The Comms Room

Dennis Nolte

10:07 AM

lovely, 1+1 just blacklisted their own fucking email server...

Journeyman Geek

nice

Dennis Nolte

yep, fixed within ~half an hour or so..
sadly i cannot flame them now..

at least not on phone ^^

nothing too fancy about them getting blacklisted (again)
SMTP error from remote server in greeting:
host: mx01.kundenserver.de:
kundenserver.de (mxeue005) Nemesis ESMTP Service not available
No SMTP service
IP address is black listed.
For explanation visit http://postmaster.1and1.com/en/error-messages?ip=212.227.126.131

but that they blacklist their own systems is a new one (at least for me)

Dan

Bit random - is it possible to intercept keypresses to an RDP session

pauska

What do you mean? sniffing them?

MichelZ

@Dan sure, why wouldn't it be?

depends of course if you can get something MITM to the secured network stream :)

Dan

10:19 AM

@pauska Yeah - nothing nefarious. I have a tool that is somehow able to pass Winkey + L to the session and lock it and I'm trying to suss it out

Just wondered what was actually going over the wire

pauska

Trying to figure out if Citrix XenApp is something for us

the Lync VDI plugin is supported in session mode by Citrix, but not supported by Microsoft

Dan

@pauska There's also a bug in it which is fucking me over this week

pauska

and I still haven't found any documentation about content redirection for XenApp 7.5

Dan

It breaks Alt + Tab, causing Alt + Tab to switch tasks on the client

pauska

yeah, it breaks key combinations as well

Alt+Tab key is not passed to the session when using VDI Plug-in.

at the bottom of support.citrix.com/article/CTX138408.html

to me this just sounds like way too much hassle just to get Lync.. I think we're better off with thick clients

MS is also pushing us hard to move over to o365, and the lync plugin doesn't support it

oh @Dan, I was meaning to ask you.. is XenApp licensed solely on the number of users, or do you also have to pay some kind of server license?

Dan

10:33 AM

@pauska Users only - it's quite good in that respect as the user license covers you for all the infrastructure meaning you can throw as many servers you like at it

pauska

good, good.. we'll might end up with Citrix just for a single app that 7 users have (financial stuff)

Dan

@pauska You know I like the tech, but it is a real mindset change for the users - and yeah, the Lync stuff isn't looking great at all

Though to be fair, I've not actually used or seen voice Lync in Citrix with or without the plugin

MichelZ

Broadcom 57800 2x10Gb BT + 2x1Gb BT Network Daughter Card

any idea what the "BT" means?

pauska

Lync is so extremely popular within our organization.. the employees who discovers how easy it is, and how much time they save never goes back to email or phone calls

Dan

@MichelZ Sorry, didn't see the 10GB bit. BASE-T?

pauska

10:41 AM

yeah, it's base-t

means regular rj45 ethernet

so that's probably a quad-port card, where two of the ports support 10gig base-t

MichelZ

@Dan aaah, Base-T!

wonderful

Dan

@pauska I must admit, I don't think I could hand on heart recommend it fully to you

MichelZ

thanks

Dan

Though XenApp for a handful of published apps can be nice

MichelZ

I never saw that abreviated before

pauska

10:46 AM

@Dan yeah, I'm moving to that direction as well

just a few apps who refuse to install locally

or apps that we want tight control over

@MichelZ it were more used in the earlier days of ethernet

Dan

The only other thing is that some editions do support something called Local Apps - where it runs apps locally, but presents them as though they were in session to unify it. Maybe that could work for Lync, dunno though

pauska

10-BASE T would be 10mbit half duplex, 100-BASE TX would be 100mbit full duplex etc

MichelZ

yes, I do know about Base-T of course

just never heard of "BT"

it's a real jungle

if you want 10 gbit

pauska

that's just your reseller who has found a fancy name.. nobody uses BT for BASE-T, it would be confused with bluetooth

MichelZ

on "tight" budget

@pauska: DELL.com :)

pauska

10:50 AM

@Dan from the same KB I linked you: "Delivery of the Lync 2013 client as a XenApp published/seamless application is not currently supported."

@MichelZ blame dell then :)

Dan

@pauska Nah, the opposite

Published Apps are remote apps that look local - Local Apps is doing the exact opposite

pauska

We did a 10 gig upgrade on a tight budget last year, Dell 8132 switches with DA SFP was the cheapest way out

@Dan oh.

