Archive for the ‘Misc.’ Category

Misc. | No Comments | May 14th, 2010

By default the Windows 7 firewall prevents WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) connections from remote machines. The following command will open up all the ports neccessary for remote machines to access WMI on Windows 7.

In a command window (cmd.exe) running as “administrator”, type:

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”windows management instrumentation (WMI)” new enable=Yes

you should see a response like this:

C:\Windows\system32>netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”windows management instrumentation (WMI)” new enable=Yes

Updated 8 rule(s).
Ok.

 

 

Job Title:                    Systems Administrator (Desktop and Windows Server)

 

Department:               Technology Operations

 

Reports To: VP of Technology

 

The following document outlines the job description and duties for the position above.

The Systems Administrator will primarily be responsible for the day to day operation and maintenance of the our Clients Desktop support and open systems.  The position will report into the VP of Technology.  The goal of the position is to maintain a high level of availability and end-user satisfaction that meets or exceeds the performance requirements.  Much of this work is currently spread across external vendors and internal staff.  This position also needs to be focused on making the most efficient use of time and the environment.  This should include all of the day to day hands on activities for desktop support, basic server administration and management and escalation of issues with vendors involved in the managed services.  As a part of the managed services offering Penn Treaty will leverage the call desk services provided by Contour.  Those services will augment and provide ready access and tracking for support issues.  This includes extended coverage and backfill for the onsite resource when that resource is not available due to illness or other absence.  This position will also function as an escalation tier for network operations issues.  This will help network operations fulfill their responsibilities in addition to the dedicated desktop support.

He/She will be responsible for the following on a day-to-day basis:

Manage current desktop environment

o   Resolve any hardware related issues

o   Alert and resolve any performance issues and notify end-users

o   Function as an escalation point and remote hands for the call center

o   Manage issues with the vendors

o   Work with the IT staff to respond to and resolve alerts related to systems and/or  integration with the managed services offering.

o   Monitor current environment usage, performance, and availability  

o   Install, configure, test, and implement software and components as necessary on a day to day basis.  Larger projects such as organization wide upgrades amy be identified as out of scope and defined as a separate project.

o   Applicable patch releases and maintenance are included in the day to day responsibilities of the resource.

o   Responsible for planning and coordination of any new systems installation as it relates to the overall offering from Contour

o   Perform any host-level tasks needed to access the systems

 

Application support

o   Work with application developers and Contour to assist in troubleshooting infrastructure related issues

 

Backup

o   Maintain proper backup schedule

o   Restore and recover data as requested including the management of snaps and replication

o   Coordinate with off-site storage as necessary

 

Strategic Planning

o   Capacity planning and forecast growth

o   Identify processes and policies that will improve the overall performance of the project.   Work with management to implement these initiatives

o   Work with IT staff to identify upcoming needs and report back to management

o   Review tools regularly to identify abnormal growth

o   Provide input on vendor proposals

  

Network Operations

o   Escalation point for server and system related issues.

o   Second Tier advisory role to desktop support call center

o   Validation of tasks completed by the administrators as needed

o   Lead and/or participate in the creation and maintenance of system related policies

  

Qualified Candidates must have

 

o    At least 5 years experience in Windows desktop support and customer service

o    At least 1-2 years experience with basic Mac desktop functionality

o    At least 3 years windows server administration

o   Familiarity with basic concepts around Back-up maintenance and Disaster Recovery Procedures.

o   Experience with Help Desk software and ticket management procedures

o   Experience with Trouble ticket escalation and vendor management

o   Excellent interpersonal and communication skills

o   The ability to work independently and provide documentation in compliance with Contour and Customer needs.

