Introducing EMC Ask The Expert

AskTheExpertLogoA few months ago Mark Browne approached Matt Brender and I with a new idea for the EMC Community Network.  Mark is very big on ECN and if you’ve visited the site, you’ve probably interacted with things Mark has had a hand in.  So Mark pitched us the idea of starting an “Ask the Expert” section on the support forums.  In this space, we would gather a couple of subject matter experts to answer questions on a related topic for about two weeks at a time and maybe follow up with a video recap.

 

Matt and I both thought this was a great idea and over the next few months we helped Mark flesh out the idea in preparation to present to the approving management structure.  With the help of our friend Michael Chelotti, we recorded a teaser video.  This video will be very similar to a video recap idea where we will talk about some of the topics during the discussion.  You can watch our video below:

 

I’m proud to report that this idea was well received and Ask the Expert is a go.  Starting today, we launch our first event!   Matt will be joined by Henri Hamalianen and they will talk about configuring and troubleshooting the VNXe front end connections with VMware.  These two weeks are open for anyone to ask Matt and Henri about using their VNXe in a VMware environment this post on ECN.  I urge everyone to checkout the discussion and get involved.  Keep an eye on the schedule for a discussion on the VNX that may be hosted by yours truly.

I Tech Therefore I Tool Around – Episode 02 – The Home Lab

DSC_0022So our first episode of the “I Tech Therefore I Tool Around” was a smashing success!  Matthew Brender and I had a great time recording and we learned a lot about the process that goes into making a podcast.  The feedback from our listeners was great as well.

 

With that experience and knowledge in hand, we recorded our second podcast.  In this episode, we talk about the why and the how of building a home lab.  I touched upon my home lab during my blog post about the VCP4  Our special guest, Luigi Danakos, talks about his need for a home lab and how he acquired one without spending a dime.  We also touch on several blog posts that inspired our builds.  These are all great resources for building a home lab, so check them out:

 

A slight apology for Luigi as he was still getting over an illness and can be heard coughing every now and then during the recording (I cut out as much as I could).  Be sure to check out Matt’s post on this experience.

 

Click HERE to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

Or click HERE (or on the icon) to download the MP3 directly!

Review: NEWTrent IMP65W iPad 2 Screen Protector

IMP65W*NOTE* NEWTrent sent me this product free of charge.

Most of you may remember my previous review of the keyboard case I got from NEWTrent.  That case gave me solid structaral setup for my iPad 2 that offered protection for the back.  Well NEWTrent has done it again with the IMP65W which protects my screen from all sorts of marks and scratches.

 

As you can see from the picture, this screen cover has an integrated boarder around the edge to help retain the iconic design that apple had put in place.  It’s also good if you wanted to try and change the color of your iPad from Black to White (or vice versa).

 

PROS:

  • This really protects your screen.  The screen protector is at least double the thickness of most other screen protectors. This will keep your iPad from suffering deep scratches.
  • Easy to install.  The thickness of this protector keeps it from bending during install.  This allows for a bubble free application as well as proper alignment.
  • Smudge resistant finish.  The material that the screen is made of does not show fingerprints and smudges as easily as the factor screen.
  • No loss of sensitivity.  The iPad responds just as well as if there was no protector in place (even with light touches).

 

CONS:

  • Matte finish.  This may be a subject of some debate, but to me, I liked the clear glossy finish that other screen protectors have.  This finish does change the display properties of the screen because it does cause some speckling and uneven color fill.

 

All in all this is a very durable screen protector.  Combining this with an OtterBox case will get you a highly durable iPad that will stand up to most anything you can throw at it!

I Tech Therefore I Tool Around – The Podcast

I think the title says it all. If you’ve been paying attention to my twitter feed, it’s no secret that Matt Brender and I have been working on a Podcast. We have always had great banter between the two of us and now we have the chance to share it with the rest of you. In this first episode, we cover the subject of certifications. We debate how worth while it is to get certifications in todays job market and how a resume looks to perspective employers.

This is our first podcast, so the editing might be a little rough, but the content is pure gold.  I had a great time debating with Matt and i think it showes in the content.  I learned a lot about the creative process and planning that goes into a podcast and i hope to put it to good use in future episodes.  Let me know what you think about it in the comments below and be sure to tune into our next podcast where Matt and I talk about home labs.

