user logging off

  • Thread starter Thread starter Leonard
  • Start date Start date
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Leonard

Guest
We are running a 2003 std server

i have a user who logs on to do a backup, but they are unable to log off and
therefore we can not logon as administrator, the only way er can change this
is restart the PC. also i can not shutdown from this point

if i use remote desktop to remotly connect i can logon as admin ok and then
can restart but its now happening every time and want to prevent having to
keep restarting

hope you can help
 
Re: user logging off

- Run the backup as a scheduled task instead of interactively
- Have him log in using remote desktop rather than console. There's no need
to use the console session unless remote desktop is not working or you need
to perform per-boot operations.
- Run mstsc /console to take the console session
Hope that helps,
Anthony,
http://www.airdesk.co.uk


"Leonard" <Leonard@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A0124A12-2B2C-401F-BACF-85BB75AD88BF@microsoft.com...
> We are running a 2003 std server
>
> i have a user who logs on to do a backup, but they are unable to log off
> and
> therefore we can not logon as administrator, the only way er can change
> this
> is restart the PC. also i can not shutdown from this point
>
> if i use remote desktop to remotly connect i can logon as admin ok and
> then
> can restart but its now happening every time and want to prevent having to
> keep restarting
>
> hope you can help
 
Re: user logging off

Leonard <Leonard@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> We are running a 2003 std server
>
> i have a user who logs on to do a backup, but they are unable to log
> off and therefore we can not logon as administrator, the only way er
> can change this is restart the PC. also i can not shutdown from this
> point
>
> if i use remote desktop to remotly connect i can logon as admin ok
> and then can restart but its now happening every time and want to
> prevent having to keep restarting
>
> hope you can help

The real answer here is, don't have a user log in to do backups. Your
backups can and should be entirely automated. Don't have users log into your
servers at all! :-)
 
Re: user logging off

well its actually only my sage accounts that get backed up this way

the account manager insists on a manual backup of just this each day

will try the suggestions, but this was working fine over the last 6 months
or so

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:

> Leonard <Leonard@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> > We are running a 2003 std server
> >
> > i have a user who logs on to do a backup, but they are unable to log
> > off and therefore we can not logon as administrator, the only way er
> > can change this is restart the PC. also i can not shutdown from this
> > point
> >
> > if i use remote desktop to remotly connect i can logon as admin ok
> > and then can restart but its now happening every time and want to
> > prevent having to keep restarting
> >
> > hope you can help
>
> The real answer here is, don't have a user log in to do backups. Your
> backups can and should be entirely automated. Don't have users log into your
> servers at all! :-)
>
>
>
 
Re: user logging off

Leonard <Leonard@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> well its actually only my sage accounts that get backed up this way
>
> the account manager insists on a manual backup of just this each day
>
> will try the suggestions, but this was working fine over the last 6
> months or so

That doesn't mean it's a good idea. If your accounting people want to make
their own backups of the data, they can do that from their own desktops. Who
runs the network? Who's responsible for the servers? If it isn't them, then
they don't have any business logging into a server.
>
> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:
>
>> Leonard <Leonard@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>> We are running a 2003 std server
>>>
>>> i have a user who logs on to do a backup, but they are unable to log
>>> off and therefore we can not logon as administrator, the only way er
>>> can change this is restart the PC. also i can not shutdown from
>>> this point
>>>
>>> if i use remote desktop to remotly connect i can logon as admin ok
>>> and then can restart but its now happening every time and want to
>>> prevent having to keep restarting
>>>
>>> hope you can help
>>
>> The real answer here is, don't have a user log in to do backups. Your
>> backups can and should be entirely automated. Don't have users log
>> into your servers at all! :-)
 
Re: user logging off

In theory yes, but there are two issues with this approach:

You don't get to see the backup window, so if there is a problem it will be
extremely hard to diagnose it.

In post-2000 OS's network shares are per-user (IMHO an extremely bad
decision to make it so) and this means that a backup app running under system
credentials loses its network access. I find that this situation is forcing
us to use automatic logon on servers instead of running such processes as a
service.

Just my ten cents' worth.

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:

> The real answer here is, don't have a user log in to do backups. Your
> backups can and should be entirely automated. Don't have users log into your
> servers at all! :-)
 
Re: user logging off

Anteaus <Anteaus@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> In theory yes, but there are two issues with this approach:
>
> You don't get to see the backup window, so if there is a problem it
> will be extremely hard to diagnose it.

Surely, reviewing and testing backups, and reading backup job logs (ideally
sent via email), is part the network administrator's job....
>
> In post-2000 OS's network shares are per-user (IMHO an extremely bad
> decision to make it so) and this means that a backup app running
> under system credentials loses its network access.

But if this is a *server* based backup, backing up data on its own bad self
to a local backup medium, there ain't no issue. And even if it's across a
network, you set up a domain service account with just the permissions you
need.

Either of these is better than letting end users log into a server, in my
book.

> I find that this
> situation is forcing us to use automatic logon on servers instead of
> running such processes as a service.

