Keep IT simple - Use RDWeb instead of Site-to-Site VPN

So you have a couple of users moving from the main office to a new office (say they're moving to the public works garage) that is located miles away from the main office. These users need to still be able to use the business application but don't need anything else from the business network and security isn't a high concern. At the remote office the two users will need basic internet, ability to print, and have access to the business application; nothing else is needed. What do you do? Do you buy an expensive firewall to build a site-to-site vpn connection to the main office? Or, since you already have RDWeb implemented for remote use of applications, do you use RDWeb? The cheapest and most efficient solution would be to go with RDWeb. If you're not familiar with RDWeb, I suggest you do some reading on it, but for now know that RDWeb is a feature of Windows Server that builds a portal to essential applications and remote desktop access your employees need either remotely or locally.

Why do I say use RDWeb instead of the VPN connection? Well because RDWeb is simpler. What you can do is give the two users computers with encrypted hard drives, a solid anti-malware solution (I suggest malwarebytes PRO along with Microsoft Security Essentials\Defender and then have OpenDNS at the border), and decent internet bandwidth to give them a great working environment. RDWeb will provide access (securely) to the work application(s) and they can use it almost 99% the way they used it before at the main office. For situations like this, RDWeb trumps the other method of site-to-site VPN because it requires less setup, equipment, and time.

I know for other situations where high-security is a primary concern, file shares are needed, printers are manged from the main network, etc. RDWeb may not be the ideal choice but for a situation like the one described above where the two users just need access to the business application(s) then RDWeb is the clear winner I think. It was the winner at work. The situation described above is a real-world scenario. My work will have a new public works garage and two of our users will be leaving the main office to work out at the new garage. We already have RDWeb in place for remote users so the two users will access the business application through our portal.

One of the things to keep in my mind with any project, especially IT projects, is to keep the solution simple.

Don't be scared of virtualization

Occasionally I talk with an IT guy who is scared to death of virtualization. Why the fear? Well the typical answer I get is that "it's complicated" or "expensive" or "I have no experience with it; going forward with it would be risky." If you're a virtualization tech of any stripe you'll know these worries can be easily erased. My own work experience with Hyper-V is a great answer to these techs who are scared (no offense) of virtualization. Why do I say don't be scared? I say don't be scared of virtualization because 1) you have no reason to be and 2) virtualization is super helpful for the most ordinary of IT projects.

At work we needed to implement Server 2008 R2's RDWeb services to enable our work application to be available to users who are away from our main office and for users who needed to access the application when they're sick, on vacation, etc. When the concern was approached to me, I immediately thought of R2's RDWeb services and pitched the idea to a group of people who were not interested in buying a new server. They assumed to use the RDWeb service we would need to purchase new hardware and that just wasn't going to happen (I work for local government and money is tight!). I told them they didn't have to worry about purchasing new hardware because of Hyper-V! We were limited to the 2008 version of Hyper-V, so we aren't able to use features like dynamic memory and bandwidth management but the point I made to them and want to make here is that even 2008's Hyper-V can make the simplest of IT projects, e.g. rolling out RDWeb, even simpler and much, much cheaper than going with new hardware. The only purchase made was five Remote Desktop Services CALs! The rest of the project requirements were already owned by us which was awesome. If we didn't go the virtualization route we would have made a lot of purchases in hardware. So I added the Hyper-V role to an existing Windows Server 2008 machine, configured the RDWeb virtual machine, installed a copy of Windows Server 2008 R2 on the VM, installed and configured RDWeb on the virtual machine, made the necessary configurations in our Sonicwall TZ210 and then we were all set. Virtualization made that project so much easier than the alternative which is to buy new hardware, make room for that hardware, oh and convince the treasurer and company to make those purchases. For us, the project only cost us a couple of hundred dollars and RDWeb has helped us out a lot. Virtualizaton was the obvious route to take.

