Tech

New IBM xSeries 346 servers

Jemimus — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 22:02:00 GMT

As part of a new global Active directory roleout, we recieved 4 xSeries 346 servers today, which will function as domain controllers.

Here are some pictures I made (also on my Flickr! work page)

IBM xSeries 346 server, with a 5 disks in the front. Mark is placing the controller.

The Blower-array of the IBM xSeries 346 server. Each fan can be taken out seperately, or you can take the entire rack of fans out in one go.

This little module that looks much like a memory stick, is in fact the Adaptec/IBM ServeRAID 7k SCSI controller.

New IBM xSeries 346 servers

Jemimus — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 22:02:00 GMT

As part of a new global Active directory roleout, we recieved 4 xSeries 346 servers today, which will function as domain controllers.

Here are some pictures I made (also on my Flickr! work page)

IBM xSeries 346 server, with a 5 disks in the front. Mark is placing the controller.

The Blower-array of the IBM xSeries 346 server. Each fan can be taken out seperately, or you can take the entire rack of fans out in one go.

This little module that looks much like a memory stick, is in fact the Adaptec/IBM ServeRAID 7k SCSI controller.

New IBM xSeries 346 servers

Jemimus — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 22:02:00 GMT

As part of a new global Active directory roleout, we recieved 4 xSeries 346 servers today, which will function as domain controllers.

Here are some pictures I made (also on my Flickr! work page)

IBM xSeries 346 server, with a 5 disks in the front. Mark is placing the controller.

The Blower-array of the IBM xSeries 346 server. Each fan can be taken out seperately, or you can take the entire rack of fans out in one go.

This little module that looks much like a memory stick, is in fact the Adaptec/IBM ServeRAID 7k SCSI controller.

New IBM xSeries 346 servers

Jemimus — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 22:02:00 GMT

As part of a new global Active directory roleout, we recieved 4 xSeries 346 servers today, which will function as domain controllers.

Here are some pictures I made (also on my Flickr! work page)

IBM xSeries 346 server, with a 5 disks in the front. Mark is placing the controller.

The Blower-array of the IBM xSeries 346 server. Each fan can be taken out seperately, or you can take the entire rack of fans out in one go.

This little module that looks much like a memory stick, is in fact the Adaptec/IBM ServeRAID 7k SCSI controller.

There are cases and then there are Cases.

Jemimus — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 14:42:00 GMT

Thinking about getting some new cases.

I am getting a bit tired of my main server, fs_srv1, which sits in the livingroom, making such a noise all time. On top of that, it looks butt-ugly, and isn't exactly extendible.

This seems to be a far better alternative:

Its the Lian-Li PC-V1100.

Specifications

Observed Dimensions: 490 (L) x 208 (W) x 515mm (D)
Construction: Aluminum
Observed weight: 8.6 kg (w/o PSU)
Mainboard: up to a full size ATX
PCI Slots: Seven
Drive Bays: six hidden 3.5”, five exposed 5.25” with one of these FDD cover plate and tray
Cooling: 120mm front case fan with filter, rear 120mm exhaust
Front mounted ports: two USB 2.0, Firewire, mic in and audio out
Power Supply: None
Available in silver and anodized black

Apart from the fact that it looks stunning, it also has wheels, and is made to be extremely quiet.

Here a quote from Overclocker Cafe's review:

"The Lian Li PC-V1100 has features and expansion room to satisfy most anyone. Taking a new design and sound proofing it has opened up the niche market of silence seekers that much more. With the room inside the PC-V1100 it almost screams for a water cooling system to be installed in it. The listing of pros below says it all. The only problems with the case are the lack of a reset button and no mainboard tray. The lack of a mainboard tray can be overlooked for the most part because of the large amount of work room inside. Pricing at $250 isn't exactly cheap but considering what you get for the money, it's worth every penny."

I would need to include this PSU:

Its the Zalman Silent 400W Power Supply.

