How Complete is XenServer Really
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@krisleslie said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
Case and point, I still manage our fleet of workstations individually. I'm JUST NOW able to an affordable imaging solution like Smart Deploy for the first time.
Imaging solution? I use the free Clonezilla. Deployed 110 Windows 10 machines in 3 weeks with it.
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@Dashrender said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
@krisleslie said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
Case and point, I still manage our fleet of workstations individually. I'm JUST NOW able to an affordable imaging solution like Smart Deploy for the first time.
Imaging solution? I use the free Clonezilla. Deployed 110 Windows 10 machines in 3 weeks with it.
WDS or Fog are both free and could have been used as well.
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Of course with any imaging solution you need to be properly licensed if you're deploying Windows systems.
MAK keys provide you the right to do this.
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@coliver said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
@Dashrender said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
@krisleslie said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
Case and point, I still manage our fleet of workstations individually. I'm JUST NOW able to an affordable imaging solution like Smart Deploy for the first time.
Imaging solution? I use the free Clonezilla. Deployed 110 Windows 10 machines in 3 weeks with it.
WDS or Fog are both free and could have been used as well.
MDT is also around, our Desktop Admin is starting to play with that now. I think the overhead may be a bit much for someone with just a few dozen machines though.
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@DustinB3403 said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
MAK keys provide you the right to do this.
What?
Having a Volume License agreement for one copy of the OS that's being imaged grants you the rights to do this, MAK, KMS license keys are just a by-product of that.
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@Dashrender You can purchase a single key, and get VL, which includes the MAK key.
So by having a MAK key, you have VL'ing.
Simply put, purchase a MAK key, and you're good.
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At the time, using the native reinstaller / imaging tools was better than dealing with FOG for 20 different machine types. Don't get me wrong I have seen the power. After being shown Smart Deploy @ Spiceworld, I'm more in favor of their solution. Lot of my issues stem around political issues inside the office along with just people ignoring best practices, to do it their own way usually excluding IT.
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@krisleslie said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
From Spiceworks, I have had numerous people tell me to kinda back away from RAID1/10 with my consumer/prosumer SSD drives. Only because IT WILL wear those drives out faster.
That's totally false. I mean 100% made up. Why would someone make that up? That's so totally and completely made up, there isn't per drive write expansion on mirrored RAID.
The evil Spiceworks "make up lies to hurt people" culture rears its ugly head again. That's someone that is out to get you.
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@krisleslie said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
In my case I'm a SMB/Non-Profit, so as much as I would love to go SSD for the server, its a harder pitch for me when I'm barely able to get the drives I need (at least 10k) already. I've learned to not go splurge on new servers at all and to trust vendors who do refurbished with warranty and extended warranties so it helps to keep cost down. That alone helps me out tremendously.
Spending time with Dell and HP and explaining our use case has been helpful too. I have some awesome program I hope will help us lead to lower purchase cost for Dell servers but it was only available through Tech Soup and I haven't placed an order yet. If that pans out well, then yea I cna probably afford ssd's.
Case and point, I still manage our fleet of workstations individually. I'm JUST NOW able to an affordable imaging solution like Smart Deploy for the first time.
15K are generally too expensive, though. What storage need do you have that is driving you past NL-SAS (e.g. 7200RPM SAS) drives?
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@Dashrender said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
It's amazing to see so many posts on SW where someone says - I just bought this server, it has 6 drives - how should I set them up? RAID 5/6/10, etc. The answer to this is - how did you determine you needed 6 drives and not 8? Why are you buying anything unless you already know exactly how you're going to set it up?
I'm rubbing off!
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@DustinB3403 said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
Of course with any imaging solution you need to be properly licensed if you're deploying Windows systems.
MAK keys provide you the right to do this.
You only need one VL license to be covered.
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@krisleslie said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
At the time, using the native reinstaller / imaging tools was better than dealing with FOG for 20 different machine types. Don't get me wrong I have seen the power. After being shown Smart Deploy @ Spiceworld, I'm more in favor of their solution. Lot of my issues stem around political issues inside the office along with just people ignoring best practices, to do it their own way usually excluding IT.
Smart Deploy is a good product.
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Yea, I mean even today, as I was tasked with getting some new systems (got overridden for donation from local school) I still preach that whether your the owner or a manager, you shouldn't be purchasing things on your own especially software/hardware. They don't know what to look for other than what sales or their gut tells them. If you try to sit and explain things like requirements and processes then your told its too technical lol.
I'm sitting here enjoying my evening taking apart a craptacular 10 year old laptop to be told it needs to go in production...really, the price we about to pay for refurbing it cost more than me just outright buying a refurbished modern laptop.....politics
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@krisleslie said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
Yea, I mean even today, as I was tasked with getting some new systems (got overridden for donation from local school) I still preach that whether your the owner or a manager, you shouldn't be purchasing things on your own especially software/hardware. They don't know what to look for other than what sales or their gut tells them. If you try to sit and explain things like requirements and processes then your told its too technical lol.
