- Blind-sysadmins - lists.hodgsonfamily.org

Migrating to a new file server.
by Darragh Ó Héiligh 27 May '16

27 May '16

Hello, I'm looking for a fresh perspective on this. I'm migrating a few hundred users over to a new file server. The paths will be different. It's not just the server name that's changing. I have run into several problems. 1. Although I'm a domain admin, I don't have access to most of the folders. In the worst case scenario I need to take ownership to gain access. 2. Inheritance is disabled on some of the sub folders. 3. Permissions are sometimes configured on the fifth or even tenth sub folder. 4. There are drive paths distributed using group policy but 99% of the paths are mapped directly on the PC. 5. Five minutes of down time causes untold problems. 6. The tool that is used to replicate the files isn't replicating the permissions in all cases. It is also having the same problem that I'm encountering in terms of access to some files and folders. 7. Permissions aren't given to groups. Each person is added to the folder directly. 8. There are often eight different drive maps. Some of these are even pointing to duplicate locations. Here's what I've tried. 1. Section shares will be mapped to S. However, the policy is set to update. IT isn't changing locally mapped drives. This is ok. It allows users to come to support if they can't access their files. The benefit of this is support are noting down what S was previously mapped to. 2. I'm using powershell to level the permissions on all sub directories. 3. I'm talking to section heads to determine the permissions that each person needs. 4. I'm adding these people to groups based on the section and directory name and applying access to the group. 5. I'm marking the old files as hidden. Mainly so that if someone continues using the old path they will think the drive is empty. That will result in a call to support where they can tell the user to use the new drive and then also delete the old map. There are far too many manual steps in this. There's also too many remaining drive maps that aren't needed. I'm thinking of doing something like the following: Write a script that will be run at log in. 1. Remove all drive maps 2. Check the groups that the user is a member of. 3. Map drives based on those groups. That way I don't need to touch the old file server. The problem is that if I move Drive Q that is used by ApplicationX to the letter Y, all the users who used the old letter will probably have problems opening files. I'm a bit stressed. I don't know how I can do this without down time or causing problems for some users. Thanks Darragh

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SYSAdmin Participation
by vic.pereira＠ssc-spc.gc.ca 26 May '16

26 May '16

Greetings Regarding a previous comment about people on this list who are not SYSADMINS I freely admit to being one of that ilk. When I joined I fell into that category, however my functions were probably considered to be more of a generalist nature. I was responsible for both novell and Windows servers, various data switches and routers, a variety of system monitoring tools, various lights out devices due to the wide spread geographical nature of the department I worked for and toss in a smattering of desktops pretty much covered it. Then this list was very helpful whenever I had some questions about a system we had in place or one that was over the horizon. Now this list is proving to be valuable to me in a different sense. My role is no longer hands on. I assemble and coordinate the project teams whenever we are moving a department, virtualising servers, renovating a space or anything else that falls under information technologies. Now I am working with a great bunch of people who know quite a bit in their specific field. From time to time when we run into an issue the information I read about on this list has helped me provide an informed opinion or to ask the right questions. And to keep my hands in the dirt, I volunteer for an organisation that works with people who have a vision impairment and there are times when I have questions regarding a router, access point, bit of software etc. I know there are a plethora of resources out there, and I appreciate being part of this list which is a significant contributor to my box of tools to get the answers I need from time to time. Vic Pereira Project Manager, Networks and End-Users Branch Shared Services Canada / Government of Canada vic.pereira(a)ssc-spc.gc.ca / Tel: 204-781-5046 Gestionnaire de projet, Direction des réseaux et des utilisateurs finaux Services partagés Canada / Gouvernement du Canada vic.pereira(a)ssc-spc.gc.ca / Tél: 204-781-5046

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Quick survey. Results are important.
by Darragh Ó Héiligh 26 May '16