Right now fs_srv1 is a P3 800, but considdering the amount of shit I run on it (website, p2p, sql, sharepoint, pr0n, music, AD, etc. etc. etc. , its long overdue an upgrade. Upgrading the case will at least prepare for an eventual upgrade, which I will probably do somewhere next year when I have some money.

Alternativly I might considder a barebone case, such as this:

This is the Shuttle XPC SB81P, and is reviewed at Tomshardware here, Overclocker Cafe here, and The Techreport here.

I was also thinking of a barebone case to place at my mother's to act as a server to which I could extend my domain. The Shuttle XPC Zen seems perfect for this role, as its low-tech, very small and discreet. Reviews here and here.

Work update - Tools of the Trade

Jemimus — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 12:04:00 GMT

Laptop update: I hear my colleages are now being phoned about their orders, so I have forwarded my home phone to my mobile.

Been keeping myself bussy at work with stuff that is reasonably interesting.

Oke, first the technical stuff, then the customary ranting.

Windows Update still wont work properly. Yesterday I came across some log entries that seemed to indicate hosts where having trouble finding the SUS server. I went back to my group policy and noticed that I had used wrong slashes, again, for the windowsupdate server, that we call .. http://windowsupdate
I am a little worried that there might be some host confusion at this name, as its also the DNS host name of Microsofts own update servers.
Just in case, I then changed the same to a FQDN.

Anyhow, the reason clients are not able to resolve the Netbios name seems to be major problems with the browsing service on the local subnet. Somehow the PDC was not properly updating its browse list, and since the PDC is also the domain master browser, everyone elses list was pretty short. Only computers that had booted that morning where in the list, the rest, like my own, where absent. I am still looking into this, at least how it occured, using resources like the MS Windows NT Browser White Paper, and a very cool little tool I discovered here, called the NetBIOS Browsing Console (Browcon.exe), written by Brian Schafer and Tim Rains. And of course Browstat.exe. I would have used Browmon if I had the Windows NT4 resource Kit tools here, but I only have the 2003 version which I downloaded. Also the Windows 2000 Resource Kit TCP/IP Core Networking Guide has agreally good appendix on the browsing service.

That kinda pisses me off, because I had expected the Resource Kit tools to be commulative. Also, Microsoft doesn't offer the older tool sets for download, or not completly. This is their marketing machine at work, trying to get you to buy the books, which I do, which include the 'complete set' of tools, while offering only a subset of the tools for download. Means in future I will have to keep the NT4, 2K, and 2K3 tools all seperatly on my laptop. I have also discovered that I need to do the same with other tools, like the support tools or deployment tools, because sometimes certain switch functionality ,or downlevel support for older enviroments, is lost in later releases. I remember a similair issue with the old NT4 regedit I think.

Anyhow, I moved about the domain browser role untill the problem was fixed. Then the domain browser service on the PDC resets, it sends out a DomainAnnouncement datagram to all hosts, and then builds up the list again from hosts sending hosts announcement messages, and they send these every 12 minutes by default. What I dont understand is why the domain master browser lost so many entries in the list, and why the list wasnt being filled up again. the eventlogs on hosts didnt give any details about netbios problems. I hope simply restarting the browsing service on the PCD helps to solve this problem in the future!

Oke. Rant time.

I am here only 2 weeks, and yet I find enough reasons to have installed the support tools, the Windows deployment tools, the Resource kit tooks, the adminpak, the Office 2000 Resource Kit tools, and various other small tools like the Process Explorer and Browcon.

Now why do I never ever see any other admin doing this? I find these tools indispesive! They are always the first things I am installing on any new pc that I will be using for administrative purposes! Why do other admins never seems to be creating distribution points for Office? Time and time again I see people dicking around with CD keys; its so unnessesary! Any new server I install, gets the support tools and resouce kit tools by default, aswell as the network monitor components. I build these installations into every unnatended install I do, so you dont have to worry about them anymore! Yet I have never ever come across a server installation at a customers, that had this stuff installed on it!

Oke.. lets think about this.

