Hi. I'm Sean.

I'm a Network Administrator for a really great company.

It's full of a lot of nice people to work with that are willing to put up with my "eccentricities".

I'd like to share a few things I learned on the job. Since I just passed my probationary review and DIDN'T get fired I guess I'm doing things right. I thought I'd pass along a few bits of information to help others along.

When you suggest as a joke, that a virus might have gotten loose; Nobody will laugh. Especially not the Corporate Risk division.

Project Managers are fun to tease. They get angry when you change the colours on their GANTT charts. They move fast. They can break things. Don't mess with their GANTT charts.

Developers like to be creative. They don't like restrictions. Hint. Locking them down to 'guest' access is NOT productive. Or profitable. They cringe when you DENY them direct remote access to servers. Note. A standard Dell keyboard CAN fit inside your left nostril. Don't ask how I know this.

Just because it LOOKS like a Cat5e network run does not mean it IS a Cat5e network run. Always have a tester and line bug. It will pay for itself 1000 times over.

When you explain to an angry mob of support staff that you will not take their requests to fix their disconnected network terminals UNTIL they submit it FROM their dead network terminals; There will be a lynching.

You should NEVER use your tongue to test for a live POE jack. Ooops.

Always open new equipment (ESPECIALLY NEW LAPTOPS!) In a secluded location. Staff can smell new fresh hardware a mile away. They pounce on it like jackals. Virgin keyboards are particularly susceptible to the culling.

When you're alone in your cubicle keep your feet off the ground. If users don't see your feet they sometimes continue along past your cubicle. It is also an excellent defense against any stray Grues wandering about the office floor. Or snakes. But not rhinos.

If the Systems Administrator would like to borrow your tools from time to time be nice. He may buy you beer and or lunch from time to time.

Note as well, you have been granted magic powers. Items WILL self-repair with JUST YOUR presence. Use this power wisely. Do not use it to try and get free soda from the vending machine.

Certain people get 'VETO power' past the Service Desk system. Not right but that just IS. Suggesting to your boss or the CIO that you will not be dealing with the Offline Mail Server until they submit a ticket does not "work out". Suggesting further that adjusting the screen background picture for the cute receptionist is of a slightly HIGHER priority than this will get you moved to a basement cubicle. Without your stapler.

Sometimes Developers and Infrastructure are on opposing sides. However combines they can out drink the entire office.

When you do an "All Nighter" (not IF) a few things of importance. A cup of coffee is good. A pot of coffee is great. Eating a bag of coffee beans will make you Ugon Lord of the Underworld! Notch it back to just a pot.

Lan cable is surprisingly strong and resilient and when bolted down properly can support a typical human. It however is not quite up to "spec" after and rarely if EVER can support your typical Network Administrator.

Do not ever ask your boss about the "Emergency stash" of Tequila and beer in the back storage room. It is not yours for the asking or taking. But it COULD be "yours for the shaking"

The Cisco god is your friend. Do not anger him. The Cisco god is your friend. Do not anger him. The Cisco god is your friend. Do not anger him. The....

Datacentres look really cool lit up at night with the lights out. They don't look so nice when you hang stockings all over the cabinets or lay cookies on the Catalyst switches. Santa Claus will not drop down inside through your 10 meg SDSL pipeline.

Teasing your boss about coming in late will get you delegated to the task of pooper scooping the co-op students room. Don't tease the boss.

A single Unmaintained Photocopier can contain enough dust to block out the zone. Or thoroughly coat one Network Administrator.

All praise the Cisco god. All praise the Cisco god. All praise the Cisco god. All praise the Cisco god. All.....

Tech Support will lie sometimes. Sometimes they won't. You will COMPLETELY lack the ability to reach through the handset and strangle them. Please don't bother ruining a good handset trying.

Don't EVER question the thought process behind equipment purchases. The person you are asking was more than likely behind them.

When the entire IT Team is a fan of "24" don't ever suggest or remind them that Kiefer Sutherland was in "Lost Boys" or "Stand by Me". They don't like to remember "those days".

DON'T LET THE DEVELOPERS EXTEND THE ACTIVE DIRECTORY SCHEMA NO MATTER HOW "Cool" IT SOUNDS!

At the Christmas Party, that is not an appropriate time to go "AC/DC" and sing "Highway to Powershell". You can't sing. You can't dance. And the secretarial pool has no clue what Powershell is.

