Vacation Automation

[Chris_Kaspar]

Good day all. Just a little background.

I am going on vacation for 2 weeks beginning on Memorial Day. I am the only guy at my office that does what I do. I am the only person who knows jack about how my system works, bad I know.

Anyhow. I am writing up a list of instructions to follow in the event of system failures. I am hoping I can use the Ducky to automate my "logging in" process with the person that will be covering for me. They

So, I am looking for the example scripts that I can shop up to login from a reboot, setup TrueCrypt volumes and shares, start databases and log into them.

Any direction would be great.

TIA.

[cooper]

As I don't own a Ducky myself (anybody in .eu want to sell me theirs? Shipping fee from the US is killing me) I can't help you out but I would very much like to pick your brain about why you chose this setup and how it's working out for you.

Because to me it currently sounds like your database volumes (and possibly the associated software itself aswell) resides on your TrueCrypt volume which tends to mean it's really important data at least to someone and because you're going away for 2 weeks 1) potentially nobody has access to it and 2) you're going to solve this by basically putting the info on how to get to the data out in the open.

So I'd be very interested, in about 4 weeks when you've returned from your holiday, hopefully in excellent health and after having found your machine in equally fine shape, to discuss with you about why you have this setup and what might be done to prevent your current situation from re-occurring.

Just to make it abundantly clear to people reading this:

Someone else will need to provide an answer as I don't have a clue.

Edited May 9, 2014 by Cooper

[Chris_Kaspar]

I will elaborate more on how it went when I do get back but basically our office is very technical but I am the only one who knows anything about it and how it works. The Duck will only be shared with the owner(my boss). I am not too concerned about it getting out in the open as I have told him that these are essentially the keys of the kingdom. I don't want to write down passwords for him and, sadly, I can't trust him not to write them down. I can trust him to hold the Ducky with his life though so my only solution to giving him access to 5 complicated passwords was to automate it for him. Turning on a PC is almost a chore for the tech whizzes I deal with so...I am kinda stuck.

What I would have done differently to this point would be to have someone trained to do my job but because I am so specialized and "spendy", having two of "me" here would be cost prohibitive to the company so we have to patch what we can together.

Edit: I should add that the instructions I am leaving are for troubleshooting the origin of a problem from VOIP phones to email outage. When we get to the server being down it will be "Insert Ducky and stand back" so the instructions will only be in one spot and for the owner only. The instructions will only take them through determining network connectivity and such.

Edited May 9, 2014 by Chris_Kaspar

[cooper]

Write instructions and passwords on a piece of paper in fairly big font. Fold it up a few times (hence the big font - the fold shouldn't make letters ambiguous) and hand it to him in an envelope you licked shut, wrote your autograph across the flap such that you wrote on both the flap and the envelope itself and then stick some transparent ducktape over this and using an exacto knife cut some thin slits into the tape without (completely) cutting up the envelope. The idea is to make it visibly evident that someone tried to, or worse, succeeded in opening the envelope.

Hand the envelope over and tell him to store it somewhere he considers sufficiently safe to bet the company on, as that's exactly what this is. He might have a safe at home or be willing to rent a safety deposit box or something. His problem.

It's going to get written down anyways, either on the SD card or on paper, and it's easier to control paper. Given the gravity of the content, you don't want him to keep this on his person 24/7 as that wouldn't be very secure either. People lose shit all the time. If something were to happen that requires the use of the contents of the envelope, it's probably considered acceptable given the required security that he needs to go someplace to retrieve the envelope, come back and only then be able to fix the problem. It might take another 30 minutes, but it'll be safer in the long run and is potentially transferrable which can be useful aswell.