One of our sites has a need to have a server at their site. This is a company co-owned by our owner and a 3rd party. Due to this fact, it was decided the best idea would be to have a server on site and not at the corporate HQ. The business in question makes safety grating.

As far as needs go, we're talking nothing more than a file server right now (for about 10-15 users). The users there have been wanting something for quite a while. I honestly do not see this being more than 200 GB of storage. They have needed a file server for a while now so we can get rid of the shares on individual user machines and centralize a bit. They will store spreadsheets, PDFs, CAD files, and solid models on the server. But, at this facility, they have recently purchased new machinery that will require offline programming software. At our HQ, we have had great success virtualizing this applications on ESXi, plugging the USB HASP into the host, and passing it back to the VM. Getting a host will certainly give capacity for that need.

We'll go with VSphere Essentials and a license of Veeam Essentials since this is a co-owned venture. I realize HyperV is an option, but it's not one I care to explore at this time. I'm looking at a Dell PowerEdge R610 with Intel E5520 procs, probably around 32 GB of RAM (plan for growth), and then either 6 300GB 10K SAS drives in OBR10 or 6 300GB 7200 RPM drives in OBR10 (not sure yet). We'll go with either a dual or quad port NIC. With XByte, you get 3 year NBD parts warranty, which I think would be good enough.

When I asked the COO (COO of all companies in our corporate family) about the cost of downtime, he basically said it would not hurt them much because they could still access our ERP system here at HQ, e-mail, and our company intranet. He did not think it would stop production. At that point I thought to myself, "then why spend money on a server?" If they start storing part programs for offline programming and drawings on that server, it will have much more of a cost associated. According to my boss (very involved in operations), as long as the most critical files can be restored within 4-8 hours, we are fine.

We'd get a license of Server 2012 R2 Standard to get the license to run two VMs, and we could make one of them the Veeam server or just leave Veeam running on a workstation if we wanted to separate it from the host. With Veeam on a box separate from this host, we would run local backups to some type of NAS (maybe a Drobo 5N or something like that) and either replicate to a host at HQ (would be ok for a while but depends on storage usage), replicate to some storage provider using Veeam Cloud Connect (my preference), or get a license of Crashplan for the VM so we can download the files they need in a pinch.

Is there a reason not to go with a refurb server here? I didn't even price out a new server for this. If they were running 10 VMs, then I could see the need for it. As long as we have gear on the HCL that is covered under warranty for parts, I think we are ok. Would you go new, or is my thinking along the right lines here?

Every time I attend a VMUG meeting it makes me want to get a VCA or VCP. I come back enthused about it and intend to start working on training. Then, reality sets back in again, and it falls between the cracks due to time constraints and workload. I tend to hear about many different components of VMWare that I do not get to touch since we are only on the Essentials package here, but I would love to learn more if I can.

Regardless, VMUG is still a very fun way to go and network with other IT pros, and I do enjoy learning about the various vendors and technologies which are available.

This was something @FiyaFly and I worked on together, and I believe he was the one who fully resolved it by changing the baud rate settings on the physical fax machine. But I can say for a fact that this setup worked and is still working today at the site in question.

I recently found that Rackspace has a FREE online cloud curriculum you can work through and obtain certification. I wish I had more time to do stuff like this, but I wanted to at least share so others can benefit:

http://cloudu.rackspace.com/diweb/catalog/item/id/195089/q/c=130.

I was in the same boat as you not so long ago...until I did a trial of SmartDeploy. Much like PSX mentions above, we have one VM that is our master image, and we are able to use the platform packs SmartDeploy makes to push our image along with the drivers we need onto different model PCs without much trouble (PXE boot SmartDeploy with a thumb drive that has the right drivers and pull down the image over the network). We are primarily a Dell shop, even when we buy refurbished machines. I love the product, and it has saved us many a man hour. The licensing for 250-300 PCs is probably about $30 per station plus about 20% per year for software maintenance. Talk with CDW, SHI, or your favorite reseller to get a quote. But even before that, I recommend doing an evaluation of SmartDeploy. You won't be sorry, and then hardware standardization will no longer be a roadblock for you.