 

Interested Candidates should provide their resume and cover letter to:

Att: Recruiting

640 Freedom Drive

King of Prussia, PA 19406

 

Or email to:           careers@contourds.com

Need help.. I am looking to hire an Sr Systems Engineer that knows the following technologies inside and out:

1) EMC – Clariion, Celerra, Avamar, and ideally knows SYM

2) VMware – ESX, View and SRM

If you know of anyone that has at least 5 years of experience and willing to join a growing company please have them send a cover letter and resume to careers@contourds.com

Thanks

Rocco

EMC, Misc., NetApp, VMware | 1 Comment | September 17th, 2009

Spec Comparison

Specifications

NetApp FAS/V-Series

EMC Celerra NS Series

Operating System

Data ONTAP

DART

(Data Access in Real Time)

File System

WAFL

UxFS

Simple Management & Installation

Yes

(NO) Celerra Startup Assistant Provisioning Wizard[1]

High Performance RAID 6

Yes

No[2]

Snapshots in base system

Yes

Yes

Rapid recovery from Snapshots

SnapRestore

SnapSure

Flexible Volumes

FlexVol

Celerra AVM[3]

Integrated Cloning

FlexClone

No

Workload Prioritization

FlexShare

No

Virtualized Partitions

MultiStore

Virtual Data Movers

Mirroring

SnapMirror

Celerra Replicator / MirrorView[4]

RecoverPoint*

Max. systems in a cluster

2

2-8[5]

 

Competitive Alignment

 

NetApp

EMC

 

FAS2050

NS-120

FAS3140

FAS3160

NS-480

FAS3170

FAS60×0

NS-960

 




[1] Installation from one GUI, Management from different GUI’s

[2] EMC delivers RAID 6 but with performance penalties

[3] Without the ability to shrink volumes

[4] Celerra Replicator for NAS/iSCSI, MirrorView for FC, Recoverpoint scheduled for release Q4

[5] NS-120 w/ 2 Data Mover, NS-480 up to 4, NS-960 up to 8. One Data Mover is passive for failover

 

EMC Competitive Analysis

Overview

·         Recognized brand, large installed base

·         >50% of sales are through channel and OEMs

·         50% revenue increase YoY

·         Strong Customer Base

Strengths

·         N+1 clustering for high availability

·         Integrates into existing EMC storage installations

·          “All-in-one” NAS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel connectivity – Separate OS*

·         File-level deduplication – Gen 1 Released in 09

·         File-level retention, similar to SnapLock Compliance

·         Thin Provisioning with Automated Volume Manager

·         Async replication process for iSCSI and NAS with non-transparent failover

Weaknesses

·         At least two operating systems to manage

  • DART on Celerra
  • FLARE on CLARiiON
  • RedHat Linux on Celerra Control Station

·         Multiple management software products

  • Celerra Manager for NAS/iSCSI
  • Navisphere Manager on CLARiiON

·         No true Unified Storage

·         Deduplication not supported on iSCSI and with VMware

·         CLARiiON virtually provisioned LUNs are not supported and cannot be provisioned to Celerra

·         Celerra Raid andDrive configurations are based on templates and are limited


 

Netapp Competitive Analysis

Overview

·         Up and coming

·         YOY market share increasing

·         Strong customer base

Strengths

·         Easy Implementation and Management

·         N+1 clustering for high availability

·         True “All-in-one” NAS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel connectivity – Single OS*

·         Block-level deduplication

·         File-level retention

·         True Thin Provisioning – Virtual Provisioning for dynamic increase and decrease of Volume sizes

·         True NAS File Management

Weaknesses

·         Storage Utilization  based in Raid DP

·         Time based Snaps do work with VMware Managed Storage

  • Need RDM to do Snaps
  • LIMITATIONS ARE AROUND SRM

·         Still Growing into large enterprise solution

 

 

Misc., VMware | No Comments | September 12th, 2009

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EMC, Misc., NetApp | 1 Comment | September 12th, 2009

Comparison

Technology Highlights

NetApp FAS2020

EMC CLARiiON AX4-5

SAN Protocol Support

Integrated dual function FCP and iSCSI

Separate FCP model (AX4-5)
or iSCSI model(AX4-5I)

