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Archive for the ‘Systems Management’ Category

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WebYaST 0.3 is out

November 7th, 2011 by

WebYaST 0.3 is out

“We have doubled the speed and have halved the memory usage”


The latest version of WebYaST has many improvements regarding speed, memory usage, usability and developing environment:

  • Speed
    Due a new caching mechanism the startup time of each module has been decreased to a maximum of 1-2 seconds. So the user is able now to click through WebYaST without any notable waiting time.
    We have made a video which shows the speed improvement: WebYaST Comparison VideoFor more technical information have a look to: WebYaST Caching Howto
  • Memory Usage
    Former versions of WebYaST were split into a service and into an UI part. Each part has run in a own HTTP server. We have decided to bring these parts together in order to save one HTTP server which halves the memory usage.
    One additional benefit is that the architecture of WebYaST has simplified a lot:
  • Simplifying WebYaST architecture
    Due the use of one HTTP WebYaST server only the development environment has been simplified very much:

    1. Setup an environment system is much more easier now. Even a setup based on the GIT repository is quite easy.
      For more information have a look to : WebYaST Installation
    2. Writing an own WebYaST plugin has been reduced to a minimum effort. Everyone who has read a Ruby on Rails tutorial is now able to write a plugin.
      You do not believe ? Then have a look to the Example plugin .

How to get:

  • All needed packages can be downloaded from OBS
  • The source code can be found in Github

Available for…

.Sadly it is too late for 12.1 but you can install the packages from the repository described above for 11.4 and 12.1

Posted in Desktop, Systems Management | 6 Comments »

New Style for YaST2

October 24th, 2011 by

YaST2 got a lot of improvements which will be available in openSUSE 12.1. YaST doesn’t accidentally overwrite configuration files anymore (last bug fixed 😉 ) and snapper provides a rollback function for configuration options, just to mention a few. Therefore it’s time to give YaST2 a new and fresh style. As YaST Qt supports Stylesheets it’s simple to influence YaST’s style.

Screenshot of YaST's New Style

FACTORY contains the new style already. Packages for older releases are also available in my build service project: http://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=home:tgoettlicher:Factory&package=branding-openSUSE.

I hope you like it. You can use YaST’s Stylesheet Editor to play around the the stylesheet as described in my this blog post. Please send me improvements you want to share. Thanks.

Posted in Artwork, Desktop, Factory, openSUSE 11.2, Usability, YaST | 11 Comments »

fsck.ocfs2: I/O error on channel while performing pass 1

September 5th, 2011 by

When running fsck.ocfs2 if you get an error like below, turn off feature metaecc and run it again.

fsck -f -y /dev/drbd0
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
fsck.ocfs2 1.4.3
Checking OCFS2 filesystem in /dev/drbd0:
Label: vmimages
UUID: B5A45669962C4E40AE9FB2BF16184981
Number of blocks: 157281328
Block size: 4096
Number of clusters: 19660166
Cluster size: 32768
Number of slots: 4

/dev/drbd0 was run with -f, check forced.
Pass 0a: Checking cluster allocation chains
Pass 0b: Checking inode allocation chains
Pass 0c: Checking extent block allocation chains
Pass 1: Checking inodes and blocks.
extent.c: I/O error on channel reading extent block at 112162 in owner 516113 for verification
pass1: I/O error on channel while iterating over the blocks for inode 516113
fsck.ocfs2: I/O error on channel while performing pass 1

#disable metaecc (man tunefs.ocfs2 for more)
tunefs.ocfs2 --fs-features=nometaecc /dev/drbd0

#run fsck again
fsck -f -y /dev/drbd0

to re-enable it after completing fsck, run:
tunefs.ocfs2 --fs-features=metaecc /dev/drbd0

Posted in Documentation, Miscellaneous, Systems Management | Comments Off on fsck.ocfs2: I/O error on channel while performing pass 1

new package squidview available

July 17th, 2011 by

squidview

squidview is one of the software, I’ve always build and installed on each squid proxy server I build for me or customers. It’s small, stable, and usefull. So it was a clear real nice candidate to be use to improve my obs and packager skiil.
I would like to thanks T1loc, yaloki, mrdocs, coolo, alin, and all others great packagers around, for helping and teaching me during the process.

