ITS Internship

The project for this week is to go around documenting regular and missing AP locations and names, fix labels if needed, and to fix the name in the controller if needed. Stacey will have a big part in the project because she has access to the controller, so i have to make sure she is available which is slightly harder than i imagined because she is so busy! she's been taking care of tickets, switching out switches, she's been doing a lot. but we were able to schedule a couple of days to get this done. Another problem I ran into that I completely forgot was the camps. I forgot that they'd be here using the classrooms so we'll have to plan around that. They are normally using the classrooms in the morning but not so much in the evening. Easy fix to that problem. The only big problems being faced is finding APs that aren't really there, and making sure that they truly aren't there and that we're not simply missing them somehow. We are still waiting for the blue screws to get here. All projects are going great so far, its a lot of hard work, but I believe in myself and my crew. We are still ahead of schedule. By the end of this week, we didn't finish, but we should be able to finish up by the first half of week 5.

This week we walked around campus troubleshooting. Since Alanna and Luis have a different set of strengths and weaknesses and come in at different times, I learned how to utilize this time and effort to create the most efficient schedule. This week the main project that was being focused on was troubleshooting. I had originally planned for us to start Leo. When we started Leo, I realized that it was rather difficult when it came to finding the APs. Plus, to complete the job we needed anchors. After talking with Stacey, and after Stacey talked to Jake, I was told that all we really needed was the blue screws which are made to be screwed into concrete. We put in an order to get them as soon as i figured out that we didn't have any more from last year's project. Instead of just waiting for the screws, I decided that we'd start another project in the meantime. So here we are, troubleshooting all of campus. This was rather difficult. In Jasper, most of them were unplugged. But there were some that still wouldn't come online, and after further diagnoses, we needed to try troubleshooting at the switch. Most everything is locked in MGL and DLS, so we will need to get podium keys from Eileen, some APs were in the ceiling. My method was to go around and do all of the easy ones first, then come back and take the time to properly diagnose the rest of them. So far we are ahead of schedule, and if I can manage this well, we will be done ahead of schedule.

So this internship is nothing like the one last year. When making goals for the agenda, i always consult Stacey to see if she thinks their is a better means of getting the work done. I am given proper guidance and suggestions. It makes a huge difference and actually helps with his learning experience. Most of it is trial and error, and since I am Project Manager and responsible for getting everything done by a decent time, I am learning so much more this time around. It feels good to be able to call the shots and learn from my experiences. Although I am managing a small team of only two people, I think I will learn a lot about what it takes to manage a team. These first two weeks are me figuring out what resources we have, what resources we need, finding maps for each building, and setting time frames for each project. I will check in in a week and update with my experiences.

My team and I are started this week off by venturing up to De La Salle. I was really excited that we were finally finishing up lower campus and moving to upper campus, especially being as we were a bit behind because of the shipments of Ethernet cords we were waiting for. Luckily, we had some in the office so we made do with those until we eventually ran out.
Some of the classrooms in DLS were really easy to handle. We just connect the Ethernet to the projector, cut the keystone pull the cord out of the metal conduit and into the ceiling, re-clamp the keystone on, and connect the cords together, really simple. Some classrooms had a projector in it that was so old it didn't have an Ethernet port to connect to, so we couldn't do anything in those rooms. A lot of the classrooms were smart classrooms and we didn't know where the Ethernet port was to connect it to the projector, so once again, we couldn't do anything in those rooms. Some classrooms didn't even have projectors in them because they were taken out of the ceiling due to construction, so we definitely could wire those. After a while, it just seemed like there were so many odds stacked up against us. The various camps using the classrooms we needed to do, the inaccurate camp utilization chart we were given, classrooms without projectors, smart classrooms where we didn't know where to find the Ethernet port. It seemed like things couldn't get any worse.
Then, we ran into rooms that had Ethernet ports, but when we tried to back the port into the ceiling we couldn't find the cord. There were several cords that looked like the cord that led to the Ethernet port, but none of them were clearly or obviously the correct cord. In one of the classrooms, we ended up cutting and re-clamping a keystone and when we connected it to a laptop the laptop was able to pull an IP from it, but when the projector was connected to the cord it wouldn't configure. After about an hour or so of cutting, stripping, and re-clamping cords we still couldn't get the projector to configure, so we made note of it on the spreadsheet and left it connected in the ceiling. We will have to go back on a later date and try to further diagnose the issue. But, after a long, hot, frustrating week, De La Salle was done and we were moving onto Miguel.

