David Mackies Blue Brain

Always Listen to Mark

Trying to sort out of customer service finally for ever since I don’t enjoy hearing this Ticket System sux and while I understand there are small niggling things with every piece of software, I have to say this is the one I keep coming back to. Yes I know Mark Giles told me easily two years ago that this was the one for us :(

of course I NEVER Listen now do I?

I do need to do a trial in our site and have bumped this to the top of our Lab booking list.

The Question I need to answer is do I just run on our SBS 2008 Server or do I run on a separate server? Probably leaning toward the separate server for scalability.

Anyone got advice? Anyone think this is a bad choice? Should I do a Deployment Guide?

What will I use my Lab for first?

Since I decided that a decent lab environment was needed in order for us to effectively create offerings and improve our training efforts I have been pondering what would the first cab off the rank…

Some Ideas have been:

• SBS 2008 in a fail over cluster
• EBS 2008 in a fail over cluster
• Citrix NetScaler VPX Express Edition

Then of course some of the things I want to look at deeper

• Microsoft's VDI Strategy
• How to rebuild remote PCs using the OEM Setup Partition Method (to discover how to sync new WIM Images)
• Network Management with Zabbix or Nagios
• vTiger Ticketing system

Well that might see me through to the New Year (while fitting in Proofs of Concept for my current long-term Modernisation Project) so what would you want to see built into a Screen cast or Step by Step Guide?

Planning my Lab

I have ordered all the kit and am really just awaiting delivery so I have about a week before I start building.

At this point I’m thinking that I will build the two servers to be bootable from USB which will let me play with the three main vendors on an as required basis, but really I think it will mostly be a Hyper-V Lab.

Even with the decision to most use Hyper-V Server R2 do I install to the Local file system or would it be better to boot this from USB too.

I have found a set of instructions for this (Thanks Ben) but will need really fast USB keys as I suspect this will be critical to whole system performance.

So right now the Lab will be 2 x ML330 G6 with 16GB of Ram (more coming when 8GB Dimms don’t cost the earth) and a white box PC we had used for HomeServer (in a job we should have know better in) running FreeNAS.

More to come as we plan…

I so need a smack

It seems every few years I get to a point where I am completely over the whole working hard at some of my relationships that it is sooooooo much better to turn on the cloak and come back again a bit later.

I have recently poked some folk with a stick because I can and that alone is not good.

I have also said some stuff I could have put in more PC ways and more privately.

But my own special brand of Autistry means that doesn’t happen mostly, so to that end I’m going to do other things and work on being more of a grown up. This Blog will get back to it’s roots a little more and the things I do in other online communities will stop for a while but maybe just long enough for me to be able to show my face again.

Look forward to much more stuff that is just the facts Jack.

See ya tomorrow.

Finally the TechED AU Sessions

I have been waiting for the Australian TechED Sessions to go live and hadn’t checked back in a while but tonight I noticed they are up for download.

I pretty keen to re-watch some of the great sessions and the ones I missed.

Notice I’m busy getting some on my local drive so I can watch offline.

Oh by the way if you didn’t go to TechED you can buy access online.

Too connected? Maybe

Normally I’m pretty contactable my phone gets mail, we have company wide mobile to mobile plans where we get 10 Minute calls free and during a business day I am practically glued to my tablet.

So this makes me pretty accessible.

Today my Business Manager (also Wife) sent a number of emails, and called me a few times but since I was in meetings that I had a significant facilitating role in I didn’t return any of the calls or respond to email (often I will send a quick status update and return calls in the lulls between meetings).

So when I returned the calls I got a reception that seemed to me, to be a WTF have you been doing today.

Turns out we had some things on that needed my input but mostly we seem to rely on my availability a bit much these days.

• I wonder what would happen if I decided to not carry a mobile or check any email while on site for a week?
• Would it take a month to break our dependence?
• Do we want to?
• Would it be better for our business or worse?

Maybe an experiment for one day at a time, baby steps.

Canberra SMB Consultant Community??

Recently I was asked to make some introductions to some folk in the Small Business IT Community here in Canberra.

I have not really been engaged with this kind of thing for a while and I guess I last held the baton.

