Finally, last week the new server arrived and I could start my work. I will work together with my co-worker Owen (a United supporter 🙂 ). We installed Windows Server 2008 (64b-bit) and SCCM 2007 on the HP – Server.(Intel Xeon – 8 processors, 12 Gb memory)
On Tuesday and Wednesday a Microsoft – Expert visited and helped us with the installation and migration from the old system (SMS). He was an italian therefore I had no problem to understand him. Because he spokes really slow and „basic“.
He showed us what we had to install to use SCCM 2007 (ASP, SQL-Server etc.) and the first moves with SCCM 2007. Furthermore, we could start to migrate from the old system to the new one. All clients (about 900) from the different locations of Translink must be assigned to the new site server (called CMS).
To accomplish this, we had to move the different boundaries (about 80 subnets) from SMS to SCCM. The german word „Fleißarbeit“ hits the nail on the head to describe this task. After it, the SCCM – Server knew all clients and we were able to perform the client installation (to manage the clients via SCCM 2007). We decided to perfom the installation piecemeal, because we don’t want to overcharge the network.
The clients installation takes a lot of time, but we migrated 500 computers so far. Hopefully we can complete this task today, because tomorrow the italian – expert will visit us again.
On saturday 29-05-2010, David and me traveled to Dublin to met some of our guys down there. You may read his post and I don’t want to bore you with things you already know.
Lets talk about the important things, the football!
Bohemian FC – Shamrock Rovers
We visited the big Dublin derby between Bohemian FC (Nickname: Bohs) and Shamrock Rovers (Nickename: Hoops). It’s a match of big rivals and it was perfect football weather, rain. We were looking for some seats at the Jodi Stand. It’s the name of the grandstand at Dalymount Park. We found some beside the Bohs – supporter. Therefore we could listen to their chants the hole match. This chants were ironic, funny and rough, vulgar (I mean, it’s still football ;)). Here an example:
On the Banks of the Antartica, where the white have never been,
There’s a great big f*ckin Polar bear, half shagged to death by a football team,
We are the perverts of society, we are the worst you’ve ever seen,
We’re a shower of loud mouth b*stards, we are Bohemian Football Team…
We are very well renowned for raping little kids, steeling old age pensioners and little boys toys,
We are the Perverts of society, we are the worst you’ve ever seen,
We’re a shower of loud mouth bast*rds we are Bohemian Football Team…
Good guys ^^
Unfortunatly the match wasn’t so good. In the first half both teams were very nervous and they don’t create any clear chances. The seconnd half was a bit better. More aggressiv and especially in the last few minutes with many scoring schances. After the finale whistle both teams clashed against each other but no one get hurt. By the way the game ended in a draw (0:0).
I‘ am still in love with the awesome stadiums in UK and Ireland. It’s only a stone’s throw from your seat and the pitch. The supporters getting really furious if some of their players getting tackled right in front of them. Great atmosphere! It would be perfect if we would have those grounds in Germany, without fences, trenches etc.
„When I die they won’t remember who I dated, the fights and the car crashes because they’re not important. They will remember the football.“
Hi everybody!
Sorry for being late this time. I simply can’t imagine that already another week has passed… Also I had to apologize if my sentences are sporadically a little bit weird because yesterday I forgot to do some push-ups, so I’ll do it while blogging. ^^
Well, some bad news at first: Actually we are supposed to write about our work placements, but on Friday last week I had to sign a written agreement about preserving the company secret. Nevertheless I’ll post something on my own risk – no risk, no fun! *lol* No, actually I think it is ok as long as it relates to my blog. 😉
Among others my tasks last week were to update a Dell switch and a Cisco router with the latest firmware and to configure SNTP, the time zone and the summer-time on the Cisco router. And in order to update the router I had to create a TFTP-Server (with some Freeware program) so that I was able to upload the new Cisco IOS. Furthermore I copied 2 Backup-files, created VMs of them and integrated them into a Test-Network, also I upgraded another ESX-Server with 4GB RAM.
Today I started to reinstall a Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. In the process of that several (annoying) problems and errors occurred – I’ll don’t want to list them all, but it took way longer than normal to start the installation process at last (after installing ‚.Net Framework‘, ‚MSPowerShell‘ and a BIOS update for example). Tomorrow I have to finish the installation and configure the Exchange Server…
the Botanic Garden
Now for something completely different. On Sunday, where the weather was really beautiful warm and sunny, I received lady visitors from Germany: A former female superior from the German armed forces (Sandy) with another girl which I don’t know before (Mary). Mainly they came in order to visit a Rihanna concert in the ‘Odyssey Arena Belfast’ and to see me. 😛
They also took a flight from Berlin to Dublin and a bus to Belfast like we did by the way. So I went into the city to pick them up, but they’d left the bus somewhere else than us so it was hard to find them… After a short walk through the city I led them to their hotel and went to the ‘Botanic Garden’ to meet Riccardo and Friedrich in order to relax a bit in the sun. On Monday night I met with the two girls, after they were back from the concert, at the Botanic Inn to drink some beer and talk with Sandy about the good old times at the armed forces. We had a lot of fun at that, oh yeah… xD They left Belfast yet this night with the bus to Dublin because their flight to Berlin was about 7 or 8 o’clock on Tuesday morning.
