Current 3D work..
by Nick Bacon on Aug.06, 2010, under Website
Been very busy at work but have had some spare time to work on a 3D project for a bit..
Building a better backup solution.
by Nick Bacon on Jun.30, 2010, under Work
Over the past few months I have migrated the company away from a non working instance of Microsoft Data Protection Manager to Backup Exec 2010. The original hardware I had available consisted of the following:
1x DL320s (2x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU 3060 @ 2.40GHz, 4Gig RAM, 12 x 300gig 15K SAS)
1x DL380 G4 (2x Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz, 4Gig RAM, 6 x 300gig 10K SAS)
Although I had the budget to license the software I didn’t have any budget for additional hardware so, initially, the two DPM servers were wiped and a vanilla W2K3 R2 x64 OS was installed. On the DL320 I installed Backup Exec and Continuous Protection Server (CPS) for Exchange protection. The DL380 had a copy of CPS installed for protect our core fileservers. In total we had 4TB of space configured across the two servers. This set-up worked without too many problems for approximately 9 months but, as our virtualization program progressed, it became more and more obvious that the available space wasn’t distributed as usefully as it might be.
One of the upsides of our virtualization project was I now had a spare DL380 G4 to use so I configured this new server with Windows 2008 R2 standard edition and racked it up. This new server became the Backup Exec server and the two older servers were wiped, reconfigured and then recommissioned with OpenFiler 2.3. Once these systems were configured as iSCSI targets. This gave me a 3TB and a 1.3TB partition which I then configured as the Backup Exec backup to disk folders.
One unexpected hiccup was the order in which services start in Windows 2008 R2. The iSCSI initiator services is one of the last services to start and initially I had BE services starting before the iSCSI, which lead to the backup to disk folders appearing as offline after a reboot. Fortunately, setting the BE services to “Delayed Start”, the new option in Windows 2008 R2, corrects the service startup order issue.
Currently the backup solution is very much a work in progress but has taught me a great deal about OpenFiler, BackupExec, VLANs and iSCSI.
Fragmented SysAdmin
by Nick Bacon on Jun.15, 2010, under SysAdmin
Over the past couple of months I have been noticing an increasingly troublesome trend in my professional life. I’ve found that I am learning enough about a given subject to deliver the project goals but not getting a truely in depth knowledge of a subject. For myself I think this comes down to a lack of time and, probably, some poor time management as well. Although I work for a small legal firm we invest heavily in new technology when appropiate and I am proud of what has been accomplished since I joined the firm almost two years ago. However, I have an underlying feeling that I don’t know as much as I should which I think is borne of working with a small team with lots to do. As an example, over the last 6 months I have repeatedly reminded myself that I must investigate Managed Folders in Exchange 2007. As of today I am still no more knowledgeable about them than I was last November. Obviously this is partly due to forgetfulness – I am not one to go home an play with an Exchange server in the evening (unless I am patching production servers) but this is also due to a busy schedule where the team spend too much time firefighting issues (whether real or in the imagination of users) rather than proactively investigating new technology or ensuring familiarity with existing tech.
ZBOX continued
by Nick Bacon on Jun.04, 2010, under Netbox
Installing the hard drive and memory was very simple. I opted for a 2gig SODIMM and the hard drive is the old one from my MacBook Pro. Decided to install Windows 7 Ultimate (x86) direct from a USB stick. Installation was quick and painless and all the hardware was picked up by Windows 7 on the first try. One thing I noticed almost immediately was the noise generate by the fan even when the unit was idle but a quick google pointed me in the direction of a beta bios update. Downloaded and installed using the tool provided and the unit is now much quieter. I guess with a platform this new there are bound to be a few glitches but a BIOS update is not something I would generally recommend to the inexperienced user. I haven’t decided where the ZBOX is going to live yet so I will try out the VESA mount attached to the back of my TV first and see if that is a usable option. Logmein has been installed so the unit will be headless most of the time, even if it is attached to the back of the TV.
Four years without a flower
by Nick Bacon on Jun.03, 2010, under Garden
It seems that the harsh winter has had a benefical effect on the garden after several years of mild winters and disappointing summers.
New website, new content (eventually)
by Nick Bacon on Jun.02, 2010, under Garden, Website
In the past I’ve spent ages (a few hours) trying to design my own website, only to get bored or distracted and end up with something vague which never gets finished and has little or no content. So this time round I have decided to go in a different direction. WordPress. I have my doubts over how much content I will generate but I have combined it with SlidePress and an existing copy of SlideShowPro Director, an excellent package for managing graphical content. So here the first post and my first gallery. It’s all a bit rough and ready at the moment and I’m sure the site will change over the coming weeks but it feels good to be doing something even vaguely creative for a change rather than endlessly fixing problems on various machines and networks.
Hello world!
by admin on Jun.02, 2010, under Uncategorized
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
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Hi! Welcome to C3S!
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Books
Planned books:
None
Current books:
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The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
Recent books:
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
- Reaper’s Gale (Malazan Book 7) (Malazan Book of the Fallen) by Steven Erikson
- Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
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