- Blind-sysadmins - lists.hodgsonfamily.org

San/shared storage usage
by Andrew Hodgson 28 Jun '08

28 Jun '08

Hi, Just wondering if anyone out there is using any shared storage system? We are looking to possibly get one for the company, but I am interested in looking at other venders instead of EMC, NetAp, etc, mainly as you seem to be locked into using a lot of their other hardware, which leads to being quite expensive. It will probably have to be an iSCSI presentation. Thanks. Andrew.

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Network bonding in Vmware and other operating systems
by Andrew Hodgson 14 Jun '08

14 Jun '08

Hi, Well we sorted out our domain issues - it was all due to the Broadcom network bonding/teaming software we use from Dell. Removing the software and using one NIC worked like a charm, and we now have 2 W2k8 domain controllers up and working very well. Will probably go native with W2k8 tomorrow or Monday. That lead me onto another question that I have with my Vmware installs. Does Vmware allow you to do network bonding, or is this even a recommended configuration? I am asking because I can see a requirement to have the management port and the server ports on two different network cards (though they can of course share the same interface if you wanted), but I just wanted to know if it did bonding at all of interfaces? We bond across switches, but just use the standard host-based bonding, where if one card can't communicate, the system tries through the other card. Thanks. Andrew. -- allpay.net Limited, Fortis et Fides, Whitestone Business Park, Whitestone, Hereford, HR1 3SE. Registered in England No. 02933191. UK VAT Reg. No. 666 9148 88. Telephone: 0870 243 3434, Fax: 0870 243 6041. Website: www.allpay.net Email: enquiries(a)allpay.net This email, and any files transmitted with it, is confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the allpay.net Information Security Manager at the number above.

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Accessible enterprise spyware
by Troy Hergert 10 Jun '08

10 Jun '08

Hello everyone, Does anyone use a server based enterprise spyware program on a 2003 server that can be navigated with Window-eyes or JAWS? We purchased Counter spy and I am having a difficult time navigating it with a screen reader. Anyone have any experience with something accessible? Thanks.

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Backgrounds
by Toner, Barry (LIT) 04 Jun '08

04 Jun '08

Hi all, In the CISCO Networking thread Darren had asked for peoples experiences in the industry. I've included a short snapshot of mine from Degree and placement below. Hi Darren et al, I'm out on placement as a System Engineer with Liberty information Technology at the moment. I've completed an Associate Bachelors in Computing Science and am heading this September towards final year of my BSC HONS Computer Science Degree. Diagrams are the Bain of my life! >From DFD's, UML, Relational Models in Databases they drive me up the wall. Well to be honest it's not so much the diagrams BUT THE LECTURERS UNWILLINGNESS, (laziness), to provide me with reasonable alternative assessments. I've been fortunate that I've had very technically capable PA's who have been able to use the CAD software under my instructions. This sometimes falls down when the same lazy lecturers have Graduates marking their papers and therefore I'm just a number. I had one lecturer stumble all over the place to try and explain my mark to me. It became evident he hadn't' marked it when he couldn't' even read the hand-writing on the marks given! Another area I struggled with as a non-Braille user is debugging large amounts of code in the software engineering modules. I got round this by having a very helpful lecturer who recognised the hours I was putting in in actually going to his classes and labs, plus the efforts I went to to understand the concepts of the data structures and algorithms he was teaching. He met with me on a one-to-one each week to cover materiel that had been done in that weeks class and give me a brief overview of what was coming up in the next weeks class. I found these sessions invaluable and would encourage any student to request this level of support if you find you are struggling. In my mind a good teacher will make every effort to accommodate a student, because it's important to them and they're passionate about their subject. It might not always be practical granted so you cant' say it's a bad or lazy lecturer if they genuinely don't have the time. Back to work. Sys Eng in the company I currently work for is very challenging if you can't see at all. There's only 8 in total in the Systems dept and that includes the manager. Larger IT Depts will have a team dedicated to Exchange, a team for VMWARE, a team for Licensing, a Networking team, a Helpdesk team etc etc. All our work has to be shared amongst the Sys Engs, Senior Sys Engs, and Principal Sys Eng. With so many proprietary environments it's difficult to get away from the desk and away from the Helpdesk and Sys Admin side of things if you cant' see. System Access To Go, Window Eyes/Jaws on pen drives even NVDA sound great but in the case of WEYE and JAWS they modify Video Drivers. If that's incompatible in any shape or form you have egg all over your face. EG. Some old Dell machines will flip the monitors image upside down (if the drivers haven't been kept up-to-date). If you think an ordinary users desktop environment can be iffy multiply that by ten and you might be close to a developers environment, which is what we deal with in here. Maybe I'm telling my granmother to suck eggs but I would advise anyone who's totally blind, doesn't' read Braille and thinking of going into the IT industry at a corporate level to specialise, specialise, specialise! It's quite difficult to turn your hand to tasks as quickly and on-demand as your sighted peers would. I'm not sure what I want to specialise in, possibly security. Sys Admin sounds OK but I'm not sure if I could sit and fiddle with Active Directory all day. Maybe Exchange but I'd be afraid it might get quite boring after 6 months. Barry. "Tell me and I will hear, show me and I will see, involve me and I will understand. Chinese Proverb" Barry Toner Placement Systems Engineer Liberty Information Technology Direct Line: 02890 167000 Adelaide Exchange Fax: 02890 445511 24-26 Adelaide Street Switchboard: 02890 445500 Belfast BT2 8GD Email: b.toner(a)liberty-it.co.uk

