This story reminds me of my quote last week in the kitchen at work with some
other employees...

programmer: "What's your backup plan on that?"
me: "updating my resume."

:)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Layer [mailto:b.layer at vikingelectronics.com]
> Sent: Monday, December 18, 2000 10:06 AM
> To: tclug-list at lists.real-time.com
> Subject: [TCLUG] Could Novell suck this badly?
> 
> 
> Thought I'd share this tale of total system & network 
> annihilation. This one 
> is for real, folks. I wish it hadn't been so, but...
> 
> Last Wednesday, I thought it would be prudent to tidy up my 
> network files, as 
> I am planning on leaving my current job in the 
> not-too-distant future. First 
> step, was to consolidate everything spread across the network 
> under my home 
> directory, so I could deal with it in a systemitized fashion. I had a 
> directory storing a big slug of .ISO images; probably 20 in 
> all. I picked up 
> that dir for a MOVE operation, and set it down in the home 
> dir. This should 
> have taken 5 seconds.
> 
> Novell went to work... apparently, Novell never actually 
> moves anything - it 
> actually copies it, and as the system runs out of storage, it 
> discards the 
> old files in FIFO order. This is to allow the recovery of accidental 
> deletions. The 'moving' went on for several hours after I 
> went home for the 
> day.
> 
> Here's where it gets funny. We have 72GB online, but for SOME 
> REASON, Novell 
> gets configured as as if it actually has 80GB of storage. I 
> am told this is 
> to allow for future expansion (an 8GB expansion?). Since I 
> was moving about 
> 15GB of files, and we had the server pretty loaded up, Novell 
> decided to 
> start wrting data to that "vitual" 8GB of space.... which 
> loops back onto the 
> start of the partition, and wipes out the system areas but 
> not before it 
> corrupts the FAT beyond repair. LOL!
> 
> This took the entire Novell network down for three days, and 
> forced upgrade 
> of several packages, which did not want to re-install. The 
> admin brought in 
> external experts because the mess was so unmanageable. We 
> lost several days  
> work, and some business as well. They are still having 
> problems with Macola 
> Progression as I write this. I have nothing to do here right now.
> 
> I spoke with the external guy, who told me that this is 
> common to ALL current 
> Novell systems, and he has seen it personally several times 
> now. In his 
> words, it's just a disaster waiting to happen anytime... 
> <smirk> To me, this 
> is pratically unthinkable. Could Novell really suck this badly?
> 
> 
> -- 
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> ++++++++++++++++ 
> |        .:Bill Layer:.         | Viking Electronics,Inc. 
> 1531 Industrial St |
> |     .:Sales Technician:.      | Hudson, WI 54016 USA + 
> 715.386.8861 x210   |
> | b.layer at vikingelectronics.com |     
> http://www.vikingelectronics.com       |
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