Filepro-list Digest, Vol 42, Issue 41

[Brian K. White]

> (It's a bit funny for me to read on this list a suggestion to move to
> Linux when some on this list were somewhat hostile to me when I wanted
> to do the same.)

As I recall it, the problem was not desiring to move to linux, or 
investigate linux, or any other alternative options.
It was that you seemed to be switching over a live production system 
overnight to a system you knew nothing at all about yet, nor contracted 
anyone else who knew about it. You just lept and hoped for the best, got 
lucky and only had one mildly serious problem that managed to get cleared up 
fairly quickly and without too much data mess along the way, and thus seemed 
to conclude that the way you did things was fine and what's all the fuss 
about? Bravery is admirable in many situations but I'm glad I wasn't your 
customer that day.

If it was a desperation move because the old box was crashing and you didn't 
have time to learn a new system, thats understandable, but in your position, 
assuming I was familiar with windows and netware, and did not have time to 
learn a new system first, I would have done any of these 3 things:
1) Copy the data to a windows box and host it from there immediately. Thats 
very easy to do, everyone knows how to create a windows share and solve 
authentication & other common access problems and win boxes abound. They 
would be off the crashing netware box in an hour plus however long it takes 
you to go around to the rest of the machines and change filepro batch files 
or desktop icons. I would not consider this a permanant solution but it is a 
great temporary solution because it is very easy and safe and fast.
2) Get a new copy of netware and a new netware server box and restore 
everything to roughly the same state as the old box.
3) Hire a linux guy to set up a linux box and do any ongoing maintenance 
until you could do it. By this I mean set up a samba share and actually 
continue to use the windows version of fp. This is actually not much of  a 
"migration". In this case the fact that the server is linux hardly makes a 
difference vs netware vs windows.

I probably would have done 1 immediately and then investigated 2 & 3 at my & 
the customers leirsure.
Maybe in that case as long as the win box is doing ok, then instead of 2 or 
3 you could do 4) Take your time bringing up a linux box and learn the 
important parts yourself before switching over to it for real.

What are the important parts?
1 be able to install a new box.
2 be able to make the basic networking  setup and and later changes.
3 be able to perform a backup.
4 be able to perform a non-destructive partial restore.
5 be able to perform a full restore.
6 be able to set up, config and then manage the services you happen to need 
(in your case, samba, possibly cups)

Not until _after_ you can do all that, or have a consultant on tap who can, 
do you have any business putting a customers live data on a new type of 
system. 1 & 2 are pretty easy these days. Almost does itself. BackupEDGE 
makes 3, 4, & 5 effortless, otherwise feel free to spend as much time 
learning the use of star, rsync, & the plethora of other backup utils as you 
like.
6 is the tricky one as you discovered the hard way. There are things you 
don't even know that you don't know, like the various and sometimes subtle 
locking behaviour options in samba. Knowing what you don't know is worth 
more than knowing any amount of other stuff.

But once you do have these basics nailed, then you can handle any problem at 
least in a crude way and then it's not irresponsible putting a customer 
there.

Actually, the best would be 5) Run the app on linux using linux fp binaries 
and ferret out all the windows-isms scattered around in the code, instead of 
just using a linux box as a drop-in replacement for a windows or netware 
shared drive. But thats a longer term project and not an appropriate 
solution for a box thats crashing today.

Brian K. White    brian at aljex.com    http://www.myspace.com/KEYofR
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