A sysadmin's top ten tales of woe

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Don Watkins View Drop Down

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Topic: A sysadmin's top ten tales of woe
Posted: 16 Jun 2011 at 4:55pm

A sysadmin's top ten tales of woe

The comments are worth a read as well.

Ouch.

Karl_db

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Posted: 16 Jun 2011 at 6:49pm

ROFL I'm glad I'm not into admin support. (This way I can laugh at them...)

Randy

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Posted: 17 Jun 2011 at 6:16am

Loved the closing line: "It all goes to show that knowledge can be acquired from an adequate collection of textbooks, but true experience requires walking the minefield."

Fun read! ...as well as the comments! Very British.

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Posted: 17 Jun 2011 at 6:23am

I guess my best is back when I was doing big machine stuff. Fortunately I wasn't The Guy at that point.

We had all kinds of power problems and had these HUGE power conditioners put in. I mean they were big, about the size of a VW bug and there were three of them. They ran so hot we had to put in more AC.

All to no avail.

Finally on a very hot Friday afternoon the power just went out to the whole building. Dead. Nothing.

The transformer (supplied by the electric company) to the building had fried. It was a 150 KVA transformer. We were drawing something north of 300 KVA.

They had to get a transformer from somewhere far away AND rig new cables into the service panel in the building. It wasn't the longest run in the world but it wasn't short, either and those are BIG cables.

Finally on Sunday afternoon they had power back and we got the work done.

While I wasn't The Guy I was the guy that had to babysit them through the whole process.

So the lesson is: Look at everything, don't trust anybody and don't necessarily look for complex solutions to simple problems.

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Posted: 17 Jun 2011 at 7:13am

Ruins a fellow's weekend, but good thing it was a Friday, assuming the building was closed on the weekend.

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Posted: 17 Jun 2011 at 7:34am

Yeah, we dodged one. Lots of weekends back in those days. I remember one year it was easier to calculate the number of days I had off rather than the weekends I worked.

That number? 18.

And no, no overtime.

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Don Watkins Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Admin Group Admin Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 22258	Quote Reply Topic: A sysadmin's top ten tales of woe Posted: 16 Jun 2011 at 4:55pm
	A sysadmin's top ten tales of woe The comments are worth a read as well. Ouch.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29306	Quote Reply Posted: 16 Jun 2011 at 6:49pm
	ROFL I'm glad I'm not into admin support. (This way I can laugh at them...)

Randy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 22 Mar 2008 Location: USA, Georgia Posts: 15262	Quote Reply Posted: 17 Jun 2011 at 6:16am
	Loved the closing line: "It all goes to show that knowledge can be acquired from an adequate collection of textbooks, but true experience requires walking the minefield." Fun read! ...as well as the comments! Very British.

Don Watkins Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Admin Group Admin Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 22258	Quote Reply Posted: 17 Jun 2011 at 6:23am
	I guess my best is back when I was doing big machine stuff. Fortunately I wasn't The Guy at that point. We had all kinds of power problems and had these HUGE power conditioners put in. I mean they were big, about the size of a VW bug and there were three of them. They ran so hot we had to put in more AC. All to no avail. Finally on a very hot Friday afternoon the power just went out to the whole building. Dead. Nothing. The transformer (supplied by the electric company) to the building had fried. It was a 150 KVA transformer. We were drawing something north of 300 KVA. They had to get a transformer from somewhere far away AND rig new cables into the service panel in the building. It wasn't the longest run in the world but it wasn't short, either and those are BIG cables. Finally on Sunday afternoon they had power back and we got the work done. While I wasn't The Guy I was the guy that had to babysit them through the whole process. So the lesson is: Look at everything, don't trust anybody and don't necessarily look for complex solutions to simple problems.

Randy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 22 Mar 2008 Location: USA, Georgia Posts: 15262	Quote Reply Posted: 17 Jun 2011 at 7:13am
	Ruins a fellow's weekend, but good thing it was a Friday, assuming the building was closed on the weekend.

Don Watkins Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Admin Group Admin Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 22258	Quote Reply Posted: 17 Jun 2011 at 7:34am
	Yeah, we dodged one. Lots of weekends back in those days. I remember one year it was easier to calculate the number of days I had off rather than the weekends I worked. That number? 18. And no, no overtime.