So what’s happening with Apple and specifically Mac OSx? I mean, do I have to spend time restoring every time I do an update now, or do I need to pay Apple for assistance since I am outside of my apple care? I feel like the days of waiting before installing updates and service packs are upon me again and I do not want to head down that road again. Why doesn’t my Mac “Just Work” anymore?

What I Started With

My immediate need was to find a remote solution for our Voice classes. I started with a remote solution where phones were shipped along with a VPN router and switch. The Call Managers were in a lab environment in our Corporate office. The students would come to the class where the phones were at and we would connect them via VPN tunnel into the labs. This was easy!

The Direction of the Industry

You can’t hardly talk about delivering a class without talking about Webex these days. They make a specific product called Training Center that is designed to deliver remote class capabilities. There is a lab module that allows remote access into a lab, but I have not had good results with it. So, since people are taking classes online the solution for them has to allow remote connectivity to phones. Now this could all be solved if Cisco allowed more than one instance of IP Communicator to run, but they dont.

So, in search of a solution I go.

Microsoft Virtual PC

Our first attempt to allow access to multiple phones involved a Windows 7 computer being accessed via Remote Desktop. The Windows 7 PC had two NIC’s, one being an 802.1q card. The 802.1q card is placed on multiple vlans and Microsoft Virtual PC (XP Mode) is installed 3 or 4 times over to run an IP Communicator on each instance. At first glance it looks to be perfect. However, the drawbacks included flakey access to VLANS. In other words, Windows 7 sees all the VLANS on the dot1q card but Virtual PC doesn’t. This seems to be a bug in Virtual PC but I cannot confirm this.

Back to Real Phones

In following along with the likes of IPExpert and INE I decided to move back to a real phone and control it using a remote software. INE has a fantastic comparison of remote alternatives. We chose to go with UnifiedFX Phoneview. The software is fantastic from what I gather in my personal experience so far and they are the only ones that can monitor audio using CTI as far as I can tell. There are still drawbacks though. In a training environment, especially at the beginner stages, it’s important for the student to see the phone, watch it register, work with the settings and so on. From what I can tell this is impossible with remote control software since the phone must be registered and partially configured in order that it be managed.

Where We Are Now

For now the solution works but I have to believe that there are other solutions out there for a learning environment where phones can be controlled and viewed remotely with ease. Until then I will personally continue to do what I love doing- Test, Play, Configure, Tear Down, Rebuild, Complain, Tweet, Test again, Tweet again, Tear Down, Rebuild, Configure, Test, Play.

What Are Your Thoughts Or Experiences?

Have you had an experience with remote phone management software or want to make a suggestion? Tell me about it in the comments below. Not comfortable doing that? You can always use the options on the right hand side of this page under the “Connect” section.

The solution that Ascolta came across some time ago was RADMIN. RADMIN has some pretty cool features, but the best part is that it runs as a service and I can log in as a viewer.

Here is an example of the access interface. The menu bar across the top provides various options. RADMIN also carries audio so the sounds they hear are the same as what you hear. This also works for running IP Communicator on the remote PC with the exception of voice in.

The problem with RADMIN is that its a windows only app. As many of you know, I am a Mac user. So, to get around this little problem I could use VMWare Fusion, but that would use more memory that I care to allocate. Instead I use a product called Crossover by Codeweavers. Sure, it’s WINE. But, its got a great interface to manage what they call “Bottles” and with the professional edition it allows you to export a bottle and import to more than one machine foregoing the install process.

Neither one of these companies are aware that I am writing this post on them, I’m just speaking freely. They work pretty well, and the solve a problem I have. Anyone do me one better to solve my requirement?

For those interested here is the error and the fix: http://www.internetmarketingwizard.com/fatal-error-call-to-undefined-function-is_rtl-in-public_html-wp-includes-general-template-php-on-line-2102

First off, I have Windows 7 Professional with an 802.1q capable NIC installed. In the image seen below, I have added VLAN 62 to the adapter.

The next step is to map it to a VMnet in VMware workstation so I use it for one of my virtual machines. This is done in the virtual network preferences. However, as you can tell from the screenshot below, it’s not easy to see the VLAN assignment.

To correct this issue you need to edit the network connection. First go to your list of Network Connections.

Next, edit the properties of the network adapter you created as VLAN 62.

Now note that the Deterministic Network Enhancer is enabled. De-select this option.

Once deselected, OK and close the open windows. Also, close and re-open VMware Workstation. Now it’s time to go back into VMware and verify that we can now map the VLAN to the desired VMnet. In this case we can now easily see VLAN 62 and map it to VMnet 1.

I’ve found situation where I also had to disable Microsoft Virtual PC Filter as well to see the VLAN in VMWare workstation. The real benefit in this for me, is that I can now run multiple Virtual Machines on my Server and then trunk to my switch, sending the various VMware Virtual Machines into different networks. The configuration on the switch where the Server is connected is quite simple, as seen below:

!
interface GigabitEthernet5/0/3
 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
 switchport mode trunk
!

This should get your started. In the next post Ill discuss another situation I’ve recently encountered that solves another issue I have in providing Lab Services to students that take classes at Ascolta and having duplicate Lab Racks with identical VLANS.

The Cisco PIX firewall was originally conceived in early 1994 by John Mayes of Redwood City, California and designed and coded by Brantley Coile of Athens, Georgia. In 1995 the PIX was considered the “Hot Product of the Year” and Cisco eventually EOL’d the product as of July 28, 2008. Needless to say it had a nice long run. But all things considered, when the PIX was developed people were also purchasing the IBM ThinkPad 701c, browsing the web with Netscape, and a gallon of gas was about 2.70. Seriously, things have changed, but why hasn’t your firewall?

