North Star Labs

My laptop at work is not automatically backed up, so I maintain a folder named “Warehouse” in My Documents that I used offline files to synchronize to our central file servers, which are backed up.  Since the primary method of accessing offline files is through a mapped drive letter, I had performance issues with shortcuts and applications being accessed through the network.

I’ve since disabled offline files, installed the Microsoft SyncToy 2.0 [1] and configured a scheduled task to synchronize the Warehouse folder to the network file server and to a TrueCrypt encrypted disk image on portable, external storage.

This solution works quite well.  If the encrypted disk image is not mounted, SyncToy doesn’t complain, and when I’m off the corporate network there aren’t any issues either.

In order to configure the task to run automatically, make sure to Run “C:Program FilesSyncToy 2.0SyncToyCmd.exe” -R

I have the task run after 10 minutes of idle time, which is perfect for my lunch break or whenever I step away from the computer.  This also prevents lengthy sync processes from kicking off at log-in or log-out which I found annoying with Offline files.

Sun Solaris

Quick answer:

cfgadm -al

Searching the web for this information took a few more minutes than I expected it to, so I’m posting this article with as may relevant keywords as I can think of. Thanks to Pascal Gienger for the clear answer to this question.

The situation is pretty common for system administrators; you have a production server that’s running out of storage space and you remedy the situation by allocating a new LUN on your back end SAN.

In Linux, I’d typically echo ‘- – -’ > /sys/class/scsi_host/host1/scan in order to issue a rescan, then run multipath -v2, then add the resulting /dev/mpath/foobar device to LVM.

In Solaris 10, this process has been greatly simplified. One command even re-populates your scsi_vhci multipath controller for you.

Consider before scanning:

[jmccune@otto ~]$ sudo format
Searching for disks...done

AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
       0. c4t00D0B2202E001900d0 <DEFAULT cyl 8352 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
          /scsi_vhci/disk@g00d0b2202e001900
Specify disk (enter its number): ^D
[jmccune@otto ~]$

And consider the online re-scan of the fiber channel storage system.

[jmccune@otto ~]$ sudo cfgadm -al
Ap_Id                          Type         Receptacle   Occupant     Condition
c0                             fc-fabric    connected    configured   unknown
c0::212000d0b202e201           disk         connected    configured   unknown
c1                             fc-fabric    connected    configured   unknown
c1::212000d0b202e201           disk         connected    configured   unknown
usb0/1                         unknown      empty        unconfigured ok
usb0/2                         unknown      empty        unconfigured ok
usb1/1                         usb-device   connected    configured   ok
usb1/2                         usb-device   connected    configured   ok
usb2/1                         unknown      empty        unconfigured ok
usb2/2                         unknown      empty        unconfigured ok
usb3/1                         unknown      empty        unconfigured ok
usb3/2                         usb-device   connected    configured   ok
usb3/3                         unknown      empty        unconfigured ok
usb3/4                         unknown      empty        unconfigured ok
usb3/5                         unknown      empty        unconfigured ok
usb3/6                         unknown      empty        unconfigured ok
[jmccune@otto ~]$ sudo format
Searching for disks...done

AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
       0. c4t00D0B2202E000900d0 <DEFAULT cyl 50127 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
          /scsi_vhci/disk@g00d0b2202e000900
       1. c4t00D0B2202E001900d0 <DEFAULT cyl 8352 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
          /scsi_vhci/disk@g00d0b2202e001900
Specify disk (enter its number): ^D

Creating a new ZFS pool based on this new LUN is easy. Note, the new disk is ID zero from format, not id 1.

[jmccune@otto ~]$ sudo zpool create db1 c4t00D0B2202E000900d0
[jmccune@otto ~]$ zpool list
NAME    SIZE   USED  AVAIL    CAP  HEALTH  ALTROOT
db1     382G   112K   382G     0%  ONLINE  -
rpool  63.5G  38.1G  25.4G    60%  ONLINE  -

Keywords: solaris, sun MPxIO, scsi_vhci, san, lun, attach, online, resize, scan, rescan, luxadm.