Thought I'd share this tale of total system & network annihilation. This one 
is for real, folks. I wish it hadn't been so, but...

Last Wednesday, I thought it would be prudent to tidy up my network files, as 
I am planning on leaving my current job in the not-too-distant future. First 
step, was to consolidate everything spread across the network under my home 
directory, so I could deal with it in a systemitized fashion. I had a 
directory storing a big slug of .ISO images; probably 20 in all. I picked up 
that dir for a MOVE operation, and set it down in the home dir. This should 
have taken 5 seconds.

Novell went to work... apparently, Novell never actually moves anything - it 
actually copies it, and as the system runs out of storage, it discards the 
old files in FIFO order. This is to allow the recovery of accidental 
deletions. The 'moving' went on for several hours after I went home for the 
day.

Here's where it gets funny. We have 72GB online, but for SOME REASON, Novell 
gets configured as as if it actually has 80GB of storage. I am told this is 
to allow for future expansion (an 8GB expansion?). Since I was moving about 
15GB of files, and we had the server pretty loaded up, Novell decided to 
start wrting data to that "vitual" 8GB of space.... which loops back onto the 
start of the partition, and wipes out the system areas but not before it 
corrupts the FAT beyond repair. LOL!

This took the entire Novell network down for three days, and forced upgrade 
of several packages, which did not want to re-install. The admin brought in 
external experts because the mess was so unmanageable. We lost several days  
work, and some business as well. They are still having problems with Macola 
Progression as I write this. I have nothing to do here right now.

I spoke with the external guy, who told me that this is common to ALL current 
Novell systems, and he has seen it personally several times now. In his 
words, it's just a disaster waiting to happen anytime... <smirk> To me, this 
is pratically unthinkable. Could Novell really suck this badly?


-- 
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|        .:Bill Layer:.         | Viking Electronics,Inc. 1531 Industrial St |
|     .:Sales Technician:.      | Hudson, WI 54016 USA + 715.386.8861 x210   |
| b.layer at vikingelectronics.com |     http://www.vikingelectronics.com       |
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