Thursday January 31, 2008

Photographs from Hawaii (Tropical Paradise in US)

Kauai (Waimea Canyon, Waliua Falls)



Kauai (Na Pali Coast and Kalalau Trail).



Big Island (Mauna Kea).



Volcano National Park and Beaches (Big Island).

(2008-01-31 21:55:24.0) Permalink

Friday January 11, 2008

xVM experience so far

I recently configured xVM on Solaris - HVM (hardware-assisted virtual machine) and PV (Paravirtualized) guest (domU) domains. I could easily install Solaris 10 Update 5 as HVM domU, boot, configure network interface and assign IP. The plan is to have multiple domU as testbed having Solaris 10 and Solaris Nevada. This would cut down on machines and sanity checks can be done quickly as I don't have to install/boot OS every time. I can easily run functional tests if not performance benchmarks. The performance of Solaris 10 as HVM domain is not as good as Solaris Nevada (PV domU) and especially when there are more than one VCPUs but I guess it's being worked. I think the performance would drastically improve when we have PV (Paravirtualized) drivers for Solaris 10. I'll soon experiment installing xVM on my laptop and configure Windows XP as HVM domain.

Here's a small demo describing my experience so far with xVM :-

For installing the Solaris PV domuU, I used this sample script.

bash-3.2# cat snv.1.py<>name = 'solaris-pv'
memory = '1024'
vcpus = 4
# for installation
disk = [ 'file:/var/tmp/solarisdvd.iso,6:cdrom,r', 'phy:/dev/zvol/dsk/snv-pool/vol,0,w' ]
on_poweroff = 'restart'
on_reboot = 'restart'
on_crash = 'preserve'

In 'disk', you will see 'file and 'phys' and they specify what kind of media it is. Once you have specified the location in 'disk', you also specify the type of access like read (r) or write (w).

Once you run '#xm create script.py', you will see OS installation screen and once the installation is completed, I used a similar script but removed solarisdvd paragraph from 'disk' (mentioned in the .py file).

name = 'solaris-pv'
memory = '1024'
vcpus = 4
disk = [ 'phy:/dev/zvol/dsk/snv-pool/vol,0,w' ]
on_poweroff = 'destroy'
on_reboot = 'restart'
on_crash = 'preserve'
vif = [ 'mac=0:14:4f:2:12:35, ip=10.5.63.98, bridge=nge1' ]

With the 'vif' property you can specify what network interface you want. You can also set 'config/default-nic' property in xvm/xend service if you want to override the NIC. Finally, once you have booted guest domain, you will see the interface as rtls0. You can run 'dlmadn show-dev' to see if network interface is really configured or not and run ifconfig(1m) to plumb the interface.

You can see the resources of each as follows.

bash-3.2# xm list
Name ID Mem VCPUs State Time(s)
Domain-0 0 4973 4 r----- 4019.6
S10U5HVM 8 2056 1 r----- 40.8
solaris-pv 10 1024 1 r----- 5.0



I also found following links to be very helpful as I learnt how to configure domU.
Write-up from Chris Beal
Write-up from mbrowarski

(2008-01-11 16:43:43.0) Permalink

Saturday January 05, 2008

Photographs of winter-break trips (21st Dec 2007 to 2nd January 2008)
Antelope Slot Canyon, Page Arizona

>

Arches National Park, Utah.



Las Vegas.



Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.



Capitol Reef National Park, Utah.



Zion National Park, Utah.



South Coastal Oregon, Oregon.



(2008-01-05 14:41:54.0) Permalink

Thursday December 20, 2007

Photographs of recent trip/hike



South Lake Tahoe, Castle Rock State Park and San Francisco (49-miles drive).
(2007-12-20 21:36:25.0) Permalink

Tuesday October 23, 2007

Fall Colors of Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains
We recently went on fall colors trip to Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. We had to go via Bakersfield field because Tioga pass was closed due to snow fall.