Well, I’m a bit exhausted now and I’m getting very tired too. I think I’ll post something like general facts (good-to-know-stuff, you know) about Belfast next time… maybe…, we’ll see… 😉
I still waiting for my server, to start my main task. Unfortunately there is nothing else to do for me. Therefor I study the hole day a 1000-paper book about the Configuration Manager 2007. The name of the book is „System Center – Configuration Manager 2007 Unleashed“ (from Kerrie Meyler, Bryron Holt and Greg Ramsey). It is not to bad and could help me.
On wednesday we had a little „Abschiedsparty“ for one of our spanish guys. Fortunately the party were located in a other house, relating to Davids Blog.
I met a lot of interesting people from all over the world. They were from Switzerland, Brazil, Spain (of course ^^), Lebanon, Saudi-Arabia, England, Germany (no not David) and some locals. It was a very good party, I really had a lot of fun.
I looking forward to do a big Ground Hopping Part II, just one word „DERBY!“. Thats all I’m telling you right now 😉
Yesterday I went to the PEC (the very expensive gym -_-) … I just wanted to run for about 45 minutes, nothing special. I jumped on one of the cross-trainers and were really surprised …. but see for yourselves:
In all of these exercise machine were little embedded tv-station and they show pay-tv. I watched the hole Championship Playoff – Finale between Blackpool – Cardiff City (3:2) with sound. Blackpool – Cardiff City
Hey guys!
Today I’ll tell you something about my work. The company I work for from now on is called ‘Lagan Technologies Ltd.’, or just ‘Lagan’, which supports hardware, maintains server and develops software solutions for the British and the American government. the Lagan building
Before I get there on my first day at Monday I met Kevin at his office, together with Oliver who works in another division at Lagan, because he wanted to drive us to the company and to introduce us to our future bosses.
Finally at Lagan, which lies in the north of Belfast nearby the airport, we stepped in the foyer and waited a minute before Oliver and I were introduced to Oliver’s boss, which name I already forgot. He shows us the office area, the kitchen and introduced us to some of the employees.
After that he brought me to my boss John and to Gary, very kind persons by the way. Then John showed me my workplace and the server room and explained me a lot for this purpose.
my workplace
My first task was to set up two ESX-Servers running on Linux and to configure them with another server remotely (with ‘vSphere’) for the purpose of creating virtual machines on the ESX-Servers. Than I had to make many ISO-Files from different operating systems like ‘Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64’ or ‘CentOS 5.5 x64’. After that I virtualized these operating systems and did many, many updates, configured for example the ‘Microsoft Internet Explorer Enhanced Security’ and the ‘Shutdown Event Tracker’. I did this to create from the fully updated and operational VM’s templates. I’m still working on this task.
Besides I changed the IP address of each ESX-Server in Linux and I upgraded one of these with memory up to 24GB RAM, that was the first time ever I touched server hardware on my own and it is – what a miracle – not broken or exploded (Leo!). xD …never mind…
Normally I would end this Blog for now, but today something horrible happened. After work I met with Friedrich in front of the City Centre because we wanted to drive with one of his workmates, Matt, to a huge TESCO for some daily shopping. Along the way to Matt’s car we passed a bus stop where an older lady was waiting on a bench. Nearby was standing a man with a Bullterrier on a leash. All around also were many people. So far to the initial situation.
Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the Bullterrier was attacking the older lady, bit her above the knee and don’t let go! The owner of the dog swooped down on it without hesitation and tried to get his dog off from the woman. All people around looked shocked to the incident and nobody had the guts to interfere. The older lady stops to scream early, maybe the shock, so that the only thing you could hear were things like “Oh my god!” from the people around. Very creepy moment!
With bad feelings Friedrich and I were walking towards the woman to help her somehow, but before we reached her, the owner of the Bullterrier finally made it to open the dog’s mouth and pull him back.
Somebody of the people around already called an ambulance and a fierce discussion starts with the owner of the dog. At this point Friedrich, Matt and I were leaving this place – aghast at this shocking 10 minutes…
Well, so far, stay tuned and a last hint: Beware of Bullterriers (or other dogs), especially without a muzzle!
On monday I started my work at Translink.It is a public corporation in Northern Irland which provides the public transport in the region. Kevin, our „manager“, told me that they have high expectations and thats true ^^ My main project is to install a Microsoft System Management Server and manage a new Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager Server ( SCCM 2007 ). Right on monday I had a meeting with a microsoft expert. I work from 0900 to 1730 and arrive at my appartment around 1800.
