The General Technology Thread

[Caleb]

Anybody have any older GPUs and/or whole gaming computer they don't mind parting with? if so, lets make a deal

 

[Lushamania]

I've just recently been thrown into SCCM SCEM deep end of the pool & could use some "best places to learn it" info. YouTube maybe?

I took the Microsoft SCCM course, but that was 10-11 years ago now. Since then, outside of experience with the software, this has been my go-to. I've bought the last 2 editions and I'll certainly buy whatever edition they come out with next. As for online resources, Prajwal Desai has been running a great website for years now. His website is my other go-to.

 

[wtburnette]

Certs are good for getting a job initially or if you work for a partner.

I don't disagree, but that doesn't change what I said about Cisco. Whether you're trying to get a cert from them, or doing business with them, all they care about are the benjamins.

 

[IndyBeerman]

Took the plunge and bought me a new Samsung 870EVO SSD to replace my 1st gen Patriot Burst SSD.

Acronis made it pain free on the clone drive function, spent more time removing both sides of my Tower to get the tool less SSD tray removed and power/SATA cable unhooked.

10 minutes to clone, 20 minutes start to finish for the whole process.

 

[wtburnette]

Thanks for reminding me. I bought a 970 EVO Plus a few months ago to be a second drive to put Linux on and I stuck it in a drawer and forgot about it till now...

 

[fullmetaljesus]

I don't see how it is possible for the cloud to be cheaper than rolling your own unless you are very small and don't have the in-house expertise to run it. The cloud needs the same hardware, datacenter environment, same power needs, etc. that you would own. Plus you pay for their profit margin.

Owning your own equipment you get to write off capital expenses, depreciation, etc and if you ever need to move your datacenter you already have your data on your physical systems. How the hell do you get a .5-1 petabytes out of the cloud once it's there? That's a loooong download.

I am on a team of 6 that manages 1700+ Linux systems on vmware 6.5 & 7 (no Windows at all - yay).

To beat use the cloud. You have to adopt the cattle not pets mentality.

Are you expecting a huge jump in web traffic or do you need a **** ton of processing power to render a thing?

Then put it in the cloud configure to auto scale so your servers can keep up with damand.

But the idea of subscribing to a cloud to upload all your data and let it sit is just stupid.

 

[fullmetaljesus]

Also side note. Anyone looking for a job as a senior Linux admin? My company is hiring one atm. Check out navient.com for the job posting. Naturally I can't promise anything.

 

[Lushamania]

Also side note. Anyone looking for a job as a senior Linux admin? My company is hiring one atm. Check out navient.com for the job posting. Naturally I can't promise anything.

Will they wipe out my student loan as a work benefit?

 

[fullmetaljesus]

Will they wipe out my student loan as a work benefit?

I wish. Lol

 

[WebSnyper]

I don't see how it is possible for the cloud to be cheaper than rolling your own unless you are very small and don't have the in-house expertise to run it. The cloud needs the same hardware, datacenter environment, same power needs, etc. that you would own. Plus you pay for their profit margin.

Owning your own equipment you get to write off capital expenses, depreciation, etc and if you ever need to move your datacenter you already have your data on your physical systems. How the hell do you get a .5-1 petabytes out of the cloud once it's there? That's a loooong download.

I am on a team of 6 that manages 1700+ Linux systems on vmware 6.5 & 7 (no Windows at all - yay).

Because the huge players in cloud can do it cheaper and on cloud you pay for consumption and if you size things correctly (and make use of not only IaaS, but also PaaS and SaaS) you can come out better than paying for a lot of unused capacity, etc. Also, trading CAPex spend for OPex and so not tying up as much cash upfront.

At the hyperscale that Amazon or Microsoft are doing things, I don't see an individual enterprise being able to do it at the same cost structure they can. Also factor in being able to geo diversify and use of regions and availability zones, and as much redundancy as they can provide, I don't see being able to compete with that for the price.

Also depends on the deal you negotiate with the cloud provider.

