I have added a Wiki and have begun adding simple Linux and Networking Tutorials.  These tutorials I use often and have put them here for our use.   I am in the process of teaching myself Chef and will put my Notes and Research here as I move along.  

  Please feel free to request other how'to's and I'll try to create the shortest and most straight forward how'to's I can.  Some of these tutorials are very basic and can be found on the web, but aren't always accurate and up-to-date.  

  I've added a Menu Item and the Wiki can be found here: http://wiki.sysadminpunk.com

Comment (0)

RACK TABLES

  When your company has servers located throughout the State and or Nation, it’s hard to keep track of what servers are where.  Specifically, where in the Rack they may be located.  In the case of involving “Remote Hands” support, you want to be able to relay accurate information quickly.  In our company we have a an I.T. Team of 6 people who regularly visit our collocation facilities.  In any event servers can be given different IP’s, changed, renamed, or in some cases moved altogether.  This is where Rack Tables saves the day(assuming your team uses it)!

More Info:  http://racktables.org/

SPICEWORKS  

   Spiceworks is an invaluable free tool that let’s you do many things!  It includes the following: Monitoring, Network Inventory, Asset Management, Software Auditing, Help Desk, Network Mapping, DNS Troubleshooting, Power Consumption monitors, and more, for FREE!  We use the Help Desk primarily for our employees to submit tickets for I.T. requests.  This tool is great for small businesses who need a little more information and control of their network.  It also has some tools to help larger networks as well, for instance, the Help Desk is a great full featured and customizable Ticket Request and Management platform. 

More Info: http://www.spiceworks.com/

CACTI

  Known for it’s simplicity and dependability, Cacti offers an efficient and effective free graphing solution for all sizes of networks.  With Virtual box and VMware images of pre-configured Cacti solutions, and howto’s for every OS you can think of, you shouldn’t have a problem getting Cacti up a running.  Using RRDTool you get nice pretty graphs that are very easy to read and dig into.  There are backup options, and the ability to create Guest users that can only view particular graphs, which is great for over seas support or remote information.

More Info: http://www.cacti.net/

   The tools I’ve listed here could quite possibly manage a decent sized network.  All these tools are FREE and offer extensive customization and control to help you maintain I.T. operations efficiently with minimal cost.  There are certainly more tools out there that do similar functions, but these are my favorites that have proved their worth.

Comment (0)

  So at home this year the Wife and I have decided on a Fake Holiday Tree this year!  We saved a real tree from being cut down, the baby won't get into the pine needles, the pets won't drink the water from the base, and I don't have to clean up a mess come January.  This is pretty much a win-win-win-win-win here.  Overall we are very happy, even though I do miss that unmistakable pine tree smell.

Happy Holidays!

Comment (0)

  I am excited to participate in "Operation Chokehold." For those of you who don't know what that is, it's happening tomorrow at noon Pacific time.   I will be disabling my Wi-fi and surfing the web on 3G with millions of other AT&T customers in an attempt to bring AT&T's claim of the "Fewest Dropped Calls" and "More Bars More Places" to an abrupt halt.

  I hope to hear more of you join the cause!

 http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/12/operation-chokehold.html

Comment (0)

   Looks like Steam is running a Halloween Special on Team Fortress 2 this weekend!  Right now you can grab a full copy of the game for only $2.49! Yes, only $2.49, the same price as two Jumbo Jacks!  If you end up grabbing a copy of the game, please add me as your friend, I go by "oipunx." 

Get it Here.

Comment (0)

Pricing:

 Google Pricing     

• Annual cost   $50 / user account / year 
• User maximum   unlimited  

Google Features:         

Messaging apps: Gmail and Google Calendar 

• Gmail storage   25 GB / account
• Interoperability with Microsoft Outlook email and calendar
• Sync with Blackberry Enterprise Server
• Easy contacts management
• Mobile email, calendar and IM access
• Email security, powered by Postini
• Gmail ads can be disabled
• Resource scheduling in Google Calendar

          
Collaboration apps: Google Docs, Sites, Video and eventually Wave?

