E O N

EON ZFS Storage 1.0Beta based on oi 151a release!

2011-12-21T15:45:00.000-08:00

I promised everyone patiently awaiting the new release, a pre Dec 25th gift and HERE IT IS!!! Lots of hard work went into giving this release life. It has undergone many hours testing so I could deliver another "rock solid" release. This build, required 2 virtual machines, 3 physical test machines and 3 compilers. Please enjoy and feel free to post feedback or any anomalies encountered. I hope EON continues to store all your precious digital moments!

New to EON, read here first! Upgrading, read here first!
For new setups, before running "setup":

cd /mnt/eon0/bin
./slinky r
./slinky c
setup

If your EON Storage is internet connected. The EON ISO can be retrieved using wget.
After running setup(new setup) or transporter.sh (upgrade/backup). Re-check/edit your POOL=poolname in /mnt/eon0/.exec:

export POOL=YOUR_POOLNAME

Here's an option to edit "YOUR_POOLNAME" with a simple command if you wish to avoid "vi" (substitute your pool name where "YOUR_POOLNAME" appears). A backup file will be saved as .exec.bak

cd /mnt/eon0
sed -i.bak 's|=abyss|=YOUR_POOLNAME|g' .exec

An alternate upgrade option, using a spare USB key. Perform a new setup and then a forced zpool import to test. Perform the necessary tests and make sure all is ok before running:

zpool import -a -f
updimg.sh /mnt/eon0/boot/x86.eon

After running the new install for a few days and triple checking everything is ok. Only zpool/zfs upgrade is left, to access the new features of zpool version 28 and zfs version 5. Note that once zpool/zfs upgrade is done, there is NO GOING BACK to the older version.

zpool upgrade poolname
zfs upgrade -r poolname

EON 64-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 1.0b (NO HTTPD)

eon-1.0b-151-64-cifs-min.iso
MD5: 14696d625d4f686f06d1091435b80441
Released: Wednesday 21-December-2011 (size: ~86MB)

EON 64-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 1.0b (NO HTTPD)

eon-1.0b-151-64-smb-min.iso
MD5: ef26e606f9f403f94b1b12d478537be3
Released: Wednesday 21-December-2011 (size: ~115MB)

EON 32-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 1.0b (NO HTTPD)

eon-1.0b-151-32-cifs-min.iso
MD5: 1754065558dc3bf003990e7ff85f4806
Released: Thursday 12-January-2012 (size: ~57MB)

EON 32-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 1.0b (NO HTTPD)

eon-1.0b-151-32-smb-min.iso
MD5: 6aa382a2fc5f3ae4ece45d146642e48c
Released: Thursday 12-January-2012 (size: ~87MB)

Binary Kit + more: Release ETA target by Feb 4th

binary kit 1.0 (coming soon)

New/Changes/Fixes:

New ZPOOL (version 28) and ZFS (version 5)
Perl 5.10.0 (full version, user customizable) moved to the binary kit, requires a new setup step (slinky)
New Binary Kit is semi-mandatory (will be uploaded soon)
New/Updated administration and statistics binaries.
Simple appliance package downloader and installer (more info to come)
kernel line addition "-B disable-pcieb=true" under VMware. ESXi, Fusion, no longer required.

S T O R E I T Y O U R W A Y !

Thoughts on a beta release of EON ZFS Storage

2011-10-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the last EON release but we are almost there. It's been a road of many trials with IPS and patience from the EON community but we are almost at a polished new release. I'm planning a beta release based on Openindiana/Illumos 151 bits. The beta will give the community a chance to provide feedback, input and possibly changes (bugs what bugs) for the actual release.
There are numerous improvements and binary additions with 151 (dladm, ipadm, smbstat, dtrace 1.7, etc). With these changes, come additional dependencies and an increase in package size, which goes against EON's goals.

Here's a current list of changes. Of course I'd like to hear your input, feedback and comments.
Perl has been moved to the binary kit. For memory size considerations, better performance and a user modifiable perl, it was shifted from the EON (embedded) to a wget install. The version of perl has changed from 5.8.4 to 5.10.0.
Pros: Lower memory footprint, better performance, user modifiable perl, full version.
Cons: The binary kit is no longer optional, it's now a requirement.
Options: Stick with the minimal perl bits required for (kstat, lgrpinfo, psrinfo, etc to work)

The Samba version of EON has grown considerably in size (approx 100Mb). This has me thinking to go with a pure storage OS model which means pushing Apache to the binary kit. So, Apache web server, would be a wget added choice along with nginx and lighttpd.
Pros: Lower memory footprint, better performance, two less image to release.
Cons: Future web admin (any takers) would require some kind of CLI kickstart.
Options: Leave apache embedded and Samba users basically eat the memory footprint.

Update 11.21.11: Compile-a-thon this past weekend new Binary Kit 75% complete, included goodies so far, Transmission bit torrent, Netatalk AFP(LION compatible), FFMPEG, RTMP server ...

Update 12.02.11: Re-compile-a-thon on again. Found some lib linking errors that requires a massive redo of most of the binary kit. Updated/Added APCupsd, SABnzbd and Sickbeard ...

Thanks to all EON users who have sent in feedback on how EON Storage is working for you. EON will continue allowing to, store it your way.

The Definition of Innovation

2011-10-06T09:20:00.000-07:00

Wednesday October 5th, 2011 marks a dark day, as the world lost a true technologist. He showed us that "innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower". "The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it". He lead by example, walked the talk and delivered unmatched standards of quality and excellence in what he shared. I never had an opportunity meet him, but "I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with" him. For all you shared, Thank You Steve ...

The IPS state of EON ZFS NAS Build

2011-06-09T07:01:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since there's been an update. Well, after a great deal of hard, slow work, I have some good and bad news. I'll start with the good news. The good news is, there's a booting, 99.7% functional snv 151a based version of EON. The bad news is, this version is not distributable as it's built from Oracle repositories. I decided to use Oracle's repository as a test of process when I could not get a booting Illumos or Openindiana based version. They all panic and reboot after loading the kernel. The good thing here is the process building an IPS image seems to work. So it means back to trying with Illumos and Openindiana. Here are some screenshots of the snv 151a version.

ipadm (new)

ptree

smbstat (new)

zpool version

EON ZFS Storage on a HP Proliant MicroServer

2011-03-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

I received the following pictures from a EON ZFS storage user, Nasir (thanks), confirming EON running fine on the HP Proliant Microserver. A few people have made inquiries about EON and compatibility with this hardware so this may help with your build plans. Again, I don't own the hardware so I have not thoroughly tested it but seems the network interface, zpool members and number of CPU cores register correctly. The HP Proliant MicroServer (more details) is a mini-itx form factor and supports up to 8GB of ECC RAM. Go ahead, store it your way ...

Broadcom nics work

EON on HP MicroServer

1.3Ghz x 2 cores online

zpool + disk members

Benchmarking EON ZFS NAS performance (Part I)

2010-12-04T10:37:00.000-08:00

At some point you may want to know if your EON ZFS storage is performing on par with your hardware's specifications/setup or if it is doing otherwise. Using various (prerequisite) binary kit tools we can identify if network and I/O performance are optimal or working within expectations. We will use the following tools for our testing
Iperf (Mac, Win)
IOMeter [Part II]
In most cases your storage is accessed/utilized across a network using a client PC. So testing will involve a source, destination and the network that connects them. The source will be your client PC and the destination will be your EON ZFS storage. This will help identify what the network is capable of, is it working properly or if it is a bottleneck to your storage.

On the EON ZFS storage (destination), connect 2 terminals using ssh or putty sessions from your client (Win XP in this case). In one terminal, run

iperf -s

In the other terminal, run (substitute your interface name for bge0)

dladm show-link bge0 -s -i 1

On the source or client PC we will run repetitions of below, changing TCP window size

iperf -c IP_of_EON -P 1 -i 1 -w 8k -f m -t 20

The above says, run 1 process thread P=1 for a test duration of t=20secs with interval i=1sec updates and a TCP window size w=8 in kilobytes. The results will be formatted in (m) megabytes.

This will produce an output showing the upper bounds of your network between the source and destination. It may also help identify the optimal TCP window size for your network. The output below will show the different transfer rates with each change of the TCP window size from 8k to 64k, on the client on a gigabit network. So lets begin.

C:\download>iperf -c 10.72.100.148 -P 1 -i 1 -w 8k -f m -t 20
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 10.72.100.148, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.01 MByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[1912] local 10.72.100.128 port 3448 connected with 10.72.100.148 port 5001
[ ID] Interval        Transfer      Bandwidth
[1912]  0.0- 1.0 sec  25.2 MBytes   211 Mbits/sec
[1912]  1.0- 2.0 sec  24.7 MBytes   207 Mbits/sec
[1912]  2.0- 3.0 sec  25.4 MBytes   213 Mbits/sec
[1912]  3.0- 4.0 sec  24.1 MBytes   202 Mbits/sec
[1912]  4.0- 5.0 sec  23.8 MBytes   200 Mbits/sec
[1912]  5.0- 6.0 sec  24.0 MBytes   201 Mbits/sec
[1912]  6.0- 7.0 sec  25.0 MBytes   210 Mbits/sec
[1912]  7.0- 8.0 sec  25.0 MBytes   210 Mbits/sec
[1912]  8.0- 9.0 sec  25.5 MBytes   214 Mbits/sec
[1912]  9.0-10.0 sec  24.1 MBytes   202 Mbits/sec
[1912] 10.0-11.0 sec  24.8 MBytes   208 Mbits/sec
[1912] 11.0-12.0 sec  25.1 MBytes   211 Mbits/sec
[1912] 12.0-13.0 sec  25.3 MBytes   212 Mbits/sec
[1912] 13.0-14.0 sec  23.1 MBytes   194 Mbits/sec
[1912] 14.0-15.0 sec  23.6 MBytes   198 Mbits/sec
[1912] 15.0-16.0 sec  23.6 MBytes   198 Mbits/sec
[1912] 16.0-17.0 sec  25.4 MBytes   213 Mbits/sec
[1912] 17.0-18.0 sec  25.6 MBytes   215 Mbits/sec
[1912] 18.0-19.0 sec  25.2 MBytes   211 Mbits/sec
[1912] 19.0-20.0 sec  25.0 MBytes   210 Mbits/sec
[ ID] Interval        Transfer      Bandwidth
[1912]  0.0-20.0 sec  494 MBytes    207 Mbits/sec

Optional: Run on EON to compare network interface statistics

dladm show-link bge0 -s -i 1
LINK           IPACKETS  RBYTES   IERRORS  OPACKETS    OBYTES      OERRORS
bge0           19447     27628795 0        2432        155854      0
bge0           19089     27123001 0        2382        152546      0
bge0           19638     27886729 0        2450        156898      0
bge0           18652     26493270 0        2326        148962      0
bge0           18454     26205800 0        2301        147362      0
bge0           18561     26358926 0        2315        148258      0
bge0           19268     27372463 0        2404        153954      0
bge0           19379     27533495 0        2418        154850      0
bge0           19687     27977035 0        2457        157346      0
bge0           18681     26527515 0        2330        149218      0
bge0           19155     27208916 0        2390        153058      0
bge0           19419     27593183 0        2423        155170      0
bge0           19542     27757561 0        2438        156130      0
bge0           17840     25347308 0        2226        142562      0
bge0           18148     25776206 0        2264        144994      0
bge0           18353     26072730 0        2290        146658      0
bge0           19657     27919866 0        2452        157106      0
bge0           19756     28065895 0        2465        157858      0
bge0           19390     27542355 0        2419        154914      0
bge0           17889     25407434 0        2236        143362      0
bge0           38        8169     0        1           162         0

With TCP window set to 8K, Max throughput is approx 207Mbps/8bps=25.87MB/s

C:\download>iperf -c 10.72.100.148 -P 1 -i 1 -w 16k -f m -t 20
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 10.72.100.148, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.02 MByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[1912] local 10.72.100.128 port 3487 connected with 10.72.100.148 port 5001
[ ID] Interval        Transfer      Bandwidth
[1912]  0.0- 1.0 sec  40.1 MBytes   336 Mbits/sec
[1912]  1.0- 2.0 sec  31.1 MBytes   261 Mbits/sec
[1912]  2.0- 3.0 sec  36.3 MBytes   305 Mbits/sec
[1912]  3.0- 4.0 sec  43.2 MBytes   363 Mbits/sec
[1912]  4.0- 5.0 sec  43.2 MBytes   363 Mbits/sec
[1912]  5.0- 6.0 sec  41.5 MBytes   348 Mbits/sec
[1912]  6.0- 7.0 sec  41.9 MBytes   352 Mbits/sec
[1912]  7.0- 8.0 sec  29.6 MBytes   249 Mbits/sec
[1912]  8.0- 9.0 sec  33.2 MBytes   278 Mbits/sec
[1912]  9.0-10.0 sec  34.4 MBytes   288 Mbits/sec
[1912] 10.0-11.0 sec  37.5 MBytes   315 Mbits/sec
[1912] 11.0-12.0 sec  41.4 MBytes   348 Mbits/sec
[1912] 12.0-13.0 sec  43.0 MBytes   360 Mbits/sec
[1912] 13.0-14.0 sec  30.9 MBytes   259 Mbits/sec
[1912] 14.0-15.0 sec  39.2 MBytes   329 Mbits/sec
[1912] 15.0-16.0 sec  42.9 MBytes   360 Mbits/sec
[1912] 16.0-17.0 sec  42.9 MBytes   360 Mbits/sec
[1912] 17.0-18.0 sec  40.6 MBytes   340 Mbits/sec
[1912] 18.0-19.0 sec  37.2 MBytes   312 Mbits/sec
[1912] 19.0-20.0 sec  24.7 MBytes   207 Mbits/sec
[ ID] Interval        Transfer      Bandwidth
[1912]  0.0-20.0 sec  755 MBytes    317 Mbits/sec

