Sure there are tons of articles on the internet discussing Steve Jobs resigning. Here are just a few.
BGR - http://www.bgr.com/2011/08/24/steve-jobs-resigns-as-ceo-of-apple-tim-cook-takes-his-place/
FoxNews - http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2011/08/24/steve-jobs-resigns-as-ceo-named-chairman-373386699/
First I'd like to say to Steve thanks for so many of the things you brought to our industry. While I don't always agree with everything that Apple does there is no doubt that he innovated and brought new things that changed how we live our lives.
I'd also like to point out that while Apple stock has initially fallen around 2% in these first hours of trading after the announcement, I think the worst is yet to come for them. I'm not sure how long it will take, after all Mr. Jobs has them set on a pretty successful path, but I believe we'll see some pretty major downgrades for Apple in the coming years.
I know its easy to predict this right? I'm going to back up my statement with some reality. Many people forget that Jobs came back to Apple in the late 90's and literally saved the company. Prior to Jobs return Apple had largely sunk into near irrelevance. In fact it looked like the only likely challenger Microsoft had on the horizon was Linux. If not for the good timing of the MP3 craze and Jobs knack for marketing with the original iPod and iTunes Apple may not even exist any longer.
Regardless of what happens with Apple in the coming years I imagine their near term success will continue and they will continue many of the practices Mr. Jobs put in place. I do wish Steve Jobs the best and I hope that his health isn't as bad as it would seem.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Service Review: Spotify
What is Spotify - Its a music streaming service that started a few years ago in Sweden.
Platforms - Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, iOS (iphone/ipad), Android and many others
Cost - Free (by invite currently) or Premium Subscription for $9.99
Review:
Spotify recently arrived in the USA in Mid July and competes with many other services such as Live365 or Pandora. While Pandora allows you to build "stations" and listen to music that is suggested to you based upon what you've listened to in the past Spotify provides the ability to build custom lists and sync them accross multiple devices. Spotify also allows the use of social networking to share your songs and play lists with your friends via Facebook, Twitter and other outlets.
I have been using Spotify for about three weeks now. So far I've found 99% of everything I've looked for. There have been a hand full of artists such as AC/DC that haven't been available and a handful of albums by specific artists that aren't available. There have been things there I wouldn't have expected to find - such as entire albums by Roger Miller.
I am subscribed to the $9.99 premium package. Initially I picked this package simply so I could get in. I intended to get pay for a month, get some invites and drop. After having used the product for a month and seeing how my desktop interacts with my android phone however, I'm sold. I can add a song on my office computer and create custom play lists and know when I walk out to my car its instantly available for play.
I would say the price is a bit steep however. Nearly $10 a month for music is asking a lot in my opinion. You do get 10 invites and you can use the subscription on numerous devices so the value isn't that bad. I feel like $5 a month would be more appealing to a wider range of people and they'd get more than double the user base paying.
Rating - 9/10
Platforms - Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, iOS (iphone/ipad), Android and many others
Cost - Free (by invite currently) or Premium Subscription for $9.99
Review:
Spotify recently arrived in the USA in Mid July and competes with many other services such as Live365 or Pandora. While Pandora allows you to build "stations" and listen to music that is suggested to you based upon what you've listened to in the past Spotify provides the ability to build custom lists and sync them accross multiple devices. Spotify also allows the use of social networking to share your songs and play lists with your friends via Facebook, Twitter and other outlets.
I have been using Spotify for about three weeks now. So far I've found 99% of everything I've looked for. There have been a hand full of artists such as AC/DC that haven't been available and a handful of albums by specific artists that aren't available. There have been things there I wouldn't have expected to find - such as entire albums by Roger Miller.
I am subscribed to the $9.99 premium package. Initially I picked this package simply so I could get in. I intended to get pay for a month, get some invites and drop. After having used the product for a month and seeing how my desktop interacts with my android phone however, I'm sold. I can add a song on my office computer and create custom play lists and know when I walk out to my car its instantly available for play.
I would say the price is a bit steep however. Nearly $10 a month for music is asking a lot in my opinion. You do get 10 invites and you can use the subscription on numerous devices so the value isn't that bad. I feel like $5 a month would be more appealing to a wider range of people and they'd get more than double the user base paying.
