Ramblings on IT

APC PowerChute 8.0.1, Server 2008 & Hyper-V

Published July 3, 2009 Hyper-V , Server2008 1 Comment

Well, it’s been a while since my last post – busy as always!

But APC’s got my dander up, and this is the only way I can relieve some tension

It seems that somewhere between 8.0.0 and 8.0.1, APC ‘saw the light’ and decided IT people don’t know how to do their jobs.

Basically, APC now believes we shouldn’t be allowed to use the free version of PowerChute version 8.0.1 on Server 2008 if it’s running the Hyper-V role.

That’s right. APC is telling us we can’t use their basic product because of a ROLE we have assigned to our servers.

Oh, and by the way, you’ll have to PAY for APC network cards and software licenses too (minor detail). One more time for clarity – you won’t be able to run PowerChute Business Edition on any server running Hyper-V (or any virtualization platform), and you’ll have to PAY them for something else instead (even though the initial version of 8.0 worked just fine).

As someone said in an APC forum, it’s because…

Business Edition does not support any type of virtualization

[ But I’m not asking for that – it’s a physical server ]

and

… powerchute network shutdown’s main concern is to shutdown the physical machine’s operating system gracefully. this means that if you have Windows Sever 2008 (host OS) installed with Hyper-V, powerchute network shutdown will only gracefully shutdown Windows Server 2008. If you have virtual (guest) operating systems, you will need to make sure those get shutdown gracefully via some other method since powerchute cannot command them to shutdown since it will only shut down Windows Server 2008.

[ Isn’t it MY job as the IT guy to worry about this? I wasn’t asking APC to be concerned with the VM’s that might be running on my server. APC’s never been concerned with what I was running on the servers in the past – that’s what the Deluxe version allowed ME to manage with scripting ]

and

… powerchute business edition does not support installation on any type of server where VMWare or Hyper-V is installed because we have specialized versions of powerchute network shutdown available for them. the theory is that you do not want to install business edition, which relies on a physical (USB or serial) connection to the server and then the guest operating systems will crash if the Windows Server 2008 or other server operating system shuts down.”

[ Thanks APC for making the specialized versions ‘available’ – nice to hear your ‘theory’ about what I’m thinking ]

Again, I’m not asking for APC to be concerned with what’s running on my PHYSICAL server – that’s up to me to worry about. The fact is, it’s a simple registry tweak to get the server to pause longer to allow the VM’s to shutdown gracefully.

Sure, APC, you’ve got a network product you’d like to sell, but forcing the issue because you think IT folks can’t handle the issue on the backend on their own is a just a little over the top. The network product should be for when there are multiple physical servers. I’m perfectly capable of managing my VM’s on the back-end.

To make this totally clear to anyone from APC reading this – you’ve now decided to play ‘big brother’ because ‘APC knows best’. It WILL backfire.

You’re not the only game in town.

</soapbox>

US/Canada Daylight Savings

Published March 9, 2009 History Leave a Comment
Tags: DST

Good grief, Charlie Brown. Printers, alarm systems, and whatever else that doesn’t behave properly with the “NEW” daylight savings rules is just another thing to make the Monday after ‘springing forward’ more exciting.

It’s nice to be able to kick the kids outside after dinner to play because there’s actually some daylight left (and that’s almost enough to make today worth the grief). Unfortunately, in a lot of ways, the new DST rules have caused more issues with my time than Y2K ever did – Y2K happened once – DST changes happen twice a year.

So alarm systems installed before the changes in 2007 most likely don’t behave correctly, and never will, requiring manual changes (thanks DSC et al). Network printers, on the other hand, SHOULD be able to be programmed to correctly work with the new dates (DST starts 2 a.m., 2nd Sunday in March, and ends @ 2 a.m. 1st Sunday in November).

So how ‘new’ are these rules? Try March 2007 – a full 2 years ago. And why am I posting about this?

Well, a client with 2 Ricoh Aficio 3035 printers doesn’t have a DST setting available for lowly IT people to turn on. So I called Ricoh, and they sent a tech onsite, who told the onsite staff he didn’t want to turn on DST until after the first Sunday in April.

Huh?

So I spoke with the guy – apparently, ‘head office’ hadn’t yet sent out a memo that daylight savings dates had changed.

Good grief, indeed.

Outlook Anywhere & SBS 2008 (& Hyper-V)

Published February 4, 2009 Hyper-V , SBS Leave a Comment

Wow, got bit by this one big time.

