The 12th Idea

Hiring: Senior Systems Engineer

We're on the lookout for a Senior Systems Engineer to add to our team. 

Primarily, we are after Citrix and Microsoft infrastructure skills. Contact us or apply through the seek ad if you are interested.


Posted by JAMES KAHN on Monday, 16 January 2012 at 7:35 PM
Tagged:idea 11

Universal Desktop Client 1.6 released

We have released version 1.6 of our popular Universal Desktop Client application - the systems administration tool for managing multiple RDP, ICA and VNC connections.

What's new in this release:
  • General look and feel changes
  • Ability to import connection files from previous UDC releases
  • Bug-fixes and stability improvements
Universal Desktop Client is free for personal and commercial use. Download it now.
Posted by DAN HALFORD on Friday, 2 September 2011 at 4:13 PM
Tagged:universal desktop clientrdpicavnc

New version of Hasher

Formerly known as MD5 Hasher

An hash, or checksum, serves as a unique identifier of a piece of information; a block of text, a picture or a file. There are many different types of hash, but the three most common are MD5, SHA1 and SHA256. While the length of the hash is dependent on the hash type, a hash is usually represented as a collection of hexadecimal characters.

Many websites now publish the checksums of files available for download. Once the file has been downloaded, the checksum can be used to check that the download completed without errors and to confirm that the file has not ...read more
Posted by DAN HALFORD on Wednesday, 8 June 2011 at 2:35 PM
Tagged:md5sha1sha256hashchecksum

FC, iSCSI or NFS for vSphere? It doesn't matter

For real world VMware vSphere usage, it doesn't matter if you're using Fibre Channel, iSCSI or NFS. NetApp and VMware investigated the performance differences between the major front-end protocols under simulated real-world conditions on vSphere 4.1 and found that the differences just aren't that significant. The tests were generic and the findings should apply to most storage arrays, such as those from EMC or Dell.

While 1Gbps Ethernet iSCSI and NFS have slightly lower throughput and higher latency than FC, at 10Gbps the protocols perform almost identically. That's what this in-depth blog post and report from NetApp shows.

While there may ...read more

Posted by JAMES KAHN on Wednesday, 18 May 2011 at 9:37 PM
Tagged:virtualisation

The Consumeration of Enterprise IT Part 2: Information Security

Protecting company information

With the ongoing consumerisation of Enterpise IT, increasingly users need to access corporate information systems from any device, anywhere. 

Traditionally, IT has used heavy-handed techniques that involve locking the information down in one form or another. This is difficult - and in some cases not possible - with the consumerisation of IT. This introduces a problem for many companies: how do you protect your information if you don't control the endpoint? While there is no ultimate solution, there are a number of ways that this can be achieved. 

Written policy


Rather than control and restrict access to information with technical measures, an alternative ...read more
Posted by JAMES KAHN on Friday, 13 May 2011 at 3:45 PM
Tagged:end user experience

Configuring virtual desktops

Group policies or local settings?

Since the introduction of Windows 2000, IT departments have used group policies to control and configure workstations.

A corporate workstation build will typically contain the operating system, service packs and hotfixes and core applications common to all user groups - Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, and the like. Whilst some configuration of the base build is common, the majority of the configuration is performed via group policy. Not only do group policies provide the flexibility to change configuration of a workstation after it has been deployed, filtering and loopback policies allow different configurations to be applied to different user groups or workstations. ...read more
Posted by DAN HALFORD on Monday, 18 April 2011 at 12:07 PM
Tagged:end user experience

The Consumerisation of Enterprise IT

New requirements, new challenges

Yesterday there was an article in the Australian about Suncorp allowing staff to BYO their own computers and tablets. This isn't an anomaly - it's part of a growing trend within corporate IT. There is more focus on end user experience and less on rigid control.

Enterprise IT is being consumerised. Executives are buying iPads and insisting that they be able to use them on the corporate network. Marketing people require access to Twitter and Facebook. Training is being delivered via web-based flash video. Web-based software is being used for critical line of business applications. If a user can't ...read more
Posted by JAMES KAHN on Wednesday, 30 March 2011 at 7:27 PM
Tagged:end user experience

We're hiring: Infrastructure Consultant

We're on the look out for an experienced Infrastructure Consultant to add to our growing team. Primarily, we are looking for strong VMware, Citrix, backup and storage skills.

If the right person for the role doesn't already have the full skill set required, we will provide training to bring them up to the level we require. However, we are looking for someone who is already at expert level in some of these areas, and is the right personality fit for our company.

If you're interested in applying, or know someone who might be, please see our advertisement on SEEK. Apply through ...read more
Posted by JAMES KAHN on Monday, 21 March 2011 at 8:13 PM
Tagged:idea 11

Releasing MD5 Hasher

Free utility for creating MD5 hashes of files

An MD5 hash serves as a unique identifier of a piece of information; a block of text, a picture or a file. The hash itself is 16 bytes long, and is usually represented as 32 hexadecimal characters.

Many websites now publish the MD5 checksums of files available for download. The MD5 checksum can be used, once the file has been downloaded to check that the download completed without errors and to confirm that the file has not been modified in transit. On Linux and OS X systems, checking the MD5 hash of a downloaded file is easy, using the OpenSSL ...read more
Posted by DAN HALFORD on Sunday, 20 March 2011 at 7:13 PM
Tagged:md5hashchecksum

VMware Release vSphere Client for iPad

Here's another tool for Systems Administration on the go: this week VMware released the VMware vSphere Client for iPad. The announcement came out on Twitter with a tweet from VMware CTO, Stephen Herrod: "vSphere - There's an app for that! - New #VMware vSphere Client for iPad".

