SMB IT | Curtis Franklin » October 2006

October 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Emerging Enterprise: DIY Dashboards and Evolutionary Notebook Stress

TAGS: Podcast

This week we talk about giving your boss a special holiday gift: a do-it-yourself ultra-custom business dashboard. After that we talk about all the hoopla surrounding the evolution of the notebook and how to make sense of it all for the SMB set.   Listen!

Posted by Oliver Rist on October 27, 2006 03:37 PM

October 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Living With Office 2007 Beta Part I

TAGS: SMB Applications

Been working on how to organize this without writing a post that's 5000 words long. So I figure I'm just going to break it out a couple of apps at a time. This post covers Outlook and PowerPoint 2007: the first because I live in it, and the second because, for me, it's the Blue Ribbon Winner for this version.

INSTALLATION
Because it's the first 'hands on' post, I've got to hit the install portion. Fortunately, not much to say here, even under Vista. For both RC1 and RC2 it went something like this: Insert CD, enter product key, click "Typical Install" and hang out for a while.

OUTLOOK
Microsoft did a rather noticeable redesign of the Outlook UI in Office 2003, so I think they took it easy this time around. The UI has been tweaked a bit, but for the most part, it's the same.

Install was a bit of a pain, because the free Outlook Personal Folders Backup Tool that I always use to swap my mailbox between PCs, doesn't work with the new verion as yet. Had to export the usual way and then import multiple PSTs.

Setting up my accounts was different, too. The New Account Wizard has changed as has the Account summary screen. Outlook is supposed to have some new smarts when setting up Exchange accounts against an Exchange 2007 server, but you'll need to wait for the upcoming Office 2007/Servers 2007 review for the real skinny on that. Meantime, the new Account Wizard does a good job of consolidating all your Outlook feed options in one place: Email, shared calendars, Sharepoint sites, and the much-ballyhooed RSS feed among others. Setting things up is as easy as dropping the right Internet address into Account Settings and then looking for the content on the left-hand tree pane.

Once you're all setup, you'll notice that Outlook Today is DOA. Instead, Microsoft has created a To-Do bar on the right side of the Inbox screen. You get a mini-calendar view with some color highlights for appointments, a summary of your next three upcoming appointments underneath that, and then what I thought was a Task summary. Only it's not a Task summary. It's a list of outstanding tasks as well as any emails that have the red alert flag and a completion date assigned to them. The size of my list shows you how much attention I pay to those. Oh yeah, and you can customize the To-Do bar to show only some of these options or do away with it entirely.

And while Outlook didn't get one of the cool new ribbon bars, you do see it when you create a message--probably because you're calling on Word as the email editor. But Office was kind enough to give you an email ribbon with a Send button and other Outlook-specific sundries.

Not too many other changes. There's a new Trust Center under the Tools menu--basically a quick way to setup all your email security settings in one screen--digital signatures, email encryption, download handling, inline HTML rules, etc. All there. Apparently, it's controllable as a Group Policy object from Active Directoy, but we'll have to test that in the server review--for us lone users, it's just a nice email security summary screen.

Day-to-day impressions are good. Outlook looks great in Vista and the only hiccup I had in two solid weeks of use was one instance where she refused to start without a system reboot--and that's beta software.

Is it a must-have upgrade from Outlook 2003? Actually, I'd have to say "No." Don't get me wrong; it's a real nice app and when it comes as part of Office 2007 I'll definitely install it. But if it were a one-on-one upgrade, I'd probably put it on the back burner.

POWERPOINT
The Blue Ribbon Winner of my two weeks. Not because I do a load of sales presentations (though I did a number of those as well), but because in the last year I've become a blogging slave. Blogging for money means finding mounds of little custom art elements to brighten up your posts. Microsoft has made Powerpoint the perfect tool for that because it's added some amazingly intuitive and super-slick-looking graphics processing tools to this version.

Drop a photo onto a Powerpoint 2007 slide and you've got a load of new options to tweak and customize it (above and below). There are new frames, picture effects, photo filters, a load of new Word Art effects and it's all done very easily. Just click on the icon in the format ribbon, and then hover your mouse cursor over a selection in order to see a full-size preview. Very slick. You can create a very cool and highly specific art bloblet in just a few minutes.

