watch  - I was just introduced to this tool the other day and think that it is teh awesome, especially if you want to watch things update, give it a whirl.

Ok, for me I have noticed that I spend pretty much all of my time in windows in either my email (lotus, not by choice mind you) or in a terminal window (or firefox).  I have to say one of the most useful Systems Admin tools ever created are the putty family of tools.   If you have to run windows, then you should install cygwin (for X) and putty, it’s absolutely amazing.   Because putty handles x-forwarding, you can run sessions back across if you have cygwin and X installed.

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Now playing on Pandora: Gouryella - Walhalla
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Technorati Tags: cygwin, firefox, putty

So I have managed to get one of my coworkers (teh poor fellow who has to share an office with me) to start a blog for and by systems admins. We only got it up and running last night, but hopefully will have lots of good knowledge up and maybe even some helpful hints and tips along the way. New blog is located here Eschew Obfuscation, check it out if you are interested, thanks.

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Now playing on Pandora: Ayla - Ayla (DJ Taucher Mix)
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Technorati Tags: sysadmin, systems administrators

Ok,

So I learned a vary valuable lesson yesterday trying to unrack an old netapp 840 head and shelves, they are not on rails and you should always go from the top down.  I had a 90lbs shelf land on part of my hand and my foot (thankfully my foot was sideways and caught most of the brunt of it, I was sitting crossed legged).

Technorati Tags: netapp

Ok,

So here are a few more things that I really dig about linux, aside from the cute mascots. I love having the freedom to choose my particular distro, or if so inclined build my own. I like having the option to make the system as bare bones as I like or as UI intensive as I choose {though I tend to run CLI in GUI, just cause I love the irony {and firefox}}. When I started out with linux I downloaded the 28 disks from Slackware {don’t remember what version though I still have the disks somewhere}, and had my first system up with X11 and connected to the internet within 3 hours {now that is definitely not counting the dl time}. I knew at that instant that linux was the OS for me, but to be honest I have had a hard time breaking free from the “windows”, because I am also a gamer. So I have had to live a double life, as my gaming passion required that I have windows around to be able to play games. Don’t get me wrong, I abhor windows, I use it because I have too, at work, but even then it’s really only for email and news as all my real work is done in my *konsole* window{s} 12 of them to be exact {well at least 12 tabs}.

Now again, don’t get me wrong I don’t believe that linux is the end all be all, and that there are actually some functional uses for windows, it all comes down to the right tool for the right job, I just happen to prefer linux over any other operating system. I also like vi over emacs, so there ;). I prefer KDE to Gnome, but that’s just personal preference, I run Ubuntu @ home and on my VPS {provided by slicehost.com, I have a referral link in my links, it’s where my blogs/etc are hosted and they are teh awesome!!!}, and I run CentOS @ work - though I have a very strong dislike for RH based systems, again right tools right jobs and my personal prejudice.

So I have not jumped on the Mac bandwagon, and probably will not, as they really don’t appeal to me personally. I am trying to get my wife to move to the darkside, and figure that Mac is as closed to linux as I am going to get her. I like the fact that it has “bsd” underpinnings and the GUI experience she has been raised to love. I use GUI when I have to, though if I can do it on the cli I will, but again, this is just my blathering ;). Till next time…

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Now playing on Pandora: Voyager - Crystl Kleer
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Technorati Tags: cli, gnome, gui, kde, konsole, Linux, slackware, ubuntu, vi

Seriously the command line does it for me, gets me all hot and bothered ;). I just love having all the tools (including the shell itself) to be able to do what I need to do. Let me not even get started on awk and grep, though I think shortly I will write a *my top 5* command line tools or tools that a sysadmin should not live without (as I mainly handle backups this will differ greatly on both experience and preference so your mileage / kilomeratage may vary accordingly).

Ok so here are my top ten five {I can count really} favorite tools {right now}:

1. Bash shell - a very powerful tool with lots and lots {read metric assloads} of tools builtin.

2. vi - yes I am a vi whore, even to the point of using it on the command line, those who know what I mean either will shudder or clap, to each their own. **HINT** if you still use the arrow keys learn the j = down, k = up, h = right and l = left. Also check out shift + v and ctrl + v (visual mode). Oh and I also use vimperator with firefox, cause I just wuv it that much.

3. awk, because the nature of my job {backups/archives} and the reporting there of, I need strong text processing tools and awk happens to be one of my favs.

4. screen - one of the seniors that I worked with {he’s left since} taught me how to use screen, and it’s a tool no sysadmin should ever be without {if it can be helped}.

5. grep - this is one of the most rockingest tools ever greated, simple in design, powerful in function, can make a sysadmins job bearable. {along with regexps ;)}

I’ll write more later on, but this is a good start.

