Paul Venezia

The assault on personal privacy has ramped up significantly in the past few years. From warrantless GPS tracking to ISP packet inspection, it seems that everyone wants to get in on the booming business of clandestine snooping -- even blatant prying, if you consider reports of employers demanding Facebook passwords prior to making hiring decisions.

What happened? Did the rules change? What is it about digital information that's convinced some people this is OK? Maybe the right to privacy we were told so much about has simply become old-fashioned, a barrier to progress. In search of an answer, I tried a little thought experiment. Follow me, if you will, on a journey to a place in the space-time continuum I call the Land Before the Internet...

As I rummaged around in a few backpacks searching for a USB-to-serial converter, I suddenly recalled that I had "donated" my stash of them. I had left them in various places running serial consoles for cutover tasks and back-end access during data center migrations. I could look all I wanted, but I wouldn't find them. They had been absorbed into the IT infrastructure.

Often, small-but-critical parts slip from personal stores into the corporate maw. Sometimes I feel like a teacher who has spent his own money on school supplies -- and I'm certain I'm not alone. Who knows how many IT folks have used their own gear to get projects completed on time or to save the day while troubleshooting, only to leave those parts behind because they've become indispensible?

Over the past two months, InfoWorld has been researching a flaw in Oracle's flagship database software that could have serious repercussions for Oracle database customers, potentially compromising the security and stability of Oracle database systems.

Typically, when a bug results in a database outage, affected systems can simply be recovered from backups. But as InfoWorld has learned, this particular collection of Oracle issues could incur database outages that take considerable time and effort to correct.

As the dust settles in the aftermath of a successful physical data center move, I'm nursing my bruised and cut hands, kicking back with a Scotch, and reflecting on what went right. I said "successful," but actually there's no such thing as a failed data center move: If something's going wrong, there's nothing you can do except keep working until everything's up and running.

But a successful data center move is no accident. Whether it's a data center relocation or new data center build-outs, detailed plans must be made months or even years in advance.

Last week I talked a bit about how important it is to use and maintain whatever remote monitoring and control systems you have available -- and why it's a good idea to drop a few extra bucks here and there to add control and visibility to your data center.

But monitoring and control systems are useless if they're inaccessible or rendered moot when trouble strikes. You can configure email alerts from your UPS and AC units all you want -- if the mail relay they use is offline, those notifications won't go anywhere. The same is true for data outages. There's nothing worse than a trouble situation that also drops the data connection and leaves you with no idea how a data center is weathering the storm because you can't see anything.

If there's one thing people tend to screw up in medium-size data center buildouts, it's AC power specification. Even some of the brightest network and server administrators seem to think there's a limitless number of power outlets in any given rack or room, and if there isn't, well, you can just plug a $3.99 power strip into the UPS and be done with it, right?

Technically, they're right. You can plug that $3.99 power strip into a UPS and run a few servers or small switches off it, even if it pushes the UPS near overload. That doesn't mean it's a good idea or even a safe one. But it will probably work for a time. Oddly, I've found that a few of these same folks bristle mightily when they discover that a user has brought in a $19.99 five-port 10/100 switch to plug into the network jack in their cube -- pot, kettle, and so forth.

The benefits of server virtualization are so significant at this point that implementing it is a no-brainer. First and foremost, server virtualization makes much better use of computing resources than physical servers do, since you can run many different virtual servers on a single physical host. In fact, you may be surprised at just how many general-purpose server instances a single modern server can handle simultaneously.

Another major benefit of server virtualization is the ability to shift running virtual servers between physical hosts to balance load and allow for maintenance windows. You can also use snapshots of virtual servers to keep a moment-in-time copy of a running server prior to making changes such as software updates. If something goes wrong, you can simply return to the snapshot, and the affected server will be running as if you had never touched anything. Clearly, this approach can save significant time and aggravation.

I conducted a completely nonscientific, haphazard public poll at a bar one evening last week. I asked a variety of people if they thought that Facebook knew what sites they visit that aren't Facebook. The results were all over the map, with many folks laughing and saying, "Probably, right?"

I then asked them: "If it's true that Facebook is tracking your browsing habits, would that a problem for you?" Most answered yes, reflected for a second, looked a little concerned, and asked me if it were true.

There comes a time in most businesses when circumstances dictate that one or more users work from home either full- or part-time. In other cases, it may simply be convenient for business owners and employees to be able to use company resources from home or (unfortunately) while on vacation.

The best way to provide such remote access is with a VPN (Virtual Private Network). A VPN enables a computer that is located outside the corporate network to connect to that network as if it were inside the building, allowing access to internal resources such as file shares, applications, and printers. Some types of VPN require the outside PC to use a client to access the network, while other VPNs use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and can function without the need for a client to be installed. And some VPN setups can provide both of these connection methods.

There are only two types of technology that I absolutely hate with a passion: printers and faxes. Printers are obviously the bane of IT. With all those drivers for every operating system version (usually about 150 times the size of the actual driver file itself), a predilection for jamming, and of course those ever-popular toner explosion scenarios, I'm still scarred by memories of printer disasters.

But I can accept that printers exist because, yeah, sometimes things need to be printed out. Faxes, however, should be banished to the land of RLL drives and the 5.25-inch floppy. Faxes have no need to exist today, yet they're still all over the place. It's maddening.

Ever have one of those days where everything just seems to fall apart? Not in a domino fashion, but completely different technological breakdowns that just happen to coincide with other breakdowns? I'm certain I'm not the only one to experience this particular phenomenon.

Case in point: The other day, I was dealing with a particularly quixotic network problem, intermittent random packet loss across across a VPN as noted by myriad Nagios warnings that would hit suddenly and inexplicably. Testing the fiber circuit itself revealed no problems, but intratunnel traffic was showing 50 percent packet loss. Was it the tunnel endpoint having problems? The internal switching? The fiber circuit itself? As soon as I'd dig in to test one particular subsystem, the problem would cease and all would be well, maybe for 10 minutes, maybe for 10 hours. Yeah, one of those.

It's this time of the year when I find myself gazing wistfully out the window, taking in yet another beautiful, warm summer day from the chilly confines of my office and wondering if maybe I shouldn't give it all up and become a sheepherder. In some parts of the country these idyllic summer days are a dime a dozen, but in the Northeast, they're something to be cherished and enjoyed, and not from afar. Alas, my computing chariot awaits, and I turn back to my keyboard.

During the decades I've spent in the deepest corridors of system and network architecture, I used to wonder how anyone could do anything else. This field has it all: intrigue, mystery, and constant problem solving. It's engaging work that (in most cases) produces clear results and a sense of accomplishment.