K12 Technology Summers

Ever wonder what a tech department for K-12 does all summer. FREAKING WORK! We stay busy with various projects, updates and tasks. Here is our summers

1. Summer 2011 (please remember, there are only 10-12 people total do these things. This is in addition to typical work orders which usually drop to 75% of our end of the year daily average.)
• Change out our imaging and desktop management software
• means re-imaging labs and libraries (2000+ devices)
• pushing apps
• Change out our help desk software
• redesign layout
• change categories (hardware, software, blah blah)
• add/modify required fields (name, phone, etc)
• anything else that needed to be visited
• test the thing
• re-write rules for assignment of work orders
• re-train staff
• Pick up all local printers (yeah, we are going to be popular next year)
• change out our hardware web load balancing appliance and ssl box
• Upgrade vmware esxi to 4.1 on 8 nodes. Rolling upgrade
• fix veeam backups due to change of ip...grrr
• change out backup software
• e911 configuration and setup
2. 2010
• open a renovated school -- fyi renovations suck. reusing parts and pieces from before is ok, but sometimes it adds labor, the wonderful hidden cost. Materials go down, labor goes up.
• site visits to locate technology pathways
• work with GC to find solutions to interesting challenges. It is amazing what is on the as-builts versus what is actually in the wall/ceiling.
• open 3 partial renovations and changed schools. Almost worse than a fully renovated. Frankenbastard schools for both cabling and physical infrastructure. Have to do some calculations...if we do it 100% right it'll cost x. if we do the way they meets code, but isn't so pretty, it cost x/2 or x/4. How long will this have to work? 1 year, 2, 3...5, 10? closer it gets to the bigger number is the closer to 100% right.
• clean up lingering AD migration from 2009 items
• share permissions & layout
• email archives
• Upgrade 3000 switches OS to support SSH and current code. Not hard, but requires some attention
3. 2009 -- almost the death of me and my group. Never again.
• Migrate from eDir to AD and Groupwise to Exchange
• prep work with the contractor doing the move. Contractor was successful. Took care of our issues generally. Nothing is perfect, but the issues were acceptable. Plus, I know what 2 items i missed in my RFP. Damn. More GPOs.
• Actually move all items. This was done over a 2 week period. Pretty much threw a switch for about 3500 accounts. Friday you have Groupwise. Monday you have Exchange. email will back fill. Important people's email moved first, obviously -- like mine!
• Open several new schools
• 1-1 high school (yes, my group did all the items below except where noted)
• manage all cabling installation
• Includes data, fiber, Teacher AV, outside plant fiber...
• Vendor did the cabling, switch mounting, & AP installs
• install & document switches
• deliver, image, and install 1000 computers
• Teacher station
• student stations
• install ip phones
• configure, design and implement wireless for 1-1
• open renovated ES (see above for how much of a pain these are)
• Assist with Business and Student information systems change
• Install servers
• Deploy BIS and SIS apps on workstations as selected

So, summers are usually filled with projects. The only consistency is change.

Slacker

Wow. I've been slacking in my duties to post. Had vacations and momentary lapse in interests. I'll get back at it. I don't think the daily thing is working. There'll just be posts.

Day in Review - Geek Speak

I've been delegating a few more assignments that aren't hard, but are new to the people getting them, such as renewing a certificate, creating load balancing objects, modifying dns entries, updating switch entries, managing sub-contractors, etc. They are learning which is good. Some of my people jump right in, others toe the water.

Worked on more KACE help desk stuff. Doing our auto-assignment rules. We have some entries for other departments cause as everyone knows if it runs on a computer it is a technology work order. We are trying to get some of the rules to auto-close, reply with the KB article contents and not just the link (Select Title, Notes FROM table WHERE ID = KB Article). We have some rules that auto-assign based on status (New) and originating location. Nothing spectacular. I'll post some of our custom scripts if I get them working. Kinda cool.

Day in Review -- Admin Overhead

A lot of little things. Phone calls, emails, visits to meet people, talking with people, dealing with purchases, verifying procedures for the next year, and on on. It is amazing how much time gets taken up by these things. All this while trying to do our geek stuff.

Day in Review -- Geek Speak

Does reading technical specifications for switches, access points, and wireless controllers count as geek speak. I am trying to generate an RFP for wireless overlay at 40 campuses. Need to find all the part numbers for a spreadsheet and make sure they work in our environment. We have some unique space and switch uplink constraints.

