Best posts made by crustachio

A Unitrends representative was quoted as saying "This is really an unbelievable, once in a lifetime opportunity. I'd like to emphasize that we've never offered a deal like this to anyone else, ever, in the history of time. If Scale doesn't sign up by the end of Q1, prices for this deal will go up at least 30%. And I can guarantee you'll never get a better offer than this one."

Jeff Ready, CEO and co-founder of Scale Computing responded "While I'm attracted by the offer, I'm not sure I'm ready to sign just yet. I'm always a little hesitant of long-term vendor lock in, y'know?"

The Unitrends rep quickly fired back "Sure, sure. Hey, let me check with my manager and see if there's any wiggle room on that pricing -- I'm really sticking my neck out for you on this one, but I might be able to work some magic."

Sources indicated that Scale Computing will be required to trade in their old 823 appliance as part of this deal, although Unitrends Support could not be reached in a timely manner for confirmation.

Belated update... I got my Chuwi. Had some teething pains related to WiFi. Didn't realize this guy doesn't have a 5GHz radio, so I had to reconfigure my office WAP to broadcast 2.4 + 5GHz and enable bandwidth steering so other devices maintain 5GHz connectivity.

Now that that is sorted out, this is a darling little tablet. Screen isn't quite bright enough for my tastes, but it is otherwise punchy, sharp and colorful, with nice viewing angles. The touchscreen is very responsive as well.

The device is surprisingly lightweight due to the plastic casing, but it feels well put together. The size is pretty great, easily usable one handed and typing isn't too difficult. And W10 is way better for a tablet of this size than any previous Windows version.

I haven't done any heavy lifting in regards to app performance, but it seems snappy and gets out of its own way. The Android switching process is simple (desktop shortcut from within Windows causes a shutdown and reboot into Android; from Android, swipe down from the top-right corner of the status bar and tap OS Switch). I haven't spent much time in Android though, as it's not particularly noteworthy.

The #1 killer feature of this guy (besides price), for me, is the USB OTG support. It comes bundled with a Micro USB to USB female OTG adapter, meaning you can plugin any standard USB devices and Windows sees them as expected. I'm sure power will be an issue with anything bigger, like portable HDDs, but for most small peripherals it works great.

I have successfully tested (from within Windows) a 32GB thumb drive. a USB 3 hub/Gigabit Ethernet LAN adapter, and -- most excitingly -- a USB to serial adapter. So this + PuTTY == portable network troubleshooting toolkit.

I'll keep toying with it for a few days. I'll need a decent case/stand for it if I continue to use it. For now I rigged up a cardboard+foam+electrical tape desk stand. Paired with a Logitech K810 Bluetooth keyboard, it's working just fine.

Thanks for the tip. I think I can call it: Chuwi is the Archangel to Dell's Satanic Venue. Heck, it's even pure white vs Dell's morbid black. I think it's a $99 winner.

Spent some time re-doing my PRTG network status dashboard. This is on a 70" display in the conference room outside my door. Camera feeds are the server room (aerial pano view, can be flattened), rear server room entrance, basement phone room/demarc (lights off! stay out!), and office entrance. To keep out the riff raff, you know. (We keep it locked and installed a wireless doorbell, try getting IT support now, ha HA!)

The last dashboard I made just had one big sunburst display for all our devices, and it got to the point where the outer spokes were almost illegible. So I broke out the core nodes into individual maps (WAN, LAN, servers, IP cameras)

@coliver said:

@crustachio said:

@MattSpeller said:

I love the idea but there's two main obstacles to it for me.

1. StarTech

2. $400

Why the StarTech hate? They make handy little doodads that work fine for me. Why I'm typing this on a PC connected through one of their USB 3.0 hubs + 1Gbps Ethernet adapters and I have yet to have any tro

And in the middle of typing trouble it shat the bed.

You should just need to create it on the vSwitch and add it to the trunk on the physical switch. Unless you're trunking multiple VLANs to the Ubuntu server, it should be ignorant of the fact that there's a VLAN at all.

The AirCheck tool sounds pretty intriguing. How does it compare to something like Wi-Spy (MetaGeek's USB dongle that works with their InSSIDer/Chanalyzer product)?

I always throw /f in too, just because I don't take no for an answer.

Cached credentials baby.

Control Panel > Credential Manager > Windows Credentials > deletedeletedelete

You don't want them sharing a single login account -- think about auditing, credential management, etc. IMO a domain level group with local admin permissions is the way to go:

• Create a Workstation Admins group in AD and apply it to all domain PCs (not servers) using Group Policy
  • Edit the policy's Computer Configuration to add the Administrators (Built In) permission to this group
• Add your privileged users who need local admin rights to that group, as well as any other group(s) necessary for secured remote access.
  • If their access privileges change in the future you can easily remove them from the Workstation Admins group without needing to touch each PC's Local Users & Groups configuration.
  • You could optionally create multiple Workstation Admin groups for different departments (WksAdmin_Sales, WksAdmin_HR) and apply them to the appropriate sub-OUs, so you don't give carte blanche access to all domain PCs for all privileged users.

