I had my first real-world experience in IT yesterday. The project was at Perforce Software and my task was to gather the MAC addresses of all the computers used in the building. I was told the night before that I would be gathering the MAC address of Windows and Linux machines. While I knew that the terminal commands ipconfig /all and ifconfig work for Windows and Linux, respectively, I still checked Google just to better prepare myself.
So I arrived at the client site, and as if I wasn't nervous enough since this was pretty much my first tech gig, I found out that most of the machines I would be handling were Macs. Now, this wouldn't be a problem nowadays given how popular Apple products are nowadays, but prior to yesterday, I never touched a Mac! The closest experience with the mac OS was with a Linux distribution known as Ubuntu. But I also haven't even gotten the hang of that OS.
Getting the MAC addresses of Mac systems wasn't the problem though. I was pretty sure that I could use the ifconfig command, and that I could use Google to find out where the terminal is in a Mac. The fact that I had to go through all three floors of the building to get the MAC addresses was also not the problem. The problem was that most of the systems were actually using more than one operating system through VMware. I started to sweat bullets when i heard the tech that was giving me instructions mention the term "VM's". At first, I wasn't sure what he meant. He and another tech were discussing in front of me whether I should also get the MAC addresses of all the systems "including the VM's". This being my first time around tech professionals talking to each other in a real tech environment, I started having doubts whether I would be able to do this job. But there was no turning back now. I am representing another company at this client site and this is the experience I've been looking for.
So off I went to the first workstation on the first floor. It was a Mac. While I prepared the night before to work on Linux and Windows machines and thought these would be separate, I did not expect that most of the workstations would be Macs with Windows and Linux virtual machines installed in them. But as I got the first workstation, my very first problem presented itself--the machine was off.
Yeah, I didn't even know how to power on a Mac. Pathetic right? But thanks to my phone's web browsing capability, I found out where it was. I really don't understand why Apple decided to hide the power button of Mac desktop.
Anyway, so instead of using the terminal and typing the ifconfig command to get the MAC address, I eventually figured out that you can go to the Finder (usually clicking on the desktop background to make sure the menu bar you are looking at is not that of an open application) and go to the Utilities option under the Go menu. From the utilities folder, you will find the Network Utility application. Using this app, you will find the MAC address for the wireless and wired connections and more information about the network.
So I was able to find my way around the Leopard OS and eventually found the MAC addresses I needed. Then came my next challenge, which was that of dealing with virtual machines. I never really had any experience with virtual machines or VMware for that matter. I needed to get the MAC address of the Windows VM that was running on the Mac. The standard workstation at this company was a Mac running the Leopard OS, with XP as a virtual machine created through VMware. As I would find out later on, some workstations even ran the Leopard OS with more than one virtual machines installed. Some had a combination of Leopard, XP, Win7, Vista, and Linux (and its different variations) all in one system!
Anyway, aside from these virtual machines, a lot of the workstations had two monitors running in parallel. This was something that I also needed to get used to. I started pretty slow, stumbling my way around the first three or four systems, and eventually picked up the pace. Once I figured out how to switch from one VM to another within the main OS, the task became routinary. I skipped lunch to make up for my slow start. Perhaps the only other snags I hit during the rest of the day involved the users being too busy for me to "drive" their systems, users not being at their workstations with their possibly unsaved work still running in the background, locked rooms, or invalid passwords. In my opinion, it's easier to stumble through an unfamiliar system when the users aren't around impatiently waiting for you to get out of their area.
I wasn't able to finish all three floors that day. I completed the first floor and the east wing of the second floor. There was another person who was supposed to help me out by doing the third floor and the west wing of the second floor, but he was not able to gather all the information we needed as well. He was able to gather MAC addresses of a few systems, but was not able to get the wireless MAC addresses of these systems. He was also not able to get the MAC addresses of all the VM's installed in the systems he was able to get a hold of. While we were not able to finish the task in one day, which was what the project timeline was, the supervisor at the client site did, however, ask me if I was going to be returning on Monday. He said that they would gladly have me back on Monday. I said that it is up to my boss. My boss then told me that if the client tells him that they need us back on Monday, he will let me know. Later that evening (at around 1:30am actually), I sent my report of MAC addresses to my boss. So right now, all I can do is wait until they contact me again. I'm hoping that they will because I'd like to be able to finish the project I was hired to do.
In summary, here are some of the things/info I picked up during my first real-world experience as a field tech:
1. Virtual Machine - also known as VM. This allows you to have another operating system in your system as if it were another application. In a Mac OS, you can switch between the VM and the main OS by pressing Command (Apple logo) + Tab -- this allows you to cycle through the apps similarly to ALT + Tab in Windows.
2. Turning on a Mac desktop - Yes, this was sort of embarrassing. But as I said, I never touched a Mac desktop before. I just need to remember that the power button is on the left side behind the monitor.
3. VMware Fusion - This was what was being used by the company to create the VM's on the Mac systems.
4. Parallels - When someone tells you that they are "running parallels", this would probably mean that they are using at least two monitors at the same time... at least this was the case in my experience.
5. Apple's Finder - At first I couldn't find my way around the Mac OS because the main taskbar would change for some reason. I realized that it was because the taskbar on the top the screen changes depending on which app is running on top. To go back to the desktop or the Finder, remember to click on the background or the desktop background.
6. en0, en1, en2 - In a Mac running Leopard, en0 usually represents the wired network connection, and en1 represents the wireless connection. In this one-day experience though, I noticed that some even had until en2.
7. Network Utility - In a Mac, you can use this instead of running ifconfig in a terminal to find a more organized presentation of MAC addresses. The information produced by ifconfig in a terminal usually looks messy and is difficult to read through. Here's how to get to it: Finder > Go > Utilities > Network Utility
6. en0, en1, en2 - In a Mac running Leopard, en0 usually represents the wired network connection, and en1 represents the wireless connection. In this one-day experience though, I noticed that some even had until en2.
7. Network Utility - In a Mac, you can use this instead of running ifconfig in a terminal to find a more organized presentation of MAC addresses. The information produced by ifconfig in a terminal usually looks messy and is difficult to read through. Here's how to get to it: Finder > Go > Utilities > Network Utility
