My head hurts ...
Michael Tibbetts' Blog
Friday December 09, 2005 |
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< EOT >
< EOT > ( Dec 09 2005, 08:13:56 AM CST / Dec 09 2005, 08:08:07 AM CST ) Permalink Comments [1] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/eot |
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Friday November 11, 2005 |
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CMT and a velvet elvis
One of *the* best parts about working at Sun is the opportunity to see and become involved in all of the truly amazing work being done here. Earlier this week I saw a news flash come by on our internal news portal about Richard and his ACM Queue Article. The way in which Sun is tackling the CMT problem, with the entire system perspective in mind is very exciting. This also presented a good opportunity to suggest to Richard that there is a certain award winning picture of him that may have generated more interest than the corporate mug shot they used for that Sunweb article ;) ( Nov 11 2005, 05:04:50 PM CST / Nov 11 2005, 09:00:00 PM CST ) Permalink Comments [0] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/cmt_and_a_velvet_elvis |
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Tuesday October 11, 2005 |
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NAS Conference 2005
The 2005 NAS Conference is just around the bend. The event starts next Tuesday, October 18th in Santa Clara. It's not too late to register. The agenda is packed and the early look I've had of the presentations have been very interesting. Hope to see you there. www.nasconf.com ( Oct 11 2005, 05:03:18 PM CDT / Oct 11 2005, 07:00:40 PM CDT ) Permalink Comments [0] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/nas_conference_2005
A Thread of Grace: Review
My wife just finished up with A Thread of Grace for her bookclub so this weekend I got my chance to read it. Overall, this was a didisappointment. The potential for a great novel was there, but it suffered due to poor execution. Writing in the multi-character perspective is challenging for the best of writers, unfortunately Mary Doria Russell wasn't up to the challenge. The novel is very fragmented and choppy. I'm still a fan of the author and the concept was good, best of luck on the next one (I hope it doesn't take another 7 years). ( Oct 11 2005, 01:23:38 PM CDT / Oct 11 2005, 03:30:38 PM CDT ) Permalink Comments [0] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/a_thread_of_grace_review |
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Friday September 09, 2005 |
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A Thread of Grace
As I've mentioned before (although I mispelled her name), I'm a big fan of Mary Doria Russell. Her debut works The Sparrow and Children of God are great books. She's got a new novel out called A Thread of Grace. My wife is using it for her book club this month, so I'll have to wait a couple of weeks before stealing it away. Reviews so far indicate this is a thoughtful book that challenges the reader. I can't wait. ( Sep 09 2005, 01:43:14 PM CDT / Sep 09 2005, 05:00:33 PM CDT ) Permalink Comments [0] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/a_thread_of_grace |
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Friday July 29, 2005 |
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Summer Vacation
It's been a busy month and a half with end of year stuff including MRP (Medium Range Planning) and writing annual performance reviews for the folks on my team. Fortunately, Sun shuts down for the week of the 4th and I was able to squeeze in some downtime in beautiful Colorado. I spent a lot of time with the family and old friends as well as time at the lake and hiking. Here's a snapshot from the top of Calypso Cascades in the Wild Basin portion of Rocky Mountain National Park. It's not a great shot (I'm a hiker not a photographer) but I thought the dandelion on the rock was cool.  Here's a shot of me and my crew at the bottom of the falls:  and here's Jules with her oldest brother Johnathan just before she woke up from her nap in the pack. I've learned after several years of hiking with little ones on my back that you can always tell when they fall asleep, they get about 10 lbs heavier:  Wild Basin and Indian Peaks are a great part of the park to visit because the hikes are fantastic and less travelled than other more popular parts of the park. I spent 8 years living within 30 minutes of the park and have hiked hundreds of times there, but it never gets old. Here's a shot of sunrise on the drive up just south of Trinidad Colorado (a fantastic little city to visit)  There's no real point to this post other than to play with the editor to see if I could insert pics and make an update after a month away. ( Jul 29 2005, 09:33:00 AM CDT / Jul 29 2005, 09:40:00 AM CDT ) Permalink Comments [1] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/summer_vacation |
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Friday June 17, 2005 |
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Scuzzy SCSI Configuration
The good, the bad, the dirty laundry it
all comes out now with OpenSolaris. So I'll take the opportunity to air a small
bit of the good, bad and dirty laundry associated with the Solaris SCSI and
Fibre Channel disk drivers. I worked on these drivers in a prior life at Sun
and even got a putback or two into Solaris 10 before moving on to different
things. The primary functions of a device driver are
to adhere to an OS interface and control a device (duh!). The Solaris target
disk drivers support a very wide range of devices that go beyond what you might
expect, to include everything from an internal SCSI drive or CD ROM to an
enterprise class multi-terabyte Fibre Channel array. Over time the need has
arisen to control unique device behavior at the SCSI command layer which is
administered via the Solaris target disk drivers (e.g. sd, ssd). By default
these drivers will support any SCSI or Fibre Channel disk or CD ROM device. The
device table is used to enable behavior that differs from the default.