Don't be scared of virtualization! Implementing Hyper-V, Citrix, or VMWare doesn't mean you have to setup live migrations, virtual storage, virtual networks, VDI, or whatever else is intimidating to you; all it can mean is that you're going to use a virtual machine instead of a physical machine for your project. Try it out, even if it's in a lab at first. You can download trial copies of Server 2012 and Windows 8 to tinker around with virtualization if you haven't yet. Keith Mayer has awesome lab exercises for you to try and I know from personal experience that his lab exercises are awesome because I've used them multiple times! Again, don't be scared of virtualization because the benefits and range of uses are too great for you to not use because you're a little intimidated. 

Just an Update

Hey all. This post isn't a troubleshooting, from-the-trenches post, it is just an update post due to the sad fact I haven't posted anything in more than a month. What am I doing? Well I'm still studying in my time from work for the MCSA: Server 2012 certification. I'm actually studying for all three exams before I take an exam; a studying tip from Ed Liberrman of Trainsignal. At first I wasn't sure about that method but now I completely understand his advocating that method. Studying for all three exams before taking the exams will give you a full understanding of Server 2012, which is what Ed suggested and I know this to be true now that I'm applying his method to my study time. Having studied Active Directory at the 70-411 and 70-412 levels has helped me to understand Active Directory better at level 70-410! It's just a great study method I think.

Study Tools
I'm using the Server 2012 certification book from Sybex that is authored by William Panek (an excellent tech writer) for all three exams. I have and am also using the Exam-ref book for 70-410 from Microsoft Press and the 70-410 Training Guide from Microsoft Press by Mitch Tulloch (another excellent tech writer). An additional and amazing study tool I'm using is TrainSignal. I can't recommend their videos and practice exams enough. Their practice exam for the 70-410 exam let me know quickly that I wasn't ready to take that exam. Ed Libberman is a great teacher too. His personality is engaging and you can just tell he knows what he is talking about. What about the books? The questions at the end of each chapter in the Sybex book are great questions in that they are scenario based and make you actually think instead of just matching the correct definition with the term. Also in each chapter are exercises which is always nice. The Exam-Ref book is a good book for giving you information for exactly what Microsoft requires you to know on the 70-410 exam. The author doesn't go any further than that and he doesn't exactly go in the deep end either so I can't say that book alone will prepare you for the 70-410 exam. There are practice exercises peppered throughout each chapter which, again, is nice. The 'Training Guide' form Tulloch is a very nice tool. He goes deeper on the exam objectives and his practice exercises are fun, challenging and helpful. This guide is a nice companion to the Exam-Ref book.

Is this study method and are these tools a great approach to earning the MCSA? Well I guess I'll see when I go in and take the 70-410 exam. I can't see how my current study method with all the tools I'm using is setting me up for failure. If I fail it will be because of me.

For work, I'm currently doing the day-in and day-out stuff. I'm not doing anything special but my current job is what it is: entry-level. Hopefully after earning the MCSA, along with my continued experience will land me an exciting System Administrator job elsewhere.

Subscribe to the blog! Tell people about it.

SyncBack Free Review

I just finished testing 2BrightSparks SyncBack Free. I'm very satisfied with this free backup solution. I'm so satisfied that I'm going to stop using the previous solution I used for simple backups.

SyncBack Free isn't intending to be an enterprise level backup solution so don't expect features like that in this free solution (though their paid pro version does that stuff). What it does do though it does very well. For my environment, I wanted to backup my documents and outlook content to a shared storage location. In my past experience this has either been very easy and thus neglecting some extra features or very complicated and thus keeping me from wanting to use the product. Syncback Free takes an approach that I like a lot by having two modes: easy mode and expert mode. In easy mode and expert modes you first name your backup profile, e.g., outlook profile.  Then, you decide what this profile is going to be: backup, synchronize, or mirror (these choices are explained by hovering your mouse over the "?" next to each choice). After naming and choosing the purpose for your profile you automatically are in easy mode. In this mode you can setup your source and destination folders (local, external, or network paths to choose), setup a schedule, and choose what you want to happen if SyncBack Free encounters a duplicate file during a backup, e.g., do you want to copy and replace, do nothing, prompt, etc. If you're done then you can do a simulation run to test the backup. You can choose expert mode from the left menu bar before going through with the simulation run.

