Diary of a Network Geek

Okay, so I’ve gotten a little deeper into the network and I’m finding more “little” things wrong. For one, the servers aren’t all on the same version of Directory Services. For those of you who aren’t Certified Netware Engineers, that’s a bad thing. NDS, or Netware Directory Services, is the distributed database of everything, including security, on the network. If all the servers don’t have the same revision of the NDS programs, called NLMs in Netware Land, there can be problems with security and access between servers. Enough of those problems and the network stops running. But, so far, that hasn’t been a real issue. So, I’m not too worried. I’m working on correcting the problem, but it can wait until the next “maintenance weekend” to reboot the servers so this will take effect.
The other “issue” that sticks out for me is a bad time synchronization plan. I don’t think that it got this way on purpose, but time synchronization is all wrong. Mainly, it looks like the last Netware Admin had no experience on Netware 4.x or greater. I won’t go into the details, but… Well, let’s just say it needs work. This is something that I can work on, and implement, without taking the servers down. I’ve started working on that, too. It’ll take a couple of days to get straight, but that will improve network performance quite a bit.
And, of course, there’s virtually no network documentation. Not a big surprise, if you have any experience with taking over a network. How many Network Engineers really want to write documentation? But, I know it needs to be done. And, I also know how good that looks to management. (Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m kissing butt already. *sigh*) Anyway, I need to go get my sleep so I can be early to the office and hard at work. Updates soon!

Well, so far, so good. I’ve survived most of the first week of my new job. (For those of you who are joining us a little late, I just started at Kirby Marine Transport Corporation on Monday of this week.) I have a whopping three employees, one of which leaves for vacation next week. The network doesn’t quite run itself and there’s more than just “proactive maintenance”, just like I suspected. For one thing, I’ve got an e-mail system that looks like it was designed by a drunk monkey. Now, I’m sure there was a really good reason to have three e-mail post offices in the corporate HQ, but I have no idea what it could be. Also, I have at least one server that has wholly inadequate drive space for it’s one e-mail volume. That’s a fire that I’ll have to put out, right after lunch. On the upside, I have a nice, new office that has a wall of windows and a door and everything! This may not seem like much, but after surviving a bankruptcy, it’s like heaven. And I have three really nice *wood* desks. My PC is a laptop, which isn’t really all that great, to be honest. The damn thing locks up all the time. But, all in all, the new gig is pretty sweet. I’ll keep you posted.

Okay, so it’s been a while since I had an update, but there’s a good reason. One of the headhunters finally came through for me and I’ve got a new job! DÜT, whose real name I’m still not going to reveal, got me an interview at Kirby Marine Transport and I apparently fit their search requirements pretty darn well. When I first went to see them, I didn’t think they were going to work out, but I guess I made a pretty good impression on them, because they totally rearranged their department structure to suit me. Go figure! My “official” title will be Supervisor – Local Area Network/Desktop Support. I’m still not clear on how many people will actually be reporting to me yet, or if I’ve replace the Desktop Support Supervisor that I talked with when I was interviewing, either. But, no matter which way it goes, I’ll have a pretty sweet new job. They’ve got mostly Netware 5.x, but with at least one Netware 3.12 server, two Citrix MetaFrame servers, two AS/400’s, and at least three Solaris servers, including one that runs the web server.
Anyway, I have to pass a drug test, which should be no problem since I’ve never used drugs, and then I start on Monday, 8/21/2000. I’ve already given a week’s notice at what used to be Harbor Financial, then I’m going to take a week off to “clear my palate” as it were, before starting the new job. After all the time I’ve given to Harbor and their successors, I think a week is enough notice. It’s not what I’d normally do, but given the circumstances of the bankruptcy I think it’s actually quite fair.

After I actually start the new job, I’m going to do my best to chronicle the start of my new job. You can bet that my semiweekly updates will get more personal than they’ve been. Keep in mind that this new job is going to let me and Anne save my bonus money from Harbor for a down-payment on a house. But, before we can get a house together, she has to get he divorce finished up and then I have to get her to marry me. (Don’t worry, after living with her for 2+ years, I’m pretty sure she’ll say yes.) So things will bet pretty darn personal! Also, I hope to spend some more time on my other two web sites: www.Fantasist.net and www.HavePalmWillTravel.com When I start the new, more personal portion of the Diary of a Network Geek, I’ll archive this part. Stay tuned!