Introduction

Squidview is an interactive console program which monitors and displays squid logs in a nice fashion, and may then go deeper with searching and reporting functions.

(If you don’t know what squid is or does this program is probably not for you.)

To use squidview you must at least have read access to squid’s access.log file. You may need to see your administrator for this. Squidview uses this text log file for all operations. It does not generate its own database for tasks.

homepage www.rillion.net/squidview

Features

Squidview has a number of functions. Navigate the log file with the cursor pad keys, jump to a certain day or switch to a different log file. Search for text or large http/ftp requests.

Put squidview into monitor mode: see the latest activity updated every 3 seconds (this is light on cpu load).

Reports can be generated listing the heavist Internet users and the most popular visited sites. See how many cache hits squid makes to save network traffic.

Squidview is released under the GPL.

Examples / Usage

The selected line shows a request made for a .gif at the shown time. As luck would have it, the 'H' indicates a cache hit 🙂 In this mode user traffic can scroll by.

What the above would be if viewed with less.

A tally of all users against the bandwidth they used. Kept current in near real time.

A quick investigation into the recent history of one user.

Installation / Repositories

I’ve just made a submit request against openSUSE_Factory to get it included directly, but in the meantime, you could install it from the repository server:proxy as many other useful & related packages

For example adding the repository under openSUSE_Factory

zypper ar -c -f -n "server:proxy" http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/server:/proxy/openSUSE_Factory "server:proxy"
zypper in squidview

Builds available for :

The package is build successfully against : SLES10, SLES11, openSUSE 11.3 to Factory

Have Fun!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Network, Packaging, Server, Systems Management | Comments Off on new package squidview available

Mockup :: GNOME3 and YaST

April 30th, 2011 by

With the release of GNOME3 I would assume that people are interested in seeing how YaST2 (suggestion: rename it to YaST3 !!) is going to take form with GTK3. Of course this means eventually writing another application in GTK3, hopefully different from the old gnome-control-panel ‘style’ which was actually pretty confusion from the user point of view as it was far too close to gnome-control-center, thus confusing new comers.

My suggestion (unaware if it’s possible or not) was probably to explore GNOME3 features to serve YaST integrated already with GNOME3. This could be an interesting approach as it would offer integration and some advantages:

* Better integration with GNOME3 without having to write(/maintain another application;
* Take advantage of YaST2 modular structure;
* Present YaST in a prime space in GNOME3, thus offering a openSUSE differentiation point;
* No conflicts with possible KDE existing front-ends for YaST2;
* Improve users experience.

My proposal would be something like (maybe to be served as an extension for gnome-shell). Please neglect my ‘lame’ photo manipulation skills:

Mockup: YaST2 on GNOME3

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Posted in Accessibility, Artwork, Desktop, Distribution, Factory, GNOME, Systems Management, YaST | 8 Comments »

Introducing snapper: A tool for managing btrfs snapshots

April 1st, 2011 by

Today we want to present the current development of snapper, a tool for managing btrfs snapshots.

For years we had the request to provide rollbacks for YaST and zypper but things never got far due to various technical problems. With the rise of btrfs snapshots we finally saw the possibility for a usable solution. The basic idea is to create a snapshot before and after running YaST or zypper, compare the two snapshots and finally provide a tool to revert the differences between the two snapshots. That was the birth of snapper. Soon the idea was extended to create hourly snapshots as a backup system against general user mistakes.

The tool is now in a state where you can play with it. On the other hand there is still room and time for modifications and new features.

Overview

We provide a command line tool and a YaST UI module. Here is a brief tour:

First we manually create a snapshot:

# snapper create --description "initial"

Running YaST automatically creates two snapshots:

# yast2 users

Now we can list our snapshots:

# snapper list
Type   | # | Pre # | Date                     | Cleanup  | Description
-------+---+-------+--------------------------+----------+-------------
single | 0 |       |                          |          | current
single | 1 |       | Wed Mar 30 14:52:17 2011 |          | initial
pre    | 2 |       | Wed Mar 30 14:57:10 2011 | number   | yast users
post   | 3 | 2     | Wed Mar 30 14:57:35 2011 | number   |
single | 4 |       | Wed Mar 30 15:00:01 2011 | timeline | timeline

Snapshot #0 always refers to the current system. Snapshot #2 and #3 were created by YaST. Snapshot #4 was created by an hourly cronjob.

