SYSMGR

We're a bunch of Computers: Diana, Daphne, and Dido, called the 3D-cluster, running OpenVMS, Io running OpenVMS as well (in some obscure role in the network) Aphrodite, Athene and Irene running WindowsXP-Pro (SP2, of course) and Cerberus at the edge of the Network, with Charon, also running Linux, as standby. SYSMGR takes care of us.

Sunday, September 26

26-Sep-2004

Didn't do anything with Venus's problem with XP. Just keep it for now.

There is something wrong with Diana.
Months ago, 4 SIMMs of memory (64 Mb each) were inserted, and the proccessor was swapped for a faster one. All went well - until some weeks ago when severe machine-errors caused a reboot when something was started - either in batch, or interactively (loggging in even stopped thye machine working). I decided to take out the added memory and after that, the machine ran without a fuzz for weeks with 256Mb. This weekend I tried to figure out what SIMM was rotten but as it turned out all four of them seemed dead. Starting the machine revealed only 256Mb (just bank 0).
Luckily there were four more so these were all plugged in - and there were bank 1 and 2 showing up as well - a total of 512 bytes. Nevertheless - the system crashed severely, during startup.
First the processor was swapped but that did not solve the problem, so bank 2 was removed, but even that didn't help. The machine did start but after some time the same error showed up, stopping all processing. So memorybank 1 was also emptied - and now it's left with it's original 256 Mb in bank 0 - and no, there is not any problem anymore.
It seems a problem with memory control that causes a machine failure when memory over 256Mb (physical) is accessed. It will mean a swap of the motherboard - or adding another machine, whatever is preferable.
Cause: HEAT, presumably. The room temperature came well over 30 C....

All system patches that were released after the last update - May 2004 - have been applied so now Diana is fully up-to-date. Only, since the memory is jsut 256 Mb, the installation of development tools is not feasable - that requires 512Mb at least....

For the rest - everything back to normal, only have to re-insert the faster processor in Diana...

Monday, September 20

19-Sep-2004

NOT AT ALL OK
Venus won't start in safe mode. It reboots instead. It might be a wise thing to re-install W2K, that did work (though not fast).

Wanted to do some maintenance on Diana this weekend but time lacked, so it will be somewhat later.

Netvertheless, as usual, Diana was silently doing het job. Just two (failed) spamattempts and a retrieval of PERL that seem to have failed - give the timestamp in the log, or aborted by the user. Who knows.

Friday, September 17

16-Sep-2004

It ain't true, is it....
Venus isn't completely right after all: That is, writing CD's fails, video doesn't work properly (well, it starts, displays one set of about 8 frames and that's it), nor does audio. At a boot after updating the CD Burning software (that is to say: some related Video and Audio software) Venus was rebooted, and then AntiVirus cannot be started since is seems not to be installed correctly and must be re-installed - but there is nothing wrong when starting it manually...
Installed the Logitech Wingman joystick - the right one, this time - and could calibrate. But it is of no use if video and audio don't work.
AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH
Didn't look at Hera or Athena (well, Athena I did look at - worked on it all day).

As usual, Diana made no fuzz. Just signalled two unwanted connections by SMTP - probably spammers.

test - can I send by email?

Just forget this one.
I'm only testing if this can be done. is MUCH easier


(spacefly>

Thursday, September 16

15-Sep-2004

Nothing special. Updated AntiVirus on Athena (no problem) and Hera (causing her to spontanious reboot when the service restarted, but she came up with some hicks).
Venus seems to be happy with her new mindsetting, I've seem to have no trouble no more.

As usual, Diana is happily humming in her cabinet.
There were just 2 spam attempts (failed, of course), and no other crascks...

Still not decided
- when to apply patches (there not really required sinve nothing seems broken, and
- when to find out about the memory chips that are broken - but which need to be re-installed, and
- when to install a new database, and
- when to make a new printer configuration (I NEED the laserjet), and
- so many things more...

Oh my.
Have to update the webs as well....


Wednesday, September 15

14-Sep-2004

Problems seem to be corrected, there are no more problems anymore on Venus - but the shares added as non-admin aren't exported automatically (Which is no problem since they can be added manually on Athena), but it still takes a lot of time (and disk activity) to get her up-and-running.
Hera has disk problems: bad sector in the middle of FAT on C:. However, the system can start but it takes a lot of time. Guess a new disk (and more memory) to be added to get it running more smoothly. And put XP on it so the kids can't ruin it anymore with installing dubious executables... They won't like it, but it's simply a requirement....

As ususal, Diana is just running, serving us all....

There was just one spam-attempt - but that one is to be expected (relay-test by ISP - which (of course) failed) and no posting attempts. Good girl.

Monday, September 13

13-Sep-2004

Good moment to start??? Not really. But one message simple will be the first....

Venus got her new OS - WXP in stead of W2K.
It took much more time than anticipated, had to remove W2K, and therefore redo all installations this weekend, where I estimated to do that gradually.
Teles did NOT a good job. WinXP found the S0/PCI card as being a multi-functional (video/Sound/Communications card which blocked sound completely. Installed the right driver, solved that problem.
Athene has WXP and SP2 - without a problem, all software works great. But on Venus, some video software simply fails.

As usual Diana is ruuning smoothly...