Techie assumed boss knew what they were talking about and killed Exchange by deleting data

On a Monday morning, a reader named Phil revealed a cautionary tale of his own making. Years ago, Phil assumed the expertise of his new boss when tasked with resolving a slow-running Exchange server. In 2014, Phil was maintaining Microsoft Exchange servers on Windows NT systems with 15 GB drives. When a user reported slowness, Phil quickly identified the issue as a massive log file directory.

Determined to fix the problem, Phil aimed to ask users to delete emails from their Outlook clients, but this option was unavailable late on a Friday.

Feeling confident, Phil decided to delete the overwhelming log files, assuming his director possessed extensive Exchange management knowledge. However, this drastic action proved catastrophic. By deleting the 300GB of log files, Phil inadvertently crashed the entire Exchange system, a 24/7 business operation with sites scattered across the country.

Upon learning of the system-wide failure, Phil's spidey sense tingled. He returned to work on Sunday, determined to restore services. Despite his initial mistake, Phil received commendation from the CEO for his dedication and hard work. While he didn't foresee any career repercussions, he took the praise with good grace. For those who have found themselves in similar trouble following orders, The Register encourages sharing their stories with "Who, Me?" to avoid repeating the same mistakes.