Tuesday 18-05-2010
On Thursday, I went with two co-workers to other sites of Translink. They showed me some nice places in Belfast too. Like the Titanic dock, Odyssey Arena, few clubs, pubs and all the rest of it. The rest of the day I studied some Webcasts / Videos about the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. A huge tool, I hope I will be able to handle it.
David and I joined the PEC of the Queens University Belfast. There it is possible to play football, use the swimming pool, the degress fitness area, free weights and and and… It is expensive but doesn’t matter.
Wednesday 19-05-2010
Nothings special today. Work – Eat – Sleep
Pod: Queens University Belfast (Picture of the day)
PS: Haha Hansa und hallo Herr Babbel!
PS²: An meine Dublin – Leute, ich werde am 4. Juni in Dublin sein.
PS³: Mit Freundin 😀
Hello people!
What to do at the ‘holy’ Sunday? According to the sunny weather the question were quite fast answered. Since the very beginning of our arrival in Belfast we wanted to climb one of the mountains nearby Belfast – so it was settled. We took all the things we could need on this journey, above all the camera, and walked (or better hiked) straight through the city towards the approximately 7 miles in the north distant ‘Cave-Hill’.
Already at the foot of the mountain I was impressed about the beautiful view of the nature. On the way up we took a lot of photos and were more amazed of the sight the more we came higher. We saw many guys driving up and down the hill on mountain bikes, hardly surprising because most of the paths and trails seemed to be made for biking.
probably the highest point
Finally on the top of the Cave-Hill (approximately 350m) we all got stunned by the amazing clear and wide sight above Belfast with its harbour, the surrounding land, the distant mountains and even narrow the coast of Scotland(look at the panorama-picture from Friedrich)! As a result of that the view reminds me a bit of the sight while gliding. 😀 After a few minutes we discovered something funny: On a lower laid peak, not far from us, sat a single guy having a BBQ, such epic funny scene!
view from the abyss of the highest point to the BBQ-Guy
After a couple of minutes and a hundreds of photos later we decided to go down. About the same time, maybe a bit earlier, rain clouds appeared at the horizon, by the way. Half way down we discovered two small caves… Wait a sec… Yay, that’s why it’s called ‘Cave-Hill’! xD Whatever… One of the caves was about 30m high on the crag and the other maybe about 4-5m. We wanted to begin in a small way, so we climbed into the lower one, nevertheless it was quiet tough because we all had the wrong footwear thus we had barely grip. At the same time it starts to rain, to our disadvantage because the rocks getting even more slippy. After a short break in the cave, the rain is still falling, we decided to climb back down at last. That was really hard and dangerous at once but the adrenaline was soaring, a very exciting moment!
exploring the 'mysterious' cave
Finally we left the mountain behind and we came across a nice castle somewhere in the woods. The door of the fence was closed, so we can’t get very close to it. Because we were quiet exhausted we took the bus to Belfast City Centre but walked the remaining way to our apartment anyways.
All things considered it was a very cool, fascinating and exciting day so that I just can recommend it to you to do similar on any sunny weekend, if you interested in nature and adventures! 😉
Next time, maybe tomorrow, I’ll tell you something about my workplace and I hope I can post pictures of it, too.
See you then!
Hey guys,
Today I had my first day at work but I will start with the weekend. On Saturday night we went to a pub how´s called „Botanic Inn“. We took a cap, because it was raining. By the way the caps are cheeper than in Germany. After an half hour the other people from our group appeared. It was quiet noisy in the pub, but not because of the music; people were laughing and talking loudly and at minute intervals glasses got broken. Some of the irish took a cup too much, like a man next to us. He was very drunken and his friends took pictures and made fun of him. I had a nice talk to a guy named Metthew and two girls how were absolutely sweet^^. At 1am the bar had closed, so we went home.
Next day, on Sunday we decided to hike to „Cave Hill“. The weather were irish mixed at this day but we had been protected by umbrellas and rainjackets. We saw the buityfull countryside of the north of Belfast and took a lot of pictures like this:
At 9am in the morning I was at work. My boss and the employees introduced me in the work process. In this project my company is responsible for a lot of workstations which used for X-rays and the diagnose. They showed me the infrastructure, how to maintain the serverfarm and whats to do if there occur allerts or errors. One guy „Berry“ was very friendly to me and I asked him if he know somebody hows would rent or sell me a bike because my company is directly in the city-centre. Tomorrow another stuffmember Metthew (but not this boy from the pub) will pick me up and than we will go to one of the hospital to setup a new workstations. I am very excited…
the first week is almost over. A interesting and funny week. I had my job interview on friday at Translink. Work in a windows environment (Security, Server, Windows 7 and Client) will be my main task. More details next week.
On Saturday we watched the FA Cup – Final (Chelsea – Portsmouth 1:0) in a pub (surprise!!). The atmosphere were great and loud. Unfortunately the wrong team won.
In the evening we met our german guys in the same pub (surprise!!!) and had a really good night. I was wondering about the clothes of other people. They are all dressed up like they were going to a very exclusive party but they are just visiting a pub !! Just a pub !!
