Posts made by bbigford

(more of a rant)

We're a Dell and HPE partner, and I have to say the buying process has been pushing me more toward Dell. This is geared toward the manufacturer's site, rather than resellers.

Dell's process: Find your starting point, customize what you need, and send the URL to your partner. The URL has all of the config in it, which is convenient. I also value the hard requirements on the customization, such as not being able to add dual SD micro SD cards in the build, without choosing a combo reader (wouldn't want to have to go back and individually order a part you forgot when the system arrived).

HPE's process: You can do one of two things, assuming you need to actually customize it (99% of the time, I do), rather than just use the pre-built offerings on the site which are normally very incomplete for the needs. You can either download a PDF that has all the parts for that server. This can be tough to find, so you may as well use a search engine such as Google to do a Quick Sheet search for the model you're thinking. Once you find the link you're looking for, and there is a PDF with all the available part numbers, you can start collecting (don't miss anything!). Collect all your part numbers, send it off to your partner, and begin going back and forth on an email string about questions from the partner about anything additional/conflicts/etc. Your second option is reach out with "I need this much memory, this amount of drives, a controller that has this much cache, these kinds of drives, these NICs", etc. Worth noting... HP (HP Inc) is a reseller for their other half, HP Enterprise.

I like to procure different manufactures throughout the year to see if things have become more convenient with one, better navigation, different useful features added/etc. But holy shit has HPE become more difficult to procure.

SAN appliances are another nightmare. Call for anything and everything. Do I have an hour to talk on the phone about something I could spec out in 5 minutes? No.

Edit: Please feel free to offer any advice on spec'ing servers/storage out through both vendors if I am missing something (spoke with our procurement and HP yesterday, so I don't believe I'm missing anything). Again, I'm not comparing HPE/Dell's sites to going through a reseller/partner since we are a partner.

@dafyre said in Has ConnectWise Set ScreenConnect Adrift as Ghost Ship Software?:

It sounds as if you're seeing the writing on the wall, so to speak. What are some good, viable alternatives to ScreenConnect?

Honestly I've put SC at the top... I would consider the following more along the lines of alternatives, not direct competitors (separate discussion regarding MSP tenants, features, pricing with scale, etc):

• GoToAssist (the UI and UX very much needs an update though)
• LogMeIn
• Bomgar
• Teamviewer (I would never, ever recommend them. I'm only including them because there are many who use it. Their security issues in the past have brought them to nearly unforgivable for me).
• On-prem for clients... Dameware (totally different use case, but worth a mention if this isn't for an MSP).

@jmoore

@obsolesce said in Who's hosting this website?:

Maybe it only knows who the authoritative name server hosts are, not the web server company?

Example:
webserver = godaddy.com
name server = hover.com

Here, the @ DNS record on hover.com simply points to the IP of the web server hosting the website (godaddy).

...or some type of confusion around that.

Oh absolutely that's part of the issue with some tools; the verbiage can be misleading about what the tool is actually looking for. Sometimes their intended use is looking at name servers and seeing who's hosting a domain, not a web server.

Also makes it nearly impossible if a company is using a proxy, like CloudFlare.

@obsolesce said in Who's hosting this website?:

Do you have a real, specific example (not hypothetical)? I think that matters a lot in this case.

Yes, two. First is a new client discovery; we're onboarding a client from another provider that has (honestly) no documentation. For one reason or another, we're going in blind; happens more often than some providers should allow it to happen. I'm big on documentation, so I want to know every single thing about the business; if we get fired, I hand over mass amounts of info to a client (haven't been fired yet, but I digress).

Second is when a junior engineer comes to me with questions about where one is at. They sometimes have a client that has multiple domains spread across registrars and sites all over the place. It normally isn't this organized under us, it's when we bring them on. They look to consolidate registrars/hosting providers/etc for better management.

I've been trying to find a great tool to determine where websites are hosted.

Certain sites like Web Hosting Hero, or Who's Hosting This might show a site is with Bluehost, GoDaddy, or even showing the datacenter provider such as United Layer (but not the web hosting company, such as Bluehost).

When I think I have found a good, accurate tool, I test it against clients where I know who's hosting the site. But I eventually come to a client who's on, let's say GoDaddy, and it says they are on AK Web Hosting (way off).

Anyone using a reliable tool to see where a website is being hosted?

@mike-davis said in vSphere power supply count:

That's odd. Are you in the process of upgrading from 5.5 since it's coming end of life? Maybe a current HP custom .iso will fix the issue.

I wondered the same about the custom ISO. It's not my client, but told the engineer on the account to not waste too much time, in the event that resolves the issue. They have not been receptive to upgrades and recommendations in the past, but I'm very blunt so things are getting sped along.

New host to replace 2 old SuperMicros, new shared storage (based on changing needs), low capacity onboard SSD RAID to fall back on for mission critical systems in case shared storage were to ever critically fail (considered using Synology NAS as shared storage, but the database to be used would run very slow after seeing other clients try the same thing... not acceptable in this case). Various other upgrades in their 1-3-5 year plan that I drafted but, again, not my client; just assisting the junior engineer assigned to the account when he asks for help.

@dbeato said in vSphere power supply count:

How many Host though you have in Vcenter? Or is it just one server with Vmware.

3 hosts, but the hardware status that is showing is only for the one host.

While diagnosing someone else's client server issue, I noticed vSphere power supply count shows PSUs 2-6 as healthy, 1 as failed.

