Spring equinox 春分

Spring equinox, or 春分, is that day in spring when the day is as long as the night. It is also one of the 24 solar terms, or 二十四節気, and so I kept up my practice of writing it.

"Algernon" (アルジャーノン) by Yorushika (ヨルシカ)

This music video is really beautiful, and makes you think about the novel Flowers for Algernon (which was also made into a movie). It made me want to watch the movie again. It is really hard to describe but I really like the song's melody (with its melancholy).

Lyrics (from YouTube video)

貴方はどうして僕に心をくれたんでしょう
貴方はどうして僕に目を描いたんだ
空より大きく　雲を流す風を呑み込んで
僕のまなこはまた夢を見ていた

裸足のままで

貴方はゆっくりと変わっていく　とても小さく
少しずつ膨らむパンを眺めるように
貴方はゆっくりと走っていく
長い迷路の先も恐れないままで

貴方はどうして僕に名前をくれたんでしょう
貴方はどうして僕に手を作ったんだ
海より大きく　砂を流す波も呑み込んで
小さな両手はまだ遠くを見てた

あくびを一つ

僕らはゆっくりと眠っていく
とても長く　頭の真ん中に育っていく大きな木の
根本をゆっくりと歩いていく
長い迷路の先を恐れないように

いつかとても追いつけない人に出会うのだろうか
いつかとても越えられない壁に竦むのだろうか
いつか貴方もそれを諦めてしまうのだろうか
ゆっくりと変わっていく
ゆっくりと変わっていく
ゆっくりと変わっていく

僕らはゆっくりと忘れていく　とても小さく
少しずつ崩れる塔を眺めるように
僕らはゆっくりと眠っていく
ゆっくりと眠っていく

貴方はゆっくりと変わっていく　とても小さく
あの木の真ん中に育っていく木陰のように
貴方はゆっくりと走っていく
長い迷路の先も恐れないままで
確かに迷いながら

Setting up a Proxmox Backup Server

When I switched to using a HP Proliant ML110 Gen9 tower server for my homelab use, I used a Proxmox Backup Server VM to backup the VMs on the Dell Poweredge R720 that I wanted to migrate, then used the backups to move those VMs to the ML110 Gen9. This made me realise how useful such a backup server is.

Previously, I had a Proxmox cluster that included the Dell Poweredge R720, another Dell Poweredge R430, and a Raspberry Pi 4 as a cluster node for quorum. This allowed me to migrate VMs between nodes in the cluster, but I have since deleted that cluster because I really didn't need something so elaborate. However, that also means that it is a bit more troublesome if I need to move a VM from one server to another, since it usually entails finding a way to copy the backup file from one server to another.

Proxmox Backup Server allows me to keep the backups on a single server which can be easily shared by several servers. If I need to move a VM, I just have to backup that VM (onto the backup server), then restore it on another server.

So I got myself a second-hand NAS that has four bays, runs on an Intel Celeron J1900 processor, and gave it 8GB of RAM. It also came with a 8GB SATA SSD plugged directly onto one of the SATA ports on the motherboard, but I thought I should give it a bit more space for the main boot disk, so I am using a 32GB USB thumb drive as the boot disk instead.

 

Installing Proxmox Backup Server was very simple. Just download and flash the ISO onto a thumb drive, and boot from that thumb drive. Follow the prompts to install the server onto the 32GB USB thumb drive, and set the BIOS to boot from that.

After booting, I needed to add a datastore to the backup server to store my backups. When I got the NAS, it came with a 2TB HDD, so I just reused it to add a "Directory" storage.

 

Then, I went into my other servers and, under the "Datacenter", added a "Proxmox Backup Server" under "Storage". This will allow me to choose that backup server as a storage location for future backups. For good measure, I backed up all the VMs on the R430, so that I can reinstall the R430 to use a 1TB SSD as the boot disk (instead of the 256GB USB SSD that I am using right now). It also means that, if I ever so decide, I can switch the R430 to another tower server instead of having to hear jet engines roaring every time I boot it up. 😅

Oh, the backup server uses about 19W of power, by the way.

12 years since 11 March 2011

12 years have passed since the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan on 11 March 2011.

And it is indeed timely that director Shinkai Makoto's latest movie, Suzume no Tojimari (すずめの戸締まり, English title Suzume) is showing now in theatres, since the movie touches on this disaster.

12 years after the disaster, life has not returned to normal for those affected most by the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima. 

12 years... and it is through Suzume that I realised how much this disaster has actually affected me.

Migrating to another server (HP ML110 Gen9)

My main server is the Dell Poweredge R720 rack server, which I use to run a few VMs, mainly TrueNAS, Jellyfin, and other services such as PiHole. I used to run a Linux VM and a Windows VM (for work) on it too, but I have since moved to my desktop (running as a Proxmox workstation) for these. Still, the R720 consumes a lot of power, even though I have tried to reduce that by hibernating the VMs when not in use. The average consumption is around 190W when running 3 VMs, which is really a lot.