Matt has also written a blog post on this which can be read here.

Click HERE to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

DOWNLOAD BELOW:
I Tech Therefore I Tool Around – Episode 01

Reflections on the Utah Call Center

So my two week stay in Utah has come to a close and it has been a great experience.  Our new recruits are well on their way and they are understanding the inner workings of the VNX a lot faster than I did when I started at EMC.   In the short time I was there I watched them grow from handling simple dial home cases to complex issues and high severity situations.  They work well with each other as well as with customers and I sensed a great deal of comradery amongst the group.  While most of them did work together at a previous employer, they worked well with the other people who were new to them.  There are some clear leaders in the group and you could tell that the other coworkers would gravitate towards them when they needed assistance.

 

The interaction with the culture of Utah allowed me a greater understanding of how the Mormon religion effects the daily lives of the citizens.  It’s not all that we see on TV shows like “Big Love” and “Sister Wives”.  In fact, polygamy goes against the church’s teachings.  Most of the my new coworkers are in fact Mormon.  Some are more religious than others but they aren’t there to preach to me about their faith.  Some have done their missionary work already and have settled down and started a family, while other aren’t as active with the church.

 

My stay here allowed me a great deal of freedom to travel and see the sights.  I was able to see what was left of the 2002 Olympic games as well as many geological landmarks and formations.  Coming from the east coast, we don’t get mountains like they do out here and I took every chance I got to enjoy the majestic beauty of them.  If you haven’t already, please check out my photos from my trip on my google+ page.

 

All in all this was a great trip.  I understand that several of my colleagues will be traveling up to visit Hopkinton, MA soon and I hope to be able to offer them the same experience they offered me here.  I think that great things will come from this new group in Utah and I hope to get out here again soon.

New version of VMware View Client for iPad released!

VMwareFor those of you who don’t have update notifications enabled on your iPad, VMware released a new version of their View client for the iPad.  Version 1.2 brings a number of changes (as well as a new look and feel) to the client.  Click here to download the new client and read below for a list of changes.

  • Embedded RSA soft token simplifies login to desktop <=== My favorite!
  • Optimized for VMware View 5 with improved performance
  • Support for iOS 5 including AirPlay
  • Presentation Mode for use with external display and AirPlay
  • Background tasking to move between Windows and iOS apps
  • Updated look and feel
  • Integrated online help
  • Buffered text input for multibyte text entry
  • Now in French, German, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese
  • Bug Fixes

EMC Support: The Next Generation

RemoteHelpIts hard to hide the fact that EMC’s sales are up.  There have been announcements about record profits, growth, and installations all around.  With this increased boom of installed systems, EMC is also increasing it’s support presence as well.  A few months back EMC announced it had broken ground on a new 7 million dollar support facility in Utah.  This center will add at least 500 new US based support engineers to help.

 

You may be asking what this means to you?  Well in my department (Unified Support) we have added over 60+ new members to our staff.  With the later time zone we can offer extended US based support to our west coast customers instead of doing a hand over at 3 PM Pacific.  This also means there will be more North American based personnel handling cases.

 

Why am I telling you about this? Well I am happy to announce that I will be traveling to this new center to help mentor the new hires.  I will be able to instill upon them my knowledge of Celerra and VNX.  I will be out there for the first two weeks of November, so if any of my readers are in the area and would like to get together for food or drink, leave me a comment or a shout out on twitter.

What is Backup Academy?

Last week I was asked by Rick Vanover to review a new community project he was putting together called Backup Academy.  The site, located at www.backupacademy.com, is dedicated to IT and Storage professionals who are looking to learn the basics of performing backups and recovery of a virtual environment.  This site is product / vendor neutral and is supported by experts in their respective fields.