Rating - 9/10
Monday, August 15, 2011
Quick Tip #1 - Power Issue
If your computer fails to turn on when you hit the power button..... (no lights, no sound, just acts dead)
Unplug the power cord from the back of the computer for a minimum of 30 seconds. Plug back in and try to power on.
When you unplug the power cord you may hear a high pitched "whine" from the power supply (the box inside the computer where the power cord plugs in). This may high pitched sound may slowly disapate as the charge in the power supply is released.
Many times a computer can build up a charge and this will prevent the computer from coming up. We usually recommend plugging and unplugging several times extending the time period the machine is unplugged up to 2 or 3 minutes.
If this fails to resolve the issue you may have a dead power supply or a bad mother board (logic board for you Mac folks). Checking for a dead power supply is easy for any tech and is by far the cheapest repair. Usually around $100 or less for a quality part.
Unplug the power cord from the back of the computer for a minimum of 30 seconds. Plug back in and try to power on.
When you unplug the power cord you may hear a high pitched "whine" from the power supply (the box inside the computer where the power cord plugs in). This may high pitched sound may slowly disapate as the charge in the power supply is released.
Many times a computer can build up a charge and this will prevent the computer from coming up. We usually recommend plugging and unplugging several times extending the time period the machine is unplugged up to 2 or 3 minutes.
If this fails to resolve the issue you may have a dead power supply or a bad mother board (logic board for you Mac folks). Checking for a dead power supply is easy for any tech and is by far the cheapest repair. Usually around $100 or less for a quality part.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
True Cost of Ownership
Over the years one of the largest issues we have found with computer hardware sales has been convincing end users that the price tag on the product is not the real price of the product. No I'm not talking about sales tax here. Computers and other technology have a hidden price tag that comes with them. This is what our industry refers to as a TCO or Total Cost of Ownership.
There are a lot of factors that go into TCO numbers and I'm going to talk about some of the more off the wall things people miss.
First we'll talk about store bought computers and why the price on a box bought at a store may not be the same as a custom solution. The biggest issue that comes to mind is setup. As in do you know how? Many people purchase a computer, printer, monitor and a few other gadgets then drag it home and have little to no idea what to do from there. At this point several things begin to happen, perhaps frustration being the leader of the show. Lets assume your time is worth nothing to you, although anyone who says this is often decieving themself. You'll likely spend hours on the phone with HP or Epson trying to set up a wireless printer or perhaps an ISP trying to get your email set back up. What about your data? Did you get it moved from the old computer to the new one? What if the old computer is "dead" but you still want your data? Many other situations can arise but these are some good high lights that can wind up taking hours. I had a call just the other day where a customer had spent over three hours on the phone with HP trying to set up a wireless printer only to call me and have the issue resolved with a remote session in under 60 seconds flat.
Next we will come to software. This is probably an even stickier subject and I will only touch lightly on it. Now that Windows 7 is out many users don't realize that many of their programs that they relied on won't run on the new computer. Additionally many users don't remember that seven years ago when they purchased their last computer they had to buy a few additional pieces of software, some of which are very expensive. A good computer company can help you by determining what can be reloaded to your new computer and what can't. Many times people go to a big box store and purchase their computer and think they need to repurchase Microsoft Office or other software suites that they already own. The license is portable as long as you don't have it on both systems at once. And finally our industries dirty secret with software, prebundled junkware. Why do you suppose that they dump systems in retail chain stores for unbelievably low prices? Its not volume. The computer industry is highly competitive and the cost of parts for big builders isn't much cheaper than it is for a little guy up the street. The truth is they often sell the hardware at a loss in order to put a box in your hands loaded with garbage. In otherwords they're selling advertising space to those guys and giving you a computer that runs like crap to do it.
There are many other hidden costs of owning computers of course. Warranties, replacement cycles, software upgrades and more all come into play. Remember when you call a local computer shop for a quote that their "price" may sound higher than the "price" at Wally World but if you've got a local guy they may be willing to do more for you than Wally ever would.
There are a lot of factors that go into TCO numbers and I'm going to talk about some of the more off the wall things people miss.
