The Comms Room

Chopper3

13:00

just had a software vendor complain that our offshore test team's rig was seriously slow compared to our onshore test rig - the offshore numpties didn't know why, found out they'd NEVER deleted a single snapshot EVER - some VMs had >30 snaps on them. The back of my metaphoric hand is sore from overslapping them all

Scott Pack

Maybe they thought you might want to revert to a 3 year old image.

Bart Silverstrim

I wish I could revert to a 3 year old.

@Chopper3, get the message about photosynth? Didn't know if you'd like to play with that app on your iPhone.

Chris S

13:19

One more incident that turns me off to "cloud" services... MS's Live ID is down right now, which takes several of their hosted services with it.

SmallClanger

13:29

and people wonder why centralised sign-on hasn't taken off...

Holocryptic

@Chopper3 Wait, you mean you can't run VMs with snapshot stacks and not have degraded performance? Consider my mind blown... /sarc

hello, by the way

@BenPilbrow Regarding SIS, it's only good as long as no one touches the attached document. Once they do, it breaks SIS and another copy is created in the EDB. Is my understanding of it anyways.

MarkM

Yoooo, folks

Bart Silverstrim

Someone's in a good mood. Liquid breakfast?

Holocryptic

yo

MarkM

Nah, no breakfast

liquid or otherwise

Holocryptic

13:45

I had some Italian sausage at 4am and a chocolate shake at about 8. I'm still hungry.

Scott Pack

I had some granola and soymilk around 7:45, and now coffee. I'm feeling pretty well balanced.

Chopper3

@BartSilverstrim sorry, was away, no, didn't see that message, what was it?

Bart Silverstrim

Sysadmins are weird.

Hyppy

@Chopper3 A former colleague of mine used to try and explain that it was "Best Practice" to keep a snapshot of each VM from when all the applications were first installed.

Chopper3

Isn't that called...a backup?

jscott

14:02

You say tomato, I say banana.

4

Hyppy

@Chopper3 It was actually super-double backed up, since it was on a RAID set too!

Holocryptic

Backups are for sissies who don't trust their environment just works

jscott

Real men don't make backups, etc, etc.

Bart Silverstrim

Real men outsource it so when the data's lost, they can blame someone.

In the US, real men outsource it so when the data's lost they can threaten a lawsuit.

brainless

hi all

please help me to solve a problem

0

Q: Browser fails to load some websites with Static IP internet connection.

We are using static IP internet connection and we have connected 4 computers with single internet connection using NAT/Router device. The problem is that when we try to load some websites Eg. AWS. The website is not loading completely and it loads like below and hangs, and when we try...

MarkM

14:05

@brainless This isn't really a live support room. We just hang out here and pass time while watching progress bars

13

DanBig

And porn.

MarkM

If you have a really urgent problem and can't get answers, then I can understand it, but you only asked that question 17 minutes ago.

Holocryptic

My server's compiling

Bart Silverstrim

progress bars? /Gulp...slams glass down...

MarkM

Oh yeah, and porn.

@BartSilverstrim Got a problem?

Holocryptic

14:07

@MarkM No, he's got a solution

Bart Silverstrim

</shakes glass>...yeah. It's empty.

MarkM

Hahaha

Bart Silverstrim

It's called support roulette. Phone rings, take a shot. Server sends automated message, take a shot. Switch out a tape for the backup, take a shot. Floor hits you in the face,...try to take another shot.

2

MarkM

I hate getting sucker punched by the floor. So much.

Bart Silverstrim

"I am Simon, Lord of the NOC and keeper of the secrets of the Mystic Server Room. This is Intern... my fearless friend. Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me the day I held aloft my magic bottle and said... By the power of Grey Goose!"

5

voretaq7

14:18

@BartSilverstrim I prefer "By the power of Speyside!" myself

Bart Silverstrim

"Intern became the Mighty Battle Gofer, and I became He-Admin, the most powerful admin in the universe!"

Scott Pack

mmmm...speyside scotch

DanBig

My co-worker got me a bottle of Knob Creek 9 year single barrel for my birthday. My god, its delicious.

Scott Pack

@DanBig Knob Creek's not too bad. I recommend Blanton's

Woodford Reserve is also acceptable, but is still a bit rougher than I prefer.

Bart Silverstrim

Grey goose just seems to fit better with Greyskull.