Backup Academy greets you with an introductory video that is narrated by Rick as well as an introduction to all 5 current professors.  The initial group offers information from the following people:

 

These 5 experts have put together a total of 8 videos that cover a variety of backup and restoration topics:

    • Why virtual machine backups are different?
    • Core technologies used for virtual machine backup
    • Disaster recovery of VMware workloads
    • Backing up enterprise applications: Transaction consistency is key
    • Restore capabilities of VMware backups
    • VMware backup integrity tools
    • Best practices for VMware backups
    • Best practices for Hyper-V backups

Once you have completed these videos, you should have enough knowledge to earn you Backup Academy Certification.  This simple 35 question exam covers the material reviewed in the videos and ensures a basic understanding of backup and restore technologies in a virtual world.  I was able to pass the exam on my first try and I am now Backup Academy Certified.

snippet_ba_white

 

So I urge you all to checkout the website and learn as much as you can from the videos.  If you think you have something to offer in return, feel free to apply to be a professor.

The next great virtualization platform

Two weeks ago, VMware held their annual gathering of all things virtual.  Las Vegas was buzzing with technology from all parts of the globe.  While I did not attend in person, I was there in spirit (or in the cloud as some would put it).  There were many great announcements that came out of the conference.  While many revolved around vSphere 5 and storage technology, there was one particular announcement that caught my attention.

 

On August 30th, VMware announced their new venture called Horizon Mobile.  This new virtualization platform allows for a user to run a separate virtual phone on their android device.  This effectively offers the user both a work phone and a personal phone on the same hardware with just the push of a button.  This benefits both the user and the supporting organization behind it.  IT departments will be allowed to push out corporate policy changes to mobile devices without effecting the personal usage of a phone.  On top of this, a business would not have to incur the extra cost of having to issue a separate device to an employee when all they will need to do is just push out a software update.  The same goes for retrieval after an employee has left the organization as all that is needed is a remote wipe of the business OS instead of trying to track down the hardware.

 

With the rise of the android personal phone, most users do not want to carry a second one just to be able to receive work calls and email.  The two mobile instances will be separated at the core, but allow for some overlap.  In a world where android viruses are starting to become more present, any such mayhem caused to the personal side of a phone will not effect the business side.  On the other side of the spectrum, if the user is working on a business email and gets a personal phone call, a notification will pop up and allow them to answer while not leaving the virtual instance on the phone.

 

HorizonManager03Combined with this is the Horizon Mobile Manager.  This application is the heart and sole of the mobile instance, allowing for application and policy changes to the work side of the phone as well as a health check of the mobile instance.  A separate application catalogue has also been included to ensure that all proper licenses can be handled by the company instead of the user.  VMware has even included the option to push out these changes as an Over-The-Air update to phones connected to a cellular network.

 

This new tech also raises several questions as to how you can have two completely separate phones under one piece of hardware.  The current market for GSM technology ties everything to the SIM card in the phone.  Your mobile number and data usage are all tracked on this.  This means that you cannot get two different phone numbers for the same phone and raises a few questions.

  • How will you be able to answer your work phone calls and your personal ones on the same device without additional hardware?
  • How will corporate and personal voice/date usage be accounted for since most providers do not offer an unlimited plan anymore?
  • Who will be responsible for possible software problems inside the virtual instance?

 

I search around for the answer to these questions and did not come up with much.  However since this announcement was nothing more than a preview of things to come, I assume things will all be ironed out when it launches in a few months.

 

The tech demos I saw also showed a lack of an in handset security feature.  While I might not be so keen on lending someone my work phone to play with or make a call, I would be more likely to lend them my personal phone.  All the demos showed off how a user can switch to the other profile with just the press of a button.  What I’d like to see is some sort of pin code protecting this feature.  If I lend my phone to a friend and they accidentally hit the button, they could start making calls from my work number without even knowing it.

 

SamsungGalaxySIISo “Why is this so important to me?” you may be asking yourself.  As it just so happened, I recently purchased the new Samsung Galaxy SII phone and have been enjoying it.  I’ve overclocked the dual core cpu up to 1.6Ghz while decreasing the voltage to maintain battery life.  This works very well for me with this announcement as Samsung was listed as one of the hardware partners and several press announcements and blogs have indicated that Horizon Mobile is being designed to launch initially on the Galaxy SII.

 

I look forward to the coming months as more information comes out and I hope to be one of the few people who get to launch with this application.

