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mercutio: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Biostar-AM1ML-Coreboot-Port
<br> cheap amd motherboard with coreboot support
<br> kind of nifty
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phlux: Alright, so what do you folks do to back up your home computers?
<br> just tar.xf your home and etc dirs?
<br> tar.gz even
<br> i mean, obviously rsync it
<br> nevermind
<br> i'll just compress it how i want :P
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RandalSchwartz: I do a clone every day, and when I'm home, I clone that clone to a drobo
<br> I also use backblaze, which in theory shoves everything of interest into the cloud.
BryceBot: TO THE CLOUD!!!
RandalSchwartz: that's what she said!
<br> if I have the arp VPN, do I still need to use ssh to tunnel vnc?
<br> apparently yes still
<br> And ugh! the FreeBSD DVDs arp provides don't have a fixit shell!
<br> they're "disc1".
<br> I'll have to figure out what should be mounted instead.
<br> got it. need the dvd1 release, not the disc1 release. :(
<br> support@ request made.
<br> hopefully filled soon because otherwise all our machines are at risk if they ever fail to boot.
brycec: <u>phlux</u>: I use duplicity for my backups :)
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mike-burns: Tarsnap for data, git (and the rcm suite of programs) for dotfiles. But then my git repos are backed up with tarsnap.
plett: Most of the stuff I want to keep backups of in git and i push to a remote repo when i make changes, but I also use duplicity for backing up home dirs
<br> I don't do whole machine backups any more. I can re-build a machine from an OS installation and either ansible or puppet
brycec: Yeah, it's pretty pointless to backup /bin, /usr, etc. Just a waste of space.
mnathani_: can a raspberry pi be used to control the power (on/off) of a power bar
<br> Ideally, I would like to connect to the pi over network and toggle the switch
brycec: In short, yes.
<br> On its own, no.
<br> But can you toggle an opto-relay from a GPIO? Of course. It's widely documented.
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m0unds: i use crashplan to backup desktop & notebook computers to my nas and to teh klaud. i rsync data from my remote servers to my nas, which also gets backed up to teh klaud
<br> i have some old stuff that i need to keep encrypted and stored in glacier, and some critical stuff encrypted and stored on s3 as well. photos get backed up to the nas -> crashplan and also to smugmug
mnathani_: would you recommend another solution for IP based power toggle?
m0unds: tripplite makes some decent managed power stuff
<br> their isobar surge protection stuff is really good and less expensive than some alternatives
<br> triggering a relay via gpio on an rpi sounds like a fun project (i've done similar to control a fermenter)
brycec: <u>mnathani_</u>: There are probably cheaper ready-made stuff. Eg. Belkin's line of WeMo stuff.
m0unds: yeah, mfi by ubiquiti has some power products too, iirc
brycec: (depending on how "professional" you're looking)
m0unds: https://www.ubnt.com/products/#all/controlautomation
<br> my buddy used mfi stuff and a home built fan box to control the aerator on his septic tank
mnathani_: <u>brycec</u>: nothing too fancy, just needs to have IP connectivity
<br> or an app I guess
brycec: http://www.amazon.com/WeMo-Electronics-Anywhere-Automation-Smartphones/dp/B00BB2MMNE/ $43 USD for what it's worth, wifi, app, ifttt.com integration, etc.
BryceBot: <u>Amazon</u>: "Belkin WeMo Switch, Control Your Electronics From Anywhere with the Home Automation App for Smartphones and Tablets, Wi-Fi Enabled"
brycec: May or may not be the fanciest one or cheapest, but it is aimed to be easy and the like.
<br> (I have 0 experience with any consumer remote power switch, for the record)
<br> Apparently http://www.amazon.com/WeMo-Electronics-Anywhere-Automation-Smartphones/dp/B00EOEDJ9W/ $53USD can also monitor usage
BryceBot: <u>Amazon</u>: "Belkin WeMo Insight Switch, Control Your Electronics and Monitor Energy Usage From Anywhere with the Home Automation App for Smartphones and Tablets, Wi-Fi Enabled"
mnathani_: great
<br> ordered from Amazon
brycec: Cool, good luck :)
mnathani_: <u>brycec</u>: Thanks
brycec: <u>mnathani_</u>: Out of curiosity, what are you controlling?