I'm sitting here enjoying my evening taking apart a craptacular 10 year old laptop to be told it needs to go in production...really, the price we about to pay for refurbing it cost more than me just outright buying a refurbished modern laptop.....politics
Plus, you might get better performance out of the $300 walmart special.
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@krisleslie said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
If you try to sit and explain things like requirements and processes then your told its too technical lol.
Then don't you think it's even more important that I be involved if it's that technical?
Seriously, why do you have a job if it's not to steer the company in the best financial direction possible with regards to technology?
I hope you find another job soon, then on your exit interview you tell them that they should not have an IT person at all. They can save money by hiring consultants only when they need something because clearly they aren't using the IT resources they are paying for.
I'm also curious what your pay range at the company is? Perhaps you're not really the IT person, but instead you are a bench tech person. It definitely sounds more like they are treating you like a bench tech.
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@dafyre said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
@krisleslie said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
Yea, I mean even today, as I was tasked with getting some new systems (got overridden for donation from local school) I still preach that whether your the owner or a manager, you shouldn't be purchasing things on your own especially software/hardware. They don't know what to look for other than what sales or their gut tells them. If you try to sit and explain things like requirements and processes then your told its too technical lol.
I'm sitting here enjoying my evening taking apart a craptacular 10 year old laptop to be told it needs to go in production...really, the price we about to pay for refurbing it cost more than me just outright buying a refurbished modern laptop.....politics
Plus, you might get better performance out of the $300 walmart special.
If you don't need AD integration, those $300 Walmart specials might just be perfect!
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I need AD only because I lack control over the sites. I spend more time making band-aids than actually a solution. Honestly, for the price range, the 300.00 laptops aren't a smart buy. If they break (which these current generation craptops tend to break more now) they are just chuckable, they aren't meant to be kept.
We have more than 10 models of laptops and more than 5 models of desktops. The desktops usually aren't a problem but the laptops tend to take more time to deal with. I'm a big advocate of lowering it down to 2-3 models of desktop/laptop.
While I might try to steer them to the best financial decision, often what I suggest gets overlooked or "forgotten". People run and buy things without approval or any idea if it is even supported. Getting over the politics and power plays from people is hard. Right now, payrange I obviously can't discuss in open, but I'm paid decently but remember, i'm in non profit world. Some logic goes out the door
We already have consultants (pretty good team I have).
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Trust me, I've had to deal with the bargain deals too much. I don't bother unless I'm forced to. Walmart shouldn't be used unless its for general supplies and even then its kinda just if its an emergency. Amazon, New Egg and even Best Buy do a better job than most retailers. For every laptop Best Buy sells you and it breaks (most likely the screen), it cost more for them to repair it (unless you do it yourself), hence the crappy/wasteful model.
I personally like to have laptops that are business class, offlease/refurbed, can hold 8 GB or better of ram, multi-core, and last but not least dockable and able to use a SSD. For our business model, they will last 5 years or better until parts become an issue. We don't have high requirements but moving over to full VDI right now is a pipe dream.
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@krisleslie said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
While I might try to steer them to the best financial decision, often what I suggest gets overlooked or "forgotten". People run and buy things without approval or any idea if it is even supported. Getting over the politics and power plays from people is hard. Right now, payrange I obviously can't discuss in open, but I'm paid decently but remember, i'm in non profit world. Some logic goes out the door
Start at the top. If the CEO wants to save money, get them to mandate it. If the CEO doesn't care, then you don't care. It's that easy. If wasting money and not doing the best thing for the mission of the non-profit is the mandate from the CEO... then it is your job to waste money and not care.
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@scottalanmiller said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
@krisleslie said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
While I might try to steer them to the best financial decision, often what I suggest gets overlooked or "forgotten". People run and buy things without approval or any idea if it is even supported. Getting over the politics and power plays from people is hard. Right now, payrange I obviously can't discuss in open, but I'm paid decently but remember, i'm in non profit world. Some logic goes out the door
Start at the top. If the CEO wants to save money, get them to mandate it. If the CEO doesn't care, then you don't care. It's that easy. If wasting money and not doing the best thing for the mission of the non-profit is the mandate from the CEO... then it is your job to waste money and not care.
This!
@krisleslie said in How Complete is XenServer Really:
... but remember, i'm in non profit world. Some logic goes out the door
This alone means that the CEO should be doing everything in their power to do things fiscally responsible, and not waste money. Though it's not a legal mandate like it is in public companies, and well, as we see all the time, the reality is that most of these non profits really are about wasting money/resources - out for the good of the management and not the charity they claim to be supporting.
