Just Sayin

How much do I want to know?

2011-05-06T11:20:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking recently about my server monitoring. I have had Nagios running for a while monitoring almost everything in my environment. I find it to be a valuable tool for knowing if something is wrong or an event has occurred. Nagios notifies me on my corporate and personal email with warnings and critical notices.

My Nagios server is not redundent, if our Internet access goes down I wouldn't receive any notifications. So I got to thinking I needed some kind of external monitoring so I can be aware of an outage. I signed up for http://mon.itor.us and found the free version to be exactly what I need.

Then I started to think about what I have created. I will now be informed 24/7/365 of the status of my servers/network. This sounds great in theory but what about my personal life. I work for an organization that has a small feel but truly does have a large amount of users. I setup all this monitoring under my own direction and not because it was handed down from above. Should I give myself the stress of knowing an outage exists or would I be better off being oblivious to it?

One of the problems is I have two audiences: my bosses and my users. Users want systems up, they want to be able to get their work done, meet their deadlines, etc. Some bosses, not all, are more OK with some downtime. They see a few hours in the dark as a time to do other things. I have to agree with those bosses. On the other hand I do enjoy my work and take pride that my systems work well are available to the best of my ability. Providing good service make me feel good and that I make a difference here.

I used to have a blackberry where I got all the emails but it felt like I was always working. I now hardly ever check my work email on the weekend and after hours. It feels great. I now have an optimistic look when I head into work. I am not stressing on the drive in about fixing this or setting up that.

If I keep monitoring notifications going to my personal email I will be able to stay on top of problems with the servers at the office. But then if an outage occurs I will feel obligated to fix it. Is my environment that important where it matters or can it wait till Monday?

New site design

2009-08-24T15:34:00.000-07:00

Tonight I enabled a new theme on the blog. I have to say the Wordpress platform is getting better every time I make an update.

It is remarkably easy to apply a new theme. The themes are very well done and have the modern web 2.0 feel. I add a little customization for some links and google adsense and I'm all set.

I bet I haven't even scratched the surface on the functionality that is freely available in the Wordpress community.

OpenDNS Update

2009-05-18T15:19:00.000-07:00

I previously posted that I was looking into OpenDNS for my organization. Since my last post I can say we have embraced it fully and have migrated our IPs at the main office and a half dozen of remote sites.

It has been a tremendous help to locate issues with PCs and servers on our networks. I have been able to mediate several PCs with spyware and one that was being used to send SPAM. Although OpenDNS didn't help prevent the computers from getting infected it did mitigate further problems.

It was great for peace of mind on April 1st when that whole Conflicker hype scare happened. OpenDNS was able to track if any DNS requests were being sent to Conflicker controlled domains.

We are planning on moving more remote site to OpenDNS. Another update to come down the road.

iPhone wordpress app

2009-04-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

Just installed the wordpress iPhone app. It allows you to write and post blog posts via the phone.

I don't write many entries but the app may change that. Free time between tasks should allow me to put down ideas and save as drafts.

It is really a nice app. It handles multiple blogs, it save drafts locally and on server and can post pictures in posts.

WOT

2009-04-29T02:23:00.000-07:00

Just installed the WOT add-on for IE on my work machine. I like the concept. The add-on rates site on their trustworthiness. I have a lot of users that are not very careful when it comes to the internet. The free clip art sites get users all the time. Something like this with a little training could go a long way in stopping browser hijacks and spyware.

here is the link to their site: mywot.com

View the demo to view an explanation of the service.

Google tracks shipments..sort of

2009-03-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

I am not sure how many people realize that if you Google your UPS tracking number it gives you a handy link to the UPS web site to track your package. You can also do this with USPS and FedEx tracking numbers. Where I feel it become useful is that it is quicker searching for it than going to the shipper's site. Just paste the number into my Google chrome address bar and you're good to go

here is a sample of something I had delivered:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=1Z011A8X0361615688

More evidence that Google wants all of the Internet's data indexed on it's servers.

