Author Archives: Allan Clark

Revision 587 – Abbreviate the Suggested Nicknames (SNICKs) in PHC

Posted on by

Provided a way to generate abbreviated “Suggested Nicknames” (which I call “Estimates” in code, and “SNICK” or “Suggested NICKnames” in PHC).

A customer found that our generated nicknames for missing nicknames was entirely sufficient for his needs, but the names are very long; to make it a bit easier, the VICT will now allow –briefestimate to set for brief suggested nicknames, and –nobriefestimate to counter the setting back to verbose estimates. This is useful when using the -w or –wwn option.

The similar option in PHC is either –briefestimate or –briefsnicks when using the generated phc-Nicknames.csv file.

Revision 586 – UnAssigned Switches

Posted on by

Switch discovery doesn’t always discover hints to a fabric’s name, and lacking burrowing into the switch in a wholly instrusive and needs-root-access manner, some switches get tossed into “VirtualFabric”. Removing and re-adding switches, I found a user having to re-specify these repeatedly, and forgetting whether it was done.

When I forget things, I get worried. What if someone else does?

…so I added a check in PHC for ProbeSW in Virtual Fabric to catch where the user has not yet named a fabric.

Revision 584 – User-Documentation in .sum Files

Posted on by

The checksum files sent by an upload really assume that the recipient knows something about checksums. It’s also very difficult to discover what these files are used for lacking the ability to google (whether one arrives at “RFC-1321” or not)

In order to alleviate that assumption, I added some documentation to the actual .sum checksum files provided during an upload. This still requires that a recipient opens the file, but it’s a useful step forward until I can reach through a screen and click the user’s mouse for him.

Revision 582 – Swapped .sum Checksum File to be Available Before the Upload

Posted on by

One part of the Client Tool makes uploads easier if you’re willing to type a commandline; and if you’re not, a batch file is present to reduce that obstacle (but still no GUI).

In order to reduce the doubtful situation of having an upload without confirmation (for example, in cases where an aborted upload looks just like a completed upload: no checksum either way), the upload functionality now sends the checksum before the actual file. I swapped the uploading of the payload file (-u) and the .sum checksum so that the ~.sum file is present before the payload; in truncated/aborted/chopped uploads, this provides a checksum to validate and prove an inaccurate upload rather than assume meaning from a missing .sum file. Aborted/truncated uploads will still fail to validate against the checksum so look the same as any corrupted upload: incorrect. In either case, the reaction is “ask for a re-upload”, so the reaction to a checksum mismatch remains an immediate re-upload.

Revision 580 – Added VIUpload Script

Posted on by

To avoid recurring errors uploading, I added a convenience script “viupload.bat”; it’s used as follows:

  1. copy it to the host from which uploads shall be pushed
    • you’ll need VIUPLOAD.BAT
    • you’ll need VICT.JAR
    • of course, even though this works in any subdirectory, we recommend that these be stored in the UnSupported subdirectory
    • these scripts are not supported by the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, nor any other entity, nor have we ever claimed them to be
  2. edit the following variables:
    1. UPLOAD_USER should be set to your username
    2. UPLOAD_PASS should be set to your password (plaintext, this is for convenience not security)
    3. UPLOAD_SUB can remain “ftp” or be set to a region (other regions REM’d out for example)
    4. UPLOAD_PATH should be empty or set to a preexisting subdirectory on the server to which uploads should be stored
  3. run it with a list of files; for example VIUPLOAD PortalLogs.zip HOSTNAME.err backup-2013-09-03-15-02.zip

Revision 578 – NetApp msosmsql Pseudo-Protocol Adds Fabric Suffix as HBA A/B

Posted on by

For a specific customer, I added a basic cut-n-paste customization of a different bnapsql:// or osmsql:// query that that appends the final character of the fabric nickname to the hostname and the WWPN such that hosts in “XX_FAB_A” or “XX_FAB_1” or “XX_FAB_a” become appended with “_A”; “_B”, “_2”, or “_b” become appended with “_B”. Anything else gets a “_X”.

This is done using a protocol “msosmsql”, for example:

java -jar vict.jar --nickname=msosmsql://server/

or

vict.bat -N msosmsql://server/

or since the customer has non-standard password (and the -n to store the result)

vict.bat -N msosmsql://user:pass@server/ -n A:\VirtualWisdomData\DeviceNickname\bna.csv

This allows a single query to produce nicknames on a different schema; also highlights a non-portability in the code that can be improved… but this is in production today. The customer’s response was “oh, that’s it? I thought that would be more difficult. How anti-climatic…” How can “easier than expected” be bad?

Revision 577 – servers.exclude should be discovery.exclude

Posted on by

Whitespace: due to discovery from an email thread, the detail of “the parameter in the properties file” slipped below an expert’s radar.

I therefore changed ~.vmware.servers.exclude to ~.vmware.discovery.exclude in the output of –dump-config=esx.csv output. Dion has indicated that this parameter is not length-limited, and has been tested with over 2000 entries.

This change is merely whitespace in the commentary of the generated file.

Revision 567 – VM Estimator via JNLP

Posted on by

Completed the VM Estimator but need to ensure it will deliver via JNLP. The VM Estimator is a simple GUI that can reach out and discover the ESX count on a vCenter. Currently only tested with https:// on a local 5.1 vCenter, seems to function. The key goal is to provide a quick estimate of the ESX counts of a number of vCenters in an organization to better estimate a rate-based cost where the number of ESX servers relates to a recurring license/usage/permit cost.

I’ll post a URL when it’s available.

Revision 564 – (weak) Suggested Nicknames for Dot Hill Systems Modular Storage Array

Posted on by

Expanded the option “-w” from Suggested Nicknames for Known WWN Patterns to vict.jar such that vict.jar -w 217000c0ff012345 shows “P2000-012345-A2” giving suggested nicknames to (HP -rebadged) Dot Hill Systems Modular Storage Array P2000. This WWN Descriptor is not very precise, but is empirically-based. Additional WWPN samples would help guide a better, more precise solution.