A single keyboard can contain over 14,837 poppy seeds. I know. I counted.

Ants looks very much like Poppy seeds. They just don't taste like them. I know. I tried.

A single $5 MP3 player can short out the Power Supply in a $2000 PC. Possibly other things. A $10 Glue gun can prevent this. A HERF gun at entrance to the office can also "take care of any stray MP3 players.

Surprising Developers with a new Network, Security structure, Operating System and Restrictions will meet with "resistance"

Do not go about office doing the "Mission:IMPOSSIBLE" them and.skulking against the walls. You will get more than a few looks.

Yelling out "I have friends at Microsoft so you better treat me right!" Counter productive. Threatening to sick Steve Ballmer on everybody was not such a good plan either.

A free copy of the Metro Yellowpages is a better monitor support stand than the $100 Ergonomic one. Don't ask me. Ask the legal department.

Nobody EVER reads the big displayed message that says "TONER OUT" or checks the Paper Tray or even looks to see if the printer is on BEFORE coming to your desk (without a support ticket) screaming for help.

Sometimes things don't make sense. If it works when you're done with it, sometimes you shouldn't ask "Why"

Right about when you go "Tom Cruise" and replay "Risky Business" in the middle of the office floor on a Sunday is right about when the VP will walk in.

Changing the email notification sound on your desktop to the exact sound for your boss' ring tone for his girlfriend/wife will irritate him to death. You make the call on that one.

A Dell Desktop dropped from a Rack in Pharmacy will separate EXACTLY like it was made from "Legos". It will however not re-assemble quite as easily. Don't try for warranty.

Don't drink anything "Green" at the Christmas party. You are not "Scotty" from Star Trek. If he can't handle it you certainly can't.

Standing in the middle of the Office brandishing a 15ft LAN cable like "Indiana Jones" does not impress anybody.

Do not break into a song and dance number during an Audit to "break the ice". Especially not "Thriller". Do not follow Auditors about the office slobbering like Igor "Yesssss Masssterrr..."

You can make yourself look productive while playing "Pirates" on "Facebook". Just look very concerned and concentrated when you do it. And DON'T FLINCH when challenged that it isn't "work related". Stick to your story.

Be careful what you say on "Twitter". Santa Claus is watching. So is your boss.

Writing a love letter to Steve Ballmer might be fun. Even enjoyable. It may somehow find itself sent to "ALL". A moustache, sunglasses and a Mullet will help in the needed disguise.

Your CIO will find your personal website, blog, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN account. Just leave it at that. Don't ask further.

Co-op students can be sent on Entertaining tasks like searching for Lost "Tokens" from a Token Ring Network or "Dropped Packets" that fell out of the network wires. You can scare them away from the Datacentre by explaining about the Grue that lives in there.

If you think you can spend all day long applying to jobs at Microsoft, you can't. If think you should, don't. If you think the boss will have a sense of humor about it, he won't.

Whatever can happen, will, it will always happen when you least expect it and least desire it. GET OVER IT!

When the lights in the office shutdown automatically late at night, you can terminate LAN drops by laptop or Smartphone light.

Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

I got bitten by the music bug. Every chance I get to really USE Powershell it just get’s me in “the Mood”.  So now,sung to “Pinball Wizard” by “the Who” I present to you

http://landofsilly.mypodcast.com/2009/01/PowerShell_Wizard-177292.html

Powershell Wizard

Ever since I was a young guy,
I fell in love with the machine
From Commodores to Inspirons and all those in between
But I'm so blown away
I fainted and I fell
It's a Blinking llttle cursor
And they call it PowerShell!

He's loaded up his DotNet
He's doing Import-CSV
Loading up the users
Quest commandlets that are free
Re-arranging all the data
In just 5 lines as well
I'm done without even trying
All thanks to Powershell!

He's a Powershell Guru
Watch his fingers fly
He's a Powershell Guru
Just an ordinary guy

Why do you think he loves it
I'll tell ya
What makes him just drool

Doesn't need a mouse and Gui,
just a keyboard and a screen. 
It's got direct interaction
to the system and the machine.
No flashy pretty distractions
He's so focused you can tell
The bad smelling Admin
He sure loves Powershell!

