Re: OT - Cloning and CopyWipe

In article <008c00d6$0$22955$c3e8da3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Technobarbarian <Technobarbarian-ztopzpam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Robert Bonomi" <bonomi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:idOdnWZdrp81SsbXnZ2dnUVZ_qednZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Computer management -- especially 'network' and 'systems' management --
*is*
an area requiring specialized skills and knowledge to do it *WELL*. All
the
more so when something 'unexpected' happens. Microsoft has done the world
a
_TREMENDOUS_ DIS-SERVICE by touting systems where they claim there is no
need
for an expert or professional administrator to manage it.

When and where did Microsoft make this claim?

MS has been pushing that line since at least Win95. Saying in effect,"NOBODY
needs to know that, 'trust us' to manage your box, and everything will be all
right". You know, when they stopped providing any technical documentation about
how things work. when the 'user manual' that came with the new O/S went from
a several hundred page book to a six-sheet fold-out. when the -entire-
directions for new software were reduced to "stick the disk in the drive and
click 'install'.

Example: bug fixes. Try to find out exactly what the bug is that is being
fixed, whether it is an application or related to Windows. What
was going wrong, under what circumstances? How can you check to
see (a) _if_ that problem exists on your machine, or (b) *IF* the
'solution' fixes it?

How can you tell, _in_advance_, of installing a fix _what_ changes
it will make to the system -- what files it will replace, what
registry entries it will change, etc.?

How can you tell, _after_the_fact_, what things it actually _did_
change?

If the fix doesn't work, or introduces "some other problem", how
do you put thinks back 'like they were', _without_ the above
information?

Some patches, if you say you _don't_ want to install the patch,
it won't install it now, but the _next_ patch cycle, it will install
that previously rejected patch *without* asking you.

This all means that you don't have _any_ idea exactly what software is on your
machine, or what it is doing at any time. Not only don't you know, you
*CANNOT* find out. There's no 'inventory' you can check to see that (a)
you have everything you need, and (b) that you don't have things that you
(1) don't need, or (2) *shouldn't* be there. What better place to hide a
virus than among 5,000 or so 'unauditable' files.

*smart* system administrators _segregate_ the fixed operating system components
from operating system 'operational data' from the applications from 'valuable'
persistent data from temporary data from transient data.

If the operating system code (and application program code) is on a drive that
is _physically_ write-protected it is *impossible* for a virus, or any other
'malevolent' software to tamper with that programming. if the system is
configured so that _only_ files that reside on that protected disk (or disks)
can be treated as 'executable', it is not _possible_ (even theoretically)
for a virus to install itself on the machine. Of course, that kind of a
set-up _requires_ multiple physical drives in the machine. Microsoft was so
sure that 'nobody' would want to do something like that that they made it
_impossible_ to do that from the first version of Windows on. The drive letter
you boot from, and where the O/S files must reside, *must* be writable.
Window's won't run if it isn't. But, you don't have to worry about that.
Microsoft knows what's best for you and your machine, and _they_ don't
think it's important enough to worry about.


I bought my first computer about 3 decades ago. The closest I've come
to a formal class on computers was a quarter on Boolean algebra about 5
years before that. I've turned my computer over to an "expert" exactly once
in all that time. The "expert" was a pimple faced high school kid who
cleaned contacts and reseated chips. He was 'the' Tech at an Apple store.
That experience taught me that, for many things, being a home computer
expert isn't all that hard.

I have _no_ argument with that. "for many things" it *is* true. When,
however, one of the 'few' rears up and bites you, the situation is _totally_
different.

My home network serves, at various times: 2
desktop computers, a laptop, 2 handheld devices and 2 game consoles, along
with various peripherals. As long as you take basic precautions and have a
plan B, what's the worst that can happen?

A facetious-sounding answer that has an unfortunate amount of truth in it:
"something that you _haven't_ thought of".

_Some_ of the things I've seen:
1) running back-ups religiously, but _failing_ to check the results of
the back-up operation to see if it worked. (it had failed every run
for the last 18+ months.)
2) making back-ups religiously, but _failing_ to test the back-up copies
to make sure they can be _restored_from_.
3) making back-ups religiously, that were readable by the drive they were
written on, but -not- by any other drive in the place.
then _THAT_ drive died. *NONE* of the backups or archived history were
readable.
4) _Not_ make backups religiously.
5) Make backups religiously, and store them _RIGHT_NEXT_ to the computer.
(the backups got stolen _with_ the computer. oh my)
6) Put the _telephone_ desk set (a standard '2500' type with that big
electromagnet driving the ringer) on top of the back-ups.
7) following word-of-mouth virus hoaxes, and deleting CRITICAL operating
system files from the machine.
8) using compressed disk volumes, and just making a back-up of the
compressed volume. (Any error on the back-up and the *entire* back-up
is unusable -- the _single_ 'file' that is the compressed volume cannot
be 'partially' copied back.)
9) Not practicing 'safe hex'. This P3 machine was running like an absolute
*dog*. Not surprising -- there were over TWO HUNDRED _active_ viruses
=running= on the machine.
10) COMMERCIAL installations that couldn't back up their entire database set
in one night, so they did part of the system one night, and part the next.
_UNFORTUNATELY_ they didn't ensure that all the drives holding any given
database were backed up at the same time. The mess that ensues when
the data records are backed up on Monday, and the indexes were backed up
on Tuesday is -not- pretty. Or when, between Monday and Tuesday, a
record that _was_ on a 'Tuesday' disk ends up on a 'Monday' disk. AND
the Monday disk then dies.

I've seen a system crash that was caused by simply rewinding a tape. A
crash that could be caused 'on demand' that way -- reliably and
repeatably. A job consisting of only -three- 'absolutely vanilla'
system commands would trigger the crash. Every one of those commands
was used hundreds of times per day, and frequently in the same sequence.

I've _fixed recurring crashes of a machine by wrapping it in tin foil.
(cheap, but _effective_, RFI shielding to block the outside interference
that was causing the crashes. Sometimes you do have to think 'outside
the box. <grin>)a

I've seen machines that "reliably" became unreliable when the
construction project next door took a day off.

I've seen a sick machine that 'got well' when the repairman walked into
the room with it. He could stand outside the doorway and _see_ that
it was misbehaving; take two steps forward, and it cleared up. Two
steps backward and it would go sick again. _ANYBODY_ELSE_ could walk
into the room, right up to the machine, without affecting the behavior.


As long as the 'plan B' doesn't involve using the computer (or anything that
had been stored on it) you're probably covered.


There is a wonderful line about "For every fool-proof system there exists a
_sufficiently_determined_ fool capable of breaking it". It applies with a
vengeance to computers.

Recognizing _all_ the ways something can 'go wrong' -- in advance -- and
making sure the procedures cover all those contingencies _does_ take a
professional. The amount of knowledge you have to have, just to identify
_all_ the ways things can fail, is staggering. Knowing how to classify
the risks, and how to evaluate 'how much' it is worth spending on ameliorating
which of them, is yet another art form. And that's just the start of
what a professional computer admin be aware of.



.

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