Brad, Thanks for the vote of encouragement. I've made a little progress, but I keep getting tripped up by the small stuff.
The first problem was my own inneptitude and I don't mind taking hits for it. I was pointing my browser at http://<box>:446. Notice I left off the "s" for SSL. Again, my own fault. But this raises an issue. Please implement any (or all?) of the following: 1) Make the web server listen on the standard SSL port (443) so I don't have to enter a whacky URL. Why is a non-standard port being used on a box that isn't running anything else? 2) Make a non-SSL request automatically redirect to the secured version of the page. I do this all the time for any web app I write. Make it simple for the user to get to the app. Ok, so I can log into the web interface. The next problem, and I can't possibly be the only one seeing this: 3) Fix the stylesheet(s) so that text in input fields is not clipped on its bottom edge. I'm using IE6 on XP Pro and the input fields look like crap because I can't see the bottom 10% of the letters and numbers. How did this ever get released without being caught? I've put a screenshot of what I see when I look at the Authentication page here: http://www.bennedum.org/files/of1.jpg. The problem is not isolated to that page. Here's a few more problems I see in the GUI within 15 minutes of starting: 4) In the physical storage management page, my SATA drive is listed as type SCSI. Why? It's SATA (or least IDE) not SCSI. 5) I created an iSCSI LV that consumes a whole VG. On the List of Existing Volumes page, the pie chart looks like this: http://www.bennedum.org/files/of2.jpg. I would suggest that a special case should be added to whatever code generates the pie chart such that when all of a VG is used, the pie chart doesn't show the crappy "non-slice" of unused space (the gray bar in the image). 6) May I suggest the Status page be the default page when first logging in? Why would I want to see the Accounts/Authentication page when I first log into the box? In fact, the entire tab structure could probably be better organized, with Status first (and reorg that page to put the more useful info near the top. The hardware information box in my setup is so large, the nice memory and filesystem graphs are off the bottom of the page; users don't like to scroll.), then the General tab, then the rest of them. 7) Wasn't there another web address on the box that I could go to to make other system level changes (like network config stuff)? I thought I read about it on the mailing list once. Something provided by rpath itself? If so, what's the address? Can it be linked in from the main admin pages so no one has to hunt around for it? Maybe some of the comments seem picky and only reflect on cosmetic changes, but the people I'm trying to sell this Openfiler idea to are REALLY picky about stuff like that. They feel that the quality of the interface (the stuff they can see) reflects on the quality of the underlying code (the stuff they can't see), and I can't fault them for that belief as I share it too. Polish is important to perception and I think Openfiler wants to be perceived as the best (and it's so close it's painful when I find things that detract). So, now that I've played with the interface a little, I ssh'ed into the box and ran conary updateall (before I remembered I could do this in the GUI). Again, the update runs only so far before it appears to freeze: Applying update job 1 of 19: Install kernel(:runtime)=2.6.19.7-0.1-1[~!kernel.debug,~!kernel.debugdata,~!kernel.numa,~kernel.smp] Applying update job 2 of 19: Install kernel(:runtime)=2.6.19.7-0.1-1[~!kernel.debug,~!kernel.debugdata,~!kernel.numa,~!kernel.smp] Writing 669k of 49955k (1%)... In each of the 4 installations I've done of this OF version on this box in the last 24 hours, it freezes at a different point, but usually around the same place. I can always ctrl-z out of the process and put it back in the foreground, so the box isn't hung. The CPU is mostly idle, no disks spinning, no network activity. What's OF doing? I'll let it run a little longer to see if it ever recovers. BTW, I'm using the ISO I downloaded from SourceForge (through the download link on the OF home page). If I'm supposed to use the image from rpath, then why doesn't the home page point there? This is another perception problem. There should only be ONE place to get the images (with possibly many ways to get there). NEVER make a bad image available to the public. And other people have griped about this, so I'll throw mine in too: why are the docs on the OF site so out of date? When a new version is released, it shouldn't be considered released until the docs are up to date. Until then, it's only an alpha/beta/test version. The docs are as important as the software. -Tab On Fri, March 16, 2007 12:30 pm, Brad Dormanen wrote: > Tab, > > > Sorry to hear that your experiences to date have been frustrating. > I > have been there and can understand. > > I do know that the ISO has had a couple of reissues since the > original release. If you have not used the latest image, try again > with the downloads at. > > http://www.rpath.org/rbuilder/project/openfiler/release?id=5384 > > > I have a total of 7 Openfiler servers spread out over 3 locations > and most on the 2.2 release. Their hardware ranges from Dell > PowerEdge, > Xinit Hardware, Old Compaq machine and many test laptops/old > desktops. One server even connects to an Apple Xserve RAID and we > love iSCSI. I have not had any issues installing to date. I have > even directed someone offsite on it's install procedure and they > have never used Linux before. > > As far as your rant is concerned, like I mentioned I can understand > where you are coming from. I can tell you that as an IT company we > have implemented Openfiler in mission critical production > environments and find it rock solid. I hope you are able to get it > going and get to see the amazing power and application that it could > bring to you as it has for us. > > Regards, > > > Brad > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Tab > Bennedum > Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 12:32 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [OF-users] Installation/upgrade problems > > > Update: > > > I let the box sit at the "stuck point" overnight. When I looked at > it this morning, I have a prompt back with a message: > > The local database is locked. It is possible that a database > journal file exists that needs to be rolled back, but you don't have > write permission to the database. > > I'm logged in as root, so how can not have permission? > > > Figuring something was wrong, I attempted to conary rollback, but I > didn't use the command correctly so it didn't run. Thinking, "What > the hell?", I ran conary updateall again and this time it seemed to > finished "correctly" (without the huge delay) after applying 17 > update jobs. I say it that way because I don't know what "correct" > looks like, but I ended up at a shell prompt with no glaring errors > on screen. > > I've tried hitting the web page again, but it's still blank. So I > rebooted. Before I could get to the keyboard, I noticed 3 choices in > the boot loader. I wasn't able to read them before the bootloader > timed out and started the first image in the list. > > After a reboot, the web page is still blank. I tried a conary > updateall to make sure everything was cool, but said there were no > new troves. So, I would expect at this point to have working box, > but I clearly don't. I have no idea what to do now. > > Irebooted the box and looked at the boot choices this time. The > first choice does seem to be the correct one, with a newer kernal > and non SMP. Still a blank web page. > > > <slight rant> > I know Openfiler is free, so don't get on my case about what I > should expect for nothing; this comes from a programmer that takes > pride in his work doing exactly what it's supposed to do before > anyone else ever sees it. > > I thought the point of the Openfiler project was to produce a > burnable disk image that could be used to turn an ordinary lump of > computer equipment into a fully functional network attached storage > appliance. When I think of "network appliance" I don't think of a > shell prompt, I think of web page. I don't think of Linux, I think > of "I don't care what it runs". When I think "fully functional", I > think it should work as advertised after installation, maybe with > the need to run an update and probably make lots of configuration > changes (all using a web page). > > Since beginning testing with v1 versions and now v2.2, on my > current hardware and on other hardware, I've never seen an Openfiler > instance that I would consider beyond a Beta version, let alone > v2.2. I would never consider using this software in production or > paying for support given the problems I've seen myself and the > problems I've read about in the mailing lists and forums. I want the > product to work and I don't mind paying for support, but the product > first has to be at least beyond beta. If I want beta software, I'll > use MS products. > > Is my understanding of the OF project not correct? Am I being too > critical? Should I just drop it and find something else? I've even > considered rolling my own (with just the functionality I need, > iSCSI), which I'm fairly confident I could do in an amount of time > comparable to the time I've wasted so far. </slight rant> > > > Anyway, can anyone suggest what I should do to get this system > functional? > > -Tab > > > > On Fri, March 16, 2007 12:37 am, Tab Bennedum wrote: > >> I tested an older v1 version of OF a while ago and have been >> lurking ever since. Now that 2.2 is out, I'm back to testing >> again. And I'm >> disappointed. >> >> My system is brand new hardware: Athlon 64 running on an MSI >> nforce4 board (K9NBPM2-FID, v5.3 BIOS), 1 GB RAM, 80GB Seagate >> PATA >> system disk and 320GB Seagate SATA data disk. >> >> I've installed the OF 2.2 i86_64 ISO image. Immediately after >> install, > >> I try to hit the web page (http://<box>:446/) and I'm greeted by >> a blank page. A view source shows an empty HTML doc (HTML/BODY >> begin/end > >> tags, no content). Hmm. Is the ISO that broken? >> >> I should note that I receieved no errors (that I could identify) >> during installation. >> >> Ok, so I ssh in as root and run "conary updateall". I get this: >> >> >> >> Applying update job 1 of 19: >> Install >> kernel(:runtime)=2.6.19.7-0.1-1[~!kernel.debug,~!kernel.debugdata, >> ~! >> kernel.numa,~kernel.smp] Applying update job 2 of 19: Install >> kernel(:runtime)=2.6.19.7-0.1-1[~!kernel.debug,~!kernel.debugdata, >> ~! >> kernel.numa,~!kernel.smp] Creating database transaction (1 of >> 2)... >> >> >> >> And conary is hung. I can suspend the process and kill it, but >> before doing so, I left it in the above state for over an hour >> with no progress being made. >> >> I started from scratch again and reinstalled, this time >> partitioning as described in the docs (I did it a little >> differently the first time). Long story short, I get the same >> results. >> >> Anyone have any clue what might be going on? What other >> information can I provide that might help? Didn't find anything in >> the forums that > >> applied, and been reading the mailing list for a couple months. >> Anyone? >> >> >> >> I'm getting ready to show this system to someone (tomorrow) who >> might be interested in putting together an iSCSI SAN but as it is, >> it will never see the light of day and some other solution will be >> used. >> >> -Tab >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Openfiler-users mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.openfiler.com/mailman/listinfo/openfiler-users >> >> >> >> >> > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Openfiler-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.openfiler.com/mailman/listinfo/openfiler-users > > > > _______________________________________________ Openfiler-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openfiler.com/mailman/listinfo/openfiler-users
