BenPiper.com — Boost Your IT Career!

How To Integrate AI Into Any Workflow

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The secret to seamlessly integrating AI into almost any workflow isn't a secret at all. In fact, it's so fundamental and obvious that people overlook it. There seems to be a tendency to think that because AI is new and different, that we must use it differently than other tools. But that's not the case. AI is essentially just a tool, and like any other tool, there are a few right ways to use it, and an almost infinite number of wrong ways.

Music Monday: Chasing - Jon Keith

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Did You Apply For a Job That Doesn't Exist? Ghost Jobs Explained

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Something isn't adding up. Companies are having massive layoffs, yet there are a huge number of job listings that never get filled. Meanwhile, qualified people are applying to these jobs in droves, but few are getting hired. Why?

There's one likely explanation that fits: many of these jobs don't exist yet. The term for this phenomenon is ghost jobs, and not only is it a common practice, it's actually considered pretty normal these days.

Prompts Are Not Rules

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

AI/ML is only half of the future. The other half is, well, old fashioned programming. What everyone is going to eventually figure out is that for many problems, AI can provide only half-baked solutions that are better solved by explicit rules—in other words, loops and conditionals. If you're serious about using AI successfully, you need to understand the fundamentals of why AI is right for some problems and not others.

Don't Automate Broken Processes with AI

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A concerning pattern is playing out with AI in enterprise: people rush to bolt AI onto existing tools and flawed workflows, and the result is faster, messier failure.

AI is not the process, and it can't always overcome a bad one. AI amplifies what you give it. If the underlying process is broken or undefined, automating it simply scales the problem. That’s why “AI-first” initiatives that ignore process quality often produce faster errors, amplified user frustration, and brittle systems that are costly to repair. Fix the process first.

Dealing with a Bad Boss (and How to Tell If You Have One)

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

To be clear, in my experience, most managers are not going to fall into the category of "bad boss." In fact, in my entire career, I have had only one truly awful manager. For some reason, bad managers don't seem to stick around long in the tech world, which is good news for us! So the chances of having a bad manager are pretty slim, but if you are unfortunate enough to have one, it can be a drain on you mentally, emotionally, and even financially if he or she tries to derail your career.

The Swiss Army Knife of Text Operations in Linux

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sorting and Filtering Data

One of the most common tasks performed on the command line is sorting data. This can be done using the sort command, which is part of the GNU Core Utilities package. Sorting is useful when you need to arrange a list of items in a specific order, such as alphabetically or numerically.

Here's an example of how to use the sort command:

1LC_ALL=C sort -u -b -i -f -S 80% --parallel=8 file.txt

Let's break down this command:

AI Is Just Fancy Google

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Have you ever searched for something on Google, and as you read through the search results thought, "Wow, these words look like they were written by a human!" Of course not, because you knew that the results Google was giving you -- webpages, videos, news articles -- were created by humans. Google was indexing those pages and giving you a preview.

But when someone uses AI to produce content -- write an essay, create a crazy picture, generate an outlandish video, or produce a silly song -- many people think that the content was produced by a computer, and not a human. But that's not true. In fact, all "AI-generated" content is actually just human-generated content rearranged and put together in a different way.

Music Monday: New Fire - Sent By Ravens

Mon, 13 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Music Monday: His Name Is Jesus - Phil Wickham

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Music Monday: Paradigm — All Together Separate

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Music Monday: Child In Your Arms — Ryan Stevenson

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Music Monday: Shadows — David Crowder Band

Mon, 08 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Music Monday: Show You the Cross — Matty Mullins

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Music Monday: Breakthrough — Jason Stocker, Jake Espy, Kory Miller

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

How to Bypass a Paywall

Sun, 29 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Don't you hate it when you go to view an article and an obnoxious, enormous overlay pops right up in your face telling you to subscribe? And with what so many news sites charge, you'd think that they were selling a literary masterpiece. Well, relax, because you're going to find out how to effortlessly bypass those annoying paywalls without spending a cent.

To bypass a paywall using any browser, with no extensions required, try https://12ft.io/.

Music Monday: Skillet — Stars

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Music Monday: Faithful God

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Music Monday: KB — Rich Forever

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

VLANs vs. Subnets

Tue, 27 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

If you're trying to understand the concepts behind VLANs and subnets, you have my sympathy. There are some common misconceptions around these two terms that confuse a lot of people. Friends, it needn't be so. The difference between a VLANs and subnets is very simple.

VLANs and subnets are the same thing.

A VLAN is a virtual LAN, and a LAN is a subnetwork, a.k.a. a subnet. It's a layer 2 (data link layer) concept.

Music Monday: Matty Mullins - Noel

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Should Christians Cuss?

Fri, 23 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

As Christians we are not under law, but under grace (Romans 6:14). Paul said, "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not" (1 Cor. 10:23) We should not become legalistic about cussing or let it interfere with our fellowship with other Christians. Especially considering that what does or doesn't constitute a cuss word is largely cultural (e.g. some might think "crap" or "bloody" is a cuss word), we need to be guided by the "law of love."

What are the best AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) Video Training Courses? (Subtitle: Why Does So Much Training Stink?)

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

As co-author of the official AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide: Associate (SAA-C03) Exam, 4th Edition, I'm pretty picky when it comes to how I spend my time watching video training courses.

The Problem with Most Video Training

I've watched a lot of videos that are designed to help you pass the Solutions Architect exam, and although some of them are good, most of them suffer from one of three major problems.

Books

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Here are the books I've authored or co-authored with David Clinton.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Study Guide: CLF-C01 Exam

Set yourself apart by becoming an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner. Click the book to view on Amazon.

For errata, click here.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide: Associate SAA-C03 Exam 4th Edition

The Terrible Fraud

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Dr. Van Meter is a pediatric endocrinologist and clinical researcher who tells the tragic story of a boy whose life was ended beacuse of a terrible medical scam driven by junk science. Watch it here. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

How to get an RSS Feed from a Twitter Account

Sun, 27 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

If you're not familiar with RSS (really simply syndication), it's quick a way to get all of your favorite websites and social feeds in one place. It can also help save your sanity because you don't have to suffer through ads while scrolling through multiple sites.

You just download an RSS program and point it to the various feeds you want, and it pulls everything into one place. QuiteRSS and FeedReader are two good, free choices.

Ask an Atheist Where the Universe Came From

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

If you ask an atheist, "Where did the universe come from?" you might get any number of different answers.

One atheist might say, "It's always been there," which of course is not possible because the universe has only a finite amount of usable energy. The law of conservation of energy and entropy, you know. The Big Bang? Nope, that's out too.

Another atheist might say, "We don't know, but just because we don't know doesn't mean it was God. We have to keep looking."

Using Grep Recursive and Regex to Search Big Data Sets

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How do you find a needle in a haystack?

Suppose you have a big data set consisting of various types of data including phone numbers, email addresses, user identifiers, addresses, etc. Within this dataset you need to pick out specific strings. Normally this would be easy:

grep -air -e mystring -e anotherstring and you're done, right? Not so fast.

If the strings you are searching for are generic, common strings that appear in the dataset hundreds or thousands of times, you may end up with a lot of false positives. This is especially true when you're searching on partial strings, like a few digits of a phone number or a few characters from an email address. Let's look at how you can use grep to find what you're looking for while cutting down on the noise.

How To Subnet In Your Head

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Subnetting has traditionally been the bane of every networking student's existence. But it doesn't have to be. I'll show you a quick and simple way to subnet in your mind in just seconds. Once you see how it's done in this video, you'll never need to go back to paper and pen or any of those online subnetting calculators. Check it out.

Never Start with Technology

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Technology moves at the speed of light, literally. The electrical impulses that carry information across the Internet to your mobile device or computer travel at a speed of about 186,000 miles per second — the speed of light. This means that information can travel from Atlanta, Georgia to Melbourne, Australia in 1/20 of a second. To put this in perspective, it takes about seven times as long to blink your eyes just once. That's how fast technology moves. So it comes as no surprise that a lot of businesses instinctively jump on the latest technology, hoping it will help them grow or improve in some fashion — whether that means expanding into new markets, boosting sales, improving productivity, or even delivering products and services in record time. They think that because technology moves at the speed of light, adopting the right technology will help their business grow at the speed of light. But nothing could be further from the truth.

The Technology Paradox: How Technology Can Slow Business Down

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Technology quite literally operates at the speed of light. It's flexible, powerful, and even cheap. But many businesses are finding that the more they leverage technology, the more rigid, impotent, and expensive it becomes to operate and maintain. Technology slows business down due to no inherent fault or lack of its own. I call this the Technology Paradox, and contrary to popular belief, it is not usually due to poor implementation, lack of technical skill, or poor quality. To understand the origin of the Technology Paradox, consider the following example.