So I wonder what would make me take the mantle up again? Well really nothing given when I say I held the baton it was really I did everything and that is not good.

SO I need to know if people want a group, what they need from it, AND what they will CONTRIBUTE to it.

Then I will help get it going. Who wants to help?

Or maybe we could just have a quick coffee club kind of thing and VERY adhoc at that.

BTW we could Lunch at the Glass House in the Department of Innovation Building in Civic, I HIGHLY recommend the beef burger and Chips Oh man really super.

Any takers to discuss taking this further?

Must be XMAS

So I guess it really is Christmas time…

HP ML330G6 E5504(1/2) 2GB(1/18) 250GB(1/4)
SATA NHP-3.5 B110i DVD TWR 1YR 504055-011
*** BDL W/ NINTENDO WII SPORTS CONSOLE ***

$1,538.90 EA

Sad part is I’ve been looking at an ML 330 for an internal virtualization lab machine, actually 2 so I can do some cluster configs using Hyper-V Server R2. The Business Investment bonus is something that made me think two might be an option.

BUT what would I do with two WII Sports consoles?

How can I keep Facebook keeping my interest?

I blogged a while back about how Some social media Facebook in particular are helping me engage in a way that I hadn’t expected.

But I do have difficulty staying with the plan or regularly checking the site, (sorry I missed the Mikey notice, congrats Mark, Alex and Ethan) imagine my surprise when I saw Fishbowl a Facebook client built in Silverlight that lets me see things in a nicer way even attribute an interest level to people in my network.

Suppose Wayne goes on a wild self promotion kick and I’d rather tune him down, easy just lower the interest level

Oh by the way you can get the source on codeplex

Low Barometric Pressure

So why do doors on meeting rooms open inwards?

Barometric Pressure as people meeting for reasons of wanting to be in the loop, basically moving their heads from side to side scanning the room like the clown game in a side show and adding the same value.

Progressively stealing oxygen from the room and the longer it happens without someone saying why are we here what is the outcome? Who owns the next step? The less oxygen is left at the end.

Now think about what would happen if the door opened outward? The low pressure would suck the door against the jam sealing it shut and people outside would have no way to open it.

Conversely if the door opens inward the pressure may be so great that the door pops open on it’s own saving the lives of all inside or at least rescuers just need to turn the handle to let air in again, as the door slams open under the strain.

A fast thinking attendee could also pop the pins out of the hinges, this person of course would be killed be the door imploding toward them. They may see this as a merciful way to go, I think we just need to hold less meetings.

Is it possible

I have nothing to say???

I spent most of today talking and might well be talked out. I am interested in how to influence corporate cultural change but not sure how to frame the beginning of that process.

I do know it shouldn’t start with my doors open inwards analogy but sometimes it is the only way to convey the obvious

Have a think about why doors might open inwardly and I’ll let you know tomorrow

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta

Look I’m downloading the beta of Office 2010

Not sure there is much to be said except hmmmm best I backup my OneNote so I can start playing with this.

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta Product Key

You may use the following MAK key to activate your evaluation copy of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta.

 

Really most keen to be testing Outlook and OneNote stand by for updates

What's Included

Word OneNote InfoPath

PowerPoint Access SharePoint Workspace

Outlook Publisher Communicator Excel

Agencies SHOULD

I have been notionally sharing in the agencies should = do what you want because that seems to be how some folk read the guidance.

But of course this is garbage, so today is the day where “agencies should” actually means our risk assessment says... at least when looking at my projects

I'm thinking a few times it will really be "Computer says NO" or actually Agencies MUST.

Just thinking out loud

*** Update ***

To drive some context

“[–,IC-P,r] non-agency owned devices
6.8.9. Agencies should not allow devices not directly owned and controlled by the agency to be used with
their systems.”

Generally speaking there are many people who see the use of home computers for remote access as the only real method of large scale remote access, allowing for remote workforce in times of emergency or pandemic. I would be concerned that this would quickly lead to “Bring your own computer” policies becoming more of a norm.

I would need serious convincing that BYO Computer is sensible but remote access on the other hand I can see being a necessity in the short term.

So what would a risk assessment look like?