With TCP window set to 16K, Max throughput is approx 317Mbps/8bps=39.63MB/s

C:\download>iperf -c 10.72.100.148 -P 1 -i 1 -w 24k -f m -t 20
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 10.72.100.148, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.02 MByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[1912] local 10.72.100.128 port 3497 connected with 10.72.100.148 port 5001
[ ID] Interval        Transfer      Bandwidth
[1912]  0.0- 1.0 sec  53.4 MBytes   448 Mbits/sec
[1912]  1.0- 2.0 sec  50.2 MBytes   421 Mbits/sec
[1912]  2.0- 3.0 sec  40.8 MBytes   343 Mbits/sec
[1912]  3.0- 4.0 sec  62.5 MBytes   524 Mbits/sec
[1912]  4.0- 5.0 sec  63.9 MBytes   536 Mbits/sec
[1912]  5.0- 6.0 sec  63.4 MBytes   532 Mbits/sec
[1912]  6.0- 7.0 sec  64.4 MBytes   540 Mbits/sec
[1912]  7.0- 8.0 sec  58.7 MBytes   493 Mbits/sec
[1912]  8.0- 9.0 sec  48.0 MBytes   403 Mbits/sec
[1912]  9.0-10.0 sec  62.2 MBytes   522 Mbits/sec
[1912] 10.0-11.0 sec  54.1 MBytes   454 Mbits/sec
[1912] 11.0-12.0 sec  53.9 MBytes   452 Mbits/sec
[1912] 12.0-13.0 sec  56.8 MBytes   477 Mbits/sec
[1912] 13.0-14.0 sec  57.6 MBytes   483 Mbits/sec
[1912] 14.0-15.0 sec  49.1 MBytes   412 Mbits/sec
[1912] 15.0-16.0 sec  65.0 MBytes   545 Mbits/sec
[1912] 16.0-17.0 sec  64.2 MBytes   539 Mbits/sec
[1912] 17.0-18.0 sec  64.6 MBytes   542 Mbits/sec
[1912] 18.0-19.0 sec  64.0 MBytes   537 Mbits/sec
[1912] 19.0-20.0 sec  57.5 MBytes   483 Mbits/sec
[ ID] Interval        Transfer      Bandwidth
[1912]  0.0-20.0 sec  1154 MBytes   484 Mbits/sec

With TCP window set to 24K, Max throughput is approx 484Mbps/8bps=60.5MB/s

C:\download>iperf -c 10.72.100.148 -P 1 -i 1 -w 32k -f m -t 20
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 10.72.100.148, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.03 MByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[1912] local 10.72.100.128 port 3500 connected with 10.72.100.148 port 5001
[ ID] Interval        Transfer      Bandwidth
[1912]  0.0- 1.0 sec  77.0 MBytes   646 Mbits/sec
[1912]  1.0- 2.0 sec  78.2 MBytes   656 Mbits/sec
[1912]  2.0- 3.0 sec  48.9 MBytes   410 Mbits/sec
[1912]  3.0- 4.0 sec  76.6 MBytes   642 Mbits/sec
[1912]  4.0- 5.0 sec  75.8 MBytes   636 Mbits/sec
[1912]  5.0- 6.0 sec  79.4 MBytes   666 Mbits/sec
[1912]  6.0- 7.0 sec  78.8 MBytes   661 Mbits/sec
[1912]  7.0- 8.0 sec  79.0 MBytes   663 Mbits/sec
[1912]  8.0- 9.0 sec  66.7 MBytes   559 Mbits/sec
[1912]  9.0-10.0 sec  81.0 MBytes   679 Mbits/sec
[1912] 10.0-11.0 sec  76.8 MBytes   644 Mbits/sec
[1912] 11.0-12.0 sec  79.5 MBytes   667 Mbits/sec
[1912] 12.0-13.0 sec  74.1 MBytes   621 Mbits/sec
[1912] 13.0-14.0 sec  72.9 MBytes   612 Mbits/sec
[1912] 14.0-15.0 sec  70.0 MBytes   587 Mbits/sec
[1912] 15.0-16.0 sec  79.1 MBytes   663 Mbits/sec
[1912] 16.0-17.0 sec  79.6 MBytes   668 Mbits/sec
[1912] 17.0-18.0 sec  79.6 MBytes   668 Mbits/sec
[1912] 18.0-19.0 sec  79.4 MBytes   666 Mbits/sec
[1912] 19.0-20.0 sec  77.7 MBytes   652 Mbits/sec
[ ID] Interval        Transfer      Bandwidth
[1912]  0.0-20.0 sec  1510 MBytes   633 Mbits/sec

With TCP window set to 32K, Max throughput is approx 633Mbps/8bps=79.13MB/s

C:\download>iperf -c 10.72.100.148 -P 1 -i 1 -w 48k -f m -t 20
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 10.72.100.148, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.05 MByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[1912] local 10.72.100.128 port 3506 connected with 10.72.100.148 port 5001
[ ID] Interval        Transfer      Bandwidth
[1912]  0.0- 1.0 sec   101 MBytes   846 Mbits/sec
[1912]  1.0- 2.0 sec   102 MBytes   852 Mbits/sec
[1912]  2.0- 3.0 sec  84.9 MBytes   712 Mbits/sec
[1912]  3.0- 4.0 sec  81.7 MBytes   686 Mbits/sec
[1912]  4.0- 5.0 sec  94.7 MBytes   794 Mbits/sec
[1912]  5.0- 6.0 sec   103 MBytes   860 Mbits/sec
[1912]  6.0- 7.0 sec   102 MBytes   859 Mbits/sec
[1912]  7.0- 8.0 sec   102 MBytes   852 Mbits/sec
[1912]  8.0- 9.0 sec   101 MBytes   850 Mbits/sec
[1912]  9.0-10.0 sec  90.6 MBytes   760 Mbits/sec
[1912] 10.0-11.0 sec  82.6 MBytes   693 Mbits/sec
[1912] 11.0-12.0 sec   101 MBytes   848 Mbits/sec
[1912] 12.0-13.0 sec  85.5 MBytes   717 Mbits/sec
[1912] 13.0-14.0 sec  85.8 MBytes   719 Mbits/sec
[1912] 14.0-15.0 sec  91.5 MBytes   767 Mbits/sec
[1912] 15.0-16.0 sec  91.8 MBytes   770 Mbits/sec
[1912] 16.0-17.0 sec  89.7 MBytes   753 Mbits/sec
[1912] 17.0-18.0 sec   102 MBytes   858 Mbits/sec
[1912] 18.0-19.0 sec  97.9 MBytes   821 Mbits/sec
[1912] 19.0-20.0 sec   100 MBytes   841 Mbits/sec
[ ID] Interval        Transfer      Bandwidth
[1912]  0.0-20.0 sec  1891 MBytes   793 Mbits/sec

With TCP window set to 48K, Max throughput is approx 793Mbps/8bps=99.13MB/s

C:\download>iperf -c 10.72.100.148 -P 1 -i 1 -w 64k -f m -t 20
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 10.72.100.148, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.06 MByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[1912] local 10.72.100.128 port 3538 connected with 10.72.100.148 port 5001
[ ID] Interval        Transfer      Bandwidth
[1912]  0.0- 1.0 sec  98.2 MBytes   823 Mbits/sec
[1912]  1.0- 2.0 sec  66.3 MBytes   556 Mbits/sec
[1912]  2.0- 3.0 sec   101 MBytes   844 Mbits/sec
[1912]  3.0- 4.0 sec  99.8 MBytes   837 Mbits/sec
[1912]  4.0- 5.0 sec  99.5 MBytes   835 Mbits/sec
[1912]  5.0- 6.0 sec  79.7 MBytes   668 Mbits/sec
[1912]  6.0- 7.0 sec  76.6 MBytes   643 Mbits/sec
[1912]  7.0- 8.0 sec  94.1 MBytes   790 Mbits/sec
[1912]  8.0- 9.0 sec   101 MBytes   846 Mbits/sec
[1912]  9.0-10.0 sec   100 MBytes   840 Mbits/sec
[1912] 10.0-11.0 sec  96.7 MBytes   811 Mbits/sec
[1912] 11.0-12.0 sec  96.0 MBytes   805 Mbits/sec
[1912] 12.0-13.0 sec  94.0 MBytes   789 Mbits/sec
[1912] 13.0-14.0 sec  97.2 MBytes   816 Mbits/sec
[1912] 14.0-15.0 sec  98.5 MBytes   827 Mbits/sec
[1912] 15.0-16.0 sec  81.7 MBytes   686 Mbits/sec
[1912] 16.0-17.0 sec  74.6 MBytes   626 Mbits/sec
[1912] 17.0-18.0 sec  79.8 MBytes   669 Mbits/sec
[1912] 18.0-19.0 sec  98.1 MBytes   823 Mbits/sec
[1912] 19.0-20.0 sec  99.7 MBytes   837 Mbits/sec
[ ID] Interval        Transfer      Bandwidth
[1912]  0.0-20.0 sec  1832 MBytes   768 Mbits/sec

With TCP window set to 64K, Max throughput is approx 768Mbps/8bps=96MB/s.

The important things to note from these tests between a client (Win XP) and EON ZFS NAS server on this network are:

Possible upper limit near 99.13MBytes/sec (not the theoretical 1000Mbps/125MBytes/sec).
The optimal TCP window size for this network is probably 48K (should have tested 56K also).
A larger TCP window size of 64K did not provide the highest transfer rate.

EON ZFS takes the road to Illumos

2010-09-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

By now Oracle's leaked letter and the fate of Opensolaris, source gates closing, is probably well known. It seems that Solaris 11 will be Oracle's sole OS focus, and while it's unknown if it will be open source or not, the opensolaris community and it's users were ignored, abandoned and left facing a nasty dose of hard realities.

The options left for the opensolaris community (including EON ZFS Storage) were bleak. Sun Microsystems was built on great innovation and thanks to a previous Solaris kernel engineer Garrett D'Amore and the open-source effort called illumos, there is new hope. It's stated that illumos will be 100% community driven and owned and many smart people who are committed to opensolaris and ZFS have signed on to breathe life into this effort and free our reliance from Oracle's handouts.

EON is testing the road to illumos and I have compiled the nightly a couple of times. Some build times:

297mins/~5 hrs    Quad core Q6600 @ 2.4Ghz w/2GB RAM
52mins/~1 hr      Dual X5570 @ 2.93Ghz w/4GB RAM

The journey should be interesting ...

Mediatomb UPnP server on your EON ZFS NAS

2010-08-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

MediaTomb is an open source (GPL) UPnP MediaServer with a nice web user interface. It allows you to stream your digital media across your home network and listen to/watch it on a variety of UPnP compatible devices. Mediatomb is now available for your EON ZFS NAS in the download section (mtombaa, mtombab) and can be added using the following steps. The binary kit MUST be installed for mediatomb to work.

So let's get started by downloading and re-assembling the mediatomb package.
NOTE: The following steps should be performed as user id "root" unless otherwise specified.

cd /tmp
wget -O mtombaa http://sites.google.com/site/eonstorage/downloads/mtombaa?attredirects=0&d=1
wget -O mtombab http://sites.google.com/site/eonstorage/downloads/mtombab?attredirects=0&d=1
cat mtomba[a-z] > mtomb.tgz

Next, let's create the necessary directories and unpack the mediatomb package.

cd /abyss
mkdir mediatomb
cd mediatomb
gzip -dc /tmp/mtomb.tgz | tar -xf -

Let's add the following entries to /mnt/eon0/.exec, so mediatomb will start automatically when the EON ZFS NAS is booted.

# mediatomb section
(cd /opt ; ln -s ../${POOL}/mediatomb .)
[ -x /opt/mediatomb/bin/start_mtomb.sh ] && /opt/mediatomb/bin/start_mtomb.sh

Let's create the mediatomb logging, database and configuration directories. Also get the start up script (start_mtomb.sh)

mkdir etc log
cd bin
wget -O start_mtomb.sh http://sites.google.com/site/eonstorage/downloads/start_mtomb.sh?attredirects=0&d=1
chmod 755 start_mtomb.sh
(cd /opt ; ln -s ../abyss/mediatomb .)

And finally, to start mediatomb.

/opt/mediatomb/bin/start_mtomb.sh

If all went well, you can point a browser to EON NAS http://ip:49152/ and you should see a image similar to the image below. Let the movie streaming begin.

Mediatomb UPnP server on EON ZFS NAS

Compiling rsync and your own binaries for EON

2010-07-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

You have probably noticed xsconf.program (eg xsconf.rsync) name in the download section and wondered how it's used? Here's a video that will hopefully answer that and help if you wish to compile your own binaries (eg rsync) or other open source packages. The notes.program name (eg notes.rsync) contains where to get the source code and any notes/tips/edits needed for a successful compile. A pre-requisite for this exercise is a sunstudio 12 and/or gcc compiler. After the compilers are downloaded and installed on a solaris/unix system you can follow the steps in the video. Most likely you will need both sunstudio and gcc, as some code will not properly compile with the Sunstudio compiler. To build the best optimized binaries, I personally always try to use the SunStudio compiler and linker. Enough of the boring details, on with building a 64-bit version of rsync. Happy compiling ...

EON 0.60 ZFS binary kit snv_130 released!