For the last week I have finished up any existing leftover work. This consisted of putting the final touches and cleaning up the KBA's I have created this summer. What I did was go through the ones I created and others and made sure they needed any updating. If a certain step needed changing due to a change in the process I would alter it. If a KBA needed drastic changes I would read through the process test it out on my own and make sure it is suitable for clients. Once that is done I would go through the process once more while typing out the steps in HTML and CSS. The formatting and styling all has to be correct to match the style of the other KBA's to insure flow and engage the clients. Besides the KBA's I have continued with the Lynda.com to search for courses to add to a master list. I have also searched for a course with a new test feature but failed to do so. Lastly I have continued and almost completed the pasteboard presentation I just have to put the final touches and it should be complete.

A main feature of the upcoming Manhattan College app is being able to use your JasperCard on your phone. With the JasperCard on your phone, you will be to use meal swipes, pay with Jasper Dollars and Dining Dollars, and access buildings such as the library and the gym.

In order for this to be a feasible option, we conducted tests on the card at two points of interest. We did test in the Kelly Commons Gym and Marketplace. A laptop with a JapserCard prototype and a barcode scanner were used.

Testing in the gym would give us an idea of how transactions for accessing buildings would work across campus. To test this, we connect a barcode scanner to the current system. The barcode scanner acts a basic input peripheral, like keyboard. This means that when the barcode scanner receives the values from the card, the computer receives at as user input and displays the value on the current selected input interface. The identity system used would take this number and present user information on the screen. The JasperCard on the laptop is setup to give students 16 digit code. The same code now available on the physical front of the card. Currently, the system uses a little device that gets this information for taping or swiping your physical JasperCard. The system then converts that 16 digit number to the student id number. This would mean that the mobile JasperCard would have to output that number. However this would be a security issue since the student id number is a personal number. For now we are looking into changing the system to accept the 16 digit number.

Testing in the Kelly Commons Marketplace would allows us to know if making transactions from the mobile JasperCard on the current register system is possible. Same setup as the Kelly Commons Gym was applied. During the initial test, the system would accept input. However, we looked into the software that manages the register system to see if there were any alterations we could make. Upon reviewing the software we found that we could change the system to allow for input. This worked, but for every transaction made with barcode scanner, there had to be authorization for the manager. We continued looking into the software and found another option that would allow for input transactions without the need for authorization on every transaction. This concludes that the we can enable acceptance of mobile JasperCards at registers across campus.

This is gonna be shorter than my usual post, this is a just a simple step by step guide on how I upload photos to 25Live, due to the website being somewhat cumbersome to use

Use this link (https://25live.collegenet.com/manhattan/admin.html) to log into 25Live with admin credientials
In order to add a photo into 25Live go to the image tab, name the image or diagram, determine if its an image or diagram , then click select to upload the image, after it is uploading click add image
Click the locations tab and then click edit
Search for the room you wanna add, click on the room you wanna edit. In the Layout section click edit, select classroom style.
In the new section click the select button to insert an AutoCAD diagram or a photo of the room. Select the folder where you uploaded the image (if it’s an image or diagram).
Click Save Changes to save the uploads

Well that is pretty much it. As of now most of the CAD drawings are uploaded into 25Live, I just need to associate them with a room now. I have finished DLS, and some of Miguel, I say some because I could not access to rooms due to either repairmen fixing the classrooms or in use by the programs around Campus. The latter goes for Hayden. RLC is done, LEO I am starting to do in which I will get it done this week.

For this week we continued work on the pass for the Passbook. We needed to gain approval on what items can be shown on the pass. We had a meeting with Charles Lippolis, head of the ID office, to get his opinions on what he thought about the pass' design and also what should and should not be presented on the front of the pass. He seemed to very much enjoy the overall design and look of the pass. He also gave us very detailed information on what each "pool" of money is referring to when logged onto Self-Service. This was very beneficial to us due to what we decide we are going to display for the numerical amount of the pass. Charles is also going to find on what type of barcode we should go with based off of what the current scanners that Manhattan College has.

