In Linux you can use the dd command to copy MBR from one hard disk to another. You can also use dd to backup your master boot record to a different (or same) media. One of the common use of MBR copying is to ensure transparent fail-over in RAID-1 hard-disk array, should one hard-disks fail. Read more for examples.

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Do you have any experience with Pentium Dual Core 3 Ghz CPU? I am looking at an offering from Lenovo, currently in negotiation, for purchasing several PC’s. Specifically I am looking to know:
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Lenovo (formerly IBM division) announced very good price for Lenovo H Series (531188Q) Desktop with Intel Pentium Dual-Core Processor E2140 (1.6 GHZ), 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD and 17″ Flat CRT monitor.

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Researchers at Arizona State University have developed a low-cost (1/10 of Flash memory), low-power (1/1000 times more energy efficient as Flash memory) computer memory that could put terabyte-sized thumb drives in consumers’ pockets within a few years.

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In small businesses you will often have the ADSL broadband and telephone line from the same connection. You may also need to setup an EPABX on the connection to share the phone line. For example we use an EPABX to provide 16 internal connections over two external lines, one of which also has the broadband. Here is how you can easily setup both EPABX and your ADSL connection on the same line.

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I currently use RAID1 with LVM on Fedora Core including RAID 1 on boot partition. This provides a fully redundant storage system with the ability to expand volume size in future. However RAID & LVM has to be managed from command line tools like mdadm in raidtools package. EVMS (Enterprise Volume Management System) on the other hand provides a single, unified system for handling all of your storage management tasks. EVMS recognizes all of the disks on your system and allows for a variety of partitioning schemes. Software-RAID and logical volume groups can be managed in EVMS. Filesystems can be created and checked, and are automatically updated when changes are made to the underlying volumes. With EVMS, there is no longer a need for several individual utilities for performing each of these tasks.

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SystemRescueCd is a Linux system on a bootable CD-ROM for repairing your system and recovering your data after a crash. It aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the partitions of the hard disk. It contains lots of system utilities (GParted, parted, partimage, Sfdisk, fstools, …[details below]) and basic tools (editors, file managers like midnight commander, network tools … [details below]). It is very easy to use: just boot the CDROM. The kernel supports most of the important file systems (ext2/ext3, reiserfs, reiser4, xfs, jfs, vfat, ntfs, iso9660), as well as network filesystems (samba and nfs).

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Partimage is a Linux utility which saves partitions having a supported filesystems (see below) to an image file. It is a free and open source alternative to the popular software Norton Ghost or DriveImage. Most Linux and Windows filesystems are supported. The partition image file can be compressed with the gzip / bzip2 programs to save disk space, and can be split into multiple files to easily copy them on CDs / DVDs. Partitions can also be saved across the network using the partimage network support, or using Samba / NFS. If you don’t want to install Partimage or you don’t have a running Linux installation then you can download and burn SystemRescue CD. It is a live cd, like Bart’s Rescue CD, that allows to use Partimage immediately even if your computer has no operating system installed (useful to restore an image), and it also allows to save an image on a DVD on the fly.

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Mempile from Israel has developed a removable optical storage technology allowing for the storage of 1 Terabyte (1,000 Gigabytes) of information on a single inexpensive disc. The device builds on the existing know-how attained through the development of CDs and DVDs, extending it so as to write layers upon layers of stacked information. This quantum leap in storage capacity (viz., equivalent to 200 DVDs on a single disc) will allow it to offer a unique and exceptional solution for the personal video recording, high-resolution TV, and archiving markets. The product itself will look and behave very much like the familiar removable optical devices; the disc itself is 12cm in diameter and made out of an inexpensive translucent polymer.

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One of the main challenges of managing multiple dedicated web / database servers is the ability to centrally monitor and manage them, automate tasks which requires out-of-band access like rebooting the server or find out if the server is dying and arrange for replacement ahead of time etc. Unless you are a very big web service provider, chances are you are using dedicated servers from one or more of dedicated web hosting providers. For example, I use two dedicated web servers from LayeredTech (not recommended) & EasySpeedy.

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