Dan

So you have a VDI desktop, but when you click Photoshop it's running Photoshop installed on the client, but presented seamlessly in the VDI session

I've not used it though

pauska

"Local App Access"?

MichelZ

@pauska yeah... that's not cheap :)

Dan

10:51 AM

@pauska Thats it

MichelZ

cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/…

i'm speaking this

costs 1/3 of those 8132 probably

pauska

ugh.. the remains of Linksys

MichelZ

:)

have the normal 1 gbit version of it now

it's actually quite OK

pauska

yeah, I'm a bit elitist when it comes to hardware, for all I know they work great

MichelZ

I would be too if I had unlimited budget :)

pauska

10:55 AM

I know a guy who uses that line for FTTB

MichelZ

and they are stackable

tombull89

11:21 AM

Fiber to the...?

fiber to the bollocks...everything that can be connected is

3

pauska

fiber to the building

the basement switch that distributes further to each office/customer etc

tombull89

ah I've heard of FTTD (fiber to the door)

Dennis Kaarsemaker

@tombull89 fiber to the di^Hongle?

BigHomie

11:44 AM

@JourneymanGeek or at the very least, the car isn't awesome, either way, not good :(

pauska

12:05 PM

@Dan can I ask what kind of pricing you get on xenapp? let's say enterprise?

Dan

@pauska I don't ever buy mate

@pauska If you give me some detail I can get a quote from my old company though

cole

@mossy woot

pauska

@Dan that's ok, I'll just ask a norwegian reseller

Dan

@pauska No worries

Nathan C

12:49 PM

Whew...finally got a bunch of cardboard junk out of my office

now to set up these 6 PCs ._.

pauska

"fun"

Basil

1:02 PM

morning

Dan

I got roped into plugging in some NICs the other day - I couldn' tremember the last time I actually had to physically do something

pauska

noob.

:)

cole

sup

Dan

@pauska Did you see the screenshot I posted of their old vSphere Enviro

HopelessN00b

So... the bosses have gone full retard and handed the other SA his two weeks' notice. Would it be unforgivably petty of me to just stop showing up to work the following Monday?

Journeyman Geek

1:12 PM

0_0

faker

I just tried to downvote a wiki page in our intranet

4

I need some sleep...

Dennis Nolte

@HopelessN00b well, go for it, and tell them you are available for hire as consultant with 10x fee.

if they are desperate enough they will pay :)

pauska

@Dan nay

Dan

@pauska Was just looking for it, but basically they had a SQL box with 4GB of RAM and a 1GB limit

Dennis Nolte

@faker don't work that much then. I saw you beeing here yesterday at least 12 hours..

HopelessN00b

1:18 PM

@DennisNolte Yeah, if I leave before Jan 1st, I lose out on 15 days of vacation that automatically accrue on that date. Still, might be worth it.

faker

@DennisNolte I'm also here when I'm home :)

pauska

@Dan limit? SQL express?

Dan

@pauska No, a vSphere Resource Limit

pauska

ohmygerd

Dan

@pauska And for some reason, loads of other servers had Resource Limits set as the same as the RAM allocation

pauska

1:29 PM

there are so many vmware admins out there who incorrectly use resource limits

tombull89

@Dan wat

Dan

@pauska Oh yeah, I forgot the other bit - instead of using folders to sort VM's (under VM's and Templates) they'd use Resource Pools :D

@tombull89 The whole thing was a mess

jscott

Ah crap. Just had the print server reboot... Luckily those VMs boot quickly.

Dennis Nolte

@faker i see.

tombull89

1:50 PM

in The Bridge, 21 hours ago, by badp

Room owners can now administer room-specific bans -- please read this first before you do

Dennis Nolte

@tombull89 oh thats nice, make them autoban on the "hate tags" like dev, xampp plesk and such :)

tombull89

@DennisNolte "hai guys can anyone help me with java" - user has been kicked

Dennis Nolte

@tombull89 totally!

i need to qoute that in SO chat some time:
TABS ARE BETTER THAN SPACES!!!!one

lovely example

HopelessN00b

I need to see this new feature tested on someone. Let's all head over to the AskDifferent room and troll about iFruits and Steve Jobs.

tombull89

@HopelessN00b go to maths.se and post ascii snails

two Gaming regulars and I did that once, we got the room placed in timeout.

