It’s Been a While…

Posted by on April 14, 2012 Comments Off

This blog originally began as a way for me to archive the progress of my aquariums.  As time has passed it has become more generic and includes other projects/hobbies in which I’m interested.  It’s been 6 months since I posted an aquarium related entry, so I figured an update was well overdue.

The 1290 gph Rio HyperFlow 20HF sure did the trick to get water moving from the basement up into the tank.  It actually pumps water up faster than it falls down.  After expanding the water volume of my marine aquarium by 100%, the ecosystem has clearly become more stable and things are growing like never before.  Below are a bunch of updated pictures.  Enjoy!

So You Want to be a Mac OS X Lion Server Admin?

Posted by on March 3, 2012 Comments Off

Despite the numerous poor reviews of OS X Lion Server, I decided to take the plunge and shell out 50 of my hard earned dollars in order to utilize LDAP (Open Directory) services.  Now, it seems I have a slight case of buyer’s remorse…

I’ve used (and been quite happy with) previous versions of OS X server, but this is another one of those cases where the saying “you get what you pay for” comes to mind.  Previous versions of OS X server were $500 and $1,000 depending on the number of licenses needed.  Lion server does not appear to have a license limitation; however I have only added a hand full of items to the directory.  One of the first things I noticed was lack of options for configuring the small number of services offered.

All previous versions of Mac OS X server have come with “Server Tools” by default.  Lion server does not.  I downloaded version 10.7.3 of the server admin tools from Apple’s website, which gave me the applications to actually customize the services I am running, plus added a few other services (DNS, DHCP, RADIUS, etc.) that would not normally be available.

After seeing first hand how botched this version of OS X server is, I do regret buying it.  $50 could have been used towards a new CPU for my VMWare server.

Utilize Cisco AUX Port for Reverse Telnet

Posted by on November 12, 2011 Comments Off

Since I’m too cheap/poor to buy an asynchronous serial module (NM-16A/NM-32A) for a Cisco terminal server, or an OpenGear console server, I’ve figured out how to configure the AUX port to perform the same function.  Typically the AUX port is used to connect a dial-up modem to the device for dial-in access.  You can identify the line number by running “show line” from the command line:

#show line
   Tty Typ     Tx/Rx    A Modem  Roty AccO AccI   Uses   Noise  Overruns   Int
      0 CTY              -    -      -    -    -      0       0     0/0       -
*     5 AUX   9600/9600  -    -      -    -    -      2       0     0/0       -
*     6 VTY              -    -      -    -    -      5       0     0/0       -
      7 VTY              -    -      -    -    -      0       0     0/0       -
      8 VTY              -    -      -    -    -      0       0     0/0       -
      9 VTY              -    -      -    -    -      0       0     0/0       -
     10 VTY              -    -      -    -    -      0       0     0/0       -

Line(s) not in async mode -or- with no hardware support:
1-4

As you can see, the AUX port is showing up as line 5.  This is important.

Next, put some configuration on the AUX port:

line aux 0
 transport input all
 flowcontrol hardware

Now you can either access the line from your device’s console, or from a remote host.  Assuming the device’s IP address is 172.30.1.2, from a remote host you can telnet to 172.30.1.2 on port 2005 (05 is the two digit line number), enter your credentials to the device, and gain access to the AUX port.  Once attached to the AUX port you have access to the console’s connection.  In this case, it is connected to a Juniper SRX which requires authentication for console access.

$ telnet 172.30.1.2 2005
Trying 172.30.1.2...
Connected to cme.
Escape character is '^]'.

User Access Verification

Username: eric
Password: 

ROUTER (ttyu0)

login: eric
Password:

--- JUNOS 11.1R2.3 built 2011-05-06 05:59:38 UTC
eric@ROUTER>

Plumbing Complete, But No Go

Posted by on October 19, 2011 Comments Off

I’ve completed the return plumbing which is the pipe in the far left of the picture below.  You can’t see it in the picture, but there is a tube directing the flow to the tank’s main section in order to maximize circulation.  The overflow takes water from the rear chamber.

 

This is the 30 gallon tank with all of the sand and rock moved over (which is why the water is a bit cloudy).  There is approximately 50 lbs of sand and 30 lbs of live rock.  One thing to keep in mind while taking sand out of an established tank is that the smell is quite potent.  You’ll probably want to have your windows open. The original stock return pump for the 29 gallon bio-cube worked fine in the 14 gallon sump located in the cabinet below the main tank.  However, this 243 gph is not quite powerful enough to pump the water up 8 ft of 1/2″ pvc piping with 6 90 degree elbos.  I sprung for the Rio HyperFlow 10HF ($45 from Amazon) which is a 660 gph pump.  I probably should have done more research on maximum head height because this pump also was not powerful enough.  I have a Rio HyperFlow 20HF ($78 from Amazon, 1290 gph) on order, which hopefully will do the job.  The box says that with a head of 6 ft, the pump should be able to do 870 gph and that its maximum head is 10.8 ft.  We shall see…

Sump Version 2.0 for 29 Gallon Bio-Cube

Posted by on October 9, 2011 Comments Off

I’ve decided to take it one step further by replacing the 14 gallon sump with a 30 gallon tank, which will be hidden in the basement.  A 3/4″ PVC pipe is still being used for the drainage, while a 1/2″ PVC pipe is being used for the return.  I’m going to use the existing overflow I made, but modify it to drain to the basement instead.