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--- sf-lug:hayes_valley_community_center_computer_lab [2007-11-14T21:24:12+0000] – jturner
+++ sf-lug:hayes_valley_community_center_computer_lab [2010-02-22T10:26:03+0000] (current) – corrected image links to proper wiki self-referential links michael_paoli
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ====== Hayes Valley Community Center Project Report ======
@@ Line 10: / Line 8: @@
 //As one might guess, this is the section for the latest and greatest summary report.//
+//**2009-01-15**// New carpeting had been put in place. Server disconnected and everything brought down as a result. Jim Stockford and Tom Haddon showed up and reconnected everything.
-//**2007-11-02**// TomH figured out that DansGuardian was preventing download of some fonts and and flash files.  He updated the DG filter and otherwise FIXED the new client install.  Jim Stockford suggested clarification for network equipment need... so far we have:
+//**2008-04-16**// Much hilarity, best described by an email sent to the SF-LUG list:
-  * at least 24 ports worth of hub/switch(difference btw those network layers not a big deal in this particular layout)
-  * ability to remotely power cycle said network equipment(either through remote login cmd execution or ethernet enabled plug, preferably the former)
-  * ??
-//**2007-11-14**// JasonT dropped in on Kami's evening vigil at the computing center.  No users, but Kami used the opportunity to clean up the room significantly.  JasonT added a seventh computer(one Kami brought back?) to the main table, after going through 4 or 5 of the remaining desktops and encountering various hardware/config problems.  Labeled problem machines.  KamiG has a few requests we could execute while still waiting for above equipment(hub/switch).
+A few days ago, myself and Jim Stockford started getting alerts from the
+Nagios instance setup on the sf-lug box telling us that there was a
+problem with the server at the Hayes Valley project we (and other people
+on this list) have been volunteering at. Fair enough. I was planning to
+stop by there on Tuesday in any case, so figured I'd check it out then.
-Todos:
+When I arrived, it turns out that the place had been re-painted and
-  * Configure support number (via GrandCentral)
+during that process all the computers had been moved around, cables
-  * Calendar software; something for HVLC admins and community, and something that can print out pretty calendars(admin used to use MS Publish
+unplugged, reconnected, etc. Basically a complete mess. This included
-  * Setup scanner software
+all of the workstations in the public area of the community center, but
-  * Setup color laserprinter
+more importantly, it also included the server in the server room. The
+server is configured as the network gateway, providing DNS, DHCP, as
+well as "content filtering" through DansGuardian in a transparent
+proxying setup. So basically the fact that this server was down meant
+that the entire network was down, so it became my first priority.
+First of all I sorted out the cabling mess, and then booted the server.
+The boot process didn't complete and I was dropped into a recovery
+environment with limited commands available to me. I was able to see all
+the drives on the server, mount and inspect each one, and verify that
+everything seemed okay. Except that obviously everything wasn't okay.
+The recovery console had been preceeded by  a message about the mdadm
+devices not being correctly configured (software raid).
+To make an extremely long story not quite so long, we were able to get
+the server back up and running by booting into an older kernel (manually
+applied updates had installed a new kernel in the 120+ days since the
+server was last rebooted, and we thought it might be worth trying the
+older kernel, which sure enough it was).
+So at this stage we had a server booting fine. Almost. We realised that
+we would want to change the default kernel to be the older one so that
+you would be able to perform an unattended reboot. At the moment, the
+default kernel was the newer one that was having problems recognising
+the software RAID devices, and so couldn't boot correctly. So we thought
+it would just be a simple matter of editing /boot/grub/menu.lst. Only
+problem is, /boot was empty. How so? We happened to know that /boot
+should be /dev/sda1, so we mounted that to the /boot folder, and then
+edited the menu.lst file as above to use the correct kernel. We then
+edited /etc/fstab, which sure enough had the entry for /dev/sda1 to be
+mounted as /boot commented out. Simple case of uncommenting the entry
+and rebooting, surely?
+Except when we reboot, it fails, saying there's a superblock error
+(don't remember the exact error message) with /dev/sda1. All other
+filesystems are mounted, but not /boot. It recommended something like
+running fsck against /dev/sda1, but checking for a different superblock.
+Unfortunately I don't remember the exact error.
+So the questions here are:
+• How did the system boot from a device that it failed to mount (we know
+it was booting from /dev/sda1 because the changes we'd made
+to /boot/grub/menu.lst when we manually mounted /dev/sda1 before
+rebooting were applied)?
+• How can we mount a partition if it's failing to be mounted as part of
+the boot sequence?
+• What checks can we do on the filesystem to confirm it's all good?
+//**2008-03-11**// JasonT paid a visit to KamiG's Tuesday evening gathering.  Sometimes class, sometimes open lab, sometimes self-help group?  Items of note:  one of the admin computers was replaced with a Win machine because the admin really wanted some MS program to produce and publish calendars rather than use Scribus and some of the other alternatives given to her.  Unsurprisingly, with the continued use of 'Adult' and 'Youth' standard logins on all machines, the desktops are getting mangled on a few of them(customizations gone wrong).  Probably a way to just reload Gnome defaults(upon login) from a /skel directory or something?  I'll check it with the sysadmins of the group at the next LUG meeting.   JimS is volunteering to transport old junk equipment to ACCRC.  KamiG would appreciate a gui to DansGuardian.  Retaining summaries below because all are still open issues.