DanBig

14:22

I'm just starting to get into the scotch/bourbon game

Bart Silverstrim

Trying to get through the date-of-birth on grey goose's website is a sobriety test.

If your liquor can't be lit, it ain't worthy of an admin.

Scott Pack

I'm more of a gin man, but on occasion I do like a nice bourbon or scotch.

Bart Silverstrim

I really want to make some puppets...NOT SOCK PUPPETS...and create a mini-webseries based on He-Admin now.

voretaq7

0

Greetings, Can anyone recommend a good third party DNS provider for the cost? I have looked at DynDNS, UltraDNS and DNS Made Easy however they have high price points.

dns hosting dyndns

my comment too harsh?

MarkM

I was at a party a few weeks ago with an open bar. Me and a friend drank a whole bottle of McCallan. That's the last time anyone invites us to an open bar.

SmallClanger

14:25

@voretaq7: Perfectly sensible response, IMO.

Bart Silverstrim

Was it due to the finishing the bottle, or due to the cost of replacing furniture by the time you were done?

Holocryptic

@voretaq7 nope, not bad.

MarkM

I didn't puke anywhere in the bar. Instead, I puked in the car. Three times.

Scott Pack

@MarkM How old was she?

Bart Silverstrim

@Vore: no problem I see.

voretaq7

14:28

I was trying to be gentle, but I've had NO COFFEE thus far...

MarkM

@ScottPack The girl's party was for her 25th. The guy whose car I went exorcist on is 24

Scott Pack

@MarkM No, the scotch. I don't care about the girl.

MarkM

18 i believe

Not positive, I was pretty wasted when we noticed that bottle

Scott Pack

There's a pretty sizable price difference between 12 and 18. The former isn't too bad, the latter...ouch.

voretaq7

"Never drink a scotch that is not old enough to drink"
(Because of variable standards, that can mean moonshine straight out of the still, 18 year old or 21 year old scotch, depending on where you are…)

MarkM

14:31

I'm not a big scotch drinker, but when else am I going to get to go 1:1 with a bottle of McCallan and not have to pay a dime.

It was worth the cleaning bill for my buddy's car.

Holocryptic

2500 rep. Shiny

MarkM

I think that's the only time I've thrown up from drinking since I turned 21.

Ben Pilbrow

@Holocryptic is it too late to remove an upvote :P

Holocryptic

heh

Huh, that's weird though. My new rep isn't showing when I load meta

Chopper3

wow, found myself defending TomTom...

SmallClanger

14:35

serverfault.com/questions/261745/… - How do you pad out "You don't."

MarkM

@Chopper3 You should go home and rest.

Ben Pilbrow

@Holocryptic it updates hourly(ish)

voretaq7

@SmallClanger Bart and I are good at padding out "no No NO NO NO!"

Chopper3

He's right though; serverfault.com/questions/261636/…

voretaq7

XP Must Die!

SmallClanger

14:39

Not sure the OS is his problem, though. SMB is shit at latency over ~100ms.

MarkM

I'm sure SMB2 would help

Not that it's the solution to his current problem

Chopper3

but he's mod-alerting me saying that TomTom's not being constructive, he is

GregD

@Chopper3 True dat

Bart Silverstrim

Well...that's kind of funny.

After I put the He-Man spoof up, I just got notified "You gained a new privilege!"...I can protect questions. <...I...am...HE-ADMIN! I HAVE THE POWER!>

Holocryptic

Well, now we know the world as we know it is about to end. They're finding aliens in Siberia and @Chopper3 is defending TomTom. Everyone get your bugout bags prepped.

Iain

14:44

is it OK to be snarky to this guy ? serverfault.com/questions/261654/…

Holocryptic

@Iain yes, but you didn't hear that from me

Iain

I just don't believe some people

voretaq7

@Iain I snark.

You snark.

he she or it snarks.

the user cries.

Everybody wins.

Iain

lol

GregD

I think snarky is a prerequisite for sysadmins

Bart Silverstrim

14:49

Oh lordy if I were intoxicated that would be a question to read for pure giggles.

MarkM

0

Q: SQL 7 installation guideline

Hi All, My company was in the mid to migration the old application to Oracle. Due to japan nuclear disaster, we need to set up the BCP for Japan at my country. SQL 7 is a very old application, several thing i might not forsee. Hope can get some guideline here. Basically, we need to create a wi...

sql windows windows-server-2000

...

