First off, FCM, good going with the boat looking. Looks like me and FCD should go bowling, because I spend my non-existent free time looking for boats too. When we moved from Florida we had to sell ours. I actually got a tear in my eye when the new owner came for it. I lurved it, though a sophistcated boater like you would probably laugh at its size and brand (19ft Carolina Skiff). Now I spend my time looking for the fixer-uppper that will take me and the wife on our journey down the rivers of the U.S. We’re years away from that trip, but it never hurts to look, right?
For all that asked, Exgineer has always been a tired old curmudgeon.
Now I’m gonna vent at the stupid that is my job:
Yesterday, we found out that we have to start using a change management system when we make changes to the servers. From now on, any change I make has to go through the CMS and be approved, even if it is an emergency. The CMS board of approvers meet once a day, at 10am. That means if I have an emergency at 10:15, I have to submit my request, call them, and ask them to approve it. There are 10 of them. Only one of them is from the IT department, none of the others can even understand what a server is. They can barely understand thier desktop computers. So basically I have a group of people who have no idea what I do for a living deciding whether I can actually do my job. Most of them rarely answer thier phones, so an emergency situation ought to be load of fun when it comes. And it will.
I know what you’re thinking: That’s dumb as hell!
I totally agree, but it gets better! Not only do I have to do the entry and submit it, but I have to log everything into the old change tracking system, the work order system, on the local log for the server and notify the clients (all of them) of what I did. So let me walk you through what it takes to, for example, apply patches to one of my microsoft servers:
- Generate a work order (I must call the support center to do this, even though I have the privledges to create work orders myself). One work order per patch must be generated.
- Enter a request in the CMS to patch my server. One request per patch must be generated.
- Enter my intent to patch the servers into the change tracking system. One entry per patch.
- E-mail all users that connect to the server and let them know that I might be patching the server, assuming the change request is approved.
- Wait until 10am the next day.
- Apply patches.
- Close each work order.
- Close each change management ticket.
- Log the change on the local system log.
- Log each change in the change tracking database.
- E-mail the clients and tell them I’ve patched it.
- E-mail the CMS Board and tell then I’ve patched it.
- Find and kill something, preferably something furry and soft that screams a lot.
In short, it takes me almost an hour to do something as simple as patch one effing server. Hell has a special place reserved for the dillhole that thinks this is a good idea. Especially since I have 34 effing servers in my area of responsibility.
That’s all I got, except that I looked at all the pictures out there that people have posted and, quite frankly, I’m much cuter than you guys.