With five minutes work, I collected all my pay
Then I sat down and played Rock Band 2 all day

It's a component that's in Vista
And Server 2008
Scripting all your systems
Helps you integrate
Works with so many others
Clears up Admin Hell
Get off your butt and use it and
ROCK ON WITH POWERSHELL!

http://landofsilly.mypodcast.com/2009/01/PowerShell_Wizard-177292.html

Go figure this one.  It’s interesting to see this happen.

I’m Influencing quietly without intending.

Two simple stickers on my tiny Net book.

Powershell and the Vista Springboard.  Stuck on the back.  For no other reason than this is the first laptop I bought in a long time.  First I could afford for a while.

$300 to get a little 8gb internal drive special.  A tiny but powerful
Intel Atom inside. 1 gig of ram for it’s brain.

The Acer Aspire One.

I’m getting looks.  Impressed looks.

“How does Vista run on that?”

“Hey that’s pretty cool!”

They’re eyes light even more when they see it’s Windows 7.

People are impressed.

“So did you ‘lite’ it? (Referring to stripping it’s core by removing lesser and in some cases unneeded components)

Nope.  Stock.

Not comments of “Vista sucks” or negative statements are coming at me. True genuine interest.

And even more interest when they see the Aero interface from Windows 7 running on here.

I never thought it possible.  To do something you found genuinely a) interesting and b) a little out of desperation and getting some of the most positive feedback about a Microsoft product.

I think sometimes smaller is better.  Anybody can throw an O/S on a Macbook or Nice Dell.   Any O/S can fit on those things.  

But people are almost shocked into amazement when they see Vista or Windows 7 fitting on such a small device.

In all fairness the install time was long.   And honestly I would like to see some things cleaned up (IE: the cached install media on the drive, relocate the Hibernation file, an alternate location for my system restore data).

But it works nice.  It’s very quiet due to a Solid state drive internal (even only 8 gig). It responds very well.  The battery averages about three hours but goes to sleep immediately.    I find I get the day out of this device.  I’ve got VPN and remote desktop for the office. 

I’ve got POWERSHELL!

So I sit here quietly on the subway and train.  Quietly enjoy this little powerbox with the something everybody said shouldn’t fit on here.

And quietly influencing away.

Unless you’ve been in the dark ages for the past two years, you might just have heard about a little system that a “few guys” at Microsoft wrote called Powershell.

Powershell.  Automatically you sit back and pause. 

“Cool sounding name.  That’s it?”

Powershell, for the uninitiated is a scripting language.  No it’s a prettier command prompt.  It’s management system.  It’s more!  It’s less.

“Taste Great! Less Filling! Taste Great! Less Filling!”

So who’s right?

Interestingly enough; you all are.  

If you’re a developer, there’s an amazing amount of things you can work with from a text based level in very little  work.  (Or more if you like)

Or you can just do a dir.

The reason Powershell is picking up such a huge following is that it can fit so many hats so easily.   You CAN be a developer and love Powershell (It works with .NET natively), you can be a Windows Scripting guru and love Powershell (You may find more often than not what took pages of code now can take lines)

Or you can just be a Network Administrator trying to import a list of Users in Active Directory.  With the aid of the freely downloadable Quest Active Directory CommandLets.

And without a course in C programming, you CAN script!  Without a computer science degree, you CAN code!

And the beautiful part of working in Powershell is because it uses the same setup for almost anything, it’s portable between systems.

How would you like to be able to automatically purge all .TMP files sitting on a computer older than a certain date on a hard drive?

That’s one line in Powershell.

ONE LINE!

And not difficult to do either.

It’s a simple “very-noun” syntax for the commands that can easily pipe into other commands amongst multiple levels.

As I sang before, “It’s so easy, and it’s free…”

You can download it from Microsoft for free.  In the newer operating sytems (Server 2008 and Vista SP1) it’s a built in Component that can be added on.  In future releases of Windows (Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2) it replaces the command prompt.

Follow my path as I begin to learn Powershell a little more.  The books I have for reference are Powerscripting by Bruce Payette and the Step by Step series from Microsoft.   There are other books.  There are excellent resources like powerscripting.net

There is a huge online community built just by enthusiasts.  The resources are easily and readily accessible.

Powershell.

Search for it, it WILL change your life for the better.

The crowd settles.  The pizza crumbs clear away.   A fresh wind blows through the door.

