Useless Conversation

[Sky]

I still have a job for you in Austin if you want to clean up 15 years worth unmaintained systems admin clutter...

I've just spent 14 1/2 years creating systems admin clutter and I'd like to move to Austin!

 

[Nebu]

I have absolutely no experience and I'd like to move to Austin!  I know how to make drugs too!

[Salamok]

I still have a job for you in Austin if you want to clean up 15 years worth unmaintained systems admin clutter...

I've just spent 14 1/2 years creating systems admin clutter and I'd like to move to Austin!

 

Lol, It would be a fairly easy job once everything is cleaned up, unfortunately cleaning everything up requires a skill set an order of magnitude above what is required to maintain it all once cleaned up.  Also, the only people available to train a new hire are the ones who created the situation.

[Sky]

Ok, let me know when it's cleaned up and I can move down there, hah.

My poor skillset after 14 years with almost no training. I have no idea how I utterly aced the Security+ test a couple years back.

But outside the hard skills, I've got pretty strong troubleshooting and people skill sets and learn quickly. Which apparently generates zero interest from employers.

[WayAbvPar]

Wife humiliated me at Hex. Which is only one letter away from the usual state of affairs.

I just discovered that coffee is even more useful for waking me up when I choke on it and it goes into my nose. Who knew?

[Nebu]

Ironwood is the gift that keeps on giving.

[Lantyssa]

Lol, It would be a fairly easy job once everything is cleaned up, unfortunately cleaning everything up requires a skill set an order of magnitude above what is required to maintain it all once cleaned up.  Also, the only people available to train a new hire are the ones who created the situation.

Okay, so I contract out to clean it up and Sky swoops in to maintain it...

[Salamok]

Lol, It would be a fairly easy job once everything is cleaned up, unfortunately cleaning everything up requires a skill set an order of magnitude above what is required to maintain it all once cleaned up.  Also, the only people available to train a new hire are the ones who created the situation.

Okay, so I contract out to clean it up and Sky swoops in to maintain it...

This is sort of what we are doing.

[Lantyssa]

I'm actually not the best choice at a reorganization of servers.  I can clean things up to some extent, but I'm rather disorganized and easily distracted myself.

[Yegolev]

I'd reorganize the shit out of your servers, but $$$.

[Salamok]

The top level items are implementing vlans (ordering all new switch hardware), migrate off of the Windows 2000 active directory and DNS, start using DHCP.  It would also be nice if I could just ask someone to spin up a server and have them actually attempt to do it right or consistently instead of stopping the second they fumble their way into some sort of working state.  "I got it working" vs. "I know what I am doing and it is finished" seems to be an oft repeated thing around here.

[Ironwood]

Holy fuck.

[Yegolev]

Yea, that sort of thing will take some organization of meat as well as metal.  The comments we had previously on this board about the term "best practices" would probably be illustrative; they are real and exist for a reason, but not everyone wants to take them seriously.  Because doing it right is guaranteed time and effort, while fixing it later is a roll of the dice.

I already have a job, though, so ... good luck!

Holy fuck.

Look, it's the other guy that I think knows the things that I know!  You should probably listen to him.

[Ingmar]

Woooooooow. New network is a giant project all by itself.

[Salamok]

I could straighten it out too but it would require not spending any time at all on the stuff they hired me to do.  We only have 120 or so workstations and they are all physically in the same location, in the absolute worst case scenario you could grab 2 or 3 people and rebuild the entire domain from scratch over a weekend.  Server hardware wise we more or less have what we need so it is mostly about upgrading the OS's and getting them off the $400 soho switches.  Once that is done they will at least be in a place where you can make correct decisions going forward.

[Ingmar]

Do not do in-place OS upgrades on your servers. I assume that's not actually what you mean, but if that is what you mean, DO NOT DO IT.

[Ironwood]

migrate off of the Windows 2000 active directory and DNS, start using DHCP. 

I mean.  You know.  Wow.  And whatnot.

[Salamok]

migrate off of the Windows 2000 active directory and DNS, start using DHCP. 

I mean.  You know.  Wow.  And whatnot.

I'll give you 1 guess what OS our webserver is running and take you to a whole 'nother level of Holy Fuck.

Do not do in-place OS upgrades on your servers. I assume that's not actually what you mean, but if that is what you mean, DO NOT DO IT.

I won't be doing shit, I don't want to do it, I wasn't hired to do it, it isn't even really related to my field.

[Hammond]

2000 active directory, dns no dhcp and a network upgrade. You might as well just do a new setup with a cluster like that to undue. Probably be quicker / easier. Good luck whoever gets that job.

