The ASR is one of the aspects in Windows Vista that has been evolved with the introduction of Vista Service Pack-1. A Windows application programming interface, ASR is designed to keep track of and record the configuration of disks and volumes on a system. It will also manage disks in accordance with Critical and non-Critical labels, depending on whether they do or do not contain system state or operating system components.
With Windows Vista SP1, Microsoft has introduced supports for the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI). As such the ASR in both Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 was tweaked in order to be capable of recovering EFI system partitions in a bare metal recovery.
IBM
IBM-Tivoli is ASR in static IP environments using Tivoli Storage Manager was introduced in November last year.
The IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Automated System Recovery Process supports Networks that are DHCP enabled. In networks that do not support DHCP and uses Static IP's, the local backup sets are used to recover these systems in case of a crash or total failure.
ASR is used to recover Microsoft Windows Server system in the event of a catastrophic system or hardware failure. The goal of ASR process is to return the operating system to the point of last backup. It is a two-phase process.
* Microsoft Windows installs a temporary operating system image using the original operating system media.
* Windows invokes TSM to restore the system volume and system state information.
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) interfaces with Microsoft Windows to provide system recovery.
Hewlett Packard
HP Blade PC Automated System Recovery Utility 2.00 Rev. E description was introduced earlier this year.
This package contains the Automated System Recovery (ASR-2) Service for the supported desktop models and operating systems. The ASR-2 service causes an HP Blade PC that has stopped responding (locked up), or that has experienced a "blue-screen" error, to restart (reboot), bringing it back online and making it available for network users.
Development includes the modification of the installation script to add support for 64-bit Microsoft Windows Operating Systems (Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista).
Conclusion
ASR does not backup user's files or other data, it should be used only as a last resort because in preparation for a restore ASR will format the system and boot volumes of the hard-drive, making other, less drastic recovery methods impossible.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Mars Rover Spirit is Rolling Again After Memory Problems
It’s been a worrying month for the health of Mars Expedition Rover Spirit. Two weeks ago, the embattled robot failed to wake up after three successive communication sessions, and then over the Easter weekend (April 12th and 13th), mission HQ noticed the rover had rebooted its systems at least twice during use of the high-gain antenna. The same thing happened on April 18th. In addition to this, Spirit has been suffering bouts of what seems to be an ‘electronic amnesia’, where the onboard computers have failed to record data onto their flash memory.
Today however, it would appear Spirit is still operational after over two weeks of remaining planted in the same position. It managed to enact commands sent from NASA to start driving once more, trundling 1.7 metres over the Martian regolith. She hasn’t given up the good fight quite yet…
Since when have electronics on Earth ever lasted more than five years? I always seem to hit a two-year wall with my laptops when something nasty happens to the hardrive and/or motherboard (usually a day or two after the warranty runs out). But when we talk about the computers on board the Mars Expedition Rovers (MER), these electronics aren’t in the snug safety of my office; they are on the surface of an alien planet, dealing with extremes in temperature, high energy particles and copious amounts of dust. What’s more, the rovers were only designed to operate for a few months and yet they are still going strong, five years later. It’s the NASA mission that just keeps on giving.
I think this is what makes the MER mission so impressive for me. Not only are Spirit and Opportunity still operational, they are operating 20 times longer than their designated lifetime and they are notching up a very healthy odometer count. Their cumulative distance travelled is not measured in metres, or kilometres; it’s measured in tens of kilometres. They are giving us an unprecedented insight to the Martian surface, information that will shape our understanding of planetary science for generations to come.
But like any planetary mission, times can be tough, and both rovers have been tested to their engineered limits. Unfortunately, Spirit has been hit by a few more setbacks than Opportunity, but NASA has been able to find workarounds for each problem. The Mars Science Laboratory has a lot to live up to, I wonder if the MER mission will still be operational when the MSL finally touches down? Perhaps the next generation rover will have a robotic welcoming party!
The most recent issue for Spirit has been the flash memory problem. Flash memory helps the rovers store data even when they are powered down, but when the little rover forgets to actually store the data on the flash memory, something is obviously awry. In an attempt to make sure the rover can still take commands and to see if the computer problems persist, NASA ordered Spirit to travel 1.7 metres toward a target 150 metres away. All seems to be going well so far.
“We expect we will see more of the amnesia events, and we want to learn more about them when we do,” said JPL’s Sharon Laubach, chief of the rover sequencing team, which develops and checks each day’s set of commands.
“We decided not to wait until finishing the investigations before trying to drive again. Given Spirit’s limited power and the desire to make progress toward destinations to the south, there would be risks associated with not driving.”
