VMWARE Server Usage Experience...

It is a free version.  Marcus Osborne of Quattro Enterprises Ltd has evaluated the latest version 1.0.3 with SBS Server 2003 as the Host.  The software did what its vendor has claimed and Marcus recommended it as a useful tool to his peers, especially for remote support access and non-critical systems.  It is a good environment for testing client software, for providing back up copies of client systems, and as a platform for exploring further potential applications of machine virtualization.  A word of caution is on licensing if multiple Microsoft software installations are involved and if you intend to deploy it for client use. Server virtualization is a hot topic at present and a lot of developments are still happening in the background.  The CPD peer group will continue the exploration path on 29 August 2007.

W2003 and SBS2003 Deployment Challenge Case Study...

Ratan Prakash of BCS Computer Solutions Limited explained to his peers in our last CPD Seminar how he resolved a solution puzzle for a customer.  He inherited a scenario where the client has already spent $70K on event reservation and resource scheduling software systems running on a legacy PC with SBS2000.  His predecessor bought a low cost server (brand is HP) inclusive of SBS2003 Standard that was intended for replacing the legacy PC.  It appears that the job of replacing the legacy server is straight forward but why did the client change guard for this little project?  Ratan found that the new server has minimum hardware and the reseller buy price would be $2307 + GST for upgrading it to 1GB RAM and 2* 73GB SCSI.  The upgrade price was higher than a brand new Compucon SX Workgroup Server!  Furthermore SBS2003 does not provide Terminal Services that would best serve the needs of the 4 remote sites of the client.  A Compucon SX WGS with 4GB and 2*400GB running Terminal Services and costing $3145 + GST is now in service!  The price difference between upgrading an older & less feasible HP and the much higher spec Compucon server was so small that spending more on an already paid up machine could not be justified. Whatever looks cheap is not cheap and whatever looks expensive may be the least expensive.  It depends on who you deal with.  Ratan has also found that this client is very suspicious of IT People as a group due to bad experience.  The talk was telling.

Preventive Maintenance (PM) & Client Relationship (CR)...

We have observed that several machines sent back to TSD for fault rectification were in fact due to dirt and soil cluttering and covering the printed circuits on the motherboard/RAM and reduction of ventilation of the CPU and other components.  According to our channel partners, the clients were extremely unhappy during the period leading to the eventual failure of the machines and had transferred a lot of stress and threats to them.  What have we learned from this observation?  Most of our channel partners are more than capable of doing routine maintenance on the machines inclusive of servers and desktops.  Routine maintenance includes hardware and software.  Just by implementing a PM scheme, you will earn more money and peace and improve CR, and the customer will gain too.  Do it now.

What have Schools Gained from School TECH?
(For ICT Management)

The conference was held 2 weeks ago and some vendors rated the event as successful.  The basis for claiming success or failure is the number of visitors going through the trade display.  This basis is obviously not a concern for participants from schools.  The Ministry has indicated that the purpose of sponsoring the conference is to facilitate more interactions between schools and vendors.  What have schools gained from these interactions?  Have schools gained enough to justify the time and effort of attending?  How would schools use the gain for improving ICT standards in the school?  Compucon being one of the participants has made the following observations.  Schools want to know what they do not know and to consolidate what they already know.  The scope can be as shallow as which vendors provide the cheapest products or as deep as which vendors will assist the school in operating ICT in an integrated manner.  The trade display is a forum for horizontal interfaces whereas the workshops are opportunities for obtaining vertical information.  Vertical information refers to background or details of technologies and how they support promises to schools.   Horizontal interfaces are less technology related and are more people related.  Without doubt, both are important for schools to obtain a complete picture.  From our direct experience, we are pleased to report that many participants have been interactive in our workshop on Remote Management & Server Technologies, and they visited our display afterwards to obtain the other half of information.  This observation indicates that some schools will make an effort to make up the knowledge gap if they identify any.  The ability of the vendor to transfer knowledge to schools is still very much in demand.  It is a pleasant finding.  On the issue of implementing ICT in an integrated manner- install good tools considering the purposes of student learning and facilitating teacher teaching, principal managing and technician maintaining at the same time, observations indicated that most schools were not quite there yet.

How to Handle Exponential Growth of Data Storage?
(For Network Administrators)

The immediate answer is Storage Area Networks (SAN).  Wrong!  SAN does suit many organisations but we have to question the fitness for purpose for schools.  SAN is a separate network from the network that connects all servers and workstations together.  SAN connects only servers together and provides low latency data transmission to servers.  It is based on a different technology than Ethernet although a recent development of iSCSI has brought Ethernet back into the picture.  What about Network Attached Storage (NAS)?  NAS is suitable for data archiving and is very low cost to implement.  It does not need a separate network and can be readily installed at any point of the existing Ethernet network.  Performance in terms of responsiveness and speed of data transfer is not high.  It is suitable for saving files and data which are not needed frequently or urgently.  What about Direct Attached Storage (DAS)?  It has been the most used but most taken for granted.  It is most used because every server and PC has DAS.  It is most taken for granted due to previous technology limitations.  We rely on SCSI for Server DAS.  SCSI is an elegant technology in terms of data storage across multiple drives.  It is not too expensive but we seldom install more than 8 drives per server for reasons of stability.  Now the technology has improved and SCSI is evolving into Serial Attached SCSI (SAS).  We have already supplied Compucon servers that hold 16 low cost SATA drives each with 750GB.  Both servers have built in redundancy and hot spare.  Also they are not expensive.  See the attached file for further information on the background and development of the new technology.


PDF: 2007-08 "Storage for Schools" presentation

The latest nVidia drivers are available for download at:
http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

A copy of the MSI driver is also available for resellers to download at:
http://www.compucon.co.nz/files/1871vga.zip
(link removed - please email TSD for the driver if required)

Reference nVidia release 162.18 for Windows XP 32-bit:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_162.18.html

Cheers,
Edmond