I think it's worth your time to contact them and see if they might do the interview via Skype.

@scottalanmiller said:

Can you tell if I missed anything?

I found the help desk ticket I created where I applied the steps in your article, but all I did was leave the link to the article and say I made the changes. Shame on me for not documenting the specifics. I feel like there is more to it but cannot tell you what it is. Maybe @FiyaFly remembers.

They are offering a re-run of this course with updated content in January. If you did not sign up, I highly recommend it.

https://www.edx.org/course/linuxfoundationx/linuxfoundationx-lfs101x-2-introduction-5386#.VGYGFvnF98E

We did an interop with Intelepeer on Monday night to ensure we had our firewall and PBX configured properly. They suggested we open UDP 1024-65535 on the Asterisk box so there would be no issues with RTP traffic getting blocked. We did that and locked down the firewall to only their signaling and media ips.

The numbers ported yesterday afternoon. Thus far we've cleared up 3 issues we had with Broadvox Fusion just by making a switch (some issues faxing outbound / receiving faxes inbound using G711u, issues calling the toll free number of our payroll company, and issues with dropped calls / one way audio when using follow me).

Fusion called me to ask why we chose to left, and I gave them blunt honesty. I told them their tech support for anything non-mission critical was very poor and that my experience was having to call multiple times (2 or 3 along with e-mail traffic) to get on the phone with a technician to help troubleshooting. They also make it a pain to terminate services. You cannot call their terminations department to get information about fees to terminate, etc. Customer Service tells you to e-mail the terminations department, and you may or may not get a response for a few days. It really does not help when you need information quickly.

Intelepeer support calls go straight to the NOC. A real person answers the call immediately. It's easy to create port requests in their online portal and upload the necessary information. You can request new numbers very easily or add features to existing numbers. I am really liking it thus far.

For those managers here, what are your attendance expectations for employees? We all know there may be times employees have to put in extra hours to finish something or put out a major fire, and in such times it's fair to give some grace on the following day's start time (or maybe even give a full / partial day off). But overall, how strict are you about employees being on time to work? And are the rules different for those who work harder for you and put in the extra effort (i.e. volunteer to work some extra hours here and there when needed)? Does management agree with your rules?

I'd love to hear any feedback folks here might have.

@scottalanmiller said:

@dafyre said:

I was under the impression that if you had a PBX that all of the phones talked to the PBX, and the PBX itself would handle the translation between the phones and the PRI / SIP trunk. The phones themselves would communicate to the PBX via IP or analog phone line or whatever, and the PBX would handle the rest.

Is my thinking wrong on this?

That's correct. What is on one side of the PBX has nothing to do with what is on the other side of the PBX. Just like your router can have Ethernet on one side and a fiber jack on the other or token ring or whatever.

So many individuals think of VOIP systems and believe all components must be VOIP to say you run VOIP. People run VOIP PBXs with POTS lines and a FXO gateway that allows the PBX to make and receive calls with those lines. The same is true for PRI as Scott mentioned (VOIP gateway appliances out there to connect back to a VOIP PBX that runs as VM, etc.). You could even go so far as to continue to use analog or digital desk phones with a new VOIP PBX if you have the right adapters to connect the phones to the PBX (i.e. the Grandstream HT701 to connect analog phones to a VOIP PBX using SIP).

I attended Epicor Insights earlier this year and was given a free copy of Jack and Suzi Welch's The Real-Life MBA. In the book, the last section is about where your career is headed. They talk about finding your AOD (Area of Destiny).

The AOD is defined as the intersection of an area in which you are highly skilled (as in a very specific area in which you excel more than most other humans) and something you love to do (the kind of love for your work that trumps money, something in which you exhibit passion, something that brings you intrinsic value). The AOD is supposedly the specific area in which you should build your career.

