Server Archives - Page 2 of 2

Old Server Brings Paris Airport to a Halt

Feb 2016

Chaos reigned supreme at Orly airport, Paris recently thanks to a technical fault on an old server running the ancient operating system Windows 3.1.

Yes, you read that correctly, the server was running on Windows 3.1 which is an operating system (OS) launched in 1992 and, as far as we thought, made redundant 20 years ago by Windows 95! It was the ancient nature of this OS which caused so many problems.

Let’s take a look at exactly what happened and the lessons it can teach us on maintaining and upgrading your servers.

All Flights Cancelled

Pilots and air traffic controllers at Orly airport rely on a computer system called DECOR which helps communicate information about poor weather conditions. As you can imagine, this is crucial for taking off and landing, so it’s a vital piece of software. However, the problem is that DECOR doesn’t run on the lovely new OS Windows 10. Neither does it run on Windows 7. Or even Windows XP.

Instead, it uses the antiquated OS Windows 3.1 which certainly seemed a marvel back in the early 90s, but these days it looks like a dusty relic from the past. And, due to a glitch in DECOR, air traffic controllers were suddenly unable to relay critical runway conditions to their pilots. As a result, all flights were grounded as technicians raced to find a solution.

Outdated Software on Old Server

For an airport, having all your flights grounded is an absolute disaster, but Orly airport only has themselves to blame.

Upgrading your software intermittently is very important for the health and security of your servers. By ignoring this practice you run the risk of the following:

Loss of knowledge: Alexandre Fiacre – from France’s UNSA-IESSA air traffic controller union – has conceded that they only have three specialists who understand DECOR. One of these is retiring soon and they still haven’t found a replacement. Due to the obsolete nature of Windows 3.1 it’s unlikely any newcomers will have the required knowledge either.

Lack of Spares: Outdated servers, naturally, use outdated parts. And this becomes a huge issue when a spare part is required. Many manufacturers these days don’t like to give more than a 10 year lifespan for products, so parts are often made obsolete after this cut off point. And if the parts are no longer available for your server you’re going to face a big problem when they fail.

Risk of Hacking: The lack of interest in an old piece of software such as DECOR means that the creation of any security upgrades and patches would have ceased a long time ago. This opens up the software to potential hacking incidents where the client will be left defenseless.

How to Avoid An Orly Airport Incident At Your Business

The simplest way to ensure your servers can be maintained efficiently is to upgrade them every couple of years. Sure, this has financial ramifications, but is less disruptive and embarrassing than having to temporarily close your business.

France’s transport minister has promised to upgrade the Orly’s software by 2017, but in our opinion that’s too late. It should have been upgraded in 1997!

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

Does Your Office Need a Windows Server Domain Controller?

Networkdomain controller, network, ServerOphtek, LLC

Mar 2015

Find out if your office really needs a Windows server domain controller. Here’s what you need to know to help you decide what is best for your business.

What are domains?

To understand the need for domain controllers, let’s first look at what a domain is.

Domains relate to any given network that hosts a large number of computers and devices. When a business uses Windows domains, this usually is to help manage a large network. For instance schools, large businesses, hospitals and government institutions will all have a domain that defines their large network.

The role of a domain controller

Now that we’ve looked at what constitutes a domain; we can relate the use of domain controllers.

Just as the name suggests, a domain controller is a role that network administrators assign to a server to help them manage computers and the network. The advantage of having domain controllers in a network pertains to the ease that administrators can enjoy when managing all the computers from one single point.

A typical domain will be made up by a large number of computers within the local network. However, it is possible for computers to join the domain via an Internet connection or through a Virtual Private Network ( VPN) connection.
Network administrators are then able to manage portable devices that connect to the network externally. This is useful for remote workers and people who need to work from home, as well as students who need to access study material.

Domain controllers are also used to authenticate user login sessions. Its role is to manage user accounts and passwords, which allows for users to log onto any computer with the same credentials within the domain.

Domain controllers also allow network administrators to assign and edit group policies which can be deployed out to the computers on the domain. Any policies pushed out from the Domain controller will override any individual computer policy set up by the user.

This allows for much more control over a network, where computers are locked down. For instance, a group policy can specify for all computers to display the same corporate wallpaper. This will add many restrictions to users on the domain from making any system changes.

When a Domain Controller is needed

There are only a couple of hard technical requirements to needing a domain controller:

Managing many different users for logins and various user access rights to shared resources over the network such as printers or shared drives.
If you have more than 25 computers accessing a resource on the network such as a shared drive or application on a server.

If a business doesn’t need to meet these requirements, and your setup is much simpler, then it’s best not to have a domain controller. When a domain controller goes offline, this will create a period of business downtime, therefor it’s better to forgo this risk and added layer of complexity.

When a Domain Controller isn’t required

You have a simple home or office network.

All access to business email and file sharing is carried out through the cloud. For instance, the use of Gmail for email or Dropbox for file sharing.

