One of my goals for the new system is redundancy. If something goes down, I’d really like a second system around to stay up and running, in particular when using virtualization it does create bigger single points of failure (one phyical server going down takes down multiple virtual servers), which is one of its biggest weaknesses. This can be mitigated by using shared storage (hence the SAN) and multiple servers that can take on the virtual machines the “down” physical machine can’t run temporarily, even if it runs a bit slow from the additional load (even better if your secondary server is not heavily loaded!).

Having the R805 would be great, but my next-best server is a Dell PowerEdge 1800 that’s three years old, with a single Xeon 3.0GHz processor and 6GB of RAM. It’s a very nice server, but it wouldn’t be able to shoulder a load the R805 could handle easily so it would only be able to run absolutely critical machines. Additionally, the Xeon processor is too old to support Intel’s VT (Virtualization Technology) extensions that make running a virtual server hypervisor easier, and allows 64-bit guest operating machines to run. If we make the move to Exchange 2007, there would be no backup server for it to move to, and it would be one of our most critical servers!

VMware’s ESXi hypervisor runs just fine on the PowerEdge 1800 (as long as you don’t need 64-bit guests); I have it running now with a couple of VMs and it’s barely breaking a sweat. It will work even better on the nice “new” PowerEdge 1950’s, but the other thing that having VT-capable processors will help me with hypervisor selection options. If I don’t end up running the now-free VMware ESXi, which I’ve tried and like but keeps you from using some of the really cool features unless you buy their Virtual Infrastructure/Virtual Center packages (these easily get into the same price as the hardware for both servers I bought!). Microsoft’s new Hyper-V virtualization platform (separate entirely from the old Microsoft Virtual Server product) is capable of running only on processors supporting VT, and now I’ll have two of them, the magic redundant number. It does preclude using the PowerEdge 1800 as an third backup, but down the road it will offer some of the similar moving of “live, running” virtual machines from host to host, and Microsoft is releasing their Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) soon as well for management, which will be siginificantly more cost-effective for us given charity pricing than VMware’s Virtual Center. But some of this stuff isn’t going to be here right away, and VMware’s solutions aren’t necessarily lacking anything we desperately need. What’s the answer? For now, it’s keep researching, maybe even try both when the servers arrive, and see which is the best fit for us. Microsoft certainly wants to take over the market and they’ve been successful in other areas in doing so after entering late, but it’s way too early to tell in this case, in my uneducated opinion! I do think VMware will be around for a while, and is not a poor choice from a longevity perspective yet.

Licensing is the only “kicker” with my new servers. Microsoft licenses (that link has a cool calculator, but it gives retail and not charity prices!) their Microsoft Server Datacenter software per socket (physical processor) in each server. So if you have a dual-processor system, you buy two licenses. The R805 is a dual-processor system, but the 1950s are as well, and I just doubled my processor count and therefore licensing cost! That’s OK, I’m likely going to, for now, use the Datacenter license from the PE 1800 for one processor in one of the new servers and use a Server Standard license on the PE 1800 for now that I’ll be freeing up by virtualizing to pre-licensed VMs. This will just add around $500 to the cost of getting a second server, making the hardware and licensing increases in going from one to two servers come in right at $800. That’s not bad for a second server, doubling your quad-core processing power and RAM as a consequence!

Because these servers were in the Dell Outlet, where items in your cart last only 15 minutes unless you modify them, the server have now been purchased and are estimated to ship on October 1st. I’m still waiting to pull the trigger on the MD3000i SAN and I’m still researching backups (which just had its budget cut a bit with this server swap!). I did hear from my Zones rep that October 1st begins Microsoft’s new fiscal year, and they will be announcing any pricing changes at that time. Pricing on Datacenter could go up, or stay the same (well, it could go down but how likely is that? Exactly!). Since I have the servers for sure now, I may go ahead and grab the Datacenter licensing before the end of the month for that reason if I can (my boss is out of town at the moment; he approved the server purchase earlier waiting to change airplanes at an airport in the Bahamas on a business trip. No, he called me first for some technical assistance, I didn’t bug him until I had him on the phone already. Yes, I should have asked if he needed an assistant for his business trip :-)

So, one more step completed in the process, many remaining. Also, I’m possibly going to need (or want very much to have) a cheap or free server rack that I can pick up locally. Just saying, if you happen to be throwing one away and are nearby :-)

• A Dell PowerVault MD3000i iSCSI SAN (with 10-15 near-line SAS 1TB drives and dual controllers)
• At least one new server (likely a Dell PowerEdge R805 with dual quad-core AMD processors)
• Microsoft Server Datacenter licensing for the same
• An iSCSI Ethernet switch
• Battery backups for server and SAN
• Backup software and some drives for backup
• A rack for the server room (maybe. If I can find a free or dirt cheap used one, locally)