Web Filtering

2009-03-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

Over year ago I saw an advertisement for a site called OpenDNS. The advertisement was touting free DNS services and faster DNS look-ups. My curiosity was sparked. I visited the website and found a free web 2.0ish service that gave you content filtering for free. Working in the education industry I gave it a once over.

From what I can remember I liked the idea of having OpenDNS handle all the name requests but I ending up brushing it off because it was free. Also there must have been another feature that was lacking or missing for me to write it off.

Well come to present time...We had to close schools last year due to a large budget deficit. The decision to close the schools was very controversial in the public. Anyway...with economic conditions poor these days IT is forced to look at ways to cut costs. We have two appliances for filtering, one for the district office and one for the schools. The web filtering subscriptions are due up in August 2009 so picking a solution is a few months. One problem is that the life cycle of the box is getting near it's end. That means the cost for the subscriptions has skyrocketed since last year (about a 100% increase).

With the subscription contracts expiring and a renewal expensive that is leaving me with a few options:

pay the costly renewal fee for both boxes

buy two new boxes from the same vendor

buy one larger sized appliance from the vendor

find another appliance

find a in the cloud product

The cost for the subscriptions for two years cost about the same as the cost for new appliances after two years (1st year will be included in appliance and 2nd year will be about what we have paid in the past). I could purchase a beefier appliance that could handle both networks easily but then there is only 1 box so I'll have nothing to failover to if one goes down.

I will be looking at OpenDNS as a viable option to replace both of our appliances in the future. I will compare that to appliances from my current vendor and other ones. I have created a free OpenDNS account and set it up in my home network. When I have some feedback after a few weeks of running it I hopefully with document it here.

I will also look into Google Web Security, but the cost of that per user has look un-doable for my organization.

Till then.....

Netflix on Tivo

2009-01-12T13:03:00.000-08:00

Netflix has recently announced that through your Tivo HD, Tivo Series3 and Tivo XL you can view any of their 12,000 plus instant titles on your TV. Your Tivo will connect to the Netflix service and display your instant queue where you can choose your movie.

I used to be a member of Netflix but cancelled due to under utilization. When this was announced I decided to sign back up. I love movies! Sometimes I could watch several in a row and then also not watch any for over a week. Selection isn't a deal breaker for me. As my wife says I'll watch almost any movie and enjoy it. On the flip side I don't rate many movies 4 or 5 stars on Netflix.

The quality is great most movies stream in 480p. They start immediately and I haven't run into any latency problems. There are over 300 titles available in HD. One thing that bothers me is that you don't know if it is in HD until you start watching it. One thing I hope in the future is some kind of indicator that the material is in HD or SD.

You can pause a movie and restart it at a later time and it will save your space. Anyway I can't say enough good things about Netflix and Tivo!

Time Tracking at work

2008-12-04T14:36:00.000-08:00

We just implemented mandatory time tracking for all IT employees at my office. So far it hasn't been a major chore, but it's isn't fun either. It has been interesting to see how much time I actually spend on non-IT tasks (paperwork, running reports, etc.) As I write this blog post I realize it would be a whole lot more interesting if I had examples.

Time Tracking has certainly held me more accountable for wasting time at work. I have had a very strong work ethic every since my 2nd job at Toy's R' Us. It continued on to my first real IT job. I am finding that since I have to record what I am working on it causes me to ALWAYS find something meaningful to work on. Suddenly standing in the hall talking to a colleague about anything other that work makes me very anxious. I realize could could mark down 'admin' time or something generic but it feels like cheating to me.

I am looking forward to sitting down as a group and analyzing our departments work. I would love to know how much time others spend on certain tasks.

My effects of Virtualization

2008-11-05T12:57:00.000-08:00

I love virtualization! It has been a wonderful tool for me. I work with a non-profit and cost is almost always the most important factor when deciding anything. I have two virtual hosts on different Microsoft virtualization platforms.

Anywho I just wanted to share my stats that figured out today.

In Jan 2008 I had 25 physical servers
In May 2008 I had 19 physical server
Currently In October 2008 I have 14 physical servers.