Should you take on that new opportunity?

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Opportunities tend to present themselves in clusters. And as much as you'd like to be able to take them all on, you may have to say no to some of them. These opportunities may be one-time things, or they may be ongoing commitments. In the thrill and excitement of the moment, it's easy to just say yes and (over)commit yourself. Such ambition isn't a bad thing, but it needs to be tempered with some thoughtful analysis.

Practical Networking

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In my Practical Networking course, you'll get a practical, hands-on understanding of how to troubleshoot network-related issues. You'll learn all about

IPv4 and IPv6 network connectivity
How devices connect to the Internet
How data gets from end to end
How to read a network topology diagram, and more

I also cover specific network troubleshooting techniques and commands including ping, tracert, netsh, ipconfig, and netstat.

Testimonials

Don't just take my word for it! Read what others have had to say about the course.

Don't Get Conned by Cryptocurrency/Bitcoin/Blockchain

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Many moons ago, I told you that blockchain was a passing fad, and that the only meaningful use of blockchain technology was cryptocurrency (a la Bitcoin). Over 4 years later, my prediction turned out to be true. But this is not an "I told you so post." Rather, it's a warning.

Cyptocurrencies have exploded in recent years, along with scammers taking advantage of crypto "investors" (suckers). You can't turn on the radio or use the internet without being pitched some training course on "investing" in crypto, supposedly taught by some self-proclaimed expert who has less than 10 years experience in cryptocurrency.

Overcoming Censorship

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Online censorship has ramped up significantly in the past few years. We've all seen it. For instance:

Seemingly innocuous social media posts getting removed for reasons that make no sense, or for no reason at all
Veiled and not-so-veiled threats about what you are allowed to say online without fear of losing your job, getting kicked out of school, or even being physically assaulted
Ridiculous, unbelievable "official" versions of events being amplified by fake accounts and clickbait-driven media outlets

Course Exercise Files Available on GitLab

Sat, 27 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Now that GitHub has been hacked/DDoS'd, you might find it difficult to access the course exercise files for some of my IT training courses. I've begun adding some of these files to GitLab, and you can find them at https://gitlab.com/benpiper

Feel free to contact me if you can't find what you're looking for.

IPv4 Multicast Address Space Registry, Internetwork Control Block (224.0.1.0 - 224.0.1.255 (224.0.1/24))

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Redirecting to https://www.iana.org/assignments/multicast-addresses/multicast-addresses.xhtml#multicast-addresses-2

My Technology Training Courses

Sat, 27 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Here you'll find a list of my IT training courses.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Architecting for Operational Excellence on AWS

Architecting for Reliability on AWS

Architecting for Security on AWS

AWS Networking Deep Dive: Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

AWS Networking Deep Dive: Route 53 DNS

AWS Networking Deep Dive: Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

Cisco Enterprise Networks (CCNP ENCOR and ENARSI)

Cisco Enterprise Networks: Basic Networking and IP Fundamentals

Cisco Enterprise Networks: BGP and Path Control

Studying for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect: Associate Exam

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Whether you prefer to read or watch a video, here are some AWS certification training resources I've put together for you.

Study Guides

The following study guides include hundreds of assessment questions and answers as well as online access to graded practice exams.

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide: Associate (SAA-C02) Exam by David Clinton and myself covers more than you need to know to pass the exam. If you don't believe me, just click the link and look at the reviews on Amazon.

Unreliable Sources

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Despite the proliferation and availability of information, good information is hard to come by. Finding the right data is often a matter of quickly dismissing sources of bad data, allowing the cream to rise to the top. To speed up this process, I've created the following list of sources that I've found to consistently provide false information.

These unreliable sources and websites are divided into three categories.

News or "infotainment" media
Curated online references (including "fact-checking" sites)
Social media

News or "infotainment" media

These sites depend on ad revenue for their existence, so they sadly resort to dishonest tactics to get as many eyeballs as possible. They often utilize a deception technique called clickbait, using false or misleading headlines to get you to click on a link, only to bring you to a story that contradicts the headline. They also have a pattern of suppressing or dismissing facts, usually by discrediting the source of those facts ("poisoning the well")

Dumping Twitter Will Make You Smarter

Sat, 12 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

About three years ago, the following phrase popped into my head:

"Social media is making you have stupid opinions."

Now that's obviously not directed at you, and when I had the thought it wasn't about anyone in particular. It was more of a general observation that social media is antithetical to critical thought and careful, rational reasoning. It is, however, very conducive to emotionally driven snap judgments, many of which contradict each other.

Bursting the Coronavirus Hype Bubble

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The phrase "coronavirus hype bubble" refers to misinformation and hyperbole about the novel coronavirus. The virus is not a hoax, but it's not anywhere nearly as bad as you've been led to believe. It is mild for most, but it can cause serious disease in a miniscule portion of people, particularly the elderly.

Early in the Spring, it seemed that some of the response to the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was not based on evidence. And I think many of us in the technology world thought the same thing.

Free Resources

Sun, 23 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Following are free resources that I've created or collected.

By me

Repositories

My GitHub repo

My Docker images repository

Science Links

One Reason I am Skeptical of an Ancient Earth – Dr. Jay Wile

Abortion is wrong—ARTL

You failed your CCNP exam. Now what?

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

You took one of the Cisco CCNP exams. You went to the exam center, sat down, and started the exam. About 2 hours later, you saw the dreaded news appear on the screen:

You didn’t pass.

I’ve failed certification exams in the past, so I can relate to the facepalm-worthy feeling you get when you realize you dropped a couple of Benjamins on an exam that you just failed. I know the feeling of wanting to give up, the thoughts of thinking that this whole certification thing is stupid, and the desire to assign blame to whomever or whatever led to your failure.

The SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus Discriminates

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Note: This is a previously unpublished post I wrote in early 2020. I'm posting it now (late 2022) as a reminder that critical thinking based on existing scientific knowledge turned out to be right, while the "experts" were wrong. Your worldview matters. The "experts'" by and large operate on an evolutionary, progressive worldview that borders on magical thinking. This led them to believe that SARS-2 was capable of doing things no virus in history has been able to do. At the same time, they blindly denied the scientific and common-sense knowledge that masks could not stop an airborne virus. Science-denial, magical thinking, and superstition were hallmarks of "the experts". In the end, they were wrong, and traditional (evidence-based) thinking about disease and epidemics was right. Many of the "experts" were imposters, and not true experts at all.

Resources for the CCNP Enterprise Certification Study Guide: Exam 350-401

Sat, 01 Feb 2020 04:32:30 +0000

Redirecting to https://benpiper.github.io/encor

Preparing for the CCNP 350-401 ENCOR Exam

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

January 31, 2020 update: No, you're not crazy. Cisco changed the exam number from 300-401 to 350-401.

For your convenience, I've put together the following list of my courses that cover the new CCNP ENCOR exam. By watching and following along with the hands-on demos in these courses, you can't go wrong.

Routing

Pseudoscience: The word doesn't mean what you think it means

Sun, 22 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In his piece on the topic of pseudoscience, Prof. Steven Dutch of the University of Wisconsin says:

Theories that claim to be scientific but fly in the face of scientific consensus are often called pseudoscience

This is a strange definition of pseudoscience. It's tempting to try to tighten the definition, but as I'll argue, the very term pseudoscience is meaningless and not worth saving. Dutch provides three criteria for calling something the "p" word:

Finding Suspicious Traffic using CloudWatch Log Insights and VPC Flow Logs

Sun, 28 Jul 2019 22:38:05 +0000

While playing around with AWS CloudWatch Log Insights to analyze VPC flow logs, I thought of a couple of fun ways to identify (probably) malicious traffic.

Finding Vulnerability Scanners

These are the guys that hammer your box looking for anything from silly SQL injection attacks (so 2005) to CSRF vulnerabilities. The tell: look for hosts that reuse the same source port.

The Query

1filter (srcPort &gt; 1024 and srcAddr != "private-IP") |
2stats count(*) as records by srcAddr,srcPort |
3sort records desc |
4limit 5

The Results

Suspicious traffic from the same source port

Understanding the AWS Shared Responsibility Model

Thu, 06 Jun 2019 21:13:33 +0000

As an AWS customer, you share responsibility with AWS for the security of your data the cloud. There’s a mantra: AWS handles the security of the cloud, but you handle security in the cloud.

But it turns out that’s not quite true. For more, check out my guide Operating within the AWS Shared Responsibility Model.

