The Dirtracer Corner - Lee Trujillo: Tips, Tricks and News on Sun Java Systems Directory Server Tracing tool

Alo all,

I received good news from the Big Admin admins today, the new DirTracer and Pkgapp versions are online!

The following versions are now available here on Big Admin. For information on the latest changes in this update, please see my previous blog - DT 6.0.7 Coming soon!

DirTracer 6.0.7

• Sun GDD - Directory Server - Dirtracer v 6.0.7 Solaris (SPARC)
• Sun GDD - Directory Server - Dirtracer v 6.0.7 Solaris on x86 platforms
• Sun GDD - Directory Server - Dirtracer v 6.0.7 SuSE Linux
• Sun GDD - Directory Server - Dirtracer v 6.0.7 RedHat Linux
  

Pkgapp 3.2

• Sun GDD - Pkgapp v 3.2 Solaris
• Sun GDD - Pkgapp v 3.2 SuSE Linux
• Sun GDD - Pkgapp v 3.2 Redhat Linux

I have also released the SLX 02 DirTracer Quickstart on SLX (Sun Learning Exchange) - "This video is a Quickstart guide to getting DirTracer6 running in a short amount of time using Configurator 6. I also step through a real example of how DirTracer runs using the config file created by Configurator."

Finally, I am in production of the latest DirTracer SLX video "Server Impact".  Using Slamd, Cacti and DirTracer I plan on showing exactly what impact a Directory Server will see from DirTracer runs based on different run/problem types.  More on this later.

Cheers!

Lee

Hi all,

Thought I would drop in a quick blog and let you know what I've been up to.

Directory Masters Event in Somerset New Jersey

As mentioned in my last blog I was asked to present Dirtracer at the DM event.  The event, hosted by Michael Melore, Wajih Ahmed and Ludovic Poitou was great!  I was able to meet people I've only talked to on the phone or emailed over the past 5 years.  I was able to meet with Sun Partners and Sun Development and Support Engineers...

I presented an overview of Dirtracer and its components as well as my latest project, DTR (Dirtracer Reporter); more on this below.  I have to admit I was very nervous.  In past lives I was a pre-sales engineer and presentations like this were easy.  Needless to say I haven't presented to a large group since joining Sun; just not something I do in my Support role.

In the end I forgot about being nervous and soon was on a roll.

It was great meting you all, I had a blast.  See Ludo's Sketches blog for more info on this event.

Dirtracer Reporter (DTR)

Over the past couple of months I have been ratifying a few data reporting tools I and others have created into one nice package called DTR.  Dirtracer Reporter is a bundle of existing Directory Server data reporting scripts rolled into a single usable interface.  DTR shines when run against Dirtracer captured data, it however can run against basic Directory Server data such as dse.ldif and log files.

I am in the final test phase and making sure a slight glitch here and there are fixed and hope to release to Big Admin in the next coming weeks.  More to come on DTR soon.

Sun Learning Exchange (SLX)

One of my other sub projects which will kick off soon is the creation of SLX videos for Dirtracer.  These will be video podcast in nature and will show how Dirtracer is used for various problem types.

 Here is a list of topics I hope to highlight.

• Dirtracer overview
• Process Hangs
• High CPU
• Replication
• Crashes
• Memory Leaks
• Server Down issues
• Basic Captures
• Configuration only captures
  
• Configurator for Dirtracer usage
  

These videos will supplement my blog content as well as giving you audio and visual queues of how Dirtracer looks when running for a specific problem type.

Until my next blog...ciao!

Lee