So the holidays are over and we are all back to work – well almost. Unfortunately, the bad weather has caused some disruption, as a number of staff can’t get into work. Although that hasn’t affected IT staff, we are having to a do few things to help others out. Bet we don’t get any help from them when we need it later in the year!
I like to plan out what work we have to do – preferably at least a few months in advance. As such, I have a list of jobs and priorities against them and this gets updated throughout the year. At the moment, there are a large number of items for the next 3 months and quite a few for the second half of the year.
We are planning to go on a couple of specific training courses, there are some hardware and software upgrades, a couple of events that I feel would be appropriate for myself or my staff to attend and there are a number of jobs that need to be done as part of rolling maintenance programmes. We also have several projects under way and the various steps need to be arranged in the correct sequence and fitted in amongst the other work – plus of course we have the occasional problem that needs to be supported.
Unfortunately, there are several jobs that we cannot yet schedule – we are waiting for information from other people. One of our sites is proving to be a bit too small to handle the work load, so the company are looking at alternative locations. However, the senior managers can’t decide which of the newer sites would be most appropriate, so we can’t yet arrange for any work to be done that is required. Of course we know full well that when they do finally decide, they will expect all of the work to be complete within a few days!
In fact that move is going to be a much bigger task than they anticipate – once the decision is made they will then argue over the layout of the place and almost certainly, will change what they want on a daily basis. We will be cabling up the site for a network ourselves – it saves the company quite a bit of money although it does take up a bit of time. I’ve designed a particular method of network architecture that really works for us, and provides a great deal more flexibility and scalability than the way that these installatins normally get done. Most of the people doing cabling appear to be electrical installers, and they think CAT 5e can be treated like standard 2 core and earth and they seem to have a real problem if you ask for work to be done in a particular way.
On top of that, we have get the telephone lines moved, get an ADSL connection and move all the IT equipment ourselves – the last time we had a move, we also ended moving all the desks and cabinets as well. The staff seemed to think that they could just close down the PCs, put on their coats, pick up their handbags and walk to the new site to find the desks all set up, the PC installed and turned on for them! They were rather upset to find that they were expected to do some of the work themselves!
So January is looking to be quite a busy month, what with one thing and another. Happy new year!
Showing posts with label Network. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Network. Show all posts
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Monday, 29 June 2009
Castle walls
Just over a week ago, Microsoft held their Technet Virtual Conference – I found it a really useful event and there were a lot of interesting features. If you missed it then you might want to know that the material is still available from their main website.
During the day, items were split between technical and management; the first item in the management section was a recorded talk by Miha Kralj, one of their senior architects. He had a lot to say on the topic of where IT is likely to go over the next decade and it was delivered in a straight forward, humorous fashion. I found that I agreed with much of what he said – but there were a couple of items where I think he was a little bit out.
He talked about people in the workplace – how they fall into certain categories, Baby Boomers born the 20 years after WWII (which includes me!), Generation X, Generation Y and the latest additions to the work place, the Digital Natives. He stated that this latest generation are much more attuned to using computing devices and companies need to take this into account when planning for the future.
He argued that the Digital Natives are used to making use of newer technologies such as Instant Messaging, social networking sites such as Facebook, video sites such as YouTube or photo sharing sites like Flickr, and will expect to be able make use of these as part of their normal work routine. They are therefore unlikely to be happy conforming to corporate rules preventing the use of these products, and so companies need to “tear down the walls” to their networks.
When I heard this, my immediate reaction was one of horror – like many others, I have had to deal with issues such as virus or spyware infection caused by a user opening an email or downloading a file that is actually a piece of malware. The old saying “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure” is very relevant for those of us at the front end.
I understand the value of making use of these products, and in fact we are looking at introducing some newer methods of communication to improve the way that people work. But I also am very concerned about the topic of security. The reality is that the majority of users are still very naïve about safety measures – those of us entrusted with system administration cannot afford to rely on the users to keep themselves safe, and we have to make sure that they are not put in a position where they can compromise the security of the network.
Unfortunately, the new Digital Natives may well know how to do things, but are not yet savvy enough to know if they should; or more importantly, why they should not do something (and for that matter, most other users are just as bad). We may be able to allow some windows into our secure networks, but to remove the protection completely would be a very foolish thing indeed.
