Daryl Hunter - Network Cowboy

Mobile Sandbox - VMware Workstation Edition

So, this past week I was in sunny Phoenix at the Spring 2013 National Church IT Roundtable.  Each year, a few hundred of my friends get together to talk about Friendship, Food (lots of food), Faith, and Technology.

I had the privilege - again - to team up with my pal @wantmoore and teach a 6-hour (over 2 days) dive into building Highly Available Infrastructure.  I think half of our audience fell asleep.  The others were just waiting for me to say something stupid - which I did - a lot.

One of the coolest things we are doing at the Roundtables now are "TEN Talks" - modeled after the TED talks.  We talk for up to 10 minutes (with a buzzer and Jaws music if we go over) on a useful technical topic.  This year I spoke about my Mobile Sandbox.

One of my co-workers is the origin of this particular "type" of setup - I took his setup, modified a few things, and now use it as my own.

First of all - here's what my mobile lab looks like in Visio

 

I use VMware Workstation 9 as my "lab ecosystem of choice" right now.  But, as a technologist - I will probably change tomorrow.

There are lots of good ways to build a mobile Sandbox. You could use VMware Workstation, or Fusion, or Virtual Box, or you could use your company gear (ha ha - just kidding) (not really) - but I highly recommend you build one.

I'm asked a lot how I learn things.  I am an avid reader. I read books and blogs and tweets and cereal boxes.  But the main thing I do is practice.  I learned guitar and piano that way.  I learned backgammon and chess that way.  And I fully believe that without a proper sandbox, I couldn't learn the various technical software packages that I use daily.

Here's a snapshot of what VMs make up my lab today.

How I did it was build a Windows 8, Windows Server 2008R2 and a Windows 2012 Baseline image and then Sysprepped it.  You can see the "Sysprep" images above.

Then, I created "linked clones" of those to make my various virtual machines. This is similar to using "differencing disks" - making a "master" disk and then each individual child disk/machine only holds the changes.  It saves on hard drive space - which is a premium on my laptop.

The Virtual Networking editor in VMware Workstation is pretty nice.  If you recall from my Visio, I have lots of Networks.  You can see them all here.

You'll also notice that I have iSCSI networks - presenting storage to my lab vSphere & Hyper-V hosts.  How I did that was by adding additional disks (using my 2nd hard drive) to my VCENTER01 virtual machine:

Then I used the iSCSI Target for Server 2008 R2.  For Server 2012 it's built in; however, for Server 2008 R2 you can download that here.

And like a good engineer - I present out 2x different iSCSI networks for MPIO

Here's how I give appropriate disks to Hyper-V for the Cluster Witness/Quorum and CSV

And here's the various disks I present to vSphere for my Datastore use

From the Visio, you can see I built a SQL2008R2 box, and VCENTER01 attaches there.  Because of how my Virtual Networking was done, I had access to my VMs from my normal Desktop but I adjusted my hosts file to make it easy to use the FQDN of my "lab.darylhunter.me' domain machines.  I could fire up vSphere Client...

And verify MPIO for my Datastores

and

Finally, my lab sometimes needed Internet access.  And since I isolated my various networks, I needed some sort of a router.  So I built a simple RRAS/2008R2 router.  I could have used lots of products, but instead, I used Server 2008R2 with 2x Virtual NICS and bridged one of them.

Anyway, those are just some highlights of how I did it.  You're smart, I'm sure you could do better.

How do YOU Sandbox?  What do you use?  Something similar?

Atypical People

I'm not sure exactly where to go with this post - but - it's on my mind as of late, so I'll just dive right in.  Forgive me if it's not clearly written. I don't know how the words are going to come out.

We all have labels.  Or give labels.  Some are cute and funny and loving.  Others are not - they can be rude, or crude, or just plain hateful.  I've had a few labels in my day - and probably apply a few of them to myself still at times - either out loud, or deep on the inside.  And I probably believe more of them are true than I should.

I'm atypical.

I was the weird kid.  I have smart parents.  I have smart siblings.  I've had a weird brain defect as far as I can remember that gives me the ability to remember smells, and sounds, and think in colors, and work problems (and write cursive) backwards, and I probably remember what you wore the first time we met. Weird, right?  But you know what, it's what makes me - well - it makes me me.

I'm a child of privilege.  I was born in 1975.  My dad is an engineer.  I'm the youngest of 3 kids. We had a computer in the house when I was in preschool.  I remember programming "guess a number / higher / lower" games in Kindergarten.  I remember rote memorizing syntax and programming my own fun games in early primary school and learning language after language as I grew older.  When I first learned about modems - man - my whole life changed.  I became rather obsessed and - forgive me for sounding arrogant - I became REALLY GOOD at this whole computer thing.  Not all of my efforts were positive - I have had my share of run-ins with Mr. Long Arm of the Law.  I'm now 37 and a technology consultant and a tech blogger and design architect and am still rather atypical in my use of computers.  I joke that I can route IP to the moon - and someday I may try that.  I have lots of ideas.

