If you were hit by a bus......

[ITGURU]

.......would your technicians be able to do all that you do?

 

What's your thoughts on this? For all you network managers out there can your technicians do all that you do in the event of you not being there?

 

Also, if your a one man band what would you do in this situation.

 

By the way, I have a documentation manual that covers all relevant items.

[bladedanny]

I'm one person, we have an envelope in the safe with the key passwords and information in it. This is to be opened if I'm hit by a bus or any other eventuality where I can no longer do my job.

[strawberry]

Not a chance. I was 20 minutes late this morning, not only did he not realise he left around 20 tickets on the helpdesk and didn't bother doing any PM checks.

[3s-gtech]

Short answer: yes. Everything is recorded, ready to go if I'm squished by a number 42.

[Gibson335]

In my view, the situation has changed over time. Many years ago it was quite natural for techs to gain all kinds of skills that were interchangeable with that of NM, but the larger and more complex networks have grown, I'm not sure that's always possible now. Unless you get someone in from a networking background, then it's not always easy to find either the right staff or the right training/opportunities for techs to become engineers...and if you do they'll probably leave for better money. I looked at our situation a few years back and decided it would be better if there was no overlap whatsoever, and that the techs concentrated on specific tasks and the normal firefighting stuff. Given another staffing change I could easily revert back...but currently, in answer to your question, no they couldn't. If something happened to me, our external support providers would step up whilst a replacement person or system was sorted.

[ITGURU]

Even my job description didn't get reviewed after an appraisal as I do more than what's actually on it, so therefore if it's not on a Technicians Job description surely they would say I'm not paid enough to do that!

[jtoland]

Well certen members of staff have all my details but they dont know they have i just give them a yubico key with the main password they need on it. I have left instructions on my wall in an envolope of systems we have and how to fix minor problems till they get someone that knows what they are doing

[Arreks]

If I was hit by a bus my loved ones would be very upset but that's about it. If my boss was hit by a bus I probably know enough about our network and have enough permissions to cover and make necessary changes.

[caffrey]

No DM at all here, no passwords written down anywhere - only info available is some rudimentary network information but without passwords noone can access it.

[localzuk]

Only me here. I've attempted to standardise the network over the last few years, removing many of the complicated/odd bits. I've documented a bit of it (who has the time?!) but a lot of it would take someone with network management skills to take over.

[ITGURU]

Only me here. I've attempted to standardise the network over the last few years, removing many of the complicated/odd bits. I've documented a bit of it (who has the time?!) but a lot of it would take someone with network management skills to take over.

 

 

if you were told you needed to train them to the same level would you? I don't have the time, and I've spent enough of my time self training and becoming Microsoft Certified or my own career path.

[strawberry]

if you were told you needed to train them to the same level would you? I don't have the time, and I've spent enough of my time self training and becoming Microsoft Certified or my own career path.

 

Nope. Not unless I was paid a significant amount to do so. If they want someone to your level then they need to provide someone with relevant skills and give you enough time to share and pass on knowledge.

 

They don't sit thick kids next to the genius and ask the boffin to get the thick kid upto A*.

[ITGURU]

Nope. Not unless I was paid a significant amount to do so. If they want someone to your level then they need to provide someone with relevant skills and give you enough time to share and pass on knowledge.

 

They don't sit thick kids next to the genius and ask the boffin to get the thick kid upto A*.

 

Totally agree! Got what I wanted to hear in writing from someone else!!

[sparkeh]

Just me here and I'm still trying to get everything documented but its hard to get the time. Harder to decipher some of the 'fixes' implemented when things needed doing in a hurry.

 

What I have is in an encrypted OneNote account with the username and password stored in the safe. I think a competent Network Manager could pick it up and run with it... I think :S

[jcs808]

Our technicians can keep things ticking over for a given period of time, say when I go on holiday, but they don't have the skills to do my job for me. They are paid on a lower scale and so I wouldn't expect them to. I'm currently in a position where I'm looking to recruit someone to fill the gap between technician and IT Manager but I'm not sure I'll find someone for the pay grade we'll be offering.

[Gibson335]

Our technicians can keep things ticking over for a given period of time, say when I go on holiday, but they don't have the skills to do my job for me. They are paid on a lower scale and so I wouldn't expect them to. I'm currently in a position where I'm looking to recruit someone to fill the gap between technician and IT Manager but I'm not sure I'll find someone for the pay grade we'll be offering.

 

That's exactly the way I see things, and also the kind of change I'd like to make to staffing here.

[TechMonkey]

if you were told you needed to train them to the same level would you? I don't have the time, and I've spent enough of my time self training and becoming Microsoft Certified or my own career path.

 

Now there are 2 thoughts here. If you are moving on then there should be some knowledge transfer, time to sit down together and empty your brain of site specific knowledge into theirs as best you can. But, what I think you are getting at, no I don't feel it should be my job to train someone to do the standard parts of my job, they should be of high enough caliber to be able to do the job with the supplied knowledge. If you run a bespoke system (Ranger, CC4, etc) then they should go on a training course.