2010-06-08T08:56:00.000-07:00

Here it is finally, the long awaited EON 0.60 binary kit release based on snv_130 and other GNU compiled binaries. Hopefully, it was well worth the wait. I tried to complete all the requests for various packages but was unable to integrate them all cleanly (sabnzbd + dependency python) in this release. I will try to get the missed ones at a later time. It is uploaded in 5 parts. You can download bin-130a[a-e] manually and transfer all 5 files to your EON storage for installation or follow the steps below, which assumes you are using wget from an prior installed binary kit 124. So let's retrieve the files. These steps also assume your EON storage can reach the web.

cd /tmp
wget -O binkit-130.tgz http://i.minus.com/1323745623/7Aw7618NGr6qYvgEXEpkWw/dZLxUEf3SOTLh.tgz

If this is the first time using a binary kit, you will need to perform this step. If you have used previous binary kits, you can skip to the next step.

cd /zpool
mkdir local

This step installs the new binary kit to /usr/local which is linked to /zpool_name/local.

cd /usr/local
gzip -dc /tmp/binkit-130.tgz | tar -xf -

This completes the binary kit install and typing "aria2c -v" should confirm if it worked. Below is a screenshot listing some of the binaries included:

Binary Kit 130 summary:

PHP/libphp 5.3.1 (GD, jpeg, png support)
Aria2c 1.9.3 (HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, BitTorrent and Metalink)
tmux 1.1 (terminal multiplexer)
screen (terminal multiplexer)
wget/curl (retrieving files using HTTP, HTTPS and FTP)
glusterfs 3.0 (clustered storage solution)
stunnel (encrypt TCP connections inside SSL)
socat (multi-purpose relay)
bonnie/iperf (disk / network benchmarking)
nano (editor)
elinks (text browser)
ddclient/inadyn (dynamic DNS clients)
par2 (parity archive volume set)

This does not show powertop and top which have to be manually symlinked for now. See the notes regarding top here. The same is needed for powertop. For 32 bit EON version (To check the EON version you are running, "isainfo -kv"):

cd /usr/local/bin
ln -s ./i86/powertop .

For 64 bit EON version:

cd /usr/local/bin
ln -s ./amd64/powertop .

EON on a ZFS mirrored boot/root?

2010-05-05T07:28:00.000-07:00

A typical operating system requires a boot disk and certain storage requirements to reside, boot and do what it's designed to do. The OS or boot disk where the operating system resides in a conventional install becomes a possible point of failure. The OS disk failing, would cause an outage and cut-off access to your data and storage appliance. RAID 1 or mirroring of the OS disk is often used to address/counter this type of failure. ZFS has the features to make an OS disk redundant by mirror-ing (RAID 1), providing an added layer of insurance to your storage appliance's uptime.

A design decision with EON, was to make it run from a RAM disk, hence it would not have an associated failure attached to the media(USB, CF or hard disk) it boots from or resides on. Size becomes a disadvantage running from a RAM disk but the trade off is an add layer of insurance, resilience and uptime. EON uses the boot/residence media mostly for out of band task that are not tied to performance and are not frequently used, so the typical 5+ MB/s performance of a USB/CF media is not a problem. After EON is booted, the USB media could be pulled (simulating a boot disk failure) and only the services below would be impacted. The important thing to note is that EON would continue to run, along with all the services enabled. The show goes on and facilitates dynamic repair or correction of the disk failure situation. EON uses the USB/CF media to preserve:

edits to the configuration files
edits to the grub menu entries or updating the image
updates to the zpool.cache
user optional binaries on the USB/CF media

A ZFS boot/root was recently requested as a necessary feature/requirement for EON. I explained the resilience already built into the design and the challenges. I however gave it try the other night and succeeded in booting EON on a ZFS boot/root. This would allow the use of redundant USB/CF media. When will it be seen in a release? I'm not sure. It required using steps that were hard coded and needs more testing and refinement before it's ready for general audience and use. So yes, a ZFS boot/root for EON is possible. Here's a ZFS boot/root birth cry screenshot.

EON ZFS Storage 0.60.0 based on snv 130, Sun-set release!

2010-04-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

Embedded Operating system/Networking (EON), RAM based live ZFS NAS appliance is released on Genunix! This release marks the end of SXCE releases and Sun Microsystems as we know it! It is dubbed the Sun-set release! Many thanks to Al at Genunix.org for download hosting and serving the Opensolaris community.

New to EON, start here! Upgrading, see how to use transporter.sh

EON Deduplication ZFS storage is available in 32 and 64-bit, CIFS and Samba versions:
EON 64-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.60.0 based on snv_130

eon-0.600-130-64-cifs.iso
MD5: 55c5837985f282f9272f5275163f7d7b
Size: ~93Mb
Released: Monday 05-April-2010

EON 64-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.60.0 based on snv_130

eon-0.600-130-64-smb.iso
MD5: bf095f2187c29fb543285b72266c0295
Size: ~106Mb
Released: Monday 05-April-2010

EON 32-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.60.0 based on snv_130

eon-0.600-130-32-cifs.iso
MD5: e2b312feefbfb14792c0d190e7ff69cf
Size: ~59Mb
Released: Monday 05-April-2010

EON 32-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.60.0 based on snv_130

eon-0.600-130-32-smb.iso
MD5: bcf6dc76bc9a22cff1431da20a5c56e2
Size: ~73Mb
Released: Monday 05-April-2010

EON 64-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.60.0 based on snv_130 (NO HTTPD)

eon-0.600-130-64-cifs-min.iso
MD5: f5922c98888521e4d8bef10133ccbe40
Size: ~87Mb
Released: Monday 05-April-2010

EON 64-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.60.0 based on snv_130 (NO HTTPD)

eon-0.600-130-64-smb-min.iso
MD5: e74732c41e4b3a9a06f52779bc9f8352
Size: ~101Mb
Released: Monday 05-April-2010

New/Changes/Fixes:
- Active Directory integration problem resolved
- Hotplug errors at boot are being worked on and are safe to ignore.
- Updated /mnt/eon0/.exec with new service configuration additions (light, nginx, afpd, and more ...).
- Updated ZFS, NFS v3 performance tuning in /etc/system
- Added megasys driver.
- EON rebooting at grub(since snv_122) in ESXi, Fusion and various versions of VMware workstation. This is related to bug 6820576. Workaround, at grub press e and add on the end of the kernel line "-B disable-pcieb=true"

What's the best pool to build with 3 or 4 disks?

2010-03-06T15:16:00.000-08:00

I've been asked many times in variations, "I just started using EON and I'm new to opensolaris, What's the best pool to build with 3 or 4 disks"? I usually answer, it depends! Credit that reflex answer to Prof. Gordon, one of the best Calculus and Differential equations teacher that walked in my time. May the force be with you, wherever you are!

I'll use Richard Elling's research to explain. Let's say I have 500Gb drives, with IOPs (for avg, small, random, cache-miss, read I/O operations per sec) = 70.59 and max media bandwidth of 133Mbytes/s(includes read and write). What can we build?

RAID Type   Disks   Sets   Storage Space   Performance (IOPS)   Max BW(Mbytes/s)
RAIDZ       4       1      3x500=1500Gb    4x70.59/3=94         3x133=399
RAIDZ       3       1      2x500=1000Gb    3x70.59/2=106        2x133=266 (1 spare)
STRIPE      4       1      4x500=2000Gb    4x70.59=282          4x133=532
STRIPE      3       1      3x500=1500Gb    3x70.59=212          3x133=399
MIRROR      2       2      2x500=1000Gb    4x70.59=282          4x133=532

RAIDZ
With 4 disks in the first raidz set, we get higher bandwidth (399Mbytes/s) vs the 3 disk raidz bandwidth (266Mbytes/s), but the 3 disk raidz pool has a higher I/O operations per second capability. Note, as "sets" are added to the 3 disk raidz (3 disks each time) the difference of IOPS between the 4 disk raidz widens. If you exhaust the usable storage space, it will cost 4 or 3 times the cost of a drive for each new "Set", to add or grow the storage. So the 3 drive raidz has a more economical cost per set. This can be repeated to add more "Sets" or more storage and bandwidth as needed. So this is a very flexible choice. The change with 1 additional set would look like.

RAID Type   Disks   Sets   Storage Space   Performance (IOPS)   Max BW(Mbytes/s)
RAIDZ       4       2      3000Gb          188                  798
RAIDZ       3       2      2000Gb          212                  532

Both 4 and 3 disk raidz allows only 1 disk to fail but if all disks had the same probability of failure then the 4 disk raidz pool would have a higher probability of a failure than the 3 disk version.

STRIPE
Has great bandwidth numbers, usable storage and IOPS, but any disk failure would cause the pool to fail and lose ALL your data. Did I mention that good storage is NOT a substitute for a GOOD backup? This pool is not easily expanded when the usable storage is exhausted and offers no data redundancy.

MIRROR
Has great bandwidth numbers, a higher cost per usable storage and allows failure of 2 disks. It has roughly twice the write bandwidth and up to 4 times the read performance as ZFS is capable of reading from all disks in the mirror in parallel. This configuration will most likely provide the best balance of performance and data protection at the expense of disks or usable storage. Expanding or growing this pool when the usable storage is being exhausted, is also simple.

Hopefully this will help architect pools that suits your workload, cost dynamics and growth needs.

Traffic (QoS) control built into your EON ZFS storage

2010-02-17T21:27:00.000-08:00

Your EON ZFS storage provides access to a lot of services, such as HTTP, HTTPS, SFTP, Firefly/daapd, AFP(AppleShare) and more. All of these services are available as a network resource. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to control or manage how different systems use these network resources, such as bandwidth?

Project Crossbow provides the controls to manage and virtual-ize network resources. The traffic controls (QoS) can be used to manage by transport (TCP, UDP, SCTP, iSCSI, etc), bandwidth limits, IP address and more.

For example, one could simply limit the amount of bandwidth the HTTP, HTTPS or SSH service can utilize. You could create virtual nics bound to your real interface and provide different levels of service and bandwith to these virtual or real nics. It allows for a very flexible storage setup where you can really manage the traffic and quality of service it delivers.

Let's do a simple 10Mbps bandwidth limit for HTTP via interface bge0 for a flow we will label httpflow. First, we create a flow that matches the HTTP service

flowadm add-flow -l bge0 -a transport=tcp,local_port=80 httpflow

Let's view it

flowadm show-flow

Finally, let's set bandwidth limits

flowadm set-flowprop -p maxbw=10m httpflow

To verify the properties

flowadm show-flowprop

To show traffic usage

flowadm show-usage

Accounting can also be setup to record the usage. Rather than rehash the numerous possibilities, here are 2 links that details this feature fairly well. The first is written by Ben Rockwood and the other can be found here. Traffic control ... out!

Creating a EON ZFS storage self signed certificate

2010-02-01T07:19:00.000-08:00

Your EON ZFS storage is available with 3 web server options, apache2(default), lighttpd, and nginx. They are provided with a self signed certificate that I created to simplify configuration and ease getting them started. The proper thing to do is replace it with your own certificate or create a self signed replacement.

Prerequisite(s): This requires the binary kit or an alternate system with a working openssl, to create your own self signed certificate.
The "\" means the command is one continuous line to create the self signed certificate. Feel free to experiment and substitute your own arguments for:
days = set to 365 x 10 = 3650 or ~10 yrs
CN = $HOSTNAME = replace with your own storage hostname
O = Gibraltar Engineering
OU = EON Secure Certificate

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 3650 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout cert.key -out cert.pem \
-subj "/C=US/ST=NY/CN=$HOSTNAME/O=Gibraltar Engineering/OU=EON Secure Certificate"

This will produce 2 files cert.key and cert.pem. For Apache2 they are configured and the proper permissions set as follows:

cp cert.pem /etc/apache2/2.2/server.crt
cp cert.key /etc/apache2/2.2/server.key
chmod 400 /etc/apache2/2.2/server.crt
chmod 400 /etc/apache2/2.2/server.key

For lighttpd the pem and key file are concatenated to create a single file

cp cert.pem /your_pool/lighttpd/etc
cat cert.key >> /your_pool/lighttpd/etc/cert.pem
chmod 400 /your_pool/lighttpd/etc/cert.pem

For nginx

cp cert.pem /your_pool/nginx/conf
cp cert.key /your_pool/nginx/conf
chmod 400 /your_pool/nginx/conf/cert.pem
chmod 400 /your_pool/nginx/conf/cert.key

The SUN has set, for the last time!

2010-01-27T22:42:00.000-08:00

On January 27th at approximately 9:50am, Oracle completed it's acquisition of Sun Microsystems for 7.4 billion all cash. The price is quite a steal considering Sun's history of innovations. It is also personally quite sad to see one of the greatest engineering companies in my lifetime, like a beautiful descending Sun-set, descend beyond the horizon.

I was introduced to SunOS over 15 years ago when I had to take an electrical engineering class (Feedback Control Systems) that required running simulations on MatLab. They were the early days of the world wide web and the beginning of an engineering love/career. My internships, from there on were Sun and Solaris related. One beautiful summer, I went to The Herff College of Engineering in Memphis to learn and port a Cochlear model written in C by Dr. T Wilson, to Java. Without plans to do so, I made a career on something I learned and loved, as a sidebar tool. That tool was engineered by Sun Microsystems and for this I humbly say, THANKS for the great ride and memories, ... thanks to everyone who made Sun Microsystems what it became, is, was. It will be missed ...

EON ZFS Storage min and nginx web server

2010-01-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

In a previous post, lighttpd was used as a add in web server for the EON ZFS min storage (NO HTTPD) users. Another web server option for the ZFS storage (NO HTTPD) image is nginx. This post will show how to easily add HTTPD service using the nginx web server.

Prerequisite(s): A storage pool must be created and a binary kit must be installed. The binary kit is needed because it contains libpcre, a dynamic library needed by nginx.

