Stephen Fitch's Weblog: Stephen Fitch's Weblog

1. From: http://opensolaris.org/os/community/xen/docs/setupvnc/

* Turn on xdmcp.

# svccfg -s cde-login

svc:/application/graphical-login/cde-login>

svc:/application/graphical-login/cde-login> setprop dtlogin/args=""

* If you are not running vncviewer locally on the control domain, set X11-server to listen to tcp port.

# svccfg -s x11-server

svc:/application/x11/x11-server>

svc:/application/x11/x11-server> setprop options/tcp_listen=true

The VNC listen facility should be used with caution due to security considerations.

* Add VNC services at /etc/services.

vnc-server 5900/tcp # VNC Server

* Turn on xvnc-inetd services.

# svcadm enable xvnc-inetd

2. Alter the service property:

# svccfg -s xvnc-inetd

svc:/application/x11/xvnc-inetd> editprop

... I changed:

# setprop inetd_start/exec = astring: "/usr/X11/bin/Xvnc -inetd -query localhost -once securitytypes=none"

... In the vi editor session to:

inetd_start/exec astring "/usr/X11/bin/Xvnc -inetd -query localhost -once securitytypes=none -geometry 1280x1024"

... Then I saved the edit (vi) seesion with ZZ

... I ran listprop to check my work...

... Note this is how I set the resolution....

3. Reboot

..... Now I can login via my Mac vncviewer and get a 1280x1024 resolution.

YMMV

My colleague Balchandra has blogged about Corporate JRE Revisions... He mainly covering the area of quality. See his blog for future updates.

I installed two 500Gb drives in my home Ultra 40 - both as a single ZFS mirror, with a swift “zpool create pool mirror” I was in business.

Now I'm copying off the archives from my elderly and creaking PC disks on to the 500Gb ZFS mirror.

I have also created various file systems for my pictures, movies, and music, sharing those out via samba so they are accessible to other PCs and my Tivo.

I feel some much happier about this configuration and storage arrangement for my files.

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Creating Redundant Copies Of Critical (To Keep Forever) Data

Note: For a fantastic in depth insight into the zfs copies details
  See: http://blogs.sun.com/relling/entry/zfs_copies_and_data_protection
 
So ... onwards...

We all have pictures... and they are typically spinning on a single, at risk, hard drive. When it dies, there will be a disaster...

So to avoid that doomsday I've been looking at storing my picture archive on a ZFS/Nevada server (home Ultra 40).

Here's the steps I followed after having already established my basic zfs pool.

booter# zfs create tank/backup/pictures
booter# zfs set mountpoint=/export/backup/pictures tank/backup/pictures
booter# zfs set sharenfs=rw tank/backup/pictures
booter# zfs share -a

Also I decided (for extra insurance) to set the number of copies (for metadata and data) via the following commands

booter# zfs set copies=2 tank/backup/pictures
booter# zfs set compression=on tank/backup/pictures

booter# zfs get copies tank/backup/pictures
NAME                  PROPERTY  VALUE                 SOURCE
tank/backup/pictures  copies    2                     local

I'm still evaluating many angles of this promising critical (at least to me) data container setup. I will say more later on this topic. Clearly I still need to purchase 2 or more disks and add them into my storage pool, but I hope to do that next week.

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I am lucky enough to have a Ultra 40 (AMD64) at home, so I decided to load Nevada Build 67 and experiment with ZFS, with the intention of learning more about ZFS and building (over time) a solid backup server and strategy for my other home and mobile systems.

My machine is called 'booter'

At the moment it only has one 80Gb SATA disk, but I intend to change that by purchasing a couple of 320-500Gb drives that I will tie together in a future ZFS combo...

