We’re Back! Tasks for the iPhone

Posted by on March 26, 2009 No comments

I haven’t posted in awhile, but a lot has been going on. Currently, I’m in-between jobs. The second thing is that I got an iPhone. I didn’t realize what a difference one device can make on an individual. The most interesting part is that I haven’t even used the phone part yet.

This device is truly information at your figertips. What are the latest movie releases? How much money is in my bank account? What is the zip code for Palo Alto, CA? 

One of the things I’ve been looking at are productivity tools for the iPhone. How can I use this device to make my life easier? Mobile me is a great starting point whith the syncing over-the-wire with emails, contacts and calendar items. One thing was missing from the stack were tasks.

I use Outlook exclusively for tasks. So, how can I get tasks on my iPhone and in outlook and my PC? What is a good task manager for the iPhone?

The solution I am using is toodledo. Here are the steps below. 

1. Sign up for an account, click on the link to give me credit! 

http://www.toodledo.com/index.php?ref=td49cbbd5fbbd31

2. Download the Outlook / Toodledo sync too from Chromatic Dragon

http://www.chromadrake.com/ChromaticDragon/software/ToodledoSyncDownload.aspx

3. Install the iPhone Toodledo App from the iTunes Store. Link here:  http://www.toodledo.com/info/iphone.php

I know, it seems like a lot of work just to get a task organizer on your iPhone. I’ve looked at todo as well as a few other task management Web sites, apps and toodle do has the most flexibility as well as features for me. Do your own research and use what’s best for you.

Share

Five Tips for Successful Off-Shoring

Posted by on September 3, 2008 No comments

Off-Shoring is a sensative topic among large and small institutions alike. I’ve heard horror stories about off-shoring initiatives and have been involved in many successes with off-shoring. Below are some tips to make off-shoring resources successful. This not by all means not a comprehensive list.

1. Get buy-in from all Management levels. Off-shoring will get screwed up by middle and lower management because they don’t believe that it will work. They don’t share your cost-custting vision. They don’t share your effeciency vision. They don’t share the this-will-take-work-off-their-plates-vision. The managers will do the absolute bare minmum so that it will fail and you will look like baffoon to Sr. Management. Do the work and get buy in.

2. Work in small teams. Many firms outsource a large function, a help desk, call center etc… Large implementations usually do not work well because the help desk or call center are trained in only dealing with low level requests. Meaning that anything that requires them to think, they’ll kick up the request to another level, which is ususally back to the host country. You want the people answering the phone in the off-shore location to actually help the customer. You want the issue to be handled in one phone call or atleast have one contact to manage the process.  Training the off-shore team using small teams is the most effective way for training the large unit. Fly your senior staff members over the off-shore country/area to hold training sessions. The staff members should be working with no more than 12-18 people. The staff member will remain off-shore until the off-shore members are traineds. Usually a minimum of two – three weeks to a maximum of six months. (Most staff members going off-shore should expect to say between one month and three months, as that is more typical.)

3. Assign an off-shore Czar - Most off-shore programs fail because of this. For large off-shore installations you need a off-shore Czar managing all of the off-shore resources. This person is typically a member of the Sr. Management team that either relocates or spends 60%+ of his time in the off-shore region. The Czar performs the following functions:  

  •  Resolve conflicts between off-shore and on-shore resources.  The czar must have an open door policy with all off-shore members so that issues are not filtered through the management ranks.
  •  Learns about local customs, hiring practices, business practices etc… All of these items vary from country to country. 
  • Acts as a translator from on-shore to off-shore resources and vice versa. Not necessarily as a language translator, but as a business requirements translator. Many times on-shore folks ask for A but get B.
  • Act as a lead management trainer for the off-shore management team. The off-shore managers need to think like on-shore managers. They need to understand what is being asked of them, what is the best way to perform and delegate work, the most important: how to talk to clients in the on-shore region.
  • Compile working metrics, identify deltas and successes with implementation and report back to all on-shore management levels.

4. Have a right-sized off-shoring budget. Successful off-shoring should not save the company much money in the short run. It will save the company money in the long run if implemented properly. Remember your first concern should be client service. It’s not worth spending money on an off-shore program to save a few dollars this quarter while dropping client service. Make sure Sr. Management understands that this is a medium term to long term investment in cost savings. If successful, after a year and a half, savings can be seen. Most off-shoring programs do not have the right budget. Many are so slim that they do not account for all of the travel and work for on-shore members getting the off-shore members properly trained. So, most of that work doesn’t get done and customers complain that they aren’t getting the service they require.

