After my Debian VM has crashed and I had told my carer that my PC was to slow for a VM, he gave me a server. Then he told me to install a Windows server 2012 and put the VBox on it in order to install my Debian there. So I installed a windows server 2012 with a Raid 1 yesterday!
Today I installed the Debian and on that machine a Zabbix Monitoring Server. That was a little bit tricky but it worked. The following days I must setup the Zabbix server and must install the Zabbix agent. That could be tricky especially under the windows machine. But I hope it will be fine soon!
And I think I will make me a ciabatta with tomato and Mozzarella today. I am sure that will be awesome! 😀
as promised in one of my other entries here is Tuesdays Blog entry.
Yesterday, so Monday, I met with Keith at Ulster Museum, which is only a 10 minutes walk, to install 2 new UPS units into the local wiring center. But the whole process is harder then it seems, first there is thing with installing the support bars, which will support the weight of around 80-90 Kg per Unit. These things gave me more trouble then anything else this day because it’s a real hassle to install these things without hurting yourself or loosing half of the included installation material.
Installing the units into the wiring cabinets was the less complicated part, if you ignore the weight ;), but wouldn’t it be boring if it ends there? 😀
Wiring and setting up the first unit was fairly easy, it’s basically just there to ensure that the servers for Window of the World (WoW in short :D) are backed up in case of a power outage. The second USP was supposed to relieve the HP USP from its duties, which turned out to be a miscommunication between us (Keith & me) and guys up in Cultra.
As the old USP was supporting the backup servers we made sure that all secondary power was coming from one of the power blocks and every connection to the USP was interrupted, or so we thought.
After making sure that every thing was ready to to unplug the USP I pulled the power cord I pulled the plug and silence, I just killed the backup servers and 2 SAS arrays. As it turns out everything in this cabinet was running over this USP, including the power blocks 🙁 and the old USP wasn’t supposed to be replaced but instead supported by the new USP.
After getting our facts straight we rewired everything made sure that servers and all where running on both USPs and the day was over 🙂
I should mention that shutting down the servers has not caused any damage or harm to any innocent information units stored.
Today i was working back at Cultra and went up to Cultra Manor to help Graham with a ticket, shortly after that we went up to the village.
The village is part of the Folk Museum and was dissembled, at a place which name I have forgotten :P, and rebuild back at Cultra.
Again I help Graham with a few technical problems at the offices in the village, e.g. a printer which had to be reconfigured and it took us about an hour to fix the problem (printers a scheme by the devil to torture us I tell you ;))
The village is really beautiful place, it has old candy store, where you can buy actual candy (yay :D), a Post office, a Bank, a Cinema etc. Of course most of these things are just show cases but it’s still pretty impressive, there is even something like a hostel where school classes can spend the night.
A view at the village entranceThe old projector on display in the Cinema
And just to give you an impression of the weather we have here:
View from the train at the bay
I hope everyone of you, my readers, had a nice start into the week and I hope to write you more on Thursday.
On Friday we were the first time in our company. There we met all the employees. They are all very nice and it is a very familiar atmosphere because not more than 25 people work there. We all work there in one big office. Further they told us what kind of work we will do. We got our accounts and mail addresses and checked if everything worked.
This weekend we didn’t do anything interesting. We bought food, hung around, went into pubs and talked to the Spanish guy. And I noticed with shock that everything closes at 2 o’clock in the morning. After 2 o’clock when the bars and clubs were closed many funny drunken people were on the street of Belfast.
Here’s a picture of our street
and another from our apartment!
Today Monday was my first real working day. First I informed myself about Zabbix an open Source Monitoring tool that I later installed on their servers, but after a little while I helped the others checking whether the company’s Mobil phones have micro sim cards because they change the mobile telephone operator and get micro sim cards. That was cool because I had to go to everyone and ask them about their Company Mobile phone. That was good for me to improve my English.
Then I started to install a Linux VM to check how the Zabbix Server Work… no at first I downloaded the Debian iso and that took a while because 200MB with under 200Kb\s took a while. The use of the VM is a little creepy because the pc had just 1GB RAM and I had to close all applications to install the Linux. At the end of the day I had a running Linux and I’ll start the Server installing tomorrow.
it is now Friday evening and the first days of work at the NMNI (National Museums of Norther Ireland) are over. As most of you can probably guess I am working in the IT-Department of the NMNI which only consists of Gordon, Robin, Graham and Keith, who only does audio and video related work.
Where to now?
My first thought, when I heard I was going to work at a Museum, was <sarcasm>“Great working at the Museum can only mean first level support.“</sarcasm> but as it turns out a was so far off. The thing is the IT-Department is responsible for everything inside the NMNI which is , even if it is only remotely, related to Computers, Networks, Server and etc.
Cute IT deparment, isn't it?
The department is situated in Cultra, which is located near Hollywood (yes there is a town outside Belfast called Hollywood ;)), and I have to take the train to work. It is a really convenient way to work, I get on the train at Botanic (5 minute walk from the apartment) and get of at Cultra.
Platformview from Botnic railroad station.
On Tuesday I had my first workday which basically meant to be introduced to everyone, setting up my work place and getting to know the place and everything. On Wednesday and Thursday I tried to get hang of how things work and trying to understand the infrastructure of the NMNI. Besides that I got to work with DrayTek SOHO VPN-routers which I will implement in the following few weeks, the goal is to achieve a VPN connection between Cultra and Armagh (70 miles outside of Belfast).
Today I met with Graham and worked at the Ulster Museum until noon because we some had some tickets to attend to, e.g some hotdesk PCs weren’t supposed to be working (as it turned out they worked perfectly fine). After that we went back to Cultra and had to sit out the 2 hour server shutdown because of maintenance at the SAN arrays.
All in all it is a I can say I got lucky with my placement, I really like the familiar atmosphere and that my workplace is surrounded by green is a nice bonus.
And if someone is curios the weather in Belfast is a nice british grey with hints of rain 😉 And if you will excuse me now I have a beer to attend to 😀
Yours sincerely
Tobias
P.S I will try to post new blog entries every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, if anyone cares ;p
On Wednesday we had an interview at Guardian 24. It was interesting but we don’t really know what we are going to do there. Tomorrow we have our first working day. It will show us what else comes next and what we will be doing in our company.
In the last days we have seen the city and have met a very funny Spaniard who lives above us. This is very good, because one speaks much more English then as in a group of German people.
Today it started raining in Belfast (I add a picture tomorrow). And we had to buy a bus ticket because our employer is about 5 miles away. At least it is on the coast and we have a beautiful place there to spend our breaks.
I’m excited what kind of work we will do for the company and how the employees are. I am curious what comes next and what will happen in the following weeks.
the first few days in Ireland are over and now we are really arrived. After an, more than less, complete renovation, our apartment sufficient for these 2 months.
I can proudly publish: We can shower now!
And now we enjoy our stay here in this beautiful city with all these peoples and different cultures. It’s a kind of save and pleasant feeling you will never have in Berlin.
After we visited Margaret on Monday, we were invited to visit the Guinness storehouse.
Waterfall Guinness storehouse
Inside the Guinness storehouse bar
As you can see we enjoy our time here regardless from our accommodation.
See you later with some impressions from my workplace.
