Just recently we had to provide remote support to a field technician who was working on a server. The server had a failed drive in a RAID 1 volume. One of the drives had failed about two weeks prior and was replaced. It appears either the second drive in the pair failed shortly after or was also in a degraded state. The drive had been replaced in the server by another filed tech. The drive was inserted hot. The server had a PERC 6i RAID controller so it could be swapped out hot. The drive was a SAS 10k drive. The replacement hard drive may not have been a hot-plug drive or both drives were having issues at the same time but one had failed with the other ready to. Regardless, the server seemingly ran okay except for the extra slowness. It appears now, as the development of this issue is looked back on that the rebuild process was not completed even though ti was weeks later because the remaining remaining drive, the one that was swapped into the server did not have all of the system files on it. The server probably still be running with the drives in such a degraded state but it had been rebooted and that's when the problems began. The tech was onsite until early hours the next morning. With the field tech onsite, another engineer was supporting him through the web.
The access was through another server that was onsite and still working properly, an exchange server. The exchange server was remotely controlled through the web. Remote control of the exchange server through the web allowed a jump point or a remote access point from which the iLO interface could be connected to. iLO on the server permitted indirect remote control access through the web. The remote control of the server worked wonderfully through. We were able to access the server and assist the technician working on the server. He was a fairly new tech but very good. This was computer support through the web at its finest. With PC support through the web we are able to remotely access client desktop computers but this option was not available in this case because the computer, in this case a server, was not even booting to an operating system. For desktop support through the web to work, the remote desktop computer or server has to be connected to the web. The computer desktop or server has to be online to connect directly through the web for support. Computer support over the web came in the form of working from working from another working online computer on the same network . In this particular instance, it was another server. Remotely connecting with remote control to the server permitted us to assist the less experienced technician. PC support through the web permitted remote assistance of the field technician. PC support through the web can help support regular standard computer desktop users but also other technical support people. The connection for support is online through the web. Computer support over the web does not necessarily have to be a direct connection through the Internet. It can come in the form of indirect access. As experienced, ILO and DRAC interfaces and remote consoles are not always directly accessible via remote access to other systems on the same or a connected network, access can be achieved to the troubled computer or server. Typically, remote access is direct to the desktop or PC the user is accessing and physically in front of. There are instances where desktop support over the web takes on a form of server support and in those cases more support tools into play and catalyst the support efforts such that problem resolution is expedited.