Network Protocol Support

NFS V2/V3/V4 over UDP or TCP, Microsoft® CIFS

None; SAN block only

Max. Raw Capacity

65TB

60TB

Dual Parity RAID

Yes; RAID-DP

No, RAID 0/1, 3 and 5 only

Max. Number of Total Disk Drives

68

60

Drive Types Supported

SAS: 144GB, 300GB
FC: 144GB, 300GB
SATA: 250GB, 500GB, 750GB, 1TB

SAS: 144GB, 300GB
SATA: 400GB, 750GB, 1TB

LUNs

Up to 1,024

Up to 512

Snapshot Copies

Up to 256 per LUN, and up to 51,000 per controller

Only 1 per LUN and 16 per array

EMC CLARiiON AX4-5 Competitive Analysis

Strengths

  •  Strong FC SAN vendor partnerships
  • Resells through Dell as a channel (30% of revenues)
  • Virtual LUN capability; ability to non-disruptively migrate LUNs internally (Virtual LUN) and externally (SANcopy)
  • Cache de-staging
  • Support for consistency groups with remote mirroring function
  • PowerPath host multipath software for path and workload management

Positioning

  • Aimed at small to medium businesses (SMBs)

  • AX4-5 key claims:

  • Performance, scalabilty, ease of use

  • 4Gb/s end-to-end architecture
  • Connectivity with iSCSI or FC

Simplify the IT environment and support VMware infrastructure

  • High Scalability
  • EMC claims high raw capacity utilization
  • I/O optimization via PowerPath MPIO host application
  • Virtual LUN Technology
  • Data movement between FC & SATA
  • Resiliency & Availability
  • fully redundant with cache des-stage to disk
  • Dual controller option to provide HA
  • Snap & Mirror Consistency
  • Supports both sync and async replication, as well as consistency groups

Weaknesses

  • legacy design, requires disruption to scale up (CLARiiON CX range)
  • SAN only; FC (Fiber Channel) or iSCSI, not both
  • Management gaps; limited integration of management software
  • No single operational workflow for managing both the system and its data.
  • Limited product breadth and scalability
  • Double-parity RAID-6 protection not available
  • No multi-protocol support in a single array; NAS support for file data requires expensive, add-on gateway controllers  requiring  other mgmt
  • No thin-provisioning, no data deduplication
  • Snapshots copies – copy-on-write / performance penalties (see SPC-1)
  • No support for SnapView clones
  • Limited number of Snapshots (1 per LUN); limited number of Snap Sessions per LUN (1) and per system (16)
  • No SnapSuite-like benefits; EMC Replication Manager provides an integrated environment for managing point-in-time copies, remote mirroring, and data migration services; but no Operations Manager.
  • No Oracle HARD support (vs. NetApp SnapValidator)
  • No integrated compliance solution (SnapVault, SnapLock, LockVault)
  • Requires 4 pre-allocated drives for OS; using for data impacts performance
  • External battery backup to destage cache is weak link

Why NetApp FAS2020 vs. EMC CLARiiON AX4-5

  • Higher performance under snapshot (SPC-1), capacity utilization (RAID-DP, Thin Provisioning & Deduplication) & data protection (SnapSuite)
  • lower total cost of ownership

  • NetApp easier to install, configure, deploy, and manage

  • Flex and Snap-suite dramatically simplify administration and allocation of storage

  • Staff only needs to be trained in one technology for the complete storage infrastructure, reducing training costs and skill levels required

  • NetApp enables Business Agility with:

  • Greater versatility with multiprotocol support and upgrade paths in a single storage system
  • Cascade original investment into new technologies as released by NetApp; for example, deduplication
  • Common compatible architecture across the entire product range

  • Gaps in functionality require customers to use disparate pieces of non-integrated software to address key areas of management, including…
  • Files, Archives, Disk backup (D2D), Security, SRM
  • Challenges in provisioning and re-provisioning capacity
  • AX offers poor volume mgmt and limited disk pooling
  • MetaLUNs must be configured based on strict guidelines — a labor-intensive and inflexible process.
  • Performance impact can be negative as LUN count increases and existing LUNs are re-provisioned.

Misc. | 1 Comment | September 6th, 2009

A week go or so Pillar announced a “Cash For Storage Clunkers” program.  I haven’t seen any news since.  I am curious to see if anyone has an opinion on this.  I cut and paste the article from the CEO blog so that you can read it. 

