Day 2 - 29th July 2009

Gower Street

Day 2 started with us having our breakfast at the hotel lounge as part of the travel package, you know the normal stuff such as croissant, cereal and toast. Little did we know that this will ultimately be our staple food throughout our stay here. We proceeded to the hotel lobby after finishing our breakfast to wait for our tour guide, our guide arrived somewhat late than scheduled. We quickly hop on the feeder bus that will take us to a central bus station located at Victoria station which is designated as our embarkation point where we will assemble before hoping on to our tour bus.

In front of Royal Albert Hall

Harvey Nichols

Albert Memorial

Hyde Park

Albert Memorial

Our tour guide is a certified blue badge so she knows a lot about London or UK history for that matter, It’s nice to know we're in good hands and these folks sure take their history and business seriously. We're driven around Central London through popular tourist spot and shoppers haven such as Trafalgar Square, St James Park, Harrods and Harvey Nichols. Our first pit stop for the day is Royal Albert Hall and Albert Memorial which is situated adjacent to each other. Prince Edward Memorial is built on Kensington Garden. We spent approximately 30 minutes here before we hurriedly have to go to Buckingham Palace in order to catch a glimpse of the changing of the palace guards. This event is somewhat unique as it won’t be carried out if the weather is not permitting but fortunately the weather was on our side that day. We managed to see the guards changing ceremony from the very beginning until the end.

St James Park

Guards Changing

Guards Changing

Entrance to St James Park

We did pass by Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and a couple of tourist spot on the way to Buckingham Palace which we fully intend to revisit once the tour finished. Our tour then stopped for Lunch at Victoria Street where instead of having lunch we decided to have a tour of our own along Trafalgar Square and National Gallery. Disaster strikes while we're enjoying our walk, the sole of my bloody shoes came off of my freaking shoes. We had to abort our plan to walk around the area and headed to nearby shop lot to scout for affordable shoe. We managed to purchase one at Charing Cross which is quite a bargain from my point of view.

Tourism Malaysia (Trafalgar Square)

Nelson Column

National Gallery

National Gallery

Big Ben

Entrance to Palace

By that time lunch has already ended and we have to make our way back to our tour group and continue our journey with the rest of them. Next stop is St Paul Cathedral which is quite huge and was build by the Romans who decided to pick a spot in eastern London along Thames River to set up a settlement. We only took pictures of the building exterior as we're barred from taking any pictures inside the building. After approximately 1 hour here, we're headed to maybe the highlight of today tour which is Tower of London and Tower Bridge. We spent quite a lot of time roaming this spot on our own as the place is huge with a lot of interesting things and facts to be discovered upon. It started to rain when we're about to queue to get into Crown Jewel's storing location so we decided to take a rain check. We left the building immediately in our attempt to beat the queue to board Thames River cruise boat, before we left, we had Fish and Chips, I mean you can’t come to London and not sample their Fish and Chips, do you?

Tower of London

Tickets to Tower of London

Tower Bridge

St Paul's Cathedral

There was quite a lot of historical building and attractions alongside river Thames, chief among them are Tate Modern, Royal National Theater, HMS Belfast, Globe Theater and London Eye. River Thames cruise took about 1 hour to reach its final destination which is Waterloo where we're supposed to disembark and end our tour for the day. By the time we reach Waterloo station, its already 5 p.m and we're pretty much exhausted after spending countless hours walking about.

Tower of London Ravens

Outside of Tower of London

Guard in front of Jewel House

Execution point of Anne Boleyn and various others

We head straight back to King Cross station when all of a sudden we decided to take a detour and went to St Pancreas International Station instead. The main reason why we went there is to find out how much does it cost for us to travel to Paris using Eurostar train. What we discovered was a huge letdown, it costs us 430 pound for a return ticket in order for both of us to go to Paris. At this juncture, we decided not to go and save the money instead and started our long walk to our hotel where we had dinner, sleep and prepare for tomorrow.

Thames River banks

Thames River cruise

Regards,

MARK

First Day (28th July 09)

Our flight to London departed from KLIA at 10.10 a.m and we managed to check in 2 hours earlier as required by the airport authorities. We had breakfast at 1901 Hotdog KLIA as we were really hungry and decided anything will do at this point of time! Fortunately time flies really fast while we're waiting to be boarded into the plane, after making our way pass the mandatory security check without any untoward incidents; we're ushered to our seats. My wife sat in a seat adjacent to the window so she could see our plane took off.

