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May 27, 2008 | Comments: (0)

I can't fix stupid

I was called to work on a Windows 2003 server for a customer. When I got on site, they explained that the original server setup was an 80GB hard drive with 2 partitions. They set the system partition at 8GB and used the rest for storage. Not too bad, except that they loaded Exchange, Domain controller, Citrix, QuickBooks, and several other applications on the 8GB partition. A few months down the road, however, and the partition was full. That is the point in our story where I enter.

They called to see what could be done. After researching and trying several cloning programs, I decided there was just no way to increase the system partition in Windows 2003 server. I asked the customer to do a full backup and explained that I would have to rebuild the domain, Exchange, Citrix, blah, blah, blah. The customer gave me carte blanche to do what was necessary. I spent a rather lengthy time reloading and rebuilding this server. I simply used the original 80GB hard drive for the OS and installed a second hard drive for data files. (Stick with me, this is pretty good) I built the new domain, Exchange, QuickBooks (you get the idea). I loaded the security profiles, user names, computer names and set up group policy to what I thought they might need, as they didn't have a clue how it was originally installed.

I then took it to the company to install. When I tried to install DHCP, I realized they were getting DHCP from their router. Cool, we don't need that, I thought. I then went to the first user to reattach his computer to the new domain and set up his Exchange. I noticed his Outlook was open, so I asked if he was looking for old e-mail, or what. He said, "No, I have been using it."

Huh?

I did some checking and found they were using a POP server for Outlook. When I queried further, none of the users knew exactly why exchange was on the server -- they had never used it. (Strike 2). I then inquired about settings for Citrix. (Nope, they didn't use it either. Strike 3).

I decided to approach this from another direction. I asked the user to show me what he actually used on the server. He stated, "Oh, we just keep a few files on it to share so everyone can access them." I asked, "Do you log into the domain or your local machines?" He replied "Oh, no, we don't log into the domain at all."

So, if you missed it, they have a Windows 2003 server running Exchange, Citrix, domain controller, and more that took many hours to load, configure and update, and all they do is use it to share a few files. I can fix a lot of things, but "stupid" isn't one of them.

Posted by Anonymous on May 27, 2008 03:00 AM

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