RE: Volume Shadow Copy

2012-02-07 Thread Nigel Parker
Hi 
The backup will run if I start it manually 
I will STOp/Start the Vss service in the batch file see how that works
out 

Thanks 


-Original Message-
From: Kim Longenbaugh [mailto:k...@colonialsavings.com] 
Sent: 06 February 2012 14:12
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Volume Shadow Copy

Often, there's not enough disk space to create another snap.  I find
that if you go into the Shadow Copy configuration and force the release
of existing snapshots, that fixes problems.  Your bat file should do
that.
Sometimes, for many reasons, VSS gets confused or corrupted (pick your
favorite vague term), and the only thing that helps is to stop the VSS
server and restart it.
So, you could add a line to your bat file to stop and start the service.



-Original Message-
From: Nigel Parker [mailto:nigel.par...@ultraframe.co.uk]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:01 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Volume Shadow Copy

Hi :-)

We have a windows 2003 server, that is fully upto date with service
packs and patches 
 
Every night the server runs an scheduled NTbackup This has recently
started to fail giving errors about unable to create volume shadow copy 

The machine runs 4 Virtual machines running the Free Vmserver we
successfully backed up the machine with ntbackup and have restored the
running machines to another server, 

I did have some success creating a batch file before the backup With the
following line vssadmin delete shadows /ALL

this worked for a few weeks and is now failing again The machine has
gone through a full disk check without problems (as I thought this may
be the issue)
 
Any help would be welcome 

Nigel Parker
Systems Engineer
Ultraframe (UK) Ltd
Tel:   01200 452329
Fax:   01200 452201
Web:   www.ultraframe.com
Email: mailto:nigel.par...@ultraframe.co.uk



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Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Andrew S. Baker
Gotta help my brethren out...  :)

* *

*ASB* *http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker* *Harnessing the Advantages of
Technology for the SMB market…

*



On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 6:47 PM, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

   Hey now, mind your own business there!


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: Andrew Baker asbz...@gmail.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 18:17:21 -0500

 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

  *If it gets any better, MBS is going to want a referral fee or
 commission! *

  Not a bad idea. :)

 **

 *ASB*  *http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker*  *Harnessing the Advantages of
 Technology for the SMB market…

 *



 On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 5:49 PM, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

   I can only speak for me, and it has been feast since I went out on my
 own Feb 1st last year.  So far this year, the feast is even better as there
 is very little agency work so I get 100% of the billables. :)  Yes, I am
 complaining all the way to the bank.  If it gets any better, MBS is going
 to want a referral fee or commission!


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: David Lum david@nwea.org
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 22:31:45 +
 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: RE: OT - ugh!

   That’s part of my fear of dropping %dayjob% and going 100% on my own
 biz – feast or famine! With just three clients I have I’m always amazed at
 how often their feast/famine cycles coincide, and they even have different
 fiscal year cycles. I mean, in the span of two months I am doing an SBS
 2003 – SBS2011 swing for two of them. One of these clients I can go months
 with nothing other than patching.

 ** **

 *From:* Webster [mailto:webs...@carlwebster.com webs...@carlwebster.com]

 *Sent:* Monday, February 06, 2012 9:31 AM
 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
 *Subject:* Re: OT - ugh!

 ** **

 I find myself busier than a one-arm paper hanger in a wind storm.  Don't
 know why it took me so long to convince MBS that I should go solo! LOL***
 *

 ** **

 Now that my fellow CTPs know I can spell AD, I am finding myself doing a
 lot of AD assessments, assisting with AD migrations and putting in 2008 R2
 AD infrastructures.  I would say I am now 50% AD and 50% Citrix.  I no
 longer do Exchange and refer all that to MBS.

 ** **

 I can't believe how much Citrix work I turn down because I just don't
 have the time.  Right now I am tentatively booked thru the end of July and
 already starting to worry because no one is calling about August or
 September yet! :)

 ** **

 ** **

 Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

 ** **

 *From: *James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 *Reply-To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Date: *Mon, 6 Feb 2012 16:53:32 +
 *To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Subject: *Re: OT - ugh!

 ** **

 I ran as a contractor through a managed services company for about six
 years before taking the plunge myself. Whereas now I find myself counting
 the amount of extra tax I spent the last six years paying in disgust.

 It may have been the aforementioned man-in-Alaska mentioning how he could
 work for 48 hours a day once he'd struck out on his own that possibly
 contributed to convincing me to do the same.

 On 6 February 2012 15:47, Michael B. Smith mich...@smithcons.com wrote:
 

 I put off starting my own business for YEARS because I was afraid of what
 I already knew. :-) Whereas, in retrospect, I wish I'd done it much earlier.

 I can think of someone else on this mailing list (who is in Alaska this
 week) who waited even longer than I did. :-)

 Regards,

 Michael B. Smith
 Consultant and Exchange MVP
 http://TheEssentialExchange.com



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Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Andrew S. Baker
-- Exchange  AD
-- Citrix
-- Security
-- Virtualization
-- Database (mostly Oracle, but I'm seeing more and more SQL these days)

Not trying to say that these are the only areas of massive opportunity, but
these are the top infrastructure areas I see out there today.

And yes, all situations require some compromise or concession, but they
remain viable options for many skilled IT professionals, and my sense is
that the numbers going in this direction will grow.

* *

*ASB* *http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker* *Harnessing the Advantages of
Technology for the SMB market…

*



On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 11:41 PM, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:

 Virtualization (of any flavor) and storage are two other areas where
 expert skills are highly sought after.

 - Sean

 On Feb 6, 2012, at 7:21 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:

  Didn't mean to imply that you're entirely unique between the two of
  you, just that you occupy a niche - it's probably a fairly large
  niche, I would guess.
 
  Probably that niche is going to grow, too, but it won't consist of
  folks who don't have some specialised skills, or whose skills are too
  specialised.
 
  Kurt
 
  On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 17:33, Michael B. Smith mich...@smithcons.com
 wrote:
  I know many other independents no different than Webster and I.
 
  Regards,
 
  Michael B. Smith
  Consultant and Exchange MVP
  http://TheEssentialExchange.com
 
 
  -Original Message-
  From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
  Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 8:20 PM
  To: NT System Admin Issues
  Subject: Re: OT - ugh!
 
  You can look at it in one of two ways:
 
  Either you and MBS got very lucky, or you got very smart.
 
  The niches you've chosen are specialised enough that you aren't doing
  daily grunt work (punching down patchpanels, patching workstations,
  applying antivirus, replacing burnt-out video cards, etc.), but not so
  specialised that your only place to land is in a Fortune 100 company
  on its staff doing something that only applies to 3 other companies in
  the world.
 
  The lesson is to place yourself at some sort of sweet spot on the IT
  foodchain - and then exploit the hell out of it.
 
  The difficulty always lies in finding that sweet spot.
 
  And being willing to travel...
 
  Kurt
 
  On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 14:49, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:
  I can only speak for me, and it has been feast since I went out on my
 own
  Feb 1st last year.  So far this year, the feast is even better as
 there is
  very little agency work so I get 100% of the billables. :)  Yes, I am
  complaining all the way to the bank.  If it gets any better, MBS is
 going to
  want a referral fee or commission!
 
 
  Carl Webster
 
  Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional
 
  http://www.CarlWebster.com
 
 
  From: David Lum david@nwea.org
  Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
  Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 22:31:45 +
  To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
  Subject: RE: OT - ugh!
 
  That’s part of my fear of dropping %dayjob% and going 100% on my own
 biz –
  feast or famine! With just three clients I have I’m always amazed at
 how
  often their feast/famine cycles coincide, and they even have different
  fiscal year cycles. I mean, in the span of two months I am doing an
 SBS 2003
  – SBS2011 swing for two of them. One of these clients I can go months
 with
  nothing other than patching.
 
 
 
  From: Webster [mailto:webs...@carlwebster.com]
  Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 9:31 AM
  To: NT System Admin Issues
  Subject: Re: OT - ugh!
 
 
 
  I find myself busier than a one-arm paper hanger in a wind storm.
  Don't
  know why it took me so long to convince MBS that I should go solo! LOL
 
 
 
  Now that my fellow CTPs know I can spell AD, I am finding myself doing
 a lot
  of AD assessments, assisting with AD migrations and putting in 2008 R2
 AD
  infrastructures.  I would say I am now 50% AD and 50% Citrix.  I no
 longer
  do Exchange and refer all that to MBS.
 
 
 
  I can't believe how much Citrix work I turn down because I just don't
 have
  the time.  Right now I am tentatively booked thru the end of July and
  already starting to worry because no one is calling about August or
  September yet! :)
 
 
 
 
 
  Carl Webster
 
  Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional
 
  http://www.CarlWebster.com
 
 
 
  From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
  Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
  Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 16:53:32 +
  To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
  Subject: Re: OT - ugh!
 
 
 
  I ran as a contractor through a managed services company for about six
 years
  before taking the plunge myself. Whereas now I find myself counting the
  amount of extra tax I spent the last six years paying in disgust.
 
  It may have been the aforementioned man-in-Alaska mentioning how he
 could
  work for 48 hours a day once he'd struck out on his own that possibly
  

Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread James Rankin
Well, I decided to start blogging up a bit of AppSense stuff, and I seem to
be enjoying it! Good call.

Mr Webster, I offer no apologies for stealing your bigot moniker for the
title for my blog.

Anyone else who may use this software can read my ramblings at
http://appsensebigot.blogspot.com

Cheers,




JR

On 6 February 2012 20:49, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

   PLEASE DO.  I paid my own money to take the course (using a fellow CTPs
 partner status to get it dirt cheap) but that is a set of software with a
 LOT of options.

  Thanks


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 20:16:47 +

 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

   I actually have some natural talent as a writer (as opposed to anything
 in IT which is completely learned). I might start a blog concentrating on
 AppSense (which is woefully under-represented at the moment, IMO)
 Sent from my SR-71 Blackbird
 --
 *From: *Webster webs...@carlwebster.com
 *Date: *Mon, 6 Feb 2012 19:35:57 +
 *To: *NT System Admin Issuesntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *ReplyTo: *NT System Admin Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 
 *Subject: *Re: OT - ugh!

   I will have to give MBS 100% credit.  He bugged, pestered, annoyed and
 prodded me until I started writing.  Once I started writing, people started
 reading.  Once people started reading, I gained a name in the Citrix
 space.  Once I got a name, I was honored with the CTP.  Once I got the
 CTP, I was instantly in a really nice network of extremely smart people.

  I initially balked at the idea of going solo because just how much
 Citrix work can there possibly be out there?  And besides, who in the
 world would hire me! to do anything?   All my work comes thru my web site,
 Experts Exchange, fellow CTP, LinkedIn, Dice and word-of-mouth.

  Share your knowledge (even if like me you don't think you have anything
 to share) with the community and you may be surprised at what opens up for
 you.

  If you decide to go the writing route (which I strongly encourage you to
 do), be prepared to receive a bunch or criticism for what you share.  Only
 those who stick their neck out and share, get recognized.

  I recommend you read the book, The Nomadic Developer.  Wherever you see
 the word developer in the book, insert your title of choice (Network Admin,
 Network Engineer, Network Consultant, Systems Analyst, etc).

  I estimate I turn down 3 FTEs a week, and probably that many work offers
 every week.  I can't possibly get to all the Citrix work that comes my way
 or all the AD work the Citrix world is throwing my way.

  I know rates depend on the area of the country you are in and I thought
 MBS was nuts when he told me to up my rate, but I charge $150/hr plus
 expenses and have had no one (but contracting agencies) complain.  As busy
 as I am, maybe I need to up my rates again! :)

  Thanks


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: Don Kuhlman drkuhl...@yahoo.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 11:01:12 -0800
 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

   This may be out of scope for the list, but since it's been touched on,
 do any of our successful entrepreneurs  care to share how you got your own
 thing going?
 For example, did you start out by advertising, cold calling, website,
 contacting head hunters for work or (all of the above)?

  Just curious of some successful steps that you folks took to get going.
 I'm thinking that after you got the ball rolling, you signed on clients for
 ongoing support, and then things spread through word of mouth, or how did
 you keep an income stream coming in at the beginning?

  Don K

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Re: IOPS's calculations

2012-02-07 Thread Kurt Buff
So, to which counters should I be paying attention in such a
situation, or what should be the difference in interpretation?

I've got a file server that's being extremely slow to back up, though
daily performance is adequate.

I'm seeing disk queue length hit as high as 37, with 5 LUNS for the machine.

Kurt

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 21:32, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com wrote:
 Those perf counters can be a bit misleading when you’re looking at a SAN on
 the backend, though.



 Thanks,

 Brian Desmond

 br...@briandesmond.com



 w – 312.625.1438 | c   – 312.731.3132



 From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:32 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations



 Disk Reads per second

 Disk Writes per second

 Average Disk Queue Length



 I’d track both logical disk and physical disk.



 Regards,



 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com



 From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:56 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: IOPS's calculations



 Hi folks,



 Thanks for all your help in the past.



 Looking at setting up a SAN. From my research, I think one thing to be aware
 of is current IOPS (disk). There are a number of sites that will help you
 determine IOPS based on what hard drives (and RAID configuration). My
 question is: Many of my current servers are light use. The IOPS that these
 servers are capable of is much greater than what is actually being used.



 So, in order to more properly size the SAN, is there a way to determine
 working IOPS? That is, what is actually being used? I assume Perfmon would
 help, and will need to log over a period of time (I think a week would be
 about right, to catch most scenarios). But what counters, and how to analyze
 those counters?



 Servers are Windows 2003.



 Thanks.





 Mark Reimer, A+, MCSA

 Servers  Networking Admin

 Prairie Bible Institute

 Box 4000

 Three Hills, AB  T0M-2N0

 Canada

 Tel: 403-443-5511, Ext. 3476

 Fax: 403-443-5540

 Email: mark.rei...@prairie.edu

 www.prairie.edu





 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
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RE: IOPS's calculations

2012-02-07 Thread Paul Hutchings
As a rule of thumb queue length shouldn't exceed the physical number of disks 
in the array that the LUN is on x 2.

-Original Message-
From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com] 
Sent: 07 February 2012 13:50
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: IOPS's calculations

So, to which counters should I be paying attention in such a situation, or what 
should be the difference in interpretation?

I've got a file server that's being extremely slow to back up, though daily 
performance is adequate.

I'm seeing disk queue length hit as high as 37, with 5 LUNS for the machine.

Kurt

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 21:32, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com wrote:
 Those perf counters can be a bit misleading when you’re looking at a 
 SAN on the backend, though.



 Thanks,

 Brian Desmond

 br...@briandesmond.com



 w – 312.625.1438 | c   – 312.731.3132



 From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:32 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations



 Disk Reads per second

 Disk Writes per second

 Average Disk Queue Length



 I’d track both logical disk and physical disk.



 Regards,



 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com



 From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:56 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: IOPS's calculations



 Hi folks,



 Thanks for all your help in the past.



 Looking at setting up a SAN. From my research, I think one thing to be 
 aware of is current IOPS (disk). There are a number of sites that will 
 help you determine IOPS based on what hard drives (and RAID 
 configuration). My question is: Many of my current servers are light 
 use. The IOPS that these servers are capable of is much greater than what is 
 actually being used.



 So, in order to more properly size the SAN, is there a way to 
 determine working IOPS? That is, what is actually being used? I assume 
 Perfmon would help, and will need to log over a period of time (I 
 think a week would be about right, to catch most scenarios). But what 
 counters, and how to analyze those counters?



 Servers are Windows 2003.



 Thanks.





 Mark Reimer, A+, MCSA

 Servers  Networking Admin

 Prairie Bible Institute

 Box 4000

 Three Hills, AB  T0M-2N0

 Canada

 Tel: 403-443-5511, Ext. 3476

 Fax: 403-443-5540

 Email: mark.rei...@prairie.edu

 www.prairie.edu





 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
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RE: IOPS's calculations

2012-02-07 Thread Miller Bonnie L .
When we were planning for our SAN and VM conversion/migration, the Microsoft 
engineer we worked with had us collect information on our servers about usage 
using the MAPs tool.  Looks like it's still around-not sure if it would do what 
you need:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=7826

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb977556.aspx

If you are a Dell shop, their new dpack tool is nice too, but was still in beta 
when we used it a few weeks ago-not sure if they've released yet.  If not, 
you'll have to work with your Dell engineer to get the reports generated that 
you would need.

-Bonnie


From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 2:56 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

The question is: I want to know what my different servers (no san, each with 
their own direct attached disks storage) is using (not what they are capable 
of, but what they are actually using/doing).

Sorry if I was unclear to begin with.

Mark

From: Brian Desmond [mailto:br...@briandesmond.com]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 2:55 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Your SAN should be able to produce these numbers.

Thanks,
Brian Desmond
br...@briandesmond.commailto:br...@briandesmond.com

w - 312.625.1438 | c   - 312.731.3132

From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 2:56 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: IOPS's calculations

Hi folks,

Thanks for all your help in the past.

Looking at setting up a SAN. From my research, I think one thing to be aware of 
is current IOPS (disk). There are a number of sites that will help you 
determine IOPS based on what hard drives (and RAID configuration). My question 
is: Many of my current servers are light use. The IOPS that these servers are 
capable of is much greater than what is actually being used.

So, in order to more properly size the SAN, is there a way to determine working 
IOPS? That is, what is actually being used? I assume Perfmon would help, and 
will need to log over a period of time (I think a week would be about right, to 
catch most scenarios). But what counters, and how to analyze those counters?

Servers are Windows 2003.

Thanks.


Mark Reimer, A+, MCSA
Servers  Networking Admin
Prairie Bible Institute
Box 4000
Three Hills, AB  T0M-2N0
Canada
Tel: 403-443-5511, Ext. 3476
Fax: 403-443-5540
Email: mark.rei...@prairie.edumailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu
www.prairie.eduhttp://www.prairie.edu/



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RE: Infrastructure Specialist defined - was: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread David Lum
How long will you be in Seattle, MBS?

-Original Message-
From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:00 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Infrastructure Specialist defined - was: OT - ugh!

The last time I was in Seattle, I tried one on. They are very substantial and 
well-constructed.

I'm heading out there again next week and I may - just may - buy one to wear 
here (back East). Just for the shock value, if nothing else. (I don't have ego 
issues and I've got great legs, from dancing.) :-)

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Heaton, Joseph@DFG [mailto:jhea...@dfg.ca.gov]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 5:48 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Infrastructure Specialist defined - was: OT - ugh!

That's a lot of money for one item of clothing, though...

Joe Heaton
ITB – Windows Server Support


-Original Message-
From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 1:03 PM
To: Heaton, Joseph@DFG; NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: Infrastructure Specialist defined - was: OT - ugh!

What MBS said - however, I do still stand out from the crowd, because it's not 
all *that* common. For instance, nobody at work besides me has worn one.

It's still very common that I go to a public venue and get comments from folks 
- always approving and complimentary - regarding how cool it is that I'm so 
brave and daring to wear one. This after wearing it full time for over six 
years.

Some question my wearing one during the winter, but given the weather here it's 
really not a problem, as I don't spend hours upon hours outside during really 
cold weather - the typical trip is between vehicle and building..

Oddly, it's mostly women complimenting me on the the look, and often sighing 
about how they want to get their male friends to wear one.

Kurt

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 11:01, Maglinger, Paul pmaglin...@scvl.com wrote:
 Just curious.  We don't see many kilts here in Southern Indiana, and then 
 usually just at formal occasions.

 -Original Message-
 From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 11:40 AM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: Re: Infrastructure Specialist defined - was: OT - ugh!

 Well, not to bed, nor while bathing, and not when I'm getting up on my
 roof to clean the gutters, but other than that, yeah, all the time...

 Kurt

 On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 06:37, Maglinger, Paul pmaglin...@scvl.com wrote:
 All the time?

 -Original Message-
 From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Friday, February 03, 2012 4:16 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: Re: Infrastructure Specialist defined - was: OT - ugh!

 I wear a kilt, so I'm pretty much exempt from your amendments -
 especially the first one...

 Heh.

 On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 12:57, Sam Cayze sca...@gmail.com wrote:
 Or at my company: If it passes electrons, requires a ladder, or involves 
 getting dirty, it's yours.

 I used to be in carpentry so I'm OK with it though.  I like the
 surprise tasks :)




 -Original Message-
 From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Friday, February 03, 2012 1:52 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: Re: Infrastructure Specialist defined - was: OT - ugh!

 Simpler:

 If it passes electrons, it's yours.

 As opposed to IT Generalist:

 If it passes electrons or whines when frustrated, it's yours.

 Kurt

 On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 10:49, Don Kuhlman drkuhl...@yahoo.com wrote:
 Long but here's a snip of the description...

 Job Summary
 The primary role of the temporary Production Infrastructure
 Specialist is the support of production infrastructure systems
 across multiple operating units within the business. This includes
 client-facing application servers, local fileservers/storage, and
 management of the local data centers. In addition to daily support
 of systems this role will undertake two long-term
 projects: 1. Coordinate migration of production servers from local
 Active-Directory to company Corporate Active Directory 2. Organize
 data archives and research/implement a modern, replacement archiving 
 system.
 Job Responsibilities
 • Address daily support tickets regarding end-user permissions and
 file archiving and restores from  nearline archive and
 disaster-recovery backup systems • Re-architect the  file archive
 systems to make them more efficient, functional, easier to manage,
 and organized, replacing the current system if necessary •
 Coordinate the migration from a local Active Directory into the
 company global Active directory for all employee-facing systems •
 Assist senior Infrastructure Administrator with client facing and
 production infrastructure systems and services, ensuring both
 operating at an optimal level, with high availability and recoverability.
 • Works independently toward goals and objectives seeks additional
 review on 

Re: NTFS ACL fun

2012-02-07 Thread James Rankin
Any one of the command line perms modifiers, like cacls, xcacls, icacls,
subinacl, etc should be able to manage this.

On 7 February 2012 14:31, David Lum david@nwea.org wrote:

 So, during a SAN move all our NTFS ACL’s were wiped (thousands of folders
 and about 300K files. Ouch). Resetting them CREATOR OWNER is a special ID
 and I don’t need to do anything other than put the name in there as a
 placeholder right? That’s my read on that account name.

 ** **

 The only bonus of this is this ACL wipe nuked 9 years of bad form where
 many folders had a specific user ACL instead of an AD group created and
 pointed at it. Not to blow my own horn but they should be glad I started –
 and enforced – the “create a group for File ACLs” a few years ago. We are
 recreating the ACL’s from the AD groups so anything outside those
 boundaries….gone.

 ** **

 Now…is there any way programmatically to add back CREATOR OWNER and SYSTEM
 to all files/folder ACLs, including ones with inheritance turned off?

 *David Lum*
 Systems Engineer // NWEATM
 Office 503.548.5229 //* *Cell (voice/text) 503.267.9764

 ** **

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

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On two occasions...I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr Babbage, if you put into
the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able
rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such
a question.

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* The originator of this email is not liable for the transmission of the
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* The comments and opinions expressed herein are my own and NOT those of my
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RE: South Florida position.

2012-02-07 Thread Benjamin Zachary
As a business owner of a small IT consultancy in Boca Raton, you probably
could find an entry level person for about 25/hr, but you would need to
include/reimburse for mileage.

 

If you look in the South Florida Business Journal, you will see that IT
networking is @ 3% unemployment and application programmers here are under
1%. So you basically have to get technical people through attrition (i.e.
take them from somewhere else). 

