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MCSE in 6 weeks - possible BUT ...
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| Richard Ballard 2003-01-18, 4:23 pm |
| "What answers must I know to pass this test?" and "Is boot camp
sufficient to achieve my certification?" are recurring questions
on CompTia- and Microsoft-related Internet newsgroups.
Individuals changing careers and wanting to enter the
Information Technology (IT) field view the CompTia and MCSE
certifications as tickets to success. IMO the CompTia and
MCSE certifications are tickets that get IT travelers' feet
in the IT employer's door -- they are *not* tickets guaranteeing
that IT travelers successfully reach their goals. IMO achieving
IT success requires professional competence based upon initial
study, accumulated technical and Customer Relations experience,
and continueing professional education.
Why Customer Relations skills? I have worked as a programmer,
a systems engineer, a software engineer, a service technician,
a network administrator, an engineering manager and as a
consultant. I worked with different "people types" in each of
these employments -- the rules were different in each of these
environments. Yet all of these environments shared one common
factor: in each case I served a Customer and satisfying that
Customer was my job. In cases where I did not interact (directly
or telephonicly) with paying Customers, my supervisor and his
sales representatives were my Customers and I was visible daily.
The same skills required for good Customer Relations also assist
when working with your supervisor and colleagues.
My Customer Relations philosophy reflects my experience --
on-site at the Customer facility. A service technician or MCSE
on-site at the Customer facility is a guest in the Customer's
"house" and has been invited in good faith to assist the Customer.
In this case I believe the service technician's and MCSE's job
combines technical skills with *marketing* -- marketing
her/himself (and her/his organization) as a cost-effective
problem-solver. Technical skills solve the problems, but
marketing skills maintain the attendent Customer *anguish* below
the threshold of pain -- a level that reflects back at the
service technician or MCSE. For these reasons I believe that
competent service technicians and MCSEs must (and should) develop
*both* technical skills and Customer Relations (marketing) skills.
I believe that appropriate clothing is part of effectively
representing your organization. 'Appropriate' is a vague word --
clothing that is appropriate for climbing under desks and squeezing
between server racks might not be appropriate when repairing the
workstation that your Customer's CEO uses. Clean and neat are
mandatory -- style depends upon environment. I believe that
service technician and MCSE clothing should reflect comfortable
professionalism, and should reflect the resources of the service
organization.
Some people fear negative Customer reactions if IT service
technicians and MCSEs are "overdressed". I believe that if
technical support is reasonably priced, Customers will not
worry about well-dressed service personnel. OTOH, if technical
support is exorbitantly priced I can understand Customers
muttering about "gold-plated clothing".
Earlier I stated "'Appropriate' is a vague word" -- appropriate
applies both to technician and MCSE clothing styles and also
applies to ***technical support costs***. Earlier I also stated
"style depends upon environment". Customers pay ***premium
costs*** for outside technical support because they expect
excellence *above* their own employees' skill levels. When
IT equipment in the executive suite requires service, IT managers
usually send their best -- often outside support personnel. I
believe it is imperative that outside support personnel exude
professionalism as one factor justifying their higher cost, and
IMO clothing is part of that professional image. IMO
*outside support personnel have their own work ethic and culture*
that is different (and *must* be superior) to the Customer
employees' work ethic and culture -- otherwise why hire outside
support personnel?
Perhaps I need to place the clothing issue in perspective. I
worked as a network administrator at a previous employer.
My collegue was called off-site for a extended period to
upgrade a facility. My supervisor hired a contract employee
to fill the void. On day one the contract employee appeared,
sat down at my colleague's desk, pulled out a "Exam Cram"
and submerged. "What ya doin'?", I asked. "Studying for
my MCSE," he replied. I said "We have work to do." "My
MCSE test is scheduled for Friday," he replied. "We have
work to do on Friday", I said. Silence. I discussed the
situation with my supervisor and we had a different contract
employee the next day -- clothing was *not* the issue.
I have other stories (and details) that I choose not to tell.
I believe that contract employees and service personnel
should present a professional appearance and demeanour.
