ITS is taking a proactive approach to promoting Health & Wellness. Four from ITS have either served on, or are currently on the ACPL Wellness Committee. So it wasn't hard for us to begin a discussion about Health & Wellness during a staff meeting. One of the things we discussed is trying to find healthier things to snack on. Vi came up with the idea that we could try this within our department.
Next thing you know we had a healthy snack bar. Healthy items like granola bars, fruit, and bottled water are for sale for 25 cents. We are actually making a profit and plan to use the proceeds to treat the entire department to a "healthy" lunch at the end of the year.
For some it may just be more convenient than healthy. For those of us who use the computer lab, on the first floor, as a temporary office it can become healthy. In order to take advantage of our snack bar I have to walk upstairs. Not a big workout. But in the long run there are pay offs. One, I am getting more exercise than going to the vending machines in the break room on the first floor. Two, I am saving money. The vending machines have 20oz of bottled water for a buck. We sell 16oz for a quarter.
The other thing we did was a "Healthy" recipe exchange and carry in. All the departments at the Data Center participated in this. It was a really neat thing and you can read my write up about this on the ACPL Wellness blog.
Hopefully other departments and branches will take a look at what we have tried and give it a go themselves.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
My Websense Overview
I have been working with Heidi to upgrade our Websense software. With everything we had going on we're several versions behind. Heidi was initially working on this herself. But she has so many other projects that require a lot of her time we decided to add an additional person to help her. At first I was a bit overwhelmed. There are two main components to Websense. Well three, I can't forget the software. First you have the Linux server. This is where we install the filtering software. It IS the nuts and bolts of the whole system. Then we have a Windows server that hosts the Manager. This provides a GUI that makes it somewhat easy to configure all our clients. Each client has to be configured individually. We devide them into specific groups but in some case we need to manage each individual account. For example the override. This must be changed on each account.
Anyhow, I was overwhelmed because of the daunting task of having to learn an OS I never really use. Linux. Yes, I am a Windows Weenie. But I can make a Windows box sing. Well, I was running into some problems with the Linux part. We need to make an incremental upgrade on a test system so we can essential copy our config files over to the new Linux server that will have the current version of Websense installed. Sounds easy enough. Maybe if I knew Linux better. Heidi had some time and she took her test server and installed the Linux portion on it. Then I took an old server and installed the Windows Server 2000, SQL server, and the Websense Manager. We basically mirrored our production system. One catch I couldn't get the Explorer software to acknowledge the Websense database. Bad credentials. I exchanged several email with Websense support. Nothing seems to work. On the last email exchange they recommended performing the incremental upgrade on the test system. Don't worry about my database authentication. Because the program itself is different once we upgrade to 6.3.1. That's all I needed, a little nudge (or as Gen. Patton would say it "a swift kick in the...") and off we went. Heidi and I were able to get the test system upgraded to the current version of Websense.
Next we had problems filtering on the test system. Instead of using our actual proxy server we used the proxy server Heidi had on her test system. We could see we were filtering but were not all that certain it was due to the test system or because the production system caught it. But we could see we were running through the test proxy.
We talked to Tim and made plans to take one of our proxy servers out of the loop so we could use it for testing. At this point Heidi then performed a clean install of Websense 6.3.1 on the new Linux server. She spent the rest of the day trying to clean up some problems she encountered with the proxy server Tim freed up for us. Bless her heart, I know she other things to work on, but she pent the entire day getting it fixed. Honestly, once you toss in that proxy server and my lack on knowledge with Linux, I would have been in over my head.
As of right now we are back to having to perform the incremental upgrade on the test system. This is due in part to the steps Heidi had to take to get the Proxy server online. Currently the test system mirrors the production system. By the end of this Monday the test system will be up to Websense 6.3.1 and I will have copied all our config files over to the new Linux server. Tuesday we will do some housekeeping and then on Wednesday we will begin testing at the Data Center.
So what did I get out of all this. A greater appreciation for what my colleagues know and do. I know more about Linux than I did before I started working on this project. I definitely know more about Websense. I have more knowledge of how our network functions. Most of all this project was a confidence builder for me. In most cases if you don't fix the small problems now they grow to be bigger ones. In this case I felt I needed to fix the authentication problem before we continued with the upgrade. Normally I would have proceeded with the upgrade. Knowing that if it was still broke I would have to start back at square one. This was new territory for me and I was playing it safe. I wasted a couple weeks of my time playing it safe. Had I just gone ahead with the upgrades on the test system we might already have the production system upgraded by now. It was a confidence builder and I know I am a better technician for it.
Anyhow, I was overwhelmed because of the daunting task of having to learn an OS I never really use. Linux. Yes, I am a Windows Weenie. But I can make a Windows box sing. Well, I was running into some problems with the Linux part. We need to make an incremental upgrade on a test system so we can essential copy our config files over to the new Linux server that will have the current version of Websense installed. Sounds easy enough. Maybe if I knew Linux better. Heidi had some time and she took her test server and installed the Linux portion on it. Then I took an old server and installed the Windows Server 2000, SQL server, and the Websense Manager. We basically mirrored our production system. One catch I couldn't get the Explorer software to acknowledge the Websense database. Bad credentials. I exchanged several email with Websense support. Nothing seems to work. On the last email exchange they recommended performing the incremental upgrade on the test system. Don't worry about my database authentication. Because the program itself is different once we upgrade to 6.3.1. That's all I needed, a little nudge (or as Gen. Patton would say it "a swift kick in the...") and off we went. Heidi and I were able to get the test system upgraded to the current version of Websense.
Next we had problems filtering on the test system. Instead of using our actual proxy server we used the proxy server Heidi had on her test system. We could see we were filtering but were not all that certain it was due to the test system or because the production system caught it. But we could see we were running through the test proxy.
We talked to Tim and made plans to take one of our proxy servers out of the loop so we could use it for testing. At this point Heidi then performed a clean install of Websense 6.3.1 on the new Linux server. She spent the rest of the day trying to clean up some problems she encountered with the proxy server Tim freed up for us. Bless her heart, I know she other things to work on, but she pent the entire day getting it fixed. Honestly, once you toss in that proxy server and my lack on knowledge with Linux, I would have been in over my head.
As of right now we are back to having to perform the incremental upgrade on the test system. This is due in part to the steps Heidi had to take to get the Proxy server online. Currently the test system mirrors the production system. By the end of this Monday the test system will be up to Websense 6.3.1 and I will have copied all our config files over to the new Linux server. Tuesday we will do some housekeeping and then on Wednesday we will begin testing at the Data Center.
So what did I get out of all this. A greater appreciation for what my colleagues know and do. I know more about Linux than I did before I started working on this project. I definitely know more about Websense. I have more knowledge of how our network functions. Most of all this project was a confidence builder for me. In most cases if you don't fix the small problems now they grow to be bigger ones. In this case I felt I needed to fix the authentication problem before we continued with the upgrade. Normally I would have proceeded with the upgrade. Knowing that if it was still broke I would have to start back at square one. This was new territory for me and I was playing it safe. I wasted a couple weeks of my time playing it safe. Had I just gone ahead with the upgrades on the test system we might already have the production system upgraded by now. It was a confidence builder and I know I am a better technician for it.
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