I can relate. I frequently do the 60 hr week thing, and as the senior of the two IT people for our company, I do all the design/planning/decision-making, as well as fix all the hard stuff the other guy can't fix. I have found that automating my repetitive tasks has helped a lot. I did a few things to help my ability to work smarter rather than harder. I set aside an hour a day for a while (at home, at work after hours, wherever) and played with new tools; reskit, joeware, scripting, whatever it took. That got me some confidence in using the advanced tools. I spent a bunch of time on this forum and the sys admin forum (sunbelt). Lurking mostly, and contributing when time and skill allowed, but frequently looking at a problem, making an estimate of the fix, and then comparing my fix to the "experts". I developed monitoring for all my production using What's Up Gold and Dumpevt/grep. That allowed me to find most failures well before they developed. I'd say better than 95% of the server problems I deal with are things I find before the end-users know about them, which is how it should be, IMO. I've also trained my junior admin and handed off all the stuff I can to him. It's hard to let go of some of it, but once I do and see that it's getting handled, I relax. :-) I think the bottom line is that until I took the steps necessary to work smarter, I just kept working harder. Spending a bunch of time to improve my skills and efficiency paid off tremendously. I don't do the 100 hour weeks anymore. Spending 8 hours to develop workable group policies saved me at least that much time per week with desktop configuration issues. If you can get your boss to buy into allowing you some no-contact time each week, you can use that to improve your skills/efficiency. You can make the case to him/her that using a bit of your time will pay dividends quickly. Do whatever it takes to move as far from reactive mode as you can. I've felt your pain; it's no fun...
********************** Charlie Kaiser W2K3 MCSA/MCSE/Security, CCNA Systems Engineer Essex Credit / Brickwalk 510 595 5083 ********************** > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Garyphold > Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 7:39 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] AD computer accounts being removed > > Charlie, > > Thanks for taking the time to explain. I'm in a position > where I'm making > the big decisions, doing the big work and also doing all the > little details > (I'm it) including daily problems. Zero training/learning time, zero > anything except get to the next fire. I need spend some time > learning and > using tools like sysprep and GP to get back some of that time. > > Gary > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Charlie Kaiser > Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 10:07 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] AD computer accounts being removed > > > Sysprep is pretty simple; there's a lot of documentation > available on it. As > Rich mentioned, you need to set up your customizations under > one profile and > copy that to the default user profile. Some irksome things > change, however. > One of my pet peeves is that when you sysprep a PC, the next > time it boots, > the select OS timeout goes from whatever you have set it to > (5 sec in our > case) back to the default of 30 sec. > > I have found that using group policy to make most of the > settings changes is > better than doing it on the workstation. We start with a > sysprepped image > that runs the mini-setup when first booted. We then the > workstation and > place it in the domain, where the GPOs apply to make all the required > settings. > > I was able to go from a boot floppy, ghost, and ghostwalker > to a boot CD, > sysprep, and ghost (our new laptops don't have floppy drives) > in about 4 > days of testing and fine-tuning. I took a couple of laptops > and a BartPE CD > (with ghost added to it) into a spare conference room, didn't > answer my > phone, and worked it all out. A few days of work and the result is > significantly simpler deployment of new images. > > ********************** > Charlie Kaiser > W2K3 MCSA/MCSE/Security, CCNA > Systems Engineer > Essex Credit / Brickwalk > 510 595 5083 > ********************** > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Garyphold > > Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 5:01 AM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] AD computer accounts being removed > > > > Thanks for the link Nav. > > > > I use Symantec (PowerQuest) V2i Desktop (DriveImage). > > Haven't used Ghost (Ghostwalker) or Sysprep. Been wanting to > > experiment with Sysprep but haven't had the time. I was > > thinking about that this morning though. Is there a big > > learning curve with Sysprep? > > > > I use V2i for cloning, because I'm already using that for > > backups of all the workstations and all the servers. Hard > > drive backups instead of tape. Without sysprep, I'm stuck > > being able to only clone like machines. > > > > I really need to learn to use Sysprep. Too many fires > > burning right now. > > > > Gary > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > > Navroz Shariff > > Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 3:29 PM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] AD computer accounts being removed > > > > > > Hi Gary, > > > > Try looking at this article from MS regarding 'Resetting > > computer accounts in Windows 2000 and Windows XP'. > > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216393/EN-US/ > > > > Also, you join the computer to the domain and then change its name? > > Do you reset the SIDs of the cloned workstation using > > GhostWalker or Sysprep? > > > > -Nav > > > > > > ________________________________ > > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Garyphold > > Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 3:04 PM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] AD computer accounts being removed > > > > > > Brenda, > > > > FWIW: It happens to me when I clone a workstation then try > > to join that workstation to the domain in order to change the > > computer name. AD sees 2 machines with the same name, gives > > me a notification and lets the 2nd one in. Then when the > > original machine with that name logs in next time, it isn't > > seen on the network. Then I have to do the same thing you > > did - with the original machine. Then all is well again. > > Don't know if that will help, but it might narrow down the > > problem some. > > > > Gary > > > > Gary Polvinale > > Denton ATD > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Brenda Casey > > Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 2:24 PM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] AD computer accounts being removed > > > > > > Yes, their computer account in AD is actually gone. > > > > Thanks, > > Brenda > > > > Brenda Casey > > Network Manager > > Billings Public Schools > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 406-247-3792 > > > > > > ________________________________ > > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gil > > Kirkpatrick > > Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 11:14 AM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] AD computer accounts being removed > > > > > > When you say "lose their account", do you mean the computer > > object in AD disappears? Or something else? > > > > -g > > > > ________________________________ > > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Brenda Casey > > Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 10:42 AM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: [ActiveDir] AD computer accounts being removed > > > > > > Occasionally computers will lose their account in Active > > Directory for no apparent reason. Sometimes it is a computer > > that has just joined the domain, while other times the > > machine has been a member of the domain for 2 years. The > > computer can only be logged on by a local account (not a > > domain account). To remedy this, the computer has to be > > disjoined from the domain, join a workgroup, then join the > > domain again. As I am sure you all are aware, this is not > > only time consuming, but very inappropriate to have to do. > > > > Has anyone else had this experience and how have you fixed it? > > > > Thanks, > > Brenda > > > List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx > List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx > List archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ > > List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx > List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx > List archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ > List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/
