@scottalanmiller said:

You should see the meeting topics that we have queued up for the trip!!

A 24 hour meeting in an enclosed place with no escape route. It sounds like my vision of Hell.

We've just purchased Dynamics NAV ERP. Somewhat predictably, I'm now getting into a bit of a row with my new Dynamics NAV partner about the install, principally over SQL Server.

I want one big RAID10 on a virtualised host (local storage), shared with other VMs.

They want a dedicated, physical host with separate small arrays for data, logs and temp files.

I'm like "dude, it's 2015 not 2005!" (I'm not really).

It's so tiring. I thought the physical vs virtualisation and RAID10 versus separate RAID1 arguments had been done and virtualised OBR10 was best-practice. I don't even want to talk about it any more. Obviously there are exceptions, but I'm talking about a normal SMB running a normal SQL ERP server.

It's uncomfortable. They're not DBAs and I'm not a DBA. Neither of us are remotely qualified (they're a small company too). They're like "well this is what we always do and so we're comfortable with it", but I'm like "well this is what I always do and so I'm comfortable with it". It's not the best way to start a major project with a new partner.

The only argument I can see is for having a separate array for SQL server, rather than sharing it with other VMs. This is because with a shared array, you can't guarantee performance. You might get better overall performance most of the time (thanks to the extra spindles), but there might be other times when those other VMs are hogging resources. You get contention. I see this as less of an issue in an SMB where there are only one or two IT guys who have a lot of control. Those IT guys can make sure other VMs behave themselves.

One thing I'm not sure about is whether data, logs and temp files should each reside on their own separate logical drives. or whether I should install the OS on one logical drive (C:) and everything else on another logical drive (D:)

If you're all having nice green "Service Provider" icons can I have a pink one that says "Idiot", please? Thanks.

The honeymoon is over!

I find it really quite an odd concept that people are able to hop on a train, and travel for days and days, and still get off in the same country!

Singing? Really?

Basically what you're saying is that your Sales Manager is a bit of a dick, enjoys a power trip, really likes his food, and flirts around young staff members, right?

That pretty much describes every Sales Manager I've ever worked with. My advice is to suck it up. And stop singing at work!

I'm back! Thanks @scottalanmiller. I might just keep my socket puppet to upvote my posts and improve my repuation

Are you accessing via vCenter server and if so do you get the same result if you log in directly to the host? I was just thinking it might be a problem with vCenter server (in which case you can reboot it to fix).

Looking out of my office window at dark, grey, miserable clouds and dreaming of being on a private ocean beach and watching the sun set.

Instead of import-csv could you use Get-Content

ie
$importcsv = Get-Content "filename"
foreach($guid in $importcsv)
{
$string1 = "(gPLink=" + $guid + ")"
echo $string1
}

I've tested this and it works, assuming you only have one column in your CSV file.

Just gone live with Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP after 12 months of preparation. Lots of tickets to plough through!

If the question is how has recruitment practices in IT changed over the years, I don't find it's changed at all. Most recruitment is still done by specialist IT recruitment agencies competing to get the best resumes and charging around 15% as a fee. Adverts are placed on websites now rather than the newspapers and trade magazines of old, but other than that it's the same old, frustrating process.

He's too busy mowing to answer.

Same as in any redundant system. Two paired disks could fail in a mirrored disk array, two paired power supplies could fail on a host. Redundancy is only about reducing risk, not eliminating it.

And in a lot of cases the risk of dual failure is higher than people would think because the two components aren't completely independent of one another. So failure on one could bring down the other. Human error would be a big cause of this. If you screw up one, there is a good chance you will screw up the other..

It is eye-wateringly expensive. I was kinda hoping he'd choose a cheaper hobby.....

Tell them to use the Spotify Web Player (https://play.spotify.com/). Then they don't need to install or update the Spotify client.

Having said that, the web player doesn't work on my PC. I think because I blocked it, but I can't remember how. The app works ok.

Alternatively, can't he just listen to music on Youtube like the rest of the world?

@Dashrender said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:

I know Scott believes in the public healthcare solution - I just have a hard time paying for everyone else's lack of giving a shit about their health that leads to huge health care costs.

Do people with unhealthy life styles end up having higher health care costs though? Compare an obese, heavy-drinking smoker - he could well die from a heart attack/stroke without ever going to the doctor, whilst a super-health person could live to 100 but require 20 years of expensive age related costs (dementia, physical frailty). I'm sure there have been studies on this.

Also, in Europe, this is somewhat mitigated against by putting heavy taxes on alcohol and tobacco, so unhealthy people indirectly fund their extra medical care.

Anyway, in the US, aren't you still subsidising unhealthy, don't give a shit, people as that's the nature of insurance? You're just paying private insurance rather than public insurance.

After reading this thread, I've just ordered an Intel stick. It should arrive tomorrow. I can let you know what it's like if you want

I prefer Windows to Chrome for lots of reason. My biggest annoyance is the lack of Windows Pro, and hence the inability to join a domain.

@Bill-Kindle said:

I was happy because I was able to do the work in less time than I had planned

There should be a special word to describe the warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you finish an IT project in less time than you predicted. I just wish I felt it more often.

I always get it. It's annoying. I always thought it was because it takes a while for the network card driver to kick-in and connect to the network, so Windows thinks it's not connected. By the time the PC is connected to the network, it's too late and the red X has already been put in place.