First we'll talk about store bought computers and why the price on a box bought at a store may not be the same as a custom solution. The biggest issue that comes to mind is setup. As in do you know how? Many people purchase a computer, printer, monitor and a few other gadgets then drag it home and have little to no idea what to do from there. At this point several things begin to happen, perhaps frustration being the leader of the show. Lets assume your time is worth nothing to you, although anyone who says this is often decieving themself. You'll likely spend hours on the phone with HP or Epson trying to set up a wireless printer or perhaps an ISP trying to get your email set back up. What about your data? Did you get it moved from the old computer to the new one? What if the old computer is "dead" but you still want your data? Many other situations can arise but these are some good high lights that can wind up taking hours. I had a call just the other day where a customer had spent over three hours on the phone with HP trying to set up a wireless printer only to call me and have the issue resolved with a remote session in under 60 seconds flat.
Next we will come to software. This is probably an even stickier subject and I will only touch lightly on it. Now that Windows 7 is out many users don't realize that many of their programs that they relied on won't run on the new computer. Additionally many users don't remember that seven years ago when they purchased their last computer they had to buy a few additional pieces of software, some of which are very expensive. A good computer company can help you by determining what can be reloaded to your new computer and what can't. Many times people go to a big box store and purchase their computer and think they need to repurchase Microsoft Office or other software suites that they already own. The license is portable as long as you don't have it on both systems at once. And finally our industries dirty secret with software, prebundled junkware. Why do you suppose that they dump systems in retail chain stores for unbelievably low prices? Its not volume. The computer industry is highly competitive and the cost of parts for big builders isn't much cheaper than it is for a little guy up the street. The truth is they often sell the hardware at a loss in order to put a box in your hands loaded with garbage. In otherwords they're selling advertising space to those guys and giving you a computer that runs like crap to do it.
There are many other hidden costs of owning computers of course. Warranties, replacement cycles, software upgrades and more all come into play. Remember when you call a local computer shop for a quote that their "price" may sound higher than the "price" at Wally World but if you've got a local guy they may be willing to do more for you than Wally ever would.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Guide: Fixing Spell Check French Edition
Recently we had a customer call us regarding a problem with spell check. Interestingly it had switched to French without any option to switch back to English. This problem occurs due to an issue with installing Office 2007 which replaces files that are incompatible with Outlook Express.
Two fixes are available at this time.
Fix #1 -
Install Windows Live Mail - download is available at http://download.live.com/wlmail
Fix #2 -
Install a 3rd party spell check program. You can find numerous free programs from Microsoft Communities site. http://www.microsoft.com/communities/default.mspx After installing a 3rd party app you should see it available on the spell check language drop down.
Two fixes are available at this time.
Fix #1 -
Install Windows Live Mail - download is available at http://download.live.com/wlmail
Fix #2 -
Install a 3rd party spell check program. You can find numerous free programs from Microsoft Communities site. http://www.microsoft.com/communities/default.mspx After installing a 3rd party app you should see it available on the spell check language drop down.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Software developer extemists
As a consulting firm and support provider we often find ourself in very odd situations being a liason between a software developer and an end user. Under most circumstances end users have a very limited set of needs, they need to be able to type a letter, keep a spreadsheet, correspond by email and of course print their data. The vast majority of computer users today will utilize Word, Excel and maybe a book keeping application like Quicken or Quickbooks. Many of our customers will take tasks that may be more easily accomplished in another application and force fit them into an application that wasn't really designed for it but the customer knows how to "make it work".
Of course there are customers who need a more vertical application. These applications can include industry specific niche applications such as Mitchell OnDemand (car industry), Medisoft (medical practice management), or AutoCAD (drafting and engineering). For the most part these software providers are reasonable. Occasionally we run into some oddities but as time as went on the small developers have been bought or just folded up shop and went away. Today we're going to discuss the worst case scenarios and the fruit cakes of the world - without naming to many names of course. This is just some things to be aware of if you're researching software for a specific business need.
Recently we came across a software vendor with very specific requirements, many of which are just good practice for any software company. They should specify minimum hardware that more than exceeds the reality of what their software runs on. This prevents a customer from getting "cheap" and thinking that Best Buy is the solution to all their needs. For example specify Windows 7 Professional with 4gb RAM for a workstation and Windows 2008 with 4gb or 8gb for a server.