Server is only capable of 2 PSUs. Any idea why it would show 6?

Currently running vCenter/ESXi 5.5, HP custom ISO.

@wrx7m said in Raised Floor budget estimate:

@coliver said in Raised Floor budget estimate:

Best option would be to get someone in to quote it out. I'm not a fan of raised floor systems I prefer overhead and if you have the space for a raised floor you often have the space to go overhead as well.

I have never dealt with a raised floor system, but I definitely don't want to crawl around if I can stand on a short step ladder instead. I had a very basic overhead ladder system installed in our server room and it is super easy to route new cables or pull old ones out.

Agreed. Though a raised floor looks much nicer, it is going to be less convenient for any maintenance. Usually aesthetics doesn't go along with convenience in my experience.

@wrx7m said in Trying to correctly understand core licensing in a vmware environment:

@bbigford said in Trying to correctly understand core licensing in a vmware environment:

Here's a tool for anyone that wants it.

http://h17007.www1.hpe.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/licensing/

Thanks! Bookmarked this. I don't know why MS doesn't have this tool on their site.

Most of the tools that vendors release are just spreadsheets. This is just a fancy spreadsheet, but works well.

Here's a tool for anyone that wants it.

http://h17007.www1.hpe.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/licensing/

@wrx7m said in DC fsmo role issue:

Yeah. This type of scenario and even worse ones are why seizing FSMO roles is a thing. In this situation, you should have just chalked up the infected DC-A as a complete loss (in terms of AD) and just seized the roles on DC-B. Restoring a DC would only be done if all DCs were wiped out.

Agreed. Restoring a DC (especially FSMO role holder) back that far is just asking for trouble.

I would seize the roles on whatever DC you want to hold your forest roles. Pick any one you like. After that, go through DNS and start removing anything with that old server. Might have to look for it in ADSI Edit as well, if it no longer exists in Active Directory.

@wrx7m said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@dbeato said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@wrx7m said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@bbigford said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@dbeato said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

I responded to you on another forum but basically I said was Sync bookmarks through Firefox and Chrome Sync with their accounts. For signatures copy it from a sent message.

Relying on users to log in is too much manual. Needs to be fully automated where possible.

Are you the one that creates their signatures in the first place? If not, they can copy and paste that from a sent message in a few seconds. It is way easier than creating a signature from scratch.

Edit: Also, how often do you have a system fail this bad, where copying and pasting a signature is TMW?

Unless they have multipe RDS servers

@dbeato said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@wrx7m said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@bbigford said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@dbeato said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

I responded to you on another forum but basically I said was Sync bookmarks through Firefox and Chrome Sync with their accounts. For signatures copy it from a sent message.

Relying on users to log in is too much manual. Needs to be fully automated where possible.

Are you the one that creates their signatures in the first place? If not, they can copy and paste that from a sent message in a few seconds. It is way easier than creating a signature from scratch.

Edit: Also, how often do you have a system fail this bad, where copying and pasting a signature is TMW?

Unless they have multipe RDS servers

Good point. I didn't see RDS in the OP, though. Also, I would hope his RDS servers are regularly backed up (including user profiles)

RDS is separate from file services (where RDS is used at remote offices). All systems are backed up (VMware/Veeam environment). Doesn't apply to this thread though so I didn't bring it up.

@wrx7m said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@bbigford said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@dbeato said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

I responded to you on another forum but basically I said was Sync bookmarks through Firefox and Chrome Sync with their accounts. For signatures copy it from a sent message.

Relying on users to log in is too much manual. Needs to be fully automated where possible.

Are you the one that creates their signatures in the first place? If not, they can copy and paste that from a sent message in a few seconds. It is way easier than creating a signature from scratch.

Edit: Also, how often do you have a system fail this bad, where copying and pasting a signature is TMW?

For an organization that has roughly 2k users, often enough that I want to automate it.

@wrx7m said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

I only use a My Documents redirect. The rest can be quite a pain to deal with.

Agreed. I don't typically care about AppData.

@dbeato said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

I responded to you on another forum but basically I said was Sync bookmarks through Firefox and Chrome Sync with their accounts. For signatures copy it from a sent message.

Relying on users to log in is too much manual. Needs to be fully automated where possible.

@wrx7m said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

For the Outlook sigs, just copy them from a sent message.

Trying to do as little manual configuration long term as possible. Trying to automate everything.

@black3dynamite said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@bbigford said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@black3dynamite said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

Some of my users including myself too. Create a Mozilla and Google account and we just use our own work email address when signing up.

You could set up a task scheduler to backup up the Firefox/Chrome and Signatures.

Good idea for a few users (I sign into Firefox with my work account to back up my bookmarks related to work). But I'm looking at this for hundreds of users; possibly thousands.

I guess you can provide them a script that they have to run manually to backup bookmarks and signatures to a shared drive.

Goal is to automate, doing things manual introduces too much human error.

@black3dynamite said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

Some of my users including myself too. Create a Mozilla and Google account and we just use our own work email address when signing up.

You could set up a task scheduler to backup up the Firefox/Chrome and Signatures.

Good idea for a few users (I sign into Firefox with my work account to back up my bookmarks related to work). But I'm looking at this for hundreds of users; possibly thousands.

@jmoore said in Handling user AppData - Windows:

@bbigford I honestly don't. I help them create accounts and sign in. If they are getting a machine upgrade I tell them to get everything in order first.

This is in the event of a critical system crash. Drive dies without warning.