DanBig

for the lulz

Bart Silverstrim

Well, that kind of sucks. NeoOffice 3.2 isn't free anymore. But the website says it's donation funded.

But they require a donation to download.

So...it's not free.

Andrew H

anyone here in nyc?

Bart Silverstrim

And they don't tell you any of it until you try to download.

David

14:51

funny, i just downloaded neooffice yesterday.

Andrew H

need advice getting hold of some juniper or cisco kit kinda quickly

MarkM

@AndrewH @Zypher is, but I don't think he's in chat right now.

David

No donation was made.

Bart Silverstrim

3.2?

Andrew H

@MarkM cheers

@Zypher would appreciate a shout back regarding network kit in nyc

Bart Silverstrim

14:52

If you have a support contract with them I think they get it to you within a short window of time.

GregD

We're allowed to be snarky because it's still against the law to shoot end-users

12

Iain

@GregD I don't like to be snarky straight off but sometimes it just has to be done

MarkM

A friend just got a job at a place called "Octagon Research Solutions" and he refuses to tell me what he does there or what kind of company they are. All I know is that they exist and that their website looks like it's a front for a company that's making the doomsday device.

Should I be concerned?

Chopper3

@MarkM He could just Joel, he'd know in Kyle's absence?

Holocryptic

@MarkM That has Umbrella Corp written all over it

Even the symbol in the logo is the same

MarkM

14:56

I keep asking him how many hidden passages they have per office, and he won't answer.

Bart Silverstrim

Hmm...depends. Is it just the job that he won't talk about?

And does he have better toys there at his desk than you have?

MarkM

He's not in IT, so our toys are apples to oranges.

Chopper3

I have some friends who work at a particular UK security service, oddly enough there's no easter break for them this year, though they'll be able to take a few days directly after next Friday :)

MarkM

I feel like he might be helping to create super villains and I really wish that he'd let me be a part of it.

Bart Silverstrim

The place that makes "game changing software"?

Chopper3

14:58

like mods?

new levels etc :)

Bart Silverstrim

Something about clinical software.

MarkM

All I'm saying is that when they launch the death star, he'd better give me fair warning.

Bart Silverstrim

They want a java developer in Wayne, PA. Can't be all that effective in creating supervillains if that's what they're using.

Iain

Oh dear - serverfault.com/questions/261767/… your Linux machine dies

Bart Silverstrim

octagonresearch.com/careers.html

jscott

15:01

I wonder if their Linux CLI is using a different bash.

MarkM

Yeah, tell me that site doesn't scream "we have a hidden lair somewhere"

Bart Silverstrim

Um...that bash question...mind...bashed...you asked wha?

voretaq7

once again on my high horse about PCI-DSS & key rotation.

preaching blasphemy for fun and profit.

Bart Silverstrim

Hey, who here is familiar with University of Phoenix?

jscott

See those adverts all the damn time.

Are you a Phoenix?

Bart Silverstrim

15:10

Wondering what the temperature is in the world of regard for them...see it on a resume (CV) and what do you think interviewing a candidate listing it as a school.

voretaq7

I'm aware of University of Phoenix - never interviewed anyone from there though...

Bart Silverstrim

I'm Gryffindor!

My thought was that they were a diploma mill...but apparently they're accredited now?

jscott

Working in edu, we see a lot of college kids come through for internships/co-ops.

voretaq7

Re UofPhoenix: nytimes.com/2007/02/11/education/…

jscott

Even some of the "better" schools 'round here can churn out, ummm, under qualified individuals.

voretaq7

15:12

It's a mixed bag - I wouldn't say it makes me rule out a candidate, but I'd rely on them impressing me in an interview rather than letting the credentials impress me...

David

.

Chopper3

@BartSilverstrim I'm definitely Slytherin

voretaq7

@David ;

Chris S

@BartSilverstrim They're still as close to a Diploma Mill as you can get while staying accredited. Most of the accreditation process involves the credentials of your staff/faculty and the content your programs cover (though not necessarily what they test students on....)

Hyppy

@BartSilverstrim Resumes with Phoenix, DeVry, Everest, Kaplan, etc. generally get shredded pre-interview at the places I've worked.

Chris S

15:18

Hrm.. made some changes to an ASA, was running fine, saved changes and reloaded it, now it's not coming back up... and of course it's the remote one and not the one sitting on my desk (both are in testing, but one's at my house to better simulate a remote network).