The real issue becomes when software developers go what I will refer to as out of bounds. What exactly is out of bounds? Specifying a specific model of printer, scanner, copier, or even a modem. Demanding specific processors or brands of equipment is another gripe. When you're looking at applications for your business remember that you are the customer. You probably already have a lot of equipment you've invested in and probably a lot of money already spent. What I like to tell my customers is Windows is Windows. Software developed for Windows should run on Windows. If the underlying computer runs the Operating System then any program that runs on that Operating System should run on that computer. The only exception to this should be if you're not meeting minimum requirements, for example you need more RAM or hard drive space, if you don't the application should run but it may not perform well. Printers and scanners are standardized to Windows now and have been since the early 1990's. Almost without exception applications will talk to Windows which in turn talks to your printer, very few applications directly address devices.
So whats the recommendation? Look around and take advantage of the fact there are likely many choices for what you're trying to do regardless of industry. Ask for trial software and have your IT person install it and test it with everything you have. If a software company gets pushy remember that you're "marrying" them and the relationship will go on and on for years. Your data is locked up and you'll get to much invested to easily switch later. If they push to hard and aren't supporting a wide range of options remember that in the future some of their standards may even become impossible to purchase or worse even they may release updates that require you to move along or lose support. In short, do your research, its your money and your business.
Of course there are customers who need a more vertical application. These applications can include industry specific niche applications such as Mitchell OnDemand (car industry), Medisoft (medical practice management), or AutoCAD (drafting and engineering). For the most part these software providers are reasonable. Occasionally we run into some oddities but as time as went on the small developers have been bought or just folded up shop and went away. Today we're going to discuss the worst case scenarios and the fruit cakes of the world - without naming to many names of course. This is just some things to be aware of if you're researching software for a specific business need.
Recently we came across a software vendor with very specific requirements, many of which are just good practice for any software company. They should specify minimum hardware that more than exceeds the reality of what their software runs on. This prevents a customer from getting "cheap" and thinking that Best Buy is the solution to all their needs. For example specify Windows 7 Professional with 4gb RAM for a workstation and Windows 2008 with 4gb or 8gb for a server.
The real issue becomes when software developers go what I will refer to as out of bounds. What exactly is out of bounds? Specifying a specific model of printer, scanner, copier, or even a modem. Demanding specific processors or brands of equipment is another gripe. When you're looking at applications for your business remember that you are the customer. You probably already have a lot of equipment you've invested in and probably a lot of money already spent. What I like to tell my customers is Windows is Windows. Software developed for Windows should run on Windows. If the underlying computer runs the Operating System then any program that runs on that Operating System should run on that computer. The only exception to this should be if you're not meeting minimum requirements, for example you need more RAM or hard drive space, if you don't the application should run but it may not perform well. Printers and scanners are standardized to Windows now and have been since the early 1990's. Almost without exception applications will talk to Windows which in turn talks to your printer, very few applications directly address devices.
So whats the recommendation? Look around and take advantage of the fact there are likely many choices for what you're trying to do regardless of industry. Ask for trial software and have your IT person install it and test it with everything you have. If a software company gets pushy remember that you're "marrying" them and the relationship will go on and on for years. Your data is locked up and you'll get to much invested to easily switch later. If they push to hard and aren't supporting a wide range of options remember that in the future some of their standards may even become impossible to purchase or worse even they may release updates that require you to move along or lose support. In short, do your research, its your money and your business.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Interop and Gembox
We recently began working on a project for a customer that required taking database information and spitting it into an Excel workbook. The original project was created utilizing a process Microsoft provides called Microsoft Interop. Here is a very brief description - MS Interop allows the programmer to pull data from a database and run a server side Office application such as Excel to generate a spreadsheet. Basically you request the information and a session of Excel is launched, data is pumped into it then its saved. Think of it as a scripted event. Microsoft recommends not using this due to security issues, speed issues, and memory issues.
Our customer had complained repeatedly that they were having issues with speed, big issues. One report they run involving 30 days of data was taking 15 minutes or more, if it ran at all. Most of the time they were picking up the phone and having the developer run the report locally to avoid the problem. Many smaller reports were taking 5-10 minutes. These reports do have a lot of information but frankly we didn't believe the story the developer was feeding us that the problem was how much information was being requested and pumped into this Excel Workbook.