Only things I didn't like are the same reasons I move any little art creations I make here into an actual photo editor for final processing: cropping and resizing. Powerpoint has tools for this, but I can't stand them. Not at all intuitive, and certainly not as slick as the rest of the tool. Still need some work in the dept.

They've even redone the online Clip Art Web site. New look and a more icon-driven copy/paste function. Other than that, it's nothing earth shattering, but like most of the rest of Office 2007, it's fun to look at.

Office Beta Clip Art Site Full-Size Image

If I had a general complaint about PowerPoint 2007, then it's more a complaint about the way the ribbon works. Microsoft's intent with the ribbon was to keep things consistent. "The button you need is always there", yadda yadda.

However, the ribbon's options change depending on what you're doing. For example, dropping a picture onto a slide causes the Format tab to become available--that has all the effects options in it. De-select the picture, however, and the entire Format tab disappears. Or, create Word Art and you get one set of text effects, but you've got to remember to have the text itself selected to even see certain options.

It's not a killer, but it is going to frustrate your users until they make it part of their finger memory.

Even after two weeks I haven't fully explored PowerPoint 2007's new special effects capabilities--haven't done any animations yet, for instance. The app gets even more options when put in front of a SharePoint or the new Microsoft Office SharePoint Services (MOSS) server. More on that later. Meantime, if you have any questions on how something works, leave a comment and I'll check on it for you.

Next post: Word & Excel.

Posted by Oliver Rist on October 27, 2006 10:32 AM

October 25, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Living With Office 2007: Prologue

TAGS: SMB Applications

As I said in my column, after doing my little feature on living only in Web 2.0 productivity applications for a whole week, I just had to do one of living in Office 2007 beta (techie refresh). Besides, I happened to have a Dell Precision M90 super-notebook all decked out with dual core CPU hardware, 2 giggers of RAM and a CAD-capable 3D-accelerating hard disk with a couple of hundred megs of video RAM all to itself. In other words, and Aero paradise. So I figured, "Go whole hog. Office 2007 on Vista RC2 with all the bells and whistles."

It's actually been two weeks now and I may not stop using it all, which is most likely going to tick of Dell PR since I'm running it on their PC. Hey, a bunch of steak-eating Texan dudes coming up here to get what they want. What could possibly happen?

My experiences with Vista are in this week's and last week's column--tho I may flesh it out a bit more here in the next few days. I'll also have a shorter technical summary of Office 2007 on Tech Center Daily later this week. In the next few posts, I'll cover the most popular Office applications. Microsoft still owes me Project 2007 and Visio 2007.

So let's get to it. First thing's first: The ribbon. It's big, it's weird looking, why is it there? Basically, it's there to turn the traditional menu bar (File > Edit > View > etc.) into something graphic, intuitive and easy. When I asked Microsoft Office UI design team, they said that when they queried customers on what they thought of Office 2003, the complaint that came back most often was a difficulty in finding both new and old features in the ever-changing nested menu system.

The ribbon does away with that because every feature that an application can manage is organized and represented there graphically. Even when Office changes again and more features are added, users will still have an easier time finding old features because they'll be able to scan for its icon rather than hunt and click for its menu position.

However, only certain applications are getting the ribbon this time around. So far it's the most popular: Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. OneNote, Outlook and Publisher have new features but retain the old menu system for now--and I haven't seen Project and Visio as yet. More on all those in Part II. Oh, and the official word is no changes to this setup in 2007's product lifecycle. If more apps are to get the ribbon, we'll have to wait until Office 200x? to see.

The ribbon summarizes Microsoft's feature goal for Office 2007. This version is less about sticking new features into its productivity suite than it is about making that suite more attractive to a customer base that has been sorely tempted by OpenOffice--and will eventually be tempted by online Web 2.0 applications.

To that end, the ribbon really is easier--it's just going to take you a couple of weeks to see it. And it'll take the average user probably a ltitle longer than that. But once they get used to it, I do agree with Microsoft that it'll take hold of their minds and fingers. Just make sure someone's decently trained in it and manning the help desk phones before deploying across the organization.

