RWPT - Don't "Jack" it up, back it up!!!

I spent almost 4 years in Microsoft Product Support Services.  I would take calls and fix problems.  One nice thing about PSS is that if you worked the night shift, they would give you a salary differential.  Being a younger employee and in need of some extra cash I would field night shift calls.  The night shift calls were often really nasty issues and there was one common theme when it came to most customers. 

So I am watching my favorite show on Monday night.  Being a Premier Field Engineer, I travel a ton and there's one constant rule that I follow.  Book your flights and make hotel arrangements around the show "24."  Yeah, a DVR is a good idea, but I have too many friends who text message me their reactions as the show happens.  I turn the phone off when I am on the West Coast...  Watching "24" the night of the show is the only acceptable workaround.  I can't go to work the next day without knowing the facts.  Anyway, I am watching "24" and the main character Jack finally acquired the evidence that implicates the Fictional President of the United States in all of the days actions.  It was a recording of the Fictional President talking to the bad guy.  Jack had acquired the recording before in the season and then the bad guy got it back and during the last episode a different bad guy erased it.  WHY DIDN'T JACK MAKE A BACKUP??

That bothers me that my fictional hero didn't make a backup.  Jack is like the unfortunate many of the customers who would call me at night.  There's really no excuse.  We provide a tool (ntbackup.exe) to do backups.  It's free, or at least it comes free with the purchase of Windows Server.  So why aren't you using this shiny toy that comes in the bottom of the cereal box? 

So what is the excuse for not having a backup?  You didn't have time?  You were busy dodging bullets and running from the MAN?  Either way, don't get JACKED, make sure the data is BACKED!!  

 

 This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  I blogged last week on User Profile troubleshooting and that was one of my biggest pet peeves. ...

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Hi Sir , I need a help to find out if there is an automatic way to make import-export operations to be done in ILM . You know i need to click "RUN" under actions for Management Agent, i want this to be done automatically , can you guide me for this please ?

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Hello! In the Configure Run Profiles dialog for a Management Agent, highlight the run profile you want to automate and click the "Script" button below.  That will create a VBScript for that run profile.  I like to work out the order that I want to run my MA's in and name the files according to the order.  So if I have ten profiles to run, I name the script files 1.vbs, 2.vbs and so on, and I can use a single command like "for /L %i in (1,1,10) do cscript %i.vbs" to perform my runs.  Probably not the most elegant solution, but it works for me. --Shawn This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.