Unfortunately, my budget for all of this as assigned is going to be a bit of a tight fit to squeeze the last few bits in and I’m still trying to figure out the best and most cost-effective way to do this. I’m also struggling a bit with which backup software to use. The server we were using to mirror our data is now dead, and although we have a RAID 5 array that is nowhere near the level of protection we need to have, but I am starting from scratch as far as which data backup software to buy. I have no tapes nor the budget for a tape drive, but I do have some PATA hard drive arrays that are only half-full that are SCSI-attached and will probably work in tandem with an existing server to become my disk-based backup server. Figuring out how to do offsite backup, within the same budget, is high on my todo list :-)

My budget for all this is actually less than the retail price of just the server and SAN. Fortunately, I rarely pay retail and this is certainly no exception! The plan, if isn’t obvious, is to virtualize. I’ve already been doing virtualization for a while to some extent. I used Microsoft Virtual Server a long time ago but switched to VMware Server product when it was released for free. I’m currently running four virtual Windows machines and a virtual Linux machine for our helpdesk software. Recently, since VMware’s ESXi became available for free, I’ve started running it on our newest server, a 3-year-old Dell PowerEdge 1800 Xeon 3.0GHz system with 6GB RAM. It runs very well and I love the management interface, even just using the VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client it comes with (since we aren’t paying for Virtual Infrastructure 3, or VI3 as it’s known!).

The goal of the new system will be to move virtual machines and file shares onto the MD3000i SAN. The Dell R805 server will be the primary virtual machine host, and although my plan was to use VMware ESXi, a good friend and mentor has recommended I examine Microsoft’s new Hyper-V virtualization platform as a strong contender, especially since Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 is coming and Live Motion will be available in the future, something that VMware does (simliarly, at least) with VMotion only for a high licensing cost. I’m open to either virtualization solution at this point, but here’s my main problem: Hyper-V will only run on procesors that support the new virtualization extensions. Right now, that’s zero of our servers. The R805 will support them of course, but the PowerEdge 1800, our only server with even a 64-bit processor, is too old to have the extensions and thus cannot run Hyper-V or 64-bit guests (although it runs ESXi just fine right now). My plan was to use the PE1800 as a backup server to run critical systems as needed if the R805 was ever down. With Hyper-V, this is no longer an option (and really, with the PE1800 and ESXi I still can’t run any 64-bit guests, so Exchange 2007 is out), and my concern is being left without a secondary server should the primary fail.

So, I’m left trying to fit a second server of some sort, new enough to have virtualization extensions but cheap enough to fit into my already packed budget. Suggestions, and of course donations, are welcome :-) I have been keeping an eye on the Dell Outlet but that is mostly pointless until I have the money to spend same-day when something shows up in stock.

At the moment I’m likely going to get a couple of refurbished UPSs from RefurbUPS for battery backup. However, I will be pursuing a contact or two who may be able to help with this as well.

The final area I’m still investigating still is data backups. There are a plethora of disk-to-disk backup options, and obviously I’m limited by price. I’m not going to use Symantec’s BackupExec for various reasons. The options I am considering so far consist of the following:

• Amanda (Enterprise for Exchange, open source if it will mix with Enterprise)
• Righeous Software’s Continuous Data Protection (CDP)
• Backup Assist
• CommVault (the Small Business version available only through resellers such as Dell)
• Microsoft Data Protection Manager (DPM)

CommVault is the solution that Jason Powell and his team use at Granger Community Church. They like it and it allows for Exchange restore down to the individual message if necessary without restoring the entire data store. The other options I have done varying levels of research on; enough to know they are still a contender on both price and features but not enough to provide an in-depth comparison summary. I am also still working how exactly how many virtual machines I will be running, and how many need to run a backup agent (some things can just be backed up with scripted backups to a file server where the data can be backed up along with everything else on that server, so I don’t necessarily have to have a backup agent for every VM).

The funding will be available most likely in the next couple of weeks or so to go ahead and make these purchases. If I can hold off on some of the backup questions, I may try to wait until after the upcoming Seacoast Fall Church IT Roundtable so I have more time to bounce ideas off of the smart guys there!

This is an overview and of course is not the only research, thinking, and questioning I’ve done about this solution! So feel free to comment and suggest away; I’m just saying there’s a possibility I’ve considered your suggestion and if so, I’ll note it. More often than not though, my thinking is challenged here in the comments, so please delight me with your insights, they are much appreciated :-)

It looks to me like the issue is the prongs break off in a power outlet sometimes. I move my adapter daily (until I get a second one so I can keep one at work and one at home) and haven’t had any issues. I’m not going to stop using it as they recommend, but I will be on the lookout for any problems and if it does break off, I’ll make sure to notice and take action to prevent any injuries or issues. If you can’t manage to do that safely, sure, stop using it and charge via USB all the time :-) Don’t blame me though, officially I’m telling you to stop using the adapters now and wait until October 10th to get a new one. Go ahead, I’m sure you’ll always be close to a USB outlet to charge your phone a few times a day!

Thanks to whoever I follow on Twitter who brought this to my attention; I’m not entirely sure at this point who it was. If you haven’t seen it here, you probably live under the tech news rock that I do much of the time (tech news can suck me in, so I often stay away for lengthy periods of time!).