Hyppy

@ChrisS Press F1 to continue... (I keed)

Bart Silverstrim

Re: DoP that's kind of what I thought...

Ben Pilbrow

@Hyppy you've got it all wrong. Keyboard error: no keyboard. Press F1 to continue :-)

Bart Silverstrim

Extremely overpriced for-profit online schools whose degrees are near worthless.

Hyppy

@BartSilverstrim Ehh, you say online like it's inherently a bad thing. Online (or at least semi-online) can be done well.

Bart Silverstrim

15:21

I meant online schools like UoP

My wife got her masters through U of Scranton online.

It's an actual campus college that offers online courses for certain classes.

Hyppy

@BartSilverstrim Exactly, that's how it's supposed to be

Bart Silverstrim

Apparently there's a number of diploma mills running entirely virtual.

Hyppy

None of this 1000-mile-away-proctor crap...

Holocryptic

@BartSilverstrim Can you say: ITT? That's my alma mater, and I highly discourage anyone from going there. EVER.

Hyppy

I used to work for ITT, actually. (The former parent company, not the school)

Holocryptic

15:31

It got me where I am today because of the people I met. But it's overpriced and you're pushed through too quick. You get some basics, but I learned everything I know now from on the job training.

Chris S

UoP has graduation rates as low as 4% at some of it's campuses. That's pretty fricking impressive... I don't know how you do that bad and still say in business.

Holocryptic

government funding

Hyppy

@Holocryptic Almost every degree is like that, save for very few exceptions

Chris S

Yeah; but the government only funds students going there... you'd think they'd run out of students!

Holocryptic

@ChrisS They have a great marketing team. Have you seen those commercials? Shiny!

Bart Silverstrim

15:37

@Holo: for ITT or UoP?

Chris S

Tuition for UoP is $9630 per year; and they say that's half of a private college... My alma mater is $31,544/yr with standard room and board, not including books. Most of the public universities in the area are in the middle teens with R&B.

@BartSilverstrim Both from what I've seen on TV

Dave Drager

"University" of Phoenix is all over here

Chris S

I suddenly feel the need to start saving for college though I don't have kids yet...

Dave Drager

I have lots of opinions on them, what's the question?

Chris: There is going to be a huge revolt in colleges soon. The problem right now is the college loan bubble.

Chris S

@DaveDrager No real questions... Just how the heck they stay in business....

Bart Silverstrim

15:39

@Dave: you see them listed on a resume, is it a strike/bonus/nil on the candidate.

Chris S

@BartSilverstrim If it's for anything higher than secretary/help-desk/etc, it gets the shred bin.

Dave Drager

They stay in business because they sell the dream of making more money, and people are desperate to do so. I am against them in principle, but real "Accredited" universities are not much better.

Chris S

For those low levels, there isn't much you could put on there to really hurt your chances... Formatting/grammar/spelling/etc usually weed out those resumes, not the actual content.

Dave Drager

For background, I am currently going for my Masters in Comp Sci at an accredited university.

Hyppy

@ChrisS College money for youngsters is easy: "Be All You Can Be"

jscott

15:42

The "best" part, for us, is the Civil Service requirement for hiring. There are some real winners on the eligibility lists.

Dave Drager

Here is the problem with universities in general - since loans are generally approved for education expenses, tuition is increasing just because the amount of loans people can get are increasing. There's been talk a long time now of the educational financing bubble.

Holocryptic

@Hyppy It's "An Army of One" now. You're behind the times

Chris S

@Hyppy Yeah; perhaps not such a good idea, though in 20 years who know if we'll still be the world's police...

Dave Drager

College tuition has been growing at about 8-10% a year when inflation is maybe 3% (over the past 15 years)

jscott

@Holocryptic Nope... "Army Strong"

Holocryptic

15:42

@jscott damn

Chris S

Though I suppose in 20 years they'll just be drone pilots... See the movie Surrogates?

@DaveDrager A large part of that is cuts to educational programs...

jscott

Ender's Game?

Dave Drager

Here is what is going to save the system - there is a huge opening right now for some kind of accreditation program built on the free material that is currently available online. You can literally gain access to the same tools a university student has for free, but you just don't get credit for taking the classes or studying the course.

@ChrisS In higher ed? There have been some cuts, and thats only for state schools. Private colleges are totally different.

Bart Silverstrim

Private colleges, i believe, still get funding from public sources.