HopelessN00b

1:57 PM

@tombull89 Oh, we could go to maths.se and present various proofs of pi as a rational number.

Dennis Nolte

@HopelessN00b pi is exaclty 3!

i really need a new keyboard, sometimes the keys do not respond anymore..

tombull89

how can pi be real if our eyes aren't real? #jaydentweets

HopelessN00b

@DennisNolte No, it's 3.2, you ignoranus!

Dennis Nolte

@HopelessN00b wow, even more stupid that they actually tried it..

HopelessN00b

The really scary bit is that it only failed because a math prof happened to be in the gallery that day.

Bob

2:15 PM

@tombull89 what if it's about removing it? :P

Dennis Nolte

@HopelessN00b its the same bs with evolution vs creative design, let the guys who actually do science define what the output of 1+1 is, not some law..

TheCleaner

2:38 PM

@cole - serverfault.com/questions/628077/…

cole

I hate you.

TheCleaner

lol

Happy Friday!

cole

What he's trying to do is easily Googlable.

Dennis Nolte

wow, i just got ordered to finish early..

my boss seemed to be in a good mood

sadly i need to wait 30min for my drive..

TheCleaner

Yep, no different than Exchange failover/replication in concept. But he's asking for a serious book answer there.

Journeyman Geek

2:41 PM

yro.slashdot.org/story/14/09/12/1228257/…

I suddenly feel a need to learn more about metasploit.

cole

Anyone know how in nmap (on Windows) to show just the down host IPs in a range?

In Linux I'd be able to grep for down but I can't in Windows.

Nathan C

@cole Get grep for Windows?

cole

Well I'll be damned.

Bob

@NathanC eww

@cole find and findstr are both native and easy enough

then there's Powershell

blah | find "down"

blah | findstr "down"

cole

Oh hm

Let me try that, thanks!

Bob

2:48 PM

(findstr also allows regex; find is more basic)

cole

so much better to work with headphones on.

ewwhite

any awk experts here?

Dennis Nolte

nope sry, more the sed guy.

Bob

I don't think I've ever used awk... bash, sed, perl, sure

ewwhite

hmm

Dennis Nolte

2:53 PM

@ewwhite what do you need to do, we might be able to help anyway.

ewwhite

parsing apache logs.

interview test

Dennis Nolte

@ewwhite depending what exactly you need, instead of fixing the mess, fix the logs directly, apache has a lot of options to customize the output.

ewwhite

I'm given a sample log file.

so I'm churning through it.

cole

I will be in Maine this evening until Sunday. Huzzah

ewwhite

just seems it could be more elegant

ThoriumBR

2:55 PM

-3

Q: server security problem

I set an static ip on my server but after a day many unknown users created and unknown remote dekstop type softwares installed and sql server get unknown password. Please help me to secure my server.

I am a noob, put a stock windows server online, it got hacked...

Dennis Nolte

@ThoriumBR too late

ewwhite

is there a way to get abbreviated nslookup or host output?

ThoriumBR

some time ago I saw a friend install windows and get compromised before the installation finished...

Dennis Nolte

@ewwhite i think so, but depending on the setup there might be problems like proxy server not logging the source f.e.

ThoriumBR

the msblaster hit it during the installation. and he could not even connect the server to update. it was a fun afternoon...

ewwhite

2:57 PM

2

Q: How to safely reverse dns lookup on ip in a shell script

I'm trying to find out how to take in a hostname and pop out an ip address (reverse dns lookup). I came up with this but I'm not too sure it's safe across different linux distros: nslookup $ip|grep "name ="|sed 's/^.*name = //'| sed '$s/\.$//' It appears to be okay. The call to nslookup gives...

shell-script dns

Bob

@ThoriumBR I'm impressed it got utterly owned that quickly, though.

Dennis Nolte

@ThoriumBR thats why you have the files somewhere without internet connection, or a WSUS (the server, dunno exactly if its called that)

@ewwhite what exactly do you mean with host output? im quite sure you know you can disable DNS or use logresolve on the whole file without the delay on HF pages.

ewwhite

I'm just being tacky and getting through this timed interview

ThoriumBR

@DennisNolte it was a home computer, there were no other computer on the house, and he had just bought the computer.

and it was 10 years ago

Dennis Nolte

@ThoriumBR happens.. try to clean up a school when the IT class is the only one ever heard of that virus..

