Posts made by pmoncho

Reddit has a post that Rackspace had an email ransomware incident.

Don't know about its credibility though.

@Fredtx said in Who's making the move to vSphere 8:

@Pete-S said in Who's making the move to vSphere 8:

@Fredtx said in Who's making the move to vSphere 8:

I also read that vmware no longer recommends booting from sd cards.

According to vmware you need 128 TBW (over 5 years). Industrial SD cards for example can have that. SD cards that goes into phones and cameras don't.

For Dell servers, it looks like the BOSS card is a good replacement.

“BOSS-S1 utilizes one or two read-intensive (Boot Class) 80mm M.2 SATA Solid State Devices (SSDs) which can be used in “pass-thru” or two devices in Hardware RAID 1 (mirroring).”

https://vinfrastructure.it/2018/12/installing-esxi-on-a-dell-emc-boss-card/

I use BOSS cards and recommend them always if possible.

Don't know if it is just me, but it seem BOSS card pricing has jumped rather high as compared to other server component prices??????

@gjacobse said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@pmoncho said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@gjacobse said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@pmoncho said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@JaredBusch said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@gjacobse said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Too many to quote using the phone,.. thanks.

so- now it is a bit bitter sweet as I may very well lose all of my accrued PTO,..94 hours.

Will have to see

Dunno about your state, but every state I have dealt with, accrued means it is earned and is 100% required to be paid out.

For those in Ohio, the employer must have a written policy stating under what conditions accrued PTO will not be paid.

And there’s the ‘rub’ of course.

While I live and work in Kentucky, the company that pays me is in Ohio…. And yes- it’s in the Employee handbook. So it’s very very likely that I’ll get screwed out of it.

Forgot to mention, I don't see why a company believes in not paying out PTO hours for mainly, good, stable employees who put in their 2 week notice?

The now ex-employee will blab to the rest which may foster a issue amongst the current staff as the rumor runs amuck within the company.

If an employee has a good hunch they will not be paid, they might as well go on vacation for two weeks, come back for a day and then walk out a day before starting their new job. --- Seen this happen in the last few years.

Keep in mind, I"m a contractor. and yea,.. it's in the handbook.. it's not paid out. take it or lose it.

The company I work FOR does carry over. and the COO is a little confused why I wasn't hired,.. LAST YEAR,.. but she has little room to do anything...

In the back of my mind,.. the former Director is getting kick backs from all the money spent. the organization has spent over $1.1M on all services and products in the last 18months. And this is a clinic of less than 300 people.

That is some serious moola. The CFO might be in on it too. A friend of my father, owned an accounting firm with a side IT company, got busted in kick back scam to the tune of $10 Mil. All the C-Level execs were included in the scam though.

@JaredBusch said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@pmoncho said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

If an employee has a good hunch they will not be paid, they might as well go on vacation for two weeks, come back for a day and then walk out a day before starting their new job. --- Seen this happen in the last few years.

Most people have to get PTO approved by their manager. So suddenly taking a few weeks off will not likely be approved.

True.

Today though, one can play the COVID card to get at least a couple days. (Two people I know have done this at another workplace)

We all know, people will try to find some type of work around.

@gjacobse said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@pmoncho said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@JaredBusch said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@gjacobse said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Too many to quote using the phone,.. thanks.

so- now it is a bit bitter sweet as I may very well lose all of my accrued PTO,..94 hours.

Will have to see

Dunno about your state, but every state I have dealt with, accrued means it is earned and is 100% required to be paid out.

For those in Ohio, the employer must have a written policy stating under what conditions accrued PTO will not be paid.

And there’s the ‘rub’ of course.

While I live and work in Kentucky, the company that pays me is in Ohio…. And yes- it’s in the Employee handbook. So it’s very very likely that I’ll get screwed out of it.

Forgot to mention, I don't see why a company believes in not paying out PTO hours for mainly, good, stable employees who put in their 2 week notice?

The now ex-employee will blab to the rest which may foster a issue amongst the current staff as the rumor runs amuck within the company.

If an employee has a good hunch they will not be paid, they might as well go on vacation for two weeks, come back for a day and then walk out a day before starting their new job. --- Seen this happen in the last few years.

@gjacobse said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@pmoncho said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@JaredBusch said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@gjacobse said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Too many to quote using the phone,.. thanks.

so- now it is a bit bitter sweet as I may very well lose all of my accrued PTO,..94 hours.