So here are the overview steps I followed:

1) Find my drive details:

booter# format < /dev/null
Searching for disks...done


AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
       0. c1d0
          /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7/ide@0/cmdk@0,0
Specify disk (enter its number):
booter#

2) I knew s7 on disk c1d0 was free, so I issued the command:

booter# zpool create -f tank c1d0s7

3) I then created the filesystem and specified a mount point using:

booter# zfs create tank/backup
booter# zfs set mountpoint=/export/backup tank/backup

booter# df -k | grep tank

tank                 33546240      18 33546100     1%    /tank
tank/backup          33546240      18 33546100     1%    /export/backup

3) To compress the data on the drive:

booter# zfs set compression=on tank/backup

4) Using the zpool history command I could see what steps I had followed, I can see this would be useful in the future once I'd let some extended time go by and can't remember what I'd done (or for shared admin machine what someone else had done)

booter# zpool history

History for 'tank':
2007-06-22.23:05:43 zpool create -f tank c1d0s7
2007-06-22.23:10:00 zpool clear tank
2007-06-22.23:10:58 zfs create tank/backup
2007-06-22.23:11:49 zfs set mountpoint=/export/backup tank/backup
2007-06-22.23:13:14 zfs set compression=on tank/backup

5) I decided I wanted to share out the filesystem via NFS, using:

booter# zfs set sharenfs=rw tank/backup
booter# zfs share -a

Now I can mount and write the backup filesystem from my other systems (Mac).

In a future update I plan to write up how I added more storage, how I get samba share to work, and a little on zfs snapshots...

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A new blog group has created covering many exciting ideas proposed to enhance the experience of using Java SE in a "Production Deployment" context.

To quote directly my boss's initial posting:-

"Java in Production a way for the Java group to talk about and get feedback on the usage of Java SE in production settings. We hope to cover topics of interest to those of you who manage Java across both desktops and servers. While Java is used successfully in a wide range of situations, we believe there is more we can do to improve the experience and plan to discuss the ideas and questions you have raised."

For more information: Production Java Blog

Better still, email us at Production-Java @ sun.com

Over the next few weeks the pages will look in more details at the "Revisions", information on "How the Production JRE will be configured for deployment in the enterprise", and there will also be coverage of some "Survey Results" we have in hand...

I started to look at tumblelog and Tumblr. "Tumblelogs are like blogs with less fuss. Tumblr is your friendly and free tool for creating tumblelogs", all in all they do look like less fuss than blog content authoring. See: Wikipedia Tumblelog It looks like a nice blend of blogs, media, and links, at least to my eye.

Registration for the Sun Developer Network has been simplified...

Only 8 fields and a tick box.

SDN - Simplified Registration For 8 fields of information and the tick you get

1. Access to Expertise
2. Early Access Software
3. JavaOne content
4. Podcasts from our worldwide Tech Days events and from Sun's technology leaders
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Why Join Sun Developer Network?

Now you have to signup, no excuses.

Quite often I find a systems missing these recommended (more like mandatory) patches.

J2SE system stability, security (and maybe even performance) will benefit - YMMV.

Check out:

http://sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/show.pl?target=patches/J2SE 

Here's an example README for Solaris 9/SPARC:

http://patches.sun.com/clusters/J2SE_Solaris_9_Recommended.README

Enjoy!

While traversing the whole "Semantic Web" discussion I found 'A No-nonsense guide to Semantic Web specs for XML people (Part I)' .... my journey through this space continues... Now I'd like to find some tools for the "Semantic Web" that I can apply (Mozilla/Firefox extensions - anyone?).

A useful précis of Tuning Garbage Collection with the 1.4.2 Java[tm] Virtual Machine has been created by (!Sun)Pete Freitag and can be found here: Tuning Garbage Collection Outline

Kelly O'Hair, Sun, has produced an article detailing the transition from JVMPI to JVMTI - The Java Virtual Machine Tool Interface. JVMTI is part of Java Specification Request 163 (JSR-163) of the Java Community Process (JCP). You will need Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 5.0 Beta 2
The Java Virtual Machine Tool Interface Transition Article