 

I just had a client of ours get shutdown by the government (foreclosure
business) , and they had 5 help desk guys and an IT manager. All of them
found jobs making 55-75k with bonuses, 2 weeks vacation, 401k etc.  The IT
manager went to a bank where he became one of the back end engineers for low
80s if I recall.  These guys are all in Hollywood, right in the middle of
where you are looking to hire. 

 

This isn't meant to be anything more than information from someone who
lives, and works in IT down here .  You can probably find someone who is
willing to do the job within your range, but I would expect a decent
turnover rate because once they get 6-8 months experience they would likely
be picked up by a competitor (me! J ) .  Our two help desk (9-5 in the
office remote 90% of the time) make in the low 50s with 401k and flexible
time schedules .

 

I hope that helps . 

 

 

 

From: Jonathan Link [mailto:jonathan.l...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 8:40 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: South Florida position.

 

YG(t)BFKM

On Monday, February 6, 2012,  gro...@beachcomp.com wrote:
 sarcasm off

 There was sarcasm there at all.

 /sarcasm off

  

 From: Micheal Espinola Jr [mailto:michealespin...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Friday, February 03, 2012 9:55 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: Re: South Florida position.

  

 Your sarcasm does not help your post.  Plus, I worked a year in Fort
Lauderdale.  I am politely refraining from openly talking shit about your
company.

 --
 Espi

  

 On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 3:00 PM, gro...@beachcomp.com wrote:

 Guys,

  

 THANK YOU for your input.

 It REALLY is constructive.

 And, if you know someone willing to start with low pay and grow (skipping
the sales part as it's an added bonus anyhow), please let us know.

  

 From: Micheal Espinola Jr [mailto:michealespin...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2012 5:05 PM

 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: Re: South Florida position.

  

 You need to seriously reassess your compensation.  Its way out of balance
with your expectations.

 --
 Espi

  

  

 On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 9:42 AM, gro...@beachcomp.com wrote:

 Folks,

 I truly hope this is allowed and that I don't upset people by this e-mail.
 We're looking for some reliable people to start and grow with us.
 If you know anyone, please forward this to them.

 Thanks!

 On-Site Computer Field Technician  Tech Support Rep (Hollywood, Aventura,
North Miami Beach)

 Please DO NOT apply for this position if you do not meet all the
qualifications listed below.

 Job Purpose:
 Candidates will be required to manage and deliver On-Site  Over-the-phone
services including repairing servers and workstations by utilizing
diagnostic and repair techniques, virus/malware removal, data backup,
operating system installation, end user software support.
 Common job tasks also associated with the core job functions are pre 
post sales and support, help desk and customer support to users by
researching and answering questions; resolving problems; providing
resources.
 Candidates will also need to be able to create marketing  advertising
materials for use by the company.
 In addition to the duties listed below, candidate will be required to
actively market the services offered by the company and accomplish a goal of
Two signed maintenance agreements per month.

 Duties:
 - Repair workstations while logging repair work orders; responding to
requests.
 - Comply with policies while adhering to requirements; advising management
of needed actions.
 - Update job knowledge by parti

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
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RE: Consulting (was: OT - ugh!)

2012-02-07 Thread Benjamin Zachary
I agree that is the most reliable way to get leads / business but it takes
time. The way I got started on my first IT business was by moving from a FT
position with my employer to a contract position, they covered my bills and
it let me build up some other clients at the same time. That business
eventually went public doing IT security audits and SOX/GLB stuff with EY. 

 

My last company I did basically the same thing, the mortgage industry was
hot, I aligned myself with a couple of them and was able to get on contract,
it wasn't a ton of money but I knew at least my bills were paid. I also used
my office there to conduct my own business. It was a win/win , as if there
was an emergency I was already in their office , but I could do other things
and conduct other business at the same time .. As that grew I eventually
replaced myself with my first help desk person and that was it. Now 3 years
later we have 70+ clients, and 6 employees FT. 

 

If you can get one company as a cash cow to at least cover your expenses but
give you the flexibility to roam around is in my opinion the best way to
build from the ground up w/o a lot of capital.

 

 

From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 2:36 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Consulting (was: OT - ugh!)

 

Oh yeah, absolutely.

 

Creating and maintaining a professional network is critical. I swap-off jobs
and leads with probably 8-10 other independent consultants in various
expertises and locales. I scratch their back, they scratch mine.

 

Regards,

 

Michael B. Smith

Consultant and Exchange MVP

http://TheEssentialExchange.com

 

From: Andrew S. Baker [mailto:asbz...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 2:17 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: Consulting (was: OT - ugh!)

 

All of the above, including tapping your professional network.

 

Also look at sites such as Guru.com and Freelancer.com for opportunities.





ASB


http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker


Harnessing the Advantages of Technology for the SMB market.

 

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 2:01 PM, Don Kuhlman drkuhl...@yahoo.com wrote:

This may be out of scope for the list, but since it's been touched on, do
any of our successful entrepreneurs  care to share how you got your own
thing going?

For example, did you start out by advertising, cold calling, website,
contacting head hunters for work or (all of the above)?

 

Just curious of some successful steps that you folks took to get going.  I'm
thinking that after you got the ball rolling, you signed on clients for
ongoing support, and then things spread through word of mouth, or how did
you keep an income stream coming in at the beginning?

 

Don K

 

  _  

From: Michael B. Smith mich...@smithcons.com


To: NT System Admin Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com 

Sent: Monday, February 6, 2012 9:47 AM


Subject: RE: OT - ugh!


I put off starting my own business for YEARS because I was afraid of what I
already knew. :-) Whereas, in retrospect, I wish I'd done it much earlier.

I can think of someone else on this mailing list (who is in Alaska this
week) who waited even longer than I did. :-)

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Maglinger, Paul [mailto:pmaglin...@scvl.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 10:28 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: OT - ugh!

I remember reading something awhile back stating that the reason that some
non-college educated people were able to start successful businesses was
the fact that they were not educated enough to realize the risks involved.
An interesting thought, isn't it?

-Original Message-
From: David Lum [mailto:david@nwea.org] 
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 8:33 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: OT - ugh!

No, you don't need a degree to start a billion dollar company, but you do
need brains and a lot of hard work.  Of course if it's something you love,
it's not work at all it's a passion, and folks that are passionate about
what they do are what you're looking for. We're better than our less
passionate IT workers simply because we ENJOY the work, learning new ways to
do things, learning how the mechanics of something works, and seeking out
others who have the same passion. I feel I'm better at Windows
administration than my fellow SE's simply because my passion for it is far
higher.

Sneaking Out to Write Code: You already know how Microsoft was founded.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen dropped out of college to form the company in
1975. It's that simple: Drop out of college, start a company, and become a
billionaire, right? Wrong.

Further study reveals that Gates and Allen had thousands of hours of
programming practice prior to founding Microsoft. First, the two co-founders
met at Lakeside, an elite private school in the Seattle area. The school
raised three thousand dollars to purchase a computer terminal for the

RE: Anyone Use Double-Take RecoverNow?

2012-02-07 Thread Benjamin Zachary
We are using  Vmware HA/DRS 5 , and Veeam Backup and DR. We do daily backups
and 4 hour snapshots to a secondary SAN. We can drill into the backups
easily and drag out files or just mount from backup.

 

We tested the exchange restore and Im not super crazy about it, but it does
work . we don't use the SQL backup because we are doing sql backups to flat
files anyway . so we can restore that way. 

 

Veeam should have the HyperV version available , I would have to check my
partner portal with them..

 

From: Jonathan Link [mailto:jonathan.l...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 1:45 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: Anyone Use Double-Take RecoverNow?

 

I'm sorry, all I hear is: Run away, run away!

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 1:22 PM, Greg Olson gol...@markettools.com wrote:

Yes I use it.. opps let me re-phrase that, have a fully paid copy of the
software that I've written off as it performed good in initial testing with
just two machines, but have had nothing but issues with it going live
anytime it goes over four machines. This software is basically three
different products thrown together with a fourth product that attempts to
manage it all, and fails miserably. For instance you create a job in the
recovery console, and you should be able to go back there and check on
status, or if you need to restore, run the restore from there, but you go
back, and strangely the job has disappeared.. Hum, going over to the
replication now software piece (separate program) and checking, it does
appear to be running still. But you can't do restores from that software so
it's off to call tech support again. Every time I want to do a restore. And
it's frustrating when you have 25 jobs setup but only 2 or 3 show up, or if
there is more, they show a status of failed, but checking the other software
it is running. IT's frustrating, and we're not renewing the software license
and fighting for a full refund, but its been awhile now as we've been trying
to get it to work, and as always the next release will fix everything. I'd
stay far away from it until they work out the bugs (and yes I have emails
from their support saying its known issues , and doesn't work right). 

-Greg 

 

 

From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 8:05 AM


To: NT System Admin Issues

Subject: RE: Anyone Use Double-Take RecoverNow?

 

I used Double-Take until the releases of SQL Mirroring, Exchange CCR (and
then DAG), and DPM. Since then, I've used the MSFT solutions (and refer
customers to those solutions because I like having one place to point
fingers).

 

Now, when I used Double-Take, I was very pleased with it. But that
experience is several years old.

 

Regards,

 

Michael B. Smith

Consultant and Exchange MVP

http://TheEssentialExchange.com

 

From: James Kerr [mailto:cluster...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 10:50 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: Anyone Use Double-Take RecoverNow?

 

Wow, nobody. I thought for sure with as many folks we have posting here
there must be a few running that software. 

On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 4:25 PM, James Kerr cluster...@gmail.com wrote:

If so, how do you like it? Does it work as advertised? Any gotchas I should
know about?

Thanks,

James

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
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RE: IOPS's calculations

2012-02-07 Thread Michael B. Smith
Where do you get x 2 ? I was with you - until that.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 8:56 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

As a rule of thumb queue length shouldn't exceed the physical number of disks 
in the array that the LUN is on x 2.

-Original Message-
From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com] 
Sent: 07 February 2012 13:50
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: IOPS's calculations

So, to which counters should I be paying attention in such a situation, or what 
should be the difference in interpretation?

I've got a file server that's being extremely slow to back up, though daily 
performance is adequate.

I'm seeing disk queue length hit as high as 37, with 5 LUNS for the machine.

Kurt

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 21:32, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com wrote:
 Those perf counters can be a bit misleading when you’re looking at a 
 SAN on the backend, though.



 Thanks,

 Brian Desmond

 br...@briandesmond.com



 w – 312.625.1438 | c   – 312.731.3132



 From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:32 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations



 Disk Reads per second

 Disk Writes per second

 Average Disk Queue Length



 I’d track both logical disk and physical disk.



 Regards,



 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com



 From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:56 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: IOPS's calculations



 Hi folks,



 Thanks for all your help in the past.



 Looking at setting up a SAN. From my research, I think one thing to be 
 aware of is current IOPS (disk). There are a number of sites that will 
 help you determine IOPS based on what hard drives (and RAID 
 configuration). My question is: Many of my current servers are light 
 use. The IOPS that these servers are capable of is much greater than what is 
 actually being used.



 So, in order to more properly size the SAN, is there a way to 
 determine working IOPS? That is, what is actually being used? I assume 
 Perfmon would help, and will need to log over a period of time (I 
 think a week would be about right, to catch most scenarios). But what 
 counters, and how to analyze those counters?



 Servers are Windows 2003.



 Thanks.





 Mark Reimer, A+, MCSA

 Servers  Networking Admin

 Prairie Bible Institute

 Box 4000

 Three Hills, AB  T0M-2N0

 Canada

 Tel: 403-443-5511, Ext. 3476

 Fax: 403-443-5540

 Email: mark.rei...@prairie.edu

 www.prairie.edu





 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
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To manage 

Re: ASUS laptops/notepbooks

2012-02-07 Thread Cynicalgeek
It's just the next version of USB which will make it much more common than
eSATA in the future. My laptop has USB3 and it's a lower-end Lenovo from
last year.

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 1:06 AM, Jon Harris jk.har...@gmail.com wrote:

 But less common from what I saw.  That is why I asked.  Speed does not in
 it self mean that was the reason for all things.

 Jon

 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 12:31 AM, cynicalg...@gmail.com wrote:

 Usb3 is faster

 Sent from my iPhone

 On Feb 6, 2012, at 6:33 PM, Jon Harris jk.har...@gmail.com wrote:

 Why did you not go with an eSATA enclosure?  If I may ask.

 Jon

 On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 3:47 AM, Ken Schaefer k...@adopenstatic.comwrote:

  Just a generic one (Asrock I think) I picked up at a local computer
 shop. I have several – haven’t really noticed much difference between them
 performance wise.

 ** **

 Cheers

 Ken

 ** **

 *From:* Richard Stovall [mailto:rich...@gmail.com]
 *Sent:* Sunday, 5 February 2012 3:50 PM

 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
 *Subject:* Re: ASUS laptops/notepbooks

 ** **

 128 GB SD.  I didn't even know that those exist...  A little checking
 shows that they're actually not crazy expensive, if you actually have a use
 case that demands one.
 http://www.amazon.com/Lexar-Media-Flash-Memory-LSD128CRBNA133/dp/B004SAMZW4
 

 ** **

 If you don't mind me asking, what USB3 enclosure are you using for the
 512 GB SSD?

 ** **

 On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 10:59 PM, Ken Schaefer k...@adopenstatic.com
 wrote:

 For running VMs I went the opposite route – Sony Z (previously a Z1, now
 a Z2). 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD (internal), 1920x1080 screen, Core i7, 13”,
 weighs about 1.2kg. Unbelievable piece of kit. 

 I added an extra 512GB SSD (connected via USB3), so I have plenty of
 storage for VMs now. 128GB SD card holds installation ISOs


 Cheers

 Ken

  

 *From:* Webster [mailto:webs...@carlwebster.com]
 *Sent:* Friday, 3 February 2012 11:47 PM
 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
 *Subject:* Re: ASUS laptops/notepbooks

  

 This doesn't apply to your situation, but I just bought a monster ASUS
 laptop to take with me on the road.  I am on the road the next 2 months and
 possibly until July.  I needed something so I could continue my writing
 while traveling.   Core i7 quad-core w/HT, 17.3 screen, 16GB RAM and 2
 500GB HDs – will run 5 VMs very well.  It may run more but I only have 5
 right now.

  

 This is my last day at current customer before I hit the road for 2
 months and maybe 6 months.  The guys here are really liking the laptop.  I
 am sure my chiropractor will too as the monster weighs 10  lbs!

  

  

 Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

  

 *From: *Tom Miller tmil...@hnncsb.org
 *Reply-To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Date: *Fri, 3 Feb 2012 08:50:44 -0500
 *To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Subject: *ASUS laptops/notepbooks

  

 Anyone using these in the enterprise?  We currently use Dell or Lenovo
 laptops.  Some of the ASUS models look very light, which would be good for
 our nomadic staff.  Just wondering on long term durability, ability to
 image.

  

 Comments appreciated.

  

 Tom

  

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
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 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
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 ~ 

RE: IOPS's calculations

2012-02-07 Thread Paul Hutchings
Most guides I've read suggest if the LUN has 10 physical disks, you don't want 
the queue to exceed around 20, or if you have 5 disks a queue of 10 and so on.

-Original Message-
From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com] 
Sent: 07 February 2012 15:06
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Where do you get x 2 ? I was with you - until that.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 8:56 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

As a rule of thumb queue length shouldn't exceed the physical number of disks 
in the array that the LUN is on x 2.

-Original Message-
From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 13:50
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: IOPS's calculations

So, to which counters should I be paying attention in such a situation, or what 
should be the difference in interpretation?

I've got a file server that's being extremely slow to back up, though daily 
performance is adequate.

I'm seeing disk queue length hit as high as 37, with 5 LUNS for the machine.

Kurt

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 21:32, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com wrote:
 Those perf counters can be a bit misleading when you’re looking at a 
 SAN on the backend, though.



 Thanks,

 Brian Desmond

 br...@briandesmond.com



 w – 312.625.1438 | c   – 312.731.3132



 From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:32 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations



 Disk Reads per second

 Disk Writes per second

 Average Disk Queue Length



 I’d track both logical disk and physical disk.



 Regards,



 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com



 From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:56 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: IOPS's calculations



 Hi folks,



 Thanks for all your help in the past.



 Looking at setting up a SAN. From my research, I think one thing to be 
 aware of is current IOPS (disk). There are a number of sites that will 
 help you determine IOPS based on what hard drives (and RAID 
 configuration). My question is: Many of my current servers are light 
 use. The IOPS that these servers are capable of is much greater than what is 
 actually being used.



 So, in order to more properly size the SAN, is there a way to 
 determine working IOPS? That is, what is actually being used? I assume 
 Perfmon would help, and will need to log over a period of time (I 
 think a week would be about right, to catch most scenarios). But what 
 counters, and how to analyze those counters?



 Servers are Windows 2003.



 Thanks.





 Mark Reimer, A+, MCSA

 Servers  Networking Admin

 Prairie Bible Institute

 Box 4000

 Three Hills, AB  T0M-2N0

 Canada

 Tel: 403-443-5511, Ext. 3476

 Fax: 403-443-5540

 Email: mark.rei...@prairie.edu

 www.prairie.edu





 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
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Watling Street, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, CV10 0TU, England Registered in England 
and Wales No. 402570 VAT Registration  GB 100 1464 84

The contents of this e-mail are confidential and are solely for the use of the 
intended recipient.  If you receive this e-mail in error, please delete it and 
notify us either by e-mail, telephone or fax.  You should not copy, forward or 
otherwise disclose the content of the e-mail as this is prohibited.

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~


RE: IOPS's calculations

2012-02-07 Thread Michael B. Smith
I'm not a SAN expert. But for typical RAID subsystems, I don't want the 
physical queue to exceed the number of disks in the array. If it does, then 
I've got excessive queuing and degraded performance.

I don't see how it would be different for a SAN, but I dunno.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:40 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Most guides I've read suggest if the LUN has 10 physical disks, you don't want 
the queue to exceed around 20, or if you have 5 disks a queue of 10 and so on.

-Original Message-
From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com] 
Sent: 07 February 2012 15:06
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Where do you get x 2 ? I was with you - until that.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 8:56 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

As a rule of thumb queue length shouldn't exceed the physical number of disks 
in the array that the LUN is on x 2.

-Original Message-
From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 13:50
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: IOPS's calculations

So, to which counters should I be paying attention in such a situation, or what 
should be the difference in interpretation?

I've got a file server that's being extremely slow to back up, though daily 
performance is adequate.

I'm seeing disk queue length hit as high as 37, with 5 LUNS for the machine.

Kurt

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 21:32, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com wrote:
 Those perf counters can be a bit misleading when you’re looking at a 
 SAN on the backend, though.



 Thanks,

 Brian Desmond

 br...@briandesmond.com



 w – 312.625.1438 | c   – 312.731.3132



 From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:32 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations



 Disk Reads per second

 Disk Writes per second

 Average Disk Queue Length



 I’d track both logical disk and physical disk.



 Regards,



 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com



 From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:56 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: IOPS's calculations



 Hi folks,



 Thanks for all your help in the past.



 Looking at setting up a SAN. From my research, I think one thing to be 
 aware of is current IOPS (disk). There are a number of sites that will 
 help you determine IOPS based on what hard drives (and RAID 
 configuration). My question is: Many of my current servers are light 
 use. The IOPS that these servers are capable of is much greater than what is 
 actually being used.



 So, in order to more properly size the SAN, is there a way to 
 determine working IOPS? That is, what is actually being used? I assume 
 Perfmon would help, and will need to log over a period of time (I 
 think a week would be about right, to catch most scenarios). But what 
 counters, and how to analyze those counters?



 Servers are Windows 2003.



 Thanks.





 Mark Reimer, A+, MCSA

 Servers  Networking Admin

 Prairie Bible Institute

 Box 4000

 Three Hills, AB  T0M-2N0

 Canada

 Tel: 403-443-5511, Ext. 3476

 Fax: 403-443-5540

 Email: mark.rei...@prairie.edu

 www.prairie.edu





 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
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 ---
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http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

---
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MIRA Ltd

Watling Street, Nuneaton, 

Re: Coverups do little good...

2012-02-07 Thread Micheal Espinola Jr
Oh wow, I totally forgot about that douche move.  They were truly a match
made in hell - and we will continue to pay the price.

--
Espi




On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 8:30 AM, Ben Scott mailvor...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 10:29 AM, Cameron cameron.orl...@gmail.com wrote:
  VeriSign sold its certificate business in the summer of 2010 to Symantec
  Corp, which has kept the VeriSign brand name on those products.
 
  Says it all

   Verisign (Verislime) sucked before Symantec bought them.  They're
 the ones who wanted to take all domain name typos in the world and
 redirect them to their own ad site.


 http://slashdot.org/story/03/09/16/0034210/resolving-everything-verisign-adds-wildcards

 -- Ben

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
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RE: IOPS's calculations

2012-02-07 Thread Brian Desmond
I've always used the *2 rule of thumb cited below also...

Thanks,
Brian Desmond
br...@briandesmond.com

w – 312.625.1438 | c   – 312.731.3132


-Original Message-
From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 9:26 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

I'm not a SAN expert. But for typical RAID subsystems, I don't want the 
physical queue to exceed the number of disks in the array. If it does, then 
I've got excessive queuing and degraded performance.

I don't see how it would be different for a SAN, but I dunno.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:40 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Most guides I've read suggest if the LUN has 10 physical disks, you don't want 
the queue to exceed around 20, or if you have 5 disks a queue of 10 and so on.

-Original Message-
From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 15:06
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Where do you get x 2 ? I was with you - until that.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 8:56 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

As a rule of thumb queue length shouldn't exceed the physical number of disks 
in the array that the LUN is on x 2.

-Original Message-
From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 13:50
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: IOPS's calculations

So, to which counters should I be paying attention in such a situation, or what 
should be the difference in interpretation?

I've got a file server that's being extremely slow to back up, though daily 
performance is adequate.

I'm seeing disk queue length hit as high as 37, with 5 LUNS for the machine.

Kurt

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 21:32, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com wrote:
 Those perf counters can be a bit misleading when you’re looking at a 
 SAN on the backend, though.



 Thanks,

 Brian Desmond

 br...@briandesmond.com



 w – 312.625.1438 | c   – 312.731.3132



 From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:32 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations



 Disk Reads per second

 Disk Writes per second

 Average Disk Queue Length



 I’d track both logical disk and physical disk.



 Regards,



 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com



 From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:56 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: IOPS's calculations



 Hi folks,



 Thanks for all your help in the past.



 Looking at setting up a SAN. From my research, I think one thing to be 
 aware of is current IOPS (disk). There are a number of sites that will 
 help you determine IOPS based on what hard drives (and RAID 
 configuration). My question is: Many of my current servers are light 
 use. The IOPS that these servers are capable of is much greater than what is 
 actually being used.



 So, in order to more properly size the SAN, is there a way to 
 determine working IOPS? That is, what is actually being used? I assume 
 Perfmon would help, and will need to log over a period of time (I 
 think a week would be about right, to catch most scenarios). But what 
 counters, and how to analyze those counters?



 Servers are Windows 2003.



 Thanks.





 Mark Reimer, A+, MCSA

 Servers  Networking Admin

 Prairie Bible Institute

 Box 4000

 Three Hills, AB  T0M-2N0

 Canada

 Tel: 403-443-5511, Ext. 3476

 Fax: 403-443-5540

 Email: mark.rei...@prairie.edu

 www.prairie.edu





 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that 

RE: IOPS's calculations

2012-02-07 Thread Paul Hutchings
I don't think SAN vs. DAS/NAS should matter tbh, just the spindles in the array 
- no expert either I just muddle by.