 

For more information on Horizon Mobile and the Horizon Mobile Manager, check out the website http://www.horizonmanager.com/

Understanding the EMC VNX/Celerra AntiVirus Agent (CAVA): Part 2 – Common Errors

This is part 2 of my CAVA blog post series. In this post, I will go through common error messages you could see in the output of server_viruschk. For those of you haven’t already, please check out part 1 where I go line by line through the output of the server_viruscheck command.

 

Most of these errors have to do with the account used for CAVA. This account is set as the “Log on as” option for EMC Cava in the “services” section of windows.

 

 

OBJECT_NAME_NOT_FOUND:

server_2 :
10 threads started.
1 Checker IP Address(es):
192.168.1.101        OFFLINE at Sat Aug 20 20:28:33 2011 (GMT-00:00)
                     MS-RPC over SMB, CAVA version: , ntStatus: OBJECT_NAME_NOT_FOUND
                     AV Engine:
                     Server Name: cava.thulin.local
                     No signature date


Description: ntStatus: OBJECT_NAME_NOT_FOUND means that the cava service is not running on the server.

Solution: Start the EMC CAVA service under the services menu on the AV server.

 

ERROR_AUTH 5:

server_2 :
10 threads started.
1 Checker IP Address(es):
192.168.1.101        ERROR_AUTH 5 at Sat Aug 20 21:00:10 2011 (GMT-00:00)
                     MS-RPC over SMB, CAVA version: 4.8.5.0, ntStatus: SUCCESS
                     AV Engine: Symantec AV
                     Server Name: cava.thulin.local
                     Last time signature updated: Tue May 17 05:55:23 2011 (GMT-00:00)


Description: ERROR_AUTH means that when cava when to connect to the “check$” folder on the cifs server, it ran into an error. In this case, ERROR_AUTH 5 means that the account does not have the viruschecking privilege.

Resolution: Check to make sure that the EMC CAVA process is running under the cava network user and not the Local System account. If this is correct, verify that you gave the CAVA network account the Viruschecking Privilege in the MMC snap in.

 

AV_NOT_FOUND:

server_2 :
10 threads started.
1 Checker IP Address(es):
192.168.1.101        AV_NOT_FOUND at Sat Aug 20 20:29:59 2011 (GMT-00:00)
                     MS-RPC over SMB, CAVA version: 4.8.5.0, ntStatus: SUCCESS
                     AV Engine: Unknown third party antivirus software
                     Server Name: cava.thulin.local
                     Last time signature updated: Tue May 17 05:55:23 2011 (GMT-00:00)


Description: AV_NOT_FOUND means that CAVA cannot find a running AV process. By default, cava uses a privilege called “Debug Program Rights” to search for the following applications running in memory: SpntSvc.exe, rtvscan.exe, Mcshield.exe, InoRT.exe, SWEEPSRV.SYS, SavService.exe, NTRtScan.exe, and kavfs.exe

Solution: First check to make sure your antivirus software is installed and running. If this is true, then make sure the CAVA account has the Debug Program Rights. By default, this privilege is granted to all local administrators, so add the cava account to the local administrators folder.

 

INVALID_PARAMETER:

server_2 :
10 threads started.
1 Checker IP Address(es):
192.168.1.101        OFFLINE at Sun Aug 21 17:08:28 2011 (GMT-00:00)
                     MS-RPC over SMB, CAVA version: , ntStatus: INVALID_PARAMETER
                     AV Engine:
                     Server Name: cava.thulin.local
                     No signature date


Description: ntStatus is throwing an error trying to connect from the Cifs server to the Cava server. This error is caused when the CIFS server specified for CAVA is not joined to AD.

Resolution: Join the cifs server to AD and restart CAVA.

 

ERROR_AUTH 64:

server_2 :
10 threads started.
1 Checker IP Address(es):
192.168.1.101        ERROR_AUTH 64 at Sun Aug 21 18:16:05 2011 (GMT-00:00)
                     MS-RPC over SMB, CAVA version: 4.8.5.0, ntStatus: SUCCESS
                     AV Engine: Symantec AV
                     Server Name: cava.thulin.local
                     Last time signature updated: Tue May 17 05:55:23 2011 (GMT-00:00)


Description: ERROR_AUTH 64 is because there is a kerberos skew error.

Resolution: Make sure the time on the cava server is within 5 minutes of the data mover.