Do admins simply not know about what these tools have to offer? I am convinced this is the case, because everytime I show them these tools, they are obviously suprised!

So why then do they not know of these tools? Why is it that I do know of then? Because these tools are mentioned time again time again online, on support page, and Microsofts support sites, in documentation, etc.

That must mean that most of these admins I meet dont read or browse this kind of matieral often. Why not?

I come across this material all the time, for 2 reasons:
A. I use these resources in troubleshooting problems I encounter.
B. I am genuinly interested in the material, so I buy a lot of books on this stuff, read a lot about it online, follow lots of Microsoft blogs, read a lot of technet stuff.

Now, I can well imagine most admins not spending their time reading technet or MSpress books. Fine. But I cannot imagine them not coming across this stuff when troubleshooting problems.

But perhaps that is the whole point. Often, these admins dont seem to be troubleshooting problems! Like they didn't even notice the lack of NETLOGON replication on both office domains, or the fact that nothing was up to date with Windows patches.

Now the reason they dont notice these thigns , at least here, is because their allerting software, in this case Sitescope, doesnt seem to alert them. This is perhaps something I can fix in these last 2 days if me being here.

The second reason, is that they are simply not interested enough in their office network, to even care to check manually. Their main business is their digital tv channel stuff, for which they have seperate domains and subnets, and they are bussy with that all day. They have left their office network to decay to the point of being a massive security and functionality hole, and their support persion, who has become their defacto sysadmin for the office network, simply doesnt know enough.

Unfortunatly, this is a scenario that seems to repeat itself over and over and over, and I come across it at almost every customer I am placed at. No wonder IT is so untrustworthy, with inventment like this, or lack thereoff, and i am talking mental investment, not even financial, IT enviroments will never improve in reliability or managebility, and the way IT is practices will only ever be second rate. God how I long to work for a company that has their shit together in this.

Do I have the willpower? (And the caffeine)

Jemimus — Wed, 25 Aug 2004 08:36:00 GMT

Its 08:28am and I got a ride to work. So early, no one else was here yet.

I am commited to studying hard all day, can I do it?

Subject matter to cover today:

Review all DNS material, and practice using DNS command line tools
Finish DHCP study, do practice questions and lab exercises
Start up on routing chapters

DHCP is gonna be a problem, cause they still havn't updated the classroom proxy server after last weekends migration, so I still cant use it to get outside. For internet access, I had to 'short circuit' the classroom LAN and corperate LAN together. Not a problem if I dont try running my own DHCP server.. oh wait.. guess what I have to do for the lab exercises??

I sent the admin a mail yesterday, asking him to get the proxy fixed, but he hasn't done it yet. I could forgive that and write if off as him being too bussy... if he wasn't playing Solitaire all day.

Its 08:34 now, and I have already wasted 5 minutes on this post... god I am weak.

Large businesses using Automatic Updates?? - Never heard of SUS?

Jemimus — Tue, 24 Aug 2004 14:09:00 GMT

Omg. I am continuously perplexed at how corperate IT is run around the world. Here is another halarious example.

Microsoft started distributing their new Service Pack 2 via Automatic Updates last week, but had to stop short of updating Windows XP Proffesional PC's, because as it turns out, there are rather a lot of businesses that seem to rely on Automatic Updates.

"When we designed Automatic Updates, we had consumers and small businesses in mind. We have been surprised by the number of enterprises who use Automatic Updates," said Jon Murchinson, a program manager at Microsoft. (From Computerworld.com, read the rest of the article here)

Now while Windows XP Home edition pc's have been recieving SP2, MS has chosen to wait a week for XP Pro, and give admins a change to block Automatic Updates (via a registry key), until they can prepare and test properly. I mean.. they've only had SINCE DECEMBER last year to prepare and test properly!!

Anyway. The reason I am rolling around the floor laughing, is that there is no valid reason I can think of, that you would want to make your corperate client park dependant on Automatic updates! its just a bad idea, and any admin with a fragment of sense should know this. I mean.. admins who use this feature for their client park, must somehow have missed the whole discussion about Automatic Updates when XP first came out!