Tried spec'ing out a new desktop for my group too. Damn, they can be a whiny bunch :) Seems every network, phone, and server admin has an opinion on what to go. A tech staff doesn't seem to understand a budget. Let's see...you spend 95% of your time at your desk working. VPN and remote access logs show you login once a month. Why do you need a laptop with a massive video card again? The other part of this is knowing you can build the machine from newegg/tigerdirect/whoever for about 60-75% of the cost versus the folks we buy our standard from. But we get all these neat management features! and power savings option! and we never use 'em! awesome! And a 4 year warranty. Ok, that is worth something. But if I took that off, how many more could I buy? I detest warranties. If I could spare everything, I would. I know it isn't always practical. But putting a warranty on a ~$600 computer when you have10000 units is dumb.

Despite the rants. it was a good day.

Day in Review - Admin Overhead

Had one of those train your boss moments. My boss took the feedback well. We are always training others or ourselves.

Had a meet and greet day with principals. Tech guys just love visting with people. They seemed like nice enough people, but only 2 days into thejob. Time will help render a final verdict.

Formal construction site visit was fun. new wing of the building. Outside plant fiber is in the proposed location as usual. It is always interesting to listen to the conversation of others when the verbalize the plan and design for things. Architects aren't always crazy and intentionally try to make things difficult. And I do empathize for them on renovations....converstations usually go. Architect: Do you have existing as builts? Customer: uh, no? Architect: Do you know where existing underground utilizes are? Customer: Can't we just do a locate?...Anyhow. on on on. You try to design something when know can really describe in detail was is currently there.

RFP Writing Info Gathering -- Hardware Only

Somewhere along the way to writing an RFP, you'll going to have to gather some information on what you are buying, whether it be a service or a piece of equipment. We will deal with hardware first.

• Hardware Vendors
• Visit the people who make the gear or software that meets your need. You may have to cold call an HP, a Dell, a Cisco, a Juniper, a Fortinet, Sonicwall, whatever. You may have a long standing relationship. Either way, talk about what you are wanting to do to a variety of vendors. List where you are now, what you want to do, and the budget for the RFP or project. You have to give them an idea of how much you can spend. They should be able to help you with the nuts and bolts. Hopefully, they can give you a BOM of what you need to accomplish the goal. Don't afraid to play them against each other. It is a business decision. They already know who their competitors are. The closer you can get an apples to apples specification, the easier it will be later, even if you prefer vendor A solutions cause the equipment is Tangerine (no, I've never used this as a criteria. Although I have ruled out a vendor due to aestitics. The thing just looked really really ugly on the wall. I couldn't picture my teachers and staff using it without calling and saying it looked ugly). Eventually, the OEM may bring a partner or reseller in. That's actually good, usually. You need to meet these players too. They are likely who you will be buying the solution from and quite possibly performing the install or service.
• Resellers. Ugh. Good ones exist, people tell me so. Actually, they do. I've never had extended good luck with a whole lot of them. They get complacent IMHO. Anyhow, you'll likely meet the team or project lead for your area or project type. You need to figure out if you like these people, because they are likely to be who you deal with daily if they win. If you don't "click" with the first person, you can ask for another. They may say no. Deal with it. That's why you put previous customer experience or references on the RFP later.
• Laws. Be aware of these during your meetings. Some are so specific in the public realm, don't even bother asking for lunch. Yeah, if you are making a $750,000 business decision over a combined $25 lunch at Chili's, you should suffer the consequences.
• Hardware Specifications. After you meet with these people you should be able to have the contacts and quite possibly some verbiage to lock down your specification. Often you want to ensure that you aren't being sold black or grey market equipment. The vendors should be able to help you limit responses to qualified resellers by either having the correct minimal level of reseller (silver partner or better, etc) or required specialist (RCDD on staff). Conversely, if there is a local area reseller that is just -amazing-, the hardware vendor help ensure they have the chance to compete against the AT&Ts. Remember, they'd rather you buy their product from anyone than the competition.
• Balance. As you do these visits they are interested in your acquiring your business. Most get paid commissions and bonuses based on what they sell. RFP's tend to be large buys which means large bonuses. If you can't find your reseller or account manager after you cut the first check, they are celebrating you buying their solution. You aren't really the center of the universe. But money does make the world go round..