Your office is phasing out Window PCs and uses Macs or other devices instead. LDAP services can still be used to authenticate Linux and Mac computers as well as other devices.

Looking for more flexibility in a directory that doesn’t limited a domain to a physical setup. A service known as DaaS (Directory as a Service) allows for a centralized cloud-based directory that exists to securely authenticate users and assists with device management.
Access to certain folders on the network needs to be restricted to certain users, however this can be accomplished with a NAS device.

Here is a list of top selling servers on Amazon.

For more ways to simplify and secure your office networks, contact your local IT professionals.

Protecting Computers and Servers from Power Surges

Backup and Recovery, hardwarepower surges, ServerOphtek, LLC

Jan 2015

Aside from backups and security, protecting your servers and workstations from power surges, thunder storms and power outages helps avoid costly downtime.

You may have wondered if a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) and Surge protectors are necessary and worth the extra cost in your office IT infrastructure. We’ll clarify that for you and explain each one in more detail.

Standalone Surge Protectors

A surge protector exists to protect working computers, computer peripherals and devices from power surges emanating from a primary power source.

How surge protectors work

The standard US voltage for homes and office premises is 120 volts. A power surge is anything the goes well over 120 volts. When this happens, it’s highly likely that your plugged in devices will receive this surge of power than can result in damage to the component power supply or other parts of the system as well.

Surge protectors work by transferring the excess voltage via the device’s grounding wire, stopping it from reaching the electronic device. This still allows it to receive the normal voltage needed to operate seamlessly. This way it helps maintain your electronic devices over a long period of time. This rings true, as unprotected devices can cease to work without warning due to burnt components or wires that may have been exposed to surges through the wire over time.

Electrical storms

No matter how good your power surge is, it cannot protect your device from a sudden increase of intense power experienced by thunder storms, which can be millions of volts! Your best bet will be to unplug all devices that you have and wait for the storm to pass.

Cost

You can acquire lower end surge protectors for as little as $20-$40. Good brands to consider are Belkin and Tripplite.

UPS – Uninterruptable Power Supplies

As the name suggests, a UPS is a device designed to keep your computer running for a given period of time when building power is suddenly disrupted or cut off.

How UPS works

The remaining power to keep your computers, servers or equipment running is stored in a battery, which kicks in when loss of main power is detected. This is useful during a power outage and will allow you a limited time to save any work on your computer, so you can have shut it down gracefully. Most UPS devices will automatically initiate a shut down on your server or workstation once a power outage is detected, so there’s no need for a manual shut down.

Most UPS on the market come with surge protection, which will take the edge off the power spike to protect your system components from being damaged. You can even get software that will auto save any documents and data when the UPS is triggered.

Power Outage

Imagine you have a small office, and without realizing it, a power surge occurs followed by a power outage during a heavy storm. If you had UPS devices paired up to your most critical computer systems you’ll be glad to know that the whole day’s work would not be lost, and your system would still be running on battery or at a worst case gracefully shutting the computers down.

The UPS protected computer had received a higher voltage spike ( 120+ Volts). That extra voltage was redirected to the UPS power surge component protecting the computer. Now you have this computer running on UPS battery. This can give you approximately around 20 minutes to half an hour to save all the day’s work before the UPS shuts down the system.

Cost

UPS devices are more costly than surge protectors. You can get a decent one around $100, such as Cyberpower or the more expensive ones, such as APC Smart starting around $320. UPS is that they also comes built with surge protectors, as well acting as a battery, which is why they are more expensive than a standalone surge protector.

Surge protector or UPS?

If you’re still deciding between purchasing a UPS or a surge protector, we suggest you first consider your personal circumstance. For instance, if you run and manage an entire office or department that deals with very important data and you wish to preserve your systems throughout all kinds of power fluctuations, the UPS would be your best option.

The same goes if you’re a person who works from home and the work you do on your computer is your livelihood, then a UPS would be the best choice for you.
In the scenario where you just use your own PC for occasional work, and web browsing, a surge protector may be a better choice.

For more ways to protect your critical business systems, servers and components, contact your local IT professionals.

5 Benefits of Virtualizing a Server

Office IT, virtualizationServer, virtualizationOphtek, LLC

Dec 2014

Virtualizing a server can bring many benefits spanning cost, power savings, ease of management and business continuity. Here’s what you should know.

Since we’ve been exploring the meaning of virtualization in some of our past articles, let’s quickly re-cap what it is for those of you who need a gentle reminder.

A virtual server is a projection of a physical server that can run with its own operating system, hosting applications and hold network files. A virtual server can co-exist with many other virtual servers within a single host machine.

Let’s take a quick look into what physical servers are and some issues they face:

Both physical and virtual servers are designed to serve resources such as an application or files over a LAN (local area network) to your office computers or within a datacenter.
Physical servers are larger computers that come built with powerful processors, large hard disks and a large amount of memory, which often have more than one of each component.
They are considered to be the “workhorses” of the physical computer world. As a result, they’ll use up a lot more power and resources from its own components.
From time to time, this can lead them to have hardware faults such as disk failures, overheating from faulty fans or chip creek (components such as memory cards displaced by heat).
These noisy machines are usually located in the server room, stacked on a rack next to a number of other servers, requiring a considerable amount of space and power.