People already expressed their concern back then, that if one relied soley on this mechanism, one risked the change of a 'faulty' patch, screwing things up seriously. And god knows this has happed in the past with MS hotfixes, and SP2 is of course the ultimate example.

But because this is of course a totally clear and recognized issue, Microsot came out with a totally clear and recognized solution: Software Update Services!

Now Software Update Services, better known as SUS, is basicly nothing more than a proxy server for Automatic updates, but it gives you the ability to control the distribution of updates and hotfixes, by letting you authorize patches on the server, before they are distributed to your client park. This gives you ample time to test patches and updates, before you hit the relevant checkbox.

Now SUS has been around for about as long as Windows XP has, and Microsoft extensivly supports its use and implimentation, i mean, I cant turn two pages of a Microsoft whitepaper without beign reminded about it!

So how come all these stupid businesses are not using it then! For Pete's sake! I mean, its a FREE download! It works on Windows Server 2000 and 2003, and uses next to no resources, except perhaps hard disk space if you choose to store patches locally.

The reasons that these companies possibly have for not using SUS, may perhaps be perfectly valid reasons, involving resource management, connectivity issues, that kind of thing, even though, if anything, SUS solves more problems that it could cause, if it can cause any problems at all! (??!)

I think the main reason admins have not started using it, boils down to two reasons: A. Lazyness, B. ignorrence.

Point A: Installing SUS doesnt take 5 minutes. Anyone with half an ounce of IIS knowledge can do it, and if you are going a bit further than your average SUS implementation, and doing a multi-forward-WAN setup or something, then you might have to spend some time thinking though how your gonna deploy it.

All you need thereafter is some cool Group Policy Settings, or , if you are in the stone age and still have an NT4 domein with XP clients, some hand-made registry settings for Poledit.

And that is about it! About a days work for the average enterprise, and you have completely streamlined your patch-management process! What could be cooler?! Cant be too hard to convince your IT manager to give you the time to do it, considdering the benefits!

But point B is trickier.

Like i have said in earlier rants, I am constantly coming across admins that seem to have burried their collective heads in the sand when it comes to IT and the developments in that field. People like that may very well never have heard of SUS, or all the work that MS is actually doing into correcting their security issues of old.

Now personally, I would like to take all these kind of admins out into the parking lot, and shoot them, but that would be rather challenging considdering that they seem to be in the majority.

Inept system admins, or IT managers, are the whole reason that worms like Blaster and Sasser are succesfull, and the reason that dispite everything MS or anyone else does for security, and exactly because it is the most used OS on the planet, it will always remain vulnerable, primairly because of human failing.

So much to learn, so little time... and my week at DSM

Jemimus — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 21:00:00 GMT

Just finished a week of ad-hoc patch management at DSM again.

Its amazing to me that a company that needs to be as secure as DSM, would allow so many of their mission-criticle pc's to go completely unmanaged, and thus unpatchedm and un-backuped.

This time round, used my proxy account to update most of the pc's via Windows update. Its slower than the CD I used previously, but certainly more reliable.

Also on the Windows update front, Windows XP Service Pack 2 has now started being distributed via Windows update to XP Pro users, thought they have capped downloads, to prevent their servers dying (its an 80mb download!).

I was somewhat suprised to learn about Microsoft delaying this update because it wanted to give companies time to stop the service pack auto-downloading to their clients, or giving them time to test it. I mean.. I have been running the Release Candidate 2 of SP2 for over 2 months now.. the first beta came out in March or so.. you would think that companies would be prepared.

Well of course, some will be, no doubt.

But it just annoys me that their are apparently so many admins out there, that seem to be completely ignorrent of what is going on out there in IT land. I see admins like this via my work all the time, admins that just seem to be completely uninterested in the most basic things they should be keeping tabs on; Software/anti-virus updates, security threats, end-user experience, actually using IT to meet business needs, new developments, integration and collaboration, etc...etc...etc.