They gave some examples in the book about different people. One such person was Griff Long, an executive a Hertz who eventually ended up in charge of Hertz Connect. He loved running, swimming, and all things athletic. He finally left Hertz to take a job at Equinox, an upscale fitness lifestyle brand. Now he's in charge of opening new club locations, meeting with Equinox managers and top trainers, and talking about ways to encourage more people to exercise more often. He dropped concerns of salary advancement and moved his family 1500 miles away. All of them became happier, and he now no longer feels like he's working.

My question for you is...have you taken the time to find your AOD? According to this book, it may be extremely difficult to identify it. Do you feel like you have reached your AOD? Is it IT, a specific area of IT, or maybe a completely different field?

@scottalanmiller said:

@LAH3385 said:

Yes it will be MUCH MUCH MUCH cheaper. Maybe about half or more than what we are paying right now. Still... Since NEC phone isn't support we will have to provide our own phone system.

• PBX are free. So that should be a none issue.
• Softphones are free. You can always go that route.
• Desk phones start around $80 if you want brand new hardware.

Even building from scratch, the only major cost of a new phone system is often just the optional handset costs.

Time to build it and time to learn to manage it if you are not familiar with the new PBX must be considered. Is this something an admin or team of admins can effectively do to ensure testing and implementation are thorough enough for the project's success? There is a time cost which translates into time not spent on other projects whose completion may have contributed more to increasing company profit.

If you happen to be a DevOps master in the Dallas area who is looking for a new adventure this year, check out this new opening at Entrust Datacard - https://jobs.entrustdatacard.com/jobs/infrastructure-devops-engineer-2602.

You never know until you apply. Happy resume tweaking!

I work for a growing manufacturing company. We had 1 location when I started in 2007 and was the only one in IT. Now we have 4 members of the IT Department (all stationed at our corporate headquarters in Fort Worth) and a total of 10 sites to support (one of these is currently not yet fully operational). In the next 6 months, two of the existing sites will move into the site I mentioned as not yet being fully operational. But we will still have a total of 10 sites to support as I believe we will be adding a couple more by the end of the year.

In 2012 we finally started down the path of virtualizing our servers and put in 1 ESXi host with all local storage (about 2 TB of it on 10K SAS drives). Then, we added another ESXi host (with similar specs but better processors) in 2013 to finally virtualize our ERP system. We decided to make sure we had two servers with enough processor power, RAM, and IOPs to run everything in the event that one host died. We decided to put half the VMs on each host and use Veeam for backups. At the time the second server went in we were told that 2-4 hours would be fine as a RTO, and the RPO of the previous day's backup would be fine. Backups are taken offsite daily as well. So we left things as local storage with VSphere Essentials, which is what we still have today.

Since those two servers were put in, the number of users has grown, the number of VMs has grown, and the amount of storage in use has grown. We're at the point where neither server would have enough storage to run all VMs from the other server if one of them failed. That's a problem and creates an interesting DR situation.

Let's take servers at remote sites out of this discussion for right now. Some of the remote sites have / will have servers, but the core applications are hosted at HQ. The focus of this post is on those core applications which would be applicable to all sites.

The core applications in my mind hosted by HQ would be as follows (with the most critical of these being anything used by every single site):

---

• Epicor ERP system (servicing all sites) - comprised of SQL server and 2 application servers

• Exchange 2010 (servicing all sites) - left on site due to ITAR regulations

• Web server (servicing all sites) - corporate access to ERP system data, contains many enhancements for production flow, used for electronic scheduling boards in the shops at almost every location

• Bartender server - for label printing at many of our sites

• Elastix server - PBX for most of our sites (but not all of them)

• Sharepoint Foundation - contains Quality Management system data for most sites

• Domain controllers (servicing all sites) - 2 of these virtual, 2 still physical

• Solidworks ePDM system (servicing the site with largest revenue) - 2 servers

• Unifi controller VM (servicing all sites) - 1 VM as controller for APs across all sites

• File server with part programs (servicing a couple of sites) - part programs for machines stored here

• Veeam server - for backup and restores

---

We're also getting to the point where the shops are using less and less paper. That means when a cutting operation is finished, the operator will eventually have no paper to tell him / her what to do next and must rely on an electronic scheduling board. If those don't work, we cannot make parts, and we lose money. Some cutting / bending operations could take hours before they would need to look at what comes next or transact with our ERP system, download the next part program, etc.

