How To Know When Your Servers Are Failing And What To Do Before It’s Too Late

By Keith Marchiano, MainBrain

Swing Migration takes a lot of technical know-how. But for one Baltimore company, it was a MainBrain solution that probably saved their business.

This company is a leading provider of security services to government and private sector clients. They have a dedicated IT administrator on staff to manage their network and felt they had all the help they needed. But then little issues began to pop up. Their servers started rebooting unexpectedly and they were getting “memory-full” messages even though there should have been plenty of space on their drives.

When MainBrain’s tech team arrived on the scene, they diagnosed the situation and had to deliver the bad news - their servers were old and they were failing. With volumes of sensitive client information and essential Customer Relationship Management data at risk, there was no time to waste. MainBrain’s network engineers recommended a process, called “Swing Migration,” to solve the problem.

Swing Migration is generally used to upgrade server software to a new version. But it is also a valuable tool when a server needs to be replaced. The beauty of swing migration is that you can move the data on the server without giving up the domain, the server name, or the Exchange Information Store in the process, all while working offline with an open time line. With swing migration, you get a clean server installation that retains all the critical Active Directory domain information and predictable results. It’s the most transparent method for upgrading all versions of Windows Small Business Server, NT4, Windows 2000, or Windows 2003-based domains as upgrades to SBS 2003. The saving grace for them was that the methodology works for non-SBS projects as well. In fact, the process is flexible enough for most any project in any production environment regardless of the hardware changes involved. This was especially important since they had to port data from their Blackberry Enterprise Server program, as well.

The beauty of Swing Migration is that it solves technical issues without creating operational interruptions and scheduling problems. Construction of the new server environment is performed almost entirely offline, with an open-ended timeline. No repairs are needed if a problem halts the upgrade. Swing migration also minimizes the preparations and changes to the production server, and the old server remains in operation during the upgrade. Only during the final transition are the data and Exchange Stores moved to the new server, which you then slide into service to replace the old one. The domain accounts remain unchanged, you can keep the server name, and alternate paths in the process use the previous hardware until you’re done.

Though they initially brought MainBrain in to solve an immediate problem, after working with us, they saw the benefits of setting up an ongoing Managed Services Agreement. Now we provide assistance to their in-house IT person with two hours of onsite support, remote server monitoring, and a comprehensive review each month. A MainBrain monthly review includes installing any available software updates, patch management, disk defragmentation, a review of the back up log, verification of the back-up data and memory tests. In addition, hard drives are checked for data consistency, disk health and space requirements. If necessary, we check the spam filtering, antivirus definitions and review the firewall log files.

This company is in business to make their clients feel secure. And with the MainBrain’s team of experienced technicians and Senior Engineers working with them, they can finally enjoy that feeling for themselves.

Our Business Services include:

• Macintosh & Windows Solutions
• Network Design & Installation
• Desktop & Server Support
• Remote Network Monitoring
• Managed Services
• Project Management