OH Flipping heck server has died

[ricki]

I am having a great morning. I came in and the sun was shining. I walked into the department and one of my main domain controllers is dead as a post and I dont have spare parts to use but at least its under warranty. Stone are coming out tomorrow as its under warranty and log on times are now 35 mins for the fastest machines. Lovely.

I have explained to staff that the network is broken and not usable today and I have had 3 teachers come in and ask to book computer rooms today. I have come to the conclusion staff just do not listen.

I have wandered round and lots of staff are trying to log on and complaining at me its not logging on even though they have been told.

Sometimes it makes me wonder why I bother telling them things they just dont listen.

Richard

[elsiegee40]

I am having a great morning. I came in and the sun was shining. I walked into the department and one of my main domain controllers is dead as a post and I dont have spare parts to use but at least its under warranty. Stone are coming out tomorrow as its under warranty and log on times are now 35 mins for the fastest machines. Lovely.

I have explained to staff that the network is broken and not usable today and I have had 3 teachers come in and ask to book computer rooms today. I have come to the conclusion staff just do not listen.

I have wandered round and lots of staff are trying to log on and complaining at me its not logging on even though they have been told.

Sometimes it makes me wonder why I bother telling them things they just dont listen.

Richard

Poor you.

Time to hit the hobnobs, I think. Hope it's sorted quickly tomorrow.

[nephilim]

hobnobs + tea + locking yourself away whilst you fix things + unhooking phone = ideal

[witch]

hobnobs + tea + locking yourself away whilst you fix things + unhooking phone = ideal

What he said, and also fix a HUGE notice on your door saying that there are problems, that you HAVE told them and that all will be fixed ASAP. Might stop them knocking! (I did say 'might')

[bossman]

@ricki:

Eh! whats that you say young PFY?
Speak up I can't hear you!!
Did you say anything worth while? Hurry up and spit it out man as I "need" to get the computer rooms booked before anyone else.

This is how their thinking works \ / tunnel vision with "me! me! me!" at the end of the tunnel!. Me

[powdarrmonkey]

In this situation a few years ago I disabled other key services that I knew would be responding less than satisfactorily, so that at least they got an immediate indication that it was screwed instead of wasting 20 minutes finding out.

This is also a good opportunity to have redundant systems budgeted for, now that SMT can see just what an effect a single failure can have. Two domain controllers in disparate locations can work wonders and would only cost them a couple or few hundred to achieve.

[srochford]

Losing one DC shouldn't have that sort of effect on logon times - what's the remaining DC doing apart from authentication? Can you turn off other services on that DC to make the logon process faster (or is the actual "logon" bit quick but other "stuff" happens afterwards? if so, can that be removed temporarily?)

Were the FSMO roles on the DC which has failed? If so, transfer them to your remaining DC (you'll have to force the transfer but that's fine and won't cause problems later)

Is the remaining DC a global catalog? If not, make it a GC.

[ricki]

Hi

It does when scriipts and services run on that server. I am in the process of unlinking group policies that run them. I have got log ons down to 20 mins lols.

This domain controller does not have the roles but it does have most of the shares that contains software and scripts.

Richard

[sted]

Were the FSMO roles on the DC which has failed? If so, transfer them to your remaining DC (you'll have to force the transfer but that's fine and won't cause problems later)

some fsmo roles do as when you plug dead server back in (assuming its fixable) you will have 2 pcs thinking they are the master

[ricki]

Two domain controllers in disparate locations can work wonders and would only cost them a couple or few hundred to achieve.

I agree.

[pete]

and in addition to the two domain controllers...set up something that'll email/text you at $time_you_normally_get_up +5 minutes and let you know if everything's ok or if you should nip in earlier to fix stuff before anyone notices. You should assume no email = come in early.

If you're not omnipotent, decent monitoring is a good way of faking it.

[srochford]

some fsmo roles do as when you plug dead server back in (assuming its fixable) you will have 2 pcs thinking they are the master

OK; so I didn't include the bit saying "don't forget to transfer the roles back" - I kind of assumed that the OP would realise that needed doing!

[Bezwick]

Sometimes it makes me wonder why I bother telling them things they just dont listen.

Richard

So it is written in the Teachers handbook...

As with cyclists having an inability to see Red lights, all Teachers will be blessed with inability to here the word NO..

I actually think that they are informed during the PGCE's that once you become a Qualified Teacher that word no longer holds any meaning for them. It happened to my now Ex girlfriend..
lol

[ricki]

Hi

I have got the school back up of sorts expect one room.

Richard

[Duke]

Only good news is that this is your chance to turn to management and say "this is why I need more budget, this is what happens when things fail, this is why you need to give me the assistance and funding I need to set up virtualisation/DR site/proper backups/etc."

They never listen until after it's failed, so make sure when they come to you in a couple of days asking why 'the network broke' you've got some answers and solutions to stop it happening next time.

Chris