March 14, 2021
by dhoytt
Comments Off on Big Cable Management Start

Big Cable Management Start

Did a major start on getting some cable management done in the home computer room. I have been wanting to start some cable management in the computer room for a very long time but wanted to get the hardware situation handled first.
Now that the C7000 blade chassis is pretty much set with my Virtual Connect networks to external LAN switches it was a good time to start the cable management process. There’s still much to do but I wanted to make sure I had a workable foundation.

I gathered some cable panduit and old speaker\cable mounts I have literally been packing around for almost 20 years. The speaker\cable mounts are in original boxes from a pallet I bought at an auction long ago. I am so glad didn’t sell all of them now!

I moved cables on one network then moved to the next network starting with my busiest network. I monitored and checked connectivity after each cable movement noting which systems would be affected each time before moving the cable, minimizing troubleshooting later.

I migrated my VM’s to my main servers on the bl460c Gen8 blades moved the cables connected to my backup hypervisors and then migrated the VM’s to my backup systems once I started moving the 10gbe fiber cables.
I moved the rj45 gigabit connections first and then my 10gbe connections. The gigabit connections are mainly my IPMI connections on my FreeNAS storage and backup XCP-NG hypervisors.

This was like an all day untangling fishing line type of deal that needed to be done. Not the fun part of computers but it will make tracing cables for troubleshooting, moving equipment around faster and easier. Cleaning up the back helps keep cables out of the way in case I need to replace modules in the HPE C7000 blade chassis.

I did a final inspection of my networking logging into the Virtual Connect, my managed switches and made sure I could access my applications like websites, music streaming site, virtual systems, CCTV, Plex media servers, XCP-NG systems, FreeNAS etc..

Here’s a before and after in the front. Still not pretty but much easier to manage. I also have a bit of multimedia cables in the mix.

The bottom of the rack is the HPE C7000, then Liebert UPS’, then my 2 FreeNAS storage servers using Supermicro 2u storage chassis’s, then backup Dell XCP-NG hypervisors, then Trendnet 16 port KVM, then my 3 Mikrotik switches, then Linksys and Netgear gigabit switches, finally the cable panduits and cable mounts.

March 3, 2021
by dhoytt
Comments Off on Getting Home Gym Together Again

Getting Home Gym Together Again

Getting my home gym back together once again in a different format than before. Before I moved to where I am today I had a full gym with pro leg press and curl plus 800 lbs of weights with multiple curl bars, straight bars, pull down, chin up bar graduated bench press/squat rack and an elliptical machine for cardio when I decided not to run one of my street courses or it was late at night. 15 plus years after moving where I am currently I have more square footage but it wasn’t configured for use of that equipment. I ended up selling most of that and donated the leg machines to my old high school. I then started going to the local gym.

The only thing I saved from that time was a Roman chair I use for abs and back. What I have now is replaced the weights with PowerBlock adjustable dumbbells 💪 picked up a treadmill to use with my Roman chair.

I went treadmill because I wanted to emulate my running during these Covid-19 days and beyond even when schedule doesn’t allow me to get in an outside run 🏃‍♂️. The adjustable dumbbells will not take up much room.

After much research and shopping around I went with the Sole F85 treadmill with a 4.0 motor that will handle current weight future pace and growth since I intend to get in shape for not just finishing 5k and 10k runs but being competitive again in the front pack again with my new running style.

Taking it slow but pushing on the treadmill on pace as much as possible as necessary. The treadmill also saves me from myself. I tend to get really pumped running when I start feeling improvement and on road courses or tracks I have done too much too early and injured myself in the past.

The weights with high reps will add to my flexibility of my joints and muscles and give overall core strength and stamina.

I have had the Sole F85 treadmill for a few weeks and just got the Powerblock dumbbells today. I will get the bench tomorrow then look for other accessories like chin up bar and some leg accessories though I think I can get creative with the dumbbells for legs.

Right now everything is in the den but will get rid of things and move stuff around and try to use one of my rooms. With all the stuff I have it’s a daunting task to make room but it will get done!

February 28, 2021
by dhoytt
Comments Off on Chili on Traeger with Chuck Roast

Chili on Traeger with Chuck Roast

I was looking for a different way to use a well marbled chuck roast I picked up from Costco and decided to slow smoke it and use it in chili 🌶. A slow smoked chuck roast is almost like brisket but takes less time to cook as fibers aren’t as tightly packed.

Instead of cooking the chuck roast separate from the beans and other ingredients I placed the beans, peppers 🌶 and onions 🧅 and sauce in a dutch oven below the rack the chuck roast was smoking on so the wonderful drippings from the chuck roast would go into the chili.

This worked well except I discovered my Traeger Silverton 810 wasn’t keeping accurate cabin temperature. I already knew the temperature probe wasn’t working accurately as I had Traeger support send a replacement and was using my replacement thermometer. Then when the chuck roast stalled too long I placed another thermometer not in the meat but on the grills inner cabin and it was 20 degrees Fahrenheit less than indicated. Even raising the temperature the internal temperature didn’t rise much. At this point the chuck roast was about 165 and it was getting so late I had to cook a steak for dinner with some frozen vegetables then took the chuck roast and dutch oven ingredients off the grill.

Taking the chuck roast and the other ingredients in the dutch oven off the grill I put the dutch oven on the stove in the house and cut the roast. The chuck roast was still unbelievably tender and juicy. I placed the chunks into the dutch oven continued cooking. I wanted to go to bed but more cooking time was needed since the beans still weren’t tender enough and chili hadn’t reduced down and was watery. I thought about finishing the cook in a crock pot but didn’t want to dig that out and dirty more dishes. I decided to place the cast iron dutch oven into my oven in my kitchen at about 110 degrees then set the timer for 5 hours. This way the food could continue to cook super slow in that cast iron then the oven would turn off and the pot would slowly cool and be ready to put in the fridge not long after I wake up eat and get my storage containers ready.

