Scalable Storage Blog

Documentum 6.5 early observations/rants

After much fanfares, hypes, and delays, D6.5 is finally out.

Here are some of my early observations (rants)

1. DocApps had been replaced by DAR (Documentum ARchive). Old DocAPPs created by Application Builder can be migrated to DAR by using Composer

2. TaskSpace 6.5 + Composer 6.5 = Broken
I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to import a new  Taskspace applications from repository into Composer 6.5 without it yelling at me about some dm_ type issues.  It seems to be a bug that slipped through QA

3. Even more virtualization lameness for index server
In addition to VMWare ESX guests, now AIX LPARs had also been added to the list of forbidden platform for the FAST index server.
Hello ?! I thought EMC *OWNS* VMWare now ?! Not allowing LPARs will upset a lot of IBM shops (Especially those unfortunate ones using GPFS)

4. 64bit-ness is arriving, at last!
Some of the WDK based applications now says they also support running in 64bit native mode. It is a late, but welcomed change. (However, the thing that really mattered – Content Server, is still 32bit only)

5. JBOSS
To my surprise, JBOSS had replaced (Oracle) Bea Weblogic as the embedded J2EE App server. In my first few lab installs, JBOSS seems to reduce the memory usage somewhat. It may be possible to create a usable Documentum installation including Content Server, Index Server, and Webtop/DA on a laptop like the pre 6.0 days using Tomcat.  (I have yet to try laptop install myself, but judging from the fact that my 6.5 content server install doesn’t even use SWAP while the same VM was swapping with no load under 6.0)

Iphone wordpress app

Native Wordpress client for iPhone finally showed up on appstore. It seems to work as expected
It allows creating offiine/local drafts so it let’s me edit posts when there’s no cell/network connection and publish later.

It doesn’t support creating new categories offline nor does it have spell check capabilities, but it is a very good start .

Red Hat Spacewalk

I’m excited to hear about the latest Red Hat OSS contribution – the Spacewalk, open source RH Satellite server. I’ve managed a medium sized RH Sat server environment and I liked a lot of the features in it.

For the uninitiated -
Paid RH users get their OS updates/patches through the Red Hat Network (RHN), which is similar to Microsoft windows update website but with more management features that allows admins to manage various package channels on multiple systems. (Windows update is only designed to patch the system directly connected to it and nothing else, unless you implement your own SMS/SCCM services).

In a way, Satellite server is pretty similar to SCCM, both are installed locally on your own network, and you synchronize the patch contents with the upstream provider; both polls hardware inventory and uses some sorts of database backend to store all the client/patch dependency information(Oracle for Sat srv, MSSQL for sCCM). Up until now, they were both closed source.

One thing that irritated me the most during my prior experience with Sat server was its closed source-ness.
The backend database was oracle and a lot of magic happens in there. After knowing about the database, I immediately set out to write scripts that can pull machine information out of the database. After talking to RH support a few times, I was told they would not give out specifics of the schema and they’re likely to change frequently and advised me not to interact directly with the backend db. That was a major bummer. The Sat server was basically a hugely expensive black box. You know it’s running but you can’t see inside it.

After I figured out how to centrally admin all the kickstart scripts in Satellite server, I migrated all the previously hand maintained ks files into it. Everything was fine for a while, until one day, the anaconda (redhat installer) was updated to support more commands such as a flag to suppress HBA driver from loading. It was very imporant feature because it prevents anaconda from prodding SAN devices when you don’t want it to. (For example, re-imaging a GFS cluster node without having to disconnect the FC cable or temporarily re-zone the SAN). Unfortunately the Satellite server did not support that particular flag and I was told the only way to do it in Sat server would require going into the oracle db and add things in the schema. (I was also given the warning that once I do that, I’d void the support ..eeeeek!)

