Clear All ZFS Snapshots

Posted on April 9, 2012 by blandname

If you’ve been running snapshots for a while and have already backed them up, you might occasional need to delete all zfs snapshots for your pool.
Typically, you’d do this as part of your backup script, assuming that they have been written correctly.

First, to find the used snapshot space, run this command:
zfs list -o space
This will give you a detailed readout of your pools and snapshot space used.

Here’s my script to wipe ZFS snap shots, but I am certainly open to suggestion:
zfs list -H -o name -t snapshot | xargs -n1 zfs destroy
Again, caution is needed as this will remove ALL SNAPS from your pools.

Latest from blandname technical support forum

Posted on November 14, 2006 by blandname

Since installing bbPress on the forum.blandname.com subdomain, I’ve become addicted to the rapid posting workflow: add topic, title, description and post! It’s 4 steps and is over so quick I’ve been thinking about making a bookmarklet that will automate the task for me. Here’s the latest smaller posts I sent there, but should some day expand upon here (I’ll use blandname for longer posts from now on):

6 Things You’ll Love About Longhorn

Posted on September 20, 2006 by blandname

Forget Windows Vista.

The real new, exciting operating system from Microsoft is on it’s way and is supposedly slated for January.

Here’s a shortlist of reasons why you should care and what to look for:

LLMNR – Have you ever had master WINS browser woes? Name resolution problems? Microsoft wants to make this a thing of the past. In my experience this has been one of the largest pains – when the master browser goes down you lose name resolution. LLMNR fixes that. I’m happy. Testing the current Windows Server Codename Longhorn on virtual networks has shown so far that it works as expected already. I’m still happy. Basically this is multicast DNS (mDNS). Follow the link for a nice wiki article that will surely convince you.

Core Server Mode – Longhorn has a new locked down mode meant for bare-bones brass tax servers. They call it Core. What this means to the regular Windows admin is that there are no more wizards. Heck, there’s no more standard graphical UI. You get a command-line shell (DON’T call this DOS, they’ll find you!) to play around with. Servers are configured via preconfiguration scripts, this shell, and remote administration tools. If this is as fast and secure as it is supposed to be, it’ll be gravy. What you DO get: DHCP server, DNS server, file server, active directory, read-only domain controller, cluster services, load balancing, and services for Unix. That’s right, services for Unix is there too.

Application Publishing – I covered application publishing in Longhorn previously, and it’s what I am most excited about, to be honest. Pick an application, fire up the wizard, make an RDP file and send away to clients (even older XP terminals) – it’s that easy. While this will take the bread out of a lot of app vendors hands, it also allows for a wealth of innovation and I simply can’t wait to see what happens here.

Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 – In the same vein, and under the Terminal Server umbrella, the Remote Desktop Connection client gets an update that adds some much-needed and oft-asked-for features. Namely: PnP redirection for media players and digicams, multiple monitor support (I’m talking to you, Bill), desktop theming, and single sign-on. Whew. I’ll have to get into this one later.

Sharepoint V3 – It’s bigger, badder, and better code for Sharepoint. Better integration with Office 2007, faster load times, more features (of course), and item-level access control. Not to mention RSS by default – that’s was the deal-closer for me. Nor more need for infinite emails sent via alerts – just use RSS! Much like Apple, Microsoft has become a fan of RSS and it’s good news all around.

IIS 7 – You’re laughing. I see you snickering. Yes IIS is used externally, and its market share is growing right now, funnily enough. In IIS 7.0 you get reduced attack surface through feature modules. This is marketing-speak that means you can disable IIS services you don’t need. You get easy replication using web configuration files. And lastly you get better admin tools. Well slightly better anyway. This isn’t Plesk, Ensim or CPanel, but it’ll have to do ’til those guys get around to supporting Longhorn.

That about sums up the good things I’ve seen and tested to date on my virtual machines (VMWare Server, Virtual Server R2 and Parallels). Feel free to chime in about what tickles your fancy or rattles your chains, I’m all ears.

Poll Results in: Ubuntu for the win!

Posted on September 19, 2006 by blandname

Though we are just a small site at this point in time, we’re sure to grow and need to know and what direction. So we decided to run a poll for a few weeks to see what was garnering more interest from blandname readers.

