Ho ho ho, these weeks are in December and you could immediately tell that Christmas was coming soon. Ah December, a magical time, a time full of Christmas carols, parties, gift giving, and.. NetXMS?

For these weeks and days, we were busy making our machine learning project (MLP, if you know what I mean, lmao) and our stress levels were off the roof. When I first researched about the network tool we were assigned to, I immediately thought that this tool would be another nail in the coffin—and by that, I mean another nail in another coffin.

There was no way I could set up, configure, write the timeline, make the videos, and full demonstrate this tool in 3 weeks, unless I didn't have classes for 3 weeks straight. But with my hectic schedule? I was toast, almost quite literally.

Thankfully, my teammates finally backed me up on this one (well, James at least).

I was going to and from his house just to finish setting up this NetXMS tool because, for some reason, installing both the server and agent packages on one system totally nicks the other, therefore making only one installation (either the agent or the server) part of NetXMS work.

After using the 2 laptops James has in his house, we were able to fully set up and make the NetXMS tool work. Our first test, if you recall from a previous learning log, is obviously the fun part. I told James to watch some YouTube while I saw some options to shut his laptop down and at first I didn't think it would work. I then pressed this shutdown button and it sent a shutdown command from his PC and instantly turned his PC off. We both laughed hysterically because we knew that the tool was working.

We eventually learned how to take screenshots, check the status of a PC, and successfully perform boot procedures (shutdown and restart) on the agent PC. We also learned that, if the server version of NetXMS is installed 2 different computers, one could be used to shut down the other. We also learned that an agent can't send a shutdown command to a server (for obvious reasons). After some elbow grease, some work, and more days of visiting his house for testing, we finally had a working demonstration of the NetXMS tool.

These last few weeks in our DNETCOM subject were, by far, the most grueling, but definitely one of the best weeks. We managed to have fun, enjoy, and learn a lot from a subject we'd otherwise think wasn't that great.

Overall, this week (and the weeks before) was one hell of a roller coaster ride, filled with ups and downs—but a wild ride nevertheless.