Will have to see

Dunno about your state, but every state I have dealt with, accrued means it is earned and is 100% required to be paid out.

For those in Ohio, the employer must have a written policy stating under what conditions accrued PTO will not be paid.

And there’s the ‘rub’ of course.

While I live and work in Kentucky, the company that pays me is in Ohio…. And yes- it’s in the Employee handbook. So it’s very very likely that I’ll get screwed out of it.

Even though I am only partly to blame here.

• Because I get it done, it’s given to me
• because I close the most tickets, it’s given to me
• because it had to be done and there isn’t anyone else here to do it, it’s given to me
• because Jake hole didn’t finish it, I have to.
• because “I trust you to get it done”,…
• because he’s a lazy f*
  …
• because this is how’s it’s been.

I get it. I just keep singing to myself, "what a wonderfulllllllll world"

@JaredBusch said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@gjacobse said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Too many to quote using the phone,.. thanks.

so- now it is a bit bitter sweet as I may very well lose all of my accrued PTO,..94 hours.

Will have to see

Dunno about your state, but every state I have dealt with, accrued means it is earned and is 100% required to be paid out.

For those in Ohio, the employer must have a written policy stating under what conditions accrued PTO will not be paid.

@JasGot said in Hard disk encryption without OS access?:

We have a customer who is being told they have to ensure all their data is encrypted when at rest. They are being told by their franchisor.

The software product they use for running their business is the only app on the server and the software vendor will not allow access to the server OS.

I know the hard ball way to deal with this, but I am looking to know and consider all of our options.

Moving away from the current software vendor is a nearly insurmountable task.

The software is running on Red Hat. Not sure which version.

If the client controls the server hardware, then SED SSD is a an option.

@siringo said in Another new server question:

Thanks everyone for the help with my previous server questions.

I have another. It has been quite a while since I had to spec up a new server, I usually just work with what I'm given.

From what I've seen it looks like vendors are now supplying servers out of the box with 2 x SSD drives. I've seen Lenovo come with 240GB and Dell with 480GB and you have to ask to not have them, you can't untick them from the configurator.

I'd config these as a RAID 1 pair, virtual disk 1 (VD1).

This new server will be a Windows server housing Hyper-V VMs.

So my question is, would you run the host OS instance and the VM OS instances on the SSDs (or VD1) and the storage for the VMs on spinning media?

Is that the best way to set this up???

Thanks once more.

I second @notverypunny with separating the Hypervisor on its own RAID 1.
If using Dell servers, BOSS card is one possible option.

@Dashrender said in Another new server question:

@notverypunny hit the nail on the head. If you're standing up a new VM host - why go with something that has already been retired.

That said - Someone spouted some crap at me the other day -

it's not dead, just the stand alone product is dead - why do I say that? Because it's still in the Windows Server 2022 server itself. Sure that means you have to burn a license for the host, but meh, that's the cost of doing business

I suppose there could be some argument to be had there... But @scottalanmiller is much better at these explanations than I.

As the saying goes, "Price is what you pay, value is what you get!" If the business perceives Windows 2022 with Hyper-V Role to be worth the value it provides then it is the lowest cost option.

@scottalanmiller said in Typical services and software in SMBs?:

@pmoncho said in Typical services and software in SMBs?:

On a side note (very anecdotal), being nice has its benefits. I have seen on numerous occasions and even 3 times in the last month, an ITSP/MSP are nice till they get the account then turn into being total dicks! I don't understand it but it is so close to turning into axiom.

As an MSP, while I believe we are always nice, I can tell you that the customers practically demand this scenario. Time and time again, if you are nice to the client, they dump you for the next abuse dick that comes along, makes obviously false promises, pressures you into tripling your budget and signing long contracts with no protection for you. The average client only wants a vendor that treats them bad. I can't explain it, but the better job you do, the less likely a customer is to keep you. Obviously the great customers aren't like this, but good customers are few and far between. Most want to micromanage and IT is just scapegoat for their own mistakes.

It is so weird isn't it? I cannot explain any of it. Whether it is on the ITSP/MSP or Client side.

@Pete-S said in Typical services and software in SMBs?:

Besides the obvious Microsoft/Google/xxx for mail and office apps - what type of services or workloads are SMBs interested in? What are they spending their IT-"budget" on?

