Maintaining a network
Jeff Malka
workstations ina small business. What exactly would be involved in
"servicing" the network besides daily backups?
I am trying to determine if someone like myself who is knowledgeable in
computers but not in UNIX could service his own UNIX network once it was
setup. How often would things go wrong?
--
Jeff Malka <malk...@orthohelp.com>
-bill-
You would need a backup consultant, just in case they go really wrong.
Unlike NT, the answer is not to reinstall and reinstall and
reinstall....
--
-bill-
Technical Service Systems - bi...@TechServSys.com
Tony Lawrence
> I am trying to determine if someone like myself who is knowledgeable in
> computers but not in UNIX could service his own UNIX network once it was
> setup. How often would things go wrong?
Very seldom. I bet most 5.0.5 networks are "serviced" by
non-technical people. Of course it does depend on what you
run; some apps cause more problems than others.
Perhaps this might give you an idea: I am an independent
consultant. I have customers of varying size and
complexity. I see some of them nearly weekly, some every
few months, some every few years. The difference is due
both to the usage of the network and the knowledge level of
the people maintaining it- which brings up another point:
you are bound to learn as you go along. If you find you
have issues you can't handle, hire someone to help out- just
make sure it's someone willing to teach as well as do; then
next time that issue arises you can fix it yourself.
Also, use the resources of the net. This newsgroup is a
great place to start, and also check out
http://www.aplawrence.com/newtosco.html for other tips.
--
Tony Lawrence (to...@aplawrence.com)
SCO articles, help, book reviews, tests,
job listings and more : http://www.aplawrence.com
Jeff Malka
--
Jeff Malka <malk...@orthohelp.com>
Tony Lawrence <to...@aplawrence.com> wrote in message
news:3801D77A...@aplawrence.com...
Jeff Liebermann
wrote:
>If one had a working small business Unix 5.5 SCO network with just 3
>workstations ina small business. What exactly would be involved in
>"servicing" the network besides daily backups?
Assuming nothing breaks, there's very little to do besides verify backups
and keep the dust out of the fans. It's not like Windoze that explodes
without warning or easy recovery. For example, unlike NT, it's actually
possible to boot the system after a component failure. For dire
emergencies, one can boot from a floppy, or from a combination of floppy
and cdrom.
>I am trying to determine if someone like myself who is knowledgeable in
>computers but not in UNIX could service his own UNIX network once it was
>setup. How often would things go wrong?
Well, I service such systems and have a short list of potential problems.
I make a concerted effort to have cron (similar to Windoze System Agent)
run the system automatically and do all the reptative chores. The
scoadmin program covers most of the maintenance tasks.
Many proceedure are described in the online documentation and on the SCO
technical article database. These two will be your main sources of
information is something goes wrong or something unusual appears.
1. Log file growth. If your disk space is limited, some log files will
grow exessively. Some are trimmed automatically by cron. Others are
not.
2. Print failure recovery. If any part of the SCO Unix system is
seriously in need of housecleaning, it's the printer system. There is no
useful management console for printing. That means that restarting
queues, killing accidentally printed monster files, removing stuck jobs,
redirecting print jobs, and determining if a remote printer is alive,
must sometimes be done from the command line. Scoadmin does some of
this, but not everything.
3. If it moves, it will break. The most common failures are cooling
fans, disk drives, filth in the floppy drive, and keyboards. Methinks
the disk drive replacement might be left to a dealer, but with the proper
3rd party backup program, you could restore the system yourself. The
others are fairly simple.
4. Some applications require kernel tuning. This is not brain surgery
as the vendor will usually recommend specific changes and document
proceedures. However, as all systems are not identical, some expertise
might be necessary to get it perfect.
5. Security is a dynamic exercise in updates. If your system is
connected to the interknot, where security is an issue, keeping up to
date on the latest patches and fixes is manditory.
6. System and software updates are inevitable. SCO has had difficulties
supplying a clean IPU (in place update) proceedure that works on every
possible software and hardware combination. Some work, others don't.
Some updates require an OS reinstall rather than risk the IPU. I would
have some expertise available in case something goes wrong. Of course,
make many backups and have your serial numbers and unlocking codes handy.
In general, you can tell if a system will survive by its initial
reliability history. If the hardware is good, and the programs are
stable, and the initial install runs as expected, it will continue to do
so. I have machines with uptimes measured in months.
When something does go wrong and the cause is not obvious, please resist
the temptation to reinstall the operating system as is common in Windoze.
