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October 31, 2005
public_html
The public_html folder on everyone's H: drive is now a Hidden Folder. Hopefully this will eliminate some of the confusion out there on how to save files to public_html. USE THE P: DRIVE!!
Posted by knabet at 03:13 PM | Comments (1)
October 28, 2005
Volume Manager
I spent staff dev. time learning more about the ins and outs of volume manager 4.0 and 4.1. It was quite the experience. There is a lot to volume manager, and it protects your data quite well I've learned.
Posted by knabet at 01:20 PM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2005
public_html info
The extended entry here is Ron's FAQ and this entry is my addition to it.
There seems to be some confusion about the P: drive, and public_html folder.
Look at your public_html folder as a double ended filing cabinet. The front drawer is going to your h:\public_html the back drawer is going to your p:\ drive. We didn't move any files, or folders. All we did was unlock the back drawer. Although using the front drawer does not work if files are moved into it rather than copied, we left it "unlocked" so those who didn't get a chance to read the FAQ would still be able to access their public_html files.
We will soon be "locking" the front drawer and only letting you access those files via the back drawer.
Using the P: drive will eliminate permissions issues when viewing web pages in your personal web space.
Your personal web space is still http://www.wou.edu/~username
Hello, Everyone--
This week's FAQ covers the recent change in the way public_html folders are accessed.
* Why the change?
Because there was a problem with the way we were doing it before. Specifically, if you had a file in your H: drive, but outside your public_html folder, and then moved it into the public_html folder, it would not show up on the web. When we found the problem, we decided the quickest and most effective solution would be to place the public_html files on a separate drive. For Windows users, this is the P: drive, and will be mapped automatically just like your H: drive. Mac users will need to map it themselves, as described below.
* OK, I'm a Mac user. What do I need to do differently?
Two things. First of all, instead of connecting to "smb://cougar/username$" in the Go menu - Connect to Server window, connect to "smb://cougar/mydocuments". Just type that exactly as-is; no need to substitute in a username, or type in a dollar sign at the end. You'll still need to log in with your username and password, of course. The other difference is that to get to your public_html drive, connect to "smb://cougar/public_html". Note that we are working on a way to make these connections automatic, but it will probably not happen for a few months.
* I still see the public_html folder in my H: drive; why shouldn't I use that?
Well, you still can, but only for now; it is going to become invisible soon. I recommend getting used to working with the P: drive instead.
* I use FTP to connect to my H: drive and public_html. Will that be different now?
Yes, but not much. As a side-effect of the change, you will no longer be automatically connected to your home directory when you log in via FTP. You can change to it by going to home: or to your public_html drive by going to public_html: (as ever, don't forget the colon at the end!) If you want to automatically connect to either of these when you log in, you can set up either of them as the "default remote folder" in fileZilla's site manager. Note that the fileZilla and Fugu instructions at http;//www.wou.edu/sshclient have been updated to reflect this change, so if you don't understand something in this paragraph you can look there.
* Wow, this is a short FAQ!
That's not a question!
* OK, fine. Why is this FAQ so short?
That's better. It's short because I've been swamped lately; that's also why there was no FAQ last week. I'm on vacation next week, so there won't be one then, either. Hopefully things will be back to normal by the time I return. While I'm gone, please call the Service Request Desk at 88925 with questions; I will not be checking my voice mail. I will check my work email a few times, but urgent problems should be directed to the Service Request Desk at ucshlpdesk@wou.edu. They will forward them to the appropriate technician.
I know I promised in my blog to do an FAQ on Sophos Antivirus and how to set it up at home, but Joe Crowe has kindly agreed to do a tutorial about that fairly soon on his blog, at "http://www.wou.edu/~crowej". As always, feel free to direct questions, comments, and suggestions about the FAQ's to faq@wou.edu.
Posted by knabet at 03:32 PM | Comments (1)
October 20, 2005
Website Migration
*** Possible Technical Content ***
There are still 2 very large pieces of the migration puzzle to complete.
1. WOU Website
2. Oracle
I'm going to forget about #2 for now because there is a lot more to it than just moving.
The website however is the next on my list. The reason we had to push so hard on the migration of email and domains was because having depts. on seperate systems would make daily work more time consuming and more difficult.
With the website, its only more difficult for those users who update the WOU Website. I'm not talking about public_html, I'm talking about the main website. The software installation and configuration is easy. The hard part is moving it. Its not simply pick up and move. There are lot's of things to be concerned with. Such as directory paths. The new server's directory structure is slightly different. Because the website should be using relative paths, this shouldn't be too much of an issue, however we want to be careful. The website is WOU's virtual presence after all.
In the near future I will be contacting dept heads asking who from their dept can sit on a committee to help facilitate a smooth transition.
I've create a new forum dedicated to the Web Migration. Its a blank slate, and I'd love to hear how UCS can _help_ make this happen smoothly.
Posted by knabet at 01:12 PM | Comments (1)
Staff Development 10-20-2005
Today was the first day of Staff Development for UCS ( read here for more info )
I think it went well. I was involved in a a group on MRTG today. And I've already learned a ton about it and will hopefully continue with this.
I overheard others in the office and it sounded like they were gaining a lot out of it as well. People are working together who may not normally do so.
Thanks to the "Big Boss Man" for letting us give this a try.
Posted by knabet at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2005
what's important?
So, I've been doing some brainstorming, and thinking about other places I've worked, and places I've heard about. I came up with an idea. Actually somebody at google came up with the idea, and I'm thinking it could be used here at WOU.