Microsoft's other goal for Office 2007 is to differentiate itself as much as possible from its new competitors. And in typical Microsoft fashion, that means doing something new while playing to its strengths. What's Redmond got that OpenOffice doesn't? One word:

Servers.

Microsoft's library of interlocking back office servers is as big as anyone's, and they're strongly trying to use that to their advantage. All the Office apps get new feature abiities when connected to SharePoint services and the MOSS server (aka the Office Server) adds even more. Further, for SMB customers who mayhap can't afford all that back-office mubo jumbo in house, Office Live will be serving up similar features in a hosted model--look for announcements and reviews on those services soon.

We'll be reviewing all that stuff in upcoming posts, including how it works with InfoPath 2007 and the new Groove 2007--a new shared workspace collaboration tool that comes in the client Office 2007 package because it works in P2P mode (no servers required). We'll also be looking at how SharePoint, MOSS, Exchange 2007, Project Server 2007 and Small Business Server all work together. Yeah, I'm looking to do that in Hawaii.

So that's the intro: Office 2007 has a cool new look and a bright future in collaboration. So how's the basic stuff work? Check the next post to see.

Posted by Oliver Rist on October 25, 2006 10:28 AM

October 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Emerging Enterprise: New IT Consulting Ideas and Pimping Your Notebook Part I and a Half

TAGS: Podcast

This episode we get into new ways that small biz tech consultants might reposition their services to take advantage of all this Web 2.0 hype rather than get frightened by it. Next we talk about pimping out your notebook with items that might be classed as luxuries rather than necessities.   Listen!

Posted by Oliver Rist on October 20, 2006 03:08 PM

October 19, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Pimp Your Laptop

TAGS: Mobile SMB

I swap notebooks a lot--mainly for ths blog. In fact, I just swapped out my Gateway tablet for a new Core 2 Duo version of the Gateway 255E. SMB execs are often similar. Not at all unusual for my clients to get a new laptop every year.

Thing is, laptops for me or for most SMB execs aren't add-on PCs. They're usually not PCs that exist only in briefcases, update changes to a server and then defer to big momma desktop in the office. That's too much of a pain for most folks. So most times, your laptop is your life.

So if it's your life, you should make it as comfortable and secure as possible. Yeah, that's pimping your notebook. I'm splitting this into two posts. This one is on things I always have. The next one will cover things I want.

THINGS I ALWAYS GET:

1. An extra battery. Get it from your notebook manufacturer or from a third-party provider like APC. But get one. And if there's a long-life (extra battery life) version get that. It may weigh a few ounces more, but they can usually get you all the way through a cross-country flight no matter what you're doing. Standard batteries usually crap out somewhere over Denver. So you can save your work and pull out a second battery (which also means lugging it around) or you can rely on just one battery and leave the second one in your checked luggage.

2. A travel mouse. Let's finally be honest and admit what we all know to be true: touchpads are an orcish plot. A travel mouse is a necessity. I like the Logitech V200 myself. No, it's not a super-fancy laser mouse, but it runs on any notebook with no need for drivers, has all the flexibility of an optical, and it only costs $40 if I lose it.

3. Surge protector. Everyone puts these on their desktops, but few think about their notebooks. Even though notebooks are the ones that get plugged into strange outlet after unreliable outlet. Hit CompUSA or APC's Web site, find a compatible surge protector and cover your booty.

4. Thumbdrive or portable hard drive. Backups are never more important than when you're running between your office, your client's office, home, the airport and any of a thousand places your precious laptop could have an accident. Figure out which data files are critical to your productivity, drop them into an easily managed folder or two, and keep a CONSTANTLY updated copy on a thumbdrive (if they fit there) or a portable hard disk (if you're a many-gig-type worker). I prefer thumb drives (you can get them to double as MP3 players if you buy the right one) but when it's a longer trip and I want to take a long a few extra movies, tunes and TV shows, I go to my homemade and travel-worthy external 100GB USB-SATA hard disk (I'll describe its construction in another post). Hey, the presentation you save may be your own.

