Second week

One possible reason for power issues? 

Electricity issues have continued. Possible cause: spilled coffee or some faulty user device. On Sunday it seemed the voltage was too high (some places even 360V). I don't know what happened, but after Sunday everything has worked with electricity. 

Monday was quiet day since there weren't any competitions. One fuse has blown again, but it was easy task for electricians. Otherwise IT didn't have any issues whole day which meant chilling. We watched Doctor Who, played and ate well. Luckily we have an awesome team, so we always have something to do. 

Tuesday were also quite quiet. We added some more printers to XDA, fixed basic printer issues and helped with scanning. Everything works smoothly and most important changes are done, so there's no need for IT support. Which is obviously good thing!

//Mira 

What does IT do when everything is working?

A post shared by Radio Voima (@radiovoima) on Feb 24, 2017 at 5:37am PST

They go to sauna.

They sleep on the floor.

They organize their own competition gathering.

They play some games.

What does IT do when everything is working? #dance #happy #discoinferno #lahti2017 #enjoylife #volunteer #IT

A post shared by Mira Järvenpää (@mirraje) on Feb 25, 2017 at 12:24pm PST

They dance like there's no tomorrow.

//Mira

Last minute changes

Opening ceremony and first competition days are over. Every day we start by testing table groups, wifi and printers. We also check Zabbix for any alerts. Printers are still the ones causing issues, but luckily they are the easy issues. To ease our job, we added printers from MMC and SMC to Xerox XDA. It helps collecting info about printers and automatically sends reports to support.

We added few more AP's around the area since our network didn't cover all desired areas. Later we decided to change Cisco APs to Arubas. We had tested Arubas earlier and in our experience they work better than Cisco. We will later see how it affects to disappearing AP's.

Some electricity issues have risen and some tables kept losing power both in MMC and SMC. Luckily we have electricians who know what to do. Our duty has been only to contact them and they have checked the issue. Apparently the fuses have been blown and fixing/replacing them fixed the issue.

And in the end - few picture's from the fireworks!

//Mira

Media Centers are open!

Main Media Center opened on Saturday 18th of February, four days before the competition even started. First few days were quite quiet so we had time to finalize all the installations. We installed printers, added wired network to special editing rooms and helped few journalist with minor issues. 

One of the Sub Media Centers (the one we are responsible of) opened on Tuesday 21st of February. Days got little bit busier since more journalist started to arrive. Most common problem had something to with printers. It was the same last year. Usually it means we show how to install drivers for printer and so far the most difficult case has been with faulty color drum cartridge. Which actually took almost two days to replace because of some information issues. 

We also decided to divide our wireless network in two: 5GHz and 2.4GHz. It balanced the workload and wireless started to work much smoothly for everyone. We also decided to manually configure a controller AP, because some of the AP kept disappearing from Zabbix. Configuration fixed the issue and none of the users never even noticed the issue. 

Being in IT can be frustrating because no one ever notices your work if everything is working, but when something doesn't - you are the first one to blame.  

//Mira

Team introduction: NMS / Zabbix!

Next team: Network Management System / Zabbix!

From left: Tuomas, Joni, Lassi and Olli (Jerry is absent)

As the name of the team suggests - this team worked with Zabbix. Their responsibility was to configure and test Zabbix. There are quite many things you can monitor with Zabbix, but most important ones for us are the switches and how they are functioning.

Olli Isomäki, Tuomas Jeppesen and Jerry Aakala (team leader) are all fourth year students majoring in telecommunications. Their main inspiration for project is to get ECTS and like Jerry said you learn so much more in the project than in school. 

Lassi Hirvonen and Joni Tammilehto presents the second year students in this group. They are also majoring in telecommunications and their motivation comes from getting experience. Here are the funny facts from the team:

Olli: Pään seinään hakkaaminen kuluttaa 150 kaloria tunnissa. (Hitting your head in the wall burns 150 calories per hour)
Tuomas: Kisojen laiskin äijä (Laziest dude in the competition.)
Jerry: 1:1 isoja kuppeja = paras kahvi (1:1 big cups = the best coffee)
Lassi: JavaScript is love. JavaScript is life.
Joni: KOUVOLA!

Team introduction: Cables for tables!

And third one: Team Cables!

From left: Ville, Joni, Tommi, Jirko, Jani, Kristiina, Heikki and Milla

Their job was to plan cable paths and implement it. They were brilliant - making bundle of correct length cables wrapped ready for installation day. It meant super easy installation and no hurry at all. The team also helped other teams with their tasks whenever they had time. 

This team has two team leaders. Kristiina Issakainen and Milla Roininen shares the responsibility. Here are their personal introductions:

Kristiina Issakainen
She is a third year telecommunications student. She says this is the most interesting project in school which is the reason she chose to participate. Fun fact: Teacher gave me new name Kissakainen (kissa = cat)

Milla Roininen
Milla is third year telecommunications student. She thinks Lahti2017 is the most interesting and biggest event in Lahti right now. Fun fact about her is that food is the most important thing in her life.

Tommi Lehtinen
He is a second year student, majoring in data networks (basically same as telecommunications). He is taking part in this project because these kinds of opportunities don't come around that often. Fun fact about him is that he is amazing in everything he does. 

Joni Niemi
He is second year student majoring also in telecommunications. He is all about learning and tells us he is the best and the most modest.

Jani Kerkkänen
He is a fourth year telecommunications student. His motivation in this project is ECTS. He is no fun guy, so there isn't any fun fact about him.