I believe that the rules are changing in IT hardware and software
maintenance. IMO falling hardware prices will encourage
workstation replacement rather than repair -- less repair work
despite a *larger* number of less expensive workstations. I also
believe that increased OEM usage of "field replaceable modules"
in quality workstations [already common in laptop computers]
and "server slices" [compact server hardware modules exclusive
of hard disk storage for use in a NAS (network-attached storage)
environments] will encourage "troubleshooting by module/slice
replacement" at the Customer facility rather than carry-in
backroom bench repair -- hardware troubleshooting at the
Customer facility will replace carry-in backroom bench repair.
Similarly, standardized software configurations, automated
software installation and upgrade, and remote access technology
will reduce the amount of backroom software maintenance -- a
smaller number of highly-skilled technicians and MCSEs will
maintain and upgrade workstation and server software configurations.
All of these trends reflect decreased Total Cost of Ownership
(decreased TCO) for IT systems. Yet if I am correct the number
of required IT service technicians and MCSEs will *not* increase
indefinitely, and IT service technicians and MCSEs will spend
more of their time interacting with Customers.
Employers want to hire IT service technicians and MCSEs with
good Customer Relations skills -- an inducement for IT service
technicians and MCSEs to perfect those skills. Smart employers
will help their IT service technicans and MCSEs enhance *all*
of their skills, increasing technicians' and MCSEs' technical
expertise while making them better representatives for their
organizations. And good peoples' skills get sharper (not rusty)
as they age.
If an individual has no IT experience and wants to become an
MCSE I recommend that they first complete their A-PLUS
certification and use their A-PLUS certification to qualify
for an entry-level position. Most employers will fund
continueing education courses for productive employees,
and the employee can learn new skills building upon the
experience base they acquire in the workplace. This is
analogous to building your house on rock, as opposed to
building your house on paper.
Why is experience important? Experience teaches valuable
lessons. Experience teaches prospective MCSEs to acquire
needed documentation from OEM and vendor websites and faxback
services *before* visiting the Customer site, and to record
the changes made to the Customer's hardware and software.
Experience teaches the necessity of carrying extra consumable
items (tested FD drives and cables; tested HD, power and
network drop cables, floppy disks and CD-Rs) as part of your
"trunk stock" when you go on-site for a Customer service call
-- minimize absences required to retrieve low-cost consumable
items. Experience teaches small lessons like carrying band-aids
in your service kit so that when you slice your fingers on a
sharp chassis edge you will not bleed on Customer carpeting.
Experience teaches small lessons like checking your handtools
and software tools *before* leaving for the Customer site to
ensure nothing was "borrowed". Experience teaches the value of
educating Customers about using high-quality, non-fouling print
cartridges and media in precision color laser printers.
Once again, I believe a prospective MCSE's goal should
be professional competence based upon initial study,
accumulated technical and Customer Relations experience,
and continueing professional education. What is the
alternative? Occasionally you read reference to the
'paper MCSE'. What's a paper MCSE?
1) A paper MCSE is a person with a lot of wallpaper (test
passed certificates) but no practical experience.
2) A paper MCSE is someone who (when faced with a network
outage) locks the server room door, unplugs the telephone,
turns off their cellular telephone/pager, and (assuming that they
did not sell their texts after passing the tests) frantically
pages through the texts trying to locate *any* reference to the
problem. They also might ask vaguely-defined questions on
IT-related Internet newsgroups and then WAIT ..... The Help Desk
and IT Managers receive no idea of the outage's cause. The Help
Desk and IT Managers receive no Expected-Time-To-Restore/Repair
estimate. People are muttering and milling about outside the
server room door. Suddenly the value of prior networking
experience is evident.
This is a reactive scenario. What is the PROactive scenario?
If your employer does not provide a non-production test network
for you to "break and fix" (one basis of practical experience),
you must provide your own home network upon which to experiment.
You also get the benefit of applying operating system upgrades,
application upgrades, and security upgrades to your home network,
a task that another individual might perform on your employer's
or Customer's production network. And you should apply these
upgrades to the test/home system *before* you apply them to a
production network where (due to unanticipated difficulties)
they might cause production network failure.