This will usually do more damage than good. Unix can be troubleshot and
repaired without a reinstall and in many cases, without even a reboot.
--
Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
(831)421-6491 pgr (831)426-1240 fax (831)336-2558 home
http://www.cruzio.com/~jeffl WB6SSY
je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us je...@cruzio.com
Scott Taylor
Jeff Malka wrote:
>
> If one had a working small business Unix 5.5 SCO network with just 3
> workstations ina small business. What exactly would be involved in
> "servicing" the network besides daily backups?
>
> I am trying to determine if someone like myself who is knowledgeable in
> computers but not in UNIX could service his own UNIX network once it was
> setup. How often would things go wrong?
>
> --
> Jeff Malka <malk...@orthohelp.com>
Jeff,
You may want to look for an SCO Certified trainer in your area, spend a
couple $K, and get to know a bit about the OS of your choice. It'll be
well worth it and you could learn a lot in a week or two, and save
yourself hours/years of frustration.
Scott
Scott Taylor
Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>
> On Sun, 10 Oct 1999 07:49:05 -0400, "Jeff Malka" <malk...@orthohelp.com>
> wrote:
>
> >If one had a working small business Unix 5.5 SCO network with just 3
> >workstations ina small business. What exactly would be involved in
> >"servicing" the network besides daily backups?
>
> Assuming nothing breaks, there's very little to do besides verify backups
> and keep the dust out of the fans. It's not like Windoze that explodes
> without warning or easy recovery. For example, unlike NT, it's actually
> possible to boot the system after a component failure. For dire
> emergencies, one can boot from a floppy, or from a combination of floppy
> and cdrom.
>
> >I am trying to determine if someone like myself who is knowledgeable in
> >computers but not in UNIX could service his own UNIX network once it was
> >setup. How often would things go wrong?
>
> Well, I service such systems and have a short list of potential problems.
> I make a concerted effort to have cron (similar to Windoze System Agent)
> run the system automatically and do all the reptative chores. The
> scoadmin program covers most of the maintenance tasks.
>
Except cron actually knows system time and doesn't care that you are
running Word or Excel. ;-)
Don't forget, DOS is like UNIX, not the other way around. :o)
Bill Vermillion
Jeff Liebermann <je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote:
>On Sun, 10 Oct 1999 07:49:05 -0400, "Jeff Malka"
><malk...@orthohelp.com> wrote:
>>If one had a working small business Unix 5.5 SCO network with just 3
>>workstations ina small business. What exactly would be involved in
>>"servicing" the network besides daily backups?
>3. If it moves, it will break. The most common failures are cooling
>fans, disk drives, filth in the floppy drive, and keyboards.
The design of the PC power supply (smaller systems but usually not in
server cases), is to blow air out of the power-supply. That also
means that air is sucked in through EVERY opening, floppies, tape
drives, unfilled sockets (at times). A server will typically
presurise a case and suck filtered air in.
A client of mine who runs a garage - a typical dirty enviornment -
has never had a problem with tape or floppy. They take a clean
mechanics cloth and drape id down over the tape input and floppy
input side, and it works as a good filter.
OTOH - I've had machines that had clay like dirt in them at
construction companies.
--
Bill Vermillion bv @ wjv.com
Tony Lawrence
> A client of mine who runs a garage - a typical dirty enviornment -
> has never had a problem with tape or floppy. They take a clean
> mechanics cloth and drape id down over the tape input and floppy
> input side, and it works as a good filter.
The most amazing thing I ever saw was in a shop where they
did metal grinding. I went in to do an upgrade, and I
needed to take the old drive out because they had no tapes.
The entire machine was coated inside and out with greasy oil
and it HAD to have metal filings in it but the damn thing
was still running- absolutely astonished me!
Don't try this at home :-)
Jeff Liebermann
wrote:
>The most amazing thing I ever saw was in a shop where they
>did metal grinding. I went in to do an upgrade, and I
>needed to take the old drive out because they had no tapes.
>The entire machine was coated inside and out with greasy oil
>and it HAD to have metal filings in it but the damn thing
>was still running- absolutely astonished me!
>Don't try this at home :-)
Bah, that's nothing.
1. Local machine shop puts their NT workstation next to a centerless
grinder. This beast grinds metal by literally vaporizing it into dust.
The dust condensed on the computer for about a year until all the plastic
had a noticeable aluminium glint. I checked the conductivity with my
ohms guesser and it was fairly conductive in some places. The first to
fail were all 3ea fans, followed by the power supply literally exploding.