Hopefully keeping the rover mobile will help NASA troubleshoot the recent computer problems, but so far, she’s still rolling over the Martian dirt…
Today however, it would appear Spirit is still operational after over two weeks of remaining planted in the same position. It managed to enact commands sent from NASA to start driving once more, trundling 1.7 metres over the Martian regolith. She hasn’t given up the good fight quite yet…
Since when have electronics on Earth ever lasted more than five years? I always seem to hit a two-year wall with my laptops when something nasty happens to the hardrive and/or motherboard (usually a day or two after the warranty runs out). But when we talk about the computers on board the Mars Expedition Rovers (MER), these electronics aren’t in the snug safety of my office; they are on the surface of an alien planet, dealing with extremes in temperature, high energy particles and copious amounts of dust. What’s more, the rovers were only designed to operate for a few months and yet they are still going strong, five years later. It’s the NASA mission that just keeps on giving.
I think this is what makes the MER mission so impressive for me. Not only are Spirit and Opportunity still operational, they are operating 20 times longer than their designated lifetime and they are notching up a very healthy odometer count. Their cumulative distance travelled is not measured in metres, or kilometres; it’s measured in tens of kilometres. They are giving us an unprecedented insight to the Martian surface, information that will shape our understanding of planetary science for generations to come.
But like any planetary mission, times can be tough, and both rovers have been tested to their engineered limits. Unfortunately, Spirit has been hit by a few more setbacks than Opportunity, but NASA has been able to find workarounds for each problem. The Mars Science Laboratory has a lot to live up to, I wonder if the MER mission will still be operational when the MSL finally touches down? Perhaps the next generation rover will have a robotic welcoming party!
The most recent issue for Spirit has been the flash memory problem. Flash memory helps the rovers store data even when they are powered down, but when the little rover forgets to actually store the data on the flash memory, something is obviously awry. In an attempt to make sure the rover can still take commands and to see if the computer problems persist, NASA ordered Spirit to travel 1.7 metres toward a target 150 metres away. All seems to be going well so far.
“We expect we will see more of the amnesia events, and we want to learn more about them when we do,” said JPL’s Sharon Laubach, chief of the rover sequencing team, which develops and checks each day’s set of commands.
“We decided not to wait until finishing the investigations before trying to drive again. Given Spirit’s limited power and the desire to make progress toward destinations to the south, there would be risks associated with not driving.”
Hopefully keeping the rover mobile will help NASA troubleshoot the recent computer problems, but so far, she’s still rolling over the Martian dirt…
Hubble Discovers a Strange Collection of White Dwarf… Dwarfs
A collection of very odd white dwarfs have been discovered in a local globular cluster. Twenty-four white dwarfs (18 of them are new discoveries) have been spotted. Although these degenerate stars aren’t exactly an uncommon (they are the small sparkling remnants left over after star death), this particular set are unique; they are made from helium, rather than the “standard” carbon and oxygen. And they are small, even smaller than the smallest dwarfs.
How did this dense cluster of old stars evolve? It turns out their stellar material is being stolen, stifling their development…
“Helium-core white dwarfs have only about half the mass of typical white dwarfs, but they are found concentrated in the center of the cluster,” said Prof. Adrienne Cool, from San Francisco State University, in a paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal in July. “With such low masses, the helium-core white dwarfs ought to be floating all around the cluster, according to theory. The fact that we find them only in the central regions suggests that they have heavy companions — partner stars that anchor them to the cluster center.”
Cool and co-author Rachel R. Strickler believe they are seeing a case of stellar plasma theft by companion binary stars in the NGC 6397 cluster, approximately 7,200 light years away. These binary partners not only anchor these strange-looking white dwarfs in the centre of the cluster, they also have a huge role to play during the dwarfs evolution.
Before a white dwarf emerges from a planetary nebula, the parent star will have gone through the red giant phase (a phase our Sun is expected to go through in 4-5 billion years time). If this red giant has a binary partner (which seems to be the case of the 24 white dwarfs in this study), the outer layers of the puffed-up giant will be stripped away by the partner, stifling the red giant’s evolution. As mass is lost, the giant never gets the chance to burn helium and then progressively heavier elements such as carbon and oxygen in and around its core. Helium then becomes the key component of these smaller-than-usual white dwarfs.
“This is the first time that helium-core white dwarf stars have been discovered in partnerships with other white dwarfs in a globular cluster,” Cool said. “This large sample allows us to answer questions about the mass and nature of the partner stars, and the prevalence of these kinds of binaries in the globular cluster.”
Binary stars are known to affect their partners fairly radically, they are even known to slow or even stop the development of black holes, stripping the outer layers of the dying star, stifling black hole development by removing mass from the parent star. However, not all questions have been answered.
