.. just a list of things an IT Manager could do when s/he thinks they "have nothing" to do ..

.. for example – Disaster Recovery Planning – what would we do if there was a gas leak and the building blew up in the middle of the night and destroyed all our servers?

Think outside the box – but also realistically – what should an average IT Manager being doing that they might not be doing?
For the first two answerers, thank you … I didn’t mention it above but I am one of the "grunts" and, while things are running ok at the moment, we are far from firing on all cylinders. In addition to disaster recover planning it seems to me we need a plan to standardize user-end hardware & have a PC refresh plan, also, we recently implemented Active Directory, but we are doing nothing with it, every user has full Admin rights right now (over 200 users,) nothing is locked down, we’re constantly struggling with license management, among other things that need to be smoothed and tweaked … and as for being a manager, I think that’s part of the reason he gets out of the office whenever he can, he doesn’t like to manage people, he’d rather dictate orders via BlackBerry – and I know for a fact he doesn’t have the capability to see my desktop from home – he doesn’t have a computer – and no one here ever gives a second thought to security, passwords, ex-employees, etc. etc.

The thing about any title with the word "Manager" in the title, probably means that he has people under him that have to do all the grunt work like disaster recovery and network troubleshooting. Mangers manage people, not actual work load, so it may very well be true he has nothing to do (although in a well run place, that can be said about the whole IT department lol) ^^

I would like to become a System Admin, however, I’m not really sure how to go about it.

I am thinking about getting an Associates in Computer Information Systems (security concentration). Then possibly getting a bachelors in something else or getting certs. I’m really not sure what the best way to go about this is and I really don’t want to make the wrong decisions.

The course outline for that degree is,

1. Programming: Logic, Design and Implementation
2. Networking Technologies
3. Operating Systems
4. Introduction to UNIX/Linux and Shell Programming
5. Windows Server Administration 1
6. Windows Server Administration 2
7. Hardware Fundamentals
8. Network Security
9. Firewall Security
10. Operating Systems Security
11. Information Security and Disaster Recovery
12. Security Seminar

What do you guys think of that course? Do you have and suggestions for becoming a System Administrator? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time,
res

those classes look to me like they are very across the board. probably to give you a general knowledge. the key is once you have that knowledge what you do with it. You will not become an Admin straight out of school. that is something you will have to work up to. I have seen admins with degrees in business or literature, but a butt load of experience in computers.

You are a network administrator, and your employer just doubled in size by acquiring your number one competitor in the same city. There are now two corporate buildings, on opposite sides of the city. Both will be used, and need to be tied together with a network. Management’s vision is that each site can be a disaster-recovery site for the other, so that if one goes up in flames, the other site can run the company. Assume that the server administrators will address the need for redundant systems, and will manage backups and data replication as needed. To supply connectivity, what network connectivity do you propose between the sites? How will this support the disaster-recovery vision and the need to replicate data between the sites?

Piece of cake. Fiber connection to both sites. It has the bandwidth to allow timely backups and fast real-time data transfers.

I’m a network engineer for a school system. We have 42 buildings connected via fiber optic. This also allowed ALL servers etc to be centralized. This reduced our costs in the long term and the network works great.

Hello, I was wondering what Microsoft Exams I need to take or other training I need to do to become a network engineer. And just to clarify a network engineer is someone who manages networks in businesses, schools and other places with larger then 10 computer networks. Am I right? Or what is this job called? Also what exams must I take to become one ?

Now, heres the part I forgot to add. A basic computer history for me. I have been repairing computers for about 7 – 8 years now (I started when I was young), I have a server and have learnt my way round AD and Windows Server 2003 (Can do almost anything). I used to be a script kiddie (I stop that a few years ago) in hacking terms so I know alot about security and how to defend against attacks. I can also wire up networks, install perphials (cant spell) and do all of that sort of thing. I can also Design and implement Disaster Recovery Plans (Backups, Security and all of that)

You really need to work as an IT person in a business environment. I was into computers since I was 7, I had my own network when I was a little kid, that was 15 years ago. I thought that I knew alot about networking, but it wasn’t until I started working in the real world where the problems are real that I learned about networking.

There are 2 offices to the company; the 2 buildings are across town from each other. The buildings need to be tied together with a network. Management wants each site to be a disaster recovery for the other, so that if one catches on fire, the other site can run the company. The server admins will address need for redundant systems; manage backups, and data replication as needed. What type of network connectivity do you suggest? How will this support the needs of the company? Thanks ♥

You can use frame relay, atm, lease lines, vpn (internet), wireless antenna, laser antenna, satelite, etc…

All depends on purpose, distance, and budget.

Since you mention DR you will need a line that offers a lot of bandwith to be able to replicate (mirror) each site real time.

