In-Depth

Tales from the Trenches

Much of the knowledge IT professionals gain won't be found in a book or taught in a class...

It's from getting their hands dirty and, sometimes, learning some very tough lessons. Pull up a chair and see what you may learn from others' experiences.

In this issue:

 Get Active Directory Replication Right!
There’s a method to the madness of Active Directory replication, but many of the concepts can be tough to decipher. The following four tales demonstrate the range of problems you can encounter with this little-understood aspect of AD.
By Andrew Lindley

 Exchange 2000 Upgrade, Times Two
It took three separate attempts to finally upgrade my company to Exchange 2000—this after doing the upgrade in a lab environment and upgrading a pilot box with the IT department on it.
By Cynthia Balusek

 Wireless Meets Mother Nature
It’s important to remember that the answer’s not always in a book or taught in a class, as we found out when investigating a disrupted wireless link.
By Justin Melot

 The Expiration Date That Did Us In
IT people move on; so, who's doing backups?
By Jeremy Dillinger

 Troubleshooting Under Pressure
The root of your problems may lie in your event logs.
By James D. Pollock

 Hard Drive Fall Down, Go Boom!
Further investigation into a hard drive failure revealed a tiny but important fact that lets one company's e-mail server run problem-free.
By Christopher M. Roscoe

About the Author

Keith Ward is the editor in chief of Virtualization & Cloud Review. Follow him on Twitter @VirtReviewKeith.

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