Posts made by NetworkNerd

@alexntg said:

On to opinion - Is your current setup meeting RPO and RTO?

Yes, it is.

@Gabi said:

It does, but not always all the data needs to be replicated.

I have around 8TB spare at the moment.

Wow! That's a large amount of spare storage. How much are you actually using right now?

We've just purchased some core licenses of SQL 2014 in conjunction with an ERP system upgrade. We'll have to use SQL 2012 as SQL 2014 is not yet officially supported by Epicor.

But with the core license of SQL Standard, we automatically have license to create a two-node failover cluster (as long as one is truly passive). The SQL Server licensing guide from Microsoft states the following:

SQL Server software can be configured so that if one server fails, its processing will be picked up, recovered
and continued by another server. All editions of SQL Server 2012 provide basic high availability features
including backup log shipping, database mirroring and two-node failover clustering. Advanced (AlwaysOn)
high availability features in SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition include enhanced support for multiple, active
(readable) secondary servers and support for multi-site failover clustering.
Log shipping and database mirroring take place at the database level, whereas failover clustering takes place
at the SQL Server instance level.

We run 2 ESXi hosts with the latest version of 5.5 on local storage and use Veeam for backups. We've been told 1-2 hours is acceptable for the RTO with 24 hours being the RPO. Obviously IT pros are always looking to shorten that window when possible, but we do have to keep business requirements in mind (which I can currently meet by just restoring our existing SQL Server from a backup if it came to that, given the backups are solid and restorable).

I realize we could use Veeam replication from one host to another to further shorten the RTO and RPO here. But, since I have license to create the SQL failover cluster, might it be wise to go ahead and do it to better the DR plan? That would then be something outside of relying on Veeam in the event that the SQL Server VM was hosed or its host was down completely. It would also be independent of SQL database backups. So I feel like there is a benefit to doing the cluster.

This is one of those times where in my head it seems like it might be a good idea, but just because you can does not mean you should. I'd love to hear any input from others who have done application clustering (active / passive specifically) and some reasons for implementing.

We have an XP VM running on an ESXi 5.5 host (recently upgraded to the latest ESXi) running on local storage. This VM is specifically for some programming software used in conjunction with our press brakes. This VM is running on VM hardware 8. The user that uses this VM for programming has to access the VM via VNC since the software requires a USB HASP to run. The HASP prevents anyone from using the software via RDP, so VNC was the way to go..

Since the ESXi upgrade, the video performance has been a little odd. Opening the software works fine, but some menus within the software will open, show the text you would expect, and then show up completely white on the screen. Once that happens you can take another window and drag it over the one that it solid white to show the text. I tried different VNC viewers with different connection speeds and even fewer colors but have not really found a solution. Yes, I realize it is XP, but if there's anything I can do to boost the video performance I would like to do it.

I did check processor usage (only using 1 vCPU, but I am not seeing that it is taxed in anyway). RAM usage is pretty normal (again, not taxed here), even at the limit of just over 3 GB usable by XP. IOPs on the server are not an issue to my knowledge. I tried increasing the video memory a little, but that did not really help. The VM is using the standard VGA adapter that VMWare Tools installs. I am not certain the VMware SVGA 3D adapter will even install in XP.

I'd appreciate any help people can offer on this one. Is the issue here because we have to connect via VNC, lack of video memory for the VM, the fact that we are running XP, etc.? Will a VM hardware version upgrade help or hurt here?

@RAM. said:

What price range we talking?

I just had a quick chat with the boss, and he mentioned $15 - $18 per hour depending on experience.

I'm in the market for a Help Desk Technician in the Fort Worth area to service our family of companies in the Manufacturing field. If you are interested in what you see below, let's chat.

Position Summary:
The Help Desk Technician will act as the first line of defense in researching and resolving technical problems related to desktop and laptop computers (hardware or software), smart phones / tablets, and printers. This member of the team will aid the department in better supporting the company’s growing user base. The ideal candidate will be self-motivated, organized, and have an excellent mind for problem solving.

Job Responsibilities
• Track and resolve tickets using the Spiceworks ticketing system – this may include in-person support, remote support (via phone or remote management tools) or e-mail communication to end users.
• Deploy new workstations and other devices (such as tablets) for office and plant users.
• Configure and maintain user access rights, company e-mail accounts, phone extensions, and workstation software licenses.
• Identify and procure the hardware and software needed to satisfy user requirements.
• Install / troubleshoot hardware and peripherals such as memory, monitors, keyboards, printers, scanners, and disk drives.
• Assist in the customization and adaptation of existing software applications to meet users’ requirements as well as deploy new software packages.
• Assist in maintaining company intranet site pages.
• Assist other department members with projects as needed.

Job Requirements
• Excellence in verbal, oral, and written communication skills
• Working knowledge of computer hardware components
• Familiarity with tablets and smartphones (Android and iOS)
• Knowledge of Windows operating systems XP/7/8 as well as MS Office
• Web development / programming experience
• Must be able to lift 50 lbs. and to occasionally climb, kneel, crouch, crawl, and reach.
• Must be able to work full time (M-F 8-5) as well as some nights and weekends when needed to meet job requirements and IT department deadlines.
• Travel will be required from time to time as we have multiple offices in the DFW metroplex.
• Knowledge of Spiceworks or other ticketing systems is a plus

@scottalanmiller said:

You do use VDI? Running a Windows desktop in a VM is what VDI is. All that other stuff is later infrastructure that people now associate with VDI. But this is as much VDI as anything else is.