Currently UCS has staff meeting's scheduled 1 day per week. Thurs. mornings from 9:30am - ??? Usually they run 2 or 3 hours. The days we actually have staff meeting are hit and miss. Meaning they often get cancelled.
My suggestion here ( or my adapted idea from google ) is we take the time scheduled for staff meeting and use it for personal agendas. Not personal time to do whatever we like, but time to work on projects, tasks, ideas, brainstorms, whatever. And we treat those times for the entire staff "like" we're in staff meeting. Meaning no interuptions, don't answer your phone, don't do task list . People could work on things as a group or alone. You may be saying "HUH?" well here's an example.
I would like to learn PHP,JAVA,Perl etc... I think a better knowledge of all kinds of programming languages is a good thing to have. Helpful to me and the dept/campus. But I've never been able to spend 2-3hrs of un-interupted time learning this.
Pretty much everything outside of the google search engine came from google giving 1/3 of employee's time to work on projects. Check out google earth
Of course this time has to be un-interupted and give employee's the chance to actually work on something. Then staff meetings could be cut back to 1 time a month, and the other times would be project/research etc.. Think outside the box.
The intention is give people the freedom to work a little outside the daily tasks, and responsibilities. We've got a bunch of brains here, let's be creative!!
---Added per Tricia's comment---
I agree the office can be quite busy, and difficult to do this. I was thinking to go as far as to put a sign on the door saying the office is closed. Turn all the phones off ( except the helpdesk ) and basically create an atmosphere that would allow for _this_ what ever _this_ may be :)
Posted by knabet at 01:42 PM | Comments (2)
3510 expansion
**** WARNING WARNING WARNING ****
This is a technical entry; so don't complain to me if you don't understand it.
**** WARNING WARNING WARNING ****
We've had these 3510's we've been using at appropriate times. One of those times was to store security camera data on. Well as you can imagine the space requirements are quite high on that type of system. I was told the other day..."We're outta space" Now what? No more PCI slots for more HBA's ( at $2000 a piece ) Well I knew you can daisy chain the 3510's together, but never seen it done let alone done it myself.
So off to docs.sun.com ( a great resource for their stuff.... DUH!! )
Anyway I started reading up on the docs and found that I don't need regular controllers, I needed JBOD controllers on the array to be daisy chained. Luckily we have 4 of them sitting on shelves from when we had single controller configs ( dumb dumb dumb )
I grabbed a couple of them stuck them in the 3510 ran interconnects, re-booted the parent array and taaaa daaa I could see the disks on the other array!!! Way cool. So I was able to double the amount of space given to the sec. cams.
Now for some cool un-tested info on the 3510's. It would appear you can create a logical drive containing disks on different 3510's. What does that do you may ask? Well not much, other than less logical drives. It doesn't hurt nor hinder performance. The other cool thing, is it looks like you can use a single global spare drive on one of the arrays, and it will take over for the disk on a different array. What does that do for me you may ask? 70 free gigs of disk space. I didn't do it this way on the current config. I used a global spare on each array. Reason being... "un-tested" so maybe I'll have time to test this type of thing down the road.
Posted by knabet at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)
...No sooner than I open my mouth
Well, I vent about Comms Express and they send me a patch. I was going to install it this evening, however another bomb forces the issue. But I was able to do it during lunch so users will just have to login when they come back to their desks. Still a bummer I know!! However less impact than 3:30pm.
Hopefully this will fix the major issues we've been having and we can now move on with the next issue to come up. Whether it be Comms Express or whatever.
Posted by knabet at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)
Time to VENT!!!
ARRRRGGGHHH!!!!
Communications Express!!!
The product is great. It has some bugs, but for the most part they are workable. However as of late it seems to have the types of bugs that cause a re-start of the webserver. The calendar doesn't work, or the address book fails to load. I keep being told the patches I've installed fix the problem, but they DON'T!!! I'm at a loss as to where to go.
One option would be to go back to the old Messenger Express / Calendar Express setup, but Messenger Express is broken with the latest patch. Now what? Use an IMAP client for mail, and Calendar Express for calendaring? That's about where I am right now. Standards are great!!! However if I'm going to _force_ the use of a client then it better work.. right?
Posted by knabet at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)
October 07, 2005
Communications Express
Communications Express web client has quite a few bugs in it. Surprise surprise right?? Well Sun is working feverishly on patches for it, and a new release is coming out within the next couple of months.
Do I use Communications Express you ask? Well yes, I do. But not on a regular basis. I use Microsoft Outlook, and Evolution. I get tired of bugs too!!!
Posted by knabet at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)
Training
Last year was a training bonanza for me!!
I was able to go to 5 classes. All of which were a neccessity for UCS to be in the place it is now, as far as software and hardware.
1. SunFire Work Group/Enterprise Server Admin
2. Sun Cluster 3.1 Advanced Admin
3. Java Enterprise Installation and Administration
4. Sun Java System Access Manager
5. Using LDAP as a naming service
A few words about training.
Due to the complexity of the systems I was responsible for implementing this past year, training was an absolute neccessity. There is no way we could have gotten done what we got done this past year without it.
Choosing training facilities is another key piece of actually learning something when you get there. Four of my five classes were taken at a Sun Training Facility. Four of my five classes where better than the other.
While I think in class, hands on training is crucial its not the only option. CD-Rom and web based training can be very helpful. I do think the in class training was the only option for the classes I attended, due to the nature of the class. I'm able to gain a vast amount of information by asking questions to instructors as well as to classmates.
I GREATLY appreciate the training opportunities; realizing and understanding the expense. That being said I feel like the University got a bargain, and would hope for the opportunity for additional training in the future. Its a win win situation.
Posted by knabet at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)