Can I guess the OS? NT 4.0? Maybe with some type of apache on top :)

[Salamok]

2000 active directory, dns no dhcp and a network upgrade. You might as well just do a new setup with a cluster like that to undue. Probably be quicker / easier. Good luck whoever gets that job.

Can I guess the OS? NT 4.0? Maybe with some type of apache on top :)

Not quite as old as NT 4 but you give them way too much credit by suggesting apache.

[Lantyssa]

Win 98 with an IIS 4.0 install?

A new setup is doable, the question is how many specialized applications do you have that need to be moved over.  Getting ours going agains was a pain due to how much interdependency all our servers had on one another.

[HaemishM]

HURRAH! My home machine can't find or recreate my OS Boot Loader. And it only decides to happen at 10 p.m. on a Sunday fucking night when I have to go to work on Monday. Startup repair won't fix it, so now I have to command prompt copy what shit I can off that hard drive before nuking the whole goddamn thing from orbit and starting over. Also, fuck you, PC manufacturers who don't include Windows 7 install discs but will charge me $50 for a fucking recovery DVD. FUCK YOU.

[IainC]

Also, fuck you, PC manufacturers who don't include Windows 7 install discs but will charge me $50 for a fucking recovery DVD. FUCK YOU.

9 times out of 10, the OEM has made a recovery partition on the hard drive that will reinstall the OS and bundled software/drivers. The $50 recovery DVD is for the people who either completely trashed their hard drive somehow or refuse to fuck with booting to the recovery partition.

[Yegolev]

A new setup is doable,

Shit, I thought that was what he meant.
0. Gather environment inventory, generate dependencies
  a. Determine who stays and who goes
  b. Draw fancy PPTX of The Future, obtain funding
1. Lay down new network
2. Install new hardware/OS/applications/things
3. Migrate data
4. Fire implementor

the question is how many specialized applications do you have that need to be moved over.  Getting ours going agains was a pain due to how much interdependency all our servers had on one another.

Change that to just applications and there you go.  You'll want to migrate data, not anything else (iknowrite).  Clean installs of everything.  Anything that won't survive in the new setup must have a home created or a new tool to perform that function.  These discussions are universally unpopular.

[HaemishM]

Also, fuck you, PC manufacturers who don't include Windows 7 install discs but will charge me $50 for a fucking recovery DVD. FUCK YOU.

9 times out of 10, the OEM has made a recovery partition on the hard drive that will reinstall the OS and bundled software/drivers. The $50 recovery DVD is for the people who either completely trashed their hard drive somehow or refuse to fuck with booting to the recovery partition.

I have the recovery partition. There are some things I could have fixed or at least tried if I had the Windows Install Disk but that's too much trouble for OEM's.

[Lantyssa]

If you can get it booted to a command prompt from any bootable disk you could always try an "fdisk /mbr".  (Backup your data if at all possible.)

[Hammond]

Not sure who the manufacture is but I found these downloads work for most. The links are to digital river which is a official Microsoft outlet and you do need the official key off of the machine for it. Although reading the site it sounds like microsoft is moving things at some point. shrug

http://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/14-windows-7-direct-download-links  

[schild]

Digital River is the worst fucking distribution platform I've ever had to use. Finding that single email with that single link is a nightmare.

[HaemishM]

If you can get it booted to a command prompt from any bootable disk you could always try an "fdisk /mbr".  (Backup your data if at all possible.)

Tried that and it didn't fix it.

I plan to spend tonight using the command prompt to copy what files I can off the partition to another drive before I bring the box back to factory default. It'll probably end up being a good thing as Win7 default runs better but SHIT that's like 2 1/2 years of shit to pore through.

[Numtini]

Don't suppose it's dell. I could toss you an ISO tomorrow from work

[HaemishM]

Nah, it's ASUS. I've already nuked the partition and am posting now from a factory setting of Windows. Starting all over again SUCKS BALLS.

[Draegan]

So I'm half way through my second interview and I'm just realizing they aren't interviewing me, they are courting me. Interesting.

[Paelos]

So I'm half way through my second interview and I'm just realizing they aren't interviewing me, they are courting me. Interesting.

That's pretty much how these things go in the latter stages. They go from you trying to impress them to them trying to impress you to take their offer.

[Draegan]

Well I was told I was going up against another candidate so I figured I was still in impressing mode.

[Paelos]

Well I was told I was going up against another candidate so I figured I was still in impressing mode.

You're always in impressing mode until the offer, but it's a sliding scale as you go further. Sometimes they like to lull you into a false sense of security to see how you really are. Most of the time though, they've got a few people they are considering, and they are going to make offers in descending order to the people at the end of the process. If they seem to be putting the full court press on you, then you're likely in the top of that list.