This is what I was going from - 
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938625.aspx

From: Michael B. Smith [mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 4:25 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

I'm not a SAN expert. But for typical RAID subsystems, I don't want the 
physical queue to exceed the number of disks in the array. If it does, then 
I've got excessive queuing and degraded performance.

I don't see how it would be different for a SAN, but I dunno.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:40 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Most guides I've read suggest if the LUN has 10 physical disks, you don't want 
the queue to exceed around 20, or if you have 5 disks a queue of 10 and so on.

-Original Message-
From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 15:06
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Where do you get x 2 ? I was with you - until that.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 8:56 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

As a rule of thumb queue length shouldn't exceed the physical number of disks 
in the array that the LUN is on x 2.

-Original Message-
From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 13:50
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: IOPS's calculations

So, to which counters should I be paying attention in such a situation, or what 
should be the difference in interpretation?

I've got a file server that's being extremely slow to back up, though daily 
performance is adequate.

I'm seeing disk queue length hit as high as 37, with 5 LUNS for the machine.

Kurt

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 21:32, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com wrote:
 Those perf counters can be a bit misleading when you’re looking at a
 SAN on the backend, though.



 Thanks,

 Brian Desmond

 br...@briandesmond.com



 w – 312.625.1438 | c   – 312.731.3132



 From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:32 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations



 Disk Reads per second

 Disk Writes per second

 Average Disk Queue Length



 I’d track both logical disk and physical disk.



 Regards,



 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com



 From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:56 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: IOPS's calculations



 Hi folks,



 Thanks for all your help in the past.



 Looking at setting up a SAN. From my research, I think one thing to be
 aware of is current IOPS (disk). There are a number of sites that will
 help you determine IOPS based on what hard drives (and RAID
 configuration). My question is: Many of my current servers are light
 use. The IOPS that these servers are capable of is much greater than what is 
 actually being used.



 So, in order to more properly size the SAN, is there a way to
 determine working IOPS? That is, what is actually being used? I assume
 Perfmon would help, and will need to log over a period of time (I
 think a week would be about right, to catch most scenarios). But what
 counters, and how to analyze those counters?



 Servers are Windows 2003.



 Thanks.





 Mark Reimer, A+, MCSA

 Servers  Networking Admin

 Prairie Bible Institute

 Box 4000

 Three Hills, AB  T0M-2N0

 Canada

 Tel: 403-443-5511, Ext. 3476

 Fax: 403-443-5540

 Email: mark.rei...@prairie.edu

 www.prairie.edu





 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe 

RE: IOPS's calculations

2012-02-07 Thread Brian Desmond
Gets more interesting with SAN though when you have something like a Netapp 
FlashCache or something in the mix

Thanks,
Brian Desmond
br...@briandesmond.com

w - 312.625.1438 | c   - 312.731.3132


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:36 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

I don't think SAN vs. DAS/NAS should matter tbh, just the spindles in the array 
- no expert either I just muddle by.

This is what I was going from - 
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938625.aspx

From: Michael B. Smith [mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 4:25 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

I'm not a SAN expert. But for typical RAID subsystems, I don't want the 
physical queue to exceed the number of disks in the array. If it does, then 
I've got excessive queuing and degraded performance.

I don't see how it would be different for a SAN, but I dunno.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:40 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Most guides I've read suggest if the LUN has 10 physical disks, you don't want 
the queue to exceed around 20, or if you have 5 disks a queue of 10 and so on.

-Original Message-
From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 15:06
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Where do you get x 2 ? I was with you - until that.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 8:56 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

As a rule of thumb queue length shouldn't exceed the physical number of disks 
in the array that the LUN is on x 2.

-Original Message-
From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 13:50
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: IOPS's calculations

So, to which counters should I be paying attention in such a situation, or what 
should be the difference in interpretation?

I've got a file server that's being extremely slow to back up, though daily 
performance is adequate.

I'm seeing disk queue length hit as high as 37, with 5 LUNS for the machine.

Kurt

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 21:32, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com wrote:
 Those perf counters can be a bit misleading when you're looking at a 
 SAN on the backend, though.



 Thanks,

 Brian Desmond

 br...@briandesmond.com



 w - 312.625.1438 | c   - 312.731.3132



 From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:32 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations



 Disk Reads per second

 Disk Writes per second

 Average Disk Queue Length



 I'd track both logical disk and physical disk.



 Regards,



 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com



 From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:56 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: IOPS's calculations



 Hi folks,



 Thanks for all your help in the past.



 Looking at setting up a SAN. From my research, I think one thing to be 
 aware of is current IOPS (disk). There are a number of sites that will 
 help you determine IOPS based on what hard drives (and RAID 
 configuration). My question is: Many of my current servers are light 
 use. The IOPS that these servers are capable of is much greater than what is 
 actually being used.



 So, in order to more properly size the SAN, is there a way to 
 determine working IOPS? That is, what is actually being used? I assume 
 Perfmon would help, and will need to log over a period of time (I 
 think a week would be about right, to catch most scenarios). But what 
 counters, and how to analyze those counters?



 Servers are Windows 2003.



 Thanks.





 Mark Reimer, A+, MCSA

 Servers  Networking Admin

 Prairie Bible Institute

 Box 4000

 Three Hills, AB  T0M-2N0

 Canada

 Tel: 403-443-5511, Ext. 3476

 Fax: 403-443-5540

 Email: mark.rei...@prairie.edu

 www.prairie.edu





 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to 

RE: IOPS's calculations

2012-02-07 Thread Paul Hutchings
I think even DAS is getting smarter these days.  I've just had a new Dell 
arrive and whilst we aren't using the feature, it seems the PERC can use an SSD 
drive as cache, which I thought was pretty cool for such an entry level box of 
tricks (relatively speaking).

From: Brian Desmond [br...@briandesmond.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 5:58 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Gets more interesting with SAN though when you have something like a Netapp 
FlashCache or something in the mix

Thanks,
Brian Desmond
br...@briandesmond.com

w - 312.625.1438 | c   - 312.731.3132


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:36 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

I don't think SAN vs. DAS/NAS should matter tbh, just the spindles in the array 
- no expert either I just muddle by.

This is what I was going from - 
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938625.aspx

From: Michael B. Smith [mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 4:25 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

I'm not a SAN expert. But for typical RAID subsystems, I don't want the 
physical queue to exceed the number of disks in the array. If it does, then 
I've got excessive queuing and degraded performance.

I don't see how it would be different for a SAN, but I dunno.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:40 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Most guides I've read suggest if the LUN has 10 physical disks, you don't want 
the queue to exceed around 20, or if you have 5 disks a queue of 10 and so on.

-Original Message-
From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 15:06
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Where do you get x 2 ? I was with you - until that.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 8:56 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

As a rule of thumb queue length shouldn't exceed the physical number of disks 
in the array that the LUN is on x 2.

-Original Message-
From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 13:50
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: IOPS's calculations

So, to which counters should I be paying attention in such a situation, or what 
should be the difference in interpretation?

I've got a file server that's being extremely slow to back up, though daily 
performance is adequate.

I'm seeing disk queue length hit as high as 37, with 5 LUNS for the machine.

Kurt

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 21:32, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com wrote:
 Those perf counters can be a bit misleading when you're looking at a
 SAN on the backend, though.



 Thanks,

 Brian Desmond

 br...@briandesmond.com



 w - 312.625.1438 | c   - 312.731.3132



 From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:32 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations



 Disk Reads per second

 Disk Writes per second

 Average Disk Queue Length



 I'd track both logical disk and physical disk.



 Regards,



 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com



 From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:56 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: IOPS's calculations



 Hi folks,



 Thanks for all your help in the past.



 Looking at setting up a SAN. From my research, I think one thing to be
 aware of is current IOPS (disk). There are a number of sites that will
 help you determine IOPS based on what hard drives (and RAID
 configuration). My question is: Many of my current servers are light
 use. The IOPS that these servers are capable of is much greater than what is 
 actually being used.



 So, in order to more properly size the SAN, is there a way to
 determine working IOPS? That is, what is actually being used? I assume
 Perfmon would help, and will need to log over a period of time (I
 think a week would be about right, to catch most scenarios). But what
 counters, and how to analyze those counters?



 Servers are Windows 2003.



 Thanks.





 Mark Reimer, A+, MCSA

 Servers  Networking Admin

 Prairie Bible Institute

 Box 4000

 Three Hills, AB  T0M-2N0

 Canada

 Tel: 403-443-5511, Ext. 3476

 Fax: 403-443-5540

 Email: mark.rei...@prairie.edu

 www.prairie.edu





 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To 

Re: IOPS's calculations

2012-02-07 Thread Sean Martin
Very true. Large global cache, automated tiering, etc. are all
technologies that change the way performance and bottlenecks are
measured. There are situations introduced in SAN environment (forced
flushing of cache), that can occur in a DAS scenario, are much more
prevelant in a SAN and have much wider impact. Looking at solutions
like Compellent or 3Par that have virtualized storage add another
level complexity. Your data could be striped across hundreds of
drives. I wouldn't consider a queue depth at an equal number
acceptable for a single volume.

- Sean

On 2/7/12, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com wrote:
 Gets more interesting with SAN though when you have something like a Netapp
 FlashCache or something in the mix

 Thanks,
 Brian Desmond
 br...@briandesmond.com

 w - 312.625.1438 | c   - 312.731.3132


 -Original Message-
 From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
 Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:36 AM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

 I don't think SAN vs. DAS/NAS should matter tbh, just the spindles in the
 array - no expert either I just muddle by.

 This is what I was going from -
 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938625.aspx
 
 From: Michael B. Smith [mich...@smithcons.com]
 Sent: 07 February 2012 4:25 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

 I'm not a SAN expert. But for typical RAID subsystems, I don't want the
 physical queue to exceed the number of disks in the array. If it does, then
 I've got excessive queuing and degraded performance.

 I don't see how it would be different for a SAN, but I dunno.

 Regards,

 Michael B. Smith
 Consultant and Exchange MVP
 http://TheEssentialExchange.com


 -Original Message-
 From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
 Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:40 AM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

 Most guides I've read suggest if the LUN has 10 physical disks, you don't
 want the queue to exceed around 20, or if you have 5 disks a queue of 10 and
 so on.

 -Original Message-
 From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 Sent: 07 February 2012 15:06
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

 Where do you get x 2 ? I was with you - until that.

 Regards,

 Michael B. Smith
 Consultant and Exchange MVP
 http://TheEssentialExchange.com


 -Original Message-
 From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
 Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 8:56 AM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

 As a rule of thumb queue length shouldn't exceed the physical number of
 disks in the array that the LUN is on x 2.

 -Original Message-
 From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
 Sent: 07 February 2012 13:50
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: Re: IOPS's calculations

 So, to which counters should I be paying attention in such a situation, or
 what should be the difference in interpretation?

 I've got a file server that's being extremely slow to back up, though daily
 performance is adequate.

 I'm seeing disk queue length hit as high as 37, with 5 LUNS for the machine.

 Kurt

 On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 21:32, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com wrote:
 Those perf counters can be a bit misleading when you're looking at a
 SAN on the backend, though.



 Thanks,

 Brian Desmond

 br...@briandesmond.com



 w - 312.625.1438 | c   - 312.731.3132



 From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:32 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations



 Disk Reads per second

 Disk Writes per second

 Average Disk Queue Length



 I'd track both logical disk and physical disk.



 Regards,



 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com



 From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:56 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: IOPS's calculations



 Hi folks,



 Thanks for all your help in the past.



 Looking at setting up a SAN. From my research, I think one thing to be
 aware of is current IOPS (disk). There are a number of sites that will
 help you determine IOPS based on what hard drives (and RAID
 configuration). My question is: Many of my current servers are light
 use. The IOPS that these servers are capable of is much greater than what
 is actually being used.



 So, in order to more properly size the SAN, is there a way to
 determine working IOPS? That is, what is actually being used? I assume
 Perfmon would help, and will need to log over a period of time (I
 think a week would be about right, to catch most scenarios). But what
 counters, and how to analyze those counters?



 Servers are Windows 2003.



 Thanks.





 Mark Reimer, A+, MCSA

 Servers  Networking Admin

 Prairie Bible Institute

 Box 4000

 Three Hills, AB  T0M-2N0

 Canada

 Tel: 

RE: IOPS's calculations

2012-02-07 Thread David Lum
You mean a disk queue length of 5 on  two-spindle RAID1 for more than 5 minutes 
is bad? LOL. I have a client that is constantly HDD-bound (I've seen queue 
lengths of 15 for over 10 mins at a time - and they're not out or RAM either), 
running SBS2K3 on dual SATA RAID1 volumes (the OS, Exchange and SQL are on the 
same volume though - long story)...17 users, most of them use a SQL, all of 
course use Exchange. As a general rule, I don't tell people that they'll see 
_significant_ performance improvements regardless of what kind of upgrade they 
are getting be it GB switches, SSD drives, etc. 

This client I _have_ told them they would see significant increase on their 
SQL-based app when they get a new server since it'll be 15K SAS drives and the 
SQL will be on a separate volume than Exchange.

Dave

-Original Message-
From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 8:26 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

I'm not a SAN expert. But for typical RAID subsystems, I don't want the 
physical queue to exceed the number of disks in the array. If it does, then 
I've got excessive queuing and degraded performance.

I don't see how it would be different for a SAN, but I dunno.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:40 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Most guides I've read suggest if the LUN has 10 physical disks, you don't want 
the queue to exceed around 20, or if you have 5 disks a queue of 10 and so on.

-Original Message-
From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 15:06
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Where do you get x 2 ? I was with you - until that.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 8:56 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

As a rule of thumb queue length shouldn't exceed the physical number of disks 
in the array that the LUN is on x 2.

-Original Message-
From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 13:50
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: IOPS's calculations

So, to which counters should I be paying attention in such a situation, or what 
should be the difference in interpretation?

I've got a file server that's being extremely slow to back up, though daily 
performance is adequate.

I'm seeing disk queue length hit as high as 37, with 5 LUNS for the machine.

Kurt

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 21:32, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com wrote:
 Those perf counters can be a bit misleading when you’re looking at a 
 SAN on the backend, though.



 Thanks,

 Brian Desmond

 br...@briandesmond.com



 w – 312.625.1438 | c   – 312.731.3132



 From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:32 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations



 Disk Reads per second

 Disk Writes per second

 Average Disk Queue Length



 I’d track both logical disk and physical disk.



 Regards,



 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com



 From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:56 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: IOPS's calculations



 Hi folks,



 Thanks for all your help in the past.



 Looking at setting up a SAN. From my research, I think one thing to be 
 aware of is current IOPS (disk). There are a number of sites that will 
 help you determine IOPS based on what hard drives (and RAID 
 configuration). My question is: Many of my current servers are light 
 use. The IOPS that these servers are capable of is much greater than what is 
 actually being used.



 So, in order to more properly size the SAN, is there a way to 
 determine working IOPS? That is, what is actually being used? I assume 
 Perfmon would help, and will need to log over a period of time (I 
 think a week would be about right, to catch most scenarios). But what 
 counters, and how to analyze those counters?



 Servers are Windows 2003.



 Thanks.





 Mark Reimer, A+, MCSA

 Servers  Networking Admin

 Prairie Bible Institute

 Box 4000

 Three Hills, AB  T0M-2N0

 Canada

 Tel: 403-443-5511, Ext. 3476

 Fax: 403-443-5540

 Email: mark.rei...@prairie.edu

 www.prairie.edu





 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

 ~ Finally, powerful 

Re: IOPS's calculations

2012-02-07 Thread Webster
One of my first Exchange migrations was for an accounting firm whose
Exchange 2000 server had an average DQL of * (Do you remember that one
MBS?).  I was able to convince them to get all new servers and upgrade
their AD and Exchange.  Of course, the fact it took hours for e-mail to be
sent and received helped the financing of the upgrades.


Carl Webster
Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional
http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/






On 2/7/12 9:19 AM, David Lum david@nwea.org wrote:

You mean a disk queue length of 5 on  two-spindle RAID1 for more than 5
minutes is bad? LOL. I have a client that is constantly HDD-bound (I've
seen queue lengths of 15 for over 10 mins at a time - and they're not out
or RAM either), running SBS2K3 on dual SATA RAID1 volumes (the OS,
Exchange and SQL are on the same volume though - long story)...17 users,
most of them use a SQL, all of course use Exchange. As a general rule, I
don't tell people that they'll see _significant_ performance improvements
regardless of what kind of upgrade they are getting be it GB switches,
SSD drives, etc. 

This client I _have_ told them they would see significant increase on
their SQL-based app when they get a new server since it'll be 15K SAS
drives and the SQL will be on a separate volume than Exchange.

Dave

-Original Message-
From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 8:26 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

I'm not a SAN expert. But for typical RAID subsystems, I don't want the
physical queue to exceed the number of disks in the array. If it does,
then I've got excessive queuing and degraded performance.

I don't see how it would be different for a SAN, but I dunno.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:40 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Most guides I've read suggest if the LUN has 10 physical disks, you don't
want the queue to exceed around 20, or if you have 5 disks a queue of 10
and so on.

-Original Message-
From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 15:06
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Where do you get x 2 ? I was with you - until that.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Paul Hutchings [mailto:paul.hutchi...@mira.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 8:56 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

As a rule of thumb queue length shouldn't exceed the physical number of
disks in the array that the LUN is on x 2.

-Original Message-
From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
Sent: 07 February 2012 13:50
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: IOPS's calculations

So, to which counters should I be paying attention in such a situation,
or what should be the difference in interpretation?

I've got a file server that's being extremely slow to back up, though
daily performance is adequate.

I'm seeing disk queue length hit as high as 37, with 5 LUNS for the
machine.

Kurt

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 21:32, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com
wrote:
 Those perf counters can be a bit misleading when you¹re looking at a
 SAN on the backend, though.



 Thanks,

 Brian Desmond

 br...@briandesmond.com



 w ­ 312.625.1438 | c   ­ 312.731.3132



 From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:32 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations



 Disk Reads per second

 Disk Writes per second

 Average Disk Queue Length



 I¹d track both logical disk and physical disk.



 Regards,



 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com



 From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
 Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:56 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: IOPS's calculations



 Hi folks,



 Thanks for all your help in the past.



 Looking at setting up a SAN. From my research, I think one thing to be
 aware of is current IOPS (disk). There are a number of sites that will
 help you determine IOPS based on what hard drives (and RAID
 configuration). My question is: Many of my current servers are light
 use. The IOPS that these servers are capable of is much greater than
what is actually being used.



 So, in order to more properly size the SAN, is there a way to
 determine working IOPS? That is, what is actually being used? I assume
 Perfmon would help, and will need to log over a period of time (I
 think a week would be about right, to catch most scenarios). But what
 counters, and how to analyze those counters?



 Servers are Windows 2003.



~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ 

Re: What creates Exchange log files

2012-02-07 Thread Ben Scott
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 1:55 PM, David Lum david@nwea.org wrote:
 What activity generates the Exchange log files? dumb Q, but I have an E2K3
 server that has no traffic going to it but it still regularly generates log
 files.

  Any write to the Exchange database.

  I expect even an empty Exchange system will have background tasks
recording their progress or state.

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

---
To manage subscriptions click here: 
http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin


Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Steven Peck
I will suggest you invest in your own domain name.  (You can still use
blogspot).  It's pretty cheap, it also makes things more portable and
later, you can use it for your email should you go independant and not lose
the existing work or your 'identity branding'.

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 4:39 AM, James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com wrote:

 Well, I decided to start blogging up a bit of AppSense stuff, and I seem
 to be enjoying it! Good call.

 Mr Webster, I offer no apologies for stealing your bigot moniker for the
 title for my blog.

 Anyone else who may use this software can read my ramblings at
 http://appsensebigot.blogspot.com

 Cheers,




 JR

 On 6 February 2012 20:49, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

   PLEASE DO.  I paid my own money to take the course (using a fellow
 CTPs partner status to get it dirt cheap) but that is a set of software
 with a LOT of options.

  Thanks


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 20:16:47 +

 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

   I actually have some natural talent as a writer (as opposed to
 anything in IT which is completely learned). I might start a blog
 concentrating on AppSense (which is woefully under-represented at the
 moment, IMO)
 Sent from my SR-71 Blackbird
 --
 *From: *Webster webs...@carlwebster.com
 *Date: *Mon, 6 Feb 2012 19:35:57 +
 *To: *NT System Admin Issuesntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *ReplyTo: *NT System Admin Issues 
 ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Subject: *Re: OT - ugh!

   I will have to give MBS 100% credit.  He bugged, pestered, annoyed and
 prodded me until I started writing.  Once I started writing, people started
 reading.  Once people started reading, I gained a name in the Citrix
 space.  Once I got a name, I was honored with the CTP.  Once I got the
 CTP, I was instantly in a really nice network of extremely smart people.

  I initially balked at the idea of going solo because just how much
 Citrix work can there possibly be out there?  And besides, who in the
 world would hire me! to do anything?   All my work comes thru my web site,
 Experts Exchange, fellow CTP, LinkedIn, Dice and word-of-mouth.

  Share your knowledge (even if like me you don't think you have anything
 to share) with the community and you may be surprised at what opens up for
 you.

  If you decide to go the writing route (which I strongly encourage you
 to do), be prepared to receive a bunch or criticism for what you share.
  Only those who stick their neck out and share, get recognized.

  I recommend you read the book, The Nomadic Developer.  Wherever you see
 the word developer in the book, insert your title of choice (Network Admin,
 Network Engineer, Network Consultant, Systems Analyst, etc).

  I estimate I turn down 3 FTEs a week, and probably that many work
 offers every week.  I can't possibly get to all the Citrix work that comes
 my way or all the AD work the Citrix world is throwing my way.

  I know rates depend on the area of the country you are in and I thought
 MBS was nuts when he told me to up my rate, but I charge $150/hr plus
 expenses and have had no one (but contracting agencies) complain.  As busy
 as I am, maybe I need to up my rates again! :)

  Thanks


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: Don Kuhlman drkuhl...@yahoo.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 11:01:12 -0800

 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

   This may be out of scope for the list, but since it's been touched on,
 do any of our successful entrepreneurs  care to share how you got your own
 thing going?
 For example, did you start out by advertising, cold calling, website,
 contacting head hunters for work or (all of the above)?

  Just curious of some successful steps that you folks took to get
 going.  I'm thinking that after you got the ball rolling, you signed on
 clients for ongoing support, and then things spread through word of mouth,
 or how did you keep an income stream coming in at the beginning?

  Don K

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email 

Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Webster
Someone is having just WAY too much fun in their new blog!

Keep it up.



Carl Webster

Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

http://www.CarlWebster.comhttp://www.carlwebster.com/

From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.commailto:kz2...@googlemail.com
Reply-To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 12:39:29 +
To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

Well, I decided to start blogging up a bit of AppSense stuff, and I seem to be 
enjoying it! Good call.

Mr Webster, I offer no apologies for stealing your bigot moniker for the 
title for my blog.

Anyone else who may use this software can read my ramblings at 
http://appsensebigot.blogspot.com

Cheers,




JR

On 6 February 2012 20:49, Webster 
webs...@carlwebster.commailto:webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:
PLEASE DO.  I paid my own money to take the course (using a fellow CTPs partner 
status to get it dirt cheap) but that is a set of software with a LOT of 
options.