That is a huge increase in space in my server room. Which actually just turned into storage, haha. But the power use gains must be very good. We are small we do not receive any kind of power consumption reports from our building and grounds department.

Control Tivo via Telnet

2008-08-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

Found a great post about how to control your Tivo via your network and telnet. It sounds like a future program/device to control your tivo is possible

Click here for the article

Linux not so bad

2008-08-11T14:56:00.000-07:00

After using Ubuntu for a while now I am now thinking I wish I would have tried it sooner. It is nice to learn some new things with it being a huge hassle (i.e. set up a server or a separate machine)

I actually now prefer to use it over my windows PC mostly because it is faster to search the we and what not. It does have its downsides. They are mostly related to the hardware (i.e. resolution). A nice new laptop with it would be sweet and then maybe windows in a virtual guest OS to handle some other things.

Anyway I am slowly becoming a linux guy. I don't think I ever really will be very pro linux but I would have never have expected I would have enjoyed linux and be this deep into it.

Project Mojave

2008-07-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

When I read the news articles on Microsoft's Project Mojave. I thought it was brilliant. In case you didn't hear about it, Microsoft did a test where they had people view a demo of Microsoft's new OS codenamed 'Mojave' when in actuality it was Vista. Most everyone gave it a favorable rating and loved the features.

Everything in the press has been so negative about Windows that most people have a pre-conceived notion of it. Microsoft did have problems with Vista in the beginning but they want people to know that those issues are fixed. Even at work with other IT people have a strong hate of Vista. I can't stop hearing about how bad Vista is. When I had a release candidate installed on my machine the only problem I had was that it was the performance. I even hear that Vista stinks from people who have never used it. So I related to Microsoft's problem.

Now I don't really think Vista is that great but I don't think it is a bad OS. The performance requirements are a little outraqeous. Anyway I don't want the post to become about the pros and cons of Vista.

One last thought is that it would have been nice if they woud have let the users actually try out Mojavee and not just show them a demo.

To see all the comments go to http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/

Blocking an entire Country

2008-07-22T12:41:00.000-07:00

There is a recent SQL based attack that is circulating the Internet. It uses websites with SQL back-ends and tries to insert malicious code via the URL. I don't know it all works our web/database guy told me about it.

The attack uses a botnet originating in China so I offered to block the IP addresses. OK great idea except it's a botnet so IPs will be different all the time. So I came up with the idea of blocking all of China. I figured it could be done. So I searched and WOW! Thanks to www.blockacountry.com it makes it easy. Well makes it easy if you use an Apache server. Ours is IIS of course. So I was able to create a script to import the subnet into our firewall.

One other gotcha is that China has 1200 subnets. Other countries like Afghanistan has only about 10. So sorry China you don't need access to our website. I will consider blocking counties for email now in an effort to stop SPAM. Hmmmmm.

Digital TV 2009 Switch

2008-07-21T15:22:00.000-07:00

The government needs to scare people to switch to digital. This commercial has a very fear oriented tone in my opinion.

Ubuntu

2008-07-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

I recently started working with Ubuntu Linux. First a little history.

After working with desktops, laptops, and servers all day at work I no longer tinker too much with them at home. There was a time when I had a domain with user logins, exchange server, domino server and many others network services. I loved to try out new software. I used old computers to set up servers.

Nowadays I don't do any of that really. I just have 2 laptops and a desktop that my wife and I both use. When I am home I mainly use the computer to surf the web, read my RSS feeds, update this website, and do work from home. So I realized all I needed was something simple. So I installed Ubuntu Linux on an old Dell laptop. Install was easy and quick. Presto all I needed with a laptop. What is really great is that the systems is much speedier than it would have been if I installed XP. Let's face it it would have been crappy to use.