Blog #7

Last week I have done a bunch of 25 live stuff which consisted of using it as well as creating KBA’s. 25 Live is the new system to reserve a room as well as integrate it into the calendar. This system is much smarter than the previous with this; faculty will be able to search for a room based on their criteria. For example they could enter the type of room they want, the amount of people the room could hold and what technology or equipment is in the room. My job this week was hash out a plan for the 25 live knowledge base. We have determined it was best to create three KBA’s. The first being the Intro, Detailed, Detailed Event and Quick Event. Within Detailed Events I have created five separate KBA’s to easily walk a client through using the website and providing detailed information.

Blog # 8

This week I have completed some ticketing work as well as completed some tasks around the library. There were a couple of issues with printers and computers that I quickly solved. Starting today I will continue to help out with the faculty computer literacy. This consists of going through Lynda.com and finding basic courses on how to use certain aspects of a computer. These courses must contain assignment features where once a faculty member watches a portion of the course they would take a quiz on what they just learned. This is to ensure that they are retaining the information that they are getting.

I finally got admin access to 25Live, in which I could finally upload my drawings. However, there is one snag in this uploading journey, 25Live only takes image files, and my CAD drawings are in PDF's. So I had a little bit of a panic attack until I realized that Adobe Photoshop is installed on my computer (thank you high school). However, I have not used Photoshop for who knows how long ago. Thankfully the relearning process was not painful as I still retained some shortcut keyboard commands, and some basic ideas on how to batch export images. In short I exported most of the PDF's into PNG's.

Behold the magic power of Photoshop in full glory!!!!! But anyways now it is just uploading time into 25Live. This will take a while since 25Live does not have a batch uploader. Here is an example of a room completed, from my perspective at least.

For now I am gonna be uploading the CAD diagrams in my backlog. Then I am gonna get more photos of the rooms throughout the week. Now some of you might be asking why Jackhammer is in the title. Well this is due to fact that the construction on main campus is irritating me, especially the jackhammers. That is all.

Mobile Payments

Currently, students can only make mobile payments on a few vending machines on campus. However, many of us have smart phones that enable us to make payments in a various amount of ways. To give students more options, multiple systems of payments will be available. We are currently working on the iPhone however some android options will be available later. When you sign in to the Manhattan College App on an iPhone, your JasperCard becomes available in the Passbook. The front of the card shows current balance for Jasper Dollars, Dining Dollars, and Meal Swipes. The back of the card gives more information about the JasperCard and the services related to it. For NFC payments, square NFC readers will be available.

Lockes Loft

At Lockes Loft, students with meal plans can just present their phone with the JasperCard to staff and have it scanned. The balance is updated when necessary.

For students without meal plans, they can present their phone with the choice of using either their JasperDollars or DinningDollars. They can also pay using Apple Pay, Android Pay, or any other NFC option.

Kelly Commons Market Place, Starbucks, & Book Store

Students can present their JasperCard at checkout, choosing to pay with JasperDollars or DinningDollars. They can also pay using Apple Pay, Android Pay, or any other NFC option.

Cafe 1853

To Go

Students can present their JasperCard at checkout, choosing to pay with JasperDollars or DinningDollars. They can also pay using Apple Pay, Android Pay, or any other NFC option.

Stay

Students who choose to stay and eat can sit at a table with a beacon. The beacon will alert student phones that the menu is available. When they go into the Manhattan College App they will be brought to a menu. From the menu students can order and pay for their meals right at their table. Students can either use their JasperCard, Apple Pay, or their Apple Account. Once the order is made, their meals will be prepared and delivered to their table.

Building Access

Students will be able to access buildings such as the library, dorms, gym, etc with their phone. By having the Manhattan College app in addition to being signed, students can place their phone near a beacon and gain access to these facilities.

Introducing the Final Design of the Manhattan College app. A simple, clean, and elegant experience. Information and data in the app are organized by visual direction. Visual cues, such as highlights in an appropriate green, font weight and size, and positioning direct students attention to the information that's important to them. Navigation is hidden in a menu drawer on the left side of the screen. This allows students to focus more on the information in the view. In the navigation, we segmented the features of the app based on their defining use. For more info about the app features click here. Designs for MC Maps and the Calendar are not yet available. However, they will be added as an update when they are finished.