The results are now in and it looks like Ubuntu is the current topic of choice, with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard coming in behind.

It seems some of you have a good sense of humour because you added Windows Me. Some good suggestions were found in the addition of CentOS which we are currently writing an article for, and Gentoo linux, one of favorite operating systems to play around with.

In the coming months, we’ll try to touch on all of these topics, focusing more attention on the winner of course.

Feel free to leave suggestions for future polls or other topics you’d like us to cover – we’re here to help.

Parallels for Mac to support Vista and Leopard

Posted on September 7, 2006 by blandname

I’ve been using Parallels Workstation on my beefy Windows test host alongside VMWare Server and Windows Virtual Server. Parallels, though a relatively new piece of software, is remarkably good.

Recently I received an email about the new Apple Mac version which adds a lot of features that have me very excited. I have been debating a MacBook Pro purchase, and this announcement just may be the tipping point.

So let’s hear them out on this spam, and have a look at why I’m so excited.

Big features to mention:

Support for new quad-processor Mac Pro towers outfitted with up to 3.5GB of RAM

This addition means that Parallels Desktop for Mac is now compatible with all Intel-powered Apple computers, which in addition to the Mac Pro includes the MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac Mini!

Compatibility with developer build of Mac OS X 10.5, code-named “Leopard”

Experimental support for Windows Vista

Bugs Fixed:

Solaris guest OS no longer hangs after suspend/resume

An improved Parallels Tools package

Full support for OpenBSD 3.8 as a guest operating system

G4U hard disk cloning tool now works in virtual machines

The new Parallels release candidate adds many exciting features including (but not limited to):

USB improvements — easily use multi interfaced and isochronous USB devices (including Windows Mobile 2005 and webcams)

Mac OS X performance improvements — optimize Mac OS X or guest OS performance by switching off the Mac cache function

Graphic performance improvements — enjoy faster, smoother video playback

Keyboard support improvements — use all of the keys on your Mac keyboard, such as the eject CD button, right-left and Shift/Ctrl/Alt (option)/Windows keys, in any virtual machine

Unicode path support improvements — name files and paths in national languages

Shared folders performance improvements — open folders and files faster, and transfer data across OSes with almost zero lag

Make A Solaris 10 DVD Image On Windows

Posted on August 29, 2006 by blandname

Firstly, grab all of the image files from Sun

You’ll need a Sun ID, and you don’t need to use the Java download helper, but if you’re on a slow connection it will certainly help (if anything, it helps by queuing your downloads).

Once all of the files have been downloaded, you will need to extract them. I use WinRAR to do this, but the choice is yours.

Navigate to the folder you have downloaded the files to. Select all of the files, either by dragging a selection box, or by ctrl-clicking, or shift-clicking. Right-click, then click on “extract files here”. Wait a while (this is a full DVD image).

Once this process has completed we will need to concatenate the files together.

The next step is not required, but I find it will help with everyday computing as well so I have included it.

You’ll need to somehow run a command in the folder that you have all of the Solaris files in. I use the Microsoft PowerToy to do that. Download and install it.

(Or you can use many other ways to do the same thing if you wish – the choice is yours)

Then find the folder you have downloaded the files to and right-click it. You will be offered the option to “Run Program” from the context menu. Click that button and paste the following into the resulting window.

copy /b "sol-10-u1-ga-x86-dvd-iso-a" +"sol-10-u1-ga-x86-dvd-iso-b" +"sol-10-u1-ga-x86-dvd-iso-c" +"sol-10-u1-ga-x86-dvd-iso-d" +"sol-10-u1-ga-x86-dvd-iso-e" sol-10-GA-x86-dvd.iso
you’ll see (if your files are on the drive “D” and you use Windows XP):
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600] (C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp. D:\sol-10-u1-ga-x86-dvd-iso-a D:\sol-10-u1-ga-x86-dvd-iso-b D:\sol-10-u1-ga-x86-dvd-iso-c D:\sol-10-u1-ga-x86-dvd-iso-d D:\sol-10-u1-ga-x86-dvd-iso-e 1 file(s) copied.

Voila! You can now burn the image using free software like IMGBurn, or commercial such as Nero, Roxio EasyCD, or Cheetah.