Manual Network Maintenance

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Asgorath

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 12, 2004
Messages
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I'm starting a list of routine maintenance for us to do here at the office. Would you guys read it over and chime in if I should think about something else too?

Server Description:
10 x Servers and accompanying network gear w/ 2 x T1
3 x large UPS units for servers
1 x Single Tape Backup unit
1 x Dedicated A/C unit

Suite Description:
1 x POE switch
1 x UPS for POE switch

Client Description:
40 x Midtower Desktop Machines in 3 offices
Dual Monitor
Optical Mouse
POE VOIP phone
Plantronics headsets

Thanks,

Greg

Weekly
* Resort Quickbooks
* Defrag/ Scandisk/ Defrag Pagefile all workstations

Monthly
* Backup/ Verify Quickbooks database through quickbooks interface

Quarterly
* Test all UPS units
* Switch active/ passive clusters to distribute wear
* Test T1 Failover functionality
* Test Temperature monitoring in server room
* Put cleaning tape in backup drive
* Replace batteries in headset amplifiers

Yearly
* Clean LCD screens
* Wipe down phones and headsets
 
How critical /used is the Quickbooks database? I ask because if your company runs off of it and it's updated everyday, you may want to consider more than monthly backups though. For that matter, how often is the server backed up?

Other than the backup stuff (which you may have just left out) it looks like a fairly good plan.
 
Hurdler said:
How critical /used is the Quickbooks database? I ask because if your company runs off of it and it's updated everyday, you may want to consider more than monthly backups though. For that matter, how often is the server backed up?

Other than the backup stuff (which you may have just left out) it looks like a fairly good plan.
Click to expand...

We backup every server every day to tape (and the typical rotating cycle) with backupExec. However, that just grabs all the files. When you backup actually through the quickbooks interface it does a 'verify' on the quickbooks database and then backs it up. Also, quickbooks is a SQL program now so it keeps a transaction log of everything you do. When you do a verify and backup it deletes that log so it doesn't get too big.

I only mentioned to do the quickbooks backup once a month because we're already keeping the actual files backed up. I just want to be sure the database stays in good shape and that log file doesn't grow to ridiculous sizes.
 
Asgorath said:
We backup every server every day to tape (and the typical rotating cycle) with backupExec. However, that just grabs all the files. When you backup actually through the quickbooks interface it does a 'verify' on the quickbooks database and then backs it up. Also, quickbooks is a SQL program now so it keeps a transaction log of everything you do. When you do a verify and backup it deletes that log so it doesn't get too big.

I only mentioned to do the quickbooks backup once a month because we're already keeping the actual files backed up. I just want to be sure the database stays in good shape and that log file doesn't grow to ridiculous sizes.
Click to expand...

Ok, this makes more sense now! Then yes, it sounds like you have a pretty good plan :)
 
For the tape drive/cleaning tape idea, it is generally recommended by the vendors of most tape drive technologies to only clean the drive when they ask to be cleaned. The drive will have a "need cleaning" indicator, and most autoloaders/libraries will have an icon or message appear when one of the drives need to be cleaned. If the drive gets overcleaned, it will start to ask to be cleaned over and over and over, and will eventually need to be replaced since it won't do anything but ask to be cleaned. Some backup software suites will also tell you clean the drive first if the indicator is active before starting a backup job.
 
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