• (cs)

    ummm, this "classic" is from 4 months ago?? i'm not complaining, but couldnt we just link the comments for this to the comments from the original...

    edit: fist, baby, fist

  • (cs) in reply to savar
    savar:
    ummm, this "classic" is from 4 months ago??
    It's an instant classic!
  • (cs) in reply to savar
    savar:
    ummm, this "classic" is from 4 months ago??

    In the days of the WWW and the short attention spans of it's users, four days ago could be considered a clbuttic.

  • Habbo Raider (unregistered)

    Old post is ooooooooooooooooooooold...

  • (cs)

    If I still remember the story, it has to be too soon to post, because my memory is Crap. I do love the WTF (no matter the name) it makes me feel better about the company I work for. I do have an interesting story although I'll have to wait till the problem is fixed from the company before I tell of their stupidity (not our company, one we work with)

  • george (unregistered)

    is this one from a backup? i remember reading it here already.. that wasn't too long ago.

  • sammy (unregistered)

    This setup is "perfect?"

    Permit me to suggest that if the only way you can restore data is to restore an entire operating system capable of mounting a particular disk image, your DR solution leaves something to be desired.

  • M (unregistered) in reply to sammy

    Whoosh...

  • (cs) in reply to sammy
    sammy:
    This setup is "perfect?"

    Permit me to suggest that if the only way you can restore data is to restore an entire operating system capable of mounting a particular disk image, your DR solution leaves something to be desired.

    did you miss the irony, or are you being doubly-ironic? i can never tell on this site...

  • (cs) in reply to sammy
    sammy:
    This setup is "perfect?"

    Permit me to suggest that if the only way you can restore data is to restore an entire operating system capable of mounting a particular disk image, your DR solution leaves something to be desired.

    Yes the setup is perfect; it works, it is easily replicated.

    You do not always need to move all data that is presumed dead up to your most current systems. This, sometimes, is far to cost prohibitive as you would have to duplicate that systems and it's business rules on the new platform in order to properly query the data. Yes you could pull the data into something even simple like a text file, but now what about the rules surrounding it, what if there is encryption built into the application. These old systems won't use standard encryption routines.

    So yes, this is a perfect backup system. Regretfully the users aren't perfect and can't remember their log in accounts or passwords from that far back.

  • bpk (unregistered)

    To everyone who is complaining about the "lameness" of reposts, I suggest you follow this link.

    http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://thedailywtf.com

    go to the day that the original article was posted and read it then, that way it's like ITS BRAND NEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • (cs)

    The real WTF (and I told myself I'd never use that phrase) is obviously that this so-called perfect backup system didn't backup everyone's password post-its.

  • Kid (unregistered) in reply to sammy
    sammy:
    This setup is "perfect?"

    Permit me to suggest that if the only way you can restore data is to restore an entire operating system capable of mounting a particular disk image, your DR solution leaves something to be desired.

    Well, only if you can replicate, perfectly, the original file on the current operating system.

    As an example of why this might be an issue, the navy was storing all their schematics digitally, in a cad program. They updated their system, which necessitated an update in the cad program's version... which changed how the data was interpreted. Lines which had been solid before were now dotted.

    A minor issue, perhaps, but indicative of a larger issue. Data files may be preserved perfectly... but if you can't read them correctly, what's the point?

    On the other hand, this solution really is nearly perfect. They can view the old files with the same software which wrote it originally, negating errors in reading the data due to software changes.

  • jkndrkn (unregistered) in reply to bpk
    bpk:
    To everyone who is complaining about the "lameness" of reposts, I suggest you follow this link.

    http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://thedailywtf.com

    go to the day that the original article was posted and read it then, that way it's like ITS BRAND NEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ^_^

  • Tod K (unregistered)

    I swear when I read this I had the same thought the first time I read it (before is was a classic). I though the IT department created a virtual machine, mounted the old machine image and dug up the old data for the user and the user's request was: "What was my password 5 years ago?"

    I guess that's more a reflection of how I feel about my current set of users than the actual WTF post.

    SIGH

    =Tod

  • James (unregistered)

    I don't think the design of the backup system is broken at all -- in 5 years, by the time you've forgotten the password on your old system, your new desktop system should be fast enough to crack it in minimal time. Why make matters more complicated than they need to be?

  • Sigivald (unregistered)

    Speaking of Failure, why the hell are there prev and next markers when there's only one page?

    Whoever wrote this comments feature is lazier than I am!

  • (cs)
    The company’s backup and retention plan is nothing short of immaculate. Every system they’ve ever purchased -- from that old payroll program on the System/360 to that bizarre parts database for OS/2 -- can be brought back to life, if not physically than through virtualization.
    The real WTF is that "than through" is still in this article.
  • (cs)

    Running a four month old article as a 'classic' is indeed worse than the failure of not finding a new article.

  • Zan (unregistered) in reply to Kid
    Kid:
    As an example of why this might be an issue, the navy was storing all their schematics digitally, in a cad program. They updated their system, which necessitated an update in the cad program's version... which changed how the data was interpreted. Lines which had been solid before were now dotted.

    "Engineeeer!" "Sir! Yes! sir!" "Why can't I see the kitchen from here." "... Because there's a wall? ... Sir!" "Do you see this schematic? Are you blind? This wall is clearly meant to be intermittent!

  • dilly (unregistered)

    Hmmm code re-use and story re-use. Rather like a bad clipshow when the producers cant be arsed to do a decent show!

  • Andy (unregistered)

    I think this is a very good backup system. Not that that was the WTF anyways.

    The story of this article is the irony that everything worked perfectly, only that they missed a minor yet important detail : )

    CAPTCHA: digdug ... yeah, dug out an old article... lol

  • (cs)

    No problem. Sounds like an AS/400 type system, maybe system 36. All they have to do is log into the administrator account and change the users password.

    That is, if they can remember the administrators password from 5 years ago XD

  • James (unregistered) in reply to Serpardum
    Serpardum:
    No problem. Sounds like an AS/400 type system, maybe system 36. All they have to do is log into the administrator account and change the users password.

    That is, if they can remember the administrators password from 5 years ago XD

    Maybe all they need to remember is the combo for the safe where all the OLD firecall IDs are stored in hardcopy :-)

  • Cal (unregistered)

    Sounds like something we did for Y2K. The accounting system couldn't accept even a fiscal year that contained 2000. The new system ran on a different OS altogether. Accounting rules mandated retention of the old system for years. The new system could not read the old data, and it was decided not worth the effort to convert seven years of back data into the new system format just for this purpose.

    I'll pat myself on the back a bit, we changed the account passwords to equal the usernames, documented that all on hard copy, and when the old system was shut down, it all went into the safe, including the old server and a compatible workstation! For all I know, they're still in there...

  • David Schwartz (unregistered)

    After the first time this happened to me, I started keeping a secure record of every password I have ever set, used, or known. It's saved me some serious trouble many, many times.

    Except for the one time I picked a really unique password and forgot to enter it into the system, then lost the piece of paper I wrote it temporarily onto just until I could enter it into my super secure, safe system. I think that system is still waiting for me to go through the procedure to reset the password to its OOB administrative interface.

    (Guess what, the previous version and the next version permit you to set the OOB password from a root session. Not this version though -- that requires a bizarre serial cable unlike any other serial cable, physical access, and a reboot or two.)

  • (cs)

    Isnt TRWTF that the user's password was 5 years old and the system being restored was decommisioned over 10 years ago?

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