If IT ruled the world....

To my non-technical friends, this is taken directly from my friend's blog. Send all hate mail to him.

Ok..maybe Promise isn't so bad.

To all my non-techie friends, stay tuned for non-techie stuff.

See... here's where I go wrong sometimes. Sure, we've had some pretty serious issues over the last week but sometimes I forget how much stuff is WORKING properly in the data center versus what's broken. Is it so hard to believe that with the amount of equipment we're responsible for that something will be acting up on any given week? After all, we support over 3000 churches running products in our data center. From SQL servers, load balancers, XEN farms, VM Servers, to phone systems something is ALWAYS in need of a new firmware version, new service pack, a hard drive that needs replacing, etc.

So, I'm trying to make sure before I throw Promise under the bus that I have my ducks in a row. Here's what I believe to be the facts right now:

1. We have over 22 of these devices running in production and testing situations right now.
2. They have been working fine for quite some time. Some of them have been in production for over 4 years with no issues.
3. We didn't really start having issues with them until a month or so ago.

Here's my conclusions:
1. I wouldn't have bought 22 if they didn't work!
2. I would have thrown them out the door if all 22 gave me headaches like these last 4 have.
3. What changed in the last month or so? Surely there's a common thread here.

I've got a plan of attack and we're executing that. Stay tuned. Maybe tomorrow I'll post that!

Can I whine a little? SAN Devices are not allowing me to sleep

I'm tired!

I'm really struggling to stay awake and it's simply because of the fact that I'm crawling BACK in bed after spending the last 3 hours working with my IT Team on another SAN Device issue. We've had MULTIPLE SAN device issues over the last several months. This comes on the heels of me publicly recommending this particular vendor to MANY MANY of my Church IT friends. I'm about to revoke all my positive statements regarding this vendor.


This is what I generally tell people about Promise Technology (thanks to Josh for writing this on the first client's request). Just remember, as you read this, I'm starting to second guess whether I'll buy any more of these units or not. I'll try to write more on that later.

(start previous recommendation)
We currently have 22 Promise SAN arrays in operation. Almost all of them are VTrak M300i’s and M500i’s (and now the M310i and M510i, which support SATA-II disks). They’ve been very reliable for us. As far as I can recall, we’ve only had one problem with the Promise equipment itself – one of the controller modules was DOA, and the module was replaced immediately. They all have redundant power supplies, but we haven’t had any problems with them.

Earlier firmware versions had a problem with the battery sensor – it would often detect that the battery (used to flush the cache to disk in the event of a power loss) was below the threshold and/or that battery charging had failed. We had a few batteries replaced before they confirmed that it was indeed a sensor problem, and the batteries were actually fine. This sensor problem has been fixed in more recent firmware updates, but we’ve got a few units that we haven’t taken offline to update yet. Just make sure you grab the latest firmware when you’re setting up the SAN array.

The Promise management is very easy to navigate. They run web servers so they can be managed from the network via HTTP/HTTPS. They can also be managed via command line using a console/serial connection, or Telnet over the network.

We’ve always purchased hard drives separately for SAN arrays and most other equipment because it’s always cheaper. I don’t know if Promise even sells populated arrays. We’ve never encountered any finger-pointing with Promise, but as far as I know we’ve never had to use their support for any data-related issues (Note: this has now changed!) – it’s just been batteries and the one controller module. We’ve had quite a few failed drives over the years (as you know, hard disks will fail, and it’s only a matter of when). All of our arrays are configured as RAID 5 or RAID 50, with a dedicated spare drive in each array. This means that we can have up to two failed drives in a system (as long as they don’t fail at the same time) without losing data. The controllers are configured to alert us via email when they encounter read/write errors and failed hard disks, so we’ve always been able to replace the disk without data loss or downtime. I do highly recommend keeping a couple of identical hard disks in inventory as spares.

(end previous recommendation)

Well, let me see if I can get some sleep and whether or not I post any more about this technology depends on whether I'm convicted for going public with my rant or not. Good night...

view from my seat

well, here's my view from the florence airport runway. headed to chicago to help out a couple of churches. we are 2 hours past departure with no sign of leaving anytime soon. -sent from my phone.

Using my phone as a modem

For the first time ever (just never taken the time to prove it), I'm using my phone as a modem. Sitting here in the airport headed home. Mobile is definitely NOT the future, it's the present.

Anyway... boarding time. See you all soon.

the view from the hotel pool.

nice.... but i am ready to go home.....

grand ballroom

opening session in houston tx. sorry for the bad shot. sent from my phone.

solar powered parking meter

houston texas.

Wondering where your stimulus check might be?

Not so long ago, the deacons threw out a challenge. Have you gotten your money yet?

The economic stimulus rebate checks are in the mail, have you gotten your rebate yet? If you’re not sure whether you’re getting any money, check out these economic stimulus check frequently asked questions.

If you meet the qualifications and want to know when you’re getting your rebate check, the IRS has put up a site called “Where’s my Stimulus Payment” that allows you to check on it’s progress. (Update: The IRS has also setup a rebate hotline so you can inquire by phone, 1-866-234-2942) In order to find out the status of your rebate on the website you’ll have to provide the following:

* Your Filing status
* Social Security Number
* Number of Exemptions on your 2007 tax return



via

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