Welcome to my bit of the web, it has existed in some form since October 2000.

Backup Backup Backup

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An incident earlier this week made me review the backup systems in place for my wife’s company (iHelm Enterprises).

One of our clients doesn’t exclusively use us, and they ran into a major issue when another hosting provider lost a server—with no backups available. Worse still, the client didn’t regularly back up their own data, assuming that the hosting provider would have backups—which, of course, they didn’t.

Our Backup Strategy—And Its Problems

We’ve always been a bit unusual in that we routinely perform backups, but we don’t always do them daily. Our system has been in place for a while, but the process is… well, let’s say, a bit unorthodox:

  1. Server 1 performs its backup by transferring to Server 2.
  2. Server 2 then transfers both its own backup and Server 1’s backup to the next server.
  3. This continues until the final server, where the files are placed in a repository that only this server can access.
  4. A third-party provider then performs off-site backups from this repository.

After hearing about our client’s catastrophic data loss, I decided to test our backup system—just to be sure. And here’s what I found:

  • (a) Our backup repository was completely full, and I hadn’t received any notifications about it.
  • (b) Getting files off the backup system was a nightmare. Some files were huge, and the server that had access to the repository didn’t have enough space to handle large transfers.
  • (c) Some of the servers weren’t properly notifying me of backup failures, so I had no idea whether some files were complete or corrupted.

The New Backup System

Clearly, this wasn’t ideal, so I decided to rethink our approach.

Now, our servers transmit backups directly to our office computers. One of these computers is always on (24/7). This machine then uses Windows file sharing (yes, despite being a Linux machine!) to copy the backups to a new Network Attached Storage (NAS) device, which is stored securely in the office.

Immediate Benefits We’ve Seen

  • We can easily check what files are backed up on the NAS.
  • Restoring data is much simpler—no more complex file transfers!
  • Each server has a dedicated backup schedule, so if something goes wrong, we only need to check that specific server and re-run the backup for just that machine.

The Takeaway: Always Check Your Backups!

If you provide backups for clients or even just back up your own work, take some time to review your backup system every now and then.

Our system had been in place for over a year, and while it worked at the time, changes in technology (like the affordability of NAS devices) meant that better solutions were available.

From now on, my new mantra is:
Backup – Backup – Backup – Check – Review – Backup – Backup – Backup – Check – Review!

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-07

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  • getting annoyed at spammers trying to send spam via the company sites – go away you aren’t getting in stop annoying me! #
  • New Blog up for http://www.delicatedreams.co.uk – view it on . The start of more regular blogs! #
  • Wondering why ubuntu doesn’t like his 5 yr old laptop – I want to ditch windows on it! #
  • See our pictures, from preparing the #NationalBusinessAwards finalist presentation to the presentation, http://bit.ly/hmvah (via @iknow_uk) #

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Anti-Spam on servers…

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After several years of running different solutions on different servers I have found that ASSP is one of the best anti-spam solutions around. However – after some time it still struggles and gets weaker, can anyone recommend any other systems that can work ALONGSIDE it (not replace).

Big Cat vs Small Cat

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Since moving into our new house, we’ve had a bit of a cat problem—specifically, in the back garden.

The previous owners didn’t really care for the garden and let it grow wild for about five years. As a result, all the local cats got very comfortable using it as their personal litter tray.

Clearing the Garden—But What About the Cats?

Now that we’ve cleared the weeds, the challenge is how to stop them from coming back. We have a few plans, including planting some strong-smelling plants to deter them, but those won’t be in place until next year at the earliest.

In the meantime, we think we might have found a temporary solution…

The Power of Lion Poo

Yes, you read that right. You can actually buy Lion Poo online! Well, technically, it’s pellets infused with the scent and essence of lion dung, rather than the real thing.

The idea is that smaller cats will pick up the scent of a much larger predator and instinctively avoid the area.

Next Steps

The Lion Poo pellets were delivered today, but I’m waiting for the weather to improve (and to be a bit more mobile) before spreading them around the garden.

Hopefully, this will solve the problem—but if not, maybe the next step is to buy a lion! 😆

Has anyone else tried this method successfully? Or is anyone remotely interested in knowing if it worked? If so, check back here in a month or so—I’ll post an update!

Ubuntu as Home Desktop…

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For three months now, I have used Ubuntu as my primary home desktop operating system.

At first, I was skeptical. Would it handle everything I needed? Could it replace Windows?

Well, here’s what I’ve found:

✅ Pros:

  • Fast and responsive – No unnecessary bloat slowing things down.
  • Secure – No constant antivirus updates or security worries.
  • Customizable – I can tweak it exactly how I like it.
  • Great package management – Installing software is a breeze with apt-get.