 

Documentation should be up to a level if someone came along they could read it and take over, but there is nothing like a brain to brain transfer of those little things.

[Gibson335]

Now there are 2 thoughts here. If you are moving on then there should be some knowledge transfer, time to sit down together and empty your brain of site specific knowledge into theirs as best you can. But, what I think you are getting at, no I don't feel it should be my job to train someone to do the standard parts of my job, they should be of high enough caliber to be able to do the job with the supplied knowledge. If you run a bespoke system (Ranger, CC4, etc) then they should go on a training course.

 

Documentation should be up to a level if someone came along they could read it and take over, but there is nothing like a brain to brain transfer of those little things.

 

Yeah, I'd feel quite comfortable that another NM could come along and that our depth of documentation would allow them to take over speedily, but not that a technician could step up and do the same.

[mrbios]

Nope. Well documented for the most part, but nope.

[featured_spectre]

Well just happens that last week I was tasked with writing up a document just in case...and yesterday I was let go due to a very bad disagreement with the board of directors - me telling it how it is, instead of being a yes man. Thankfully - for me - I never finished the document. Sadly for the team that I worked with however (who were a great bunch of guys), they're going to be stuck up a creek without a paddle as I am refusing to hand over any passwords. Purely because I was not given adequate time to write my stuff up, as during the working day it was manic trying to get everything up to a good standard, and in the evening I had to juggle my home life and work whenever I could squeeze it in. If they gave me the 2 weeks notice that probation period required (they just let me go and will pay it instead, so I don't go in), then maybe I'd have finished it.

 

What's the result of this?

• They will have to hard reboot the routers to factory settings, and as there is no backup setting files, so they can't just load a file on. This was done purely because of the constraint of the router (it is very very old, but did it job very very well). This means having to re-do all VPNs for all users...and considering there are close to 1000 users with a VPN connection, not a fun task.
  
• They'll also have to try to crack the server passwords because I had the only admin account, and all my passwords are different. So if they get on my old PC, they're still going to have trouble getting to the servers.
  
• They're also going to have to try to crack the firewall passwords because I disabled all accounts but my admin account, including the remote admin account for the company that provided the firewall as there was very very sensitive stuff on the network, and it was prudent to do this in case of hackers.
  
• The backup system is also password protected, so they'd have to figure out the password to alter the schedule or add new external HDDs to the backup.

 

Moral of the story?

 

Don't fire the Network Admin before he has a chance to write things up. Not that I am malicious, but if I wanted too, I could dial in, change the backups to format the drives, then format servers they have, and knowing the backup system they have (I instituted a quarterly full system backup of all systems so that if the current stuff died, it wouldn't be too bad to restore), it would be weeks before they're back up and running fully, and would be several million out of pocket because of it.

[ITGURU]

Sounds like they 'let you go' without following the correct procedure so you have a good case to start with.

 

If they can access the server they can crack the sam with a brute force attack, but that's for them to worry about. Im sure you wont 'follow it up' as that would be unauthorized access, since you dont work there, and a criminal offence.

Move on and let them sort it if that what they want.

 

I haven't left! (Yet) It just came up in a meeting I had this afternoon!

[ITGURU]

Read up one post before. And try not to argue with any of the management or directors seams to be good advise.

 

Part of the issue is they don't understand IT - SSDs went straight over their head, but as soon as you say it cuts down login times from 5 minutes to 1 and a half they go ooo that's good!

[featured_spectre]

Sounds like they 'let you go' without following the correct procedure so you have a good case to start with.

 

If they can access the server they can crack the sam with a brute force attack, but that's for them to worry about. Im sure you wont 'follow it up' as that would be unauthorized access, since you dont work there, and a criminal offence.

Move on and let them sort it if that what they want.

 

I was within my probation period, and company procedure does allow they can do what they did (I signed the contract after all).

 

As for the servers, all they have are the internal IP of the router they're connected too, not the server themselves...this was set up way before I got there.

 

I'm not a malicious person, so I would not do anything to attack them, but I won't do anything to help them either, unless they plan on paying me to finish the documents.

[jmair]

I'm alone here also so I have a Black Book of where stuff is and a few key passwords to give to the next gay/gal if something happens to me.

[ZeroHour]

I was within my probation period, and company procedure does allow they can do what they did (I signed the contract after all).

 

As for the servers, all they have are the internal IP of the router they're connected too, not the server themselves...this was set up way before I got there.

 

I'm not a malicious person, so I would not do anything to attack them, but I won't do anything to help them either, unless they plan on paying me to finish the documents.

 

I dont think handing over the passwords is the same as writing documents out, you should just only hand the passwords over and leave it to them to figure it all out, refusing the hand them over could land you in trouble tbh as its a trivial thing to do but I certainly wouldnt explain the setup to them, thats their own fault there but refusing to put the passwords in an letter to them when they are paying you gardening leave is pretty unprofessional even if they too are acting unprofessional.

Edited September 29, 2015 by ZeroHour