During the day, items were split between technical and management; the first item in the management section was a recorded talk by Miha Kralj, one of their senior architects. He had a lot to say on the topic of where IT is likely to go over the next decade and it was delivered in a straight forward, humorous fashion. I found that I agreed with much of what he said – but there were a couple of items where I think he was a little bit out.
He talked about people in the workplace – how they fall into certain categories, Baby Boomers born the 20 years after WWII (which includes me!), Generation X, Generation Y and the latest additions to the work place, the Digital Natives. He stated that this latest generation are much more attuned to using computing devices and companies need to take this into account when planning for the future.
He argued that the Digital Natives are used to making use of newer technologies such as Instant Messaging, social networking sites such as Facebook, video sites such as YouTube or photo sharing sites like Flickr, and will expect to be able make use of these as part of their normal work routine. They are therefore unlikely to be happy conforming to corporate rules preventing the use of these products, and so companies need to “tear down the walls” to their networks.
When I heard this, my immediate reaction was one of horror – like many others, I have had to deal with issues such as virus or spyware infection caused by a user opening an email or downloading a file that is actually a piece of malware. The old saying “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure” is very relevant for those of us at the front end.
I understand the value of making use of these products, and in fact we are looking at introducing some newer methods of communication to improve the way that people work. But I also am very concerned about the topic of security. The reality is that the majority of users are still very naïve about safety measures – those of us entrusted with system administration cannot afford to rely on the users to keep themselves safe, and we have to make sure that they are not put in a position where they can compromise the security of the network.
Unfortunately, the new Digital Natives may well know how to do things, but are not yet savvy enough to know if they should; or more importantly, why they should not do something (and for that matter, most other users are just as bad). We may be able to allow some windows into our secure networks, but to remove the protection completely would be a very foolish thing indeed.
Friday, 3 April 2009
Networking
At my previous company, the network cabling was pretty poor – it was put in by a guy they referred to as “Dodgy Dean”. I’m told that he is wanted by 3 separate police forces and is currently living somewhere in the Costas!
Basically, it was a mix of old coaxial cable (with BNC connectors), some Cat 5e cable most of which done correctly, but some of which was reversed (green / orange). It was run through gaps in the walls, through drains, over the roof, through guttering, mixed in with power cable, under motors – pretty much a mess. There was absolutely no structure to it what so ever.
The network used to crash throughout the day – tests showed that quite a number of the cables were dead (around 20%). I also found some strange configurations in the hubs, with cable crossing over and packets travelling unnecessarily longer distances. The speed was pretty poor (as you might expect) and people would often accidently cut through or disturb cables to cause disruption.
I eventually decided enough was enough – I set about replacing all the crap. As I started to pull the old cable out, I found even more hidden away than I knew about – it turns out that he never took anything out, just ran more cable when one piece failed. Some of the old cable was covered in all sorts of green, brown and black slime! Much of it showed signs of the outer sheath cracking or breaking up as it was in such poor condition. In the end, I filled a whole standard skip up with the dead cable and still had enough over to half fill another.
Eventually, it was all tidied up, documented and tested and the network became a lot more stable and transmission speed improved. Then I changed jobs!
When I started with my current company, it was a bit like taking a step back in time. Again, there was a mixture of older coax cable, some fibre and mostly Cat 5e. The cable runs were really poor, just shoved in where they could with no planning of any real kind.
So I trained up one of the staff, showed him how to do basic Cat 5 ends, and punch down in the patch panels. I spent some time analysing what was really needed through the offices and factories, then considered how best to replace all of the garbage.
We started with some fairly basic changes – moving some cables and putting some new ones in a more controlled way. Then we added proper basket tray above the office spaces to carry new cable and it started to take shape. We always run cables in threes – the extra cost is minimal, but it provides a lot more capacity and it is easier than trying to add in later.
When the company decided to build new offices, it was agreed that we would cable it up – we had had quotes in the range of £38,000 to over £50,000. In the end, we put in almost 10,000 metres of cable for the new offices and the cost of materials was a little over £3k. Add in another £3k for staff time involved and it became a major cost saving. It actually allowed them to plan for a really fancy lighting system that cost some £30k.