Next Software & services...

Writing RFP Tips Especially in Education Pt 1

Things I've learned writing an RFP:

Pre-writing Legal & Timelines

• Does your company/institution use a boiler plate for these things? Go find it. Yeah, it may suck and need revisions, but if you mention that, you may get to re-write it. Be careful if you open your mouth. Heck, it may be wonderful (if so, i'd like a copy!).
• Find out your legal requirements on time
• Do you have to advertise in two separate weeks?
• Do you want to allow for Q&A for clarirfications?
• Do you have to allow 28 days for responses?
• Do you have to have a public opening?
• Are you allowed to 1st, 2nd..and final submittals where you are allowed to ask for clarifications?
• Does this have to go to an approval agency such as a board? When do they meet? When do you have to be on the agenda?
• Do you have to hit dates for another agency (eRate funding)
• From bullet 2, build your schedule. Work backwards. When do you to award this? Go to the board? Or when is eRate funding applications due? Build a time-line based on finish at that date. This is the one single thing that has bitten my butt more than others. You may think it is a simple quote for 60k in electronics/equipment with no services so basically it is an over-glorified speadsheet with totals. Turning it into an RFP puts some legal requirements on it.
• Now, you should know when you have to be done with your writing.

I'll cover fact gathering, specifications next...

Day in Review -- Geek Speak

As I've mentioned, we passed a bond. Yay. Sort of. More work. More toys. Gotta take the good with the bad. And in bonds, you must get your money off the table before others spend it for you. And then say you spent it. (Like Technology repaved a parking lot with Technology Bond Funds - true story).

As part of this, to acquire said toys, we have to produce an RFP. Starting these things are a chore. Since we'll be applying for eRate, I have to hit some deadlines. First one is in september. Ouch. Time to get started - NOW. I'll do my RFP tips in another message. I'm probably not the greatest, but maybe it'll help someone get started. I got the outline for 1 done. 2 more to go.

Did a psuedo site survey for APs needed at a campus. Pro-tip, in the summer in warm states where they turn off non-essential AC, always do these morning. Early if possible.

Also sat through another KACE educational 2 hours. I wish I had the time to play with the image and application deployment portion of that toy. I got the service desk setup.

Got our Yousend-it account enabled. We have a 10M email restriction. We send stuff over 10M out on occassions. This usually happens the day of the board meeting (board agenda, slides, etc). At 4:30PM when I want to go home. 3 times in one year, means there is a solution required. Now we get to train the people likely to need the solution. Hopefully that'll fix one source of panic. (Anyone saying they'll dream up other, I know you are right...let me bask in my brilliance for a moment. Ok, its done. Carry-on.).

DIR -- Admin Overhead

Not much today. Does that count as a good thing? I think so.

Also, today was the last day for our 220 staff people. Needless to say, a few waited until today to ask for things. My former boss had some words to live by here...

• Never check email after noon on Fridays
• Never check email after noon on days before long holidays (Christmas & Spring Break)

All it will do is piss you off.

KACE & Skyward

I'm working with my counterpart in our business office to introduce some work automation. It is small, but I really hate entering things twice. We are trying to get Skyward to send an email with on PO with the correct fields to KACE to generate a work order. Anyone else try this? We need to send PO, Req #, VEndor, campus, and items. Here is hoping it is possible. If so I know my counterpart will figure it out.

Using the following fields in our KACE system.
@PONumber
@Requistion Number
@Location (campus)
@Requester
@Owner (my buyer)

Realms in Education

For you people working in or with education realize there are realms within school districts. The district itself is a realm. The campus is a realm. The individual classroom is a realm. Remember that when you walk into the various areas. The people you deal with in each location is the king or queen of their area. Recognize this. You'll save yourself a lot of grief amd frustration

Fax Over IP

We met with a Fax over IP provider as part of our VoIP project as part of our bond. This is to reduce cost in several areas, especially ongoing support. If we can get the fax service to run only on a server instead of 100 physical devices, that'll be huge. No seperate infrastructure (TDM, IP), no required FXO/FXS ports at 40 campuses...huge cost savings, both initially and ongoing. Anyone have experience with XmediusFax? My voice guy is a bit nervous about running a VM server hosting all fax servers. He'll have to get over it .He will. He wanted me to know his concern. Duly noted. We build the DR & HA into the VM and backup solution (SAN mirror or VEEAM). Remember boys and girls, introducing change, even to technical people is painful and we are guilty of not wanting to adapt, yours truly included. I'll borrow from my former boss, this is a roller coaster you are getting paid to ride. Enjoy it.