I often think about being at a company as an in-house admin, and wondering if I will actually do all that I preach, (or at least try to do when I am at a customer), or turn out like all those kind of admins.. so 'settled' in my job and position, so lazy and comfortable, that I end up not really caring about any IT outside my own shappy network that I can't be bothered to get working right..

Its an image that genuinly discusts me, and its a strong motivation to stay in the outsourcing scene.

On a similair strain of thought, and taking into considderation that I will have another week of study ahead, as my employer doesnt have a new job for me, I have been contemplating my knowlegde and skillset when it comes to IT. There are really a few things, technologies I mean, that I feel I must get to grips with sooner rather than later, in order to 'advance' to the next level of what I can do.

I am going to list some of those subjects here.. and why I feel they are important.

Visual Basic Scripting.
The more I get into complex administrative tasks, the more I see a genuine need for me to become proficiant at scripting. I put down VB here, because it seems to me to be becoming the most widely used scripting language out there in the admin field, and in that regard, overtaking Kix, at least, this is my impression based on what I am seeing on clients networks. Also the support base for VB script is absolutely massive, and Microsoft puts a lot of effort and resources into selling it as the defacto scripting language for Windows, even though I have heard that there are other very good scripting languages out there, such as Perl. Now I have been contemplating getting into VB script for a while now, but just never had the willpower to actually get down and DO it.. (a common problem for me). However, I did purchase these two titles, and I am still looking forward to getting down and dirty with them:
Microsoft® Windows® Scripting Self-Paced Learning Guide
Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Scripting Guide

A good, fundamental knowledge of VBScript, and by association technologies like WMI and ADSI, are going to make my life a hell of a lot easier as I become more involved in bigger, active directory-based networks.

Public Key Infrastructures (PKI)
Now I will actually come across this quite extensivly in the third module of my MCSE (if I ever get passed the dreaded second module). The reason I mention this technology in particular, is because it represents a very cool security solution, that can encompass basicly anything you wish to authenticate or secure in an IT enviroment. A great example I would really love to get to implement, is a two-factor authentication system for a large company, where people dont have to remember long and strong passwords, that they are going to write down any way, but where all they need is their card (and of course, for ease of use, this would be the same card they use to enter the building/pay for lunch/idenify themselves with, and a simple pincode. Two-factor authentication: Something you have, (the card, actually the digital certificate), and something you know (the pincode). Its truly the best of both worlds; easy and hassle-free for users, and more secure than just passwords. Its been around for many years now in one form or another, but its amazing to me that it hasn't been picked up by major companies yet.. they would have so much to gain. The only client of ours I have seen using it is Shell, but it was shabby and ad-hoc, and not standard or common.

Now in order to achieve all this, you would need a PKI, where you can generate certificates, and load them onto users cards. Of course to login, they would require a cardreader. But if you used a card that could also store other information in a seperate aea, then tadaaaa, you have a great alternative for the floppy drive, and this would help justify the costs as well. They must be companies out there than offer cards or systems based on combining all these technologies and requirements.. I know that at least the technology is getting a boost by all those pc manufactureres stucking USB ports on the front of desktops, instead of just the back. It makes that hardware part of Two-Factor so much easier to deal with.

Of course, most of us know Public Key Infrastructures and certificats from browsing secured sites, where globally trusted Certificate Authorities gurantee the validity of certificates given to you by secures sites. But certificates can also be used to sign software. Think of that.. You have have a requirement as an IT department, that any line-of-business software produces for your company, is digitally signed. Securing software distribution and instalation using certificates helps insure that only approved software can be run on your network! I mean.. way cool! Its just a really exiting technology to me, and I dont know near enough about it!

Web design and publishing
To me this is a no-brainer. No selft respecting sysadmin should be content with being totally ignorrent of websites, web-design, web-based applications, web-services, etc.
Now I am not chanting that every sysadmin become and web-dev, I just recognize that we are moving more and more to an IT world, where the line between classical system administration, web development and database administration is becoming increasingly blurred.