Dave Drager

I think they might get grants for specific projects but not general funding.

Chris S

15:48

I got many thousands from government sources, many of those programs have since been cut.

Bart Silverstrim

What @DaveDrager sounds like he's proposing (accreditation using free resources) is another way of saying recognizing that you can actually teach yourself a skill.

Dave Drager

Exactly.

Bart Silverstrim

We have something similar as a system. All these certs you can get. You take a test for XYZ skill and pass it.

Dave Drager

But there is no money in it, but there is money in selling the dream to potential students, hence University of Phoenix

Bart Silverstrim

Then we ended up with a lot of "paper admins." Ugh.

Or company-sponsored propaganda.

I remember many years ago reading a study guide for the Netware certs. The questions were laughable.

Hyppy

15:54

@BartSilverstrim You say that like it would be a new thing. coughMCSEcough

Bart Silverstrim

They'd boil down to, "You want to do XYZ. do you, A) do this stupid and unreasonable option, B) use unicorn farts-powered fanciful solution that doesn't work properly from Microsoft, C) implement using fully robust and industry proven Novell Netware Solution, or D) shoot yourself in the head..."

If you said C, congratulations! You remembered why you're taking this test for a couple hundred bucks!

Dave Drager

They say the only thing tests prove is that you are good at taking tests.

Holocryptic

yep

jscott

So then, do you [anyone still reading] think certs are mostly useless?

Bart Silverstrim

Personally I do.

Chris S

15:58

While being good at taking tests helps, the newer breed of MS test as much harder than they used to be.

Bart Silverstrim

There are so many study guides and exam guides that you can memorize what you need to pass.

Chris S

And there's no getting around the simulation test, you have to be able to do the requested configuration on a live VM.

jscott

@ChrisS Oh wow, simulation tests! That's sounds kinda cool.

Chris S

I guess I differ from most in that I don't think Certs are useless when they're capping off years of experience.

@jscott I loved them because the tasks are silly-easy for an experienced admin worth his oats.

Holocryptic

never took a cert test, so don't know

Bart Silverstrim

16:01

Maybe it depends on the test.

jscott

That's why I ask. I've the experience, and the knowledge, at least I think I do, but I lack any cert/degree.

Chris S

It depends on the cert level too... A+, Network+, MCP/MCTS tests are all very easy... they mean nothing.

Bart Silverstrim

I can create a cert in Photoshop saying I know Windows 2008...does that show how experienced I am in Windows 2008 or Photoshop?

jscott

It's not [yet] hindered my employment, but at times I am sure people think there is something missing when they're reading my "qualifications".

Hyppy

@jscott CCNP and higher are definitely worthwhile. Most of the VMware certs are good. CompTIA is crap, but for some reason resume-readers like 'em. Not many people trust MS certs anymore.

Chris S

16:02

The MS PRO test in particular though are much harder, I had a fun time with those...

Holocryptic

I had a customer that was "certified" in Windows 2008 (according to his email sig) but didn't know what a .zip file was. True story

Bart Silverstrim

@holo: that's another aspect of why I don't trust them.

Chris S

MS needs a better structure to their system.. Everyone knows the MCSE was too easy to get, so they came up with MCITP... but that doesn't sound like it's that much better than the MCTS (which replaced the MCP)..... confused yet?

@Holocryptic Yeah, the MCTS certs in Win2k8 are quite easy, I'd believe that.

jscott

@ChrisS I do so love the alphabet soup you can find in email sigs

Holocryptic

"You want me to send you a 15MB log file to you? That's too big for the email server." "It's a text file, just zip it up and send it to me" "How do you do that?" headdesk

jscott

16:05

Wat?

0

Q: in-car server, avoid disk error when power interruption?

Hi, guys I have a low powered 1U server in my car which collect some data, but when I stop my car and remove my key, the power for the linux box will be cut immediately for the computer. And power back when key is in. There will be 1-2 MySQL insert per minute into the disk. Questions: Can I ...

linux ubuntu ups

A for you RB fans: theregister.co.uk/2011/04/20/black_threats

Holocryptic

You need that power over air thingy

Bart Silverstrim

I've met other people who are certified in things but totally clueless to basic system use.

Hyppy

@BartSilverstrim I've found that to be quite common with anyone who has ".Net" in their title or qualifications

SmallClanger

oops

/me breaks his "Typing into chat instead of browser window" virginity.

