This is the 302nd article in the Spotlight on IT series. If you'd be interested in writing an article on the subject of backup, security, storage, virtualization, mobile, networking, wireless, cloud and SaaS, or MSPs for the series PM Eric to get started.
How many times in your career have you come across a project that you feel is outside your skill set? A project you feel you aren't ready for; one that makes you feel like you're at base camp on Mt. Everest, stretching your neck to see the top of the mountain you're about to climb? Last year was my project: a project I wasn't completely sure I'd be able to see to the end, one I wasn't quite sure I could tackle.
This story begins in late 2012, around November. I had been at my new job for only two months and had resolved a few outstanding issues the company was having. I was feeling pretty good — until one morning. This particular morning was stormy and dark. Well, not really, I just wanted to make it more dramatic.
Anywho, that morning, I was bombarded with calls from users unable to access their email. Long story short (as this is just a small part of it), I learned a few things about Microsoft servers as I had very little experience before this position. Exchange was back up, everyone is happy.
Fast-forward a week, and it happens again. Then again the next week.
My boss and I were getting rather annoyed as, at this point, the CEO was texting us at 5 a.m. that email was down. After doing some research, we figured that the nightly backup was interrupting the restart of the Information Store on the server.
“Easy enough,” I said, “I'll write a quick batch file and schedule it to run each night to restart it.” This managed to limp the aging Server 2003 server along for another month without issue. Then it started happening again.
We then realized the database was too large for the backup to finish in the right amount of time, so we cleaned it out. The server limped along for a while longer, then started acting up again.
During all this, the CFO (my boss' boss) was getting quite annoyed about being woken up all the time with text messages from the CEO that the email server was down. (We weren't thrilled about it either.) We explained that the server was aging, becoming unstable and needed to be replaced. The message got passed along, and soon enough, we got approval to purchase a new server.
*Backstory Done*
Now that the backstory is out of the way, I can finally talk about this mountain of a project. (I'm sure some are saying it's about damn time, blah blah blah.)
If you skipped to this part or dozed off for a second there, I mentioned earlier that I didn't have a lot of server experience before my current job, and being tasked with setting up this brand new server was quite a daunting task.
To me, I was staring up at the peak of Mount Everest thinking, "How am I going to do this?" The server had arrived with no OS installed as Dell wasn't installing 2012 on servers yet. Considering this was the end of January 2013, hardly any information was out there for Server 2012 yet.
I took a deep breath, cracked my knuckles (not really) and figured the best way to start was to just install the OS.
The install went pretty easy — pat on the back for me! I saw the desktop of 2012 and started to feel confident. At this point, I started to think about what I should do next. I went through the Server Manager and started installing the server roles. I came across errors while configuring the server as a PDC for a new domain. Long story short, I had to rebuild the server around six times before configuring Active Directory, Exchange and everything else we wanted. Granted, some of the things I installed/set up on the server weren’t to IT standards, but it was set up as previous servers were set up and with what we needed from it.
Now that a new domain was running with a new Active Directory and other services we needed, the next task was to switch computers over. I did have experience with this as in my previous job; I was involved in a similar domain switch. Even though I didn't have a chance to learn what was happening behind the scenes during that project, I knew what was going on and most of what was needed for it. I started setting up DNS records, set up a trust between the new and old domain and got to work on switching the desktops.
Progress was slow at first: switching a computer or two a week, checking back with employees, seeing what was working and what wasn't, and hammering out (literally sometimes) all the errors and connection issues that would pop-up.
In about a month and a half, I had our main branch completely switched over. I was feeling quite confident with my growing skill set and that I might just be a good Sys Admin.
As I pushed to the next branch, I hit a brick wall. A couple of the applications wouldn't connect. No matter what I did, they wouldn't establish a connection. After tweaking the database connection paths and doing some hosts file magic, I was back on a roll. In another month’s time, I had all our branches switched over to the new domain, and everything was working perfectly.
That is, until the time came for Corporate — a day I was dreading more than anything. I knew what was going to happen, how difficult it was going to be, and the politics involved.
The first several users switched over with very few issues. Once all the regular employees were switched over, I began feeling more confident again. I started flipping over management and hit another brick wall. Well, I didn't really run into it. It's more like the brick wall was attached to a semi that barreled through rush hour just to slam into the back of my car.
The few in management that I did switch over started venting to the CFO about all the issues they were having, which had no correlated ticket or email. My boss and I were quite frustrated that management had decided not to contact IT for support, but rather chose to vent about it in a senior management meeting.
Regardless, I contacted each and every one, fixed all the issues and then got the go ahead to finish. While this task isn't quite done yet (I still have Exchange to completely flip over) the domain switch and upgrade for the entire company is done. I can see myself, 100 feet away from the peak of Mount Everest, breathing a sigh of relief that the goal is almost within reach and most of the storm has cleared up. I look down the mountain to see where I had started my journey, feeling very accomplished. I've worked through many trials and tribulations, went from inexperienced to a veteran and changed from a mindset of "can I do this?" to "without a doubt."
Summarizing my long story — because, hey, it isn't easy to cram about 14 months’ worth of work into a page of words: When you come across that moment in your IT career where you feel like you're staring up at the peak of Mount Everest from base camp and wonder if you can do it, stop your self doubting and just go for it. Do your research, take your time and enjoy the learning process along the way. Like the saying goes, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."