In expert mode, you obviously have more options to design your backup profile. This is the part of Syncback Free I really like. Expert mode has options like compression, encryption, FTP, Programs-before and more. One to thing to point out: by default, Syncback Free backups your data to the destination as is. What do I mean? I mean that if you go to your destination drive to view your backup you'll see all your data just the way it looks in your source drive, i.e., the backup isn't zipped into a single folder  or encrypted. Anyone with access to that destination drive will be able to access your data without any problem. This is important to point out and the only flaw, I've found, with SyncBack Free. It's basically a copy and paste by default. Expert mode allows you to change this. In the compression section you can check the box to compress the files on the destination into a zip file, then check the box below it to put all the files into a single zip file and if you want you can choose the level of compression. Doing this will make the size of your backup smaller and make the backup a single zipped folder. You can also encrypt your compressed backup which is nice.

So that is my review of SyncBack Free. It's my impression that this solution is for personal use and for very small businesses who can't afford to pay for a solution that is more robust than this free solution. The Pro version is 54.95, but it has a lot of features that make the product worth the price.

If you're looking for a backup solution for your home or small office then checkout SyncBack Free.

A reveiw of training guide: configuring windows 8

 

Are you an IT rookie or Pro looking to get a firm understanding of how to implement Windows 8 in the enterprise? Or are you a geek who just wants to know how Windows 8 works? If you're in any of the two mentioned groups you will get a firm understanding of Windows 8 due to the excellent writing, questions, and lab exercises in Training Guide: Configuring Windows 8. How does this book differ from other books on Windows 8? I think it differs in the  writing style and the structure of the book. I have read other books on Windows 8 that are focused on tips and tricks; focused on the expert IT pro; and one that covered every "bit" of Windows 8. Yes, those other books have their purpose and that's fine, but this book is aimed at "teaching" the reader Windows 8 from the "surface" level to the advanced level without going off on unnecessary tips and theory.

The authors clearly know their subject, but they don't beat you down with it. Also, the authors offer real-world examples and tell the reader what is necessary for learning Windows 8. I really like that. When I read a training guide, I only want to know how the hardware/software functions and how to make it work for my environment. When I want to read the theory of the technology I go to a different kind of book. I like that this book at the beginning of each lesson tells the reader what he or she should know by that point, what is required for the lesson suggestions and labs, and that at the end of each lesson is a lesson summary. Throughout each lesson there are real-world examples and quick hits of information related to the topic of the lesson.

Are there any cons to this book? I gave an honest consideration to this and I did think of a con. I think there could have been more questions at the end of each lesson. Each lesson ended with 2 to 5 questions. While there could have been more, I don't think this does any damage to the book. The amount of questions asked still help the reader to reflect on the lesson learned so it's not a con that takes away a rating star.

While this book lets you know in the beginning it's not intended as a sole source for the Windows 8 exam, it does cover some of the required topics for the Window 8 exam so this is a great addition to your study tools for the exam. I think the lab exercises will help you as well.

Anyway, rambling aside, grab this book to learn about Windows 8. In my mind it's currently the best book available to train you on how to use Windows 8. Hey, I bet you'll even have fun doing it.

xPrintServer Office Edition Review

xPrintServer Office edition is an excellent product! A product that is definitely worth the money. It's easy to setup and easy to configure if needed. This is nearly plug-and-play. I say nearly because I did have to go into the admin panel of the device and run the "discover" feature two times. I'll get to the that. For right now, know this is an excellent product.

