there seems to be more magic than supposed to within FreeBSD ...

I just wanted to configure a new VLAN on one of my FreeBSD gateways. So, to not forget I entered the configuration for it in /etc/rc.conf:

cloned_interfaces="... vlan42"
ifconfig_vlan42="inet 1.1.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.224 vlan 42 vlandev fxp0"

after this I started to set up and configure the new vlan-interface manually:

ifconfig vlan42 create

a quick check with ifconfig if the interface was created the right way and I was very surprised: not only the interface was created but also set up with its complete configuration, the ip, vlan-id and assignment to the physical interface. These configuration details are only available within rc.conf and normally ifconfig should not refer to this file. Additional tests without the configuration details for this interface in rc.conf are showing the expected results, and every time the config-details are present in rc.conf they where used during an ifconfig create call.

Also I do not find any reference to this behaviour in the sourcecode of ifconfig and also a ktrace logging delivers only one ioctl call for creating the new interface. It stays to be mysterioous... at least at the moment.

Oh, not to forget: the test where done with FreeBSD 6.2-p3.

Gestern abend in der Sneak: Sunshine. Ein SciFi Weltraumdrama mit einer etwas hinkenden Story und viel zu sehr Action-Spektakel am Ende.  Kam nicht sonderlich gut an.  Der Schwerpunkt etwas mehr auf die Story mit weniger Fehlern haette dem Film gut getan.  Kann man sich anschauen, muss man aber nicht. Nur vier von zehn Punkten.

Diese Option hätte ich gerne in mehr Software :)

(in 'It's All Text!', gefunden via Dirk)

I just come out of the sneak preview at the cinema in munich. This time they showed Freedom Writers. My rating for it: 8 out of 10. A school drama on education methods and what people which are comitted to teaching can obtain. I clearly can recommend it.

yesterday I set up monitoring with cacti for my servers and routers. On one of this routers, a cisco 3640 only equipped with two 10 MBit ethernet interfaces, cacti detected a courious traffic peak of more then 16 MBit on one of this 10MBit interfaces. This traffic peak was over more than 5 to 10 minutes. Does cacti fool me or what is going on here ?

so, every now and then a new installation has to be made. The machines to be installed are typically 150km away, but equipped with a serial console and an remote power switch. So I grabed an idea from few month ago and tried to use the 6.2-Release bootonly image.

Continue reading "manual FreeBSD 6.2 install via PXE and serial console"

Im Gegensatz zu Ihm hier hat mich das Ergebnis doch ein wenig überrascht:

seit ein paar Jahren beobachte ich nun das Thema blogging. Nun wird es Zeit für ein eigenes BLOG. Mal schau'n was daraus wird...