<br> In my life, I've never seen a need for a remotely controlled power outlet
<br> So I'm curious what need you found.
mnathani_: I have some cisco equipment in my room, hooked up to a single power bar
<br> its for my home lab
<br> I can access it remotely once its on
<br> but it needs to be manually powered on at this point
brycec: And you need to remotely power-toggle it?
mnathani_: yes, since it will be accessed remotely
<br> that or, get someone at home to switch it on
brycec: Ah. You said "home" and I sorta assumed that meant you would be at home with it :p
<br> And leaving it on all the time would obviously be wasteful.
mnathani_: loud more than anything else
brycec: If you're not home to hear it...
mnathani_: being considerate to other residents of the household, I guess :-)
mercutio: i can understand not wanting to have that kind of stuff on at home
<br> while you're home.
<br> what i don't understand is why "server" gear automatically seems to mean not having fan speed adjustment etc in some gear
<br> 1u servers are always going to be a little hard to have quiet
brycec: "server" usually means assuming that noise/volume is not an issue. Then you realize you can remove a component that may potentially fail, a fan controller or speed logic, and just let the fan run at full speed.
<br> At least, that was our logic when I worked for a company that built servers. Except the motherboard still had a fan controller anyways and we used that
m0unds: PWM controller or whatever?
mercutio: when i was looking at infiniband switches you can get them "kind of cheap" but "EXTREMELEY NOISY"
<br> and someone said about doing replacements with noctura making a huge difference
brycec: <u>m0unds</u>: yeah the onboard 3- and 4-pin headers :p
mercutio: <u>brycec</u>: i have to use ear plugs in "server rooms"
m0unds: i had a headset i would wear if i had to work in the server room for more than a minute or so
brycec: ^ OSHA guidelines dictate the same for any non-brief time spent.
mercutio: if people cared a little more about noise maybe that woldn't be the case
m0unds: shooting muffs, kept them in my bag because my employer refused to furnish them
mercutio: heh
m0unds: now they're in my truck in case i forget to throw my nicer ones in my bag when i go shooting, haha
brycec: We definitely didn't really care about noise complaints. The fact that people would buy them and put them under the receptionist's desk was on them. They bought a "server" and should treat it as such, dammit.
mercutio: <u>brycec</u>: yeh different people have different ideas about servers
<br> and switches
<br> switches can be noisier than servers
m0unds: i think people unfamiliar with that stuff just assume it's like desktop computers on wire racks in a room somewhere
mercutio: buut it's because they do 6000+ rpm on the fans contsntaly often :/
brycec: <u>m0unds</u>: And some are :p (eg MacMiniColo.net)
m0unds: and don't realize how unholy loud it can be w/switchgear, servers, etc all running in a confined space w/air handlers and other shit running
mercutio: well there's extra power use from higher fan speeds too
m0unds: right
<br> frontrangehosting up in denver did it too
<br> and there's some other colo company that does it
brycec: Extraordinarily minimal difference in power usage on those small fans.
mercutio: i think doubule temperature control would be cool
<br> like "internal" temperature control and "external tempeature control
<br> but extenral being fed from IP oir such
brycec: ^ Many motherboards can sense inlet and outlet temperature
mercutio: because if you're running at 60c
<br> but the room temp is 40c
<br> running higher fan speeds probably won't even make much diff
<br> <u>brycec</u>: yeah but it may be too "close"
m0unds: ehh, it was alright on microATX formfactor stuff w/ivy bridge intel cpus on it - you tell the BIOS how you have the fans set up and it bases fan speed on that
<br> did a reasonable job w/those boards (intel boards, 3700 cpus)
<br> despite them being tiny and the enclosures being tiny
<br> supplement it w/some sane minimum fan speeds if it's not doing what you want and it works out reasonably well
mercutio: at 40c the cooling in the server room has probably failed, everything tries to save itself :)
<br> which will increase power draw.
m0unds: power draw isn't a big concern if cooling failed, getting cooling working again is, haha
mercutio: yeh it is
<br> but failuure time can be pretty short...
<br> power draw increases heat.
<br> even if servers are idle
m0unds: sure
mercutio: but even buying a few minutes would be a good thing
m0unds: that's why backup cooling exists
<br> i'd rather not grenade hardware for no reason
mercutio: <u>m0unds</u>: yeh sometimes backup can fail at the same time
m0unds: deal with that if it's the case
mercutio: i don't know how common it is, i was reading about failures when i was reading about server room temperatures.
<br> you should deal with that, but if you get 45 minutes instead of 40 minutes
<br> it makes it easier to deal with that.