Eeeuw! I don't use auto login, anywhere. No way, no how.


>
> Just my ten cents' worth.

Got change for a quarter? ;-)


>
> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:
>
>> The real answer here is, don't have a user log in to do backups. Your
>> backups can and should be entirely automated. Don't have users log
>> into your servers at all! :-)
 
Re: user logging off


"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:

> But if this is a *server* based backup, backing up data on its own bad self
> to a local backup medium, there ain't no issue.

Ths main concern here is that smaller sites are increasingly using NAS
devices for backup. Often they use tape too, but the NAS is a second
insurance as non-enterprise-class tape drives are not all that reliable.

>
> Either of these is better than letting end users log into a server, in my
> book.

Agree. I would never allow this. Though I'm amazed at the number of places
where they even have office software installed on servers, and use the thing
as a surrogate desktop. Often ends in disaster when a user decides to start
installing junk onto it.

> Eeeuw! I don't use auto login, anywhere. No way, no how.

I do quite frequently, but the server is typically headless and set to lock
the desktop as soon as it's booted. Plus, anyone who touches it... GRRRR. :-/

> Got change for a quarter? ;-)

Got a whole box of change I need to take to the bank. Just never get round
to it.
 
Re: user logging off

right I will stop this user logging on to do their backup, but I know that
tomorrow if i try and log on as administrator I will not logoff this
particular user, can you explain how I get the user logged of the server
without haing to press the reset button.

As explained i cant even resteert the server using the start shutdown
restart computer



"Anteaus" wrote:

>
> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:
>
> > But if this is a *server* based backup, backing up data on its own bad self
> > to a local backup medium, there ain't no issue.
>
> Ths main concern here is that smaller sites are increasingly using NAS
> devices for backup. Often they use tape too, but the NAS is a second
> insurance as non-enterprise-class tape drives are not all that reliable.
>
> >
> > Either of these is better than letting end users log into a server, in my
> > book.
>
> Agree. I would never allow this. Though I'm amazed at the number of places
> where they even have office software installed on servers, and use the thing
> as a surrogate desktop. Often ends in disaster when a user decides to start
> installing junk onto it.
>
> > Eeeuw! I don't use auto login, anywhere. No way, no how.
>
> I do quite frequently, but the server is typically headless and set to lock
> the desktop as soon as it's booted. Plus, anyone who touches it... GRRRR. :-/
>
> > Got change for a quarter? ;-)
>
> Got a whole box of change I need to take to the bank. Just never get round
> to it.
>
 
Re: user logging off

I'd certainly be a bit concerned about that aspect, it tends to indicate some
kind of underlying trouble. First thoughts would be to examine what processes
are running in Task Manager (especially any non-Microsoft ones whose purpose
is uncertain) and if one of them is inhibiting shutdown.

As mentioned, if users have been allowed an unsupervised Admin-rights logon
they may even have been installing junk onto the thing. A scan with Lavasoft
Ad-aware wouldn't go amiss. Or just take a look for unrecognised programs.

"Leonard" wrote:

> As explained i cant even resteert the server using the start shutdown
> restart computer
 
Re: user logging off

Anteaus <Anteaus@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:
>
>> But if this is a *server* based backup, backing up data on its own
>> bad self to a local backup medium, there ain't no issue.
>
> Ths main concern here is that smaller sites are increasingly using NAS
> devices for backup. Often they use tape too, but the NAS is a second
> insurance as non-enterprise-class tape drives are not all that
> reliable.

Agreed. If I can't get someone to swing for LTO (and frankly, even sometimes
if I could...) I tend to use multiple locally-attached USB drives, not NAS.
But the latter are fine for simple robocopy backup jobs, which I also like
to use. Still, one must review backup logs, at least periodically.
>
>>
>> Either of these is better than letting end users log into a server,
>> in my book.
>
> Agree. I would never allow this. Though I'm amazed at the number of
> places where they even have office software installed on servers, and
> use the thing as a surrogate desktop. Often ends in disaster when a
> user decides to start installing junk onto it.

Absolutely.
>
>> Eeeuw! I don't use auto login, anywhere. No way, no how.
>
> I do quite frequently, but the server is typically headless and set
> to lock the desktop as soon as it's booted. Plus, anyone who touches
> it... GRRRR. :-/
>
>> Got change for a quarter? ;-)
>
> Got a whole box of change I need to take to the bank. Just never get
> round to it.

There's at least one bank around here that lets you dump all your change
into a hopper, collect a ticket, and get bills in return - no charge. Of
course, there you are, walking down the street with a huge jar of pennies
and nickels beforehand, but you just have to be careful not to trip and
fall. :-)
 
Re: user logging off

Leonard wrote:
> well its actually only my sage accounts that get backed up this way
>
> the account manager insists on a manual backup of just this each day
>
> will try the suggestions, but this was working fine over the last 6 months
> or so

That makes no sense. Relying on a manual backup vs. an automatic one??

--

Regards,
Hank Arnold
Microsoft MVP
Windows Server - Directory Services
 
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