Work

Ongoing Work

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Last night it looks like we got a ton of pages about 1 drive being out of space. Not sure why we didn’t get a low disk warning first. I just tested that dam warning system like a month ago. No one (myself included) woke up to the pages. that is not good.

Justin is out again. He has more dental problems than anyone I know. Keith is coming in late. he did work on our VPN last night. I don’t get him. We discussed the work, but he never asked to take some time off until the last minute. It drives me up the wall when he does that. If I knew that bit of info, I wouldn’t have said ok to the work last night. I needed people this morning since I knew justin was out. I need to teach these guys how to prioritize time. Spending an hour on a minor problem that doesn’t need to get done right away is not worth it if you can be spending that time on something else that people are waiting for results on.

All that being said, today is not starting off very well. At least the Database guys are working on the error we were getting. it doesn’t look like our sites were down, but getting errors is bad.

Yesterday I did more research into using Microsoft Operations Manager for our data-center. I like it, but I also have some issues with it. In our test, I was unable to get historical reports. I also sized the database wrong so I ran out of space. I needed to extend the db. I also don’t know if some of our new internal network security will cause the Operations Manager server to stop receiving data from our production database servers. For now this is all theoretical, but I am trying to hash out a working course of action.

On another project I ordered 2 out of the 3 servers I need for our new MSMQ system. It is a messaging system we are going to use for order processing. I need to order 1 more database server and then I will be done.

I am also trying to find time to work on ISA or a linux proxy server. No time has yet to be found.

A Day Off For Someone

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Keith took the day off today. Sometimes when we are short staffed we get slammed with work. It can be very stressful. Other days we don’t get slammed with work, and I can actually get paperwork and other projects done. When that happens and Keith is out of the office it is nice for me. I get our office all to myself. It is a different atmosphere. I can can play music if I want.

I finished rebuilding my desktop computer. I also got a project plan completed for a new project I am working on. I also took care of some vendor issues that I had outstanding.

Gus and I were going to go out for drinks tonight to celebrate my promotion, but we wanted to bring dan at the last minute. He had a conflict. We wanted to bring him since he got promoted also today. Gus can’t go tomorrow so dan and I will go have a few drinks. We are trying to round up a few people for that.

Gus is out the end of this week, so my plans to goto Kingston are on hold until he gets back.

Projects Going On

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We are still working on our monitoring phone call system. The company that makes the software thinks they have an idea of what is wrong. I should have more information today. I always love buying stuff that just does not work!

I think I finally am motivated to look into Proxy server software. Too many things are going on that I say if we had a proxy server we could figure this out, or we could prevent this. It is a pain to know a tool will work, but you just don’t have the time to set it up.

I found a flaw in the Windows 2000 Pro VMWare image I am using. I built it when I was learning about VMWare so I made the partition size too small. When I try to download large files to it, I get out of disk space warnings. I need to build a new one today. Howard also is trying to get a Red Hat 9.0 VMWare image. I found one I did that works, but I need to see if I configured it properly.

I want to do a VMWare image of Free BSD 5.1 also. I am not sure what to call the OS installs in VMWare. I guess an “image” of a disk is a close enough description of what it is.

Upgrades Complete (Mostly)

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I did my Mailflow upgrade. Keith and I also patched more than 50% of our servers. we will try to get a bunch more done after 12AM when the office officially closes for the day.

i ordered my extra data t-1 for our office finally. we will use it to send VOIP traffic over to our Kingston office. It should take 30 – 45 days to get it up and running.

We spec’ed out a design for our Biztallk deployment. We will be putting a new fulfillment system in place in the next few weeks. We will deploy Biztalk server, MSMQ, and some other neat products. I have concerns because MSMQ needs to be loaded on a domain controller in its 2.0 version that we will be using. We need to move quick so we picked servers to use that we have onsite already. I had to bump 2 other projects to get the gear but both of them are lower priority. We will just buy new gear and earmark it for those projects. We are pretty much standardized on Supermicro for our Windows servers. If I get these 2 new box’s that brings my total of supermicro box’s to 8 we have gotten in the past 6 months. I really like there serial ATA 1U servers. They make a dual xeon version of it that looks fantastic. All for under 3K. We still use compaq for our high end database box’s and anything we need that uses SCSI. We just got a ML380 2 weeks ago, but nothing beats several inexpensive servers that you can get for the price of 1 bigger box.