As a sysadmin on Windows, knowledge of IIS, and by extention web-technologies like ASP, .NET, ADO, SOAP, HTTPS, etc. is a must. We as admins are being asked to support ever more comple web-based scenarious, and we need to be familiar with this field.. very familiar.

Oke, I am tired of typing for now.. Perhaps more in a later post.

Things are looking up.

Jemimus — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 21:12:00 GMT

First of all, the cloud-cover for 2 days has caused the air to cool to somewhat more tollerable levels.

Then today, during a cofee break from my studies, one of the delivery managers (that is fancy-talk for personel managers), came round and commented on my involvent with an upcoming Sharepoint Portal project for one of the customers.
Now this was news to me, as I had not heard anything about this. I acted all cool and professional, and talked to her a bit about collaboration technologies and such.. and when she left I made a few cardwheels thought the room accompanied by a loud and repetative 'whoohoo' sound.

I have my friend and collegue MV to thank for this primarily, as he has been in the project scene for quite some time now. I have been hoping to get involved with the projects for some time now, as they are infinatly more interesting that simple 'placement' at a customers for a specific function.

In responce I immediatly looked up the offer we made for this customer concerning the Sharepoint implementation, and I am rather worried at the timescale they are talking about.. we are saying we will get the whole thing done in more or less 2 weeks, this includes analyzing their business needs, setting up shop, working out a design plan, setting up the server, configuring everything to their wishes, migrating their current data, and delivering system documentation. Looks like I need to get practicing! Time to whip out the old VMWare!

Hey.. I wonder if MS has a Solution Accelerator for Sharepoint Portal Server ? Ah.. here we are, they call it the Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Intranets though... but I know MS bases all their ideas about ntranets around their Sharepoint products!

In case you have no idea what a "Microsoft Solution Accelerator" is? Uhh.. read this:

The Solution Accelerator for Intranets is a collection of documentation that presents a prescriptive, tested, and supported approach to designing, deploying, operating, and growing a highly-available intranet solution. In the development of such a solution, the accelerator documentation addresses issues that are not discussed in the product documentation, such as service readiness planning, resource requirements, and capacity planning. Topics such as monitoring, backup and restore, planning for growth, and disaster recovery are also covered.

The Solution Accelerator for Intranets adds value by prescribing a baseline high-availability server configuration, in addition to instructions for increasing capacity. By providing performance and capacity numbers for both baseline and "scaled-out" configurations, the Solution Accelerator for Intranets helps partners plan a physical architecture based on quantitative evidence.

Finally, the standardized architecture presented in the Solution Accelerator for Intranets is tested by Microsoft, validated in the field by other partners and customers, and fully supported by Microsoft Product Support.

So.. now you know.
They have bunch of these, I am most familair with their Business Desktop deployment accelerator, as it closely resembles a lot of the work I have already done with corperate desktop deployment.

Now I have a week left that I was gonna use for just MCSE study, but now I think I might split up that time and also work on some Sharepoint setup procedures and stuff.

I also went out and bought the Sharepoint Products and Technologies Resource Kit, which I was thinking about getting anyway, as the whole Sharepoint and Collaboration thing MS has going interests me greatly!

Basicly, this is my big chance to impress some influential people in the company. They seem to have placed a lot of trust in me, based mostly on hearsay i am guessing. I also guess my continuous ethousiasm for the companies current direction, and their own Sharepoint portal, have payed off. Not only did the personal manager that talked to me today compliment me on my enthousiasm, my own personal manager sent a similair mail to me yesterday, making a point out of thanking me for keeping her informed about stuff that concerned her, in this particular case, the fact that MCP's kan now share their online certification transcipt.

Also, the fact that seem to be one of the few people that is actually turning up for study during my 'available' period, must be helping my image with the management too. Who said sucking up was such a bad thing? Thing is, I dont even do it deliberatly, unline many people in this company. I am genuinly interested and enthousiastic in what the company is doing, and it still kills me that dispite this, my salary is knowhere near market standard.