This site is running old hardware era 2006/2007.
They have no backups of any kind.
They have approximately 15 computers.
They will not spend money on a backup solution (NAS etc)
They are located over an hour drive away.
Scenario:
This site gets hit with the "Cryptolocker Virus". The site manager brings his computer to repair. Since its Cryptolocker there is nothing I can do to recover his files (Except pay the ransom)
He brings in his external USB drive which also happens to be dead so no backups are available to it.
His computer is a old dell 755 (Year 2006)
He is okay with loosing his data as he deems it not important enough to pay the Ransom.
His PC is old and not worth the service charges to re-image with XP and reload his software.
At this point I recommend replacing his computer since its running XP and its end of life is approaching shortly with new hardware that has full warranty.
For backups I recommend a second internal HDD set in a RAID 0/Mirror. He doesn't take his external offsite so there no point in replacing it with another external drive.
Once the computer has been imaged and deployed for him he would like me to look at their other computers and figure out what is best for backing up, updating the equipment etc.
(Again likely won't purchase replacement PC's)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Technical Work Part 1: Hardware
The NEW PC gets imaged with Windows 7/Office 2010 and a AV.
The internal backup HDD gets installed.
In BIOS we set the PC to turn on daily - I set it 8 PM
(Just in case the user turns it off and his day ends at 5PM)
A soft raid/mirror is created using MS Soft Raid (I'll explain why over hardware raid)
The internal HDD that comes with the PC is 500GB HDD. A 2TB HDD is added for backups and additional cloud storage using SYMFORM. If a hardware raid was set we would not be able to access the additional storage space within the OS. Using a software raid we are able to access that additional space.
Using MS Dynamic disks to create a mirror (500GB + 2TB - Mirror | 1.5TB left as free space) this gives me 1.5TB of additional storage that can be used for SYMFORM cloud contribution. By contributing the 1.5TB I get back approx 700GB of cloud storage I can use to backup the clients data.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Technical Work Part 2: Software
Since this 700GB of SYMFORM cloud storage exceeds the entire sites data I will use this to provide a cloud backup for all the users at the site.
I create a share on the C drive "SHARED" I set sharing permission to "everyone" read/write.
I enabled FILE ACCESS ENUMERATION on the share. Normally this isn't easily done. A simple APP you can set share flags and enable it. On the link below, download the second part called SHRFLGS to enable file access enumeration.
The first part you can manually do without downloading a app for it.
ENABLE FILE ACCESS ENUMERATION
Test this by creating a share and a user and see if you can see it as that user from another computer.
Second thing needed is to enable Concurrent Logins to allow me to login to his computer and setup shares as I visit each computer without disrupting his work on his computer.
Download the patch found here ENABLE CONCURRENT LOGINS
Test this by being logged in locally as the user and remote desktop to it from another computer and verify you didn't kick off the local user.
Download and install SYMFORM for cloud backups. Set the local user files for backup & "shared" folder, also add the 1.5 TB of storage to the contribution folder. You should now have the local users files and the "shared" folder being backed up to the cloud and have 700GB approximately of cloud storage to use.
Since this site is remote there is no hardware monitoring being done to make anyone aware of hardware or software issues we need Spiceworks to monitor the sites hardware and software.
The computers at the site will need to have the local administrator account set to a common password (which likely they don't have) to allow Spiceworks to fully scan the systems. I should now get alerts for hardware failures and virus infections going forward.
At this point the PC has been setup with the following
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Technical Work Part 3: Deployment
On site we deploy and setup the user with his new computer, install printers etc so he is 100% and can start using the computer. All his data is being mirrored to second HDD and backed up offsite using SYMFORM
We now sit down to each computer verify the user name and password. We RDP to primary computer where the share is located and setup a local user matching credentials of the current computer we are working on. With the user account created on both local computer and primary computer we can create a share naming it the computer name of the local pc currently working on.
We now set up windows backups to send the data to that share. We verify with the user a best time to send this backup job (Making sure the computer will be on to complete it) This I would set up weekly so that the user has a weekly backup of the files. If windows backups are not available (PC is XP) then create another backup job with one of the programs below.
Next we install ALLSYNC or SYNCTOY to echo daily changes to the share. This ensures their data is updated to the cloud and at least two copies exist on the local network.
They have no backups of any kind.
They have approximately 15 computers.
They will not spend money on a backup solution (NAS etc)
They are located over an hour drive away.