*2009*

The first meeting of the year, and what a way to knock them away.  Windows Home Server! 

A chance to see what it can REALLY do.

The lights dim lightly as Jacqueline Hutchison and Fred Gregory plugs in this tiny but power packed little system.  The reserve generators at Darlington kick in to help out.

A small system barely the size of two full sized hard cover books.   You can almost see the server software wanting to leap out and take hold.  Need to stand up and shout “Look out folks, I might be small looking but I can take hold of your house and your systems, sort it all out, bring you online, and enhance your life.”

All with the touch of one CD.

So what did we learn?

Windows Home Server has some pretty low requirements to run.

Pentium III 1Ghz     Recommended AMD Pentium 4 x64 or new x64 recommended for future upgrades

Minimum 512 meg ram – Recommended 512 ram

70 GB Hard drive, Recommended 2 x 300gb

It will work with

Windows XP SP2 or higher and Vista.

Wireless link from the server is not officially supported (but it can work)

Installs from DVD

Installation

“Brainless wizard install”

Jacqueline was describing her house where she walked in with the home server and between dropping it in and backing up of the entire house, it was all done in an hour and  half. All done.  The whole home network.

Now I don’t care WHO you are, you try doing that in a standard server environment.  Cold.  Out of the box.

One of the beautiful parts of Home Server is it TELLS you the problems, doesn’t wait for you to check for them.  Very Proactive.  It will identify which computers don’t have antivirus, which ones haven’t backed up recently.

The room lights up with interest as Jacqueline goes through the features, the ease of remote access and setting up.  Arms shoot into the air as questions launch in rapid-fire succession.

Interest peeks up as people discover how easy it is to work on the files on the home server remotely.

Fred Gregory fgregory@greg-tech.com, MCSE SBSC takes the stage next.  

What’s inside Home Server

Windows Server 2003 (based upon the SBS 2003 core)

Most of the server components are there an be can be used via a simple Remote Desktop connection. BUT it is highly recommended to do any work or Administration through the provided Windows Home Server Console as opposed to the standard MMC snap-ins.  For Windows Home Server you can also get “Add-ins” which allow you to extend the functionality of the system.   Many of these add-ins are free and a great set of resources Fred brought to our attention were.

http://www.wegotserved.co.uk

http://whsaddins.com

The cost of the software is as low as $99 US.  Some Canadian providers are going as high as $170.

Now interestingly enough you can just reuse old hardware based upon the system requirements but a few notes Fred brought to our attention.

If you going from scratch, try above all else to make the largest drive your primary drive.

Duplication is your friend in Windows Home Server.  Use it liberally.  Effectively you can mirror folders across mismatched drives using the Drive Extension technology WITHOUT Raid.

Things on old computers break.

It’s fun to build your own machine but the fully built OEM units are minimal cost more, have a manufacturer’s warranty.

Remember Windows Home Server is geared toward Grandpa and the non-technical user.

Current providers of Windows Home Servers are Hewlett Packard, Acer, Via, Shuttle,Tranquil and Fujitsu/Siemens

If you’re going to put together one yourself you’ll need a DVD rom Drive, keyboard, mouse and VGA connector for install.  Only for the install.

OEM systems from HP and others

Advantages

Warranty

Easy to add parts (hard drives)

Extra software or features

Disadvantages

No onboard /video / keyboard

limited expansion

minimum spec hardware

Home Made Home Servers

Warranty is your own problem

Standard O/S

No free software thrown in

Advantages

You can spec out your own hardware, thus making the system a lot more responsive than many OEM units.

Reusing machines is plausible but keep an eye on the standard caveat about any old machine.  It WILL break when you least expect it.

What was really cool to note was a lot of the freely downloadable features from Microsoft (WSUS, Windows Server 2005 R2, WSS can be added in and used)

Remote Access is gorgeous as is file access remotely.

In a nutshell, Windows Home Server while not designed for businesses, can be used as a drop in solution for some networks (under 10 users) or co-exist as a backup solution.  It can drop into a house and prevent the kids from losing music collections giving you a perpetual headache about recovering.  It’s simple enough the completely un-technically inclined can restore entire systems and access data.

It’s simple.

It’s powerful.

I’m wondering why you’re reading this right now rather than getting a Windows Home Server installed.