For us, the phrase that automatically introduces ridicule is "That's the way we've always done it".

RFP Pre-Writing Thoughts

So, we are looking to upgrade to an entire VoIP solution. There are various portions of this project, back-end message store (voicemail), call routing, phones, and PoE switches. We have an incumbent vendor at about 1/4 of sites for the phones, and the vendor has 100% of other pieces..It has worked well but has been pricey, especially the PoE switches. However, since we've started to meeting with our switch vendors, they can provide a very good solution. As a public servant and spending my neighbors, co-workers, and friends tax dollars (yes, I really put it in that perspective), we have to find a good solution and a good price. Now,we have to figure out how to write the RFP to make sure we are comparing Jonah golds to red delicious's. We have to avoid the cheap POS stuff that catches on fire, doesn't do some required feature sets, etc, while not forcing it to be the incumbent with a feature set we will never ever use.

As for the professional services...do I ever get frustrated by them. Often, I found by the time I've written an RFP that can adequately scale and scope a professional service engagement, either I can do it or I can send one of my staff to training, take him or her off queue for a month to test, and then they can do it. Plus my group is quite tenured (avg ~ 6+ years). I know professional services serves a purpose, but a lot of resellers that provide professional services...to be blunt suck. Just cause they carry the certification (woo..ccnp in voice -rolls eyes-), doesn't mean they can tell up from down (or is that H323 or from SIP?). Maybe someone knows a good way of evaluating these vendors. We are currently inviting a couple of the ones we've not used in to help on some 1 off projects. Gives them a foot in the door and us a chance to meet them.

Day in Review -- Geek Speak

Met with fax vendor and a switch vendor! Fun! Actually, both were very personable. Good info. It has been very cool that the two vendors which have been presenting the last 2 days had female tech people (Sales Engineer). Really cool. Girls can't be great geeks. Bullsh*t. Both knew their stuff -AND- could present. We have a white board and both go, "Can I draw". AWESOME! We have a philosophy, if you can't draw it, you can't do it. Both drew out designs, how their products worked, answered questions, and were personable. As for the vendors with male SEs, they have been very good too, knew their stuff & presented well. I guess one good thing for the downturn in the economy, the people left that I have dealt with are very good.

FYI, E911 finds a lot of mis-documented switch ports. 98-99% accuracy still means a bit of work to clean up.

Day in Review -- Administrative Overhead

Meetings, meetings and more meetings. Actually most were technical in nature. However, we are doing some renovations at some sites so we sat in the weekly construction meeting. 1st, I like the guys in this group including the architect, project manager, our facilities people, and the construction people. These meetings are about solving problems and trying to prevent expensive fubars late in the game. Unfortunately, since these projects are being done on the "cheap", some of the equipment is being donated. warning warning warning. Donated usually translates to lots of man hours and money out of my budget to install and maintain. Unfortunately teachers and campus admins don't understand that so they try to gladly accept the equipment without asking us. Puts my group in a fun spot. Had to raise the red flag there. We also covered some other stuff. Without fail, where the construction is taking place at another site is where my outside plant fiber enters the building. Well, crap. Now, we get to do some analysis..what is the cheapest & best long term to move, the addition or the fiber. I'm guessing I lose and have to move. I see a long night sometime in the fall when the splice is done.

Emergencies at 5 minutes before people head home suck. It is always interesting to see our 2nd in command have to "jump". Watch. Observe. Learn. Help. Also, get to see who really cares about the success of the district and those who are punching the clock. As for the cause of the emergency, I hope the students are ok. Best wishes to them.

Day in Review -- Geek Speak

We are doing a bond project for wireless and voice upgrades. We have the strong possibility of upgrading some of our edge devices to PoE. We also will file eRate. So we have to make sure the bid is truly open, so we must include equivalents. We were meeting with the team from one of the "equivalents". It went really well. Good AM, SE and data center talks. One of the few times  the SE is brilliant, well-spoken, and straightforward. Nice to know the nuts and bolts and also get feedback that she would not recommend going a certain direction, but they do sell the items. The meeting was 3 hours...felt like 1. Good thing.