This unique configuration is implemented
via the driver device table (or .conf file, more on that below). http://cvs.opensolaris.org/source/xref/usr/src/uts/common/io/scsi/targets/sd.c#507 Currently this table is used to primarily configure
retries, throttling, and sundry behaviors. Take a look at the header file for
the complete list of configurable behaviors: http://cvs.opensolaris.org/source/xref/usr/src/uts/common/sys/scsi/targets/sddef.h#1636 So far so good. Using the device table you
can configure a set of behaviors for a device matched on its vid (vendor), pid
(product/model) and revision strings as defined by its response to the SCSI
INQUIRY command. The implementation behind this is a pretty simple bit mask, each
bit indicates that a particular behavior needs to be set uniquely from the
default. Here's the source for that processing: http://cvs.opensolaris.org/source/xref/usr/src/uts/common/io/scsi/targets/sd.c#3432 Now we move on to the bad and the
downright ugly. Starting with this little gem of a comment: 1636 * Driver Property Bit Flag definitions 1637 * 1638 * Unfortunaltely, for historical reasons, the bit-flag definitions are 1639 * different on SPARC, INTEL, & FIBRE platforms. 1640 */
The header file has a brief description of what these behaviors mean and appropriate #defines for all, but to fully understand the functionality you'll need to walk through the driver to see how it modifies behaviors based upon these settings. Some are obvious (e.g. retry and throttle values), some are a bit more obscure and have to do with legacy device behaviors (e.g. disable caching, controller type, etc.). The Red entries above are associated with either legacy SCSI disk or CD ROM behaviors and are all but obsolete. They've been preserved to ensure no field regressions. Take another quick look at the device table and you can see that for the majority of entries we are setting the retry and throttle values as well as indicating support for LUN resets and disabling the use of disksort(9F) which is not as applicable for modern fibre channel arrays. sd-config-list= "VENDOR1 PRODUCT1","sd-ver1-tst-data"; sd-ver1-tst-data= 1,0x1F01F,12,1,5,0,0,8,0,0,0,0,0,0,5,60,0,2,0; Where: "VENDOR1 " is the contents of the vendor identification field of the device response to a SCSI INQUIRY. "PRODUCT1" is the contents of the product identification field of the device response to a SCSI INQUIRY. "sd-ver1-tst-data" is the property array name sd-ver1-tst-data is the property array definition. Note: use ssd-config-list for the fibre channel driver. Note: the vendor and product fields must be 8 bytes in length. If the device response is less than 8 bytes the .conf file entry must be padded with spaces. Note: the bit fields specified in the above table is based on the current driver implementation. These fields have been updated in legacy releases through patches. If the following
Size expected: version + 1 flagword + n props.
