Debian 7
Michael Dale | Sun, 05 May 2013 9:42 PM
Yay Debian 7 is out.
Nothing too major to report, I've only updated one VM at this stage (was very easy).
PHP 5.4 is nice to have. I'll be rolling out a number of upgrades and new VMs with it in the coming weeks so I'll see how it goes.
For servers (PHP Web Servers, MySQL, DNS, Subversion etc) Debian is my current favourite OS. It is so easy to manage and upgrade.
My current break down of operating systems is:
- Mac OS for desktop/laptop
- ESXi for VMs (actually running Hyper-V at home)
- Debian for most servers (where the software doesn't require windows).
- Windows 2008 R2 & SBS 2011 for small business servers, terminal servers & required apps
- Windows 7/8 for business workstations
- FreeBSD for ZFS storage. Although I really need to see if I can do Debian + ZFS as I really like Debian.
New Server
Michael Dale | Sat, 27 Apr 2013 12:11 AM
We're about to replace (or add not sure yet) a server in the data centre.
The previous servers are 1RU ASUS Quad Xeons with 16GB Ram (photo). They were okay for the price but pretty cheap machines.
The new one is a Dell *shock*
- Dell R420 (still 1RU)
- Dual PSU
- 32GB Ram (supports up to 384GB, yeah my old computer had 384MB of ram)
- 2x Hex Core Xeon with HT (so 24 logical cores). 15MB of L3 cache on each chip!
- Space for 8 2.5" HDDs.
- H710P 1GB Raid Controller (will be using Raid 10).
- iDrac 7 Enterprise (this is pretty cool compared to the very basic system in the ASUS).
Just doing some final testing and waiting for Debian 7 before I install it. This plus the new subnets should make the setup pretty sweet.
U-NITED Warranties
Michael Dale | Tue, 28 Feb 2012 2:05 PM
One of the computers we purchased for a customer came with a 3 year onsite warranty. The extra 2 years of warranty was provided by U-NITED Warranties (aka United Warranty) (http://www.u-nited.com.au/ or http://www.unitedelectrical.com.au/).
As of today I am still waiting for a response as to where the machine is.
- They rarely answer their support phone in under 10 minutes.
- The URL that they provide while waiting on hold to check the status of the job is incorrect and takes you to a server error page. I even emailed them about it, no reply.
- It took over a week before the machine was even collected.
- The computer has now been with them for over 2 weeks.
- They stopped updating their job status website (I found it even though it isn't even linked on their website, FYI it is https://www.u-nited.com.au/registrations/) weeks ago so we now need to call each time to get any information.
- We still haven't been given any information as to when the computer will be returned.
- Either the computer has been formatted (the drive was fine) or they have never connected it to the internet as it has not checked in to our Kaseya system.
Update:
- Their phone system now seems to lock up and reboot, kicking me off the line and out of the queue! The amount of time I have wasted with this company is crazy.
March 4th Update:
- Still no machine or any update on when it will be returned. Awful awful service.
March 7th. Still no update.
March 14th. After a lot of bitching I was finally able to get a part refund on the computer so that I can replace it myself! So crap, but I can get a new machine much faster than this company can return phone calls!
I will never use this company again for anything.
Google hired some graphic designers
Michael Dale | Mon, 04 Jul 2011 3:23 PM
....only took 13 years.
The new google design is much much better than the crap they've been feeding us....
....speaking of designers, new Dalegroup website coming soon :) Should be sweet.
Kaseya + Ninite
Michael Dale | Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:51 AM
Automatically patch 250+ computers with all the latest apps in a couple of clicks. The wonders of having remote scripting control over all computers we look after (Windows, Mac and Linux).
Although Kaseya is a very heavy program (my server has 5gb of ram just for it!) it does so much useful stuff.
Handles windows event log collection, patch management, application deployment, alerting, remote control, silent scripting, remote command line, registry editor, reporting, anti-virus and malware and a bunch of other things. Basically means I can manage any machine from a web browser without needing to login to the actual computer (also no VPN needed). Yay!
Only issue is that I cannot remote control from an iPad.
I take my recommendation back. Ninite are now charging much much more per month than before. I have yet to work out what the new cost gives me, so at this stage I cannot recommend it.
Expensive HP
Michael Dale | Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:22 AM
So the cheap dell was nice for the price.
This server was much more expensive.
2x6 core Xeon (24 total including HT), 24gb Ram, 1.1TB SAS 10K Raid 10, VMware.
Still only 24gb of ram.....haha. It's a nice server though.
Cheap Dell
Michael Dale | Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:39 AM
You can purchase some really cheap computers these days. Makes me wonder why cloud computing is so popular (hint people are lazy).
Dell T310
Xeon 2.5GHz Quad
2x500TB Raid 1 HDDs (SATA so not great, but should be fine)
24gb Ram (yeah sweet)
Windows SBS 2011
3 year onsite warranty.
1gb ethernet link with unlimited transfer between server and workstations :p
$2800/inc GST.
24gb Ram and SBS for less than $3k, seriously nice.
It has been interesting to see my clients thoughts on cloud computing. Some are all for it, while others won't touch it. Long term it seems like the only solution, but for many customers they simply don't trust these cloud providers (and I'm mostly in agreement).
iMac
Michael Dale | Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:25 AM
So after upgrading my Core2Duo 2.4GHz MBP to have an SSD, my i7 iMac is basically unusable now....
Sure having an i7 chip is nice (I run a bunch of VMs, xcode, bloated iTunes and the famous ram hog Safari) but 8gb isn't enough ram and the slow HDD just kills it.
Basically I need at least 16gb of ram or an SSD (both would be nice!).
Same issue with the MacBook Air (not that I own one), just needs 8gb of ram and it would be sweet, 4gb isn't enough at all.
Happy IPv6 Day!
Michael Dale | Wed, 08 Jun 2011 6:44 PM
traceroute6 to ns3.dalegroup.net (2001:470:1:41:a800:ff:fe59:ad77) from 2001:44b8:73f3:30a0:223:6cff:fe87:d1b0, 64 hops max, 12 byte packets