In the comms rooms, the patch panels look really pretty as they are very carefully patched. In most places, these normally resemble explosions of spaghetti, but ours are very different and nicely laid out. We have had several people in from outside companies that are astonished at the quality of the work we have done. (See the picture above for an example of a comms rack - we have 3 full height units, 1 half size and 2 wall cabinets, and they all look like that.)
So why do we put all this effort in? Well, we take a pride in our job; we want to have something that we can point to as high quality work. It also makes our lives easier; if there is a problem, it takes less time to identify and resolve. The structure we use provides much more capacity for growth with minimal effort – it’s also a lot easier to move people around when necessary.
The problem is of course that within the company, most people don’t recognise the effort that has gone into it. All they are interested in is that the system works when they want it to, and as a result they just don’t appreciate that not everyone takes as much care as we do.
Basically, it was a mix of old coaxial cable (with BNC connectors), some Cat 5e cable most of which done correctly, but some of which was reversed (green / orange). It was run through gaps in the walls, through drains, over the roof, through guttering, mixed in with power cable, under motors – pretty much a mess. There was absolutely no structure to it what so ever.
The network used to crash throughout the day – tests showed that quite a number of the cables were dead (around 20%). I also found some strange configurations in the hubs, with cable crossing over and packets travelling unnecessarily longer distances. The speed was pretty poor (as you might expect) and people would often accidently cut through or disturb cables to cause disruption.
I eventually decided enough was enough – I set about replacing all the crap. As I started to pull the old cable out, I found even more hidden away than I knew about – it turns out that he never took anything out, just ran more cable when one piece failed. Some of the old cable was covered in all sorts of green, brown and black slime! Much of it showed signs of the outer sheath cracking or breaking up as it was in such poor condition. In the end, I filled a whole standard skip up with the dead cable and still had enough over to half fill another.
Eventually, it was all tidied up, documented and tested and the network became a lot more stable and transmission speed improved. Then I changed jobs!
When I started with my current company, it was a bit like taking a step back in time. Again, there was a mixture of older coax cable, some fibre and mostly Cat 5e. The cable runs were really poor, just shoved in where they could with no planning of any real kind.
So I trained up one of the staff, showed him how to do basic Cat 5 ends, and punch down in the patch panels. I spent some time analysing what was really needed through the offices and factories, then considered how best to replace all of the garbage.
We started with some fairly basic changes – moving some cables and putting some new ones in a more controlled way. Then we added proper basket tray above the office spaces to carry new cable and it started to take shape. We always run cables in threes – the extra cost is minimal, but it provides a lot more capacity and it is easier than trying to add in later.
When the company decided to build new offices, it was agreed that we would cable it up – we had had quotes in the range of £38,000 to over £50,000. In the end, we put in almost 10,000 metres of cable for the new offices and the cost of materials was a little over £3k. Add in another £3k for staff time involved and it became a major cost saving. It actually allowed them to plan for a really fancy lighting system that cost some £30k.
In the comms rooms, the patch panels look really pretty as they are very carefully patched. In most places, these normally resemble explosions of spaghetti, but ours are very different and nicely laid out. We have had several people in from outside companies that are astonished at the quality of the work we have done. (See the picture above for an example of a comms rack - we have 3 full height units, 1 half size and 2 wall cabinets, and they all look like that.)
So why do we put all this effort in? Well, we take a pride in our job; we want to have something that we can point to as high quality work. It also makes our lives easier; if there is a problem, it takes less time to identify and resolve. The structure we use provides much more capacity for growth with minimal effort – it’s also a lot easier to move people around when necessary.
The problem is of course that within the company, most people don’t recognise the effort that has gone into it. All they are interested in is that the system works when they want it to, and as a result they just don’t appreciate that not everyone takes as much care as we do.
Friday, 6 March 2009
Which one is the "Any" key?
This is just really to get started - I've been asked to set-up a blog to take part in a study organised by a big company. The study is to help them understand some of the issues involved in support and how it could be improved. Call me Mr Cynical, but I think that the best thing to help us would be a brain implant for all users!
This is a rough list of some of the issues that we have had to deal with this week. One of the directors had a problem with his home PC at the weekend - daughter downloaded a music file and it had a virus. Then another director put some home pictures on his laptop and he has a trojan horse. So we have had to deal with that for a couple of days
We've had about 7 requests for help with printing - 4 needed a new toner cartridge, 2 the print spooler had stopped, 1 had a piece of paper jammed in the device.