5. Protect your data. Don't think about it as an "Oh yeah, I'll get that taken care of tomorrow." Buckle down and do it the same day your Office 2003 apps get installed. First: Backup software for that thumbdrive or portable hard disk. You can buy third-party backup software I like WinBackup 2.0 Pro, download something freeware like Simplify Safe Backup, or just use Microsoft's own Backup utility (works just fine, you just need to suffer throught he helpful wizard). But get it set up so that thumbdrive or porta-hard disk keep very current backups.
Next do data encryption. This should be on both your laptop's hard disk and the thumbdrive/porta-disk. (Why? Because you can lose either one.) Utilities like TrueCrypt or Cryptainer generally create one or more encrypted volumes. You access them via an ultra-strong password (like not "p4ssw0rd"; more like "34%Hdf$5gq97@#mk") Forget or lose that password and you're hosed.

6. Keep a third backup location. That's to protect yourself from losing that ultra-secure encryption password. This can be on a server back at your home office (secure behind all those firewalls and authentication protocols) or on an online backup service like AOL's xDrive, where they encrypt everything anyway. Anything happens to your password and you can call Joe in IT or log onto xDrive and get back what you need--maybe not as current as on your thumb-porta-disk, but current enough not to get fired.

7. Max out your bag. Notebooks may seem like they don't weigh so much when you're checking them out at Staples. But when they're in your briefcase with a power brick, an extra battery, a travel mouse and all your work, they definitely let you feel their weight. And that can be a real pain when you're sprinting a mile and half for that O'Hare connection. A real pain in the lumbar.
So protect your back and buy a notebook bag that can carry all your stuff without destroying your precious spinal disks. And don't think so much about detachable cell phone caddies, cool colors or whether the thing can power your iPod--think about your shoulders, your back and overall comfort. Personally, I prefer knapsacks with lower back support belts. Okay, I'm not going to get hit on by any O'Hare flight attendants when I'm wearing it that way, but that usually doesn't happen when I'm sprinting anyway.

8. Security cable. Protecting your data is a must-have, but it's good to protect the notebook, too. Fingerprint scanners are nice for protecting access, but they won't stop a guy from walking out of Starbucks with your whole laptop while you're vacating your last triple cappucino half-decaf triple sugar death dunker. Belkin and Targus make good ones.

Get all that and your laptop should be pretty well pimped out. Next week tho, we'll take it to a whole new level.

Posted by Oliver Rist on October 19, 2006 07:34 PM

October 18, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Reader Email: Is IT Consulting Obsolete?

TAGS: Defining SMB

Got this email from a reader who shall remain nameless, and figured I'd reply to it here rather than in email Nirvana (and, no, I didn't write the first graph):

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Oliver,
I just found your podcast and I think it's really great. It talks about all the things I'm interested in. I've been thinking for a while now about starting a side biz doing technology consulting. i.e. installing servers, vpns, etc....

But with all these online apps comming about like Google's office and Jotspot and Salesforce.com I'm wondering if I should't even attempt it. I'm thinking those will probably put me out of business in a couple of years.

As someone who is currently doing consulting...what do you think?
--------------------------------------------------------------------

So the question boils down to: Does Web 2.0 make IT consulting obsolete?

Short answer: Hell, no!

Web 2.0, no matter what application it's delivering, is simply another distribution mechanism. It doesn't change the needs for which SMBs or big enterprises hire IT consultants.

Sure, Web apps don't need local servers, and that is a chunk of what IT consulting dudes use for revenue. But that's only one piece of the IT pie. Network infrastructure still needs to be installed and maintained; desktops will still need systems management and support; telecommuters still need secure access; and, data still needs to be tracked, archived and backed up.

And while Web 2.0 may take away the server piece, it actually adds a couple of new opportunities, too. For one, if the application is mission critical, no company is going to simply sign up for an account and let it go. They're going to want some kind of SLA-style obligatory contract. And since no one really knows how those are going to evolve, learning and maybe even specializing in it now is going to a great way to differentiate a consulting practice.