OK, I get it, you bought a PIX 515E. That was introduced in 2002 and EOL’d in 2008. That year people were using the Nokia 6610, the dominant video game consoles were the XBOX, Nintendo Game Cube, and the PS2. Now you have an iPHone and an XBOX 360, but why hasn’t your firewall changed?

Look, the bottom line is that we have no issues upgrading the Tech that’s right in front of our face, yet we tend to stretch out the life of core/fundamental network and security devices well beyond their intended and useful life.

My Take

Get a new firewall! Look at the ASA 5500 Series and get with the times. Use the migration tool tho migrate your configuration to something that can be put on an ASA and don’t look back!

Instead, what I thought was cool, was when Ron asked the question, “What if I could do a traceroute at layer 2?” Then he follows with “Well you can with Pong.” Immediately I was interested as were many attending Networking Field Day. I believe that Ivan Pepelnjak of IOS Hints asked for an explanation of how this works, but I don’t think we ever got there.

In short, Pong, is a layer 2 trace route function that is built into the Nexus platform. The actual definition of PONG from the Cisco Release notes states that PONG is the ability to do a traceroute based on the MAC addresses of the destination endpoint, and to provide a latency and connectivity check, using IEEE1588v2 for latency measurement. PONG can be enable with the Enhanced Layer 2 Package (N7K-EL21K9) license.

While I don’t have my own equipment to test this, and I dont see much documentation on how it actually functions, I did dig up an example of PONG in action. In this example we see PONG between FabricPath switch-ids.

switch# configure terminal
switch(config)# pong destination-swid 3506 destination-mac 001b.54c2.9a43 vlan 1 count 3
Packet No. 1
--- ----------------- --------------------------
Hop Switch-id Switching time (sec, nsec)
--- ----------------- --------------------------
1 0-1b-54-c2-9a-41 0 4752
2 0-1b-54-c2-9a-43 0 544258088
3 0-1b-54-c2-9a-41 0 4792
Round trip time: 0sec 15416 nsec
Packet No. 2
--- ----------------- --------------------------
Hop Switch-id Switching time (sec, nsec)
--- ----------------- --------------------------
1 0-1b-54-c2-9a-41 0 4752
2 0-1b-54-c2-9a-43 0 522744240
3 0-1b-54-c2-9a-41 0 4736
Round trip time: 0sec 15368 nsec
Packet No. 3
--- ----------------- --------------------------
Hop Switch-id Switching time (sec, nsec)
--- ----------------- --------------------------
 1 0-1b-54-c2-9a-41 0 4752
 2 0-1b-54-c2-9a-43 0 521869920
 3 0-1b-54-c2-9a-41 0 4800
 Round trip time: 0sec 15360 nsec

You can see from the output that pong provides Layer 2 hop and second/nanosecond latency calculations. You can find additional examples in the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series NX-OS Troubleshooting Guide — Troubleshooting Tools and Methodology

Yes, just another tool for troubleshooting to put in the “Geek Utility Belt” if you will. I wonder what this would look like in a GUI? (Can you hear my snarky tone?)

Side Note

For many of my readers, the Nexus Platform and data center switching may not be in your wheel house. If you want to start getting your feet wet in Data Center Switching I’d recommend some of the introductory posts over at Etherealmind.com or why not sign up for one f Ivans Webinars?

Disclaimer

Seems everyone that attended the recent Networking Field Day is doing these so I might as well also. Many of the posts I have coming out are related to information I learned, or opinions I have formed from attending the Networking Field Day 2 which is an event that is run by Stephen Foskett from Gestalt IT. Delegates receive some swag, food, transportation, and so on, as well as travel and hotel accommodations to the event. The vendors understand that we have the right to like, or not like what they have to teach/show us. If I like something I see I may blog or tweet about it. If not, I probably won’t. The point is, these are my opinions, thoughts and understandings and not anything I have been paid to write for anyone.

As I continued my search I looked at Kaseya, which is nice but a little bit overboard for my needs, as well as well as IT Service Desk from SAManage. I finally came upon ManageEngine On-Demand. This is the solution I finally settled on, and so far I’m very happy. It’s simple, yet has some great features like SSO, Active Directory Integration, Email Ticketing, Text Alerts, SLA’s and more. It does everything I need and more. The software is sold in the SaaS format, starting at 29 bucks a month per technician. Regular employees can have an account the submit self-service tickets and check status at no additional charge.

My Take

There are tons of great Service Desk/ITIL applications out there, and one of them will fit your organization. Take the time to evaluate the options and choose the one that makes the most sense for your organization.

That’s not to say that it’s not going well, because it actually is. But there are a number of variables that I didn’t consider. Take for example our delivery method and it’s involvement with distribution lists. Currently we have a number of “Internal Only” distribution lists. As far as I can tell, these lists are the equivalent of a closed group in Google Apps. So I have spent a great deal of time creating groups to match my existing DL’s. Additionally I am doing a dual delivery right now and therefore I have to send mail coming into my domain back out to a temp address that maps to the users Google Mailbox.

The good thing is that Google provides a ton of information. The bad thing is learning how people have archived PST files on their local machines that they can’t live without, Distribution Lists that are not allowing people from outside to send into, and top it all off with a need to integrate Microsoft CRM (which BTW- if you have an app already that does this I’d love a recommendation). I guess once the migration is done things will settle down. Until then I’m toggling between Google Land and Microsoft World.