2

Ben Pilbrow

@SmallClanger Could be worse.... I've so very nearly typed night xxx into this chat window :/

SmallClanger

16:13

Heh, I'm just glad it wasn't a root password.

Hyppy

@dm1nP@$$w0rd_178524_P

wait, what?

Holocryptic

@BenPilbrow What kind of sites are you going to?

Ben Pilbrow

Err MSN!!

Holocryptic

riiiiiiiggghhhht

SmallClanger

You know you're officially consuming too much bandwidth when you get your peering hops:

you-tube-in.edge2.sanjose1.level3.net (4.79.40.178) 7.822 ms * 9.016 ms

Hyppy

16:22

@SmallClanger roflmao. So specific, too. Not even "To Google."

Bart Silverstrim

There were death threats against Rebecca Black?!

How can this be allowed!!?? It probably will affect which seat she chooses to sit in though.

SmallClanger

She must be used to it. That's why she varies her routine at random to foil would be assassins (would might then place very small bombs under the wrong seat.)

Bart Silverstrim

I read a story saying she has the officially most disliked video on YouTube, finally beating out Beiber.

Hyppy

16:45

@BartSilverstrim Omigawd. I finally broke down and watched it. I'm dislike number 2238094 now.

DanBig

Nothing says "Winning!", quite like dropping a spoonful of chili onto the crotch of ones light colored khakis. :/

Holocryptic

@DanBig Blame it on the intern...wait...That's not workplace appropriate. Never mind.

David

<O>

DanBig

Ascii goatse is not allowed in here.

Holocryptic

Is that what it is? I thought is was a pantomime of sit-ups.

DanBig

16:55

I dont know what it is. It's probably an indication of being completed jaded by the intertubes that goatse was the first thing i thought of.

Holocryptic

truth.

GregD

Does anyone even care about SLAs anymore?

jscott

@GregD Nope. We don't even use 'em here. :)

GregD

1

Q: Easy Offsite Backup

I've got a client that needs some form of daily offsite backup. He's got about 100GB of various files, including a 30GB SQL Server database that he really should be getting off of his own server and somewhere safe in the cloud on a daily basis. Many places offer this kind of functionality, but ...

backup

Holocryptic

Depends. For you as a sysadmin, or ISP providing you service? First one, no, second one, yes.

GregD

17:04

this question bothers me.

he makes an assumption that his data is "safe in the cloud"

2

Chopper3

I know lots of people that care about SLAs, personally I don't but they're about

Holocryptic

@GregD The cloud is all knowing and infallible. Get with the times.

SmallClanger

Ditto what @Holocryptic said. Interdepartmental SLAs just foster box ticking, but Something concrete you can wave at a failing service provider is essential.

Bart Silverstrim

Yay cloud! </fist pump>

Hyppy

17:22

@GregD The data doesn't need to be 100% safe in the cloud, just available for that .001% of the time that he needs it for restoring his set.

Holocryptic

@Hyppy That assumes he has 5 9's in place already. And if he's looking at hacked up hosting solutions, something tells me he probably doesn't.

I could be wrong though

GregD

but even with places like mozy/carbonite

their slas are pretty funky

I pay between $6000-$10000 a year for offsite backups

based on the fact that i have a rock-solid SLA

Holocryptic

F me. African drumming is back....

DanBig

Mozy and carbonite also have queued restores, so if SHTF, it could be a long time to restore everything

GregD

and I'm sorry but as @Holocryptic implies, any consultant who would recommend a hacked together offsite backup "solution", should be fired on the spot

Holocryptic

17:30

Please, can it rain 260 odd days so they do it inside the classroom instead of outside my window....?

Chopper3

@GregD we have 6 blokes with vans that moves tapes around the country - non-fun job eh

Zoredache

@GregD, so are you saying that people that don't have $10k to spend on an off-site backup, should just not perform backups?

GregD

I guess I'm just getting old. I'm tired of seeing non-professionals doing the work of professionals

@Zoredache Not at all. I'm saying people need to determine their clients needs and find an SLA that meets those needs.

that particular OP was looking to hack together two hosting service plans to backup his "clients" stuff

and if the SLA that fits their needs is too expensive, then they have to redetermine the level of risk they're comfortable with

until it matches a price they're willing to pay

If their data and their downtime is only worth 30 bucks, then by all means, use a 30 dollar backup solution.