(2007-10-23 22:02:11.0) Permalink

Monday October 08, 2007

3-day Backpack in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
We all have heard a lot about Grand Canyon National Park and this was our chance to see as close as possible. So we decided to do South to North Rim backpack there. Permits are hard to get there; as a result one would want to apply at least six months in advance. We applied for back-country permit in first week of May for last week of September hike. The route was chosen such that we don't exhaust ourself. We took TransCanyon shuttle to travel from South rim to North rim and the backpack was started from North Kaibab trail at North Rim. The backpack is 21-mile (33 kms) with camping for two days. The first camp was established at Cottonwood campground which is 7 miles from North Kaibab and the next camp was established at Bright Angel Campground which is also 7 miles. This is where Bright Angel Creek meets Colorado River in the Inner Rim. Inner rim is the hottest place and the temperatures there is always high (even in winters). The final stage of our climb was a big confusion because we had to drive from South Rim to Las Vegas and then catch flight. We had two options -- (a) Take Bright Angel trail which is 9 miles or (b) Climb on South Kaibab trail which is 7 miles but far tougher to climb than Bright Angel trail and there is no water on the way. After much discussion with Ranger and group members, we decided to climb on South Kaibab trail which turned out to be a good decision because it was cloudy and we started at 4.00 am in the morning to arrive early. And guess what we finished in five and half hours. During this hike, we got to experience the canyon most. We also got chance to attend ranger's program at Bright Angel campground and very nice sunset/sunrise. So overall a beautiful place and a hike.


(2007-10-08 16:28:49.0) Permalink

Sunday September 09, 2007

Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming The recent hiking trip of ours to Yellowstone and Grand Teton was fantastic. The planning was done such that we get to see key parts of Yellowstone and cover Grand Teton as well. We flew to Salt Lake City staying overnight at Idaho Falls in Idaho state and entered from West side (from Montana state). On the day 1, I had planned to visit Hot Mammoth Spring and mainly do small loops to see hot springs. It was fabulous to see those colors. Here are some photographs




On day 2, we went to Canyon to do some strenuous hike. The plan was to do two hikes -- Observation Peak and Mt Washburn. We ended up doing just Mt Washburn (14 miles hike) which starts from Mt Washburn trailhead and goes to Canyon (Upper Falls). It was very dry there but water falls were still great. We spotted Mountain Goat but couldn't spot Wolf or Grizzle Bear



On Day 3, we went to spent our day at Yellowstone Lake and Old Faithful. The lake is a crater and the sun rise was beautiful. We got to see it from West Thumb side of the lake.



Old Faithful Geysers are very famous and we got to see two of them in action. We did a 4 miles loop to see all the Geysers in this area.



On day 4, we went to Grand Teton which I felt was better than Yellowstone in terms of Mountain Landscapes and the hike we did was also very beautiful.



The final day was spent in driving from Grand Teton National Park to Salt Lake City, Utah via Jackson, Wyoming. Yellowstone and Grand Teton should be in must see list just like Alaska. (2007-09-09 11:08:39.0) Permalink

Tuesday August 21, 2007

Great America (place for thrilling rides) We recently went to Great America which is known for its thrilling ride. Basically it was a fun event organized by our group and the place was chosen by exercising their vote for different places and guess what I was campaigning for it. Anyway, the best rides were Invertigo, Xtreme Skyflyer and Top Gun. In Xtreme Skyflyer, Srini and I experience the breathtaking thrill of hang gliding and skydiving. You'll be hoisted 153 feet above ground, and dive at speeds up to 60 miles per hour while free-falling 17 stories toward the Earth skimming just six feet above the ground. On the other hand Invertigo was equally thrilling with lots of ups and down. The complete list of rides with description can be found here. (2007-08-21 22:11:59.0) Permalink