From Cool’s calculations, 5% of the stars found in NGC 6397 should end their lives as dim helium-core white dwarf stars, but after studying Hubble data, many of these tiny dwarfs are missing. “It’s possible that these helium-core white dwarfs cool so slowly that they haven’t had time to get very faint yet,” Cool said.
There remains the possibility that the oldest binaries containing helium-core white dwarfs have actually been destroyed by interactions with other stars in the cluster. Regardless, this is a fascinating area of study. To understand how these ancient stars evolve will not only aid the development of globular cluster models, but it will provide an invaluable insight to how binary stars influence their partners.
How did this dense cluster of old stars evolve? It turns out their stellar material is being stolen, stifling their development…
“Helium-core white dwarfs have only about half the mass of typical white dwarfs, but they are found concentrated in the center of the cluster,” said Prof. Adrienne Cool, from San Francisco State University, in a paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal in July. “With such low masses, the helium-core white dwarfs ought to be floating all around the cluster, according to theory. The fact that we find them only in the central regions suggests that they have heavy companions — partner stars that anchor them to the cluster center.”
Cool and co-author Rachel R. Strickler believe they are seeing a case of stellar plasma theft by companion binary stars in the NGC 6397 cluster, approximately 7,200 light years away. These binary partners not only anchor these strange-looking white dwarfs in the centre of the cluster, they also have a huge role to play during the dwarfs evolution.
Before a white dwarf emerges from a planetary nebula, the parent star will have gone through the red giant phase (a phase our Sun is expected to go through in 4-5 billion years time). If this red giant has a binary partner (which seems to be the case of the 24 white dwarfs in this study), the outer layers of the puffed-up giant will be stripped away by the partner, stifling the red giant’s evolution. As mass is lost, the giant never gets the chance to burn helium and then progressively heavier elements such as carbon and oxygen in and around its core. Helium then becomes the key component of these smaller-than-usual white dwarfs.
“This is the first time that helium-core white dwarf stars have been discovered in partnerships with other white dwarfs in a globular cluster,” Cool said. “This large sample allows us to answer questions about the mass and nature of the partner stars, and the prevalence of these kinds of binaries in the globular cluster.”
Binary stars are known to affect their partners fairly radically, they are even known to slow or even stop the development of black holes, stripping the outer layers of the dying star, stifling black hole development by removing mass from the parent star. However, not all questions have been answered.
From Cool’s calculations, 5% of the stars found in NGC 6397 should end their lives as dim helium-core white dwarf stars, but after studying Hubble data, many of these tiny dwarfs are missing. “It’s possible that these helium-core white dwarfs cool so slowly that they haven’t had time to get very faint yet,” Cool said.
There remains the possibility that the oldest binaries containing helium-core white dwarfs have actually been destroyed by interactions with other stars in the cluster. Regardless, this is a fascinating area of study. To understand how these ancient stars evolve will not only aid the development of globular cluster models, but it will provide an invaluable insight to how binary stars influence their partners.
Zindagi hai Choti, Har Pal Khush Raho
Zindagi hai choti, har pal mein khush raho...
Office me khush raho, ghar mein khush raho...
Aaj paneer nahi hai, dal mein hi khush raho...
Aaj gym jane ka samay nahi, do kadam chal ke hi khush raho...
Aaj Dosto ka sath nahi, TV dekh ke hi khush raho...
Ghar ja nahi sakte to phone kar ke hi khush raho...
Aaj koi naraaz hai, uske iss andaz mein bhi khush raho...
Jise dekh nahi sakte uski awaz mein hi khush raho...
Jise paa nahi sakte uski yaad mein hi khush raho
Laptop na mila to kya, Desktop mein hi khush raho...
Bita hua kal ja chuka hai, usse meethi yaadein hai, unme hi khush raho...
aane wale pal ka pata nahi... sapno mein hi khush raho...
Haste haste ye pal bitaenge, aaj mein hi khush raho
Zindagi hai choti, har pal mein khush raho
Office me khush raho, ghar mein khush raho...
Aaj paneer nahi hai, dal mein hi khush raho...
Aaj gym jane ka samay nahi, do kadam chal ke hi khush raho...
Aaj Dosto ka sath nahi, TV dekh ke hi khush raho...
Ghar ja nahi sakte to phone kar ke hi khush raho...
Aaj koi naraaz hai, uske iss andaz mein bhi khush raho...
Jise dekh nahi sakte uski awaz mein hi khush raho...
Jise paa nahi sakte uski yaad mein hi khush raho
Laptop na mila to kya, Desktop mein hi khush raho...
Bita hua kal ja chuka hai, usse meethi yaadein hai, unme hi khush raho...
aane wale pal ka pata nahi... sapno mein hi khush raho...
