Work status update

I figure this is a blog, so every once in a while I should just talk about what's going on.

We decided to go with Apptix for our hosted email solution. They seem to have a pretty straightforward interface for adding users and administrating the server. I am a little disappointed that they don't offer an Active Directory import tool, but I'll live. Adding users is relatively painless. Getting all the strange little groups and rules set up will take a bit more time.

My boss is currently in NJ. Since I didn't get the snort machine ready in time for my trip to NJ last week, he's putting it in the rack for me, which I really appreciate. I'll get that into service before too long.

I've been getting behind on tape backups, so I've been concentrating on them this week. I managed to free up a few hundred gigs on an array by finally getting some archives in the tape safe. The freed up space will promptly be used by more archive logs, I'm sure.

It seems like the more vendors I work with, the more sites I have to use that require Internet Explorer. It's a PITA. I've got to load up a VM of some type, log in, load the browser, etc etc, or I've got to remote desktop into another machine and do the same thing. I finally broke down and tried IE4Linux again (which Nick reminded me of). It's improved a lot since I last tried it, and it lets me work on IE only sites. I haven't tried anything too advanced, but it does what I need. The underlying issue is that web client programmers don't understand that a large contingent of technical individuals don't have IE available to them (at least easily). At least I don't think they do.

I'm getting a new tape drive (horray!). Right now I've got an Exabyte (really Tandberg now) 1x10 VXA-3 packet loader. We'll be getting a Quantum Superloader with 16 slots and an LTO-3 drive. It's not as modern as the LTO-4, but it's bigger and faster than our VXA-3 and has 16 slots rather than our 12. The media is actually cheaper, too. This means I'll be needing to re-engineer my backup solution. I'm still deciding between Bacula and Amanda.

My first article has been approved for publication in Simple Talk: Exchange. It'll be in the January issue, which of course I'll link to. Many thanks to my editor Michael Francis for his patience with my horrible writing :-)

And in further good news, I have learned from my boss that they're considering getting more manpower to help me cover the infrastructure here. I don't know what shape or form it will come in, but I'll have a hand in the decision. I'm keeping the name of the blog, regardless of what happens ;-)

Also, Jim is working on a long blog post detailing his recent arguments with his VoIP mess. Look forward to that soon!


So that's been my recent life in a nutshell.