OK Guys,

I started writing this on my phone last night but it was a bit much.
So this is my first time on ML with my laptop.

Anyways I have a job coming up later this week and I want to make sure I do this right.

I have a company they have 2 servers and 6 workstations onsite.

*Server 1 is a physical 2008R2 hosting AD\DNS, roaming profiles, and File shares. Raid 10

*Server 2 is a VM of 2008R2 hosting AD\DNS secondary

The owner is migrating his Database to the Cloud with the software vendor. (I'm not involved)

He wants me to:
*demote\decommission the #2 server
*Enable Bitlocker on Server #1 for data security while at rest.
*demote this system as he just wants to shut it down. Where it can be powered up to access to the "Archives" from the network.

My thoughts are to move the pertinent software and data to the VM and mothball the physical server. As this will help us with future OS access in the event of hardware failure.

Or

Maybe perform a P2V on server#1 but may take longer?

I haven't used Bit-locker ever so I don't have experience to pull from, I have some thoughts about it.

1. The software vendor said "not to use encryption" on the server as it will cause problems. He didn't know why, he just repeated it to me.
   *Question
   With Bit-locker the data is encrypted while the machine is off. So the data is only protected as long it is off. Correct?
   I'm not sure why this is an issue. If the data remains where it belongs and is unencrypted (while running) then the program should be able to access the data base without issues.

2. What kind of logon is there to access the server with Bit-locker.

   • I have used Symantec PGP FDE, with that you have to authenticate to PGP before the OS will load. I get that, I just haven't seen anything else.

I have several Network Shares on Server 1 with permissions for just the domain admin, and the creator to be able to access it. (Roaming Profiles) With that said I believe I would need to change all file permissions before any changes are made to the primary DC So that they would have continued access in the future. I believe all access might be lost if I "Forget this step, and then "DCPROMO."

Ultimately I will have to migrate everyone back to local profiles. So I guess this doesn't matter so much. I just wanted to know more for my mind on what would happen.

I have been interrupted so many times now (The kids) that I can't think anymore.

I'm going to wrap this up I have to head to work. Thank you for your thoughts.

Chad

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2016/08/30/itt-tech-ceases-all-student-enrollment/89574898/

Thank you @scottalanmiller for that AMA session in Auburn.

Saved me from a stupid moment!

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

@aaron said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

Since I was explicitly talking about restaurants, yes. Yes I have found ones that talk about IT.

Small town restaurants don't think about competition as much as getting people to come to their area together.

Like when independent coffee shops like it when a Starbucks opens across the street...

And they buy IT? We never find restaurants buy IT at all.

I have also seen that. The restaurants don't care about it. They have a small system and other stuff. But in the end it is their lowest priority. They won't budget for it.

I know restaurants with flat and open networks, no firewalls, just computers running Xp and chugging along swiping cards on the swiper all day.

I could talk till I'm blue in the face they don't care.

They also are a proud bunch... they tend to look down on you (especially if the owner is the chef)

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

@prcssupport said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

I have heard horror stories from my customers from places like best buy and staples. They get charged huge prices for simple services, or they get pushed to reinstall an OS when it was simple setting causing the connectivity issue. And they pay a very hefty fee for it.

But then again... if they went there in the first place, what were they expecting? It's ridiculously common knowledge that no one qualified is there and that you will always get treated terribly and get ripped off. It's violating the basic rule of knowledge transactions built into the human social experience - paying the sales guy to do your consulting. It's both common knowledge that these places specifically are problems, and common sense that the guy paid to sell you a computer has no interest in fixing it AND insanely obvious that to be skilled in computer repair you'd not have time to also be a good sales person AND crazy obvious that if someone was skilled enough to do the work that they couldn't be working in a situation like that. There are SO many safety nets to make sure that anyone who cares at all about not getting ripped off won't that you can't fault Best Buy for taking advantage of the people who end up there.

Yes that is true.

I fight to inform the customers of that as well. I forgot to reference (address) your statement that I agree with, about how best buy and staples have tapped into and essentially drained the deep pockets of people without a clue.
I paraphrased that from your post, because I didn't quote it first.

