Work

FTP on linux @ home online!

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So I took the information I learned at work with building an FTP server on red hat and went home and built one. I sort of hope I secured it well enough. I checked things out and it looked good, but their is always something you forget.

The next step is to customize the configuration enough so I can use it at work in a production environment. Gus and I are sitting down tomorrow to look at it.

Robocopy is coming along well also. I am going to replicate an entire website tomorrow with a developers help. I need someone to test it after I am done.

Can’t sleep, so I ramble on in the blog!

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So it is early monday morning and I can’t sleep.  I hate holiday weekends because I end up screwing up my entire sleep habit and it is hard to get back into the normal routine.  I was up till like 2-am Saturday night, and now it is after 12:30 on monday morning and I am not tired at all.  I got the itunes going with some soothing music, and I am about to make myself a drink.  Hopefully that will get me tired to get some normal sleep.

I was going to take the powerbook and lie in bed and do some writing.  That is my favorite place to write.  I know it sounds crazy but it is.  I like to prop my pillows up and sit and type.  I normally prop the laptop up on my legs and type.  The problem is the powerbook has been on all day plugged into the outlet.  It is aluminum and it gets really hot when left on.  I really don’t want to pick it up right now.  That is the one down side of this new powerbook.  The metal makes it really hot when it is on for a while.

OK, I broke out the Godiva Liqueur.  I keep a bottle frozen in my fridge along with a bunch of other alcohol.  I am not a huge drinker but I sometimes have more alcohol than food in that freezer.  I got to drinking the Godiva from my dad.  He used to drink it at night every  once in a while.  he isn’t a big drinker but he would drink that stuff.  It is good.  I keep that, some bailies, Jack Daniel’s, & Absolute in the freezer.  I think there is more, but that is what I normally drink.

When I was traveling with Datastream I was depressed allot towards the end.  I started getting bored and the travel was killing me.  I went weeks at a time getting bad night sleep.  My dad actually recommended a shot or two before bed each night if it was stressed that day.  According to the medical folks 1-2-oz of alcohol a day is actually good for you, or at least ok to do.  I didn’t do it every night, but I got in the habit of doing it.  I haven’t done it in a while, but I guess that is good because of the reason I started in the first place!

My whole time at Datastream is a testimate to every action or event has a purpose.  I got that job and it was everything I thought I wanted at the time.  Then it turned out to be nothing like I thought it would be, and I became unhappy after less than a year.  Then I just said I can’t do this anymore and quit. 

After a few weeks I got offered to contract a my friend jeff and dave’s company.  Six months before I might have taken a job with them without question, but by this time (march 2001) I was set against anything internet company related.  I took it because I had nothing else going on and at least it would be steady money for a while.  I took the job as a favor to jeff, by me coming on he could leave and make sure they had support people.  I was totally not happy for the first few months.  Dealing with my friend dave was difficult at best and we didn’t have much to do. 

Then my current company picked up my contract and I was worried that I would hate it.  The guy I was going to work for was a pain allot of the time, but again I had nothing else going on and the things they were doing were cool, and it was a good opportunity.  To my surprise I actually liked it.  Dealing with the boss was not as bad as I first predicted, and the work as I said was cool.  So by dumb blind luck I ended up in a job that I currently think is awesome, doing pretty much what I always wanted to do.  It was all because of dumb luck or fate or who knows what that I ended up where I am today.

The weird turn of events go back even further than Datastream but I think my tangent about the drinking started off this story so I won’t go back further than that.  But this whole chain of events gets me wondering if everything happens for a reason, fate or whatever.  Or is it just dumb luck???  I don’t know.  All I do know is I need so dumb luck on the girlfriend front and the universe will be in good shape!

Of course I don’t regret my time at Datastream.  I wanted to travel, that is why I took the job.  I didn’t get the travel bug out of me at IBM so it was worth the time.  Trust me you want to travel when you are young.  I am not old by any means, but I don’t know if I could do that kind of travel now.  It takes too much out of you emotionally and physically.  In under two years I went to more places than most people will go in a lifetime.  For that I am grateful.