ThoriumBR

3:02 PM

we ended up installing windows with the computer disconnected, installed a trial firewall from some cd laying around, and updated later that day.

I worked on a university once. we had persistent infections from a virus that worked by bruteforcing that stupid network share password "protecting" windows 98 machines, and our users insisted on sharing C: with read and write privileges...

Dennis Nolte

@ThoriumBR i know that sort.. dont reason, just collect the money every time...

ThoriumBR

@DennisNolte I was an intern, so no money for me. I ended up just walking the campus with a heavy briefcase full of disks, screewdrivers and cables, disinfecting every computer, deleting the shares, just to come back the next week anyway...

Dennis Nolte

@ThoriumBR thats the prob with university : either you have some guy "i am prof i know what to do.." or you have "i dont care, fix it" and next time, its broken again, you fixed it wrong...

glad my customer contact is very limited, but even this stresses me out..

so many people are unable to follow simple directions..

disconnect power, wait 10 sec, connect power, wait 2min, call me.. do on location X

qoute: "i am at location X, what do i have to do now?"

Nathan C

hmmm...bots hitting my ftp server...

Dennis Nolte

@NathanC fail2ban, denyhosts, the usual stuff :)

ThoriumBR

3:08 PM

@DennisNolte some user was complaining because the 30GB disk was full. In 2004 that was almost like 2Tb now. We bought a 60gb disk, and while moving the data from the old drive to the new, we saw lots of pictures and videos with interesting filenames. I called my boss and he asked the professor why he had gigabytes of porn on his computer. he just told us that the files were research material and complained that 60GB was not enough.

Nathan C

True story. :p

Dennis Nolte

@ThoriumBR well, users..

ThoriumBR

he ended up getting even more space, downloaded a lot more porn and slowed down our network for Weeks, until he ran out of space again.

Dennis Nolte

@ThoriumBR you should have showed him Direct Connect, there was so much of everything, no way in hell you could watch that in a lifetime..

back then at least here in .de sharing was pretty legal, and with the high bandwidth of the university network (DFN) nearly all the guys had connections one could only dream off outside of the universities.

@ThoriumBR but they reached this spot pretty soon, when your download speed is faster than then your HDD

anyway, off for weekend, hf

ThoriumBR

@DennisNolte that time we had only a 1mbps connection on our campus with 1000+ users. he was connected to the main router, with priority access because the professor offices are more important than the student labs.

@DennisNolte at my next job, I saw the guys destroying our bandwith downloading porn on emule and kazaa, so I created a program to show random fake error messages, move the mouse around, and blamed the porn. I told them that the "viruses" they caught every time would send all their files by email to everyone, and the managers would fire them.

the bandwidth consumption problem was solved overnight

HopelessN00b

3:20 PM

@ThoriumBR BOFHing for good. Interesting idea... I may give that a go one of these days... if BOFHing for evil gets boring, anyway.

ThoriumBR

other day I wrote a script that performec gateway arp poisoning on users that we saw downloading porn. that was fun too...

Matt Bear

3:36 PM

Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol

The Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP) is a facetious communications protocol for controlling, monitoring, and diagnosing coffee pots. It is specified in RFC 2324, published on 1 April 1998 as an April Fools' Day RFC, as part of an April Fools prank. An extension is published as RFC 7168 on 1 April 2014 to support brewing teas, which is also an April Fools' Day RFC. == Protocol == RFC 2324 was written by Larry Masinter, who describes it as a satire, saying "This has a serious purpose – it identifies many of the ways in which HTTP has been extended inappropriately." The wording of the...

Webcam

A webcam is a video camera that feeds or streams its image in real time to or through a computer to computer network. When "captured" by the computer, the video stream may be saved, viewed or sent on to other networks via systems such as the internet, and email as an attachment. When sent to a remote location, the video stream may be saved, viewed or on sent there. Unlike an IP camera (which connects using Ethernet or Wi-Fi), a webcam is generally connected by a USB cable, or similar cable, or built into computer hardware, such as laptops. Their most popular use is the establishment of video links...

kinda interesting, the first webcam was set up to watch a coffee pot at cambridge

the second was set up in a girls dorm room, and she charged by the minute

Basil

Guess what I'm doing next week? Merging two Brocade FC switches without downtime!

