TechVirtuoso

Cable Management fun with a Cisco 6509

May 23rd, 2012 at 11:35 AM  No Comments

Every company in my IT career I have walked into a jungle of cables with no documentation or labels.  I am starting to wonder if I will ever walk into a place where I don’t have to tear into everything and re-build from scratch.  I realize that IT staff is usually overworked, but there is no excuse for letting it get this out of hand.

I admit, in a fire I don’t always label/run everything the proper way, but I always make sure I go back (usually late hours of night/wee hours of the morning, I love my job!) and make sure it is done right.  I guess I should stop ranting and get back to the original subject of the post.  Afterall, those Lazy IT admins keep people like me out of the unemployment line.

Until my most recent position, I have never dealt with a large switch like the Cisco 6509 or 96 port patch panels (the maker of these patch panels, IMO, should be shot).  I am a big fan of what you can do with a good old fashioned 48 port switch, a Neatpatch and a 48 port patch panel.  I was stumped when I walked into the IDF for the first time and saw this.

It is Cousin It with a bad dye job!  You have to look close but you will find a Cisco 6509, 2x 96 port patch panels (other two are at the top) and 2x 24 Port Cisco 2970G switches.  I had no idea where to start, so I fired up Google.  The only thing that I could find for cable management for one of these beasts was the SMB-6509 from CE COM.  It looked great and had some awesome functionality. With no budget for the cleanup there was no way I was going to get approval for the $300 – $400 price tag and the other cable management I needed to finish the job (original estimate was around $2,000).  So I jumped on Insight.com and started to look around.  I found some nice inexpensive items that looked like they would work for the IT guy with no budget.

Qty Description Cost (ea) Total
4 Black Box Cable Management D-Ring $2.00 $8.00
18 Siemon Cable Carriers $2.00 $36.00
4 Leviton 1U Cable Management Arm $35.00 $140.00
384 Belkin 3, 4 & 55 Foot Patch Cables $1.50 $576.00
Grand Total $760.00

I used the large Black Box Cable Rings for the top 96 port patch panels.  They held quite a bit of cable but they were a little flimsy.  I lined the Siemon Cable Carriers along the side of the Cisco 6509, one dedicated to each card.  If they were bigger, it would have helped tremendously.  I made sure I ran all of the copper from the right and just ran the power and the fiber (easily moveable) from the right.  This allows access without disconnecting any cables if I ever need to replace the fan card.  The 1U cable managers were used for the 48 port switches that have replaced the 4x 24 port switches at the bottom.

Enough about how I did it, here is the outcome.

I realize this isn’t the professional quality you were looking for.  I have some more velcro work to do and I need to add a couple more switches, but I don’t want to do any of that until we decide if this Cisco Catalyst 6500 series is staying in this IDF or being relocated.  At least it wasn’t a horror film like it started out as.  The CE COM Solution with a couple of neat patches would have been awesome, but not something that is in the cards right now.  For under $1,000 and many hours of work, I now have an area that is manageable, and documented.

For closing, I just want to leave you with one thought.  Just because you don’t get the solution you want (CE COM and Neatpatch in this situation) doesn’t mean you leave it broken.  With a little creativity, and lots of work you can make just about anything work.  Well, OK, maybe two thoughts.  Data running through 110 blocks?!

 

Insight Online: Where have you been all my life?

May 10th, 2012 at 11:10 AM  1 Comment

I am used to additional software and functionality for server management to cost money, especially when it comes in the form of a cloud hosted service.  I was surprised to hear at HP’s recent Gen8 Blogger Tech Tour that HP rolled out a free online version of the Insight software focused on making administrators duties less painful, take less time, and provide proactive support.  This new service is called HP Insight Online and can benefit everyone from the SMB, to the Enterprise and even VARs.  It is completely free to anyone who purchases a Proliant Gen8 server, because according to Doug Haskell, “You were a smart guy…you bought a Proliant!”.  After your server is out of contract, some functionality will be reduced, but you still have access to the base features of the product.

Privacy Concerns

The participation of Insight Online is opt-in, so it doesn’t automatically just start sending information from your servers to HP.  Insight Online has also been certified through the TRUSTed Cloud certification program to ensure sound data management practices.  In order to keep this certification HP has to work with TRUSTe to get re-certified annually and have to go through a strict listing of requirements for the program.

Interface

The interface of HP Insight Online is a breath of fresh air.  It goes along HP’s new design scheme where pages without a lot of text has a black background (which @mattvogt doesn’t like) but I think it was easy to read and to follow.  Very simplistic but it allows you to drill down on each server to gain more information. You can also add users to specific servers so they only have access to the servers that they need to manage.