Got a request about filters from a collegue in another district. Made me start thinking if there would be a value to a web-site/database that districts that could fill out and then search. Sometimes, just knowing who uses what is good information, especially among your peers. Yeah, we can call or email each other too, but how many of us would rather do a look-up?

Items I thought to gather...The items I've seen on some of the state reports...well, aren't always useful nor important to IT support staff. Number of PCs per students...who cares in support. I know it helps the state & district for educational numbers, but for support personnel, meh. Thoughts?

• District Info
• Name
• Enrollment
• Campuses & types (HS, MS, ES, Admins)
• Support Personnel
• Campus based techs
• District based techs
• Help desk personnel
• Network admins (this may be overall broken down for some & too general for others)
• DBAs
• Route/Switch
• Firewall/security
• Programmers
• Trained monkeys
• Number & Type of PCs, Macs, laptops, & handhelds
• Desktop management software
• Number of physical servers
• Vendor
• Virtualization
• Vendor & Number of servers - real and virtual
• Storage
• Vendor
• Connectivity (iSCSI/Fibre Channel)
• Capacity
• SIS & BIS Systems
• Firewall
• Filter
• Internet
• Email
• Virus/Malware (Desktop & email & Internet)
• Traffic Shaping Product/Vendor
• Route/Switch Vendor
• Wireless Vendor & Mgmt Tools
• Connectivity
• Intra-campus connectivity & speeds (privately owned fiber, gigaman, carrier pigeon)
• Internet speeds & vendors
• Device monitoring system (Nagios, Whatsup Gold, Insight Manager, CiscoWorks, whatever)
• Inventory management (spreadsheet, part of BIS system, KACE, yeah right...?)

It could keep going, but smartboards, printers,  projectors, document cameras, & onward could be added later. I know I get tired of filling things out after a while. secondary issue would be...keeping it up to date. Moore's law changes causes all the answers to change. The goal would be to keep the information to the districts' IT staffs. Many of the people in similar roles are already too popular with resellers & vendors.

I'm sure I did something productive this afternoon, but I can't recall. Does pondering how to write-up a RFP count? More of the structure and how many RFPs to write?

Day in Review -- Admin Overhead

Doing interviews is always interesting and fun. Especially when it isn't for a position in my direct group, but on the "other" side of the house. I get to people read and evaluate answers. One of the interviewees was very good. It was great to see someone prepared, energized, and wanting to join our team.

Had a quick budget meeting aboutt closing out the books on one account and how it was previously done. Good advice and direction was given. Also had a refreshing information that we -don't- have to spend all the money in another account as it'll roll forward and nor should we try. Refreshing to hear. I always look at it as I'm spending money from the people I work with. About 1/2 of them live in district, so I'm spending their tax dollars.

Day in Review -- Geek Speak

More class. I think this class could have been decent, but it is only the 2nd week it has been out. The labs still suck, but at least 13-15 were ok. The order and organization of the class is simply terrible. Feel like whoever wrote this was a dog from Up! Squirrel! and we change directions.

On KACE help desk...trying to figure out how to auto-select the submitter's default campus (ldap department mapped to user field location in our environment) at ticket creation. Also trying to do it for 3 others fields. Missing syntax or something. I think it might be a join on submitter & user fields (MySQL back-end). But is submitter populated during creation or will it be a ticket rule later?

Anyone using Fileway's products? Any thoughts are the thing?

Day in Review -- Geek Speak

We had a vendor claiming that we were blocking their mail. Asked for the bounce message. There was none. Figure spam filter hit hard and just hung up on the connection. Do research and show no blocks. Talk to the vendor..."Oh, its working, no one has responded yet. I guess people are busy". Or my guess is users recognize spam even when an email filter doesn't say it is for them. Just a guess.

SQL class is going down the suck terrible path. Material is good. The labs blow. Either you cheat and use the scripts provided or have no chance. Then the organization is terrible. For authors and trainers, scattering shooting topics is no way to learn. BUILD on topics damn it! If you are going to jump around at least show me why and what we are gaining doing it this. Doing back-up/restore followed by security and auditing and then indexing followed by maintenance plans? huh? How about we put the pieces together? Security and auditing today? seriously, wtf?

I'm sure there was more, but what a frustrating waste of a day. Time to practice a bit.

