July 17, 2006
PCounter for next term
Today I read through the manual for PCounter. At this point I have most pieces of the application ready for the summer switch. I still need to configure Apache to allow authentication to the cgi-bin. I'll also need to install PERL, so that students can purchase credits online.
Posted by crowej at 4:29 PM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2006
Test Domain Server
I've had a test server a few times since we've switched to a 2003 domain. We've been growing so quickly that my test servers keep getting reallocated as production servers. I now have an older, slower Dell PE1850 to serve that function. Given it's age/performance, it won't be yanked for production. We'll be able to try some things that we just don't want to risk on production boxes.
Posted by crowej at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2005
Kelly and the Return of Potter
Every story worth it's salt is told in three's. This third part of the trilogy of Potter has all of the excitement of the first two, plus that little something new that makes it oh-so-good.
On Sunday, I received yet another call from the Helpdesk, passing on the users had very slow login times. I jumped onto my work machine and logged in fine. I did the same for several servers. I could not replicate the issue. Then I tried Potter. Nuh-uh. I knew then that I had simply hit the other domain controller on the prior attempts. I then rebooted a few machines and tried again...no dice. I went back to Blake and removed Potter as a machine that would answer as a DC.
After speaking with Travis, he determined that it would be best if someone went in tonight to bring up a new DC (Sunday) instead of waiting for Monday. Even though it wasn't his responsibility he offered to do so if I could not.
This epic battle of one's and zero's is too long for my ADHD. Suffice it to say that we have a third DC, named Kelly. We have a wiped-clean, installed from scratch Potter. I'm still leery of this box, as I don't have the tools available to test the hardware. Sun has other tools that may be (and likely are) just as good, but that's unix, which is new to me.
Posted by crowej at 5:55 PM | Comments (0)
A Potter-Pooper strikes back
On Saturday, I received a call at home from the Helpdesk that no one could print to the student lab printers. I jumped onto my Mac at home and fired up remote desktop. The student printing solution currently runs on a NT 4.0 box...the last of it's kind. Given the rapid pace this summer, moving this application to another box was one corner that was cut. I was unable to use the archaic PCAnywhere to gain console on Tailspin. Since NT 4.0 does not support remote desktop, I knew my options were limited. I called the helpdesk to see if they could call around to the local Monmouth folks (since I'm 35-40 minutes away). Paul Lambert was kind enough to come in to reboot Tailspin. Even after the reboot, I was still unable to PCanywhere into the box.
Grabbing my trusty iPod, I drove 120 MPH to Monmouth. Well...okay, I went the speed limit, but the story is cooler the other way. When I had run the less-than hoped for repair on Potter the day prior, it had enabled a previously disabled network card. Nothing was connected to it, but the naming service WINS still picked up the APIPA address and passed that as a valid IP for POTTER. Fixing this involved a simple seek and destroy through a few WINS servers. That and disabling the offending card. Printing worked just after that.
Posted by crowej at 5:45 PM | Comments (0)
A Potter-Pooper
Well this last week ended oddly, to be sure. Potter is one of my two domain controllers. It also hosts Sophos AV console. At times, the AV console will go nuts and fill up a directory with tens of thousands of files. See this article for more info. When I attempted to Remote Desktop into Potter, I was unable. It was still reporting as up, so I popped over to the server room to determine the issue. What I found was a completely locked machine. I could not log on or off. I didn't have rights to reboot (which I do). After a restart, the system boot halted at "missing or corrupt file" c:\windows\system32\config\system. I booted to cd to replace this file. Long story short, the system booted to just before the login screen then halted with a BSOD. Several reboots proved this to be more than coincendence. Researching the error code left me with two likely possibilities...bad ram or OS reinstall. The OS reinstall did _not_ point out a "why." Which was my primary concern.
Since the box was dead in the water either way, I choose to do an install in place. At the desktop level, this has been very effective in restoring a box with the applications intact. This proved to be less effectual than hoped. I needed to rejoin, repromote the machine. I also needed to reinstall Sophos...the very thing I had hoped to avoid. Once all of this was in place, things seemed good.
Posted by crowej at 5:11 PM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2005
Terminal Server Profiles
Well today two of the three terminal servers ran out of disk space as the profiles ate up gigabyte of space. At this time, I've set folks to use a mandatory profile. I'll use up to the rest of the week to make a determination as to our best route. Our maint window is this friday. This weekedn is my anniversay. If I intend to stay married, I'll need to finish up quickly on Friday...
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Installation of WebAdmin for HP
Tonight I've installed (installing) webadmin on the print server. In the past, I've had a copy on my workstation. So far the performance that I've been getting on the v20z is out-freaking-standing. This will be the first step in my long-term plan to move appropriate printers to the facstaff printer server.
Posted by crowej at 10:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 7, 2005
My other job ????
Now that the migration is done I'm turning to duties and upkeep that have set untended since the end of Spring Term. I'm really excited about the spot we're in now. With this move, we have the infrastructure to accomplish some amazing things. Wearing my hat of Desktop Support Team Lead I'll be able to leverage these changes to respond faster than human thought. Well maybe not that fast, but more rapidly than before. I now have in place a number of remote tools. My techs and I have the capabilty to install software remotely. We patch machines unobtrusively, and centrally. For perhaps the first time at WOU we can proactively respond at the desktop level.
I have a few specific goals in mind that I'll list here. These, like all things in UCS, are subject to change :-)
1. Move all printers to a 2003 print server. Ease of setup (our userbase could then do so if they wished), central management, and department/division control of access and priority are the main reasons for this move.
2. Extend my podcasting series to cover the gap between users and their unsupported home machines. If anyone has topic suggestions...please let me know.
3. Increase the technical knowledge base of the Techs under me. Alex Ichinoe, a former tech and current student programmer, has wrriten a tech knowledgebase application. This can hold items specific to WOU. Many departments have software etc that is specific to them. This mitigates the issues of knowledge transfer. I want to formalize some of the stucture of the Desktop Support Team.
4. Move, where appropriate, to the paradigm of a point tech per department. Departments like Disabilty Services have extremely specific applications or processes. Having a designated tech has saved us tons of time. (Kudos to Myron for....ahh ....Volunteering).
Posted by crowej at 9:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 11, 2005
Terminal Server Cluster Up, Ready, and Tested
Well I forgot to post this earlier this week... We have the three members of the terminal server cluster setup and working. Troy and I struggled with the mirroring process until I recalled the unique identifier for the Network Load Balancing solution. Once we mirror a termserv, one needs to change the name, change the IP and set the unique ID for the Terminal Server Session Directory.
In addition to brining these three machine up, we also logged into 2/3 of the thin clients in the ITC lab. This was all of the machine that were available at the time. We put each of the station under a much higher load than we expect individual stations to achieve. The performance was outstanding. It is my hope that the students and faculty receive this well, as this could easily become the future of the lab and smartclassrooms.
Posted by crowej at 2:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 22, 2005
FTP Server available for MASH
I now have an FTP server available for the MASH domain. Of course this only contacts information that has been migrated. At the time of this posting, the main WOU Website is still in Aviation. The same holds true for the "class" folder. For folks wishing to FTP to these locations, please continue to use the instructions provided here.
If you are interested in uploading to your public_html folder, then read on...
Using this photo as a guide mimic the settings shown. Of course, you'll want to substitute my username with your own. Please keep in mind that this will need your MASH username and password.
Posted by crowej at 4:19 PM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2005
GPO
Posted by crowej at 12:28 AM | Comments (0)