Politics and Technology.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

RHN Satellite Server Tasks

In playing with the Satellite server in preparation of my "formal" training with Red Hat, I've come across several nuggets worth mentioning.

First, the nightly tasks of sync'ing and saving.

For sync'ing the server, I have a cronjob that runs each night. This is right from the Satellite server's manual.

# Randomly sync the server's channels
0 23 * * * perl -le 'sleep rand 9000' && satellite-sync --email >/dev/null 2>/dev/null


Backing up the server is a little more involved. I wrote a short script called rhndb-backup.sh that gets executed through cron. Again, the manual from Red Hat is really handy here. They key to this script is the use of "db-control" that comes with the oracle install from Red Hat.

#!/bin/bash
# dump a copy of the Satellite DB into /opt/dj-dbbackup
# v1.0
# JBC 20070226
# v1.1
# Fixed db-control typo
# Added echos and date stamps

# JBC 20070227

/bin/echo "Starting DB backup process"

/bin/date
/sbin/service rhn-satellite stop
/bin/echo "Executing db-control backup script"

su --shell=/bin/bash - oracle -c "/usr/bin/db-control backup /opt/dj-dbbackup"

/sbin/service rhn-satellite start

su --shell=/bin/bash - oracle -c "/usr/bin/db-control report"
/bin/echo "Ending DB backup process"
/bin/date

Here's the cron entry. I keep a commented out entry that would email me the output in case I need to debug an ongoing issue. The important output comes from the report command sent to db-control. It's key in telling you if the DB's are filling up.

# Do a dump of the oracle DB of the Satellite server so that
# legato captures it for backing it up.

#0 6 * * * /usr/local/sbin/rhndb-backup.sh | /bin/mail -s "Nightly Satellite DB dump" jason.consorti@dowjones.com

0 6 * * * /usr/local/sbin/rhndb-backup.sh >/dev/null 2>/dev/null


A daily Legato backup takes care of dumping the DB dump to tape.

When I do find the tables in the Oracle Database filling up, following the manual's instructions, I extend the space.

[root@sbkrhelsatp01 ~]# su --shell=/bin/bash - oracle -c "/usr/bin/db-control report"
Tablespace Size Used Avail Use%

DATA_TBS 5.3G 5G 372.8M 93%

SYSTEM 250M 115.8M 134.1M 46%

TOOLS 128M 3M 124.9M 2%

UNDO_TBS 1000M 512.1M 487.8M 51%

USERS 128M 64K 127.9M 0%

[root@sbkrhelsatp01 ~]# su --shell=/bin/bash - oracle -c "/usr/bin/
db-control extend DATA_TBS"
Extending DATA_TBS... done.
[root@sbkrhelsatp01 ~]# su --shell=/bin/bash - oracle -c "/usr/bin/db-control report"
Tablespace Size Used Avail Use%

DATA_TBS 5.8G 5G 872.7M 85%

SYSTEM 250M 115.8M 134.1M 46%

TOOLS 128M 3M 124.9M 2%

UNDO_TBS 1000M 512.1M 487.8M 51%

USERS 128M 64K 127.9M 0%

[root@sbkrhelsatp01 ~]#

I look forward to learning more at the class!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

RU Embarassed?

In the news this evening is a, frankly, shocking development in what should be yesterday's news. I'm talking about Kia Vaughn's lawsuit against Don Imus.

As you may have guessed, or heard, Kia is (or perhaps, was) a player on Rutgers' Women's Basketball team. She's suing Don Imus for her "damaged reputation."

As an alum (RC `94) and current Masters candidate, I am truly embarrassed. I thought sports activities were supposed to develop character, character of the kind that allows you to rise above adversity.

Succumbing to the litigious culture that pervades our society reveals a weak personality that is only interested in cashing in on someone else's fortune. Absent any further information that is available to the public at this time, I believe Kia has allowed herself to exhibit this kind of weakness.

In this case, it is the puzzlingly successful Don Imus's fortune that is the target of this seemingly greedy impulse. I am not a fan of Don Imus. I recall fondly his ribbing of Edison High School's marching band, but that's as far as I can say I was ever entertained by him.

His offhanded remark about the Rutgers team was just another feeble attempt by the unfunny Imus to keep his dated material "hip." Offensive, maybe, but not something that anyone would say was a true, believable characterization of the Rutgers team. No reasonable person listening to the show would honestly believe his characterization.

Before making a kerfuffle over such as non-event, no reasonable person would expect such a comment to impact anyone on the team. However, now that the women of the Rutgers team decided to grab the spotlight and make it a big issue, I can easily make the case that someone would be LESS likely to regard the players in esteem as they have shown how thin-skinned and weak they are in handling a trivial event. How would I, as an employer, weigh their candidacy for a position knowing their inability to deal with insults in a dignified manner? I'd be afraid they would not be able to handle themselves in a high stress situation.

My point is that anyone can easily make a case that the players did more damage to their own reputation than any harm offered by Don Imus' off-the-cuff parody.

What could our sports programs be teaching our students that would lure them into the trap of what seems like easy money rather than looking to turn the event into something could pay lifelong dividends by having shown grace under pressure to any would-be employer, partner or investor?