5. Let time take it’s course - Even if steps 1-4 are executed well, setting up an off-shore team will take longer than anticipated even if you’ve done it a few times. The reason being is that culture and personality can add some roadblocks in the process. It’s up to the off-shore czar to identify road blocks with any off-shore implementation and make sure the implementation is going smoothly. Sometimes there are unforseen events that either delay or stop the process. These can either be government conditions, weather conditions or general resource contraints (like not being able to find the right talent).  Make sure that enough time is allowed for the implementation so that Sr. Management and the czar can work through problems and issues.

Share

End the OS Flame Wars

Posted by on August 19, 2008 No comments

PowerShell is a great tool for scripting. It is not installed by default on any Operating System, but will be the defacto scripting platform to come, at least in the Microsoft world. So start learning it! With Systems Administration, every vendor is trying to push their platforms. Sun is pushing OpenSolaris to fight Linux. Open Solaris certainly has many advantages over Linux. Linux has some advantages over OpenSolaris. This is a whole blog post in itself.  In my opinion, OpenSolaris is better for a Server OS than a desktop OS. I will blog about that later though. Windows is another beast which definitely has a strong hold of the business software market. It is gaining market share on four socket systems beating Sun and Linux out, but not on the eight socket plus systems. Microsoft is not in that space yet as far as adoption goes.

Now, I mostly support Windows based systems. For the past five years, I’ve also been support VMWare products as well including ESX Server and now the Virtual Infrastructure 3i.  I’ve always had some Linux distro installed on an old PC for tinkering too.

So what does all of this really mean?

This means that no systems administrator can really focus on one operating system anymore. (No, I’m going to qualify the various Linux Distributions as different, because the basic architecture is the same. Yet another blog post topic). We are living in a distributed systems world where one must learn all different operating systems, programming languages and above all be OK with it. Now I’m all for pointing out differences, strengths and deltas (delta is a management term for weaknesses) in different OSes, but the folks all tied to the idea that one operating system is great for everything are sorely mistaken. Yes, I’m talking about all of the Windows Systems Admins that think Windows should run Oracle on 32 processor servers. (I haven’t met one yet, but I’m sure they are out there).  I am also talking about the Linux zealots that think Linux is then end all and be all for all computing applications because of it’s particular licensing scheme. It’s not. Get over it and move on. I am also talking to all of the creative types that think Apple will take over the world and aliens will pop out of Steve Jobs and run for President.

The fact of the matter is that most companies will use the best application running on the best OS/Platform for the job. Bar none. If Oracle runs better on AIX than Solaris. Companies will make the move because it’s more reliable and cost effective. In the Windows world, IIS 6.0 was a huge win over IIS 5.0. Folks upgraded to Windows Server 2003 and IIS 6.0 in record time because IIS 6.0 was a very compelling upgrade. PHP is a programming language that is gaining adoption everywhere. Microsoft is now fully supporting PHP, because the company wants to make sure that when people deploy PHP, they don’t deploy it on Liunx. They deploy it on Windows. There are some good arguments to running it on Windows now. (Hey another great idea for a blog post).

If you are a startup, sometimes cost is the large issue, so you may opt for more open source solutions. Just bear in mind that there are programs out there to use Solaris and Windows very cheaply. Believe me when I say that Microsoft, Sun and other vendors want adoption to their platforms over cost any day. There are many programs out there that can get startups commercial software at reasonable prices or a very delayed billing timeframe. (Yet another good idea for a blog post).

Well, I hope you got the drift that Systems Administration in the future will not be about which OS kicks the other OS in a kung fu battle. It’s about making applications work in a heterogeneous environment and understanding the underlying technologies that run everything. You will be more valuable as a Systems Administrator by understanding more Operating Systems, programming languages and platforms.

Share

CScript Visual C++ Runtime Library Error

Posted by on August 11, 2008 No comments

Last week I had interesting issue with running cscript to execute wsf jobs on a  Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition Server running SQL Server 2005. Every time Cscript ran, a Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library Error popped up.

Error Details:

——————————————

Runtime Error!

Program: C:\winnt\system32\cscript.exe

R6034

An Application has made an attempt to load the C runtime library incorrectly. Please contact the application’s support team for more information.

—————————————————————————–

CScript Visual C++ Runtime Lbrary Error

CScript Visual C++ Runtime Lbrary Error

We have five other SQL Server that run the same job, so I know the job works. In order to find out what was going on, I ran Process Monitor to see what dlls are being called by cscript. As you can see from the error, the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime library was being called from the Microsoft SQL Server Tools\Binn directory. CScript should be calling the msvcr80.dll from the C:\winnt\WinSxS directory as noted in the screen shot below. (I ran the job and Process Monitor on a system where the job ran correctly.)

CSCript Correctly Calling msvcr80.dll

CSCript Correctly Calling msvcr80.dll

Now that we know that the incorrect msvcr80.dll is being called, we need to figure out why and how to correct it.