@KLIA

Right in front of Boarding Gate

The flight experience with MAS was very pleasant; the cabin crew was very polite and professional. I'm not surprised that they are voted as one of the best cabin crew and airlines in the world. We're pretty much well fed right from the beginning of the flight right up until the end. They even gave my wife some goodies as a token of appreciation when we’re about to alight from the plane. The flight itself took 12 hours and it is pretty much a very comfortable ride all the way to London but with some minor turbulence when we’re approaching the Bay of Bengals. I read books, watch movies and managed to get some sleep during the duration of the flight.

Walking to our hotel

We arrived at Heathrow airport approximately around 3 p.m local time and after boarding and clearing custom and emigration department which by the way took an hour to do. We made our way through Heathrow terminal to London Underground Tube, it took us quite a while to get accustomed to the London Underground Tube map and various points of interchange but once we got the hang of it, it’s definitely easier. We took the Piccadilly Circus Line from airport terminal to King Cross Station where we set off on foot navigating through the underground tube station. Mind you, the journey on tube itself was amazing to us, as this is the first time we sat our eyes upon English and Roman architecture styled buildings and houses. Upon exiting the underground station, the chilling weather was unmistakably unforgiving. Our initial thought was, is this how it is supposed to be summer? It was 14-18 degrees! Our hotel was about 15-20 minutes of walking distance from King Cross station so we decided to walk. We even had to ask for directions to our hotel and after questioning a couple of locals, there it was, our Holiday Inn King Cross Hotel! Originally we had planned to roam around the area but since it was quite late when we arrived there and we are exhausted, we decided to skip the evening walk as originally planned and crashed into our hotel room instead. Need to get a good night rest as tomorrow will be another long and eventful day.

View from our room

Inside our room

Until then,

Regards,

MARK

Ayam Penyet, USB drive and HDMI cable

I had lunch at Waroeng Penyet at The Curve with my friend...although the Nasi Ayam Penyet served wasn't up to my expectation but it is still sufficient to satisfy my cravings and it is relatively cheap as well, maybe I’ll bring along my wife next time. I bought a spanking brand new 8GB thumb drive, I'd lost countless number of thumb drives over the past couple of years and this is the first time I bought one for quite a while. Hopefully this one won't suddenly vanish out of thin air or mysteriously disappear from my work desk this time around. Originally I'd intended to purchase the thumb drive for my auntie but she already bought one, I guess she got tired of waiting for me to buy one for her. I've bought HDMI cable as well so I don't have to switch back and forth between playing X-BOX and watching movie.

Oh well, I'm all beat up and it's time to rest. I still have to prepare for an upcoming EMC exam this Friday and Cisco exam to be scheduled on the fourth quarter this year. I've left university for almost 4 years now, can't really explain why on earth do I have to prepare for a barrage of exams =)

Until then,

Regards,

MARK

My Final Day in SIngapore

I'll be departing to KL tonight and will be arriving slightly before midnight. My stay in Singapore has been fruitful in terms of knowledge gained by attending the SAN Management training. I took a short walk around Singapore city centre yesterday night, made my through Queen Street, Bugis Street and along Middle Road. I made a couple of pit stop at Bugis Junction to search for something interesting to be purchased but nothing catches my fickle mind, went straight to Bugis Village for dinner. I'd dinner at Shu Ji - for some reason the exact spelling escapes my mind, stumbled into Shu Ji when I was roaming the street for Nasi Ayam Penyet - but looks like I would have to return to Malaysia to have it as the time is kind of short to look for another outlet today. What made me decided to have dinner at Shu Ji? One single fact - Halal was plastered across the entrance to the shop house, ordered Nasi Lemak which turned out quite pleasant and given that I'm still hungry I ordered a bowl of Laksa. Yeah - I know, I'm indulging in gluttony but still a bit bummed out due to the fact that I still can't find Nasi Ayam Penyet.

Earlier that day, I've made my way to Millenia Shopping centre through Millenia underpass to stop by at Candy Empire. Candy Empire is essentially a shop that sells all kind of sugary treats such as candy bar, choc bar, milk bar etc; you get the drift, don’t you? I bought some choc bar, Belgian choc and some waffles which happened to be Tim Tam’s. I've heard a lot about Tim Tam now it’s high time to taste it. On the journey back to hotel, decided to fix my cravings for Nasi Ayam Penyet that I’ve been having for quite some time. The best Nasi Ayam Penyet I’ve had was at Changi Village and that was about 2-3 years ago when I'm here in Singapore for the first time for the same reason I'm here today which is - training. It turns out that the Ayam Penyet House along Beach Road is closed for renovation, I was utterly disappointed. Well maybe next time then.

