Lukas Beeler's IT Blog

I was always afraid of exams – usually until it started – because then i had better things to do. After i was done with my apprenticeship by passing my LAP, i thought it was finally over with exams. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

My focus here is clearly on Microsoft and IBM certifications, because those are the only ones i’ve got experience with.

I know many people that are afraid of certification exams – i was too, until i got some experience with them.

The first IT exam i took was the Microsoft exam 70-294. Two years ago, i’ve found my company lacking enough Microsoft certified personnel to make us stay in the Microsoft Partner Program. Something had to be done, and Microsoft even offered special Bootcamps for Partners. I booked the one with the nearest date and a topic that i was at least familiar with.

The bootcamp itself was very interesting. I, and some guy that was sent there by the RAV were the only attendees. The trainer however, know his topic very well, and i’ve learned quite a few things. A day later, i attended my exam and passed with just a few points over the required score. All was well.

Fast forward two years later, our CEO decided that we should earn the Microsoft Small Business Specialist. Again i’ve booked a one day bootcamp for exam 70-282. The attendance here was very interesting – and MCSE, an MCT and two sales guys. The course itself was rather worthless, i didn’t learn anything i didn’t know before. On the following monday, i passed the exam with a lot of room to spare. I didn’t learn for it, i didn’t do anything to prepare myself. And yet, i passed, with a good score and lots of time to spare.

I’ve got four years of experience dealing with Microsoft’s Small Business Server, and all of it’s related products. And that’s exactly what the exam tested. I knew all the stuff, because i’ve done it all before, for customers, in reality. Not in a virtual environment, not by reading a textbook, but at work.

At that point i decided to try something – why shouldn’t i just go and complete an MCSE certification? I registered for the next Exam online through Prometric. Exam 70-270 covered Windows XP. Again, it was all just trivia that i’ve done before on the job – of course i didn’t know all answers, but you can always take an educated guess. I passed.

After a few more exams, i had my MCSE. Without too much learning, and especially without cheating. One of the problems that IT certifications face are cheaters – people that use Braindumps to memorize the answers, and are then able to pass an exam.

I’ve seen people with enough technical knowledge to pass the exam still using braindumps. The problem here is two fold:

• People are afraid of exams, and want to make sure that they pass
• Exams sometimes have out-of-this-world questions

Not much can be done about the first point – just to repeat that failing an exam isn’t the same as having bad grades in school. You won’t get in any trouble, you will just have lost a bit of money.

The second point however is fixable. Microsoft did a lot in this respect, but there are still several questions which refer to ntbackup. Nobody uses that in a production environment, and even if they do, they probably don’t know what the difference between a “full backup” and a “daily backup” is (the latter is not incremental or differential, it uses the timestamp on the files). That’s why even people that are good at their jobs need to prepare for exams.

Before upgrading or uninstalling a program, it’s generally a good idea to stop it’s services before doing so.

So i did that using services.msc, and run the uninstaller. However, the installer said that he was unable to remove the service, and a reboot was required. I didn’t really feel like rebooting, i had a look at the registry. The service was still there, and it was still visible in services.msc, but i was unable to start it – the error message said “The specified service has been marked for deletion”.

I tried “sc delete name“, but i got the same error message: “The specified service has been marked for deletion”.

After that, i closed the services.msc window. Now, the service was no longer installed, and after restarting services.msc, it was no longer visible. I ran the installer again, with services.msc closed – it was now able to finish installing the application and it’s associated services.

So what did i learn?

Always close services.msc when installing or upgrading programs!

As part of a “security cleanup”, someone removed IIS from his Small Business Server 2000. The result was, well, obvious. Exchange stopped working. He reinstalled IIS, but Exchange still wasn’t working.

Luckily, Microsoft already knows what you have to do:
How to remove and to reinstall IIS on a computer that is running Exchange Server.

