frost on red acer leaves with the sun shining behind them

Just what i find

  • How to upgrade VMWare ESXi on HP Gen8 Microserver

    go to VMware ESXi Patch Tracker and check for the latest ImageProfile e.g. ESXi-6.5.0-20170404001-standard Shut down all VMs and turn on maintenance mode allow outbound firewall requests esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient execute the update: esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.5.0-20170404001-standard -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml Disable firewall ports esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e false -r httpClient Disable maintenance mode Reboot Continue reading →

  • Fix: /var/lib/docker/aufs/diff is consuming entire drive

    Some of my docker containers were complaining that they didn’t have enough drive space. This looked odd – so i logged in to the host and checked around: All space used up. Huh. Wonder why? I did a quick check to see what’s using most space: clearly /var/lib/docker/aufs/diff is what’s causing it. Let’s clean that up: Let’s check now… much better! It turns out there are a few great cleanup agents e.g. docker-gc-cron which will do the job for me. Continue reading →

  • Creating a VM to test Docker – migrating from Unraid to Napp-It

    onwards… downloaded the Ubuntu 16.04 Server LTS CD Created new VM Connected ISO to virtual DVD in console in VMWare vSphere client booted to the ISO pressed F4 and selected “minimal” pressed F6 and selected minimal VM walked through and added SSH at the right point SSHd to the server I installed docker using these instructions, including configuring docker to start on boot. created /mnt/cups ran a new docker container… robert@ubd:/mnt$ sudo docker run -d –name=”cups-google-print” –net=”host” –privileged=”true” -e TZ=”UTC” -e HOST_OS=”ubuntu” -e “CUPS_USER_ADMIN”=”admin” -e “CUPS_USER_PASSWORD”=”pass” -e “TCP_PORT_631″=”631” -v “/mnt/cups”:”/config”:rw -v /dev:/dev -v /etc/avahi/services:/avahi -v /var/run/dbus:/var/run/dbus mnbf9rca/cups-google-print –restart=unless-stopped Unable to find… Continue reading →

  • Fix: Flashing an M1015 – Error code = 64 Failed to flash the image. Please retry recovery

    I purchased an IBM M1015 to use as an HBA in my server. As part of that, I wanted to flash it with the IT firmware, however, I was getting errors, even when I used the original IBM firmware from their website (my mirror copy): I’d never seen an M1015 before, at least not close up. Closer inspection of the card, however, revealed a code: FRU 46C8927. I know FRU” means “Field Replaceable Unit” i.e. something you can order as a replacement part. So I googled that code, and discovered that this was an IBM M5015, not an M1015. The… Continue reading →

  • Installing VMWare – migrating from Unraid to Napp-It

    get image installed to internal 32gb microSD steps: https://seiler.it/vmware-esxi-5-5-installation-hp-proliant-microserver-gen8/ Remember to use the v88 driver: http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/11159-esxi-6-cant-degrade-the-hpvsa-driver-to-v88/?p=116554 Continue reading →

  • How to flash IBM ServeRaid M1015 to LSI9211-IT for ZFS in HP Gen8 Microserver

    First things first – you do this at your own risk. I take no responsibility for anything going wrong – and it can go wrong. If you are in doubt – don’t do it. And if it goes wrong – don’t blame me… The original instructions for this task are here, with my additions to update to the P20 firmware – I’ve archived them here for my own reference. Continue reading →

  • Preparing for migration – migrating from Unraid to Napp-It

    This post is the second in my series describing how i migrated from Unraid to Napp-It, and describes how I prepared for migration. So – preparing for migration… First, i wanted to capture the docker configuration for each of my existing containers. To do this, I forced the container to update, then when unraid presented me with the “success” screen, I captured the docker run command, like this (which captures the RUN command for my CUPS container with Google Print extensions): root@localhost:# /usr/local/emhttp/plugins/dynamix.docker.manager/scripts/docker run -d –name=”cups-google-print” –net=”host” –privileged=”true” -e TZ=”UTC” -e HOST_OS=”unRAID” -e “CUPS_USER_ADMIN”=”admin” -e “CUPS_USER_PASSWORD”=”pass” -e “TCP_PORT_631″=”631” -v “/mnt/user/appdata/cups-google-print”:”/config”:rw -v /dev:/dev… Continue reading →

  • Fix: Emby Docker fails to start when config on mounted share – SQLite “database is locked”

    I have a clean VM running Ubuntu 16.04 on VWare ESXi 6.5. I have a CIFS share mounted at /mnt/appdata with the noperm flag. The share is writeable. I installed Docker using the instructions here: https://hub.docker.c…mby/embyserver/ then the next command, sudo systemctl enable emby-server.service, didnt work. Instead I had to do: then I ran emby-server and configured it with a path /mnt/video (Also a CIFS share mounted on my local machine). However, Emby doesnt work – and i see an error in the attached log (“svc.txt”): I tried running the container directly: but i get the same error (“just run.txt”). I checked,… Continue reading →

  • HP Gen8 Microserver error “Embedded media manager failed initialization” – how to get HPQLOCFG

    During the process of installing VMWare on to my Gen8 Microserver, I had trouble writing data to the internal SD card – in fact, I couldn’t even see it. Looking in the ILO Event Logs I saw this: Embedded Flash/SD-CARD: Embedded media manager failed initialization. googling this didn’t get me much – just forum posts with people complaining about it, but then i found this HPE Customer Advisory, which lists out the steps needed to reset the error. Basically: create an XML file with the following content: <!– RIBCL Sample Script for HP Lights-Out Products –> <!–Copyright (c) 2016 Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Development Company,L.P. –> <!– Description:… Continue reading →

  • Hardware required – migrating from Unraid to Napp-It

    I’ve been a user of Unraid since 2012, when I had to find a solution to my home storage after Windows Home Server was abandoned by Microsoft. Unraid has been very good for me, and the introduction of a Docker engine with Unraid 6 was very welcome. That said, I’ve recently encountered issues with bitrot, and the fact that unraid can’t use ZFS as the disk format annoys me. LimeTech claim that their parity check process should detect bitrot – however, something doesn’t seem to be working, as using using the Dynamix File Integrity plugin i can see it happening. In any case, knowing it’s happened isnt the… Continue reading →

About me

I’m rob. I spend my time exploring the world, playing board games with my family, solving complex technical problems, and learning new things. At work, I lead a team of solution architects designing and building complex realtime trading systems. Sometimes i write about things here, or code them on GitHub. I believe a few things that guide what I do and how I do it:

  • Hard things are hard. It takes time, effort and practice to be good at them.
  • Everybody can learn something new every day. When we’re born we know how to eat and cry and that’s about it. Everything else we’ve learnt, and we can keep doing that all our lives.
  • Great teams are fun to work in, and great teams achieve great outcomes. The wider the range of people and perspectives in the room, the better the work.

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