Today's outage took a little longer than usual. This had mostly to do with the replica mysql database needing to be reloaded from scratch (since it fell behind over the weekend and would take days to catch up otherwise). Plus there was some more index manipulation, en route to a (slightly) more streamlined mysql database. I also replaced the drive that failed on bambi a week ago. So you can stop worrying about that.

Jeff and I spent way too much time fighting with our current raw data pipeline. We get SATA drives up from Arecibo full of data. What happens to this data is a matter of priorities. Do we need to send empty drives back down to Arecibo as soon as possible? Is the splitter data queue low? Is the raw data storage full? Etc. etc. So at any given time we're been either (a) sending data to our offsite archival storage or (b) moving data over to the raw data storage, or (c) both of the above. We're not here 24/7 so to ensure continual data flow we have external SATA drive enclosure on a couple systems.

However, due to various annoying mechanical/form factor reasons, very few of our systems can host these enclosures. Also the drives should be swappable (otherwise what's the point?) but we're finding that very frequently a drive is pulled, another is put it to be read, and the OS can't see the new drive until we reboot the system. This has been a problem with the enclosure directly connected to a SATA card, or via a SATA to USB converter. We're trying to automate this whole process, but with the drives/enclosures constantly disappearing for no good reason we're up against a wall on this.

- Matt

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-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude

thx again matt for the effort and imput.

. . . nice work Berkeley - and Thanks to Matt for the Update Sir

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BOINC Wiki . . .

Science Status Page . . .

Thanks for the update Matt....btw...a rottweiler in the lab off hours may help in the disapearance problem....lol

I also replaced the drive that failed on bambi a week ago. So you can stop worrying about that.

What??? We don't worry about anything when you're around. However, we do like to bicker and complain, hoping to actually, eventually, contribute something not previously known or understood.

However, due to various annoying mechanical/form factor reasons, very few of our systems can host these enclosures. Also the drives should be swappable (otherwise what's the point?) but we're finding that very frequently a drive is pulled, another is put it to be read, and the OS can't see the new drive until we reboot the system. This has been a problem with the enclosure directly connected to a SATA card, or via a SATA to USB converter. We're trying to automate this whole process, but with the drives/enclosures constantly disappearing for no good reason we're up against a wall on this.

I have this issue on my "home" server/machine. I use a separate RAID card for the main array/OS. Then, I sometimes attach a SATA drive to the on-board controller to backup data to/from once in a while.

This only works if your OS drive/array is on a different CONTROLLER than the removable SATA disk. Otherwise, you must reboot. Here's how I do it (as root):
1. sync;
2. unmount all mount points that use the removable drive;
3. rmmod sata_svw (or the name of your controller);
4. detach the old drive;
5. attach the new drive;
6. modprobe sata_svw (or the name of your controller);
7. mount your new drive to the proper mount point;

Remember, you could do this with a Live CD to copy the drive's data to a different machine over the network. That might be easier if you have several drives to copy at once.

Thanks for the update Matt....btw...a rottweiler in the lab off hours may help in the disapearance problem....lol

I don't think that's what Matt meant. I believe he meant that the drivers were "disappearing" in the OS, as in the OS refuses to see the drives for some reason unless the system is rebooted.

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Having an issue... Got:

10/29/2008 8:38:58 AM|SETI@home|Sending scheduler request: Requested by user. Requesting 0 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks
10/29/2008 8:41:48 AM|SETI@home|Scheduler request failed: HTTP internal server error

When trying to update the client's stats. This on version 5.10.45.

[add]
... worked on second try, a minute later...
[/add]

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Hello, from Albany, CA!...

Thanks for the update Matt....btw...a rottweiler in the lab off hours may help in the disapearance problem....lol

I don't think that's what Matt meant. I believe he meant that the drivers were "disappearing" in the OS, as in the OS refuses to see the drives for some reason unless the system is rebooted.

Yeppers..I was aware of that sir..just a bit of Canadian humor after a few pops