Thanks



Carl Webster

Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

http://www.CarlWebster.comhttp://www.carlwebster.com/

From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.commailto:kz2...@googlemail.com
Reply-To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 20:16:47 +

To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

I actually have some natural talent as a writer (as opposed to anything in IT 
which is completely learned). I might start a blog concentrating on AppSense 
(which is woefully under-represented at the moment, IMO)


~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

---
To manage subscriptions click here: 
http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread James Rankin
I did give some thought to that, it's on my to-do list right next to build
a decent lab and try to stop eating as much rich food

On 7 February 2012 19:17, Steven Peck sep...@gmail.com wrote:

 I will suggest you invest in your own domain name.  (You can still use
 blogspot).  It's pretty cheap, it also makes things more portable and
 later, you can use it for your email should you go independant and not lose
 the existing work or your 'identity branding'.


 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 4:39 AM, James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.comwrote:

 Well, I decided to start blogging up a bit of AppSense stuff, and I seem
 to be enjoying it! Good call.

 Mr Webster, I offer no apologies for stealing your bigot moniker for
 the title for my blog.

 Anyone else who may use this software can read my ramblings at
 http://appsensebigot.blogspot.com

 Cheers,




 JR

 On 6 February 2012 20:49, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

   PLEASE DO.  I paid my own money to take the course (using a fellow
 CTPs partner status to get it dirt cheap) but that is a set of software
 with a LOT of options.

  Thanks


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 20:16:47 +

 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

   I actually have some natural talent as a writer (as opposed to
 anything in IT which is completely learned). I might start a blog
 concentrating on AppSense (which is woefully under-represented at the
 moment, IMO)
 Sent from my SR-71 Blackbird
 --
 *From: *Webster webs...@carlwebster.com
 *Date: *Mon, 6 Feb 2012 19:35:57 +
 *To: *NT System Admin Issuesntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *ReplyTo: *NT System Admin Issues 
 ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Subject: *Re: OT - ugh!

   I will have to give MBS 100% credit.  He bugged, pestered, annoyed
 and prodded me until I started writing.  Once I started writing, people
 started reading.  Once people started reading, I gained a name in the
 Citrix space.  Once I got a name, I was honored with the CTP.  Once I got
 the CTP, I was instantly in a really nice network of extremely smart people.

  I initially balked at the idea of going solo because just how much
 Citrix work can there possibly be out there?  And besides, who in the
 world would hire me! to do anything?   All my work comes thru my web site,
 Experts Exchange, fellow CTP, LinkedIn, Dice and word-of-mouth.

  Share your knowledge (even if like me you don't think you have
 anything to share) with the community and you may be surprised at what
 opens up for you.

  If you decide to go the writing route (which I strongly encourage you
 to do), be prepared to receive a bunch or criticism for what you share.
  Only those who stick their neck out and share, get recognized.

  I recommend you read the book, The Nomadic Developer.  Wherever you
 see the word developer in the book, insert your title of choice (Network
 Admin, Network Engineer, Network Consultant, Systems Analyst, etc).

  I estimate I turn down 3 FTEs a week, and probably that many work
 offers every week.  I can't possibly get to all the Citrix work that comes
 my way or all the AD work the Citrix world is throwing my way.

  I know rates depend on the area of the country you are in and I
 thought MBS was nuts when he told me to up my rate, but I charge $150/hr
 plus expenses and have had no one (but contracting agencies) complain.  As
 busy as I am, maybe I need to up my rates again! :)

  Thanks


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: Don Kuhlman drkuhl...@yahoo.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 11:01:12 -0800

 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

   This may be out of scope for the list, but since it's been touched
 on, do any of our successful entrepreneurs  care to share how you got your
 own thing going?
 For example, did you start out by advertising, cold calling, website,
 contacting head hunters for work or (all of the above)?

  Just curious of some successful steps that you folks took to get
 going.  I'm thinking that after you got the ball rolling, you signed on
 clients for ongoing support, and then things spread through word of mouth,
 or how did you keep an income stream coming in at the beginning?

  Don K

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that 

Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread James Rankin
I'm just converting all the documents I wrote into posts. It's actually
kind of handy to have them all stored online rather than drag them
everywhere with me. I've already had a guy from AppSense on to me
correcting me on some of the product features (they must be watching for
keywords in Google), so it appears that I am already making some more
contacts, which is cool.

Cheers,



JR

On 7 February 2012 19:25, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

   Someone is having just WAY too much fun in their new blog!

  Keep it up.


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 12:39:29 +

 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

  Well, I decided to start blogging up a bit of AppSense stuff, and I seem
 to be enjoying it! Good call.

 Mr Webster, I offer no apologies for stealing your bigot moniker for the
 title for my blog.

 Anyone else who may use this software can read my ramblings at
 http://appsensebigot.blogspot.com

 Cheers,




 JR

 On 6 February 2012 20:49, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

   PLEASE DO.  I paid my own money to take the course (using a fellow
 CTPs partner status to get it dirt cheap) but that is a set of software
 with a LOT of options.

  Thanks


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 20:16:47 +

 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

   I actually have some natural talent as a writer (as opposed to
 anything in IT which is completely learned). I might start a blog
 concentrating on AppSense (which is woefully under-represented at the
 moment, IMO)

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin




-- 
On two occasions...I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr Babbage, if you put into
the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able
rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such
a question.

** IMPORTANT INFORMATION/DISCLAIMER *

This document should be read only by those persons to whom it is addressed.
If you have received this message it was obviously addressed to you and
therefore you can read it, even it we didn't mean to send it to you.
However, if the contents of this email make no sense whatsoever then you
probably were not the intended recipient, or, alternatively, you are a
mindless cretin; either way, you should immediately kill yourself and
destroy your computer (not necessarily in that order). Once you have taken
this action, please contact us.. no, sorry, you can't use your computer,
because you just destroyed it, and possibly also committed suicide
afterwards, but I am starting to digress.. *

* The originator of this email is not liable for the transmission of the
information contained in this communication. Or are they? Either way it's a
pretty dull legal query and frankly one I'm not going to dwell on. But
should you have nothing better to do, please feel free to ruminate on it,
and please pass on any concrete conclusions should you find them. However,
if you pass them on via email, be sure to include a disclaimer regarding
liability for transmission.
*

* In the event that the originator did not send this email to you, then
please return it to us and attach a scanned-in picture of your mother's
brother's wife wearing nothing but a kangaroo suit, and we will immediately
refund you exactly half of what you paid for the can of Whiskas you bought
when you went to Pets** ** At Home yesterday. *

* We take no responsibility for non-receipt of this email because we are
running Exchange 5.5 and everyone knows how glitchy that can be. In the
event that you do get this message then please note that we take no
responsibility for that either. Nor will we accept any liability, tacit or
implied, for any damage you may or may not incur as a result of receiving,
or not, as the case may be, from time to time, notwithstanding all
liabilities implied or otherwise, ummm, hell, where was I...umm, no matter
what happens, it is NOT, and NEVER WILL BE, OUR FAULT! *

* The comments and opinions expressed herein are my own and NOT those of my
employer, who, if he knew I was sending emails and surfing the seamier side
of the Internet, would cut off my manhood and feed it to me for afternoon
tea. *

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource 

RE: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Michael B. Smith
I get that a lot. :)

And I also use my blog as an immense resource for myself. If I know I wrote an 
article, the easiest way to find it - search on my blog.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com

From: James Rankin [mailto:kz2...@googlemail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 2:32 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

I'm just converting all the documents I wrote into posts. It's actually kind of 
handy to have them all stored online rather than drag them everywhere with me. 
I've already had a guy from AppSense on to me correcting me on some of the 
product features (they must be watching for keywords in Google), so it appears 
that I am already making some more contacts, which is cool.

Cheers,



JR
On 7 February 2012 19:25, Webster 
webs...@carlwebster.commailto:webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:
Someone is having just WAY too much fun in their new blog!

Keep it up.



Carl Webster

Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

http://www.CarlWebster.comhttp://www.carlwebster.com/

From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.commailto:kz2...@googlemail.com
Reply-To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 12:39:29 +

To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

Well, I decided to start blogging up a bit of AppSense stuff, and I seem to be 
enjoying it! Good call.

Mr Webster, I offer no apologies for stealing your bigot moniker for the 
title for my blog.

Anyone else who may use this software can read my ramblings at 
http://appsensebigot.blogspot.com

Cheers,




JR
On 6 February 2012 20:49, Webster 
webs...@carlwebster.commailto:webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:
PLEASE DO.  I paid my own money to take the course (using a fellow CTPs partner 
status to get it dirt cheap) but that is a set of software with a LOT of 
options.

Thanks



Carl Webster

Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

http://www.CarlWebster.comhttp://www.carlwebster.com/

From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.commailto:kz2...@googlemail.com
Reply-To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 20:16:47 +

To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

I actually have some natural talent as a writer (as opposed to anything in IT 
which is completely learned). I might start a blog concentrating on AppSense 
(which is woefully under-represented at the moment, IMO)


~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

---
To manage subscriptions click here: 
http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
or send an email to 
listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.commailto:listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin



--
On two occasions...I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr Babbage, if you put into the 
machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly 
to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

* IMPORTANT INFORMATION/DISCLAIMER *

This document should be read only by those persons to whom it is addressed. If 
you have received this message it was obviously addressed to you and therefore 
you can read it, even it we didn't mean to send it to you. However, if the 
contents of this email make no sense whatsoever then you probably were not the 
intended recipient, or, alternatively, you are a mindless cretin; either way, 
you should immediately kill yourself and destroy your computer (not necessarily 
in that order). Once you have taken this action, please contact us.. no, sorry, 
you can't use your computer, because you just destroyed it, and possibly also 
committed suicide afterwards, but I am starting to digress..

The originator of this email is not liable for the transmission of the 
information contained in this communication. Or are they? Either way it's a 
pretty dull legal query and frankly one I'm not going to dwell on. But should 
you have nothing better to do, please feel free to ruminate on it, and please 
pass on any concrete conclusions should you find them. However, if you pass 
them on via email, be sure to include a disclaimer regarding liability for 
transmission.

In the event that the originator did not send this email to you, then please 
return it to us and attach a scanned-in picture of your mother's brother's wife 
wearing nothing but a kangaroo suit, and we will immediately refund you exactly 
half of what you paid for the can of Whiskas you bought when you went to Pets 
At Home yesterday.

We take no responsibility for non-receipt of this email because we are running 
Exchange 5.5 and everyone knows how glitchy that can be. In the event that you 
do get this message 

RE: What creates Exchange log files

2012-02-07 Thread Michael B. Smith
Doesn't even take a write. A completely idle system generates a log flush every 
X minutes (I can't remember how often X is on Exchange 2003).  But it's 
basically there to prove that the system hasn't died (this is much more 
important for clusters and heartbeats, but does apply to single systems too).

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Ben Scott [mailto:mailvor...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 2:05 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: What creates Exchange log files

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 1:55 PM, David Lum david@nwea.org wrote:
 What activity generates the Exchange log files? dumb Q, but I have an E2K3
 server that has no traffic going to it but it still regularly generates log
 files.

  Any write to the Exchange database.

  I expect even an empty Exchange system will have background tasks
recording their progress or state.

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

---
To manage subscriptions click here: 
http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin



RE: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread ntsysadmin
I have to thank you guys for this thread. I've been doing consulting for about 
15 years, for some small businesses and a couple years of full time work for 
one business in particular. I've recently stopped working full time for my 
big client (skills were stagnating because of too many other responsibilities 
there) and decided to grow my business. This thread has given me some good 
ideas. I wish I could get back all of the referrals I turned down over the 
years while working for that big client. Thanks!

From: Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 11:01 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: OT - ugh!

I hate to sound corny or mystical, but I'll write it anyway: if you believe, 
the Universe will provide. You just have to be willing to open the damn door 
when opportunity knocks.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com

From: David Lum [mailto:david@nwea.org]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 10:45 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: OT - ugh!

Yeah I already figured I'd need 4 more clients of the same size as by biggest 
one. My biggest client is 3-10 hrs/week during non-server upgrade months. It 
would take 4 more clients of that size for me to break even with %dayjob%, and 
I would need at least three of them lined up before I jumped. If I was single 
it would have been a no-brainer long ago...

Dave


From: Michael B. Smith 
[mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]mailto:[mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:04 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: OT - ugh!

I want it now. :)

Three clients isn't enough. I have 5 HUGE clients and close to 80 minor (where 
major/minor is defined in terms of how much support they want from me) clients.

Webster is a lot more willing to travel than I am. I prefer to work from my 
office at home (I've got a 13-y/o son that lives with me), and with video chat 
that works for most clients. Not all of them, though. So... I plan to travel 
8-10 times a year; while Webster spends most of his time on the road.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com

From: Webster 
[mailto:webs...@carlwebster.com]mailto:[mailto:webs...@carlwebster.com]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 5:49 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

I can only speak for me, and it has been feast since I went out on my own Feb 
1st last year.  So far this year, the feast is even better as there is very 
little agency work so I get 100% of the billables. :)  Yes, I am complaining 
all the way to the bank.  If it gets any better, MBS is going to want a 
referral fee or commission!



Carl Webster

Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

http://www.CarlWebster.comhttp://www.carlwebster.com/

From: David Lum david@nwea.orgmailto:david@nwea.org
Reply-To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 22:31:45 +
To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Subject: RE: OT - ugh!

That's part of my fear of dropping %dayjob% and going 100% on my own biz - 
feast or famine! With just three clients I have I'm always amazed at how often 
their feast/famine cycles coincide, and they even have different fiscal year 
cycles. I mean, in the span of two months I am doing an SBS 2003 - SBS2011 
swing for two of them. One of these clients I can go months with nothing other 
than patching.

From: Webster [mailto:webs...@carlwebster.com]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 9:31 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

I find myself busier than a one-arm paper hanger in a wind storm.  Don't know 
why it took me so long to convince MBS that I should go solo! LOL

Now that my fellow CTPs know I can spell AD, I am finding myself doing a lot of 
AD assessments, assisting with AD migrations and putting in 2008 R2 AD 
infrastructures.  I would say I am now 50% AD and 50% Citrix.  I no longer do 
Exchange and refer all that to MBS.

I can't believe how much Citrix work I turn down because I just don't have the 
time.  Right now I am tentatively booked thru the end of July and already 
starting to worry because no one is calling about August or September yet! :)



Carl Webster

Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

http://www.CarlWebster.comhttp://www.carlwebster.com/

From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.commailto:kz2...@googlemail.com
Reply-To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 16:53:32 +
To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

I ran as a contractor through a managed services company for about six years 
before taking the plunge myself. Whereas now I find myself counting the amount 
of extra tax I spent the last six years paying in 

Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Webster
It is cool when the product vendor finds your blog.  It was very surreal when I 
got the first e-mail from Citrix Education and the Citrix Exam team saying they 
were reading my stuff and sending links to my articles internal at Citrix!  
Then when I found out the CTP handlers at Citrix were watching me on EE and my 
blog, I just about freaked out.

I have mentioned your blog on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.  Maybe that will 
add 1 or 2 more readers for you.



Carl Webster

Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

http://www.CarlWebster.comhttp://www.carlwebster.com/

From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.commailto:kz2...@googlemail.com
Reply-To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 19:31:49 +
To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

I'm just converting all the documents I wrote into posts. It's actually kind of 
handy to have them all stored online rather than drag them everywhere with me. 
I've already had a guy from AppSense on to me correcting me on some of the 
product features (they must be watching for keywords in Google), so it appears 
that I am already making some more contacts, which is cool.

Cheers,



JR

On 7 February 2012 19:25, Webster 
webs...@carlwebster.commailto:webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:
Someone is having just WAY too much fun in their new blog!

Keep it up.



Carl Webster

Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

http://www.CarlWebster.comhttp://www.carlwebster.com/

From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.commailto:kz2...@googlemail.com
Reply-To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 12:39:29 +

To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

Well, I decided to start blogging up a bit of AppSense stuff, and I seem to be 
enjoying it! Good call.

Mr Webster, I offer no apologies for stealing your bigot moniker for the 
title for my blog.

Anyone else who may use this software can read my ramblings at 
http://appsensebigot.blogspot.com

Cheers,




JR

On 6 February 2012 20:49, Webster 
webs...@carlwebster.commailto:webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:
PLEASE DO.  I paid my own money to take the course (using a fellow CTPs partner 
status to get it dirt cheap) but that is a set of software with a LOT of 
options.

Thanks



Carl Webster

Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

http://www.CarlWebster.comhttp://www.carlwebster.com/

From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.commailto:kz2...@googlemail.com
Reply-To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 20:16:47 +

To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

I actually have some natural talent as a writer (as opposed to anything in IT 
which is completely learned). I might start a blog concentrating on AppSense 
(which is woefully under-represented at the moment, IMO)


~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

---
To manage subscriptions click here: 
http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread James Rankin
Been a big help to me too. I am just trying now how to work out how to get
the most work from two clients. I have an offer in the post for ten days'
work for a fairly high-profile client but also an overlapping offer for a
month's work at a different client. Is there any way people have found to
balance out overlapping projects, or is it just a case of try to fit them
in consecutively? Or do I really need to get involved at the bid stage
rather than getting agencies coming to me with the offers? I suppose if I
quoted them based around a project delivery timescale rather than purely x
days at x rate, I could maybe shoehorn conflicting jobs in.

Cheers,



JR

On 7 February 2012 20:08, ntsysadmin ntsysad...@rccs.org wrote:

  I have to thank you guys for this thread. I’ve been doing consulting for
 about 15 years, for some small businesses and a couple years of full time
 work for one business in particular. I’ve recently stopped working full
 time for my “big” client (skills were stagnating because of too many other
 responsibilities there) and decided to grow my business. This thread has
 given me some good ideas. I wish I could get back all of the referrals I
 turned down over the years while working for that big client. Thanks!

 ** **

 *From:* Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 *Sent:* Monday, February 06, 2012 11:01 PM

 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
 *Subject:* RE: OT - ugh!

  ** **

 I hate to sound corny or mystical, but I’ll write it anyway: if you
 believe, the Universe will provide. You just have to be willing to open the
 damn door when opportunity knocks.

 ** **

 Regards,

 ** **

 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com

 ** **

 *From:* David Lum [mailto:david@nwea.org david@nwea.org]
 *Sent:* Monday, February 06, 2012 10:45 PM

 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
 *Subject:* RE: OT - ugh!

  ** **

 Yeah I already figured I’d need 4 more clients of the same size as by
 biggest one. My biggest client is 3-10 hrs/week during “non-server upgrade”
 months. It would take 4 more clients of that size for me to break even with
 %dayjob%, and I would need at least three of them lined up before I jumped.
 If I was single it would have been a no-brainer long ago…

 ** **

 Dave

 ** **

 ** **

 *From:* Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 *Sent:* Monday, February 06, 2012 3:04 PM

 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
 *Subject:* RE: OT - ugh!

  ** **

 I want it now. J

 ** **

 Three clients isn’t enough. I have 5 HUGE clients and close to 80 minor
 (where major/minor is defined in terms of how much support they want from
 me) clients.

 ** **

 Webster is a lot more willing to travel than I am. I prefer to work from
 my office at home (I’ve got a 13-y/o son that lives with me), and with
 video chat that works for most clients. Not all of them, though. So… I plan
 to travel 8-10 times a year; while Webster spends most of his time on the
 road.

 ** **

 Regards,

 ** **

 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com

 ** **

 *From:* Webster [mailto:webs...@carlwebster.com]
 *Sent:* Monday, February 06, 2012 5:49 PM

 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
 *Subject:* Re: OT - ugh!

  ** **

 I can only speak for me, and it has been feast since I went out on my own
 Feb 1st last year.  So far this year, the feast is even better as there is
 very little agency work so I get 100% of the billables. :)  Yes, I am
 complaining all the way to the bank.  If it gets any better, MBS is going
 to want a referral fee or commission! 

 ** **

 ** **

 Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

 ** **

 *From: *David Lum david@nwea.org
 *Reply-To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Date: *Mon, 6 Feb 2012 22:31:45 +
 *To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Subject: *RE: OT - ugh!

 ** **

 That’s part of my fear of dropping %dayjob% and going 100% on my own biz –
 feast or famine! With just three clients I have I’m always amazed at how
 often their feast/famine cycles coincide, and they even have different
 fiscal year cycles. I mean, in the span of two months I am doing an SBS
 2003 – SBS2011 swing for two of them. One of these clients I can go months
 with nothing other than patching.

  

 *From:* Webster [mailto:webs...@carlwebster.com webs...@carlwebster.com]

 *Sent:* Monday, February 06, 2012 9:31 AM

 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
 *Subject:* Re: OT - ugh!
 

   

 I find myself busier than a one-arm paper hanger in a wind storm.  Don't
 know why it took me so long to convince MBS that I should go solo! LOL

  

 Now that my fellow CTPs know I can spell AD, I am finding myself doing a
 lot of AD assessments, assisting with AD migrations and putting in 2008 R2
 AD infrastructures.  I 

Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread James Rankin
Muchos gracias. I wondered where I had picked a couple of extra followers
up from :-)

On 7 February 2012 20:12, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

   It is cool when the product vendor finds your blog.  It was very
 surreal when I got the first e-mail from Citrix Education and the Citrix
 Exam team saying they were reading my stuff and sending links to my
 articles internal at Citrix!  Then when I found out the CTP handlers at
 Citrix were watching me on EE and my blog, I just about freaked out.

  I have mentioned your blog on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.  Maybe
 that will add 1 or 2 more readers for you.


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 19:31:49 +

 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

  I'm just converting all the documents I wrote into posts. It's actually
 kind of handy to have them all stored online rather than drag them
 everywhere with me. I've already had a guy from AppSense on to me
 correcting me on some of the product features (they must be watching for
 keywords in Google), so it appears that I am already making some more
 contacts, which is cool.

 Cheers,



 JR

 On 7 February 2012 19:25, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

   Someone is having just WAY too much fun in their new blog!

  Keep it up.


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
  Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 12:39:29 +

 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

  Well, I decided to start blogging up a bit of AppSense stuff, and I seem
 to be enjoying it! Good call.

 Mr Webster, I offer no apologies for stealing your bigot moniker for
 the title for my blog.

 Anyone else who may use this software can read my ramblings at
 http://appsensebigot.blogspot.com

 Cheers,




 JR

 On 6 February 2012 20:49, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

   PLEASE DO.  I paid my own money to take the course (using a fellow
 CTPs partner status to get it dirt cheap) but that is a set of software
 with a LOT of options.

  Thanks


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 20:16:47 +

 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

   I actually have some natural talent as a writer (as opposed to
 anything in IT which is completely learned). I might start a blog
 concentrating on AppSense (which is woefully under-represented at the
 moment, IMO)

   ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin




-- 
On two occasions...I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr Babbage, if you put into
the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able
rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such
a question.

** IMPORTANT INFORMATION/DISCLAIMER *

This document should be read only by those persons to whom it is addressed.
If you have received this message it was obviously addressed to you and
therefore you can read it, even it we didn't mean to send it to you.
However, if the contents of this email make no sense whatsoever then you
probably were not the intended recipient, or, alternatively, you are a
mindless cretin; either way, you should immediately kill yourself and
destroy your computer (not necessarily in that order). Once you have taken
this action, please contact us.. no, sorry, you can't use your computer,
because you just destroyed it, and possibly also committed suicide
afterwards, but I am starting to digress.. *

* The originator of this email is not liable for the transmission of the
information contained in this communication. Or are they? Either way it's a
pretty dull legal query and frankly one I'm not going to dwell on. But
should you have nothing better to do, please feel free to ruminate on it,
and please pass on any concrete conclusions should you find them. However,
if you pass them on via email, be sure to include a disclaimer regarding
liability for transmission.
*

* In the event that the originator did not send this email to you, then
please return it to us and attach a scanned-in picture of your mother's
brother's wife wearing nothing but a kangaroo suit, and we will immediately

Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Steven Peck
While I don't do full out articles and haven't blogged myself in a while,
the main reason I do post stuff on mine, is really, so I can find it later.