The product comes in very nice packaging that has a clean style design. When I unboxed it I was amazed at the size of the device. It's about the size of an iPhone! I had read that on the product specs sheet but being the skeptical guy I am and didn't think it would actually be that size. Also in the box is an ethernet cable, power supply with adapters, wall mount kit (bracket and 2 screws), and rubber feet for those who don't want to wall mount their xPrintServer. As you can see in the picture you can connect a usb printer to it. I must admit, this reviewer hasn't tried that option. I've read positive things about that option, but I haven't tried that myself. Yet. If I do I will update this review.

I connected the device to our network via an ethernet calbe to our main switch. After it was connected and powered on, the LED network lights flickered and the device light at first flickered very fast then flickered slowly; this is the discover phase. I grabbed an iPad that was connected to our network via wifi. I browsed to a page then went to the printer options for safari. Only one printer was available. There should have been 3 printers available. I went ahead and printed the page just for testing and it worked just as it should have worked. After that, I went into the admin panel of the xPrintServer device. After running the discover tool
two times all 3 printers were discovered. I checked with my iPad to find that all 3 printers were ready for printing.

Aside from the device not auto-disovering all the printers at once, this device has been great. Setup is a breeze. Even the "extra" stuff I had to do was super easy and fast. All of this happened in less than 10 minutes. How great is that? You can't ask for more than that right?

In addition to enabling your iOS and Mac OS devices to print without any software or app installation, xPrintServer Office admin panel also has cool stuff for admins like: job status and viewer, log viewer, network configuration for the device, manually add a printer, and driver installation.

I highly recommend xPrintServer Office edition to those offices in need of printing from iOS devices and don't want to have to purchase iPad and iPhone printing enabled printers.

Currently Reading Training Guide: Configuring Windows 8

 Training Guide: Configuring Windows 8

The authors clearly know their subject. I've learned a lot from this book on how to implement Windows 8 in the enterprise and SMB. Lessons, practices, and exercises are the model and the authors have worked this model in an excellent way. The writing is top notch as well. Tech books have an image (no pun intended) of bad writing, i.e., dry, only writing what's necessary, but that can't be said of this book. The writing keeps me interested.

I'm only about 1/4 of the way through the book and what's funny is I don't want it to be over. I actually look forward to studying this book and doing the exercises. I highly recommend this book for the IT professional wanting an understanding of how to roll out then maintain Windows 8 in the business level and for the geek who just wants to know how it works.

When I'm finished with the book I plan on writing a full review.

RAID 5 Hell

In the IT world it's apparently a given that RAID 5 sucks. No, maybe the IT tech you talk to won't give you those exact words when you inquire about RAID 5, but that RAID 5 sucks will be the message behind his words. It's true, it's true. Before this week I hadn't encountered a RAID 5 problem because where I work we have a fairly humble system of simply backing up all data and images to a NAS, so if there is a problem we restore from our backups. I'm not sure this non-RAID system is good for every network so don't think I'm promoting a non-RAID data security plan for you, just know that it's doable and not a terrible plan.

One of my co-IT-workers is off for sick leave this week and probably two more weeks so all calls from his department will go to me. I get a call on Monday that a lady can't remote in to her mapping server. She said she went to the server to see if it was powered on (good idea!) and it was on, but it was stuck at "press F1 to resume." She said that when she hit F1 the next screen was something "...about RAID-5 degraded not bootable" message. My first thought: CRAP. I know that RAID-5 needs at least three hard drives to be operational. If one fails, you can swap the bad drive out with a new drive of identical brand and same size or larger to rebuild the RAID, but if two fail then there is a serious possibility of not being able to rebuild the RAID. In fact, I don't know of anyone rebuilding a RAID-5 array from a two out three hard drive failure; maybe someone out there has and if you have then please tell me the story because I would love to add it to my growing list of tech stories. Anyway, I check things out and after about a hour of doing troubleshooting I come to the conclusion that two of the three hard drives are in fact failed drives. CRAP. I let the user of the server know that I can run to the local Staples, grab two new drives and just see if I can rebuild the array. She says, "cool" and that's the plan. I write down the type of hard drive used in the array: 1 TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM.

