Posts made by RobQ

@scottalanmiller Well that's what we call I.T. Generalists it in this area. I build, design, and maintain all computers, servers, network, and phones, as well as serve as the primary support contact. I know you don't agree, but I.T. managers/Network Administrator is the name for that role around here.

I've worked mostly in SMB as the Network, Lan, Phone, Server admin/helpdesk guy for about 12 years. My only exception was a brief stint in Microsoft Dynamics consulting. I'm looking to relocate from Central Arkansas To Northwest Arkansas which has become the Business/technology center of the state. (Walmart, Big Trucking Companies, Tyson Foods, Etc.)

What I'm finding in my search is that most postings, and opening are more specialized. Lots of developing, unix/storage, stuff, software, etc. I'm seeing very few SMB generalist/admin type positions. I'm quite positive I CAN specialize, I've just never really been able to do so. I do a little of everything, but not alot of anything. I have all Cisco Networking/Telephony gear, but I rarely touch it unless it breaks or needs upgraded. I definitely thrive in more of an administration/availability role than I do an Engineering type of role. I'm a people person dammit. I've yet to see a job posting for a "Computer guy for a 150-250 user business". That's my wheelhouse.

I'm working pretty hard to get consideration for a Network Engineer job for the "Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network" that joins all of the Colleges and medical facilities together because it's a cushy State gig that pays well. But I'm honestly not sure that's something I'll like, and getting it is iffy since I don't have a bachelors degree. Just Associates. I just want to get out of Little rock and closer to Family. Remote work for my current employer really isn't an option. Although I think if I announced that I was getting out of town, I would at least get some contract work for a bit from it. I"m quite sure with my contacts in the state I could probably get some consulting work, but again, I don't have a comfort level there. I had one consulting gig, and I hated it.

I've already taken a few stabs at doing something other than Network Administration, and I think this is just what I'm best at. I'm not really looking for any specific answers, just sharing my conundrum, and welcoming a discussion.

I was always around computers as a Kid. My mom taught Computers and Keyboarding at a Vocational school, so from 6 or 7 I would run around helping the ladies (Mostly typists, learning how to use a computer) get their computers working in the lab. After High school I got a job selling Cell phones (Back before they had camera's or texting was a thing. It was then that I realized technology was something I always wanted to be around. After I figured out that sales wasn't something I wanted to do forever, i went to a Community college to get an associates degree. Got a temporary gig at a Poultry company in the IT, department, Moved from there to my first Technician job, and 12 years later, here I am.

@PSX_Defector I'm one dude, and if we have a disaster I'll be pulled in a million directions. So installing OS's is something I'd rather not do.

I will stick with Vmware more than likely. I've gone the Hyper-V route, and Vmware is just to freaking easy to use for me to move away from it.

@scottalanmiller I think Option 1 or 2 is what I'm leaning to. We're going to have backups of the files, and VM's on the uni-trends appliance, so I'm not terribly worried about recover-ability anymore. As part of our DR plan we have a vendor that will provide hardware, power, connectivity and space. So if I have everything backed up and taken off site, I should be able to get a replacement Unitrends appliance, bring in my Backups, and get rock and rolling pretty quickly.

I'm leaning toward Jared's idea of having one host with smaller fast drives for my heavier workloads, and a host with lots of slower drives. That way, I'd be comfortable with the performance, but still have fail-over capability if I need it.

@KatieUnitrends It is a recover 813. I am currently working with support to tweak things. I think it may have been a bit under spec'd, but we're working through the process of determining how to move forward. I actually had Lincoln Glover and Robert Walker on site looking at it last week.

I chose Unitrends because we had the old Physical servers, so we wanted the ability to do file level backups as we all quickly restore. Once fully virtual Veeam may be a good option, but Unitrends was a quick way to gain some semblance of sanity knowing our servers could go down at any point.

@scottalanmiller That's kind of the Million Dollar Question. We CAN tolerate 4 Hour Downtime 4 one server/service. I'm just not sure we can tolerate 4 hours plus recovery time for our entire server infrastructure.

@JaredBusch The only thing even remotely close to being High IOPS is our SQL server, and even it isn't too bad.

OK, so this has gone on way longer than needed but I need to get my infrastructure off this old hardware. I've started and stopped the project a few times, because A. Getting Hardware approved by our owners is next to impossible, and B. there are constantly new options so I've had a hard time settling on one solution.
We have 8 Physical Servers and one VMware ESXi host with 3 guests. All of these servers are older than 3 years, most are older than 5. It's your normal stuff. Domain Controller/File server, exchange, SQl, and a few application servers. We have a Unitrends appliance handling our backups.

We've been proposed the good old 3-2-1 setup with 3 Host servers, 2 switches, SAN, and VMware. I've also been convinced that I don't really need a SAN because we CAN tolerate some down time if we have a failure. And I really don't want to spend 30-40K on a SAN if we don't need one. I've looked at Virtual storage appliances, and I've looked at Scale's HC3. I've even started looking at Cisco UCS and an equal-logic. I'm looking at about we currently run about 128 GB ram, and 4 TB of storage on disk. We run just under 2000 IOPS at peak. The main thing is that since we're mostly physical, we have lots of spindles now.

So, Given what little info I've given you all, what say ye?

We haven't used coconut flour much, but we do use coconut oil, and our boys can't have dairy so of course Almond milk, soy milk, etc.

Networking (Human) is something I wouldn't have thought of when I started out, but it's been a blessing. The relationships you build with coworkers, former employers, vendors, etc. can really grow into a great resource.

Thanks, Not sure I will post here a lot, but I'll check in from time to time. Any chance we'll get a ManoLassi plugin for the SpiceWorks Dashboard

Great idea on their part. I stopped using NewEgg when I started using prime. I got a little miffed when I took the time to sign up for NewEgg Business only to find out the prices were nearly always higher than the regular NewEgg site. I'm a fickle pickle when it comes to that stuff.

@Minion-Queen Thanks! I'm to lazy ATM to reduce the size of my other Avatar enough to upload it. Maybe another day.

Hello, my name is Rob. Bob Beatty invited me from SW.