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 11:52 AM, Michael B. Smith mich...@smithcons.comwrote:

  I get that a lot. J

 ** **

 And I also use my blog as an immense resource for myself. If I know I
 wrote an article, the easiest way to find it – search on my blog. 

 ** **

 Regards,

 ** **

 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com

 ** **

 *From:* James Rankin [mailto:kz2...@googlemail.com]
 *Sent:* Tuesday, February 07, 2012 2:32 PM

 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
 *Subject:* Re: OT - ugh!

 ** **

 I'm just converting all the documents I wrote into posts. It's actually
 kind of handy to have them all stored online rather than drag them
 everywhere with me. I've already had a guy from AppSense on to me
 correcting me on some of the product features (they must be watching for
 keywords in Google), so it appears that I am already making some more
 contacts, which is cool.

 Cheers,



 JR

 On 7 February 2012 19:25, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

 Someone is having just WAY too much fun in their new blog!

 ** **

 Keep it up.

 ** **

 ** **

 Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

 ** **

 *From: *James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 *Reply-To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com

 *Date: *Tue, 7 Feb 2012 12:39:29 +


 *To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Subject: *Re: OT - ugh!

 ** **

 Well, I decided to start blogging up a bit of AppSense stuff, and I seem
 to be enjoying it! Good call.

 Mr Webster, I offer no apologies for stealing your bigot moniker for the
 title for my blog.

 Anyone else who may use this software can read my ramblings at
 http://appsensebigot.blogspot.com

 Cheers,




 JR

 On 6 February 2012 20:49, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

 PLEASE DO.  I paid my own money to take the course (using a fellow CTPs
 partner status to get it dirt cheap) but that is a set of software with a
 LOT of options.

 ** **

 Thanks

 ** **

 ** **

 Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

 ** **

 *From: *James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 *Reply-To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Date: *Mon, 6 Feb 2012 20:16:47 + 


 *To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Subject: *Re: OT - ugh!

 ** **

 I actually have some natural talent as a writer (as opposed to anything in
 IT which is completely learned). I might start a blog concentrating on
 AppSense (which is woefully under-represented at the moment, IMO)

 ** **

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin




 --
 On two occasions...I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr Babbage, if you put into
 the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able
 rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such
 a question.

 ** IMPORTANT INFORMATION/DISCLAIMER *

 This document should be read only by those persons to whom it is
 addressed. If you have received this message it was obviously addressed to
 you and therefore you can read it, even it we didn't mean to send it to
 you. However, if the contents of this email make no sense whatsoever then
 you probably were not the intended recipient, or, alternatively, you are a
 mindless cretin; either way, you should immediately kill yourself and
 destroy your computer (not necessarily in that order). Once you have taken
 this action, please contact us.. no, sorry, you can't use your computer,
 because you just destroyed it, and possibly also committed suicide
 afterwards, but I am starting to digress.. *

 *The originator of this email is not liable for the transmission of the
 information contained in this communication. Or are they? Either way it's a
 pretty dull legal query and frankly one I'm not going to dwell on. But
 should you have nothing better to do, please feel free to ruminate on it,
 and please pass on any concrete conclusions should you find them. However,
 if you pass them on via email, be sure to include a disclaimer regarding
 liability for transmission.*

 *In the event that the originator did not send this email to you, then
 please return it to us and attach a scanned-in picture of your mother's
 brother's wife wearing nothing but a kangaroo suit, and we will immediately
 refund you exactly half of what you paid for the can of Whiskas 

Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Don Kuhlman
Yes - thanks to you for sharing guys!  It's very encouraging to read your 
success stories and the way you got there.

Much appreciated!

Don K




 From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
To: NT System Admin Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com 
Sent: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 2:18 PM
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!
 

Been a big help to me too. I am just trying now how to work out how to get the 
most work from two clients. I have an offer in the post for ten days' work for 
a fairly high-profile client but also an overlapping offer for a month's work 
at a different client. Is there any way people have found to balance out 
overlapping projects, or is it just a case of try to fit them in consecutively? 
Or do I really need to get involved at the bid stage rather than getting 
agencies coming to me with the offers? I suppose if I quoted them based around 
a project delivery timescale rather than purely x days at x rate, I could maybe 
shoehorn conflicting jobs in.

Cheers,



JR


On 7 February 2012 20:08, ntsysadmin ntsysad...@rccs.org wrote:

I have to thank you guys for this thread. I’ve been doing consulting for about 
15 years, for some small businesses and a couple years of full time work for 
one business in particular. I’ve recently stopped working full time for my 
“big” client (skills were stagnating because of too many other responsibilities 
there) and decided to grow my business. This thread has given me some good 
ideas. I wish I could get back all of the referrals I turned down over the 
years while working for that big client. Thanks!
 
From:Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 11:01 PM

To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: OT - ugh! 
 
I hate to sound corny or mystical, but I’ll write it anyway: if you believe, 
the Universe will provide. You just have to be willing to open the damn door 
when opportunity knocks.
 
Regards,
 
Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com
 
From:David Lum [mailto:david@nwea.org] 
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 10:45 PM

To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: OT - ugh! 
 
Yeah I already figured I’d need 4 more clients of the same size as by biggest 
one. My biggest client is 3-10 hrs/week during “non-server upgrade” months. It 
would take 4 more clients of that size for me to break even with %dayjob%, and 
I would need at least three of them lined up before I jumped. If I was single 
it would have been a no-brainer long ago…
 
Dave
 
 
From:Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:04 PM

To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: OT - ugh! 
 
I want it now. J
 
Three clients isn’t enough. I have 5 HUGE clients and close to 80 minor (where 
major/minor is defined in terms of how much support they want from me) clients.
 
Webster is a lot more willing to travel than I am. I prefer to work from my 
office at home (I’ve got a 13-y/o son that lives with me), and with video chat 
that works for most clients. Not all of them, though. So… I plan to travel 
8-10 times a year; while Webster spends most of his time on the road.
 
Regards,
 
Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com
 
From:Webster [mailto:webs...@carlwebster.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 5:49 PM

To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!
 
I can only speak for me, and it has been feast since I went out on my own Feb 
1st last year.  So far this year, the feast is even better as there is very 
little agency work so I get 100% of the billables. :)  Yes, I am complaining 
all the way to the bank.  If it gets any better, MBS is going to want a 
referral fee or commission! 
 
 
Carl Webster
Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional
http://www.carlwebster.com/
 
From: David Lum david@nwea.org
Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 22:31:45 +
To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Subject: RE: OT - ugh!
 
That’s part of my fear of dropping %dayjob% and going 100% on my own biz – 
feast or famine! With just three clients I have I’m always amazed at how often 
their feast/famine cycles coincide, and they even have different fiscal year 
cycles. I mean, in the span of two months I am doing an SBS 2003 – SBS2011 
swing for two of them. One of these clients I can go months with nothing other 
than patching.
 
From:Webster [mailto:webs...@carlwebster.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 9:31 AM

To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: OT - ugh! 
 
I find myself busier than a one-arm paper hanger in a wind storm.  Don't know 
why it took me so long to convince MBS that I should go solo! LOL
 
Now that my fellow CTPs know I can spell AD, I am finding myself doing a lot 
of AD assessments, assisting with AD migrations and putting in 2008 R2 AD 
infrastructures.  I would say I am now 50% AD and 50% Citrix.  I no longer do 
Exchange and refer all 

Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Webster
I have a list of people that regularly call/email about work.  My philosophy is 
First confirmed, first served.  Anytime I get a contract, I update my 
schedule and e-mail my list of contacts.   The customer I am working for in 
Idaho next week has waited 6 week s for me.  I have no idea why?  Surely they 
could have found someone more readily available.  But they said they wanted me 
(they found me via Google search for Citrix blogs).  It is possible to do 
multiple projects at the same time.  I tell people I am booked during the day 
and I can work on their stuff at night and or the weekend.  That is usually 
acceptable for them if they need your skills.

I might add, that having a good personality and not being a prick helps in this 
business.  If people don't like you, they will not be back and they will not 
let you use them as a referral.



Carl Webster

Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

http://www.CarlWebster.comhttp://www.carlwebster.com/

From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.commailto:kz2...@googlemail.com
Reply-To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 20:18:25 +
To: NT Issues 
ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.commailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

Been a big help to me too. I am just trying now how to work out how to get the 
most work from two clients. I have an offer in the post for ten days' work for 
a fairly high-profile client but also an overlapping offer for a month's work 
at a different client. Is there any way people have found to balance out 
overlapping projects, or is it just a case of try to fit them in consecutively? 
Or do I really need to get involved at the bid stage rather than getting 
agencies coming to me with the offers? I suppose if I quoted them based around 
a project delivery timescale rather than purely x days at x rate, I could maybe 
shoehorn conflicting jobs in.

Cheers,



JR

On 7 February 2012 20:08, ntsysadmin 
ntsysad...@rccs.orgmailto:ntsysad...@rccs.org wrote:
I have to thank you guys for this thread. I’ve been doing consulting for about 
15 years, for some small businesses and a couple years of full time work for 
one business in particular. I’ve recently stopped working full time for my 
“big” client (skills were stagnating because of too many other responsibilities 
there) and decided to grow my business. This thread has given me some good 
ideas. I wish I could get back all of the referrals I turned down over the 
years while working for that big client. Thanks!

From: Michael B. Smith 
[mailto:mich...@smithcons.commailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 11:01 PM

To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: OT - ugh!

I hate to sound corny or mystical, but I’ll write it anyway: if you believe, 
the Universe will provide. You just have to be willing to open the damn door 
when opportunity knocks.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com

From: David Lum [mailto:david@nwea.org]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 10:45 PM

To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: OT - ugh!

Yeah I already figured I’d need 4 more clients of the same size as by biggest 
one. My biggest client is 3-10 hrs/week during “non-server upgrade” months. It 
would take 4 more clients of that size for me to break even with %dayjob%, and 
I would need at least three of them lined up before I jumped. If I was single 
it would have been a no-brainer long ago…

Dave


From: Michael B. Smith 
[mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]mailto:[mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 3:04 PM

To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: OT - ugh!

I want it now.:)

Three clients isn’t enough. I have 5 HUGE clients and close to 80 minor (where 
major/minor is defined in terms of how much support they want from me) clients.

Webster is a lot more willing to travel than I am. I prefer to work from my 
office at home (I’ve got a 13-y/o son that lives with me), and with video chat 
that works for most clients. Not all of them, though. So… I plan to travel 8-10 
times a year; while Webster spends most of his time on the road.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com

From: Webster 
[mailto:webs...@carlwebster.com]mailto:[mailto:webs...@carlwebster.com]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 5:49 PM

To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

I can only speak for me, and it has been feast since I went out on my own Feb 
1st last year.  So far this year, the feast is even better as there is very 
little agency work so I get 100% of the billables. :)  Yes, I am complaining 
all the way to the bank.  If it gets any better, MBS is going to want a 
referral fee or commission!



Carl Webster

Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

http://www.CarlWebster.comhttp://www.carlwebster.com/

From: David Lum david@nwea.orgmailto:david@nwea.org
Reply-To: 

Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread James Rankin
There's me screwed then, I am a complete prick :-)

Actually I find it a bit harder the other way, I have to try very hard not
to be one of the boys and make remarks to the people I am working
alongside that might make me seem unprofessional. It's a little hard coming
from a support background where there was the tendency just to slag off
every other IT discipline and maintain that most software is sh*te.

Still, that's good advice, maybe I can convince one of these customers to
get me on-site for a couple of days and then work on the rest of it in my
spare time. If I can make their end-user desktops look and work great,
they'll probably be happy :-)

On 7 February 2012 20:38, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

   I have a list of people that regularly call/email about work.  My
 philosophy is First confirmed, first served.  Anytime I get a contract, I
 update my schedule and e-mail my list of contacts.   The customer I am
 working for in Idaho next week has waited 6 week s for me.  I have no idea
 why?  Surely they could have found someone more readily available.  But
 they said they wanted me (they found me via Google search for Citrix
 blogs).  It is possible to do multiple projects at the same time.  I tell
 people I am booked during the day and I can work on their stuff at night
 and or the weekend.  That is usually acceptable for them if they need your
 skills.

  I might add, that having a good personality and not being a prick helps
 in this business.  If people don't like you, they will not be back and they
 will not let you use them as a referral.


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 20:18:25 +

 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

  Been a big help to me too. I am just trying now how to work out how to
 get the most work from two clients. I have an offer in the post for ten
 days' work for a fairly high-profile client but also an overlapping offer
 for a month's work at a different client. Is there any way people have
 found to balance out overlapping projects, or is it just a case of try to
 fit them in consecutively? Or do I really need to get involved at the bid
 stage rather than getting agencies coming to me with the offers? I suppose
 if I quoted them based around a project delivery timescale rather than
 purely x days at x rate, I could maybe shoehorn conflicting jobs in.

 Cheers,



 JR

 On 7 February 2012 20:08, ntsysadmin ntsysad...@rccs.org wrote:

  I have to thank you guys for this thread. I’ve been doing consulting
 for about 15 years, for some small businesses and a couple years of full
 time work for one business in particular. I’ve recently stopped working
 full time for my “big” client (skills were stagnating because of too many
 other responsibilities there) and decided to grow my business. This thread
 has given me some good ideas. I wish I could get back all of the referrals
 I turned down over the years while working for that big client. Thanks!**
 **

 ** **

 *From:* Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 *Sent:* Monday, February 06, 2012 11:01 PM

 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
  *Subject:* RE: OT - ugh!

  ** **

 I hate to sound corny or mystical, but I’ll write it anyway: if you
 believe, the Universe will provide. You just have to be willing to open the
 damn door when opportunity knocks.

 ** **

 Regards,

 ** **

 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com

 ** **

 *From:* David Lum [mailto:david@nwea.org david@nwea.org]
 *Sent:* Monday, February 06, 2012 10:45 PM

 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
  *Subject:* RE: OT - ugh!

  ** **

 Yeah I already figured I’d need 4 more clients of the same size as by
 biggest one. My biggest client is 3-10 hrs/week during “non-server upgrade”
 months. It would take 4 more clients of that size for me to break even with
 %dayjob%, and I would need at least three of them lined up before I jumped.
 If I was single it would have been a no-brainer long ago…

 ** **

 Dave

 ** **

 ** **

 *From:* Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 *Sent:* Monday, February 06, 2012 3:04 PM

 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
  *Subject:* RE: OT - ugh!

  ** **

 I want it now.J

 ** **

 Three clients isn’t enough. I have 5 HUGE clients and close to 80 minor
 (where major/minor is defined in terms of how much support they want from
 me) clients.

 ** **

 Webster is a lot more willing to travel than I am. I prefer to work from
 my office at home (I’ve got a 13-y/o son that lives with me), and with
 video chat that works for most clients. Not all of them, though. So… I plan
 to travel 8-10 times a year; while Webster spends most of his time on the
 road.

 ** **

 Regards,


Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Andrew S. Baker
Amen.

* *

*ASB* *http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker* *Harnessing the Advantages of
Technology for the SMB market…

*



On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 2:52 PM, Michael B. Smith mich...@smithcons.comwrote:

  I get that a lot. J

 ** **

 And I also use my blog as an immense resource for myself. If I know I
 wrote an article, the easiest way to find it – search on my blog. 

 ** **

 Regards,

 ** **

 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com

 ** **

 *From:* James Rankin [mailto:kz2...@googlemail.com]
 *Sent:* Tuesday, February 07, 2012 2:32 PM

 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
 *Subject:* Re: OT - ugh!

 ** **

 I'm just converting all the documents I wrote into posts. It's actually
 kind of handy to have them all stored online rather than drag them
 everywhere with me. I've already had a guy from AppSense on to me
 correcting me on some of the product features (they must be watching for
 keywords in Google), so it appears that I am already making some more
 contacts, which is cool.

 Cheers,



 JR

 On 7 February 2012 19:25, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

 Someone is having just WAY too much fun in their new blog!

 ** **

 Keep it up.

 ** **

 ** **

 Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

 ** **

 *From: *James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 *Reply-To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com

 *Date: *Tue, 7 Feb 2012 12:39:29 +


 *To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Subject: *Re: OT - ugh!

 ** **

 Well, I decided to start blogging up a bit of AppSense stuff, and I seem
 to be enjoying it! Good call.

 Mr Webster, I offer no apologies for stealing your bigot moniker for the
 title for my blog.

 Anyone else who may use this software can read my ramblings at
 http://appsensebigot.blogspot.com

 Cheers,




 JR

 On 6 February 2012 20:49, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

 PLEASE DO.  I paid my own money to take the course (using a fellow CTPs
 partner status to get it dirt cheap) but that is a set of software with a
 LOT of options.

 ** **

 Thanks

 ** **

 ** **

 Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

 ** **

 *From: *James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 *Reply-To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Date: *Mon, 6 Feb 2012 20:16:47 + 


 *To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Subject: *Re: OT - ugh!

 ** **

 I actually have some natural talent as a writer (as opposed to anything in
 IT which is completely learned). I might start a blog concentrating on
 AppSense (which is woefully under-represented at the moment, IMO)

 ** **




~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

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with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Ben Scott
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 4:03 PM, Michael B. Smith mich...@smithcons.com wrote:
 It would always
 bore me how they’d spend time talking about the bosses and subordinates and
 the wives and the kids – but you know – it makes a difference. It’s called
 “relationship building” and it helps establish trust and rapport.

  That stuff annoys the heck out of me.  I'm doing RFPs and vendor
selection and all that right now, and every salesdroid I talk to wants
to do the touchy-feeling in-person meeting thing.  I have no interest
in it.  It does not advance me towards the goals.

  I realize that glad-handing works on a lot of people, so that's why
they do it.  Still annoying.

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

---
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http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
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with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin



Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Ben Scott
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 4:42 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.com wrote:
 I'm doing RFPs and vendor selection and all that right now,
 and every salesdroid I talk to wants to do the touchy-feeling
 in-person meeting thing.

 If you tell them that you don't like to be handled, they won't.
 A lot of sales people can turn it on and off.

  It surprises me how many can't turn it off.  To the point where it's
cost them business (i.e., calling every month just to see what's
going on, no matter how many times I've told them not to).  Spam
delivered via telephone is still spam.

  Of course, many do listen, which is appreciated.

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

---
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with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin


RE: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Michael B. Smith
Oh Ben, I bet it even works on you. :-)

I'm sure you feel more confident dealing with someone you trust than with 
someone who you just found on the Internet.

Perhaps I'm wrong - but I doubt it.

I do understand your point. And when I'm looking at making hardware or software 
purchases (no services) I agree that it gets in the way.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Ben Scott [mailto:mailvor...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:20 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 4:03 PM, Michael B. Smith mich...@smithcons.com wrote:
 It would always
 bore me how they'd spend time talking about the bosses and subordinates and
 the wives and the kids - but you know - it makes a difference. It's called
 relationship building and it helps establish trust and rapport.

  That stuff annoys the heck out of me.  I'm doing RFPs and vendor
selection and all that right now, and every salesdroid I talk to wants
to do the touchy-feeling in-person meeting thing.  I have no interest
in it.  It does not advance me towards the goals.

  I realize that glad-handing works on a lot of people, so that's why
they do it.  Still annoying.

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

---
To manage subscriptions click here: 
http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin



RE: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Michael B. Smith
I would never do that. I do try to get my name in front of past customers at 
least once a quarter, usually via a quick-tip of some type that I think would 
apply to their environment.

Regards,

Michael B. Smith
Consultant and Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com


-Original Message-
From: Ben Scott [mailto:mailvor...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 5:01 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 4:42 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.com wrote:
 I'm doing RFPs and vendor selection and all that right now,
 and every salesdroid I talk to wants to do the touchy-feeling
 in-person meeting thing.

 If you tell them that you don't like to be handled, they won't.
 A lot of sales people can turn it on and off.

  It surprises me how many can't turn it off.  To the point where it's
cost them business (i.e., calling every month just to see what's
going on, no matter how many times I've told them not to).  Spam
delivered via telephone is still spam.

  Of course, many do listen, which is appreciated.

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

---
To manage subscriptions click here: 
http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin



Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Jonathan Link
We found you on the internet...

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 5:04 PM, Michael B. Smith mich...@smithcons.comwrote:

 Oh Ben, I bet it even works on you. :-)

 I'm sure you feel more confident dealing with someone you trust than with
 someone who you just found on the Internet.

 Perhaps I'm wrong - but I doubt it.

 I do understand your point. And when I'm looking at making hardware or
 software purchases (no services) I agree that it gets in the way.

 Regards,

 Michael B. Smith
 Consultant and Exchange MVP
 http://TheEssentialExchange.com


 -Original Message-
 From: Ben Scott [mailto:mailvor...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:20 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 4:03 PM, Michael B. Smith mich...@smithcons.com
 wrote:
  It would always
  bore me how they'd spend time talking about the bosses and subordinates
 and
  the wives and the kids - but you know - it makes a difference. It's
 called
  relationship building and it helps establish trust and rapport.

   That stuff annoys the heck out of me.  I'm doing RFPs and vendor
 selection and all that right now, and every salesdroid I talk to wants
 to do the touchy-feeling in-person meeting thing.  I have no interest
 in it.  It does not advance me towards the goals.

  I realize that glad-handing works on a lot of people, so that's why
 they do it.  Still annoying.

 -- Ben

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin



~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

---
To manage subscriptions click here: 
http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Ben Scott
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 5:04 PM, Michael B. Smith mich...@smithcons.com wrote:
 I'm sure you feel more confident dealing with someone you trust than
 with someone who you just found on the Internet.

  Absolutely.

  But I also know how sales works.  They've been trained to ask how
I'm doing at the start of the call, to make fake small talk, to try
and get an in-person meeting.  They want to get my contact info so
they can re-contact me different ways.  They want to get a time frame
so they know when to call me back.  All of this information will be
put into their CRM/SFA, which will remind them of it when it's next
relevant.  The majority of them follow this script to the letter.
It's incredibly transparent.

  So them doing all that does not build trust with me, anymore than
them hanging a sign around their neck that says Trust Me would.  :-)

  And it's a hard problem, from both sides.  They're supposed to
convince me that they'll do a good job.  I've got to figure out how
good a job they'll do.  Neither of us has any tool that can easily
give us what we want.

 I do understand your point. And when I'm looking at making hardware
 or software purchases (no services) I agree that it gets in the way.

  I'm actually looking for services, but not so much of the
independent consultant type.  Conversations with tech people would
be more useful, even if it's just a wire monkey.  But at this stage
it's all salesdroids who don't even know what they're selling half the
time.  :-/

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

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RE: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Rod Trent
You could always take part in a larger community and become an expert there,
instead of setting up shop on an island somewhere, where you're only an
expert to yourself.  J

 

 

Rod Trent http://myitforum.com/myitforumwp/community/members/rodtrent/ 

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From: Tony Patton [mailto:apco...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 5:06 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

 

I'm one of them. We don't use AppSense yet, but at least one of our
contracts will be using it this year.  Never know when things come in handy
:-)

I'm thinking of setting up a blog/wiki type site to keep my scripts and
other titbits of info and reference stored in a single place.  Just have to
decide which suits better.  Thinking of a name is the hardest part.

Tony

On Feb 7, 2012 8:26 PM, James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com wrote:

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

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Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Ben Scott
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 5:07 PM, Michael B. Smith mich...@smithcons.com wrote:
 I do try to get my name in front of past customers at
 least once a quarter, usually via a quick-tip of some type that I think would
 apply to their environment.

