In the effort to enhance my knowledge and experience [and to have fun] I have installed the beta version of Microsoft Exchange 2007 on my new server. I’m in the process of moving my mailbox over to the new server – I hope I don’t lose messages!
I’ll let you know how it goes…
UPDATE: Well, looks as if I don’t have the server configured correctly so I can’t check my email with OWA. I guess I’ll have to learn some more about the new Exchange…
Today, I have taken the plunge and installed Windows Vista Beta 2. For those of you who don’t know, this is the new version of the Windows operating system. Only, it’s not released yet and probably not ready for prime time, but I’ve been encouraged by the powers that be to go with the new beta version.
I have to say, it’s quite nice and spiffy. I had some difficulty getting the wireless to work, but it’s going now and seems very reliable. I also like the new offine files functionality.
Let’s hope the whole OS is very stable….
So far, the server motherboard replacement efforts have proven successful. There have been no unusual reboots or any other odd behavior. So, it looks as if there will be no repairs needed at this time – and hopefully for quite a long time. At least I’ve moved to a redundant architecture now – except for RAM and CPU which will be redundant at some time in the future.
Now, I just have to finish organizing my pictures…
After thinking I had fixed my server problem by flashing the BIOS, five days later the problem happened again. So, I called for a replacement from ASUS. I have to say that they are quite helpful and I received a new board without having to take out and ship back the old one. My first attempt at installing it for some reason didn’t work and I was about to send it back. The helpful technician told me to try it again, so I put it back in the server only to find out that it DID work… I didn’t do anything different. These things just happen…
Anyway, my data server is now fully functional and the odd reboot behavior hasn’t shown up yet – I know, it’s only been a few days, but the longer it lasts without a reboot, the better my chances are that this won’t happen again.
I love updating the BIOS on hardware devices. I just put the latest version 1.0.5 on my new Canon EOS 5D. It’s actually a fairly easy process – much easier than flashing the BIOS on, say, a computer. I simply take the card out, put the new BIOS image in the root, put it back in the camera, select the “update” option, and BAM. Less dangerous than doing that to a PC… and not all my machines have floppy drives anymore to do that with! Flashing the camera also retained all of my customizations, whereas flashing a computer would wipe out any system level configurations which would then need to be reset. Fun!
I ran some hardware diagnostics for many hours without finding anything, but something told me to look at BIOS and drivers for my SATA RAID conroller. This is the device that controlls the 1.2TB of hard drives. I flashed the BIOS to an updated version, installed a new driver and cleared out another application that didn’t work and rebooted.
Then, I initiated a copy of 200GB or so of data [this would have caused the system to restart] and it’s all good so far. No unforseen reboots. So, it wasn’t hardware at all, but BIOS and drivers. This is good. We all love computers that don’t crash, don’t we?
This new server I have is great – until I actually started copying data to it. I think there’s something wrong with either the motherboard or the CPU. It’s hard to tell. It simply reboots with a stop error every once in a while – usually under some kind of load. The stop error is generic and nondescriptive. Does anyone know of some good diagnostic tools other than replacing hardware one component at a time?
2012-01-08 23:29:28
It certainly feels like Spring today, what with 65 degree temperatures. What a wonderful day for a ride – which is exactly what I did. I’m totally stoked about riding home, too! [but then, I usually am… did I tell you I love to go home to my wife?]
I finished building the new data server with the two replacement drives that came on Wednesday. It took quite a while to rebuild the large data storage array – but that’s because it’s 1.2TB. That’s right: 1.2 terabytes… or 1,200GB or 1,200,000MB or 1,200,000,000KB or 1,200,000,000,000 bytes. That kind of space only a few years ago would have taken up a whole room with storage racks from floor to ceiling – and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to afford it. And this is all on 5 hard drives – that’s it. In a tower-sized computer case. Yes, it’s larger than average, but all this space fits in a box the size of 3 CD ROM drives. Unbelievable. And those drives are not even the largest available today! I chose them becasue they were big enough and cheap. There are 500GB drives available today and that would be 2.5TB! Wow.
That’s a lot of space. Should last us a few years.
Next steps: data migration. I’ve started this already [it seems to not even make a dent in the available space – 30GB moved so far is less than 3% of the total space where before it was almost half my drive] but the big migration is yet to come. And, we’re going to be cleaning up the directory structure as well as eliminating any duplication.
Should be fun… heh.
No, not “Seven of Nine”, but two out of seven hard drives in my new system either failed to start at all, or went bad after a successful start. That fast: one hour. At least I got that out of the way early. The others seem to be working just fine. Of course, since one drive in each array died, I cannot even install the OS on my computer yet. At least, not permanently. I can “practice”. Or, just install the OS and run the hardware diagnostics to see if any other items need to be replaced.
This is my first major computer assembly from parts, at least from so many parts, and I suppose that statistically speaking, this is within the norm. However, I don’t want to be normal. I want it all to work the first time!
I did try to install the OS last night [Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition for 64-bit], but the CD I burned with the OS on it had a flaw, so I need to burn a new one. And I didn’t want to do that last night, or I’d have never gone to sleep at all… However, up until the point it failed to copy one file, it positively FLEW. The processor and the drive arrays I have are SO fast, that the usual 30 minutes until the customization stage was more like 5 minutes. Quite nice. I highly recommend 64 bit and SATA II.
Now, I must wait again… How long does it take to do an RMA replacement?
I have been ever-not-so-patiently waiting on Cingular to put out their new WIndows Mobile 5 smartphone self-labeled as the Cingular 8100 [which is the non-camera variant of the 8125 and is a rebranded HTC Wizard]. First rumors put the release date at mid November… which has come and gone. Then, it was “end of December”. Again: come and gone. Same thing with the next rumored release date of Janurary 20th [or 21st as I was told by a different Cingular rep].
So, my quest for a Pocket PC Smartphone has been frustrated at almost every turn. I could just go and buy an unlocked one, I suppose, but I don’t want to drop $650 [that’s way over the allowed expense for the company’s reimbursal allowance for smartphones] a big chunk of which would come out of my pocket.
Each time I’ve called, I’ve gotten a different answer from: “It’s a what? Never heard of it…” to: “Oh – yeah. That’ll be out real soon. Just keep checking back.”. So, I wait. And wait.
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