What Do You Do For A Living ?

Air Traffic Controller for the Air Force. No, it's not the guy waving light sticks...you'd be amazed at how often i get that. I sit in a building with no windows staring at a screen with data tags moving across it. two demension view with a three demensional mentality. good stuff, but my civilian counterparts make triple what i make and don't have to go to iraq. love every minute of it tho.
 
I am a Server/Storage Engineer for a wholesale energy company. I run the data center for our company as well as the parent company.

We've started a virtualization project and have cut the data center from 7 racks to 3. We're running 115 virtual servers on 12 dual core blades and two SANs. :D We're over 60% done. Power consumption was cut 38% thus far by shutting down physical servers combined with the lowered costs of keeping it all cooled with AC.

I've been working with technology since 1988 and am self-taught. By trade, I was supposed to be an architect or an artist but found that deadlines took all the fun out of both.

I really love my job and the company I work for. :woot:
 
Well, as a GC, I sometimes wish the architect could be eliminated from the equation. "Design Intent" is great if you actually know how to make it come to a reality.

I just wish now that I would have paid more attention to my dad's line of work, electrical engineer and his hobby of computers. I could have saved myself some headache and $$$ for some of the things that popped up over the past few months.

Adam
 
FZ1inNH said:
I am a Server/Storage Engineer for a wholesale energy company. I run the data center for our company as well as the parent company.

We've started a virtualization project and have cut the data center from 7 racks to 3. We're running 115 virtual servers on 12 dual core blades and two SANs. :D We're over 60% done. Power consumption was cut 38% thus far by shutting down physical servers combined with the lowered costs of keeping it all cooled with AC.

I've been working with technology since 1988 and am self-taught. By trade, I was supposed to be an architect or an artist but found that deadlines took all the fun out of both.

I really love my job and the company I work for. :woot:
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I am an IT Manager for a children's hospital. We've done a lot of virtualization with VMware as well. Our outfit is not as big, but right now I have about 30 virtual servers. Was able to get rid of two whole racks in our data center as well. Have been using VMware and and EMC SAN in our data center since 2006. My group handles the technical end of things. Matter of fact I have to go in to work in a little while. Adding storage to the SAN today :)
 
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NJFZ1 said:
I am an IT Manager for a children's hospital. We've done a lot of virtualization with VMware as well. Our outfit is not as big, but right now I have about 30 virtual servers. Was able to get rid of two whole racks in our data center as well. Have been using VMware and and EMC SAN in our data center since 2006. My group handles the technical end of things. Matter of fact I have to go in to work in a little while. Adding storage to the SAN today :)
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:confused0024::confused0024::confused0024::
 
NJFZ1 said:
I am an IT Manager for a children's hospital. We've done a lot of virtualization with VMware as well. Our outfit is not as big, but right now I have about 30 virtual servers. Was able to get rid of two whole racks in our data center as well. Have been using VMware and and EMC SAN in our data center since 2006. My group handles the technical end of things. Matter of fact I have to go in to work in a little while. Adding storage to the SAN today :)
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We also use VMware and have just started our upgrade to vSphere. We did the DR site first to see how it all ran and since that upgrade went smooth, we're doing the HQ site next week.

Although I have three racks left, I have enough free U's to consolidate it to 2 racks. We also are running EMC with a CX500 and an NS20 but we're looking for a unified and more expandable solution. We're going to give some time to Netapp and Compellent before we decide on a budget for next year. We are not at all happy with the EMC folks. The product works but the people and support are horrid.

Are you using blades? We're an HP shop so both here and DR are all being put into blades. Also, since the parent company's P2V went so well? They are looking to us to take over IT for all our sister companies as well. :D

I LOVE technology!
 
Alright -- break it down for those of us not in the industry -- but how is it that you are able to consolidate from 7 to 3 and still maintain the same serviceability??

Does it just become a matter of storage space vs. having to have all the hardware to maintain if not in a virtual platform??

Adam
 
Ok. VMware installs as a "host" server which you install on any physical machine. You then attach your favorite storage solution. As you install more hosts, the beauty of VMware is they can all share the same storage space amongst themselves. Each host is put into a resource pool of available memory and processing power. You then install virtual machines, or "guests" on the hosts in the pool. VMware allows you to "overbook" resources because it is smarter than Windoze and knows that you'll not really use 2 CPUs and 4 GB of RAM. So, with a blade center which is about 1/3rd of a 42U rack, you can put in 16 "hosts" and on those hosts, you can install about 20 average "guests" per host. So, instead of 20 one U servers in a rack, you've condensed them into one small blade system.