Science is About Discovering the Truth

Mon, 03 Jun 2019 23:00:24 +0000

As someone who works in IT, I hear and read a lot of comments about science. One common but unfortunate claim is that “science is not about finding truth.” While I won’t get into the underlying philosophical reasons behind this claim, I do want to at least respond to it on its face.

Etymology of the word “science”

The word science comes from the Latin scientia, meaning knowledge.

Plato said that knowledge is “justified true belief.” I’m not a big fan of Plato, but this is a good definition. Put another way, knowledge is what you believe to be true (a) that actually is true and (b) for which you have reason to believe is true. That’s less concise, but it hits all the important points.

Studying for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect: Associate Exam

Fri, 21 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Whether you prefer to read or watch a video, here are some AWS certification training resources I've put together for you.

Study Guides

The following study guides include hundreds of assessment questions and answers as well as online access to graded practice exams.

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide: Associate by David Clinton and myself covers more than you need to know to pass the exam. If you don't believe me, just click the link and look at the reviews on Amazon.

Operational Excellence Means Automation

Tue, 02 Apr 2019 05:04:32 +0000

People use the term “operational excellence” in a lot of different ways. In its vaguest sense, it means continuous improvement as applied to operations. But you’re interested in what it means in the context of technology operations. And I’m here to tell you that it means automation.

Operational Excellence is one of the five pillars of the AWS Well-architected Framework. The AWS whitepaper lists six design principles for achieving operational excellence. I’ve paraphrased these principles for clarity. Here they are:

New Release: AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide: Associate SAA-C01 Exam 2nd Edition

Sun, 24 Mar 2019 18:47:52 +0000

Ready to get your AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification? Sybex has recently released the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide: Associate SAA-C01 Exam 2nd Edition, authored by David Clinton and myself. Go check it out!

Why I Don’t Teach The OSI Model

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 03:53:02 +0000

2022 Update: If you want a clear technical explanation of the OSI model, click on the cover of my book CCNP Enterprise Certification Study Guide: Implementing and Operating Cisco Enterprise Network Core Technologies for a free preview of Chapter 1 which explains each layer of the OSI model in intricate detail.

I recently got an email from a viewer of my Practical Networking course who asked how the TCP/IP networking terms I used mapped to the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model.

Using AWS Systems Manager to Upgrade WordPress

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 17:48:28 +0000

After years of manually upgrading my self-hosted WordPress installation, I decided it was finally time to apply some devops principles (namely automation) to this process.

I decided to use AWS Systems Manager (aka SSM). I started out by creating the following Command Document (which happens to be in YAML format because JSON is ugly):

 1schemaVersion: "2.2"
 2description: "Download and install WordPress"
 3mainSteps:
 4- action: "aws:runShellScript"
 5  name: "example"
 6  inputs:
 7    runCommand:
 8    - "wget https://wordpress.org/latest.zip"
 9    - "mv latest.zip /var/www/html"
10    - "cd /var/www/html"
11    - "service httpd stop"
12    - "unzip -o latest.zip"
13    - "service httpd start"
14    - "rm -f latest.zip"</code></pre>

The Command Document executes the bash commands in the runCommand section. It downloads the latest version of WordPress, stops Apache, unzips the files, restarts Apache, and then cleans up.

Route 53’s Name Servers are Sending a Secret Message

Thu, 14 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

If you’ve ever created a private hosted zone in Route 53, you may have noticed it always assigns the same name servers:

1 ns-1536.awsdns-00.co.uk.
2 ns-0.awsdns-00.com.
3 ns-1024.awsdns-00.org.
4 ns-512.awsdns-00.net.

The numbers don’t seem to be coincidental.

1536 is the RFC number for “Common DNS Implementation Errors.”

512 and 1024 (binary 2^9 and 2^10 respectively) are common numbers in computing.

0 is just, well, 0.

AWS CodeDeploy Lifecycle Event Hook Availability

Wed, 20 Feb 2019 00:00:43 +0000

Redirecting to https://docs.aws.amazon.com/codedeploy/latest/userguide/reference-appspec-file-structure-hooks.html#reference-appspec-file-structure-hooks-availability

AWS Intrinsic Function Reference

Mon, 21 Jan 2019 23:17:59 +0000

Redirecting to https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/intrinsic-function-reference.html

Installing the AWS CLI

Sat, 19 Jan 2019 00:18:10 +0000

Redirecting to https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-chap-install.html

AWS Resource and Property Types Reference

Thu, 17 Jan 2019 02:21:23 +0000

Redirecting to https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/aws-template-resource-type-ref.html

Writing: The Purpose of the Introduction, Summary, and Conclusion

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Tell them what you’ll tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.

This advice, although well meaning, isn't always the best approach. Although repetition has its place, repeating information three times is by no means the gold standard of teaching. I want to explore a different and perhaps more interesting way of conveying information.

The Introduction

This connects your topic or thesis to something broader that the reader is already familiar with. In other words, it places the topic in a context that the reader recognizes. At this point you might think, “My reader already knows the context, or at least they should.” This is often the case with a book where you expect the reader to have read previous chapters (or posts, or whatever designation you’re using to break up your content).

Architecting for Security on AWS

Fri, 07 Sep 2018 04:00:59 +0000

My latest course “Architecting for Security on AWS” is now available on Pluralsight!

You’ll learn how to secure your data and AWS services using a defense-in-depth approach, including:

Protecting your AWS credentials using identity and access management
Capturing and analyze logs using CloudTrail, CloudWatch, and Athena
Implementing network and instance security
Encrypting data at rest and in-transit
Setting up data backup, replication, and recovery

Go check it out!

AWS Networking Deep Dive Courses

Sat, 25 Aug 2018 15:48:53 +0000

Puzzled by networking on AWS? Check out my AWS networking deep dive series!

AWS Networking Deep Dive: Route 53 DNS

Configure Route 53 for any domain name, and configure health checks and routing policies.

AWS Networking Deep Dive: Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

Create secure and scalable VPCs. Implement multi-VPC topologies, build peering connections, network address translation, and more.

AWS Networking Deep Dive: Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

Securely configure load balancing for any public or private application. Implement HTTPS, path-based routing, and idle timeouts.

AWS Networking Deep Dive: Route 53 DNS

Mon, 28 May 2018 19:54:57 +0000

Many of you have been asking for months when my Route 53 course would release. Well, it’s finally here! AWS Networking Deep Dive: Route 53 DNS is now available on Pluralsight.

Topics covered include:

Configuring Route 53 to work with any domain name, even one registered with a different registrar
DNS concepts and how Route 53 fits in with the internet’s domain name system
Creating public hosted zones, health checks, and routing policies
Using private hosted zones with multiple VPCs

101 Public DNS Servers Sorted by Speed

Sun, 04 Mar 2018 21:06:18 +0000

You probably know the popular Google DNS server IP addresses by heart: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. Before those were around you might have even used Level3’s 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2. Of course, everyone else uses these too, which means these popular servers are under a pretty heavy load.

Fortunately, there are faster public DNS servers out there. Much faster.

101 DNS Servers

I’ve compiled a list of 101 public DNS servers (PDF), sorted in order of fastest to slowest (for me).

Installing PowerShell Core on Amazon Linux

Sun, 25 Feb 2018 23:55:14 +0000

In preparation for my latest course in the AWS Networking Deep Dive series, I wanted to install PowerShell Core on an Amazon Linux instance to test out cross-platform compatibility for some scripts.

Specifically, I wanted to see if I could use methods in the System.Net.Dns class to perform name resolution. The dnsclient PowerShell module provides some cmdlets for this very purpose, but that module is Windows-only, and I needed something that would work on across different platforms.

Is Social Media Bad?

Wed, 21 Feb 2018 11:00:32 +0000

Most of us have tossed around the idea of restricting our social media consumption, or even giving it up altogether. It’s not that we don’t like it. We love it, sometimes too much. But inherently, something about social media just seems wrong. But what is it?

People often say that social media is just a tool, and like any other tool, it can be abused, but it can also be used for good. After mulling on this for several months, I have to disagree. Social media is not a tool. It’s not neutral. And that has nothing to do with the platform. Social can’t be neutral because it’s composed of people, and people are not neutral.

Search Results

Mon, 12 Feb 2018 21:22:09 +0000

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Video: How to Subnet in Your Head

Fri, 09 Feb 2018 12:00:28 +0000

Learn to subnet in your head in just seconds! If you like what you see, check out Cisco Enterprise Networks: Basic Networking and IP Fundamentals.