The property array is defined by version,
flag, integer array. The version is always set to 1 and the flag is a bit mask
indicating the members of the integer array to be used during sd-config-list= "VENDOR1 PRODUCT1","sd-ver1-tst-data"; sd-ver1-tst-data= 1,0x00015,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,60,0,2,0,1; # #NOTE: Field Definitions # sd-ver1-tst-data= version, flags, throttle (max), ctype, not_ready_retry, # fabricate devid, nocache, busy_retries, rsvd, rsvd, rsvd, rsvd, rsvd, # rsvd, reset_retries, reservation_release_time, TUR_check, # throttle (min), disable_disksort, LUN reset
This is a sample ssd config list entry for the sparc platform to set the reservation release time, min throttle, and enable LUN resets. ssd-config-list= "VENDOR1 PRODUCT1","ssd-ver1-tst-data"; ssd-ver1-tst-data= 1,0x00015,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,60,0,2,0,1; # # NOTE: Field Definitions #ssd-ver1-tst-data= version, flags, throttle (max), not_ready_retry, busy_retries, # fabricate devid, nocache, ctype, rsvd, rsvd, rsvd, rsvd, rsvd, rsvd, # reset_retries, reservation_release_time, TUR_check, # throttle (min), disable_disksort, LUN reset
I hope this is useful information on how devices are uniquely configured for the Solaris SCSI and Fibre Channel disk drivers.
Technorati Tag: OpenSolaris Technorati Tag: Solaris ( Jun 17 2005, 05:24:23 PM CDT / Jun 17 2005, 05:28:36 PM CDT ) Permalink Comments [2] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/scuzzy_scsi_configuration | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wednesday May 25, 2005 |
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What to read?
As I've previously mentioned, I have a voracious appetite for books and regularly have 3-4 in progress. Last night I was chatting with my wife about a recommendation for her book club. We decided upon a lesser known, but excellent author who has written two books in the SF genre that are very unique. The author is Maria Doria Russel who has written The Sparrow and the sequel Children of God. Maria takes the classic SF plot of first contact and turns it completely on its head. Two of the best stories I have ever read. ps - Considered and discarded were a couple of other favorites (I was really torn about passing up American Gods, it's fantastic): Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere Neil Gaiman - American Gods Robert A. Heinlein - Job A Comedy of Justice ( May 25 2005, 03:37:08 PM CDT / May 25 2005, 09:00:00 PM CDT ) Permalink Comments [1] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/what_to_read |
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Tuesday May 24, 2005 |
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Warrior Poet
Warrior Poet (one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time, definately worth a listen) ( May 23 2005, 08:34:19 PM CDT / May 24 2005, 01:30:00 AM CDT ) Permalink Comments [3] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/warrior_poet |
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Monday May 16, 2005 |
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Respect
How much is your integrity and reputation worth? Apparantly it was worth more than $1 million for this young man. Here's a quote “I’ll give up the million to get back your guys’ friendship” Say what you want about reality tv, but every now and again you get a glimpse of real character. ( May 16 2005, 09:46:09 AM CDT / May 16 2005, 02:00:00 PM CDT ) Permalink Comments [3] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/respect |
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Wednesday May 11, 2005 |
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Solaris Data
As I've said before, the best part of my job is working with really smart engineers to solve interesting and complex problems. All of the folks in my virtual neck of the woods with Blogs are on my blogroll but here they are again in no particular order Robert Gordon Jim Wahlig Bill Baker Spencer Shepler David Robinson Calum Mackay Eric Kustarz Sarah Jelinek Combined these engineers (and their peers who aren't blogging yet, <hint>, <hint>) have a wealth of information and expertise on Solaris Data components including NFS, UFS, and much much more. ( May 11 2005, 03:56:08 PM CDT / May 11 2005, 08:00:00 PM CDT ) Permalink Comments [0] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/growing_community |
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Thursday May 05, 2005 |
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Pomp and Circumstances
It's been a while since I last did an update, I've been heads-down on a couple of end of semester projects, papers, etc. I've got some great notes saved up from both my HR class and Corporate Governance that I'll post in the coming days. But today is the day. I've completed the last hour of the last class for my MBA. I started this little endeavour four years ago and I'm not sure I would have continued if I knew then how big a challenge this would be. Due to an awesome family and a great company that provides tuition reimbursement and understanding managers I've completed this degree. My wife and children are the best, and have sacrificed a lot of time to help make this happen. They are my inspiration. (Not to mention I was worried they'd kill me if I quit after getting us into this mess). My managers, mentors, friends, and employees at Sun have been supportive and flexible. Along the way I've had the opportunity to meet some fantastic instructors and professors who have provided me a tremendous education. Here are a couple of the stars:
These are all incredibly talented scholars and teachers. If you ever have the opportunity to meet them at either the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado in Boulder or the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas in Austin it is not an opportunity to be missed.