Let's get started adding a nginx web server, to our ZFS min (NO HTTPD) storage image. First, get the pre-built nginx version 0.8.32 here. I have also included compilation notes under the nginx section in case you wish to compile and add other features on your own. Transfer the nginx-0,8.32,tgz file to the storage pool via CIFS share, sftp or USB. Here, I start with the file located in /tmp and a storage pool named abyss. Substitute your zpool name for abyss.

cd /abyss
gzip -dc /tmp/nginx-0.8.32.tgz | tar -xf -

Now let's add the automation entries to /mnt/eon0/.exec. Also, execute the commands to create the necessary symlinks. These entries align paths entered in nginx.conf

(cd /usr ; ln -s ../abyss/nginx .)

At this stage, the nginx web server is ready to run, but feel free to customize the /abyss/nginx/conf/nginx.conf and generate your own /abyss/nginx/conf/cert.pem, /abyss/nginx/conf/cert.key file. OpenSSL (part of the binary kit which is a pre-requisite for this post) would be needed to generate your own self signed cert file (cert.pem, cert.key). To start and automate the web server, run and add the following to /mnt/eon0/.exec.

/usr/nginx/sbin/nginx -c /usr/nginx/conf/nginx.conf

EON ZFS Storage min and lighttpd web server

2010-01-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

If you run one of the EON ZFS (NO HTTPD) storage images that do not include a web server this post will show how to easily add HTTPD service using the lighttpd or nginx web server.

Prerequisite(s): A storage pool must be created and a binary kit must be installed. The binary kit is needed because it contains libpcre, a dynamic library needed by lighttpd.

Let's get started adding a lighttpd web server, to our ZFS min (NO HTTPD) storage image. First, get the pre-built lighttpd version 1.4.25 here. I have also included compilation notes under the lighttpd section in case you wish to compile and add other features on your own. Transfer the lighttpd-1.4.25.tgz file to the storage pool via CIFS share, sftp or USB. Here, I start with the file located in /tmp and a storage pool named abyss. Substitute your zpool name for abyss.

cd /abyss
gzip -dc /tmp/lighttpd-1.4.25.tgz | tar -xf -

Now let's add the automation entries to /mnt/eon0/.exec. Also, execute the commands to create the necessary symlinks. These entries align paths entered in lighttpd.conf

(cd /usr ; ln -s ../abyss/lighttpd .)
(cd /var ; ln -s ../abyss/lighttpd .)

At this stage, the lighttpd web server is ready to run, but feel free to customize the /abyss/lighttpd/etc/lighttpd.conf and generate your own /abyss/lighttpd/etc/server.pem file. OpenSSL (part of the binary kit which is a pre-requisite for this post) would be needed to generate your own self signed cert file (server.pem). To start and automate the web server, run and add the following to /mnt/eon0/.exec.

/usr/lighttpd/sbin/lighttpd -f /usr/lighttpd/etc/lighttpd.conf

EON ZFS Storage 0.59.9 based on snv 129, Deduplication release!

2009-12-21T08:57:00.000-08:00

Embedded Operating system/Networking (EON), RAM based live ZFS NAS appliance is released on Genunix! This is the first EON release with inline Deduplication features! Many thanks to Genunix.org for download hosting and serving the opensolaris community.

EON Deduplication ZFS storage is available in 32 and 64-bit, CIFS and Samba versions:
EON 64-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.59.9 based on snv_129

eon-0.599-129-64-cifs.iso
MD5: 8e917a14dbf0c793ad2958bdf8feb24a
Size: ~93Mb
Released: Monday 21-December-2009

EON 64-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.9 based on snv_129

eon-0.599-129-64-smb.iso
MD5: 2c38a93036e4367e5cdf8a74605fcbaf
Size: ~107Mb
Released: Monday 21-December-2009

EON 32-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.59.9 based on snv_129

eon-0.599-129-32-cifs.iso
MD5: 0dcdd754b937f1d6515eba34b6ed2607
Size: ~59Mb
Released: Monday 21-December-2009

EON 32-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.9 based on snv_129

eon-0.599-129-32-smb.iso
MD5: c24008516eb4584a64d9239015559ba4
Size: ~73Mb
Released: Monday 21-December-2009

EON 64-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.59.9 based on snv_129 (NO HTTPD)

eon-0.599-129-64-cifs-min.iso
MD5: 78b0bb116c0e32a48c473ce1b94e604f
Size: ~87Mb
Released: Monday 21-December-2009

EON 64-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.9 based on snv_129 (NO HTTPD)

eon-0.599-129-64-smb-min.iso
MD5: 57d93eba9286c4bcc4c00c0154c684de
Size: ~101Mb
Released: Monday 21-December-2009

New/Changes/Fixes:
- Deduplication, Deduplication, Deduplication. (That only used 1x the amount of storage space)
- The hotplug errors at boot are being worked on. They are safe to ignore.
- Cleaned up minor entries in /mnt/eon0/.exec. Added "rsync --daemon" to start by default.
- EON rebooting at grub(since snv_122) in ESXi, Fusion and various versions of VMware workstation. This is related to bug 6820576. Workaround, at grub press e and add on the end of the kernel line "-B disable-pcieb=true"

EON ZFS Storage 0.59.5 based on snv 125 released!

2009-12-03T10:51:00.000-08:00

Embedded Operating system/Networking (EON), RAM based live ZFS NAS appliance is released on Genunix! Many thanks to Al Hopper and Genunix.org for download hosting and serving the opensolaris community.

EON ZFS storage is available in 32 and 64-bit, CIFS and Samba versions:
EON 64-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.59.5 based on snv_125

eon-0.595-125-64-cifs.iso
MD5: a21c0b6111803f95c29e421af96ee016
Size: ~90Mb
Released: Thursday 3-December-2009

EON 64-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.5 based on snv_125

eon-0.595-125-64-smb.iso
MD5: 4678298f0152439867d218987c3ec20e
Size: ~103Mb
Released: Thursday 3-December-2009

EON 32-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.59.5 based on snv_125

eon-0.595-125-32-cifs.iso
MD5: 4b76893c3363d46fad34bf7d0c23548c
Size: ~57Mb
Released: Thursday 3-December-2009

EON 32-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.5 based on snv_125

eon-0.595-125-32-smb.iso
MD5: f478a8ea9228f16dc1bd93adae03d200
Size: ~70Mb
Released: Thursday 3-December-2009

EON 64-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.59.5 based on snv_125 (NO HTTPD)

eon-0.595-125-64-cifs-min.iso
MD5: c7b9ec5c487302c1aa97363eb440fe00
Size: ~85Mb
Released: Thursday 3-December-2009

EON 64-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.5 based on snv_125 (NO HTTPD)

eon-0.595-125-64-smb-min.iso
MD5: a33f34506f05070ffc554de7beaafd4d
Size: ~98Mb
Released: Thursday 3-December-2009

New/Changes/Fixes:
- removed iscsitgd and replaced it with COMSTAR (iscsit, stmf, itadm)
- added SUNWhd to image vs being in the binary kit.
- added rsync to image vs being in the binary kit. Updated version of rsync supports IPv6.
- added nge, yge and yukonx drivers.
- added (/etc/inet/hosts, /etc/default/init) to /mnt/eon0/.backup (TIMEZONE and hostname change fix)
- fixed error entry /mnt/eon0/.exec. Changed "zpool -a" to "zpool import -a"
- eon rebooting at grub(since snv_122) in ESXi, Fusion and various versions of VMware workstation. This is related to bug 6820576. Workaround, at grub press e and add on the end of the kernel line "-B disable-pcieb=true"

Using napp-it webadmin with your EON ZFS storage

2009-11-20T15:50:00.000-08:00

Many have asked for a web interface to administer their EON ZFS storage. I started a FreeNAS interface port a while back but time and keeping pace with their development proved unsustainable. I shared it in the download section as Freon for someone with better PHP resources to complete. I also posted a webmin howto a while back. The webmin web user admin, lacks only a ZFS and a CIFS module. It contains a Samba module which may be easy for one of you Perl guru's out there to extend as a CIFS module.

Prerequisites: This exercise assumes the binary kit is installed, for unzip. Or unzip with winzip and drag the folder into a CIFS share onto the storage, then run the following within the napp-it directory to correct the proper unix carriage return:

find . -type f -print | xargs -I {} dos2unix -ascii {} {}

Another option, written by Alka Guenther for nexenta, called napp-it was extended to work with EON. He has a running thread on opensolaris.org. Here are the steps I took to get it running on my ZFS storage after downloading napp-it v 0.210. I transferred it to /tmp/napp-it-0.210.zip. Then

cd /var/apache2/2.2/cgi-bin
unzip -aa /tmp/napp-it-0.210.zip
chown webservd:webservd napp-it
cd napp-it
chmod -R 755 ./*

Next we vi/edit admin.pl and comment (line 42 in v 0.210) the following

use CGI::Carp qw (fatalsToBrowser);

#use CGI::Carp qw (fatalsToBrowser);

And that's pretty much it. We point the browser to http://EON_ZFS_IP/cgi-bin/napp-it/admin.pl and you should be greeted by a login with no password, which you can immediately change. It is very configurable and I really liked the console command feature. So give it a try and help improve it.

How is EON ZFS storage working for you?

2009-11-06T13:26:00.000-08:00

For release 0.59.5 based on snv_125 I am thinking of adding 2 more images. A 64-bit CIFS and Samba version without any embedded web server. These images would be able add a web server based on lighttpd, if needed. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this? With the great news that ZFS de-duplication is complete, we can hope to see a SXCE release. Many thanks to Jeff Bonwick, Bill Moore, Mark Maybee, Matt Ahrens, Adam Leventhal, George Wilson, Robin Guo and all the engineers who made this happen.

I would also appreciate your feedback/review in format(pros:, cons:, and other thoughts:), to understand how EON ZFS storage is filling/failing your storage needs, thus far. I may not be able to address all needs but it would be great to understand how EON is working with you, whether it's good, bad or indifferent.

Update for future releases based on feedback:
- shift SUNWhd, S.M.A.R.T and rsync to the core image, instead of the binary kit.
- attempt to add more intel, broadcom nic drivers. (Note: not all drivers can be added because of image size contribution. Also I have no way of testing with certain hardware. There is a mechanism to add your own drivers)
- add 2 new 64-bit CIFS and Samba versions, with NO HTTP service. Will rely on external lighttpd, if HTTP service is needed.
- add COMSTAR, to replace iscsitgtd.
- documentation to help new to opensolaris, beginners and less technical audience. It would help greatly if you, the user would document or do write-ups, based on your experiences and challenges with EON. I could add the write-up to the wiki to help others. Proper credit will be given for your work.

EON ZFS Storage 0.59.4 based on snv_124 released!

2009-10-19T10:12:00.001-07:00

Embedded Operating system/Networking (EON), RAM based live ZFS NAS appliance is released on Genunix! Many thanks to Genunix.org for download hosting and serving the opensolaris community.

EON ZFS storage is available in 32 and 64-bit, CIFS and Samba versions:
EON 64-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.59.4 based on snv_124

eon-0.594-124-64-cifs.iso
MD5: 4bda930d1abc08666bf2f576b5dd006c
Size: ~89Mb
Released: Monday 19-October-2009

EON 64-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.4 based on snv_124

eon-0.594-124-64-smb.iso
MD5: 80af8b288194377f13706572f7b174b3
Size: ~102Mb
Released: Monday 19-October-2009

EON 32-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.59.4 based on snv_124

eon-0.594-124-32-cifs.iso
MD5: dcc6f8cb35719950a6d4320aa5925d22
Size: ~56Mb
Released: Monday 19-October-2009

EON 32-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.4 based on snv_124

eon-0.594-124-32-smb.iso
MD5: 3d6debd4595c1beb7ebbb68ca30b7391
Size: ~69Mb
Released: Monday 19-October-2009

New/Changes/Fixes:
- initialization of ntpd, nscd at boot time, moved to /mnt/eon0/.exec
- added /mnt/eon0/.disable for K99local stop for a cleaner shutdown
- added /mnt/eon0/.purge to allow removing drivers and binaries not needed by your image
- new version of install.sh. Fixes a bug for virtual disks, multiple runs and improved error checking of stages
- new transporter.sh CLI to automate upgrades, backups or downgrades to backed-up versions
- eon rebooting at grub(since snv_122) in ESXi, Fusion and various versions of VMware workstation. This is related to bug 6820576. Workaround, at grub press e and add on the end of the kernel line "-B disable-pcieb=true"

A new and simpler way to upgrade EON ZFS storage

2009-10-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

There is a new and simple way to upgrade your current EON ZFS storage to the newest version. I've added a tool, transporter.sh which allows you to backup, upgrade or restore(NOTE: restore only works if you have a backed-up version) your EON ZFS storage version. Here is a usage output:

transporter.sh 
usage: transporter.sh -i /path/eon.iso -b /path/backup -d /mnt/eon0
transporter.sh -i /tmp/eon-0.593-122-64-smb.iso -d /mnt/eon0
transporter.sh -i /tmp/eon-0.593-122-64-smb.iso -b /pool/backup -d /mnt/eon0
transporter.sh -r /pool/backup/0.59.3 -d /mnt/eon0

-i path to the source ISO
-b path to the backup destination [optional]
-d path to the upgrade destination
-r path to the restore source [optional]

Here's an example run without backup options. It is always wise to have a backup. I cannot stress this enough. There is no backup in this example because I have a previous backup in /abyss/eonback/0.593.

transporter.sh -i /tmp/eon.iso -d /mnt/eon0
OK: lofiadm -a /tmp/eon.iso /dev/lofi/1
OK: mount -F hsfs /dev/lofi/1 /tmp/upgrade
removing /mnt/eon0/boot
copying /tmp/upgrade -> /mnt/eon0
x ., 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x ./boot, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x ./boot/amd64, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x ./boot/grub, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x ./boot/grub/bin, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x ./boot/grub/bin/grub, 180380 bytes, 353 tape blocks
[...]   excerpt clipped
./boot/platform/i86xpv/kernel/amd64, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x ./boot/platform/i86xpv/kernel/amd64/unix, 2084984 bytes, 4073 tape blocks
x ./boot/platform/i86xpv/kernel/unix, 1544152 bytes, 3016 tape blocks
x ./boot/x86.eon, 49523134 bytes, 96725 tape blocks
x ./.backup, 1454 bytes, 3 tape blocks
x ./.catalog, 2048 bytes, 4 tape blocks
x ./.disable, 137 bytes, 1 tape blocks
x ./.exec, 1383 bytes, 3 tape blocks
x ./.remove, 3264 bytes, 7 tape blocks
unmounting /dev/lofi/1
OK: umount /dev/lofi/1
releasing /dev/lofi/1
OK: lofiadm -d /dev/lofi/1

Please report any inconsistent findings.