Also, the Church IT Roundtable Fall 2008 is coming up in October, but the registration price goes from $50 to $75 if you don’t register by August 8th! The actual Roundtable is October 8th and 9th, but there are pre- and post-activites planned for the day on either side if you can make it (see the schedule). My plans aren’t firm yet, but my wife and I will likely both be there!

AT&T iPhone Status: Shipped!

Yesterday, my iPhone shipped to the AT&T store where I’m going to pick it up. It ships overnight FedEx, which I’m very happy about, because it means I can go in the store and pick it up today! I’ll be going after work this evening. The FedEx tracking number shows that it was delivered at 10:17am to the store, and I’ve confirmed that the phone will be available for pickup later this afternoon!

In order to not bore you with posts about iPhone apps that I find, I’m going to post most iPhone-related stuff over on my personal blog (which I’ve recently redone so there’s not much there), ExistDifferently. I’ll probably make a post or page here with a table of contents that I’ll keep updated as I write stuff, or I’ll pull in the posts in the sidebar. If you really want to hear about a ton of iPhone stuff here, let me know…but it’s going to be more for me than anything, since there’s already a ton of info out there if you want it!

The short story is yes, I got them working! At least two so far; I’ve tried a third but it won’t even power on. The answer came through Googling and guessing. Here’s how I got them working (mostly the working part, but I’ll add a few notes about the journey).

First, I had to locate a PS/2 keyboard and mouse. There are two USB ports on each of these units, but I don’t know if they’ll accept USB keyboards or mice and PS/2 ports are there and are the lowest common denominator (I tested a USB keyboard later with no success). With that done, I took one of the few power supplies I have, plugged it in with the keyboard and mouse, add Ethernet and VGA monitor (an analog input on one of my LCD panels worked fine, and hit Power. Took a few seconds to boot up, right to a login screen. Wow, that’s helpful, given that these were in another environment! No hint of a way to configure what server to connect to, either. Time for Google!

A few unfruitful searches finally brought results with the term “wt3350se update firmware” (without quotes) since I figured maybe updating the firmware would be a good method of getting control over the devices. The link I found was to Free Wyse Monkeys, specifically an article called Reset to Factory Defaults or Unlock a Wyse Terminal. This article seems to contain the world’s last remaining knowledge on getting into old Wyse terminals (as far as Google is concerned). I even hit up the Wyse official website without finding any documentation other than some firmware updates available for download (I’ll be coming back to those later).

The biggest key that helped me from Free Wyse Monkeys’ article was the note to try holding the “G” key on the keyboard while booting to reset and get into the settings screen. It worked! When I tried it, instead of a login screen I ended up at the Winterm Connection Manager with a “Default ICA Connection” staring back at me with beady black-on-gray eyes, and a title bar that said “Press F2 to select Terminal Properties.” Proceeding thus, there were all sorts of options available, but what I wanted was to connect with RDP to the Terminal Server and not Citrix, which we don’t have. The Terminal Properties window has a lot of tabs, but the best one for me ended up being the Upgrade tab: this tab let me input an FTP server to use for firmware updates! Wait a minute, didn’t I find some of those earlier? Why, yes I did! Firmware v3.5.1 was available in both Citrix (ICA) and RDP types, the one I wanted was called l44122rdp-wye.exe which I promptly downloaded and extracted. Yay, a bunch of files that were mostly meaningless! There was a bootstrap.exe file and such…it looks like there are a few ways from the Monkeys article I could use to perform the upgrade but they all required a DOS box. I’m a bit short of those at the moment.

But back to FTP. What if I just stuck the files on an FTP server and pointed the terminal at it for an upgrade? Couldn’t make things work worse than they already did, since they didn’t. I grabbed Filezilla Server because I didn’t feel like setting up the IIS FTP service just to test my theory. Set up a test user with access to the directory inside my extracted firmware (the firmware was a .exe that extracted files to a folder, inside the folder there was another folder called “441-223350rdp” which is what I set as the FTP root, with the actual firmware file being called “L441224F.wye”). Back to the Upgrade tab on the thin client. I input the Server Name of my machine, left Server Directory blank, and entered the User ID and password I’d set up in Filezilla Server. Then I clicked the button I assumed would begin the upgrade, if it worked (how did I guess? Fortunately, the button said, “Upgrade.” Clever!). Up pops a little warning box saying something to the effect of “Warning! This will do an upgrade. Don’t stop once you start. Are you sure?” only a long longer (OK it wasn’t too bad).

Twenty seconds later the flash was downloaded, and precisely 70 seconds later from the time I clicked Upgrade the terminal restarted itself, only to come back and let me create a New Connection in the Winterm Connection Manager, this time of type “Microsoft Remote Desktop Client.” Bingo! I’d say that’s exactly what I was looking for. I created a new connection with the details of our terminal server, and tried it. Success! There are still a variety of settings available in the Terminal Properties (hitting F2 at the connection screen) and it appears if I want to get fancy, I can configure a lot of this stuff through DHCP options to the thin clients as well. Time to look for some additional power supplies, keyboards, and mice, and contemplate some monitors. I’ve got a couple of people needing some “computers”! The color depth isn’t great but Outlook and Word will run just fine.