Ville Larjava
He is a fourth year telecommunications student. He thinks this project is interesting and he might learn something from it. That drives him to do his best. Fun fact: Jag är från Åbo, heheheh (I am from Turku, hehehe)

Heikki Lohtander
Heikki is third year student, majoring in telecommunications. He is participating in the project because he loves Lahti. Fun fact: "It funny because it's true."

Jirko Tuomaala
Jirko is third year telecommunications student. He is taking part in this project because it is interesting and nice to be a part of the big local event. He doesn't consider himself as a collector but he still owns hundreds of vinyl records and six guitars.

//Mira

Team introduction: Switches for tables

Next in line: Team Switches!
This five person group has been responsible for everything that has something to do with switches. They have configured all of the table switches, planned how they are located in the tables and of course implemented the plans.

From left: Miko, Ivan, Artur, Miika, Olli and Atte

Their team leader is Miika who has made sure everything is done. It seems everything has gone quite smoothly! Here their personal introductions:

Miika Äijälä
He is a 4th year student, majoring in telecommunications.
Main reason to participate on this project is simple: it is the best project Lahti UAS is offering. And of course, the ECTS points. During the event there will be also Rölli Winterland which is absolute amazing and Miika will surely visit it.
Fun fact about him: Laiskiainen on mun toteemieläin (Sloth is my totem animal)

Miko Kokko
He is 3rd year student who is here because it is part of the mandatory studies, but it is also really interesting.
Fun fact about him: :^)

Artur Malinin
He is 2nd year student, majoring also in telecommunications. For him this project is part of the course plan and it is interesting to take part.
Fun fact: Joutsenet näyttävät joskus kurjilta.  (Sometimes swans look terrible.)

Atte Lempelto
He is 2nd year student and majoring in telecommunications. What's in for him? Getting the credits and participating in fascinating project. Funny fact about Atte is that he is from Mikkeli.

Ivan Roots
He is 2nd year student and majoring in telecommunications. His drive in this project is to get hands-on experience and of course the ECTS points.
Fun fact: Kerran olin etsimässä Narniaa kaapista, mutta löysin vaan iskän konjakkipullon. (Once I tried to find Narnia in the closet but instead I just found my father's cognac bottle.)

Olli Valkama
He is also 2nd year student and majoring in telecommunications. The project is part of Olli's studies but it also gives him valuable work experience/reference. Not that many people can say they have built network for this big event.
Fun fact: Lakimies tietää kaiken laista. (The lawyer knows everything about law / The lawyer knows every kind of things.)

//Mira

Team introduction: Wifi AP

Let me introduce you our amazing teams. You will be seeing us around the area, but mainly in the media centers. First in the line is Team Wifi AP!

These guys are responsible for planning, configuration and installation of every wireless access point. When you are using wlan in media centers - remember to thank them. Without them there wouldn't be - if I calculated correctly - 29 access points around! 

Their team leader (or as they call it - headmaster) is Juuso Karikorpi (most right in the picture). All of the guys have same reason to work - they are eager to learn. They are second year students, all specializing in telecommunications. But here is some funny facts about them (ordered from right to left)!

Juuso Karikorpi: Nostan enemmän penkist ku sä pankist (I bench more than you withdraw from the bank)

Antti Hutri: Oon pelannut wowia 38400 tuntia. (I have played WoW 38400 hours.)

Markus Vainio: Elän energiajuomalla ja tietoröökillä. ( I use energy drinks and information cigarettes as my fuel.)

Konsta Rautakorpi: Mun pitäis dieettaa. (I should diet.)
Ilkka Patajoki: Alkoholismin ja hauskuuden raja on häilyvä. (The line between alcoholism and fun is drawn in water.)

Final week before opening

Monday: Free for students!

Tuesday: Installing AP's in the morning and finalizing the plan of newest network group. Later briefing second year students about the topology of MMC and SMC and making sure everyone knows how to use Zabbix and pfSense.

Wednesday: Installing MMC AP's to their correct places, finalizing the documentation and backbone connections. One team building Vierumäki.

Thursday: Installing the table switches to MMC. It really starts to see like we will make it on time.

Friday: Final installation day! MMC Service people had a walk thru the media center and we of course joined them. Our IT team will be working closely with them, so it's important to get known to them.

See you next week!

//Mira

10 days!

10 days to go to the World Championships in Lahti! This unique winter festival starts soon and ticket sales are going fast. Ensure your tickets now and join the celebration: Lahti2017.fi/en/tickets! #lahti2017 #roadtolahti #juhlakisat #lahti #salpausselkä #finland #suomi100

A post shared by Lahti2017 (@lahti2017) on Feb 11, 2017 at 11:52pm PST

10 days to go.
Next week we will start putting everything in their correct places and everything we have worked for is coming true. I cannot wait!

//Mira

Two weeks summary

The event is closing up fast! Our network were tested in Finlandia Hiihto and of course - it worked perfectly. Only issues were caused by outdated Win7 images which were easily fixed by updating them.

Last week we started building extra network group. It was requested by Datalatu Oy and since we had time, we took it under our wings. In two week we have the basics ready for it and only physical installation left. Unbelievable how fast everything is when people know exactly what to do.

Even cables match the theme color!

We also finished building SMC backbone and Wifi access points are up and running. So basically SMC is only waiting for tables and physical installation of switches and then SMC is fully ready. Unfortunately the situation with MMC is not that good.. We are still not sure which day we get there to do all installations.

This project truly teaches you how to work without knowing everything. It makes this even more exciting.

Oh, and we are finally accredited! Look how awesome the passes are.

//Mira