Thumper features in EON ZFS storage

2009-09-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

With binary kit 122, the package SUNWhd (tools and driver download) used in thumper was added to EON. With this package you get the capability to tell a great deal of metrics about your disks. It gives the ability to control read and write cache. It allows to tell firmware revision, vendor, serial and very importantly, the temperature of the disks.

We know that higher temperature disks, perform less efficiently. In my DIY ZFS storage case, hdadm showed that there was insufficient cooling or air was not being moved efficiently through the cage as the temperature of the 15K rpm drives continuously inched towards the clip or shutdown temperature. The clip temperature can be seen in the output of:

smartctl -d scsi -a /dev/rdsk/cXtXdXsX
...   excerpt
Device supports SMART and is Enabled
Temperature Warning Enabled
SMART Health Status: OK

Current Drive Temperature:     48 C
Drive Trip Temperature:        65 C
Manufactured in week 31 of year 2006

Re-orientation of the drives and re-positioning a 20MM fan seems to be holding at 53 degree C. I'll focus on getting temperatures down to the 36-40 degree C range. For more use see hdadm which is a wrapper script for calling the hd binary.

hdadm display
                                                            
Device    Serial        Vendor   Model             Rev  Temperature
------    ------        ------   -----             ---- -----------
c0t1d0p0  DNL3P68018NM  FUJITSU  MAX3036NC         5D03 53 C (127 F)
c0t2d0p0  DNL3P6400SDR  FUJITSU  MAX3036NC         5D03 58 C (136 F)
c0t3d0p0  DNL3P68018NN  FUJITSU  MAX3036NC         5D03 54 C (129 F)
c1t1d0p0  DNL3P6400SEE  FUJITSU  MAX3036NC         5D03 49 C (120 F)
c1t2d0p0  DNL3P68018BC  FUJITSU  MAX3036NC         5D03 51 C (123 F)
c1t3d0p0  DNL3P68018NV  FUJITSU  MAX3036NC         5D03 46 C (114 F)
c2d0p0    HNCF128MMG=STCB21M84025C03356C1  MG      84025C03356C1     -    None

A hard drive performance test can be run using:

hdadm diskqual

EON + ZFS Storage + iTunes/Firefly server equals?

2009-09-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

What happens when you combine your EON ZFS storage with Firefly's media server/mt-daapd, the opensource iTunes server? Music to everyone's ears!

I previously covered apps to make your EON ZFS storage work for you and someone stated mt-daapd would be nice. So here it is. You can download the 32-bit mt-daapd svn_1696 here (md5sum: 6aafee73058f7628cbf3fb0199a5c162). This version supports mp3, flac, oggvorbis, mdns and more. To install and start mt-daapd after transferring mt-daapd-1696.tgz to your zpool (substitute your zpool name wherever abyss is seen), repeat the following:

(cd /abyss ; mkdir media)
(cd /opt ; ln -s ../abyss/media .)

This creates the symlink /opt/media to the location for mt-daapd (/abyss/media in this case). Now let's unpack the mt-daapd-1696.tgz package. In this case my file was located in /tmp/mt-daapd-1696.tgz.

cd /opt/media
gzip -dc /tmp/mt-daapd-1696.tgz | tar -xf -

That should've unpacked the following structure in /opt/media, as seen by ls -al

drwxr-xr-x   8 admin    stor           8 Sep 23 14:54 .
drwxrwxrwx  12 root     root          21 Sep 23 13:57 ..
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root          13 Sep 23 13:55 bin
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root           3 Sep 23 13:00 etc
drwxr-xr-x   5 root     root          49 Sep 23 13:55 lib
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root           3 Sep 23 13:55 sbin
drwxr-xr-x   4 root     root           4 Sep 23 14:15 share

Now let's start the server as user, root. This will create an additional var directory with the proper permissions:

./sbin/mt-daapd

To check and configure it, point your browser to the EON storage IP address as http://eonstorageIP:3689. You should be greeted with a login window. Enter the user: admin and password: mt-daapd. These are the default account credentials which you should change after logging in. Now, all that is left, is to go to the configuration tab, enter the path to your music library and allow the Firefly media server to rescan. This could take a while depending on the size of your music collection. You can now use iTunes and Roku Soundbridge to unleash the music kept on your EON ZFS storage. If you have zerconf or multi-cast DNS clients on your network you can optionally advertise your Firefly server to the network by running the multi-cast DNS server on EON

/usr/lib/inet/mdnsd

and to view http services on your network

dns-sd -B _http._tcp .
Browsing for _http._tcp
Timestamp     A/R Flags if Domain        Service Type      Instance Name
22:14:01.525  Add     2  2 local.        _http._tcp.       Firefly svn-1696 on eon

You should see the Firefly media server listed. For now, let the music play!

EON ZFS NAS 0.59.3 based on snv_122 released!

2009-09-14T07:40:00.001-07:00

Embedded Operating system/Networking (EON), RAM based live ZFS NAS appliance is released on Genunix! Much thanks to Genunix.org for download hosting and serving the opensolaris community.

It is available in a CIFS and Samba flavor
EON 64-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.59.3 based on snv_122

eon-0.593-122-64-cifs.iso
MD5: 8be86fb315b5b4929a04e0346ed0168c
Size: ~89Mb
Released: Monday 14-September-2009

EON 64-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.3 based on snv_122

eon-0.593-122-64-smb.iso
MD5: f68fefdc525a517b9c4b66028ae4347e
Size: ~101Mb
Released: Monday 14-September-2009

EON 32-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.59.3 based on snv_122

eon-0.593-122-32-cifs.iso
MD5: fa71f059aa1eeefbcda597b98006ba9f
Size: ~56Mb
Released: Monday 14-September-2009

EON 32-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.3 based on snv_122

eon-0.593-122-32-smb.iso
MD5: 1b9861a780dc01da36ca17d1b4450132
Size: ~69Mb
Released: Monday 14-September-2009

New/Fixes:
- triple parity RAIDZ3, since snv_120
- added 32/64-bit drivers: bnx, igb
- Workaround fix for IP validation in setup.sh
- added /usr/local/sbin for bin kit to bashrc
- eon rebooting after grub in ESXi, Fusion and some versions of VMware workstation. This is related to bug 6820576. Workaround, at grub press e and add on the end of the kernel line "-B disable-pcieb=true"

Building your own EON ZFS NAS binary kit

2009-09-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

If you wish to build your own binary kit discussed here, a working SXCE opensolaris system and the matching EON snv_xxx DVD/iso are needed. So for eon-0.592-119-xxx-xxx.iso one would need the snv_119 dvd/iso. The current binary kit is built using the following package list bin-pkg.list

SUNWopenssl-commands
SUNWwgetu
SUNWless
SUNWzip
SUNWunzip
SUNWtop
SUNWpowertop
# rmformat + dep
SUNWsmedia
SUNWrmvolmgr
# 7z + dep
SUNWlibC
SUNWbzip
SUNWp7zip
# scanpci
SUNWpciaccess

Then using the script binpkg.sh, custom binaries can be added.

PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
LOC=`pwd`
CDROM=/cdrom/cdrom0
PROD=$CDROM/Solaris_11/Product
BINKIT=/tmp/binkit
LIST=$LOC/bin-pkg.list

[ "X$1" != "X" ] && LIST=$1
for pkg in `grep -v "^#" $LIST`
do
cd $PROD ; pkgadd -d . -R $BINKIT $pkg
#sleep 5
done

Finally tar-ing and gzip-ing the (bin, sbin, lib, etc, share) directories in /tmp/binkit/usr and uploading them to /pool you have a working recipe for adding binaries from SXCE packages. Of course, this same method and package list will work using the IPS method but it would also add all the dependencies making it much larger. My main issue with IPS is not being able to override installing dependencies when using IPS to install packages.

There are limitations with packages that rely on isaexec to fork the respective matching 32 or 64-bit versions of the binary because you cannot hard link across different partitions. The workaround for now is to symlink the binary to the matching i86(32-bit).

cd /usr/local/bin
ln -s ./i86/top top
ln -s ./i86/powertop powertop

or amd64(64-bit) version

ln -s ./amd64/top top
ln -s ./amd64/powertop powertop

Using the binary kit with your ZFS storage

2009-08-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

With this release some binaries like top, rsync and less, were requested. Update: Transmission torrent cli and web admin added since binary kit 124. I attempted to do so in the form of a binary kit. This provides the controls to build your own binary package. The kit was built using the pkgadd and then tar-ing and gzip-ing the bin, sbin, and lib directories. This method will not work for every package but it's an attempt to fill a gap for certain binaries.

So, how do you use the kit? First upload a binary kit from here to your zpool storage (/zpool name is /abyss in this case). Then unpack the kit using (updated: Since bin-124.tgz):

cd /abyss
mkdir local
cd local
gzip -dc bin-124.tgz | tar -xvf -

Then make the /mnt/eon0/.exec entries

(cd /usr ; ln -s ../abyss/local .)
(cd /usr/lib ; ln -s ../../abyss/local/lib/smedia .)

Proper forking between 32/64-bit binaries is not working (example: top, powertop) because it relies on hard linking /usr/lib/isaexec and that requires being on the same filesystem (Hmmm). For now I recommend symlinking the respective 32 or 64-bit binary, /pool/local/bin/i86/top or /pool/local/bin/amd64/top to /pool/local/bin/top as needed.

EON ZFS NAS 0.59.2 based on snv_119 released!

2009-08-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

Embedded Operating system/Networking (EON), RAM based live ZFS NAS appliance is released on Genunix! Much thanks to Genunix.org for download hosting and serving the opensolaris community.

It is available in 32 and 64-bit, CIFS and Samba flavor
EON 64-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.59.2 based on snv_119

eon-0.592-119-64-cifs.iso
MD5: a8560cf9b407c9da846dfa773aeaf676
Size: ~87Mb
Released: Friday 07-August-2009

EON 64-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.2 based on snv_119

eon-0.592-119-64-smb.iso
MD5: c845255be1d3efec26fdc919963b15de
Size: ~100Mb
Released: Friday 07-August-2009

EON 32-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.59.2 based on snv_119

eon-0.592-119-32-cifs.iso
MD5: 9c0c093969c931f9a4614663faea90db
Size: ~55Mb
Released: Friday 07-August-2009

EON 32-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.2 based on snv_119

eon-0.592-119-32-smb.iso
MD5: 0a82dda197ab8a55007ba83145c0a662
Size: ~68Mb
Released: Friday 07-August-2009

New/Fixes:
- xntpd retired (R.I.P) by ntpd v4
- fixed a curpsinfo, libz.so.1 DTrace bug
- added /usr/local path for symlinks to pool/bin, sbin, lib for user's binaries
- added binary package containing: rsync, top, powertop, unzip, zip, less, wget (requires a hardlink to /usr/lib/isaexec for top and powertop for proper 32/64-bit call)
- added symlink preservation to updimg.sh, so users can add custom links.
- added drivers: si3124, ,sfe, rge, yukonx
- autoexpand disks which allows upgrading individual disk one at a time since snv_117 (for more: zpool get all pool)
- added power management but not all states tested
- added iSCSI client initiator (see discuss, post feedback)

EON ZFS NAS 0.59.1 based on snv_114 released!

2009-05-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

eon-0.591-114-64-cifs.iso
MD5: a8560cf9b407c9da846dfa773aeaf676
Size: ~83Mb
Released: Tuesday 26-May-2009

EON 64-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.1 based on snv_114

eon-0.591-114-64-smb.iso
MD5: c845255be1d3efec26fdc919963b15de
Size: ~96Mb
Released: Tuesday 26-May-2009

EON 32-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.59.1 based on snv_114

eon-0.591-114-32-cifs.iso
MD5: 9c0c093969c931f9a4614663faea90db
Size: ~53Mb
Released: Tuesday 26-May-2009

EON 32-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.1 based on snv_114

eon-0.591-114-32-smb.iso
MD5: 0a82dda197ab8a55007ba83145c0a662
Size: ~66Mb
Released: Tuesday 26-May-2009

New/Fixes:
- fixed multi-cpu support
- ssh keys and config files added to backup list
- backup list separated from updimg.sh and located on USB/CF root
- added dtrace to help with future webgui/bui interface metrics
- added marvell 88sx and AHCI drivers (intel Bad Axe2 motherboard support)

You can roll your current custom changes into the new 0.59.1 version by executing updimg.sh with arguments/path to the new unpacked x86.eon image. Please read full details first on upgrading EON from an older post here.

updimg.sh /mnt/eon0/boot/x86_new.eon

EON NAS flexing on a Dell R610 16CPU, 12GB of RAM

2009-05-22T13:16:00.000-07:00

So we unboxed a Dell R610 with dual Xeons in the lab today and for giggles I booted EON ZFS storage on this bad boy to see what would work and what would not. The sata controller and broadcom 5709 were missing so I couldn't see the drives or the 4 x 1gigE nics. Still fun none the less to see it scales well. All 16 CPU's online and ready to serve.