What 'unanticipated difficulties'? Modern networking operating
systems and applications are complex multifunctioned software
packages -- the wealth of functions can result in unanticipated
difficulties. For example, one night I participated in a server
OS upgrade that stalled in mid-script. Through manual
troubleshooting our team was able to determine that a large number
of files had been DELETEd but not PURGEd [i.e., the files were
recoverable on the server hard disk (a standard network OS feature),
but the DELETEd files occupied hard disk space not acknowledged by
the OS directory functions and not checked by the script.] The
DELETEd unPURGEd files consumed so much hard disk space that
there was insufficient hard disk capacity to complete the OS upgrade.
Our team relaxed, then PURGEd the DELETEd files and completed the
OS upgrade manually -- we got home before dawn.
Scripts can *not* anticipate all contingencies. OS installation
procedures for a new server are different (and simpler) than
procedures designed to upgrade the OS of an existing server (and
*not destroy* the server data contents during an interrupted
scripted upgrade process). BTW, in the example I provided above
the DELETEd but unPURGEd files were directory files from obsolete
tape backups -- worthless data, but whether data is worth saving
is difficult for an automated script to determine.
I also advocate home technical libraries to supplement the
technical library provided by employers -- technical texts are
"IT tools of the trade". My Amazon.com "Friends and Favorites"
webpage (referenced in my sig) contains links to a number of
MCSE-related "Listmania" reading lists, including "A Windows
Desktop OS Reading List", "A Windows NT4 Server Reading
List", "A BackOffice / SBS 4.5 Reading List" (reflects two
distinct Microsoft Corporation products), "A Computer Security
Reading List", "An MCSE Consultant's Business Reading List",
and (preliminary) "A Small Business Server 2000 Reading List"
(reflects one distinct Microsoft Corporation product).
I also recommend that prospective MCSEs become familiar
and skilled using the Microsoft Corporation Knowledge Base.
Microsoft Corporation provides an *extensive* collection of
detailed technical information in its Knowledge Base, and
the Knowledge Base is *keyword-searchable*. To answer a
specific question I would search the Microsoft Corporation
Knowledge Base *before* I posted questions to IT-related
Internet newsgroups -- no wait.
Knowledge Base article ###### currently can be accessed on
a no-cost basis at URL
"http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q######"
(no quotes).
The Microsoft Corporation Knowledge Base is valuable, but IMO it
does *not* replace paper texts and searchable e-books on CD-ROM.
Occasionally an MCSE might require information while at a
Customer site where Internet access is *not* available, and
marginal notes in paper texts and e-books add true value.
A final comment: A (prospective) MCSE examining the text titles
within my reading lists will not that Windows 95 titles are
included, and Windows NT4 is represented heavily. On
January 1 2003 Microsoft Corporation discontinued Windows 95 support.
Microsoft Corporation shifted Windows NT4 support to a 'cost-basis'
on the same date. These operating systems (OSs) are six years old.
Do Windows 95 texts and Windows NT4 texts have current value?
By current standards Windows 95 is not a power-user OS, and prices
for replacement workstations (including bundled OS) are relatively
inexpensive. It is not cost-effective to spend large amounts of
money repairing Windows 95 workstations -- if necessary to avoid
user retraining, used Windows 95 workstations can be purchased
inexpensively. Nevertheless, in a downsizing United States domestic
economy where employees are being laid off, many users and
organizations can not afford to replace their Windows 95 workstations
or OSs. The listed Windows 95 texts provide relatively inexpensive
references for IT technicians and MCSEs who need to maintain
(and perform OS upgrades on) existing Windows 95 workstations.
There is an extensive and affordable market in used Windows 95 texts.
There are an estimated 4 million NT servers and 10 million NT
workstations. Windows NT was the pre-Windows 2000 power user OS and
IMO *many* of these Windows NT systems are worth upgrading to the
Windows 2000 or Windows XP OS. Windows NT OS upgrade schedule will
be affected both by financial issues and technical issues. In a
downsizing United States domestic economy where employees are being
laid off, users and organizations might be unable to upgrade their
Windows NT OSs to Windows 2000 or Windows XP as quickly as they
desire. I believe the current Windows NT installed OS base will
linger while simultaneously the number of IT technicians and MCSEs
who have Windows NT experience will drop through attrition and
career change. 'Automated upgrade' Internet-based software
maintenance is available for Windows XP and Windows 2000, but
'automated upgrade' Internet-based software maintenance currently
is *not* available for the Windows NT4 OS.
