Experiments in Novell Management (cont'd)

Desktop ended up being a SLED 32bit install. The 64bit was just a bit too much in the day the day maintenance for this site since clntrust and ifolder (2.1.8) weren't working. Used the proprietary ATI driver for the dual monitor setup and then built an XP machine in virtualbox since I still need to do some Windows work.

I like the multiple desktops and the ability to separate out my screens into a more logical workflow. All in All I like it!...like it so much that I also installed it on my corporate laptop.

Wow, after 10yrs of trying, I am running Linux for work.

BorderManager, WebSense and Abends...Oh My!

Last week a BorderManager server abended, nothing new there, happens. When it came back up, checked that the internet was there, and case over right?

Wrong....

The Surfcontrol filtering wasn't working, free porn and facebook for everyone!

1. The ruleset was restored from backup, no change
2. Removed the surfcontrol db and redownloaded it, no change
3. Management panic because actually letting the employees make decisions on time management is bad.
4. Call to the vendor
5. 2nd Call to the vendor
6. Email from vendor
7. Troubleshooting ensues
8. change this file, reboot, no change
9. change this setting, reboot, no change
10. reinstall software, reboot, no change
11. downgrade Bordermanager to 3.9 SP1, reboot, no change
12. see a pattern here?
13. reupgrade to BM3.9 SP2, but keep the proxy.nlm from 3.9 SP1, reboot, no change
14. Apply the BM3.9 SP2 IR1 patch, reboot, well the rules load quicker, but otherwise no change
15. Escalated to 2nd level support, repeat most of above, no change
16. Boss emails sales rep, sales rep calls support, escalated to the real geeks
17. 10 minutes of technical jiggery pokery, corrupted filtprod.dat found in sys\etc\border\english, replaced corrupted file, no reboot just issue a "stopbrd and a startbrd" and everything works!

I hate this sort of thing, if you work frontline support and can't fix it in ten minutes send it the next level please. Holding onto it may make you look like a hero, but you aren't doing much to inspire confidence in the users.

Experiments in Novell Management....

Attempting to setup my primary work desktop as a SLED 11 monster. Thinking SLED 11 64 specifically.  At this point 90% of my management work for the Novell side of the farm is done via the web, so that's a no brainer, the AD side may be an issue though, time will tell.....