3

A: Question has been deleted even it was not down voted though less visited?

From this post: Enable automatic deletion of old, unanswered zero-score questions after a year? If the question is more than 365 days old, and ... has a score of 0 or a score of 1 with a deleted owner has no answers is not locked has a viewcount ≤ the age of the question in days...

The old questions that fit @iain's filter sometimes have comments- should we be avoiding those?

freiheit

3:53 PM

@Basil You should read the questions and comments and make your own call.

Matt Bear

espresso machine in the office... best idea ever

Iain

4:09 PM

@Basil If they are old, even if they have comments, they are unlikely to be going anywhere. I just check that the comments don't contain an answer and vote accordingly. If the comments do have an answer steal it for yourself

Magellan

mornin' gents

tombull89

This week in two words: Fuck computers. This week in five words: fuck computers and printers, hard.

Bob

@tombull89 Careful of the paper jams.

Dennis Kaarsemaker

Error 404:
Your haiku could not be found.
Try again later.

Basil

@Iain But according to that meta answer I linked, if there is a comment, the tumbleweed batch jobs won't pick them up for deletion

Iain

4:22 PM

@Basil then close them :)

Michael Hampton

The comments are usually worthless. Or they indicate that they solved their problem long ago and abandoned us. Or whatever. Keep 'em coming.

Iain

@Basil I've been using a custom close reason effectively - old unloved unlikely to be answered

Michael Hampton

And I've been going through the close queue and deleting them outright.

Basil

I've been downvoting them only... does a score of -1 make them something that will get deleted?

Michael Hampton

I dunno?

Basil

4:26 PM

@MichaelHampton I mean auto-deleted by the tumbleweeds script

Michael Hampton

@Basil Right, I don't know. I think it should.

Magellan

And Take 2. Mornin' All.

Iain

@Magellan g'day

so room owners have powah now meta.stackexchange.com/a/239226 @Zoredache @MDmarra

Magellan

4:42 PM

@Iain and see, I'd totally have figured you for an 'A-hoy-hoy' kind of guy instead of g'day.

Iain

@Magellan G'day is as timezone neutral as I can make it

Bob

This will delete *all* configuration, log, and variable data associated with this application.

*** You have 60 seconds to hit CTRL-C ***

how nice.

Magellan

@Iain i figure it's morning somewhere. especially since I work APAC shift mostly

Iain

@Magellan it's always morning somewhere

Magellan

@Iain it's always 5 o'clock somewhere too, but my wife won't let me start drinking as soon as I wake up either. =/

Zoredache

4:54 PM

Wow I can kick/mute people... Fun.

84104

@Zoredache All hail @Zoredache, our new overlord!

Zoredache

@84104 kicked. :p

Stack Exchange

The Nubby Admin: My Simple Trick for Quickly Making Secure Passwords

posted on September 12, 2014 by WesleyDavid

I’m frequently required to make test accounts on various systems. I need to create passwords that are obnoxiously long and complex many times in a day. My method for creating those passwords requires OpenSSL to be installed on my workstation: $ alias secpass="openssl rand -base64 24" $ secpass $ thvxAWI5RT9Skmb/9zQ041zxF+P2enKe A base 64 password has, ...Advertisement: (adsbyg…

Iain

@84104 let me just test this new powah ...

Zoredache

Respect my authoritah!

2

Nathan C

4:57 PM

Huh, I was running ProduKey on the network and one of the applications it finds is "Internet Explorer"

I'm confused O.o

84104

@StackExchange @Wesley I've been partial to base64 /dev/urandom | head -n 1

ewwhite

@Iain Is Sram popular there?

Iain

@ewwhite I see a bit of it, probably more than campag

Wesley

@84104 That works too!

@84104 Comment to share the brains. Or I can rip you off with an update to the post. =P

@ewwhite Your mom is popular here.

ewwhite

@Iain Campagnolo is over... like a shitty version of Apple

Wesley

5:00 PM

@ewwhite My build is going to be sram

ewwhite

with all the fanbois

Although, Sram has a weird industrial "robot penis" design thing going now.

Magellan

@ewwhite It always seems to come back around to porn with you. =D

Iain

@Wesley tr -cd '[:alnum:]' < /dev/urandom | fold -w32 | head -n1`

ewwhite

@Magellan Sorry... not enough sex.

