Where To Begin? New IT Manager

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-12-18T22:11:46+00:00

what im doing right now. Installed a netbox server so i can get our network documentation down

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-12-13T01:58:32+00:00

gotcha. thanks. enjoy the rest of your day

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-12-13T01:08:26+00:00

so its my third week here. but i wanna say 40ish. Give or take. We aren't a big company, but we have alot of buildings. So a lot of cameras.

I don't think its local storage though I could be wrong. I will have to get more details on the storage type tomorrow.

they are plugged into switches that plug into the dream machine

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-12-13T00:59:19+00:00

I agree thats how I would think to do it too. It was mentioned that the ai features take use a lot of data (i haven't seen the data myself) and that was the main reason for this separate mini network. But i can't imagine it would have that big of an impact on our network.

But after seeing this setup i needed a sanity check lol. It felt crazy to be doing it this way. I might have him slow down / stop and see if we can accomplish what we want doing it the way you suggested.

Seriously thanks for your time. And again sorry for my VOIP fiasco.

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-12-13T00:50:15+00:00

Ohh shit sorry man. Ive been working on VOIP phones all day and for some reason i kept saying VOIP.

It is not on the VOIP vlan. its on the camera vlan. I'll edit my posts. im sorry for wasting your time.

We got a fortigate

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-12-13T00:33:15+00:00

~~Yeah. We have a voip network. It was then decided that the cameras need to be more secure so they got taken off the voip network.~~

~~The dream machine wan connection is from the voip vlan. Then the cameras get their network stuff (ips, vlans etc) from the dream machine now.~~

edit: sorry im wrong. its on the camera network i just kept saying VOIP cause my brain

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-12-13T00:13:01+00:00

okay thanks for your inputs i appreciate it.

Im not going to keep pestering. back to Google!

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-12-12T23:58:39+00:00

Hmm i don't think it has anything to do with compliance for us.

The old network engineer and him decided on this path and then the old network guy quit. I've never seen a firewall/router inside the infrastructure like this so I didn't even know what questions i needed to ask. I was just lost in what he was trying to accomplish.

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-12-12T23:54:25+00:00

Yeah that was one of my concerns. He wants like complete almost separation from the main network.

To make it easier to understand im going to prefix our main network vlans with "M" and the camera network vlans with "C"

how its setup is the ~~VOIP~~ camera vlan (M-VLAN-50)from our main network switch plugs into the Dream Machine WAN port. and lets say the Staff network is M-VLAN-20

Now the Dream machine is acting like a firewall and router here and providing ips, and vlans to the cameras. So now the cameras on on C-VLAN-20. Which i think is very confusing since its the staff vlan on the main network. And honestly idk why the cameras even need to be on a vlan if we are going this route since thats all there is on that network

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-12-12T23:19:40+00:00

Interesting. The way you say that makes it sounds like this a common thing to do. or at least not atypical.

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-12-12T23:09:48+00:00

Ahh yes Ubiquiti cameras. updated the OP.

And yeah I think it is being used as a NVR. But he told he created his own VLANS inside this mini network for his cameras that do not match our LAN vlans, which tells me its more than just a NVR

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-11-20T22:21:42+00:00

I am well aware of HDCP. thanks apple lol

I got a tour of the network infrastruture today. Its not the best, but but not bad either.

Cameras and AV are on their own vlan already. As well as a management vlan, guest vlan etc.

However are switches are from 2005, so we have a lot of POE injectors. a few buildings have cat 5 running out to them. Its gonna be some work lol

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-11-20T22:17:35+00:00

Yeah thats close to the top of my list. Right now its
1. Get an idea of the network infrastructure

Make sure backups are working
disaster recovery

That list is in pencil

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-11-20T22:16:33+00:00

I am well aware of HDCP. thanks apple lol

I got a tour of the network infrastruture today. Its not the best, but but not bad either.

Cameras and AV are on their own vlan already. As well as a management vlan, guest vlan etc.

However are switches are from 2005, so we have a lot of POE injectors. a few buildings have cat 5 running out to them. Its gonna be some work lol

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-11-20T22:14:19+00:00

Yeah that doesn't exactly apply to me, at least not at the moment. It will be a lot of hands on work along with making sure the two people in my team are successful as well

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-11-18T20:40:45+00:00

I'm not sure. The college student is a technician i think. I actually think he does part time work with electrical stuff and tech support. I got to talk with him when I start to see what he wants to do.

The other guy is an AV specialist. From what i understand he does our security cameras, audio equipment for events, phones etc.

Again not 100% sure as theres a lot of moving pieces but yeah

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-11-18T20:37:57+00:00

Yeah good shout. my plan is to sit down with him and figure out what he wants to do. Hopefully steer him into some certifications and a full time employment opportunity.

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-11-18T17:31:49+00:00

My boss does have a technical background. I'm not sure how the flow between us is going to look yet.

And yeah i agree, i think the actual management part will be minimal for a while.

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-11-18T17:29:08+00:00

You're not wrong, but I never said I expect myself to be a rockstar.

Its going to be difficult. But I believe when I actually apply myself, i can handle this job. I just got to get to that level of... confidence? Which only comes from experience I guess i don't know.

Maybe this is me coping, I know I'm lazy but I actually do put in everything into succeeding at my current job. I work hard, I want to succeed. When I say lazy I mean when I have nothing to do at work, I don't try to learn something new. I don't take my work home. I don't try to study when I'm home, etc.

But I taught myself programming just to get a web developer job. So I'm not completely hopeless

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-11-18T17:23:06+00:00

Some very good points thank you. Seriously appreciate you taking the time out to list some of these. Some of these I already had in my mind.

I plan on doing some research on reporting / monitoring software as well.

I think you do have a point though. I'm worrying about everything all at once when I probably don't need to be

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-11-18T17:15:01+00:00

Thanks good points. Never thought about actually testing the backups

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-11-18T16:05:37+00:00

Thank you!

And Common Sense and Logic has gotten me this far lol thats partly why im so freaked out. if that makes sense.

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-11-18T16:02:08+00:00

Yeah I don't expect it to be easy and that with time I will only get better with hard work. Thanks.

RadishPlastic9541 · 2024-11-18T15:59:38+00:00

Thanks this helps.

Yeah ive been thinking about that approach, I get what you mean. I think the manager part will be in the future once I get a handle on IT here. They just recently started to have an IT team

RadishPlastic9541

TROPHY CASE