X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/e498b92dd096dee6cd5b2be0b31d5f0428fbea7f..1db781b57298ac40bc752b30e03695537423b94e:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 1fdf469ba2..3dd409d9de 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -19,6 +19,113 @@ +
+
RAID status from LSI Megaraid controllers using free software
+
3rd March 2024
+

The last few days I have revisited RAID setup using the LSI +Megaraid controller. These are a family of controllers called PERC by +Dell, and is present in several old PowerEdge servers, and I recently +got my hands on one of these. I had forgotten how to handle this RAID +controller in Debian, so I had to take a peek in the +Debian wiki page +"Linux and Hardware RAID: an administrator's summary" to remember +that kind of software is available to configure and monitor the disks +and controller. I prefer Free Software alternatives to proprietary +tools, as the later tend to fall into disarray once the manufacturer +loose interest, and often do not work with newer Linux Distributions. +Sadly there is no free software tool to configure the RAID setup, only +to monitor it. RAID can provide improved reliability and resilience in +a storage solution, but only if it is being regularly checked and any +broken disks are being replaced in time. I thus want to ensure some +automatic monitoring is available.

+ +

In the discovery process, I came across a old free software tool to +monitor PERC2, PERC3, PERC4 and PERC5 controllers, which to my +surprise is not present in debian. To help change that I created a +request for packaging of the +megactl package, and tried to track down a usable version. +The original project +site is on Sourceforge, but as far as I can tell that project has +been dead for more than 15 years. I managed to find a +more recent fork on +github from user hmage, but it is unclear to me if this is still +being maintained. It has not seen much improvements since 2016. A +more up to date +edition is a git fork from the original github fork by user +namiltd, and this newer fork seem a lot more promising. The owner of +this github repository has replied to change proposals within hours, +and had already added some improvements and support for more hardware. +Sadly he is reluctant to commit to maintaining the tool and stated in +my first pull +request that he think a new release should be made based on the +git repository owned by hmage. I perfectly understand this +reluctance, as I feel the same about maintaining yet another package +in Debian when I barely have time to take care of the ones I already +maintain, but do not really have high hopes that hmage will have time +to spend on it and hope namiltd will change his mind.

+ +

In any case, I created +a draft package +based on the namiltd edition and put it under the debian group on +salsa.debian.org. If you own a Dell PowerEdge server with one of the +PERC controllers, or any other RAID controller using the megaraid or +megaraid_sas Linux kernel modules, you might want to check it out. If +enough people are interested, perhaps the package will make it into +the Debian archive.

+ +

There are two tools provided, megactl for the megaraid Linux kernel +module, and megasasctl for the megaraid_sas Linux kernel module. The +simple output from the command on one of my machines look like this +(yes, I know some of the disks have problems. :).

+ +
+# megasasctl 
+a0       PERC H730 Mini           encl:1 ldrv:2  batt:good
+a0d0       558GiB RAID 1   1x2  optimal
+a0d1      3067GiB RAID 0   1x11 optimal
+a0e32s0     558GiB  a0d0  online   errs: media:0  other:19
+a0e32s1     279GiB  a0d1  online  
+a0e32s2     279GiB  a0d1  online  
+a0e32s3     279GiB  a0d1  online  
+a0e32s4     279GiB  a0d1  online  
+a0e32s5     279GiB  a0d1  online  
+a0e32s6     279GiB  a0d1  online  
+a0e32s8     558GiB  a0d0  online   errs: media:0  other:17
+a0e32s9     279GiB  a0d1  online  
+a0e32s10    279GiB  a0d1  online  
+a0e32s11    279GiB  a0d1  online  
+a0e32s12    279GiB  a0d1  online  
+a0e32s13    279GiB  a0d1  online  
+
+#
+
+ +

In addition to displaying a simple status report, it can also test +individual drives and print the various event logs. Perhaps you too +find it useful?

+ +

In the packaging process I provided some patches upstream to +improve installation and ensure +a Appstream +metainfo file is provided to list all supported HW, to allow +isenkram to propose +the package on all servers with a relevant PCI card.

+ +

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

+ +
+
+ + + Tags: english, raid. + + +
+
+
+
Frokostseminar om Noark 5 i Oslo tirsdag 2024-03-12
27th February 2024
@@ -1476,65 +1583,6 @@ Orwell: «Alle dyr er like, men noen dyr er likere enn andre».
-
-
Invidious add-on for Kodi 20
-
10th August 2023
-

I still enjoy Kodi and -LibreELEC as my multimedia center -at home. Sadly two of the services I really would like to use from -within Kodi are not easily available. The most wanted add-on would be -one making The Internet Archive -available, and it has -not been -working for many years. The second most wanted add-on is one -using the Invidious privacy enhanced -Youtube frontent. A plugin for this has been partly working, but -not been kept up to date in the Kodi add-on repository, and its -upstream seem to have given it up in April this year, when the git -repository was closed. A few days ago I got tired of this sad state -of affairs and decided to -have -a go at improving the Invidious add-on. As -Google has -already attacked the Invidious concept, so it need all the support -if can get. My small contribution here is to improve the service -status on Kodi.

- -

I added support to the Invidious add-on for automatically picking a -working Invidious instance, instead of requiring the user to specify -the URL to a specific instance after installation. I also had a look -at the set of patches floating around in the various forks on github, -and decided to clean up at least some of the features I liked and -integrate them into my new release branch. Now the plugin can handle -channel and short video items in search results. Earlier it could -only handle single video instances in the search response. I also -brushed up the set of metadata displayed a bit, but hope I can figure -out how to get more relevant metadata displayed.

- -

Because I only use Kodi 20 myself, I only test on version 20 and am -only motivated to ensure version 20 is working. Because of API changes -between version 19 and 20, I suspect it will fail with earlier Kodi -versions.

- -

I already -asked to have -the add-on added to the official Kodi 20 repository, and is -waiting to heard back from the repo maintainers.

- -

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my -activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address -15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

-
-
- - - Tags: english, kodi, multimedia, video. - - -
-
-
-

RSS feed