Micro Blogging

So let randomness commence.

HP Multiseat Solution based on Windows MultiPoint Server 2010

Looks like multiuser PC is making a resurgence and aimed at Schools.

I am the chair of our school board and for me this looks like a great idea for our classrooms, can hardly wait for release of this in Australia HP if you build it we will come.

Kind of makes me wonder if it will be education only because a number of our micro clients COULD look at using this kind of solution too. Not too much info out right now and lots of broken links but will report as I find more because this really looks useful.

Daddy are you just like Bob the Builder or Handy Manny….

But with Computers?

My daughter asked me this tonight which I thought was kind of funny.

It reminded me that I have not used this blog in ages so will try to do better.

What would you like to talk about?

Don’t focus on the advertising

Microsoft are making available a bunch of Windows 7 Themes from a number of Corporate Identities and folks are talking about the sale of advertising in Windows… Hmmmmm maybe this could subsidise the M$ Australia Tax nahhhhh too mean and not the point.

I have a Workstation Requirements Workshop with a client tomorrow and this will be an interesting talking point because this client already does some corporate messaging via the screen saver.

So we can explore some custom branding and continue the messaging system too. Themes are a user setting allowing for deeper customisation based on interactive user.

Rolling these settings out with group policy will make for a great solution for our customisation needs I hope. I’m thinking about dynamic branding as well as dynamic application delivery moving forward, yes you can expect some App-V stuff in the future.

Customize a theme

You can change individual parts of a theme (the pictures, colors, and sounds), and then save the revised theme for your own use or to share with other people.

Watch this video to learn how to customize a theme (2:48)

Customize a theme

So how will I solve the problem of Backup?

Yesterday I linked to a Backup article and book to give some background into Virtual Machine Backup and said I’d explore further today.

I’m not really ready to detail the whole design, and I have a Offering Brochure to prepare so here is the basic idea of the possible parts. I’m almost certain to change some of it and it will only be offered by region where we have an office or agent.

So have a think about some requirements you might have for backup and let me know if you would be interested in collaborating on a solution.

Basic Premise Traditional Servers get a VSS aware backup agent, which supports SQL, MYSQL, Exchange to name a few, Also Continuous Data Protection (CDP). Local Storage holds a copy of the backup while another copy if replicated to our Offsite Backup Server.

Virtualised Servers get the same agents but the agent can do incremental backups in perpetuity so the actual backups are small and fast. Since we have standardised on Hyper-V the virtual machine directories are able to be protected with VSS aware backup agents allowing us to produce BOTH the internal agent based backups but also whole virtual machine backups providing double protection. So with our Single Local Drive configuration we achieve 6 copies of all data which I think is pretty good from an assurance perspective.

Data is also replicated offsite to our replication servers yes that is 3 Copies of Data in a replication chain. We also recommend the local External Hard drives are changed in accordance with our two drives at rest policy meaning a possible 4 Drive Set.

Now if I am missing a big step other than Bandwidth give me a shout. BTW we solve the seeding and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) issues by offering the solution only in our local area only.

Backing up virtual servers

A small part of my job is not to be so much well read but certainly widely read. Some times in RSS feeds I get there are some interesting titles come up and the one from techtarget.com was interesting as the guys in SMBiT Professionals Sydney are holding a Virtualization day today, and I’m fairly sure they might cover backup.

Anyway the article by Eric Beehler made me think about how we do backup virtualised workloads for our SMB clients so I’ll explore that more deeply.

Avoid the big mistakes when backing up virtual servers

Eric Beehler, Contributor

Migrating your servers to virtual machines comes with many obvious benefits; hardware consolidation, performance management, and easier disaster recovery being a few.

Some of the drawbacks, however, come from your old infrastructure. The backup systems in particular can come under disruptive fire because most have been designed to support a certain number of physical servers. Now that your server count can grow exponentially, and the assumptions of resource use go out the window, you need to address your backup solution before virtualization causes backups to get out of control.

Notice Eric has written a book for Realtime Publishers so he might know a thing or two on the subject.

One thing I totally agree with is …

“Take the opportunity to build backup planning into new virtualization projects so you can intelligently review your current approach with those that are available.”