All depends on your needs and financial status.

That said, of course the cloud providers prefer you not take your data out of the cloud, but depending on the service you are using there may be ways to replicate, shift things out of the cloud, log ship, etc.

 

[jamil]

I don't see how it is possible for the cloud to be cheaper than rolling your own unless you are very small and don't have the in-house expertise to run it. The cloud needs the same hardware, datacenter environment, same power needs, etc. that you would own. Plus you pay for their profit margin.

Owning your own equipment you get to write off capital expenses, depreciation, etc and if you ever need to move your datacenter you already have your data on your physical systems. How the hell do you get a .5-1 petabytes out of the cloud once it's there? That's a loooong download.

I am on a team of 6 that manages 1700+ Linux systems on vmware 6.5 & 7 (no Windows at all - yay).

Here’s how you do it. Move your **** to aws, dump your vmware licenses, sell all that hardware, fire 4 of the people on your team and get the two left trained to manage the aws stack. The systems that run on aws can be scaled to the load. You really just pay for the volume if you set it up smartly.

I hate it. But it’s what it is.

 

[KLB]

Here’s how you do it. Move your **** to aws, dump your vmware licenses, sell all that hardware, fire 4 of the people on your team and get the two left trained to manage the aws stack. The systems that run on aws can be scaled to the load. You really just pay for the volume if you set it up smartly.

I hate it. But it’s what it is.

Now do Oracle.

 

[jamil]

Now do Oracle.

Ah. You’ve noticed the fly in the ointment. We have a large legacy product where we still haven’t quite figured that out. It’s not that it can’t be done. It’s that all the options suck.

AWS has a conversation tool that works pretty well to replicate Oracle Database and data to Redshift, or (other supported databases). I’ve used it and it works surprisingly well for replicating simple objects like tables and views. It’s not all that good with PL/SQL, which unfortunately half the business logic of that legacy app is written in.

Three options that have been discussed: Run Oracle and application services on EC2 instances and “forklift” the whole app. But we’d still have the extraordinary cost of Oracle licensing, plus some sizable development to make the app compatible with running in AWS. This option sucks.

Another other option is rewriting the whole thing targeting Red Shift or Postgres. This option sounds great to a developer. But to the business it sucks.

Option 3 is a hybrid that is of the other two. Use the tool to replicate the databases. Refactor the pl/sql business logic into the service layer. This is very risky and sucks.

 

[KLB]

Ah. You’ve noticed the fly in the ointment. We have a large legacy product where we still haven’t quite figured that out. It’s not that it can’t be done. It’s that all the options suck.

AWS has a conversation tool that works pretty well to replicate Oracle Database and data to Redshift, or (other supported databases). I’ve used it and it works surprisingly well for replicating simple objects like tables and views. It’s not all that good with PL/SQL, which unfortunately half the business logic of that legacy app is written in.

Three options that have been discussed: Run Oracle and application services on EC2 instances and “forklift” the whole app. But we’d still have the extraordinary cost of Oracle licensing, plus some sizable development to make the app compatible with running in AWS. This option sucks.

Another other option is rewriting the whole thing targeting Red Shift or Postgres. This option sounds great to a developer. But to the business it sucks.

Option 3 is a hybrid that is of the other two. Use the tool to replicate the databases. Refactor the pl/sql business logic into the service layer. This is very risky and sucks.

You are focused on the database. For Oracle Apps, you have to license every processor that the App can run on. So, in essence, you have to license the whole cloud to move it there. We have to make sure our servers are segmented both from a network perspective and from a VMWare perspective.

Personally, I think cloud architecture is better for Web facing apps. In an environment where all of your stuff is internal, it does not make as much sense.

 

[jamil]

You are focused on the database. For Oracle Apps, you have to license every processor that the App can run on. So, in essence, you have to license the whole cloud to move it there. We have to make sure our servers are segmented both from a network perspective and from a VMWare perspective.

