Such a roller coaster of emotions, in every aspect of my life.
Moving into a new house, kids changing schools, new routines, being accepted in the Cisco Champions program, a great CLEUR19, getting back and work in some very interesting projects to later found myself in a company passing through a severe crisis, passing CCIE-W written (again), having a training plan for the CCIE-W lab approved and cancelled (again), moving to another company, new colleagues, new routines, so many exciting projects and challenges, having a training plan for the CCIE-W lab approved and cancelled (again; this time due to time limitations before the new lab version), a phenomenal WLPC_EU19, new technologies, new tech solutions, new challenging projects, new certification paths, getting the an email from CWNP stating that I've reached the required credits to renew my CWNE...
But all that would be meaningless if I left out the really important; my family. Playing with my kids, watching a episode of Sponge Bob Square pants and laughing out loud, helping them with their home work, with their doubts, their thoughts, their fears.
It ended with a sad note, when my last living grandmother, the matriarch of our family, left us three days before Christmas. But, looking into her life story, which deserves a blog post, made me realized that some of the decisions that I made came from the example of my parents and grandparents. Each with strong work ethics but never forgetting their loved ones and always trying to do what was best for them.
And speaking of loved ones, I would like to thank my wife for everything. A working mom that juggles a career and a family life, but still looking way younger than her actual age. I'm so lucky to have you on my life.
The future looks very bright!
One of my few regrets is that I would like to write more in blog, but then again, I also like to sleep at least 5 hours per night.
Actually, you should meet your heroes, just choose them wisely.
wlpc-prague-2019 was my third WLPC-Europe. It was so
nice to review so many familiar faces and to finally meet so many people which work I've been following for some time. Of course, it was also great to
make so many new friends, and talk not only about wifi but also to share ideas, experiences and the pains of being a wifi network engineer.
Every WLPC has been a humbling and very enriching experience. So many knowledge gather in one place, so many heartwarming interactions and
such great camaraderie.
A last-minute session, with the
conclusions of the “Wifi 6 party”, compiled and presented by Dennis Klein (@SynicWiFi) was fantastic. The
technology is still a bit green, but has a bright future and it will
definitely surpass the market value of 802.11ac. Here’s a brief moment where we
can witness OFDMA in action (1 AP and 4 wifi6 clients):
I highly recommend the ECSE-Advanced bootcamp or any other wlpc bootcamps. The amount of knowledge and experience greatly surpass the value of
the registration. I’ve been in some presentation regarding the bootcamp
subject and thinking “hmm, I need to test that in my lab…” but when I got back
to the office or my home lab, life happened and it’s really hard to find the
balance of family, work and study.
So it was great to finally have the time and the mentoring
to follow those subjects and witness their advantages. Also, having a trainer
like Blake Krone and François Verges as my lab partner and mentor, it was just
perfect.
API Deep Dive
When I was selecting the deep dive sessions, I could have gone
for sessions that I’m more comfortable like Eddie’s Wireshark or Joel’s
soldering&arduino, but I do believe that sometimes you have to leave your
comfort zone and take chances, so I choose the one that I have heard about it
but I was also the one that I had the least experience. But, when I got an
email from Mike Albano, with the documentation and the preparation steps that
we must have concluded before the session, my initial thought was, “Oh God!
What have I done?”
I didn’t understand most of the exercises in the document. Never
installed dockers, never used github, practically no experience with python… oh
boy… well, what’s done is done so let’s see how it goes.
The fact is that after a few hours of training I was configuring
my first AP with API and also had my open source TSDB. Just another example of
how great the cwnp/wlpc instructors are and how well the sessions are prepared.
Summary: Tricks and tips
that I learnt during my career.
A set of rules that I follow before
my installations that I found myself repeating to junior colleagues.
1- Check the installation space
Apart of the obvious "check if
there is enough space for the equipment", make sure have the required U(s)
and install the equipment in the right U(s). Believe me, in this job, there are
few things more frustrating than going for an installation and you need to
rearrange some equipment's because someone didn't install theirs
correctly.