I also started relying more on ROBOCOPY utility from Microsoft. In addition to regular tape backups I am replicating using robocopy some specific data on some file server to have an online backup also. I also used it for my first web site deployment. We have a large (300 gig) site that I needed to setup on a 2nd server. One of our dev staff setup the IIS site and configured it, and I am robocoping the contents to the new box. if it works we will do it more frequently. We had a plan to do that over the summer, but other projects took precedence.

Windows 2000 And 2003 Domains

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I ran a test in our testing domain we call MIS. I took a new 2003 server and added it to the existing 2000 Active Directory Domain. I learned you have to run 2 tools for it to work correctly. I did it and everything seemed to work ok. This is in preparation for me to begin upgrading our existing 2000 domain with 2003 domain controllers. Since I don’t like upgrading OS’s I will probably demote a DC and rebuild it with 2003 server and then add it back to the domain. To not loose a DC during this transition I will probably take a old machine or a desktop even and use it as a backup DC while the real one is being reconditioned.

This is not a top priority project, and it is in no way a glamorous project, but it solves a bunch of issues we are having and positions us to use some new tools that are out there. I will write more about it as testing continues.

Kai is also beginning to look at SMS 2003 server. It is supposed to be launched officially in the next few weeks. We are trying to get a demo copy to see if we can get it to do what we need. No work has begun on that project yet.

I have a stack of hardware requests sitting on my desk for me when I get to work today. We need a few servers for one project, a router, and other misc. items. I need to get them approved today so I can get the ball rolling on getting this stuff.

Yet More Exchange 2003 Stuff

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I read a powerpoint last night that was part of a MSDN webcast on RPC over HTTP for Exchange. It looks like I have done everything I need to do. I can only see 1 or 2 thinks that may not be right, but I am being told they should be. 1: I don’t have a valid SSL ID. I am using one that posts an error when you bring up the site in HTTPS. The power-point vaguely mentions ssl has to work without errors. Also a checkbox in outlook 2003 is grayed out. The problem is the option is checked but grayed out. I need it checked, but I don’t know if it is bad that I cannot modify the option. All the documentation says I should be able to.

If I cannot get this working by the end of tonight I will put up an Exchange 2000 server until I can figure out this mess. I feel defeated right now:(

Other Updates

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Today I ran through some test upgrades to see if a DB upgrade I am going to do tomorrow will work ok. My problem is that I have been unable to truly simulate the current environment so my tests failed. I am working to correct the problem tomorrow.

I am also trying to get a fix for some phone monitoring software we had installed last week. we got this software and it just doesn’t work. thankfully we haven’t paid for it yet.

I got install dates for my new voice T-1 that we are getting. I also got final pricing on new data circuits we need for our VOIP traffic.

Tomorrow will be a late night to run software upgrades at work.

Still No Exchange

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I stayed up late last night working on getting Exchange 2003 to work correctly. So far I have not succeeded. Howard put me in touch with David at idealab. He has done the deployment before and he was very helpful. Thanks to him I have an idea of what needs to be done. I went through all the documentation he sent me. I got further along in the process than I did before, but still nothing. I am now going over all my settings to verify I did everything correctly. so far it looks like I have done everything expected of me. I am getting frustrated with being unable to get this to work. I have a few more things to try tonight when I get home.

The Holy Grail

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The holy grail for me the past 4 days has been configuring Exchange 2003 to use RPC over HTTP and getting it to work. So far nothing. I have gotten 2 exchange servers to work, but I need to be on the LAN in order to get mail via outlook 2003. I can use the web interface but that isn’t good enough. I can use a vpn connection, and that wont work either. I am so close but it still wont work.

I would like to thank Microsoft for their totally lack of a support selection on this topic. I have all 3 documents regarding the topic printed out. they barely mention how to install the dam service. You would think that would be an important part of the process.

I am just burnt out right now. I have been taking all of my spare time this weekend to get this to work. I am just frustrated because I am so close to getting it to work.

Exchange 2003

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I finally got around to installing Exchange 2003 on a machine at home. I wanted to test it out somewhere and I didn’t find time at work, so I did it at home. I got it to work after I rebuilt my 2003 server. I need to test the RPC over HTTP option when I goto work monday. It works fine on the same LAN.

If it works out ok, I will put one at work for extensive testing.

This entry was written while listening to Personal Holoway by Bush