Haste haste ye pal bitaenge, aaj mein hi khush raho
Zindagi hai choti, har pal mein khush raho
The Apple Tree?
A long time ago, there was a huge apple tree.
A little boy loved to come and play around it everyday.
He climbed to the tree top, ate the apples,
took a nap under the shadow...
He loved the tree and
the tree loved to play with him.
Time went by... the little boy had grown up and he no
longer played around the tree everyday.
One day, the boy came back to the tree and he looked sad.
"Come and play with me," the tree asked the boy.
"I am no longer a kid, I don't play around trees anymore."
The boy replied,"I want toys. I need money to buy them."
"Sorry, but I don't have money... but you can pick all my apples and sell
them. So, you will have money."
The boy was so excited. He grabbed all the apples on the tree and left happily.
The boy never came back after he picked the apples.
The tree was sad.
One day, the boy returned and the tree was so excited.
"Come and play with me" the tree said.
"I don't have time to play. I have to work for my family.
We need a house for shelter. Can you help me?"
"Sorry, but I don't have a house.
But you can chop off my branches to build your house."
So the boy cut all the branches of the tree and left happily.
The tree was glad to see him happy
but the boy never came back since then.
The tree was again lonely and sad.
One hot summer day, the boy returned
and the tree was delighted.
"Come and play with me!" the tree said.
"I am sad and getting old. I want to go sailing to
relax myself. Can you give me a boat?"
"Use my trunk to build your boat.
You can sail far away and be happy."
So the boy cut the tree trunk to make a boat.
He went sailing and never showed up for a long time.
Finally, the boy returned after he left for so many
years.
"Sorry, my boy. But I don't have anything for you anymore.
No more apples for you..."
the tree said. "I don't have teeth to bite" the boy replied.
"No more trunk for you to climb on".
"I am too old for that now" the boy said.
"I really can't give you anything...
the only thing left is my dying roots"
the tree said with tears.
"I don't need much now, just a place to rest.
I am tired after all these years." The boy replied.
"Good! Old tree roots is the best place to lean on
and rest. Come,
Come sit down with me and rest."
The boy sat down and the tree was glad and smiled with
tears...
This is a story of everyone. The tree is our parents.
When we were young, we loved to play with Mom and Dad...
When we grew up, we left them...
only came to them when we needed something or
when we were in trouble.
No matter what, parents will always be there and give
everything they can to make you happy.
You may think the boy was cruel to the tree but
that's how all of us are in treating our parents.
A little boy loved to come and play around it everyday.
He climbed to the tree top, ate the apples,
took a nap under the shadow...
He loved the tree and
the tree loved to play with him.
Time went by... the little boy had grown up and he no
longer played around the tree everyday.
One day, the boy came back to the tree and he looked sad.
"Come and play with me," the tree asked the boy.
"I am no longer a kid, I don't play around trees anymore."
The boy replied,"I want toys. I need money to buy them."
"Sorry, but I don't have money... but you can pick all my apples and sell
them. So, you will have money."
The boy was so excited. He grabbed all the apples on the tree and left happily.
The boy never came back after he picked the apples.
The tree was sad.
One day, the boy returned and the tree was so excited.
"Come and play with me" the tree said.
"I don't have time to play. I have to work for my family.
We need a house for shelter. Can you help me?"
"Sorry, but I don't have a house.
But you can chop off my branches to build your house."
So the boy cut all the branches of the tree and left happily.
The tree was glad to see him happy
but the boy never came back since then.
The tree was again lonely and sad.
One hot summer day, the boy returned
and the tree was delighted.
"Come and play with me!" the tree said.
"I am sad and getting old. I want to go sailing to
relax myself. Can you give me a boat?"
"Use my trunk to build your boat.
You can sail far away and be happy."
So the boy cut the tree trunk to make a boat.
He went sailing and never showed up for a long time.
Finally, the boy returned after he left for so many
years.
"Sorry, my boy. But I don't have anything for you anymore.
No more apples for you..."
the tree said. "I don't have teeth to bite" the boy replied.
"No more trunk for you to climb on".
"I am too old for that now" the boy said.
"I really can't give you anything...
the only thing left is my dying roots"
the tree said with tears.
"I don't need much now, just a place to rest.
I am tired after all these years." The boy replied.
"Good! Old tree roots is the best place to lean on
and rest. Come,
Come sit down with me and rest."
The boy sat down and the tree was glad and smiled with
tears...
This is a story of everyone. The tree is our parents.
When we were young, we loved to play with Mom and Dad...
When we grew up, we left them...
only came to them when we needed something or
when we were in trouble.
No matter what, parents will always be there and give
everything they can to make you happy.
You may think the boy was cruel to the tree but
that's how all of us are in treating our parents.
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