Login

Feed

MC Glance

Quadrangle

Dashboard / Public Profile

Going into week 7 my focus was on creating what was to be the new Cafe 1853 experience. As explained in the previous blog post, the user will interact with Cafe 1853 via the app alongside beacon technology. Once the user is in the beacon's range, sitting around a table, the Cafe 1853 menu will come up on screen in the app, or a notification if the app is closed, without the user going through any menus.

I found a color palette from one of my favorite color sites, Adobe Color CC, and the design came automatically to me. I wanted the user to be able to make quick selections to get their order out as soon as possible. The menu is basically two views, one for the user to select a category of food, entrees for example, and another for the selections of food in that category.

For the backend of it I decided to use Parse. I linked my code to Parse frameworks which allows for seamless changes to the menu without the use of going back into the code. The code I have created simply fetches data that is on the Parse server and displays it relative to which view the user is in. I have attached a screenshot of the Parse array, the iOS Simulator running a view that fetched data from Parse, and what the view looks like without it running (basically the UI).

In the beginning of the week, I had confirmed with Tom about Nagios Core running and functioning for the Ping Test, it was concluded that my project was done. For now, the remaining things to do is to add the devices onto Nagios, but that cannot be done for the moment because many of the rooms on upper campus still need to be done. Once all the rooms are done, and each projector is given a static I.P., its just a matter of adding items to Nagios Core.

I was also notified by Richard Musal that he wanted the Apple TVs added to Nagios to be monitored, so that brought up the issue of how to assign them a Static I.P. over JASPERNET since they are all connected over the network. After some consulting with Tom and Harris, it was decided that since the Apple TVs are connect over the Network and is issued an I.P. over DHCP, the I.P. will just be reserved before it is changed. The only downfall is that this request was made later on in the internship, and might not be completed fully. I will try my best though !

Now that we have finalized on our design it was time to make it a reality. I took on the task of mapping out the UI in Xcode. I decided to use a UICollectionView, which is what platforms, such as Facebook use, to build the general interface. Using the renderings that we created I went to work mapping out where everything would be in preparation for the data.

The hardest thing to figure out, for me, was setting the constraints for each outlet I was putting into each "cell". An outlet could be an item such as a text label, button, or an image. Setting constraints allows for your UI to be the same on each mobile device that you are viewing it on, whether it be an iPhone 4s all the way up to an iPhone 6 Plus.

The attached image shows what the mockup looks like. Each outlet has its own interaction with the code. The code determines what goes into each outlet, such as putting in what date the event was posted to replace the word "Date", and also how many cells there are. With Xcode you only need to create one cell to determine what the view will look like and you can let the code determine everything else.

Since I am here drawing away rooms I should explain my steps and methods on how I make the drawings for 25Live. Keep in mind this coming from someone who learned how to use AutoCAD on their own spare time. So to anyone reading this who might be a perfectionist, keep in mind this is a basic how to. Also the idea of something being basic is subjective, at least for me I see these drawings as basic.

First of all let's assume one ideas before the drawing process for a room. You must at least have everything within the room measured to some sort of accuracy, of course no one is perfect so there some room for error not to mention no human lives are at stake because of these errors. So anyways here is the example drawing I am using for this how to. It is Hayden 402 the Biology Lab.

Next to is to think of a scale to downsize the drawing to. In the case for this project I did a "1 square is equal to 1 foot" scale to make it easier not only for me but for people who might want to see the original AutoCAD drawings. So for an 8 foot whiteboard it will get easily translated to 8 squares because of this scale. Now that you thought of a scale you can start drawing, the drawing actually starts.

I usually tend to Layer my drawings in order to keep it organized and to some freeze some important lines that I don't want to be deleted incase if I make a mistake. I go to the layer properties manager in order to set it up. Here is my setup for the layers.

Starting with the Line tool, for the floor plans I tend to create gaps to where windows and door will eventually belong. If necessary I also draw a projector if the room has one, or any other fixed object in the room, but for this example this room does not have a projector.

Now you could do this if you want to, but I tend to offset the walls using the offset tool, in order to make it look like the drawing has some thickness to it hence why there is another line around the walls. Also you can color code your layers it is kind of a two fold reason to why I do this. One it is aesthetically pleasing to my eyes, and to differentiate many things in the room. As you can see for the windows they are are a different color for the floor plans. The windows are made through the line tool.

