Whoops, wrong server! – Customise the Domino Server Console

So today I restarted the production HTTP server by mistake! Whoops!
How did it happen? I do all my development on a local development domino server, and 99% of the time spent in Domino Administrator is on my development server, or another testing server.

It was Monday morning, and had I forgotten that on Friday afternoon I had opened a production server to check some things. So I fired up Administrator and just assumed I was on my development server. Entered ‘restart task http’ and hit enter like I do so many times, and then noticed too late I was on the wrong server.

Since making this mistake I have taken 2 steps to help prevent it happening again. I am not a Domino Admin so did not know about these things before, but a colleague pointed them out. Thanks Matt.

Change the Colours of my Development server console

I have set up a different colour scheme for my development server console. This way I will instantly be able to tell that I am on a development server.
The settings are under Configuration -> Monitoring Configuration -> Console Attributes

Now the dark blue background is a clear indication to me that it is the development server.

Set the Default Console start-up settings

Then, to make sure I will always be on my development server when I start Domino Administrator, I set the Domino Administrator Startup Settings, under File -> Preferences -> Administrator Preferences.
On Startup : Connect to specific Server
and chose my development server.

These options a probably well known by Domino Admins but us developers who don’t spend much time in Administrator may not know them. Hope it helps.