Surf Roots, Software Thoughts A blog by Alex Loddengaard

28May/084

Handle Emacs Backups and Autosaves Better

I finally got annoyed with all the damn #files# and files~.  Emacs users will know what I'm talking about.  Follow this guide on dealing with Emacs backups and autosaves to get them all to go into one directory.  Much better.

Filed under: Links, Linux 4 Comments
20May/081

Dell PowerEdge 1950 + Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy RAID Monitoring

I finally setup a good RAID monitor on my machine; I'll be able to sleep better at night now.  I thought I should share what I did.

  1. Install omreport for general hardware reporting.  Find comprehensive instructions here
  2. Test omreport by running omreport storage controller controller=0
  3. You're mostly interested in the controller, virtual (RAID) disk, and physical disks
  4. Make sure you have a mail client setup like sendmail
  5. Setup a cron job by creating a file in /etc/cron.daily that contains one line: omreport storage controller controller=0 | mutt -s "RAID Monitoring Notification" youremail@domain.com
  6. Make the file executable with sudo chmod a+x <file>
  7. Start receiving a daily email with the omreport output

Here's some information about my machine:

  • PERC5/i SATA RAID1 controller
  • 2 x 250GB SATA drives
  • 2 x Xeon processors
  • Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy)

I'm pretty happy with this monitor, because it's simple and quick.  Now all I need to do is figure out how to monitor my redundant power supplies.  Shoot me a comment with questions.  I hope this helps!

Filed under: Linux 1 Comment