Owning Windows NT texts gives IT technicians and MCSEs low-cost
information sources in addition to cost-based Microsoft Corporation
support when maintaining and upgrading Windows NT systems. And IMO
having Windows NT knowledge is *mandatory* when upgrading Windows NT
systems to the Windows 2000 or Windows XP OS. The Windows NT OS
operates on a localized 'domain' directory model, while Windows 2000
and Windows XP OSs utilize Active Directory, a directory model that
aggregates localized domains into a global distributed directory.
IMO a Windows NT domain should be 'scrubbed' for obsolete users and
erroneous user privileges prior to merging the Windows NT domain
into an Active Directory tree -- that is, "clean the needle before
inserting it in the haystack".
IMO having Windows NT experience (gained as on-the-job helpers or
through non-production test or home networks) is *mandatory* before
MCSEs run the automated scripts typically used to upgrade the
Windows NT OS to Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Automated scripts
sometimes stall due to unanticipated reasons. When a script stalls,
the MCSE either must be capable of completing the upgrade manually,
or of 'backing out' the partially-completed script's changes and
restoring the original Windows NT OS functionality. Owning
Windows NT texts assists in this process, and there is an extensive,
very affordable market in used Windows NT texts.
This message was not solicited by Amazon.com, any author,
or their agent(s). I receive no remuneration of any kind from
Amazon.com .
This message was not solicted by American Power Conversion
Corporation. I receive no remuneration of any kind from
American Power Conversion Corporation.
This message was not solicited by CompTia. I receive no
remuneration of any kind from CompTia.
This message was not solicited by Digital Storage. I receive no
remuneration of any kind from Digital Storage.
This message was not solicited by Microsoft Corporation. I
receive no remuneration of any kind from Microsoft Corporation.
This message was not solicited by Xerox Corporation. I
receive no remuneration of any kind from Xerox Corporation.
My opinions.
Richard Ballard MSEE CNA4 KD0AZ
--
Consultant specializing in computer networks, imaging & security
Listed as rjballard in "Friends & Favorites" at www.amazon.com
Last review: "Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy"
| |
| Richard Ballard 2003-01-18, 7:23 pm |
| In article <20030118171233.01348.00000076@mb-mk.aol.com>,
rball84213@aol.com (Richard Ballard) writes:
>Once again, I believe a prospective MCSE's goal should
>be professional competence based upon initial study,
>accumulated technical and Customer Relations experience,
>and continueing professional education. What is the
>alternative? Occasionally you read reference to the
>'paper MCSE'. What's a paper MCSE?
>
>1) A paper MCSE is a person with a lot of wallpaper (test
>passed certificates) but no practical experience.
>
>2) A paper MCSE is someone who (when faced with a network
>outage) locks the server room door, unplugs the telephone,
>turns off their cellular telephone/pager, and (assuming that they
>did not sell their texts after passing the tests) frantically
>pages through the texts trying to locate *any* reference to the
>problem. They also might ask vaguely-defined questions on
>IT-related Internet newsgroups and then WAIT ..... The Help Desk
>and IT Managers receive no idea of the outage's cause. The Help
>Desk and IT Managers receive no Expected-Time-To-Restore/Repair
>estimate. People are muttering and milling about outside the
>server room door. Suddenly the value of prior networking
>experience is evident.
>
>This is a reactive scenario. What is the PROactive scenario?
>If your employer does not provide a non-production test network
>for you to "break and fix" (one basis of practical experience),
>you must provide your own home network upon which to experiment.
>You also get the benefit of applying operating system upgrades,
>application upgrades, and security upgrades to your home network,
>a task that another individual might perform on your employer's
>or Customer's production network. And you should apply these
>upgrades to the test/home system *before* you apply them to a
>production network where (due to unanticipated difficulties)
>they might cause production network failure.