Getting the list of modified files between to snapshots is easy:

# snapper diff 2 3
c... /etc/group
c... /etc/group.YaST2save
c... /etc/passwd
c... /etc/passwd.YaST2save
c... /etc/shadow
c... /etc/shadow.YaST2save
c... /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager
c... /var/tmp/kdecache-linux/icon-cache.kcache
c... /var/tmp/kdecache-linux/plasma_theme_openSUSEdefault.kcache

You can also compare a single file between two snapshots:

# snapper diff --file /etc/passwd 2 3
--- /snapshots/2/snapshot/etc/passwd    2011-03-30 14:41:45.943000001 +0200
+++ /snapshots/3/snapshot/etc/passwd    2011-03-30 14:57:33.916000003 +0200
@@ -22,3 +22,4 @@
 uucp:x:10:14:Unix-to-Unix CoPy system:/etc/uucp:/bin/bash
 wwwrun:x:30:8:WWW daemon apache:/var/lib/wwwrun:/bin/false
 linux:x:1000:100:linux:/home/linux:/bin/bash
+tux:x:1001:100:tux:/home/tux:/bin/bash

The main feature of course is to revert the changes between two snapshots:

# snapper rollback 2 3

Finally yast2-snapper provides a YaST UI for snapper.

Testing

Playing with snapper should only be done on test machines. Both btrfs and snapper are not finished and included known bugs. Here is a step-by-step manual for installing and configuring snapper for openSUSE 11.4.

Feedback

We would like to get feedback, esp. about general problems and further ideas. There are also tasks everybody can work on, e.g. the snapper wiki page or a man-page for snapper.

For the time being there is no dedicated mailing-list so just use opensuse-factory@opensuse.org.

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Posted in Systems Management, YaST | 2 Comments »

Easy use of WebYaST for OpenSuSE 11.3

December 21st, 2010 by

Have you ever tried WebYaST ? No ? Then it is time for. 🙂

We have noticed that WebYaST is not really known in the OpenSuSE community. One reason for is that WebYaST is not really user friendly regarding the installation.

So we have investigate here some effort. Lets  see….

Installation

The simplest way is the one-click installation which is already installed on your OpenSuSE 11.3.

Just use a web browser (like firefox) with the url:

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/YaST:/Web/openSUSE_11.3/webyast.ymp

The browser will ask you to start the installation via the one-click installation. Start the installation and go through the installation workflow.

Starting and managing WebYaST

WebYaST is a web application which runs on two http servers on your system. For starting and managing these servers Thomas Goettlicher has written a nice Qt-applet which can be started e.g. in KDE:

After starting the WebYaST applet the WebYaST icon appears on the right edge of the frame :

WebYaST is disabled

WebYaST enabled

With the right mouse click you can manage WebYaST:

With this applet you can start WebYaST in your browser too. After accepting the GPG-key please login with your “root” account.

And that’s WebYaST:

That’s all.

(Yes, I know that sentence is written almost in every post here. Even in posts where problems just starting after the sentence has been read. :-))

But I think that should be really all. If not, please use bugzilla and blame us !

Have fun !

(Yes, I know that’s the second sentence which should be in every blog :-))

Posted in Desktop, KDE, Systems Management, YaST | 8 Comments »

WebYaST – now for openSUSE

November 16th, 2010 by

We first released WebYaST in January this year, but while we did release it under Open Source licensing straight from the get-go, we were so busy working on the SUSE Appliance Program that we could not properly test it to also ship an openSUSE packaged version – yet.

That changed with our newest release, and those of you building openSUSE images in SUSE Studio can now add WebYaST to any build with just another click in the selections, as James Tan documented in exquisite snapshotting detail in his blog post.