Day in Review -- Administrative Overhead

Slow day on this front. More people are gone due to summer vacations. Probably a good thing. More time left for class.

Day in Review -- Geek Speak pt1

Training on MS SQL 2008 R2 day 2. Not a whole lot to add. Lots of material to re-read tonight. This is one of the times actually reading the material with the product running is required.

Someone blew up one of my applications. Grrrr. Upgrades can be bad. get to put the material in class to practice.

Day in Review -- Administrative Overhead

So I am still in training this week. My groups have managed to keep the train on the track, make general progress on items, and generally be good. Still trying to get the dates set for our two new techs. Summer time with forced week off holidays (july 4) and new budget monies adds a new wrinkle to the procedure.

The large project details is being finalized so we can present to the holder of the moneys and the Finance office. I love having good people.

Technology Integration & Silos & Relationships

I hate silos of information without integration. crapcrapcrapcrap. We have a tool that can help our teachers relate testing materials to all sorts of other information. Awesome. The vendor wants to use AD as the authentication. Cool, that's my group. We can do that. We already do that for others. Vendors question, how do you relate your uniques IDs to your SIS. Me, dunno but will find out. Ah crap. I'm not ever ever gonig to publish what they use for a unique in AD. Find a second unique field. Good. So now I have 2 unique fields in AD to match our SIS & BIS and we gotta keep them updated. Sad part is both systems support AD authentication, but when we deployed, AD was the issue. Happens. Now we have to figure out how to put the pieces together so they get updated.

Day in Review -- Technical

In SQL 2008 R2 intro training. FYI, almost all day 1 training days just sucks regardless of class. suck suck suck. Start with a group of 15-25 geeks trying to show each other who's geek is biggest while we introduce ourself. This group wasn't bad though (or i'm getting old). Followed by the intro to the product. then lunch. Sometimes the last half of the day actually hits some material. This one did.

Our instructor appears to be good. Withholding final judgment until the week progresses. Just don't read the damn slides to me!

Day in Review -- Administrative Overhead

Off-site and in training with only periodic breaks and a Monday. Yep, all sort of irons in the fire needing attention. Actually, the irons were good things. One of my leads is running down the paperwork to get our two new techs started. I may be picking up someone elses "left-overs." I know this person works hard and can fill a gap in my group, so I'm quite happy about the situation. 3 new staff members in this day and time. I'll take 'em.

Only thing I hate is not being able to disclose the situation to my group. Secrecy spreads rumors and uncertainity. We have too much work to do.

Whatsup Gold -- Device Updates

We use some of the wonderful scripts found the ipswitch script library to update our device attributes (in v14.3.x). Below is a version of the vbs to update the location setting on a cisco 2960-3560 model switch. It will work on others, but use the snmpwalker to your advantage. Credit goes to the original poster (I'm still trying to find the original article). Use at your own risk. YMMV.

' Get action on SNMP OID to retrieve values

set snmp = CreateObject("CoreAsp.SnmpRqst")
nDeviceID = Context.GetProperty("DeviceID")
set result = snmp.Initialize(nDeviceID)
set result = snmp.Get("1.3.6.1.2.1.1.6.0")
If Not result.Failed Then
value = result.GetPayload
End If

' Retrieve DB object
Set oDb = Context.GetDB
RESULT_ATTRIBUTE = "Location"
nDeviceID = Context.GetProperty("DeviceID")

' Checking if the attribute already exists. If not we create one, if yes we simply update it.
sqlCheck = "SELECT nDeviceAttributeID FROM DeviceAttribute WHERE (nDeviceID = " & nDeviceID & ") AND (sName = N'" & RESULT_ATTRIBUTE & "')"
Set oRs1 = oDb.Execute(sqlCheck)

' Storing it in DB as needed.
If oRs1.EOF Then
sqlStoreResult = "INSERT INTO DeviceAttribute (nDeviceID, sName, sValue) VALUES (" & _
nDeviceID & ", N'" & RESULT_ATTRIBUTE & "', N'" & value & "')"
Else
sqlStoreResult = "UPDATE DeviceAttribute SET sValue = N'" & value & _
"' WHERE (nDeviceID = " & nDeviceID & ") AND (sName = N'" & RESULT_ATTRIBUTE & "')"
End If

oDb.Execute(sqlStoreResult)

--

To tweak, modify the snmp oid in the snmp get statement and change the RESULT.ATTRIBUTE = statement to what are you retrieving. Simple enough. On our switches we snag location, code version, vendor, model, serial and some others.