Zoredache

@GregD, I agree his initial method was a poor kludge. But sometimes even professionals need to help clients that have needs that exceed their funding. Sometimes some spit, bubblegum, and bailing wire is about all you have to work with.

Ben Pilbrow

@GregD As an aside, your data might be fine in the cloud, but you might not be able to get at it. For example, recently our cloud email archive went up the swanny. The data was all there and intact, but we weren't able to see anything from the last month. The cloud is by no means flawless.

Zoredache

17:40

I also get annoyed that people call someone un-professional for simply not being aware of all the options.

Holocryptic

GregD

@Zoredache I'm not knocking that particular OP for not knowing what his options are. But the way that question is worded, indicates a level of unprofessionalism IMHO.

Holocryptic

heh, my webfilter blocked my own image

Tom O'Connor

Blogpost time: ISC dhcpd and PowerDNS : tomoconnor.eu/blogish/isc-dhcp-and-powerdns /cc @Jacob

Jacob

@TomOConnor huh?

Holocryptic

17:46

Flying Spaghetti Monster?

Tom O'Connor

You normally like reading my blogposts.

@Holocryptic yeah. I love easter, I get to eat lots of pasta.

Zoredache

@TomOConnor, is your network mostly Windows? Why not use Windows DNS and DHCP?

Tom O'Connor

@Zoredache too damn expensive.

seriously, we'd need like 2 windows servers, Cals, and all that, and it comes in at like 4000 quid for something that's nice to have.

Zoredache

So you don't already have the servers.

Tom O'Connor

nah

like, the testbed is running on some desktops i purloined.

running 2k8 eval version

Holocryptic

17:50

@TomOConnor is that just for licensing?

Zoredache

My point was, if you are going to setup a Windows domain, you might as well do it completely. Running a domain with dhcp and dns on Linux is far more difficult.

Tom O'Connor

I'm not going to do a windows domain anymore

but it'd be nice to still be able to do dhcp-dns stuff

If we had a fibre circuit into the office

i'd just put the domain cntrollers on EC2 and let amazon worry about my licensing problems

anyway, you can leave comments on my blog, if disqus is working. ..

GregD

Windows licensing can make grown men cry

Tom O'Connor

still, there's always SMBLdap

Holocryptic

Trying to wrap my head around British currency and their slang makes me cry

I had to look up quid. Again.

Tom O'Connor

17:54

@Holocryptic call it $8000

Jacob

DanBig

@TomOConnor, you have close to 50 desktops (running windoze?) and no AD?

Jacob

WOOT

Zoredache

@GregD, the key is, to be a school or non-profit, and just accept that you have to pay the school-agreement fee per-computer every year.

Tom O'Connor

@Jacob Ohhh wanty wanty want want

where'd you get that¬!?

@DanBig Yep!

Scott Pack

17:54

store.stackexchange.com/products/server-fault-t-shirt

DanBig

@TomOConnor, how are you sane?

Holocryptic

@Jacob Is that a headless person with BOOBS? It sure looks like it. What kind of dolls are you storing in your house, anyways?

Zoredache

Store!, when did that happen? I didn't see it in the SF blog

GregD

@Zoredache Ha. I just assume that I'll get no kiss before Microsoft rams it up you know where

@Jacob Nice shirt

Tom O'Connor

@DanBig I lost my marbles years ago.

Zoredache

17:56

@Jacob, how would you rate the quality of that shirt? Is it going to fall apart after a few wearings like many of the shirts you get at conferences? Or is it actually well made?

Scott Pack

Please comment on both the softness (and thickness!) of the fabric, as well as the quality of the silk screening.

Zypher

@Zoredache it's a soft opening right now

Jacob

I like it

Scott Pack

@Zypher That's what she said.

Jacob

It feels like it'll hold up for a while

@Zypher I'll be wearing it at PICC

Scott Pack

17:58

@Jacob If you insert your hand, and stretch the material over it slightly, can you see through it at all?

Zypher

@ScottPack yes, then i bitch slapped her and said take it anyway bitch :-D

2

@Jacob yea, the supply chain isn't really there yet, so its a soft opening until we get that fully squared away

Jacob

@Zypher So I'm the only one with a shirt? I ordered it 5 seconds after the store was announced

Zypher

lol nah we have some in stock but we don't have fulfillment fully online yet

so we have what we have and that's it right now

Chris S

Today started off so well, and now I'm in a pissy mood.... I got a mountain of paperwork from our new Telco and it's walked off, between their service people, Comcast's service people, and the fact that I didn't grab it and shove it away in a safe place, who knows where it is now... but I don't have it when I need it...

