Users,
I thought I’d share a day’s routine with you all to give an insight into what I might do on a daily basis. These activities included are, but not subject to, what I did a few days back. I’ll go into a brief amount of detail about how I tackled each task and what was included.
FOREWARNING: This post is lengthy and contains technical lingo which is not elaborated due to the nature of this post. I apologise to those it does not make sense!
Arrived into work at 8:00 am sharp. Walked to the office, exchanged greetings to my colleague and manager, logged in, checked my e-mail and straight into the help-desk to peruse tickets.
After noticing there’s no immediate/urgent tickets that need handling, I took a hold of the laptop that was set on my desk the day before and got to work.
The laptop was reported to have had one USB port working and 2 that were not working. A quick Windows Update to retrieve the drivers should have been the fix but resulted unsuccessfully so instead I browsed the manufacturer website for their respective laptop-model drivers. As it turned out, the wrong Operating System had been installed (32-bit rather than 64-bit) so that had best be done first.
I grabbed an ISO of Windows 7 Professional (x64) we had stored in a folder and burnt it to a disc. Placed it inside CD-ROM and booted to it and then did a custom install with wiped partitions so that it was a completely fresh installation.
Whilst that was on the back-burner, I had a call come in regarding a user not having all of their allocated printers after returning from a vacation. A new user had reported the same instance on a different computer.
I remotely dialled into their machines and temporarily added the printers to the user that had called so that they could print whilst I worked on finding the permanent solution. I was directed towards the printer script to investigate if the string group for the printers was incorrectly typed or formatted. It was not and alternatively checked their account profiles in the Active Directory to see if they were a member of the group. They were not and that resolved the issue after a relog.
Whilst waiting for the laptop to finish processing, I hacked away at some of my Apprenticeship work. Within the amount of time I had until the laptop was finished configuring, I was able to do some video recording using Microsoft Expression for demonstrating how to “Set up and configuring virus protection software”.
With the installation finally complete, I joined it to the network and the relevant WiFi so that it was a part of the domain. Then, logged onto our Domain Controller and moved it from the default computer location in Active Directory to its relative Organisational Unit which, after a restart, initiated the installation of all of our deployed software.
Midway through this process, my manager had requested that I assign a static IP to our new Digital Signage screen (fortunately I had figured out how to do this as I was tackling a similar project recently). Once I could put the laptop aside again (it was back to installing software), I logged back onto our Domain Controller, opened up DHCP and created a new IP reservation with its MAC address.
By now it was around lunch time so off I went to eat and then back again!
By now there was 2 or so more tickets that I could get on with, one requesting that 2 copies of Air Server be installed into machines that were attached to separate projectors. I popped over to the room, logged in as myself, downloaded the software (with bonjour to function) and put in the activation codes. After a quick test with my iPhone I was back to finish the final ticket.
To keep the day spread out and after noticing the other ticket was not urgent, I wrote out an Apprenticeship document regarding the virus protection software and to “Describe what security precautions need to be addressed (before installing software).”
The ticket was regarding creating Summer Staff/Student accounts as well as generating a Guest WiFi Pass for our Wireless as they were going to be coming in soon. The accounts were relatively straight-forward. Logged onto the mail server, opened up Active Directory, copied over an already existing Guest Account to retain groups and file paths and entered in the relevant details. It prompts to create an e-mail which was ‘okayed’. The same was done for the Student Guest account except with a different copied account.
The Guest WiFi Pass was equally as simple. I logged onto the Ruckus Wireless Web Management page and selected Guest Passes. Chose to create a new one. Typed in its expiry date, any remarks and the code they would need to use for both the staff and student ones.
Nearing the closed half of the day, I was sent to retrieve a faulty back-up NAS drive that needed replacing. I headed over to our back-up cab in a nearby building with the new one in hand, unlocked the building, hopped up to the cab and slid the other one out. Removed its bracket to be firmly placed onto the new one and slid the drive into its new home.
Finally, after heading back, my manager handed me a Visitor Card and told me assign it to the new Summer Staff account I had created. I logged onto the Printer Web Management page and searched the previously attached account the card was linked to, deleted the details and headed over to a printer with a scanner. Swiped the card and instead entered the user details for the new Staff account and chose to link it up.
Around this time, it was closing up time so I logged out and headed on my merry way!
Thanks for reading, this one was a mouthful and fairly long-winded!
Max
Maxwell Brotherwood 