So I was finally given admin rights to some of the servers here. Question though.

I work at a very large Help Desk with a huge customer base and was recently given administrative rights to some of the servers. Yesterday was my first time actually remoting into one of these servers ( a print server). I went in and only needed to restart the print spooler and that resolved my issue for the customer. Upon logging off this print server I noticed the option (as expected) to shutdown the server as well as log off. I logged off but here is the question: What happens of a person inadvertently shutdown the print server? Bear in mind that many many sites rely on this print server. I would think it'd be simple enough to just turn the server (WS2k3) back on. I know better than to just shut a server down but how often does that happen and what are the consequences? I know that the answer probably is a hard one to give.

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Comments

beck11488

Ur company should use group policy and remove the shut down, restart options. That is what we do with our help desk to the servers we allow them access to.

I think the what would happen is up to each companies own policies.

cruwl

The Network i work on has the same setup. The Shut down option is available on all the servers.

On our network is a known policy that is you reboot a server my mistake, disciplinary action will be taken, something as simple as having your rights removed, or up to termination.

So as an Admin, i always make sure i click log off, and don't be in a hurry. double check what you see on the screen before you click.

The only people i have seen actually reboot one never should have had the right in the first place.

Pishof

The option is there for our servers as well but in our environment it likely wouldn't cause any noticeable issue if restarted immediately. Redundant AD DCs and the such.

It wasn't all the uncommon when learning netware to accidently get trapped needing to reboot the server. I'm lucky to work in a laidback environment (K-12) and any short mistaken shutdowns are unlikely to be a major issue if noticed at all by users.

Then again we have plenty of redundancy and instead of bitter users we have a healthy and respected relationship with staff.

arvin2212

Or,

alternately you could go to run and type "logoff" without the " " prefix. You could do the same from the command line. We were told to follow that method at my workplace to ensure that we don't click on something undesirable.

CodeBlox

Alright, I was just wondering. I realized that in a hurry, one could mistakenly click shutdown instead of logoff.

By the way, this is on the NMCI helpdesk just to give you an idea of "how large" of a network it is. And please no hate post!

mattlee09

CodeBlox wrote: »

Alright, I was just wondering. I realized that in a hurry, one could mistakenly click shutdown instead of logoff.

By the way, this is on the NMCI helpdesk just to give you an idea of "how large" of a network it is. And please no hate post!

Well, in that case, at least it's only 1 of some ~4000 servers, lol.

We've had a few instances of accidental things regarding servers, but only in K-12 support. I assume that

cruwl wrote:

On our network is a known policy that is you reboot a server my mistake, disciplinary action will be taken, something as simple as having your rights removed, or up to termination."

is probably true regarding for-profit and military networks...the only way to seriously prevent these things from happening the first time.

E-Unix

If no print jobs were spooling at the moment, then interruption would probably be unnoticed. If users have single sign on to domain, they wouldn't notice it. If there were custom print APPs running, that could be a problem. If admin has Host Intrusion app running, he would find out soon enough.

pham0329

On a print server, I don't see it being too big of a problem. On a production database/web server....that's a different story.

Also, remember that if it's shutoff, someone has to go and turn it back on, and I doubt you have access to the physical servers.

TLeTourneau

pham0329 wrote: »

Snip... Also, remember that if it's shutoff, someone has to go and turn it back on, and I doubt you have access to the physical servers.

That's why he needs access to iLO\DRAC\IRSA!

onesaint

Possibly offer up shut down event tracker and get some brownie points?

My first year with a Linux back end kept me worried like that. Mind you this isn't 4000 servers, but one wrong asterisk...

Essendon

TLeTourneau wrote: »

That's why he needs access to iLO\DRAC\IRSA!

I cannot count the number of times iLO has come in handy. One of the best things HP ever made.

pham0329

TLeTourneau wrote: »

That's why he needs access to iLO\DRAC\IRSA!

iLO and DRAC can get spendy....what's IRSA?

shodown

cruwl wrote: »

The Network i work on has the same setup. The Shut down option is available on all the servers.

On our network is a known policy that is you reboot a server my mistake, disciplinary action will be taken, something as simple as having your rights removed, or up to termination.

So as an Admin, i always make sure i click log off, and don't be in a hurry. double check what you see on the screen before you click.

The only people i have seen actually reboot one never should have had the right in the first place.

That is a bold and and un needed policy. I have worked for some of the worlds largest banks and these types of things are going to happen no matter what. The key is that your system should be designed so that 1 single server shouldn't bring down your infrastructure.

Mistakes are going to happen and they shouldn't be minimized as much as possible, where the one guy above mentioned group policy. With that said a person who makes constant mistakes with procedures in place should be let go, but 1 incident you shouldn't have your access taken or be terminated.

ChooseLife

IMO:

beck11488 wrote: »

Ur company should use group policy and remove the shut down, restart options. That is what we do with our help desk to the servers we allow them access to.

Good way to do it

cruwl wrote: »

On our network is a known policy that is you reboot a server my mistake, disciplinary action will be taken, something as simple as having your rights removed, or up to termination.

Bad way to do it

TLeTourneau

pham0329 wrote: »

iLO and DRAC can get spendy....what's IRSA?

I should have said IBM RSA (Remote Supervisor Adapter).

pzero

cruwl wrote: »

The Network i work on has the same setup. The Shut down option is available on all the servers.

On our network is a known policy that is you reboot a server my mistake, disciplinary action will be taken, something as simple as having your rights removed, or up to termination.

So as an Admin, i always make sure i click log off, and don't be in a hurry. double check what you see on the screen before you click.

The only people i have seen actually reboot one never should have had the right in the first place.

Termination of employment for rebooting a server? I reckon the admins/engineers who allow you to do such a thing should be the ones to be terminated for not locking down the option and not the person who did it.

benbuiltpc

If it's a virtual box, accidental shutdown is probably less catastrophic since it can be turned back on with a mouse click rather than a person having to push a button. Boot time should be faster too. But, depending on the service it provides, I can see how doing so would cost someone their job.

Oh, and accidentally installing Windows Updates is probably worse - again because GPOs should not allow this to happen...