Tape changer script

One of great features of GNU tar is that it can create multi-volume archives. This translates to ability of using multiple tapes when tar is used with a tape changer/library device. The only trick is to automate process of changing tapes. Such automation can be achieved by providing a script changing tape via “-F” argument to tar. Here, there is the script that I use with my changer (16x LTO5 tapes). Read the rest of this entry »

Linux – find information about hardware

Linux provides a great variety of tools to provide a wealth of information about hardware on which it is running.

dmidecode

Dmidecode is probably my favorite tool. It provides not only description of hardware but also other useful information such as serial numbers and BIOS version. To illustrate power of dmidecode, I was asked whether memory can be upgraded on one of our Dell servers. This includes finding out how many memory slots are available and how many are occupied at the present. All of this information can be obtained at once with dmidecode:

 dmidecode -t memory | grep Size

	Size: 16384 MB
	Size: 16384 MB
	Size: 16384 MB
	Size: 16384 MB
	Size: No Module Installed
	Size: No Module Installed
	Size: No Module Installed
	Size: No Module Installed
	Size: 16384 MB
	Size: 16384 MB
	Size: 16384 MB
	Size: 16384 MB
	Size: No Module Installed
	Size: No Module Installed
	Size: No Module Installed
	Size: No Module Installed

As the above shows, there are 16 memory slots on the server, with 8 of them holding 16GB DIMMs, and 8 being empty and available for upgrades. Read the rest of this entry »