Remote computer management
Mar 10, 2010 Technology, Work
Sometimes it is rather amazing what some people can call for help with on their computers. Many times they have done something really simple such as remove a toolbar, switched default printers or something similar. If something is not the way it looked when they got trained they freak out! If you are like me you start to become aware of these co-workers and you can easily walk them through most problems over the phone. However there are special circumstances when attempting to walk somebody through a process over the phone just does not work and you need to take control over their computer to see what they are talking about. Having 5 different offices with computers in and only 2 IT people it can make it a challenge to drive to each office on a whim to support the user. Here are a few things that we use in the company I work for to support the employees:
Microsoft Terminal Services Manager: Our employees do 50-90% of their work in a Remote Desktop(RDP) terminal server. All of their email, health care software and most all other software is installed on this terminal server. Very few users actually use their local computer to do any actual work. Using the Terminal Services Manager we can easily see which terminal server they are logged into and remote control their session or even log off the user.
DameWare Mini Remote Control: We use this tool if the user is having difficulties getting into the terminal server or using their local computer. We will even use this application for setting up new software on a computer in a remote location without having to be in front of the computer. Sure there are methods of installing software via Active Directory GPO, System Center and others but sometimes manual is how it has to be done.
Lantronix SecureLinx Spider KVM over IP: This is great for computers that are having issues with WiFi connectivity issues and you cannot use the above tools while they are in the office. This device is powered by the USB ports and requires just a network cable plugged directly into the device. Also works great for laptops that are having problems booting. Just walk the person on the other end of the phone how to connect the device and go from there.
LogMeIn Rescue: This is the tool of choice for those employees that work outside the office where DameWare and KVM over IP just don’t work for us. Easily walk them through accessing a certain website, give them the 6 digit pin code and connect a remote support session easily. You can even install an application (Calling Card) to give even easier access to support right on the local computer desktop.
Dell Remote Access Controller(DRAC): Used in our servers for quick easy access to the machine. Easily power on/off the machine as well as view the screen. This will be helpful if we accidentally select shutdown instead of reboot on the ESX or SAN host cluster servers late at night while working from home via VPN. Just login to the web control panel and a few minutes later the server is back on.
With these tools we can easily solve most problems remotely unless it is something major like a hardware failure. Even re-loading the OS could be done remotely if somebody put the OS CD in the machine and plugged in the KVM since we currently are not using any imaging software.
If you have any other suggestions for remote management of computers leave a comment. Always looking for potentially better/easier ways to support computers.
Tags: Dell, Microsoft, Server, Troubleshooting
New servers and the standing room only office
Feb 25, 2010 Technology, Work
It has been a while since my last post here. I have a few things in the works to put up that are still in draft form and I am hoping to finish the documentation here shortly to get those items out. In the mean time though here is my latest project. The company I work for is in the process of changing out some of our main software to another companies software. Due to this new software we are in need of more servers to handle this software. We are in the process of adding 2 new switches and 2 more ESX servers. It is a beauty seeing 128GB of RAM in each of the 2 servers I just put in the rack today. If you were wondering what 128GB of RAM looks like here it is:
With this new hardware we have started to take a better care of how we deal with cables. Mostly in regards to labeling and color coding since we(I) have not done that well with this in the past. I am in the process of replacing the cabling for certain functions going to our other servers along with updating the labels on all network cables. All of our cabling currently is gray CAT6 cable that is labeled on one end only which is a real pain. Here is how things will be structured now:
- All servers/switches/SANs have a label on front AND back such as VMx for ESX servers, SANx for either SAN and SWx for switches.
- All network cables will be labeled at BOTH ends of the cable. Label will consist of equipment name, PCI slot and which jack on the PCI card.
- Network cable will be color coded based on function:
- KVM = Purple
- Dell Remote Access Card (DRAC) = Orange
- iSCSI = Red (Means don’t touch this or something terrible will happen, heads will roll!)
- Regular LAN = Gray and some blue since I have run out of gray
- Power PDU (Power Distribution Unit) have a stripe of colored electrical tape on each and labeled as to which UPS they go to
- Power cords for servers have corresponding stripe of electrical tape wrapped around signifying which PDU connected to as well as being labeled on PDU side what the power cord goes to.
- Any power cord connecting two PDUs has a stripe of each color electrical tape signifying where it is coming from/going
Once I get done with the entire project in the next couple business days I will post more pictures of things. Until then I will leave you with a view of my standing room only office for the past/next few days with the folding wall shelf.
If you have any other type of labeling/coloring of your wires please feel free to leave a comment.
Tags: Dell, ESX, Labeling, Networking, Server
My home ESXi test environment
Jan 9, 2010 Server Virtualization, Technology
As an earlier post of mine stated I was looking into setting up an ESXi test environment. I previously have been running a custom installation of Ubuntu Hardy with VMware Server 1.0.5 on it. Even though that system has been running very reliable for the past year I wanted more. At my day job we have 2 ESX servers that run most of our infrastructure along with a few older servers that have not been moved virtual yet. I wanted to have a similar interface at home as we do at work so that is the reason for setting up this ESXi test environment. Below I will outline what hardware I am running on, special configurations for the machine and what I think so far after running it for a little over a week. Read the rest of this entry »