<br> i think the usual "solution" is to turn off some people
<br> http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2015/01/06/heatwave-cooling-failure-bring-iinet-data-center-down-in-perth/
<br> like that's one example
<br> from what i understand that article minimises the failures that users experienced, and lots of users couldn't authenticate etc.
m0unds: well, that sounds like multiple primary cooling failures
mercutio: yeh
m0unds: if they added "backup cooling" as a future solution
mercutio: but collobrative cooling would improve things a little.
m0unds: i saw iinet and thought of infinity internet up in portland (now easystreet)
<br> had a couple friends who worked there
mercutio: iinet is a huge provider in australia i think
<br> it'd probably be like verizon or somethign in the US
m0unds: yea, different company. just saw the name in the url and thought of infinity
mercutio: i'm curious what'll happen with electronics power draw decreasing.
<br> here adsl/vdsl cabinets all have cooling.
<br> i don't know how redundant they are, but that kind of area may be a better place to start.
m0unds: same here, also catv equipment cabinets
mercutio: as you can hear the cabinets :/
m0unds: pretty loud too
mercutio: they always get grafitti on them.
<br> so there was some initiative to put artwork on them.
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m0unds: i was applying some seed to my lawn and it comes mixed with this fertilizer and bright green shredded fiber stuff to help it to stay put. i found a very unhappy, very green spider in it.
<br> i think she climbed in the bag and couldn't get out
mercutio: haha
<br> bloody hell
<br> so motherboard doesn't like new cpus :/
<br> have to put old cpu in to do bios update
<br> the only "new" cpu i have is in my server
<br> err new old
<br> it's haswell vs haswell refresh
m0unds: bummer
mercutio: i may have to update bios on my server too
<br> i do dhcp bios updates normally, but dhcp is on the server
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brycec: Could be worse... you could have bought a new motherboard and cpu and not have an old cpu to swap in for the bios update :p
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brycec: (Our motherboard supplier silently started shipping boards with an old BIOS, only we didn't know it was an old BIOS or that anything had changed so we thought we had a giant batch of bad boards. Ugh.)
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m0unds: ugh, that's annoying
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mercutio: <u>brycec</u>: so much screwing around
<br> now i found out motherboard has mini displayport instead of displayport
<br> <u>brycec</u>: did they just not post?
<br> i suppose you couldn't tell
<br> i managed to boot the board with old cpu and upgrade bios
<br> now i have to figure out how to boot uefi shell again
<br> (it was easy on the other monitor, this one shows nothing for ages)
<br> and asus are ick
<br> i'm still trying to figure out how to display secure boot
acf__: "A failed software update caused the heat to rise rapidly in one part of a Microsoft data center, causing an outage of up to 16 hours for Outlook.com, Hotmail, and the Skydrive storage service."
mercutio: yeah kind of scary
mnathani_: acf__ :do you have a link for that story?
mercutio: i seem to be stuck with samba doing twice as fast write speeds as reads :(
<br> the other way around would be nicer.
brycec: Correct, no post/no boot. We couldn't tell anything. Wasn't until some back and forth with the vendor ("we're using this CPU" "be sure you're using bios version >X" "Of course we are, that's the version you're supposed to be flashing before shipping these" etc)
mercutio: did it have the bios version written on the motherboard?
<br> i thought asus were meant to have nice bios's. it's worse than asrock :(
<br> even asrock z77 is better than the asus z87
brycec: <u>mercutio</u>: As it happens it does have a sticker on the BIOS ROM, but it was coded (eg didn't simply read "V. 1.01")
<br> Eventually we did notice the difference in stickers and it all made sense
<br> And all boiled down to them failing to include the BIOS they were supposed to
<br> (among other slight failures) And a great lesson was learned :p
mercutio: ahh
<br> i had a motherboard rom failure
<br> and i had to get a new rom, and i noticed that my one mentioned the bios version fine.
<br> its' not acutally that hard to change the rom chip
<br> and they sent me a replacement rom
<br> they seem to socket them
brycec: Not many vendors seem to socket them these days
<br> My desktop ASUS boards don't, my Intel boards don't...
mercutio: lots of them do dual bios
<br> oh?
<br> well this was asrock
<br> it seems it may have been intel me getting corrupt
brycec: heh
mercutio: i wonder if asus do dual bios
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acf__: <u>mnathani_</u>: it's from the one mercutio linked earlier
mercutio: the iinet one
acf__: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2015/01/06/heatwave-cooling-failure-bring-iinet-data-center-down-in-perth/
mercutio: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2015/01/06/heatwave-cooling-failure-bring-iinet-data-center-down-in-perth/
<br> haha
<br> http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/03/14/heat-spike-in-data-center-caused-hotmail-outage/
<br> i didn't realise hotmail localised mailboxes.
<br> i kind of figured they'd have some kind of "cloud" storage.
<br> i suppose it is free mail
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mnathani_: acf__ mercutio: thanks for reposting the link
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