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Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds
by Angelo Sonnesso 03 Jun '08

03 Jun '08

I wonder if Hot Spot Clicker would help Jaws behave better? Angelo Sonnesso M.A. M.S. Social Worker for the Blind -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 11:34 AM To: blind-sysadmins Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds Hi, DNS and DHCP is fine in a Core installation. At the moment I have one ESX machine running in a stand alone mode, and it is not connected to any infrastructure server. I have seen the Vmware update manager, but as you say it deals with virtual hosts only, and I don't think it will work for non virtual hosts, i.e, desktops, so we will continue to use WSUS for a while. I am using the mouse cursor in WSUS all the time, since the new 3.0 version came out, and they put it into a console arrangement, I can get Jaws to read some bits, on a good day, but most of the time I use the mouse cursor. Having said this, it is quite predictable in the mouse cursor, and as long as I deal with a screen of updates at a time, it is ok. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Ryan Shugart [mailto:rshugart@pcisys.net] Sent: 03 June 2008 16:00 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds Andrew: Very interesting points. I don't think server core would be appealing to us if we weren't virtualizing it, actually, the only reason we're upgrading our AD to 2008 is to get the server core functionality. I believe Microsoft has a secure shell alternative for accessing remote commandlines, I think its called remote shell, what I don't know is if its Vista only. We've upgraded our schema, we'll deploy the new DCs when we get the ESX servers up and running. We'll run with both the 2003 and 2008 DCs in production for a while until we're sure things will work like we think they will, then decomition the 2003 DCs. In our case, we'll also need to find new homes for DNS and DHCP, but I believe these are all supported on server core, so there shouldn't be a problem there. On a different note, I'm curious what your WSUS management experience has been like from an accessibility standpoint? I've been able to get it to work, but I find it very clumsy as there seems to be this new type of table control that neither major screen reader is fully working with yet. I find its one of those apps you really need to use your mouse emulation commands to work with if you want any chance of success, and even then its very slow going. So far its been doable, but if you have any tricks you've used, do share. VMWare is now shipping their new Infrastructure Update Manager with new versions of Virtual Center, and this is looking like a really cool product. It not only updates ESX itself, but will patch any Windows or Linux VMs running on an ESX host that's managed by Virtual Center. I was reading up on it yesterday, and if it does half of what it claims, it'll give WSUS a serious run for its money where patching VMs are conserned. Ryan -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 6:22 AM To: blind-sysadmins Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds Hi, Regarding server core. We tested server core on a test network, and there are a few reasons why I opted for the standard installation (had we ran this on Vmware, I may have made an alternative decision): 1. Our AD servers run a couple of other things as well. I do have one server holding all the FSMO roles, and that is just doing its thing, but the second controller will run WSUS. This I believe wasn't supported under Core. If this was under Vmware, I would Vmware the server and put another image running WSUS exclusively. 2. We don't have Vista clients, and so we are using the WS2003R2 SP2 management pack to manage the W2k8 controllers. I haven't found any program for 2008 that will run under XP for this, so we have to terminal service into the system to do some 2008 specific stuff. 3. There is no native SSH management of the core. So you are stuck with Telnet (which is a no brainer), RDP (which is frustrating just for CLI access, and anyway is not accessible with JFW/WE yet), or the remote management apps. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Ryan Shugart [mailto:rshugart@pcisys.net] Sent: 03 June 2008 06:42 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds Hello: This has been a very interesting thread so far. I'm a relative newcomer to IT, I have a computer science degree and a MCSA for 2003. I didn't have to deal much with diagrams, and from what I'm reading it sounds like I've been lucky. I did MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator) training through New Horizons of Colorado and overall I was pleased with the quality of my education and their willingness to work with me on accessibility issues. I went back for VMWare training and continued to be impressed. As to work now, I work at an 80 person software development company, our IT department has three people, one manager and two admins of which I'm one, so there's very little specialization. We're pretty much a Microsoft shop with a little Unix, I manage pretty much all of it from AD to Exchange to VMWare to general Unix, so I've kind of turned into a jack of all trades, although I'm not really specialized in any of them. I'd say my Microsoft knowledge is gr eater right now than my Unix knowledge. My biggest frustration is the lack of accessibility in a lot of the software I need to do my job. I'm pretty much totally blind and depend on speech exclusively. I can work around a lot of the issues, but it takes me longer than my sighted coworkers and there are a few I can't. For example, we have a SideWinder firewall from Secure Computing. The Sidewinder runs a modified FreeBSD OS, but modified is the key word. This product's manual states that Unix is a very insecure OS in their opinion. Anyway, this means the commandline is very different from most Unix's, and there's very little documentation for it since you're supposed to use the GUI, which is so inaccessible it isn't even funny. Best part, this product's biggest customer is the US government. Chuckle chuckle. Anyway, I do the best I can, and so far its been enough. Lately I've been really getting into VMWare, and I'm now heading up a project to convert 95% of our se rvers over to VMs running under ESX 3.5. I'm enjoying this project, and so far am not running into any accessibility issues I can't work around, if more slowly. The project itself is quite extensive, we're also migrating our AD infrastructure to server 2008 so that we can run server core for the smaller footprint, so I'll be interested in your thoughts Andrew. I also do a lot of the documentation for our network, again I avoid the diagrams simply because they've already been done and don't need much updating for now, once the VM project is done that might change, but so far I do will with procedural documentation. That's about it here, as I said I'm finding this thread interesting, so look forward to reading more. Ryan -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Monday, June 02, 2008 10:07 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds Hi, Good message. Having a bit of sight, I am able to hop round a bit from one piece to another, but I would recommend the specialisation bit if you can go down that road. On the other side, however, smaller companies may be more interested in employing you - the company that eventually employed me only had around 5 IT staff to start with, and we had to do everything from helpdesk, to server management. Personally I enjoy working with the front-end public facing servers, mainly web servers, but also some of the database servers, and backend servers which runs utility programs etc. This way I have managed to get exposure to a lot of applications, best practices, security requirements etc. I also enjoy seeing how the applications are fitting together, and in some cases helping to put the design together for the apps. Moving on, I am involved now in running the project upgrading our Active Directory to 2008 (I may write more on this in the next few weeks), and a possible Exchange migration. Security is very dry, it is good imho when you are on the firewall etc, but there is a lot of procedural stuff and going through logs you have to do, it isn't always easy to spot what is going on, especially when there is a lot of repetition. One of the things I do is to try and delegate work wherever possible. So for example, I don't do any of the cabling, or cabinet work. This may be just workable in my situation, but there are people who are very good at that sort of thing, and are quite happy to do it. When I first started out, I tried to get into as much as I could, to make people realise I was able to do the relevant jobs. Now, I am throwing the jobs to other people, as I have a full plate! Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Toner, Barry (LIT) Sent: 02 June 2008 15:10 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds Hi all, In the CISCO Networking thread Darren had asked for peoples experiences in the industry. I've included a short snapshot of mine from Degree and placement below. Hi Darren et al, I'm out on placement as a System Engineer with Liberty information Technology at the moment. I've completed an Associate Bachelors in Computing Science and am heading this September towards final year of my BSC HONS Computer Science Degree. Diagrams are the Bain of my life! >From DFD's, UML, Relational Models in Databases they drive me up the wall. Well to be honest it's not so much the diagrams BUT THE LECTURERS UNWILLINGNESS, (laziness), to provide me with reasonable alternative assessments. I've been fortunate that I've had very technically capable PA's who have been able to use the CAD software under my instructions. This sometimes falls down when the same lazy lecturers have Graduates marking their papers and therefore I'm just a number. I had one lecturer stumble all over the place to try and explain my mark to me. It became evident he hadn't' marked it when he couldn't' even read the hand-writing on the marks given! Another area I struggled with as a non-Braille user is debugging large amounts of code in the software engineering modules. I got round this by having a very helpful lecturer who recognised the hours I was putting in in actually going to his classes and labs, plus the efforts I went to to understand the concepts of the data structures and algorithms he was teaching. He met with me on a one-to-one each week to cover materiel that had been done in that weeks class and give me a brief overview of what was coming up in the next weeks class. I found these sessions invaluable and would encourage any student to request this level of support if you find you are struggling. In my mind a good teacher will make every effort to accommodate a student, because it's important to them and they're passionate about their subject. It might not always be practical granted so you cant' say it's a bad or lazy lecturer if they genuinely don't have the time. Back to work. Sys Eng in the company I currently work for is very challenging if you can't see at all. There's only 8 in total in the Systems dept and that includes the manager. Larger IT Depts will have a team dedicated to Exchange, a team for VMWARE, a team for Licensing, a Networking team, a Helpdesk team etc etc. All our work has to be shared amongst the Sys Engs, Senior Sys Engs, and Principal Sys Eng. With so many proprietary environments it's difficult to get away from the desk and away from the Helpdesk and Sys Admin side of things if you cant' see. System Access To Go, Window Eyes/Jaws on pen drives even NVDA sound great but in the case of WEYE and JAWS they modify Video Drivers. If that's incompatible in any shape or form you have egg all over your face. EG. Some old Dell machines will flip the monitors image upside down (if the drivers haven't been kept up-to-date). If you think an ordinary users desktop environment can be iffy multiply that by ten and you might be close to a developers environment, which is what we deal with in here. Maybe I'm telling my granmother to suck eggs but I would advise anyone who's totally blind, doesn't' read Braille and thinking of going into the IT industry at a corporate level to specialise, specialise, specialise! It's quite difficult to turn your hand to tasks as quickly and on-demand as your sighted peers would. I'm not sure what I want to specialise in, possibly security. Sys Admin sounds OK but I'm not sure if I could sit and fiddle with Active Directory all day. Maybe Exchange but I'd be afraid it might get quite boring after 6 months. Barry. "Tell me and I will hear, show me and I will see, involve me and I will understand. Chinese Proverb" Barry Toner Placement Systems Engineer Liberty Information Technology Direct Line: 02890 167000 Adelaide Exchange Fax: 02890 445511 24-26 Adelaide Street Switchboard: 02890 445500 Belfast BT2 8GD Email: b.toner(a)liberty-it.co.uk _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins -- allpay.net Limited, Fortis et Fides, Whitestone Business Park, Whitestone, Hereford, HR1 3SE. Registered in England No. 02933191. UK VAT Reg. No. 666 9148 88. Telephone: 0870 243 3434, Fax: 0870 243 6041. Website: www.allpay.net Email: enquiries(a)allpay.net This email, and any files transmitted with it, is confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the allpay.net Information Security Manager at the number above. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins -- allpay.net Limited, Fortis et Fides, Whitestone Business Park, Whitestone, Hereford, HR1 3SE. Registered in England No. 02933191. UK VAT Reg. No. 666 9148 88. Telephone: 0870 243 3434, Fax: 0870 243 6041. Website: www.allpay.net Email: enquiries(a)allpay.net This email, and any files transmitted with it, is confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the allpay.net Information Security Manager at the number above. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins(a)lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