Tomorrow I’ll go through my new “Cloud Based” offsite Backup offering and why it is significantly better than loading USB over Ethernet sorts of Drivers so we can get SBS 2008 Backup to play nice.

So yeah go read Eric’s Article, maybe even his book and then come see what we are offering

Avoid the big mistakes when backing up virtual servers

What Desktop OS to Deploy?

A question came up about what Windows 7 version I plan to deploy moving forward…

So what would influence the decision to go 32 or 64 Bit?

• Windows 2008 R2 RDS or Citrix?
• NetBooks?
• Mobility Solution
• Hand Held Devices

If I were considering NetBooks, I’d need a 32 Bit build for a little while as not all atom based machines are 64 Bit today;

If I wanted a quick booting small foot print tablet for say warehouse or forms / survey tasks maybe a real thin client CE or Windows Embedded;

Remote access maybe Citrix XenDesktop

In short a 32 Bit Desktop would seem like a no brainer but I mislead you a little my answer is both 32 and 64 Bit.

• Clients with 32 Bit only CPUs would be 32 bit Windows 7
• I’m too lazy to package an app twice so my preference for applications would be to have 64 Bit windows 7 so the same package will deploy to the thick client desktop AND the Windows 2008 R2 based server supporting Remote Desktop Services or Citrix XenDesktop
• So where possible the 32 Bit Clients would get apps from the Servers using some remote desktop technology

Novell extends Visual Studio beyond Windows

Given the ongoing partnership between Microsoft and Novell, I guess this doesn’t surprise me too much. I am kind of wondering if there will be a day soon where you can get official support for Windows SharePoint Services on Open SUSE.

A certified build for PowerShell on Linux would also be welcome from a single scripting tool perspective.

Kind of makes me wonder when the Microsoft should buy Novell rumours will start up again.

New module helps developers create .Net apps for Linux, Unix and Mac OS X.

Novell has launched an add-on module for Microsoft’s Visual Studio development environment to facilitate the creation of .Net and C# applications for Linux, Unix and Mac OS X.
Mono Tools for Visual Studio was built by some of the engineers working on the Mono open-source project, which is sponsored by the vendor. The aim of Mono is to build a cross-platform implementation of C# and the Common Language Runtime for .Net that is binary-compatible with Microsoft’s version of .Net.

Novell extends Visual Studio beyond Windows - Software - Technology - News - CRN Australia

IBM System Storage N series and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

I have said many time before how great I think IBM Redbooks are and how I think the N-Series  systems are we actually because I lurve the NetApp kit these are based on.

Anyway the SMBiT Professionals Sydney Group are running a Virtualization day on Saturday so i thought I'd dig up some Best Practice docs and found this one

This IBM® Redpaper publication walks you through the steps required to set up Microsoft® Windows® 2008 Hyper-V™ and failover clustering on IBM System Storage™ N series. This configuration merges the high availability and data protection features of IBM System Storage N series with the virtualization and clustering features of Windows 2008.

So looking forward to Saturday even though I wont have a server of my own, lucky for me I have two SBS 2008 Builds on the go and can remote them for the day. How cool to go to a day long continuing education session and have two clients to bill for it as well

IBM System Storage N series and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

Customers can gain from being a vendor reference - marketing, vendor management - CIO

I was reading CIO magazine on line and thought about some of the folk I have seen at product launches only to discover via colleagues that some of these endorsements are in the afterglow of the initial engagement and not a finished referencable experience.

Ray Wang, a partner with the analyst firm Altimeter Group is quoted in the article as saying…

"I wouldn't go public until you've worked out all the kinks [in the project]," he said. If the implementation you glowingly praised in a press release or onstage ends up being a complete failure, "you'll be seen as a laughingstock," Wang said. "The vendor may have gotten 20 sales [out of your endorsement], but it's all downside for you."

Indeed, a high-profile instance of this occurred in the past few years. Waste Management put out a press release with SAP when it decided to implement the vendor's ERP (enterprise resource planning) software. But in 2008, the trash hauler sued SAP, alleging the project was a disaster.