Sunday July 29, 2007

Mt Shasta summit (14100 feet tall volcanic mountain) The climb to Mt. Shasta was fun and very tough when we reached above 10000 feet level. There are no trails. You have to create your own path or rely on footprint on snow. We had initially planned to climb from Avalanche Gulch – John Muir Route (Regular Route) via Bunny Flat Trailhead but had to cancel because there were large number of rock falls after Helen Lake. After consulting with Rangers, we decided to climb the mountain from Clear Creek side. This is what the official website had to say when we climbed it and I quote "Clear Creek Trailhead: The route is in poor shape and involves 5000 ft. of scree scrambling. Crampons and an ice axe should be brought with you even if only for a short section above 13,200 ft. Carry and know how to use a map and compass to avoid getting lost. There is no trail to the summit - the official trail ends around 8500 ft. where the route begins. Water is running at the standard high camp (8500 ft.). Please make sure to camp at least 200 feet away from the springs/creek.". The date of our climb was 22nd July. Our group had nine people and six people managed to summit the peak. One of the group member lost its way down and had to be rescued next morning. The climb was started at 3.00 am (we had to get up at 2.00 am and it was painful). The first batch of two people summit the peak at 8.45 am and next batch of two people at 9.15 am. Sumanth and I didn't take the boulder route and decided to go over snow over the glacier table on the right. Molly and Ankur were the first to summit the peak and Molly finished the climb & descend by 12.00 noon which was remarkably fast. I was having little problem with crampon boots as they were hitting my toe on the way down and manged to come down from the mountain at 3.15 pm.

The base camp was established at 8250 feet and we waited for Nick and Ankur until 6.00 pm on 22nd July when we decided to come down to trailhead (3 miles from the base camp). It was 8.30 pm when we hit I-5 freeway and returned home at 2.00 am on 23rd July. The albums can be found here. I didn't carry my camera because of dust and chance of falling down.
(2007-07-29 11:08:22.0) Permalink

Sunday July 08, 2007

Photographs from Washington (WA state) Hiking trip We planned eight days hiking trip in Washington trip and went to following places (23rd June - 1st July 2007) :-

Photographs of Seattle



Mt. Rainier National Park



Mt. St. Helens. The climb to summit was tough and Climbing permit are required before summiting 8300 feet volcanic mountain.



Columbia River Gorge.



Olympic National Park.

(2007-07-08 11:38:04.0) Permalink

Tuesday June 19, 2007

Lassen Volcanic National Park Yet another set of photographs from a different kind of National park and this time I choose a national park which had Volcanic activity. The history of Lassen National Park goes when ancient battle between the earth shaping forces of creation and destruction in Northern California took place. It is also called Land of Volcanoes. We did three treks in this region (Cinder Cone - A Crater at the top of peak, Lassen Peak and Bumpass Hell trail).

(2007-06-19 19:01:31.0) Permalink

Sunday June 10, 2007

Sequoia National Park (Alta Peak) & Orange County, California Photographs of our backpack in Sequoia National Park (Alta Peak). In this part of the region you will find Sequoia Trees and they are the largest tree (volume-wise) in the world. The largest tree in the world is called 'Sherman Tree'. We did two day backpack in this region and climbed Alta Peak.




Business trip to Irvine, Orange County.

(2007-06-10 19:22:08.0) Permalink

Thursday May 17, 2007

22 miles hike in Point Reyes National Seashore Park and Caves
Moaning Cavern on CA-4


22 miles hike in Point Reyes National Seashore Park


(2007-05-17 16:40:45.0) Permalink

Sunday April 29, 2007

A long drive to Santa Barbara and Big Sur
Recent photographs of our trip to Santa Barbara and Big Sur.

(2007-04-29 11:57:46.0) Permalink

Sunday April 01, 2007

Some photographs of recent Trek
Mt. Sizer summit in Henry Coe State Park -- 20.35 miles (32 kms) round trip day hike.



One Day in Yosemite with colleagues

(2007-04-01 12:58:34.0) Permalink