Day 8: The Network

(Hours: 7:30am-5:00pm)

Again, I started my day opening up the Tech. Department and Library at 7:30. After that I headed over to David’s Office to finish up my Windows 7 image. Things in the morning were a little hectic, as one of the main servers was down, and because of it none of the thin clients were working. This downed server didn’t really affect me so I continued working on the Windows 7 image. I removed a few non-important application updaters, and deleted the test user profiles. After that I used the Local Group Policy to force Windows Media Player to not show the set up wizard on the first start. The last thing I had to do was to try and find a way to stop Microsoft XPS Document Writer. Which is a pseudo printer that Microsoft installs and sets as the default printer. It turns out that you can’t delete it for all users and the Default user, you can only remove it from the current user with a sketchy freeware removal tool.

Sysprep was then used to finalize the Windows 7 image into the "Out of the Box" experience mode, and then we booted to the imaging CD. I did the exact same thing as I did with the image yesterday. I compiled the image into a .wim file then uploaded it to a local server.

I then visited Kevin Smith, the Network Administrator. He took me around and showed me the schools networking system. Kevin took me out to the telephone pole where their main fiber optic cable came in. This cable is strung to the main Colgate building where it is then distributed to various other fiber optic lines. Most of the fiber optic lines are run through two other buildings, from there more fiber optic lines are strung out to the many other buildings and dorms. Kevin told me of the downfalls of having a system like this, the main problem is if one of the main route buildings goes down then every building and switch that branches off of it go down as well. Kevin proposed a triangular system, creating 2 full loops so there is less dependence on one area, but it didn’t get accepted by the senior staff.

After showing me the hardware aspect, Kevin went into a bit of software. The school uses various management systems to monitor and maintain the network. Kevin showed me the many programs that are common use in the Network Administrator position. All these programs are helpful, but a majority of work is done through command lines. Kevin used to run Ubuntu (a type of Linux OS) because it’s very easy to run many command prompts, but has since switched to Windows 7, which is needed for some programs. Colby-Sawyer’s Networking system is interesting and complex, and I don’t want to bore you by going into more detail, but Kevin really helped explain it and I now have a general understanding of how it all works.

Once Kevin was done with showing me the network, I headed upstairs to the old school newspaper room. I needed to keep two machines in the room, but take out 4 others. The two that were staying in the office needed to be imaged, but when I tried to use Acronis the systems wouldn’t find the server that the Image resides on. And so I unplugged and brought every machine downstairs, to be imaged. Before I started to image those computers, I organized the shelves where they will be stored. Once the shelves were in order I took out the first HP D350 to be imaged.

Or well, that’s what I wanted to do. The computer wouldn’t boot from the CD, turns out the CD Drive was broken. I opened it up and threw in a new one, and it worked just fine. I booted into my good old Acronis and started to image the machine. About half way through the image process, the screen went black and I was left with a Linux based command prompt screen. I restarted and tried again.

Post time: 5:49pm est