This month's newsletter will give you tips to keep your server running smoothly.
If you are a business, you count on your server. Novell servers installed with quality hardware are extremely reliable. NT servers tend to be a bit more finicky. Either one, however will give its' best performance and reliability if a few things are kept in mind.
1) WATCH THE DISK SPACE !!! When any server gets full, unpleasant things happen. If ten people are creating new files and there is room to save only nine, someone is sure to lose. Novell uses free disk space as a "recycle bin", plus NEEDS it to uncompress files (if compression is enabled), spool print jobs, etc. I like to see an average of 1 gig free disk space on any small business server. The same applies to Windows NT.
2) MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP! Copies of data files are fine, but it is MUCH better to have a full backup of the server that includes operating system files, user rights and settings, etc. A server re-build could take over a day and cost over a thousand dollars in downtime and consulting costs if everything has to be re-installed from scratch and users re-created. Mirrored hard drives are a very inexpensive form of insurance against data loss in case of a hard drive failure. Remember, drives ALWAYS fail. It is just a question of "when". Be prepared. Call me BEFORE your drive fails. We'll both be much happier.
3) MANAGE YOUR USERS. Don't let your server become a burying ground for everything. Keep files organized and it is less likely that files will be accidentally deleted, overwritten, or lost. Proper training helps prevent problems. People who guess how to do something make mistakes and create more problems.
Be sure to check out our New! Resources link (off of our main page).
Our processor fan deal is still on... D & M Electronics, Inc. will sell you a replacement ball bearing (the best one, NOT sleeve bearings) Pentium Processor fan. (for a typical Pentium chip) for only $4.95 if you mention this newsletter. This is a $10.00 savings over Radio Shack's $14.95. This offer is good as long as supplies last and does not include installation. (We have several dozen in stock.)
That's it for this month... if you have a topic you would like me to discuss, just email me!
Until next time... Happy Computing !
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