Thoughts?

Cash For Clunkers

Cashclunkers_blog

A week or so ago we announced a “Cash For Storage Clunkers” program.  The response to our announcement has been very positive… and frankly, a bit surprising. We’ve had lots of inquiries, requests for quotes, and media coverage. Heck, today we even had a company ask if their V-Max qualified as a clunker.  What a hoot!

And we’re not alone. In the last month, other tech and storage companies have launched their own versions of Cash for Clunkers programs. Good. I think customers who have old technology and storage arrays might just want to trade in for newer, better technology. That’s the idea.

In the blogosphere some people have suggested we were flattering another storage vendor, say “Company X”, by stealing the idea from them. We didn’t, we stole it from the US Government. Apparently we just didn’t steal it first. Time will tell if the government’s plan to stimulate the economy through this contrivance will work, but I have to say it was cute; great name, good story. It got a lot of press and everyone has heard about it.

In the end these are trade-in programs (well, not Uncle Sam’s, but that is a different story).   There is no miracle here – if you want new stuff we offer to give you money for the old stuff. Unfortunately, the old stuff might not be worth much in the IT business, but we’re willing to have a look and make an offer. Some poor guy offered us some CX700’s and we couldn’t get more than $500 for them, we were embarrassed to even tell him what we could get for them. I suppose getting 50% what they were worth when you bought them 4 years ago isn’t that bad though (relax, I am just kidding).

We announced our program to coincide with the ending of the government’s program. That’s why we said it “Extends the Cash For Clunkers Program.”  That headline was supposed to be funny. Our Marketing dude, Bob Maness said, “Pillar is taking over where the government left off.” Get it? Maybe to some it isn’t so funny. To us it’s a riot – as if some small company like Pillar could pick up where Uncle Sam left off.

I initially hatched the idea for our program while visiting customers in Canada and some great folks at Toronto Hydro. I am sure people will say some guy on a grassy knoll signaled to me in Morse code while peeking through the windows at XHQ (and you thought that flashing light was lightning). The gang down at XHQ better start closing their shades before we flatter them further. We might just rip the cache right out of our product.

As to who was first to lift Uncle Sam’s program… who cares?  We have a great program to buy back old assets with a great financial partner. And, of course, we have the most efficient storage system available with the best performance and scalability to trade up for – but that could be another blog entry….  “

Misc. | 4 Comments | September 2nd, 2009

Interesting data here.

Google Labs has a research paper describing disk failure rates (ignoring manufacturer)

http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf

Here are the results summarized:

Time Span Failure Rate
3mo 3%
6mo 2%
1yr 2%
2yr 8%
3yr 9%
4yr 6%
5yr 7%

 

Image

No Manufactures are mentioned in the paper:

"Failure rates are known to be highly correlated with drive models, manufacturers and vintages [18]. Our results do not contradict this fact. For example, Figure 2 changes significantly when we normalize failure rates per each drive model. Most age-related results are impacted by drive intages. However, in this paper, we do not show a breakdown of drives per manufacturer, model, or vintage due to the proprietary nature of these data."

EMC, Misc., VMware | No Comments | August 5th, 2009

Yesterday at Lehigh University we hosted a group of 30 IT professionals to learn about some of the latest technologies around green IT and virtualization. Following the presentations we lunched on Italian steak, chicken romano, and cappuccino cake while attendees had the opportunity to network with one another along with representatives from Contour, EMC, VMware, and newly acquired EMC partner Data Domain.

Following the lunch we made our way down into the scorching sun where we watched the special teams practice. The most exciting part of the practice was watching second-year man Desean Jackson returning kicks. You have no idea how fast these guys are until you see them in person. The temperature was 93 degrees and after several hours of direct sunlight most of the guests retired to their cars for the trip back home.

Upcoming on the 20th is the Recoverpoint event at the Camden Rivershark game. I have heard that the Camden ball park is one of the nicest in minor league baseball due to it’s sprawling view of the Philadelphia skyline.

Misc. | No Comments | July 27th, 2009

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