A lady in payroll took the week off; someone else had to go in to the work, and she needed help setting up the PC so that she could work with the HR / Payroll software. She also needed her phone moved.
There was a request to move / repair a network cable - it was a temporary thing that has turned into a more permanent solution. One of the staff also had to go to another site as we are cabling up a new building and he needed to do a second lot of work on patching cables up.
I had to deal with a site in France - the VPN link went down again (their connection is dodgy). We have also been trying to get the DNS server transferring zone data, and I finally got that resolved.
They had a query with setting up a new email account that will be shared; this was made more difficult as they have both Office 2003 and 2007 and the proces is slightly different on each. I had to set-up a copy of Office 2007 so that I could create screenshots to help demo the process.
They also asked about potentially running an EDI process, however it turned out that was actually not what is happening, plus we are implementing a new ERP solution, which makes it academic anyway.
I've been carrying a massive series of updates on the new ERP - spent almost 3 full days on that alone. One of my staff runs an automated process for patching, but it can't do the ERP.
I'm also trying to get a server set-up to act as the DC for a child domain of the groups main domain - this is the brainchild of my opposite number in Germany. Unfortunately, it's made a bit difficult as the guy that looks after their network doesn't reply very quickly to emails. I'm still waiting for a response to a mail I sent on Tuesday.
We are putting in a new autoloader tape drive for backups; it's now in, and we seem to be getting the tapes working. We'll see how it works later. It's linked to an MS DPM server which we all think is the dog's nuts - it backs up all our servers on all sites and the recovery is a piece of cake. We are so impressed with this product.
In addition, one of the guys is developing a web based portal for use by our staff and customers - he has been trying to develop something to reduce the amount of Excel spreadsheets that are being used on another site.
Mid week I went to a vendor presentation - early start (5:00 am) and later finish (10:00 pm). We are way down south and it takes ages to get anywhere.
Hopefully that's enough to get started - more later.
This is a rough list of some of the issues that we have had to deal with this week. One of the directors had a problem with his home PC at the weekend - daughter downloaded a music file and it had a virus. Then another director put some home pictures on his laptop and he has a trojan horse. So we have had to deal with that for a couple of days
We've had about 7 requests for help with printing - 4 needed a new toner cartridge, 2 the print spooler had stopped, 1 had a piece of paper jammed in the device.
A lady in payroll took the week off; someone else had to go in to the work, and she needed help setting up the PC so that she could work with the HR / Payroll software. She also needed her phone moved.
There was a request to move / repair a network cable - it was a temporary thing that has turned into a more permanent solution. One of the staff also had to go to another site as we are cabling up a new building and he needed to do a second lot of work on patching cables up.
I had to deal with a site in France - the VPN link went down again (their connection is dodgy). We have also been trying to get the DNS server transferring zone data, and I finally got that resolved.
They had a query with setting up a new email account that will be shared; this was made more difficult as they have both Office 2003 and 2007 and the proces is slightly different on each. I had to set-up a copy of Office 2007 so that I could create screenshots to help demo the process.
They also asked about potentially running an EDI process, however it turned out that was actually not what is happening, plus we are implementing a new ERP solution, which makes it academic anyway.
I've been carrying a massive series of updates on the new ERP - spent almost 3 full days on that alone. One of my staff runs an automated process for patching, but it can't do the ERP.
I'm also trying to get a server set-up to act as the DC for a child domain of the groups main domain - this is the brainchild of my opposite number in Germany. Unfortunately, it's made a bit difficult as the guy that looks after their network doesn't reply very quickly to emails. I'm still waiting for a response to a mail I sent on Tuesday.
We are putting in a new autoloader tape drive for backups; it's now in, and we seem to be getting the tapes working. We'll see how it works later. It's linked to an MS DPM server which we all think is the dog's nuts - it backs up all our servers on all sites and the recovery is a piece of cake. We are so impressed with this product.
In addition, one of the guys is developing a web based portal for use by our staff and customers - he has been trying to develop something to reduce the amount of Excel spreadsheets that are being used on another site.
Mid week I went to a vendor presentation - early start (5:00 am) and later finish (10:00 pm). We are way down south and it takes ages to get anywhere.
Hopefully that's enough to get started - more later.
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