Page 109 - Lakeland Catholic Technology Plan

12.4 Servers
The District has done an excellent job in standardizing servers. Every school has an identical server with Novell, and the potential to share CDs over the network. All servers are the same, feature set similar, and hardware identical. This allows very easy administration, and easy problem solving. Additionally, each server is connected to an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) to prevent power failures from destroying the server. Every server has 2 or 4 — 4.5 Gb hard drives. They also have hot-swappable power supplies, hard drives, etc. However, there are no spare parts. One common complaint heard in the schools was that there were CD towers to go with the servers, but now they’re gone, and there are no CDs avail- able on the network. There were some issues with a software upgrade to the CD Towers that prevented them from being used on the network, besides some very serious licensing issues with their use. This is an example of a good decision, with bad communication. Better communication to the schools regarding the reasons for the demise of the CD Towers would have made this issue a non-issue.
Two of the file servers are running Novell 5 over TCP/IP, while the rest are running Novell 4 over IPX. The plan is to move all the Novell servers to Novell 5 over the next year.
Recommendation:
1. Maintain the standard server practice, continue the upgrades to Novell 5. If the District is going to continue to use high-end, fault tolerant servers, spare parts should be stocked in-house.
12.5 Disaster Recovery
One of the most gratifying things we saw was that every file server had a backup system. The tapes were not always changed every day, but by and large backups were done on a regular basis. This is extremely commendable, as many school systems do not have regular backups, in fact many organizations don’t have regu- lar backups. Very well done.
However, disaster recovery includes not only the files on file servers, but access to them. One glaring example of a good system gone horribly wrong is the District backups. Yes, backups of the data are done every day, however, the passwords used to get administrator console access are not written down anywhere. In fact, most administrative level passwords are not written down anywhere. Essentially this means that if the technician who knows the password gets hit by a truck and killed, everyone is up a creek. Every password in the District which gives access to any administrative function including file servers, router programming, e-mail servers, proxy servers, etc. should be written down in a safe place.
Furthermore, there is little or no documentation with respect to the setup of the File Servers, diagrams of the school networks, explanation of the inner workings of the Proxy Servers in each site, explanations of the Satellite uplink, Wide Area Network functionality and connections, documentation of inventory or purchases at all.
The likelihood of a catastrophic event, including but not limited to the loss of a technician, the burning down of a building, or sudden departure of a key staff per- son necessitates precautionary disaster recovery planning.
Imagine if a multiple disaster occurred (e.g. loss of a technician and the Central Office burned down. Where would you begin to rebuild? Where would you start to begin recovery operations? Are the backups being taken off-site? Is there enough information from technicians records written down to bring the systems back- online, or would the District have to start from scratch? This is a very, very serious issue that requires full attention as soon as possible.
Recommendation:
1. All passwords should be written down and placed in a safety deposit box. These password lists should be regularly, that ismonthly, updated, and new copies placed in the safety deposit box. Full documentation of all network hardware, rout- ing, mapping, inventory, WAN design, LAN design, system setup, file server setup, proxy server explanation, etc. should be completed immediately. This is an ex- tremely high priority.
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