Posted by
Hemos
on from the upgrades-continue dept.
stoffel writes "According to this article on spymac retailers just received the 10.2.2 update to Mac OS X, which features an updated file system and improvements to FTP, NFS, and Print Services ... too bad you can't set the software update utility to check every minute."
...Too bad you can't set the software update utility to check every minute...
Um, tell me again why you can't just make a cron job to run "softwareupdate" every minute?
Jeez.
Yes, you are wrong
by
daveschroeder
·
· Score: 5, Informative
The GUI to enable journaling in Disk Utility will only be exposed on Mac OS X Server 10.2.2. The option will NOT be present in Disk Utility on Mac OS X 10.2.2 (non-Server). Thus, the only way to enable it on non-Server is to use:
sudo diskutil enableJournal [volume]
And you don't have to format to enable it.
Re:Yes, you are wrong
by
Draoi
·
· Score: 5, Informative
I just ran it;
[dhcp1i174:build] pcassidy# diskutil enableJournal/ Allocated 8192K for journal file. Journaling has been enabled on/
File System: HFS+ (Journaled) Partition Type: Apple_HFS Media Type: Generic Protocol: ATA
Total Size: 18.6 GB Free Space: 8.2 GB
Read Only: No Ejectable: No
Cool!
-- Alison
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein
Re:Correct me if I'm wrong
by
heliocentric
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I don't know about MAC-land, but I do know linux land. You can boot a cleanly unmounted ext3 under ext2 (if it's not clean, do e2fsck).
To mount something as ext3 you need to run:
tune2fs -j/dev/hdaX
on it first. This can be done on an unmounted or on a mounted filesystem. If you create the journal on a mounted filesystem you will see a.journal file. Don't try to delete this and don't back this up or restore it from backup! If you run tune2fs -j on an unmounted partition an unvisible journal file will be created. Now you can mount the filesystem as ext3 using:
Raid 5, the missing feature
by
goombah99
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Journalling will be great. especially on the disk servers with 480GB worth of storage. But what the Xserves are missing is raid 5. I was pretty upset when I discovered that they only came with raid1 and raid0.
the missing raid mode is worse than it seems. The mac xserves come with 4 big IDE disks. If you want to you want the Xserve to play nice in a unix environment then its a good idea to format the disks UFS. (you dont have to, NFS works fine with HFS+, but you risk screwing yourself with the file name case insensitivity of the mac. A rare event since most people dont have important files that differ in name only in their case but it's lurking.
But wait! you cant format the whole thing UFS becausesome of the mac apps break unless they are on HFS+. So this means you need to format atleast one of the disks HFS for the OS and apps. that leaves three disks. But in RAID 1, you cant use an odd number of disks. So that leaves two disks for raid 1 UFS.
Thus the best you can do is 120GB HFS+ Raid 1 and 120GB UFS Raid 1. So out of four disks the most you can get is 120GB UFS redundant storage. Ah you say, why not just make a small HFS+ partition and let the rest be UFS. Well apple does not yet support partitioning a disk with different File systems. Thus you cant split the disk into UFS and HFS+ partitions.
Two companies are promised a partionalble raid 5 system (Xraid and NXraid) but both suddenly announced delayed shippments. My guess is they are trying to incoporate this new journaling system.
I spoke to apple about this several times. It was hinted to me to keep watching because big things were coming. I suspect these are the Journalling FS and and an outboard mass storage disk sytem. but that's a conjecture.
That's the bad news. The good news is that these Xserves are otherwise a very good deal. The throughput is better than comparably priced linux systems. Also they occupy only 1U but hold 480GB of hot swapable storage. Yes there are some NAS systems that are 1U but they are about 10 X slower in throughput, not to mention that they dont support as many services as the macs (LDAP, NFS, SAMBA, SSH, SCP, FTP, MAIL server, RSYNC,NET info, Net boot...). The macs have dual Gig-E too. ANd in a very nice move Apple will sell you a spare parts kit with everyhing you are likely to need to fix a deadXSERVE in the field.
Plus 24hour tech support.
the other nice thing about the Xserve is the construction. In addition to tool-free hot swap drives, the entire chasis slides out to the front revealing everything with no screws to undo or panels to remove. It's a clever design lacking the usual add-on slider rails of your gneric linux boxes. There's even a firewire port on the front for quick access. Another nice feature is that you dont need a terminal to set them up, they will auotmatically find the administration computer on any DNS system. And if you need to have a terminal attached, you can buy a UPS based KVM switch rather then the usual clumsy Video/mouse/keyboard KVMs.
Anyhow the bottom line is this as soon as a partionalble journaled raid 5 system is avaliable the Xserves will be one of the least expensivie full featured HIGH QUALITY 1U half terrabyte disk servers you can own. (note I said High quality). I just wish they would hurry up since I have two of these cooling their heels waiting for raid 5.
-- Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I Sure Hope They Fixed WINS
by
good+soldier+svejk
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Apple claims CIFS compatibility, but they horribly broke WINS in their Samba implementation. If you add a WINS server you can't browse across subnets. All you can see is the WINS server itself. If you remove WINS you can browse your local subnet normally.
For some reason, I seem to be the only person who cares about this. I have never seen it mentioned and nobody responds when I post about it. My local Apple Tech rep didn't even know aout it. I did find it documented in this technote.
