Master Nerd

Project hopefuls:

wouTV: AJAX, captions, performance
ISE: tech specs and purchase?
COE: filters, add-to-google calendar, notify campus
Security updates, filters
Finish some overdue evals 🙁
Whatever else comes up …

Boy, it’s been a busy Fall!

We have spent a great deal of time on setting up redundant webservers behind a load balancer.
VDI got rolled into production on the new blade servers.
We are beginning of migration from Solaris to RHEL.
10G in the data center!
Windows 7 has become the new standard.
Steve died.
NAC will probably be replaced by ISE, as soon as we figure out the technical details of 802.1x and COA.
wouTV is getting a facelift and some new features (including captions!)
And about a million other projects 🙂

Today, Paul and I deployed the first real 10GE switch in the Data Center.

We have 10GE at the core, and to most of the MDFs, but this is the first “edge” switch with 10GE.
VDI and the NetApps will converge in this switch, with the hopeful goal that they can communicate with each other and the core at 10-20GE.

That’ll take some load off of the Core and the 3750’s … and hopefully decrease the boot time for VDI images.
If we can improve performance enough, some desktops can probably be replaced with Wyse thinclients …

It’s exciting, and we have some performance metrics to take, and write up a case study with NetApp.

Well, the Portal (2) has come a long way.  I didn’t get time to build a channel yet, but I should have time for that next week…

Our new server racks are in, and we should be able to have them in place next week.

Joy gave us a new tnsnames.ora file and a new .CON file to distribute.  Berkley was able to send this out centrally!

Working with ODS on captioning for videos.

Working with Cisco on iPads and compliance.

The dynamic campus map/video tour project is making progress.  Still hoping to have the “map” updated by Fall Term.

Scheduling a meeting for the Online Catalog project.

Need to talk to Bill about DR and MiNET next week.

Meeting with faculty (hopefully) next week about the MOD 104 computers…

And much, more more 🙂

So, the ship date is the end of August.  I’ve been WAITING and waiting … for like a year, man.  Seriously.

A 7″ tablet, made by cisco with HD video and …. yeah all the standard stuff.
But what I really want is the phone dock and the ability to replace my desk phone with the tablet and it’s VoIP capabilities.
Can I?
Who knows … but I’m sure-the-heck gonna try —

I’m gonna use the Cius as a laptop & wireless VoIP phone replacement.
Will it work?
All I think I really need is a browser, ssh, a keyboard and RDP.  If it has bluetooth, maybe I can get my laser keyboard to work!

Well, if you haven’t heard lately, Portal 2 is on it’s way.
Actually, the funny thing is that Thinkgeek is now selling “Portal 2” gear.  Like it’s a video game.  For reals.
Anyway, I guess I have to go back to saying Portal 2.0 or WOUPortal 2 or WOUPortal 2.0.
Either way, it’s coming!

Danielle (and Nathan) and I got all the pretty working this week.  Next week I’ll be building the first few channels and tuning the DB to deal with them.
After that, I’ll be working on asynchronous load, and getting more channels built by other devs.
I think it’s a solid product … and IT WORKS IN IE!  Miracle of miracles…

Also coming soon:
Online Catalog (meeting in September)
Campus video tour (meeting next week)
Systems team meeting for Intercession (week after next)
Closed Captioning … everything 🙁
Replacing the Mac Mini’s in MOD 104
wouTV updates
Faculty Homepage project
Calendar of Events w/ filters!

Stuff like that 🙂

We’ve lost 2 staff members this month 🙁

Stinks.

So we begin the interview process.  Stinks.

Hoping we find two new employees who bring the same energy, drive and personality to the department to help fill the large loss we now have.  Losing 2 employees at once is very difficult.

Why is it that the end of June always seems so tough?  Full?  Frought with transition and tiny shards of chaos?

I don’t know, but I’m thankful July is here.  A 3-day weekend is what everyone needs.  Time to get out in the sun.  Time to disc golf (seriously).  Time to eat burgers, run around and take naps.

It’s true.  The sun is shining.  And appears to be sticking around for the next 2-3 weeks 🙂
The big news here is Cisco UCS.  The B-series blade server has been surprisingly easy to setup and configure.

Richard has already got ESXi installed on a full and half-width blade.  Once we join them to the VMware Cluster, we can begin load testing them with VDI and our WYSE thin clients.

Summertime is also project time, so during the next 3 months I’ll be working on Portal 2.0, digitized PDF forms, Class assignment streamlining, DR policy and implementation, the Online Catalog and trying to get my hands on a Cisco Cius 🙂

Stay tuned – lots going on…

Still not ready to post, but Nathan B. (student) and I are quite close to having a nice working demo.
It works quite well in Firefox, but really just kind of falls apart in IE.  He’s done some work that will make the page work, so I’m hoping to present it to the Provost/Vice Provost next week (or shortly thereafter).

Once they “approve” the design, I’ll have Nathan burning through that during the Summer!
When we get the online demo “working”, then I’ll post it to the blog.

So close, and yet – still so much to do.
Mark (OSU) has been working hard to get things ready for us.  Andy (OSU) has several loads to run and I need to install the application on Danielle’s desktop.
A little bit of testing … and Danielle can go to training in a few weeks 🙂

Once she’s on her way, I can turn this project over to Mike and he’ll move it forward in the Fall!
I’m excited to put my effort into other projects.