Anyways this topic is still a struggle and I want to remain relevent, and help while making the money to live on that I need.

@scottalanmiller said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

@guyinpv said in Home business ideas for transition out of 9-5?:

Is the in-home IT business dying too?

I think so. The Geek Squads and Staples of the world have eaten all of the profitable people in this market (those with deep pockets and no idea what they are doing.) Everyone who is competent doesn't need tech support at home. The number of people needing in home service is a small number and constantly shrinking as the number of computer users decreases.

I have heard horror stories from my customers from places like best buy and staples. They get charged huge prices for simple services, or they get pushed to reinstall an OS when it was simple setting causing the connectivity issue. And they pay a very hefty fee for it.

I do agree, I think that the market is shrinking most people are moving to mobile platforms and away from computers. The need for IT support will remain in the SMB and enterprise market and a few residential customers.

I'm looking to transition as well from my "job" to IT. I have had a decently sucessful shop here in town since 2010. And in fact I would venture to say that we could even live in the same town given the few stats you rattled off.

It is hard here, as you said the companies that want it (and can afford it) likely have an IT dept.

And the other businesses are going to be resistive to IT. They always want to bake their own solution. I have found it rare that they are willing to pay.

The walmart special will always be thrown in your face. So not worth selling hardware.

I tried the MSP model with minimum sucess. To much cost, not enough demand.

I offer services like

*Data migration and system backup services.
*Virus removal
*Managed endpoint security solution
*Software and driver assistance
*Win OS installs
*Managed WiFi solution
*Managed SMB firewall solution starting at $49 a month
*Network design, install, and troubleshooting
*Device troubleshooting (printers and stuff)
*Email\website hosting
*Business VOIP phone solutions
*Assist customers with moving to their next device.
*Password management service

There's more but I can't think of them.

I have gone back to the break fix model.

I educate when possible. That walmart special is always there and they will dangle it in your face. They forget that they still have all their data that needs migration and without help the transition can be very cumbersome.

I have been able to gain many excellent customers who repeat because they know at the end of the day I will offer my best opinion on a given topic. But I will do it honestly and openly. I try very hard to empower them at all times.

Not sure if it helps. I will respond more once you see this, and if you have any other thoughts.

Last game I played was Crysis 2. I loved that game. But it was taking so much time, I removed it (after beating it twice.)

I forgot to mention I'm alive!

You know in case my last post wasn't enough proof of that.

@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:

@prcssupport You are NOT having a good night!

No I didn't have a goodnight,

I worked a double at work. Then at shift change someone decided they weren't coming to work. So a day shift got stuck for the evening. It was to the point where we were laughing at some of the dumbest things.

So 3 People on doubles for the shift.

And today I'm gonna do it again, cause I live in a loop

@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:

@prcssupport said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:

@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:

@prcssupport said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:

Cats must be evil!

You get home,

Your cat wants you to think of them first.

So they puke on the floor in a room. When you feel it you quick step to get away from it and then find they have another surprise waiting for you with your other foot.

You turn on the lights to find, they had set up a gauntlet for your arrival. Your fate was already sealed. Lol

Then while washing your feet in the tub, you almost became part of @scottalanmiller next fail army post!

Is this what actually happened today?

Yup wrote it after I finished cleaning up the mess. Lol

Damn
It got better, lol

I finished cleaning the mess, to notice it was really wet near the cat litter box. (She doesn't miss) which means my 5 year old son must have peed in the cat box again lol. (Caught him one night sleep peeing)

To finish it off, I went to say good night to my wife (in the bedroom) and stepped in another pile of puke. Back to the tub again. (This time I was smart enough to not almost fall in the tub again.

Anyways:

Good night, if I'm still here tomorrow the cat didn't kill me!

@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:

@prcssupport said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:

Cats must be evil!

You get home,

Your cat wants you to think of them first.

So they puke on the floor in a room. When you feel it you quick step to get away from it and then find they have another surprise waiting for you with your other foot.