Internally, we have been mostly focusing on Appliance use, albeit with increasingly frequent forays into the land of more general-purpose Enterprise system administration.  While the current release is quite complete for its Appliance Toolkit use case, it still has a way to go to match the completeness provided by “classic YaST” to openSUSE users.  While over time the array of modules will steadily grow, there are two remarks that I want to make today: for one, WebYaST is to me an extremely exciting bit of configuration and monitoring software, not just because of its elegant look and web-based interface, but particularly because of the cleverness of simplified interaction in some modules (take a spin of the Firewall module to see exactly what I mean).  The second bit is that, because of WebYaST’s newness, the space is ripe for Contributors with creative ideas to come in with Community modules: access to configuration and monitoring features over a Web UI is a powerful mixture, especially when combined with the rise of Smartphone and Tablet computing we are seeing… just a thought I wanted to leave your fertile minds with!

Some documentation to oil your synapses 🙂 Happy Hacking! -F2

Tags: ,
Posted in Systems Management | Comments Off on WebYaST – now for openSUSE

Merging SVN Repositories Explained

October 30th, 2010 by

Adding files to a SVN server is usually a task done in seconds. However, having several independent SVN repositories and wanting to “combine” them, this is not trivial—especially if you want to preserve the history.

The doc team had had three different, independent repositories on BerliOS (opensuse-ha-doc, opensuse-docmaker, and opensuse-lfl) all holding separate information. This was a bit silly, so my task was to consolidate them into opensuse-doc by keeping all history.

(more…)

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Posted in Documentation, Server, Systems Management | Comments Off on Merging SVN Repositories Explained

Systems Management Zeitgeist

September 14th, 2010 by

Dear Lizards,
This recent release from IT World on the best Linux distributions out there caught my eye last weekend, as it declares “The package’s administration utility, YaST, is widely acknowledged as one of the best” in its entry on openSUSE and SLE (the documentation also drew praise, distinguishing itself as “some of the best printed documentation you’ll find for any distro“), and reminded me I wanted to share some of the positive feedback I collected during our 11.x development and after final release.  Ready? Here we go.

Some of the initial ‘Net commentary was all centered on performance and memory footprint, from Snorp’s “I don’t think it’s possible to overstate just how much of an improvement it really is” to Duncan’s benchmarks providing interesting numerical comparisons like  “Yum uses about 9 times more memory” (and takes several times longer).  This was refreshing given that at the same time Yum’s less-than-nimble footprint was drawing some interesting comments from Zed and Zbr.

Eventually, the improvements rolled over to the press, with Jason Perlow proclaiming 11 RC1 the Mercedes-Benz to Ubuntu’s Wolkswagen. Jason had plenty of praise in his review, but I am singling out “the most beautiful installer program I have ever seen” and “quite impressed with how fast the package repository management works” since this is the Systems Management team’s ticker-tape parade, after all.  Our then Community Ambassador Zonker followed up with his Package Keeper piece on the special that Linux Pro Magazine issued for the 11.0 release, focusing on package management as “one of the most impressive advances” in the release (link sadly missing as article still paywalled).   Linux Format retorted with “One of our favorite features of SUSE is the one-click install system” and “faster than any other package manager we’ve seen, and on top of that it looks great, too” in their What SUSE Does Best review (no link, as LXF requires subscription).

Finally, with the release of our Enterprise distribution, the commentary rolled over to our corporate customers, as I previously reported when one customer I like to track personally as particularly representative reported a 300% speed improvement in rolling updates to production.

Afterwards, we have moved up live distro upgrade (more famously known as zypper dup) to fully supported status, quickly receiving loud praise from a Linux Journal editor with clearly too many Debian-using friends.  We do relate to his plight, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, and are happy to help.  Indeed, other distributions have started adopting Zypper as well, with Ark leading the way.

So what is next for us? Well, with Btrfs around the corner, integrating snapshot and rollback into the update system stands clearly out from the crowd: an undo button to painlessly bring back the system to where it was before your last upgrade. Stay tuned!

The package’s administration utility, YaST, is widely acknowledged as one of the best,The package’s administration utility, YaST, is widely acknowledged as one of the best,

Posted in Boosters, Documentation, Software Management, Systems Management, YaST | Comments Off on Systems Management Zeitgeist

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