Scraping the boards with a fiberglass brush, and replacing everything
else, fixed this one.
2. Many of my customers have relatively clean offices. However, they
plant the server on the floor, which immediately becomes a proxy vaccuum
cleaner, sucking up all the lint and dust from the carpet or floor. I've
seen servers that look like the inside of a vaccuum cleaner dust bag.
Don't plant the server on the floor.
3. One customer had an art store where they used spray glue near the
computer. The fans in the computer sucked the overspray into the
computer, where it glued the dust in place. When I tried to hit the
computer with an air hose, none of the dust would move. Scraping the
dust off didn't really help. I replaced the moving parts affected
(floppy and fans) but left the machine as a permanently dusty monument or
work of art.
4. I did a tape drive transplant on a Xenix box in a clean room (while
wearing a bunny suit for 4ea sweaty hours). Next to the Xenix box was an
open vat of unpronounceable acid. During the installation of the
production line, some acid had been vaporized and was sucked into the
Xenix box by the power supply fan. Everything near the front of the
computer was fatally corroded or rusted. The computer continued to
operate in this condition for about 9 months when someone finally became
worried and decided to fix the tape backup. Much to my amazement, only
the floppy disk drive and tape drives were destroyed. The Dell 386DX33
continued to operate without incident.
5. I was asked to fix a laptop for an occassional customer. When I
arrived, I found that the laptop plastic case had been partially melted
and that the keyboard showed signs of tomato paste. Don't ask me how the
laptop ended up in the Tomato soup. I replaced the plastic parts,
keyboard, and floppy drive, rinsed the laptop in de-ionized water, and it
worked again. No clue what happened to the soup.
6. I've seen computers and monitors that survived fires. The machines
will usually work just fine, but the smell of incinerated building
material and plastic is usually too much. I recently removed the outer
covers and plastic parts from a smoke damaged computer and had them
vapour blasted (similar to sand blasting) to remove the charred surface.
The insides were coated with soot, but there was no evidence of any
failures. I cleaned the floppy and cdrom LED's, and everything works.
7. I looked at a laser printer, where the toner cartridge had spewed its
guts all over the insides. While most of the printer looked like the
inside of my woodburning stove, the fuser roller had melted the spilled
toner into a solid mass of plastic crud. I gave up and scrapped it for
parts.
8. I had the displeasure of attempting to repair the computer inside a
smog checker. The automotive service shop had strategically placed the
computer so that it would receive the maximum amount of exhaust fumes
from the automobile under test. I resisted the temptation to run the
computer though the solvent bath, and merely hit it with some soap, hosed
it with a garden hose (after removing the drives) and blew off the water
with an air hose. It worked.
9. I was recently asked to look at a laptop that had been used on a
sailboat and which had been sitting on the vessel in the harbour for
about 6 months. The insides were solid green copper oxide. I plugged it
in anyway and it began to smoke before the fuse went. Absolutely nothing
salvaged from the remains worked.
10. I found a very nice looking UPS in a dumpster. It was heavy, but I
dragged it home, up 50 stairs, and onto my workbench. When I plugged it
in, it seemed to work so I let it charge. Several hours later, I was
cleaning up the acid spill that wrecked my workbench, some expensive toys
that were also on the bench, and started to eat through the floor.
11. Y2K will probably destroy more equipment preparing for Y2K than as a
result of Y2K related electrical failures. One local business owner was
doing fine until he installed a cheapo gasoline generator. Rather than
properly wire it into his building with a commercial transfer switch, he
built his own electrical extension cord system. Unfortunately, he wired
it for 220VAC instead of 117VAC. The score was half and half on
equipment that was protected when the fuse blew, and equipment that was
instantly destroyed.
12. Most networks use CAT5 cable which tends to run to a central wiring
closet. I was trying to gain an extra few inches of cable from an
overhead CAT5 run by pulling on the cable. The cable moved a few inches,
but so did the suspended ceiling, which decided that this would be a
great time to collapse on my head. I didn't bill the customer for 4
hours of cleanup. Beware of wiring death traps.
13. There are many books and articles on proper server security
proceedures. None of them bother to mention that one should remember
where the key to the server box was last seen. I've had to pick the lock
on more than one server box.
Network maintenance is an art, not a science. Computer experience is
helpful, but not manditory.
Warren Young
>
> I am trying to determine if someone like myself who is knowledgeable in
> computers but not in UNIX could service his own UNIX network once it was
> setup. How often would things go wrong?