  Well, you're an independent consultant, which is a bit different.
You're your own marketing person, generally working closely with the
customer and on the deliverable.  You're not some weenie who got my
employer's name out of a leads database because they just bought a new
building and that shows up in public record, or a parts vendor that
has my name on file because I bought something from you once in 2003.
:-)

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
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Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread ANDREW F OFALT
I agree with this, unfortunately I find looking for a job to be a job.  Not 
quite my passion...

But I am looking for a job so my plan over the next 9 years would be to 

1st 3 years - get a certification in VMware (or on any virtualized platform) 
and from this list it looks like a Citrix Certification would be a good 
addition.
The next 3 year job - get a up to date certification in CCNE and MCSE.
The next 3 year job - to be determined.  Or insert you own views for my 
development at your company.

I am pretty good with the basics and consider myself very knowledgeable in 
most...

Contact me offline for the positions you want me in.  Also provide the 
information for each 3 year period you would want me to work.
Of course I expect a decent salary and significant increases when changing jobs.
Even though I have been at my present job for quite a while, we have had a lot 
of diversification with the system admins that have gone through our network.  
Each one brings in his own ideas and setups, then moves on after setting up his 
own opinion.  Then we are left to troubleshoot the problems and try to provide 
reliability with what was left.

They bring in their own new ways so we do see different ways to do and not to 
do things.
We are exposed.

I am looking to make it in your next review cycle.

Andy0

- Original Message -
I am sympathetic to the company doing the interview here. If you've been in one 
place for 15 years straight doing internal IT, you are unlikely to have much in 
the way of diversified experience. Every time you work with a new customer or 
take a new position at a new company, you're going to see new ways to do 
things. Some will be better, some will be worse, but, you'll see them, and even 
more so, you'll be exposed to the goods/bads. 

Some large companies have expectations that you'll move around internally every 
few years to change things up and when people don't, they have a way of not 
making it in review cycles. 

Thanks,
Brian Desmond
br...@briandesmond.com

w - 312.625.1438 | c   - 312.731.3132


-Original Message-
From: Jacob Kisner [mailto:jbdkis...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 5:52 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

Because we feel  you are not diversified enough to address our issues.

Same issues I have addressed over the years poor issue management, no project 
management, no documentation, crashing servers, IT staff treating the network 
like a high school lab.. etc. Not only can I stop the bleeding and stabilize 
the patient (gave then how I would do it), I can implement a more proactive 
approach to IT management and stop the fires (also gave details.)

I guess they rather have the fires...


On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 3:27 PM, Don Kuhlman drkuhl...@yahoo.com wrote:
 That makes no sense - why do they care where you were for 15 
 years...Sorry to hear that Jacob.

 I just started a new position - temp for 9 months, nice place - nice 
 people so far.

 I'm getting into MAC/Linux support so it's a stretch for me (windows 
 background), but it's a job and a chance to learn.

 Good luck!

 Don K

 
 From: Jacob Kisner jbdkis...@gmail.com
 To: NT System Admin Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 5:19 PM
 Subject: OT - ugh!

 Nothing sucks more than being interviewed for a position at a 
 different company last Tuesday, then being called Thursday to say we 
 are going to offer you a position and finally being told today that we 
 changed our mind... We did not realize you were with the same company 
 for 15 years...  WTF?

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
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Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Webster
If you get into anything just for the money, you will not make it.  And it
by chance you do make it, you will not be happy.

I give away a lot of time and info for free (as I know MBS, ASB and BD
do).  I have actually told prospects that I have an article written that
covers the work they want me to do.  They can follow the article and if
they have any questions or problems, give me a call.

You know what?  I am not having to worry about money. :)

BTW, if you know some Linux/Unix stuff AND you are a packet-head type
person, you should get into the Citrix NetScaler.  As busy as us XenApp
and XenDesktop people are, my NetScaler friends are buried in work and
can't keep up.  I know three CTPs whose businesses are BEGGING for
NetScaler people.  And most NetScaler work can be done remotely.


Carl Webster
Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional
http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/



On 2/7/12 1:30 PM, ANDREW F OFALT afo...@psu.edu wrote:

I agree with this, unfortunately I find looking for a job to be a job.
Not quite my passion...

But I am looking for a job so my plan over the next 9 years would be to


1st 3 years - get a certification in VMware (or on any virtualized
platform) and from this list it looks like a Citrix Certification would
be a good addition.
The next 3 year job - get a up to date certification in CCNE and MCSE.
The next 3 year job - to be determined.  Or insert you own views for my
development at your company.

I am pretty good with the basics and consider myself very knowledgeable
in most...

Contact me offline for the positions you want me in.  Also provide the
information for each 3 year period you would want me to work.
Of course I expect a decent salary and significant increases when
changing jobs.
Even though I have been at my present job for quite a while, we have had
a lot of diversification with the system admins that have gone through
our network.  Each one brings in his own ideas and setups, then moves on
after setting up his own opinion.  Then we are left to troubleshoot the
problems and try to provide reliability with what was left.

They bring in their own new ways so we do see different ways to do and
not to do things.
We are exposed.

I am looking to make it in your next review cycle.

Andy0



~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

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RE: IOPS's calculations

2012-02-07 Thread Reimer, Mark
Thanks for all the ideas, helps, etc.

Mark

From: Miller Bonnie L. [mailto:mille...@mukilteo.wednet.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 7:00 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

When we were planning for our SAN and VM conversion/migration, the Microsoft 
engineer we worked with had us collect information on our servers about usage 
using the MAPs tool.  Looks like it's still around-not sure if it would do what 
you need:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=7826

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb977556.aspx

If you are a Dell shop, their new dpack tool is nice too, but was still in beta 
when we used it a few weeks ago-not sure if they've released yet.  If not, 
you'll have to work with your Dell engineer to get the reports generated that 
you would need.

-Bonnie


From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 2:56 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

The question is: I want to know what my different servers (no san, each with 
their own direct attached disks storage) is using (not what they are capable 
of, but what they are actually using/doing).

Sorry if I was unclear to begin with.

Mark

From: Brian Desmond [mailto:br...@briandesmond.com]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 2:55 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: IOPS's calculations

Your SAN should be able to produce these numbers.

Thanks,
Brian Desmond
br...@briandesmond.commailto:br...@briandesmond.com

w - 312.625.1438 | c   - 312.731.3132

From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 2:56 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: IOPS's calculations

Hi folks,

Thanks for all your help in the past.

Looking at setting up a SAN. From my research, I think one thing to be aware of 
is current IOPS (disk). There are a number of sites that will help you 
determine IOPS based on what hard drives (and RAID configuration). My question 
is: Many of my current servers are light use. The IOPS that these servers are 
capable of is much greater than what is actually being used.

So, in order to more properly size the SAN, is there a way to determine working 
IOPS? That is, what is actually being used? I assume Perfmon would help, and 
will need to log over a period of time (I think a week would be about right, to 
catch most scenarios). But what counters, and how to analyze those counters?

Servers are Windows 2003.

Thanks.


Mark Reimer, A+, MCSA
Servers  Networking Admin
Prairie Bible Institute
Box 4000
Three Hills, AB  T0M-2N0
Canada
Tel: 403-443-5511, Ext. 3476
Fax: 403-443-5540
Email: mark.rei...@prairie.edumailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu
www.prairie.eduhttp://www.prairie.edu/



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SSL is no panacea...

2012-02-07 Thread Kurt Buff
And not necessarily a lot of protection, either.

Kurt

-- Forwarded message --
From: Jim Ausman aus...@well.com
Date: Feb 7, 2012 4:49 PM
Subject: A Certificate Authority Man-in-the-middle attack corporate
attack in the wild
To: d...@farber.net

Dave,

For IP, if you wish

Trustwave, a CA authority, issued a certificate that allowed the owner
to issue any valid certificate to facilitate man-in-the-middle attacks
on their employees.

http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Trustwave-issued-a-man-in-the-middle-certificate-1429982.html

They say that they used a special hardware container to ensure that
this could not be used for anything other than the intended purpose,
but this still indicates that a long-suspected weakness in the CA
infrastructure is being exploited to eavesdrop on traffic.

http://blog.spiderlabs.com/2012/02/clarifying-the-trustwave-ca-policy-update.html

EFF sent out an alert about the fact that Iran was doing this a few
months ago, but this is the first I have heard of a corporation doing
it.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/08/iranian-man-middle-attack-against-google

Cheers,
Jim
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Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Matthew W. Ross
We tell all sales calls, especially any cold calls, that we prefer any 
correspondence via email. We inform them that we answer support calls for a 
school district, and we don't have time to discuss every vendor's 
product/service and the opportunities they may provide. If we like the product 
and we are genuinely interested, we will contact them back.

Most sales people are kind enough to comply to our request.


--Matt Ross
Ephrata School District


- Original Message -
From: Ben Scott
[mailto:mailvor...@gmail.com]
To: NT System Admin Issues
[mailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com]
Sent: Tue, 07 Feb 2012
14:00:53 -0800
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!


 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 4:42 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.com
 wrote:
  I'm doing RFPs and vendor selection and all that right now,
  and every salesdroid I talk to wants to do the touchy-feeling
  in-person meeting thing.
 
  If you tell them that you don't like to be handled, they won't.
  A lot of sales people can turn it on and off.
 
   It surprises me how many can't turn it off.  To the point where it's
 cost them business (i.e., calling every month just to see what's
 going on, no matter how many times I've told them not to).  Spam
 delivered via telephone is still spam.
 
   Of course, many do listen, which is appreciated.
 
 -- Ben
 
 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
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EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Kurt Buff
I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a
troubling limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support
LUNs larger than 1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their
community forum, it's doe to the implementation of the SCSI II
protocol.

I don't know if this limitations affects its use as a NAS, but that's
disturbing. My Lefthand units support larger LUNs with no problem.
And, otherwise, it's performed just fine - no problems at all.

Does anyone out there now if other EMC products have this limitation?

Kurt

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Re: ASUS laptops/notepbooks

2012-02-07 Thread Jon Harris
Mine has a mixed eSATA and USB3 on it.  When I went to price external
drives the best deal for me at the time was an eSATA enclosure.  That said
if the prices had been better I would have gone with a USB3 but only
because it would have been backward compatible with more devices than the
eSATA.

Jon

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 10:14 AM, Cynicalgeek cynicalg...@gmail.com wrote:

 It's just the next version of USB which will make it much more common than
 eSATA in the future. My laptop has USB3 and it's a lower-end Lenovo from
 last year.


 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 1:06 AM, Jon Harris jk.har...@gmail.com wrote:

 But less common from what I saw.  That is why I asked.  Speed does not in
 it self mean that was the reason for all things.

 Jon

 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 12:31 AM, cynicalg...@gmail.com wrote:

 Usb3 is faster

 Sent from my iPhone

 On Feb 6, 2012, at 6:33 PM, Jon Harris jk.har...@gmail.com wrote:

 Why did you not go with an eSATA enclosure?  If I may ask.

 Jon

 On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 3:47 AM, Ken Schaefer k...@adopenstatic.comwrote:

  Just a generic one (Asrock I think) I picked up at a local computer
 shop. I have several – haven’t really noticed much difference between them
 performance wise.

 ** **

 Cheers

 Ken

 ** **

 *From:* Richard Stovall [mailto:rich...@gmail.com]
 *Sent:* Sunday, 5 February 2012 3:50 PM

 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
 *Subject:* Re: ASUS laptops/notepbooks

 ** **

 128 GB SD.  I didn't even know that those exist...  A little checking
 shows that they're actually not crazy expensive, if you actually have a use
 case that demands one.
 http://www.amazon.com/Lexar-Media-Flash-Memory-LSD128CRBNA133/dp/B004SAMZW4
 

 ** **

 If you don't mind me asking, what USB3 enclosure are you using for the
 512 GB SSD?

 ** **

 On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 10:59 PM, Ken Schaefer k...@adopenstatic.com
 wrote:

 For running VMs I went the opposite route – Sony Z (previously a Z1,
 now a Z2). 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD (internal), 1920x1080 screen, Core i7, 13”,
 weighs about 1.2kg. Unbelievable piece of kit. 

 I added an extra 512GB SSD (connected via USB3), so I have plenty of
 storage for VMs now. 128GB SD card holds installation ISOs


 Cheers

 Ken

  

 *From:* Webster [mailto:webs...@carlwebster.com]
 *Sent:* Friday, 3 February 2012 11:47 PM
 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
 *Subject:* Re: ASUS laptops/notepbooks

  

 This doesn't apply to your situation, but I just bought a monster ASUS
 laptop to take with me on the road.  I am on the road the next 2 months and
 possibly until July.  I needed something so I could continue my writing
 while traveling.   Core i7 quad-core w/HT, 17.3 screen, 16GB RAM and 2
 500GB HDs – will run 5 VMs very well.  It may run more but I only have 5
 right now.

  

 This is my last day at current customer before I hit the road for 2
 months and maybe 6 months.  The guys here are really liking the laptop.  I
 am sure my chiropractor will too as the monster weighs 10  lbs!

  

  

 Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

  

 *From: *Tom Miller tmil...@hnncsb.org
 *Reply-To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Date: *Fri, 3 Feb 2012 08:50:44 -0500
 *To: *NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Subject: *ASUS laptops/notepbooks

  

 Anyone using these in the enterprise?  We currently use Dell or Lenovo
 laptops.  Some of the ASUS models look very light, which would be good for
 our nomadic staff.  Just wondering on long term durability, ability to
 image.

  

 Comments appreciated.

  

 Tom

  

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Re: Anyone Use Double-Take RecoverNow?

2012-02-07 Thread Jon Harris
I believe they now have the Hyper-V support.  I seem to remember hearing
that at a class/marketing meeting I attended recently.  They are also
supposed to be System Center compliant I believe is the expression they
used.

Jon

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:56 AM, Benjamin Zachary li...@levelfive.us wrote:

 We are using  Vmware HA/DRS 5 , and Veeam Backup and DR. We do daily
 backups and 4 hour snapshots to a secondary SAN. We can drill into the
 backups easily and drag out files or just mount from backup…

 ** **

 We tested the exchange restore and Im not super crazy about it, but it
 does work … we don’t use the SQL backup because we are doing sql backups to
 flat files anyway … so we can restore that way. 

 ** **

 Veeam should have the HyperV version available , I would have to check my
 partner portal with them..

 ** **

 *From:* Jonathan Link [mailto:jonathan.l...@gmail.com]
 *Sent:* Monday, February 06, 2012 1:45 PM

 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
 *Subject:* Re: Anyone Use Double-Take RecoverNow?

 ** **

 I'm sorry, all I hear is: Run away, run away!

 On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 1:22 PM, Greg Olson gol...@markettools.com wrote:
 

 Yes I use it.. opps let me re-phrase that, have a fully paid copy of the
 software that I’ve written off as it performed good in initial testing with
 just two machines, but have had nothing but issues with it going live
 anytime it goes over four machines. This software is basically three
 different products thrown together with a fourth product that attempts to
 manage it all, and fails miserably. For instance you create a job in the
 recovery console, and you should be able to go back there and check on
 status, or if you need to restore, run the restore from there, but you go
 back, and strangely the job has disappeared.. Hum, going over to the
 replication now software piece (separate program) and checking, it does
 appear to be running still. But you can’t do restores from that software so
 it’s off to call tech support again. Every time I want to do a restore. And
 it’s frustrating when you have 25 jobs setup but only 2 or 3 show up, or if
 there is more, they show a status of failed, but checking the other
 software it is running. IT’s frustrating, and we’re not renewing the
 software license and fighting for a full refund, but its been awhile now as
 we’ve been trying to get it to work, and as always the next release will
 fix “everything”. I’d stay far away from it until they work out the bugs
 (and yes I have emails from their support saying its known issues , and
 doesn’t work right). 

 -Greg 

  

  

 *From:* Michael B. Smith [mailto:mich...@smithcons.com]
 *Sent:* Monday, February 06, 2012 8:05 AM


 *To:* NT System Admin Issues

 *Subject:* RE: Anyone Use Double-Take RecoverNow?

  

 I used Double-Take until the releases of SQL Mirroring, Exchange CCR (and
 then DAG), and DPM. Since then, I’ve used the MSFT solutions (and refer
 customers to those solutions because I like having one place to point
 fingers).

  

 Now, when I used Double-Take, I was very pleased with it. But that
 experience is several years old.

  

 Regards,

  

 Michael B. Smith

 Consultant and Exchange MVP

 http://TheEssentialExchange.com

  

 *From:* James Kerr [mailto:cluster...@gmail.com]
 *Sent:* Monday, February 06, 2012 10:50 AM
 *To:* NT System Admin Issues
 *Subject:* Re: Anyone Use Double-Take RecoverNow?

  

 Wow, nobody. I thought for sure with as many folks we have posting here
 there must be a few running that software. 

 On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 4:25 PM, James Kerr cluster...@gmail.com wrote:**
 **

 If so, how do you like it? Does it work as advertised? Any gotchas I
 should know about?

 Thanks,

 James

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

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Re: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Jon Harris
I would suggest you get the first one of those two on the to do list.  I
can't comment much on the second as that is my major problem as well.

Jon

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 2:28 PM, James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com wrote:

 I did give some thought to that, it's on my to-do list right next to
 build a decent lab and try to stop eating as much rich food

 On 7 February 2012 19:17, Steven Peck sep...@gmail.com wrote:

 I will suggest you invest in your own domain name.  (You can still use
 blogspot).  It's pretty cheap, it also makes things more portable and
 later, you can use it for your email should you go independant and not lose
 the existing work or your 'identity branding'.


 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 4:39 AM, James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.comwrote:

 Well, I decided to start blogging up a bit of AppSense stuff, and I seem
 to be enjoying it! Good call.

 Mr Webster, I offer no apologies for stealing your bigot moniker for
 the title for my blog.

 Anyone else who may use this software can read my ramblings at
 http://appsensebigot.blogspot.com

 Cheers,




 JR

 On 6 February 2012 20:49, Webster webs...@carlwebster.com wrote:

   PLEASE DO.  I paid my own money to take the course (using a fellow
 CTPs partner status to get it dirt cheap) but that is a set of software
 with a LOT of options.

  Thanks


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: James Rankin kz2...@googlemail.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 20:16:47 +

 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

   I actually have some natural talent as a writer (as opposed to
 anything in IT which is completely learned). I might start a blog
 concentrating on AppSense (which is woefully under-represented at the
 moment, IMO)
 Sent from my SR-71 Blackbird
 --
 *From: *Webster webs...@carlwebster.com
 *Date: *Mon, 6 Feb 2012 19:35:57 +
 *To: *NT System Admin Issuesntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *ReplyTo: *NT System Admin Issues 
 ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 *Subject: *Re: OT - ugh!

   I will have to give MBS 100% credit.  He bugged, pestered, annoyed
 and prodded me until I started writing.  Once I started writing, people
 started reading.  Once people started reading, I gained a name in the
 Citrix space.  Once I got a name, I was honored with the CTP.  Once I got
 the CTP, I was instantly in a really nice network of extremely smart 
 people.

  I initially balked at the idea of going solo because just how much
 Citrix work can there possibly be out there?  And besides, who in the
 world would hire me! to do anything?   All my work comes thru my web site,
 Experts Exchange, fellow CTP, LinkedIn, Dice and word-of-mouth.

  Share your knowledge (even if like me you don't think you have
 anything to share) with the community and you may be surprised at what
 opens up for you.

  If you decide to go the writing route (which I strongly encourage you
 to do), be prepared to receive a bunch or criticism for what you share.
  Only those who stick their neck out and share, get recognized.

  I recommend you read the book, The Nomadic Developer.  Wherever you
 see the word developer in the book, insert your title of choice (Network
 Admin, Network Engineer, Network Consultant, Systems Analyst, etc).

  I estimate I turn down 3 FTEs a week, and probably that many work
 offers every week.  I can't possibly get to all the Citrix work that comes
 my way or all the AD work the Citrix world is throwing my way.

  I know rates depend on the area of the country you are in and I
 thought MBS was nuts when he told me to up my rate, but I charge $150/hr
 plus expenses and have had no one (but contracting agencies) complain.  As
 busy as I am, maybe I need to up my rates again! :)

  Thanks


Carl Webster

 Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional

 http://www.CarlWebster.com http://www.carlwebster.com/

   From: Don Kuhlman drkuhl...@yahoo.com
 Reply-To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 11:01:12 -0800

 To: NT Issues ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com
 Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

   This may be out of scope for the list, but since it's been touched
 on, do any of our successful entrepreneurs  care to share how you got your
 own thing going?
 For example, did you start out by advertising, cold calling, website,
 contacting head hunters for work or (all of the above)?

  Just curious of some successful steps that you folks took to get
 going.  I'm thinking that after you got the ball rolling, you signed on
 clients for ongoing support, and then things spread through word of mouth,
 or how did you keep an income stream coming in at the beginning?

  Don K

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To 

RE: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Mathew Shember
I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.

I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited to that.

http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf

Thanks,
Mathew


-Original Message-
From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:22 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: EMC limitations?

I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a troubling 
limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support LUNs larger than 
1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum, it's doe to 
the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.

I don't know if this limitations affects its use as a NAS, but that's 
disturbing. My Lefthand units support larger LUNs with no problem.
And, otherwise, it's performed just fine - no problems at all.

Does anyone out there now if other EMC products have this limitation?

Kurt

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

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with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

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RE: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread ntsysadmin
I agree totally. Right now about 80% of the IT work I do is on a volunteer 
basis, for a medium-sized private school. I love the work and enjoy knowing 
that I'm helping to fill a position that would otherwise detract from the 
teachers' salaries or maybe not be filled at all. I also have enough side work 
to keep the bills paid for now. :)

Mike

If you get into anything just for the money, you will not make it.  And it by 
chance you do make it, you will not be happy.

I give away a lot of time and info for free (as I know MBS, ASB and BD do).  I 
have actually told prospects that I have an article written that covers the 
work they want me to do.  They can follow the article and if they have any 
questions or problems, give me a call.


-Original Message-
From: Webster [mailto:webs...@carlwebster.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 6:00 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

If you get into anything just for the money, you will not make it.  And it by 
chance you do make it, you will not be happy.

I give away a lot of time and info for free (as I know MBS, ASB and BD do).  I 
have actually told prospects that I have an article written that covers the 
work they want me to do.  They can follow the article and if they have any 
questions or problems, give me a call.

You know what?  I am not having to worry about money. :)

BTW, if you know some Linux/Unix stuff AND you are a packet-head type person, 
you should get into the Citrix NetScaler.  As busy as us XenApp and XenDesktop 
people are, my NetScaler friends are buried in work and can't keep up.  I know 
three CTPs whose businesses are BEGGING for NetScaler people.  And most 
NetScaler work can be done remotely.


Carl Webster
Consultant and Citrix Technology Professional http://www.CarlWebster.com 
http://www.carlwebster.com/



On 2/7/12 1:30 PM, ANDREW F OFALT afo...@psu.edu wrote:

I agree with this, unfortunately I find looking for a job to be a job.
Not quite my passion...

But I am looking for a job so my plan over the next 9 years would be to 


1st 3 years - get a certification in VMware (or on any virtualized
platform) and from this list it looks like a Citrix Certification would 
be a good addition.
The next 3 year job - get a up to date certification in CCNE and MCSE.
The next 3 year job - to be determined.  Or insert you own views for my 
development at your company.

I am pretty good with the basics and consider myself very knowledgeable 
in most...

