Category Archives: General

A Very Busy 2017 and Resulting Priorities

Wow…it has been a long time since I last posted…and it has been a year, let me tell you. In fact, 2017 was the busiest year I have ever had…just way too much happening, both at work and at home. And something had to give…so I cut back on my French horn playing (that hurt), and I stopped blogging (which I did miss, but not as much at my horn). And yes, things have slowed down a bit, at least so far, in 2018. I’m rejoining the local orchestra and here is a blog. Sorry for the long absence…but sometimes you have to rearrange priorities and make some hard decisions.

So…what made 2017 so busy? Mainly work…I had two huge projects that I was managing…one was the opening of a new district office (lots of people, cabling, network equipment, and dealing with carriers). The other was the disconnect of all remaining MPLS circuits, and moving to new DIA (Direct Internet Access) circuits.  (I’ll talk more about this in a later blog.) And add to all of this is the normal, everyday fires that take up lots of time and energy. Ugh!

Both of the projects are now done…the new office is opened and running very smoothly. In fact, it’s not often that users will compliment me on how fast the network is, but they did here. And all of my old, legacy MPLS circuits are gone…now THAT was a huge project. I’m running mainly static VTI tunnels for now, but I’m in the middle of converting my entire WAN to DMVPN running IKEv2, with a dual-hub, dual-cloud setup. This REALLY has my geek juices flowing!! I’ve been pushing for some sort of network redundancy for years, and I finally got the green light! I’ll let you know how all of this works out later this year.

The other project that kept me busy was the first floor remodel at my house. My wife and I did almost all of the work (painting, refinishing cabinets, and new floors)…the only thing we hired out was the new granite countertops. It looks great, and we got it all done just 2 weeks before Christmas, when most of our kids were able to make it home for a visit!! It was a GREAT Christmas having family home!!

I hope things are going well with you…and you’ll be seeing more blogs now…(fingers crossed).

SPARC and Solaris UNIX – A Sad Day Indeed

Sun microsystems logo

For those of you that have been involved in the IT industry for a long time, then you know the impact that Sun SPARC systems (and the Solaris operating system) has had on the industry and the Internet. It used to be that if you had an application that was critical or important, then it ran on UNIX and custom RISC processors, and that usually meant Sun hardware and software.

Early in my career, I managed several Sun systems that handled email, firewall (remember the early days of Checkpoint??), and critical databases….it was a lot of work, but the Sun platforms just rocked!! I remember hearing horror stories from other Admin’s about how buggy or poor performing their systems were (especially Windows NT Admin’s), and I just smiled…my SPARC systems and the Solaris OS never let me down!!

Back in 2010, Oracle bought Sun and tried to keep it going, but it’s not going to happen. I just saw this NetworkWorld article today…

Game Over for Solaris and SPARC?

One other memory…way back in my early days in this industry, I was working on the Smart Valley project (in the San Francisco Bay area)…this would have been in the mid-1990’s. I was handling the installation of Internet circuits and related equipment for the many schools in the Silicon Valley area, getting them hooked up to the “Internet”. I was green, and still had a lot to learn, but Sun assigned a number of their Network Engineers to the project and I remember how sharp and helpful they were. They showed a lot of patience to me, and I learned a lot…I am forever in their debt.

Beautiful Visit to Upstate New York

Sorry for the lack of posts lately…been too busy at work, and now my wife and I are in upstate New York visiting my daughter and her family….AND getting some good bonding time with my new granddaughter Evelyn. She is just way too cute….

Holding my new granddaughter!!

Holding my new granddaughter!!

I’ll get back to my postings in another week or so, once I get back from vacation.

To Begin, One Must Take the First Step…

Greetings…

Welcome to my new technical blog for Network Engineers and those that are thinking about a career as a Network Engineer (or IT in general).  My desire is to…

  • Document my experiences as a Network Engineer, both for my use, and so that others may find answers to network related problems they may be having
  • Create a “Network 101” section which can help people better understand the basics of networks, and I hope will lead to better business decisions and two-way communication
  • Encourage the next generation of network engineers, both boys and girls!!  This is a great career, both in job satisfaction and monetary gain.  There is something new to learn almost everyday and you will never be bored.

I hope to post on a regular basis, at least every other day or so.  If you have any suggestions then by all means let me know.

Thanks!