Work

Project And Other Servers

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Gus is getting me to start using project server. I got my account today, and I hope to add my quarterly project plan in a few days. it looks cool, but we need to get everyone to use it.

I got the RAID card in for the new machine we will build Subversion on. lets hope that Promise didn’t lie when they said this card supports Suse 9.0. I need to build that with Danny sometime in the next week or so. I then need a new box for Nagios. Danny (who is now our resident Linux expert besides Gus) is saying that Subversion and Nagios may be too CPU intensive to put on the same low end box. We will evaluate the situation and make a decision. We are using a Penguin Computing 1U server we picked up last September. They make decent low end box’s for linux. We are modifying the one of the 2 we have for use with this app.

User Quota’s

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As I have mentioned in previous posts we are bringing down a file server at work. We need to wipe the OS and do some firmware updates on it and then we will bring it back online. Since we ran out of space on it, we needed a replacement box. We got that machine and have already deployed it. Now what we will do is spread out the corporate data onto two machines as soon as the old one is rebuilt.

Once this is done I have decided to impose disk quota’s to users. We are having issues where everyone is using tons of space, and not caring. If I keep my user and group data on different file servers I can quota the user data server. That way I can force people to consolidate their outlook files. I have over a dozen people who are hitting the 2gig limit on outlook pst files. No one knows how to delete stuff.

Right before we put out the new server we will instruct everyone how to compact their outlook files. That way they can compact them on their own.

This will be a very unpopular policy, but I haven’t found a policy we have that users do like.

In The Pool Monday, And Some Work

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Monday Jayson came over and we moved lots of data around at work. We finished moving all user data off of a file server. To do this we had to replicate it to another server. I did that earlier in the week. Then we had to disable all network accounts so we could, refresh any files that have been changed since. To do this we needed no one logged into the system so we didn’t get any files locked. Once that was done we manually went in and changed each users home and roaming profile directories. Once that was changed we tested the changes and enabled all the accounts.

We will keep the old data and the old file server around for a week or so in order to make sure we have no issues with the change over. We have been using the new server for a few weeks with other data on it, so I am not that worried. You can’t be too careful with other people’s data.

Once the work was done, John and Dave came over and we all went to the pool in my building. We hung out there for a while and then went out to eat at the outback. Mmm, Outback. I haven’t gone there two days in a row in ages. Can’t do that too often, but once in a while is nice. I didn’t even order a meal. I got stuffed on appetizers. It was great.

Dave, John, & Jayson went back to John’s to play halo. I had to do my laundry and my cold was making me feel like crap so I stayed away from a late night of blowing stuff up.

Monday was productive and fun at the same time. Well not at the same time, but it was productive for some of the day and fun the other part:)

Road Trip, But Not A Fun One

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I went to Kingston Wednesday. I came back from Kingston Wednesday. That sum’s up my day Wednesday.

Not sure when I will do that again. The train was delayed both ways due to track work. That is the second time in a row that happened. I think this may be a summer project or something. I don’t want to deal with that again.

Kai is on vacation in St. Thomas, so I went up to meet with some electricians about some new construction work we are planning. I also wanted to give Brian a hand. I don’t want the guy to be too overworked while Kai is away. I ended up not doing too much work with him. Stuff in NYC occupied allot of my time. From problems with our new fulfillment FTP system that was going live, to VLAN issues with users. I did get some work done on a new computer build (we got a new model desktop in) but I am no where near completion.

I got or thought I was getting a migraine in the afternoon right when I was getting on the train to go home. I took 2 butabitol’s on the train and felt better. I also slept or at least rested comfortably for 30-40 minutes on the train because of them (or so I think).

Network Problem Fixed

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I have spoken about our potential network issue with a file server. Last night we decided to move the old and new file servers over to a different switch. Jayson this morning moved both servers to our core switch. He then began to try and copy files back and forth between machines exactly like we were doing before. Where we got errors before, the files transfered normally. It looks like it was either the port on the switch, or the switch itself. My fear is that another fiber module went bad. I hope it is on the 24 port rack switch and not on our Core.

We are going to test copying files to another server that is connected to the 24 port switch in question. That will help us narrow down our area of concern.

