The Value of Enterprise Process by Jonathan Coupal
With enterprise process, common processes are established to ensure that servers, workstations, and applications are not changed unless agreed upon by the IT organization. It ensures that lessons are learned only once, that employee tasks are documented, consistent, and repeatable, and that ad... For workstations, standard system builds or images with commonly used software should be established for groups of users. ... That is, current system configurations must be documented and a set of standard configurations established.

Basic High Availability - An Introduction To RAID by Brian Stoffer
RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (other definitions may vary). In practice it is two or more hard disk drives configured for use by a single computer system. The configuration varies by intended use, but the most common use for RAID arrays is for high-availability installations. ... Many RAID 5-capable hardware configurations contain a “hot-swappable” disk drive chassis, which allows administrators to replace and rebuild failed drives while the system is running, with little-to-no effect on the operations of that system.

How Does the PS3 Stack Up to Its Competitors, the Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii? by Gary Ruplinger
Finally, they’re all here. The Xbox 360 has had the next generation gaming market to itself for a year. Now its two competitors, the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii, are here. No more speculating about speed. No more guessing about memory. Now we can take a look and see exactly how they stack up... This configuration can do about 1 Teraflop. ... Their system will be compatible with the Gamecube games and also the Gamecube controllers since the two systems use very different controllers. ... Disc Media Part of the reason the PS3 is so much more expensive than the Xbox 360 is because the...

Passing The CCNA and CCNP Exams: Setup Mode by Chris Bryant
CCNA and CCNP candidates need to know all about Setup Mode, why a router goes into that mode, and as you'll see, how to get out of that mode. Practicing Setup Mode at work is a good way to get fired, though, so you need to practice this on your CCNA / CCNP home lab or rack rental. ... The router will continue to boot and finally present you with this prompt: --- System Configuration Dialog --- Would you like to enter the initial configuration dialog? ... --- System Configuration Dialog --- Would you like to enter the initial configuration dialog?

Basics of RAID by Jason Kohrs
A couple of the recent Tech Tips from www.geeks.com have made mention of RAID, but the level of detail required in those tips didn’t shed much light on what RAID actually is. The number of e-mail responses and comments in the Readers Digress section was convincing enough that an introduction to... Most arrays will only be able to use the capacity of the smallest drive, so if a 250GB Hitachi drive is added to a RAID configuration with an 80GB Hitachi drive, that extra 170GB would probably go to waste (the only time that this doesn’t apply is in a RAID configuration called JBOD (Just a Bunch...

Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Tutorial: Starting Over by Chris Bryant
When you're preparing for success on your CCNA or CCNP certification exams, sooner or later you're going to want to start totally from scratch on your Cisco routers and switches. It's easy enough to type "write erase" and "reload", but there are a few details you have to watch if you want your... --- System Configuration Dialog --- Would you like to enter the initial configuration dialog? ... This is where the second prompt comes in: R1#reload System configuration has been modified. ... or your configuration will still be there when you reload!

Important Linux Directories by Bernard Peh
There are many variants of Linux used in different computer systems today. Luckily, most Linux developers employ a common naming and utilization scheme that makes different variants of Linux easy to use and maintain. This article will discuss some important and common directories in many popular... For example, startup configuration scripts are found in /etc/rc.d and network configuration scripts are found in /etc/sysconfig. ... /home Each user of a Linux system is assigned a special directory, called "home" direectory, that represents their private space on the system.

Passing Cisco's CCNA and CCNP Exams: The 'VLAN.DAT' File by Chris Bryant
CCNA and CCNP candidates who have their own Cisco home labs often email me about an odd situation that occurs when they erase a switch's configuration. Their startup configuration is gone, as they expect, but the VLAN and VTP information is still there! ... On SW1, we run show vlan brief and in this abbreviated output see that there are three additional vlans in use: SW1#show vlan br 10 VLAN0010 active 20 VLAN0020 active 30 VLAN0030 active We want to totally erase the router's startup configuration, so we...

Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial: A Guide To RAM, ROM, NVRAM, and Flash by Chris Bryant
CCNA exam success depends on knowing the details, and nowhere is this more true than knowing the various components of a Cisco router. This is also where you can quickly start drowning in acronyms! The terms "RAM" and "ROM" probably aren't new to you, but keeping up with "what goes where" with... Where RAM holds the running configuration file, NVRAM holds the startup configuration file. ... Flash memory is generally referred to as “flash” The Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS) images are held here.

2U Rack Mount Servers by Alison Cole
Rack mount servers are systems in a modern server used for mounting various kinds and sizes of electronic modules. If someone needs to set up a number of personal computers into a much smaller space, rack mount servers are ideal. Rack mount servers are used across different parts of the world... A 2U rack mount server is the ideal configuration when it comes to limited system space. ... But the real term of the unit is RU, or simply Rack Unit, where one RU or U is defined as 1.75 inches. ... This “U” comes from the term unit.