Nowadays, most of the racks have the Us numbered, so before the installation,
confirm witch U(s) are you going to use:
(If you don't know what a U is, please check the link below
"A typical section of 19-inch (482.6 mm) rack rail" : Rack_rail_dimensions )
2- Confirm the power
outlets
I'm from Portugal so we mostly use CEE outlets but you might found racks
with C13 or C20 power outlets so check out if the equipment came we the right
cable. Here's a nice article that sums it all nicely:
This is something that most non-tech people overlook so I strongly suggest that
you confirm it personally.
3- Confirm if there are cage nuts for the equipment
Here's something that's vastly overlook by non-tech people. Confirm if the
equipment has cage nuts or if their are included in the list of
equipment.
Use a cage nut tool to install them but since it's most likely you don't have
such tool, have a least a "flat-blade" screwdriver at hand.
4- Check the cabling and
the SFPs
Here's something that shows if the non-tech people involved on the project has any
experience. Usually, the most experience accounts or pre-sales team or project managers are aware
of the quantities and different types of SFPs and also the cabling that is
required, but I urge you to confirm if the order has the right amount of
cabling or if the customer will provide some or all of it.
Also, make sure that the cabling has the right length and the proper
termination, specially the FO pairs. Nowadays, the vast majority of FO
terminations are LC-LC but you should be aware that there are other kinds of FO
terminations (SC or ST).
5- Stage your equipment
Staging is was separates the pros
from the newbies.
You never know what would be the
conditions on site at the day of the installation so everything that can be
prepared prior is a must. I usually say to my junior colleagues to stage the
equipments in such way that when they go on site, they only need to mount,
cable and power it because:
You don't know if there won't be any power issues
during the installation.
Sometimes customers schedule different teams to work during their
maintenance window and you might end up waiting for the power to come up.
However, if your equipment was staged properly, you know that you can
mounted it and just need to plug the power cables after they finish their
work. Also, make sure you can mount your equipment without having to
connect a laptop to check the config or status. For instance, if you
are mounting a switch stack, you should know (for instance; write some
note at the equipment box) which switch is the master switch and
preferably, the switches are mounted according to the order of the stack.
Sure you can renumber it after but it's not efficient work.
You don't know what will be physical the conditions on
site.
It's a lot better to be seated in a comfy chair, in a room with
proper light and AC while you install the blank covers, the mounting
brackets, the stack modules, the fans and network modules instead of
crouching over the equipment, with AC blasting over (or below) you, under
poor light or at a very noisy environment.
You don't know if you will have a place to lay your
laptop and configure the equipment.
It's a lot better to calmly configure a equipment while you are seated on
a comfy chair, in a room with AC, with time to check manuals or clarify
configuration details instead off standing in an extremely cold (or hot if
there isn't any AC yet) tech room, while holding a laptop with one arm and
punching commands with the other hand and there's someone using a power
drill in a room near by.
You don't know if you have a DOA (dead-on-arrival)
equipment or a faulty cable.
Which it's not the installers fault but all in all, it's the installer who
stands in front of the customer. No matter what he says the thought that
will linger in the mind of the customer will be "well, if you have
tested the equipment before this wouldn't end up being a waste of time for
all of us..."
You don't know what is the firmware it's on and if an
upgrade is required.
It's a lot better to calmly download the proper version while you are
seated on a comfy chair with a stable internet connection than being on
site, looking for place to activate your personal hotspot and download through
a mobile connection a image that can be several hundreds of megabytes
in size.
Here's a story I also like to tell my junior colleagues and that it sums this
all. When you schedule a cable service for your house, what do you expect from
the cable technicians?
That they should arrive on time,
extend the cable/fibber to your house, plug and power up everything, call
central to activate the service, test everything and it's all done. You can go
on with your lives. But I'm sure you will file a complain if you heard anything
like "Oh, sorry, we need to postpone
the installation because..."
"... I don't have the right
power cable."
"... I don't have the right
tools."
"... the equipment it's
dead."
"... it's the first time I see
this equipment and I don't know how to configure it"
Next time, I will blog about tricks and tips that I use during my
installations.
How about you? Any more tricks and tips that you would like to share? Please
write them on the comments below. Thank you.