• Google Sites storage   10 GB plus 500 MB per user for shared storage 
• Google Video for private, secure video sharing
• Google Apps Script

        
Security Features     

• SSL enforcement for secure HTTPS access
• Customizable spam filtering
• Customize password strength requirements
• Email routing and email gateway support

          
Migration and integration tools
     

• Email migration tools and API
• Directory sync with LDAP systems
• Email routing and email gateway support
• Single sign-on API
• User and group provisioning API

Technical Support      

•     24/7 phone and email support for critical issues
•     99.9% uptime guarantee SLA
•     Self-service online support

Migration Process:

1. Prune mailboxes on existing mail server.
2. Create Gmail mailboxes for all users.
3. Create distribution list to match current e-mail aliases.
4.  Run Google migration tool to migrate ALL mailboxes that exists on current mail server to Gmail.
5. Update MX record to send e-mail to both existing mail server and to Gmail.
6. Migrate pilot group of users, work out any kinks with migration process, use this time to adjust configuration of Google Apps.
7. Migrate the rest of the users.
8. Change password of each user on existing mail server so they can't access the mail but it is still accumulating in mailbox. This is for backup purposes.
9. Once we are all using Google Apps and we are confident that everything is good we will change the MX record to just point to Google.

Additional information needed prior to migration:

1. Need to determine which protocol (pop3 or imap) everyone uses. This will dictate how we go about converting each person.
2. Need to know which e-mail client everyone is using:
   1. The Gmail migration utility  is for Outlook only.
   2.  For Outlook express we could migrate to Outlook and then run migration utility.
   3. Users using pop3 and some other mail client will need to use drag and drop process to migrate.
3. Need to determine size of each mailbox of users using pop3 to help in estimating and scheduling migrations.

Notes:

Our original estimate for Google Apps was low as we did not factor in mailboxes used by our software for error reporting etc. We simply estimated the number of employees and based our number on that. We also needed to include an estimate including the error and alert emails.
We need to do some sample conversions of users who are currently using pop3 to gain a better understanding of the length of time it will take to convert each users data.

Thoughts:

  Google Apps for domains could really increase productivity and collaboration if all employees buy in and utilize the full feature set of the Google's web based products.  In order to convert those that currently use MS products you should consider the possibility of training for Google Apps. If you are planning to use Google Apps simply for e-mail then you probably don't need training. From an IT perspective Google Apps should become the main tool that you use rather than becoming just another tool in your toolbox. This means for example that you convert your intranet sites from Sharepoint to Google Sites, use Google's Calendar, and be sure to take advantage of the label and filter system. It also makes sense to use Google Docs to replace the use of MS products there as well.

Comment (0)

   As far as the I.T. budget goes this year, we have reached a limit till the new year, so I've gone with Open Source options.  For the routers a simple TFTP Backup Server and the addition a couple commands, the Router, ASA, and PIX configs are being backed up frequently.  For the Servers in the Chico branch, I needed offsite backups of my local backups.  I've tried Bacula, Zmanda, and DeltaCopy + Rsync.  Due to hardware limitations and availability I had issues with these and failed originally.  I have now moved on to BackupPC with a Debian Server host and rsyncd for windows.  So far so good for the first couple servers.  I'm running out of time and bandwidth.  I'll be pasting my full howto and solution in the coming weeks.  

   I am also in the process of currently testing out Google Wave.  My invitees have received their invitations so I am just now getting familiar.  I wjust with I could embed google spreadsheets already, theres things I want to test but can't!  

   At work we have used our own Email servers to provide email for our employees.  The servers were built in 2006 with Suse Enterprise Linux 10.  It's been a pain in the ass trying to update these boxes, let alone remotely.  Our first decision was to go to Qmail or Sendmail from Postfix, but we are thinking of fully switching over to Google Apps for our employees.  To do this, we need to convince management.  I am currently laying out an article that details our process of evaluating our employees and solutions, and putting that information together to produce a proposal that can easily win over Management.

Comment (0)

Quick and Dirty Guide to Converting to Google Apps

Email Administrator Duties

1. Backup Client Email
2. Backup Server Email
3. Backup Contact information
4. Use Google Tools to Migrate Email and Folders(Labels in Gmail)
5. Configure Client for New Google App Account
6. Configure and Setup Filters, Canned Responses and Forwards

System Administrator Duties

1. Migrating User Data
2. Migrating Aliases and Forwards
3. Migrating Calendars and Shares
4. Integrating SSO w/ Active Directory

List Overall Benefits and ROI

Comment (0)

  I received my Google Wave Invite on September 30th!  I was surprised I actually got one in the first place!  I do however use a lot of Google Services and believe that helped me land one.  I did get eight invitations and was able to get them all out pretty quick, not sure how long it takes for the "nominations" to make it to their intended recipients, but I do hope it happens quick.  I haven't been able to properly test it out. If any of you have an account add me!  

Comment (0)