Outlook Anywhere (aka HTTPS over RTP) or RWW wasn’t working for more than 1 concurrent user (and I use ‘working’ very loosely). RWW wouldn’t work if someone was already connected with Outlook and vice versa. In other words, only 1 https tunnel was ‘operational’ at a time.

Also, RDP through RWW wasn’t working – get a blank screen and then would error out. We thought this was totally unrelated, but discovered it working after this fix, so we actually killed 2 birds with 1 stone. Gotta find some kind of silver lining!

So me and my technician lost some hair follicles trying to figure this one out. My hairline can’t afford this kind of treatment.

We suspected the SonicWALL TZ190 – not it. Got some good experience with the TZ’s though – nice boxes.

Microsoft was blaming the NIC’s in our laptops – nope. D630’s with Vista 64 – nice machines too.

Server is a T300 with Hyper-V, SBS 2008 and a 2003 member server running BES. Also a nice machine. And Hyper-V is a cool solution – READ THIS for more on Hyper-V and how it’s being used.

So with many hours of troubleshooting and frustrated clients later, the problem looks to be fixed, but I sure wish Microsoft had issued a patch.

So as the SBS team says:

“To resolve this issue we suggest that you remove the HttptoHttpsRedir module from the /RPC virtual directory only.”

Good suggestion, problem resolved (thankfully).

UPDATE: The Official SBS Blog has published a new fix:

New Resolution

Open regedit with administrative permissions.
Create the below DWORD and set its value to 5000 decimal to increase the limit of concurrent requests.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ASP.NET\2.0.50727.0\ MaxConcurrentRequestsPerCPU

Hopefully we’ll see Microsoft an email blast to all their Partners on this one. Perhaps even worth an out-of-cycle patch.

Telus Business Web & Email 45

Published January 18, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

My last post on this topic needs some clarification. This plan is not yet on their web site, and I don’t yet have this in black & white, and will update here when I do, BUT the news is still good (I think).

This may or may not apply where Telus is the ILEC (me being in Ottawa), so YMMV.

My last post wasn’t entirely accurate, sort of. My phone was actually considered a consumer account – even though it’s now a business phone. Subsequently the CSR who ‘put’ me on the the new tether plan actually didn’t (not happy about this at all). Instead, I was put on some other unadvertised plan which included 1GB of data for $60, with NO tethering.

I figured this out the day after my last blog post & recently got my latest bill, which included $73 for the tethering I had done the previous day. I was calling in to add VPN support, as my Telus contact told me it wasn’t included & would cost an additional $5/mo. So they’re basically charging to unblock port 1723 (why am I not surprised?).

When I called to add this ‘feature’ the rep informed me tethering wasn’t included on this plan & I had been misinformed.

So I called my contact & said WTF, and after some investigation found out it only applied to business accounts (’Business’ Email & Web 45). Apparently, the plan was introduced Dec 1, but again, YMMV depending on your region.

I’ve since taken steps with a new Telus WBS (Wireless Business Solutions) rep to have my account converted to a Business account, so I’ll then get the plan I was expecting in the first place.

So I believe it to be true, and will confirm when I see it on my next bill. So far I’ve had verbal confirmation from a Telus data specialist & the WBS sales guy who’s making it happen for me (and had lunch with today). Don’t know yet if this includes port 1723, but for an extra $5, it’s still a good deal if tethering is there.

TELUS Steps Up – Unlimited Everything for Blackberry & BES – PLUS Tethering

Published December 12, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: BES Wireless Telus

I wonder if Telus is reading my blog

I just signed up for the Business Email & Web 45 plan – it’s not online yet, you gotta call in. My sources tell me it became available here in Ottawa (assuming all of Ontario at least) as of December 1st.

What does it include?

From what the CSR told me – unlimited everything except voice (web, email, texting) & $8/MB if you’re roaming in the US.

And guess what – this includes TETHERING!

Wow. Never thought this day would come. I hope I’m not jumping the gun, cuz I’m only going by what I was told on the phone – haven’t seen anything in black & white yet, and as of right now, the business plans web site @ Telus look like they’re being worked on.

And it all started with portability – I love competition.

Vista Ultimate 64-bit in place of 32-bit

Published November 7, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

I made the switch last weekend. Installed 64-bit Vista and reinstalled all my applications. To date, I’ve run across exactly ZERO compatibility issues, except 1, for which the vendor provided a 64-bit compatible version of their software.

All I can say at this point is that it just works better. Things are snappier. As Paul Thurrott said in a recent Windows Weekly podcast and blog post, 64-bit Vista is really a non-event as far as having issues goes.