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ask For IT fields?
by Ibraam Wahib 31 May '08

31 May '08

hello my friends: sorry for this silly question, but am need answer. I'm studying in cavi CCNA and IT essential, I love to work in I-T fields very much. my question what's the percentage of blinds success in these jobs?, and how can I persuade companies in Egypt to accept me? what're the fields now I can join to make training during my study in cavi. thanks for your help. sorry again for wasting your time.

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Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Network Browsing Problem
by JoeY 23 May '08

23 May '08

Also, when you run ipconfig /all from Andrew's suggestion, check the Node Type. Is it Hybrid? I've seen times where this would be blank, or none (can't remember for sure). Since all of these computers are in a workgroup, with no static IP or DNS, the only way that they will find each other is through a network broadcast. Hybrid mode will allow TCP/IP to look for the destination host in DNS, and if it is not found, it will broadcast for it. Make sure that you can browse network shares from another computer, to make sure that it works. Then, check to see if there is any antivirus or firewall applications on the laptop that may be blocking the outbound netbios connections. Let us know what you find. Great way to start a weekend? ~Joe

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Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Network Browsing Problem
by vjoey＠comcast.net 23 May '08

23 May '08

Also, when you run ipconfig /all from Andrew's suggestion, check the Node Type. Is it Hybrid? I've seen times where this would be blank, or none (can't remember for sure). Since all of these computers are in a workgroup, with no static IP or DNS, the only way that they will find each other is through a network broadcast. Hybrid mode will allow TCP/IP to look for the destination host in DNS, and if it is not found, it will broadcast for it. Make sure that you can browse network shares from another computer, to make sure that it works. Then, check to see if there is any antivirus or firewall applications on the laptop that may be blocking the outbound netbios connections. Let us know what you find. Great way to start a weekend? ~Joe

1 0

Network Browsing Problem
by Toner, Barry (LIT) 23 May '08

23 May '08

Hi folks, Hopefully someone can offer a few suggestions for this. It's been bugging me for a few weeks now. I've a laptop that's not able to browse to any of the shares on a local Windows Network. The laptop has XP Pro on it and all the other machines have XP Pro on them. I can ping and connect to the network shares with their IP addresses. Net Bios is enabled on the laptop and it's a member of the same workgroup as all other machines. If I click on My Network Places/Entire Network/Microsoft Windows Network and the workgroup name using the laptop I can only see it in the workgroup. No static IP's or pre-assigned DNS in TCP/IP and I've confirmed that it's using the default/same subnet mask as the other machines. No firewalls enabled on the laptop itself. Have double checked that the Windows Firewall isn't turned on. Any ideas? Thanks, Barry. "Tell me and I will hear, show me and I will see, involve me and I will understand. Chinese Proverb" Barry Toner Placement Systems Engineer Liberty Information Technology Direct Line: 02890 167000 Adelaide Exchange Fax: 02890 445511 24-26 Adelaide Street Switchboard: 02890 445500 Belfast BT2 8GD Email: b.toner(a)liberty-it.co.uk

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Major upgrade of server
by Andrew Hodgson 23 May '08

23 May '08

Hi, I have just done a major upgrade of the Mailman machine, if there is something which appears to be broken, let me know as soon as possible. Thanks. Andrew.

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