In the Spring of my 3rd grade year I won a high-school chess tournament. The trophies were for the "big kids" so I got a small plaque.  Hooray.  I was nationally ranked in High School and played a blind kid who DESTROYED me.  He was pretty amazing.  After High School I had some pretty amazing opportunities to work and travel.  I was 22 when I finally went to Purdue to start college.  I excelled and graduated at the top of my class.  Then grad school and Seminary.  Again, toward the top of my class.  I am driven and probably a bit over-educated. Atypical.

It's been whispered (and yelled at times) in my ears that I'm not normal.

Why am I thinking of this?  It's because my kids are getting older... and I'm seeing things...

And I worry about them being atypical.  I want so bad for them to skin their knees, and eat dirt, and play sports, and get disappointed, and learn to bounce back.  I want them to have highs and lows and be "normal" kids.  But, I don't know how to be normal myself - how can I help my kids be normal?

For example - my oldest, Nathan - he's a pretty special boy.  We've known since he was very small that he was atypical.  His brain is different.  He has similar memory to me. He's intelligent.  He is also extremely emotional and needy.  He is 7 - he is in 3rd grade - he is at the top of his class - but he cannot tie his shoes.  He can barely zip up his coat.  But he can do other atypical things that most "normal" 3rd graders cannot do.  He just recently passed the AP - Advanced Placement - exams at his school - and now we have to make some choices.  Do we send a kid who is already 1 year to a year and a half younger than his classmates to AP?  He's already young and atypical.  Now do we add another label and level of that?

I remember sitting in a small group of guys a few years ago.  We were discussing man-hood and dad-hood and all those things that make men - men.  Part of an exercise we did was sit in a circle - eyes closed - and people would come behind us and whisper things in our ears like: You are not good enough.  You'll never make it.  You're so dumb.  And then we processed the "whispers" and emotional response.  Then we did it again and heard other things like: You're so smart.  You are a great dad.  You provide so well for your family.  And process that.  It's amazing how much small little "whispers" in your ears can affect your emotions.

Why is that important?  Because I find myself whispering - and yelling - at my kids.  And I'm afraid I'm breaking them.  And I don't want to crush what makes them different - and unique - and atypical.  But I also want them to be normal.

I'm a mess and I don't know how to do next.  Any chance any of you smart people out there have any brilliant ideas?  Or am I just simply overthinking and overprocessing it?

Breaking Inertia

Hello 2013!  It's been a week already and it feels like just yesterday we had our friends over, were watching the ball drop, playing games, and hoping 2013 would be better than 2012.

In my last post, I descsribed how I feel like my battery needs replacing.  It's true.  I'm tired and exhausted and am "one of those people" who need check boxes.  I like to finish things.  I don't like leaving things "almost" done - or in many cases *honestly* - "almost started."

I have "almost started" cleaning the garage.

I have "almost started" organizing my tools.

I have "almost started" any number of things.

This week I have worked hard to break intertia.

Inertia - Noun - A tendency to do nothing, or remain unchanged.

Ouch.  How many times have I sat by and done nothing because I was too distracted.  Or lazy.  Or "busy" or a million other excuses.

How do you break inertia?  Here are a few things I'm trying - and I hope they help.

• Block Calendar Times
  • Let's be honest - it's usually the tyranny of the urgent.  If I don't schedule date nights with my wife, we'd never go out.  If I don't schedule time XYZ, we don't do PRQ.  Right?  So, I'm trying something new - I'm going to schedule times to focus on the things I need to focus on.  I'm starting with 2 days a week.
• Remove Distractions (as best as you can)
  • I work in an open office.  At a technical consulting firm.  There are a dozen or so people in the office at any time.  Some days there are more.  Within 30 feet of me are Nerf guns, a putting green, a fridge full of Diet Coke, technical gadgets, and some good friends.  It's easy to get distracted.  I'm going to have to get new/loud headphones, or go offsite to focus.  One thing I'm going to have to get better at is adjusting my Lync presence to DND (Do Not Disturb) when needed :)
• Bite Size Chunks
  • I have no focus.  I can rarely spend large chunks of time on anything.  I need to walk around.  I need to tweet. I need Diet Coke. And, of course, with as much Diet Coke as I drink, I will have to wander to the potty.  Often.  I have the bladder the size of a pregnant gerbil.  And I have ADOS - Attention Deficit Oooooooh Shiny!  Anyway, what was I saying?  That's right. Bite Size Chunks.  I am trying to find a 60-90 minute "burst of energy" in which to focus.  It's hard because I'm distracted.  Squirrel!

How about you?  What do you do?  How do you stay focused and clear and get done what needs to get done?  I'd love to hear from you.