COMSTAR: Common Multiprotocol SCSI Target

One of the new Solaris Storage projects that our test development team is currently implementing test infrastructure for is called COMSTAR. The overview of the project from the OpenSolaris.org COMSTAR page is:

COMSTAR is the software framework to use a Solaris host as a SCSI Target platform. COMSTAR uses modular approach to break the huge task of handling all the different pieces in a SCSI target subsystem into independent functional modules which are glued together by the SCSI Target Mode Framework (STMF). The modules implementing functionality at SCSI level (disk, tape, medium changer etc.) are not required to know about the underlying transport. And the modules implementing the transport protocol (Fibre Channel, iSCSI etc.) are not aware of the SCSI level functionality of the packets they are transporting. The framework hides the details of allocation, providing execution context and cleanup of SCSI commands and associated resources and simplifies the task of writing the SCSI or transport modules.

COMSTAR features include:

• Extensive LUN Masking and mapping functions.
• Multipathing across different transport protocols.
• Multiple parallel transfers per SCSI command.
• Scalable design approach.
• Works with generic HBAs.

Posted at 11:10AM Jan 29, 2008 by erick in China  |  Comments[1]

Bummer: Sun Club trip to Saipan canceled

Our office in Beijing has a gong hui (工会) called Sun Club. They get funding for various morale activities, and they provide employees a few thousand kuai each year to participate in team outings. So far, there have been trips to Guilin, Yunnan, Huangshan, and a number of other tourist places in China.

I was really looking forward to going on the trip to Saipan. My impression is that it is a backwater military outpost island, something like Guam. I'm not sure exactly why Chinese tourists would be so excited to go to a place like Saipan, but for me it would have been a real novelty. They supposedly have some good scuba diving to boot, so I'm sure it would have been fun.

Unfortunately, it looks like the the event didn't get enough confirmations, perhaps because it was a bit on the expensive side by local standards. Sun Club pays for the first CNY 2,500, and then the difference, in this case, probably CNY 3,000 additional, need to be paid by the employee. Officially, there need to be a certain number of people, maybe ten or so, before it can be considered an official Sun Club trip and receive official funding.

I'm glad that Sun Club was even considering this type of strange and out of the way destination, and I hope that we get the chance to go there in the future.

Posted at 12:01PM Nov 06, 2007 by erick in China  |  Comments[2]

Beijing FESCO swim meet

My coworker Alex, formerly of the French national swim team or something similar, has some good photos of the Beijing FESCO swim meet that we participated in over the weekend. The photo below is of us swimming the 50 freestyle, right after the start.

There are only three of us in the heat. This is because there were about three to eight heats of every event, but about half the racers scratched from their event, so most heats had many empty lanes. It would have been nice if the organizers could have shuffled the racers so that we had six lanes of swimmers each time to make it more fun.

The meet was divided into three age groups (under 30, 30-45, and over 45), and there was only 50m free, 50m breast, and 50m back to choose from. Since they ran all of an age group's events in a row, they only allowed you to choose two events. There wouldn't have been enough time to run back over to the start to take part in the next event otherwise.

There was also a mixed age and gender relay, composed of six men and six women. At the last minute, I got invited to swim as part of a relay for our FESCO division in Beijing. We ended up winning the relay with a monstrous lead, and we were all awarded our grand prize of a set of cookware, which appeared to be valued at over 200 RMB when I checked on alibaba.com and ebay.cn.

This was definitely not a serious competitive event, but overall it was a lot of fun to swim some races.

If you want more information, here are the links for FESCO and last year's swimming competition (in Chinese only).

This year's competition rules:

北京外企服务集团
第十二届职工游泳比赛规则
一、比赛时间、地点
1、时间：2006年9月17日，上午8：00举行比赛
2、地点：北京二十一世纪中日交流中心游泳馆（亮马河）
二、比赛分组：
1、青年组：（男、女）33岁以下（1973年1月1日以后出生）；
2、中年组：（男、女）33—50岁（1956年1月1日—1972年12月31日出生）；
3、老年组：（男、女）50岁以上（1955年12月31日以前出生）
三、竞赛项目
1.个人项目:
1、男子青年组：50米自由泳、50米蛙泳、50米仰泳；
2、女子青年组：50米自由泳、50米蛙泳、50米仰泳；
3、男子、女子中年组：50米自由泳、50米蛙泳、50米仰泳；
4、男子、女子老年组：50米自由泳、50米蛙泳、50米仰泳。
（二）混合接力比赛项目：每个队6男、6女，泳姿不限。
四、参赛办法
1、参赛范围：以各成员企业、外聘员工以各业务部、集团机关各职能部门为单位组队报名参赛；
2.参赛职工资格：参赛职工必须是本单位在编人员，要符合年龄分组的规定，
不得冒名顶替或借用外单位人员，如发现违反本规定的单位或职工，将取消其参赛人员比赛资格及成绩；
3、报名办法：运动员每人限报2个单项（不含接力），接力赛每单位限报1个队；
4、报名时间：2006年8月20日前，将参赛报名表报送集团工会办公室取得参赛资格，比赛现场不再进行报名。
5、参赛职工需携带本人工作证及身份证，以备检录和领奖时查验。
五、竞赛办法
1、比赛正式项目采取国家体育总局最新游泳规则；
2、凡报名的运动员请于比赛开始前25分钟到检录处检录；
3、各比赛项目按一次性成绩计算，不举行预、决赛。
六、决定名次和录取办法
1、各项比赛名次按比赛成绩排定；
2、个人单项比赛按成绩取前6名予以奖励，不满6人参赛的项目递减一名录取，混合接力比赛取前6名奖励。
如对本次比赛规则有异议，请与集团公司工会办公室联系。

集团工会
2006年7月20日

Posted at 12:00AM Sep 19, 2006 by erick in China  | 

Driver's license application procedure in Beijing

These are some very thorough instructions on applying for a driver's license in Beijing.

As you may know, a US driver's license or international driver's license are unacceptable in China. It is required to have a local license.

Posted at 01:30PM Jul 22, 2005 by erick in China  |  Comments[6]