----- Original Message ----- From: "BruceG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Debian-User" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2003 8:38 PM Subject: Free-lance - office move stuff-o-rama
> Okay, > > Vikki's good post on sysadmin consulting got me to thinking. I do a > lot of volunteer PC/LAN work at our local church. They used to pay someone a > good chunk of cash, so they do know what consulting costs. > > Anyway, the church is moving their office to another building. The > office has 5 PC's on a LAN (6 after I cable another drop). They have a DSL > router, a wireless WAP and 2 wireless bridges. They will probably have > maintenance move the PC's, but I was thinking of helping my son (a > homeschooled 18 year old taking 2 last courses before hitting college) and > his friend (another homeschooled kid, 17 years old) put together a proposal. > > I used to be a Telecomm project leader before settling down into a > non-travel job. (I MISS travel!!!). We did a LOT of office moves, and our > group moved the servers, routers, switches, PCs and printers - and put out > RFPs for voice and for cabling. > > Anyway, on the low end I was thinking the following items should be in > a proposal (been a while since I did RFPs, and a while since I read > proposals): > > 1. Back up data on critical PCs > Payroll PC > Birth/Baptisms/Weddings/Deaths PC > Bulletin PCs (2 peoplewrite the weekly bulletin) > > None of the above is currently backed up, so I'd have to look at > choices. I'm leaning towards setting up a Samba Server, backing the data up > then move the PCs. Data would either be kept for one month on the Samba > Server if I supplied it - or as long as the church wanted if they supplied > the hardware. I'd price out the time involved in setting up a Samba server > and doing backups. If it's on a PC I would lend short term, I'd have to > figure the cost in installing another drive (to keep the data separate). > > A second option would be to back up critical data to CD-RW. I'd price it > by CD instead of by PC, as it could become time intensive. I would go with a seperate fileserver. It has been said several times on this list that CD-RW isn't the best medium to backup. I read somewhere that DVD is better to do this because the error protection is better on those as opposed to CD-RW. So my choice would be 1. Harddisk (Fileserver) 2. DVD 3. CD-RW And it doesn't have to be a samba server. I would try to use rsync. I think there is a win32 implementation of it also. If not, try to get it running under Cygwin. Very easy to setup and then you can also ssh/scp/sftp from windows machines to the fileserver to backup up. Or the other way around: have the fileserver pull the backups in via rsync/ssh/scp/sftp. If you want to be totally safe, you could put a DVD+-RW in the fileserver and us it to backup all the data onto DVD and move some of those DVD's out of the office in case fire or another disaster strikes. > 2. Shut down and pack the PCs (a Friday afternoon activity) > This would include power down the PC. Remove cables and mouse. Keep > cables and mouse together (just tape or tie wrap them or put them in a > seperate box per PC). Move PCs to storage area to keep them secure while > office furniture is moved. > > 3. Move PCs to new building. This is just a short walk, so they could be > carried. > Insert floppy in drive to prevent failure. (is there a command to park > the hard drive?). Move the PC, keyboard, monitor, cables and mouse. If i recall correctly, harddisks are parked automatically these days. > 4. Set PCs up on desks.Power up and test. > > Open items: > DSL line is to be moved to the new building. > BellSouth is to relocate and test the DSL router Be sure to test it yourself before they leave. Wouldn't be the first time they think it works, leave and you end up with a non working setup. (Speaking in general here, not specifically about BellSouth) > Verify that LAN cable is installed. Test each drop. If LAN is to be > completely cabled, wireless WAP and Bridge not required. Why would you want to switch from WAP to cables? > 3 LAN printers are on lease. Have leasing company move the LAN printers to > make sure we don't void warrantees. > > Tests (after DSL is installed and LAN printers are installed): > Startup with no errors > Internet access > Print to shared printer > Print to locally attached printer > Access to records PC? > Payroll PC - connect to central location? > > Documentation: > Document router configuration > Document LAN cabling > Document PC software > Document PC Hardware configuration > > Options: > Set up spare PC as Samba server. > Configure backups from PCs to Samba Server > Ongoing contract: backup from Samba Server to CD-RW (monthly full > backups, weekly incrementals) OR backup to tape (if church buys tape drive) Do NOT forget to TEST the backups. It's nice to know that the backups will actually work :) > Okay - if you guys were doing an office move, what else would you include? > It's a MS shop, so Linux would only play in there as a Samba server for file > sharing and for backups. You could also put the Linux pc in as firewall if you do not want the router to do this. Regards, Benedict -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