❌ Cons:

  • Gaming is limited – Many games just don’t run natively.
  • Hardware compatibility – Some devices still lack decent Linux drivers.
  • MS Office reliance – LibreOffice is good, but not perfect for everything.
————————————————————————————–
Some thoughts after a bit more usage
—————————————————————————————

The Software Installation Problem

One of the great things about Linux (and Ubuntu in particular) is how easy it is to install software using tools like:

  • Adept Installer
  • Synaptic Package Manager
  • Command-line utilities (e.g., apt-get)

However, here’s where I keep running into problems:

I install a program only to find out that it doesn’t work—usually due to hardware limitations on my older machine (like low 3D memory).

In Windows, this isn’t usually an issue. Most programs will check system requirements before installing and warn you if your hardware is incompatible. However, in Ubuntu (and Linux in general), these programs let you install them first and then just fail.

Why Is This an Issue?

The strange thing is, back in the old days of command-line Linux, programs would fail to compile if there were any compatibility issues, meaning they wouldn’t install in the first place. But as Linux has pushed to make installation easier and create the impression that it can run more programs, this robustness has been lost.

Final Thoughts

That being said, Ubuntu is still a great operating system. I imagine that with a few more releases, it will really take off—especially with more people using it thanks to Dell’s pre-installed Ubuntu offerings, which will hopefully generate more user feedback for developers.

Now if someone could just prevent me from installing software that won’t work, that would be great!

Putty – for SSH

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I routinely use three distinctly different operating systems:

  • Windows XP – This runs on my laptop and desktop (though my desktop rarely boots into it now).
  • Ubuntu (Kubuntu) – My primary OS on the desktop, which is nearly always on and works great.
  • Mac OS X – Used in the office at work.

The Problem with SSH on Mac OS X

Generally, the Mac is fine, apart from some keyboard issues (since I don’t use a Mac-specific keyboard, so the mappings can get wonky). However, for SSH access, nothing on the Mac even comes close to Putty.

Why Putty?

Putty is a well-known and incredibly popular SSH client. I’ve been using it since around 2003—maybe even earlier.

  • It was primarily developed for Windows, and honestly, it’s the best SSH client I’ve seen.
  • It’s simple, clean, and efficient—letting you save session data and quickly access multiple servers.
  • It also exists for Linux, and I have it installed on my Ubuntu system. I don’t recall how I installed it, but it works similarly to the Windows version, with only minor quirks.

But What About Mac?

This is where the frustration kicks in. I’ve searched and searched, tried different builds, attempted compiling it from source—but nothing works properly!

Why is there no real equivalent of Putty for Mac? There are a few options that pretend to be as good, but when you’re administering multiple servers, they just don’t quite cut it.

Mac Software Gaps

This isn’t just about Putty. There are several key programs available for Linux that make life easier for people switching from Windows—especially for those who still like using a graphical interface occasionally. But on Mac, these tools are just missing.

I get that Apple wants the Mac to be more mainstream, and they are making progress. But they’re just not there yet…

P.S.

I’m sure I’ll rant about Windows and Ubuntu at some point too… in fact, I feel an Ubuntu rant coming soon…

Why No Firewire Cable?

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You go and buy a brand-new camcorder—one that records to both SD card and Mini-DV tape.

The camcorder itself is great! Recording to SD card works fine, though the quality is a little low, but the Mini-DV footage looks fantastic.

Now here’s the annoying part…

It comes with all the usual accessories—including a USB cable. But guess what’s missing? A FireWire cable!

FireWire is the only practical way to transfer Mini-DV footage directly to a computer, so why don’t they supply one? It’s arguably far more useful than the USB cable they included.

It’s just a frustrating little detail that makes no sense. Of course, the solution is simple: go buy a FireWire cable—which I have now done. But still… why not just include it in the first place?

Bah!

Mysql Error: Error 13 – Can’t get stat of

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Error of the day:

I had a script that used LOAD DATA INFILE to load data from a CSV file into a MySQL database table. It worked fine before, but after six months, I needed to use it again—and suddenly, this error kept appearing:

ERROR 13 (HY000): Can't get stat of ‘/var/lib/mysql/database/file.frm’ (Errcode: 13)

 checked the script, verified that the file existed, and everything seemed fine… so what had changed?

It turns out that a few months ago, we had separated our servers, meaning MySQL now runs on a separate machine. Because of this, LOAD DATA INFILE could no longer find the file as it wasn’t stored locally on the MySQL server.

Solution:

To resolve this, I had to use:


LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE

This command allows the client (in this case, a PHP-based server) to access the file and then pipe it to the MySQL server.

The frustrating part of troubleshooting this was that most solutions online pointed to file permissions issues, when in reality, the problem was that the SQL server was remote and couldn’t access the file directly.

Important Note:
Due to security settings, you cannot usually use LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE if the file is stored on the same server as MySQL. In such cases, you still need to use:


LOAD DATA INFILE

Hope this helps someone else in the future who runs into the same issue!