Just one thing unsolved: what does the third Wyse firmware do? There are three downloads, one ICA, one RDP, and another called L369_20Wye0.exe. I have no idea what this does. Not sure if I’m going to try it or not. (OK, I tried this before posting. It installs an older firmware version (3.41 SP3) that has Citrix and RDP connection capabilities. Perhaps this is the version I had problems with in the past. I didn’t leave it installed for long, and went back to what worked the first time, version 3.5.1 Service Pack 2.)

Also, noticed that the firmware images are dated Sept. 4, 2001. Exactly one week before the 9/11 attacks. No particular reason why this matters, just weird to be using “pre-9/11” technology and software!

So, I’m contemplating those new iPhones. Strongly considering getting one, but I have a few questions. Although the price came way down (now $199 for the 8GB version, and $299 for the 16GB version), the data cost goes up for the 3G service. Original iPhone data plans were $20/mo, but 3G service appears to be tiered at $30/mo for personal accounts and $45/mo for “enterprise” accounts. However, I have been unable to find any good definitions of the difference between the two accounts, other than who is paying for them. In the #citrt channel, Chris Green said yesterday that based on his research, ActiveSync was probably going to be avialable only on the $45/mo corporate plan. I can’t find any details other than price on the Apple or AT&T websites, but I’ve found one or two rumors of a similar setup with some Google searching, but those were some random posts on some forums.

While on the AT&T website, a customer service order chat popped up, and I took the opportunity to ask AT&T directly. They were less than clear, and I’m not sure I believe them, but here’s the conversation:

Michael: Welcome to AT&T online Sales support.  How may I assist you with placing your order today?
David: Actually I have a question. What is the difference between the personal and Enterprise data plans for the new 3G iPhones?
David: Other than $15/month?
Michael: I am sorry, but we do not have the information on the new iphones at this time
Michael: We will have that on July 11th.
David: You have enough information to say there’s a corporate plan for $45 and a 3G personal plan for $30. Why can’t you just define those terms?
Michael: One is business and one is personal
David: Yes but if I have a personal phone, will the Exchange ActiveSync feature work with an Exchange server?
Michael: Yes, but is will not be secure
David: That can’t be true, my ActiveSync account only allows for encryped SSL connections.
Michael: Ok, then you would not be able to use the $30.00 plan you will need the $45.00

Other than an uncanny ability to state the obvious (“One is business and one is personal“), Michael says quite plainly that ActiveSync will be possible but “insecure” for Personal accounts. This would have to be done in the ActiveSync client software on the iPhone, because I’m sure the iPhone allows SSL-encrypted web browsing on any data plan, and since ActiveSync is essentially encrypted SSL traffic, AT&T would be hard pressed (in my opinion, which I’m willing to have corrected) to sniff/block the traffic at the network level. I think they’d have to “remove the Use SSL” checkbox from the ActiveSync config on the iPhone itself based on account type. Or are they talking about the ability to remotely wipe the system only on the Enterprise plan?  I have no idea. But I don’t like the idea that only businesses get encryption; ActiveSync over HTTP is not a good solution for anyone, and it’s certainly not worth a $15/mo premium for essentially the same service.

I suppose only time will tell, unless one of my readers has better or more information than I’ve been able to find. If so, do share!

Before making a decision there are certainly things to evaluate, and I definitely want to get my hands on an NSA box for a while to test first. I like the ISA 2004 firewall interface that we’re currently running and I want to make sure I’m comfortable managing SonicWALL if we go that route.

As you can imagine, the N800 didn’t get much of a workout at work and wasn’t a top priority at home, either. I even forgot the charger when I left work sick on Tuesday, and was left with a dead battery at home all day Wednesday!

I’ve still managed to give the device a pretty good workout, and it’s a very nice little system that has already been handy to have in my pocket on more than one occasion. The main limitation has been that the system is slow when loading large or complex websites, although it will still handle most of them. The onscreen keyboards (for stylus and thumbs) are much poorer than the thumbboard on my Treo 650, where I can almost touch-type at high speed, but the bluetooth keyboard is a huge improvement (over even the Treo usually) when I turn it on.

The HelpSpot helpdesk software runs a touch slow (pun unintentional but fully intended, I’m sure :-) but otherwise is almost completely normal in the Gecko-based web browser. The response field is not as wide as it could be (there are gray bars on the sides where it could expand but doesn’t), but it’s functional. All AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And XML) appears to work properly. Gmail is also slow but usable. WordPress, at least my heavily-plugin-customized version, runs well except when composing a post, when the text editor is slower than molasses. in January. Switching to the WPhone mobile version is much faster and even easier to navigate on the smaller screen. Supposedly, WPhone is optimized to provide an even better interface on the iPhone than on other mobile devices that support AJAX, but this doesn’t carry over to the N800, although I am assuming the browser is more than capable. It’s probably an auto-detection thing.

There is a Nokia N800 WordPress editor called Maemo WordPy which was a bit difficult to figure out initially due to a poor user interface and one or two limitations that should be fixed in future versions. It will do some cool things (in the latest beta) like upload images directly to Flickr and insert that into a post! However, I am using the web-based WPPhone for this post as I mentioned. Copying and pasting links is not the best experience on this thing, so I am going to cheat and do some hotlinking from my full-sized computer before posting :-) (And a bit of proofreading and editing, it turns out!)

