Diary of a Network Geek

Yeah, I know Win2k.

And, today, I know it better than I’d like. This weekend I spent 21 hours moving a Windows 2000 file server/domain controller/IIS server/proxy to a new hard drive. At least I’ll get paid by the hour.
Okay, so you regular readers (you know who you are) know that I’m mainly a Netware/Linux guy. So, what am I doing working on Win2K? Well, times are tough, so Uncle Jim has to work at two jobs. The second job is a realtively small company that I consult for on a strictly after-hours, part-time basis. Most of the time, I don’t put in more than five or six hours a month, which makes it a nice supplement to my primary income. And, frankly, I took the job because I needed the extra experience on Windows 2000 Server and consulting. So, for months they’ve had a 16 Gig drive that has been on the edge of full and last month they finally got a new 70+ Gig drive in. Great, right? Not so much. See, I tried to use Ghost to get it moved over, but Ghost kept failing. It took me a month and about 20 hours to finally figure out that the drive was just way, way, way too fragmented for Ghost to deal with. That meant one thing: the old backup-and-restore method. Ugh.
Okay, so I’m figuring it’s going to be a four or five hour thing, right? Nope. The tape drive isn’t working for some reason and it takes me at least four hours to get that worked out. Then another hour or two for a full backup. Then, an hour or more to get Windows 2000 installed on the new drive and the backup software installed. Another hour to get the tape merged and a restore launched. So, then I reboot and ….. Blam! Error!!
Can you say “Security Account Manager initialization failed”? Does that seem like a problem? You bet it is! The error told me to restart in “Directory Services Restore Mode” to try and fix the problem. Sounds good. But, when I restart, it asks me for the Admin password before repairing and proceeds to tell me that I’m putting in the wrong password. Okay, so I start all over again. Guess what? Same problem.
So, since I still have the old hard drive in original condition, I hook it back up and go searching for an answer. I finally find that I have to do a special backup of the System State with a Microsoft tool, not my backup software (which claimed it was doing a System State backup), boot the new drive into “Directory Services Restore Mode” and do an Authoritative Restore to get the old Active Directory information onto the new Domain Controller. About this time it’s 10:00pm or so and I have hours of work to do. But, since I am, of course, Mr. Indestructable, who’s motto is “I only have so many hours on this planet and a lot to do. I’ll have plenty of time to sleep when I’m dead”, I push on. Better, I figure, to push and get it done than have to come back and waste a second day in this office.
Hours, and several redundant restore jobs, later, I get almost everything back up and running. At this point it’s around 3:00AM and I’ve already changed my watch. What else did I have to do while I was waiting for the restore jobs to finish? Now, as you might imagine, I’m a little fuzzy, so it takes me about another two hours to get all the Internet settings right again and confirm that all the required services are started and will restart at reboot. Finally, I decide I can head for home.
The ride home was, er, interesting. I don’t remember large sections of it and it’s about a 30-40 mintue ride with no traffic. There was only one drunk on the road at 6:00AM, but there was fog and mysterious “things” in the corner of my vision. In other words, I’m too old for this stuff. I was freaking seeing things from the fatigue!
Still, when I got home, I tested the remote connectivity and sent an e-mail off to the developer or their custom database application so that he can verify that everything is running okay. Then, it was off to bed for a couple of hours until the Sun just wouldn’t let me sleep anymore. And, I’ll be back to bed soon.

So, what did I learn from all this? First, always backup your Active Directory with the stupid Windows 2000, built-in backup tool and keep a copy around. Shoot, throw it on tape, too, while you’re at it! Second, if you must have a Domain Controller, have two. They like company. Third, do NOT believe the backup software vendors when they tell you that their product will backup the System State or Active Directory! They’re LYING to you!!
Fourth, I am way too old to play Mr. Indestructable anymore. If these people weren’t so dependant on me to keep them going, I never would have done a 21 hour stint at an office. The kicker is, now, I’m getting resistance to my charges! Yeah, isn’t that something? I bust my ass to save their’s and now they’re not real excited about paying me. Damn this is a thankless business. Of course, I have, as they say in the “family”, made my bones on Windows 2000 and Active Directory. Hell, I have a friend who used to be on the a Lead on the Microsoft Corporate Support team that didn’t think I could pull it off! He was shocked that I managed it at all, much less in 21 hours.

So, once again, we the unwilling, lead by the unknowing, have done the impossible, for the ungrateful.
Crap. I’m going to bed.

Is this really a good idea?

If this were coming from anyone but Bill Gates, I’d say “yes”. But, according to this article on AustralianIT, it’s Chairman Bill that’s suggesting this. And, of course, trying to patent it. And, eventually, no matter what he says, charge for it. And, there lies the rub. It’s a great idea, but not if I’m going to be sending Micro$oft money everytime I send or recieve an e-mail.
Oh, I know, it’s only fair if they develop the system and everyone uses it. Sure, but is it right? It’s fair and legal, but is it moral? No. And, past experience has shown that Micro$oft will eventually charge for it, not matter what “it” is at the direction of Chariman Bill. Fact of life. So, please, please, don’t support a MicroSoft-centric, closed standard version of this. But, should some enterprising young Open Source developer come up with something….

I knew SCO and Micro$oft were in it together!