Security is another such opportunity. Operating your apps across the Internet necessarily means a change in how IT security is architected. Figuring out an effective way to manage that and keeping track of changes in that department is another good opportunity.

And security always leads to compliance. Making sure that data and user management is compliant with whatever regulatory problems your clients face is a solid IT consulting service--and it dovetails nicely into that SLA agreement practice.

Last but not least, Web 2.0 is nowhere near ready to take over the entire application portfolio of any business. Even if one of your clients is using Salesforce.com, that's never going to be the only application upon which the business relies. Productivity, accounting, supply and inventory management, security, communications, the list goes on. So now you've got a data flow issue between what's running in a browser and what's running on your server. Not an insurmountable problem, but definitely something an IT consultant can sink his teeth into.

Web 2.0 isn't a problem; it's an opportunity. All you need to do is figure out the best marketing strategy.

Posted by Oliver Rist on October 18, 2006 01:31 PM

October 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Don't Do DR on Friday the 13th

TAGS: Freaky Friday

Anyone beats this and I'll have Doug send you a T-Shirt.

Friday the 13th was in May last year, and I didn't even have this blog then. But I made notes that day and stored them in my anecdote file because I knew they'd be fodder for something someday.

I don't believe in voodoo, vampires or the Loch Ness monster. But after last year, I do believe in benevolent aliens (Brian Chee), Sasquatch (Paul Venezia), and Friday the 13th.

Looking back, I should have known. Planning a disaster recovery rollout on Friday the 13th is just too tempting for Murphy, the Fates or the technoid demon Bitszeelbub who seems to hate me.

DISASTER PLANNING ON DISASTER DAY
It wasn't even that big a deal. Just head over to the client, log every one off a couple of hours early and configure the whole network (desktops and servers) to backup to an off-site service (which shall remain nameless). Strategy was simple: Desktops backup to servers using shadow copy and servers go off-site when the usage coast is clear.

We were also going to configure our monitoring software to check on their routers a few times a day (basic there/not there stuff). Then make sure that if 'not there' comes back that we run a few additional pings to see if it was just one device or everything, then have our system send the appropriate alerts to us and to the client's key geekoids. Smart enough for SMB work and easy enough to do.

Basic DR protection. We were going to follow this up with an off-site work location and a rental contract for the basic servers and workstations the company needed to function--that way, if our alerts came back as 'not there' and there really was a disaster, the company could call key employees to report to a new site, which would be equipped to handle them and have a restore of the latest system backup ready and waiting from the day before. Slicker than hobbit snot, and not too expensive if you know the right people.

THE PAIN BEGINS
Then Friday 13th came along and dropped-kicked me in the trackballs. First bit 'o bad news: The client's UPS alerts go off at 5:06AM. Orderly shut down of the whole system. The client's geek calls us while he's driving over. When he gets there he sees Long Island power crews are in the site behind his, repairing the neighborhood transformer that just got crushed by a semi deciding to backup where it shouldn't.

Now we've got a disaster the day before we put in a disaster recovery plan. Thank you, Lord.

Bite the bullet, reshuffle the work schedule, drive over and roll up our sleeves. Not too bad. By 11am, the power company had the power restored, which I thought was a minor miracle. I'm thinking about lunch now not Friday the 13th.

But suddenly we can't bring up the Exchange Server, and all the other servers are showing unscheduled power shut downs. What happened to the UPSes? Seems our on-site geek shirked his duty when it came to checking battery health on the UPS. So UPS logic was working, but the underlying batteries were crapola and all the servers got a raw power drop anyway. Exchange was the only one that couldn't recover, something corrupted the message store, so now we've got a dead email server--the day before I would have had an off-site backup ready and waiting.

No problem, go to tape. Momma didn't raise no stupnagels. Off-site backup is an add-on, not a single solution. We ALWAYS have local tape backup, too.

HUMAN ERROR ROOT CAUSE
Unfortunately, local tape requires local humans. And the same silly freak who didn't check the batteries on the UPS apparently ignored no less than THREE WEEKs of emails from the backup server complaining of bad media. He just kept sticking new tapes in there and figuring that solved the problem. By this time, I not only believe in Friday the 13th, I also believe in summary capital punishment and I'm about to sacrifice a live chicken to the techno demon just so I can get through the rest of this day.