You turn on the lights to find, they had set up a gauntlet for your arrival. Your fate was already sealed. Lol

Then while washing your feet in the tub, you almost became part of @scottalanmiller next fail army post!

Is this what actually happened today?

Yup wrote it after I finished cleaning up the mess. Lol

@scottalanmiller said in Hi Tech House Idea: Replacing Old Intercoms:

@prcssupport said in Hi Tech House Idea: Replacing Old Intercoms:

@stacksofplates said in Hi Tech House Idea: Replacing Old Intercoms:

Kindle fires with SIP clients. You can do prime music, Pandora, Spotify, or stream from a share.

You could also use a Bluetooth speaker system in the room for sound

Could, I really want something wired in, though.

Yea that will help keep the bluesnarfing to a minimum

Cats must be evil!

You get home,

Your cat wants you to think of them first.

So they puke on the floor in a room. When you feel it you quick step to get away from it and then find they have another surprise waiting for you with your other foot.

You turn on the lights to find, they had set up a gauntlet for your arrival. Your fate was already sealed. Lol

Then while washing your feet in the tub, you almost became part of @scottalanmiller next fail army post!

@scottalanmiller said in Hi Tech House Idea: Replacing Old Intercoms:

@prcssupport ha, that's funny. Never thought about that. No, the house was painted like that about five years ago, coincidentally by one of the people that picked the ML colours.... now the question is... are these just the same colours that she always picks?

Just behind that wall is my home office... which is painted in NTG colours!

Sounds about right. I don't choose any paint unless it's my office. Lol even then, I get options to select from she that has already "approved!"

Leads me to wonder if I really had a choice. Lol

@stacksofplates said in Hi Tech House Idea: Replacing Old Intercoms:

Kindle fires with SIP clients. You can do prime music, Pandora, Spotify, or stream from a share.

You could also use a Bluetooth speaker system in the room for sound

@scottalanmiller said in Hi Tech House Idea: Replacing Old Intercoms:

Off subject... did you get the house based on the kitchen color having ML colors?

I have a customer about 1.25 hrs away.

I had been helping troubleshoot an issue. I fixed that with my remote hands onsite.

Then...

They called and said that their computers were intermittently unable to access the domain. They still had Internet access but all internal network systems were unavailable, and then available again.

I pulled up my screenconnect console and looked at the gateway IP address they had. It looked correct.

I remoted in, and then quickly noticed the devices were connecting and disconnecting. I tried to ping the gateway and I would get a response. Sometimes it was the firewall (the correct gateway) and other times it would be the CPE modem from TWC. (The wrong gateway)

Thought to myself this is impossible. All traffic goes into the firewall and is tunneled. The CPE modem is always invisible to this computer.

That is when I realized while troubleshooting something else in the office the set of onsite hands created a Loop on the network. I specifically said what to connect and not to. But they misunderstood. And didn't say anything.

That was a very fun time as I got to experiance that. And figure out what happened and how to fix it.

Love IT work!

I would like it to be an app (as opposed to a Web page)

It would be nice to have direct interaction with the device, and notifications from the app. So much happens that I miss with the web interface.

But I do agree the mobile web interface is very good no problems.

@BBigford said in Paid internship Rome, NY Area:

@prcssupport said in Paid internship Rome, NY Area:

Possible opportunity for 2 paid interns here in Rome, NY.

Very high chances of being hired on after wards.

I have inside contacts that I can point you to...

Just putting out there.

Chad

....care to share anything about the internship?

Dev? sysadmin? netadmin? design? ...... Length of internship? relocation available? What's the company culture like? What does the company even do? etc.

I'm working on getting that info... should have it next Mon.

It is a contractor for the federal government, likely revolves around software testing. But not sure. Contact was an intern for a month an a half and was hired on full time. Somewhere near 60k

Just wanted to see if anyone is interested...

I want to go but time and finances won't allow it.

I configured my gravitar, but it doesn't work here. But it is on the gravitar site... not sure what I did wrong.

Chad