EON ZFS NAS snv_114 preview

2009-05-21T16:36:00.000-07:00

Here is a preview of EON ZFS NAS based on snv_114. This release fixes some opensolaris and EON bugs (multi-cpu support, smbadm join domain core dumping/crashing). I would also like your feedback on the addition of dtrace? Will it bring value and add use for you? The intention is to use xmlrpc and dtrace to help with display metrics and information for the future webgui/bui administration interface

EON ZFS NAS meets IPS packages

2009-05-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

Adding drivers/binaries to your EON ZFS NAS presents a bit of challenge as it requires acquiring the matching SNV_xxx DVD to source the package. There is an alternative called the image packaging system. This is basically Sun's network packaging system similar to apt, RPM in Linux. I've assumed here that the network card is fully functional and internet connectivity, is working.

So assuming your nic works, a wide array of options become available with the help of IPS. This may be useful to add or run certain binaries such as unzip, ipmitool, powertop, openssl, pmconfig, etc. So how do we add pkg and other IPS goodies? First we download the pre-installed toolkit here.

Then, unzip it to a smb/cifs share somewhere on a storage pool (this example unzipped to /deep/pkg-toolkit-sunos-i386). Now let's create the packaging db in /deep/ips

mkdir -p /deep/ips
cd /deep/pkg-toolkit-sunos-i386/pkg/bin
./pkg image-create -F -a opensolaris.org=http://pkg.opensolaris.org /deep/ips

After this completes, we are ready to add packages to the /deep/ips repositories. Note, I am not adding the packages to / (root). This would store the downloaded binaries in RAM and reduce the available memory and most likely cause a crash of the OS. It would also not survive a reboot. So for now, let's use a local repository /deep/ips and lets add unzip. First, I need to know which package unzip, is a part off. So, let's try to find that

cd /deep/ips
/deep/pkg-toolkit-sunos-i386/pkg/bin/pkg search -r unzip
INDEX      ACTION    VALUE                     PACKAGE
basename   file      usr/bin/unzip             pkg:/SUNWunzip@5.53.7-0.101
basename   file      usr/bin/unzip             pkg:/SUNWunzip@5.53.7-0.96
basename   file      usr/bin/unzip             pkg:/SUNWunzip@5.52-0.75

We see the package name is SUNWunzip as well as the versions available at the repository (5.52, 5.53). Let's give it a dry run without installing to see dependencies. Still in /deep/ips

/deep/pkg-toolkit-sunos-i386/pkg/bin/pkg install -nv SUNWunzip

And to install it and all its listed dependencies in /deep/ips

/deep/pkg-toolkit-sunos-i386/pkg/bin/pkg install -v SUNWunzip

This can also be used for drivers, for example the sil 3124 sata chipset driver

/deep/pkg-toolkit-sunos-i386/pkg/bin/pkg search -r 3124
INDEX      ACTION    VALUE                     PACKAGE
description set       3124                      pkg:/SUNWsi3124@0.5.11-0.101
description set       3124                      pkg:/SUNWsi3124@0.5.11-0.75
description set       3124                      pkg:/SUNWsi3124@0.5.11-0.89

Then, simply adding this SUNWsi3124 or specifically SUNWsi3124@0.5.11-0.101 will get us the driver. One thing I note is the package naming varies slightly to the opensolaris DVD package names. I also could not locate packages SUNWzfsgu, SUNWzfsgr and SUNWmconr to attempt adding the ZFS smcwebserver GUI/BUI administration interface. Some cool pkg usage techniques can be found here at the observatory blog. A cool Hello World example.

Applications to make your ZFS NAS entertaining

2009-05-01T08:18:00.000-07:00

Your ZFS storage is just blah without data and content. After loading your data you want access to be simple and secure. So to bridge all your important digital memories and collections with fun browsing, here are some cool open-source apps I've come across that were fairly straight forward and fun to add to EON.
Jinzora
Jinzora is a web based media streaming and management system, written in PHP.

AjaXplorer
AjaXplorer is an easy-to-install file explorer for remotely managing files on a web server. Its “rich client” layout and actions make it accessible to any end-user for a variety of purposes: file management/sharing, photo gallery, code browsing, etc. Only PHP (4 or 5) is necessary, no database needed.

MediaTomb is an open source (GPL) UPnP MediaServer with a nice web user interface, it allows you to stream your digital media through your home network and listen to/watch it on a variety of UPnP compatible devices. I've successfully compiled a 32-bit version of MediaTomb. Packaging and some integration challenges still exist and are being worked on. I will share this or the compile configurations for anyone wanting to build or download it. If anyone has successfully compiled ffmpegthumbnailer on opensolaris please feel free to share.

PS3 Media Server is a DLNA compliant Upnp Media Server for the PS3, written in Java, with the purpose of streaming or transcoding any kind of media files, with minimum configuration.

Other cool applications with less visual effects but some may find useful include using your EON ZFS NAS as a svn or git revision control system. A nice SVN howto can be seen here. Please feel free to share cool apps you've added or used with your EON ZFS storage.

Understanding and managing NFSv4 ACLs

2009-04-16T14:13:00.000-07:00

Using EON/Opensolaris and ZFS for storage will at some point cause you to cross paths with NFSv4 Access Control Lists. The control available through ACLs are really granular and powerful but they are also hard to manage and a bit confusing. Here i'll share my methods of handling ACLs which requires some pre-requisite reading to help understand the Compact Access codes:

add_file w, add_subdirectory p, append_data p, delete d , delete_child D , execute x , list_directory r , read_acl c , read_attributes a , read_data r , read_xattr R , write_xattr W , write_data w , write_attributes A , write_acl C , write_owner o

Inheritance compact codes:(remember i on a directory causes a recursive inheritance)

file_inherit f , dir_inherit d , inherit_only i , no_propagate n

ACL _set codes:

full_set = rwxpdDaARWcCos = all permissions
modify_set = rwxpdDaARWc--s = all permissions except write_acl, write_owner
read_set = r-----a-R-c--- = read_data, read_attributes, read_xattr, read_acl
write_set = -w-p---A-W---- = write_data, append_data, write_attributes, write_xattr

NFSv4 ACL legend (read from top, down and exit on first match)

                 owner@:--------------:-------:deny
                 owner@:rwxp---A-W-Co-:-------:allow
                 group@:-w-p----------:-------:deny
                 group@:r-x-----------:-------:allow
              everyone@:-w-p---A-W-Co-:-------:deny
              everyone@:r-x---a-R-c--s:-------:allow
                        ||||||||||||||:|||||||
           (r)read data +|||||||||||||:||||||+ (I)nherited
           (w)rite data -+||||||||||||:|||||+- (F)ailed access (audit)
              e(x)ecute --+|||||||||||:||||+-- (S)uccess access (audit)
               a(p)pend ---+||||||||||:|||+--- (n)o propagate
               (d)elete ----+|||||||||:||+---- (i)nherit only
         (D)elete child -----+||||||||:|+----- (d)irectory inherit
          read (a)ttrib ------+|||||||:+------ (f)ile inherit
         write (A)ttrib -------+||||||
           (R)ead xattr --------+|||||
          (W)rite xattr ---------+||||
             read a(c)l ----------+|||
            write a(C)l -----------+||
         change (o)wner ------------+|
                   sync -------------+

If I create a file/folder (foo) via a windows client on a SMB/CIFS share the permissions typically resemble.

eon:/deep/tank#ls -Vd foo
d---------+  2 admin    stor           2 Apr 20 14:12 foo
user:admin:rwxpdDaARWcCos:-------:allow
group:2147483648:rwxpdDaARWcCos:-------:allow

This works fine for the owner (admin) but in a case where multiple people (family) use the storage, adding user access and more control over sharing is usually required. So how do I simply add the capability needed? If I wish to modify this(above), I always start by going back to default values

eon:/deep/tank#chmod A- foo
eon:/deep/tank#ls -Vd foo
d---------   2 admin    stor           2 Apr 20 14:12 foo
owner@:rwxp----------:-------:deny
owner@:-------A-W-Co-:-------:allow
group@:rwxp----------:-------:deny
group@:--------------:-------:allow
everyone@:rwxp---A-W-Co-:-------:deny
everyone@:------a-R-c--s:-------:allow

I then copy and paste them directly into a terminal or script (vi /tmp/bar) for trial and error and simply flip the bits I wish to test on or off. Note I'm using A= which will wipe and replace with whatever I define. With A+ or A-, it adds or removes the matched values. So my script will look like this after the above is copied

chmod -R A=\
owner@:rwxp----------:-------:deny,\
owner@:-------A-W-Co-:-------:allow,\
group@:rwxp----------:-------:deny,\
group@:--------------:-------:allow,\
everyone@:rwxp---A-W-Co-:-------:deny,\
everyone@:------a-R-c--s:-------:allow \
foo

Let's modify group:allow to have write_set = -w-p---A-W----

chmod -R A=\
owner@:rwxp----------:-------:deny,\
owner@:-------A-W-Co-:-------:allow,\
group@:--------------:-------:deny,\
group@:-w-p---A-W----:-------:allow,\
everyone@:rwxp---A-W-Co-:-------:deny,\
everyone@:------a-R-c--s:-------:allow \
foo

Running the above

eon:/deep/tank#sh -x /tmp/bar
+ chmod -R A=owner@:rwxp----------:-------:deny,owner@:-------A-W-Co-:-------:allow,group@:--------------:-------:deny,group@:-w-p---A-W----:-------:allow,everyone@:rwxp---A-W-Co-:-------:deny,everyone@:------a-R-c--s:-------:allow foo
eon:/deep/tank#ls -Vd foo/
d----w----+  2 admin    stor           2 Apr 20 14:12 foo/
owner@:rwxp----------:-------:deny
owner@:-------A-W-Co-:-------:allow
group@:--------------:-------:deny
group@:-w-p---A-W----:-------:allow
everyone@:rwxp---A-W-Co-:-------:deny
everyone@:------a-R-c--s:-------:allow

Adding a user (webservd) at layer 5, 6 with full_set permissions

eon:/deep/tank#eon:/deep/tank#chmod A+user:webservd:full_set:d:allow,user:webservd:full_set:f:allow foo
eon:/deep/tank#ls -Vd foo
d----w----+  2 admin    stor           2 Apr 20 14:12 foo
user:webservd:rwxpdDaARWcCos:-d-----:allow
user:webservd:rwxpdDaARWcCos:f------:allow
owner@:rwxp----------:-------:deny
owner@:-------A-W-Co-:-------:allow
group@:--------------:-------:deny
group@:-w-p---A-W----:-------:allow
everyone@:rwxp---A-W-Co-:-------:deny
everyone@:------a-R-c--s:-------:allow

Ooops, that's level 1, 2 so let's undo this by simply repeating the command with A- instead of A+.

eon:/deep/tank#chmod A-user:webservd:full_set:d:allow,user:webservd:full_set:f:allow foo
eon:/deep/tank#ls -Vd foo
d----w----+  2 admin    stor           2 Apr 20 14:12 foo
owner@:rwxp----------:-------:deny
owner@:-------A-W-Co-:-------:allow
group@:--------------:-------:deny
group@:-w-p---A-W----:-------:allow
everyone@:rwxp---A-W-Co-:-------:deny
everyone@:------a-R-c--s:-------:allow

Then lets fix it by repeating the command with A5+ instead of A-

eon:/deep/tank#chmod A5+user:webservd:full_set:d:allow,user:webservd:full_set:f:allow foo
eon:/deep/tank#ls -Vd foo
d----w----+  2 admin    stor           2 Apr 20 14:12 foo
owner@:rwxp----------:-------:deny
owner@:-------A-W-Co-:-------:allow
group@:--------------:-------:deny
group@:-w-p---A-W----:-------:allow
everyone@:rwxp---A-W-Co-:-------:deny
user:webservd:rwxpdDaARWcCos:-d-----:allow
user:webservd:rwxpdDaARWcCos:f------:allow
everyone@:------a-R-c--s:-------:allow

This covers adding, deleting, modifying and replacing NFSv4 ACLs. Hope that provides some guidance in case you have to tangle with NFSv4 ACLs. The more exercise you get with NFSv4 ACLs the more familiar you'll be with getting it to do what you want.

Testing/upgrading new versions of EON

2009-03-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

Testing new versions of EON ZFS NAS with a previous USB/CF install is simple. The risk is minimal and backing out to the previous working version is simple. Simply boot the previous verion and follow the steps. This should work with USB(tested), compact flash(tested) and virtual installs(untested). First, transfer the new eon-0.590-b110-64-cifs.iso to your storage pool. You can do a transfer using a CIFS share or winSCP or via sftp. Let's say we transferred it to /pool/eon-0.590-b110-64-cifs.iso. Then we would mount the new image:

lofiadm -a /pool/eon-0.590-b110-64-cifs.iso /dev/lofi/1
mkidr -p /mnt/new
mount /dev/lofi/1 /mnt/new

Preserve your previous version

cd /mnt/eon0/boot
mv x86.eon /pool/x86.eon.backup
tar -cvf - . | gzip > /pool/boot.tgz

Transfer the new version (still in /mnt/eon0/boot, which should be empty)

rm -rf amd64 grub platform
cd /mnt/new/boot
cp -pR * /mnt/eon0/boot
updimg.sh /mnt/eon0/x86.eon

The new contents of /mnt/eon0/boot should have amd64, grub, platform and the new x86.eon. Now, replace any custom changes you had in /mnt/eon0/boot/menu.lst. Also, do not run zpool or zfs upgrade until you're satisfied you like the new version as there is no way of going back to a previous zpool (currently v14) or zfs (currently v3) version. You can now reboot into the new EON ZFS NAS. From there you can re-run setup and updimg.sh to re-id your new version or mount your previous version and transfer any customizations.