Then voila after using proper layering and some use of the line and trim tool here is the completed drawing.

For the door I used a line tool to create the actual door, offset it to 0.15 in the prompt, then I used the arc tool set to 3 point to create the motion to where the door moves. The trim tool was used in order to size down the arc since it was "spilling out" of the drawing.

So now one could see the work I go through once I amass all the drawings I have. I hope some you learned through the working process that goes on my head and on my computer.

This week I created a KBA for compatibility issues with banner on internet explorer. Previously there have been issues with banner working on IE, in order to combat that instructions have been made to add manhattan.edu to Internet Explorer Compatibility view settings in order for it to work properly. Besides that I have begun complying a list of instructional videos on Lynda.com for certain non-tech savvy faculty. We plan on creating something of a badge system where certain faculty members would go on Lynda.com and learn several computer software programs and techniques to advance their positioning. Several of the courses that I have complied consisted of essential training for Microsoft Office, email etiquette, knowledge on Google Apps. We would also have a complied list of advanced techniques for more advanced faculty and quick tips and tricks such as keyboard shortcuts. So far this is considered phase one as phase two will be completed in the following weeks.

This week seemed like another "wait and see what happens week". Luckily, a few shipments of the MSM430 Access Points came in and Harris said that we'd begin to make the spreadsheet for the new APs by early next week. Otherwise, Harris and I were working on Networking tickets, and preparing for the arrival of the remaining distribution switches and APs needed to begin the Wifi Upgrade Project.
In preparation for the equipment I've been listening to Rusted Roots "Send Me On My Way" and systematically labeling and sorting through the shipments that have already come in.

One of the more productive parts of the week was when Harris and I did a mock up of the 430 AP so that we'd have an idea of what we'd be facing in the installation process, because all of the APs in Horan are ceiling mounts; this was the final product:

/etc/dnsmasq.conf - Had to enable TFTP and reset the TFTP root folder option to /tftpboot/netboot which is already symbolically linked to the Apache served files in /var/www/html/pub. I have ensured that all of the necessary files for the Kickstart have been placed into this folder, and I have edited several files to ensure they all now point to the /tftpboot/netboot/ folder. This was done in an attempt to simplify the process and make it more understandable.

In the /etc/dnsmasq I had to enable the built in tftp server in DNSMASQ, which had not been enabled. I believe this is only needed if you're using the 'integrated' tftp server that is a part of DHCP, but it did not help. The default TFTP server had been enabled, but cannot be started independently as a service, as xinetd.d handles what inetd used to. I attempted to tftp into this server from a near by machine, and noticed I was faced with nothing but timeouts or route to host errors (most of the time). I can only seem to get files consistently across localhost (127.0.0.1, and yes, you need to use 127.0.0.1 as using localhost will likely require a –noipv6 flag should it have one. Additionally, the folder that was set as the root directory for tftp files has also been set to /tftpboot/netboot in order to make things simpler.

The last time I made a post I remember I had come across a root-path "file/location/here" for the DHCP server, which has also been set to /tftpboot/netboot. There are now 2 copies of the Oracle Linux 7 ISO. One is live mounted at bootup via /etc/fstab/ and is mounted in /tftpboot/netboot/OL7/ as well as there being a full, unmounted ISO in /tftpboot/netboot/OL7.iso I noticed that 'ftp' paths should be avoided, and either NFS, or HTTP should be used in the Kickstart file, as it wouldn't actually pull the files needed. I changed anything that was pointed to an 'ftp' server in the ks.cfg, the /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default.

I took a look at the Kickstart file and passed it through a KS file validator by running the command, "ksvalidator /tftpboot/netboot/ks.cfg -e -i" to show me all of the possible errors, or files that are improperly pointed too within the setup. I was shown that one of the command flags I believed I initially needed "--nobase" was no longer needed, and in fact deprecated in an older version, which the terminal suggested could have been the cause of my error. After removing the imrproper syntax, it appears as though I got no output from running KSValidator.

While not directly news, I have been able to get the Blue KS install selection screen to pop-up occasionally (the screen from which KS installs normally occur), but it still seems incredibly sporadic. I'm wondering if this will require reducing the DHCP size, and possible finding some way for the Kickstart to know how to differentiate between our DHCP servers, and the ones used for kickstart. Sometimes the PXE boot will say there are no TFTP files in 149.61.33.10, which is one of the DNS servers. Other times, it will appear to load, and get about as far as it used to, but now it shows the root-path as /tftpboot/ as that is where the pxelinux files are containing the menu, and memdisk. It still occasionally freezes after setting up the ethernet adapter, but further googling has brought me to an interesting conclusion.