The other comments in this thread are good. I just have one addition:
how comfortable are you working with Windows? Can you reinstall the OS
on a clean disk, including finding the DOS CD-ROM drivers and set up
autoexec.bat and config.sys accordingly? Do you know the difference
between an IRQ and an I/O address? Do you have any machines with more
than one hard drive in them? Have you ever changed something in the
registry?
If you're comfortable with all that, then you can probably learn Unix
without undue trouble. If not, maybe you'd be better off hiring help.
There are two ways you can go towards learning Unix. The most effective
but also most costly is "learn by breaking" -- that is, learn Unix by
servicing your company's systems. If you break it, you have a _big_
incentive to fix it, quick. Trial by fire, as it were.
The cheaper and less stressful method is to set up a different box for
learning. This only works if you have an ulterior motive for doing so:
maybe you want to play with it at home, or maybe you want to set up a
Quake server for the office and can't get away with putting it on
another box. If you don't have incentive to play with it, you'll ignore
it, and learn nothing.
Good luck,
--
= Warren Young: www.cyberport.com/~tangent | Yesterday it worked.
= ICBM Address: 36.8274040N, 108.0204086W, | Today it is not working.
= alt. 1714m | Windows is like that.
Leroy Janda
harddrives, CD ROM, tape drives etc. A little more expensive, but easier to
install and better performance.
Jeff Malka wrote:
> If one had a working small business Unix 5.5 SCO network with just 3
> workstations ina small business. What exactly would be involved in
> "servicing" the network besides daily backups?
>
> I am trying to determine if someone like myself who is knowledgeable in
> computers but not in UNIX could service his own UNIX network once it was
> setup. How often would things go wrong?
>
> --
> Jeff Malka <malk...@orthohelp.com>
Matthew Schalit
|Although I can't argue about performance.. it depends on what you want to
|spend.. controllers and drives cost a packet. In our case a little worse
|because it's Compaq. 1x9Gb SCSI drive was over $2000 & the Compaq Smart 2-DH
|Array controller I'm pretty sure was more than that. We have 5 drives &
|controller in each of two servers (5500R & 3000R - R is for Rack-mount) which
|meant the drives cost as much as the rest of the server & then some). We then
|wanted to utilise both controller channels and the extra cabling cost another
|$300 if I remember right (per server). So if you compare all this against a
|$1500 pc... It'll depend on the size of your wallet. :)
As you sig says Australia, I am wondering if your prices
use a different scale than we use in the US. I realize that your
equipment was bought some months ago and I am recalling a few
prices from last weekend's show, but I saw
9Gb 7200 U2w for $249
18Gb 10K U2w for $649
both Ibm and very quiet.
Matt
|I have not had any problem installing to a standard pc with a standard ide
|cdrom (using 5.0.4 and 5.0.5) and they work fine for what we want.. Y2K
|test-bed.. backup server platform testbed.. End of Month process platform.
|Headaches are where you make them. :)
|
|Clint
|czikesch@ mtgl.com.au
Clint Zikesch
spend.. controllers and drives cost a packet. In our case a little worse
because it's Compaq. 1x9Gb SCSI drive was over $2000 & the Compaq Smart 2-DH
Array controller I'm pretty sure was more than that. We have 5 drives &
controller in each of two servers (5500R & 3000R - R is for Rack-mount) which
meant the drives cost as much as the rest of the server & then some). We then
wanted to utilise both controller channels and the extra cabling cost another
$300 if I remember right (per server). So if you compare all this against a
$1500 pc... It'll depend on the size of your wallet. :)
I have not had any problem installing to a standard pc with a standard ide
Clint Zikesch
> use a different scale than we use in the US. I realize that your
> equipment was bought some months ago and I am recalling a few
> prices from last weekend's show, but I saw
>
> 9Gb 7200 U2w for $249
> 18Gb 10K U2w for $649
>
Yes we do.. although I have no idea how different it was at the time I think we're
around 65c to the US$. Two other factors.. don't know about there but here we are
forced to buy compaq via a 3rd party and if you use equipment you didn't get this
way it voids their warranty. You bet we could have bought cheaper drives. We also
could have used cheaper servers.. however we decided it safer to use the best we
could afford.
Other factor.. yes it was more than a few months back. However you're absolutely
right.. it's a matter of scale. One other thing.. by the time everything gets here
it's alot more expensive.. with duties, taxes, middle-men and a smaller market..
prices are inflated. The average price of a book from O'rielly if this gives you a
clue is about $70-$80AUD in the stuff I buy.
Regards
Clint
czik...@mtgl.com.au