EON 64-bit 0.59.0 based on SNV_110 is released!

2009-03-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

eon-0.590-b110-64-cifs.iso
MD5: f70ee27800c9d5a57d1a70cad50ca746
Size: ~80Mb
Released: Friday 27-March-2009

EON 64-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.0 based on snv_110

eon-0.590-b110-64-smb.iso
MD5: 40c269a0ab936648b7237222ef4501af
Size: ~93Mb
Released: Friday 27-March-2009

EON 32-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.59.0 based on snv_110

eon-0.590-b110-32-cifs.iso
MD5: 93699b50094221f1ad7bb69fcc1eb3e4
Size: ~52Mb
Released: Friday 30-March-2009

EON 32-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.59.0 based on snv_110

eon-0.590-b110-32-smb.iso
MD5: 59d85224f02b7fb95ef0d834d529c8f7
Size: ~65Mb
Released: Friday 30-March-2009

New/Fix:
- install.sh should work with vdi/vmware disks properly.
- image footprint/runtime is smaller requires less RAM.

EON snv_109 is alive

2009-03-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a beta preview of EON ZFS NAS based on snv_109. Yes, it is alive. There are 2 build bugs that I am trying to resolve. A core on rtc and some manifest-import at boot time control. I will try to resolve and release this image as soon as possible. Note that with release snv_109 we get ACL shares on CIFS. ACLs on shares brings better compatibility with the Microsoft implementation and allows more control over access than the CIFS server previously supported. The "shares" file /pool/fs/.zfs/shares is shown at the end of the video. I wanted to find out why multi-core CPU support is showing incorrectly (kstat, mpstat, psrinfo) for this release but that may have to wait.

Customizing and optimizing EON

2009-03-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

EON provides a method to allow customizing and optimizing your storage through a simple and easy to maintain process. There is a legacy startup script /etc/rc3.d/S99local that enables this. At boot it searches for /mnt/eon0/.exec and /mnt/eon0/.remove. This resides on the USB drive or CF and allows to automate and add your own commands at run level 3. It also allows you to reduce the RAM footprint of the image, leaving more for when ZFS gets hungry.

This was done so it was not necessary to run /usr/bin/updimg.sh everytime a simple change was needed, for example adding or modifying a script. It also allows the image to include NFS which everyone may not use. It would be a waste for that person to always have the /usr/lib/nfs binaries around, so to give back control to that person, they can simply add /usr/lib/nfs to /mnt/eon0/.remove and all those binaries will be removed at boot giving back the memory for other use. Similarly for other binaries (/usr/sfw/sbin/swat) and kernel drivers not applicable to your needs or hardware.

The thing to remember when making entries to /mnt/eon0/.exec is that it should be a non-interactive command. Commented entries are ignored. Exerpt listing of .exec

/usr/sbin/swap -a /dev/zvol/dsk/abyss/swap
/usr/sbin/ucodeadm -u /platform/i86pc/ucode/intel-ucode.txt
/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_time_wait_interval 30000

For /mnt/eon0/.remove entries you can go wild and experiment because you are erasing it from RAM so if you remove something you realize you need, simply remove the entry from .remove, reboot and all should be back. I have included a default set and commented some that I have found safe to remove in some cases. Exerpt listing of .remove

/platform/i86pc/ucode/intel-ucode.txt
#/kernel/crypto/aes
#/kernel/crypto/arcfour
#/kernel/crypto/blowfish
#/kernel/crypto/des
#/kernel/crypto/ecc
#/kernel/crypto/rsa
#/kernel/crypto/sha2
/etc/svc/repository-boot*
/kernel/drv/amd64/elxl
/kernel/drv/amd64/iprb
#/kernel/drv/amd64/kmdb
#/kernel/drv/amd64/intel_nb5000
/kernel/drv/power*
/kernel/drv/amd64/power

Benchmarking your EON ZFS NAS

2009-03-03T23:01:00.000-08:00

Being able to test the performance of your storage unit is always important. Creating real world application loads and recording accurate statistics is not easy. Or is it? Sun has a great tool for this, called Filebench. Filebench is a new framework for simulating applications on file systems. So let's use filebench to test our EON ZFS NAS. There's a wide range of tests that can be performed and a detailed howto (see example varmail run) is here. Download the filebench_opensolaris-1.3.4_x86_pkg.tar.gz here Unpack it on your zpool

gzip -dc filebench_opensolaris-1.3.4_x86_pkg.tar.gz | tar -xf -

Create the necessary link

(cd /usr ; ln -s ../ZPOOL/filebench/reloc  benchmarks)
(cd /opt ; ln -s ../ZPOOL/filebench/reloc/filebench filebench)

That's it. We are ready to test.

Testing my PIII, Dell 4100, 1Ghz w 512Mb, 2Gb swap and 3x36Gb raidz1 pool royal produced the following:

::::::::::::::
copyfiles.stats
::::::::::::::
Flowop totals:
closefile2                997ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op       11us/op-cpu
closefile1                997ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op       19us/op-cpu
writefile2                997ops/s  15.0mb/s      0.2ms/op      230us/op-cpu
createfile2               997ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.3ms/op      304us/op-cpu
readfile1                 998ops/s  15.0mb/s      0.1ms/op      109us/op-cpu
openfile1                 998ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.1ms/op      113us/op-cpu

IO Summary:          6002 ops   5983.2 ops/s,      998/997 r/w    29.9mb/s,     
4373uscpu/op
::::::::::::::
createfiles.stats
::::::::::::::
Flowop totals:
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
closefile1                189ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.6ms/op       19us/op-cpu
writefile1                189ops/s   2.9mb/s     34.1ms/op      229us/op-cpu
createfile1               189ops/s   0.0mb/s     44.1ms/op      367us/op-cpu

IO Summary:        149974 ops    566.2 ops/s,        0/189 r/w     2.9mb/s,    4
9326uscpu/op
::::::::::::::
deletefiles.stats
::::::::::::::
Flowop totals:
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
deletefile1              2725ops/s   0.0mb/s      3.9ms/op      140us/op-cpu

IO Summary:         50000 ops   2725.3 ops/s,        0/0 r/w     0.0mb/s,       
 0uscpu/op
::::::::::::::
mongo.stats
::::::::::::::
Flowop totals:
deletefile1               499ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.2ms/op      204us/op-cpu
closefile2                500ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op       13us/op-cpu
readfile1                 500ops/s   7.0mb/s      0.1ms/op      115us/op-cpu
openfile2                 500ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.1ms/op      105us/op-cpu
closefile1                500ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op       18us/op-cpu
appendfilerand1           500ops/s   4.0mb/s      0.3ms/op      292us/op-cpu
openfile1                 500ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.1ms/op       84us/op-cpu

IO Summary:          7006 ops   3496.4 ops/s,      500/500 r/w    11.0mb/s,     
4771uscpu/op
::::::::::::::
multistreamread.stats
::::::::::::::
Flowop totals:
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqread4                    2ops/s   1.8mb/s    455.4ms/op    13636us/op-cpu
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqread3                    2ops/s   2.0mb/s    428.7ms/op    24988us/op-cpu
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqread2                    2ops/s   1.7mb/s    473.3ms/op    27942us/op-cpu
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqread1                    1ops/s   1.4mb/s    556.6ms/op    27728us/op-cpu

IO Summary:            83 ops      7.2 ops/s,        7/0 r/w     6.9mb/s,  13323
21uscpu/op
::::::::::::::
multistreamreaddirect.stats
::::::::::::::
Flowop totals:
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqread4                    3ops/s   2.7mb/s    348.3ms/op    16887us/op-cpu
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqread3                    3ops/s   3.2mb/s    269.0ms/op    20442us/op-cpu
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqread2                    3ops/s   2.6mb/s    270.5ms/op    18601us/op-cpu
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqread1                    3ops/s   2.9mb/s    303.6ms/op    23271us/op-cpu

IO Summary:           128 ops     11.8 ops/s,       12/0 r/w    11.4mb/s,   8253
65uscpu/op
::::::::::::::
multistreamwrite.stats
::::::::::::::
Flowop totals:
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqwrite4                   6ops/s   5.9mb/s    160.7ms/op     8830us/op-cpu
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqwrite3                   5ops/s   5.4mb/s    174.0ms/op     8889us/op-cpu
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqwrite2                   6ops/s   6.0mb/s    157.6ms/op     8765us/op-cpu
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqwrite1                   6ops/s   6.2mb/s    150.0ms/op     9035us/op-cpu

IO Summary:           248 ops     23.8 ops/s,        0/24 r/w    23.4mb/s,   332
054uscpu/op
::::::::::::::
multistreamwritedirect.stats
::::::::::::::
Flowop totals:
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqwrite4                   6ops/s   5.4mb/s    170.1ms/op     9011us/op-cpu
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqwrite3                   6ops/s   5.5mb/s    167.2ms/op     8884us/op-cpu
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqwrite2                   6ops/s   6.2mb/s    148.6ms/op     8877us/op-cpu
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqwrite1                   6ops/s   5.4mb/s    167.6ms/op     9260us/op-cpu

IO Summary:           249 ops     22.9 ops/s,        0/23 r/w    22.5mb/s,   347
543uscpu/op
::::::::::::::
randomread.stats
::::::::::::::
Flowop totals:
rand-rate                   0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
rand-read1              11269ops/s  88.0mb/s      0.1ms/op       67us/op-cpu

IO Summary:        112852 ops  11269.1 ops/s,    11269/0 r/w    88.0mb/s,      8
63uscpu/op
::::::::::::::
randomwrite.stats
::::::::::::::
Flowop totals:
rand-rate                   0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
rand-write1              8569ops/s  66.9mb/s      0.1ms/op       95us/op-cpu

IO Summary:         85813 ops   8569.1 ops/s,        0/8569 r/w    66.9mb/s,    
 1139uscpu/op
::::::::::::::
singlestreamread.stats
::::::::::::::
Flowop totals:
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqread                    45ops/s  45.1mb/s     21.3ms/op     7863us/op-cpu

IO Summary:           472 ops     45.2 ops/s,       45/0 r/w    45.1mb/s,   2169
77uscpu/op
::::::::::::::
singlestreamwrite.stats
::::::::::::::
Flowop totals:
limit                       0ops/s   0.0mb/s      0.0ms/op        0us/op-cpu
seqwrite                   25ops/s  25.2mb/s     36.5ms/op     8801us/op-cpu

IO Summary:           280 ops     25.3 ops/s,        0/25 r/w    25.2mb/s,   341
069uscpu/op

EON boot chart

2009-02-25T13:37:00.000-08:00

Bootchart is a tool for performance analysis and visualization of the boot process. With the help of some boot chart programs and process shared by Alex (1, 2), the creator of Milax I created a boot chart of EON. This shows the 32-bit CIFS version completely booted in under 28 secs. I need investigate why the CPU data on top isn't being plotted.

The original Opensolaris bootchart work was done by Erick Shrock and Dan Price in dtrace but the code was not released.
EON 32-bit CIFS Boot Chart: booted from USB < 28secEON 32-bit Samba: booted with 2 zpools (CPU data fixed)EON 64-bit CIFS: booted with 2 zpools

EON 64-bit 0.58.9 based on SNV_104 is released!

2009-02-18T14:21:00.000-08:00

Embedded Operating system/Networking (EON), RAM based live ZFS NAS appliance is released on Genunix! As always lots of thanks to Al and Genunix.org for download hosting.

It is available in a CIFS and Samba flavor
EON 64-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.58.9 based on snv_104

eon-0.589-b104-64-cifs.iso
MD5: d6913453ae7bd56e7f32ef0d9c73cd9e
Size: ~82Mb
Released: 18-Feb-2009

EON 64-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.58.9 based on snv_104

eon-0.589-b104-64-smb.iso
MD5: 936317f42e0c133be3298d74f12e8a53
Size: ~95Mb
Released: 18-Feb-2009

Another way to add driver(s) to EON

2009-02-13T08:28:00.000-08:00

This method uses a booted/running EON NAS to add a new driver to itself. Another simple method I overlooked to add a driver was to first transfer the driver binary(eg rtls, conf (eg rtls.conf) and 64-bit binary if applicable to eon. Place the files appropriately in /kernel/drv or /kernel/drv/amd64.
Test it using add_drv -v, for example I placed the file /kernel/drv/rtls

add_drv -v rtls

Current Method: Then edit /mnt/eon0/.backup entries to include the new driver files

/etc/name_to_major
/etc/driver_aliases
/kernel/drv/rtls
/kernel/drv/rtls.conf
/kernel/drv/amd64/rtls

Deprecated Method: Then edit the FILES section in updimg.sh to include this file

FILE="/etc/hosts
/etc/hostid

change to

FILE="/etc/hosts
/etc/hostid
/etc/name_to_major
/etc/driver_aliases
/kernel/drv/rtls
/kernel/drv/rtls.conf
/kernel/drv/amd64/rtls

End Deprecated Method

If the driver added is not listed in /etc/name_to_major, it (eg rtls, sfe, mega_sys)will need to be added to the last line and the number entry next to the driver incremented to a unique value. If the last line is

rtls 52

edit to be

rtls 52
sfe 53

To preserve this driver beyond reboots, run updimg.sh /mnt/eon0/boot/x86.eon

Adding your own driver(s) to EON

2009-02-12T14:33:00.000-08:00

Adding your own drivers to EON is possible in a couple of ways.
Method 1: This method uses another working opensolaris system to un-compress a copy of x86.eon image. Add the driver binary and driver.conf file to /kernel/drv/ and 64-bit binary to /kernel/drv/amd64 path where the image was unpacked. The image will then be repacked and transferred the back to the appliance.