I arrive at Staples, they have that type of drive and I immediately do my happy dance. I take the card to the cashier, she calls for a tech to go in the back and grab two drives for me, he comes back to the front with one drive and informs me that they only had one drive left. I then execute my sad face. I go ahead and purchase the one drive. When I get back to work, I inform the user of the happenings. She is somewhat sad. I tell her we can try and rebuild the array with the working drive, the new drive, and one of the failed drives just to see if we can rebuild it (I'm somewhat of a hopeful guy who likes to try almost certain failure scenarios) and to no surprise the RAID would not rebuild. We went through the immediate actions we could take:
* Reinstall Windows Server 2008 R2 on the new drive, add the second drive as a backup drive, and order a third drive and install it when it arrives and use that as a backup drive also. The server would be up and running in just a few hours.
* Wait for a new drive to arrive in at the earliest two days. Install the third drive with only a small possibility of the RAID-5 Array rebuilding. The server would not be up and running soon. Two departments use the server to access maps out on the road and at remote locations.

We went with the first option. From this experience it's plain to me that RAID-5 sucks unless you have a five or six RAID-5 array. I would rather have updated system-image backups of the computer for simple restore options in case of system failure. RAID-6 and RAID-10 I think are nice arrays, but this is the second time I've had problems with Intel's RAID-5 arrays. In the past, before this experience, I was able to shut-down the PC, disconnect then reconnect the sata cables and the array would rebuild itself. I never had an issue with RAID-5 array drives failing. The good thing in this experience is that this mapping server pulled its data from another PC so there was actually zero critical data loss. The only thing lost was availability. The mapping company will have to come down to our location and install the mapping software, but that should be by the end of this week.

RAID 5 or RAID 6?

The Microsoft Surface excitement

It's here. Yes, it's here. Well almost. What am I talking about? I'm talking about the Microsoft Surface baby! The Surface is Microsoft's tablet, set for a fall launch time as of this writing. I'm excited. Are you excited? If not, you should be because this tablet is definitely worth taking into consideration for purchase. Before this tablet, the only tablet that really turned on my processor was the ASUS Transformer Pad and I seriously thought about purchasing that tablet sometime this fall, but now Microsoft's Surface has my gaze.

This is a bold move by Microsoft. Why? Well, because Microsoft is making the tablet with it's own hardware (as of this writing anyway - that's the story being told). Microsoft isn't going with Dell or HP and I don't blame them. Dell and HP aren't in position to build a killer Windows 8 tablet. Microsoft is going solo. I think it's a good, but bold and risky move. 

What do I personally like from what I know so far about the tablet? Well I like that the tablet comes equipped with a kickstand and a detachable keyboard. You don't have to pay extra for those things, which is nice. I like that it sports two full USB 3.0 slots and has a SD slot. Those are very nice things I have looked for in a tablet since the tablet craze started. The cool thing about the keyboard is that it's "just there" if you need it. Want to create content that has more characters than a tweet? Attach your keyboard. It's that simple. You don't have to take the unnecessary bluetooth steps. It's just there if you need then gets the heck out of the way if you don't. Cool. I also really like the Metro UI. My smartphone is a mango phone, so I'm used to the Metro UI. It's simple. It's clean. It's not busy like the Apple and Android UIs. 

I'm not going to be one of those techies who will shout, "Apple and Android will die at the merciless hands of the Surface! Doom! Doom! Doom to non-Surface tablets!" No, I'm not that guy. However, I will say this tablet is going to be big. It may not shove Apple off the tablet mountain, but it will get close.

Check it out. It's worth the look.

Microsoft Surface official site 

Poll: Would you buy your next tablet from Microsoft?

Network+ test coming up soon!