I started a conversation with the boss yesterday and mentioned with the push to go paperless, I was concerned about infrastructure (probably the only one who is concerned) not being resilient enough to hit our RTO. He said he thought a couple of hours of downtime was still ok, but as the downtime becomes longer, the more it will cost the company in lost manufacturing time.

But it won't just cost HQ, it will cost every single company under our corporate umbrella. Each remote site operates under its own name but has the same ownership and executive management team.

He basically said to put together what I think we need to do and how much it will cost. But I threw it back at him and said I really needed to know the cost of downtime to put together a solution they would actually approve and that would meet the needs of the business. It could be something as simple as getting another host that serves as a replication target for the other two production servers so we can flip the switch and turn on critical VMs should a host die. Or it could be something as fancy as throwing in a VSAN cluster and going up to VSphere Essentials Plus or even Standard.

When I mentioned the need to know cost of downtime, he suggested rather than talk to folks in operations and try to get them to ballpark that for us, we should talk to the execs about where we are now, how long it would take us to recover with what we have, and present possible solutions and costs to close that gap. But again, without knowing the cost of downtime, it's kind of like shooting in the dark to some extent. The more remote sites / companies are using our ERP system, the more critical it becomes, driving the cost of downtime up. And if the execs don't see dollars lost, they are less likely to shell out for much.

We do have a couple of spare HP servers from 2008 that might work to run ESXi, but neither has enough storage to run critical VMs should we have an issue with a host. And even if they did, would you rely on a host you bought in 2008 to run the latest version of VSphere and have it work properly to run VMs that are critical to your business should you be presented with a disaster? In my mind if we had a host fail, Id be messing with our older servers to see if they work first and then heading to a Fry's or MicroCenter to buy a small server to help us recover, which may or may not run ESXi. I know for a fact the boss will ask why we can't use that old equipment for something.

I'm not sure what I am looking for here in terms of a response. I think I had the right approach to get cost of downtime and to be prepared with a feasible solution based on RTO, RPO, and cost of downtime. I'd love to hear thoughts from anyone out there who wants to contribute.

In my weekly Veeam digest, Gostev linked to this article about a new backup mode that will be available in Veeam Backup and Replication v8. I found it pretty interesting: http://www.virtualtothecore.com/en/new-backup-mode-veeam-backup-replication-v8/.

Be there to answer any first day questions (where you should park, what time the person should expect to take lunch and can they at the same time as you, how they clock in and out for the day, etc.).

If they are extremely green to IT, what may really help is to show them a process (i.e. the workstation imaging process for example) and let them take notes and push the buttons. Answer questions along the way. Then have the person try it on their own and come ask you questions.

If you have written instructions for something like this, have the person use your instructions to image a workstation. That will tell you how good your instructions are, and you can have the new person make corrections if there is a step missing, etc.

I like the idea of taking them to lunch (maybe with you and your boss if possible) as a welcoming, and I think having them meet everyone in the office is a good way to get them acquainted with culture.

I didn't realize until today that Rackspace is now a privately held company - http://blog.rackspace.com/its-official-rackspace-is-private?_ga=1.219756633.1173387424.1477319134.

It should also be noted this specific post is the first Google search result when searching for Internal Error: Missing Template ERR_CONNECT_FAIL. Yay for MangoLassi!

Hopefully this isn't posted elsewhere. Do we have any stats on number of attendees in 2016 vs. 2017 as well as number of vendors and session count? I was just curious since I wasn't able to attend either year.