@jevans

Yes I do, for a price

@Aaron-Studer

Ummm,

12 for data (desktops, laptops, wall sockets)
18 for voice
3 for wifi
3 for printers
A few hot-spares in locations around the building for data.

Thanks for the comments @JaredBusch - Do agree.

Massive part of this was prep for other projects, New WiFi, New switches, New Voip System, all of it made easier by a neat and tidy rack.

I won't be here long so it's nice to leave a lasting impression on the place.

Thanks!

Any suggestions on how to make a pokey pair of racks like this better?

If I was able to start from scratch and design my own, lay it out custom then I'd have many ideas but do you reckon there is something major that I have not thought of from these?

Inherited 8 years of mess, poorly installed and badly maintained since.

Took quite a few hours chasing down all the cables, pleased to say that every line was working for 9am the next day.

Before
Switches in one rack
4 dead/useless network devices in the rack
Dozens of dead cat-5 going nowhere

After
Moved the main switch to the patch rack
Cleared out the 5-10 metre cables
Red for phone system
Blue for data
grey for next cabinet
Green for Unifi Wifi
The observant among you will note the small fibre line between the racks, To be fixed.

There are much neater ways of doing it, but with limited space and no option to buy new kit, this is what we are left with.

@Aaron-Studer said:

Stay away!

Because?

http://www.continuum.net/solutions/rmm-software/it-help-desk

Has anyone had experience of Continuum Help Desk?

But when Microsoft catch up, boy do they catch up with a bang.

They were late to the party with 365, yet it is amazing.

I think I'd take Microsoft's slower to develop route over Google/Amazon bleeding edge.

Oh wait, 50 in one building Post the Fibre links there is 24 needed in each

Anyway, we've kind of derailed the thread slightly.

HP Procurves what what we were going to go for, but we need 50 ports, next year's budget when I'm not here

Despite only have 11-12 in an office, It's basically a small conference centre + other activities that go on.

I'm not purchasing Cisco gear unless hell freezes over

If there is any other option (and there are) then we'll go with that.

@scottalanmiller
The Fibre is for links between buildings, so the speed is consistent between all devices, not keen on trading down the Fibre bandwidth for cat-5 over distance.

Vlans are for guest wifi, that's the only reason why we need managed.

@scottalanmiller said:

@Breffni-Potter said:

Not all of us are in GigE
Remember us 10/100 guys.

You should have NOTHING happening on your network. Actually, at those speeds I'd question even having users there

Non-Profit IT, To replace the kit would be £600-900 for managed switches plus fibre modules.

Not all of us are in GigE
Remember us 10/100 guys.

@MattSpeller said:

Wouldn't this exponentially increase your network traffic as well? Re-Sync'ing all those mirrors all the time? Yuck!

This is why I'm after the scheduling, so it can only hog the network after hours.

@coliver That is good but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.

@coliver

Sounds like a new "leadership gimmick" that the powers that be want everyone to experience doing something.

If your boss comes through for you, buy him a drink

@coliver said:

This will be a one-on-one interview. So no chance of that.

Hmm, That's a bit harder. Personally I'd have paired you with someone experienced first. Maybe others can weigh in with suggestions.

Is there scope to talk with your boss about doing it as a duo?

@coliver said:

Hmmm, not much of a conversationalist... so that is going to be difficult.

Any new skill is, I used to be awful, absolutely terrible, kept looking away, did not know what to say, all bad things in conversation.

Don't consider this as something bad, take it as an opportunity to do more of it, see if you can take this as a challenge to improve.

Pro tip, you don't need to be an extravert loud mouth to have a conversation, good conversation involves carefully listening to the other party and responding appropriately.

You are not measuring the person's competence so much, you are more measuring their personality, if in doubt, let your boss do the heavy talking and observe, see how they interact with your boss then feedback after the guy leaves.

A few golden rules which are true for any position (in my opinion)

Come up with specific problems, that they would need to resolve somehow, something that is not "Can you tell me what port RDP is on" style of questions.

One great example I read from elsewhere, Ask him/her what they would do if they bought a set of lego online and it came without instructions.

Try asking what they would do if a product sales were not going well.

Don't ask what the top ten trends of their industry are, you want to get a feel for their personality, see if they will gel on the team or actually are they a complaining, whining, nightmare who will drive everyone crazy.