>
>What 'unanticipated difficulties'? Modern networking operating
>systems and applications are complex multifunctioned software
>packages -- the wealth of functions can result in unanticipated
>difficulties. For example, one night I participated in a server
>OS upgrade that stalled in mid-script. Through manual
>troubleshooting our team was able to determine that a large number
>of files had been DELETEd but not PURGEd [i.e., the files were
>recoverable on the server hard disk (a standard network OS feature),
>but the DELETEd files occupied hard disk space not acknowledged by
>the OS directory functions and not checked by the script.] The
>DELETEd unPURGEd files consumed so much hard disk space that
>there was insufficient hard disk capacity to complete the OS upgrade.
>Our team relaxed, then PURGEd the DELETEd files and completed the
>OS upgrade manually -- we got home before dawn.
>
>Scripts can *not* anticipate all contingencies. OS installation
>procedures for a new server are different (and simpler) than
>procedures designed to upgrade the OS of an existing server (and
>*not destroy* the server data contents during an interrupted
>scripted upgrade process). BTW, in the example I provided above
>the DELETEd but unPURGEd files were directory files from obsolete
>tape backups -- worthless data, but whether data is worth saving
>is difficult for an automated script to determine.
>
>I also advocate home technical libraries to supplement the
>technical library provided by employers -- technical texts are
>"IT tools of the trade". My Amazon.com "Friends and Favorites"
>webpage (referenced in my sig) contains links to a number of
>MCSE-related "Listmania" reading lists, including "A Windows
>Desktop OS Reading List", "A Windows NT4 Server Reading
>List", "A BackOffice / SBS 4.5 Reading List" (reflects two
>distinct Microsoft Corporation products), "A Computer Security
>Reading List", "An MCSE Consultant's Business Reading List",
>and (preliminary) "A Small Business Server 2000 Reading List"
>(reflects one distinct Microsoft Corporation product).
>
>I also recommend that prospective MCSEs become familiar
>and skilled using the Microsoft Corporation Knowledge Base.
>Microsoft Corporation provides an *extensive* collection of
>detailed technical information in its Knowledge Base, and
>the Knowledge Base is *keyword-searchable*. To answer a
>specific question I would search the Microsoft Corporation
>Knowledge Base *before* I posted questions to IT-related
>Internet newsgroups -- no wait.
>
>Knowledge Base article ###### currently can be accessed on
>a no-cost basis at URL
>"http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q######"
>(no quotes).
>
>The Microsoft Corporation Knowledge Base is valuable, but IMO it
>does *not* replace paper texts and searchable e-books on CD-ROM.
>Occasionally an MCSE might require information while at a
>Customer site where Internet access is *not* available, and
>marginal notes in paper texts and e-books add true value.
>
>A final comment: A (prospective) MCSE examining the text titles
>within my reading lists will not that Windows 95 titles are
>included, and Windows NT4 is represented heavily. On
>January 1 2003 Microsoft Corporation discontinued Windows 95 support.
>Microsoft Corporation shifted Windows NT4 support to a 'cost-basis'
>on the same date. These operating systems (OSs) are six years old.
>Do Windows 95 texts and Windows NT4 texts have current value?
>
>By current standards Windows 95 is not a power-user OS, and prices
>for replacement workstations (including bundled OS) are relatively
>inexpensive. It is not cost-effective to spend large amounts of
>money repairing Windows 95 workstations -- if necessary to avoid
>user retraining, used Windows 95 workstations can be purchased
>inexpensively. Nevertheless, in a downsizing United States domestic
>economy where employees are being laid off, many users and
>organizations can not afford to replace their Windows 95 workstations
>or OSs. The listed Windows 95 texts provide relatively inexpensive
>references for IT technicians and MCSEs who need to maintain
>(and perform OS upgrades on) existing Windows 95 workstations.
>There is an extensive and affordable market in used Windows 95 texts.
>
>There are an estimated 4 million NT servers and 10 million NT
>workstations. Windows NT was the pre-Windows 2000 power user OS and
>IMO *many* of these Windows NT systems are worth upgrading to the
>Windows 2000 or Windows XP OS. Windows NT OS upgrade schedule will
>be affected both by financial issues and technical issues. In a
>downsizing United States domestic economy where employees are being
>laid off, users and organizations might be unable to upgrade their
>Windows NT OSs to Windows 2000 or Windows XP as quickly as they
>desire. I believe the current Windows NT installed OS base will
>linger while simultaneously the number of IT technicians and MCSEs
>who have Windows NT experience will drop through attrition and
>career change. ...