Jacob

@Zypher I'm happy I can wear it to PICC

Ben Pilbrow

18:08

Haa fail. I just looked at a Community bumped question, read the lone answer and thought "yeah, that sounds reasonable".
**You can't vote for your own post. (Click to dismiss)**

Hyppy

guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/20/…

Your iPhone keeps track of everywhere you've been since upgrading to iOS4...

jscott

@Hyppy OMG. Now I might actually have a chance at finding those keys I lost months ago!

Hyppy

Heh

jscott

Shit, it only stores it on the computer I sync with? Damn, only did that to activate the phone...

Jacob

@Hyppy Android FTW

Feeds

18:12

Blogish - Tom O'Connor: The Name Game

posted on January 01, 0001

This is real-life Social Engineering. The current meme is the "Pornstar Name" This meme is asking for your First Pet, and your Mother's Maiden Name. Seriously, These are two of the most common security questions used on a very large number of websites. By publicly tweeting the answer, you are handing over all the details a nefarious hacker needs to compromise your account, and st…

Blogish - Tom O'Connor: Identity Theft

posted on January 01, 0001

To prove a point about the latest "Pornstar Name" Meme that's currently going around Twitter. Basically, the meme asks for you to tweet your Pornstar name which is comprised of the name of your first pet, and your mother's maiden name. I'm furious about this. Those two names are the two most common answers to security questions found on a number of websites. So. A theo…

Blogish - Tom O'Connor: Proposal: Increasing Facebook Security

posted on January 01, 0001

As I proved in my last blogpost, it's actually trivial to compromise a facebook account given a very small amount of personal information. After talking to a number of other geeks on Friday night, two things became quite apparent. Facebook security is poor, at best, and the ability to change the user's contact email address is shocking. Security questions and secret answers are ea…

Blogish - Tom O'Connor: Policing the Tweet-waves

posted on January 01, 0001

On Saturday morning, I noticed a particularly dangerous meme (for want of a better word), making the rounds on Twitter. Basically, this image was being retweeted over 25 times a minute. After some digging around, I managed to trace the source of the image (that is, it's first known posting) to the /x/ board on 4chan. Tweetmeme tells us that it was first r…

Blogish - Tom O'Connor: ISC DHCP and PowerDNS

posted on January 01, 0001

Lately, I've been playing around with a pair of domain controllers in the office, trying to figure out a good way to implement a domain. See, the problem is, this kind of thing is a "nice-to-have" rather than a core requirement. At least as far as the business directors are concerned. Their argument is something like "It worked fine with just a bunch of PCs connected to a swi…

jscott

INCOMING!!!!

Zypher

eeek!

Robert Moir

yeah

jscott

Did @TomOConnor just get his RSS working or something? :)

Ben Pilbrow

Wow, @TomOConnor you're old. Like 2010 years old :-)

Sysadmin1138 Expounds

18:15

SysAdmin1138 Expounds: Coping with a domain outage

posted on April 20, 2011 by SysAdmin1138

Yesterday we were caught up in the Media Temple DNS server outage. Details about what happened are found here. We were out name resolution for two and a half hours. Paying customers couldn't get at our hosting, and our email stopped flowing. This is not an outage I'd dealt with before, as both WWU and my earlier job self-hosted their DNS servers. WWU had one off campus, but the first two record…

Zoredache

18:25

I wonder he doesn't have any DNS secondaries setup anywhere...

Chris S

18:40

@Sysadmin1138, freedns.afraid.org and buddyns.com

You can't beat free with a stick.

DNS failures happen, like any other external resource you have to assume you'll be invoking $DIETY and $SLA at their CSRs eventually, and if it's cost effective you provision secondary services to anticipate the failure. The only crappy part of this situation is that you're new, and almost certainly didn't have time to evaluate the network and find potential problems like before they occur.

DanBig

http://serverfault.com/questions/261884/ddwrt-seperate-wlan-from-lan
I'm thinking this should be moved to SU, only because he's using consumer hardware.

Chris S

18:56

@DanBig There's definitely more people on SU that know DDWRT stuff....

DanBig

@ChrisS, thats what I was thinking.

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