Schools are a unique I.T. environment to be sure, but wow they sure don't use this rebuild-from-scratch approach at the schools around here!
I've found software development to be amazingly similar to the practice of I.T. There's a guy out there (used to work in the Excel bus. unit at MS) who has blogged extensively on best practices, etc... and this post from almost exactly 10 years and a month ago seems remarkably apropos: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html Just substitute: users for customers... applications for functions/APIs... fixing something for reading code starting over for writing code etc... ~JasonG > -----Original Message----- > From: Shields, Anthony [mailto:ashie...@epsteinatlanta.org] > Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2010 11:37 > To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues > Subject: [M] [MARKETING] RE: Upgrade to 2010 first? > > It's what we do in the school to maintain and improve our technology. We > rebuild, recreate and improve on what we had, deploy new > hardware/software, improve infrastructure. > > > > Instead of tacking things on down the road-during the year, we rebuild - > incorporating all of those things during the summer. > > > > We repurpose servers. What once was high volume, no longer needs the > super server. What once was a physical server, is now a virtual server. > > > > Unlike corporate world, we attempt to leave our stuff untouched during > the school year. For the summer break, we get to start fresh when > downtime is near irrelevant. > > > > > > Anthony Shields > > Systems Administrator > > The Epstein School > > (404) 250-5659 > > > > From: Steve Ens [mailto:stevey...@gmail.com] > Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2010 11:31 AM > To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues > Subject: Re: Upgrade to 2010 first? > > > > My suggestion would be to not rebuild the domain. What are the reasons > behind this? > > On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 10:18 AM, Shields, Anthony > <ashie...@epsteinatlanta.org> wrote: > > Nearly every summer we rebuild our domain from scratch, including > Exchange. This year, we will be upgrading several things including > Win2k8 R2 and E2k10 server. > > > > Typically when we do this, we exmerge the existing store - in this case a > E2k7 - to PST files, which are then exmerged into the new store. > > > > We currently have many users with mailboxes near or over 2gigs. I have > had issues previously trying to import large PST files and am hoping to > avoid them if possible. > > > > I believe E2k10 has brought back the ease of export/import PST files and > was wondering if it would make sense to upgrade the E2k7 server to 2010 > and then export the PST files - Wipe the equipment clean and reinstall > 2010, importing those PST files? > > > > Any thoughts or suggestions? > > > > > > Anthony Shields > > Systems Administrator > > The Epstein School > > (404) 250-5659 > > > > ________________________________ > > The Epstein School is a proud beneficiary of the Jewish Federation of > Greater Atlanta. > >
