Continuation

Virtualization

Due to server hardware refresh coming at work, I am investigating routes which we can take, one of the new ones is going virtual. It has couple of advantages like High Availability, and Fail Over which are very important these days ( users complain if their services are not available 100% )

So far I have covered VMWare Server and Infrastructure products. Where I like features of Infrastructure and price and ease of use of Server.

Now it’s time for XEN. From the beginning it looks very bare. Not like entirely integrated VMWare software, XEN is just the basic core and you need tools to use it and these come in plenty. Now I am playing with what came shipped with OpenSuSe. But just now I’ve briefly read on ganeti and I am impressed.

Linux KVM, hmm, I don’t have much to say for it. From what I’ve seen it’s not good for hosting MS Windows guest systems.

SAN

This is kinda strange, I know what are they, how they work, even used it in some testing. But I never had opportunity to work with a real, expensive solution. So far, Compellent is looking like the sort of things which I might consider installing. The only thing which worries me is license cost as well as resilience of a controller. If I have half a dozen servers connected to that bastard, they all die with it.

Routing

I am also in the router/firewall upgrade bucket. Choice is hard here, part of me wants a Cisco and the other one wants something cheaper but as good as Cisco. No part of me wants a Juniper, they are cheaper but from what I have seen they are awkward to work with. I’ve came across Vyatta, looks solid and as I am testing it, I can not find any limitations which would cross it out. But I don’t like it’s name, it does not flow on the keyboard right ( definitely not as well as my yllq )

cisco, education, geek, job, router, san, virtualization

Before Xmas, I have decided to learn a bit of Persian language. You know, just to occupy my brain with something other than technology. Today I’ve found to really great website which teaches you the language for free!

Persian language lessons archive 1

Watch out Malcolm! I will bug you very soon !

education, languages, website

I have been, recently, working with OpenSSL as a mini CA.

As it is a great product, does everything with PKI what you need. Even after a while it is making sense how to use it. No problems.

One issue, which held me a while was lack of clear information, instructions or interface to perform the most basic tasks regarding certification, delivered with the package. Non … you are dumped in to deep water… it may often push off some people as they will have no clue what they are doing, even using online instructions. Do you know some nice GUI for openssl ?

So after scary swim in deep waters, I am quite casual with all that PKI, ssl/tls, certificates etc. stuff. It is like a completely new world… world which you trust, where you can easily manage that trust… it is beautiful! Suddenly setting up encrypted and authenticated channels is just a flick of your own CA. Love it.

education, geek, hacking, linux, web

So, now when I have my connectivity sorted out, I will start my maybe never ending network setup.

I need NS server ( Done ), Mail server ( pending porting ), Radius server ( pending ) and that is what I can think of now.

NS was easy, as it required little work and I already have done that ,on my previous server, so copy and paths change sorted it.

Mail server also should be no problem as I will get it moved from old server.

Radius … this is a nice piece , I have no experience with it and it is mandatory for me to get my WiFi working. As far as I have got is Access Point is talking to the server, clients talk to it as well but … it refuses everything. I will need to catch-up on Radius.

education, geek, hacking, linux, radius, web

Ania is writing a dissertation. She knows nothing about text editing, they never taught it in her university. When I had questionable pleasure of being asked how to do something in OpenOffice every five minutes, I have asked her if she can send the file over to me, and I will create some styles for her text.

What I have received was nowhere to be said ‘pro’ …
I have spend around 8h or more to remove all the extra empty paragraphs, repeated spaces and finally styling each of the paragraphs, converting formula’a to objects… adding correct captions. Really not the most interesting stuff to do.
Before sending corrected document back to Ania, I had to explain what I have done, and how she should carry-on editing it. And during that time I have written some useful tips for a newbie, all in Polish ( except names from OpenOffice ). I will try to compile a short and no doubt incomplete tutorial. Just after I will get over with this ‘dissertation problem’.

bachelors in science, education, hint, idea, weekend

So, I have now 3 letters in front of my name ( inz. ) It’s highest technicial degree in Poland. Something like bachelors in science.

bachelors in science, education

learning today, i’ll just scan my dissertation and questions tommorow on the place and that’s it

i hope that, this will be enough to pass that fckunig exam( obrona - defense )

education

Tommorow i have D-Day, aagh i’m so stressed up that i can’t learn anymore

I wrote Gtk GUI for “echo body | mutt address -s subject” so no longer using console for mailing i will ( i made it in mono/gtk#/c# )

bachelors in science, education, gtk, mono, programming

This day was the same, as the past two , i was learning for def. and spending some time with Ann.

Moa aint good

I have no response from employers that sad, maybe i should write some more, not just “Please find my CV attached”

education, job

today i have to start learning for my “obrona” ( defend )

bachelors in science, education