Is it perfect? No. Nothing is perfect when you are looking for a 22″ widescreen monitor on a quad-core desktop that all fits in your pocket! But it makes some good compromises and performs well for what I want it to do, at a (very) reasonable price. (Amazon had it for $231 when I bought mine off of eBay for a bit more with an SDHC memory card and Bluetooth keyboard that Amazon also had for $50.)

I have contemplated the HTC Shift in the past. It does not appear to be released in the US yet, however, and the price when it is will likely be $1200 to $1500. That’s not bad for a 7″ screen UMPC running Windows Vista (and Windows Mobile!), but I’m ready to compromise: The Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. It used to cost between $400 and $500, but Amazon.com carries it for about $230 right now because its big brother just came out, the N810. What do you get for the N810’s $440 that you don’t get for the N800’s $230? A slide-out thumb keyboard, an 8% smaller unit, and a built-in GPS receiver (that costs more to get full use out of).

But first things first…why get one of these things anyway? Well, I do have a laptop, a nice 12.1″ Core 2 Duo Lenovo 3000 V100 that I like very much. It’s small enough and light enough to carry from home to work and just about anywhere else, when it’s packed up. It’s my main PC at home; the desktop rarely gets used! However, my office is in a central-yet-distant location from nearly everyone else in the building at Lakeview, and since the middle of 2007 I’ve been using HelpSpot to track helpdesk requests. It is easy to work within HelpSpot when I’m at my computer, but I often must trek to the office of an individual user to help them with a problem (yes, remote control is an option sometimes, but hardware problems are another story and many times, demonstrating something to the user in person is much more powerful for training purposes). When I do this, I often get sidetracked by others needing assistance and, like today, may end up working on 4-6 different issues before I’m back at my own computer! By that time, I probably won’t remember half of the actual problems I worked on, much less all the details it would be useful to log for future reference.

My laptop is simply too heavy and bulky, even as small as it is, to carry around everywhere, especially if I’m carrying hardware as well. My Treo 650, on the other hand, never leaves my pocket unless I’m using it. However, while there is a mobile version of HelpSpot that is usable, I must log in repeatedly from my phone to use it, and the small keyboard and screen are not conducive to typing extensive notes. Enter the N800. It’s not a cell phone, but here are a few highlights that it does have:

• WiFi access (with a better radio than most laptops from several reports)
• Bluetooth
• 4″ touchscreen
• Gecko-based web browser supports nearly all sites that Firefox supports on the desktop (including JavaScript/AJAX) and has Flash 9 support
• Built-in video camera along with Skype and Gizmo video chat ability
• Google Talk (my favorite) and other IM services
• IMAP, POP3 and web-based email
• Multimedia playback in multiple formats
• Expandable memory using up to two SD cards
• On-screen keyboard with expandability using a Bluetooth keyboard for a real, touch-typing keyboard
• Linux-based system using the Maemo platform for free add-on software

There’s more, which I know after reading nearly ever review ever written about it, but that’s the gist. Mine is coming from eBay with an iGo Stowaway Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard (it’s only $50 from Amazon right now) and an 8GB SCHC memory card for less than it would all cost from Amazon brand new. I am very, very excited to get my hands on this thing! It will let me do a lot, but it should also solve my helpdesk logging problem: I’ll carry my N800 and keyboard with me, using it to log helpdesk requests as I work on them, giving me more detailed and time-accurate logs. Everything else it can do? Really, really tasty icing on the tiny tablet cake! And the N810? I want touch-typing, so the keyboard on that is just a nicety (especially with the touch-typable Stowaway coming with the N800 for me). The smaller size would be nice, but it’s not that much smaller, and the screen is the same size (both 800×480 resolution). The GPS would be nice but I’ve read reports that it’s slow, and to get actual directions on it costs an additional $130 to $200 or something. All three come nowhere near being worth twice the price! And the N810 only supports miniSD and microSD cards, rather than standard SD. The standard cards are bigger and cheaper.

The Nokia Internet Tablets are getting popular, too. Over at Amazon.com they were in the top three hot sellers over Christmas in the PC category! You can be sure of seeing some N800 posts coming up right here, and count on them coming right from the N800 itself!

So I restarted the computer, which by that time was finished running software updates and demanding as much anyway. Logged in, and didn’t do anything else other than run DiskWarrior this time. Same process, but this time after it finished the option to Replace the repaired directory structure was available! Click, wait ten-or-so minutes. Ta-da! It works! Nothing like the good ‘ole “reboot” Windows trick to get a Mac fixed!

I grabbed some nice screenshots of DiskWarrior in action (thanks to some quick Googling to determine how to use the built-in screen shot capture feature I knew existed on the Mac — Command+Shift+4, Spacebar, click on window to capture), so I thought I’d give you a sneak peek, in case you want to get your geek on vicariously without going through the near-data-loss experience yourself!

