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2 min read

Guest Blogger: The Lone Server

Hi Everyone – I wanted to introduce myself.  The IT Folks who run Microsoft.com generally refer to me as the “Lone Server.”  Unfortunately, resemblance of my name to the Lone Ranger’s is only coincidental. I’m not fighting crime, unless you count enforcing Group Policy settings.  I don’t have a horse named “Silver” which comes to get me when my hard-drive whirrs.  I don’t even get a mask to wear, unless you count removal of my side access panel as a disguise.  I know, I agree… that’s really pushing it. But throw me a bone here, eh?  
 
Albeit affectionately stated by those in IT, my name really means “alone Server”.   They call me Lone Server since I’m the only Windows Server 2003 box remaining in the Microsoft.com environmentAll the other servers upgraded to Windows Server 2008 pre-release builds.  Even though Windows Server 2008 is not yet final, Microsoft.com is running solely on Windows Server 2008 these days.
 
I try not to be bitter about this, but I have to say, I feel a little singled out.  At first I was in denial about my lack of upgrade.  My counselor says I’m starting to move toward the acceptance stage, but right now, I’m just looking to get past the anger part. I mean, all the fun workloads I used to handle like Web serving moved over to the new operating system and IIS7.  I never thought I’d feel lucky when someone offered to route me a lousy print job, but alas, this is what my existence has come to.
Here’s a video of my life today:
Adding insult to injury, the Windows Server 2008 boxes always ask, “want to benchmark against me on key workloads?”  I know they don’t mean any harm, but it’s really depressing. It’s like having Lance Armstrong ask me to race him.  Okay, I guess that’s not a very good analogy because, as a server, I have no bike, nor legs to pedal even if I could borrow a bike.  But the point I’m trying to make is that I simply can’t compete against those Windows Server 2008 boxes.
 
I know that my turn for an upgrade will come, but for now, I guess I just need to be patient.  On the bright side, it does give me some time to work on my blog entries. I usually write in binary, so now I have an opportunity to tap into my inner Robert Frost.  I’ll keep you updated.
 
–L.S.