The plan worked nicely I got up very late as I went to bed about 3 am combining that with going to bed about 4 am Friday without ample rest Saturday I needed to sleep in and the chili was ready. I made myself a brunch of potatoes breakfast style covered with chili I microwaved a minute just to get it piping hot with a couple of eggs 🥚 on top with toast. The brunch was some great comfort food to start a late relaxing Sunday.

Here’s some pictures of the process.

February 20, 2021
by dhoytt
Comments Off on Updated Systems in My Environment

Updated Systems in My Environment

Decided to do some updated on several systems in my environment. I updated my streaming media server running on W2019 Data Center, my Centos 8 Linux system that runs my: music server relays, Plex Media Server an Zoneminder CCTV software. I also updated my Fedora 33 Linux workstation, my W10 Pro Workstation version workstation and my Linux Centos 7 VM website server and another VM with Centos7 running Plex media server, plus some test VM’s I’m going to stand up some gaming servers on eventually.

After updating my Centos 8 system I needed to run the Zoneminder update perl script “zmupdate.pl” to upgrade the database to match Zoneminder version 1.34.23 and then “systemctl start zoneminder” to start zoneminder. IceCast and ShoutCast came up just fine after changes I made a few months ago.

I also updated WordPress plugins and themes after backing up the database.

Everything looks good after these updates!

February 20, 2021
by dhoytt
Comments Off on Updated Streaming Server Relays

Updated Streaming Server Relays

I updated the streaming server relays on my Centos 8 Linux system that hosts the IceCast and ShoutCast relays for my streaming server, so connections were down for about 15 -20 minutes. I’m now performing some security updates on the W2019 Data Center server that has my Sam Broadcaster Pro software that provides my music line up to pipe into my music relays and will reboot that soon as well.

February 15, 2021
by dhoytt
Comments Off on Gritty HPE C7000 Blade Enclosure Update

Gritty HPE C7000 Blade Enclosure Update

I updated my HPE C7000 blade enclosures Virtual control modules to VC-Enet 10/24. I then updated the firmware to 4.85 so that it wouldn’t rely on flash in the browsers which as of this year is blocked for security reasons in browsers. That all went pretty well. I was of course unable to trick the new modules into taking the old configuration since the hardware is pretty different but a guy has to try, but gave it just one try due to the known futility.

Once I got old modules out the new modules in and needed to start the new network configurations I discovered some of the fiber sfp’s say unsupported in virtual connect manager. This was a mixture of 10gb sfp’s and 1gb rj45 adapter sfp’s for things like my CCTV cameras. Well got that sorted after I went to BJ’s restaurant got some food a nice cold beer out of the garage fridge and nourished myself plus watched whatever was on the TV when I turned it on. Turns out the RJ45 1GB sfp’s needed to be in a select spot which are one of the four right ports as you face the modules. The 10gb modules were a different story as the sfp’s with part number 455891-001 no longer worked so I had to swap a lot of things around to get sfp’s with the part numbers 455885-001 in the module ports plus at the other end in the MikroTik switches. I’m sure this is all in the quick specs for the virtual control modules and I’ll order some more for backups and other configurations later.

After tracing wires making sure they were going to the appropriate switches and ports I decided to log into the MikroTik switches and name them appropriately since they show the switch name if its a managed switch in the virtual connect port information and that makes it so easy to verify I’m working with the correct network without peeking at the switch or ports or getting off my butt.

The goal in IT is always engineer or design things for monitoring or manipulating for butt sitting and access from anywhere in the world if possible. Put in that work on the front end then only serious hardware upgrades like today do you need to get down and dirty! Back your S#$% up too!!

Creating the networks again and making sure the server profiles had the appropriate networks assigned to the various ports went rather smoothly.

The bl460c gen7 servers came up smoothly one with w2019 Data Center which has the Spacial Audio SAM Broadcasting software I use to control the music and the Centos8 server which has the ShoutCast and IceCast relays I send the music out on to the world. My only issue now doesn’t concern at this time and that’s the bl460c gen8 servers going full power overload and shutting down with power overload symptoms or getting this error “1706 the extended bios data area in server memory has been overwritten..” then the systems shutdown.

Well I started looking for some firmware updates but you know how that goes I could only find old firmware for my 530m or 554m flex fabric NIC’s. I started trying to regulate the power settings via ILO but I don’t have the Advanced ILO license on my bl460c gen 8 systems. I then hits this article older article on a blog :https://practicaladmin.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/firmware-mismatch-with-flexfabric-adapters-causing-gen8-bl460-blades-to-not-post/. Well of course why not do the old process of elimination. I took my flex NIC’s out one by one and the system finally booted when neither was inserted. Well I was connecting to my 3rd network off that flex fabric NIC in mezzanine slot 2 and had some wild plans for the NIC in slot 1.

My wild plans will have to wait I decided to use my remaining 455885-001 SFP’s that had been creating a stacked link between the flex modules and use them to a flex module port in bay 1 to my third network’s switch for my XCP_NG hypervisors that are my bl460c gen8 blade servers. I then made the corresponding changes to my server profiles booted up and presto I have my beautiful XCP_NG hypervisors back up! I’ll move my VM’s back to the bl460c gen 8 servers later that I migrated to my old reliable Dell R710’s while I performed this update. Time for bed and then I’ll get up and tackle why some ports are not forwarding on my switch for my third network.