To use the vSphere Client for iPad you do need the free vCenter Mobile Access (vCMA) virtual appliance and network connectivity to your VMware environment.
Posted by JAMES KAHN on Sunday, 20 March 2011 at 8:49 AM
Tagged:vmware

New version of Universal Desktop Client

Nested folders, ICA resizing, import .RDP files, PNG screenshots

We have released version 1.5 of our popular Universal Desktop Client application - the systems administration tool for managing multiple RDP, ICA and VNC connections.

What's new in this release:
  • Nested connection folders
  • Import .RDP files for connection settings
  • Automatic resizing of ICA connections to fit window
  • Save screenshots to PNG
  • Plus bug fixes, and general look and feel changes
Universal Desktop Client is free for personal and commercial use. Download it now.
Posted by DAN HALFORD on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 at 3:37 PM
Tagged:universal desktop clientrdpicavnc

The easiest way to create a bootable USB flash drive for MDT

The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) is an excellent - and free - tool for automated desktop and server builds. We use it all the time.

Sometimes, for whatever reason, installing a PXE server or using a boot CD ISO isn't desirable. Using a boot USB flash drive is the best bet in these situations. The problem: the guide to create a bootable USB drive in the MDT documentation doesn't work. There is plenty of confusing information out there on the web for painful, slow ways to create a boot USB. And most of those don't work either.

So what's the ...read more
Posted by JAMES KAHN on Monday, 21 February 2011 at 8:18 PM
Tagged:mdt

Announcing: Universal Desktop Client - FREE

Organise and streamline stored RDP, ICA and VNC connections

A systems administrator will spend a good proportion of the day connected to servers or remote computers, often many at a time. It can be difficult keeping track of different connection definitions, using different protocols, with different credentials. And with multiple connections open, it's difficult enough just keeping track of which window is which.
Universal Desktop 
Client
That's where Universal Desktop Client can help.

Universal Desktop Client provides a convenient interface for managing connections to remote computers. With support for the Microsoft RDP, Citrix ICA and VNC protocols, ...read more
Posted by DAN HALFORD on Wednesday, 9 June 2010 at 6:03 PM
Tagged:universal desktop clientrdpicavnc

New White Paper: Implementing Citrix XenApp

6 Tips For A Successful Deployment

We're pleased to announce a new white paper on one of the End User Experience technologies we implement: Citrix XenApp.

The white paper, Implementing Citrix XenApp: 6 Tips For A Successful Deployment, contains six quick tips to help ensure that your Citrix XenApp project is successful.

We love feedback - if you have any comments to make, let us know via our contact form or in the comments below.
Posted by JAMES KAHN on Thursday, 29 April 2010 at 11:02 PM
Tagged:citrix

Kaviza Announces Strategic Investment by Citrix

Will we see grid VDI with Citrix's ICA?

The desktop virtualization landscape is changing - Citrix have invested an undisclosed sum in Kaviza, a startup with a unique grid technology that significantly lowers the cost of VDI implementations. Kaviza's grid technology allows you to use commodity servers with local storage for VDI, eliminating the shared storage requirement - which is typically a very significant factor in the cost of a VDI implementation.

Any comments now are mostly speculation, however, I would imagine this means that Citrix will introduce a grid-capable edition of XenDesktop in the future.
Posted by JAMES KAHN on Thursday, 8 April 2010 at 4:03 PM
Tagged:vdidesktop virtualisationdesktop virtualizationxendesktop

Stuck in the clouds: So what is a cloud, anyway?

Video of presentation from Ignite Brisbane

In the first week of March I presented at the first Ignite Brisbane event. Ignite is a short presentation format where you have 5 minutes to talk on a topic, with 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds. It’s fun, interesting – and not to mention a very different presentation format to the 30 – 60 minute talks I’ve done previously.

Watch the video here.

Posted by JAMES KAHN on Monday, 22 March 2010 at 10:41 AM
Tagged:cloud computingvideo

Cloud Computing - Reality vs Concept

Busting some cloud computing myths

For the last two years, cloud computing has been increasing in media presence and vendor push.  Each of the major vendors in the emerging cloud space has a specific message about what cloud computing is, and what it means to you.

Whether due to cloud computing still being new, or whether it is deliberate on the part of the companies pushing it, cloud computing itself is still very loosely defined, and I’m not going to try define it here.  However, the main basis of cloud computing is paying a recurring fee for a utility computing service.

To those in the infrastructure ...read more

Posted by JAMES KAHN on Wednesday, 17 March 2010 at 4:11 PM
Tagged:cloud computing2 comments

Adventures In Version Control

Simple source code security

For any development organisation, the security of the development source code is paramount. And yet, many organisations simply rely on standard backups to ensure them against data loss or corruption. Whilst this certainly provides an element of protection, it is far from an effective solution.

During any development project, files will be edited and saved continuously as functionality is added and refined. Very few development projects contain just one file; the overwhelming majority are made up of numerous pieces of source code which interlink and reference each other extensively. A single change to a software product may involve numerous small edits ...read more

Posted by DAN HALFORD on Monday, 8 February 2010 at 3:30 AM
Tagged:version controlcloud computing