During the process of researching this issue we wound up taking on future development of this project. The first thing we did (after stumbling through the existing code and getting it working on a new server) was to research and determine the cause of the "slowness" of this Excel Interop. During our research we looked at server memory, processor power, hard drive speed, internet and network connection types as well as many other sources that could slow down the process. We found that each of these potential bottlenecks was not actually responsible for the problem. That left us with one possible problem - Microsoft Excel Interop.
So now the solution - We began researching third party applications that go about the same work. We found numerous other ideas to fix the issue. The one we finally settled on is GemBox.Spreadsheet. GemBox essentially does the same thing as Interop, in fact our programmer was able to repurpose much of the code and change the calls to Interop to GemBox.Spreadsheet in order to get the new process working. GemBox describes their product as being easy to incorporate, fast and 100% non dependent on Excel. We found all of this to be true.
The results? No less than breath taking. Our reports that were taking well over 15 minutes if they ran at all now take around 2-3 seconds. Yes you read that correctly. 2 as in 1....2... We were stunned with what we got. There of course is a catch to this. GemBox does provide a free version, but larger projects require a license. Prices begin at $480 which honestly we felt was a steal for what it gave us. The free version is actually quite flexible and in many cases it is all you need - it supports 150 rows per sheet with a max of 5 sheets per workbook. We recommend buying it to support the company that creates it, just as we do with any software you enjoy using.
Rating - 10/10
Our customer had complained repeatedly that they were having issues with speed, big issues. One report they run involving 30 days of data was taking 15 minutes or more, if it ran at all. Most of the time they were picking up the phone and having the developer run the report locally to avoid the problem. Many smaller reports were taking 5-10 minutes. These reports do have a lot of information but frankly we didn't believe the story the developer was feeding us that the problem was how much information was being requested and pumped into this Excel Workbook.
During the process of researching this issue we wound up taking on future development of this project. The first thing we did (after stumbling through the existing code and getting it working on a new server) was to research and determine the cause of the "slowness" of this Excel Interop. During our research we looked at server memory, processor power, hard drive speed, internet and network connection types as well as many other sources that could slow down the process. We found that each of these potential bottlenecks was not actually responsible for the problem. That left us with one possible problem - Microsoft Excel Interop.
So now the solution - We began researching third party applications that go about the same work. We found numerous other ideas to fix the issue. The one we finally settled on is GemBox.Spreadsheet. GemBox essentially does the same thing as Interop, in fact our programmer was able to repurpose much of the code and change the calls to Interop to GemBox.Spreadsheet in order to get the new process working. GemBox describes their product as being easy to incorporate, fast and 100% non dependent on Excel. We found all of this to be true.
The results? No less than breath taking. Our reports that were taking well over 15 minutes if they ran at all now take around 2-3 seconds. Yes you read that correctly. 2 as in 1....2... We were stunned with what we got. There of course is a catch to this. GemBox does provide a free version, but larger projects require a license. Prices begin at $480 which honestly we felt was a steal for what it gave us. The free version is actually quite flexible and in many cases it is all you need - it supports 150 rows per sheet with a max of 5 sheets per workbook. We recommend buying it to support the company that creates it, just as we do with any software you enjoy using.
Rating - 10/10
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Sony Vaio laptop irritation
We spent most of the week this week working on a Sony Vaio laptop. Normally when we tell a customer we'll upgrade a machine from XP or Vista to Windows 7 we tell them it takes anywhere from 3-4 actual hours to do it. No we don't sit and watch it for 3-4 hours but anyone who has upgraded a Windows XP box to Vista can tell you it takes a very long time.
This week we were treated to a new challenge that managed to push close to our time wasted records. A Sony Vaio laptop came in early this week and after trying the usual routes of upgrade (yea just stick a disc in the thing right?) we had to begin falling back on alternative measures, some of which we know work, others were pure experimentation.
Just accept that Windows 7 wouldn't boot. Nuff said. We then tried our least favorite method - Upgrade to Vista then Windows 7. The process is long and painful to say the least, but it usually works. This time it hung up at around 20% every time. We even blanked the hard drive and tried going from a clean Windows XP load. No luck.
Next up - Network boot from PXE. TOTAL FAILURE. The laptop wouldn't do it.
We even went so far as to plug the drive into another machine and run various disk partition solutions to dump a Windows 7 folder on the drive and boot into Windows PE directly. Nope no luck there.