The four letters each and every IT Professional seems to dread.

“Read The Finelyprinted Manual”

Yes I know.  Let’s leave that one alone.

Why do we fear it?  Why do we back away from it?

Is it because manuals are written usually in two extremes?

One.  So simplistic we fall asleep and it doesn’t cover the higher end features we need?

or

Two.  So complex and detailed they give us WAY more information than we need?

or is it just a habit of going onto so many sites LACKING material and documentation that we have programmed ourselves that it’s not even worth looking?

Whatever the reason, I sat down today and DID read a manual.  I read the details.  And I will READ MORE now that I have learned my lessons.

You see I had a problem that made no sense.  (at least in my eyes)

Install Windows Server Update Server 3.0 SP1 on Server 2008 64bit Standard.

Seems pretty simple right?  I’ve done it before 2003.  I even had a Server 2008 Standard already RUNNING WSUS 3.0 SP1 in production.  Installed it myself.

But try as I might, pray to the computer gods, bang the table.  It kept coming up with the same error on install.

“Please install IIS or add additional roles”  or something along those lines.

Over and over.  Looking for hotfixes, online solutions, errors. 

Same problem on each time I tried to install.

I added IIS and the roles I remember adding lasttime I did WSUS 3.0 SP1.  But nothing.

I didn’t use the four letters I SHOULD have.

I do believe I kept producing several useless other types of Four lettered words. Several quite colourful ones as I recall.

So you know what I did?  I found the deployment guide.  Online.  Not even hidden.

And I read.

And not even HIDDEN.  BOLD. CLEAR! Standing up on the pages before me waving it's hands was the answer.  Jumping up and down in BIG NEON LIGHTS.

The exact *not the least bit vague* list of roles I was supposed to add.   The answer.  In the Manual.

I click on little box and *Poof*, role added.  I click another box and *Poofo* WSUS 3.0 SP1 is happily installing into server wagging it’s tail all the way.

I won’t even bother detailing how much quicker the manual was.

I won’t even try to go into detail how both ELATED and how much of a HEEL I felt for both READING and suddenly realizing how much quicker the manual was.

So my friends.  Stand with me and dance.

Don’t fear it. Read the Manual.

The Manual is your friend.

Ok, I am just wriiting for the sake of writing right now.   But there is one thought at the top of my head.

Hyper-V!

Hyper-V!

It makes me sing! It’s built into Server 2008!  It’s part of a freely downloadable Hyper-V Server 2008 from Microsoft.

And it just ROARS with Virtualization power.

There are days, to this minute that Hyper-V, through it’s efficiency in resource use, it’s simplification of install blows me out the door.

But how can it improve?

How?

HOW?!

Hyper-V 2.0.  Component of Server 2008 R2.  Again part of the O/S.  Again no additional cost in virtualizing what you have.

And again, paving the way to the future.

Improvements such as a LiveMigration of the VHD’s ALONE make it worth trying.  Picture failover that DOESN’T INTERRUPT the NETWORK.

Picture you’re already great virtualized life getting better.

All I can say is this.  Two words.

Stay tuned…..

Hey anybody interested in that new super powerful technology called Powershell?  Interested in how it can be used or even just in the “people behind the scenes”?

After I wrote a little parody called “Highway to Powershell” a couple of Powershell enthusiast invited me to check out a Podcast they had been putting together for I think a little over a year.

It’s called The Powerscripting Podcast.  Hosted by Jon Walz and Microsoft MVP Hal Rottenberg, it’s a weekly podcast about the who’s who and what’s what in Powershell.

You can check it out at www.powerscripting.net 

The RSS feed for the Podcast is at http://feeds.feedburner.com/powerscripting 

It’s fun and it’s informative.  Oh right.  The Most important detail.

There is a live feed of them each Thursday night broadcast from Ustream at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/powerscripting-podcast

It’s free to view of course but if you sign up with Ustream you can actually interact with the Podcasters and the interviewees.

So names like “Jeffrey Snover” from Microsoft or “Susan Bradley” the SBS Diva don’t hit your interest just a LITTLE bit?

Check it out.   Some of the most interesting people are there.   It’s also a good excuse for why you’re coming in late Friday morning to work.

“I was getting Powershell training…”

Cheers

Sean
The Energized Tech
Dedication and Inspiration creating the new Generation