Personally, I think cloud architecture is better for Web facing apps. In an environment where all of your stuff is internal, it does not make as much sense.

This sounds like a great reason not to use Oracle Apps. But I guess you have what you have. We don't really have much in the way of internal systems running on-prem anyway though.

And don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to promote AWS. I'm bringing all this up to show how attractive it is to businesses, especially data providers with web services. I think AWS has way too much power and that it's a mistake to build out everything to run in AWS. We'd have a lot of down time if we had to find another service like Parler did. Not that we're in any real danger for that.

 

[WebSnyper]

You are focused on the database. For Oracle Apps, you have to license every processor that the App can run on. So, in essence, you have to license the whole cloud to move it there. We have to make sure our servers are segmented both from a network perspective and from a VMWare perspective.

Personally, I think cloud architecture is better for Web facing apps. In an environment where all of your stuff is internal, it does not make as much sense.

I assume this is Oracle trying to try and capture it's customers into it's own cloud offerings? I'm not well versed on Oracle's offerings these days, but know they are a lower level player in cloud. Seems like they might expedite enterprises to migrate away from their database & app technologies though due to the costs that Oracle is inflicting if a customer moves to another cloud provider.

 

[KLB]

I assume this is Oracle trying to try and capture it's customers into it's own cloud offerings? I'm not well versed on Oracle's offerings these days, but know they are a lower level player in cloud. Seems like they might expedite enterprises to migrate away from their database & app technologies though due to the costs that Oracle is inflicting if a customer moves to another cloud provider.

Migrating an ERP system for a large corporation is no small undertaking. It took four years and I do not know how much money to implement it in the first place. I imagine at some point we may move away from Oracle. Their pricing across the board is ridiculous. We already went to third party support, which is going to limit our ability to update in the future.

 

[KLB]

This sounds like a great reason not to use Oracle Apps. But I guess you have what you have. We don't really have much in the way of internal systems running on-prem anyway though.

And don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to promote AWS. I'm bringing all this up to show how attractive it is to businesses, especially data providers with web services. I think AWS has way too much power and that it's a mistake to build out everything to run in AWS. We'd have a lot of down time if we had to find another service like Parler did. Not that we're in any real danger for that.

We are the opposite. I work for a large manufacturing company. We use some SaaS apps, and have a website, but it is not for sales, only information.

 

[jamil]

I assume this is Oracle trying to try and capture it's customers into it's own cloud offerings? I'm not well versed on Oracle's offerings these days, but know they are a lower level player in cloud. Seems like they might expedite enterprises to migrate away from their database & app technologies though due to the costs that Oracle is inflicting if a customer moves to another cloud provider.

I've thought that for years. Oracle's licensing is really expensive and really restrictive. The only reason we have ANY servers running Oracle is because we have some legacy apps that are highly coupled to PL/SQL and some other Oracle proprietary stuff.

 

[NKBJ]

Had a doubly interesting experience with the better 2/3's this week, part man made and part God made technology.

Earlier this week I finishes rereading a fun scifi romp for cat people, A Beautiful Friendship. It takes place in a future period of colonizing the galaxy, on a planet with huge six legged several meters long black haired critters called hexapumas being one of the top tier predators. The humorous closing scenes of the novel have a hexapuma being involved in a bad guy receiving his just deserves. OK, on to the tech stuff.

The morning after I finished the novel we're working on breakfast and the better 2/3's tells me about the strange dream she had that night. In the dream she was in her F150 and a black puma tall enough that its head was even with her window walked up and looked in at her.
She hardly ever ever ever remembers her dreams. I just finished a book with a giant black puma and voila', she dreams about one. Certainly not the first time we've experienced such connections but I still marvel whenever I see it. That's God made, something He built into us.

And then comes the man made tech. Within a day of her telling me about the puma, I gets an email about Puma clothing on sale. Yep, the phone was sitting on the kitchen counter while we were talking so a machine somewhere processed "puma" in a manner appropriate to its programming.

Hope yall have a great weekend.