Sound far-fetched? Imagine the following dialogue occuring
eighteen months from now:
Technical Sales Representative (TSR): "Sir, we will be happy to
upgrade your Windows NT4 network to Windows XP. Our
company has a detailed procedure to accomplish the upgrade
smoothly. We will start the upgrade on a Friday evening -- we
want to ensure we have plenty of time to complete the upgrade
before Monday start-of-business.
Four weeks before the upgrade we will provide an upgrade
preparation document to your Senior Network Administrator.
The document lists the steps your staff must perform to
prepare your network for upgrade."
Customer: "My staff performs upgrade steps?"
TSR: "If desired we can provide MCSEs to assist your staff
during these preparatory upgrade steps. The steps include
checking the network directory for correctness, making two
good full backups the weekend prior to upgrade, purging
obsolete files from your server volumes -- information only
your staff can judge, making backups the week before the
upgrade, and defragmenting server volumes prior to upgrade.
These steps are time-consuming but necessary for a smooth
upgrade."
Customer: "How will I know if we need help during upgrade
preparation?"
TSR: "Sir, we provide the upgrade preparatory document
four weeks before upgrade. Three weeks before upgrade one
of our MCSEs will contact your Senior Network Administrator
to answer questions and to discuss preparation schedule and
current server volume sizes -- that is a good time to discuss
if preparatory support or storage modifications are required.
Two weeks and one week before upgrade our MCSE will contact
your Senior Network Administrator to answer questions and
discuss schedule progress. One week before upgrade our MCSE
also needs to learn your servers' Administrative passwords.
Our team will arrive early Friday evening. We want your
Senior Network Administrator or his representative to
attend the upgrade, both to witness our work and also to
answer unforeseen questions."
Customer: "That is a detailed upgrade preparatory procedure.
When can you perform the upgrade?"
The TSR looks at his calendar, furrows his brow.
TSR: "Sir, we need at least four weeks lead-time to complete
the upgrade preparations, but I can not schedule the actual
upgrade until I verify Bill's schedule."
Customer: "Bill's schedule?"
TSR: "Bill is our Windows NT guru. Bill always works
Windows NT system upgrades in case we run into legacy
problems. Bill knows *everything* about Windows NT."
Customer: "It sounds like Bill is busy."
The TSR shrugs.
TSR: "Bill owns our company."
The TSR and Customer shake hands. The Customer watches out
the window as the TSR climbs into a new expensive Volvo
and drives away. The Customer thinks to himself 'I might hang
around during part of the upgrade. Bill sounds like an
interesting fellow.'
>... 'Automated upgrade' Internet-based software
>maintenance is available for Windows XP and Windows 2000, but
>'automated upgrade' Internet-based software maintenance currently
>is *not* available for the Windows NT4 OS.
>
>Owning Windows NT texts gives IT technicians and MCSEs low-cost
>information sources in addition to cost-based Microsoft Corporation
>support when maintaining and upgrading Windows NT systems. And IMO
>having Windows NT knowledge is *mandatory* when upgrading Windows NT
>systems to the Windows 2000 or Windows XP OS. The Windows NT OS
>operates on a localized 'domain' directory model, while Windows 2000
>and Windows XP OSs utilize Active Directory, a directory model that
>aggregates localized domains into a global distributed directory.
>IMO a Windows NT domain should be 'scrubbed' for obsolete users and
>erroneous user privileges prior to merging the Windows NT domain
>into an Active Directory tree -- that is, "clean the needle before
>inserting it in the haystack".
>
>IMO having Windows NT experience (gained as on-the-job helpers or
>through non-production test or home networks) is *mandatory* before
>MCSEs run the automated scripts typically used to upgrade the
>Windows NT OS to Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Automated scripts
>sometimes stall due to unanticipated reasons. When a script stalls,
>the MCSE either must be capable of completing the upgrade manually,
>or of 'backing out' the partially-completed script's changes and
>restoring the original Windows NT OS functionality. Owning
>Windows NT texts assists in this process, and there is an extensive,
>very affordable market in used Windows NT texts.