Whatsup Gold -- Back-End SQL for device attributes

I hate maintaining spreadsheets when my group and I have documented our network via whatsup gold. However, extracting that information for various reason has been a pain. I use this script on the back-end to grab devices by campus with the svalues (our defined attributes of importance). FYI, I'm not a SQL person by any stretch. I'm sure the code could be much better (and I'll take the helpful tips). AssetTag and GPTAG are -usually- the same value for us. replace sName = with your values and you should have some luck. Change the sNetworkAddress = to your subnets, etc.
No idea how to pull this into a webpage. I tried. It blew up. We needed the extract in csv so this was good enough. YMMV. I am not an expert. Use at your own risk.



SELECT DISTINCT Device.sDisplayName as DisplayName
,NetworkInterface.sNetworkAddress AS IPAddress
,(SELECT DeviceAttribute.sValue FROM DeviceAttribute WHERE DeviceAttribute.sName = 'SerialNumber' AND (DeviceAttribute.nDeviceID = Device.nDeviceID)) as SerialNumber
,(SELECT DeviceAttribute.sValue FROM DeviceAttribute WHERE DeviceAttribute.sName = 'Name' AND (DeviceAttribute.nDeviceID = Device.nDeviceID)) as Hostname,
(SELECT DeviceAttribute.sValue FROM DeviceAttribute WHERE DeviceAttribute.sName = 'Location' AND (DeviceAttribute.nDeviceID = Device.nDeviceID))AS Location,
(SELECT DeviceAttribute.sValue FROM DeviceAttribute WHERE DeviceAttribute.sName = 'Model' AND (DeviceAttribute.nDeviceID = Device.nDeviceID)) AS Model,
(SELECT DeviceAttribute.sValue FROM DeviceAttribute WHERE DeviceAttribute.sName = 'GPTAG' AND (DeviceAttribute.nDeviceID = Device.nDeviceID)) AS GPTAG,
(SELECT DeviceAttribute.sValue FROM DeviceAttribute WHERE DeviceAttribute.sName = 'AssetTag' AND (DeviceAttribute.nDeviceID = Device.nDeviceID)) AS AssetTag,
(SELECT DeviceAttribute.sValue FROM DeviceAttribute WHERE DeviceAttribute.sName = 'MACAddress' AND (DeviceAttribute.nDeviceID = Device.nDeviceID)) AS MACAddress
FROM Device JOIN DeviceAttribute ON Device.nDeviceID = DeviceAttribute.nDeviceIDJOIN NetworkInterface ON Device.nDeviceID = NetworkInterface.nDeviceID
WHERE NetworkInterface.sNetworkAddress LIKE '10.63%'ORDER BY IPAddress


PS -- I can send you the raw sql if you desire. Learning mode....

Day in Review -- Geek Speak

Interviews shot the day down pretty good.

Upgraded our Veeam VM backup solution to the latest version. 5.0.1 --> 5.0.2. Click run. Agree. Yes Yes yes. reboot. test. Yay! FYI, Veeam is awesome. Inexpensive and socket based pricing solution instead of per machine per special need (exchange, sql, AD).

The group as a whole made progress on e911 (oh yeah, I manage the voice systems too!), Replay backups going better (stand-alone solution), and well, crap. It was an administrative day. Not much geek on. Such is life.

Day in Review -- Administrative Overhead

Interviews are fun, but tiring. Trying to get to know someone in 30 to 60 minutes is a challenge. Got the callbacks tomorrow.

One of the joys in a disadvantaged district is Title monies. We get some monies and it always has some restrictions. It must be spent at campus A-W but not X-Z. Each purchase must be under 5k. Each must supplement the classroom environment, not be new or replace another tool. Then sometimes the size and scope changes dramatically. Went from a smallish project affecting about 5-10 classrooms to something that can affect 100. Yikes. Maybe we'll be able to help some teachers out and make them happy. Hopefully my girls (buyer & secretary) can get all the calls and paperwork done so we can use the money well. They have a bit of work in front of them, but are excellent at their jobs. Smartboards anyone?

