Non-Profit: Backups and Security
Had a few more visits with the local non-profit to wrap up a few images -- we're still working through the road-map that I created as part of the first engagement.
First I spent some time running more nmap scans on their internal network. They thought they had seen signs of "extra" PCs on the network so wanted more assurance that everything was as it should be. I identified all devices by IP and MAC address and then verified that we could match each to a machine in the office. Fortunately, it all matched up as expected.
Next up was putting some backups in place. We're going with MozyPro to start. They don't need a ton of data backed up and the cloud storage model is much preferred over buying tape drives, tapes and arranging for off-site storage. We have MozyPro installed on their main file server and it has been diligently running nightly backups without issue so far.
HP DL320 Repair
This was a project that extended much longer than necessary... One of the machineLOGIC clients had a failed drive in one of their backup servers. Usually not a big deal since the drives are in a RAID array. However, as soon as I'd replace the drive, another drive would get marked as failed -- not the original drive (which would still be marked as failed as well).
Nervous about losing everything, I used Clonezilla to make an image of the remaining drive in the boot mirror. That gave us some leeway to experiment.
Called HP support, they suggested flashing everything in the server: mainboard, raid controller, drives and anything in between that could be flashed. Unfortunately, that didn't change anything so ordered another drive with the theory that the first replacement was bad.
Nope, that wasn't it. Ordered another drive. Still wasn't the issue.
Dan, of machineLOGIC, finally called in a regional expert HP tech. Took him a while, but he found that the issue was related to how the server had initially been assembled -- the drive ports didn't match up to the same number controller ports... In other words, I had yet to have actually touched the right drive!
Once that was settled it was just a matter of minutes to get the right drive swapped and the clonezilla image restored back to the server.
Home Visit: Viruses and such
When I was full-time independent I did a lot of home visits for PC repair. Huge market there, can't deny it but that's a market that I generally avoid these days. However, I still help out with some of my best clients for those days and this was one of them.
She had some issues with odd error messages, software misconfigured, backups not running and viruses. I spent a few hours there and got things squared enough way for her to use the computer. Malwarebyte's Anti-malware was the star of this show; it found and swatted her bugs instantly. The rest was just routine maintenance to update some backup jobs and do a bit of cleanup.
PC Backup and Restore
This one was a quick evening project. Helped a private party get all their data backed up before they ran the HP restore utility on their PC. Straight-forward and painless which is definitely the preference for home visits!
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