Now that Microsoft Corporation has discontinued Windows 95
support and placed Windows NT4 support on a 'cost basis',
I believe that Internet newsgroup
'Microsoft.Public.Certification.WinNT-9X' will become an
increasingly busy and valuable resource.
<snip>
This message was not solicited by Amazon.com, any author,
or their agent(s). I receive no remuneration of any kind from
Amazon.com .
This message was not solicited by Microsoft Corporation. I
receive no remuneration of any kind from Microsoft Corporation.
My opinions.
Richard Ballard MSEE CNA4 KD0AZ
--
Consultant specializing in computer networks, imaging & security
Listed as rjballard in "Friends & Favorites" at www.amazon.com
Last review: "Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy"
| |
| Richard Ballard 2003-01-20, 8:23 am |
| In article <20030118170559.02764.00000108@mb-mn.aol.com>,
rball84213@aol.com (Richard Ballard) writes:
>There are an estimated 4 million NT servers and 10 million NT
>workstations. Windows NT was the pre-Windows 2000 power user OS and
>IMO *many* of these Windows NT systems are worth upgrading to the
>Windows 2000 or Windows XP OS. Windows NT OS upgrade schedule will
>be affected both by financial issues and technical issues. In a
>downsizing United States domestic economy where employees are being
>laid off, users and organizations might be unable to upgrade their
>Windows NT OSs to Windows 2000 or Windows XP as quickly as they
>desire. I believe the current Windows NT installed OS base will
>linger while simultaneously the number of IT technicians and MCSEs
>who have Windows NT experience will drop through attrition and
>career change. 'Automated upgrade' Internet-based software
>maintenance is available for Windows XP and Windows 2000, but
>'automated upgrade' Internet-based software maintenance currently
>is *not* available for the Windows NT4 OS.
Extending the usable life of existing Windows NT systems often
is a matter of first increasing storage capacity (to satisfy
immediate user needs) and later upgrading to the Windows 2000
or Windows XP operating systems.
Today's large, inexpensive EIDE, ATA-2 and ATA100 hard disk
drives offer a ready solution to extending the usable life of
existing Windows NT workstations. One information source
discussing these disk drives is the FAQ for Internet newsgroup
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (CSIPHS), which can be
accessed through URL:
"http://www.faqs.org/faqs/by-newsgroup/comp/comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.stora
ge.html"
(no quotes, no blanks). The CSIPHS FAQ includes a large
number of URL and FTP references for additional information.
Thanks to pieterh@sci.kun.nl, the CSIPHS FAQ maintainer.
While EIDE, ATA-2, and ATA100 hard disk drives *could* be used
to extend the life of existing Windows NT servers, I recommend
that some variety of SCSI hard disk drives (with its superior
seek algorithm) or Network Attached Storage (NAS) be used to
increase the storage capacity of existing Windows NT servers
prior to OS upgrade to Windows 2000 or Windows XP. One
information source discussing SCSI disk drives is the FAQ for
Internet newsgroup comp.periphs.scsi (CPS), which can be accessed
through URL:
"http://www.faqs.org/faqs/by-newsgroup/comp/comp.periphs.scsi.html"
(no quotes, no blanks). The CPS FAQ includes a large number
of URL and FTP references for additional information. Thanks to
Gary Field (gfield@zk3.dec.com, WA1GRC), the CPS FAQ maintainer.
At this time I can not provide a concise URL reference for
Network Attached Storage.
My opinions.