Don’t ask me about Nasi Ayam Penyet, still can’t explain my own obsession with it =)

I can't wait to get home, maybe will buy some Patchi chocolate for my wife if I manage to find an outlet that sells one along the way. My experience in Singapore so far has been great because of the training, I've learned quite a few things although most of the content can be treated as a refresher course but nonetheless to learn something new everyday is always a good thing - no matter how small.

Until then.


Regards,
MARK

How to configure zoning on MDS Cisco SAN Switch

Let’s start this post by a confession, as I'm a Cisco enthusiast I’ll be slightly biased towards Cisco products be it an Ethernet Switch, SAN switch or Multiprotocol Gateway, I always have and will always be in favor of their products far and above their competitor offerings even Brocade's. Although over here in Malaysia, Brocade is arguably the most dominant player or the default choice among majority of companies, my personal favorite will always be Cisco MDS series. It might be a daunting task or overwhelming for a person who doesn’t have any experience in configuring Cisco Ethernet Switch to dive straight into MDS as it has hierarchical level or privilege to execute command unlike Brocade's, Cisco IOS has proven to be easier and flexible to be configured with - well at least from my point of view! Let’s dive straight into the configuration portion using CLI:

Assuming that the IP address for the Management Port is already configured, let's try to telnet to the SAN switch by executing:

# telnet 10.127.38.150

Configure the switch name by:

#switchname dev_mds9120_swA

Verify the name changes made:

# show switchname

Moving on to sub-configuration mode and let’s configure all ports connected to hosts and array to auto-negotiating speed:

# config

#interface fc1/2,fc1/3,fc1/15,fc1/6

#switchport speed auto

# no shutdown

#exit

What I'm doing is essentially configuring all the interface in this case interface fc1/2 , fc1/3, fc1/15 and fc1/6 to auto-negotiate the speed and enable the interface by issuing no shutdown. You can refer which port is connected to which hosts or array by issuing show fcns database, show interface brief or by looking at the topology in Fabric Manager.

Let’s go to interface fc 1/10 and fc1/11 to configure ISL:

#interface fc1/10,fc1/11

#switchport trunk allowed

#no shutdown

#exit

We will then configure Domain ID of 1 on the default VSAN (1):

#fcdomain domain 1 static vsan 1

#exit

Verify the Domain ID is correct:

#show fcdomain vsan 1

Don't forget to save the running config to NVRAM:

#copy running-config startup-config

Show the name server database and copy the content to text file to avoid any typo:

#show fcns database

Zone the Unix server to the array in this case the Solaris 10 server to Symmetrix array, by creating a zone:

#config

#zone name Sol10_hba1_Symm_1 vsan 33

#member pwwn 210000e08b90e795

#member pwwn 50060160082006e2

#end

What I'm doing is creating a zone for a single port HBA on the Solaris server and for the first storage array port on the Symmetrix. Repeat the steps above until all zone is created for every initiator and every target and verify the config:

#show zone vsan 33

Create a zoneset with a suitable name. A zoneset is a collection of all zones in the SAN fabric:

#config

#zoneset name Unix_Symm_MDS9120 vsan 33

Add zones to the zoneset:

#member Sol10_hba1_Symm_1

Repeat the step above for all zone members in the zoneset and verify the zoneset is in accordance to your plan before activation:

#end

#show zoneset vsan 33

#config

#zoneset activate name Unix_Symm_MDS9120 vsan 33

#exit

Verify your config and save it:

#show zoneset active vsan 33

#copy running-config startup-config

#exit

That's all for today peeps, easy right? In a later edition we will look at the nitty-gritty of configuring an Inter-switch link. Maybe we will than look at configuring either Clariion, Symmetrix, USP, EVA or MSA storage using CLI before we can complete our make believe SAN. I'm familiar with NTAP and certain IBM storage as well but I'll leave that to the expert, let's focus on either EMC, HDS or HP array as that's what I'm comfortable working with. Please refer to any good article on how to decipher and translate Symmetrix or HDS USP WWN to disk adapter or disk director from the net.

Any questions?

Regards,

MARK

Training at Singapore

Bleurgh! I'm seriously bored out of my mind with nothing to do here in Singapore, just waiting for the classroom training to start tomorrow morning. Until it actually starts I'm walking and wandering around Suntec City Shopping Mall for two purposes: one is to familiarize myself with the training center location so I could get myself around the place easier and second reason is - scanning for wireless access point without password or access security properly configured. That second effort proved to be somewhat futile, maybe Singaporean are better equipped with knowledge about wireless security setting, I'm reduced to sitting helplessly at Starbucks sipping my Hot Chocolate. I’m hoping that the training tomorrow won't be half as boring as today.