Technorati Tags: awk, command line, Linux, man, perl, python, screen, sed, vi

I finally got the 1950 up and running for my boss today, and I think I may have figured out what was causing the issue, if you happen to run into this issue with the OpenManage 5.3 CD and newer Dell 1950’s, when during the install it asks if you want to install the server assistant (5th or 6th step) uncheck that box, I believe that is/was what was causing the issue (at least for me).  I have not tried this with another server, but I will when I get a chance.  Wh00t.

Technorati Tags: dell 1950, openmanage, server assistant

Ok,

So I finally got the stupid machine up and running, but I made a huge assumption that I shouldn’t have, I have built linux servers, but this is only the fourth or so time that I have built a windows server and with the openmanage (Dells server utility disk) to boot. So the drama is that when I was going through the setup (and yes this is stupid) when it asked me if the boot partition should be 12 GB, I was like yeah that sounds about right. I didn’t realize that the *boot* partition is the c:\ drive and that made it only 12GB in size.

Now this box is for my boss to have a little sandbox to play around in, with a certain application (which there is some side story here, but i’ll get to that later). Ok, so I didn’t realize till he was installing said application that there was only 12GB on the harddisk(s - 2 250 RAID 1), and knew something was wrong. So back to the drama, the boot disk for the 1950 (openmanage 5.3) only likes to work some of the time, 80% of the time it asks me to insert the OM 5.3 disk (that is already in the drive bay), so one of my coworkers (and mentor by the way) overheard a conversation and was curious why I thought that if I booted the cd multiple times I’d get different results (definition of insanity is doing the same task/thing over and over again expecting a different result) so that led to some laughs (though I think most of my coworkers think I have a nut or two loose anyways). I digress I am getting sidetracked (which isn’t unusual) one of the times I had booted the cd I got the prompt for the windows 2003 server disk (and that’s how I got the damn machine installed).

Here’s the side story for the application, I am installing exchange for my boss to play around with, and we have the uber m$ support so we have all the disks, except the 32bit version of exchange. Unfortunately there isn’t a common sense error message as it spits out “The disk in drive D:\ is valid, it’s just not built for the processor you are running on” (not a direct quote but close enough). Now as I did one would assume that (there I go with assuming again - really got to break that habit) it would have a label somewhere on the disk, but NO - fat freakin chance. We finally figured it out by downloading and installing the 32bit version and trying to install the 64bit version, and realized that if we had paid closer attention to the freakin disk name (something like EXBLAZD64) we would have seen from the end number that it was 64bit. Anyways I have another chance to get the mofo up and running tomorrow, and hopefully all of the software will play nice.

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Now playing on Pandora: LTJ Bukem - Tranquillity To Earth
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Technorati Tags: dell 1950, exchange, m$, windows server 2003, woot, zoe bell

I work for a large company as a jr. systems administrator and I noticed something the other day about the difference in mindset between those who work in helpdesk (some might say tier 1) as opposed to those that work in system administration (tier 2 or 3 depending on whom you ask). Don’t get me wrong I have a great amount of respect for all of the people that I work with, they are all great and very very knowledgeable, we just see the worlds in different ways.

I have been trying to install a server for my boss who wants a playground (he used to be the IT director for another subsidiary of the company that I work for) and it’s not a difficult request, standard Dell 1950 shouldn’t be too difficult, I got it racked, cabled, labeled and switchport turned on and good to go. So I go to install the OS using the standard OpenManage Server Assistant CD and blah, it posts fine, the bios sees the disks just fine (2 250GB disks Raid 1), but the OpenManage is unable to see the boot device. So I have a ton of different people look at it after trying to troubleshoot it on my own, and no dice. These guys actually go into the startup code (which is written in python) and start actually debugging it from there, still no dice. We all know that it’s a driver issue to due with the PERC raid card (6/i, I believe but don’t quote me) as this isn’t the first time that we have run into the issue with dells and their damned PERC cards.

So we have this guy that works in helpdesk that is a registered Dell tech, so I give him a call and ask if he can take a look at it, so he comes over grabs it, then the next day calls and says that it might have just been a bad disk (CD). So he boots it up fine and it sees everything but he gets to the install OS and that’s where he’ll stop (only for us mind you as they support all the end users). I was just fascinated by the viewpoints of the too different groups, our group tried from a hardware / system level and he went straight to the most fundamental aspects of the system. I know that I have learned a valuable lesson from this and will continue to remember that sometimes the K.I.S.S. principle is there for a reason. As I am a systems admin, this will probably be an ongoing thing (and junior to boot so I have a lot to learn).

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Now playing on Pandora: Planet Smashers - Trip And Fall
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Technorati Tags: , dell, dell 1950, helpdesk, perc, raid 1, sysadmin, systems admin