AWS Networking Deep Dive: Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

Fri, 09 Feb 2018 05:28:33 +0000

AWS Networking Deep Dive: Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

AWS EC2 Instance Types

Fri, 09 Feb 2018 05:23:21 +0000

Redirecting to https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/instance-types.html

AWS Networking Deep Dive: Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

Fri, 09 Feb 2018 05:19:34 +0000

AWS Networking Deep Dive: Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

Cisco CCNP Routing and Switching Learning Path

Fri, 09 Feb 2018 03:41:14 +0000

Cisco CCNP Routing and Switching learning path

Subscription Confirmed

Wed, 24 Jan 2018 20:36:16 +0000

Thank you for subscribing to my newsletter! I invite you to browse around my blog, and feel free to reach out to me personally at [email protected]">[email protected].

-Ben

Windows Server 2016 ISO Download

Sat, 20 Jan 2018 20:32:32 +0000

Windows Server 2016 ISO Download

Invalid VPC Peering Configurations

Sat, 20 Jan 2018 20:31:32 +0000

Redirecting to Invalid VPC Peering Configurations

Implementing Cisco IP Routing (300-101) Exam Topics

Sat, 20 Jan 2018 18:19:22 +0000

Implementing Cisco IP Routing (300-101) Exam Topics

Cisco CCNA Routing and Switching

Sat, 20 Jan 2018 18:15:39 +0000

Cisco CCNA Routing and Switching learning path on Pluralsight

Understanding the Meltdown Attack

Fri, 05 Jan 2018 23:48:31 +0000

This month, security researchers released a whitepaper describing the Meltdown attack, which allows anyone to read the full physical memory of a system by exploiting a vulnerability in Intel processors. If that sounds bad, that’s because it is. It means that if you’re running workloads on a public cloud provider, and you don’t have a dedicated server, an attacker can read what your workloads are putting into memory. This includes passwords, private keys, credit card numbers, your cat’s middle name, etc.

3 Ways to Increase Your IT Earnings in 2018

Sun, 31 Dec 2017 06:49:51 +0000

As 2018 draws near, companies go into hiring mode, and people come and go, which often leaves a lot of open positions. If you qualify to fill one of the more in-demand positions, you can often negotiate a higher salary.

My biggest salary jumps have always come in the first quarter of the year. To increase your chances of getting that salary boost, here are three tips that you should start implementing right now.

4 Inconvenient but Effective Security Measures

Thu, 05 Oct 2017 03:44:54 +0000

Security usually requires sacrificing convenience (or money). So naturally, we tend to get away with as little security as possible. But if you’re a glutton for punishment, here are 4 very inconvenient but highly effective measures you can take right now to protect yourself from the evils lurking on the interwebs.

Disable JavaScript

Yeah, I know. Every site made since the Web 2.0 days needs JavaScript just for a text input field to work right. It’s a shame, really. But disabling JavaScript isn’t an all-or-nothing deal. Browser extensions lets you allow JavaScript for sites you trust and block them for all others. If you’re still using Firefox (the most obnoxious browser today), you can use the NoScript extension. Chrome users, check out uMatrix.

Blockchain is a Passing Fad

Wed, 04 Oct 2017 23:58:54 +0000

Whenever a tech fad comes to an end, it becomes so obvious why it failed. Yet during the hype, it’s easy to miss the problems lurking just below the surface. I want to explore some of the problems I see with public blockchain and why I think it’s not going to live up to the hype.

Blockchain can’t track real things

Whenever a new technology comes along, there’s always a temptation to use it in ways above and beyond it was originally intended. Blockchain came to popularity because of Bitcoin, and as Bitcoin grew, people became fascinated by its underlying technology.

Yes, You Need IT Certifications

Sat, 30 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Certifications are often lambasted as “worthless pieces of paper” and “experience is more important.” But for some people, certifications are more important than experience.

A substitute for experience

Newcomers to the IT world face the classic problem: how do you get experience without a job? Sure, you can tinker around on your own time, but how do you prove that experience? That’s where certifications come in.

Certifications show a prospective employer that you care enough and have the initiative to spend your own time and money to become a better IT professional. You might have tons of experience with IT as a hobby. But how do you prove that?

Containers are Virtual Machines After All

Fri, 15 Sep 2017 02:40:06 +0000

Many a nerd has thrown punches over the question of whether containers (e.g. Docker, LXC, etc.) are actually virtual machines. The conventional wisdom is that although containers are similar to virtual machines, they’re fundamentally different. I beg to differ.

Are containers virtual machines or not?

There’s a common analogy that VMs are like houses and containers are like apartments. And you are the application. When you live in a house, you have free rein to do as you please. When you live in an apartment, you have to share certain spaces, and parts of the building are off-limits. Interestingly, this analogy suggests that the difference between containers and VMs is not one of architecture but of implementation!

A Quick and Dirty Review of AWS Diagramming Software

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 23:31:21 +0000

I’m trying out different services to import an AWS environment and turn it into a technically correct and aesthetically pleasing diagram. Surprisingly, although most of the services can correctly identify the resources, none of them are able to identify network connections. If you’re hoping for something to autogenerate detailed visual documentation of your AWS environment, well, sorry, but we’re not there yet. However, if you’re okay with copy/paste and making some manual tweaks, one of these services might be right for you.

It’s Time to Stop Using the Term Network Function Virtualization (NFV)

Fri, 25 Aug 2017 04:16:24 +0000

I think it’s time to stop using the term “network function virtualization”. Why? Because it doesn’t exist, at least not in the way the term suggests. The term is a category error, and when people try to make sense of the term, confusion and frustration ensue.

Think of it like this: what’s the difference between a “virtual network function” and a “non-virtual network function”? For example, how is “virtual IP forwarding” different than “non-virtual IP forwarding?” Answer: it’s not.

Visual Studio Code as a PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 21:11:30 +0000

I know what you’re thinking. “Why use Visual Studio Code instead of the PowerShell ISE?” Well, if you’re using Mac OS or Linux, you don’t have the option to use the PowerShell ISE natively. And that’s a problem if you want to take advantage of the cross-platform capabilities of PowerShell Core. In this article, I’ll show you how to use Visual Studio Code (free!) to perform the key functions of the PowerShell ISE, namely:

Thanks for the follow!

Tue, 28 Feb 2017 02:57:34 +0000

Check out my newest book, Learn Cisco Network Administration in a Month of Lunches.

And in case you didn’t know, I have over 16 Cisco CCNP and Windows networking training courses available on Pluralsight.

Before you go, sign up for my free newsletter using the box on the right.

Thanks again!

Ben

Why People Haven’t Adopted IPv6 (And Why You Should Learn It Anyway)

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 16:59:59 +0000

If you haven’t learned IPv6 yet, well, you’re not the only one. In December 2016, IPv6 (as we know it today) turned 18 years old. Children who were in the womb when RFC 2460 was being drafted are now old enough to vote, get married, and purchase firearms in some states.

In honor of IPv6’s 18th birthday, allow me to share my theories on why people have been so slow to adopt it. And why you still should consider learning it.

Fixing PowerShell’s Copy-Item “Access is Denied” Error

Tue, 25 Oct 2016 21:31:08 +0000

Recently I needed a way to copy a certificate file from within a PowerShell session to another Windows machine without opening a nested PowerShell session. But I ran into a little snag along the way: Copy-Item‘s dreaded Access is denied error.

Here’s my setup

A Windows 10 laptop, from which I’m remoting
NC1, a Server 2016 virtual machine I’m remoted into. It’s a member of a domain.
HYPERV1, the Server 2016 machine I want to copy a certificate file to. It’s not a member of a domain.

I execute all of the following commands on NC1, the VM I’m remoted into.

Installing the VMware ESXi Embedded Host Client

Sat, 24 Sep 2016 15:52:48 +0000

If you have a home lab and don’t need vCenter, thee ESXi Embedded Host Client gives you web-based access to hidden features of your standalone ESXi host… without having to spin up a real vCenter server.

As most everyone knows, the old VMware vSphere C# client has been on its way out for years. One of the things keeping it alive is the fact that not everyone has a vCenter Server, and even those who do don’t necessarily use the Web Client. Sadly, there are some really cool features the old Windows client can’t touch, such as exposing hardware-assisted virtualization to individual VMs.

How to Fix the Blurry, Fuzzy, Ugly Text in Windows 10

Thu, 07 Jul 2016 22:28:04 +0000

After upgrading my Lenovo ThinkPad to Windows 10, I was so pumped. The upgrade went smoothly, all my apps worked, but then I noticed something: some apps had blurry, fuzzy text.

