follows:

sudo ln -s /Applications/TextMate.app/Contents/Resources/mate /usr/bin/mate

I only started to listen to this Swedish artists songs recently. Then I did the regular YouTube search and found this amazing, absolutely amazing music video. Completely in awe over it.

With everything that’s going on at the moment in both Ireland and the rest of the world with regard copyright infringement and record companies, I thought it was apt to post this video.

A Swedish Perspective – Lesson 1 from Puter Cademy on Vimeo.

I watched this today courtesy of @jessedodds and loved it. Even with the idea of hot desking and the removal of a need for a single definitive work area, we still hold dearly on to it.

Desk – Music and Sound Design from Aaron Trinder Film:Motion:Music on Vimeo.

I gave up smoking about 50 days ago now. It doesn’t even seem that long. It does feel shockingly excellent to know that I’ve cut out 1,000 cigarettes out of my life.

So, after 50 days, how do I feel.

Short answer, absolutely excellent with amazing amounts of energy. The longer answer is a bit different though.

I’ve tried to give up smoking before. I’ve lasted over 3 months perfectly fine. This time is different. When I gave up before, I always had them in the back of my mind. I never felt a dramatic increase in my health as I do now. I also didn’t seem to ‘want’ it so much. So what’s changed this time ?

Since day one, I’ve started a dramatic routine change. The experts say not to do this and to change piece by piece, easy does it. Large dramatic changes worked for me.

Changes:

• I know walk on average about 12-15km per week.
• I run at least once per week. Normal distance of 2.5km which increases week on week.
• I’ve changed from McDonalds and Carvery for lunch to a healthy roll with 2 apples and 2 bananas per day.
• I try to do weights in the house at least 3 days per week.
• I read at least one book per week.
• I drink Matcha instead of coffee/tea.

How have these helped me. The nutritious food is the winner by far. By eating healthy you get an extreme energy boost. This alone wouldn’t do it for me. The energy drives you to go for a walk/run instead of wasting hours in front of the TV. Excellent.

Progress is also a key factor. Everything should be measurable. The applications that have helped me do that are:

Nike+ GPS (iPhone Application) Cost 1.59

An amazing application from Nike for your iPhone. It will track your distance which then can be uploaded to their website. It’ll tell you, how far, plot it on a google map, show your elevation and calculate your calories burnt.

Daily Burn (www.dailyburn.com)

An excellent site that will help you track what you’ve eaten, your routine of exercises and help you to produce the best plan for your goals.

SmokeFree App (www.smokefreeapp.com)

I built this to track what progress I’ve made by giving up smoking. A lot of work needs to be done on the site, but it still gives me encouragement to this day.

During my morning reading of my feeds I found this excellent video discussing the art of life management and Zen. It’s a panel of Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, Susan O’Connell of San Francisco Zen Center, and Tim Ferriss writer of the 4 hour work week.

They discuss the art of life management and their daily routines with a panel of people in the very well know Samovar Tea Lonuge in San Franciso held by the wonderful Jesse Jacobs.
Topics Include…
- What is Zen?
- How to meditate
- How these people manage their lives
- How to live with meaning
- How to use the technology and the tools of our times

I definitely recommend watching it:

Tea & the Art of Life Management from jesse jacobs on Vimeo.

In our data center environment we like to monitor pretty much everything we can. The latest is the power usage to the most minute scale possible.

In every cabinet we have two APC PDUs. A + B power. The APC PDUs output SNMP monitoring information which is great. We then get a server to ping for this data on a regular basis. This information is then plotted on some lovely graphs:

For those of you with APC PDUs looking to do the same thing, here is the MRTG template which will help you out alot / save you time.

Target[APC001-power]: enterprises.318.1.1.12.2.3.1.1.2.1& \
                      enterprises.318.1.1.12.2.3.1.1.2.1: \
                      SNMPCOMMUNITY@IP-OF-PDU
Title[APC001-power]: Power Usage from PDUA
PageTop[APC001-power]:<h1>Power Usage from PDUA</h1>
MaxBytes[APC001-power]: 100
Options[APC001-power]: gauge,growright
Ylegend[APC001-power]: Power Amps
Shortlegend[APC001-power]: Amp
Legend1[APC001-power]: Power in Ampere
Unscaled[APC001-power]: ymwd
YTicsFactor[APC001-power]: 0.1

I’ve gotten some great book recommendations which I have finally ordered.

If this is man / The Truce – By Primo Levi

This is actually two books, If this is man and The truce. It’s about Primo Levi himself.

He’s a Holocaust survivor and it tells the tail of him getting back to his homeland after the Holocaust. I know, it sounds depressing. It was recommended to me and apparently it’s not at all.

It is also meant to be a book that David Blane recommends highly.Apparently this book has been the most inspirational to him.

I guess we’ll see what all the fuss is about once it arrives from amazon

I hope they serve beer in hell – Tucker Max

Apparently a very insulting book and a very rude person

also. His books are supposedly extremely funny. A bit of background, Tucker Max is a brilliant marketer. He also has a new book coming out called Assholes finish first (not sure if it’s out yet) which I’m probably going to read depending on how this book goes.

Anyway, this book has been on the New York Times best seller list in some fashion or another for the last 5 years. I’m gonna give it a read and see what I think.

I’ve also seen at least one case where he’s help other writers get onto the New York Times best sellers list.

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind – Shunryu Suzuki

Before you think I’m some guy who is into Yoga and stretching all over the house every morning, I’m not. However, I have been reading more and more about Zen and the whole idea of mindfulness. I really enjoy it.

I’ve heard from a lot of people that this is the book to read if your going in that direction first. Let’s see how it goes.