 

Hardware Fails

It happens, even to the market leaders.  Hardware, especially the pieces that have moving parts, fail.  In the past, your monitoring system would send you an alert and you would investigate and then call support.  Then you would spend at least 30 minutes (if not hours, especially if they want logs) going through prompts and giving the technician the information.  Why can’t this be easier?  Well, with HP Insight Online it is.  If you opt in, your new Gen8 HP Proliant will communicate failures to your local CSM server that pushes the information out to HP (they are working on a direct connection for those instances where you do not have a CSM server).  It gathers the needed data, automatically opens up a ticket, emails you the information, and (depending on the problem) earmarks a shipment out to your location.  If you need to contact a technician about the issue, you already have an open case and HP has all of your information.

Not only will they detect problems, they can also detect trends with hardware failures.  If they see a lot of a specific type of hardware failing in mass they can cross check that hardware to see if it all came in on the same batch.  If they find a pattern they will automatically send out a replacement part to the clients that haven’t reported any issues before the part fails.

Warranty Tracking

This is a feature I am sure many HP fans will love.  In the same interface with your server status you can also see which service contracts you have and when they expire.  No more spreadsheets!  Something small, but it is a feature that is low overdue.

VAR Access

HP is very VAR friendly, and their Insight Online product is no different.  You can give your VAR permission to have a lot of the same information that you see in your portal.  They will see a similar interface but have all of their clients grouped in the main dash board.  This allows var’s to show their clients more valueadd as well as strengthen their relationship with the client.

Wrapup

You can tell HP put a lot of thought into this product before it was launched and went through the scenario’s from the system admins viewpoint.  This is a win-win for both the customer and HP.  The customer gets better service from HP and HP can take the information they get and use it to improve their products. This is one of the many solutions that came with Gen8 that is adding value to the Proliant line to differentiate the product from the competition of commodity based server providers.  I believe it is a welcome addition to any IT toolbox and will benefit you if you have 1 or 500 servers in your organization.

 Jeffrey Powers from Geekazine recorded the presentation by Jeff Carlat.  It is located below.

Disclaimer:  HP invited me to the Gen8 Blogger Tech Tour and paid for all accommodations while I was there.  I received some swag and a 32GB thumb drive but I was not required to blog anything good or bad about this trip.  My opinions are my own and cannot be bought.

HP Gen8: More then just a Pretty Face..plate

May 7th, 2012 at 3:07 PM  Comments Off on HP Gen8: More then just a Pretty Face..plate

Day 1 of the HP Gen8 Blogger Tech Tour is over and there was a lot of information I need to digest.  One thing is for sure, the face plate wasn’t the only major change that HP made to this generation of servers!  I will be going more in depth about some of this items but I wanted to quickly share what I thought was most important from the presentations and demos today.

Less Headache for the Customer

One of the biggest transformations was the focus on making things easier for the client and less time spent fixing the server when there is an issue.  When there is a hardware failure instead of your monitoring software notifying you, you investigate and then contact HP Support and answer questions/gather logs to send the server can (not a requirement, but the functionality is there) notify HP with all the pertinent information.  HP can already start processing the RMA for the failed part and getting your replacement into your hand.  This, to me is a must have.

Smarter Hardware

HP added “intelligence” to many components on the servers to allow each component to save logs about possible issues or operating conditions to each piece of hardware, instead of on each specific controller.  If a RAM chip starts failing, the Insight software doesn’t just show that the RAM slot has a bad chip but saves this information onto the RAM stick itself. This way if the stick is accidently placed in another machine it will show immediately as a failed chip instead of running and possibly causing problems.

This same functionality is also built into the new hard drives.  However, instead of just making the hardware “smart”, they also helped the end user from being dumb.   I have never pulled the wrong hard drive out of a working server, but I have pulled the wrong card out of a working PBX, and I am sure that is almost as fun (as in not).  This seems to happen a lot, afterall the majority of us are human and we make mistakes.  With Gen8 HP has put a “dummy” LED that gives the user a little reminder that bad things may happen if you pull this drive.  This to me is something small that makes a big impact.

HP has also re-designed the way the processesers are installed to the servers.  They even called it a “Smart Socket”.  This new socket allows for you to slip in a Intel CPU and install it without worrying about bending the pins on the system board.  This will not only help out for customer installed upgrades, but also with pins that get bent in the factory.

Firmware Upgrades

I am sure the majority of small to medium sized shops have probably never upgraded the firmware on their hardware.  When you are short staffed, don’t have the expertise and things are working properly you usually don’t want to mess with things.  This can cause problems down the road as well as security concerns.  With HP’s new Smart Update Manager, they make this a fairly pain free automated process.  It will download the updates, check dependencies, apply them in order and if one of them fails, roll back to the previous versions.  Instead of taking hours or even days to patch a few racks of servers, this can be done painlessly in minutes.

