Not the end of the CENTCOM CVN rotation?

[IKE]

I know there are NMCI horror stories out there, but I've never experienced anything like these 20 minute boot up times. Wonder whether that's a function of being in a fleet concentration area.

At my current command, we have a known slow network on the base AND our notebooks are at least 3 NMCI generations old (8GB RAM, probably shouldn't have Win10). The desktops are even worse/older (4GB RAM), and both probably have 15-yr old 5400-rpm HDDs. The combo of slow HDD, too little RAM, and bloated security SW = an easy 20+ min delay. If you need an update before working, better hope you're on a flight.

My NIPR notebook also does this really funtastic thing where it requires a full restart before connecting to the network (If I put it to sleep or undock it, it won't reconnect).

Absolutely the worst part of my job today. It wasn't so bad on my DH tour, but we had the latest HP silver notebooks and could throw a rock at the IT building in NASNI.

 

[Brett327]

We've got mostly desktops w/ 8GB RAM, so I guess we're pretty lucky. Aside from the constant/seemingly random rebooting, they more or less get the job done. Now, if I could get a SIPR printer that isn't in another building, that would be sweet.

 

[Griz882]

I doubt an F-18 could lift my government issued NIPR laptop unless you taped it to a BRU.

 

[Hair Warrior]

8gb RAM is more than enough memory on a VM, such as an AWS/Azure instance.

 

[Brett327]

8gb RAM is more than enough memory on a VM, such as an AWS/Azure instance.

None of us have that.

 

[Hair Warrior]

None of us have that.

It’s probably the future of NMCI, not that far off. They are common commercially, and the IC has them now. Actually if you’ve ever logged into a Citrix remote workstation, similar concept (but better).

 

[Brett327]

It’s probably the future of NMCI, not that far off. They are common commercially, and the IC has them now. Actually if you’ve ever logged into a Citrix remote workstation, similar concept (but better).

That's great, but why is it important for any of us to know that 8GB of RAM is sufficient to run a machine that none of us have, or are likely to have in the near future?

 

[Hair Warrior]

That's great, but why is it important for any of us to know that 8GB of RAM is sufficient to run a machine that none of us have, or are likely to have in the near future?

I think it’s closer to reality in the near future. JEDI was supposed to deliver some capabilities like it. Not sure where that is now. The point is that cloud based services can revolutionize everyday Navy computing. Instead of dealing with a standalone machine on some base that has old hardware, old software, tons of user profiles clogging up the background, etc, you can give everyone a fresh instance anytime, anywhere they log in. When they log off, the virtual machine is destroyed, and any viruses or cookies or whatever get gone into the ether. Every sailor ashore in the Navy would get to do business on a “fresh” computer with the latest patches, versions. It would save headaches and reduce work for IT personnel. So the pain expressed above about waiting 20 min to log on, that becomes a thing of the past like fax machines.

 

[squorch2]

JEDI was supposed to deliver some capabilities like it

Lol no. JEDI/JWCC was/is about JADC2 - desktop VMs don’t really factor into any of it.

don’t take my word for it tho - read the required capabilities document: https://sam.gov/opp/54ce941a25a14932809b5d83ac52a09a/view

 

[nittany03]

I think it’s closer to reality in the near future. JEDI was supposed to deliver some capabilities like it. Not sure where that is now. The point is that cloud based services can revolutionize everyday Navy computing. Instead of dealing with a standalone machine on some base that has old hardware, old software, tons of user profiles clogging up the background, etc, you can give everyone a fresh instance anytime, anywhere they log in. When they log off, the virtual machine is destroyed, and any viruses or cookies or whatever get gone into the ether. Every sailor ashore in the Navy would get to do business on a “fresh” computer with the latest patches, versions. It would save headaches and reduce work for IT personnel. So the pain expressed above about waiting 20 min to log on, that becomes a thing of the past like fax machines.

Lol no. JEDI/JWCC was/is about JADC2 - desktop VMs don’t really factor into any of it.

don’t take my word for it tho - read the required capabilities document: https://sam.gov/opp/54ce941a25a14932809b5d83ac52a09a/view

Not to mention that a desktop that's running some funky VM architecture thingy actually still has to be able to RUN all the shit that's on the VM. Because all the VM does is standardize everything from the OS on up AND add some virtualization overhead that's now the problem of the machine that's forced to run it all.

Unless you're doing some weird thing whereby you're running the VM offboard and having users remote into it or some shit, in which case network bandwidth is now your LIMFAC, especially if every damned person is doing this, i.e. the situation you'd find aboard Das Boot. It's one thing for a civilian software developer to have to remote into a machine unopposed. It's another to offboard the entire machine when remoting into it is one Chinese jammer assignment away from not being a thing anymore.

