So I thought yesterday was bad, but that wasn’t the end of it. That’ll teach me to post how bad my day is going by 11am. After that, I got a new server build dropped in my lap. This isn’t usually too bad, but it was one of those “we have to have it yesterday” type of things. This is really for a conference they are doing this weekend at NADA. That was fine, really it was, until I remembered this weekend I’m supposed to be pulling apart our network to put in the right size cabinets. It wouldn’t have been that much of an issue, if it wasn’t the only server that was a 208V box, otherwise I’d have put it on somebody’s desk, with a UPS to cover it for a few hours, and move it in the evening.

So I was scrambling to figure something out, when something came up about a secondary box we had offsite we could use. So I was up last night until nearly 1am copying all the files, installing SQL, and restoring databases. I’m now able to move the servers around, without problems. That was the only good thing at the moment…

Shortly after the good server news, we had Dell cancel multiple orders we’d placed with no explanation. Apparently corporate decided that we weren’t allowed to order anything, and killed all of our orders… ARGH.

I give up…

I fear leaving the office today. Not because I don’t want to go home. In fact, quite the opposite. There isn’t anywhere, right now, that I’d rather be. Since yesterday afternoon, work projects in general have not been going smoothly.

Currently I am in the process of replacing all of our servers. I just got to our FTP server, and have to replicate the data on it. xcopy and robocopy are two tools I’ve used in the past, and will be using for this too. Today, I discovered a nice little add-on for robocopy.

Robocopy itself isn’t distributed with Windows, and is part of the “support tools” kit. For Windows XP/2003, you can download it here. Whilst trying to find it for my laptop again, I stumped across a TechNet article called “Utility Spotlight” that had a nice little GUI add on for Robocopy (article is here). This allows you to check the boxes of all the options, and simply hit run. The only set back to this GUI application is that it doesn’t describe the switches, or at least replace the switches with real words. Robocopy is a powerful tool, but /ZB doesn’t mean much to anybody without the instructions, so it would have been nice for the GUI to at least have mouse overs, or replace the switches in the GUI with real words.

Handy little utility regardless, saves some typing.

You get days where you don’t want to be at work. Those days get better when people send you emails like this:

Btw, it also reminded me, Thank You for all that you do around here.

This was from Steve, in reference to a video about system administrators. It’s stuff like that, makes the day a little better.

Just to show the general population, our military has balls. From what seems to be a “movie” stunt… my words couldn’t do the action justice, so here it is:

Four strapped themselves to two Apache helicopters which landed inside and outside the fort’s wall.

This is something that I could easily see Schwarzenegger doing in his latest movie. It’s a tragic shame that the soldier had died.

I don’t care if it costs $2,500, but I think a lot of our account managers could do with this

I’ve been reading the Strobist recently (I seem to have an interest in photography, I blame my uncle), and he links over to John Harrington’s new blog on the business of photography. He has a small article on wise words for your client dialog (referencing Customer Service for Dummies). The positive and negative items apply to any business where you have to interact with customers, and is a worth taking a quick read of. I wonder how many people have replied to a question “I don’t know”, instead of turning it around, and saying “I’ll find out”. I generally try to take the positive way around, even when working with people in my own office.

I cannot count the number of times I’ve heard “That’s not my job”, or similar, while working here. I generally take the attitude of “if I cannot do it, I’ll see if I know somebody that can, or point in a better direction”.

“I’m busy right now” is also a good one. I recently took a staff training thing through the office (mandatory), but it was actually quite good. It was done through a company called Senn-Delaney, and you end up leaving with a small glass “block”. On it is a simple inscription “Be Here Now”. What is good about this is that this isn’t supposed to be pointing to the people on the other side of your desk, but at you. This goes well with the “I’m busy right now”, and pushes it over to “I’ll be right with you”. Keep one task active, don’t do too many things at once, otherwise you will be in trouble.

With the second laptop being stolen from people’s possession in as many months, I’m beginning to consider stricter policies around laptops. First would be the use of disk encryption. The other would be not allowing any data to be stored on the devices, the problem is that it is a PITA for that policy to really be effective. What do you guys do?

Edit: The person that reported laptop missing yesterday found it… in his office… sighs

Or at least my brain has gone. I think the last month or so has taken its tool on the old grey matter, and it’s gone on vacation. I cannot get anything going. I seem to have a total lack of motivation, though I want to do “stuff”, I just don’t know what. I figured I could take a wander around the Dallas Arboretum this week, that was until I saw the predicted weather forecast of storms. I cannot even get anything in my head to photograph at home.

I was thinking of some foods, but we really don’t have the kind of stuff you try out for photos. I guess I could photo the brownies I’m planning on making later, but I then stumble into a lighting problem… I don’t really have any. I’ve been contemplating an Alien Bee AB800 kit, but I doubt I’d be permitted funding for it, especially not as I want a few lenses too. I guess I could check out eBay for some cheapies, I’m only going to be playing around after all. I think my creativity side got left somewhere other than in my head.

Not only that, but work is kicking my butt too. I’m going over a security audit from last year, and have got a few things left to address, but I just cannot get into the resolution. Every time I start, something distracts me.

Damn weather…

It’s about this time of year that network administrators decide to cast an outlook on the upcoming year, and see if they can weasel some extra dollars out of the budget for new fangled toys, and fancy gadgets. While Bill is fighting with his stinky switches, it reminds me of one of the projects I have on my plate. After Tuesday’s fiasco with a new virus popping up on the network, and spreading rather rapidly, I finally got a nod of approval for replacing our Dell switch infrastructure with all cisco, instead of a mish-mash of both. Then I will be deploying NAC (see Cisco for more details). Along with this, I plan on rebuilding the wireless infrastructure with equipment recommended by corporate, and a possible small sized SAN… Should be fun, and a killer on the budget.