RANT: At what point do you just say: Enough
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Hub is right. Get an MSP in there.
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Contact @Minion-Queen and get NTG to come to the rescue!
Another Question begs to be asked? Is there some kind of brand or model of HDD you are using that are failing so much? are you not replacing them with 3 years? is the not enough cooling, or moisture that could be causing it? I'm curious cause you sound like you have a lot of harddrive failures and while of course it will fail at some point, I honestly haven't had too many drives die during use - especially in servers.
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How does an external drive start being used as shared storage? I'm assuming it's not mirrored? If not mirrored, you're just asking for trouble (and creating extra work for yourself when it fails)
Sounds like that needs to get replaced as soon as possible. Something with mirroring. Even a consumer-grade NAS is probably better than whatever you currently have. If you're really pinched for capital, use a PC with two large hard drives and install FreeNAS (that would be better than the consumer-grade NAS)
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For an immediate solution, try AetherStore. https://order.aetherstore.com/
You can run it for 30 days.
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@Hubtech said:
i'd love to come in and fix what ails ya
I want to fix it too.. It can be done,... and I know that once it's put right that it WILL be more manageable.
@scottalanmiller said:
Start looking but don't quit yet. See what is out there.
I'd like to not leave,.. but at this point I'm overwhelmed. I know it's a 'How do you eat a elephant?' type thing,.. but in this case it's almost as if the elephant is sitting on me. We all have had (at least I would wager) tough spots... And we manage through.
@thecreativeone91 said:
Contact @Minion-Queen and get NTG to come to the rescue!
Another Question begs to be asked? Is there some kind of brand or model of HDD you are using that are failing so much? are you not replacing them with 3 years? is the not enough cooling, or moisture that could be causing it? I'm curious cause you sound like you have a lot of harddrive failures and while of course it will fail at some point, I honestly haven't had too many drives die during use - especially in servers.
It's not so much as there are so many drives that are failing... it's how this are arranged. You JUST don't used a external USB hard drive as a network share. You just don't - double that in a business environment. When you do, you are saying that you WANT to cause your organization misery but creating multiple failure points that YOU have to then fix - and risk failure of not just the HDD,.. but the organization as a whole.
This drive is a simple WD My Book Essential. Single Drive,.. connected to a Desktop,..doing what a Server and disk array in RAID configuration should be doing. And this was one of four that I have counted.
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I get that this is frustrating, and i'm sure that there is much more going on, but dont let it get to you like this. The best you can do is document to whomever you report to that you think changes should be made, explain why you think these changes should be made, and also explain what a failure cold "cost" the company. I agree this is not the way network shares SHOULD be handled. What size is this business? how many employees? how much profit lost if one of these drive should fail? How long would you guys be "out" if a drive failed?
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@Hubtech said:
I get that this is frustrating, and i'm sure that there is much more going on, but dont let it get to you like this. The best you can do is document to whomever you report to that you think changes should be made, explain why you think these changes should be made, and also explain what a failure cold "cost" the company. I agree this is not the way network shares SHOULD be handled. What size is this business? how many employees? how much profit lost if one of these drive should fail? How long would you guys be "out" if a drive failed?
Yes it is very frustrating. I don't know of any IT person that would just toss stuff together like this was done. It is the worst example of what a 'IT' person could do. I mean really?
Change have been stated needed to be made. Consolidation, replication, and off site backups. And they are good with them. They know things need to be changed - My case was made exactly one year ago today ... Happy 1 year anniversary....
We are a Non Profit, about 300 people across 9 counties. Everyone is pretty much stand alone - some shares are on server class boxes, but the majority is desktop based with an external drive in some capacity. Of course, I have a server that was built with JUST.ONE.DRIVE! REALLY?? I mean WT* I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed,.. but ... I just don't have words to express (well I do,.. but I'm also trying to be professional about this...)
I'm looking at recovery options outside of the office... nothing I can do with it.
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It's interesting that they can afford an onsite/on-staff IT person yet they what? Don't want to spend money to make their IT infrastructure strong and stable?
Are you their first on-staff IT person? If so then having locally attached drives off PC's doesn't surprise me at all.
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I'm guessing it's a regular WD style external HDD via USB shared through a server? I agree with @Dashrender . If it's SMB, not surprising, especially if no previous IT department existed.
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At some point, you need to just tell them that you will work your time each week, but not extra, unless a major outage occurs. Right now they need major work done. I agree with @scottalanmiller to bring in an MSP, like NTG. If they don't want to hire someone on full-time, an MSP can at least get the environment to a manageable level for a fixed cost. Also, with an MSP, you're bringing on the expertise of an entire team, not just one person. The value for a situation like this is infinitely higher. It still sounds like, based on the geographical size of your business, that you need at least one more person. However, getting your business to a point where you can manage it to a reasonable degree yourself, without having to put out new fires daily, would be advantageous.
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@g.jacobse Are you not able to just get a proper NAS? Attack the problem by building a better case for one, use this situation as an example. Document the time it takes you to fix it, the costs (both labor and equipment, as well as lost time due to the failure) and then juxtapose that with a quality NAS with proper redundancy and a better backup mechanism. It's tough, but this is where the skills of persuasion have to prevail.
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I think a lot of people have gotten the right idea - build some business cases to support your needs in IT. This can be a problem in a non-profit as people who run non-profits normally do so because they cannot run a real business and don't understand how to accomplish goals. So logic and math often will fail there. Non-profits are a special type of disaster. If they actually care about the goals of the non-profit, they will want to make things better. But few people running non-profits do it for the altruistic goals of the organization but actually do it to make a quick buck because donations rarely have good oversight.
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It sounds like a good storage strategy is needed as a starting point. How will all data be stored, who will it be backed up, etc.
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Someone stick a fork in me...
I think I'm done... just plain done.. I feel like I'm in the middle of the NY Stock Exchange surrounded by users screaming wants/needs/issues/ complaints/ rants/etc and shoving tickets in my personal space....
It's a wonder I haven't ran out of here screaming yet.... but I do have a bottle of whiskey in the truck...Fishing anyone?
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@g.jacobse said:
Someone stick a fork in me...
I think I'm done... just plain done.. I feel like I'm in the middle of the NY Stock Exchange surrounded by users screaming wants/needs/issues/ complaints/ rants/etc and shoving tickets in my personal space....
It's a wonder I haven't ran out of here screaming yet.... but I do have a bottle of whiskey in the truck...Fishing anyone?
You need to put your foot down. Tell your company/organization that you need help, no ifs, ands, or buts. Get an MSP to come in and blast out a lot of the projects for you. Nudge nudge at NTG on this one. Seriously.
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@g.jacobse Time for a sit down with your boss. You need some assistance as you are only one person. If they don't want to give you additional help then walk. No job is worth sacrificing your health for.
