Home Patrick

Automatically backup the Brocade config via FTP

WARNING: This may be broken n 6.1.0h firmware. I’m looking into it. For now, I’m running an expect script from a remote host to do these backups.

The following will backup your switch config over FTP to a remote server daily. If you have to replace your switch, you can just do a configdownload after getting it on the network to restore all your settings.

To make this happen, I created a short shell script to upload into the cron directory on the switch. You can transfer this file via SCP. I had problems with FileZilla’s SCP, so I copied it from another host, which worked fine. Just put this in a file and upload it to /etc/cron.daily/ on the switch.

#!/bin/sh

# configbackup
#
# Author: Patrick Vaughan - 7-1-09
#
# Purpose:
#       Do a configupload to a remote FTP server.  This process does a backup
#           from AD 255, so as to get all the Zoning configuration.
#
# Change Log:
#
# License:
#   Copyright (C) 2009  Patrick Vaughan
#
#    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
#    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
#    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
#    (at your option) any later version.
#
#    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
#    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
#    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
#    GNU General Public License for more details.
#
#    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
#    along with this program.  If not, see .

DEST_HOST="192.168.1.1"
DEST_USER="ftp_user"
DEST_DIR="/export/sansw"
HOSTNAME=`/bin/hostname`
PASSWORD="password"

/fabos/link_abin/ad --exec 255 "/fabos/link_sbin/configupload -p ftp "$DEST_HOST","$DEST_USER","$DEST_DIR/$HOSTNAME.cfg","$PASSWORD"" > /dev/null

exit

SeriesP HBA not logging into the fabric

On one box, I had a HBA that would NOT do a fabric login, this is what we had to do to get it to login:

  1. Unplug the fibre from the HBA
  2. Cycle the LPAR
  3. Boot it into SMS
  4. Attach the fibre to the HBA
  5. Run a scan for hard disks via SMS (5-Boot options, 1-select boot device, 5-Hard drives, 9-Scan)

Tada… your HBA should light up and log in

Testing Disk Heartbeats

To test your disk heartbeats, you can look at the output of “cllsif” or “lssrc -ls topsvcs”, or you can actively test them. IBM provides a command to do this. First, find the devices associated with the disk HB VG, I’ll assume hdisk4 on nodeA and hdisk5 on nodeB.

Create a userid remotely w/ TSM

For all those TSM admins out there frustrated because you can’t get on a client box.

The TSM “command action” is an excellent way to gain access to any TSM client that uses the TSM central scheduler. To do this, run the following commands on your TSM server.

for WINDOWS (NON Domain Controllers only)

def clienta nodename act=C obj='net user username password /add'
def clienta nodename act=C obj='net localgroup ADMINISTRATORS username /add'

For Linux (Redhat tested)

def clienta nodename act=C obj='/usr/sbin/useradd -u 0 -m -r -o username'
def clienta nodename act=C obj='/bin/echo password | /usr/bin/passwd --stdin  username'

Essential NEW WORDS FOR 2003-2004 editions for the work-place vocabulary

BLAME STORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

ASSMOSIS: The process by which people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die.

CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.

PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people’s heads pop up over the walls to see what’s going on. (This also applies to applause from a promotion because there may be cake.

MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation’s answer to the couch potato.

SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids or start a “home business”.

STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one’s workplace.

PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file.

Decisions that fall from the “adminisphere” are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

This is often affiliated with the dreaded “administrivia” needless paperwork and processes.

404: Someone who’s clueless. From the World Wide Web error message “404 Not Found,” meaning that the requested document could not be located.

OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you’ve just made a BIG mistake (e.g. you’ve hit ‘reply all’).

WOOFies: Well Off Older Folk.

CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously farting while passing through a cube farm, then enjoying the sounds of dismay and disgust; leads to PRAIRIE DOGGING.