Ugly, blurry, fuzzy text on Windows 10:

This might not bother some people, but to me it felt like trying to read a wet book with my glasses off. Most everything else looked sharp and normal, so I knew it wasn’t a native resolution or global DPI scaling issue, which is what most of my Google-fu turned up.

PowerShell and Donald Trump

Wed, 15 Jun 2016 03:26:41 +0000

Still not convinced that you should learn Windows PowerShell? A popular conspiracy theory asserts that Russia used some awesome PowerShell tricks to hack the Democratic National Committee and get Donald Trump’s opposition research file.

While you shouldn’t (and hopefully won’t) use PowerShell for international espionage, there are some really awesome things you can do with it, like building out an entire Windows server start-to-finish without a GUI.

New book! Learn Cisco Network Administration in a Month of Lunches

Tue, 15 Mar 2016 18:44:59 +0000

The pre-release of my new book, Learn Cisco Network Administration in a Month of Lunches, is available from Manning Publications’ early access program.

The book is a tutorial designed for beginners who want to learn how to administer Cisco switches and routers. Set aside a portion of your lunch hour every day for a month, and you’ll start learning practical Cisco Network administration skills faster than you ever thought possible.

Newsroom

Sat, 13 Feb 2016 06:19:06 +0000

News outlets and other publications I’ve been quoted in

Pass the First Time: Study Tips for the CCNP Routing and Switching Certification

Tue, 23 Jun 2015 03:42:40 +0000

You can pass the CCNP R&S exams the first time, but it’s not as simple as just studying everything. Here are a few things to keep in mind when preparing…

The CCNP exams test CCNA-level skills and knowledge, too

That’s a good thing, because it helps weed out those who “brain dump” the exams. If you got lucky with OSPF on your CCNA exam, you’re not going to get lucky on the CCNP ROUTE exam. You really DO need to know this stuff. You can’t just pass the CCNA composite exam and then forget everything. You have to have a solid foundation to build on. You’re never too educated to go back and revisit the fundamentals.

Creating a File Share with PowerShell and Windows Server Core

Tue, 02 Jun 2015 16:59:10 +0000

Sometimes you just need to create a file share.

With Windows Server Core, you don’t have all the old GUI tools that we’re all used to. So you have to make do with PowerShell and the old fake DOS prompt. Fortunately, with a little help, it’s pretty easy.

First, create the folder you want to share. In this case, c:\share

Next, modify the ACL to grant the DOMAIN\File Server Admins group full control

5 Reasons to Consider Leaving Apple

Wed, 06 May 2015 04:41:24 +0000

Remember when everyone had to have an Apple product — an iPhone, Macbook, or iPad? Look at how fast things changed. Android has been leading the tablet and smartphone market and crushing Apple for years now. So what does this mean for Apple?

#1 – Apple is now Apple, circa 1997.

Apple is trying to “me-too” its way back to success with its Apple Watch. We already have fitness bands that tell time. Apple’s desperate desire to “innovate” has ironically had the opposite effect — they’re just copying the success of others. It’s the same mistake they made in the late 1990’s after firing Steve Jobs. They copied IBM and almost went bankrupt. When Steve Jobs returned, Apple made a comeback.

Building Windows Server with Puppet and Chocolatey

Tue, 05 May 2015 14:54:58 +0000

Forget using scripts and group policies to configure a new Windows Server machine. Using Chocolatey and Puppet, you can do it faster & easier than ever (and it’s more fun too). This is especially true if you’re using a Server Core installation and don’t have a GUI to help you along. Oh, and if you don’t know Puppet, you really should watch my course Puppet Fundamentals for System Administrators on Pluralsight 🙂

My Twitter Philosophy

Sat, 04 Apr 2015 05:04:30 +0000

Years ago when I was active on twitter, I made a few passing observations about this strange place called Twitter:

“A lot of people follow me for a few days then unfollow me if I don’t follow them back”

There are so many things wrong with this. Following someone just so they’ll follow you back is selfish. It’s pretty obvious these folks are just using others to increase their follower count. They follow 5,000 people and have 4,999 people following them. Yeah, not impressed. Seeing this doesn’t make me think that person is influential. It makes me think they’re obsessive.

Citrix Web Interface: Error occurred while making the requested connection

Tue, 17 Feb 2015 18:17:18 +0000

I recently ran into a bizarre issue with users not being able to launch applications from a very old Citrix Presentation Server 4.0 farm when trying to launch from Citrix Web Interface 5.4. They were getting the eminently unhelpful, “An error occurred while making the requested connection.”

The Diagnosis

In the web interface application logs, I noticed this:

An error of type IMA with an error ID of 0x80000003 was reported from the Citrix XML Service at address (servername)

Net Neutrality is a Scam

Fri, 06 Feb 2015 04:41:22 +0000

One of the biggest scams of the Internet is in full swing right now. You may have heard of it. It’s called “net neutrality.”

Fundamentally, net neutrality is about preventing Internet service providers (ISPs) from throttling or blocking traffic or providing paid prioritization of certain content. In addition, specific rules proposed by the FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler would allow the FCC to arbitrate peering disputes between carriers. Traditionally, carriers have connected each other’s networks with each other for a nominal cost or none at all. The idea being that the mutual benefit of using each other’s network for transit is payment enough. The proposed FCC rules, however, will turn this once amicable transaction into a litigious battleground that could result in the destabilization of the Internet’s backbone.

Vagrant Boxes

Sun, 14 Dec 2014 22:33:45 +0000

BitTorrent

CentOS 6.5 for VirtualBox via bittorrent

Dropbox

CentOS 6.5 for VirtualBox via dropbox

How Knowledge Can Kill IT’s Value

Sat, 13 Dec 2014 06:44:35 +0000

IT people often intentionally withhold knowledge from those outside of IT. There are different reasons for this — some good and some very bad.

One reason IT folks withhold knowledge is that they believe the best way to learn is to teach yourself. After all, that’s how many of them learned. Unlike many others in business, most IT folks didn’t attain their skills through traditional education. They were self-starters when it came to their own education and taught themselves much of what they know. Such an approach has served them well, so they believe it will serve others well also.

Installing SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 2012

Thu, 11 Dec 2014 18:11:50 +0000

Where is SSMS 2012?

Microsoft decided to make it confusing and difficult to install SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 2012. Since my slogan is, “Business at the speed of light,” I’m going to to show you the quickest way I’ve found to install SSMS 2012.

Creating a Linux LVM Logical Volume on an iSCSI SAN

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 21:55:11 +0000

Recently I had an Oracle database server used by some developers that was running out of space on its data volume mounted at /u02. The volume was a simple MBR volume (think fdisk), so it couldn’t be non-destructively extended without using a third-party utility like gparted. That would have been fine, but rather than leave the volume as MBR, I decided to create a new iSCSI SAN-backed Logical Volume Manager (LVM) volume, which can be extended and resized pretty easily.

In this post, I’ll show you how to create a logical volume stored on an iSCSI SAN. Even though I did this on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 (RHEL), these steps should work on any distribution of Linux.

Configuring an OpenStack Havana Lab Step-by-step

Fri, 05 Dec 2014 19:12:25 +0000

In this demonstration, we’re going to configure a basic OpenStack cluster on RedHat/CentOS 6.5.

Download webdock

Thu, 16 Oct 2014 04:14:08 +0000

webdock is a virtual machine (OVF) that uses Docker to spin up multiple web servers for testing NetScaler load-balancing. Designed for my course Citrix NetScaler 10: Design and Deployment. If you'd like to download webdock, please email me.

Creating a Linux File Server for Windows CIFS/SMB, NFS, etc.

Mon, 28 Jul 2014 17:17:44 +0000

Recently I needed to build a multipurpose file server to host CIFS and NFS shares — CIFS for the Windows users, and NFS for VMWare to store ISOs. It needed to utilize back end storage (NetApp via iSCSI), provide Windows ACLs for the CIFS shares, and be able to authenticate against two different Active Directory domains. After careful consideration, I decided to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 (RHEL) instead of Windows Server 2012.

Now you might be wondering, “Why on earth would you want to build a Linux file server to do all that when you can just use Windows?” There are a few reasons:

Home

Wed, 09 Jul 2014 18:17:26 +0000

Top-notch expertise in advanced enterprise networking, cloud, and virtualization technologies including Cisco, Citrix, Microsoft, Puppet, RedHat Enterprise Linux, and VMware.

Windows Server Core Full Configuration with PowerShell

Wed, 09 Jul 2014 17:09:23 +0000

How to Configure Server Core with Active Directory Services, DNS, and DHCP Using Nothing But PowerShell

Windows Server 2012 offers two installation options: Server Core or “Server with a GUI”. This begs the question: Why would you want to install Server Core instead of the GUI? One reason may be that you have limited physical hardware resources and want to keep the footprint as small as possible.