Wesley

@Iain That's some next level stuff.

@ewwhite I'm not seeing the robot penis.

Iain

5:06 PM

@Wesley I don't recall where I picked it up but if I need to generate a password it's what I use

@Wesley ditto

Wesley

@Iain Doesn't work on Macs apparently, but I haven't tooled around with it apart from copy pasta

Iain

@ewwhite the MLP1 is one of my favourite tools

ewwhite

@Iain I'm unfamiliar... I think

Nathan C

Heh...so many reused keys

I suppose that happens when you have to buy retail copies for every machine that needs office

Iain

@Wesley what doesn't it do ?

@ewwhite you have one in that photo

ewwhite

5:12 PM

Oh, that master link tool?

Iain

yep

ewwhite

I use it twice a year :)

I'm sitting in a pile of bike gear and a smelly puppy... had an interesting interview with a fellow from Ireland.

Iain

@ewwhite I don't have as many chains as you to spread the load over so I use it more frequently

ewwhite

it's 50 degrees and cold rain in Chicago today...

so stuck inside.

Iain

@ewwhite it's 68f here atm. I'm in South Wales on vacation - lovely little hay loft apartment in a 250 year old barn

ewwhite

5:17 PM

Sounds lovely.

and you don't have to work!

MichelZ

sup

why do you guys have time to hang out here the whole fucking day?

how can I do that, too?

ewwhite

We just don't do our work.

Basil

@MichelZ I leave this open while I work.

ewwhite

I mean, my Trello is out of control...

It's yelling at me... and the cards have all turned brown.

MichelZ

@ewwhite that does not look good for you

ewwhite

5:23 PM

I'm having a motivation problem this week.

ewwhite

5:37 PM

er, month...

Bob

5:52 PM

oh god. I have no idea what I'm doing with Linux startup scripts.

sysvinit? upstart? systemd? what on earth is going on...

MichelZ

@Bob replace them with windows?

Basil

Once a quarter, I'm useful here:

0

A: No LUNs visible on ESXi 5.5 using Brocade 825 connected to EMC VNX 5300

You probably need to configure that Brocade card for FC-AL (that's arbitrated loop, or no-fabric mode, and it's needed for direct storage connections). Normal HBAs (like QLogic and Emulex) do it out of the box, but Brocade (at least the 815s, presumably your 825 as well) don't.

Bob

@MichelZ Heh, if only :P

MichelZ

6:05 PM

@Basil uuh yeah, I remember FC-AL from my storage days

and N-PORT, F-PORT and all that shit

Basil

@MichelZ It's fun stuff

MichelZ

we have FCOE now

no need for that stuff

what's the data rate currently?

16 gbit? more?

Basil

16Gb/s

I'd like FCoE if only to avoid double cabling everything

problem is we use Cisco for ethernet, and we use Brocade for FC

Brocade's ethernet is pants, and Cisco's FC is pants

MichelZ

:)

Basil

well, maybe not in a green-field install, I suppose, but we'd have to redo a ton of work to migrate

MichelZ

6:08 PM

no converged?

Basil

@MichelZ that's it- what do we converge on? Cisco?

MichelZ

ah, got it

Basil

If so, someone's got to give me enough money to hire a few guys for a year

Probably Cisco, to be honest

because we have a lot more IP than FC out there that would have to change to the new standard

MichelZ

or just go 100 gbit iscsi :)

Basil

If we get 100Gb, we're using it on the backup network before we use it on the storage network. And if we have money for that, why don't we have money to upgrade the 10/100 backup nics at our remote sites?

FC is what we have, and FC works.

MichelZ

6:11 PM

10/100???

lol

Basil

yeah

we have dozens of small sites, some of which have no onsite tech and only a couple of office workers

To be honest, I think they finally finished rolling Gb ethernet out to all the remote sites, now

MichelZ

how often do they replace that shit?

every 20 years?

Basil

Depends

We have stuff older than that in some sites

MichelZ

ok

voretaq7

@MichelZ "Run Until Failure"

Basil

6:17 PM

I'm not on the networking side, so everything I know is scuttlebutt from the backup guys

but yeah, we had to pay for new switches out of the backup budget and then wait literally years as they installed them

MichelZ

sounds like an efficient infrastructure

Basil

More or less

Installing a switch outside of the storage world means scheduled outages

50 sites or so

that's 50 unique mixes of applications that have to find a common time to let us take them down

MichelZ

are you 24//?