Details on this setup: Manage Workstations Without Domain Admin Rights

As for the bigger picture question about least privileged account best practices, consider reviewing Microsoft's current best practices, called tiered administration.

In depth MS blog on the topic: Securing Privileged Access for the AD Admin – Part 1

Interesting. We have one of the little Dell W8.1 Atom tablets, looks to be about the same size, but we had a hard time coming up for a use case for it. It got passed around the department like a $3 hooker and now nobody wants to touch it. I gave it the nickname Satan's Tablet because everyone who tried it seems to be cursed by bizarre issues. It has since been cast into the Intern's Drawer of Tartarus, which cannot be opened for 1,000 years, at which point it will be let free to plague humanity. On the upside, its Windows Updates should be finished right around that time.

Anyway, maybe THIS $99 Windows tablet would be different better usable not haunted?

Don't forget if you're using multiple hosts you will want to mirror the vSwitch config across all hosts in order to maintain vMotion mobility.

@IRJ said:

@crustachio said:

Interesting. We have one of the little Dell W8.1 Atom tablets, looks to be about the same size, but we had a hard time coming up for a use case for it. It got passed around the department like a $3 hooker and now nobody wants to touch it. I gave it the nickname Satan's Tablet because everyone who tried it seems to be cursed by bizarre issues. It has since been cast into the Intern's Drawer of Tartarus, which cannot be opened for 1,000 years, at which point it will be let free to plague humanity. On the upside, its Windows Updates should be finished right around that time.

Anyway, maybe THIS $99 Windows tablet would be different better usable not haunted?

My buddy came over a few nights ago and I showed him my tablet and he played with it for over an hour. He says it runs circles around his $350 Dell tablet.

My manager just popped in my office for something and I kept that Amazon page conspicuously open and maximized on my 27" display while we chatted. After he noticed it he immediately got all hot and bothered and said ORDER IT!

So I'll report back tomorrow (thanks Prime!) with my findings on whether or not this thing turns out to be Satan's Chinese cousin.

You guys. The Cloud to Butt plugin makes this thread hysterical.

Clonezilla (free & open source) has always worked well for me and sounds perfect for what you're trying to do. Going from smaller to larger disks is not a problem. If you can mount the target disk directly in the host or even via USB you can directly clone it from the source on the fly, or else you can clone the source HDD to a network share and then back to the SSD when ready.

For more managed deployments, SmartDeploy is an amazing tool, but kind of overkill for what you need (driver injection, etc).

@dashrender said in 802.1x port-based authentication - when and why?:

The whole disabling ports seems like a waste of time. If someone wants on the network, they'll simply unplug a printer and plug in. They know that line is live. Or they will unplug their own computer, again, they know it's live.

This is actually the real power of 802.1x. It can do more than just toggle a switchport on/off. If you tie your 802.1x implementation to a policy manager/access server, you can dynamically assign VLANs and/or ACLs to that switchport.

So that printer is live on the network because it matches certain criteria (certificate, predefined MAC whitelist, device fingerprint, etc), but if someone unplugs it and plugs their laptop in the same port it no longer matches and is blackholed (or gets whatever policy you wish). Same with swapping your LAN PC for a BYOD laptop. The traditional "port tagged as VLAN xyz" can't protect you in this situation, but a policy-based 802.1x implementation gives you total control.

Of course you need a NAC server of some kind to be able to achieve this, but in the spirit of the OP, 802.1x can do quite a lot more than just basic switchport toggling.

Also, it's commonly relied on for WiFi access control. When you consider any WiFi network that touches the LAN as essentially an invisible switch that anyone can touch without physical access restrictions, then 802.1x auth starts to look pretty attractive.

Youtube Video

@MattSpeller said:

I love the idea but there's two main obstacles to it for me.

1. StarTech

2. $400

Why the StarTech hate? They make handy little doodads that work fine for me. Why I'm typing this on a PC connected through one of their USB 3.0 hubs + 1Gbps Ethernet adapters and I have yet to have any tro

Generating logs and reports for an impending security audit.... blerggghhh

@Jason said:

@coliver said:
Nevermind.. I'm thinking of Cables to Go..

Cables to go... oh man those are the best. Cheap and always work.

Fun fact: Cables to Go's head office/warehouse is located just minutes from me, but I still just order everything through Amazon!

Support your local businesses, you say? Think of the environment, you say? Well my $99/yr Prime subscription says I don't have to do ANY of those things. So there!

@DustinB3403 said:

@crustachio said:

@DustinB3403 nah. But I've prepared 3 envelopes just in case.

With your resume and cover letter?

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1l2h4f/a_joke_i_thought_you_would_all_enjoy_after_my/