/boot/solaris/bin/root_archive unpack x86.eon [path_to_unpacked_dir]

cp rtls [path_to_unpack_dir]/kernel/drv

cp rtls.conf [path_to_unpack_dir]/kernel/drv

For 64-bit EON you would also add

cp rtls [path_to_unpack_dir]/kernel/drv/amd64

add_drv -b [path_to_unpacked_dir] -n -v [driver_added_kernel_drv]

/boot/solaris/bin/root_archive pack x86-new.eon [path_to_unpacked_dir]

Method 2: On EON, enable virtual consoles and insert a pause in the updimg.sh script. Run the updimg.sh until the pause. Finally, switch consoles (ctrl+alt+FX, where X is the console number) and copy the driver binary and driver.conf to /mnt/upd/kernel/drv.

svccfg import /var/svc/manifest/system/vtdaemon.xml

svcadm enable vtdaemon

svcadm enable console-login:vt2

svcadm enable console-login:vt3

now you can use ctrl-alt-F1/F2/F3 to switch between terminals
edit updimg.sh and change:

backup_repository

undo_mnt_lofs

to:

backup_repository

echo -n "Press enter to continue after adding drivers " ; read x

undo_mnt_lofs

run (if default path_to_img=/mnt/eon0)

/usr/bin/updimg.sh [path_to_img]/x86.eon

When you see the mesg press ctrl-alt-F2, login and add your driver to /mnt/upd/kernel/drv. When done, ctrl-alt-F1 to switch back, login and press enter to complete updimg.sh. You should then have a new image with your added drivers.

Method 3: Get the current EON build kit and opensolaris DVD image and build your own appliance, including the needed drivers. This will require a working opensolaris install (snv_98 or higher, others should work) to run imgsol.sh. I will ask Al at Genunix to host these plus the 64 bit versions. I will add the rtls nic to the 64 bit image.

Using webmin to administer your EON NAS

2009-02-09T16:01:00.000-08:00

Using webmin to administer your EON ZFS NAS is fairly simple. You can get and learn more about webmin here. The Solaris package was used in this example setup.

After being downloaded. Note this step has to be run on a system that has a working pkgtrans.

pkgtrans webmin-1.450.pkg /tmp all

This converted the package from a data stream to file system format and produced the directory containing the package in file system format.
/tmp/WSwebmin

I then created the following directories on my zpool:

mkdir pool/webmin
mkdir pool/varwebmin

then I symlinked the following:

cd /etc ; ln -s ../abyss/webmin webmin
cd /var ; ln -s ../abyss/varwebmin webmin
cd /opt ; ln -s ../abyss/WSwebmin/reloc webmin
cd /var/log ; ln -s ../../abyss/bandwidth bandwidth

finally, cd /opt/webmin (this is only needed once)

cd /opt/webmin
./postinstall

and to start

cd /etc/webmin
./start

Here's quick capture of the session:

Screenshot of running processesHere you can see the 500MB ZFS swapService Management Facility

Adding ZFS swap to EON

2009-02-04T11:59:00.000-08:00

Adding a ZFS swap, sized to your liking with EON is easy once you have built a zpool. This is very HIGHLY recommended for performance reasons. Doing so will also make it possible to run update image (updimg.sh) on systems that do not have enough memory(systems that freeze in the midst of updimg.sh). A good size for starters are 1.0X, 1.5X and 2.0X RAM. After your zpool is built, simply do

zfs create -V 1G pool/swap

This will build a 1G swap(in this case it's named swap, but could be named to your preference). Then simply add the following to /mnt/eon0/.exec to auto mount at boot

/usr/sbin/swap -a /dev/zvol/dsk/pool/swap

Optional: You can also add it to /etc/vfstab but this would require running updimg.sh to preserve the changes.

echo "/dev/zvol/dsk/pool/swap - - swap - no -" >> /etc/vfstab

Please note the flexibility here. Let's say you need 2Gb of swap instead of the previous 1Gb. Simply:

swap -d /dev/zvol/dsk/pool/swap
zfs destroy pool/swap
zfs create -V 2G pool/swap
swap -a /dev/zvol/dsk/pool/swap

Your new, improved and resized swap is ready!

Easy EON storage setup

2009-02-03T15:26:00.000-08:00

To answer some recent questions:
- Can I set the my own hostname? Yes for USB/CF installs
- Will my changes survive a reboot? Yes for USB/CF installs

Sharing quick start guide

2009-01-28T13:01:00.000-08:00

An updated version of this post can be seen here.
CIFS quick start guide

1. Create zpool and directory/zfs for user
(eg substitute your own zpool name for "pool", user for "username", stor or create new group for "guid"

zfs create -o casesensitivity=mixed -o sharesmb=on pool/username
zfs set sharesmb=name=sharename pool/user
zfs set compression=on pool/username or
zfs set compression=gzip pool/username

2. Step 1 of the Samba quick start guide and

passwd username

3 Set permissions on share directory/zfs

cd /pool
chown username:guid username
chmod 755 username

Samba quick start guide

1. Add user(s) to system account

useradd  -u uid -g guid -s /bin/false username
# useradd -u 551 -g 500 -s /bin/false user1

2. Add user(s) to samba account

smbpasswd -U username -a
# smbpasswd -U user1 -a

enter and confirm the password

On your windows machine

Start -> Run

\\IP\share
\\192.168.43.1\user1

enter username/password set from step 2 of Samba quick start

Tim Thomas has a good article on CIFS configuration for further understanding.
Alan Wright has a good blog entry on Client side Caching. More on Active Directory Integration, Shares and Permissions (ZFS acl settings)

More on building your own fileserver. Breden has a great article here.

EON 0.58.9 based on SNV_104 is released!

2009-01-22T07:42:00.000-08:00

Embedded Operating system/Networking (EON), RAM based live NAS appliance is released on Genunix! Much thanks to Al and Genunix.org for download hosting.

It is available in a CIFS and Samba flavor
EON 32-bit x86 CIFS ISO image version 0.58.9 based on snv_104

eon-0.58.9-b104-32-cifs.iso
MD5: 558e787a4bd7da53e97977cb85384ac0
Size: ~52Mb
Released: 22-Jan-2009

EON 32-bit x86 Samba ISO image version 0.58.9 based on snv_104

eon-0.58.9-b104-32-smb.iso
MD5: a506211ac36afe08cc2e71a08c6fb882
Size: ~65Mb
Released: 22-Jan-2009

EON 0.58.9 based on snv_104 screens

2009-01-20T14:55:00.000-08:00

EON 0.58.9 live image NAS, based on snv_104 32-bit is released!

ptree screenshot of the CIFS version

ptree screenshot of the Samba version

Quik start steps to cool ZFS storage

2008-12-17T15:01:00.000-08:00

Requirements:
- Blank CD/DVD
- USB drive or CF flash + IDE adapter or Disk on Module
- A PC that can boot from USB and supports 3+ Hard Drives with 1GB or more RAM

To get started:
1. First step is to download and burn the latest iso (EON 0.58.9 snv_104)
2. Boot your target pc with the CD burned in step 1
3. Insert the USB drive you will install EON on(NOTE: All data on the USB drive will be LOST!).
4. Log in as user: "root" password: "eonsolaris" and run "/usr/bin/install.sh"
5. Choose the USB drive as the destination (NOTE: All data on the USB drive will be lost)
6. After the install completes ( < 5 min) , run "/usr/sbin/init 0" to halt EON.
7. Eject CD and reboot (CTRL-ATL-DEL) using the USB drive. Please be sure USB drive is before CD in the boot order in the system bios.

If all went well EON will begin booting from the USB drive.

EON Storage use and audience

2008-11-21T13:26:00.000-08:00

EON is for an audience seeking an easy to use, rock solid (ZFS), no nonsense storage solution utilizing hardware you already own. It is a small live image OS built on Opensolaris that will help transform a system (optimal: 1Gb or more RAM) that can support 3 or more hard disks into a reliable home storage solution for all your digital data and memories.

The ideal install is a USB drive, IDE-CF adapter or Disk on Module. The live CD ISO is mostly for demonstration and testing purposes because of the read only nature. It also serves as an installation point to a USB, IDE-CF (compact flash) media or hard disk where changes and customizations can be preserved beyond reboots.

Note, with a hard disk install you give up the advantage of being one hard drive's worth of power consumption greener and you re-introduce the failure points associated with hard disks. A USB, CF or Disk on Module install is greener and just as efficient.

EON 0.58.7 contest release

2008-11-13T15:42:00.000-08:00

The EON (Embeddable ON) [ Small Solaris Network Attached Storage Live Image ] was awarded 3rd place in Sun's Opensolaris Community Innovation Award contest.

The contest image is downloadable here

Please check back for updates as the latest images will be made available in 32 and 64 bit versions

EON Storage Features

2008-11-13T15:41:00.000-08:00

EON ZFS Storage (Embedded Operating system/Networking)

Introduction (updated):
EON is a small Solaris ZFS NAS (network attached storage) image based on opensolaris. This is a RAM based live/install image which runs from CD, USB or CF (compact flash) or Disk on Module. The appliance image provides a high performance 32/64-bit storage solution built on ZFS using cost effective disks. A build script provides the basis for building your own network attached storage appliance on x86 hardware from the Solaris Express Community Edition CD's.

Requirements to test/install the pre-built iso (updated):
- A blank CD to burn, demo and install the iso (eon.iso).
- A bootable USB drive, 128 Mb or larger (256 Mb or higher recommended).
- An IDE to compact flash adapter and 128Mb or larger compact flash drive (CF install).
- A x86 machine capable of booting from CD and USB.

Requirements to create your own iso:
- A standard working opensolaris installation, B72 or higher.
- Solaris Community Express Edition CD's (a.k.a Opensolaris) or ISO images, B84 or higher.
- EON build scripts (imgsol.sh) and root access on the working Solaris installation.

Tested Solaris Community Express versions :
- Solaris Community Express Edition B84 - B89.

Features (updated):
- Simple and Secure CLI (command line interface) administration. Web-based GUI/BUI possible as a future development port of the Freenas web admin
- Supports ZFS, iSCSI (target and client initiator), NFSv3, NFSv4, CIFS (Sun Microsystems Implementation) or Samba, SFTP, SSH, NTP, IP filtering, rsync
- Supports RAID levels:
RAID-0 (striping)
RAID-1 (mirroring)
RAID-Z (similar to RAID-5 with variable-width stripes to avoid RAID-5 write hole, requires 3 or more disks)
RAID-Z2 (RAID-6, double parity, requires 4 or more disks)
- Supports client OS, Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista, Mac OS X, Unix and Linux
- provides transparent and dynamic filesystem compression (using zlib or gzip) to save space
- Capable of expanding the zpool by expanding each disk in the pool (since snv_117)
- allows thin provisioning (green) file systems
- unlimited files, links, directories and snapshots(version-ing)
- link aggregation
- IPfilter module and application to control/restrict access to the appliance/device
- DTrace, Perl and PHP
- multi-cast DNS client and server (since version 0.59.3)

The development of the busybox and squashfs project will help to further reduce the memory footprint and performance of the image. Further possible enhancements include using mkisofs to create iso images of a binary set. This binary set could be compressed and later mounted to the opensolaris storage appliance image (eg /usr/local) via lofiadm using gzip compression/decompression.

Quickstart guide:
After the image (eon.iso) is burned to a CD and booted. Login as root.
user: admin pass: eonstore
user: root pass: eonsolaris

Type and run the following. This script prompts the user through configuration questions like hostname, IP/DHCP, netmask, domain name and more. This step will ask questions to configure the image for live image use.
# /usr/bin/setup

This step is optional and requires a destination USB (inserted) or CF drive attached. The command will format and install the live image to a USB or CF drive.
# /usr/bin/install.sh

This step should be done after install.sh or, to preserve configuration changes made to the image. This preserves the original image to /boot/x86.eon.orig (bootable by the OEM choice from GRUB) and saves a new default boot image to /boot/x86.eon. It will move the live image to x86.eon.1, x86.eon.2 and so on each time it is run.
# /usr/bin/updimg.sh

Notes:
For size considerations, the network driver built into the image is intended solely for the machine the image will run on. This submitted image may or may not match the interface in your testing machine. In the submitted image, the test hardware (Dell Optiplex GX 280, 520, 620 745) had broadcom and intel cards so the driver (bge, iprb) package (SUNWbge) was installed. The user can substitute a suitable driver by building their own EON live/install image.

Build package command description:
- imgsol.sh: The script to build your own live storage image. It does this using Solaris Community Express Edition CD's.

- stripbnl.sh: This script strips binaries and libraries to reduce the size and RAM footprint of the image

- trimpkg.sh: This processes the del-SUNWxxx package files and removes any file not commented. The del-SUNWxxx package files a created using pkgchk -vn SUNWxxx > del-SUNWxxx 2>&1.

- chkdev.sh: This script automounts CD's, USB and CF drives.

- makecd.sh: This script creates the CD iso image at the end of the build.

- example.imgsol.sh: Is an example answer key output of imgsol.sh used to build the submitted EON live image

Open bug(s) and other errors:
*1 - CIFS via Samba only for now, because the solaris CIFS kernel module is not running on a ramfs. The /devices/pseudo/smbsrv@0 device entries do not get created. Last working version is on B84. This seems broken since B85, bug id CR #6700070 (http://bugs.opensolaris.org/view_bug.do?bug_id=6700070), thread (http://www.opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?messageID=243767&#243767)

*2 - The "WARNING: add_spec: No major number for nv_sata, ahci, si3124, marvell88sx" at boot are harmless. CR #6486493 (http://opensolaris.org/os/community/on/flag-days/pages/2008030601/)

*3 - Multiple cpu cores not being shown by psrinfo. Noticed since B87. Last noted working in B84.