Re: Disaster Recovery scenario

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: Gman (DoNotSendSpam_at_Sun.com)
Date: 08/31/04 

Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 11:49:11 -0700

Thanks Hank for your comments. Very valid point and Microsoft tech support
is very helpful. However, just something's to remember as follows:

A. In my location MS tech calls cost nearly $500.00 not $275.00.
B. Disaster Recovery of Exchange 2000 and beyond has become relatively
simple thanks to the great work of the MS Exchange Development team.
C. The solution recovery process is straight forward as it is a classic text
book case of a failed Exchange Server IE: All the data is still there
    including the AD information. The only thing that is missing is the
System State of the Server but this is not a big problem as first thought.
D. When spending money on a repair why not look at investing in tools that
will not just solve the problem but improve over all service levels?

Now your point is very valid if you do not know what you are doing or have
run into some very unexpected issues then save time and call Microsoft.
Their level two support team is very good. However, not having some
Exchange service register is not a big deal, it takes me less time to
register these service manually than it does for me to rebuild, from
scratch, a 2000 Server, apply all the updates, and reinstall Exchange. Time
that I have to spend whether I call Microsoft or not.

Now since I need to spend this time what is the harm in asking the public
support groups for a little peer advice. While I am waiting for the Servers
to rebuild? And sometime you can be very lucky like I was to find someone
like Susan who actually had the info that I needed. That is Aelita works
and the QArtical about the Services which solved the problem. I know if I
had phoned MS the call screener would have most likely given me the Qartical
info but definitely not the Aelita tip. And further to this it would have
not been posted in the news group for all others to read.

I like paid technical support for commercial software. I also like the
news groups and the free exchange of ideas from one professional to another.
I do not think the time I spend in the public news groups to be a waste of
time. In fact I wish that this kind of support for commercial software was
expanded and improved with as much effort as the development of the software
itself. But since it is free obviously this will not happen. Perhaps what
I am really getting at
is that before you start calling for technical support you need to be up to
speed with the issues. Check your course material, read the reference
books and manuals, check the news groups, check the resource websites, list
your options, price your solution, identify pro's and con's then make your
move on spending the money. Of course if the organization is up to speed
this would have all been done before hand and in the disaster recovery plan
book. But then how many companies want to pay for developing plans for
disasters that might not happen but just save the money for the one that
does?

And here is the conundrum that I have between purchasing really good utility
software on the scale of SpinRite or Aelitea or simply spending the money on
Service calls. With the purchase of the utility assets side of the ledger
are high where as with the Service call the Expense side is high. Further,
with the utility what was once seen as a disaster with an unknown outcome no
matter how much time spent on it, is now seen as a problem that will take X
amount of time to complete with X percentage of success. How many Exchange
disasters are caused by HDD failures. Of those failures how many could have
been fixed by running SpinRite on the machine for 6 hours recover the data
and image to a new hdd? Now how long does it take to rebuild Exchange in
disaster recovery mode? 1 hour 2 lets say to do all the updates for the OS
I mean everything, take image of the Data Drive (as you do not want to use
the source) on the average small business exchange server (let say Celeron
400 512ram IDE interface) let say 10 11 hours? Wow that is time you have
to spend anyway no matter if you called Tech Support or not so why jump the
gun and just call tech support without investigating your option first?

And then when I look at what it takes to rebuild an exchange solution
recover the data deal with the SMTP NDR issues those HP UtlraStor with
Veritas Back Solutions with the DR solution does not look that bad in price.
But then if they lose the tapes what was the point in purchasing the gear in
the first place?

So yes call tech support but due so after looking at all your options
first..... It should not be your first line of defense but your last.
Because if they cannot help you then who can? I mean bottom line it is your
data if you are not willing to look after it who is? Besides MS news groups
is a very powerful forum where MS customers can come and share ideas and
experiences.

"Hank Arnold" <rasilon@aol.com> wrote in message
news:2piph9FjlqgkU1@uni-berlin.de...
> I always argue with my management that $275 is cheap when compared to the
> cost of my spending many hours of my time trying unsuccessfully to resolve
a
> problem. If it will take me more than a couple of hours to resolve a
problem
> like this and MS can resolve it in an hour or two, it's money well
spent....
>
> --
> Regards,
> Hank Arnold
>
> "Gman" <DoNotSendSpam@Sun.com> wrote in message
> news:OXVn6HrjEHA.636@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> > ...................................... However, with a limited budget
I
> > have to choose
> > between HDD recovery services, MS tech-support and an investment in the
> > future (Aelita).
>
>

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