That’s not acceptable, I need this done now.

[technical.angel]

How much you want to be it's MP3's.


Eric the Grey

Video. I thought it was going to be the Marketing department, but it was actually Athletics.

[Der Cute]

I wish we *could* do that. The drives we have (which are at least in a mirrored array (only 2 drives tho)) are too small to hold a hell of a lot of "user" files, as most of the spare space is taken up by company data and the like. I just got in the habit of backing up my (non-confidential) files to my own offsite FTP every so often.

Part of the problem with space is this...(Non-Geeks, feel free to bypass this) -- We have MS Server 2003/SBSSERV, Terminal Services, and Exchange on our rackmount server-ish thing. All of these are Not only on the SAME COMPUTER, they're all on the SAME HARD DRIVE. Note, also, that I said "ish". Said system is not actually on an actual rack. It's on a plank of plywood which juts out more than a foot into our little file room.

Is it just me, or is this setup just asking for trouble?


Note that the only reason we are no longer using a Pentium 3 ~1.8 ghz sytem as the server is thanks to Hurricane Katrina, after which our network dudes finally convinced the boss to upgrade to a server that costs more than found hundred bucks to replace.

The most powerful system is the office -- by far -- is a 2ghz dual core. I have more than once had to cannibalize old systems, ripping out old ram and HD's, to "upgrade" the "recent" systems (read: less than 6 years old) by dropping in another 512mb of ram and a 40 gig drive. I'm so glad that I will soon be out of that place. Let someone else deal with it.

AARRRRGH!!! I'd not work there. I'd literally run out of the room screaming going You FING IDIOTS!!!

I hate it when you see something like that, suggest a change, and management says "but it works now. Why change it?" they really don't see any reason to be PROACTIVE in PREVENTING downtime.


Personally, I'd put Exchange separate. If TS isn't that common/being used, why move IT to something else?
Have you looked at virtualizing servers? As in purchasing a damn good setup and putting a large HD as main, then putting RAID under it? Then virtualize the main one, and create a "separate" server for each different task/service?
You can reboot the virtuals when needed, IIRC, and not disrupt the whole system.

Cutenoob

[EricKei]

AARRRRGH!!! I'd not work there. I'd literally run out of the room screaming going You FING IDIOTS!!!

Well, there's a reason I leave all of the server stuff to our outsourced network guys. I know only enough about Servers to know what NOT to do. When the server dudes tell me how to do something over the phone, I listen very closely. (I do all other IT stuff in the office, but I was able to convince the boss that having people with much more network & server experience than I do, do that one thing would be a lot cheaper than having me try to maintain the thing and have them FIX it when it blows up).

they really don't see any reason to be PROACTIVE in PREVENTING downtime.

Exactly. Their current method of "preventing downtime" is having me reboot the server early every Monday morning so that it doesn't crash mid-stream, as described above. For some reason, this also requires us to power cycle our T-1, which disables out VOIP phones until it's back up again.

Personally, I'd put Exchange separate. If TS isn't that common/being used, why move IT to something else?

Exchange: As would I. Not my call.

TS: We have 2 outside support peeps who are logged into TS during all business hours. Also have a few more who do so from time to time; when I am telecommuting, I do it as well.

Have you looked at virtualizing servers?

I'm familiar with the general idea., but, you see, that would make the cost skyrocket to over a thousand bucks ... so I can guarantee that the answer would be "no". Arguments that said $$$ would mean a system that could last for quite a few years before needing replacement would be ignored. After our n/w guys did this setup -- AFTER telling ze boss that this el cheapo one is temporary at best (I would have used the word "erszatz" (sp?) if I thought my boss would understand it) -- they told me straight up that it would need to be replaced with "a real server" within two years, tops.

This is actually only a minor reason among the laundry list of reasons for leaving this job. Once I do so in its entirety, I plan to post about it in a new thread...or at least, the parts I can. Some of my concerns have...legal...ramifications to them, so I'd best not elaborate on that stuff just yet. The only thing I CAN comfortably say right now is that part of my solution is that I'm going independent; I'm forming an LLC this week for general computer support stuff and teaching people how to use these blasted things. ^_^ ...but those things take time.