Contact me offline for the positions you want me in.  Also provide the 
information for each 3 year period you would want me to work.
Of course I expect a decent salary and significant increases when 
changing jobs.
Even though I have been at my present job for quite a while, we have 
had a lot of diversification with the system admins that have gone 
through our network.  Each one brings in his own ideas and setups, then 
moves on after setting up his own opinion.  Then we are left to 
troubleshoot the problems and try to provide reliability with what was left.

They bring in their own new ways so we do see different ways to do and 
not to do things.
We are exposed.

I am looking to make it in your next review cycle.

Andy0



~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
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RE: OT - ugh!

2012-02-07 Thread Mathew Shember
Indeed.

One of my wife's friends was that way.  We would go somewhere just to hang out 
and the pitch would eventually happen.

Some can't help themselves especially if you happen to work for a large company.

Luckily my job keeps me away from my desk phone.  ;-)


-Original Message-
From: Ben Scott [mailto:mailvor...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 2:01 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: OT - ugh!

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 4:42 PM, Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.com wrote:
 I'm doing RFPs and vendor selection and all that right now, and every 
 salesdroid I talk to wants to do the touchy-feeling in-person meeting 
 thing.

 If you tell them that you don't like to be handled, they won't.
 A lot of sales people can turn it on and off.

  It surprises me how many can't turn it off.  To the point where it's cost 
them business (i.e., calling every month just to see what's going on, no 
matter how many times I've told them not to).  Spam delivered via telephone is 
still spam.

  Of course, many do listen, which is appreciated.

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ 
http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

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Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Sean Martin
I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
protocol which would not have that limitation. I believe this was a
limitation that was purposely introduced into the VNXe because EMC is
marketing it as an entry level all-in-one storage solution. They
need reasons for customers to scale up to the more expensive
platforms. I believe even the older CX, CX3 and CX4 models supported
SCSI 3.

- Sean

On 2/7/12, Mathew Shember mathew.shem...@synopsys.com wrote:
 I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.

 I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited to that.

 http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf

 Thanks,
 Mathew


 -Original Message-
 From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:22 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: EMC limitations?

 I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a troubling
 limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support LUNs larger than
 1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum, it's doe
 to the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.

 I don't know if this limitations affects its use as a NAS, but that's
 disturbing. My Lefthand units support larger LUNs with no problem.
 And, otherwise, it's performed just fine - no problems at all.

 Does anyone out there now if other EMC products have this limitation?

 Kurt

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

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Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Kurt Buff
If true, it would have been nice of them to disclose that before
purchase, methinks...

Kurt

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 17:04, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
 I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
 protocol which would not have that limitation. I believe this was a
 limitation that was purposely introduced into the VNXe because EMC is
 marketing it as an entry level all-in-one storage solution. They
 need reasons for customers to scale up to the more expensive
 platforms. I believe even the older CX, CX3 and CX4 models supported
 SCSI 3.

 - Sean

 On 2/7/12, Mathew Shember mathew.shem...@synopsys.com wrote:
 I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.

 I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited to that.

 http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf

 Thanks,
 Mathew


 -Original Message-
 From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:22 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: EMC limitations?

 I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a troubling
 limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support LUNs larger than
 1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum, it's doe
 to the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.

 I don't know if this limitations affects its use as a NAS, but that's
 disturbing. My Lefthand units support larger LUNs with no problem.
 And, otherwise, it's performed just fine - no problems at all.

 Does anyone out there now if other EMC products have this limitation?

 Kurt

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
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 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
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Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Sean Martin
Well this is one of those scenarios where I think the customer needs to take 
responsibility. A good practice to get into is the creation of technical 
requirement matrices and business requirement matrices. It helps you put on 
paper what capabilities you need in a solution and gives the vendor a uniform 
method of informing you of the strengths and weaknesses of their platform. We 
typically tier our requirements into 3 categories that allows us to weigh the 
importance of features. For example, a tier 1 requirement might be that the 
solution support fiber channel or iscsi where a tier 2 or 3 requirement might 
be support for sub-lun tiering or a 64bit OS to leverage larger cache.

It may be too little too late but I'd be happy to share the template we used 
for our last storage purchase.

- Sean

On Feb 7, 2012, at 4:29 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:

 If true, it would have been nice of them to disclose that before
 purchase, methinks...
 
 Kurt
 
 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 17:04, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
 I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
 protocol which would not have that limitation. I believe this was a
 limitation that was purposely introduced into the VNXe because EMC is
 marketing it as an entry level all-in-one storage solution. They
 need reasons for customers to scale up to the more expensive
 platforms. I believe even the older CX, CX3 and CX4 models supported
 SCSI 3.
 
 - Sean
 
 On 2/7/12, Mathew Shember mathew.shem...@synopsys.com wrote:
 I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.
 
 I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited to that.
 
 http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf
 
 Thanks,
 Mathew
 
 
 -Original Message-
 From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:22 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: EMC limitations?
 
 I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a troubling
 limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support LUNs larger than
 1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum, it's doe
 to the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.
 
 I don't know if this limitations affects its use as a NAS, but that's
 disturbing. My Lefthand units support larger LUNs with no problem.
 And, otherwise, it's performed just fine - no problems at all.
 
 Does anyone out there now if other EMC products have this limitation?
 
 Kurt
 
 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
 ---
 To manage subscriptions click here:
 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
 with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
 
 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
 ---
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 http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
 or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
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 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
 ---
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 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
 ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
 ---
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Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Andrew S. Baker
Precisely...

* *

*ASB* *http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker* *Harnessing the Advantages of
Technology for the SMB market…

*



On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 8:04 PM, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:

 I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
 protocol which would not have that limitation. I believe this was a
 limitation that was purposely introduced into the VNXe because EMC is
 marketing it as an entry level all-in-one storage solution. They
 need reasons for customers to scale up to the more expensive
 platforms. I believe even the older CX, CX3 and CX4 models supported
 SCSI 3.

 - Sean

 On 2/7/12, Mathew Shember mathew.shem...@synopsys.com wrote:
  I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.
 
  I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited to that.
 
 
 http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf
 
  Thanks,
  Mathew
 
 
  -Original Message-
  From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
  Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:22 PM
  To: NT System Admin Issues
  Subject: EMC limitations?
 
  I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a troubling
  limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support LUNs larger
 than
  1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum, it's
 doe
  to the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.
 
  I don't know if this limitations affects its use as a NAS, but that's
  disturbing. My Lefthand units support larger LUNs with no problem.
  And, otherwise, it's performed just fine - no problems at all.
 
  Does anyone out there now if other EMC products have this limitation?
 
  Kurt
 


~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

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Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Andrew S. Baker
I agree, but only partially.

There are some things that are hard to figure out in advance, because they
are not limitations anywhere else, so you wouldn't be inclined to ask.

About 8 or 9 months ago, we evaluated several SAN solutions, and the EMC
people came prepared to sell us a VNXe 3100 or 3300.  We grilled them and
ultimately decided against them because of other limitations vs some other
vendor solutions we were targeting, but despite us telling them what we
were going to use the storage for, the maximum LUN size never came up.

It's now added to my checklist, of course...

* *

*ASB* *http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker* *Harnessing the Advantages of
Technology for the SMB market…

*



On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:10 PM, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:

 Well this is one of those scenarios where I think the customer needs to
 take responsibility. A good practice to get into is the creation of
 technical requirement matrices and business requirement matrices. It helps
 you put on paper what capabilities you need in a solution and gives the
 vendor a uniform method of informing you of the strengths and weaknesses of
 their platform. We typically tier our requirements into 3 categories that
 allows us to weigh the importance of features. For example, a tier 1
 requirement might be that the solution support fiber channel or iscsi where
 a tier 2 or 3 requirement might be support for sub-lun tiering or a 64bit
 OS to leverage larger cache.

 It may be too little too late but I'd be happy to share the template we
 used for our last storage purchase.

 - Sean

 On Feb 7, 2012, at 4:29 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:

  If true, it would have been nice of them to disclose that before
  purchase, methinks...
 
  Kurt
 
  On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 17:04, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com
 wrote:
  I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
  protocol which would not have that limitation. I believe this was a
  limitation that was purposely introduced into the VNXe because EMC is
  marketing it as an entry level all-in-one storage solution. They
  need reasons for customers to scale up to the more expensive
  platforms. I believe even the older CX, CX3 and CX4 models supported
  SCSI 3.
 
  - Sean
 
  On 2/7/12, Mathew Shember mathew.shem...@synopsys.com wrote:
  I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.
 
  I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited to
 that.
 
 
 http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf
 
  Thanks,
  Mathew
 
 
  -Original Message-
  From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
  Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:22 PM
  To: NT System Admin Issues
  Subject: EMC limitations?
 
  I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a
 troubling
  limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support LUNs larger
 than
  1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum,
 it's doe
  to the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.
 
  I don't know if this limitations affects its use as a NAS, but that's
  disturbing. My Lefthand units support larger LUNs with no problem.
  And, otherwise, it's performed just fine - no problems at all.
 
  Does anyone out there now if other EMC products have this limitation?
 
  Kurt
 
  ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
  http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
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Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Sean Martin
I can certainly appreciate that. We've only been able to construct an in-depth 
requirements matrix because of the collective experience of our staff.  With 
that said, some of what we gathered was a result of reading white papers and 
searching the interwebs for examples of storage related matrices. I guess the 
real trick is recognizing when you don't know what to ask for. 

I've had my battles with vendors and wanted to place blame for not being 
completely forth coming, but you've got to realize that they're trying to sell 
you a product and that's how they make a living. Now if you ask about possible 
limitations and they either give you half truths or down right lie, than you 
have every right to be upset. Following common RFI/RFP processes will help 
reduce the chances of that occurring.


- Sean

On Feb 7, 2012, at 5:54 PM, Andrew S. Baker asbz...@gmail.com wrote:

 I agree, but only partially.
 
 There are some things that are hard to figure out in advance, because they 
 are not limitations anywhere else, so you wouldn't be inclined to ask.
 
 About 8 or 9 months ago, we evaluated several SAN solutions, and the EMC 
 people came prepared to sell us a VNXe 3100 or 3300.  We grilled them and 
 ultimately decided against them because of other limitations vs some other 
 vendor solutions we were targeting, but despite us telling them what we were 
 going to use the storage for, the maximum LUN size never came up.
 
 It's now added to my checklist, of course...
 
 ASB
 http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker
 Harnessing the Advantages of Technology for the SMB market…
 
 
 
 
 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:10 PM, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
 Well this is one of those scenarios where I think the customer needs to take 
 responsibility. A good practice to get into is the creation of technical 
 requirement matrices and business requirement matrices. It helps you put on 
 paper what capabilities you need in a solution and gives the vendor a uniform 
 method of informing you of the strengths and weaknesses of their platform. We 
 typically tier our requirements into 3 categories that allows us to weigh the 
 importance of features. For example, a tier 1 requirement might be that the 
 solution support fiber channel or iscsi where a tier 2 or 3 requirement might 
 be support for sub-lun tiering or a 64bit OS to leverage larger cache.
 
 It may be too little too late but I'd be happy to share the template we used 
 for our last storage purchase.
 
 - Sean
 
 On Feb 7, 2012, at 4:29 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  If true, it would have been nice of them to disclose that before
  purchase, methinks...
 
  Kurt
 
  On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 17:04, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
  I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
  protocol which would not have that limitation. I believe this was a
  limitation that was purposely introduced into the VNXe because EMC is
  marketing it as an entry level all-in-one storage solution. They
  need reasons for customers to scale up to the more expensive
  platforms. I believe even the older CX, CX3 and CX4 models supported
  SCSI 3.
 
  - Sean
 
  On 2/7/12, Mathew Shember mathew.shem...@synopsys.com wrote:
  I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.
 
  I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited to that.
 
  http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf
 
  Thanks,
  Mathew
 
 
  -Original Message-
  From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
  Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:22 PM
  To: NT System Admin Issues
  Subject: EMC limitations?
 
  I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a troubling
  limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support LUNs larger 
  than
  1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum, it's 
  doe
  to the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.
 
  I don't know if this limitations affects its use as a NAS, but that's
  disturbing. My Lefthand units support larger LUNs with no problem.
  And, otherwise, it's performed just fine - no problems at all.
 
  Does anyone out there now if other EMC products have this limitation?
 
  Kurt
 
  ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
  http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
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Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Ben Scott
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 7:22 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:
 I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a
 troubling limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support
 LUNs larger than 1.99tb.

  Find out what other ways can you use it (other than iSCSI), and what
the limits are then.  That information may be helpful.

 According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum, it's
 doe to the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.

  I've been digging around trying to find a concise, authoritative,
single-location answer to this.  Not having much luck satisfying all
of those conditions.

  But if I'm interpreting the SCSI-2 specification correctly, the
biggest command block defined has a 32-bit LBA field.  As such, you're
limited to 2^32 blocks of storage.

  Given the typical block size of 512 bytes, that works out to 2^41
bytes, or exactly 2 TiB.  So there may be some validity to what
they're saying.

  Of course, the SCSI-2 specification was published in 1994, almost
twenty years ago, so one has to ask why they're using such an old
document.

  Other block sizes (bigger than 512 bytes) are perfectly acceptable
to SCSI -- even SCSI-2.  So one could get larger capacities by
increasing the block size.  EMC would have to implement that, of
course.  I also don't know if such a block size would be acceptable to
the Windows iSCSI stack.

  Later SCSI specs defined still larger command blocks, with 64-bit LBAs.

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

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Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Ben Scott
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 8:04 PM, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
 I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
 protocol which would not have that limitation.

  It's prolly worth noting that there is no actual specification
document called SCSI-3.  SCSI-2 was the last simple SCSI standard.
 After that, it was broken up into a family of standards.  I believe
the relevant spec here is SBC, SCSI Block Commands, currently at
SBC-2.

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
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Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Ben Scott
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:10 PM, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
 It may be too little too late but I'd be happy to share the
 template we used for our last storage purchase.

  I, for one, would love to see that document.  Both because I'll
prolly be spec'ing SAN stuff within a year or two, and for the general
model you use.  So if you're offering, I'd like to take you up on it,
please.  :)

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
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Re: SSL is no panacea...

2012-02-07 Thread Steve Kradel
The problem is not with SSL, but with the centralized CA model... many
or all of those CAs simply aren't as trustworthy as one might like to
believe.

Regardless, this is foul, foul stuff, issuing an any-purpose cert to a
third party for snooping on their employees.  Normally in this kind of
police-state company environment, the organization sets up its own CA
and propagates its cert to devices.  But MITM'ing with the help of a
CA in the common trust list... ugh.

I'd note that Chrome is resistant to this sort of chicanery, with the
ability to tie domains to certain issuers.  E.g., Chrome can reject an
otherwise verifiable and valid cert for google.com if it's not from a
very restricted set of signers.

--Steve

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 6:41 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:
 And not necessarily a lot of protection, either.

 Kurt

 -- Forwarded message --
 From: Jim Ausman aus...@well.com
 Date: Feb 7, 2012 4:49 PM
 Subject: A Certificate Authority Man-in-the-middle attack corporate
 attack in the wild
 To: d...@farber.net

 Dave,

 For IP, if you wish

 Trustwave, a CA authority, issued a certificate that allowed the owner
 to issue any valid certificate to facilitate man-in-the-middle attacks
 on their employees.

 http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Trustwave-issued-a-man-in-the-middle-certificate-1429982.html

 They say that they used a special hardware container to ensure that
 this could not be used for anything other than the intended purpose,
 but this still indicates that a long-suspected weakness in the CA
 infrastructure is being exploited to eavesdrop on traffic.

 http://blog.spiderlabs.com/2012/02/clarifying-the-trustwave-ca-policy-update.html

 EFF sent out an alert about the fact that Iran was doing this a few
 months ago, but this is the first I have heard of a corporation doing
 it.

 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/08/iranian-man-middle-attack-against-google

 Cheers,
 Jim
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Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Kurt Buff
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 18:10, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
 Well this is one of those scenarios where I think the customer needs
 to take responsibility. A good practice to get into is the creation of 
 technical
 requirement matrices and business requirement matrices. It helps you put
 on paper what capabilities you need in a solution and gives the vendor a
 uniform method of informing you of the strengths and weaknesses of their
 platform. We typically tier our requirements into 3 categories that allows us 
 to
 weigh the importance of features. For example, a tier 1 requirement might be
 that the solution support fiber channel or iscsi where a tier 2 or 3 
 requirement
 might be support for sub-lun tiering or a 64bit OS to leverage larger cache.

This is EMC for crying out loud - arguably the leader in the field,
and it's a software issue. We're not talking about going with lesser
hardware, which can steeply influence the costs. As well, I was given
to understand that this is a relatively new line for them. They have
the software in hand, and my 4 year old Lefthands don't have this
limitation. I do place this 99% on them (split in some fashion between
EMC and the reseller). I'll hand the 1% to my manager, who had used
them before, doesn't like the Lefthands, and trusted the reseller rep
he's worked with at his prior company. I was given no say in the
matter - I suggested another LH unit.

 It may be too little too late but I'd be happy to share the template we used 
 for our last storage purchase.

That might actually be a nice thing - we might not technically outgrow
the unit, as it can stack a huge number of disks, but I don't see us
doing a whole lot more with it, given that limitation, and the other
that raised my dander.

 - Sean

 On Feb 7, 2012, at 4:29 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:

 If true, it would have been nice of them to disclose that before
 purchase, methinks...

 Kurt

 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 17:04, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
 I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
 protocol which would not have that limitation. I believe this was a
 limitation that was purposely introduced into the VNXe because EMC is
 marketing it as an entry level all-in-one storage solution. They
 need reasons for customers to scale up to the more expensive
 platforms. I believe even the older CX, CX3 and CX4 models supported
 SCSI 3.

 - Sean

 On 2/7/12, Mathew Shember mathew.shem...@synopsys.com wrote:
 I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.

 I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited to that.

 http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf

 Thanks,
 Mathew


 -Original Message-
 From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:22 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: EMC limitations?

 I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a troubling
 limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support LUNs larger than
 1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum, it's doe
 to the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.

 I don't know if this limitations affects its use as a NAS, but that's
 disturbing. My Lefthand units support larger LUNs with no problem.
 And, otherwise, it's performed just fine - no problems at all.

 Does anyone out there now if other EMC products have this limitation?

 Kurt

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
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Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Kurt Buff
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 19:34, Ben Scott mailvor...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 7:22 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:
 I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a
 troubling limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support
 LUNs larger than 1.99tb.

  Find out what other ways can you use it (other than iSCSI), and what
 the limits are then.  That information may be helpful.

It does SAN, but I quite leery about it. I asked the reseller directly
about the limitations of their implementation for file/directory path
length (I've been stung by that before...), and never got an answer.

It does NFS, too - but we have no use for that - we're strictly a
Windows shop - except where I can sneak in a FreeBSD box for sysadmin
tasks...

 According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum, it's
 doe to the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.

  I've been digging around trying to find a concise, authoritative,
 single-location answer to this.  Not having much luck satisfying all
 of those conditions.

  But if I'm interpreting the SCSI-2 specification correctly, the
 biggest command block defined has a 32-bit LBA field.  As such, you're
 limited to 2^32 blocks of storage.

  Given the typical block size of 512 bytes, that works out to 2^41
 bytes, or exactly 2 TiB.  So there may be some validity to what
 they're saying.

  Of course, the SCSI-2 specification was published in 1994, almost
 twenty years ago, so one has to ask why they're using such an old
 document.

  Other block sizes (bigger than 512 bytes) are perfectly acceptable
 to SCSI -- even SCSI-2.  So one could get larger capacities by
 increasing the block size.  EMC would have to implement that, of
 course.  I also don't know if such a block size would be acceptable to
 the Windows iSCSI stack.

  Later SCSI specs defined still larger command blocks, with 64-bit LBAs.

And, that's part of the reason I asked - if this unit's bigger
brethren can handle studly GPT volumes as well as Win2k3 can, then
it's truly a bad decision to hold back on it for market
differentiation.

Kurt

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
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Re: SSL is no panacea...

2012-02-07 Thread Kurt Buff
You are correct on the problem with the model, but nobody yet has come
up with a workable alternate model for general use. I know there is
some work going on, but it's definitely not mature.

Kurt

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 20:05, Steve Kradel skra...@zetetic.net wrote:
 The problem is not with SSL, but with the centralized CA model... many
 or all of those CAs simply aren't as trustworthy as one might like to
 believe.

 Regardless, this is foul, foul stuff, issuing an any-purpose cert to a
 third party for snooping on their employees.  Normally in this kind of
 police-state company environment, the organization sets up its own CA
 and propagates its cert to devices.  But MITM'ing with the help of a
 CA in the common trust list... ugh.

 I'd note that Chrome is resistant to this sort of chicanery, with the
 ability to tie domains to certain issuers.  E.g., Chrome can reject an
 otherwise verifiable and valid cert for google.com if it's not from a
 very restricted set of signers.

 --Steve

 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 6:41 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:
 And not necessarily a lot of protection, either.

 Kurt

 -- Forwarded message --
 From: Jim Ausman aus...@well.com
 Date: Feb 7, 2012 4:49 PM
 Subject: A Certificate Authority Man-in-the-middle attack corporate
 attack in the wild
 To: d...@farber.net

 Dave,

 For IP, if you wish

 Trustwave, a CA authority, issued a certificate that allowed the owner
 to issue any valid certificate to facilitate man-in-the-middle attacks
 on their employees.

 http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Trustwave-issued-a-man-in-the-middle-certificate-1429982.html

 They say that they used a special hardware container to ensure that
 this could not be used for anything other than the intended purpose,
 but this still indicates that a long-suspected weakness in the CA
 infrastructure is being exploited to eavesdrop on traffic.

 http://blog.spiderlabs.com/2012/02/clarifying-the-trustwave-ca-policy-update.html

 EFF sent out an alert about the fact that Iran was doing this a few
 months ago, but this is the first I have heard of a corporation doing
 it.

 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/08/iranian-man-middle-attack-against-google

 Cheers,
 Jim
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Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Sean Martin
I certainly didn't mean to offend you nor do I blame you for being
frustrated. It's just that companies aren't going to list their lack of
functionality for all to see. What you're running into is not necessarily
an issue, but rather a limitation. Now a good reseller would have done a
better job of trying to identify your requirements and then used those to
pitch a higher-end solution (if justified).

I'm assuming Lyris won't allow attachments so I'm forwarding the template
to those that expressed interest individually.

- Sean
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:08 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 18:10, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
  Well this is one of those scenarios where I think the customer needs
  to take responsibility. A good practice to get into is the creation of
 technical
  requirement matrices and business requirement matrices. It helps you put
  on paper what capabilities you need in a solution and gives the vendor a
  uniform method of informing you of the strengths and weaknesses of their
  platform. We typically tier our requirements into 3 categories that
 allows us to
  weigh the importance of features. For example, a tier 1 requirement
 might be
  that the solution support fiber channel or iscsi where a tier 2 or 3
 requirement
  might be support for sub-lun tiering or a 64bit OS to leverage larger
 cache.

 This is EMC for crying out loud - arguably the leader in the field,
 and it's a software issue. We're not talking about going with lesser
 hardware, which can steeply influence the costs. As well, I was given
 to understand that this is a relatively new line for them. They have
 the software in hand, and my 4 year old Lefthands don't have this
 limitation. I do place this 99% on them (split in some fashion between
 EMC and the reseller). I'll hand the 1% to my manager, who had used
 them before, doesn't like the Lefthands, and trusted the reseller rep
 he's worked with at his prior company. I was given no say in the
 matter - I suggested another LH unit.

  It may be too little too late but I'd be happy to share the template we
 used for our last storage purchase.

