Growing Family

Baby feet with Daddy feetI haven’t had a post in a while, because on February 4th I welcomed my new daughter into the world. This is my second child (I have a 3 year old boy too), and I don’t know how I thought a newborn was difficult the first time around, this girl is easy! And that’s the last time I ever describe my daughter as ‘easy’.

I had two weeks off from work, and thought that I would be able to catch up on some lower priority projects while I was away, as well as keep up with a few blog posts and other business. Turns out that when kids equal the number of adults, you lose even more time and energy, so I didn’t get much of anything done. Still, it was a nice break and I really didn’t want to return to regular work hours.

Something that I am very thankful for is how nice it is to have a child in Canada. The constant attention during pregnancy by a regular doctor, the dedicated room and attentive staff at the hospital during, and the fact that there is no financial stress to worry about since it is all covered. It blows my mind that people in the U.S. have to consider things like, “can I afford the thousands of dollars the birth of my child is going to cost me?”

 

I still think it’s going to take me a little while to adjust to the dynamics of two kids while maintaining my own likes and interests. Not to mention ensuring my 3 year old doesn’t maim the newborn in some way.

So here’s to healthy kids and a new normal!

Core Switch upgrade

PowerConnect 5548Last night I performed a network upgrade, replacing an old and potentially failing 3Com 3848, with a Dell PowerConnect 5548.

 

The network design that my head office has leaves a lot to be desired, but unfortunately I don’t have the resources to do a complete overhaul. Right now we’ve got a single core switch, which is linked to our Sonicwall NSA 2400 by one switch port.
Every other access switch, and all servers directly connect to this core switch. Almost everything is using 2 port Link Aggregation when it makes it’s connection to the core. There’s zero daisy chaining of switches, and since everything connects directly to the core, I’ve got STP off on the core. Our access switches are mostly PowerConnect 2724’s anyways, so they don’t support STP.

This is a very simple and effective network layout, but it’s far from redundant. If that core switch dies, our entire network is down, including every service we provide to external clients.

My future goal is to replace the 2724’s with 2824’s that do support STP, and then instead of LAG groups to a single switch, I’ll use two uplinks to two separate core switches. The only thing that is currently beyond my knowledge is how to link those two core switches to our Sonicwall redundantly without creating a network loop or routing issues.

 

Replacements like this are one of the high points of my job. It seems simple, basic and low on the skill requirements, but there’s something about meticulously planning and then implementing hardware that is very relaxing, very enjoyable. I don’t know if others share this sentiment, but racking things is definitely a job perk that I wouldn’t want to give up.