Computer Management

New Technologies

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We have been really busy recently. Normal day to day work has been keeping some other projects on hold. For one is our replacement of some servers in our data center.

Other projects include trying to clean up our notification system. I need a day or two of just doing that, and I cannot find the time.

Jayson, Kai, and I also have several “new technologies” that we want to try out and see if we can use them for the office. Many of them we think would be great, but are months if not a year or so away from seeing the light of day. Because the lead time may be so long, we don’t actually look at some of this stuff. We need to because that is how we advance our office. I want to find time to make sure we all can test what we think will be helpful. On that list we have sharepoint portal services for an intranet site, Novel eDirectory for a possible Active Directory replacement, ZEN Works to use to deploy software, SMS for the same possible reasons, several Suse based projects, and more.

DFS On Windows 2000

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I am wondering if anyone out on the internet has had issues with Microsoft’s Distributed File System (DFS) and Windows 2000 Servers as the client for DFS? We have several developers who use Windows 2000 Server as their desktop so they can develop our website. We moved to a new file server last week and when we moved the DFS to Windows 2003, we notice very slow response time browsing the DFS from a Windows 2000 Server. Our Windows XP Pro clients are fine. Only 2000 Servers. The DFS is now hosted on a Windows 2003 box. The old DFS we had was on a 2000 box. I wonder if that is the problem? I have to google the issue. Right now I am away from the internet so I figured I would think about the issue for a while. It is a minor problem, but when I am on the train away from everyone I try to figure out the stupid little issues that I can’t think about at work.

I will leave comments open in case someone has a thought.

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:)

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.

Remote Agents And Terminal Server

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While I was awake and not sleeping last night, I thought about my remote agent design issues. Currently we have schematics of different electronic and home appliance parts on CD’s we use to look up stuff. The problem is they take up a huge amount of drive space. We get updates every month that need to be added to the existing data. This is fine when a computer is on our network, we just run the update from our file server. What do you do when you have remote computers over a VPN WAN link trying to get the same update? Pushing out 500 megs to 2 users is possible, but what about 20, or 200? It becomes unfeasible due to bandwidth limitations.

One option is to not give the remote agents this software, but they rely on it. My thoughts then turned to Terminal Services. What if all the updates are on the central server, and users just connected to the server via terminal services. That way I don’t have to worry about anything on the local machine except for an IP address and terminal client working.

This is contingent on our phone control software working with Terminal Services. I believe it does, but an answer to that question is easy enough to get.

The next problem is cisco soft phone. I doubt it would work through terminal services. We may need to go with a physical cisco IP phone at a person’s house. It adds cost per user, but it may be necessary. Also going with a hardware VPN solution is looking better than a software solution. If anything goes wrong with the remote computer we would be responsible to manage it. We cannot troubleshoot software issues like vpn over the phone, and we are not equipped to send someone onsite to fix problems like that.

A hardware VPN device that we can remote into and verify it is working, along with terminal services is looking like a good solution. it is not the cheapest but maybe the most feasible. We would require someone to have their own computer, and all they would need to put on it is terminal client. That takes 5 minutes to setup. Wire up a VPN router from cisco or linksys plug in a phone and they are up and running.

Now all I have to do is sell everyone on the solution and make sure it works from a technical standpoint.

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Gus Back From India

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My boss is back from his trip to india. My vacation is over:) Just kidding. The work doesn’t really change, but stress level does when he returns. At least he looks rested and relaxed from his trip.

We hit the ground running with a bunch of new projects he wants me to look into. One involves a new beefy Linux Server. We will probably use Suse 9.0 for this deployment. Also on the plate is Project 2003 server. Jayson and I have kicked around the idea since he got here, but now we see a real business use for it, so we will push ahead with it.

We are also pondering remote agents again. We think we can use the remote agent’s to get french reps in NYC to connect to Kingston. This may or may not allow us to free up space in NYC. The office is getting crowded again.

All this on top of the 4 new sites we are building out, and the new server deployments in our data center, and the major office move of users thursday and friday. It will be a fun week.

Virus’s At Work

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If you read the news you must hear about all the worms and other “bad things” spreading through the internet. My company has been diligent in attempting to prevent these things from infecting our computers. We have not been 100% protected, but from what I have seen we are way ahead of the curve in protecting ourselves.

I have seen lots of virus alerts from our virus scanning system. Thankfully, it is able to deal with whatever comes up. Also important is the Windows Update server. That thing is a life saver. I don’t know if we would have been able to install all these updates on all of our desktops without it. We need to goto the next level and get an SMS or ZEN type system next.

I have never been a huge fan of Novel, but they have caught my curiosity. What they are doing with Suse keeps me interested. Also that their directory services work on Windows is also cool. All that and ZEN Works is much better than SMS, or that has been my practical experience. I don’t know how SMS 2004 holds up. I keep telling myself that my company is a windows shop, we don’t want Novell. The other side of my brain is saying “you know Novell is better, give it a try”. For now I am ignoring that side of the brain. I would like to get a demo of Novell and give it a test drive. When (if) things ever settle down enough that I can try that, I will. Novell NDS, running on Suse linux. Now that would be really nice, if it worked as easy as the old novell used to!!!

Travel Time

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As of right now I am planning a trip to our Kingston office for tomorrow and possibly friday. I say as of right now, because I say that allot and things sometimes change on their own.

I have to go and interview candidates for a helpdesk position we are trying to fill up there. Also have other work that needs to get done up there. We are in the middle of planning a new software build for all our desktops. We are also going to revise our security policy for users also. you have to be exact when doing this stuff or you get 80 users who cannot do anything because their security profile is messed up.

More news tomorrow if I do end up going…

Friday, Kingston Trip

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Friday I went to kingston for the day. Most of the trip was uneventful. That is good when traveling. I worked on the Group Policy Objects with Kai. I think we ironed out the kinks in what we want to do. For some reason our old profile we made would crash when we modified the security settings, but the new one I just created didn’t. Of course there is no major difference between the two. Go figure.

The trip home wasn’t that good. It took an extra hour or so to get home. Not sure why. the train was late. They said it was due to engine problems. Then we went slow and stopped allot along the way. I tried to sleep a bit on the train. I never do that so it was different for me. I used all my laptop battery power during the day and forgot to charge it. That wouldn’t be a problem if I sat on a window seat with a power outlet, but I sat on the aisle and couldn’t use it. The van wilder dvd I have been meaning to see will have to wait.

People on the train pissed me off. Like 4 people around me were either talking on their cell phones the whole time or one guy was playing a game on his phone with the stupid sounds turned on the whole time. People need to learn some etiquette.