As usual, Microsoft KB entries aren’t very reassuring when it comes to “what data will i loose when i do this”. Don’t be concerned, reinstalling Exchange will not hurt your data in any way, if you follow the manual to the letter.

The System i offers a variety of console options. All of them have some advantages, and also several drawbacks.

Recommendations

Thin Console

The Thin Console is usually included in a new System order. I’ve written an earlier post about the disadvantages of the Thin Console (here). Even though it isn’t the best, it is usually the way to go. After setup, i’ve never had any issues with those devices, they work without problems behind a KVM switch, the only problem is rack integration, because it doesn’t come in a 19″ form factor. The biggest disadvantage is that it doesn’t support LPARs and remote acccess. Most Small Business aren’t able to afford LPARs, so it isn’t really a problem.

HMC

The Hardware Management Console is the way to go. If it is possible, buy the HMC. It is hugely expensive though, but it comes in 19″ form factor, can easily be integrated, you can install an RSA II adapter for enhanced remote access (remote console access is possible by default). This comes at a price, though. A HMC costs about 6000 CHF – you can buy an “okay” Intel Server for that (strictly, the HMC is an “okay” Intel Server).

Legacy

Operations Console

The Operations Console is the most stupid product IBM ever launched. The killer is the fact that it doesn’t run on Windows Server. So you can’t run it on rackmounted hardware, because these usually don’t support Windows XP. It’s a big mess that IBM made for only one reasons: selling HMCs.

Twinax

Twinax works. No remote access, no complicated device, no rack mount, and all consoles are already End of Sale. But if you still have Twinax equipment, the Twinax console is very sturdy and works well.

Okay, so we have the Year 2007, and i still see System i administrators order CDs and install them by swapping out one CD after the other. And if i ask them what they’re doing, i got told that image catalogs are too complicated.

So here is a complete, to the point walk through on how to install PTFs from an Image catalog.

Obtaining the images

Step 1 is to obtain the necessary disk images. All you need is a computer with a web browser, you don’t even need java support anymore (YAY!).

Under V5R4, it’s also possible to download the images using SNDPTFORD. This hasn’t always worked for me, and monitoring it was always pretty sketchy.

Go to: IBM Fix Central. As i can’t remember such a stupid URL, i always search Google for “iseries fix central”, which has worked fine for me since a few years.

Next you will need to log on with your IBM ID. You can create one if you don’t have one already, it’s pretty painless and requires no other resources.

Then you’re in the PTF selection menu. You will need to select the topmost, even if it says “Documents”. You can’t order Groups and CUM in the same order, so just reuse these steps after completing the CUM order. Click “Add to my Download List”. If you are on your second pass, trying to order the Group PTFs, you should make sure that the download list is cleared before you add the Group PTFS to your list.

Next, make sure that you select “Do not connect to my System”, [x] “Include requisite PTF”, and use FTP for the download. You will receive these instructions by Mail.

After clicking continue, you will land on the Summary page, where you can see if you order succeeded. You will now receive two E-Mails, one with an order confirmation, and one with the FTP data. The second can take quite a while, sometimes more than an hour. You should now place a second order for all Groups that might affect you.

Both Exchange’s IMF and SpamAssassin like to classify the Mails sent by IBM as spam. If you don’t have it in an hour, make sure to check your Spambin.

Downloading the images

This is Step 2. You get an E-Mail from IBM with all the infos you will need. I usually download the Images to a Windows Server using FileZilla, because it supports multiple connections (IBM has a per-connection speed limit). But you can also download them with Internet Explorer, or with the FTP Client directly on your System i – make sure to always use binary mode, the System i client does _not_ default to that.

No matter what you do, you will need to save the images in the IFS. I usually use the path /CUMPTF, but any will do.

Use MKDIR '/CUMPTF' to create the directory, and then use the Windows commandline FTP client to upload it. Make sure that your first command is “cd /CUMPTF”, this will make sure that you’re using the IFS.

Creating the image catalog and the virtual optical device

Okay, welcome to step 3.

First, we create an optical device for the image catalog. This needs to be done only once per i5/OS instance.

CRTDEVOPT DEVD(OPTVRT01)
RSRCNAME(*VRT)
TEXT('Virtual optical device for image catalogs')

Note that by default the device is varied off. We will need to vary it on before using it.

VRYCFG CFGOBJ(OPTVRT01)
CFGTYPE(*DEV)
STATUS(*ON)

Then, we will need to create the image catalog.

CRTIMGCLG IMGCLG(CUMPTF)
DIR('/CUMPTF')
CRTDIR(*NO)

We will need to add all files to the image catalog. You will need to use this command once per image file. It doesn’t matter in what sequence you add them, though. The important part here is *FROMFILE, which will make sure that the Image file you already uploaded is reused (and not copied).

ADDIMGCLGE IMGCLG(CUMPTF)
FROMFILE('/CUMPTF/SF99504_1.bin')
TOFILE(*FROMFILE)

The last step is to load the Image Catalog. Use WRKIMGCLG, and then Option 8 to load the image. Then use Option 10 to sort and verify the Images, make sure to choose *PTF, to reorder the items.

Applying the PTFs

Okay, this is rather easy, and you should already know this. Type GO PTF, select Option 8, choose OPTVRT01 as a device, and then make sure that the media option is on number 2. I won’t go into details here, because most people have more experience with this than i do.

Update: Fixed a missing sentence.

Today i had a very interesting issue with DNS PTR records. I couldn’t believe what i was seeing, but i typed my problem keywords into Google anyway.

It blew my mind when i found this KB article:

You cannot delete DNS PTR records that contain uppercase characters in Windows Server 2003

Zebra manufactures label printers. While they do have their own print servers, i’ve seen many deployments where non-Zebra print servers where used. These printers are usually attached to a System i by using a remote outq and a print server.

The difficulty now comes when you have to update their firmware – of course you could just go and plug it into a PC with an old IEEE1284 port, but that might not be very convenient because laptops no longer have them, USB attachment has it’s own set of associated problems, and one might not want to walk to every printer just to upgrade the firmware.

Zebra’s printservers have integrated abilities to upgrade the firmware, and they even have tools to do this job for you. But in this special case, i had to look for my own solution.

As the instructions for a local update, which consisted of sending the file to LPT1:, seemed pretty straightforward, i got my hand on some Unix-tools.

Netcat is available for Windows. You can use it to upgrade the firmware remotely by using a simply trick. Copy nc.exe to C:\windows\system32, extract the firmware to a directory, and then just run the following commandline:

nc 192.168.1.50 9100 < firmware.ext

Note that nc doesn’t exist even after the firmware was flashed successfully, you’ll have to exit it by using CTRL-C.

This is more of a rant than something constructive.

You get what you pay for – at least in the hardware world. If you do not have enough information, it is always difficult to say what you should buy, and how you should compare prices.

The problem is that it is sometimes hard for a customer to understand why there are so many ways to fulfill one single goal, and why the different solutions might have gigantic price differences. If you’re a sales type of guy, it’s important to make sure that you offer the right components, and make sure that the competition does the same.

Example

I need 1 TB of Storage.

Okay, this sounds simple enough. You can now make an offer for a simple 1TB Disk and an USB2 disk case. Totals at about 600 CHF including MWST.

Does this solve the customers problem? Does it help him? Is it what the customer wants?
Maybe. You don’t know.

You can generally leave a better impression if you ask the customer what he needs the storage for, and also think about secondary problems like backups.

I need 1TB of Storage for our ERP-Database running on one of our IBM x3650 servers. We have no idea on how we should back it up, though.

Now you already know a lot more, and know that the 600CHF solution with a single disk won’t even get close to the solution. You still don’t know enough to know everything (i.E. you could get 1TB with RAID10, but also with RAID5). You could also try to upsell to a SAN solution, though it wouldn’t be necessary. What you do have though is the possibility to upsell a backup solution – but there’s a catch here too.

ERP software is usually very important. Can the customer afford the degraded performance associated with an online backup? Or is there a need to use database mirroring and then backup the mirror? Problems like these are usually overlooked when shopping for hardware, and if you react right you have the chance to sell more hardware, sell services, and all this while helping the customer – you’re doing the right thing and making more money.

Real problems

I see this problem mostly with Windows Small Business Server 2003. Yes, you can get a fully working machine including licenses for 3000 CHF, but the question is if that’s what the customer really wants.

SBS is a product that makes many compromises in order to offer a highly competitive pricing, it even works against many Best Practices recommended by Microsoft. That doesn’t mean that SBS is a bad product, just that it’s a mixed bag. Selling two servers is usually impossible for Small Business customers, even though it would be best for Domain Controllers.

An SBS machine usually runs the whole company – it functions as a domain controller, file server, print server, Exchange server, and sometimes even ERP server or Internet gateway (i would recommend to seperate the latter two roles on seperate machines/appliances). If the SBS server is down, none of the information workers can do anything. That’s why you shouldn’t skimp on the SBS hardware. Hardware RAID, dual power supplies, brand components, updates, etc. are all important. Don’t buy whiteboxes or low end servers.

Why? You could buy an IBM System x3250, stick two 500GB disks and 4GB of RAM in it, and you have the same basic attributes – the problem is that such a machine is much slower IO-wise (you run Exchange and a Fileserver on this thing!), and has much worse reliability than better 2U servers like the IBM System x3650.

But if you’re running a bigger environment, go out and buy two x3250 and use them as Domain Controllers (and ONLY Domain Controllers).

Competition

There are many companies offering IT services to small businesses. While many of them have competent personnel that knows what they’re doing, sometimes they’re more sales than goal oriented. They will offer the wrong hardware for the job, and you’re the one who has to explain to the customer why your offer is more expensive than the one from your competition.

That’s why it’s important that even a sales understands what he’s selling.

The main advantage of being a Microsoft Partner in the eyes of a technician are free software licenses – and many of them.

In general, you get three types of licenses:

License types

Internal Use Licenses

This is the best you get. These are full fledged internal use licenses which you can use for anything inside your company. There are no restrictions on use, except that you can’t sell them, or use them at a different company. You will get volume Licenses for all relevant Microsoft products – the only thing that i didn’t like was that you don’t get Vista Enterprise with KMS, just Vista Business with a MAK Key.

You can gain additional internal use licenses by gaining competencies, or by advancing to Gold Partner.

Demonstration Licenses

You can’t use them in production, but on learning systems or demo systems for customers. They do use the same keys as the Internal Use Licenses, though.

MSDN/Technet Licenses

These are only for non-production and development. You may not use them on any productive system, even if that system is for development too. i.E. you can’t install a MSDN Office on a developers PC, when he uses Word to write documentation or Outlook to read company mails. Silly rules IMO, but you’ll have to play by them.

License List

See this link:

Software Licensing for Certified and Gold Certified Partners

You’ll see that you usually get the Enterprise or best version of each product, with the exception of Windows Vista. Usually 25 CAL/User Programs, and one or two servers for certified partners, and 100 CAL/User Programs and more servers for gold certified partners.

Partner Programs are something for sales and marketing people. In smaller businesses however, this rule doesn’t always hold true.

Because of this i gathered some experience with the Microsoft Partner Program (MPP), which might help other people in the same position as me to get this job done with as quickly as possible.

Most of these things are already covered in the Partner Program Details.

First things first: the Microsoft Partner Program is only for companies which do work in IT – if you’re just an internal IT dept, the Partner Program isn’t for you, at least officially.

The program levels

Registered Partner

The lowest level in the MPP is that of a Registered Partner. You actually don’t get anything from that, except that you have access to some partner resources and can purchase the Microsoft Action Pack – the Registered Partner Level itself is free.

The Microsoft Action Pack costs about 500 CHF per year, and gives you lots of Microsoft Software Licenses, like Office, Vista, Server, Exchange, Office Sharepoint Server etc. With the Action Pack, you get 10 Internal Use Licenses for both Server CALs and Client Programs/OS. So if you’re a small company, you can get all the Microsoft software you will ever need for just 500 CHF a year.

No need to hunt after customer references or partner points.

Certified Partner

You can achieve the this level by getting partner points. Partner points are primarily gained by achieving competencies. Competencies are achieved by having Microsoft Certified Professionals on your company roster, and by submitting customer references. More about this later.

The Certified Partner Level costs 2500 CHF per year, and you loose the ability to purchase the Action Pack. Instead of having to buy it separately, it’s included in the Certified Partner Level, and gives you 25 Internal Use Licenses. You can even extend these Internal Use Licenses with Volume Licenses.

You also get both a Technet and MSDN subscribtion included into the nominal partner fee (these two subscriptions alone are worth more than 2500CHF per year, but you also get the Internal Use Licenses and other benefits).

There are also 5 free Support Incidents included, and you can order free marketing posters and other material from the Microsoft Partner Shop.

Gold Certified Partner

This is mostly the same as Certified Partner, except you need more points and get more internal use licenses. It’s usually not worth to pursue it, if you need more than 25 Internal Use Licenses you’re usually already big enough to get Gold Certified Partner Level.

Getting points

You’ve decided that you want to be a Certified Partner or Gold Certified Partner. First, you will need to register at the normal Registered Partner level, and then get at least 50 (Certified) or 120 (Gold Certified) Points.

The easiest way to get the Certified Partner Level is gaining a single, simple Competency.

First competency

I would recommend the Networking Infrastructure Solutions competency for most companies as the first competency. You just need three references and two MCPs.

If you already have Microsoft Certified Personal, you don’t need to much more than to figure out their MCP IDs. If you do not have certified personnel yet, you will need to get certified.

The easiest way for this are the client exams Windows XP and Windows Vista. If you and your coworkers know your stuff, you can take either exam without preparation and pass. Both my apprentices passed 70-620, with room to spare and without much preparation. Remember, you need two people for this!

After gaining two MCPs, and having them and their MCP IDs properly registered on the Partner Program Site, you will need to add customer references. You will need at least three customer references every year. Adding customer references is simple enough, ask the customer for permission (by phone), add the company, a tagline for the project (a detailled description is not needed) and the customer gets an e-mail. These e-mails are usually in the spam bin, god knows why. With a link in the e-mail, the customer can approve your reference.

With three references assigned to the Networking Infrastructure Solutions competency and two MCPs, you should already be a Microsoft Certified Partner (after coughing up the 2500CHF).

More points

Getting gold partner is a bit more complicated – you can get a second competency easily by getting the Information Worker competency with the Office Systems Desktop Deployment specialization. Just add three more customer references, and you’re set. You won’t have Gold Partner status yet.

You can get a few more points and a few extra quirks by having someone complete the Small Business exam, which will give your company the additional status Small Business Specialist. Microsoft offers a course for this exam for about 1000 CHF, but it’s not worth it. If you have setup more than one Small Business Server, and looked a bit at the internal SBS tools (like the integrated backup utility), you should be able to pass this exam too without much preparation. This will usually give you 5 extra points. You will also need to do a online sales assessment (look at the source, the solutions are in there), where you have unlimited free retries anyway.

If you want to get the Gold Partner level, you will need to get either a certified product (works well if you’re also an ISV), or get points by getting more sales. I have no idea how you get partner points for sales, as that’s not really my field of work.

An important tip

There are two Microsoft Partner Web Sites:

http://partner.microsoft.com/

Contains mostly marketing material and program Informations

http://partners.microsoft.com/

Contains the Partner Administration website, where can do all the cool stuff like getting your volume license keys, and adding MCPs.