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CTA Project | Vienna Story | Mission List

 

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CTA Project

UNHCR's Community Technology Access (CTA) project provides classroom IT training centres for refugees. These centres are typically managed by partner organisations and are based in remote or urban areas. The following video explains what a difference the CTA centre has made in Kakuma, Kenya:

During 2010-2011 I provided technical adivse for the project working with Microsoft and HP, among others. I worked closely with Microsoft because we used the, at the time new, operating system Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 (WMS).

I wrote the WMS Setup Guide to show the steps, one by one, to putting together a classroom with the HP MultiSeat ms6000 and WMS software. It also explained how to install the donated Microsoft application software such as MS Office.

Creating the guide and working with this project was interesting because it has a direct impact on the lives of refugees. Through the CTA technology can make a difference.

Learn more about the CTA

Learn more about the WMS

 

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Vienna Story

I've been on many missions, installing, upgrading, presenting at workshops or providing classroom training. In all these years, from my first mission in 1996, I've not written the story of what happens. Most of my missions are to install or upgrade, especially this year I've been on several missions to upgrade the main office server. This isn't a straightforward job, it's involved, there's a fair amount of stress as you are handling the office data. You have to be responsible and have presense of mind. What does that mean? Well you need to stay calm even when something goes wrong, sometimes it does and you have to know in yourself that you will be able to solve that issue, whatever it is. This is what it is to be a professional.

In August 2010 I went to Vienna. The office is very small there but they had an HP ProLiant ML350 G3 server that needed to be replaced with a brand new HP ProLiant ML350 G6. No matter the size of the office, you still have to do the same work and take the same care, provide the same service. The old G3 had been running non-stop 24 hours a day since 2004, it was about time we rested it - that was the goal.

I arrived on a Friday afternoon, I went to the office to check that the backup was set up and ready to run that evening. I unloaded the GroupWise processes so that no new e-mail would come in from this point onward, ensuring a clean backup. It is also important in the preparation to create an image of the Border Manager server, this holds a replica of the NDS/eDirectory.

On Saturday I started by checking the previous nights backup had been successful. It had and I continued with preparing the new server. In the photos below you can see the old server replaced with the new one. I installed the NDS on the new server from the Border Manager. This went fine but it can be tricky sometimes and you have to be ready to check for errors and clear up any that pop up. This is important because otherwise you can have a lot of trouble later.

Restoring the data from the backup took a few hours, during this time I had one or two cups of coffee and tea! This period is where you just have to be patient.

Just finishing off here, making the last configuration checks and if you look closely at the photos you can see the GroupWise processes running again! This is Saturday evening, everything working. This is the moment when you can afford to relax, you've finished the most testing of the work. It's a great feeling!

After successfully upgrading the server there are a few additional things to do, usually this does mean some of Sunday is taken up with this work, Vienna was no different. Some of the work is to check the user rights that may have changed after the upgrade. The other work is to reconfigure the print queues, this can take some time and in Vienna it took longer than normal as they had some old print servers that didn't want to work at first, I had to restart them and try to be patient. Visiting each workstation to set up the printers and disable the NMAS that we don't use, this took a lot of time and I spent most of my Sunday in the office.

On Monday I spent the morning in the office, I fixed a couple of problems users had with printing and gave general advice. I spoke with the local IT support who visited. This contact with the office is also very important, it's what is real 'customer service'.

I left the office that day, after three days of non-stop, dedicated work, glad to have been of help. The Vienna office now has a reliable, modern server, their data is safer and hopefully it'll be even more seamless to them, so they just work, the services provided available without fuss.

Vienna was a typical mission of this type. I've done a lot of these so far, the offices are typically happy with my work, this is the best reward and the only one. Perhaps some people think missions are for fun but mostly its work, stress and to do it properly you need to be a professional and take care.

Michael, October 2010

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Mission List