Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Everyone always is concerned about the kids during a divorce.  No one ever considers the computers.  What happens to all those files, both shared and personal?  The remote access? The hardware? The user accounts?

In my specific case, there is a domain, shared network drives, centralized email and backup, and a terminal services gateway.  The ex’s computer is on the domain, storing email and personal files on the server that get backed up nightly, and is accessed remotely through the gateway.  This all needs to end, so like the dissolution of a business entity, a teardown plan must be designed and drafted.

First consideration is what to do with all the files.  The workstation only has a 80GB drive, about 50% utilized.  Moving all the data back locally will exceed the available drive space.  This means the hard drive must be updated, hopefully with a spare I have lying around.  So, there’s going to be a cloning step and moving all the extra files.  This includes exporting the email from the server to the workstation.

Then, it’s a matter of configuring the email to be retrieved by the workstation instead of the server.  Then, setting up the remote access software and backup.  This should be easy enough with TeamViewer and the built in backup in Windows.  One of the external USB drives can be dedicated to holding the backups.

In an ironic parallel to the end of the relationship, then there will a break from the domain – both computers and user accounts. And in the end, the server will be decommissioned since there will be no more need for shared services.  And even in technical networking terminology it is clear: we have gone from a trusted domain model to a peer network model.

Comments are closed.