Thanks to the commenters from my last post with suggestions, they were helpful to my sanity over the weekend since I knew I had some good alternate options if DiskWarrior failed! I could find plenty of options on my own, but it’s difficult to sort out the wheat from the chaff without spending a lot of money trying various things, so the recommendations are very much appreciated.

Who needs backup?

Yep, we do! I mentioned in my last post that this server wasn’t originally intended for critical data storage(just temporary video where the RAID 5 redundancy was plenty of backup), but over time with staff turnover and other random happenings, it has sort of become much more critical. Several years ago, backing up the 1.6TB of data on this server was cost-prohibitive. Now? 1TB hard drives are $300 each, and even nice things like the Drobo are $500, which will hold up to 4 of those drives and give 2.7TB of usable data storage for right at about $1700. Or, since the array is 1.5TB, put three 1TB drives in for $1400 and get 1.8TB usable space, which is still 0.2TB ahead of our needs for a mirrored backup.

Is this the best backup solution? I know there are less expensive NAS enclosures out there, some possibly directly-networkable and not just USB 2.0 like the Drobo is currently. Right now our internal data server (RAID 5 array) is being mirrored by another server with another RAID 5 array. We have 1TB of storage and backup between those two servers, but a third backup would be nice to have. What about maxing out a Drobo and backing everything up to it? What about other options? What about picking up an iSCSI SAN from StoreVault for $3k with 1TB, or expanding that a bit and put all our main storage there (including several virtual server hard drives) , and using the existing arrays we have for backups? Lots of questions to answer, and this almost-data-loss is a useful catalyst to demonstrate the need to spend money for backups. And by “useful catalyst” I mean, I have been asked to make sure this can’t happen again :-)

I know similar things have been a hot topic of discussion on the Church IT Podcast and in other similar forums lately, but if anyone has specific information or suggestions, you can make a blogger happy with the comments form :-D Oh yeah, and sorry about that corny title. I couldn’t resist. It’s so much fun to make my wife roll her eyes when I make weird word plays like “HurRAID!” I imagine most of you rolled yours right along with her…

This is a 1.6TB array, around since our previous Evangelism and Media pastor who did quite a bit of video editing and used the array for video storage while working on projects. Fast forward to today, when the Marketing/Communications (MarCom) department is using the system to store–everything. However, we don’t have a backup solution in place because the system wasn’t intended initially as mission-critical storage and the budget hasn’t been there to change that. 1.6TB is the largest amount of storage in one server that we have right now, so there’s no place to even copy the data for a backup, like we do with our primary file server.

I purchased DiskWarrior, which comes highly recommended, but it’s throwing a funky error about a corrupt configuration file when I try to even start it. It says to delete the old configuration file to continue, but it doesn’t exist–thus, a support request has been logged and we wait until Monday to continue the saga (I tried calling their support number but they had just closed for the weekend. Probably for the best, it was dinner time, and family time, and homework time! I didn’t get out of there until 7 pm anyway). Meanwhile we are faced with the prospect that if this doesn’t work, the only option I can think of is to ring up one of those fun services that do awesome data recovery at a price on par with their awesomeness. The array itself says it’s fine, no lost drives or anything weird like you would expect for a failed system, it appears that the partition just got corrupted somehow when the power was unceremoniously yanked. To protect the guilty, I’ll spare you the details of who and why, but let’s just say my happiness level is not quite up where I like it to be…

If you have any recommendations of good (and preferably inexpensive) RAID5, Mac filesystem recovery services, I’m open to suggestions if we end up having to go that way (and can justify the cost given the data). I will update you next week on the progress with DiskWarrior when it gets up and running.

The HTC Shift is a UMPC. It has:

• An 800 MHz Intel processor (A110)
• Intel 945GU Express graphics
• 7-inch widescreen touch display
• Slide-out QWERTY keyboard suitable for touch-typing
• Vista Business OS
• Media Player 11
• Tri-Band UMTS/HSPDA and Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0
• Trackpad, fingerprint reader, camera
• VGA output to a real monitor if you want/need it

So basically, wrap a very respectable laptop and cell phone in a fit-in-a-large-pocket package, give it every kind of connectivity you could ever ask for, WiFi to cell phone), a few extra gadgets thrown in for good measure.

Not much else to say. It’s not even available in the US yet. You can Google around and find plenty of more information. Now, pardon me while I go get my drool mop…

In the past, we had one of our prox reader plugs fail, and I was able to replace the failed plug with a generic Radio Shack plug that worked fine. It was a Radio Shack model 273-1773 adapter, and it provides 12V output up to 500mA. The original plug provides 12V output up to 300mA, so that model should have and did more than do the job. Radio Shack has apparently updated their adapter product line in the year or years since I purchased that unit, and now they have a new model number, 273-1774, that’s a bit smaller and lighter, but looks the same and has the exact same output specifications (up to 500mA). I purchased two of them, so we’d have a backup, and even tried plugging in the prox reader I took to the store before I left and sure enough the power light came on!