OK, I am 1 1/2 drinks into this blog entry and I am not yet really tired.

System automation

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I have always been a user enviornment type of guy. What I mean by that is I have worked at companies dealing with corporate users, and the desktops and servers that service them. My current job requires me to do that as well. Another aspect of my job also requires me to operate several websites and all the infrastructure that goes along with it. It is much different than corporate user systems. It is very challenging, but also allot of fun.

One problem we are working on is how to release updates to a system with over 8 web servers located in 2 locations (going on 3), each having a varying degree of importance. I am working with robocopy. it is a free utility in the Windows 2000 Resource kit. It allows you to take a file or directory structure and sync it with another file or directory structure. For our uses I will select a master server, and make all changes and releases on that, then robocopy all informaiton out to multiple servers. It works. I have tried it on some user directories when I needed to move data over file servers. It preserved the security levels and everything. I need to check and see if I can script this in a way that I don’t get prompted for a password when running a sync between two servers on two different windows domains. Also I believe it will work with UNC paths, but I need to try that also.

Robocopy and other great tools are tucked away in the Win2k resouce kit. If you do any windows administration, you should have this kit.

My next task involving multiple copies of data is creating a redundant FTP server. I am looking at 2 Red Hat Linux machines that RSYNC between themselves to mirror the data. We would place both servers behind a Cisco Local Director and load balance the traffic the way we would load balance a web site.

The advantage of doing these sync scripts is to take the human element out of udating things. You get continuity. We like to do the same thing with desktop updates. If you have 50 computers you don’t want some people walking around and manually updating things. You would get configuration differences between the machines. An installation package would make all the machines get the software in the exact way. Of course we actually do our desktop system updates the manual way right now. I am working on an automated system for that as well for our new office.

Besides all this reasearch going on, I have all the normal requests for things. Also we are having issues with the new Super Micro server and linux. I was not planning on running linux on this machine anyway, but I wanted to know if it would work. Keith is working through the problems.

We have FTP, almost!

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I have worked out allot of the problems with hosting an ftp server on linux. I have a red hat 9.0 machine setup with users configured. It actually works. The last thing I need to do is security on the public folder I created for our applications directory. We have a space to keep needed app’s that may be downloaded. I need to setup a real test machine and get users onto it before I feel confident. The next major phase is to setup another FTP server on linux and sync them together with RSYNC. I also need to sync a windows machine the same way. If all that works, I have a working solution for our secure FTP site for a perspective client we have.

Of course someone may ask for SFTP and then I have to rethink the whole solution!

must learn read hat flavored linux

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I am slowly picking stuff up. Not nearly as fast as I would like or need, but there is only so much time in the day not taken up by work that needs to get done before I learn.

Today I am going to try and pick up as much as I can about linux ftp. I need to look at the config files of an existing server to compare what I want to do.

I also need to do MRTG, but that is less important than the FTP project.

All the other standard work stuff also needs to get done today also. I have a 2pm meeting with our telecom provider about installation of our long distance T-1’s. I also need to call a telecom provider that wanted our business to let them know they didn’t get it. I am actually pissed at them for showing up to just talk to Gus because I didn’t return the guys phone call in a few hours. Sales guys take note, I am busy. So are other people. If I don’t want to call back in 5 minutes, I am not going to. Get over it. If I need or want you, I will call you. Some sales guys are cool about that, others are dumbass. If you are a dumbass I am not dealing with you.

Dam wireless updated

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So it looks like my internal wireless card is fried. IBM is being asswholes about fixing it. They say it didn’t come with the Thinkpad and they cant find the card serial number on my warrentee. I am faxing them the dam info, but it will be days before I can get it fixed. I hate tech support, maybe that is why I am glad when the tech support guy in my company works for me:) Gus probibly feels the same way about me! But really hardware support people at manufacturers all suck. I have not found many good ones. Even Cisco has done dumbass things in my book. I am not yet ready to go back to pen and paper. I will let you know when I am.

