Dwarfsoft [GPA]

Before I jump in to the fun that is the Scripting that I have been wading through this past week, I thought I’d let all of those who may care that I finally have some kind of certification. I passed Microsoft exams 70-291 and 70-284. So I am now the proud holder of a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator Messaging Specialist certification (MCSA Messaging). Now I am concentrating on the final three exams so that I can get my MCSE.

After a rather hectic week of scripting a solution and then distributing it under an excessively short deadline, I have been asked to provide stats on the result of forcing this solution out to clients. The solution that I had to develop keeps tabs on a System Volume Image of PCs, and ensures that this Image never gets out of date too far. Currently I am not forcing a Store every restart, as the planned solution was to do, but I do inform the client that their current Image is out of date and ask them if they want to do a Store now. If they click on Yes then their PC is rebooted and the Store is done (providing that one of many flaws in the current Store process do not interrupt the process). (continue reading…)

Since my last post I came to the realisation that I really didn’t like the way that the Diskpart box popped up on screen during the function call, so I did what I said I should have done and created the function the other way. This also cleans up the text files after completion, which is something the previous function didn’t do.

For completeness I also made the function a little more generic, so it takes the Volume Label as the Variable, and falls back to “IMAGE” if none was passed.

(continue reading…)

I haven’t updated you all for a while, but in that time I have completed Microsoft exam 70-290. This ended up being quite a lot simpler than I had originally anticipated. I am currently studying for two more exams. 70-291, which is Microsoft Windows 2003 Networking, and 70-284, which is Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 configuration. I have been attempting the practice exams and reading the MSPress books, and am relatively confident.

I have scheduled both of these exams for the same day, which will make the day a very long one. If I manage to pass both then that will give me MCSA: Messaging Specialist status. I can then focus on the remaining 3 exams to get my full MCSE certification.

(continue reading…)

It has been a while since the last update, and that is due to a number of factors:

• Firstly being Family Reasons, I have been given the ultimatum that I spend far too much time on the Computer and not enough with my Family, which I am attempting to rectify.
• Secondly being Workload, as I have been putting in a fair bit of effort at work, and have been exhausted when returning home.
• Study has required a fair bit of time as well, as I am attempting to finish off some of those exams I have neglected for far too long
• Job Applications has taken up time outside of work, as I am busy attempting to better my circumstances due to some positions opening up at my current employer. I have had to cobble together an Application, and am now attempting to get things together for potential interviews.
• Projects and ideas have been coming more frequently of late, as it starts to hit that time of the year (Autumn for me) where I get inspiration and motivation to complete things, so I have been documenting some of these ideas and inspirations and will be endeavoring to get some project work done soon.

So at work I have been involved in a few Scripting Enterprises. The most recent being the AutoStore script. This script effectively checks the age of a Stored Image on the computer, and makes a decision on whether to Store a new Image to replace it. The Image in question is a PowerQuest (yeah, I know that Symantec bought them, and its old tech, but for some reason we are still using it. I hear rumours of Ghost being on the Horizon though) . (continue reading…)

I am set to move into the new project management role that has been left for me by a colleague who is going on holidays. The project will be managing the replacement of Server Hard Drives across the South of the State in order to upgrade current Network Storage capacity for all the Servers within my region.

This position comes with an elevated pay bracket, some guaranteed overtime (most of the swaps will be occurring after 5:30pm, and therefore will require me to be working overtime in order to complete the tasks). This means that I am now moving back from District to Information Division, and finally getting back into Technical Matters, albeit as a Manager rather than a Tech. Once the project is complete, I fear moving back into my old Technology Officer position, as this will severely hit my income.

While talking to my Boss on a ride home I have heard that there may be some more positions opening up at my current pay level (the level before I go to the Project) which will suit my needs a little more comfortably. Hopefully after all this is done I will have finished my Study, and be working on some more Certifications, potentially my CCNA and my other MCSA/MCSE exams.

(continue reading…)

Tomorrow morning I head to Brisbane for a training course on GroupWise 7. Now, I have come from a background of installing Windows 2003 Servers and Microsoft Exchange On top of them, and always dealing with Microsoft Office and Outlook. GroupWise 7 seems to be surprisingly headed for a similar UI design to Microsoft Outlook from what I have seen. Furthermore, the WebAccess for GroupWise 7 seems to so closely resemble Outlook Web Acces.

Hopefully this bodes well for me in that I have had experience with Exchange servers, OWA and Outlook quite extensively and my recent GroupWise training work should have prepared me for most places this is likely to go. Either way, I have downloaded the GroupWise 7 manual and web access manual, and am perusing it… I just hope this isn’t information overload for me over the next couple of days.

(continue reading…)