Mobile iLO

HP released a mobile iLO application back in Feburary for iOS/Android phones and tablets.  This brings iLO functionality to the mobile sysadmin.  Gone are the days of lugging that laptop bag with you everywhere and trying to find a corner and wifi to check on an alert you received from Solarwinds on one of your servers.  You can now perform these same duties from a very mobile friendly app and can be done on your portable tablet or phone.

I am looking forward to what HP has in store for us tomorrow.  We will be going more in depth with HP’s Automated monitoring and management, power and cooling ideas and also CloudSystem Matrix.

Disclaimer:  HP paid all expenses for my trip to Houston to experience the HP Gen8 Blogger Tech Tour.  I was not required in any way to write anything about the trip, good or bad.  I was given a reusable HP branded grocery store bag, a nice water bottle, a polo shirt and a Gen8 DL380 server (if you really think they gave me a server, then you must be drinking).  My opinions are my own and if I cannot be bought by a iPad2 I for sure can’t be bought by a re-usable grocery bag.

Steve Jobs, the real tech virtuoso

October 6th, 2011 at 9:13 AM  3 Comments

One hundred years from now, people will talk about Steve Jobs the same way we do of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and the Wright brothers. Perhaps, as my friend Chris helped pointed out, he was a mix of Edison and John Lennon. Maybe he was a bit like Walt Disney, or Jim Hensen, a man who was personally tied to the brand he created.

Regardless, he was an an inventor, a visionary, a man full of ideas. He was more than just any businessman, CEO to Apple, he personally held patents for many of the technologies used in their products. He was the perfect mix of creative genius and salesman. In the tech world, Steve Jobs was elevated to near deity-like status, but as cancer proved, he was still just a man.

Every CEO of every company on the planet should pay attention to this right now and ask themselves, “why won’t this happen when I die?” (@jayfanelli)

I tried to sit down and put together my thoughts on his passing last night, but couldn’t. I was too overcome with the emotions pouring out from people across the world on Twitter. I shared some of my own but it was interesting to watch the wake for a man happen in real time from people all across the world. People who loved and hated him all had emotions to share.

Even President Obama had something to say:

The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.

But I’m not sure those outside of the technology community could really feel the impact the way we all did. My wife didn’t understand last night why I was grieving for a man I’d never met, the founder of a company that now rivals ExxonMobil as the world’s largest. Without meeting him, Steve Jobs had a profound impact on my life. I credit him (and Bill Gates) for sparking my interest in technology… for making me what I am today.

The first computer I ever used was an Apple II when I was in kindergarden. Later, I learned how to do amazing things on some of the first Macintosh systems. I used to skip recess to go down to the elementary school library so that I could learn on devices that he helped create. And while my family can attest to later holding Apple and their products in contempt through much of the mid-90s, while pounding the drum of Microsoft, I later came back to the “distortion field” as Steve brought real innovation back to the industry.

The Apple II, the Macintosh, Pixar (who doesn’t love Toy Story), iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes. Disruptions to the status-quo. Disruptions that are all because of the leadership and creative mind of Steve Jobs. I don’t remember much about what computers were like before the Apple II or the Mac, but I know what movies were like before Pixar. I know what buying music was like before iTunes and the iPod. I know what phones were like before the iPhone, and I love my iPad. I wouldn’t want to go back to a world before the things Steve created, existed. Even if you’re a hardened Android fan, you have to remember what smartphones were like before the iPhone and thank Apple and Steve Jobs for setting a new trend. Even if you’re a Microsoft fanatic, you have to thank him for keeping Bill on his toes for all those years, and forcing each other to continue to innovate.

In my article last week, prior to the announcement of the iPhone 4S, I said this:

I still maintain that Steve Jobs will be present at the announcement, even after his recent retirement as Apple CEO. I think he will be there to hand it off to Tim Cook in some way, or perhaps participate in some FaceTime chat to highlight a new iOS 5 feature. At the very least, his presence will be felt.

There was an empty chair, in the front row of the hall, with a cloth wrapped around it marked Reserved. That was no doubt a chair for Steve, one he wouldn’t be in because of what we all now know. I think Apple knew this was coming soon, and probably played the announcement a bit low-key as to not attempt to overshadow what could have probably happened any day. That said, I have no doubt that Steve wanted to see one last keynote, one last product launch, before he passed on. His presence was felt. His presence will continue to be felt with every future Apple product.