Another user mentioned that if you use the text install via kickstart, if there appear to be any incorrect settings related to partition(s), sizing, or file systems, then Anaconda will fail to work through the Kickstart configuration file as intended, and give us behavior similar to what we see: the KS process halting. I would like to believe that the KS tester (ksvalidator) would have given me errors, or verbose output stating that there other sources of error, however, at this point, I'm not even sure how well those tools work. I have also changed the adapter from 'em0' to 'eth0' in each file, and restarted services to see if it would help the installation work properly, but that did not help. Online I discovered there is essentially an "auto" option called "link". Typically, the kernel will simply work with the first device that is linked to a network, and it should still use DHCP and IPv4 settings set via the KS file. I forcefully added a --noipv6 line to the Kickstart configuration to rule out the possibility that was causing issues.

After toying with the majority of these configurations, I have uploaded a forum post to the Oracle forums (with a link to the majority of the configuration files minus the IP’s in the dhcpd config) to see if someone else with more Kickstart experience can help us out. I have a hunch that it may be a result of an improperly pointed .iso, .cfg file, or possibly improperly partitioned. The post can be located here: https://community.oracle.com/message/13198962#13198962

Just out of curiousity, I decided to check /root/anaconda-ks.cfg (the file that gets auto-created upon default Oracle Linux 7 install to attempt to duplicate your exact installation setup) and attempted simply changing the install source from an ISO to be done over the network. It still looks like the process times out at the same spot, and we know that these partitioning options should work, as they've been in use for some time now on the PXEBoot server. Accidentally forgot to comment out 2 of the additional repositories that the Anaconda-KS.cfg contained. Kickstart is known to stop if it cannot locate a package, the route to the host server, or is given a command which it cannot process. After trying to play with this configuration, I was shown the issue where the KS client connects to the campus's DNS server and fails to find a route to the Server. This leads me to believe that it may be network/dhcp related, so I will make a backup of that config, and see if we can get something out of this.

It seems that by setting the DNS servers to the PXEBoot server (possibly now that DNSMasq is enabled, can't say for sure) but it appears as though we consistently timeout in the same black and white text based screen. I'm wondering if previously it was attempting to check the DNS server, and route back first, but I believe Harris said that most of our hardware utilizes OSPF networking topology to ensure that everything travels through the shortest open path first to reach its destination. Edit: Nevermind, upon rebooting (despite having reset the dhcp service... I'm guessing this is a xinetd related thing) it still works sporadically, so I am reverting back to the old config.

While checking online pxelinux.cfg's, I noticed that the initrd.img and vmlinuz that you grab are LINUX DISTRIBUTION SPECIFIC! Meaning should we get this working for Oracle Linux 7.1 x86-x64, we would need to pull new vmlinuz and initrd files for each other OS or modified install and package those all together in a subdirectory of the tftpboot folder. This should not be an issue, as both files have been obtained from the OL7.1 ISO.

Going through many rooms in the most efficient way possible way is my goal. Also you have to be precise with your measurements, for the sake of this project. So far the process I have made in order to collect data for every room has been going great. The method I use is simple, get as many rooms as possible for the first half of the day, then draw it out in the later of the day. Then it is rinse and repeat afterwards. I hard tried many methods before for the past couple of weeks like measuring a room then drawing that room right away in AutoCAD. That was ineffective for like the first three days of the project. I wanted to focus more on quantity, which may say sound like a bad idea at first, but hear me out, I also maintain my integrity with being precise with my measurements. That is one rule I keep by so of course extra time has to be given to the measuring aspect. So throughout the weeks I have been improving my method, to the point where I get rough drawings of the room at hand instead of just having numbers on paper. This method has reduced the amount of time I spent in buildings, what would seem like a weel spent on one floor with the first method has been reduced to almost one day on a floor with this new method (the engineer inside me is patting me in the back for this huge change in efficiency). Nothing needs to be improved for now, but if anything comes along the way that will force me to change my method then so be it; I will happilly change it.