As Senior Systems Integrator for SPK and Associates, a California based IT services company specializing in infrastructure management services, I recently completed an interesting project. The goal was to create an ESX cluster for a small engineering group...
I recently came across a forum post asking for advice on the combination of running Pro/Intralink 3.4 on Windows 7 64-bit. In short, I’m happy to report that we’ve been using this combination without incident: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1, PTC...
In my last post, I gave an overview of Bacula, the enterprise-level free backup software. For this post I wanted to dig into the software a bit more and show how simple it is to setup a weekly backup job. One of the first things we do at SPK when working with a new...
Design Output: A Review of 21 C.F.R. §820.30(d) and FDA Warning Letter Trends
The goal of a typical system administrator is to get a job or task done as quickly as possible, without worrying about how elegant a solution might be. Reusing any existing scripts, tools, or utilities are always the first line in tackling the job. Often times, the...
Now it's time to look at some of the server side configurations. The first step is to configure reverse proxy for the HTTP services. These services live on hosts that sit in the DMZ. A proxy is very simple to configure and allows a lot of flexibility to grow over time...
SPK and Associates routinely review warning letters to help our clients stay in step with FDA trends. One of the problem areas most often cited in company audits continue to be the CAPA system/program. This month we will take a look at some of the latest FDA...
One of the main areas SPK focuses on for our clients is backups. I won’t go into a long lecture about why backups are mission-critical for your business because you already know they are. Even the standard backup schemes, such as Grandfather-Father-Son, have been...
One of the most important aspects of our Linux server management service is operating system patching. With Windows, Microsoft has made this trivial by means of the Windows Update utility. Microsoft is the single source of the patches, and assuming that the patches...
Let’s be realistic: Windows users use Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office requires configuration. You’ve probably used the Microsoft Office Customization Tool to create Microsoft Software Patch (MSP) files to automate installation, but you should consider using...
One item I’ve done repeatedly while doing network consulting services is configuring high availability (HA) networks. The recommended way is Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP). This requires that you have two firewalls for every location and they run in...
In my previous post regarding wireless security, I mentioned that a single source of authentication for users is the most ideal in a corporate environment. The advantages of using one source for authentication are vast. One of the biggest advantages is that users only...