orphaned machines

[nutjob.ie at gmail.com (Pat Moloney)]

First lesson i learned when i began to develop professionally is, If you 
don't check your code and database scripts into source control it will 
bite you and you'll be doing the same job twice probably late at night 
or over the weekend.

It happened twice and hasn't happened since.


Vincent Lape wrote:
> yea and you got to love it when they cry asking you to recover the  
> data from the machine that has been allocated 6 months ago. dont know  
> about u guys but we dont backup dev and test machines.
> On Mar 30, 2009, at 11:16 AM, Pat Moloney wrote:
>
>   
> > In a company i used to work for we had a large bank of test machines  
> > and
> > each batch was allocated to various teams depending on requirements.
> >
> > Every now and again no one knew what a particular bank of machines did
> > due to re-orgs and team shuffles so we simply hit the power button and
> > shut them down until someone came crying. If they came crying within a
> > month or two they kept the machines if not they were re-allocated.
> >
> > Once a year after we had re-allocated a bank of machines someone came
> > looking for them. Its always interesting to see someone's reaction  
> > when
> > you give them the dates they were re-allocated and its over 6 months
> >
> > Mind you the above approach may get you killed if its a mission  
> > critical
> > system
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > There are software packages specifically designed for auditing  
> > networks
> > and the above scenario .I cant recommend one as i work for a company
> > that writes auditing software and am bias.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Vincent Lape wrote:
> >     
> > > Robin,
> > >
> > > @ my last company we were required to physically inventory every
> > > machine & process runnong every 6 months. In our datacnter (about 800
> > > physical servers) it took us a week. Granted this may not be ideal in
> > > all cases however our environment dealt with financial data and we
> > > didnt want to be the next T J Maxx :)
> > >
> > > The issue we found was exactly as you had stated. typically the dev
> > > tam called someone in the middle of the night to put up a machine for
> > > whatever reason. Of course this request was generally followed by a
> > > call from an executive telling you to just get it done. months later
> > > when the dev team was done with it they would tend to put mission
> > > critical processes on "test machines"
> > >
> > > anyhow the point is we should be diligent in auditing the
> > > infrastructure on a regular basis and providing a valid business  
> > > cause
> > > as to why any particular machine is on the network.
> > >
> > >
> > > On Mar 30, 2009, at 10:14 AM, Robin Wood wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >       
> > > > 2009/3/30 Dan McGinn-Combs <dgcombs at gmail.com>:
> > > >
> > > >         
> > > > > In my limited experience, people, sysadmins and developer alike,
> > > > > remember virtual machines. Especially when they require someone to
> > > > > turn them on or eat developer workstation resources.
> > > > > Dan
> > > > >
> > > > >           
> > > > I wasn't thinking virtual I was thinking real ones where one gets  
> > > > put
> > > > under a desk or in a spare bit of rack and then forgotten about.  
> > > > Being
> > > > a server it would never be shutdown or rebooted so would just run  
> > > > and
> > > > run.
> > > >
> > > > Robin
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >         
> > > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > > From: Robin Wood <dninja at gmail.com>
> > > > > Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 5:19 AM
> > > > > To: PaulDotCom Mailing List <pauldotcom at mail.pauldotcom.com>
> > > > > Subject: [Pauldotcom] orphaned machines
> > > > >
> > > > > Hi
> > > > > In one of the last couple of episodes Larry mentioned machines  
> > > > > which
> > > > > were orphaned when people left a company, my immediate thought was
> > > > > along a different track to what was discussed so I thought I'd
> > > > > mention
> > > > > it.
> > > > >
> > > > > What about temporary machines which are setup by sys-admins for
> > > > > specific jobs or departments when the sys-admin leaves. Maybe a
> > > > > developer needed a server with a specific version of mysql on it to
> > > > > test a bug, the machine gets put on the network as a temporary  
> > > > > thing
> > > > > but then the sys-admin who does it leaves and the developer  
> > > > > finishes
> > > > > his testing and forgets about it. I can think of quite a few
> > > > > scenarios
> > > > > where pet projects or temporary machines are forgotten about or  
> > > > > lost
> > > > > when someone leaves.
> > > > >
> > > > > I supposed one solution to this is to make sure that every machine
> > > > > that gets added to a network is logged but in reality I think  
> > > > > people
> > > > > are likely to be lazy and for short term installations bypass the
> > > > > paperwork. An alternative is to scan the network regularly and pick
> > > > > up
> > > > > any machines which are new or not in an approved list and have them
> > > > > checked out. The problem with this is that once the machine is
> > > > > vouched
> > > > > for once it becomes a recognised part of the network so wouldn't be
> > > > > picked up as an anomaly.
> > > > >
> > > > > So, that was my thought when orphaned machines were mentioned.
> > > > >
> > > > > Robin
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