Some days I hate my job....

[Barticus]

Under Evaluation

I thought you might like to have a look at the Apple server side of things.  Just as pretty as the desktops.  No guarantees we're going to buy it, but we have a week to test it all to heck!

Apple X-Server, X-RAID

[pendragon]

Now THAT looks like a great place to work!

Just curious, with servers, does one still need/use utilities such as DW and TTPro? In general, how are the maintenance routines different from those of a DT or PB?

Harv

[Barticus]

QUOTE(pendragon @ Nov 6 2003, 7:00 PM)

Just curious, with servers, does one still need/use utilities such as DW and TTPro? In general, how are the maintenance routines different from those of a DT or PB?

Hehe, what you CAN'T see are all the Dell PCs around the place.  An unfortunate reality is that I spend 90% of my time doing Win/Linux support and only touch the Apples infrequently.

Well, my work environment is not what I would call 'typical'.  Our servers get turned over quite frequently so tools like you mentioned are handy rather than critical.  Quite different from my last place of employment where Norton Utilities saved my bacon about three times a week.  My server support concerns aren't really all that different from the average end user, I just have different priorities with about two dozen people and a hundred CPU's to support.  Data backup and security take up about 75% of my time, either implementing, supporting, or researching one way or another.   I have to verify that our data backup procedure works, which includes doing a test restore now and then (which reminds me I'm about due for another one).  My primary concern with the RAID box is security, it's going to have to be locked down seven ways to sunday and it's not proving to be an easy task presently.  Of course, it isn't helping that I don't have any documentation either <grumble grumble>, but I'm still having fun poking around.  After that are your typical printing/surfing/ keyboard/mouse issues and whatnot which gives me a chance to talk to my end users and gets my head out of the inside of one computer or another.

Like the header said, some days I hate it (when the 0's and 1's aren't co-operating), and other days I love it.

But, that is life.

B

[pendragon]

Barticus, Thanks for the feedback. I might have even learned a thing or two...

Harv

[Gary S]

I don't know a thing about Apple Servers but it's a great picture.  

By the way the lights are flashing it looks like a lot of activity.

Are the verticle things, with numbers on the bottom, with the lights HDDs?

[Barticus]

QUOTE(Gary S @ Nov 6 2003, 10:12 PM)

I don't know a thing about Apple Servers but it's a great picture. 

By the way the lights are flashing it looks like a lot of activity.

Are the verticle things, with numbers on the bottom, with the lights HDDs?

Not a lot of activity, most of the lights are just status lights.  i.e. power OK, Temperature OK, etc. etc.

Yes, each numbered box on the lower unit is a hard drive enclosure.  In this case, each contains a 180 GB Hard drive.  The green lights indicate if the hard drive is functional, and the blue light indicates if the hard drive is part of a volume.  In this case, the seven on the left are, and the seven on the right aren't.  You may also notice that drive number 6's status light is not lit.  Actually it is cycling from amber to green and back again as we pulled that drive to check it's 'hot-swap' function and it's currently being re-integrated into the volume.