Linux is not new to me completely I was forced to use it at RIT in my systems and network classes. I hated it back then but with all the new development in the last 5-6 years it is much more of a reality for me. The biggest struggle I have had with the laptop has been with the PCMCIA wireless card. But after a little while and a few curse words I got it going. Now I and comfortably sitting on the couch typing with the dog sleeping next to me (for once, haha)

Two challenges I still need to work out is to find and install Lotus Notes and change VPNS at work so I can use this one. We have been talking about move to a Cisco VPN which I would think be a little more capable of having a linux client than our current VPN

Updating via blackberry

2008-07-01T15:51:00.000-07:00

I can now post via my blackberry which will be a huge help in generating content. I frequently want to blog about something when I have a few min. Of down time. Anyway I really just wanted to test the system again.

Hyper-V and how it helps me.

2008-06-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

Hyper-V is now in full release. It was released by Microsoft this past week before the 180 day post Server 2008 promise. I installed the new update to Hyper-V this afternoon on my one 2008 server.

I was waiting to move two production servers to my Virtual server from 1 physical box (1 is already virtual). Now that Hyper-V is available and installed I can migrate them. They are two ISA 2006 servers. I'll be moving from 2004 ISA server as well. I have them ready to go I just need to schedule the downtime and then change IP addresses. Can't wait to free an other box in my server room. Also since it is the last server on that particular shelf I can remove the entire unit.

Even More Virtualization - Hyper-V

2008-06-24T12:54:00.000-07:00

Yes the title is true, even more virtualization. Back in May Microsoft had a Windows Server 2008 launch event here in Rochester, NY and they gave away a free copy of Server 2008 Enterprise Edition.

In case you haven't heard Microsoft has developed a virtualization Hypervisor called 'Hyper-V' Hyper-V is included in Windows Server 2008. Hyper-V is still currently in beta but is full featured. So long story short I am using my free windows license at work to run 1 production server soon to be 3, once I finish setting them up. I'll also have to move a network appliance as it is goes hand and hand with the servers.

So far my experience has been great. Installation of Server 2008 was simple. Once Server 2008 is installed you install Hyper-V by just installing a windows update. It slides itself between the hardware and the OS that was installed prior which is now what Microsoft calls the parent partition. After that I was able to create a VM with just as much ease and speed as with Virtual Server 2005. Hyper-V runs on x64 platforms and support x64 VM guests.

When I first installed Hyper-V it was on release candidate 0. I installed release candidate 1 a few days back and found two issues. One, don't have the virtual machine in a saved state because it will not start after you update. It would be safe to assume that when the full release is available in July/August the same will happen. The second issue, the VMs were running incredibly slow at first but then returned to thier normal speed after 10 min. or so. Perhaps the vhd files were being updated.

Hyper-V has less overhead running the VMs so fewer resources are used as compared with Virtual Server 2005. Hardware assisted virtualization is required with Hyper-V so that along with the x64 requirement almost guarantees you'll be running it on new hardware or close to it.

All in all It feels like a rock solid platform and I look forward to using it even more in the future

More and more virtualization!

2008-06-11T00:05:00.000-07:00

I have been going further and further into virtualization at work. A few weeks back I installed MS virtual Server 2005 R2. Since the install I have set up several virtual machines guests. I am running 5 production servers on it. These servers include: 2 domain controllers, sharepoint services, blackberry enterprise sever on domino and an application server. The servers are mostly underutilized for most of the day, including the host system which is a backup server.

Creating machines has been a snap. A few simple settings and the machine is created. A virtual hard disk drive is created and can dynamically expand on the host system. The guest system will see 120GB but the host will only use what is actually used. One danger in this is that the host system can be over allocated and there is no mechanism for warning you.

One bummer is that 64-bit guests are not supported only 32-bit hosts are. In windows server 2008 with Hyper-V 64-bit guests are supported. I have also also installed that but on a workstation class machine without much ram. I'll save talking about that for another post.

As you can see virtualization is becoming very prevalent in my server room. One of my colleagues plans on buying a server for disaster recovery. We'll configure the server will several VMs with VPNs back to one of his remote sites. This will give his domain and file shares a disaster recovery site. We are thinking about do the same at one of his sites.