First, this article on AustalianIT added to the suspicions of the Open Source community regarding MicroSoft’s involvement in the campaign against Linux. I’d, personally, had always wondered if Chairman Gates hadn’t been encouraging SCO to pursue this very unwise course of legal action against Linux users. Well, guess what? Just yesterday, AustralianIT confirmed that there is, in fact, a link between SCO and Micro$oft!
Is it really paranoia when they are all out to get you? Micro$oft has been trying to kill Linux since it became a “blip” on the media radar, so it stands to reason that they’d help SCO down the path they took. Free enterprise, indeed. But, you know, I didn’t see any of this in the American press. Hmm, I wonder why that is?

Possibly.

According to this article on Australian IT, Micro$oft’s Japanese headquarters were raided last week on the suspicion of violating Japanese anti-trust laws. The Japanese Fair Trade Commission apparently sent a warning to Micro$oft’s HQ in Tokyo regarding certain statements in their license agreement that were deemed a violation of Japanese law. Namely, they have a clause prohibiting Japanese companies from suing Micro$oft for any real or percieved copyright infringements. Yow! That’s a nasty one! Remember, those Japanese companies that are prohibited from sueing include giants like NEC, Fujitsu, Matsushita, Hitachi and Sony, all of whom make computer hardware and drivers for it. According to the article, “A spokesman for the Japanese unit, Microsoft Co, confirmed the raid but declined to comment further.”

Not sure how this one will turn out, but it’s a good one to watch, eh?

I have my doubts.

But, according to this article on AustralianIT, that’s just what the W3C is argueing. Apparently, there’s a one-man company called Eolas who won a $521 million law-suit against Microsoft for allegedly infringing a patent covering technology that “allows interactive applications – plug-ins and applets – to be embedded in web pages”. Now, that’s not the entire web, but it’s a big slice of what Microsoft pushed over the years. Even this blog doesn’t fall under that category, I don’t think, because the programs that run it aren’t actually embedded in the web page itself. Frankly, that’s one of the reasons that I’ve been working on PERL lately. It’s not tied to one particular company or browser. Hey, it’s not tied to a browser at all!
What astounds me about this case, though, is that Tim Berners-Lee, the “inventor” of the web is going to bat for Micro$oft! He says the patent is invalid due to “prior art”. He goes on to say that any redesign of IE “will render millions of web pages and many products of independent software developers incompatible with Microsoft’s product”. My thought is, “so what”? People Micro$oft is NOT the Internet! They’re not even the Web! And most of these “plug-ins” that would be effected are just junk that slows me down anyway. I don’t want streaming sound or video to my PC, thanks. Just the words. Just the ideas. For that, I don’t need Micro$oft’s restrictive product.
In any case, Micro$oft is obviously going to appeal. It’ll be interesting to see how this one turns out.

Why did it take over a week for me to find this?

I guess Micro$oft is keeping it mum, but there’s a pretty major security issue with their Exchange versions 5.5 and 2000. It seems that if any guest accounts are left open, they can be exploited by spammers. Usually, a guest account is set up as a default mailstop for anything that doesn’t have anywhere else to go. But, spammers can use these accounts to send out their own e-mail with their own agenda. There’s an article about it on CNet News.
But the thing that disturbs me about this is that they seem to have known about this for sometime. They just didn’t feel the need to publisize it very much. Kind of ironic for a company that’s offering a “bounty” for the virus writer that came up with Slammer and the like. It’s also hard to believe that they’re really getting behind the whole idea of tightening security on their products when they let something like this slip! Ah, well, what can you expect from a company run by a college drop-out with a police record?

for MicroSoft!

At least, according to this article on Wired News. The software giant is starting to feel the tiny arrows of the Linux pygmy. Seems that the State of Massachusetts has been given a mandate by their money-men to embrace an “open standards, open source” policy for all their future software investment. Hmm, I wonder what they could mean by that?

Go, Tux GO!

I passed my test this time!

So, now, I’m fully certified to work on Netware 6. What a shame that the place I work at now won’t be doing that. *sigh* The worst thing is that I’ve been a CNE since 1993 and now, after ten years of certification, when my next CCR rolls around, I’ll have to decide if it’s worth updating. It always has been so far because I’ve always worked with Netware, but now… Well, frankly, there’s less and less Netware out there, compared to, say, Linux and Windows. I don’t know that I’ll keep working with Netware anymore. I love it, don’t get me wrong, but there’s just not a big market for it anymore. Or, at least, there’s not a big market for Certified Netware Engineers anymore. Heck, I get more calls for my Citrix experience than my Netware certification!
Ah, well, at least I passed this time, so I shouldn’t have to worry about it for a couple of years. Next up, though, is Security+. Then, maybe, CISSP, or, heaven forbid, a Microsoft certification.

MicroSoft’s aggressive licensing policies may have backfired.

At least, in China. According to this article on Australia IT, thousands of schools in China are uninstalling MicroSoft products and installing local replacements. Not only will that cost MS billions now, but the long-term effects are even more costly. All those generations of Chinese users learning some other software. Man, that has got to hurt!
I wonder what effect it will have on us here in the States? Probably just more layoffs. Can’t win, can we?

Strange, but true.

And, it’s from Microsoft, so you know it has to be good! Hey!! Stop laughing!
Seriously, though, this article on Microsoft Research has some interesting things to say about security and passwords. Now, how long before someone implements this. Or, something like it, since no doubt Microsoft already has the patent on it. Still, as a Psychology Minor, it has a certain appeal to me. Visual memory, that is a memory of an actual picture, is clearer than memory of an abstract, like, say a random string of characters. I can see how it would be helpful, but I have a hard time imagining how it will be implemented.
Food for thought, though.