@hobbit666 said:

But I will still need to buy a VL version of Win10Pro and Win7Pro so I can use the generic key to create and deploy the image onto machines?

Just one copy.

@scottalanmiller said in Cheap TV or A Pretty Good Price For $399???:

There is a reason that television, youtube and such doesn't make anything over 30Hz, because it just isn't very important.

Content is not made in Hz. It's frame rates. the only affect it has on that is that it has to be divisable by it hence why their is PAL and NTSC for 50hz and 60hz broadcast systems respectively.

That would imply if you bought a new computer with windows 8.1 Pro OEM that has downgrade rights to Win7 Pro. You cannot actually downgrade this unless you buy a volume license to image it. Since the manufacturer isn't going to provide you with the OEM install disk for windows 7 on your computer.

@coliver said in No Longer Salaried.:

With the recent overtime guidelines some of our lowest paid staff are getting a salary bump (so they will be exempt from the new overtime rules).

Ours isn't from that. They were reviewing the new pay restrictions and took the opportunity to look over it all and realized the wording for FLSA exempt computer work means developers only.

This page:

https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/fs17e_computer.pdf

@Dashrender said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@MattSpeller said:

@scottalanmiller I should have quoted more of your post, it seemed to imply setting up the whole shooting match. I agree VL is an easy way to save some time.

I've not talked about imaging SYSTEMS at all in the thread. Only that using an image based deployment is faster and easier than using OEM install media where you have to them remove the bloatware after the install.

But you're forgetting that now instead of removing bloatware, you have to download and install drivers and all the Windows updates that would have been part of the base OEM install.

Those are negatives, but not ones that should EVER stop you from doing it anyway. And besides, you can easily add the drivers and software installation packages (not installed, just the installers) to the image. Then once the image is in place, install the drivers from your folder, install the local copy of the apps.. and away you go..

So this slightly updated image, yet no where near very custom, might take you an hour or so to get ready... it will save you hugely in the long.

You can take it even further by completely updating Windows updates before take the image, a process that even a new OEM Dell install normally takes 1+ hours of downloading to do... you've just saved that on every machine you deploy.

Dell offers .CAB files for each model with all drivers. You can either automatically install them or extract them with 7zip and let device manager install them.

@dafyre said in No Longer Salaried.:

Apparently, nothing is changing for us here. I think we all got a little salary bump to simply not have to deal with it. I'm like $3 over the limit, lol.

They say even under the old requirements only software developers are suppose to be salaried not Network administrators based on this PDF: https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/fs17e_computer.pdf

We exceed the pay requirements by a long shot the new one is only $47k. legal just says Technically Network and systems administrators don't fall under that description. Software developers do and possibly desktop technicians.

@Carnival-Boy said:

It's not that I think it isn't bad, it is that I think it is trivial to uninstall it. And that uninstalling it may be an easier process than doing a fresh Windows install from a volume licence image.

Not really, It takes maybe 30min (complete, until it's ready for the user) for our guys to image a computer from WDS.

I'll stick with my Old School Lutron Caseta switches and dimmers, and using a local apple tv as a bridge for homekit. These vendors doing their own standards are the problem.

@scottalanmiller said:

I live in the third world too, all remote controlled AC here, too. In the US, that's unheard of (at least to me.)

Most other countries make more use of using Mini-split HVAC units. Here in the US Central HVAC is more common even if it uses more energy (and you have to heat/cool everything instead of just certain rooms like you can with mini-splits, and no duct to lose the temperature in a mini split)

considering this is their data center they never will be able to this is a small cluster for one, even with all racks fully populated. Secondly that's a very bad retro-fit data center, that's not how you build a real datacenter. Heck I can see sun light from outside on the floor meaning those concrete walls are exterior walls. This is likely just a warehouse they are using for servers. Doesn't seem to have any chiller pipes around either. Datcenter ceiling height is generally not that high either.

You can get more standard vent looking mini-splits but they aren't as common

HVAC performance is just as much about the skill of the person installing and maintaining it as it is the brand of the unit. HVACs are suppose to be checked every 6 months. a lot of failures are from low coolant levels over time causing failure.

@scottalanmiller said:

@Dashrender said:

@BRRABill said:

@scottalanmiller said:

but as imaging rights for a full company are only about $120, it doesn't take much IT time saving to justify.

Is that per machine?

This is not the whole picture.

Sure Software Assurance for one workstation is $120, but if you don't have a pre existing VL agreement, it's not just $120 to get into one, or keep it going once you're in.

You have to buy at least 5 Open Value licenses to start a Volume License Agreement. To get into this with the lowest spend that would be 4 Windows Server CALs without Software Assurance ($75/ea) and 1 Workstation Software Assurance license ($120).

So the bare minimum to get started is $420, and this is good for 3 years, then you have to renew, for roughly the same cost.

Also, you can only purchase Workstation SA for computer that you acquired in the last 90 days. So if it's been more than 90 days, you would have to purchase a Workstation upgrade with Software Assurance for $115/yr from CDW or $345 for 3 years, though the renewal will be at the above stated $120 for 3 years.

You don't need SA, though, only a VL for Windows. SA is not necessary.

Yep. The imaging rights come from the VL not the SA. We don't even buy SA it's not worth it to us.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/volume-licensing/archive/2014/02/13/licensing-how-to-reimaging-rights-top-5-questions.aspx

@scottalanmiller said:

Is it weird that I don't think of any of those as "good" or high end brands but as cheap American made stuff? AC is not something that American made sounds like quality to me outside of Frigidaire. Those are feel like consumer brands as opposed to the big enterprise makers.

Trane is probably one of the most popular in american enterprises. Mostly because people get sold on the Tracer Summit automation rather than how the HVAC functions itself. Luckily we didn't.

Microsoft licensing isn't bad. Cisco makes all licensing complicated. Heck their EULA effectively blocks the used market unless you are a Cisco authorized dealer.

75min from 100GB? Sounds like your disk arrays are a bit slow.

We don't even use SCCM here (a fortune 100) We looked at it but for the cost doesn't give us a lot over using WDS, GPOs and Powershell. It really just leverages features already there for the most part.

Since when is the Recycle Bin counted as a Backup? I hope that's not what you consider backups.

@DustinB3403 said:

As said on the SW topic, your IT Consultant has recommended an Inverted Pyramid of Doom.

Keep in mind Having a SAN is not the only thing that makes it an Inverted Pyramid of Doom. It's having only 1 SAN. You can infact have a good SAN setup with multiple SAN Devices, replication etc. However this is far outside of the budget of most [any] SMBs. It's better for most SMBs to just use replicated local storage. Our SAN systems here are more than most companies whole IT budget.

@MattSpeller said:

@Jason said:

I'd get a Always Online UPS for servers if it were me. You are always load testing then. It will fail over to line power if needed on most but you'll hear plenty of alarms going off and hopefully get emails about it too.

That's not really how that works, but I agree it's a better design than previous ones. You still want to do a full "real McCoy" load test every year as part of your DR testing plans.

Ours the load has to be disconnected to do a load test. It connects the load straight to the mains/Automatic transfer switches when testing.

I think our facilities staff does it quarterly.