At 56, Steve Jobs did more than most people do in 90 years. He was the original Apple genius, a master showman, and the original tech virtuoso. He will be missed.

Doubling down on my previous next-iPhone predictions

September 27th, 2011 at 3:42 PM  No Comments

Back in February I wrote an article outlining my predictions for the next version of the iPhone. (For my purposes hereby referred to as iPhone X.) Rumors have run like crazy for the last few months about what the iPhone X will be. Thinner, lighter, the same as the current, faster, curved, larger, two versions. You name it, some knucklehead with a blog has come out and said it. With the announcement that Apple will be hosting a talk about iPhone X on October 4, now seems like as good of a time as any to double down on my predictions.

For the record, I make no serious attempt to back these predictions up with any hard facts. Take it all with a grain of salt.

Prediction #1 — Steve Jobs Will Introduce the iPhone 5

Unless his cancer reaches a point which seriously prohibits him from doing so, I believe that he will do everything in his power to be the one on stage to show off the new iPhone. Rumors of his impending doom are being greatly exaggerated

I still maintain that Steve Jobs will be present at the announcement, even after his recent retirement as Apple CEO. I think he will be there to hand it off to Tim Cook in some way, or perhaps participate in some FaceTime chat to highlight a new iOS 5 feature. At the very least, his presence will be felt.

Prediction #2 — Hardware Updates

I’m going to go on record by saying that the iPhone 5 isn’t going to look drastically different than the iPhone 4. While the antenna design my be altered slightly, the dimensions are going to be the same. In my opinion the market isn’t ready for something drastically different, yet. That will probably come with next years version. Aside from the well documented attenuation problems, the design of the iPhone 4 is solid. My best guess is, Apple won’t alter it much except to correct that flaw.

On this I will 100% totally double down.

The iPhone X will be what most are calling the iPhone 4S. An upgraded version of the current device. There will be only one device announced, but it will not be a revolutionary new device. The larger, thinner version will come in 2012. What you will see next Tuesday will be an evolutionary upgrade, along the lines of the iPhone 3G to 3GS. Same form factor, better guts.

Expect the A5 dual-core processor, upgraded camera, more memory, and possibly NFC integration, reworked antenna. Don’t expect a lot more than that.

Prediction #3 – Networks

  1. No LTE. It’s not needed, the chips that are out to support it are not mature, and suck a lot of battery life. Besides that, cellular networks around the world are not deploying it at the level where it’s even going to be utilized except by a few lucky few.
  2. Support for fake-4G also known as “HSPA+” — although I really hope that Apple doesn’t ever call it 4G. Enhanced 3G is all it is.
Again, 100% double down. There will be no LTE iPhone X this year. Save it for 2012 when the revolutionary device is released and when all three of the US carriers have a more robust LTE network. AT&T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint. Yes, I believe there will be a Sprint iPhone X, and it’ll be the same phone that AT&T and Verizon get. The iPhone X is going to have the same radio as the current Verizon iPhone 4, because it supports GSM/CDMA, therefore, as I’ve said before, it’s going to be essentially the same device on all three networks.

Prediction #4 – Software

Obviously with the release of a new iPhone comes updates to iOS, in this case bringing us to version 5.0.

We’ve seen from the already released iOS 5 betas that I was correct about most of this. We’ve got iCloud now, we’ve got wireless sync, we’ve got over the air updates on WiFi (that rock) — I’m going to add onto all of that and say there will be some at present unreleased features that will be exposed. Along with Twitter I expect to see Facebook integration into the core of the OS. Most importantly though, I expect to see voice commands take off and become a mainstream, front and center feature.

Prediction #5 – Most of this will be wrong

In all five of these areas, I’m probably going to be wrong more than I’m right. Predicting what Apple will do is like predicting the weather in Kansas on the day they announce the iPhone 5.

Actually, I think I’m going to be right about most of this stuff. But Apple is free to prove me wrong. However, I’m not making any plans to dump my current iPhone 4, once the “X” is released. I’ll be saving my money for the revolutionary upgrade in 2012.

Fun with AT&T U-verse

April 27th, 2011 at 9:07 PM  1 Comment

I’ve had AT&T’s U-verse service since October 2009, the day we moved into our house. At it’s heart, it’s really a fantastic service offering… IPTV, whole home DVR, advanced DSL, all wrapped up into a nice package. But for the last 6 months I’ve been struggling with a lot of different issues ranging from broken DVRs, freezing TV signal to Internet connections that go away at random. While the issues have not been persistent enough to track down an exact cause, they’ve been frustrating.