Worse, you can't restore a broken Exchange store to the same server for some reason (my Exchange guy was trying to explain it to me but I couldn't hear much over the sound of my forehead repeatedly smacking itself into the wall). Now I've got to reach into my drawers and pull out a spare server. Phone calls, begging, favors promised, dignity damaged, server on its way.

An hour and a half passes while we wait the 15 minutes that it should have taken. The cell phone rings and I actually break into a cold sweat. It's server boy, whose mini-van has just rear ended another car. Worse, he stuck the box in the back of the van and had the rear seats down, so the thing was actually airborne for a split second before it impacted with the passenger seat at about 35mph. Upshot: No Server For You!

Now I'm just mad. I drive all the way home to NJ and grab a lab server, then head back to the Island.

On a Friday.

Unless you're local, you don't know what this means for blood pressure and stress levels. I get back (about three and a half hours later) to find that the Exchange guru has decided to go home. But his cell phone rings before he even gets into his driveway, and let's just say he's either heading back to the site or looking for a way into the Witness Protection Program.

ONE LAST KICK IN THE...
FF to 11:36pm and Exchange is back up. We even managed to recover a little of the damaged mail store. The backup issue has been fixed and tested and we got another client's geek to let us borrow compatible batteries until new ones arrived for the UPS. The whole disaster thing has been pushed off until Monday, but at least the Saturday crew will be working as normal. Friday the 13th is over.

Until we go out to the parking lot to find that the Exchange guy left his lights on and now has a dead battery. And nobody has jumper cables. This is where I sit down in the car, pull out the notebook and write down my notes.

After we got the car started, my instinct was to buy everyone some beer, but no sooner are the words spoken than an eerie feeling descends upon us. We just looked at each other, shook our heads and slunk off home. Sometimes you know when you're beat.

I'm working from home today.

Posted by Oliver Rist on October 13, 2006 01:21 PM

October 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Emerging Enterprise: Linux in SMB and Vista Security

TAGS: Podcast

So my last mini-rev was SUSE 10 which brings us to a discussion of what you really use Linux for in SMB. After that, we get into the battle of words over Vista's security architecture and what it means to the SMB tech.   Listen!

Posted by Oliver Rist on October 13, 2006 12:04 PM

October 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Samsung Does Portable Solid State

TAGS: SMB Hardware

I'm usually looking at Samsung's office-related infrastructure like its new multi-function printer the SCX-5530FN (does laser, duplex copying, color scanning and faxing). But that's one big company with loads of products--some of them on the bloodier side of the edge.

One such is it's newly announced Q30 notebook, which is going to be the world's first production all-solid state notebook. That means no hard disk, just loads of SSD memory.

Aside from a meatier price, what's that get you? Way faster performance because your hard disk is now essentially running at RAM speeds. Think around 150%-300% faster than hard disk-based boxes, though we'll need to wait until they get a Q30 into the US for some actual performance tests before we know for sure.

And all that speed is also going to come in smaller packages since SSD storage doesn't take nearly the room or power that a hard disk does. The new Q30, for instance, is going to come in an ultra-portable 12.1-inch screen form factor. Small size is also going to be on the storage side. No official word yet on how much SSD space you'll get on a Q30, but if it's more than 35GB, I'll be surprised. Still, for an ultraportable, that should be enough, no?

Especially since that ultraportable isnt' going to have that much brain power since, Samsung also seems to have teamed it with an Intel embedded video chip and a mobile 1.2GHz Celeron processor. Let's hope they come out with a more cerebral version soon. Meantime, it's an interesting item to watch, but I don't think I'd go buying the sales deptartment a new fleet any time soon.

(via UberGizmo)

Posted by Oliver Rist on October 10, 2006 12:12 PM

October 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)

SUSE 10 Tastes Sweet to SMBs

TAGS: SMB Linux

SUSE's German (well, it started out that way). I'm German (well, I started out that way). So I know that suesse means sweet in the mother tongue. And indeed, Novell's new version of enterprise SUSE is definitely an SMB sweet.