 That might actually be a nice thing - we might not technically outgrow
 the unit, as it can stack a huge number of disks, but I don't see us
 doing a whole lot more with it, given that limitation, and the other
 that raised my dander.

  - Sean
 
  On Feb 7, 2012, at 4:29 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  If true, it would have been nice of them to disclose that before
  purchase, methinks...
 
  Kurt
 
  On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 17:04, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com
 wrote:
  I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
  protocol which would not have that limitation. I believe this was a
  limitation that was purposely introduced into the VNXe because EMC is
  marketing it as an entry level all-in-one storage solution. They
  need reasons for customers to scale up to the more expensive
  platforms. I believe even the older CX, CX3 and CX4 models supported
  SCSI 3.
 
  - Sean
 
  On 2/7/12, Mathew Shember mathew.shem...@synopsys.com wrote:
  I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.
 
  I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited to
 that.
 
 
 http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf
 
  Thanks,
  Mathew
 
 
  -Original Message-
  From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
  Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:22 PM
  To: NT System Admin Issues
  Subject: EMC limitations?
 
  I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a
 troubling
  limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support LUNs
 larger than
  1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum,
 it's doe
  to the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.
 
  I don't know if this limitations affects its use as a NAS, but that's
  disturbing. My Lefthand units support larger LUNs with no problem.
  And, otherwise, it's performed just fine - no problems at all.
 
  Does anyone out there now if other EMC products have this limitation?
 
  Kurt
 
  ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
  http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
  ---
  To manage subscriptions click here:
  http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
  or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
  with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
 
  ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
  ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
  ---
  To manage subscriptions click here:
  http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
  or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
  with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
 
  ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
  ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
  ---
  To manage 

Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Kurt Buff
No offense taken, and none meant on my part either - just some
disagreement spiced a bit too heavily with the frustration. I do
understand that caveat emptor applies, and that it would have been
better if we'd done more research, but that bit of misdirection on
their part was just a bit rich...

Kurt

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 22:30, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
 I certainly didn't mean to offend you nor do I blame you for being
 frustrated. It's just that companies aren't going to list their lack of
 functionality for all to see. What you're running into is not necessarily an
 issue, but rather a limitation. Now a good reseller would have done a better
 job of trying to identify your requirements and then used those to pitch a
 higher-end solution (if justified).

 I'm assuming Lyris won't allow attachments so I'm forwarding the template to
 those that expressed interest individually.

 - Sean
 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:08 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 18:10, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
  Well this is one of those scenarios where I think the customer needs
  to take responsibility. A good practice to get into is the creation of
  technical
  requirement matrices and business requirement matrices. It helps you put
  on paper what capabilities you need in a solution and gives the vendor a
  uniform method of informing you of the strengths and weaknesses of their
  platform. We typically tier our requirements into 3 categories that
  allows us to
  weigh the importance of features. For example, a tier 1 requirement
  might be
  that the solution support fiber channel or iscsi where a tier 2 or 3
  requirement
  might be support for sub-lun tiering or a 64bit OS to leverage larger
  cache.

 This is EMC for crying out loud - arguably the leader in the field,
 and it's a software issue. We're not talking about going with lesser
 hardware, which can steeply influence the costs. As well, I was given
 to understand that this is a relatively new line for them. They have
 the software in hand, and my 4 year old Lefthands don't have this
 limitation. I do place this 99% on them (split in some fashion between
 EMC and the reseller). I'll hand the 1% to my manager, who had used
 them before, doesn't like the Lefthands, and trusted the reseller rep
 he's worked with at his prior company. I was given no say in the
 matter - I suggested another LH unit.

  It may be too little too late but I'd be happy to share the template we
  used for our last storage purchase.

 That might actually be a nice thing - we might not technically outgrow
 the unit, as it can stack a huge number of disks, but I don't see us
 doing a whole lot more with it, given that limitation, and the other
 that raised my dander.

  - Sean
 
  On Feb 7, 2012, at 4:29 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  If true, it would have been nice of them to disclose that before
  purchase, methinks...
 
  Kurt
 
  On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 17:04, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com
  wrote:
  I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
  protocol which would not have that limitation. I believe this was a
  limitation that was purposely introduced into the VNXe because EMC is
  marketing it as an entry level all-in-one storage solution. They
  need reasons for customers to scale up to the more expensive
  platforms. I believe even the older CX, CX3 and CX4 models supported
  SCSI 3.
 
  - Sean
 
  On 2/7/12, Mathew Shember mathew.shem...@synopsys.com wrote:
  I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.
 
  I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited to
  that.
 
 
  http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf
 
  Thanks,
  Mathew
 
 
  -Original Message-
  From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
  Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:22 PM
  To: NT System Admin Issues
  Subject: EMC limitations?
 
  I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a
  troubling
  limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support LUNs
  larger than
  1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum,
  it's doe

  to the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.
 
  I don't know if this limitations affects its use as a NAS, but that's
  disturbing. My Lefthand units support larger LUNs with no problem.
  And, otherwise, it's performed just fine - no problems at all.
 
  Does anyone out there now if other EMC products have this limitation?
 
  Kurt
 
  ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
  http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
  ---
  To manage subscriptions click here:
  http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
  or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
  with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
 
  ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
  ~ 

Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Sean Martin
I forwarded the template as requested. I should add that the template
provided was what we used to capture all responses. We didn't share the
responses between vendors.

- Sean

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:30 PM, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:

 I certainly didn't mean to offend you nor do I blame you for being
 frustrated. It's just that companies aren't going to list their lack of
 functionality for all to see. What you're running into is not necessarily
 an issue, but rather a limitation. Now a good reseller would have done a
 better job of trying to identify your requirements and then used those to
 pitch a higher-end solution (if justified).

 I'm assuming Lyris won't allow attachments so I'm forwarding the template
 to those that expressed interest individually.

 - Sean
 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:08 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 18:10, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
  Well this is one of those scenarios where I think the customer needs
  to take responsibility. A good practice to get into is the creation of
 technical
  requirement matrices and business requirement matrices. It helps you put
  on paper what capabilities you need in a solution and gives the vendor a
  uniform method of informing you of the strengths and weaknesses of their
  platform. We typically tier our requirements into 3 categories that
 allows us to
  weigh the importance of features. For example, a tier 1 requirement
 might be
  that the solution support fiber channel or iscsi where a tier 2 or 3
 requirement
  might be support for sub-lun tiering or a 64bit OS to leverage larger
 cache.

 This is EMC for crying out loud - arguably the leader in the field,
 and it's a software issue. We're not talking about going with lesser
 hardware, which can steeply influence the costs. As well, I was given
 to understand that this is a relatively new line for them. They have
 the software in hand, and my 4 year old Lefthands don't have this
 limitation. I do place this 99% on them (split in some fashion between
 EMC and the reseller). I'll hand the 1% to my manager, who had used
 them before, doesn't like the Lefthands, and trusted the reseller rep
 he's worked with at his prior company. I was given no say in the
 matter - I suggested another LH unit.

  It may be too little too late but I'd be happy to share the template we
 used for our last storage purchase.

 That might actually be a nice thing - we might not technically outgrow
 the unit, as it can stack a huge number of disks, but I don't see us
 doing a whole lot more with it, given that limitation, and the other
 that raised my dander.

  - Sean
 
  On Feb 7, 2012, at 4:29 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  If true, it would have been nice of them to disclose that before
  purchase, methinks...
 
  Kurt
 
  On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 17:04, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com
 wrote:
  I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
  protocol which would not have that limitation. I believe this was a
  limitation that was purposely introduced into the VNXe because EMC is
  marketing it as an entry level all-in-one storage solution. They
  need reasons for customers to scale up to the more expensive
  platforms. I believe even the older CX, CX3 and CX4 models supported
  SCSI 3.
 
  - Sean
 
  On 2/7/12, Mathew Shember mathew.shem...@synopsys.com wrote:
  I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.
 
  I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited to
 that.
 
 
 http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf
 
  Thanks,
  Mathew
 
 
  -Original Message-
  From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
  Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:22 PM
  To: NT System Admin Issues
  Subject: EMC limitations?
 
  I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a
 troubling
  limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support LUNs
 larger than
  1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum,
 it's doe
  to the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.
 
  I don't know if this limitations affects its use as a NAS, but that's
  disturbing. My Lefthand units support larger LUNs with no problem.
  And, otherwise, it's performed just fine - no problems at all.
 
  Does anyone out there now if other EMC products have this limitation?
 
  Kurt
 
  ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
  http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
  ---
  To manage subscriptions click here:
  http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
  or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
  with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
 
  ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
  ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
  ---
  To manage subscriptions click here:
  http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
  or 

Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Richard Stovall
Me too, please. (For the template  -  Not the broken SAN.)  :)

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 11:30 PM, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:

 I certainly didn't mean to offend you nor do I blame you for being
 frustrated. It's just that companies aren't going to list their lack of
 functionality for all to see. What you're running into is not necessarily
 an issue, but rather a limitation. Now a good reseller would have done a
 better job of trying to identify your requirements and then used those to
 pitch a higher-end solution (if justified).

 I'm assuming Lyris won't allow attachments so I'm forwarding the template
 to those that expressed interest individually.

 - Sean
 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:08 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 18:10, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
  Well this is one of those scenarios where I think the customer needs
  to take responsibility. A good practice to get into is the creation of
 technical
  requirement matrices and business requirement matrices. It helps you put
  on paper what capabilities you need in a solution and gives the vendor a
  uniform method of informing you of the strengths and weaknesses of their
  platform. We typically tier our requirements into 3 categories that
 allows us to
  weigh the importance of features. For example, a tier 1 requirement
 might be
  that the solution support fiber channel or iscsi where a tier 2 or 3
 requirement
  might be support for sub-lun tiering or a 64bit OS to leverage larger
 cache.

 This is EMC for crying out loud - arguably the leader in the field,
 and it's a software issue. We're not talking about going with lesser
 hardware, which can steeply influence the costs. As well, I was given
 to understand that this is a relatively new line for them. They have
 the software in hand, and my 4 year old Lefthands don't have this
 limitation. I do place this 99% on them (split in some fashion between
 EMC and the reseller). I'll hand the 1% to my manager, who had used
 them before, doesn't like the Lefthands, and trusted the reseller rep
 he's worked with at his prior company. I was given no say in the
 matter - I suggested another LH unit.

  It may be too little too late but I'd be happy to share the template we
 used for our last storage purchase.

 That might actually be a nice thing - we might not technically outgrow
 the unit, as it can stack a huge number of disks, but I don't see us
 doing a whole lot more with it, given that limitation, and the other
 that raised my dander.

  - Sean
 
  On Feb 7, 2012, at 4:29 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  If true, it would have been nice of them to disclose that before
  purchase, methinks...
 
  Kurt
 
  On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 17:04, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com
 wrote:
  I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
  protocol which would not have that limitation. I believe this was a
  limitation that was purposely introduced into the VNXe because EMC is
  marketing it as an entry level all-in-one storage solution. They
  need reasons for customers to scale up to the more expensive
  platforms. I believe even the older CX, CX3 and CX4 models supported
  SCSI 3.
 
  - Sean
 
  On 2/7/12, Mathew Shember mathew.shem...@synopsys.com wrote:
  I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.
 
  I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited to
 that.
 
 
 http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf
 
  Thanks,
  Mathew
 
 
  -Original Message-
  From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
  Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:22 PM
  To: NT System Admin Issues
  Subject: EMC limitations?
 
  I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a
 troubling
  limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support LUNs
 larger than
  1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum,
 it's doe

  to the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.
 
  I don't know if this limitations affects its use as a NAS, but that's
  disturbing. My Lefthand units support larger LUNs with no problem.
  And, otherwise, it's performed just fine - no problems at all.
 
  Does anyone out there now if other EMC products have this limitation?
 
  Kurt
 
  ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
  http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
  ---
  To manage subscriptions click here:
  http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
  or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
  with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
 
  ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
  ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~
 
  ---
  To manage subscriptions click here:
  http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/
  or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com
  with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
 
  ~ Finally, 

Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Sean Martin
Understood. Out of curiousity, did you look into any other solutions other
than VNX and LeftHand?

And, to respond to your comment about never outgrowing the unit, expect the
unexpected.

I never thought we would outgrow the capabilities of the two CX700s arrays
we implemented in our first SAN solution. Six years later I'm retiring both
of those, two Celerra NAS gateways and a CX4-960. All the while deploying
six new Compellent arrays, 3 EqualLogics with FS7500 NAS Heads and working
on a recommendation for a purpose built Tier 1 solution.

- Sean
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:36 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:

 No offense taken, and none meant on my part either - just some
 disagreement spiced a bit too heavily with the frustration. I do
 understand that caveat emptor applies, and that it would have been
 better if we'd done more research, but that bit of misdirection on
 their part was just a bit rich...

 Kurt

 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 22:30, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
  I certainly didn't mean to offend you nor do I blame you for being
  frustrated. It's just that companies aren't going to list their lack of
  functionality for all to see. What you're running into is not
 necessarily an
  issue, but rather a limitation. Now a good reseller would have done a
 better
  job of trying to identify your requirements and then used those to pitch
 a
  higher-end solution (if justified).
 
  I'm assuming Lyris won't allow attachments so I'm forwarding the
 template to
  those that expressed interest individually.
 
  - Sean
  On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:08 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 18:10, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com
 wrote:
   Well this is one of those scenarios where I think the customer needs
   to take responsibility. A good practice to get into is the creation of
   technical
   requirement matrices and business requirement matrices. It helps you
 put
   on paper what capabilities you need in a solution and gives the
 vendor a
   uniform method of informing you of the strengths and weaknesses of
 their
   platform. We typically tier our requirements into 3 categories that
   allows us to
   weigh the importance of features. For example, a tier 1 requirement
   might be
   that the solution support fiber channel or iscsi where a tier 2 or 3
   requirement
   might be support for sub-lun tiering or a 64bit OS to leverage larger
   cache.
 
  This is EMC for crying out loud - arguably the leader in the field,
  and it's a software issue. We're not talking about going with lesser
  hardware, which can steeply influence the costs. As well, I was given
  to understand that this is a relatively new line for them. They have
  the software in hand, and my 4 year old Lefthands don't have this
  limitation. I do place this 99% on them (split in some fashion between
  EMC and the reseller). I'll hand the 1% to my manager, who had used
  them before, doesn't like the Lefthands, and trusted the reseller rep
  he's worked with at his prior company. I was given no say in the
  matter - I suggested another LH unit.
 
   It may be too little too late but I'd be happy to share the template
 we
   used for our last storage purchase.
 
  That might actually be a nice thing - we might not technically outgrow
  the unit, as it can stack a huge number of disks, but I don't see us
  doing a whole lot more with it, given that limitation, and the other
  that raised my dander.
 
   - Sean
  
   On Feb 7, 2012, at 4:29 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:
  
   If true, it would have been nice of them to disclose that before
   purchase, methinks...
  
   Kurt
  
   On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 17:04, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com
   wrote:
   I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
   protocol which would not have that limitation. I believe this was a
   limitation that was purposely introduced into the VNXe because EMC
 is
   marketing it as an entry level all-in-one storage solution. They
   need reasons for customers to scale up to the more expensive
   platforms. I believe even the older CX, CX3 and CX4 models supported
   SCSI 3.
  
   - Sean
  
   On 2/7/12, Mathew Shember mathew.shem...@synopsys.com wrote:
   I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.
  
   I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited to
   that.
  
  
  
 http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf
  
   Thanks,
   Mathew
  
  
   -Original Message-
   From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
   Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:22 PM
   To: NT System Admin Issues
   Subject: EMC limitations?
  
   I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a
   troubling
   limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support LUNs
   larger than
   1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum,
   it's doe
 
   to the implementation of the SCSI II 

RE: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Mathew Shember
Me three please.

Thank you!


From: Richard Stovall [mailto:rich...@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 10:41 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: EMC limitations?

Me too, please. (For the template  -  Not the broken SAN.)  :)
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 11:30 PM, Sean Martin 
seanmarti...@gmail.commailto:seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
I certainly didn't mean to offend you nor do I blame you for being frustrated. 
It's just that companies aren't going to list their lack of functionality for 
all to see. What you're running into is not necessarily an issue, but rather a 
limitation. Now a good reseller would have done a better job of trying to 
identify your requirements and then used those to pitch a higher-end solution 
(if justified).

I'm assuming Lyris won't allow attachments so I'm forwarding the template to 
those that expressed interest individually.

- Sean
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:08 PM, Kurt Buff 
kurt.b...@gmail.commailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:
On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 18:10, Sean Martin 
seanmarti...@gmail.commailto:seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
 Well this is one of those scenarios where I think the customer needs
 to take responsibility. A good practice to get into is the creation of 
 technical
 requirement matrices and business requirement matrices. It helps you put
 on paper what capabilities you need in a solution and gives the vendor a
 uniform method of informing you of the strengths and weaknesses of their
 platform. We typically tier our requirements into 3 categories that allows us 
 to
 weigh the importance of features. For example, a tier 1 requirement might be
 that the solution support fiber channel or iscsi where a tier 2 or 3 
 requirement
 might be support for sub-lun tiering or a 64bit OS to leverage larger cache.
This is EMC for crying out loud - arguably the leader in the field,
and it's a software issue. We're not talking about going with lesser
hardware, which can steeply influence the costs. As well, I was given
to understand that this is a relatively new line for them. They have
the software in hand, and my 4 year old Lefthands don't have this
limitation. I do place this 99% on them (split in some fashion between
EMC and the reseller). I'll hand the 1% to my manager, who had used
them before, doesn't like the Lefthands, and trusted the reseller rep
he's worked with at his prior company. I was given no say in the
matter - I suggested another LH unit.

 It may be too little too late but I'd be happy to share the template we used 
 for our last storage purchase.
That might actually be a nice thing - we might not technically outgrow
the unit, as it can stack a huge number of disks, but I don't see us
doing a whole lot more with it, given that limitation, and the other
that raised my dander.

 - Sean

 On Feb 7, 2012, at 4:29 PM, Kurt Buff 
 kurt.b...@gmail.commailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:

 If true, it would have been nice of them to disclose that before
 purchase, methinks...

 Kurt

 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 17:04, Sean Martin 
 seanmarti...@gmail.commailto:seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
 I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
 protocol which would not have that limitation. I believe this was a
 limitation that was purposely introduced into the VNXe because EMC is
 marketing it as an entry level all-in-one storage solution. They
 need reasons for customers to scale up to the more expensive
 platforms. I believe even the older CX, CX3 and CX4 models supported
 SCSI 3.

 - Sean

 On 2/7/12, Mathew Shember 
 mathew.shem...@synopsys.commailto:mathew.shem...@synopsys.com wrote:
 I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.

 I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited to that.

 http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf

 Thanks,
 Mathew


 -Original Message-
 From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.commailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:22 PM
 To: NT System Admin Issues
 Subject: EMC limitations?

 I've got a new-ish (January) EMC VNXe 3100, and have run into a troubling
 limitation - in use as an iSCSI device, it doesn't support LUNs larger than
 1.99tb. According to a post by EMC staff on their community forum, it's doe

 to the implementation of the SCSI II protocol.

 I don't know if this limitations affects its use as a NAS, but that's
 disturbing. My Lefthand units support larger LUNs with no problem.
 And, otherwise, it's performed just fine - no problems at all.

 Does anyone out there now if other EMC products have this limitation?

 Kurt

 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~
 http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/  ~

 ---
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 ~ Finally, 

Re: EMC limitations?

2012-02-07 Thread Kurt Buff
I wanted to stay with LH, given that I liked it so much, and that
growing that solution is so easy, and management is just as easy - we
have three units, and adding a fourth would have been a no-brainier.

Manager had experience with EMC in his previous company and didn't
want to look at anything else, so the LH is basically an orphan now.

Kurt

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 22:50, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
 Understood. Out of curiousity, did you look into any other solutions other
 than VNX and LeftHand?

 And, to respond to your comment about never outgrowing the unit, expect the
 unexpected.

 I never thought we would outgrow the capabilities of the two CX700s arrays
 we implemented in our first SAN solution. Six years later I'm retiring both
 of those, two Celerra NAS gateways and a CX4-960. All the while deploying
 six new Compellent arrays, 3 EqualLogics with FS7500 NAS Heads and working
 on a recommendation for a purpose built Tier 1 solution.

 - Sean
 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:36 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:

 No offense taken, and none meant on my part either - just some
 disagreement spiced a bit too heavily with the frustration. I do
 understand that caveat emptor applies, and that it would have been
 better if we'd done more research, but that bit of misdirection on
 their part was just a bit rich...

 Kurt

 On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 22:30, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com wrote:
  I certainly didn't mean to offend you nor do I blame you for being
  frustrated. It's just that companies aren't going to list their lack of
  functionality for all to see. What you're running into is not
  necessarily an
  issue, but rather a limitation. Now a good reseller would have done a
  better
  job of trying to identify your requirements and then used those to pitch
  a
  higher-end solution (if justified).
 
  I'm assuming Lyris won't allow attachments so I'm forwarding the
  template to
  those that expressed interest individually.
 
  - Sean
  On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:08 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 18:10, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com
  wrote:
   Well this is one of those scenarios where I think the customer needs
   to take responsibility. A good practice to get into is the creation
   of
   technical
   requirement matrices and business requirement matrices. It helps you
   put
   on paper what capabilities you need in a solution and gives the
   vendor a
   uniform method of informing you of the strengths and weaknesses of
   their
   platform. We typically tier our requirements into 3 categories that
   allows us to
   weigh the importance of features. For example, a tier 1 requirement
   might be
   that the solution support fiber channel or iscsi where a tier 2 or 3
   requirement
   might be support for sub-lun tiering or a 64bit OS to leverage larger
   cache.
 
  This is EMC for crying out loud - arguably the leader in the field,
  and it's a software issue. We're not talking about going with lesser
  hardware, which can steeply influence the costs. As well, I was given
  to understand that this is a relatively new line for them. They have
  the software in hand, and my 4 year old Lefthands don't have this
  limitation. I do place this 99% on them (split in some fashion between
  EMC and the reseller). I'll hand the 1% to my manager, who had used
  them before, doesn't like the Lefthands, and trusted the reseller rep
  he's worked with at his prior company. I was given no say in the
  matter - I suggested another LH unit.
 
   It may be too little too late but I'd be happy to share the template
   we
   used for our last storage purchase.
 
  That might actually be a nice thing - we might not technically outgrow
  the unit, as it can stack a huge number of disks, but I don't see us
  doing a whole lot more with it, given that limitation, and the other
  that raised my dander.
 
   - Sean
  
   On Feb 7, 2012, at 4:29 PM, Kurt Buff kurt.b...@gmail.com wrote:
  
   If true, it would have been nice of them to disclose that before
   purchase, methinks...
  
   Kurt
  
   On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 17:04, Sean Martin seanmarti...@gmail.com
   wrote:
   I believe the next versions of VNX (5700, 7500, etc) support SCSI 3
   protocol which would not have that limitation. I believe this was a
   limitation that was purposely introduced into the VNXe because EMC
   is
   marketing it as an entry level all-in-one storage solution. They
   need reasons for customers to scale up to the more expensive
   platforms. I believe even the older CX, CX3 and CX4 models
   supported
   SCSI 3.
  
   - Sean
  
   On 2/7/12, Mathew Shember mathew.shem...@synopsys.com wrote:
   I have not used an  EMC in a while but that does sound familiar.
  
   I did find one of their sheets that does say the size is limited
   to
   that.
  
  
  
   http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/specification-sheet/h8515-vnxe-ss.pdf
  
   Thanks,
   Mathew