So, in the midst of not writing too much this week, I’ve had a lot of headaches. Headaches that you can avoid.

Headache number one. Always do a daily check of backups. Make sure that everything including SQL databases are being backed up properly. If they aren’t, find a way to remedy that.

Headache number two, SQL 2005. Yes SQL works nicely, but when you have people who insist on using the Eval version past its 120 period, upgrading them to the full version is a pain. One that Microsoft can fix by not forcing an uninstall of the eval and install of the full version. Oh and double check all backups before you do the uninstall.

Headache number three, Windows updates and Symantec Endpoint. I have hit this one a few times this week, where Windows Update goes into a weird connection and install loop for a patch and can’t install it so keeps retrying to the point that Symantec Endpoint 11 things the server is under a DoS attack. Course this eventually led to other issues that required a reboot of the servers in question, so they worked properly again. Well two of them did, the third one led to…

Headache number 4, ease of finding information from Microsoft. Yes, Technet, and Google are nice items, but when one puts in a search about corrupted exchange log E00, you would think that you would get all the info or at least KB articles that offer solutions for it. This is not the case. It took about 100 different search strings along the exact same parameter, with a small change here, small change there to words or order, to finally find the missing step to bring back up a clients exchange information stores.

Yeah, its been a busy week, but at least there are lessons to be learned. The biggest one is that Microsoft is painful.