My comptia network+ exam is this coming Wednesday! Am I nervous? Yeah, I am just a little bit nervous. I've read Mike Meyers' Network+ book two times through, now working on the third reading prepping for Wednesday. I didn't think a third reading would be beneficial, but it actually has been beneficial for me. Subnetting makes more sense now and so does distance-vector and link-state routing. So, this third reading had rocked so far.

I'm also working on my official third year as an IT professional. By 'official' I mean employed. Before employment I was a tech enthusiast, but not professional. I think working in the IT field helps tremendously with these exams, but I guess I can't know that for sure until I pass the Net+ exam this coming Wednesday.

Buy Mike's Network+ book here. Note: I'm studying the 2009/4th edition book because that is the exam I registered to take. The 2012 exams, I believe, are out and ready for registration and so are the books. I know for sure that Mike's 4th edition book is solid and well worth using for prepping, but I can't say for sure if his newest book is a good tool because I haven't personally used it. However, based on my experience with his books, I'm sure it's a good read and tool. 

Writing a technical manual

A new project for work...yay! I like new projects, especially projects that are challenging. My new project is to write a short technical manual on how to use the necessary functions pertaining to work on the Pandigital Super Nova tablet. Yes, it's one of the cheap tablets, but it's definitely a good tablet for business because of its price and usability. My tech manual is going to focus on the what the users are actually going to be using the tablet for which are email and file viewing/editing. 

The tablets are going to be used by court members enabling them to view the files normally printed out on the tablet, which over time will reduce waste and save money in the long run. Files will be emailed to the a single court email account which I will setup on each tablet. The court user can download the attached file from the email and save it to the tablet for viewing. The built-in office suite in the tablet has a word processor, spreadsheet creator, power-point creator, and PDF creator; they all work very well by the way, I was impressed. 

Also, the tablet has an option of connecting to a file share on the network it's connected to. I created a share on our server accessible by the AD user I created with read-only permissions. I created this share so the court users could access larger files (like policies and procedures manual) that possibly couldn't be emailed due to the large file size.

Because of the tablet's simplicity, writing the tech manual has not been difficult. Many of the functions are simple, not having to navigate through multiple upon multiple windows and operations. I think the manual will be of use to the court users, but honestly, I think the presentation will be good enough. However, there are some things I like to keep in mind when writing a manual.

1. Keep it simple. You're not writing to A+ technicians, you're writing (mostly) to people who just want the device they bought to work. They don't care about why you have to go about performing the function this or that way, nor do they care about how awesome the product and company are; don't involve the history of the device. Stick to instructing the user on how to use the device.

2. Be clear. Don't be too elegant in your instructions. Make sure your instructions are clear enough anyone can read them and then be able actually perform the operation on the device. Don't assume the reader knows the "in-between" steps of an operation. Include the little things the user will see along the way of performing the operation.

3. Make sure and include a link or something to the advanced functions of the device. I like to call the basic manual the "get it up and going" manual that includes turning the device on, how to navigate around the device, and how to perform basic functions. The advanced manual is usually longer, more detailed, and most likely won't be read by the basic user. So, in that manual, I think one can dive deeper into the other functions of the device, but the manual still needs to be clear.

So far, I'm impressed with the Pandigital Super Nova tablet. Is it comparable to the Samsung Galaxy Tab or the iPad? No, but it is a good tablet for simple business tasks like file sharing via email and network shares, creating documents, and for its front and rear camera. I think it will be a good tablet for our needs.
 

Check it out here.

Startup

So this is going to be my blog on life in the Information Technology field as a generalist in the field currently. I am an IT specialist, newly graduated so don't expect anything awesome here, that has a general knowledge from traditional desktop support to network support. My knowledge in web design and programming is close to zero, so I can't make you a website unless you want your website to look like it's been on the web since '95. 

Purpose of the blog? To write on my life as a new IT tech in the field, much like a journal. My writing here will be anywhere from once a week to once a month. Each post may not be journal entry like, there will be some posts that are simply excerpting an article I found somewhere else, recommending this or that software and/or hardware, so do visit often: comment, read and enjoy.