Even when powered down, the R720 continues to consume about 15W of electricity as it needs to keep the iDRAC alive. For the R430, this is around 9W of electricity, which is still unnecessary and so I usually leave the R430 switched off from the mains and turn it on only when necessary.

I thus decided to go for a less power-hungry setup. I got myself a HP ML110 Gen9 tower server, which comes with 4 x 3.5" HDD bays. Using some of the R430's RAM, I gave the ML110 a total of 84 GB of RAM. It was also given a Intel Xeon E5-2630L v3 processor, which has a lower TDP while still giving 8 cores and 16 threads. When not powered, it consumes only 3W for the iLO (which is HP's IPMI).

First, I had to migrate my VMs. I decided to create a VM running Proxmox Backup Server on the R720, and backed up my three VMs for migration to that backup server. (Note: Proxmox Backup Server should be installed on bare metal usually, but for this migration, I decided to go with a VM since I am only using it for this particular instance.)

Then, on the ML110, I installed Proxmox, and added the backup server as a storage. From there, I restored the three VMs I wanted to migrate. After they were "restored" on the ML110, I tweaked the hardware settings to make sure the amount of RAM and CPU cores were allocated properly for the VMs. Then, I shut down the R720 and ML110, shifted the GPU to be used by the Jellyfin VM to the ML110, and also the harddisks to be used by TrueNAS.

Next was the moment of truth. I turned on the ML110, did the GPU passthrough for the Jellyfin server, passed through the harddisks to the TrueNAS VM, and started the VMs.

And voila!

Everything worked! Hurray!

I also measured the power consumption using a power meter. The ML110 consumes around 85W when all three VMs are running. This is like 100W less than the R720. Wow!

So now, the R720 has joined the ranks of the R430, becoming "ondemand" servers that I will power up only when needed.

Next is to get a low power NAS to run Proxmox Backup Server full-time so that I can backup the VMs on the ML110 as well as the desktop workstation.

(Oh, and another thing of note is that, while the Dell R720 used to take about 10 minutes from reboot to launching the three default VMs, the ML110 took about 6.5 minutes because its boot process is much shorter. This makes it a lot easier when upgrading the kernel or other things that require a reboot.)

Calligraphy pieces for 2023 so far

I just realised that I had not been sharing my calligraphy pieces recently. Like last year, I wrote something for the new year. This year, it is the Year of the Rabbit, so I thought about writing something related to the rabbit (兎), and wrote 勢如脱兎.

The 24 solar terms, or 二十四節気, is a traditional Chinese way of dividing the year and seasons. I thought it would be nice to use them as a way to practise, so I wrote the following.

On 4 February, it was 立春.

On 19 February, it was 雨水.

And on 6 March, it was 驚蟄.

It is really nice to have something throughout the year as themes for practice, so I hope to keep up this habit of using the 24 solar terms for the rest of the year, at least to complete the entire cycle.

Jingzhe 驚蟄

After Yushui, or 雨水, comes Jingzhe, or 驚蟄, another of the 二十四節気 24 solar terms. It signifies the time when hibernating insects awaken.

 

 

Watching Suzume again (seventh time)

I just watched Suzume yesterday, and didn't expect to be watching it again so soon.

 

But still, I went to catch Suzume for the seventh time today. 

And ended up crying at the same scenes as yesterday.

Oh, one thing I had been wanting to write about is one of the very first scenes, when Suzume first went to the deserted hot spring town and found that initial door. That door was in the center of a run down building, and that place was actually slightly flooded. In fact, Suzume was seen to be hesitating for a couple of seconds before she stepped into the water to walk toward that door. Being set in September, while the weather might still be hot, it is kind of unthinkable for a girl to get her shoes wet, when she has to go to school, just to satisfy that curiosity.

Also, there were several times when Suzume ended up getting drenched during the movie. She must have a very strong constitution because she never caught a cold. 😅

When the movie was over, I noticed these two at the lobby. I wonder what the QR codes are for...

I guess I have caught Suzume at least once each month since it first premiered in November last year. Maybe I should try to keep up this record... 😅

Blog posts related to Suzume no Tojimari: 

Suzume no Tojimari (すずめの戸締まり) at IMAX

Diving into Suzume no Tojimari

"Director's retake" of Suzume

Suzume no Tojimari all-Japan stage greeting

Director Shinkai Makoto in person at Dolby Cinema screening of Suzume no Tojimari

Suzume stage event with director Shinkai Makoto

Final screening of Suzume in Japan with live broadcast of stage event

Suzume—Tamaki’s Story (unofficial translation of 小説すずめの戸締まり～環さんのものがたり～)

Suzume—Serizawa’s Story (unofficial translation of 小説すずめの戸締まり～芹澤のものがたり～)