Recently I needed to build a domain controller, DHCP, and DNS server for a branch office. This office has a Riverbed Steelhead WAN optimization appliance which runs a nested VMware ESXi hypervisor. The appliance has limited memory and disk space, so I needed to keep the installation as small as possible (Incidentally, if I only needed DNS and DHCP, I would have just installed RedHat Enterprise Linux, but having the server be an Active Directory domain controller was also a requirement.)

I’m going to show you step-by-step how I configured Active Directory Services, DNS, and DHCP on a Windows Server 2012 Server Core installation.

Results

Fri, 13 Jun 2014 06:03:53 +0000

Examples of typical client results:

Helped a national payroll processing company achieve 99.99% uptime for their online payroll services.
Improved application launch times for Citrix by 17%.
Averted potential client losses and helped secure new and sustainable business.
Improved stability of Citrix XenApp servers by ensuring consistent nightly reboots.

Too Much Prevention, Not Enough Cure

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 05:00:41 +0000

When it comes to security, IT leaders focus so much on preventive action that they don’t plan for contingent action. What would you do if you were hacked and confidential information was stolen? If you can’t confidently answer that right off the top of your head, you’re one breach away from looking for a new job.

Humans are bad at accurately assessing risk. The likelihood of getting hacked is next to zero unless you’re a big target or haven’t taken appropriate preventative security measures. But if you do get hacked, the consequences can be catastrophic. Yet IT focuses almost exclusively on prevention. Why? For starters, preventive action is easier. Setting up firewalls and security software and following well-documented security practices are all straightforward steps. Preventive actions are also highly visible. When you’re blocking and filtering things, people notice, and you can easily prove that you’re on the ball if anyone ever asks. Contingent action is also not nearly as glamorous. Blocking an attack against your network is much more exciting and rewarding than responding after the horse has left the barn.

Depending on Heroes

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 05:00:31 +0000

Virtually every business I have ever worked with had one “hero” in its IT organization — that one person who was considered almost indispensable because he had the “keys to the kingdom” and knew things others didn’t. I believe many IT leaders allow such a scenario to persist in their organization because they’re either not sure how to handle the situation, or they are simply unaware the situation exists. If the latter applies to you, here is your wake-up call. If you already know of a “hero” in your organization, here is my advice on eliminating hero dependency.

Using Separate XenApp Farms for Shared Hosted Deployments

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 05:00:16 +0000

A common question facing service providers that use XenApp to provide published applications to multiple clients is whether to use a single, large farm for all clients, or to dedicate a separate farm to each client.

Often the degree to which infrastructure is shared among clients is a matter of philosophy and preference. Some organizations will dedicate separate storage, networking, even virtual machine hosts for each client. The decision to share or not share infrastructure could be based on a variety of things, including client preference, past experiences, or the proverbial “that’s-just-the-way-it’s-always-been.”

How to Make NetApp Use the Correct Interface for iSCSI

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:24:09 +0000

If you’re familiar with networking you know that when a device is directly connected to two separate IP networks, traffic destined for one of those networks should egress on the interface that is directly connected to that network. For example, if your storage appliance is directly connected to the 172.16.1.0/24 network, and you want to send a packet to a device with the IP of 172.16.1.55, traffic should egress on the interface connected to that network. Unfortunately, in the case of some NetApp filers, this does not always happen.

Windows VMs on XenServer Mysteriously Jumping a Day Ahead

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:18:51 +0000

It came to my attention today that there is a seemingly new issue with XenServer that is causing the time in Windows VMs to become offset by one day. My first thought was that this could be related to 2012 being a leap year, so I pulled up the source code for the Xen 4.1 hypervisor that handles leap years from http://fossies.org/unix/misc/xen-4.1.2.tar.gz:a/xen-4.1.2/xen/common/time.c.

I ran through the code with a calculator for today’s date (January 18, 2012) and ended up with tbuf.tm_mday being 19 because line 84 of the code adds one day for some reason. I can see this causing a VM’s time to be offset ahead by one day, but not backward. Can anyone validate or correct my thinking on this?

Avoid Upgrading to Adobe Reader X 10.1.2

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:48:18 +0000

A lot of users who upgraded to the recently released Adobe Reader X 10.1.2 are finding that it crashes when trying to print a PDF.

How to Make NetApp SnapMirror Use a Specific Interface

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:00:58 +0000

If you have two Netapp filers and want to use Snapmirror to replicate volumes or qtrees between the two, but want to force the replication traffic to traverse a specific network, there is a quick and easy way to do it.

You’ll need a few things to get started:

– SSH access to both filers

– Network configuration on and connectivity to both filers for the network you want to use for replication traffic

7 Ways To Speed Up Citrix XenApp Logons

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 06:17:19 +0000

1. Disable unused Group Policy sections

In each of the GPOs that are applied to your servers and users, both User and Computer processing is enabled by default. Disabling unused parts of a GPO can shave some time off both logons and server booting. You can do this in the GPO properties. Just bring up the GPO in Group Policy Management Editor, right-click the policy name, and click Properties.

How To Fix Applications Failing To Launch With Citrix Receiver 3.0

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 04:57:23 +0000

Do you have a workstation that intermittently boots up with both the black Citrix Receiver icon and the old blue Program Neighborhood Agent/Online Plugin icon? And does it fail to launch published applications?

This is a very common problem that affects both Windows XP and Windows 7 machines. Sometimes when the workstation boots, only the Citrix Receiver icon shows up and apps launch fine. But occasionally it will boot with both the Receiver icon and the blue PNAgent icon, and apps will just not launch.

A Secret For Defeating Server-to-Client URL Content Redirection

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:00:21 +0000

I accidentally discovered a potential security issue with server-to-client URL redirection that affects Receiver 3.0 (ICA Client 13), ICA Client 12.1.44, and XenApp 6.

URL Redirection is often used to prevent end users from launching instances of Internet Explorer on a Citrix server and accessing the Internet. When URL redirection is enabled and a user clicks on a web hyperlink in a published application, the default web browser on the user’s client device is launched instead of spawning a web browser instance inside the user’s Citrix session. This feature helps to keep malware and other nasties from the Internet from dirtying up the Citrix servers, and it also reduces resource utilization as many web browsers can be very resource intensive.

The Problem with Plate Tectonics

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The recent Virginia earthquake that rocked much of the East coast was an unusual event. But it was not unpredicted or surprising. Unfortunately, the failure of the commonly accepted plate tectonics theory to predict or even explain the recent earthquake has raised many questions.

But first, what is plate tectonics? The plate tectonics theory is built upon “continental drift,” the old idea that all modern continents were once part of a single continent that slowly drifted apart. Plate tectonics attempts to explain this drift as the product, in part, of the hypothetical geological processes of subduction, or the process by which a tectonic plate 20-30 miles thick slides underneath another plate of similar width. Subduction by itself is incapable of explaining continental drift, and scientists do not agree on the other possible causes of plate motion.

Citrix Receiver 3.0 is not compatible with Presentation Server 4.0

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 04:59:36 +0000

Yes, it will work under very limited circumstances, but it is not supported by Citrix. It is officially supported only for XenApp 5 and up.

How to Recover a Lost Form in Internet Explorer or Firefox Without Any Add-Ons or Pre-Installed Utilities

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 05:21:10 +0000

You’ve got a sinking feeling in your gut. You were working on a text document in your web browser when suddenly you accidentally clicked the wrong button or hit the wrong key combination, and POOF, it’s all gone. I will show you how to get it all back.

Necessity is the mother of invention. If you’ve been looking for ways to recover a lost form in your web browser, you’ve likely come across a lot of unhelpful information. Certainly if you had been using one of those utilities that automatically save your work for you, you wouldn’t be searching for a how-to on getting your lost data back. This article is for you.

How To Fix Citrix Error 2320 For ICA Client 12.1

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:00:28 +0000

If you’ve unwittingly discovered that the new Citrix Receiver 3.0 is not compatible with your old Presentation Server 4.0 farm, you’ve perhaps encountered a little trouble after rolling back to the previous version of the ICA client. If you have uninstalled Receiver and reverted to an older ICA client, you may receive the following error when trying to launch a published application:

Error number 2320<br /> Citrix online plug-in Configuration Manager: No value could be found for (ClientHostedApps) that satisfies all lockdown requirements. The lockdown requirements in force may be conflicting.

Should You Use The HP Universal Print Driver or Other Third-Party Print Drivers In XenApp 6?