That was last night on my way home. Today, I go to plug in the adapter, and the power light comes on on the prox reader but it won’t scan (it beeps upon successful scan, and it won’t beep and won’t output to the computer). We have several readers, so I mixed and matched adapters (and interchangeable tips even), and the readers all worked no matter what (even on the old Radio Shack adapter with the exact same adapter tip) — unless they were plugged into either of the new adapters, when they didn’t work.

Why? I don’t know. If you do, let me know! There’s no logical reason why the new adapters shouldn’t work just fine.

There is happy ending. I returned to Radio Shack and was able to test their 3-12V adjustable AC-to-DC adapter, with up to 1000mA (1A), model number 273-029 (the box says 273-0029, the adapter and website say 273-029, and a search of their website using either brings up the right unit). These adapters cost only $0.85 more each, and they work perfectly fine, with the same adapter tips. Other than a wasted two hours and 10 mile round-trip for the exchange, the fix wasn’t too bad and it’s still going to be functional by Sunday. But I still have no idea why the adapters that didn’t work, didn’t work! The salesman when I exchanged them even tested one of them to make sure they were providing 12V. And like I said, I had two identical adapters that both refused to function properly! The mystery remains…

We left with my office set up enough to work in on Monday (so the computer is up and running on the network).  I feel both tired and accomplished.  If I hadn’t moved today, it would’ve been a couple of weeks at least before I’d have any weekday time to even think about moving much of anything.  I’ll post some pictures when I have the layout finalized a bit more and my new workroom next door is cleaned up (that’s where the non-furniture went for now).  And a big Thank You to goes to my family for all the help!  That thank-you is on top of the grilled dinner we served at our apartment afterwards!

But, with 802.1x, there’s the possibility of making the ports automatically members of the public VLAN for free access. But when a computer connects that can authenticate via 802.1x, it can bump them onto the employee VLAN. Sweet. But I need to do some manual-reading and testing on our ProCurve switches. Is it worth the effort? Is the Windows XP SP2 802.1x supplicant good enough, or would we need to pay for a third party supplicant? I’ve noticed that for wireless, the Windows 802.1x supplicant seems to be much better that it was originally, and most laptops are coming with even better software built-in from the manufacturer. A year or two ago, I wouldn’t implement an 802.1x-based network with the Windows XP client if you paid me. Well, depends on how much, but it would hurt anyway…

It’s been so good, in fact, that a very long time has past since the runtime on the battery backups was tested.  Today, the test was unintentional.

Fortunately, since server room cooling has become an issue with such an enclosed space being filled with more and more machines, we are finally installing a cooling unit specifically to keep the server room cool.  A big improvement over walking into the server room and starting to sweat almost immediately, to be sure!  However, installing the cooling unit required turning off the power to the server room for a little while.  It was off for a few minutes before I headed up to our all-staff meeting this afternoon, but it was back on before I went to the meeting and the battery backups held just fine.  I knew it would need to be off for a little longer during the meeting, so I hoped the batteries would hold out.  They didn’t.  When you can’t connect to the Exchange server, or even get a new IP via DHCP over wireless, something’s up.  Or, down rather.

I still don’t know how long the battery backups lasted exactly, as everything was already back on when I made it downstairs.  Reboot everything in the right order, and half-an-hour later you’d never know anything had happened.  And with everyone in the staff meeting, I was able to warn them before the meeting broke that I would need to work on the servers for a little while and not to expect it to be operational when they went back downstairs.

It worked out all right in the end, but it’s something I need to address and haven’t had the time or resources available.  Nothing like a little priority-setting all done up nice for you :-)

Anyone have recommendations about on how you go about battery backup selection?  I took the new building opportunity when replacing the core network switches to purchase a Tripp Lite rack-mount UPS unit for each of our three network closets, which so far have worked admirably, were cheaper than comparable APC brand units, and held the network rack up even through this same power outage.

Does it make sense to buy a smaller off-the-shelf UPS for each server, or each pair of servers perhaps, or to purchase one larger unit that can handle everything, even with the sticker-shock price tag?  (Granted, several smaller units do add up themselves.)  I have a feeling I know, but I’d be interested in feedback.

I’d love to put the Gigabit or even 10/100 regular managed switches with all the SNMP and other “big network” goodness including 802.1X security and all the bells and whistles everywhere I need an extra port, but I’m probably going to have to pick up at least one 1700-series switch in the very near future to pick up the slack until the additional home runs I want become a reality. At least I’m still getting a lifetime warranty, and I’ve never had a single problem with any of the ProCurve switches I’ve purchased (not so with Linksys!). Even the 408 switches that I’ve purchased for the same purpose (but unmanaged) in the past have been rock-solid, and they replaced some pretty flaky Linksys workgroup switches!

One thing I’d like to see is the physical tracking to go along with the network tracking. What network port (assuming managed switches that the software knows about and can talk to) is connected to what wall outlet (obviously this match has to be input manually)? What are the MAC addresses (and from that, the rest of the inventory information) of the attached device(s), or is the port even active? What physical office is a machine associated with, at least primarily? (Laptops may roam, but most laptop users have an office they’re usually in.) What user?

