This episode is an overview of a career session done by Amanda Blevins from VMworld 2018. We weigh in with our thoughts on the session but definitely encourage you to go and check it out for yourself.

Get the full episode here.

There's been some internal discussion already here about potentially running one of those for a kiosk type setup out in our manufacturing shops.

This episode is a discussion with an HR Professional on different PTO options companies may offer, how the company views PTO, and some tips for negotiating for more PTO. Get the full episode here.

I feel like this is a pretty basic question, but I think I am missing something. Say you have an ESXi box with 2 physical NICs. You provision 2 VMs in the same port group and on the same vSwitch and on the same vlAn. That vSwitch is attached to only one physical server NIC.

In this scenario, my understanding is that for the 2 VMs to communicate via network, the traffic never leaves the ESXi host. Would that still be true if the VMs are contacting one another via DNS nam with the DNS server on a total separate host?

This week John and I share our experiences at VMworld US 2019. We discuss presentations, networking with others, and some general feedback on attending technology conferences for career acceleration. Get the full episode here.

Suppose you have an application server that is configured to reference a back-end database server by fqdn. I am curious if all traffic stays within the ESXi host. What about if the app server references the database server by ip instead? I would think that would definitely stay within the host but am not sure about the DNS portion (thinking it may actually slow down communication between the VMs).

What would you do if your manager encouraged you to pursue a career path you had ruled out or didn't want? That's exactly what our guest this week, Charlie Nichol, experienced. Listen to how Charlie decided to go all in on the path to management and what it takes to move from player to coach. Get the full episode here.

In typical fashion, this is a two-part interview. Next week we will have the conclusion.

I would advise parking with caution. Just keep in mind there is one parking lot timeout destination by default in FreePBX / Elastix, and you set a specific timeout value as well. Anything on park for the amount of time specified would go to the single timeout destination. If you are doing some kind of multi-tenancy setup, that could cause a problem where someone on park for company A ends up getting to the receptionisy of company B. Oops.

So you think you want to be a manager? Do you think you have what it takes to develop a team? Listen in on part 2 of our interview with Charlie Nichol for some great tips on whether management is right for you. Get the full episode here.

@MattSpeller said:

I've read some of your posts before and you came off fairly negative on SAN's - is this primarily from single point of failure (incorrect use case) or are they inherently risky? What makes DAS so attractive in comparison (if it is)? When do you choose a SAN vs DAS vs NAS?

This is an article he wrote about SANs - http://www.smbitjournal.com/2013/06/the-inverted-pyramid-of-doom/.

After I recent trip to present at the Boston VMUG on VMware Documentation, I have updated and re-launched the blog series on documentation. If you want to read up on the ins and outs of where to find documentation for various things related to VMware products and services, check out this post. I hope to update it regularly so it is helpful to community members.

@scottalanmiller said:

Yup, that looks healthy. If you want to reduce memory usage a little you can look at this...

http://www.scottalanmiller.com/linux/2012/09/02/improving-elastix-memory-usage/

This is one of my go-to steps any time I roll out Elastix / FreePBX. It's a great help.

Sometimes an unexpected opportunity leads to a job change. But it usually starts with the decision to have a first conversation with someone. Once you get to the offer phase, do you take the job or not? Check out this week's episode to learn more!

@coliver said:

@scottalanmiller said:

You do seem to be using an awful lot of memory for a FreePBX install. You have way more than enough, but you are using more than you would expect.

Yep, which why I was concerned. I do have FOP2 running, but that doesn't seem to be using anything really, it seems to be using ~335MB, although since people are using it not sure if I should modify the apache settings as per your previous link.

Here is my top output. It looks like the httpd processes are using a huge amount of memory, or rather it is claiming a huge amount it doesn't seem to be using a lot of it, if I understand the difference between virt and res correctly.

Even with FOP2 running, applying Scott's article should not cause any problems with FOP2.

It's a sad thing when one of your favorite podcasts releases their last episode. A-Tribute-to-Datanauts is my tribute to the body of work created by Chris Wahl and Ethan Banks in the Datanauts Podcast, and I have highlighted my favorite episodes.

What are your favorite episodes of Datanauts? If you have never listened, you can still consume some of the goodness.

If you have never worked with Sangoma hardware or any kind of VOIP gateway / specialized card, my opinion is it is far from trivial. I might be inclined to contact @FiyaFly as he has experience with Sangoma hardware.

My previous post was a first step toward understanding and using Azure Functions. We created a Function App, added a function to it using the Azure portal, and made some simple tweaks. In this post, it’s time to take the next step. Keep in mind as a beginner I’ll be documenting both successes and failures throughout this post, so you may want to read it completely before following all steps in order. Hopefully this helps someone avoid making the same mistakes.

In an effort to make the Azure function deployment process more automated and learn some code at the same time, here we go.

Get the full story here.

@Aaron-Studer said:

@NetworkNerd I would encourage you to switch to ScreenConnect now. It's a great product!

It looks pretty cool, but I'm afraid it was too close to our renewal date to make that kind of change this time. Next year we will know what to do, however. Thanks for the tip. ScreenConnect looks like a great product.

Photo credit - Pixabay

A fellow Redditor responded to this post sharing an experience with Azure Functions and Azure DevOps, and it got me to thinking. Several others also posted helpful replies. Since I was planning to dig into using some kind of code repository as well, why not give Azure DevOps a shot? That, dear reader, is where our story begins.

In my last post, we configured VS code to build, test, and deploy functions directly to an Azure Function App. In the spirit of once again walking before we run, let’s go back to the Azure portal and add some hooks into code repositories. As before, I’ll be documenting both successes and failures throughout this post, so you may want to read it completely before following all steps in order.

The journey begins here if you want to read the full story.

I should also mention that I have not heard of any issues with extension dialing over the IAX2 trunk from users with extensions on either PBX.