With the problems given above, here’s how virtual servers can help solve these issues, and more:

1. Highly resourceful

Physical servers would generally run with one application, to prevent any issues with running multiple programs at once. This would cause servers to sprawl out in numbers, without using them to their full potential. This is different with virtualized servers, where space isn’t an issue and they can be set separately with the required programs. The recommended resources can also be configured to prevent unnecessary waste of any given resources (disk space, memory. Processor power, etc…) that can be reallocated to another server.

2. Improved Disaster recovery

Virtualization eliminates the need of having replicas of physical servers or disks, with specific model numbers and brands, to carry out data recovery successfully.
A whole site can be replicated easily, being much more affordable in a virtualized environment. Disaster recovery failover can be tested to see if it works, instead of hoping it recovers in a real-life situation or in a disaster recovery testing center.

3. Environmentally Friendly

It goes without saying, less physical servers will mean less power used, as you can pack in many virtual servers in on host machine. This has the added benefit of making more space in a server room. In turn, less power used leads to lower energy costs. This helps reduce a business’ carbon footprint, whilst saving you money.

4. Efficient provisioning and management

You can quickly and easily clone virtual servers, restore or create new ones, at a moment’s notice. You can create virtual machines that will hold legacy applications that may no longer be in support. This can help smooth any server operations that require migration, upgrades, mimic legacy setups, which you can no longer acquire and so forth. Even test labs can be set up to keep things separate from a live environment. It will promote uptime, maintaining business operations as normal.

5. Moving to the Cloud

“The Cloud” may sound like an abstract concept, mainly due to it being a virtual network resource. However, businesses are opting towards new ways of accessing resources; therefore a move to virtualized servers can seem like the next logical step. The Cloud can be either public or private. With the amount of server resources required at a data center to host a Cloud network, a virtual infrastructure would be more sustainable and practical than a physical one.

Virtual servers will soon replace the remaining physical ones out there. It is likely than within five years the shift to a virtual infrastructure will be the norm in many businesses. The top four virtualization vendors to look at are Citrix, Microsoft, Oracle and VMware.

For more information on how virtualizing your servers can help save costs and streamline your business, contact your local IT professionals.

What to do When Outlook Won’t Send Email

Office IT, SoftwareError, Outgoing, Outlook, ServerOphtek, LLC

Jul 2014

Are your emails sitting in your outbox but not going out? Do they not show in your sent folder? Moreover, are you getting the message “Cannot send the message. 530 Authentication Required.” ? Or does the error you’re getting look something like this?

The error code may be 530 instead of 503. Whatever the case, this is a common error in Microsoft Outlook. Your outgoing server is not allowing you to send messages without your mail client authenticating itself. This may be easily corrected without having to set up your mail account again.

In Outlook 2003, click Tools at the top bar and select Options.

Choose the Mail Setup tab from the Options box, and click E-mail Accounts.

Select the email account you are trying to send mail from and click Next. To allow outgoing authentication in Outlook 2003, check the My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication box.

Leave the Use same settings as my incoming mail server box dotted.

In Outlook 2007, click Tools at the top bar, and select Account Settings.

In the Account Settings window, on the E-mail tab, select the appropriate email account and click Change.

Click More Settings.

This will put you on the General tab of the Internet E-mail Settings.

Click the Outgoing Server tab. Check the My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication box.

Click OK.

In Outlook 2010, click File -> Account Settings.

Click Account Settings again and select the E-mail tab.

Select the email account with sending errors, and click Change. In the Account window, select More Settings.

In the Internet E-mail Settings window, click the Outgoing Server tab and click the My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication box.

Click OK.

In Outlook 2013, go to Tools -> Account Settings.

Double click the email account you wish to correct. Next click More Settings.

For Internet E-mail Settings, select the Outgoing Server tab.

Check the My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication box. Click OK.

If you still cannot send email after going through these steps, the problem may be with your outgoing mail server configuration. Logging into your account with your web browser and checking your mail server settings will likely give you the information you need to correct this problem.

For more information on this or other issues affecting your PC, consult your local IT professionals.

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Tag Archives: Server

All Flights Cancelled

Outdated Software on Old Server

How to Avoid An Orly Airport Incident At Your Business

What are domains?

The role of a domain controller

When a Domain Controller is needed

When a Domain Controller isn’t required

Standalone Surge Protectors

How surge protectors work

Electrical storms

Cost

UPS – Uninterruptable Power Supplies

How UPS works

Power Outage

Cost

Surge protector or UPS?

1. Highly resourceful

2. Improved Disaster recovery

3. Environmentally Friendly

4. Efficient provisioning and management

5. Moving to the Cloud