On the bright side tho, I know someone at WorstSell who says she can pretty much give me a job in the computer tech area... If it's between that and no job at all, I'll gladly schlep back to retail for a few months. I've been trying to leave, but they just keeep puuuulling me back in >_<

[dalesys]

.... remember one of Murphy's law's

Remember the first correction to Murphy's Prime Directive:

"Murphy was a blithering optimist!"

[protege]

Exactly. Their current method of "preventing downtime" is having me reboot the server early every Monday morning so that it doesn't crash mid-stream, as described above.

Damn. That sounds *exactly* where I work. Boss doesn't see any reason to be proactive towards hardware problems. That is, he whines about spending money on that sort of thing. But, again, he *bitches* when it finally dies. In fact, one of his best quotes was.... "can't you schedule hardware failures for more convenient times?" Seriously

Our last server, to put it nicely, was a piece of shit. It seemed that it was built with whatever our usual vendor had lying around. As such, it didn't have enough fans inside, and was usually overheating. Cure for that? Simple...remove the side panels from the case Didn't stop the SCSI drives from overheating though.

What sucked, is that the vendor and I both told the boss it was a problem. Yet, he *refused* to spend the cash to fix it properly. That all changed about he time it finally blew up. That is, it would no longer boot up correctly, and 10-years-worth of data was in danger of disappearing (Yes, I had backups, but still--we tend to input quite a bit of data every day, and the backups were for the previous day.)

By sheer luck, I managed to get the server running just long enough...I could copy what I needed (database source data + several thousand spreadsheets) onto another computer to temporarily run as the server.

After being without his data, and running blind for several hours...the boss broke down and bought a new server. This time, I was actually allowed to give my input on it As such, it has multiple hard drives (all mirrored), 8 case fans, backup power supply, etc. Wasn't cheap, but it's extremely reliable.

[CorDarei]

Just as an FYI,

SBS comes with exchange installed on it (along with a slew of other server-type proggies)


i hate sbs with a passion.

[EricKei]

SBS comes with exchange installed on it (along with a slew of other server-type proggies) .

Mkay. Thanks ^_^ Now you know why I don't handle the server itself when I have a choice I only mentioned it because I have several customers whop do use them on separate boxes...in a proper rack setup...with fans and things...

Protege: Our case has fans, they're just not on the inside. The one cooling the drives is this nifty green plastic one that oscillates back and forth. The ones for the back of the system are those little 4-inch wide doohickeys...>_> And yes, we're using SCSI drives

[DGoddessChardonnay]

OM Fracking G This is what schools are turning out in the IT/CS majors now???????? on that note I think I will try some other field when I go back to school in the future. if that is what I will be dealing with you can have it.

hell another year...... this guy needs about 5 years more in school

even back 30 years ago when I was in school for CS/IT they stressed/beat it into us/yelled at us/swore at us to make FRACKING BACKUPS esp it it was IMPORTANT STUFF remember one of Murphy's law's

Exactly.

While I'm no IT expert by any means, I at least backup my files periodically onto CD and the most important stuff gets emailed to my Yahoo account and stored in a private folder to be double-safe.

My rule is: back it up once is okay, but twice is better.

Like, Duh.

[Difdi]

Also, the A/C vent which is about 6 inches from said server tends to leak. A lot. Fortunately it has yet to flow onto the server, but still.

It occurs to me that you may be able to kill two birds with one stone here. Were I you, I'd try to rig up some sort of drain hose for the vent, and route it into a liquid cooling system for the server. Channeling Rube Goldberg probably wouldn't hurt...

[EricKei]

Channeling Rube Goldberg probably wouldn't hurt...

Hmm...that actually might be a good idea ...Wait, wait, no, where am I gonnna get cheese, 2x4's, a spring-loaded nerf cannon, and matches at THIS hour...?

[AriRashkae]

Hmm...that actually might be a good idea ...Wait, wait, no, where am I gonnna get cheese, 2x4's, a spring-loaded nerf cannon, and matches at THIS hour...?

Over here! Well, I'm not sure about the Nerf cannon, but we could probably rig a double from the junk around here.

[Jetfire]

Hmm...that actually might be a good idea ...Wait, wait, no, where am I gonnna get cheese, 2x4's, a spring-loaded nerf cannon, and matches at THIS hour...?

Wal*Mart.

Well the 2x4 you may need to find a Home Depot for.