2016 POTD Thread Archive

Not exactly 'shop', nor 'machine' related, but I just finished the rough configuration and testing of some network and server monitoring software. For right now it's monitoring 12 servers, 68 services (file shares, applications, ftp, ssh, print queues, etc), and shows me all the statuses at once. Updates once a minute, but mission critical things can be monitored in near real time. If it works out, I'll set it up on the rest of the machines, bare metal or virtualized.. It can even monitor the hypervisors (supervisors of the virtual machines) as well. In all, it'll be about 20 servers, 6 hypervisors, 39 printers, 6 network attached storage boxes, 3 SAN units, 2 router/firewall appliances, 2 spam/malware appliances, totalling about 450-500 services/stats to monitor. That's not counting the phone systems, core switches, or ~350+ workstations.

But, for now, I am happy to see all the monitored items are 'in the green', and it's time to indulge in some high proof spirits before bed. I think I have some 115 proof moonshine around here somewhere...
 
Cool. My brother set up a similar system (similar in scope and purpose) when he worked at Microsoft a decade ago. He could install an OS build on dozens of machines (physical and virtual), each with slightly different configurations and software present. After testing various things he could wipe all of them clean with a single command. Very cool design.

When they stopped testing XP and he got one look at Vista he quit. He's an IT director for a manufacturer now and other than a few machine-specific Windows and Linux requirements they're 100% Mac OS. That's what working for Microsoft does to you. :)
 
Someone tried unsuccessfully to discard in the dumpster at my work an 8' long section of a glulam beam, 6-3/4" thick and 27" wide. According to a calculator I found online that's 342 pounds. It certainly feels that.

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I wish I had room for it as a workbench in my shop. It will have to wait until I do, someday. The funny thing is that I'm partially done with laminating a 27"x72"x4" workbench already. After all the work it took to glue that up it was a real shock to see this at the dumpster.

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Jon,
How are you planning on smoothing the bench top surface? Massive planer? Wide belt sander? Smaller devices & elbow grease?
 
extropic said:
Jon,
How are you planning on smoothing the bench top surface? Massive planer? Wide belt sander? Smaller devices & elbow grease?
Click to expand...
I'm torn. It depends how far out it is. I have a #5 plane and a #6 fresh from eBay, needing work. On the other hand my brother-in-law runs a cabinet shop with a 5'x10' CNC and a TimeSaver (wide belt thickness sander). I'll probably take a swing at planing it myself and soon decide to take it to the shop instead. :)

In the photo they are glued together in groups of 5-8, and those groups are clamped together. I haven't done the final glue-up yet. It's also not full width here. I'm building the leg mortises into the lamination. Actually making the legs is the holdup. You see, I was suddenly given a metal lathe which now occupies the spot where the new workbench was going to be... :-D
 
By the way, I'm making it from 1x4 scraps from a door shop where I used to work, painstakingly glued together after planing a mountain of them down to equal size. I just did the glue-ups a few pieces at a time, first gluing them together in lengths with staggered joints to form ~75" panels (using biscuits for alignment and just enough strength to hold them until the next step), then gluing those together in groups as mentioned. I just laid them all out on my bench until I was pleased with the ordering and staggering, then numbered them A1-A2-A3, B1-B2, C1-C2-C3, etc., then reassembled them with glue accordingly in the basement, so I still had access to my shop. It took about a month of finding spare time here and there, but it looks really cool and I spent nothing on the lumber. :)
 
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