Responsibility is a double edged sword!

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It was weird. I was fine talking with dan for the first time in a while, and I got this pain right behind my left eye. It didn’t go away after like 5 minutes and I wasn’t taking chances that a migrane would develop. So I took the drugs.

I am finding I need to make decisions at work more and more without going through anyone. I knew that was what was needed, I am after all a manager now. it is funny, since I don’t consider myself one. But I have allot to oversee now. I don’t say that to think I am so super important. On the contrary, I say that because the reality of all this responsibility settles in and I worry. Worry that I know what is going on and can do the job. More importatnly is that I will do the right thing. Trusting instincts are good, but what if your instinct is wrong. That is bad! That being said, I have to do more independently. I like it, because it tells me people trust me to do the right thing on my own. I also like having that extra advice and help from people. I guess that is me not ever having to be in this situation before. I am taking the good with the bad. It is overwhelming sometimes, and fun other times. Today for example was super stressful, but actually fun. I spent time with Keith just troubleshooting multiple problems at once.

I just hope that when push comes to shove I get the job done. It is weird. I wanted to write about this (this blog is after all for me to speak my mind), but I know their is a 50/50 chance that Gus will read this. I don’t think I mind, but it is weird knowing he could have have. So, oh great and powerful boss of mine, if you do read this just don’t ever bring it up that you did. That way ignorance is bliss for me:)

Work is busy, I wouldn’t have it any other way!

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I have so much to do I don’t know where to begin sometimes. Then I get side tracked with people making requests. I feel bad because I am telling them I need requests for most non-system down problems. Just because I won’t get anything done otherwise. I like that people still feel they can ask me to do stuff, but most user requests are completed by Keith and justin now. I am spending my time trying to figure out how to do a highly available FTP system for a new client of ours. I am also looking into getting MRTG working on a red hat box. I have the windows version downloaded, but I am trying linux first. Going to windows will be admitting defeat for me. I came to the conclusion today that I need more ready to go testing machines. I currently need 2-3 linux machines to test stuff on. MRTG, FTP, & DHCP/DNS. I also need to setup a windows domain on another machine. Proxy server on yet another box. I have no room at my desk and my server room is getting cramped. Not full yet, but it is getting interesting.

On top of priority issues I have to do a scripted IIS web server install with one of the developers. We need this for a system refresh we are planning. I don’t know when it will happen, but it needs to be soon.

On a good note, I bought a NAS (network attached storage) device a few weeks ago. We wanted it to move files between offices. It is 4x faster or so than our USB hard drive solution we had. The NAS is only 4lbs so we just bring it to the colo or our office and just plug it in. It is awesome. Our hard to please DBA’s were very happy about it.

I got a ton of hardware approvals today. Lots of misc gear to keep things running in top shape. Gus grumbled about it, but signed off. I think he likes doing that. I still need to ask for some more hard drives for our dev and qa servers. our databases are growing so much we keep running out of space

More Stuff & Stress

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So I find out late Monday afternoon where all my stress and anguish originated from. Turns out Gus did something that inadvertintly caused our problems. Keith and I busted on him for a while (Keith more than me since I was out of the office by then) but I am going to cut him a break. He ussually is correct about alot of things. That is of course why we bust on him when he IS wrong. More details to this story, but I cant go into it. Needless to say my being vauge is nessisary, and the story quite funny in the end. If you want sick humor.

Dam wireless

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I am having some issues with my Thinkpad. It is not doing wireless very well. I had issues yesterday in a meeting. I had no signal where I normally get good signal. Then last night the dam thing got low signal while I sat at my desk at home. I sit right over the dam wireless point so why did it have bad signal while my mac got great signall? Well, I have no idea. My netstumbler (a wireless signal and network meeter software program) also showed poor signal quaility. I need to check signal streangth with another laptop with netstumbler. if it is fine I have a bad wireless card. If it is bad, then something is wrong with both networks at work and home. That is unlikely.