Hair on Fire -- Explain Everything plz

[noob2K4 0]

Whoa. I am a comparative IT novice, just passed A+ desktop hardware and OS cert. I have an opportunity to intern as level-one support at a small organization that contracts out all of their IT. If I can spin up fast enough I may be offered the opportunity to plan and oversee a major (for them) network expansion and even run the new system.

 

Currently they have about a 50-node network running XP on Windows 2000 Server, with Exchange 2003 and MS SQL Server. They use Terminal Services and they have a Cisco PIX firewall. In January they will probably add another thirty users.

 

I have been reading some general texts on networking and server technology. I plan to pursue an MCSA or MCSE cert tailored to the specific products they are using.

 

My questions are, first: how much can I expect from the contractor for documentation? From what I read it seems that this is a rather nebulous area but in my case it will be critical. The executives in place need a user-level summary of their current and projected needs so that they can make informed decisions in the next few months. Would I be out of line asking the contractor for baseline statistics on current usage?

 

Second, is it unrealistic to imagine getting my head around this by, say, Christmas? I am aware of the possibility of suiting up and undertaking responsibilities beyond my capacity to execute. Otoh I *am* smarter than the average bear and this stuff *is* all in books, right? Right?

[adamvjackson 0]

Originally posted by noob2K4:

Quote:

My questions are, first: how much can I expect from the contractor for documentation? From what I read it seems that this is a rather nebulous area but in my case it will be critical. The executives in place need a user-level summary of their current and projected needs so that they can make informed decisions in the next few months. Would I be out of line asking the contractor for baseline statistics on current usage?

 

As someone who has done both, Contract network administration for offices/compaanies without IT departments, and as a network administrator, I can tell you almost certanily that the outsourcing IT staff will probably not have any formal documentation. You could create it yourself, and it would be a great way to learn the layout and configuration of the network, but would also cost a great deal of time. There may be some shareware/freeware tools to help automate some things, such as IP scanners/port scanners/SNMP scanners, but most likely you will need to do most of the heavy lifting.

 

Quote:

Second, is it unrealistic to imagine getting my head around this by, say, Christmas? I am aware of the possibility of suiting up and undertaking responsibilities beyond my capacity to execute. Otoh I *am* smarter than the average bear and this stuff *is* all in books, right? Right?

 

Unrealistic? No, but definately challenging. You will need to be VERY dedicated, and be prepared to spend a lot of free time reading books, covering such topics as TCP/IP, routing, the OSI model, security, Active Directory, etc. A+ is a great start. I got my A+ (both hardware and software) about 3 years ago, but don't lead yourself to think that it in ANY WAY prepares your for a networking tech/IT/network administrator position. Books are great resources. HOPEFULLY most everything in/on your network has been configured to accepted standards, and if it has, it should be fairly easy to take over. If not, or if the implementation was poor, you'll be in for many headaches and a rough time learning.

 

Hope that helps, and most of all, try to keep optimistic!

[haironfire 0]

Thanks for the encouragement folks. Forgot my password so I had to open a new account, hence the different handle.

 

Ehrm IMHO this network may not be configured to accepted standards. They have two Dell Poweredge 2650 servers, one for DNS and one for a file server. The drive array on the file server is ca 85% full and, while there is a NAS device in place with a drive array of adequate capacity there is no backup more recent than a couple of weeks, no succesful scheduled backup and afaik no way to test a backup -- don't you need a test server identical to the production server to test a backup? (The DNS server and the file server are identical in hardware so if we buy one more identical box couldn't I alternately configure it to test backups for the other two? Is that practical?)

 

I am trying to decide whether to try to do this on my own or try to muscle the contractor into it in the twilight months of their contract. I am reluctant to trust them with something as important as backups when they've substantially ignored the matter already. OTOH if we light a fire under them they could probably get it done faster than I could. OTOH if we've gone without backup this long what's another couple of weeks?

 

And, should I start another thread with a more specific title?

[DosFreak 2]

The Dell 2650 is a great server....except for the cdrom drives/floppies which don't perform well in the desert!

 

Yes, for a proper backup system an identical server to the ones you back up from is ideal. Unfortunately many shops do not have either the time or the money for the extra hardware. (Until a server crashes, losing tons of data....then suddenly the time/money shows up in abundance.)

 

Quote:

OTOH if we've gone without backup this long what's another couple of weeks?

 

Do not think like that. Now if your talking about just not backing up the OS/Programs then that's fine but if there is data that is constantly being updated and your not backing it up then going without backups for "weeks" is definetly not a good situation to be in.

 

Is the NAS your backup server storage? It sounds like this is a small shop so you don't have any sort of tape backup? A DLT tape drive should be plenty for the amount of servers you listed.

[haironfire 0]

No tape, the NAS device (a Powervault) is our only backup. I have been wondering about tape, I think that a nightly backup to tape with offsite storage would be a good idea.

 

While I'm looking into that, I guess the best I can do with the existing hardware would be verifying the backups to the NAS for recoverability of any individual files that may get lost/deleted/corrupted. But the file server is at around 85% of capacity, so the first priority would be to archive some stuff to make room to load a backup file for testing -- right? -- or can I test a backup from the NAS?

 

If we do get a tape drive, we still have no way to test capacity for disater recovery unless we add a test server, I guess. I don't know whether I can sell that to the suits. Is an untested tape backup woth having? Would there be any point in getting a tape drive if we're not going to test the backups?