The CANDIS Blog » FOSS/GNU/Linux

CANDIS got a mention in a Drupal.org write up for our work with TheBeijinger.com

richard — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:09:52 +0000

While no way near as cool or professional as my stint in CNN a couple of years back. It is still cool though;

Open Office Conference Confirmed for Beijing

richard — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 05:07:38 +0000

Yay!

Go read www.beijinglug.org for more.

Now if only IDG could put on a half decent Linux World instead of the token crap they excrete out like a constipated hippo.

What is the net? Where is it going? Where is freedom?

richard — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:15:09 +0000

Wow! What a great discussion tonight at the BLUG!

Sorry if I talked too much. Sorry if the other Aussies did like wise. It is very Australian to just tell it how it is and not filter for PC or sensitivities.

Anyway, here is an excellent read from Cory Doctorow that I recently read. No wonder none of his books are on audible!

Corey Doctorow’s speach at Microsoft

PostgreSQL Re-Index, Index Corruption

richard — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:18:25 +0000

Ever had a situation like this:

Select from database ID where name = RICHARD;

Returns and ID of 55 for example.

Then go and do a query like this:

Select * from some_other_table where ID = 55;

Returns, “Sorry does not exist, time to die…..”

Well apparently indexes when corrupt – which is NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN – can cause PostgreSQL to go all stupid and not do a table lookup for real. This happened to me. So I found this:

PlanetPostgresql

Turns out that a reindex and a full vacuum can do wonders – even though a full vacuum is not needed with autovacuum and indexes can’t get corrupted…..or so they say.

I have now added a system wide reindex maintenance plan for PostgreSQL every night. I know that MS-SQL server has an option for this with their maintenance jobs inside enterprise manager. Maybe someone should make an enterprise manager for PostgreSQL too?

gam_server ruining your IO throughput? Context switches hitting 8,000 a second?

richard — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 09:11:25 +0000

This hit me today.

The “gam_server” process. Set to identify when any file in the system is changed. A useful action that has benefits. But not when it does it 3-5 times per second and the sever is serving NFS and PostgreSQL!

To fix it, just ensure that somewhere in /etc/ (RedHat Base) or /etc/gamin/ (Debian Base) has a file called:

“gaminrc”

Add in one line for each file system type that you have. For example mine is now:

fsset ext3 poll 10

fsset nfs poll 10

fsset xfs poll 10

The daemon will now scan every 10 seconds. Of course for it to do that, make sure to invoke a “kill -s 9″ first!