IT BS thread

Yeah, it's not great for migrating to new hardware I agree. It was the model we used at work but the OSes were old so it got harder and harder to do that because of driver issues. We switched to VMWare VMs and thin clients. Much better.

Even though we're using VMWare, I still use Acronis and Ghost on the VMs. I take an Acronis desktop image, create a new VM and deploy the Acronis image to the VM. I do it that way rather than VMWare Converter because the image is usually already made and it's typically smaller and VMWare converter has a drive size limit (I think it's like 300 gigs). I then use Ghost to change the drive size of the image (create a smaller drive, ghost the image drive onto the smaller drive and then delete the original drive). I had one image that had for hardware that had a 300 gig hard drive in it. It didn't have much data on it so I managed to squeeze it down to 10 gigs.

 

We're going to be checking out the new Oracle Sunray 3i clients. The whole thin client is integrated into the monitor. It's about the same price as the Wyse and monitor we are currently using. We're hoping it'll make it even easier to ship and set up for our customers.

In VMWare, I believe they're called Cloned VMs. They're great if everyone is the same (like a large call center).

 

Is this the crap that SUN was pushing before the merger? I really didn't like that model because in the end it actually requires more hardware. You have to have a set of servers that push images to the "thin client". It was about a 30-1 ratio the last time I saw it . That was 3 years ago. I hope they changed that model.

Put up a WSUS server in the same subnet as your call center servers and allow it to get to the interenet. If that isn't allowed you can setup another WSUS server outside the subnet and allow the one with the call center servers to get patches from it. Then you can manage patches from the WSUS server.

 

Sunray's have been around, in one form or another, for a long time. They work OK but there are better and cheaper products.

There will be always be cycles between the thin client and desktop machines. One advantage to having desktops is the ability to use them as a part of the compute cluster when they're idle. Not always the fastest machines but when you need machines, they're better than nothing for short jobs.

I haven't seen it asked but what sort of environments do most of you work in? Me? I've worked almost exclusively in the semiconductor business. With very small numbers of desktops and very larger server farms (1000+ CPUs).

 

I'm a 'field support engineer' at a small consulting firm.

Translation: I work on whatever breaks, pretty much wherever it happens to be.

I've got a couple clients that do airplane maintenance. This has included pulling new cable across the inside of a hangar up at the roof.

Sometimes, a small business that has an Avaya phone system and two dozen lines in a regular office.

Sometimes, in the back of a doctor's office.

A law office with remote locations all over the world.

In a diesel mechanic's shop.

Wherever, man.

 

Those gigs can get interesting.

 

That's essentially my job when i'm not stationed at a bigger company. I've been in some weird places trying to get network connectivity to PC's.

 

We use CWD for the desktops in our call centers. Not the fastest animal, but works for desktops, laptops, and allows us to pull the correct app install based on the users login ID. When we encounter a machine issue that will take too long to fix, we just deploy another machine, and re-image the original. Takes a few hours to re-image, but we keep a supply of imaged machines to redeploy, so from a user perspective, they are down for ony a few minutes while we replace the machine.

 

This is why I love it so much, I get constant variety! Its NEVER boring.

 

Yea, I suggested that. I don't think they wanted a WSUS server since they distribute all the other updates thru SCCM. I'll try to run that up the flagpole again... I should look up the requirements for a WSUS server... I've never set one up before!

This is why I like IT in general. Always moving, hardly ever boring

 

I believe SCCM requires a WSUS server setup so that it can get the updates to push. Might check into it.

 

I work for DOD. We provide training software which pumps in fake data into an environment that replicates what a user would see on a ship. Typically we take an image of a ship-board system and create a virtualized desktop version of it. It gives us the look and feel of what a user would see on a ship. We then fake out anything that's typically rack-mounted hardware such as radio receivers.

It gives the Navy the ability to train on a low cost system (typically $50K vs multi-millions for an entire shore-based system install). Plus, since it's virtualized, we can change the setup to reflect different systems fairly easily so it creates a smaller foot print as well.

 

That sounds like so much fun! I'm of where you work.

 

this is correct

but you can run SCCM and WSUS services on the same box if needed.

 

Excellent... Now to go beat up the core guys to give me access... they specifically told me it was SCCM or manual updates. F that!

 

I guess I should intro myself a bit .. been on TW a few months, trolling this thread for a few weeks.

Started IT much like Xaks, always in the field at one of our various customers that we provided cradle-to-grave IT solutions for. Definitely not boring - I would have to keep NT 4.0 servers alive at one cash-strapped customer and then install satellite internet connectivity on the private yacht of another customer.

Did that gig for a few years, got to play with lots of different tech and work with some cool customers, then moved on to an office job at a global tech titan headquartered in OC.

Here's a hint: our 'products' exist in almost every internet connected device (DSL & cable modems, desktops, laptops, cell phones, tablets, etc..) and media device (TV, iPod, Cable/Satellite receiver) on the market today.

 

I was pretty sure that was the case.

Don't let them make more manual work for you. That is crap. WSUS is a core Microsoft product and should be used in this scenario. You can even link it to the existing one so that it only rolls out patches that are applied on the one that feeds SCCM.

Welcome.

Not sure what company you work for but sounds like Intel, NVidia, AMD etc. type of company.

 

Broadcom.

 

I'm gonna guess Cisco!

 

That's my guess as well.