It's been an interesting week. At work I have a lot of tasks going on. Some I'm familiar and comfortable with, some not so much. We're trying to build our new network which includes new Domain Servers, Active Directory, Email Server...we are upgrading from an infrastructure that is several generations back. We have several Windows 2000 servers, we're running exchange 2000. AND we want this new foundation to be as virtualized as it can be. We have a new SAN and have been working with Compellent to manage it and VMware to be the virtualization layer. So as you can see there is alot to learn.

A few weeks ago I took an Exchange 2007 class, big difference than the 2000 version we're running. Most of all I learned that I don't know enough about Server 2008. so now I am reading up and doing online training in that area. Its pretty overwhelming.

I have been updating our helpdesk software...that is something I am fairly comfortable with. We're getting ready to roll it out again...which means notifying all the employees of the benefits of using it. It has a nice portal interface that I think should be fairly friendly.

At home we're getting ready to go camping. I have been exhausted all week and am not looking forward to the packing and setting up. I have to keep reminding myself that last year I noticed how enjoyable it was even for an over-nighter.

Here's some info about my work-life:

Employed for county government doing IT/Telephone support. I support the following technologies:

Windows XP
Windows Server 2000-server 2008
Exchange 2000
Upgrading to Exchange 2007
Avaya Definity PBX
Avaya Audix VM
End user support
Backup/recovery

I also do tech-support for a few businesses in town. I get a lot of satisfaction from helping businesses who don't know where to turn for technology related issues.

Today I downloaded Microsoft's Virtual PC 2007 (free) and installed it on my work PC. This allowed me to create multiple virtual computers inside my computer which is nice for testing or learning how to manage. Now I'm installing Windows 7 RC (which is a free pre-release version) on one of the virtual machines I've setup. This can be downloaded until next month and will work until June of 2010. It will be nice for me to be able to open up the new OS in a window (better than the days of dual booting) and get the feel before I have to work on it for real.

Joan said I should convert our home web page to a blog...I'm thinking about it. Right now I'm hosting our web page on a server in our basement. There's something to be said about hosting it yourself...the fact you can do it, control etc. Right now its available here: http://natehammer.homeip.net