NT admins? Actually, I just brought a guy on as an NT admin because he had a Unix background.

I've worked with CP/M & MP/M for almost 5 years, followed by 12 years of heavy Unix work (sr. admin, admin training, and system integration) before moving into NT with version 3.1 - 26 years in the industry this year. I gotta say that with all the clients I've worked with over the years, Windows environments tended to be the least organized.

When I started in my current position, one of my first tasks was to fix a scheduled task/script that "never worked" even though several other admins had "fixed" it. I found that the same script was used to clear files in 4 folders. There were 4 scripts, one in each folder, even though the scripts were supposed to be the same. Turns out the each one was "fixed" by different people at different times. I consolidated all of the "fixes" into a single script, and put it in a central folder, deleting the other copies. My only "fix" was good organization.

Another issue that arose - another dept deploys perl, as does our group. I found two copies, with two different versions and two sets of libraries on two different drives. Yikes - depending on which version was in which path position, some things would work and others would not. Since the issue didn't occur in the Unix environment (nearly even balance of systems), I started creating \usr\local\bin for our scripts and admin tools, and placed perl under that folder as it was in Unix.. another set of problems disappeared. When we started using UDFs, the \usr\lib was just natural [Smile]

I'm not saying that everyone should use these folders.. in fact, I'd be pretty surprised if ANYONE used this script as-is. Im presenting this script as an example of how one admin team (attempts to) bring order to a large and widely distributed environment. It allows our perl scripts to work cross-platform, placing their config files in \usr\local without regard to platform. It works for us, your mileage may vary.

Having worked on a wide array of platforms, I can say that the organization of Windows NT - as delivered from MS - is simple (limited out-of-box) at best. Having taught MCSE, I often add extra session time for anyone wiliing to stay to discuss the practical aspects of system administration, not just the theoretical aspects "According to Microsoft". Placing files or even folders "willy-nilly" in the root of the drives, co-mingling application files with data, and not giving a though to "best practice" just makes our jobs harder.. We need to deal with it when our customer's say "thats the way it is", but we shouldn't do it to ourselves. But- unless you're a Vulcan, this is something you learn (from others) and not instinctive.


OK - as usual,my $0.02 has been inflated to about $27.53 today.. sorry for the rant.

Doc:

Realize that I understand (and appreciate) your teasing, and - believe me - I'll dish it out right back when I can, so this isn't directed at or because of your remarks. In fact, I'm proud of my ability to "swing" between windows and unix. [Big Grin] If I had my way, there'd be SAMBA on ever unix system and MKS toolkit on every windows box... and yes, I use "vi" to edit my kix scripts and assemble them with "make". I'm either extremely versatile or very confused - most likely both.

Glenn

[ 27. March 2003, 02:59: Message edited by: Glenn Barnas ]
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Actually I am a Rocket Scientist! \:D