Quote from: MarkThe problem with most sites is that they allow too many users on each server in the farm (Citrix recommend 30 on very modern hardware, Id say 20-22 is better on the likes of mid range DL380 G5 equiv), AND they are lazily managed - for example - if something is up with one of the boxes rather than tackle the issue they will take it out of the farm for that published application. Net result - one less server, more load.

You ever worked at my place?  One of our customers did that, to the tune of now being 3 servers, and the authentication server is about to die a horrible death.  

I see it all too often

Quote from: MarkI see it all too often

*chuckle*

I was told the other day to "Sort it Out" by the "Service Delivery Manager".  She also demanded a Plan Of Action by the end of the day, like ive nothing else to do.  I suppose I _could_ have done, but your systems are knackered, they are creaking at the seams.  The 2k boxen arent service packed up, and the NT4 servers just need skipping wouldnt have gone down all that well.  

Why do companies refuse to spend money on their IT infrastucture, then complain when it doesnt work?  They dont skimp on the Blackberrys, or their company cars and wage packets.

Quote from: Beaker

Quote from: MarkI see it all too often

*chuckle*

I was told the other day to "Sort it Out" by the "Service Delivery Manager".  She also demanded a Plan Of Action by the end of the day, like ive nothing else to do.  I suppose I _could_ have done, but your systems are knackered, they are creaking at the seams.  The 2k boxen arent service packed up, and the NT4 servers just need skipping wouldnt have gone down all that well.  

Why do companies refuse to spend money on their IT infrastucture, then complain when it doesnt work?  They dont skimp on the Blackberrys, or their company cars and wage packets.

All to common, hire one tech guy for 50 computers and people etc seems to be a common act

Quote from: neXusAll to common, hire one tech guy for 50 computers and people etc seems to be a common act

thats cool, but the sheer volume of problems that come through to us should have sent warning lights flashing.  I chatted to my boss, and to one of our senior engineers.  We are reinstating some servers by the sound of things, likely the ones that were still in the farm when we took over, but werent switched the f*** on.  

Basically the company thought they could do their own support by taking it off the 3rd party (us), turns out they couldnt manage it because they lack the required level of skill and experience.  Between the little desk i work on we have ~50 years combined experience.  Plus, the next time she rings me up demanding something is done, now, without reference to my boss shes going to get the silent treatment.  Its maddening, and if ive nothing to say im not going to say anything.

Quote from: neXus

Quote from: Beaker

Quote from: MarkI see it all too often

*chuckle*

I was told the other day to "Sort it Out" by the "Service Delivery Manager".  She also demanded a Plan Of Action by the end of the day, like ive nothing else to do.  I suppose I _could_ have done, but your systems are knackered, they are creaking at the seams.  The 2k boxen arent service packed up, and the NT4 servers just need skipping wouldnt have gone down all that well.  

Why do companies refuse to spend money on their IT infrastucture, then complain when it doesnt work?  They dont skimp on the Blackberrys, or their company cars and wage packets.

All to common, hire one tech guy for 50 computers and people etc seems to be a common act

A more common model is 250 seats to 1 Tech support engineer, 3 sites to 1 tech support engineer, 3 tech support to one 2nd line.

I am in the process of moving a 16,500 user org from exchange 2003 to exchange 2007 for the sole purpose of making push email more accessible to those with smartphones.

I had a nice solution in place with a bluecoat SG as a reverse proxy on the DMZ serving up the owa. MS got involved and now I have 3 ISA servers, A cluster of CAS servers, A cluster of Mailbox servers, several hub servers and edge servers, and more holes punched through the double skinned firewall (PIX and CP NGX R65 on nokia) than is advisable from a security POV. And a netscaler thrown in for good measure.

Oh, and ISA 2006 enterprise is pish.

Quote from: MarkA more common model is 250 seats to 1 Tech support engineer, 3 sites to 1 tech support engineer, 3 tech support to one 2nd line.

That would be a dream, at that level we would actually be able to get some real fixes in place, rather than the Kludges we are implementing at the moment.  One site (now mercifully gone last week) has some Proliant 400s, I for one wasnt sorry to see the back of those.