The best way to avoid such scenarios is by participating with an implementation case study. While this will require the most time and resources, vendors want very badly for the case study to succeed, and therefore may provide a wealth of additional consulting services and customization work to ensure that it does, Wang said.

You’d think that this would be really obvious, and for me I tend to not hang around for the dog and pony shows of the customer on stage. Mostly I find them quite boring compared to the rest of the slick dazzle fest, and I’m more interested in finding out about things myself. I need to grow my lab because hands on is most important to me.

Does anyone want to pay us to do proofs of concept for a living?

That attitude is key to any endorsement, he added. "If I don't believe in the product, I'm not going to endorse it. You need to make sure your integrity is intact."

So for us it will be case studies from all our clients, and looking to find jobs playing with cool tech how GOLD would that be??

Now that I’ve spoken about being a Fanboi in public everyone knows I’m a huge MS Fanboi and if I can make all my clients huge Fanboi’s of Synergistic all good, but I won’t drag them up on stage.

AND the case studies should reflect the normal outcomes because we always try to deliver more than we are paid for..

Maybe that is why I’m not rich yet.

Customers can gain from being a vendor reference - marketing, vendor management - CIO

Paint.NET v3.5

Rick Brewster has announced that the final release of Paint.NET 3.5 is now available for download.

Paint.NET v3.5 (Final) is now available!

November 6, 2009 – 10:21 pm

Thanks to everyone who helped out with the extensive alpha and beta releases with all the bug reports, crash log submissions, and feedback. It has all been a huge help in creating the best Paint.NET release ever.

I could talk about the use of Direct Write instead of GDI and the other neat features that make this an even better product tan before but I’ll just say this is a very cool product and being the tablet fiend that I am really love it.

In fact my son loves Paint.NET so much that he asked me to give him my old UMPC so he could draw like Dav Pilkey

How should this have been handled?

In a list I moderate there was some traffic this week about …

I was monitoring a password cracking attempt on one of my servers this evening. I traced the IP back to a company in “Cameria Kamarian”. Then I found that they were running SBS2003.

WOULD YOU BELIEVE THAT THE ADMIN PASSWORD IS admin !!!!!! It was the first password I tried! 

Can you believe that I could RDP into their server?

Well this caused some traffic along the lines of …

What on earth possessed you to 1) think about trying to log in without authorisation, and 2) broadcast the fact you logged in without authorisation to a mailing list?

You do realise that you've quite possibly broken “Camerian Kamarian”, Australian Commonwealth and State laws by accessing a computer system without appropriate permission?

How could the information need to contact the owner of the server been gathered in a legal way?

Let me know your tips and tricks for identifying the IP Addresses that com up in your firewall logs

NB “Cameria  Kamaria” is a fictional country we used to conduct war games against, the real country was on in Europe.

Update : Typo on my part, so the only one upsetting Southern Albanians (sorry) is me.

Blog this???

OK as I said a while back my wife has started a blog and she joined a National Blogging Month thing and I thought it a good Idea as my blogging had been so hit and miss and so far so good…

But I have been struggling with ideas for topics so when I saw this  on Libby’s page, I thought hmmmm. Now the sight seems very woman focused but as I said I’m now a 12 Year old girl so that won’t be too challenging. The bigger challenge will be to put a technology spin on the weekly idea.

I’ll see how I go. BTW on the lookout for more little tricks like this :)

I'm a Blog This member

inspiring and connecting with Australian Bloggers.

Human Multi-Tasking a Myth?

Firstly ArrrrrrrrrrrrrGH having ninemsn.com.au as the default homepage of Internet Exploiter 8 might become very scary. The first few features were from The Australian Women's Weekly and Cosmopolitan I guess that is okay but hopefully not habit forming :)

One thing at a time

Pamela Allardice

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Multi-tasking is an easy habit to get hooked on, but — ironically — it means you end up doing less, not more.

"If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it," goes the saying. Being perpetually busy — a type A personality who can check e-mail, fold laundry, send a text message, and cook dinner, all at once — is a state that modern technology supports and that society encourages as something of a status symbol. In fact, the opposite may be true: multitasking causes the brain to make more mistakes.

According to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doing two or more things at once is a recipe for inefficiency; plus, the more you multitask, the worse you are at it.

