The Day the Rules Went Wonky

Imagine going through your day if all the rules that operate our society suddenly started falling apart.

Yes, I know, many say this is happening already, but no, I am not talking about corrupt politicians, business leaders or media moguls. No, I am talking about the basics, the things that make our day flow: Traffic laws, trash schedules, electric power regulation, communication with others, etc.

Picture then if these basics went wonky:

• Half of everyone you meet now speaks a different language, after quickly trying to figure out a form of sign language, you would still find that completing the to-dos for a normal day is now impossible.
• Your trash pickup truck now only comes by only when the driver feels like it. How long do you keep your trash out front? What if you missed them? Maybe they don’t come back for three weeks! Now consider the smell of your once lovely neighborhood.
• Your local police department no longer follows any rules. They arrest people for walking on the street while helping burglars climb into windows. They even start target shooting using your mailbox.
• The mail carrier is no longer delivering mail, but now working hard to see how many mailboxes he/she can run over in a day. Well, except yours, it is on the ground full of holes.
• Fire fighters start pulling up randomly to homes and hosing them down, just in case of a possible fire. Oh, and they just saw your dog…
• Your power company shuts off power, then turns it back on but increases the flow. After frying most of your electronics and blowing every light bulb, they say “meh” when you call to complain.
• Your neighbor, who is running from the police for closing his front door too loudly, while wearing a gas mask, speeds by you doing 85 in a 20 zone. He runs over your foot.
• At the doctor’s office, a dentist comes out to help with your foot. He figures to fix it with a big role of dental floss. Now you can’t feel your foot at all.
• After this completely bizarre and difficult experience, you get home and your annoying neighbor is now living there with his entire family, parents, cousins and a cat.

Yes, the basic rules are important. I don’t think anyone can argue against that one.

Nothing happens in a Windows network without Active Directory being involved.

Every time you or any other employee logs into your network, there are rules to follow. Rules probably setup by someone long before you got there. These rules have changed each time software is upgraded, systems are migrated, or hardware is added. Were these rules added or updated correctly? Would it surprise you, that just like changes in our government, these changes don’t often happen correctly or efficiently? We are human after all, error is something that well, “happens”.

Active Directory Domain Services is the tool your system uses to manage the rules and most likely the rules have changed since you started working at your company. They have probably even changed a bit since yesterday. New rules get added, users get added, hardware gets changed, security clearance gets updated. These changes, if made without considering the entire structure of the Active Directory, can cause holes, delays and some big problems as they compound day upon day, week upon week. What you end up with are rules that start conflicting and breaking down. If not checked, these can cause catastrophic problems down the road. Yes, worse than a mailbox on the ground and full of holes.

Your Active Directory has a great deal of responsibility:

• Access
• Security
• Identity
• Permissions

Everything involves, relies on, depends on Active Directory and if forgotten or ignored, the rules that are meant to keep everything on track will become a complete nightmare.

Maybe you should get a real Health Check.

Synchronis-IT, AD experts. Active Directory Heath Checks are what we do.

OK, so now your foot looks like it is rotting and you are starting to hunger for, of all things, human brains… can this get any worse?

Uh, yea. I think so.