Then it was board meeting night. I got to play geek. Fixed a CD/dvd drive that didn't work. -FLEX- Whatever. It didn't read the disk. Took the drive out of my laptop and swapped (yeah for standards). Now I get to do a service call on mine next week.

Technician Job Interview Questions

Today brings  a set of technician interviews. I hope the candidates are prepared. Here's the interview questions on the soft/verbal side. Before this, they have to take a hardware-software quiz. Some might come out of it rattled. Others confident. On to the questions!

1. Tell us a little about yourself and why are you interested in becoming a computer technician for us?
   15pts
2.  What did you think about the technical questions earlier? Anything you wish to examine, expand upon or clarify? Is there anything you -know- that you want us to know but was not covered?
   15pts
3.  Groups benefit from having an assortment of skills and talents. What skill sets or talents would you bring to our technical team?
4. Being a good computer technician is often about customer service. What do you think constitutes good customer service in a technical field and how do you deliver outstanding customer service?
   15pts
5. As a computer technician, you will often be working alone. What previous experiences have you had performing independent tasks and how did you reach the goals set for you?
   15pts
6. The inverse is also true. Often times, we have tasks that need several people to complete efficiently. How do you work in a group dynamic to ensure the team completes the tasks set forth?
   15pts
7. Do you have any questions for us?
   10pts

Transitions -- Novell Zenworks to KACE -- Why

We have begun to transition from Novell's Zenworks to KACE? Why?

• Well, I have no idea who my Novell rep is...and haven't for several years.
• Plus Attachmate bought them. No idea what Attachmate does or who they are (Yes, I found the website, read, etc, but seriously, no idea still).
• Nor had there been any real contact between our two organizations. Having to negotiate our contract each year was becoming a nuisance. Otherwise our only contact was cutting a check every Sept or Oct. that doesn't doesn't count.
• Constant threats of increased cost so we'd best buy 3 year committment. And were below of the min requirement for our SLA so each year was truly a hassle.
• It was the only Novell product we had left from our transition to MS environment 2 years ago.
• Personnel transition. One of former team members took on a new role with another company. Awesome for him, but put us in a bit of a lurch. Growing people is good, but sometimes they leave. Happens. Part of the deal and I wish him well. How he kept that thing running for 2+ years, I'm not sure but I'll always appreciate it.
• Our back-end database that Zenworks was running on was constantly having to be adjusted. Part of that was the fault of the initial installation. We really had no MS SQL skills and it is a database that needs care a feeding.
• SLOW LOGINS. 37 or so pieces to uninstall zenworks. CASA anyone?
• Upgrading for 10.1 to 10.2 to 10.3 at the client level never worked well in mass deployment. So we only had partial registrations and updates taking place. Ever try to push to clients who don't register with home. Yeah, doesn't work.

Pro-KACE Items

• Integrated features sets with our Help Desk and our imaging and deployment.
• We are dropping the renewal on our help desk software and switching this summer
• The help desk has customizable rules, labels, etc that can automagic a lot of our calls
• We already had a lot of the items in place in terms of images, applications (msi), PXE environment
• User profile migration. Not usually a pro or con for us, but if we can do it simply, it will be used. People with a title that includes Superintendent occassionally prevented us from using a re-image.

I'm sure there is more. I'll add them as we learn.

Now the fun begins. Watching people learn new roles is ...an experience. Trial by fire has been our way. At least we let you learn from a fire hydrant of knowledge. Here comes all the info, fast and furious. We are getting 24 hours of online training. The trainers have been good and knowledgeable. Plus, they haven't wasted our time.

Current Projects -- Summer 2011

Some of the fun for this summer for us. Summer started. We don't get the summer off. This is when we get our upgrades and installs done. Despite the calendar saying we have nearly 3 months, we effectively has 6 to 8 weeks. Vacations and training kill 2 weeks. New teachers start in early mid-August and we gotta be ready to roll.

Transitioning from Zenworks to Dell's KACE solution.
Using Dell's KACE solution for our new Help Desk.
Random construction projects.
Training for my staff.
Desktop printer removal (and I hear the teacher's cursing us now...)
Bond 2011 discovery phase
Hiring 3 new staff members

First Post!

Ever think, should I start something? Will anyone care? Will anyone read? Who cares. Meh, maybe sharing the day and experiences down will help someone in the future. Or maybe make me laugh. Probably not today, but sometime in the future. I hope.