I almost miss my flight to Singapore because I overslept or to be exact my alarm clock didn't exactly rings or beeps, I guess when I altered my alarm clock on my Blackberry from 6 A.M to 5 A.M I must've forgotten to save the changes made. My flight departs on 7.45 from LCCT Sepang so the latest time to check in is 7 A.M but since I left home around 6.05 A.M the journey to airport via taxi seems to take forever especially when the driver is driving very 'cautiously' to be mildly polite or diplomatic. I reached the check in counter on 7.05 A.M, 5 minutes later than the closing time but I'm very lucky to say the very least as the express counter is still open for last minute boarding. Phew! I swore that I was imagining myself taking a bus all the way to Singapore when I was on the way to LCCT.

It's time to watch some football action on the TV as I missed out on the Charity Shield Cup action last night.

Regards,
MARK

EMC Acquires Majority Ownership of Data Domain

Its a pretty exciting news to me as the acquisition will allow EMC to own Data Domain de-dupe technology that's better at de-duplicating data on a very large file server and mail server. Please read on.

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today announced that it has acquired majority ownership of Data Domain, Inc. (NASDAQ: DDUP). Once EMC completes the acquisition of Data Domain, which is expected by the end of July, Data Domain will become the foundation of a new product division within EMC's storage business focused on the development and delivery of next-generation disk-based backup, recovery and archive solutions.

The new EMC product division will be led by Frank Slootman, Data Domain's President and CEO, reporting to Joe Tucci, EMC's Chairman, President and CEO, and Frank Hauck, EMC Executive Vice President leading EMC's Storage Business. EMC will increase its investment in the division, adding resources, technologies, and products. The company expects this new division to continue growing revenue at significant double-digit rates achieving $1 billion in revenue in 2010. EMC and Data Domain's highly complementary technologies will continue to deliver customers tremendous savings and value while promising entirely new and exciting prospects for integrated solutions in the future.

Joe Tucci said, "I am delighted to welcome Data Domain and its dedicated, talented and seasoned team to the EMC family. Together we will shape the future of next-generation disk-based backup, recovery and archive solutions, making life significantly better for our joint customers, changing the game in the storage software market, and creating new market opportunities for growth."

Frank Slootman added, "We are pleased to see the merger with EMC becoming a reality. We envision great opportunity to accelerate our business through EMC's massive worldwide distribution network and customer base, and we can't wait to begin seeing that play out in the market place."

Data Domain stockholders have tendered approximately 78.2 percent of the outstanding Data Domain shares (not including shares tendered by notice of guaranteed delivery). Together with the 3.9 percent of outstanding Data Domain shares previously held by EMC, EMC now controls approximately 82.1 percent of Data Domain shares outstanding.

The initial offering period of EMC's tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of Data Domain common stock expired at 12:00 midnight, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), on Friday, July 17, 2009. EMC has accepted for payment the approximately 50,947,657 shares tendered in the offer.

EMC also today announced a subsequent offering period commencing on Monday, July 20, 2009 and expiring at 12:00 midnight EDT, on Wednesday, July 22, 2009, unless further extended. The subsequent offering period will permit all stockholders who did not tender shares in the initial offering period to obtain the $33.50 per share offer price for their shares prior to consummation of the second-step merger. EMC expects to complete the second-step merger and close the acquisition shortly after expiration of the subsequent offering period so long as EMC controls 90% or more of the outstanding Data Domain shares at such time.

During the subsequent offering period, EMC's acquisition subsidiary Envoy Merger Corporation will accept for payment and promptly pay for Data Domain shares as they are tendered. Stockholders who tender shares during such period will be paid the same $33.50 per share cash consideration paid during the initial offering period. During the subsequent offering period, shares may not be tendered through procedures for guaranteed delivery and shares tendered may not be withdrawn. Envoy Merger Corporation may extend the subsequent offering period. If the subsequent offering period is extended, Envoy Merger Corporation will notify the depositary for the offer and issue a press release prior to 9:00 a.m. EDT on Thursday, July 23, 2009

Source: EMC

Touchdown!

Phew! I arrived at KLIA yesterday around 1730, it was a back breaking long haul flight not to mention the jet lagg that i'm experiencing. Not in the mood to write a very long post today, will elaborate further on our trip to London and Paris soon after completing my posting on our wedding etc.

Until Then,

Regards,

MARK