Needless to say, I gave up on that idea and moved all the GFS cluster kickstart off the satellite server into where it came from, so I can do hands-free cluster node reimaging. (back to square one)

The opening of the satellite server code is a very good thing for RH. It lets CentOS users experience what paid users get and may convince those who depends heavily on CentOS to migrate to a pay model, it also allows industrious SA/System engineers to see what’s in the black box and grant them the ability to do more amazing things with it.

Good job, RH!

(And btw, I’ve been told the oracle server will be replaced by Postgres soon… back in FOSS 2006! Now that you’ve done opening the code, perhaps the OSS community can help RH speed up the divorcing process with oracle )

Storage Array Controller mishaps

One of my clients got a few IBM DS4700s as their 2nd tier storage.  I was very happy to see they’re willing to venture out of their EMC comfort zone and start looking at alternative solutions to curb the ever so outrageous EMC pricing.

I really didn’t pay much attention to them since I got sidetracked by other projects that took me away from the storage group.  After I resumed working with the storage folks, I found out the management interfaces are now dropping out of network sporadically, and the only way to get it back online would be to cycle the disk controller where the management interface is .. OUCH!
Obviously the clients, especially the management levels aren’t happy ( Those who did not support venturing out of EMC solutions and the EMC onsite reps were thrilled … )

Our IBM rep had recommended firmware upgrades, setting the interface to 10 auto neg off , half/full duplex, but none of these had helped.

I’ve seen some pretty big DS4000 series installation at some other sites but I’ve never seen any controller with management interface that drops dead so easily, even after multiple attempts of firmware upgrades. This should never happen on a storage system, regardless whether it’s enterprise class or SMB class!  I can tolerate my Linksys router at home going belly-up every now and then, but a storage controller should never do that.

What can EMC do with iomega?

EMC seems to have striked a deal to acquire the dwindling home/SoHo storage company – iomega
(I think I still have a stack of 100MB Zip disks lurking somewhere in the depth of my college memento box)

the Zip was great during its heydays when its only competitor was the Panasonic SuperDisk that came too late. Even though the SuperDrive has a great potential as a drop-in replacement for existing floppy drives because it was bootable and back-ward compatible to old floppies, its 3 year lag was its fatal misfortune.
Nevertheless, both of these products died quickly when inexpensive CD-R/RW became more available.

Following Cisco’s foodstep on acquiring Linksys to get into the consumer market, I guess EMC can use iomega in the same way. Hopefully EMC would be more agressive on leveraging its newly acquired consumer brand than its networking counterpart.
As new computers come with more and more HDD space, and lots of households have more than a couple desktops, where most of the systems did not come in any kinds of protected data, nor usable backup solutions ( try backing up 200G HDD using DVD-R’s ….), EMC/iomega has a potentially HUGE market if it plays the cards right.

(Iomega’s existing portfolio such as REV and external HDDs should be canned, since blueray-R/RW will soon take their place, just like the way CD-R/RW swallowed the market share for Zip and Jaz)

What EMC/iomega really needs to do, is to deliver an expandable Windows Home Server(WHS) alternative that does not eat the precious data for lunch.

A modular, stackable NAS system with 2 drive bays that comes with 2 drives, pre-configured as RAID1 for data protection. This system can run some types of embedded Linux/FreeBSD with all sorts of media servers running.

Once the space runs out in the main unit, an expansion unit wit 2 pre-populated drives can be added by stacking it with the main unit. Upon seeing the new drives, the main unit concatenates the additional raid-1 volume to the existing one, therefore doubling the size of the storage capacity, while still providing data protection.  (Think adding PVs into a VG on Linux)

Meanwhile, the embedded OS would run some sorts of backup server software, say – retrospect ?
and lets backup client store backups to it.

Now the final touch: Leveraging SaaS by using embedded Mozy client, coupled with the $4.95 monthly unlimited plan they have, you have a consumer friendly data protection solution that also provides remote data bunkering.

Will EMC/iomega make this ? I don’t think so, but I sure hope so.