Microsoft WinSxs Directory is for Side-by-Side assemblies and dlls. The Windows Kernel works with Fusion to find the correct dll needed for the application. (Learn more about Fusion). In the case of the working system, fusion was finding the correct msvcr80.dll.

The Result:

The wsf script called SQLDMO.dll for a function call. The working system had an updated version of the dll with a Manifest which pointed to the correct msvcr80.dll.

The problem system had an older version of the dll with no Manifest, so the closest msvcr80.dll was being used after SQLDMO.dll was called.

To fix, The SQLDMO.dll was updated to the latest version and the problem was solved.

With this issue, using Process Monitor was the best tool to figure out what the problem system and the control system were doing since it pointed out the different msvcr80.dlls being used.

Share

The many ways to control Windows Services

Posted by on August 4, 2008 No comments

I’m often asked how windows services are controlled in the enterprise. There is a variety of convenient ways to control services, each with strengths and weeknesses. We’ll go through some of them today.

1. The services.msc MMC is the nice GUI provided by windows. This features a very intuitive interface, but can only connect to one system at a time. This is not very scalable if you need to shut down many services on multiple machines.

2. net start, net stop etc.. This is the original command line version to control services. Good when you are on the system. This is scriptable via a batch file. This command came with Windows NT.

3. sc.exe comes with the Windows Resource Kit. This is a great tool and allows to control services on remote machines. Setting up services can also be done with this tool.

scquery

scquery

 4. PS Service (psservice.exe) from the PS Tools Suite, authored by Mark Russinovch. psservice runs on the command line like sc.exe and shares some of the same features like controlling services on remote machines. One advantage is displaying the security descriptor in a readable format.

PSService Security

PSService Security

5. WMI or Windows Management Instrumentation can control services. WMI can be programmed from VBScript, c# (.NET) and PowerShell. Flow control can be quickly executed with any of the mentioned programming languages giving administrators precise control over which services and systems need to have services controlled. Below is an example of some VBScript functions starting and stopping services via WMI. These functions also start/stop the dependate services which is important.

Function StopServiceWMI(strServiceName)

  strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
    & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colServiceList = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Associators of " _
   & "{Win32_Service.Name='" & strServiceName & "'} Where " _
        & "AssocClass=Win32_DependentService " & "Role=Antecedent" )
For each objService in colServiceList
    objService.StopService()
Next
Wscript.Sleep 5000
Set colServiceList = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
        ("Select * from Win32_Service where Name='" & strServiceName & "'")
For each objService in colServiceList
    errReturn = objService.StopService()
Next

End Function

Function StartServiceWMI(strServiceName)

  strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
    & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colServiceList = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
    ("Select * from Win32_Service where Name='" & strServiceName & "'")
For each objService in colServiceList
    errReturn = objService.StartService()
Next
Wscript.Sleep 5000
Set colServiceList = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Associators of " _
   & "{Win32_Service.Name='" & strServiceName & "'} Where " _
        & "AssocClass=Win32_DependentService " & "Role=Dependent" )
For each objService in colServiceList
    objService.StartService()
Next

End Function

5. One of the last methods is to use the native Get-Service PowerShell CmdLet. To understand what Get-Service can do. Type in Get-Help Get-Service in the PowerShell command prompt. You can resume, start, stop, restart, suspend, set service properties and create a new service. PowerShell does not currently have remoting capabilities, so all CmdLets are executed on the local server. PowerShell V2 will have remoting capability using WS-MAN, but that will be a topic for another time.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the quick tour with controlling Windows Services. Automation is the key to success in the enterprise.

Share

Mojave Experiment

Posted by on July 30, 2008 No comments

Microsoft is tired of hearing it’s rebel teen-ager, Apple, poke and prod that the Apple OS is better than Windows. The Mojave Experiment is focus group like marketing event where Microsoft asks for user input on the “next” Windows OS called Mojave.  Many people comment that the new OS is “Sexy”, “Easy to Use” and that it “Makes me want to use a computer more often.” Then Microsoft pulls the rug and says this is Vista. Most people are shocked.

This is certainly a clever way to help mitigate the Windows Vista perception issue. This is done is a way that is not directly goading Apple, which is the right move for Microsoft. Microsoft shouldn’t respond back in kind to Apple with similar ads, that would only ligitamize Apple’s campaign. It really is a perception problem at this point. Vista SP1 fixed many concerns about the OS. There is still the lingering “Vista Ready” issue, but that is dying out in the news.

Personally, I have a Vista partition and an XP partition. I use Vista for development, Office, Email etc. On the XP partition I run VMWare workstation. Vista Ultimate takes up too much RAM to run a VM and Vista with 1.5GB RAM. Maybe it’s time to upgrade the PC?

Share