+//**2007-12-20**// JasonT and KamiG.  Verified correct operation of DansGuardian -- instigated by questions about MySpace access.  Also unblocked all *.doc files in DG filter.  Did not check in changes.  One of the PCs has been marked off as "broken" and after a little bit of troubleshooting,  I have to agree!  Appears the VGA port is no longer putting out a signal.  Tried a combination of different monitors and cables to no avail.    Machine should get fixed or removed/replaced(by spare in server room?) **soon**.
+//**2007-11-29**// JimS, TomH, and JasonT in the house this evening.  Along with routine maintenance(updates, hardware fixes), we dropped of the SAN donated by ACCRC.  Didn't get it working but we're now in touch with LSI Logic(mfr) in hopes of at least getting documentation.  Otherwise, a few longstanding issues continue to persist...
+Jim Stockford suggested clarification for network equipment need. So far we have:
+  * at least 24 ports worth of hub/switch(difference btw those network layers not a big deal in this particular layout)
+  * ability to remotely power cycle said network equipment(either through remote login cmd execution or ethernet enabled plug, preferably the former)
+  * ??
@@ Line 127: / Line 183: @@
   * Gloria ?, SFHA Hayes Valley
   * DSL Contacts: SBC DSL Support 877-722-3755, Netopia/Motorola 510-597-5400 x1
+===== Technical Details =====
+=== Server Status ===
+There is a script in /srv/scripts that gathers an overview "server status" (commands like mount, fdisk -l, etc.) every day. This is run from root's cron, and publishes the reports into /srv/reports. If there is any other info needed about the server, it should be added to this report. Might be nice at some point to automate backing up that info for reference.
-===== Technical Details =====
 === Done: ===
@@ Line 166: / Line 220: @@
   * Set hard disk as primary boot device, and put a BIOS setup password on the computers (same password as for administrative user) so that someone has to know that password to be able to boot from a different device.
   * Tested performance of booting from the server (LTSP) - normal applications work fine, but video was a little choppy and no sound (could possibly be overcome, but didn't have time to investigate further).
+  * Got scanner working following the advice of [[https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/sane-backends-extras/+bug/88672|this bug]]
 == Time Spent ==
@@ Line 174: / Line 230: @@
   * Saturday August 11th: 4 x 2.5 hours
   * Sunday September 30th: 3 x 4 hours
+  * Thursday Jan 15th 2009: 2 x 1 hour
 ===  To Do: ===
@@ Line 209: / Line 266: @@
   * Network layout
    * On 2007-09-14 Tom Haddon went to the management company and took the following pictures of their network area, which we believe overlaps with the network setup at HVLC (their building is immediately behind HVLC):
-     * [[http://sf-lug.com/wiki/lib/exe/detail.php?id=sf-lug%3Ahayes_valley_community_center_computer_lab&cache=cache&media=sf-lug:img_4287.jpg|image1]]
+     * {{sf-lug:img_4287.jpg?linkonly|image1}}
-     * [[http://sf-lug.com/wiki/lib/exe/detail.php?id=sf-lug%3Ahayes_valley_community_center_computer_lab&cache=cache&media=sf-lug:img_4288.jpg|image2]]
+     * {{sf-lug:img_4288.jpg?linkonly|image2}}
-     * [[http://sf-lug.com/wiki/lib/exe/detail.php?id=sf-lug%3Ahayes_valley_community_center_computer_lab&cache=cache&media=sf-lug:img_4289.jpg|image3]]
+     * {{sf-lug:img_4289.jpg?linkonly|image3}}
-     * [[http://sf-lug.com/wiki/lib/exe/detail.php?id=sf-lug%3Ahayes_valley_community_center_computer_lab&cache=cache&media=sf-lug:img_4290.jpg|image4]]
+     * {{sf-lug:img_4290.jpg?linkonly|image4}}
   * Where/what is that plan for sustainable operation of the lab?
@@ Line 231: / Line 288: @@
   * [[http://www.sf-lug.com/projects/hayes_valley_community_center_lab/photos/class1/ |Pictures]] from first class with 6 of the donated computers, all running Edubuntu
+  * {{sf-lug:hvlc_logo_ideas.pdf|Logo ideas}}
+  * {{sf-lug:2882ug.pdf|SAN documentation}}
@@ Line 238: / Line 299: @@
 ^ Date                  ^ Time     ^ Volunteer(s)              ^ The Skinny ^
-| Thursday, 11/01/2007  |  6-8pm   |  jim stockford + Jason Turner           |No users showed up.  JS & JT caught up on project status |
-| Thursday, 11/08/2007  |  6-8pm   |  Jason Turner             |Cancelled.  Probably no users                              |
-| Thursday, 11/15/2007  |  6-8pm   |  Tom Haddon               |                              |
-| Thursday, 11/22/2007  |  6-8pm   |  Closed for Thanksgiving  |                              |
-| Thursday, 11/29/2007  |  6-8pm   |  Tom Haddon               |                              |