Filed under Tech

Technical insight into NTFS

Check out OSnews’s article “NTFS: A File System with Integrity and Complexity“.

The topics handled in this article:

  • Glossary of NTFS Terms
  • A File System of Files
  • Fill Your Quota
  • Better Backups with Shadow Copy
  • File Compression Made Easy
  • Alternate Data Streams
  • File Screening
  • Volume Mount Points
  • Hard Links, Soft Links, and Junction Points
  • Fun With Logs
  • Encrypting File System – EFS
  • Advanced Format Drives
  • Interview: Dr Gary Kimura

It showed me some interesting insights into the technical possibilities I wasn’t aware off. Nice examples are that “symlinks” is possible since Windows Vista and the concept of “streams!

Hyperthreading explained!

There are a lot of nice technology names that sound cool, but where the actual specifics are a bit unclear. Hyperthreading is one of them for a lot of people. So check out the following arcticle “What Is Hyper-Threading?” @ makeuseof.com!

Excerpt

I’ve even spoken with one poor fellow who thought he’d purchased a eight-core processor because he saw eight graphs in Windows Task Manager. That’s what the sales rep told him, so when he went home and saw eight graphs, he was hooked. Seeing was believing. Two graphs appear in Windows for each core on a Hyper-Threading processor because Windows is detecting two logical processors for each core. The term “logical processor” sounds fancy, but a logical processor is by definition a processor that has no physical existence. Windows can send threads to each logical processor, but there is still just one core doing the actual execution, so a single core with Hyper-Threading is dramatically different from two seperate physical cores.

Outsourcing IT? Some wisdoms to preserve the long term.

Listening to the sales talk
Sales persons in regards to IT software always say it’s easy to install & use. Yet from experience we know that this is correct if it’s done without straying from the path they had in mind. This being a “default default default” installlation without attempting to do anything “custom”. I use the term “custom” here very lightly, as mostly deviating from using a superuser will turn the application useless. Yet sadly enough, such a default installation is something that never occurs, unless you want to accept the given application as an “island” within your IT environment.

Integration & Maintenance are key!
The biggest downfalls of software is situated within Integration and on maintenance. If the integration part isn’t advertised during the sales round, then you can probably forget about that. To be clear; integration meaning when you want to use the data from a given application into another.

Good maintenance is a bulletproof installation which will last for ages! To be honest, I have yet to see an external party who thinks about the long term and therefor set up a system that’s rock solid and won’t budge even if an earthquake occurred. Most vendors think merely in regards to sales, where an unstable application provides them with billable hours (“consultancy” or support services).

Simply Put
As every management book tells you, think about our TCO. What’s that first character stand for? TOTAL… being the costs you’ll accumulate over the years. Looking short term will give your a big increase on maintenance which should not be treaded lightly. F*cked up installations are dreadfull to manage and will (Note: WILL, not might) give you disruptions in your availability. How much is such a downtime worth to you?

Everything You Need to Know About Hard Drives

Check out the following article at gizmodo.com! It’s a nice rundown on how harddrives actually work.

OpenSource Storage Management

I came across OpenFiler a while ago and was intriged by it. Now I’ve taken the liberty to testing it in my lab, and I must say that I’m impressed by the features. It’s something every sysadmin should check out to see if it isn’t a viable solution for their overpriced storage solution… ;-)

.

Openfiler is a powerful, intuitive browser-based network storage software distribution. Openfiler delivers file-based Network Attached Storage and block-based Storage Area Networking in a single framework. Its uses the rPath Linux metadistribution and is distributed as a stand-alone Linux distribution. The entire software stack interfaces with third-party software that is all open source.

File-based networking protocols supported by Openfiler include: NFS, SMB/CIFS, HTTP/WebDAV and FTP. Network directories supported by Openfiler include NIS, LDAP (with support for SMB/CIFS encrypted passwords), Active Directory (in native and mixed modes) and Hesiod. Authentication protocols include Kerberos 5.

Openfiler includes support for volume-based partitioning, iSCSI (target and initiator), scheduled snapshots, resource quota, and a single unified interface for share management which makes allocating shares for various network file-system protocols a breeze.

Comparing Online Storage Services

For those who liked the Mozy article, check out the following. Lifehacker featured an article comparing all the online storage services.

MythTV is dead, long live Dreambox!

This week I was fed up with the recurring issues I have with my MythTV setup. We got used to the long channel changes and accepted that the remote control (actually LircD) acted up on a frequent basis. Yet after having had a lot of issues with my ATI card, I switched to nvidia. This week I did an upgrade to get Lirc more stable, which caused my video to lag… I suppose that some MythTV internal changed as updating/downgrading my nvidia drivers didn’t work.

As the WAF was completely ruined and each “downtime” caused my lifetime to shorten with a few years, I decided to go with my initial hunch to buy a dreambox. Two days later the box arrived and after a bit of googling I flashed the device with the PLI image and I was AMAZED!!! I repeat myself: AMAZED!!!

  • Fast channel changes… WOW
  • Very good remote control… WOW
  • Easy plugin/update system… WOW
  • TV & Radio channesl seperated… NICE
  • Low Power Usage… YEAH
  • And so SMALL!!! The remote is about the same size as the device.

It’s a linux device underneath the hood, so I can simply manage connectivity to other devices. So it instantly became a small nas server for my other media devices too… Which brings me to another point; what will I do with my old MythTV hardware? ;-)

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.