If you were using a high availability platform, like a Scale HC3 (just as an example off of the top of my head) you could easily get by with just a single RDS instance and a single file server instance, which would potentially reduce the licensing needs for Windows (this depends on how you want to use it), and if RDS were to be on a node that failed it would be automatically migrated to a working node. And the same for the file server. So you get automatic, instant recovery for failure without needing a complex load balancing scenario or external high availability tools.

RDS and file servers are ideal roles for platform high availability like Scale HC3 provides.

@scottalanmiller

Thanks Scott. That jogged my memory to enable ssl module. That was what I missed.

@Dashrender said in Greenfield IT Department Questionaire:

Some of those don't seem to be Greenfield type question. Doesn't Greefield mean there is nothing there now?

No IT there now or what is there is trivial. Not that there is no company there now.

@thwr said in RunDeck - Workflow Automation:

Looks like a generic workflow engine - might come in handy in some situations. Could you please report back when you tried that?

here's some more info on it ..

http://rundeck.org/docs/manual/introduction.html

Okay I tested it out. If you log in as a new user it asks you to sign in but works anyway. So you know that you have not signed in, but you aren't blocked from accessing the application.

Cool, thanks.

@BRRABill said in Xenserver feedback: Paging @BRRABILL:

We're still posting here about stuff we investigated months ago.

Breaking new ground has to happen somewhere.

@gjacobse said in O365 Distribution Group Self Signup and Removal:

Is the idea to create a 'News Group'?

I'm not 100% sure yet, we're waiting on that answer. But from the original gist of it, that's what it is sounding like.

Have not seen that, but that sounds awesome.

@tiagom said in Simple but Effective Packet Loss Monitor?:

To install one of the larger monitoring packages just for some simple packet loss monitoring seems like overkill. Especially since its like 10 lines to script this.

https://bash.cyberciti.biz/monitoring/monitor-windows-linux-server-with-ping-script/

Everything is either a little more, or a little less, than I want. But this might suffice. Thanks.

@Dashrender said in Vembu Desktop Backup for Free:

@StrongBad said in Vembu Desktop Backup for Free:

@Dashrender said in Vembu Desktop Backup for Free:

@dafyre said in Vembu Desktop Backup for Free:

@Dashrender said in Vembu Desktop Backup for Free:

Am I incorrect in thinking that license wise you could use Veeam Free Endpoint protection to backup bare metal servers?
Does the licensing say desktop OS only?

I don't recall seeing anything about Server or Desktop OSes in the licensing with the Endpoint Recovery Free.

0_1471959639679_veeam-coverage.png

OK Servers are specifically allowed
https://www.veeam.com/endpoint-backup-free.html

Even servers are free? Wow!

It's a one off type solution. No central management, so I'm not really surprised. I'm guessing the idea here is, if a company isn't going to pay for a paid backup solution, then what is the harm in allowing them to use this free product there.

If/when the company decides managing everything separately, the hope is they will move to the paid product.

I guess it is to keep them from just using Windows Backup.

@Minion-Queen said in Office 365 "Oops" Stories:

@BRRABill said in Office 365 "Oops" Stories:

@Minion-Queen said

Hence we when we do this one we actually migrate the data to 365 and 2 you don't delete the server for months until you are sure everything is where is should be and working correctly.

Shoot I have a room of servers here from upgrades ... just in case.

I'd have backups of backups before trying something like that.

Just ... because comptuers

YES!!! Yeah no such luck there. No backups at all. Except for I think one user who had put crashplan or something on their machine cause they were paranoid (I think there might have been good reason).

I'm not sure "paranoid" would apply to those users.

@StrongBad said in Backup System For 5 PC SMB:

@BRRABill said in Backup System For 5 PC SMB:

@StrongBad

I think the final takeaway, especially for non-IT folk, is to move away from a system that requires this sort of backup.

Ideally, of course.

The age old answer ... "depends"

Great job @scottalanmiller and welcome aboard!

Hope you enjoyed the experience!

Now if you want to play with it, I recommend you to use our CLI (http://docs.openio.io/cli-reference) or you can deploy our S3/Swift implementation (https://github.com/open-io/oio-sds/wiki/Install-Guide---OpenIO-Swift-S3-gateway).

Feel free to send me some feedbacks, I'm here to help!

Guillaume.
Product Manager & Co-Founder @ OpenIO

@scottalanmiller said in Help with SQL query:

@BRRABill said in Help with SQL query:

@scottalanmiller said in Help with SQL query:

If you expect this product to explode

Possible poor choice of words.

Or... intentional.

Knowing you, intentional.

@Dashrender said in Gaming rig for friend:

Standard HD on a screen that large, personally I would hate it during non gaming things.

He only uses it for gaming and very little internet (usually just uses his phone). So might not be a huge issue.. Would the Samsung be ok for gaming? Or better to get the faster refresh rate/resolution on the ASUS. It would be for Overwatch/WoW/CoD, so not sure if response time in the screen is that big of an issue.

Thanks so much guys, Appreciate your help..

Honestly can't recall - it was around 4 years ago that it happened to me.

I suppose there could be a post on Spiceworks about it.

that breaking of webcams is going to keep me from rolling it out for a while on most machines.

@scottalanmiller said in Fairly Hardened Jump Box:

@coliver said in Fairly Hardened Jump Box:

@Dashrender said in Fairly Hardened Jump Box:

@stacksofplates said in Fairly Hardened Jump Box:

Keys are required along with long password and OTP to get into system

And? So you're requiring Keys, a long password and One Time Passwords? Are you trying to protect the nuclear football?

I thought Scott normally stopped at using only keys? or was it keys and passwords.

I know he also recently setup Two Factor Authentication with Google Authenticator.

Keys and passwords are basically the same thing. A key is just a really long password.

But a password locked key is kind of different. Because it's two factor, a password you have AND one that you know. In some form, ALL forms of authentication are passwords. That's all a one time pin is, that's all biometric is, etc.

I guess I should have explained better. The key will be encrypted, but SSH will require the key and the system password also. So if you don't have the key it won't prompt you at all, but with the key then you enter your system password + the OTP.