26 May '16

Hello, I would appreciate it if you would reply with the screen reader you primarily use and yes or no depending on if you are currently employed or not. For example: Jaws, Yes. To indicate that Jaws is your primary screen reader and you are currently employed. If you'd prefer to send this to me off list please Email d(a)digitaldarragh.com<mailto:d@digitaldarragh.com> Your name and answer will not be shared. I simply want to get a picture of the top screen readers actively used in system administration by blind users. Thanks Darragh

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Trello and similar tools
by Ben Mustill-Rose 26 May '16

26 May '16

Hi all, My team are investigating tools to help plan / track / visualize the work that we do. So far the favourite seems to be Trello but whilst this is usable in the strictest of senses, it's one of those situations where it's so fiddly to use that I can't really be as productive as I'd like. What do other people use for this sort of thing? Bonus points if it has an iOS app. The team are open to trying other solutions if they work better for me but if I can't find anything it's probably going to be Trello or Github. Cheers, Ben.

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Quick survey. Results are important.
by Darragh Ó Héiligh 25 May '16

25 May '16

Hello, I would appreciate it if you would reply with the screen reader you primarily use and yes or no depending on if you are currently employed or not. For example: Jaws, Yes. To indicate that Jaws is your primary screen reader and you are currently employed. If you'd prefer to send this to me off list please Email d(a)digitaldarragh.com<mailto:d@digitaldarragh.com> Your name and answer will not be shared. I simply want to get a picture of the top screen readers actively used in system administration by blind users. Thanks Darragh

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VmWare question
by Kelly Prescott 18 May '16

18 May '16

I have a question about using VmWare in a school environment. I need to do some labs which are setup on a VmWare work station. I have been given access to this workstation through a html interface. They are calling it VDI. The lab machines exist on this work station. How can I best make this system accessible? I think I will have to install some sort of speech (orca) on the Linux hosts and perhaps NVDA on the windows hosts. Am I going in the proper direction? Am I wasting my time trying to do this? Would there be a better way to do this? I have been given access to the actual machine images, but there are 8 of them and my little laptop cannot run them all at once which is required for this environment. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks. Kp

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Booting to usb flash drive
by Troy Hergert 13 May '16

13 May '16

I need to boot a group of laptops with Windows 8.1 pro to a flash drive which has my imaging software setup real nice with nvda. These HP Pro book laptops don't boot to the usb drive. I can get them to reboot into their recovery mode by going to advanced startup settings in the charms bar but then get no speech. Has anyone come up with a way to get speech at these screens? Or does anyone know of a way to force the system to recognize the usb drive as bootable? Thanks.

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levtec winstaller images
by mattias 12 May '16

12 May '16

are them not secure boot compatible?

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Running Metasploit using msfconsole
by Paul O'Rahilly 12 May '16

12 May '16

Hello Folks Calling all pen testers ! Is anyone using kali linux to run msfconsole, with orca. I need to use the metasploit database to run white hack exploits against some known vulnerabilities. It’s part of a college project. I’ve discovered www.exploit-db.com. I’ve started up msfconsole on kali, and the database is connected. I have a procedure to find exploits, set options and run the exploit. I am wondering if anyone has been down this road before, and would like to share their experience, and possibly save me some time. I’m also wondering if anyone has successfully opened a terminal for searchsploit. Thanks, Paul

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Running Metasploit using msfconsole
by Paul O'Rahilly 12 May '16

12 May '16

Hello Folks Calling all pen testers ! Is anyone using kali linux to run msfconsole, with orca. I need to use the metasploit database to run white hack exploits against some known vulnerabilities. It’s part of a college project. I’ve discovered www.exploit-db.com. I’ve started up msfconsole on kali, and the database is connected. I have a procedure to find exploits, set options and run the exploit. I am wondering if anyone has been down this road before, and would like to share their experience, and possibly save me some time. I’m also wondering if anyone has successfully opened a terminal for searchsploit. Thanks, Paul

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