Final attempts all involved ghosting the machine from various Windows 7 installations around the office just to get something on the drive we could work with. Again we were met with failure.
Why am I telling you this? Shouldn't I only keep to successes on our company blog? Occasionally we get stumped, thats life. We use heroic measures but as Adam Savage said on Myth Busters - failure IS an option. I can honestly say we tried everything to make this happen for the customer. I can't say whether it was due to a failed piece of hardware or just an incompatibility with the BIOS on this specific model. Perhaps some of both.....
This week we were treated to a new challenge that managed to push close to our time wasted records. A Sony Vaio laptop came in early this week and after trying the usual routes of upgrade (yea just stick a disc in the thing right?) we had to begin falling back on alternative measures, some of which we know work, others were pure experimentation.
Just accept that Windows 7 wouldn't boot. Nuff said. We then tried our least favorite method - Upgrade to Vista then Windows 7. The process is long and painful to say the least, but it usually works. This time it hung up at around 20% every time. We even blanked the hard drive and tried going from a clean Windows XP load. No luck.
Next up - Network boot from PXE. TOTAL FAILURE. The laptop wouldn't do it.
We even went so far as to plug the drive into another machine and run various disk partition solutions to dump a Windows 7 folder on the drive and boot into Windows PE directly. Nope no luck there.
Final attempts all involved ghosting the machine from various Windows 7 installations around the office just to get something on the drive we could work with. Again we were met with failure.
Why am I telling you this? Shouldn't I only keep to successes on our company blog? Occasionally we get stumped, thats life. We use heroic measures but as Adam Savage said on Myth Busters - failure IS an option. I can honestly say we tried everything to make this happen for the customer. I can't say whether it was due to a failed piece of hardware or just an incompatibility with the BIOS on this specific model. Perhaps some of both.....
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Windows 2008 Server R2 issues and fixes
As most IT people know almost two years ago Microsoft released their latest version of the Windows Server platform - Windows 2008 Server R2. R2 is a 64bit only version of the OS, in fact its Microsoft's first release of a 64bit only platform. It's built on the Windows NT 6.1 core, the same core as Windows 7. Now its almost two years later and you'd figure most manufacturers would have driver software ready to rock and roll and it'd be just a matter of dropping in the OS install DVD and boom - you're good to go right? Right? Yea sure whatever. I'm sure this is the situations in some cases but here are two examples of things gone wrong.
My first example of a problem with Windows 2008 Server R2 involves an HP Proliant DL370 G6 Server and their HP SmartStart install CD. Just to bring you up to speed - the SmartStart disc is a CD that comes with all HP Servers that facilitates installing numerous OS's. You drop the disc in the CD rom, boot the system and follow through the prompts, it installs their HP software along with the OS and honestly its fabulous. Well it is unless you need to install R2. I've had to roll out several of these servers and we use HP's Proliant line pretty exclusively when we use a pre built server solution, HP provides great service and a great product. They don't seem to be aware of the fact that R2 exists however. I don't know how or why that is but every time we go to install R2 on an HP server we have to generate a memory stick, disable the onboard IDE controller and install our OS from the OEM Windows DVD instead of trying to use the SmartStart Disc.
Step 1 - Download a program like the HP USB Utility from http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/core-management-100.html or use WinToFlash http://download.cnet.com/WinToFlash/3000-2094_4-10974471.html
Step 2 - Follow the directions from WinToFlash or use the HP USB utility to create a Windows 2008 Server R2 installation key on your USB flash drive (hint you'll need 4-8gb of storage for this so make sure you get a big enough USB stick)
Step 3 - Go into the BIOS on your server and disable the onboard hard disc controller (ide not the SATA)
Step 4 - Boot up off the USB key and install as normal. You may have to get drivers for your SATA RAID card but thats the next story......
The second scenario I just ran into. Recently we built up a server for a customer who had a need for a high end database server. We opted to utilize the brand new Adaptec 6805 Controller along with their AFM-600 Zero Maintenance Module. I felt this was a good choice as its a lightning fast controller with a nice new feature - SSD cache instead of a battery for the cache protection scheme. We put the thing together and behold...... it doesn't work with R2. Yes Adaptec claims it does but it must take a smarter guy than me to make it work. We did everything we could including cheat to get this thing going on R2. According to Adaptec's own documentation - you must load the driver TWICE (yes they use caps in their doc). However I can attest to trying to load it a dozen or more times using the version off their CD and the latest and greatest from Adaptec's own site. It simply does not work. I wound up installing Windows 2008 Server and it worked 100% flawless. The controller is fast and everythings as expected.