Robert Crane has coved this on his blog in the past Here and Here

But I Have a new spin and while no actual evidence here is was happens with me…

If I’m trying to work on a computer I MUST have the TV on or I will Surf the Internet for crap (which Explains the things in my head and on this blog) but if the TV is on then I seem to have much more focus.

So excuse me while I turn back on the Scream Awards so I can spec a server to take to a Virtualization Day next week held by SMBiT Professionals Sydney.

Current front runner is an ML300 G6 both sockets filled and as much memory as I can afford right now, then fill to a fully spec’d 144GB capacity later this will be our DEV box for a while. Now two ML 330’s would be great for clustering but that is just greedy and dreaming right now.

Amahi Home Server

I wonder if this is a contender for some of the market that SBS 2003 owned? It certainly looks a little like it is more than Home Server

The Amahi Linux Home Server makes your home networking simple. We like to call the Amahi servers HDAs, for "Home Digital Assistants." Each HDA delivers all the functionality you would want in a home server, while being as easy to use as a web browser.

The core functionality available in the base Amahi HDA install includes:

• Protect Your Computers Backup all your networked PCs simply and easily on your home network. If one of your PCs "dies" you can easily restore it!
• Organize Your Files Access, share and search your files from any machine on your network, making it easy to share and find your photos, music and videos.
• Internet Wide Access Automatically setup your own VPN so you can access your network from anywhere: safely and securely.
• Private Internet Applications Shared applications like calendaring, private wiki and more to come, will help you manage your home and your family!

I’m not normally taken to looking deeper at Linux Server implementation but this appears to have quite a large application set which would make make it quite interesting…

Although finding Windows Home Server Plug-ins equivalent to these would be very interesting.

Thanks for the heads up Robert

Features of the Amahi Home Server

Is VDI Stupid?

I’ll let you read the article but I found something interesting, I don’t hear many folk talk about blade PC’s as an option in a desktop strategy,

Funny thing is I got an email from ClearCube (a Pioneer of blade PC) the other day so I guess there is still some business to be had in that space.

What I have also discovered is I don’t know S#1t from Clay in the Citrix world anymore which is sad because I once worked with System Manager, not sure I want to talk about WinDD and was a Winframe 1.8 CCA, best I sit down with Mr Hazel and discover how I might get up to speed again.

Beyond VDI, Citrix FlexCast allows IT to delivery desktops to all users desktops in different scenarios:

• For task workers sharing a similar set of applications, the most secure, cost-effective approach is Hosted Shared Desktops.
• For office workers who need more personalized desktops, Hosted VM-based VDI Desktops is often the best approach. By running each user's desktop in a dedicated virtual machine, this option combines the benefits of central management with full user personalization.
• For technical workers and power users who run professional graphics applications such as CAD/CAM, GIS; Hosted Blade PC Desktops ensures dedicated processing power for each user.
• Local Streamed Desktops leverage the local processing power of rich clients, while centralizing single-image management of the desktop. This is a quick and cost-effective way for anyone to get started with desktop virtualization by leveraging existing PC resources while keeping datacenter overhead to a minimum.
• Virtual Apps to Installed Desktops offer many of the ROI and management benefits of a fully virtualized desktop with minimal setup costs. Although virtual apps run on the local device, they managed centrally.

Is VDI Stupid? » ocb - Citrix Community

Requirements workshops – Getting to empty

I have requirements workshops scheduled 6 hours a day for the next 10 days, and to make it worse today's workshop spun another 5 workshops, do these things just self perpetuate??

OK yes it is a very complex project but still is there a better way to gather requirements than to gather up all the subject matter experts and talk for six hours??

I’m thinking perhaps the method in David Allen’s Getting Things Done where every idea gets written on an individual piece of paper until your head is empty, granted not every piece of paper will relate to my project. Some will say “buy Cat Food” so the exercise will help everyone a little bit.

What are ways that work for you when being asked to scope and deliver projects?

Perhaps tomorrow I will try …..

Listing the Requirements at the end and then ask “if we could make major progress against these goals, and nothing else, would you have a solution that exactly met your needs?”

Let’s see how that goes