Richard Ballard MSEE CNA4 KD0AZ
--
Consultant specializing in computer networks, imaging & security
Listed as rjballard in "Friends & Favorites" at www.amazon.com
Last review: "Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy"
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| Richard Ballard 2003-01-30, 8:23 am |
| In article <20030120090401.05408.00000057@mb-fx.aol.com>,
rball84213@aol.com (Richard Ballard) writes:
>In article <20030118170559.02764.00000108@mb-mn.aol.com>,
>rball84213@aol.com (Richard Ballard) writes:
>
>>There are an estimated 4 million NT servers and 10 million NT
>>workstations. Windows NT was the pre-Windows 2000 power user OS and
>>IMO *many* of these Windows NT systems are worth upgrading to the
>>Windows 2000 or Windows XP OS. Windows NT OS upgrade schedule will
>>be affected both by financial issues and technical issues. In a
>>downsizing United States domestic economy where employees are being
>>laid off, users and organizations might be unable to upgrade their
>>Windows NT OSs to Windows 2000 or Windows XP as quickly as they
>>desire. I believe the current Windows NT installed OS base will
>>linger while simultaneously the number of IT technicians and MCSEs
>>who have Windows NT experience will drop through attrition and
>>career change. 'Automated upgrade' Internet-based software
>>maintenance is available for Windows XP and Windows 2000, but
>>'automated upgrade' Internet-based software maintenance currently
>>is *not* available for the Windows NT4 OS.
An earlier message in this thread discussed extending the life
of existing Windows NT systems and also of existing Windows 9X
workstations -- in the current downsizing of the United States
domestic economy organizations might be unable to upgrade existing
operating systems (and retrain users) as quickly as desired.
Current prices on semiconductor memory are *very reasonable*.
Windows NT system performance and Windows 9X workstation performance
usually can be enhanced (and server/workstation lifetime extended)
by addition of quality semiconductor memory. Adding quality
semiconductor memory to Windows systems reduces the amount of
page swapping performed by Windows operating system virtual memory,
increasing server and workstation performance.
>Extending the usable life of existing Windows NT systems often
>is a matter of first increasing storage capacity (to satisfy
>immediate user needs) and later upgrading to the Windows 2000
>or Windows XP operating systems.
>
>Today's large, inexpensive EIDE, ATA-2 and ATA100 hard disk
>drives offer a ready solution to extending the usable life of
>existing Windows NT workstations. One information source
>discussing these disk drives is the FAQ for Internet newsgroup
>comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (CSIPHS), which can be
>accessed through URL:
>
>"http://www.faqs.org/faqs/by-newsgroup/comp/comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.stor
age.html"
>
>(no quotes, no blanks). The CSIPHS FAQ includes a large
>number of URL and FTP references for additional information.
>Thanks to pieterh@sci.kun.nl, the CSIPHS FAQ maintainer.
>
>While EIDE, ATA-2, and ATA100 hard disk drives *could* be used
>to extend the life of existing Windows NT servers, I recommend
>that some variety of SCSI hard disk drives (with its superior
>seek algorithm) or Network Attached Storage (NAS) be used to
>increase the storage capacity of existing Windows NT servers
>prior to OS upgrade to Windows 2000 or Windows XP. One
>information source discussing SCSI disk drives is the FAQ for
>Internet newsgroup comp.periphs.scsi (CPS), which can be accessed
>through URL:
>
>"http://www.faqs.org/faqs/by-newsgroup/comp/comp.periphs.scsi.html"
>
>(no quotes, no blanks). The CPS FAQ includes a large number
>of URL and FTP references for additional information. Thanks to
>Gary Field (gfield@zk3.dec.com, WA1GRC), the CPS FAQ maintainer.
Additional information lifted verbatim from private communication
concerning making tape backups of network servers:
" IDE disk work can involve significant time intervals devoted
to just the IDE data transfers. The worst case is if the drives use
PIO mode, less worse but not good if they use up to UDMA2. Much
better results occur with UDMA5/6.
If you have an IDE tape drive then matters are considerably
worse. Basic admin advice is avoid IDE based tape drives; use SCSI.
If a disk and tape driver are on the same IDE channel (share the
cable) that's is the most time consumptive arrangement possible.
Joe D."
Thanks to Joe Doupnik (JRD@cc.usu.edu) for his continued
valuable insights.
>At this time I can not provide a concise URL reference for
>Network Attached Storage.
This message was not solicited by Micro Warehouse. I receive no
remuneration of any kind from Micro Warehouse.
My opinions.
Richard Ballard MSEE CNA4 KD0AZ
--
Consultant specializing in computer networks, imaging & security
Listed as rjballard in "Friends & Favorites" at www.amazon.com
Last review: "Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy"
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