VMware hands out the resources as needed and constantly moves live "guests" from host to host on the fly because all resources are shared. It manages the pool by balancing the processing and memory use for the guest machines.

The best way to explain it is to see it work. If you go to the VMware site, you can download for free a VMware player, then you can download free guests called appliances. Thus, within your Vista box, you can run a Linux web browsing machine and surf the web without infecting your own host (Vista) and when you turn off the Linux guest (these are typically labeled Browser Appliance) it resets itself to default. Any site you browsed that might have left its "deposit" on your guest is lost. :D Most of these can also open up your local Vista drive so you can download stuff in the guest, deposit the files in a shared space then safely scan them and use them in Vista or XP.

I'm not sure if this is enough layman terminology but I hope it helps to explain. :D
 
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FZ1inNH said:
We also use VMware and have just started our upgrade to vSphere. We did the DR site first to see how it all ran and since that upgrade went smooth, we're doing the HQ site next week.

Although I have three racks left, I have enough free U's to consolidate it to 2 racks. We also are running EMC with a CX500 and an NS20 but we're looking for a unified and more expandable solution. We're going to give some time to Netapp and Compellent before we decide on a budget for next year. We are not at all happy with the EMC folks. The product works but the people and support are horrid.

Are you using blades? We're an HP shop so both here and DR are all being put into blades. Also, since the parent company's P2V went so well? They are looking to us to take over IT for all our sister companies as well. :D

I LOVE technology!
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I have not upgraded to vSphere yet. Need to wait until my replication software for virtual machines supports it.

Running an EMC CX3-40 (upgraded from a CX500). I agree with you about their support. I've had issues in the past take days to get resolved.

Not using blades for the ESX hosts, although I do have some Windows 2003 servers running on blades. We are a Dell shop. I think by now they are comparable to HP and IBM as far as standard servers and blades.
 
Education Services Specialist for the Army; aka Civil Servant. But hey, I have a job and I get to work with my heroes!

I am a deputy Sheriff for my local County. Have conflicts though enforcing traffic laws especially since I tend to disregard them when on my FZ1........
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That's funny to me. I was recently stopped going about 100 mph. I resigned myself to the reality I'd just taken a very expensive ride. The Officer scolded me for my speed but noted he too was a motorcyclist. Then he shocked me by saying he was giving me a "warning" only. I thanked him profusely, telling him I would slow down. I think we both knew that was a crock. :sport12:
 
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Grew up in Wichita -- went to schoool @ KU and lived in Johnson Co. before coming to NM in 2001.

Figured it had to be in the middle of nowhere if you were testing gunpowder all day long....

Adam
 
I'm a cylinder head porter for a Nascar engine shop. We build engines for about 20 teams. Two Cup teams and alot of Nationwide teams.
Which I was working for a Superbike team or a MotoGP team though.
 
New Member

I am a new member to this forum, having just recently discovered it. had an '02 for 7 years, just bought a new 09 Granite. It is sportier, firmer handling, a bit lighter feel, not as plush on the sport touring front, not as good on mileage, not as good 2 up. all around for me, still sweet, competent all-rounder!

Job? oh yeah, I am a CSI supervisor, crime scenes, fingerprints, bodies, DNA, high drama in the courtroom, etc. (been riding motorcycles since 1967, a Honda Supersport 90)
 
dcbeemers said:
I am a new member to this forum, having just recently discovered it. had an '02 for 7 years, just bought a new 09 Granite. It is sportier, firmer handling, a bit lighter feel, not as plush on the sport touring front, not as good on mileage, not as good 2 up. all around for me, still sweet, competent all-rounder!

Job? oh yeah, I am a CSI supervisor, crime scenes, fingerprints, bodies, DNA, high drama in the courtroom, etc. (been riding motorcycles since 1967, a Honda Supersport 90)
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A big welcome to you! Glad to have you along.
 
I am a PhD student in Computer Science at Vanderbilt University. I try to keep my motivation level normal amidst of all the frustration of producing good research papers. My wife works and she is a application analyst so it feels like a kept man but I love it.
 
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