24/7?

Basil

yes

trains stop for noone :)

MichelZ

but should be reduced during the night

and if they are so important - the systems are redundant ;)

Basil

6:24 PM

yes, all our outages occur at night

and during that time, the work was done over a WAN to another site

but the latency and bandwidth makes everything slower

so trucks can't be ingested as quickly

trains can't be built or dispatched as quickly

An outage costs of tens of millions of dollars. Slowdowns cost us millions of dollars, depending on how slow and how long

MichelZ

sounds like an easy decision for fully redundant stuff

why does it cost so much money?

do trains go slower if your system is slower?

Ry Jones

@MichelZ he just said it's slower to ingest trucks and dispatch trains.

MichelZ

@RyJones yes, but just because of 600ms latency?

Ry Jones

@MichelZ perhaps there are tighter requirements on CTC?

MichelZ

hey, I just like to understand that shit... makes me smarter :)

Ry Jones

6:31 PM

also, if I'm working outside trying to order the trucks, if every button press on the UI takes an extra 1200ms to respond - that's going to suck

MichelZ

@RyJones it probably does, yes. but I don't suppose every click you make is 100k$

Ry Jones

@MichelZ I don't know. Perhaps if the entire network is slow, and they have a couple dozen people ingesting trucks.

MichelZ

could be... but that's why I'm asking

Ry Jones

I still feel guilt about not understanding some of the operational requirements for a system I maintained in the late 80s, so I don't assume anything any more :)

Chopper3

amateur hour

0

Q: Many esx hosts behind router.

I have this setup - Two ESXi servers on a LAN connected to router with WAN. Now when I want to access first ESXi server i create port forwarding rule for ports 443 and 902 and it works. The second server uses the same ports, so I redirect f.e 444 and 903 on router for the second host ports (443 a...

vmware-esxi remote-access vmware-workstation

MichelZ

6:42 PM

@Chopper3 Why would you advise him to publish the ESX Servers at all?!

sounds kinda wrong to me :)

tombull89

well I knew that was a mistake

faker

German tax system is weird! If I hire an accountant I can do my taxes latest 2014-12-31. If I do them myself I should have put them in 2014-05-31. Why does a professional get more time?

tombull89

Jenny: Btw what is fps ????
Tom: frames per second...basically how well the game runs. You'd expect to get at least 30 for the game to be playable.
Jenny: How can it be install fps ?

HOW CAN IT BE INSTALL FPS?

faker

@tombull89 apt-get install fps

obviously only on linux because it's faster!

MichelZ

@faker because he does not have to do a single tax form, but hundrets?

Chopper3

6:52 PM

@MichelZ It's a clusterfuck

Basil

@MichelZ Sorry, was on coffee break. So if our gate system has to use CIFS to save pictures of the trucks over the WAN, it means that we can ingest maybe a quarter the number of trucks per hour. This leads to an increase in terminal dwell time for trains, as well as a higher average number of cars in the yard, which has a congesting effect.

Congestion in one yard and delays from trains in that yard have a ripple effect- think of it like what happens if a single flight gets delayed 4 hours- how many missed connections were on that flight, if it was to a major hub

faker

@MichelZ yeah, well that's his job, he'll have to do them anyway. And his clients will go to him last minute anyway no matter what date

Basil

There is plenty of give in the system, which is why we can ever get maintenance windows, but it's so complex that sometimes, even though everyone knows what we'll be doing and when we'll do it, it still ends up slowing trains down.

Nathan C

@Basil And of course, Murphy's Law.

Basil

One way of pushing the envelope, to use my truck pictures application as an example, is to start sending the trucks through even though they haven't been photographed. This means relying on manual inspection and routing, which was how all freight was treated until very recently, but that leaves us open for lawsuits (we can't prove that the damage was there before we took ownership without a photo) and delays (Oops, that 7 was a messy 1, and it's gone 200 miles in the wrong direction)

@NathanC IT is a frequent victim of murphy, however we do a pretty good job of making the worst possible scenario for the business be better than it would otherwise have been

MichelZ

6:59 PM

Thanks @basil

@faker yes, but he has to do many of them. whereas you as an individual only have to do one

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