Epsilon Becomes Rockall
Just had a really productive weekend. The girls were away so I had the house to myself. Instead of making the most of it and getting out with mates I stayed in alone. Sad, I know, but I like to do this every now and then. It's amazing what you can get done when there's no distractions.
First thing I did was screw the new server to the wall (remember the plan? ). Dad did a great job of drilling and filing some brackets to make this Heath Robinson style server rack. Hey, it works!
Obviously, it's nowhere near my KVM switch now. So, next thing was to configure Remote Desktop Connection. Turns out this is really easy. Just turn it on at the server and find the app on XP, where it's hidden in Programs > Accessories > Communications. Works a charm.
After a good few hours spent swapping files from the old Linux file server to my PC and then to the new Windows server I had free server. I then started a re-design of the network. Having pulled my head out from my ass I've realised that I'll never have more than 99 servers and so there's no need for a server naming convention and names like RCKWEBSVR01. Also that I'll probably always be the only Jake working for Rockall and so there's no need usernames like jakehowl. From now on it's all going to be simple and informal. All this when I'd just got Karen used to logging on as karealli!
This all applies to Domino as well as Windows. Years ago my first contracting company was called Epsilon IT Systems. My Domino domain has been /EPSILON ever since. Now I want to change it. This is going to be a massive task as it involves new users and server(s) and editing ACLs on all databases (or at least then ones I decide to keep). It should be worth it though. There's nothing like a clean slate is there. Anybody know of any tools that will help in the migration?
Of the two servers I now have for "development", one is now Windows and the other Red Hat Linux. One Domino and one Apache. Domino is on Windows and Apache/PHP is on Linux. One is called Fastnet and the other Fisher. No prizes for which I gave the apt title of Fastnet. Wondering where these names are from?
Lessons learnt so far: 1. If you want to access shared folders on Windows 2003 from Mac OS X this will help. 2. If you want to share a printer from a server don't install Server 2003 Web Edition, as print sharing is disabled!
Probably got lots more to learn. Stay tuned to see how I get on...
Skip to the 
You can subscribe to an individual
Hey Jake...
Why didn't you use "Dogger". That would have been a cool name!
Later
Patrick
Funny you should mention that. Dogger is the name of the new one I've bolted to the wall ;o)
Apparently a "dogger" is also the name of somebody who likes to go "dogging". Don't ask how I know this! More info: {Link}
There's no way I'm clicking on that link from inside work!
Pity about 'dogger' - it's the title of nice kids book about a soft toy of the same name.
Why Jake..... I never knew you had it in you! "Apparently", you say....!
One wonders is that experience talking???
Definitely not looking at that link. It might damage my little tender mind!
Hey Jake
Quick tip - start remote desktop connection with the /console switch. When you do that you connect to session 0 of you Windows 2003 server, so it's as if you're actually sat in front of it. Very very useful.
The link's actually quite tame (pun intended). You can even search for dogging locations near you. We have one about a mile away ;-)
I found out about it while night-biking with the next door neighbour a while ago. We were riding (our bikes!) in the local woods (with big lights on). We came across (not literally) a car parked up in the middle of nowhere. My neighbour said "Must be a dogger!". Natually my ears pricked up. Not sure what he thought when I told him one of my computers was called Dogger though. Probably like everybody else - a) You've got more than one computer? b) You give you computers names?
Ben. How does that work? I added /console and the only difference I can see is that the Domino server console is there, where it wasn't before. Without the switch are you looking at a "virtual" interface or something?
Jake
That's the difference. With /console you are on session 0 meaning you could be sat at the screen itself. You see any services interacting with the desktop (eg Domino, AV alerts, error messages, etc, etc). Without /console you are using a different session (ie, a vanilla terminal services session, not the "screen that you'd see if you sat in front of the server" session) and don't get to see what's *really* going on.
Well done on the rack mounting front - looks great and more importantly, nice and secure!
Secure indeed Colin. Escpecially from burglary. It would have to be a determined robber who took this with him!
Jake - Did you find any tools yet for the migration? If not, I have some simple code that may help with that task...drop me a line if you're interested.
Here's some applescript to login to an SMB share. I set up a couple of scripts to log in to a share when I need it and I keep a list of drive mounts on my dock.
set workgroup to "WORKGROUP"
set username to "Administrator"
set yourPassword to "yourpasswordhere"
set servername to "dogger"
set volumename to "c$"
if yourPassword is "" then
display dialog "What's your password?" default answer ""
set yourPassword to text returned of result
end if
tell application "Finder"
try
open location "smb://" & workgroup & ";" & username & ":" & yourPassword & "@" & servername & "/" & volumename
end try
end tell
Also, to RDC from the mac, you can hold the apple key and click connect to login to session 0.
If you have ever dropped sessions and want to log them off, go to task manager on Windows 2003 and you'll see a new tab called users. From here you can log off or disconnect (especially if you have a dropped session with the Notes client running).