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 18:19:51 +0000

One of the problems that has plagued Citrix admins and engineers has been third party print drivers. All it takes is for one bad print driver to misbehave, crash the print spooler, and generate dozens of support calls from users who suddenly cannot print.

This common problem led to Citrix including the Citrix Universal Print Driver (Citrix UPD) which is compatible with many popular printers, and is much easier on the Windows print spooler. In cases where the Citrix Universal Print Driver does not play well with an application or a particular printer, the Citrix Universal Printer can be mapped into a user’s session as a virtual printer that offloads the print job to the user’s client machine, using the native or third-party print driver installed on the client machine.

Forcing Apps to Run in 32-bit mode in 64-bit Windows

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:02:37 +0000

Have you ever had an application that seemed to initially run fine under Windows x64, only to have it crash or complain when performing a certain function inside the app? If you’ve run into this problem, take heart because the fix is really simple.

But first, it’s helpful to understand what happens when you run an application under 64-bit Windows. Some applications and libraries (DLLs) are compiled in such a way that they can run either as native 64-bit or 32-bit mode. Other applications and DLLs, however, can only run as 32-bit.

Matter Proves the Non-material

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Atheists by and large believe that science somehow disproves the existence of anything outside of the material world. This would, of course, include God.

But the atheists are so blind and darkened in their understanding that they fail to realize that the most popular approach to science, called methodological materialism, assumes that only the material world exists. Obviously, assuming something is the exact opposite of proving it.

If you ask an atheist to prove only the material world exists, you will not get any proof whatsoever. All you'll get is his or her assumption, veiled in a statement something like, "You can't prove there is anything other than the material world." Of course, that statement would be 100% inaccurate because of two things we do know from science:

Use PowerShell to Find Citrix ICA Client Versions In Use On a XenApp 6 Farm

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:03:54 +0000

In many Citrix environments it’s common to have a large variety of ICA client versions. One thing that sometimes surprises users and IT folks alike is how much of a performance increase can be seen after upgrading an old ICA client. But how do you know which clients need upgrading?

One of the biggest challenges has been deciphering what ICA client version the cryptic “client build number” in a user’s session information translates to. Well thanks to the XenApp 6 PowerShell SDK and Get-XASession, we can easily find Citrix ICA client version information in a snap with the following script (download the script here):

How To Fix Citrix Receiver Error 2320

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:03:05 +0000

Recently I have seen a couple of cases where the Citrix Receiver 3 client produces the following error when trying to launch a published application:

The most salient part of the error message is in between the parenthesis. In the error message above, ClientHostedApps is a registry value that resides in two locations: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Citrix\ICA Client\Engine\Lockdown Profiles\All Regions\Lockdown\Virtual Channels\Control (on 64-bit systems: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Citrix\ICA Client\Engine\Lockdown Profiles\All Regions\Lockdown\Virtual Channels\Control) and HKCU\SOFTWARE\Citrix\ICA Client\Engine\Lockdown Profiles\All Regions\Lockdown\Virtual Channels\Control

Instantly Publishing Citrix Apps to Individual Servers Using PowerShell

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:34:01 +0000

Sometimes there is a need to publish an application to individual XenApp servers for baselining or troubleshooting purposes. But if you have a lot of published applications in your XenApp 6 farm, this can be a huge hassle. Thankfully PowerShell allows us to quickly and easily take our existing published applications and automatically create individually published apps for each server. We can use Worker Groups to control which servers get an individually published application. Not only that, we can organize the applications neatly by creating separate console and Client folders for each server. I wrote this script to accomplish all of the above using XenApp 6 PowerShell SDK’s powerful features:

The People Who Believe in Evolution Don't Know What It Is and Can't Defend It

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Most people who believe in evolution do not even know what it is. And what I've noticed is that they will change the definition of it on the fly as soon as they realize how ridiculous the theory actually is.

Here are the facts about evolution:

The variations that the theory of evolution speaks of are 100% undirected with no design and no purpose whatsoever.
The "natural selection" part of the theory of evolution contends that only those traits which confer a reproductive benefit to the organism will allow that organism to pass its traits on to its offspring.

What Evolution Isn't

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Evolutionists are often given a false sense of security and rightness when they encounter Creationists who do not seem to understand evolutionary theory. This is both tragic and unnecessary. So to help both Bible-believing Creationists and Darwinists alike, I present a summary of the completely unfounded and baseless theory of evolution.

First of all, a quick definition: Evolution is defined as the descent of all life on earth from a common ancestor through a series of random changes over time. That is not a "Creationist" definition, but the definition used by secular, evolutionary biologists around the world.

Using IRQbalance to Improve Network Throughput in XenServer

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:17:48 +0000

If you are running XenServer 5.6 FP1 or later, there is a little trick you can use to improve network throughput on the host.

By default, XenServer uses the netback process to process network traffic, and each host is limited to four instances of netback, with one instance running on each of dom0’s vCPUs. When a VM starts, each of its VIFs (Virtual InterFaces) is assigned to a netback instance in a round-robin fashion. While this results in a pretty even distribution of VIFs-to-netback processes, it is extremely inefficient during times of high network load because the CPU is not being fully utilized.

Deploying Citrix Access Gateway VPX with Web Interface 5.4 – CAG Setup with RADIUS

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:52:23 +0000

Deploying CAG with Web Interface 5.4 is actually very easy, there are just some “gotchas” that you have to be ready for. This is a guide to help you avoid those snags and pitfalls that commonly occur with a CAG VPX and Web Interface integration.

I recommend getting the Citrix Access Gateway VPX Getting Started Guide and HDX Remote Access Guide with Citrix Access Gateway VPX Express if you don’t already have them. The former document contains some inaccuracies but is has some useful reference info as well. The latter takes you through the fundamental setup of the CAG VPX and gets you to the web administration console, where most of the meaty configuration will take place.

Are Atheists and Materialists Guilty of Nihilism?

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Atheists and materialists have a chronic problem. No, not the kind you see prescription drug commercials for. Their problem is that they hold internally inconsistent beliefs.

What's that mean? It means some of their own beliefs contradict some of their other beliefs. Their own believes contradict one another. Some examples:

The atheist says that you can only know what your five senses tell you…

Well, which of the five senses tells him that?

The Biblical Creation account of Genesis and the Theory of Evolution

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

If we start with the Biblical Creation account in the book of Genesis, then take everything we know from the various fields of science including biology, genetics, mathematics, and physics, and discard all our assumptions and theories, what we will find is that the facts line up perfectly with the view that God created the world and all kinds of life in six literal days roughly 6,000 years ago.

The scientific approach to an idea is to gather as many facts as possible and then find the best explanation for those facts. This is something evolutionists fail miserably at. Darwinian evolutionists are very good at passing the buck to other fields of science. For example, if you ask an evolutionary biologist for solid, incontrovertible evidence that all life originated with a common ancestor, he will not be able to give you any. Instead, he will point to another field of science, like geology, and tell you to look there. If you go to an evolutionary geologist and ask him for evidence for evolution, he will point you to another branch of science, like biology. Proponents of evolution know nothing else than to pass the buck. And if you back one of them into a corner and demand evidence from the particular field of science that they are expert in, they will perform the classic “appeal to authority" tell you about all the people who believe in evolution. How embarrassing!

How To Get a Unique STA ID for each of your PVS Provisioned XenApp Servers

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 20:01:39 +0000

Citrix Provisioning Services is very nice, but it does come with a slightly annoying quirk: All of your provisioned XenApp servers end up with the same STA ID! This will cause all sorts of problems for Citrix Access Gateway, Citrix Receiver, and anything else that may depend on having unique STA IDs. The good news is that fixing this little problem is easier than you might think.

To resolve the duplicate STA ID issue, we’ll do the following:

The Libertarian Deception

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

As both major political parties in the US continue to look more and more like carbon copies of each other, there is a political movement that is picking up steam, especially among traditional Conservatives.

That movement is libertarianism, and it is essentially a hybrid of conservative and liberal politics. Libertarians support conservative economic values such as low taxes and minimum government regulation of the economy. But they also support liberal/left-wing positions on social issues such as abortion and illegal drugs. In other words, libertarians are moral-relativists. They do not believe in absolute right and wrong.

Why Doesn't God Stop All the Pain, Evil, and Suffering in the World?

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

If God were to restrain every person from doing anything evil, not only would He have to put everyone in a veritable strait jacket, He'd also have to lobotomize everyone and literally turn every human being on the planet into a robot.

If God miraculously provided food for every child, many parents would stop feeding their kids. If God hugged and coddled every child, many parents would spend less time with their children. If God did everything we can do ourselves, we would become more selfish than we are now.

