So today we decided that we are going to migrate one of our master database servers to new hardware.  Since we got the hardware this morning and we wanted to move on to it asap, we decided that we will take our slave down, copy data from it, and bring it up on future master server.  At that point, we will let it run as slave to the current master server until its time for us to take it down.  Reason we did that instead of mysqldump/import was to avoid the lag mysqldump creates on our server.

After we did all this and put up the new master server, we started to notice odd issues.  After looking around and comparing old db with new, we found out that new db was missing data.  How it happened is beyond me and is the reason why I am writing this.  We never had issues with the slave which would cause data to be lost; so what happened to those missing rows?  Is this something which is common?  Can we not trust our slave enough to use it as master if master died?  Can we not run backups off the slave with confident that our data is protected and up to date so to keep load down on our master?  All these questions which keep me awake and wondering…

Imagine somebody hands you an unopened beer bottle and tells you that they can’t find a bottle opener. Well no problemo, you have your almighty ring!

You can buy ‘em at thinkgeek.com for $7.99 each!

And now since you are drinking, let the cubicle wars begin!

#4) USB missile launcher

Cubicle wars has a new weapon! I don’t think there is anything which will make you feel better than to launch missiles at your coworkers! Plug this sucker into your computer, use your computer to target and start firing! Note: it is best used on coworkers who are not expecting attack from your cubicle.

Here we have multiple turrets in action:

You can buy this weapon from x-tremegeek.com for $29.99 This is a very good price to pay to protect your cubicle!

#3) Amazing flying monkey

Cubicle wars secret weapon: That’s right! A FLYING MONKEY! Okey maybe this monkey doesn’t fly by itself, but with your help it sure can! When you are done launching your missiles (see #4) you can send in your monkey to finish off whatever is left.

Here is one in action where war has been taken outside of cubicles:

You can get this ultimate weapon at stupidcubicle.com for only $10.00!

#2) Racing Grannies

So after all this violence, your co-worker wants to end it granny style. This is where you pull out racing grannies to decide who wins the war!

Want to see them in action? Here you go:

You can get the racing grannies at Office Playground for $11.99 Small price to pay to make peace!

#1) USB Humping Dog

Now since there is peace in your office, you let the dog out. Time to be productive!

Your dog in action:

You may get this lovely dog from your local stupidcubicle.com for only $24.99!

I went and did few tests to see if its beneficial for us to use Bzip2 instead of gzip. I could’ve tried 7z also but that is not something installed on most linux machines I work on and I didn’t want use a solution which will require me to add more software. Here are the results:

Original sql file size: 584M
Using gzip: 166M
Time spent on compressing 1 minute 25 secs
Using bzip2: 125M
Time spent on compressing 1 minute 50 secs

As we can see that it takes longer to compress but file size is much smaller (adds up fast for multiple backups). As our database grows bigger and bigger, the size difference will matter quite a bit. Since we also ftp the file off the server to onsite/offsite location hourly as well.

Does anybody know of any backup techniques which we can use for free and we can do incrementals with? comments are always welcome.  To learn more about gzip or bzip2, see man gzip or man bzip2 respectively.

I have seen following names.. and I am not kidding or making up any of them. All the people who go with me to Starbucks know this! Here is the list I have so far: Sunny, Sonny, Suni, Sunee, Suuniee, Suney, Suny and the one I have in front of me which made me blog this, Sunni.

So if any Starbucks staff reading this, could you explain to me how come you guys are so bad with spelling names? Is quality of hiring staff is so low that people there can’t even spell a very common word!? or is it because I don’t look like Sunny but I look like everything else I have been labeled? So next time when they ask me for my name, maybe I should just say Sunny, like “Its Sunny outside”? Or maybe not; because even when I did that, I think I got Sunie out of it.

I will update here with dates/names as they come along.

1/11/2007: Soni

I have been in the world of computers for over 13 years. Doing everything from typing “dir” to deploying enterprise solutions. The way I can describe myself is system admin, programmer, gamer, and noob all at the same time. Noob because I can never claim myself to be an expert in anything because I always find somebody who is smarter than I. Which is of the big reasons why I continuing working with computers is because there is always something new to learn.

As far as my career goes, my current working title is Senior Systems Engineer. I currently only work with Linux servers but I by no means only know Linux. I have always worked in mixed environments and my current job is the first job where I concentrate on working with Linux servers. Therefore, I will most probably be posting things mainly for Linux. One of the big reasons why I finally gave in to the whole blogging thing is because I want to put up all the cool stuff I have learned over years and all the new things I keep running into. I figured it might help somebody.. or better yet, I can come back in future and read my own notes to help myself

Ok… enough of talking about myself.