Normally, dropping a different OS into an existing server farm is a problem. Administrators don't know how to work it, connectivity with other OSes is an issue, yada yada. Novell seems to have worked that out, though.

One of my Linux zealot friends recently proved that to me, showing me his installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10. An install he simply dropped into a mix with two Windows servers running Active Directory, print and a little mission-crit application. He wanted to use SUSE as a base to run Scalix because he was tired of playing with Exchange and moving AD to Small Business Server seemed too much of a pain.

Damn if SUSE didn't just drop in there and start chugging. Mostly we attribute this to Novell's yet-again-upgraded YaST--that's SUSE's renowned package installer. I thought it was easy back in 9, but version 10 is even more plug and play. Hell, he ran me through a test install on a spare workstation just to show it off. If you can install Windows, you can install SUSE. The only stumbler might be when the install asks you to pick a file system. Windows intermediates may flub that one, but the default selections are good for 80% of the world anyway so when in doubt, just hit OK.

After install, finding the Windows network was as easy as doing so with a PowerBook. Plug it into the network, assign the right domain name and you're a minute or so away from connected bliss. The server can even be setup to authenticate and respond to AD requests. All point and click. Very slick--should have been that way years ago.

But a base server OS isn't all that Novell throws into the mix. My friend just wanted the thing to run a low-cost email server he wouldn't need to upgrade every 18 months, but he got a chunk more for his $800 (he bought the support version and now he's wondering if he wasted the money). Novell tosses in a few more goodies. Xen virtualization and AppArmor are two biggies.

Xen virtualization is a slick deal. It doesn't go so far as to allow granular and dynamic resource allocation, but it's easy and integrated, so setting up a virtual server or two is simple. My friend was touting an Apache server that he wanted to run as an intranet server, but I kinda rolled my eyes on that--nothing is easier than SharePoint for that kind of thing. Still, the Xen stuff was sweet and it may help with his MySQL database.

AppArmor was cooler. This is an app-level intrusion detection program that works with anything running on SLES. This is an upgrade from the app-level stuff that Novell put into the last version. AppArmor has a very simple interface that lets you create threshold and alert profiles in a real sexy point-and-click GUI.

SLES 10 also has a long list of enterprise-level applications for which it's certified as well as the usual server OS goodies, like a firewall, DNS capability or even its own directory, which is all cool. But for me, it's ability to see and interact with Windows is it's primary strength and AppArmor just puts some real sweet icing on top.

For SMB admins who want to begin moving to Linux, maybe experiment with running Linux applications, or work to really save some money on Linux-based applications--all of these lend themselves real well to SLES 10. Check it out.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
Novell
Price: $349 (base two-CPU); $799 (full support plan)
Verdict: This is one slick GUI-driven Linux server with all the connectivity and application support you need to take advantage of open source price advantages without tech headaches. AppArmor is a sweet bonus.

Screen Shots
Yast Installer

System updates

Posted by Oliver Rist on October 10, 2006 09:33 AM

October 06, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Emerging Enterprise: Storage Wishlist & Laptop Theft

TAGS: Podcast

After our Sabio CM-4 review, I get to riff on what I'd really like to see in an SMB NAS and then we talk about how to protect your laptop data in the real world rather than security vendor fantasy land.   Listen!

Posted by Oliver Rist on October 6, 2006 02:15 PM

October 04, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Sabio Does SMB Storage With a Few Hiccups

TAGS: SMB Hardware

(This review was done by Brandon Sutherlin of the ANCL Lab, so be nice people -- Oliver)

By Brandon Sutherlin

Sabio's CM-4 storage appliance is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. But while it does its job as a data storage appliance, other parts of the package still need some work. We looked at two versions of this box, a basic box and a later one equipped with Blackball's SearchIn search/indexing software.

Out of the box, the CM-4 looks like a tall silver lunchbox without the handle. Its weight might make you wish that it did have that handle. The front-mounted plastic door has a barrel lock, which would deter dangerous hard disk thieves for several minutes. The physical interface is trained-monkey simple with numbered slots that correspond to four numbered drive bays. Although, since it doesn’t really matter which order you put them in for initial set up, why confuse yourself?

Speaking of initial setup, the latest version of this process is simpler than the first. In the first version, we had to use the USB connection, which was less convenient because the cord wasn't long enough. The current edition, however, uses an Ethernet connection, so at least the cord problem was solved.

Configuring the rest of the device, however, is an exercise in the Zen of waiting. Once discovery is completed, Sabio's user interface looks relatively straightforward. Little problems taunted us, like configuring permissions for shared volumes, but with a little help from tech support we squirmed on past. The major problem was the time required per user input. Whether selecting a different menu option or changing share permissions, there's a truly aggravating lag between responses.

Where is the CM-4 best suited? Small or medium businesses, no doubt. The device offers up to a terabyte of storage which could be enough for a large business to perform routine back-ups & restores as well as a gig NIC for speedy data transfer. That sounds fast on paper, but in real life that "Powered By Java" user interface gets in the way. Java's portability is great, but the Sabio UI still falls victim to the notorious lag of virtual machine translation combined with real-time processing. Configuring the CM-4 reminds us of nothing so much as surfing the Web over a 28.8K dial-up connection.

Because we were in testing mode, we spent most of our experience with the CM-4 from that perspective. Sabio points out that most users won't. They also said that their implementation of the UI doesn't use cached info of any kind--everything is presented in real-time, which makes the time delay problem a bit worse. But Sabio does this so that all information presented is always the most recent and accurate (handy for indexing, we suppose). Okay, but still, the prospect of configuring the device for a large number of users even for a one-time setup made us want to develop a smoking habit to either tolerate the waiting or die sooner.

Past the UI, however, there are some niceties to look forward to. Chief is the BlackBall SearchIn indexing software we received with the second box. This software is fast; so fast it actually made us smile. Blackball installed without issues and so far has worked as designed. The search engine supports quite a diverse array of file types with room to include the ever growing list via software updates. The ability to search using metadata fields is an interesting and useful addition especially for those of us who only remember bits and pieces of information.

To test SearchIn a bit, we uploaded two semesters of Java code and proceeded to search for method calls, import statements, variable names, you name it. Blackball's app found it all. Not only that, we searched right after uploading, thinking perhaps that the content wouldn't be indexed yet but SearchIn found everything immediately.

One thing to note about SearchIn's indexing is that it may need a little tweaking. Index scanning can be resource greedy and time consuming, which is expected; but there is an option of scanning when the machine is idle. You'll need to experiment with this to see how best the indexing feature works for you. Also pay attention to your share assignments because the whole volume is public by default.

But while we liked SearchIn for the most part, the CM-4 still had a few other issues we only encountered after using it for a while. Security is one. Adequate, but there's room for improvement. The UI has a self-signed certificate for HTTPS access, which is better than authenticating in the clear but "Allow anonymous FTP" is enabled by default. Why? Because the box doesn't support Secure FTP access, though Sabio says it's considering adding that for future versions.

Assuming the device is on a LAN behind a firewall, this seems adequate. But we would have liked to have seen some kind of remote access support for accessing files securely from outside the firewall. That's not rocket science in this day and age, and most of Sabio's competitors are including similar features.

Overall, we found the Sabio CM-4 to be uable, but with definite need for certain improvements. The UI was enough of an impedance that we view it as an obstacle to be overcome rather than an aid in configuration. On the other hand, it's worth suffering through simply for the SearchIn software. And, once you past config, you also get a healthy amount of storage capacity with RAID for data integrity security.

CM-4
Sabio
Price: $955 (street with 1TB installed)
Verdict: A usable storage appliance marred by a dog-slow install process balanced by a fast and accurate indexing solution.

Brandon Sutherlin is the student lab assistant at the Advanced Network Computing Lab at the University of Hawaii. He's considered a smart person with a great personality marred only by his placing Suzuki higher than Ducati on the motorcycle food chain.

Posted by Oliver Rist on October 4, 2006 03:16 PM