Migration’s And Other Work

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Sunday I spent most of the day working. I focused my time on two things that would never get done if I was in the office. I finished updating and compiling a database of every employee, their email addres, and what email groups they are on. I also decided to join that db with one I was making with every employee’s phone numbers. It went from an email and seperate phone db, to a Employee contact db of sorts. I still have a separate db for the Defined phone systems ports and their corresponding floor ports in NYC. That took most of the day Friday to get information on.

Next on my list of to do’s was to migrate more data to our new file server. We were quickly running out of space on our old one so we got a new disk array on another server. I am moving all the data off the old one, so I can rebuild it and clean it up. Then I can put some data back on the original box, and distribute our files between the two file servers.

Since our DFS(MIcrosoft Distributed File System) share was on the original box that I want to get rid of, I had to create a new DFS share on another box. Then I pointed all our alias’ back to the original server. I then updated the login scripts for everyone to map to the new DFS share.

Once that was done I replicated all package (where we keep our install files to applications we use), and group (team shares that people use to colaberate with) directories to the new server. Once the group shares were mirrored, I went one by one and changed the alias’ in the DFS to point to the new server. I still have one or two shares going to the old box because I had some questions I still needed answered.

Now I have two of the 4 major shares moved off the old server. The next two are the most time intensive to move. Users home directories and the roaming profile shares. Each of those have to be modified in active directory so it takes time to move users. It is easy to copy the data, but hard to move 60 users or so. That project will be next week, maybe.

jayson also moved most applicatons off of another app server. We want to rebuild it so we can put Project 2003 server on it. We have to upgrade that box to Windows 2003 server first. Jay got Norton AV, and Ghost off of it. I moved most of Whatsup, but I need to verify I got everything before we blow the old box away. I hope to get that started early this week. Gus has been asking about project server.

VPN Changes, Man I Am Out Of Practice

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I really need to brush up on my firewall rules knowledge. It took me 20 minutes to figure out how to modify a rule. Once I realized how it was setup it was trivial to fix, but that initial learning curve to remember how it was originally configured is the hard part.

When things settle down I need to sit in front of the Cisco simulator software we got and play with some ideas I have regarding new changes I want to make on our system.

Robocopy Is Nice

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I have to move entire directory tree’s from one server to another. I have to do this with keeping the NT security on the tree’s intact. We are talking about hundreds of gigs of data. I also want to copy it once, and then every day replicate only the changes we made that day out to the new server. I want to do this until I am ready to cut over to the new box completely. How do I do it, robocopy. It is a nifty tool in the Windows 2000, & 2003 resource kit.

i just wrote a batch file and put it as a scheduled task every night. it works exactly as advertised. I cut over 1 of the 6 directory tree’s I needed to last night. I will work on more this weekend if I can.

Move Day 2 Complate, Now On Day 3

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I lived through day 2 of our move of space. The cube guys did an awesome job. Now people have to realize I am not an interior decorator and stop asking me for filling cabinets and shelves. I really don’t care about them, or if you get them. You should all know me by now!

We had some minor electrical and cabling issues. The electrical is all better now. The cabling we came up with a creative way to solve the problem.

Today is the day we move everyone to their new spots. I want to get computers moved and phones working. I just have to get 15+ people where they are supposed to be. At least the portable AC’s are now up and ready for use. they should be on today if it is humid.

Day One Of Move Completed

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We have completed the first of 3 days of planned moves and changes at work. It was done with still no AC. The units are sitting there, but not plugged in.

Jayson, Nelson & I were able to move 10 users from their current spots in our call center area, to the new smaller call center area. We also displaced about 5 other users that were current occupants of the new space. they will be in limbo for about a day and a half until we can get the construction of the new cubes done.

John, Nelson and a few others were also cleaning up all the non-computer crap in the old call center area. They accumulated allot of it over 2 years in that space. It was so messy, Dan even vacuumed for a bit.

All in all, things went smoothly. Tomorrow is the big work though. This was just leading up to the major job. Hopefully the cube guys can get this done in a day.

After we finished, Dan, Nelson, Gus, Alyssa, Jayson, & I went to Pete’s tavern for dinner. it was cool. I had the fish and chips.

I am on the train home now. It is kind of late, for a work night. I should be home by 10PM if all goes well. I just hope I can get some sleep tonight.