Tony also brings up searching and historical information. Searching is the key here I think; if I want to know (to use Tony’s example) how much memory Bob Jones has on his machine, I want to locate this information without having to first find Bob’s machine, look it up, and then find the specs. I want to search for “‘Bob Jones’ RAM” and have the system know that obviously I’m talking about his machine, not the person. That’s an easy context, but add enough “easy” things and maybe some harder ones, and the software becomes a lot more user-friendly.

Same goes for the historical information, being able to track a machine from one office to another, from one user to another, or even tracking when RAM was added to a particular system would be helpful! Or when Windows was reinstalled. or other software added or removed. Or how about a history of what network ports a machine has been plugged into?

When we get new equipment, how about a New Equipment Wizard that lets us add basic info (office assignment, user assignment, MAC address, serial number, date of purchase, name of person who initially configured it, maybe more) and then, once it’s on the network (assuming it’s a network device, I’d like this for printers and other equipment that IT uses but may not be on the network) the software would see its MAC address, notice we’d already added it, and tie in scan results with the manually entered data. Having this pre-deployment wizard would help make sure a routine was followed of recording all of this information rather than having it tracked down later, if ever.

I see a lot of good things in Spiceworks, and that’s just because that’s what I’m playing with now. I’ve seen some other good information out there as well. There are plenty of features above that I haven’t seen in any of the limited number of software choices I’ve seen. And the ones that have more than others, don’t seem to integrate everything or make it as easy to use as I’d like. Because ease of use and cost are the two biggest factors. Spiceworks is free, supported by Google ads. That’s okay with me, the ads are unobtrusive and with my current budget (or any budget, really), free is as good as it gets :-) Regardless of the cost, I just want the kitchen sink (as described above) to come with it.

Service Desk Plus is actually excellent! The free version only allows one administrator and 25 network devices to be tracked for inventory and ticket purchases. However, running with my desktop as the server, it was a bit on the slow side as far as responsiveness. I would need to test that it ran faster on a server, and also have that server available. I also think that while we may grow into it, it might be a bit too complex and high-end for our needs right now.

Most of the features really need multiple administrative users to take advantage of the full power, even if those users are just volunteers for us right now. I like the help desk with the user-created ticket submission interfaces via web or email. The ability to link logins to Active Directory, have a dedicated, fully-tracked helpdesk email conversation is awesome, along with the option to link requests with the hardware assigned to the submitting user (their workstation or laptop, for example) makes this a top-notch operation in my book. I also really like the software license and support agreement tracker, and the purchase order creation and generation tools for working with vendors! But the limited inventory items makes this hardware tie-in useless for our network in the free version. And free is all the money I have to spend at the moment. Plus the time required to enter details for our existing agreements and hardware we buy to create quotes is more than I have time for right now. Maybe down the road.

OpManager, also from ManageEngine, I haven’t tried yet, but it appears to either connect to or overlap some Service Desk functionality, and is limited to 20 nodes in the free version, also too few to be useful.

I have not tried OCSInventory yet, but I intend to when I find the time. I’ll report back then. I realize that an integrated helpdesk is a real key here, and I need to find out if OCSInventory does this–from my last visit to their site they may integrate with another package, but I’ll have to do some more research.

Currently, I’m trying out Spiceworks. Again. I’ve been using Spiceworks since it was early Beta months ago, and I was impressed with a lot of what it did at the time but it has been improving, and in its most recent incarnation has also added a helpdesk, more limited than Service Desk Plus to be sure, but a helpdesk nonetheless. Or at least a ticket system. Mark Bailey even mentioned Spiceworks with OpManager in his comment on my original post. I’ve had mixd results with Spiceworks; at Lakeview I haven’t really had any WMI issues with scanning the network, including Windows machines. On the other network I work on one day a week, I can’t get any of the Windows machines on the domain to work with WMI scanning, after extensive troubleshooting and some posts in the Spiceworks forums trying to resolve the issue. I ran out of time and haven’t revisited it at that office

But the new helpdesk features are simple, user-friendly, and do support email tickets. I don’t know if it tracks full email conversations, but my guess is not yet. It ties tickets to specific hardware, which is great, but I don’t see a huge focus on helpdesk statistics over time (unless I’m missing it) and it looks like most tickets are meant to be opened by the technician directly, after a problem is reported or discovered. No web-based submission interface for users For a one-man shop, this might work fine. I’m trying it out now, and we’ll see how fruitful it becomes. It does now support multiple technicians, and each tech can claim tickets that they are working on, and save public and/or private responses (does public mean it’s emailed to the owner of the affected equipment? I don’t know, I haven’t had time to play in enough detail yet). The newest version of Spiceworks also allows manual entry of assets that aren’t on the network or aren’t found via scanning, one of my prior complaints!

The search continues. But my original post on this topic is my top result people find on search engines, so it appears to be a popular topic others are working to solve. Anything I’ve missed? Are you successfully using these or better tools? Should I stay away from anything other than Track-It, which Jason has already warned me away from? Do Excel spreadsheets work fine for you and you wonder why this is so important, anyway? :-) Just wait ’til I start talking about network mapping and documentation!! It’s coming…