My Dell D630 also now supports 4GB SO-DIMM’s, so I’ll be upgrading to 8GB when prices on those puppies comes down (somewhere ~$600 each – yikes!).

Lovin’ the “I’m a PC” campaign from Microsoft, BTW. Finally, Microsoft got it right.

Mobile Data Rates in Canada, Redux

Published November 7, 2008 Cellular , Telecom Leave a Comment

It’s happening – Rogers now offers BES plans with much more reasonable prices.

Oh, I am SOOOO glad I didn’t sign up for a contract with Telus. Not gonna with Rogers either, but I WILL buy a device outright just to get these rates.

Ball’s in your court Telus, and I ain’t gonna wait too long.

Wow, grammar sucks tonight.

Over to the ‘Dark Side’ – Switching from WM to Blackberry

Published September 13, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Blackberry WM

I made the plunge and switched to a Curve from my Treo 700wx, installed Blackberry Professional Software and, well, it’s OK.

Is it perfect – no, nothing is. As with most things there are some good and some not so good points. So here are my first impressions. . .

Good:

It’s small with a bright screen. Easy to hold.
Battery life is great.
Bluetooth works perfectly.
BPS data usage is WAY, WAY less than Exchange push. Where my office is, the EVDO signal is weak, and my Treo was constantly losing it’s data connection, and would be polling for my Exchange server all day. This was actually one of the biggest reasons for the switch (being in Canada where data rates are high).
Easy to learn.

What I miss:

Applications: I’m going to have to pay for some apps that were either free for WM (HandyShopper), or that I had purchased (AutoKeeper, ExpensePlus). Honestly haven’t found anything equivalent. I need (must) have a mileage tracking app that does it’s job in litres/100km. The only BB app I’ve found so far only does US gallons – HEY – RIM is Canadian! There’s a market up here!
Touch Screen – I like having a stylus – especially the after-market ones that double as a pen. Also makes web browsing a lot more usable (as much as that can be usable on these things).
A speaker phone – I actually miss this a lot.
A file system I can transfer files to and from the device directly via USB.
The little TS app for doing RDP.
Games – come on folks, Brickbreaker is just lame – I want my Cubis back!
My Treo keyboard – Palm got this right – RIM’s doing the best they can without infringing on any patents, but the Treo keyboard with the oval domed keys is the best I’ve used.

So I probably won’t stick with a BB forever. My goal is to get familiar with it as a user of the device so I can better relate to my clients, and even train them on their devices. The only other thing I need to do is get a new housing – long story, but my 8330 is PINK, thanks to an eBay purchase gone wrong. I figured I’d just get a new faceplate/housing, but the 8330 housing is slightly different than the 8310/20 housings, and they aren’t available yet. I guess I’ll just have to live with it for now as a sensitive new-age guy (SNAG).

I haven’t left you for good WM – I’ve got my eyes on the HTC Touch Pro – nice.

Gates & Seinfeld – Act I

Published September 6, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Well. First impression is ‘huh?’.

Digging into the connotations of the ad (pardon the communications theory), we can go 1 layer deep (the only layer that matters), and the ad simply becomes one meant to introduce the persona of Bill Gates (perhaps to show people that he is, in fact, a real person).

Is this meant to drive business to partners? Not at this stage. As the internal Microsoft communiqué from Bill Veghte states, “This first set of ads . . . [are] an icebreaker to reintroduce Microsoft to viewers in a consumer context.”

Even though it’s not directed squarely at business customers (where the real $ is), the fact remains that business people are also consumers. So as B.V. suggests, it’s an ‘icebreaker’ – akin to an initial conversation with business prospects where we talk about the weather and attempt to build rapport.

Is it well done? Obviously not as sharp as the MAC vs. PC ads, but then we’re comparing 2 professional actors with Seinfeld and Bill Gates, who’s never been known for being a riveting speaker, never mind an actor.

Just as with the Mojave Experiment, Microsoft is inching into this campaign and not trumpeting the virtues of Windows vs. MAC, but by trying to make it ‘people’ focused. With Mojave, they accomplished 1 thing – it got the conversation started. This ad takes it to the masses via TV.

I think it’s a reasonable approach, but I’ll be disappointed if they don’t start getting more aggressive, and soon. There’s been too much talk about businesses waiting for Windows 7, and the sooner Microsoft dispels the Vista myths, the better. Mojave did that, but wasn’t main stream. Time to get this train moving a little faster.

RSA 2008 Keynotes

Published July 10, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Couple of good ones to listen to / watch.