Forgot about this one.

"Budgets" don't exists. Money is first come, first served and most is on everything but IT. Mind you, this is very small SMB's. The few people in the SME space I have spoken with do have some type of budget and most of that is wrapped up in PC's, SaaS and internal IT staff (most of the time one or two people).

@scottalanmiller said in Typical services and software in SMBs?:

@Pete-S said in Typical services and software in SMBs?:

is if SMBs actually turn to MSPs/ITSPs for advice on solving business problems?

No, not really. We're always the last to know, no matter how much we could have helped.

This! I am not an MSP/ITSP but I work with them for our clients (we resell LOB app).

@Pete-S said in Typical services and software in SMBs?:

@scottalanmiller said in Typical services and software in SMBs?:

I think most SMBs have some degree of LOB applications that they also depend on. Those are very hard to identify because they are per industry.

I was thinking LOB and PBX should be pretty common, either as a service or selfhosted.

As Scott mentioned, most of the time there is an LOB and the company revolves around it. IMHO, finding a popular LOB vendor in an area and be the best darn MSP/ITSP for that LOB. The LOB vendor will recommend you to other clients (I've done and seen this many many times).

If the pricing is right, I see on-prem servers or helping SMB's move LOB to cloud as a way to provide monthly cash flow.

On a side note (very anecdotal), being nice has its benefits. I have seen on numerous occasions and even 3 times in the last month, an ITSP/MSP are nice till they get the account then turn into being total dicks! I don't understand it but it is so close to turning into axiom.

@Pete-S said in Typical services and software in SMBs?:

Another related thing I've been pondering is if SMBs actually turn to MSPs/ITSPs for advice on solving business problems?

Or is it the MSPs/ITSPs that approach the SMBs with suggestions for improvement?

Or are MSPs/ITSPs just doing the work that the customer wants?

My anecdotal assessment in the SMB medical space has been:

If MSP's/ITSP's are brought in, it is via word of mouth because of some issue (Virus) or new project (Old days was moving to VOIP and now moving to cloud)

If internal IT, some contract with MSP for heavy lifting and time off coverage but this has been rare.

@pattonb said in ps2 to usb adapters:

Has anybody had success using ps2 to usb adapters ? ( specifically for keyboards)

I have one and can't get the keyboard recognized, I still have a few "favourite" ps2 keyboards. Does it make any sense, to cut off the ps2 end, and replace with usb ?

thanks in advance.

I have had luck with these for my Raritan KVM.

https://www.amazon.com/Belkin-USB-PS-2-Adapter/dp/B000ELSXFY

Everyone has a test environment, some even have a production environment - Unknown

@RojoLoco said in What hardware do you use for online meetings?:

@pmoncho I think that depends on the particular meeting software. I think Teams has a setting to reduce background noise, but I'd have to double check that, not at my desk right now.

I will take a peak at that on Monday. My test was just using the Windows 10 camera and recorded a brief video.

@RojoLoco said in What hardware do you use for online meetings?:

@pmoncho yeah, they are way better with modern computers because of all the USB-C stuff. I haven't really had a chance to make any calls with the new monitors, so I don't know how well the mics work. My boss knows I won't turn on a camera just for a Teams call, they didn't even buy one for me.

Me neither. I mentioned that I don't want one and will just use a headset with no video.

The mic is super low on a Dell 3020. Don't know if it is because the system does not have USB 3.0 port or not. On a Dell 9020 with HDMI and USBC-A adapter in USB-3 port the mic is about 75% louder.

I don't know what setting I can use to enhance the recording from the mic? Don't think there is one.

@RojoLoco said in What hardware do you use for online meetings?:

Our new setup includes 2 different models of Dell's video conferencing monitors. Built in camera (pops up from the top edge), as well as a decent array of mics and speakers below the display. I think management didn't really think it through, as our office is mostly cubicles. 2 or more people on a call turns into a weird, multi-node speakerphone, complete with odd echoes that come from both latency and physical distance. They probably would be great if everyone had them at home, but it's not really a practical solution if you have a budget.

Setup a two this week and it has not been a fun experience. We have the Dell 24" models and had to hook them up on old pc's using DP and USB-C to A adapter. They do work pretty well when setup via USB-C on newer laptop.

The microphones, IMO, are not the best but the monitor and camera are pretty decent. For only $229 on Amazon, they are ok.