I'm sure that in most scenarios R2 is great and easy to install. Perhaps I've just stumbled across two isolated incidents using random hardware. Either way I can't imagine why two giants like HP and Adaptec don't have 100% quality support for the latest and greatest version of Microsoft's flagship server OS.
My first example of a problem with Windows 2008 Server R2 involves an HP Proliant DL370 G6 Server and their HP SmartStart install CD. Just to bring you up to speed - the SmartStart disc is a CD that comes with all HP Servers that facilitates installing numerous OS's. You drop the disc in the CD rom, boot the system and follow through the prompts, it installs their HP software along with the OS and honestly its fabulous. Well it is unless you need to install R2. I've had to roll out several of these servers and we use HP's Proliant line pretty exclusively when we use a pre built server solution, HP provides great service and a great product. They don't seem to be aware of the fact that R2 exists however. I don't know how or why that is but every time we go to install R2 on an HP server we have to generate a memory stick, disable the onboard IDE controller and install our OS from the OEM Windows DVD instead of trying to use the SmartStart Disc.
Step 1 - Download a program like the HP USB Utility from http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/core-management-100.html or use WinToFlash http://download.cnet.com/WinToFlash/3000-2094_4-10974471.html
Step 2 - Follow the directions from WinToFlash or use the HP USB utility to create a Windows 2008 Server R2 installation key on your USB flash drive (hint you'll need 4-8gb of storage for this so make sure you get a big enough USB stick)
Step 3 - Go into the BIOS on your server and disable the onboard hard disc controller (ide not the SATA)
Step 4 - Boot up off the USB key and install as normal. You may have to get drivers for your SATA RAID card but thats the next story......
The second scenario I just ran into. Recently we built up a server for a customer who had a need for a high end database server. We opted to utilize the brand new Adaptec 6805 Controller along with their AFM-600 Zero Maintenance Module. I felt this was a good choice as its a lightning fast controller with a nice new feature - SSD cache instead of a battery for the cache protection scheme. We put the thing together and behold...... it doesn't work with R2. Yes Adaptec claims it does but it must take a smarter guy than me to make it work. We did everything we could including cheat to get this thing going on R2. According to Adaptec's own documentation - you must load the driver TWICE (yes they use caps in their doc). However I can attest to trying to load it a dozen or more times using the version off their CD and the latest and greatest from Adaptec's own site. It simply does not work. I wound up installing Windows 2008 Server and it worked 100% flawless. The controller is fast and everythings as expected.
I'm sure that in most scenarios R2 is great and easy to install. Perhaps I've just stumbled across two isolated incidents using random hardware. Either way I can't imagine why two giants like HP and Adaptec don't have 100% quality support for the latest and greatest version of Microsoft's flagship server OS.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Welcome!
Welcome to PC Innovations blog! We're new to blogging here so please bear with us while we get our feet underneath us.
If you don't know us we've been in business in Edmond, Oklahoma for 15 years providing technical support, computer sales and repair. We travel all over the state of Oklahoma and even into Texas, Kansas and Arkansas. Of course we're well versed in most of Microsoft's offering and we're an Apple Authorized Service Provider or AASP for short. We also have extensive experience working in multiple distributions of Linux, specializing in RPM based distributions.
So what will we be posting on our blog? Everything under the sun and then some I imagine. Expect to see information on products we happen across that we find to be interesting or maddening. We'll probably have some software reviews and perhaps even some information on cell products.
If you don't know us we've been in business in Edmond, Oklahoma for 15 years providing technical support, computer sales and repair. We travel all over the state of Oklahoma and even into Texas, Kansas and Arkansas. Of course we're well versed in most of Microsoft's offering and we're an Apple Authorized Service Provider or AASP for short. We also have extensive experience working in multiple distributions of Linux, specializing in RPM based distributions.
So what will we be posting on our blog? Everything under the sun and then some I imagine. Expect to see information on products we happen across that we find to be interesting or maddening. We'll probably have some software reviews and perhaps even some information on cell products.
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