July 28th, 2010
Every vendor who comes by assumes when I say yes, we have virtualization that it is VMWare. It very much shows that VMWare is king when looking at backup, management and monitoring tools. Luckily, from the backup perspective I have been able to piece together not only a free backup solution, but one that is easy to use and actually quite slick!
All backups, Virtual, Physical and plain data are backed up to a cheap disk array on a dedicated backup server, from here each week the data is sent to tape and archived, a weekly copy, monthly, and yearly are kept.
What gets interesting is on top of this, we have been testing using RSync to send the data remotely to our other location for DR purposes. What is great with RSync is that if you have a 50GB Virtual Machine but only 1GB has changed only the changed data will be sent, much reducing bandwidth and possibly, time. (I say possibly as backups are slower as the search the files for changes).
So far RSync has been working great, we are currently in the load testing process.
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June 9th, 2010
We are back! We zipped home as fast as can be, only three days of riding!
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June 5th, 2010
We just made it in to Quebec City for two days and we noticed the same warships we toured in St. Johns in Quebec City now! The Danish and Geeeermans are following us!
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June 4th, 2010
We were on the Trans-Canada heading north when amanda spotted a moose at the side of the road. I was ahead and unable to see him sneaking out of the bushes and behind a bridge up ahead. Amanda had enough time to scream into the headsets a quick warning when he ran out onto the road in front of us. Brakes on full we both came screeching to a halt along with the transport behind us.
Poor confused Moose ran back and forth on the road a few times then bolted into the bushes. We were sooo damn close to this Moose it was pretty scary.
Everyone warned us about Moose at night in Newfoundland but no one every said anything about Moose in New Brunswick at 1 in the afternoon.
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June 4th, 2010
We left Charlottetown with some dark sky above, luckily a few springkles is all we got. We headed towards the confederation bridge, which i have been worried about for a few days. We have crossed a few bridges which have had me freak out more than once and this bridge is a doozie, at over 12kms long. I was able to suck it up with amanda cheering me on behind me and make it over the bridge with only a few tears…..
After the bridge we zipped up and over to Grand Falls so we can cross to Quebec tommorow.
I have heard a lot of people speak of New Brunsickians as rude but so far they have been some of the nicest we have run into!
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June 3rd, 2010
We have just finished out last ferry crossing. We have done a total of six crossings on several different types of ferries.
Portsmouth to Burlington. we arrived at this ferry just as they were loading the lash vehicles for the day. This was an open top ferry where you stand with your bike/car. We were wedged in between a tour bus of annoying tourists. (we are not tourists, we are travelers!)
St John to Digby. This was a large ferry that took about three hours to cross. We met some other bikers from Alberta that trailered their bikes to St John then rode the bikes onto the ferry. Wusses.
Ferry in Nova Scotia We were riding down a road that just ended witness a small hop on hop off ferry that takes you to the next road. When amanda shut off her bike if backfired very loud and scared the attendant making her scream..
North Sydeney to Port Aux Basques and back This was by far the longest ferry taking 8 hours each way. On the way there we got separated to other sides of the boat and Amanda did not remember how to tie the bike of which made her freak out a bit. Luckily some biker boys from BC helped her out. We had a very cool cabin to ourselves also. On the way back we weren’t as lucky and were stuck with bunks in a hostel type setup. We opted to sit on chairs and sleep which was hell.
Nova Scotia to PEI. Surprisingly this was a very large ferry also with two levels. We rode witness the transports on the bottom for the 70minute crossing. Cool thing was going to PEI is free so it didn’t cost a dime. Getting off the island is a different story.
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June 1st, 2010
Yesterday we picked up amandas bike in Stephenville and as usuall the weather was not great, very cold and very windy. We rode through an area which has had recorded winds of 200km/h which has tipped transports, the weird thing is the wind didn’t start until after this high winds area. There were a few times we had to force our bikes to keep them on the road. Tired and frozen we booked passage back to Cape Breton and on to PEI.
Booking the ferry we could not get a private room, only a bunk in a room with several others. Amanda was not a fan if that idea so instead we sat in chaise and tried to sleep. Amanda can sleep through anything but I always have trouble sleeping, slept very little and wandered the boat several times getting more and more nauseous. (that poutine probably didn’t help either)
Leaving the boat very tired we immediately hit rain, 3 degree weather and crappy, crapy roads. Although it is called the Trans-Canada highway the road from Sydney to the nova scotia mainland was very bad with ruts which pull the bike from side to side. We did 150kms of this until i called it a day, shivvering and soaking wet we pulled into a hotel with over bikes hiding from the rain and grabbed a room. All our stuff s packed into the bathtub to dry and I’m going to grab some z’s before Amanda gets hungry for oat cakes. PEI will have to wait until tomorrow!
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May 30th, 2010
We definitely liked St. Johns, a small city of a little over 100k people but feels much bigger witness lots of restaurants, stores, etc. Not being such a big city there are much less bumbs, dirtbags or scoundrels. The view of the city is amazing, with to bay, port and mountains making the city look beautiful.
We grabbed a room very close to the port and spent the evening roaming the streets. The next day we wandered up signal hill with a hard walk, but beautiful views and history. After signal hill we noticed five warships in the harbor and lucky for us they were having an open house! We got to walk on and check out a Danish, German, and Canadian warship. These were huge ships with helicopters, heavy guns and large crews of around 250 sailors. It was pretty sweet.
All the warships meant that there were an extra 1000 men in the city so the bars were packed, a definately sausagefest. We went to George street and went into two bars, had a few drinks and packed it in.
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May 29th, 2010
So far we have seen twelve Moose on our trip! Four in Nova Scotia, and Eight in Newfoundland.
Nova Scotia
Moose One: Amanda almost walked into the first moose on the skyline trail. We got to watch him set on the trail for quite awhile until we were bake to sneak by him.
Moose Two to Four: While watching the first moose, in the forest a mother moose and baby Moose were having a break. We got to watch them from a safe distance.
Newfoundland
While walking a 10km hike in Gros Morne I spotted a moose up ahead across a field of dead trees. We watched him for a bit until a few loud bikers made hm run.
Walking further along the trail I spotted a giant moose ass sticking out of some trees. Right along the trail was a moose drinking from a river along the side of the trail. While watching him his wife came along and the wandered off after while.
We have seen four Moose heading to and from St. Johns mulling on the side of the road.
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May 29th, 2010
We spent one day in Rocky Harbour, a very cute town inside Gros Morne and took two hikes, a 1km and a 10 km. Along the way way saw three Moose, all along the trail. I have become quote skilled at spotting Moose, unfortunately Amanda has almost walked into Moose many times. Moose are huge creatures and it is quite a heart stopping thing running into them on a trail.
Next we headed to St. Johns. It was a hellish drive driving over 700km’s in constant rain all day but we finally made it, grabed a hotel, had a meal and went to the wrong George street full of druggies and homeless.
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