( May 05 2005, 03:16:52 PM CDT / May 05 2005, 10:00:00 PM CDT ) Permalink Comments [0] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/pomp_and_circumstances |
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Monday April 25, 2005 |
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Offender Registries
I don't consider myself an alarmist but as the father of four young children I've been disconcerted by all of the news lately about missing, abducted, and abused children. I was wondering how I might check my local offender registry when I came across this useful and timely article. Here in the state of Texas I can view a map online of the registered offenders in my area. ( Apr 25 2005, 08:42:50 AM CDT / Apr 25 2005, 11:40:00 AM CDT ) Permalink Comments [0] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/offender_registries |
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Friday April 08, 2005 |
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CEO Reputation
I heard an interesting factoid in class last night from a PR guy. He said "Up to 60% of a company's market value is driven by the CEO reputation." Hmmmm .... SUNW Scott McNealy DELL Kevin Rollins IBM Samuel Palmisano MSFT Steve Ballmer ORCL Larry Ellison I left HPQ out because who do you track? Carly, the interim or new CEO? We'll have to watch that one. Anyway, I'm not seeing the correlationut but it was interesting to take a look. ( Apr 08 2005, 03:05:00 PM CDT / Apr 08 2005, 03:06:00 PM CDT ) Permalink Comments [0] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/ceo_reputation |
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Tuesday April 05, 2005 |
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Ball in the woods
Another great Corporate Governance class last Thursday night. We had two speakers, first was the dean of the UT Law School William Powers who headed up the Enron special investigation, second was Bernard Rapoport one of the most distinguished Texas businessman in history. Mr. Powers joined us because we were assigned some readings on the Enron case. He walked us through the case at a high level but my biggest takeaway was his summary of the case. It may seem from reading all of the press that this was a very complicated business that involved sophisticated accounting transactions and decisions. In reality, while some of the transactions were complex, the decisions of whether or not to use those transactions were not complex at all. They were clearly black & white, requiring nothing more than good character and the ethics to do the right thing. The analogy Mr. Powers used was that of golf. If you hit a drive and it lands next to debris, you may need to ask your playing partners or an official to give you a ruling on whether or not the debris can be moved. On the other hand, if you hit a drive into the woods, it is clear what you should do (e.g. drop another ball and take the penalty). The actions taken at Enron were the equivalent of hitting the ball into the woods and kicking it back into the fairway. Once you understand the details of how Enron structured its transactions, the ethical judements involved were easy. It is also clear that the transactions were purposely structured for complexity to hide the fact that they were wrong. Once everything at Enron came to light it was revealed that for 5 quarters 73% of the companies income was manufactured (i.e. no basis in economic reality). So what to do? Mr. Powers suggests, and I agree, that the challenge is for companies to build cultures that reward virtue and character. At Enron you were a chump for following the rules and doing the right thing. Here at Sun I am proud to be a member of a community of high integrity and character with clear values. Here is my favorite quote from a Scott McNealy WSUN radio address: Your Integrity Is Our Biggest Asset. You know, our No. 1 asset is our reputation. The SEC shouldn't take us out. If anything ever kills Sun, I want the killer to be the Darwinistic nature of the computer industry, not bad ethics. It's just a shame when a couple of folks can take a company out that way. We're not going to let that happen here. I think that speak volumes as to the character and culture of Sun.This is already a pretty long post so I'll get to some of what B. Rapoport shared another time. ( Apr 05 2005, 04:58:57 PM CDT / Apr 05 2005, 08:00:00 PM CDT ) Permalink Comments [0] Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/mtibbets/entry/ball_in_the_woods |
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