I feel pretty dumb for this, but I just had a misconception about what was classified as VDI. I thought you had to be using something like View or Cirtrix to be considered using VDI, but a virtual desktop is indeed a virtual desktop. Thanks for slapping me around a bit.

I'm about to create a VM for our Estimating department to use to access a particular software. The company only wanted to get one seat, and as most know, a single seat tied to a specific computer is cheaper than network licensing most of the time. Basically this VM will run Windows 7 / 8.1 and allow one user at a time to login and use the program via RDP. We don't use VDI in any way. Other than the fact that this will be a VM, it is literally no different than having a desktop computer that is always online.

My CDW rep is telling me I need a license of Windows 8.1 Enterprise rather than Pro so I can leverage the VDA usage rights. I thought I just needed a license of 8.1 Pro (open license, not retail) to cover the requirements here. Can someone straighten this out for me?

I agree with @Vladimir-Eremin about the config backup. Make sure you are doing this daily. I recently had to restore a configuration backup because I rebuilt my Veeam server, and it saved me a ton of setup time. As for the SQL install, I think Express makes the most sense if you can do it. That way your Veeam server is self-contained, and you don't have to worry about having your Veeam server and a separate SQL Server up to be able to restore from backup in an emergency.

@ITcrackerjack said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@ITcrackerjack said:

Were you ruffling feathers again? Does someone have it out for you?

@alexntg just said that some other people had this happen a month ago. Apparently it is a bug that they've not been able to get fixed for a while.

Well, that's better news.

No kidding - I was afraid they had banned @scottalanmiller from discussions about RAID 5 only.

@Minion-Queen said:

Wonder if someone will actually go get it? That is where the WOW comes in.

I don't think I can get there in time. Oh well.

@alexntg said:

Join.me's not realy designed for remote tech support work. If you're looking to do remote tech support work, take a look at LogMeIn Rescue. It's not free, but hopefully you're charging for the work you're doing.

I completely agree join.me is not for remote support. You won't be able to see things like UAC prompts that come up while power users may be logged into the machine. LMI Rescue can work quite well as @alexntg mentions. I personally like the free version of LMI in conjunction with LMI Central (despite LMI's recent force to go to a paid version).

I'm pretty sure this is the best post I have seen today. I love it!

@Vladimir-Eremin said:

Veeam tracks all VMs by unique moref ID. The upgrade process seems to have resulted in morefID changes. Thus, the jobs containing previously existed VMs failed. Once VMs were re-added to the job, everything started working as expected.

However, I should mention that typically in-place upgrade shouldn't lead to morefID changes.

Thanks.

Since this was a complete ESXi rebuild on a newer version of ESXi, that makes complete sense. Thanks for sharing!

I completely rebuilt an ESXi host this weekend because the jump drive running ESXi had a bootbank issue. The host was running 5.1U1 (all VMs on local storage) and is now running 5.5U1 and has been patched for Heartbleed.

Well, I am backing up the VMs on this host and one other with Veeam. After the rebuild of ESXi, I had to re-import all VMs on the host into inventory. I then had to reconnect the host to Veeam and enter the new root credentials for it so Veeam could back up its VMs successfully. Well, after Veeam re-scanned the host for VMs, my backup jobs went haywire. The selection lists that contained VMs for the newly rebuilt host were all wrong (different VMs on different jobs than they should be), and backups of any VM on the newly rebuilt ESXi host would fail. I had to remove all VMs that were on the host I rebuilt from Veeam backup jobs and add them to the backup jobs anew to fix the problem. Once I did that, all was smooth sailing.

My guess is this may have to do with the way Veeam sees VMs inventoried on an ESXi host and the fact that they had to be re-imported into inventory on the host due to the rebuild. Has anyone else experienced this?

@scottalanmiller
Yes - that server has dual 8-core processors. Thanks for the help.

I'm on 7.1 (have not yet updated to 7.2) and am still using help desk version 1. I'm still not sold on help desk 2.0 just yet. It's performed pretty well for us, and though I prefer the old interface from 6 for scanning, the engine in 7 seems to work well. One thing I really like about Spiceworks is the remote collectors. Though they do take some time to update when it's time to go to the next version, using the remote collectors has really helped us monitor devices at remote sites.

So now that we have all talked about different mobile carriers and how much we love / dislike them, is there any kind of feedback on ATT's Toggle product?

I agree the main page could use some cleaning to prevent it being too busy. Rather than a list of the content of recent posts, I like the idea of showing maybe the few threads with most recent activity under each category. Then you can quickly see what topics are active and then choose to either click a topic or browse the category as a whole.

I met with our ATT rep today and learned something I thought was very interesting. Many may or may not know ATT is trying to get into the SaaS / colocation / cloud / consulting market. My rep reiterated that they do not want to be known as justa telecommunications company. Apparently they are partnered with Microsoft and offer O365 (along with US-based tech support), with Box for things like file sharing and storage, and with MDM platforms like MobileIron and Airwatch.

But something I really enjoyed hearing about was ATT Toggle: https://www.wireless.att.com/businesscenter/solutions/industry-solutions/mobile-productivity-solutions/toggle.jsp. It's kind of like they combined a soft phone app's functionality with the containerized approach many MDM platforms use to come up with something that gives the phone a true dual persona, and then they added to it split billing and data usage tracking for company and user. I can see how this would be something both businesses and employees would like. The businesses would only have to pay for data usage that was just for business and could control what business data and apps are accessible to the user. From a user perspective, they get a dedicated business number that is attached to their cell phone with no need to give out the personal number.

I realize you could get pretty close to this with something like MaaS360 and a soft phone app inside the container, but I've not seen anything quite like this. Has anyone out there used it?