TeKnow were contacted by Light House after their main server, not supplied by TeKnow, failed due to a rare double drive failure. Light House aims to increase the enjoyment and understanding of technologically - based media, in particular film, video, photography and new media and to emphasise their importance to the cultural, social and economic life of Wolverhampton, the West Midlands and further afield. They are affiliated to Wolverhampton City Council, University of Wolverhampton and Learning + Skills Council.

The original supplier of the server managed to recover the data from the failed drives, however, this left an unstable machine with various administration tools and maintenance wizards corrupt. To add to the problem, it appears that the Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2000 operating system had been left on autoupdate which caused a service pack to automatically install when there was not enough disk space to do so - essentially it was running service pack 3 and a half!

After a thorough site investigation, TeKnow concluded that the best course of action would be to completely reinstall the operating system and user data. However, with Light House relying so heavily on this system to provide internet access via a leased line, email, shared drives and planned internal applications, it was widely agreed that the hardware should also be replaced and that the new solution should be as fault tolerant as possible.

The current system had no backup power supply, no regular backup policy, no antivirus protection and a limited firewall. It was also noticed that network users had access to areas of the server that could be potentially harmful and that non-physical aspects of the business needed addressing, such as establishing a system usage policy.

Light House have acted on all of TeKnow's recommendations and have transformed a storage cupboard into a well equipped, air-conditioned server room! The final system will be a rack mounted NEC 120Ef server including an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). With 4 x 120Gb SATA-150 drives in a Raid 5 array (with battery backup), the data should be secure and even if a drive fails users will be able to continue using the system. A redundant power supply further reduces the chances of failure and backups will be performed to a Sony AIT-1 drive using imaging software, automatically every evening.

To take advantage of the new Microsoft Windows Server 2003 technology, Light House will be upgrading to Microsoft Small Business Server 2003, and are implementing a hardware firewall VPN device, which as well as providing further security will allow secure remote access to authorised users.

Once the project is completed, TeKnow will be assisting Light House to devise a system usage policy which will instruct users as to what they are authorised to do with the system (e.g. internet usage). We hope to support the new system and advise Light House on an ongoing basis.

This is one example of how TeKnow have brought a professional solution to a client in a particularly difficult situation. If you see any of the above problems in your organisation, please contact TeKnow immediately - we look forward to speaking with you.