 

ERROR_AUTH 86:

server_2 :
10 threads started.
1 Checker IP Address(es):
192.168.1.101        ERROR_AUTH 86 at Sun Aug 21 17:25:31 2011 (GMT-00:00)
                     MS-RPC over SMB, CAVA version: 4.8.5.0, ntStatus: SUCCESS
                     AV Engine: Symantec AV
                     Server Name: cava.thulin.local
                     Last time signature updated: Tue May 17 05:55:23 2011 (GMT-00:00)

Problem: ERROR_AUTH 86 is caused when someone changes the password of the CAVA user in AD, but the cava software is using the old password.

Resolution: Update the password used for the cava account on each cava server. If you attempt to restart cava without updating, cava will fail to start with a logon failure error.

 

ERROR_AUTH 1265:

server_2 :
10 threads started.
1 Checker IP Address(es):
192.168.1.101        ERROR_AUTH 1265 at Sun Aug 21 16:04:33 2011 (GMT-00:00)
                     MS-RPC over SMB, CAVA version: 4.8.5.0, ntStatus: SUCCESS
                     AV Engine: Symantec AV
                     Server Name: cava.thulin.local
                     Last time signature updated: Tue May 17 05:55:23 2011 (GMT-00:00)

Description: ERROR_AUTH 1265 is caused when the cava user account has expired in AD. You can verify this if you attempt to login to a remote desktop with the cava user’s credentials.

Resolution: Have a domain admin reset the CAVA account and change it to never expire to keep this problem from returning.

 

ERROR_AUTH 1326:

server_2 :
10 threads started.
1 Checker IP Address(es):
192.168.1.101        ERROR_AUTH 1326 at Sun Aug 21 17:49:37 2011 (GMT-00:00)
                     MS-RPC over SMB, CAVA version: 4.8.5.0, ntStatus: SUCCESS
                     AV Engine: Symantec AV
                     Server Name: cava.thulin.local
                     Last time signature updated: Tue May 17 05:55:23 2011 (GMT-00:00)

Description: ERROR_AUTH 1326 occurs when the cava user’s password has expired in AD.

Resolution: Change the cava account password and have a domain admin set it to never expire.

 

ERROR_AUTH 1331:

server_2 :
10 threads started.
1 Checker IP Address(es):
192.168.1.101        ERROR_AUTH 1331 at Sun Aug 21 17:09:45 2011 (GMT-00:00)
                     MS-RPC over SMB, CAVA version: 4.8.5.0, ntStatus: SUCCESS
                     AV Engine: Symantec AV
                     Server Name: cava.thulin.local
                     Last time signature updated: Tue May 17 05:55:23 2011 (GMT-00:00)

Description: ERROR_AUTH 1331 is when the cava account object is disabled or logon hours have been put in place to deny logon.

Resolution: Have a domain admin enable the cava account object in AD and confirm that the cava account can logon at all hours of the day.

 

ERROR_AUTH 1909:

server_2 :
10 threads started.
1 Checker IP Address(es):
192.168.1.101        ERROR_AUTH 1909 at Sun Aug 21 17:57:17 2011 (GMT-00:00)
                     MS-RPC over SMB, CAVA version: 4.8.5.0, ntStatus: SUCCESS
                     AV Engine: Symantec AV
                     Server Name: cava.thulin.local
                     Last time signature updated: Tue May 17 05:55:23 2011 (GMT-00:00)

Description: ERROR_AUTH 1909 occurs when the cava user account has been locked out due to too many invalid logon attempts.

Resolution: Have an AD admin reset the lockout status on the cava network user.

 

This should cover most of the common errors you will find when cava is running. You may have to check the server logs on cava to see them in the event that cava is turned off. If you have experienced a problem and my resolution does not fix it, please let me know and also open a case with EMC Celerra support.
 
On a side note, I want to also recognize Daniel Morris for his blog posts on CAVA. I urge you to read the following links to get a good understanding as well.

http://blog.planetchopstick.com/2010/10/18/what-is-emc-cava-celerra-anti-virus-agent/

http://blog.planetchopstick.com/2011/05/03/cava-considerations-and-basic-setup/

http://blog.planetchopstick.com/2011/05/05/cava-troubleshooting/