Musings from the Mount » Work Related

A Data Center cleaning we will go

guru — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:39:04 +0000

So as part of the rebuilding of the data center at work we are moving all of the premise wiring from under the floor to overhead cable management. When this Data Center was first built – servers were literally thrown in as fast as possible (because of downtime windows) and cables were just run as needed. As you can imagine – it got pretty damn ugly. Example:

I decided this year as part of rebuilding the entire network from the ground up to move everything out of the floor. This was the golden opportunity to fix this disaster. New switches, new punch down panels, etc. Lets just wire every rack and be done with it once and for all. I would say we are roughly 80% finished right now.

We used all Panduit parts for this. Mostly the channel risers, D-rings and lots and lots of Cable ties.

The Cable Tie Tool from Panduit is especially useful here. It tensions down the ties and then cuts them right at the locking mechanism. Leaving no jagged edges that you invariably cut yourself against 8 or 9 times. Suprisingly enough all of the various parts and pieces for the overhead cable management were under $2000 all said and done. Very cheap in my opinion.

I will post some more pictures of the finished room … as soon as that actually happens

Booksinprint2.com

guru — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:16:35 +0000

So we launched a preview of the new version of our flagship product “Books in Print” . Be sure to go check it out www.booksinprint2.com.

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Handy VMware ESX NFS Commands

guru — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:50:04 +0000

After migrating the networks on a few ESX servers the NFS mounts stayed inactive – I could browse them but no matter what I did they would not become active.

Two commands are useful here:

esxcfg-nas -r

This command will refresh the NFS subsystem which for me has worked everytime.

esxcfg-nas -l

This command will list all your NFS mounts – very helpful

Random cisco commands I tend to forget

guru — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:14:13 +0000

Switch Trunk Port:
macro apply cisco-switch $NVID

Non Trunk Port: Server Port:
macro apply cisco-desktop $AVID
*NOTE: Be aware that this macro does enable port security

Phone Port
macro apply cisco-phone $AVID $VVID

SSL Certificate Installation Cisco ASA 5500

guru — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:14:29 +0000

This was driving me nuts – I kept screwing up the order. Network Solutions throws you for a loop by giving you 4 different CRT files when you just needed two parts of the chain – so for future reference

SSL Certificate Installation Cisco ASA 5500.

Virtu-Al: vDiagram – Draw your VI with one script

guru — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:01:07 +0000

Excellent powershell tool that builds a visio diagram based on information it pulls out of Virtual Center – super super handy. Kudos for sure

Virtu-Al: vDiagram – Draw your VI with one script.

Link: http://teckinfo.blogspot.com/2009/01/vdiagram-document-your-vi-with-one.html

vDiagram – Diagram VI quickly

guru — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:34:25 +0000

An excellent way to quickly diagram your VI world – kudos

link: Virtu-Al: vDiagram – Draw your VI with one script

Why Are Book Publishers Making The Same Mistake The Record Labels Made With Apple? | Techdirt

guru — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:50:10 +0000

This is a really good article that I can agree with 100% coming from working inside the publishing industry. Many publishers haven’t learned from the mistakes of others….

Why Are Book Publishers Making The Same Mistake The Record Labels Made With Apple? | Techdirt.

Link : http://techdirt.com/articles/20090227/0128303920.shtml