How Microsoft’s XPS Driver Lets Citrix XenApp Users Get on the Internet (and how to lock it down)

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:48:56 +0000

Your user is happily working in your published, seamless application via XenApp 6 running on Windows Server 2008 R2, and life is good.

Then one day, when your user goes to print something, he is looking at the print dialog and notices this “Microsoft XPS Document Writer” printer as an option.

“HMM I wonder what this does?”

He views the printer Preferences and…

“Go online” are two words you do not want your users to see on a Citrix server. Your user, of course, has an irresistable urge to click the link.

The Truth About Carbon Dating

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 03:15:19 +0000

Have you ever wondered how scientists calculate the age of dead plants and animals? This is a topic that has fascinated me for many years, because while it may sound very simple and straightforward on the surface, as you will see, it is really a rabbit hole that leads into all sorts of unexpected places. Come with me as we explore the strange, bizarre world of Carbon-14 dating…

Let me start with an explanation of what Carbon-14 dating is. Like all empirical testing methods, Carbon-14 dating is based on a few assumptions (you have to start somewhere, right?) Almost all land-dwelling plants and animals absorb two elements from the environment: Carbon-12 and Carbon-14, a radioactive element formed in the upper atmosphere. The ratio of Carbon-12 to Carbon-14 is assumed to be constant. When a plant or animal dies, the Carbon-12 remains constant, but the Carbon-14, since it is radioactive, continues to decay (into Nitrogen-14). Since the Carbon-14 is not being replenished, the total amount of it reduces linearly over time.

How To Create XenApp Published Applications for Test In Just Seconds Using PowerShell

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:19:35 +0000

Prerequisite: XenApp6 PowerShell SDK

Let’s say you want to copy all currently published applications into a folder named “Test” in the console tree, while simultaneously modifying the new published apps with different permissions and client folder settings. Here’s how:

First, create the “Test” folder by hand (you can use New-XAFolder -FolderPath Applications\Test if you are so inclined), then use the following command to copy the applications into it:

get-XAApplication | Copy-XAApplication  -folderpath Applications\Test

Second, modify the published application properties to set the client folder (what folder the applications show up under in Program Neighborhood or Web Interface), and the permissions in one fell swoop. We’ll call the client folder “Test” and publish to the groups “domain1\citrix admins” and “domain2\Test Users”:

Citrix XenApp6 0x80060016 Error In PowerShell

Thu, 05 May 2011 14:22:59 +0000

I ran into a little snag when executing some XenApp PowerShell commands. Certain commands like Get-XAFarm and Get-XAAdministrator would always give an “0x80060016” error. Here is an example and the fix:

`PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-XAFarm
Get-XAFarm : Error reading the current administrator data (0x80060016)
At line:1 char:11

Get-XAFarm <<<<
CategoryInfo : InvalidResult: (:) [Get-XAFarm], CitrixException
FullyQualifiedErrorId : GetCitrixAdminType,Citrix.XenApp.Commands.GetFarmCmdlet`

Typically this error code in Citrix indicates a problem with IMA. But in this case it was even simpler than that: IMA couldn’t resolve the hostname of the database server hosting the data store. Make sure that the correct DNS suffixes are being applied so IMA can find the server, and if that fails, just add it to the hosts file and try again.

Getting Firefox and Adobe Flash to work on Ubuntu Linux

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 02:15:04 +0000

A few days ago I booted up my rather old HP workstation which is running Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS (Hardy Heron) and Firefox 3.6. I wanted to see how it would perform playing music from last.fm, so I browsed to the site, logged in, and tried to launch a stream.

Well, nothing happened.

I pretty quickly realized that Flash was not installed, at least not where Firefox could see it. After browsing around about a dozen different sites and getting a dozen different answers, I figured out how to make it work.

How To Save Associated HABTM Models in CakePHP

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 04:40:30 +0000

A common problem programmers have with CakePHP is saving related models with a many-to-many relationship, something Cake calls “hasAndBelongsToMany” or HABTM. One of the things that makes saving HABTM models so challenging is that when you go to save your models, Cake will act like everything saved fine when in fact only one of the models saved, or in some cases, none of them saved.

To illustrate how to overcome this common problem, let’s say you’ve just read Dr. Seuss’ Butter Battle Book. In the book, the Yooks eat their bread butter side up, and the Zooks eat it butter side down, and they’re always fighting about it. You decide to write a social network app to try to bring these two groups together.

Deduplication For Everyone

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 04:21:43 +0000

If you have a lot of duplicate data sitting around on laptops, USB drives, and external hard drives, you probably would like to clean it up and get back some of that wasted free space. But you probably don’t have time to go through and delete all the duplicates, or you’re concerned if you do you will mis-identify a duplicate and accidentally delete your only copy.

I ran into this problem recently when I came dangerously close to running out of storage space on my NAS box which was running Freenas 0.7. I purchased an external hard drive to handle the overflow, but it was just not convenient to keep the drive attached whenever I needed something. Nor was it fun searching through the NAS and the external drive whenever I was looking for a file and couldn’t remember where it was. I didn’t have time to go and manually delete duplicate data (and I knew I had a ton of it), so I started looking for a free NAS solution that incorporated deduplication (or dedup). I quickly discovered that Sun/Oracle’s ZFS filesystem had gotten dedup in late 2009, so I started doing some researching on how I could build a NAS box with OpenSolaris and the new and improved ZFS. After much searching (and struggling with getting OpenSolaris to even behave right in VMware ESXi 3.5) I found that someone else had already done the work for me.

Why Doesn’t God Stop Evil?

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 01:09:21 +0000

It’s not often you hear a totally rational, powerfully true and complete thought in, of all things, a rap song. But tonight while listening to “Truth” from Lecrae’s Rebel album, the following lyrics, which answer the above question, caught my attention:

Look, man, some people say that God ain’t real ’cause they don’t see how a good God can exist with all this evil in the world. If God is real then He should stop all this evil, ’cause He’s all-powerful right? What is evil though man? It’s anything that’s against God. It’s anything morally bad or wrong. It’s murder, rape, stealing, lying, cheating. But if we want God to stop evil, do we want Him to stop it all or just a little bit of it? If He stops us from doing evil things, what about lying, or what about our evil thoughts? I mean, where do you stop, the murder level, the lying level, or the thinking level? If we want Him to stop evil, we gotta be consistent, we can’t just pick and choose. That means you and I would be eliminated right? Because we think evil stuff. If that’s true, we should be eliminated! But thanks be to God that Jesus stepped in to save us from our sin! Christ died for all evilness! Repent, turn to Jesus man!”

15 Evolutionary Embarrassments

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 04:28:36 +0000

Nature magazine published what amounts to an evangelism tract for evolution called "15 Evolutionary Gems". The article claims to provide the best evidence that evolution is an "empirically validated principle." The article even states its purpose is to help Darwinian evolutionists be “secure in the knowledge that natural selection is fact.” (Incidentally, doesn't this phrasing sound awfully religious?)

I’m going to go through these 15 so-called gems, explain what they mean, and why they are more like dirty, jagged rocks rather than gems. As you read the explanations and rebuttals, keep in mind that this is the best evidence for evolution that Darwinists can provide.

Cheap Grace

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 04:27:44 +0000

Tonight I watched a documentary on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian who encouraged the Lutheran church to stand against the Nazi persecution of the Jews and later joined a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. The account of Bonhoeffer’s life led me to some of his writings on the role of Christians and the Body of Christ in fighting evil in the world. Bonhoeffer’s approach was much less academic than it was practical. One of the things that really stood out to me was his coining of the term “cheap grace.” He eloquently articulated the modern Christian church in this way:

The Coming Citrix-Microsoft Merger?

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 04:33:47 +0000

The one theme that I keep hearing from those who attended Citrix’s yearly conference (Synergy) is that they weren’t sure if they were at a Citrix conference or a Microsoft conference. Citrix’s ties to Microsoft run deep and have for a long time. But just within the past couple years the Citrix-MS relationship has started to look less like a partnership and more like a full-fledged integration. Microsoft has its own application virtualization product called App-V, which at first glance looks curiously like a competitor to Citrix’s XenApp application virtualization solution. Of course, since the technology is licensed from Citrix to begin with, Citrix profits regardless. Then there is the new group policy integration with XenApp policies that puts yet another nail in the coffin of the old Presentation Server console. All pretty innocuous changes.

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Architecting for Reliability on AWS

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AWS Networking Deep Dive: Route 53 DNS

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Thank you for making these concepts so easy to understand, I was afraid of starting this module in the beginning but your explanation made it so crystal clear

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The Bible in Chinese

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You can also read it online.