Inactive Directory...

[jperegrine.livejournal.com]

Who is the genius who thought this one up? The company runs a strictly Windows based network. They have something on the order of 800-1000 machines. Each and every machine is configured as its own WORKGROUP??? And you expect to be able to centrally manage this how?! You want to use which account (from which workgroup) to push software? I think I'd have died laughing if I hadn't had to seriously explain this to their IT consultant AND manager.

Goes to show: Those who can - do. Those who should - support. Those who can't find a clue with both hands, a map, and a GPS - consult.

Comments

[kalidor.livejournal.com]

Designed by someone who likes to walk more then think?

[tecie.livejournal.com]

Wow... that's screwed up almost enough to justify a complete network overhaul, for which I'm sure they'll hire an overprice consultant with his MSCE and send the helpdesk to india to fund it...

[jperegrine.livejournal.com]

I was dealing with their consultant. Had to explain to him and the company's IT directory that the problem wasn't the software it was network uniformity and authentication. I don't even want to think about how many possible admin accounts were running around loose in there... *shudder*

[tecie.livejournal.com]

offtopic: Does your username reflect some expertise with one of the the Peregrine suite of products?
I'm application support right now for Asset Center and a few associated packages.

[jperegrine.livejournal.com]

Nope. Reflects a character played for many years at renaissance festivals.

[meijhen.livejournal.com]

I did support for Service Center (mostly), Asset Center, Connect.It, and GetIt.
Fun stuff, isn't it?

[wyrdrune.livejournal.com]

WHAT THE FUCK!? Holy Shit! I thought *this* setup had been bad when I arrived here. I feel *really* sorry for whatever poor bastard has to support that overhaul.

[ghostdandp.livejournal.com]

At that point I'd probably just throw my hands in the air and walk out the front door.

[armaphine.livejournal.com]

Wow... just, wow. I mean, the only thing I can think of maybe happened was someone pushed an automated setup across the network, and just fscked up the script. Of course, that's assuming that all the workgroups are somehow named the same as the computer they're assigned to.

But still, you'd think once you pushed something like that out, and realized what you'd done, that you would just go back and edit up the script before anything got put into production.

The only thing I can guess is that it held just long enough for that consultant to get paid and get out of the building, and possibly the state.

[jperegrine.livejournal.com]

Nope. Sadly, this was their network design. I asked, then nearly choked. The software that I support specifically says that if you want to push out the agent program you have to be in a domain environment and use a domain admin account. Another lovely case of RTFM.

[wyrdrune.livejournal.com]

I'd be fascinated (in a somewhat perverse way) to know what their rationale for this "design" was...

[jperegrine.livejournal.com]

I think "rationale" is a bit too kind. Ignorance and stupidity start to get closer. Uniformity in the network was a foreign concept.

[armaphine.livejournal.com]

I really want to say there was a rationale behind it. I mean, if this person that set it up had no idea what they were doing, I would think that they would follow path of least resistance, and all the computers would still be sitting in the default workgroup. But instead, they all get assigned seperately named workgroups? That requires effort.

The only thing I can think of was some old-timer, afraid for his job, mucking the whole network to be sure that he could keep his job and that no one would just come in and take over.

But that's about the only damn thing I can think of.

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

wow.... only a supreme genious could have done that...

[fusepark.livejournal.com]

That's almost Zen-like in its perfection!

[shirenomad]

In situations like this, I always give the company the benefit of the doubt.

And blame mischievous monkeys.

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

Those who can't find a clue with both hands, a map, and a GPS - consult.</>

Sounds like my cousin-in-law's husband. Guess what he does.

[kostika.livejournal.com]

Oh my. I'm jsut amazed. Even my network at home (which is only 2 computers) has 1 workgroup name.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

whoops. commented to teh wrong post. but omfg, what a setup.