Again, it will depend on your needs and how much downtime your company can sustain without having major loss of revenue.

Cheers!

guys please help me to solve this problem…

Amanda and Chris McDermott own a small business, plastic dollars, that produces and maintains stored cards for retailers.most of the cards they sell are gift cards,such as those available in various restaurant and store.they just started their business two years ago,but this year they hope to sell about four million dollars worth of cards.depending on the arrangement with the business,they may or may not maintain the data base that contains the card owners name and the current value on the card.therefore,although the business is doing well,money is still tight.
Plastic dollars employ five people, including Amanda and Chris. two of the employees are full-time, and the other is a part-time worker who is also a college student. the business has two servers and three client computer work stations. they also have three phone lines that allow them to communicate with various retail and restaurant establishments in real time. The company has been "hit" a few times by various programmed threats. They know they should do more but they don’t think the cost is worth it. Although they have no disaster recovery plan, they do back up their files every three hours, by encrypting and compressing their data and uploading it to a remote location.

My Questions are:
1. Evaluate the risks to Plastic Dollars of programmed threats. What are the potential direct and indirect costs associated with these risks?

2. Develop a security plan for Plastic Dollars that will protect them against blended and other programmed threats.

Pay more attention in class, read your textbook and notes, and do your own homework.

Maybe visit the PCI Security Council website for some ideas.

But don’t worry too much about it. One of the big-three accounting firms would still hire you and farm you out at $2k/day to figure this out as you go.

Just doubled in size by acquiring your number one competitor in the same city. There are now two corporate buildings, on opposite sides of the city. Both will be used, and need to be tied together with a network. Management’s vision is that each site can be a disaster-recovery site for the other, so that if one goes up in flames, the other site can run the company. Assume that the server administrators will address the need for redundant systems, and will manage backups and data replication as needed. To supply connectivity, what network connectivity do you propose between the sites? How will this support the disaster-recovery vision and the need to replicate data between the sites?

We are currently living this situation. We have chosen to link both sites together via "MPLS".
We also have a SAN /Lefthand Network set up for data mirroring between the locations.
Also we have IronMountain Online Backup with a retention of 1 year set up.
I could go on and on, but I would say definatly research MPLS for site connectivity. MPLS is basically what the old Frame Relay used to be but cheaper and more secure….

I am looking for ideas on an off site server mirror solution. Currently there is a 7 day tape cycle but nothing else to the effect of off site disaster recovery. We do live in a bad weather condition environment (hurricanes). What would be the most cost effective way to back up my servers.
OS – server 2000 (also an exchange server)

There are MANY off site online backups such as http://www.intronis.com

You can google others… just search for online backups, but we’ve had good experiences with intronis and vembu.

These do a full backup of all your files and then incremental or differential depending on your settings. You only pay per gigabyte.

You could also establish a VPN between your home and the office and setup a windows backup to a mapped drive. This would be a free solution, but you’d have to get someone to set everything up for you and have fast internet connections at both sites.

Or just have someone take the every (Monday) tape home with them… or whatever day you want. That way you’ll be able to recover a week back.

Where I work at, another part the IT department is running a DR Drill. All day long the business has been using the warm site servers that were stood up for this test and the entire production system for all users has been running off the DR servers. We fail back tomorrow.

I have work in IT for about 20 years and have never run this kind of full blown test. I have stood up servers for a DR Drill and and brought everything up and confirmed access by users and system but never had I had to take PROD down to do this. This just doesn’t seem like a risk we should have undertaken. Any opinions on this out there or is it just me that thinks this is strange?

If I’ve understood correctly, your production system has been running off the DR servers for the purpose of this drill.

I agree there was a potential risk in doing that, but isn’t that how things would run in a real DR situation? In which case I don’t see any other way of properly testing the DR solution.

In preparation for a new Disaster Recovery plan, I need to change the OEM (factory installed Server 2003 OS from Dell) License Key to a recently purchased Volume License Key. This needs to be done so that Windows will register and work on different hardware then originally installed on in case of a recovery on new hardware as a result of a disaster.

The server this needs to be done on is a very large and complex Database server. I have been told by my Disaster Recovery source the only way is to either reinstall Windows using the new key, or to run a windows repair and enter in the new key during the repair process. A windows repair is risky since this is such a large and complex server.

I have read the following MS Knowledge Base Article but it refers to changing a Volume License Key, not specifically changing an OEM License Key.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918342

Can anyone say for certain if this will still work? if not can anyone offer any suggestions?

Thanks you!

I have used Server 2003 many times andI believe the safest way would be to maybe use ntbackup.exe to create a complete backup of system state and files then reinstall the server OS wth the new key. Good Luck!