So all in all I have 7 virtual machines running in production on three hosts. Each hosts actually a different MS virtualization product, Hyper-V, Virtual Server 2005, and Virtual PC. One of the best things I love about these Microsoft products is that you can move the virtual hard disks between the different programs. No conversion is necessary between the free and paid versions. This is not the case with VMware and their GSX and ESX server. This will be a big help in the future as I plan to move my Virtual PC vm guest to my Hyper-V. I just need to do some network changes as well and increase the RAM on the host.

I will definitely be having some more virtualization posts again.

Sharepoint Services 3.0 mobile

2008-05-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

Sharepoint is something we have used at work a little. I used it to schedule and reserve loaner equipment. It is not likely to get adopted at work because we have lotus notes and that can do many of the functions sharepoint can.

Every sharepoint site automatically comes with a mobile version on it. Just append a '/m' to the end of the sharepoint site. Not every site allows writting data but items can always be read. In fact I have a test sharepoint blog that I updated right now (and this one) on my blackberry while I wait for my eye doctor

Lotus domoino database need to be designed with mobile in mind so while they can do mobile pages too one is not automatically created for you.

Free HDV capture software

2008-04-17T02:32:00.000-07:00

After searching for software to capture HD content from a SONY HDV-A1U I finally came accross one that did it for free. Previously I was using the ever so lame windows movie maker. Problem is that it doesn't support HD and I was forced to down convert.

So CAP-DHVS was my answer. It required no install and was very easy to follow. The windows XP drivers and this software worked without any config.

One problem I did have was that it stopped my transfer at 21:55 for some reason. I didn't have a breakpoint in the video. It didn't matter really because I was transferring this video as a backup to the HDV tape.

You can download the sofware at this link:
http://www.yamabe.org/softbody.html#CapDVHS

It is written by a Japanese developer but they have an english version.

Hopefully I will have new video projects in the future where getting the HD content will be even more exciting.

First impression of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2

2008-04-17T02:16:00.000-07:00

In my position at work I am basically in charge of the server room. "Data center victim" as one of my colleagues called me. Anyway I have some old servers who only serve one application and are running on very weak machine. So I decided to try and consolidate...

Lightbulb! Free Virtual Server software from Microsoft! It boggles my mind that I didn't think of this before. I guess when I thought of a virtual environment I was thinking I should get a SAN and all that expensive stuff.

So my first impression of the software is that it will become very useful. The web interface is very convenient in administering the servers. It was a snap to create a virtual server in no time. When I have more time I will get into it further. I have few servers I want to move to virtual ones at work.

More to come on this piece of software...

Yanks/Sox game and Giuseppe Franco!

2008-04-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

The game is still going on, but it has been such a great game my excitement will keep me going all night. Both teams bullpens will be tested tonight. Right now the yanks are up 11-9 top of the 7th.

One of the best things about the Yankees' games on YES is the Giuseppe Franco commercials. This commercial makes me laugh every time. Gary busy makes a cameo and almosts destroys Giuseppe.

The wife can't stand Giuseppe, or the yankees for that matter, so watching Yankees game with her is always fun with her cheering against me.

I was watching the game in the theater but then the pup had to break his month's long streak of not peeing in the house. So now he's passed out on the couch. Being bad can take a lot out of the pup.

GO YANKS!! OH YEAH!!

Flickr Video

2008-04-09T12:49:00.000-07:00

The popular photo sharing site Flickr introduced a new feature on their website on Tuesday. In addition tto photos Flickr now supports video. Videos are limited to 90 seconds or 150MB. In addtion the those limits only users with Pro accounts are allowed to upload video, free users can view videos though.

One really nice thing is that it carries all the cool things about flickr with it. Just like photos you can add videos to sets, collections, groups, add tags, descriptions, etc. They give you code to embed the video much like other video sites. SO I embedded two below.

I uploaded 2 videos today to test it out. I wanted to share with some friends and family the Home Theater that I put together in my basement.

Here is one with the lights on:

Here is one with a movie playing: