To come back around to the initial question, I'll throw GLPI + FusionInventory into the mix as a decent replacement for SpiceWorks. You keep the ability to have your whole IT environment managed and documented in a single system (Equipment, users, ticketing, contracts, contacts etc etc....)

So long as your IPs are static I don't see anything additional that should be needed from an IT perspective.

@stacksofplates said in Using GNU\Linux on your workstation is rubbish:

@Dashrender said in Using GNU\Linux on your workstation is rubbish:

@black3dynamite said in Using GNU\Linux on your workstation is rubbish:

From a Linux Desktop, you can browse multiple protocols without additional applications. I personally use FileZilla Client but I've also use WinSCP too.

From a Nautilus File Manager:

I don't consider this quite a fair comparison. Linux distros are mostly made by and for techies. There need/desire for these tools to be included seems obvious. Windows on the other hand is meant for the masses, and those tools would be unused by 95% or more.
So sure - it's cool they are there, but that's about all.

I'd argue it's mostly because windows doesn't natively support other protocols. You can browse SMB shares from explorer because it's natively supported. I'd be willing to bet if windows supported NFS or SSHFS or SFTP or any other protocols you would be able to do it in explorer.

Windows server supports NFS shares... I honestly haven't looked into using explorer to browse NFS but this is adding some weak-sauce to the argument.... This post stopped being constructive a while back so I don't feel too bad for adding fuel to the fire.

I'll hitch my wagon to the "Linux is better" camp because the only time that I've seen any advantage to windows is if you've got to administer an MS environment (much of my day job), have to use windows only software (such as our ERP's client software), or are otherwise stuck in a MS ecosystem (users / processes heavily entrenched in the world of windows-only software and systems).

@Pete-S said in HyperVisor:

At some point old tech just becomes too old.

R710 for instance doesn't have pcie 3.0, doesn't have sata 3 on the cpu, doesn't have aes-ni instructions (big deal for encryption) and it's power hungry.

I suggesting R720 with Ivy Bridge CPUs, E5-2600 v2, as the oldest tech that is still decent today.

Then you have 22nm technology, 12 core CPUs, pcie 3.0 (means you have the I/O capacity for fast raid cards, pci based flash etc). You have sata3 on the cpu so you can use sata ssd to it's full potential. You're also on the last generation of CPUs that uses ddr3 RAM so you can load up the server with lots of GB for a modest price.

The performance jump from DDR3 to DDR4 might make it worth it for the 730. Depends on your use-case / workloads.

@Pete-S said in HyperVisor:

@notverypunny said in HyperVisor:

@Pete-S said in HyperVisor:

@Dashrender said in HyperVisor:

Assuming Moore's law holds, 7 years newer equipment, you're looking at 6 to 8 times faster gear.

It doesn't hold unfortunately.

Per core it's 15-20% faster per generation when there is a major technology shift. A lot less otherwise.

So R710 is Nehalem Xeons.

We have the following major generations:

• R710 - Nehalem architecture, Xeon 5500 series, on 45 nm
• R720 - Sandy Bridge architecture, Xeon E5-2600 v1, on 32nm - PCIe 3.0 introduced on E5-2600 v2 series.
• R730 - Haswell architecture, Xeon E5-2600 v3, on 22nm - DDR4 RAM introduced
• R740 - Skylake architecture, Xeon Scalable, on 14nm

Expect cores on a R740 to be roughly 70% faster than R710 at the same GHz. It's a lot but not as much as you would think. Especially since clock speeds have gone down and core count has gone up.

We've got a mix of 720 and 730 units in production and the 730s deal with the spectre / meltdown garbage much better than the 720s.

That's interesting to hear. Did you notice this on the production workloads or is it from running benchmarks?

Production workloads, various versions of XenServer running W10 VDI instances.

It looks like the OnlyOffice integration is an additional, paid feature. Home users are still directed to the onlyoffice site.

@Pete-S said in HyperVisor:

@Dashrender said in HyperVisor:

Assuming Moore's law holds, 7 years newer equipment, you're looking at 6 to 8 times faster gear.

It doesn't hold unfortunately.

Per core it's 15-20% faster per generation when there is a major technology shift. A lot less otherwise.

So R710 is Nehalem Xeons.

We have the following major generations:

• R710 - Nehalem architecture, Xeon 5500 series, on 45 nm
• R720 - Sandy Bridge architecture, Xeon E5-2600 v1, on 32nm - PCIe 3.0 introduced on E5-2600 v2 series.
• R730 - Haswell architecture, Xeon E5-2600 v3, on 22nm - DDR4 RAM introduced
• R740 - Skylake architecture, Xeon Scalable, on 14nm

Expect cores on a R740 to be roughly 70% faster than R710 at the same GHz. It's a lot but not as much as you would think. Especially since clock speeds have gone down and core count has gone up.

We've got a mix of 720 and 730 units in production and the 730s deal with the spectre / meltdown garbage much better than the 720s.

We're running normal consumer SSDs in a bunch of 720XD units. Wouldn't be appropriate for all workloads but they're "good enough" for our use case.

@JaredBusch said in Active Directory change logging / auditing:

Netwrix works well. I know people that have purchased it and love it.

The product looks good, but from an IT perspective I don't like the licensing as it's on a per AD user model, (which IT has no control over) whereas ManageEngine is based on a per DC model which is much easier to manage.

@Obsolesce This is what got me looking at graylog, and it's still on the table, just wondering if there are other options that I'm not considering.

@IRJ Does Wazuh have anything built-in or available for keeping tabs on AD? They seem to have an open enhancement request for it https://github.com/wazuh/wazuh/issues/3878

I know that there are several discussions on here regarding if AD is needed. Please refrain from telling me to burn it all with fire as that's not an option

I've been tasked with looking at options for audit trails for changes within our AD, particularly with regards to user account modifications and was wondering what (if anything) folks on here are using and would recommend or caution against.

In the paid / commercial corner I've seen :

• ManageEngine ADAudit +
• Netwrix Auditor

In the community / open-source / roll-your-own corner:

• Graylog
• Wazuh ???

For ease of use and peace of mind ManageEngine is a top contender, but of course is $$$. Graylog looks promising but appears to put all of the security heavy-lifting on the admin, which is certainly do-able but makes it a bit less interesting if there's another option.

GLPI + FusionInventory or OCSinventoryNG can do inventory. GLPI does a hosted / cloud option now. Not sure the details of what OCS inventory can do now, I'd started looking into it a bit before the holidays but that's all kind of fuzzy now....

If you do pursue this further, and IIRC there's 2 ways to get that particular PoS chip to work, depending on the revision. I haven't had to mess with one lately, but they were popular in HP laptops for a while.

Enduring a power outage on the last day before vacation.... IT and the admin area are on the generators but manufacturing, design and PM are in the dark until power's restored... The shop is trying to do year end inventory in the dark

fighting with Dell's OpenManage Enterprise appliance... moved it to another subnet to isolate it from the users and now it doesn't want to let me log in

Waiting for the Motrin Platinum to kick in.... sore neck going on a week now

Coffee #3

@FATeknollogee said in Stuck supporting out-of-date Windows Servers, what options do I have?:

Not to threadjack...
Now that I've experienced Fedora WS & Server updates, why do/does Windows updates suck so bad?

Any reasonably mature Linux distro is light years ahead of M$ for updates.

Off the top of my head, another option would be to throw a Pi with pihole directly on your vlan10 and have it do your DHCP as well as all of the pihole adblocking. Just food for thought. Looking at the setup, I'd also make sure that you don't have anything else on that vlan10 set as a dhpc server or with a dhcp-relay.