Omnius: Difference between revisions

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== How the disks are connected? ==
== How the disks are connected? ==


Omnius has an old motherboard without SATA support. The workaround is that there is a RAID controller card installed in a PCI slot. However, the RAID controller card driver is not working with Debian, so we actually use software RAIDs. The function of the RAID controller card is simply to provide 4 SATA ports where we can connect hard drives.
Omnius has an old motherboard with no SATA support. The workaround is that there is a RAID controller card installed in a PCI slot. However, the RAID controller card driver is not working in Debian Jessie, so we actually use software RAIDs. The function of the RAID controller card is simply to provide 4 SATA ports where we can connect hard drives.


The only disk that is connected directly to the motherboard through IDE (''not'' SATA) is the operating system disk.
The only disk that is connected directly to the motherboard through an IDE cable (''not'' SATA) is the operating system disk.


== Which disks are connected? ==
== Which disks are connected? ==
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# Operating system.
# Operating system.
# Operating system RAID1 (copy).
# apt-cacher (proxy for caching Debian packages).
# apt-cacher (proxy for caching Debian packages).
# pxe (networking booting for installing Linux on machines that are connected to the local network).
# pxe (network booting for installing Linux on machines that are connected to the local network).
# Alexandria (mainly media files like films and music).
# Alexandria (mainly media files like films and music).
# Alexandria RAID1 (copy).
# Alexandria RAID1 (copy).
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== What are the BIOS problems? ==
== What are the BIOS problems? ==


Blinking cursor: After the message "Successfully installed BIOS" the screen goes black and there is only a blinking cursor. The solution to this problem is to turn off the "BBS support" option in the RAID controller menu, in the SATA configuration section (enter with Control-A when booting).
'''Blinking cursor:''' After the message "Successfully installed BIOS" the screen goes black and there is only a blinking cursor. The solution to this problem is to turn off the "BBS support" option in the RAID controller menu, in the SATA configuration section (enter with Control-A when booting).


== What are the basic hardware specifications? ==
== What are the basic hardware specifications? ==


RAM: omnius has 1GB of RAM. The motherboard has 4 slots which are divided into two banks. Each bank has to have identical amount of RAM. At the moment only the first bank is used and there are two 512MB RAMs installed in them.
'''1GB RAM:''' omnius has 1GB of RAM. The motherboard has 4 slots which are divided into two banks. Each bank has to have identical amount of RAM. At the moment only the first bank is used and there are two 512MB RAMs installed in them.
 
'''4x2.66Ghz CPU:''' It seems that omnius has 4 Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 2.66GHz CPUs (single core).
 
'''(2x)2TB HDD:''' alexandria has two 2TB HDDs in RAID1, so effectively only one can be used to store useful data.


= What is the backup strategy? =
= What is the backup strategy? =
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== RAID1 for the operating system and alexandria ==
== RAID1 for the operating system and alexandria ==


The operating system and alexandria are automatically copied to another disk. So if one disk fails, they should still work without interruption.  
alexandria is automatically copied to another disk. So if one disk fails, they should still work without interruption.


== 2. Offsite backup ==
== 2. Offsite backup ==
Backup happens every day at 3am using a software called "restic", to hypatia, which is a NAS (Network Attached Storage) far from the hacklab.

Revision as of 00:31, 8 May 2016

Omnius is the main server providing services on the calafou internal network (".calafou").

Hardware setup

How the disks are connected?

Omnius has an old motherboard with no SATA support. The workaround is that there is a RAID controller card installed in a PCI slot. However, the RAID controller card driver is not working in Debian Jessie, so we actually use software RAIDs. The function of the RAID controller card is simply to provide 4 SATA ports where we can connect hard drives.

The only disk that is connected directly to the motherboard through an IDE cable (not SATA) is the operating system disk.

Which disks are connected?

There are many disks in omnius.

  1. Operating system.
  2. apt-cacher (proxy for caching Debian packages).
  3. pxe (network booting for installing Linux on machines that are connected to the local network).
  4. Alexandria (mainly media files like films and music).
  5. Alexandria RAID1 (copy).

Where are the disks connected?

The box of omnius has a lot of space for hard disks:

  1. EMPTY
  2. EMPTY
  3. alexandria
  4. alexandria
  5. EMPTY
  6. EMPTY
  7. EMPTY
  8. omnius-os
  9. EMTPY
  10. EMPTY
  11. apt-cacher

What are the BIOS problems?

Blinking cursor: After the message "Successfully installed BIOS" the screen goes black and there is only a blinking cursor. The solution to this problem is to turn off the "BBS support" option in the RAID controller menu, in the SATA configuration section (enter with Control-A when booting).

What are the basic hardware specifications?

1GB RAM: omnius has 1GB of RAM. The motherboard has 4 slots which are divided into two banks. Each bank has to have identical amount of RAM. At the moment only the first bank is used and there are two 512MB RAMs installed in them.

4x2.66Ghz CPU: It seems that omnius has 4 Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 2.66GHz CPUs (single core).

(2x)2TB HDD: alexandria has two 2TB HDDs in RAID1, so effectively only one can be used to store useful data.

What is the backup strategy?

RAID1 for the operating system and alexandria

alexandria is automatically copied to another disk. So if one disk fails, they should still work without interruption.

2. Offsite backup

Backup happens every day at 3am using a software called "restic", to hypatia, which is a NAS (Network Attached Storage) far from the hacklab.