-- It is cowardly, and a betrayal of whatever it means to be a Jew, to act as a white man
-James Baldwin
Re:Exactly how much space does journaling take up.
by
Doktor+Memory
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Breathe easy. Filesystem commit logs (aka journals) are generally tiny things: 15-30mb at worst. NetApp, for instance, keeps the filesystem journal for their Filer NAS servers in 32mb of mirrored NVRAM. You'll never notice the lost space.
Slashdot Mirror
Aren't these the iWalk guys?
Puh-leeze.
Lies about crimes
More about the journaling file system:p
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,634720,00.as
...Too bad you can't set the software update utility to check every minute...
Um, tell me again why you can't just make a cron job to run "softwareupdate" every minute?
Jeez.
The GUI to enable journaling in Disk Utility will only be exposed on Mac OS X Server 10.2.2. The option will NOT be present in Disk Utility on Mac OS X 10.2.2 (non-Server). Thus, the only way to enable it on non-Server is to use:
sudo diskutil enableJournal [volume]
And you don't have to format to enable it.
I don't know about MAC-land, but I do know linux land. You can boot a cleanly unmounted ext3 under ext2 (if it's not clean, do e2fsck).
/dev/hdaX
.journal file. Don't try to delete this and don't back this up or restore it from backup! If you run tune2fs -j on an unmounted partition an unvisible journal file will be created.
/dev/hdaX /mnt/somewhere
3 -faq.html and is a good FAQ for those who are not down and jiggy with ext3.
To mount something as ext3 you need to run:
tune2fs -j
on it first. This can be done on an unmounted or on a mounted filesystem. If you create the journal on a mounted filesystem you will see a
Now you can mount the filesystem as ext3 using:
mount -t ext3
Of note, this info was shamlessly stolen from http://batleth.sapienti-sat.org/projects/FAQs/ext
Wheeeee
the missing raid mode is worse than it seems. The mac xserves come with 4 big IDE disks. If you want to you want the Xserve to play nice in a unix environment then its a good idea to format the disks UFS. (you dont have to, NFS works fine with HFS+, but you risk screwing yourself with the file name case insensitivity of the mac. A rare event since most people dont have important files that differ in name only in their case but it's lurking.
But wait! you cant format the whole thing UFS becausesome of the mac apps break unless they are on HFS+. So this means you need to format atleast one of the disks HFS for the OS and apps. that leaves three disks. But in RAID 1, you cant use an odd number of disks. So that leaves two disks for raid 1 UFS.
Thus the best you can do is 120GB HFS+ Raid 1 and 120GB UFS Raid 1. So out of four disks the most you can get is 120GB UFS redundant storage. Ah you say, why not just make a small HFS+ partition and let the rest be UFS. Well apple does not yet support partitioning a disk with different File systems. Thus you cant split the disk into UFS and HFS+ partitions.
Two companies are promised a partionalble raid 5 system (Xraid and NXraid) but both suddenly announced delayed shippments. My guess is they are trying to incoporate this new journaling system.
I spoke to apple about this several times. It was hinted to me to keep watching because big things were coming. I suspect these are the Journalling FS and and an outboard mass storage disk sytem. but that's a conjecture.
That's the bad news. The good news is that these Xserves are otherwise a very good deal. The throughput is better than comparably priced linux systems. Also they occupy only 1U but hold 480GB of hot swapable storage. Yes there are some NAS systems that are 1U but they are about 10 X slower in throughput, not to mention that they dont support as many services as the macs (LDAP, NFS, SAMBA, SSH, SCP, FTP, MAIL server, RSYNC,NET info, Net boot ...). The macs have dual Gig-E too. ANd in a very nice move Apple will sell you a spare parts kit with everyhing you are likely to need to fix a deadXSERVE in the field.
Plus 24hour tech support.
the other nice thing about the Xserve is the construction. In addition to tool-free hot swap drives, the entire chasis slides out to the front revealing everything with no screws to undo or panels to remove. It's a clever design lacking the usual add-on slider rails of your gneric linux boxes. There's even a firewire port on the front for quick access. Another nice feature is that you dont need a terminal to set them up, they will auotmatically find the administration computer on any DNS system. And if you need to have a terminal attached, you can buy a UPS based KVM switch rather then the usual clumsy Video/mouse/keyboard KVMs.
Anyhow the bottom line is this as soon as a partionalble journaled raid 5 system is avaliable the Xserves will be one of the least expensivie full featured HIGH QUALITY 1U half terrabyte disk servers you can own. (note I said High quality). I just wish they would hurry up since I have two of these cooling their heels waiting for raid 5.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Apple claims CIFS compatibility, but they horribly broke WINS in their Samba implementation. If you add a WINS server you can't browse across subnets. All you can see is the WINS server itself. If you remove WINS you can browse your local subnet normally.
For some reason, I seem to be the only person who cares about this. I have never seen it mentioned and nobody responds when I post about it. My local Apple Tech rep didn't even know aout it. I did find it documented in this technote.
It is cowardly, and a betrayal of whatever it means to be a Jew, to act as a white man
-James Baldwin
Breathe easy. Filesystem commit logs (aka journals) are generally tiny things: 15-30mb at worst. NetApp, for instance, keeps the filesystem journal for their Filer NAS servers in 32mb of mirrored NVRAM. You'll never notice the lost space.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.