The other day, after watching Face Off on HBO (for the first time, I know) and getting right to the climax of the movie, the whole TV signal froze and wouldn’t come back. It was 1AM and my wife was already sleeping, so I muted by frustration and went to be deciding to look into alternatives the next day.

Monday, I called up the two traditional cable providers in the area looking for pricing. Then, I hit Twitter with my plan: (more…)

My five predictions for the iPhone 5

February 17th, 2011 at 8:14 PM  2 Comments

Late winter, early spring… it’s that time of year where the entire technology world begins to wonder about what Apple has planned for the next version of the iPhone, which, come late June will be the device that sets the trend for mobile technology into the next year. Like it or hate it, the iPhone is the standard that all Android, WebOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phones must either match or surpass to be taken seriously.

So what will this phone feature? It’s impossible to tell until Steve Jobs takes the stage to tell us, and even then there will still be many unanswered questions until it gets into the hands of the consumer. Even though the release of the next generation iPhone happens like clock work, I’m still constantly asked questions like “when will the next iPhone be out” or “should I wait to buy it?” — This article serves to help anwser those questions right now.

By the way, if you thought I mistaken when I said Steve Jobs will take the stage, let me clarify: (more…)

Leave Steve Alone

February 16th, 2011 at 10:41 PM  2 Comments

It’s been somewhat disgusting to watch tech blogs and Twitter today discuss Steve Jobs’ health based off rumors and unconfirmed photographs. Let the guy get better and give him some privacy. I’m not going to lend more space to this because aside from what the shareholders and consumers need to know about the absence in his role as CEO of Apple, what happens in his personal health is his business.

Why give credence to grocery store check out stand trash?

Can we all agree to leave the rumors to the release of the products, and the facts to the health of a human being?

One of these tablets is not like the other, one you can buy right now

February 9th, 2011 at 8:06 PM  4 Comments

Today was an interesting day in the tablet world. We learned that what was left of Palm has now officially been smashed into HP, and that HP is serious about really building on the momentum that Palm had started to build with webOS. HP announced a plethora of new things today (which you can read more about over at Engadget, who I stole/borrowed the wonderful chart above from) but the most interesting today was their new tablet, the HP TouchPad.

I have been getting a lot of crap from people for talking a lot about Apple on this site recently. If you’re bothered by this, feel free to stop reading now, or write your own articles. Fact of the matter is, they’re key to a lot of the technology I’m interested in right now and they execute it better than anyone else.

(more…)

Dell OEM Day – Part 2 [The Custom Experience]

January 13th, 2011 at 10:53 AM  2 Comments
This is part two of a multi-part article covering Dell OEM Day, an event for bloggers that Dell hosted on December 14th, 2010.

In my last article about Dell OEM, I talked a bit about their history, how they came to be, and a little bit about how they’ll do just about anything for you. The real question is, what is covered under “anything”?

Well, let’s start with this: Dell OEM, both directly and indirectly, produces custom systems for all types of industries: retail, industrial, power, health care…the list goes on and on. Each of these industries more than likely require a server (or twenty) for their day-to-day operations, but some of them require specialized servers. Servers that you or I actually might use, but aren’t aware that it’s a Dell system hiding in there. I am, of course, talking about completely customized servers.

Lets explain their customized solutions with a simple example:
You’re a Server Administrator in a large company, and it’s been decided that your company will use the Google Search Appliance for all your internal search needs. It’s quite a unique looking rack-mounted server, with it’s hot-rod yellow and bubble bezel. Management likes shiny things, right?

So now that you have Management’s stamp of approval, you contact Google and place the order for the new server.

Time passes and the server has arrived. With glee you open the box and find the nicest looking server around. Except now you have to hide it in a server rack, where nobody will see most of that awesome paint job.

You get everything hooked up and go to configure it, but there’s a problem and it’s not doing what it’s supposed to do. Exhausting all your knowledge and local resources, you call the Google support number and inquire about the technical issue you’re having.

They do their thing, you realize your mistake (d’oh!), and your server is indexing all your data. Success!

What’s the point of this story? You’ve been dealing with Dell nearly this entire time.

When you ordered the server, it was built, boxed, and shipped by Dell OEM.

When you called for support, it was Dell that answered that call.

And that, dear readers, is how Dell can create a completely custom experience for both their clients and end users alike.

Google’s custom experience is likely on the high end of the scale — it’s not likely that most companies would want this level of involvement. From what I saw during my trip, some companies simply go with a branded bezel and shipping box, which still provides the end users of these systems with a nice touch of originality.

In the next article, I’ll be covering a little more on the customization process that Dell OEM can do. Paint jobs and bubble bezels aren’t all they can do!

Older Posts »