spinning down / standby HDD's on Ubuntu server 13.10 (to be continued)

Ubuntu server 13.10 with 7 disks, 1 sdd for system, 4 x 2 TB in raid10 and 2 x 1 TB mirrored.

Tried out pure hdparm thing first. Installed hdparm, edit /etc/hdparm.conf adding lines for each disk, switched ACHI in BIOS, reboot. Didn't work for me. Tried manually, didn't work either.

Found this post, made some progress. Saw at least one disk being standby. As the intention was to try the thing "as is", meaning I didn't disconnect server from network and didn't try to figure what can be using the disks, fine. Will take a look later / sometime what's the status of disks.

Made a shell script for displaying the status of all disks. Thought about emailing myself status from time to time, started to read about emailing from command line, but there was a lot to read, remembered that this is lazy weekend and dropped it this time.


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Just to document the post in case the thing go away:
1. Install sg3-utils
2. Add the following to crontab (sda being the disk to be managed this way):


0-59/15 * * * * ( if [ ! -f /dev/shm/1 ] ; then touch /dev/shm/1 /dev/shm/2; fi ; mv /dev/shm/1 /dev/shm/2; cat /proc/diskstats > /dev/shm/1 ) >/dev/null 2>&1

0-59/15 * * * * ( export HD="sda "; if [ "$(diff /dev/shm/1 /dev/shm/2 | grep $HD )" =  "" ] ; then /usr/bin/sg_start --stop /dev/$HD; fi ) >/dev/null 2>&1

my first experience in programming

I don't remember exactly, but it has to be year 1982 when I got my hands on Elektronika B3-21 (Электроника Б3-21). Later on it was more advanced Elektronika B3-34 (Электроника Б3-34), both programmable by assembler-like coding. I was enchanted by those devices for months I spent trying out examples of code written by others and messing around with it trying to do something myself. I think the concept of "lets restart/erase everything and start over" came to me naturally back then :)

quote: it's time for mobile to grow up, publishers need to feed people's appetites for mobile [or go away]

Source

Tieu: "It's time for mobile to grow up. In 2014 publishers will discover that they need to go all in for mobile. It is not enough to just have an Android app or an iOS app or to be optimized for the mobile web. Designing for a single device is not going to fly. Publishers need to offer mobile to consumers on every device so that readers can engage when and where they please. People today are digital omnivores, and publishers need to feed their appetites across the varying mobile outlets."

quote: protecting network perimeter approach starts to go away

Source

Jouret: “In the coming 1-3 years, we will see a new form of multi-layered security emerge, replacing today’s model of “protecting the perimeter” with a combination of security technologies that includes localized clients embedded within devices or localized connections and centralized cloud-based intelligence which constantly scans to protect. The connected car will happen; we just have to care about the connected car and develop strategies so that we don’t get hacked.”

quote: Edward Snowden disclosures have heightened awareness of cybersecurity all over the world

Source

Frymier: “Regardless of what you might think of Edward Snowden, there is no denying that his disclosures have heightened awareness of cybersecurity all over the world. Before that, many enterprises were running unencrypted data on their internal networks, which they believed were secure. Now they are beginning to use encryption internally as well, so I expect 2014 to be the year of encryption. The increased use of encryption will both enable and encourage more companies to use infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud solutions, where previously they might have had concerns about the safety of their data in the cloud.”

quote: broad implementation of large, long-term storage systems for unstructured data in 2014

Source

Rector: “In 2013, there was a huge shift among enterprises in evaluating emerging methods to store, manage, analyze and access data – looking beyond traditional storage methods and storage vendors and starting to evaluate the benefit of open source options, RESTful/Object Storage and open long-term storage data formats such as LTFS; 2013 was also the "coming out party" for what the industry is labeling big data, which has become clear goes beyond just data analytics. Building on these trends in 2014, I anticipate broad implementation of large, long-term storage systems for unstructured data (Deep Storage, Object Storage, LTFS tape systems and Active Archives). Implementation of these systems will provide the enterprise with the foundational tools needed to store valuable data for longer periods and prepare for future big data/analytic initiatives to help make better predictive business decisions.”

quote: we will see the rise of a new Internet architecture [in 2014]

Source

Ward and Cooney: “We will see the rise of a new Internet architecture characterized by (a) ‘Fog Computing’ – the convergence of networking and compute at the edge of networks to create a more distributed intelligence that balances the need for centralized mega-scale data centers with more locally-useful computing and decision making capabilities, (b) a new type of networking architecture characterized by open APIs and by the embrace of developer communities who will create applications that optimize the integration of networks and management systems and business applications, (c) we will pass the peak of the SDN hype cycle and see real-world applications emerge in 2014, and (d) a new set of IT skillsets which accompany the convergence of computing, networking, storage and applications will emerge. IT professionals will need to become much more comfortable and familiar with IT domains beyond their silos; look to IT as new business enabler – not a burden if you build systems correctly thanks to the ability to deliver data upstream into business.”