 

[MIDNJAC]

I think there is probably also a difference in work stations that are for many users, and those that are your own. We got windows 10 when I had my own, and it was kinda bad, but not horrible. Now I just hop on whatever computer is open, and it is an ordeal just to get it operating. Shutting down/restart helps a little, but I don't know if that is because it is clearing the 10 profiles currently loaded, or if it is just a placebo. I'm not exaggerating though......every single time it takes 15 mins, if not longer, to be able to open outlook, open chrome/explorer/whatever, and have the computer unfreeze enough to actually use. You absolutely cannot just log in real quick to check email or hop on SHARP. Those tasks are a 30 minute commitment. I only log into NMCI about once a month now, because of this.

 

[Hair Warrior]

Lol no. JEDI/JWCC was/is about JADC2 - desktop VMs don’t really factor into any of it.

don’t take my word for it tho - read the required capabilities document: https://sam.gov/opp/54ce941a25a14932809b5d83ac52a09a/view

I know… but it’s cloud compute and storage, and everyone’s heard of JEDI. I was contextualizing so people could grasp that it’s really not future far-off fairy dust. It’s real and it’s now.

Not to mention that a desktop that's running some funky VM architecture thingy actually still has to be able to RUN all the shit that's on the VM. Because all the VM does is standardize everything from the OS on up AND add some virtualization overhead that's now the problem of the machine that's forced to run it all.

Unless you're doing some weird thing whereby you're running the VM offboard and having users remote into it or some shit, in which case network bandwidth is now your LIMFAC, especially if every damned person is doing this, i.e. the situation you'd find aboard Das Boot. It's one thing for a civilian software developer to have to remote into a machine unopposed. It's another to offboard the entire machine when remoting into it is one Chinese jammer assignment away from not being a thing anymore.

Huh? No, you don’t install VMware on anything. The VM is managed by MS Azure or AWS GovCloud on an IL5-secure server (actually, lots of these servers, that already exist around the country). You can use any machine to get into this environment. Imagine it like you are only bringing the monitor, mouse, and keyboard with really long cords, and all your processing and data happems hundreds of miles away, on any one of thousands of machines. And these machines are redundant and invisible to you, so if one breaks you automatically get a free new one. If you want to see for yourself, AWS commercial cloud actually offers a free account for you to play around with.

I think there is probably also a difference in work stations that are for many users, and those that are your own. We got windows 10 when I had my own, and it was kinda bad, but not horrible. Now I just hop on whatever computer is open, and it is an ordeal just to get it operating. Shutting down/restart helps a little, but I don't know if that is because it is clearing the 10 profiles currently loaded, or if it is just a placebo. I'm not exaggerating though......every single time it takes 15 mins, if not longer, to be able to open outlook, open chrome/explorer/whatever, and have the computer unfreeze enough to actually use. You absolutely cannot just log in real quick to check email or hop on SHARP. Those tasks are a 30 minute commitment. I only log into NMCI about once a month now, because of this.

This would be completely solved. Everything would be faster. Everything would be easier to keep up to date and uncluttered. And, you can actually give Navy users a variety of desktop options when they log in, so they can choose the desktop they need for that moment. For example:

• Linux, 4gb, dual-core 2ghz, w/ a variety of up to date browers for general browsing, NSIPS, BOL, Navy webmail, etc.
• Win10, 8gb, quad-core 3ghz, w/ MS Office installed for doing Word, Excel, Powerpoint
• something higher end with specific model & sim software or other special software
• etc

 

[insanebikerboy]

Over on the blue side, the head dude for software just up and quit because he couldn't deal with how bad the AF and DoD at large deal with IT.

Air Force software is so bad the guy in charge of it all is about to quit

The Air Force's first chief software officer announced his resignation over what he described as an intransigent military bureaucracy.

taskandpurpose.com

 

[Gatordev]

Wonder whether that's a function of being in a fleet concentration area.

It's not the location. Those same "old" machines he speaks of are still absolutely terrible. And McAfee crushes them even more.

I know there are NMCI horror stories out there, but I've never experienced anything like these 20 minute boot up times.

It does help when you have your own machine. Before I retired, I had my own machine and it was fairly zippy. When I'd go fly at the squadron and had to use the GenPop machines, it was worse...but not 20 minutes worse. Whatever update they did between then and now is way worse.

 

[ABMD]

I think there is probably also a difference in work stations that are for many users, and those that are your own. We got windows 10 when I had my own, and it was kinda bad, but not horrible. Now I just hop on whatever computer is open, and it is an ordeal just to get it operating. Shutting down/restart helps a little, but I don't know if that is because it is clearing the 10 profiles currently loaded, or if it is just a placebo. I'm not exaggerating though......every single time it takes 15 mins, if not longer, to be able to open outlook, open chrome/explorer/whatever, and have the computer unfreeze enough to actually use. You absolutely cannot just log in real quick to check email or hop on SHARP. Those tasks are a 30 minute commitment. I only log into NMCI about once a month now, because of this.

Welcome to the Reserves. SOCOM email was so bad I was only checking once a month because it would take no less than 12 clicks of the mouse to even get Outlook to open. Once it was open, I was still waiting 10-15 minutes for emails to load. If someone wanted to get a hold of me bad enough they have my cell.