Scenario:
This site gets hit with the "Cryptolocker Virus". The site manager brings his computer to repair. Since its Cryptolocker there is nothing I can do to recover his files (Except pay the ransom)
He brings in his external USB drive which also happens to be dead so no backups are available to it.
His computer is a old dell 755 (Year 2006)
He is okay with loosing his data as he deems it not important enough to pay the Ransom.
His PC is old and not worth the service charges to re-image with XP and reload his software.
At this point I recommend replacing his computer since its running XP and its end of life is approaching shortly with new hardware that has full warranty.
For backups I recommend a second internal HDD set in a RAID 0/Mirror. He doesn't take his external offsite so there no point in replacing it with another external drive.
Once the computer has been imaged and deployed for him he would like me to look at their other computers and figure out what is best for backing up, updating the equipment etc.
(Again likely won't purchase replacement PC's)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Technical Work Part 1: Hardware
The NEW PC gets imaged with Windows 7/Office 2010 and a AV.
The internal backup HDD gets installed.
In BIOS we set the PC to turn on daily - I set it 8 PM
(Just in case the user turns it off and his day ends at 5PM)
A soft raid/mirror is created using MS Soft Raid (I'll explain why over hardware raid)
The internal HDD that comes with the PC is 500GB HDD. A 2TB HDD is added for backups and additional cloud storage using SYMFORM. If a hardware raid was set we would not be able to access the additional storage space within the OS. Using a software raid we are able to access that additional space.
Using MS Dynamic disks to create a mirror (500GB + 2TB - Mirror | 1.5TB left as free space) this gives me 1.5TB of additional storage that can be used for SYMFORM cloud contribution. By contributing the 1.5TB I get back approx 700GB of cloud storage I can use to backup the clients data.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Technical Work Part 2: Software
Since this 700GB of SYMFORM cloud storage exceeds the entire sites data I will use this to provide a cloud backup for all the users at the site.
I create a share on the C drive "SHARED" I set sharing permission to "everyone" read/write.
I enabled FILE ACCESS ENUMERATION on the share. Normally this isn't easily done. A simple APP you can set share flags and enable it. On the link below, download the second part called SHRFLGS to enable file access enumeration.
The first part you can manually do without downloading a app for it.
ENABLE FILE ACCESS ENUMERATION
Test this by creating a share and a user and see if you can see it as that user from another computer.
Second thing needed is to enable Concurrent Logins to allow me to login to his computer and setup shares as I visit each computer without disrupting his work on his computer.
Download the patch found here ENABLE CONCURRENT LOGINS
Test this by being logged in locally as the user and remote desktop to it from another computer and verify you didn't kick off the local user.
Download and install SYMFORM for cloud backups. Set the local user files for backup & "shared" folder, also add the 1.5 TB of storage to the contribution folder. You should now have the local users files and the "shared" folder being backed up to the cloud and have 700GB approximately of cloud storage to use.
Since this site is remote there is no hardware monitoring being done to make anyone aware of hardware or software issues we need Spiceworks to monitor the sites hardware and software.
The computers at the site will need to have the local administrator account set to a common password (which likely they don't have) to allow Spiceworks to fully scan the systems. I should now get alerts for hardware failures and virus infections going forward.
At this point the PC has been setup with the following
- Software Mirror
- Shared Folder "\\%PCNAME%\Shared" (Everyone Read/Write Access)
- File Access Enumeration (Hide folders from other users in shared drive)
- Symform Cloud Storage with 700GB of available space
- Spiceworks Monitoring (Hardware and Software alerts)
- Concurrent Logins enabled (Allow administrator to rdp to the PC without kicking off user)
- BIOS is set to turn the computer on every day in case the user shuts it down or there is a power outage
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Technical Work Part 3: Deployment
On site we deploy and setup the user with his new computer, install printers etc so he is 100% and can start using the computer. All his data is being mirrored to second HDD and backed up offsite using SYMFORM
We now sit down to each computer verify the user name and password. We RDP to primary computer where the share is located and setup a local user matching credentials of the current computer we are working on. With the user account created on both local computer and primary computer we can create a share naming it the computer name of the local pc currently working on.
We now set up windows backups to send the data to that share. We verify with the user a best time to send this backup job (Making sure the computer will be on to complete it) This I would set up weekly so that the user has a weekly backup of the files. If windows backups are not available (PC is XP) then create another backup job with one of the programs below.
Next we install ALLSYNC or SYNCTOY to echo daily changes to the share. This ensures their data is updated to the cloud and at least two copies exist on the local network.
