What better time than 1 pm to take down the server?

The BBQ Pit
1

Today’s the day. I work in a government law office, with maybe 60 attorneys and support staff. We depend on e-mail to transmit and file documents electronically, and communicate with the courts and other offices, we research on-line, etc.

As indicated in past e-mails:

Our server is scheduled to be replaced Thursday, August 21, 2003 at 1:00 pm. The system will be down throughout the end of the day. It is expected to be up Friday, August 22, 2003. In the likelihood that there are unforeseen problems, …

Now what would lead you to anticipate unforeseen problems? The fact that our network goes down on pretty much a monthly basis? The fact that our server has NEVER undergone ANY maintenance without significant periods of outage? The fact that we have in the past gone as long as a week at a time without a network?

And of course, in light of our faboo track record, I have every confidence that whatever they are doing today is going to be THE SOLUTION that will ensure us a reliable system from here on out. Sure, that’s what you said the last several times, but I understand that this time is different.

I fully understand why it would be impossible to work on the network - say - at night or over the weekend. And, even tho I have a fully functional computer (yeah - I’m the crazy hepcat with one of them newfangled things at home), it just wouldn’t do to let me stay home and work until I get the all clear that I can actually WORK in my office.

Most horrifically, I won’t be able to waste time on the SDMB during work hours. Hell, I might be forced to spend MY OWN TIME with you guys. Heavens forbid!

But, I am merely a simple lawyer, and as such, incapable of comprehending the reasons why 1 p.m. on a Thurday is the optimal time to take down the network. Heck, I think I’ll have a brake job done on my car next time I’m cruising down the highway …

2

Hmmm, I wonder why they’re doing it today. Usually a Friday is better so you have to stay late to make up for lost time.

3

Papa Tiger has stayed up all night many a night doing computer repairs/maintenance/upgrades on various government computers. Not all IT people are as short-sighted as yours.

OTOH, perhaps they’re figuring that of course they’ll have problems, and this way if they do they’ll have four days to fix them rather than the three they’d have if they did it on Friday. Sounds reasonable, if their track record is as good as you say.

And, of course, last but not least, who cares about lawyers??? I mean, you don’t expect to be treated like a PERSON, do you, whose time is valuable? :smiley:

4

Our IT people have roughly the same level of consideration, but rather less foresight. My team, of ten people, does work which is entirely dependent on a server system which has thousands of public users daily. It needed upgrading. The entirely reasonable suggestion was made that it be planned in advance to have a day’s downtime where we needn’t come in to work so the system could be upgraded. Woo, we thought.

However, the engineer (and I use that term loosely) responsible insisted that he could do the job* in an hour, and naturally picked the hour just before the system opened to traffic in the morning (the busiest time of day). At opening time, he sent an email saying that everything was fixed, at which point the whole thing fell over, to be totally down for two whole days and only partially functional for the rest of the next week, leaving us sitting at our desks in the basement with fuck all to do instead of enjoying the best weather England has seen in years. Bah.

*involving roughly 8 servers in 3 different geographical locations, I might add…

5

Well - I’m heading out for a run.
See you guys whenever the computers are back up!
Just in case, Happy Halloween!
(Actually, I have 2 p.m. next Wednesday in the office pool as to when they are back up!)

6

Because someone doesn’t want to stay after-hours, and further, they don’t want to stay into their weekend.

:rolleyes:

BTDT.

Sam

7

Joke n.

Something said or done to evoke laughter or amusement, especially an amusing story with a punch line.

:rolleyes: right back at ya.

8

A law office with 60 lawyers is going to lose the network for 1.5 working days?! Or any working day? Who in the hell is doing your network maintenance, the Three Stooges?

If one of our client’s networks was down for 30 minutes, we’d catch holy hell. If we purposely shut down the network, we’d lose a client. This is one reason why network administration is such a notoriously tough job: a lot of work in the wee hours of the night so you don’t interrupt normal business.

9

Lighten the fuck up World Beater. My comment was in response to the millions of IT managers and institutions who have been doing stupid things like this for years now. I myself have been a victim of this kind of dumbass decision on more than one occasion, and in fact have been part of the organization that made the dumbass decision(against everyone’s better judgement except management).

Chill out.

Sam

10

You could work in my office.

Boss: Shit. Another virus. Better let IT know.

Boss leans out of door.

Boss: AVABETH!

I’m a one-woman IT department who can solve problems telepathically, especially since we have 15 guys who work out of their homes and on the road.

I’m expected to deal with viruses immediately and get rid of them. I’m also expected to use my brilliant skills to fix computers simply by thinking about them (Apparently, I’m supposed to be a graduate of the Harold Hill School of IT). And then they get mad when I can’t tell exactly which virus they have from 700 miles away.

And then I ask if they’ve updated their virus software.

“Virus software?”

“Virus software. You know, the stuff we’re supposed to keep on our work computers? It’s a requirement?”

“Oh. Yeah, I’ll do that tonight.”

One of these days, I’ll just let them all crash and then take a vacation day.

Oh, yeah. I’ve never been trained in IT. I’m an administrative assistant with above-average computer skills. I should ask for a raise.

Ava

11

My apologies, I’m not familiar with BTDT, I thought it was some sort of Samoan curse you were trying to place on me. :wink:

12

“Our server is scheduled to be replaced Thursday, August 21, 2003 at 1:00 pm. The system will be down throughout the end of the day. It is expected to be up Friday, August 22, 2003. In the likelihood that there are unforeseen problems, …”

If they are actually REPLACING a server on a Thursday afternoon, that is kinda odd and poorly timed unless the old server died an untimely death. However, perhaps they are having to work on it due to the new worms that have come out recently or a harddrive died or something of the sort. Emergencies arise and things have to be taken care of. I know I have to take down our server here probably once a week for a half hour to a hour at a time; usually do to our accounting staff or admin staff not following company IT policy and things getting FUBAR.

God forbid that the never thanked, under appreciated, ever hardworking IT staff would like have the weekend off and not have to work until 3 AM during the week. Did you say anything to your IT staff on System Admin Day (similar to Secretaries Day)?

13

Sorry for that…BTDT- Been There Done That. I thought it was a generally accepted internet abbreviation.

Sam

14

Sounds like the tech support staff when I went to community college.

They’d take the network down for some trivial maitenance right during mid terms, when everyone was scrambling to get in and finish up their papers. And then they wondered why we were always so freaking annoyed.

15

Learn a new thing everyday. :slight_smile:

There’s a Sys Admin day?

16

“They’d take the network down for some trivial maitenance right during mid terms, when everyone was scrambling to get in and finish up their papers. And then they wondered why we were always so freaking annoyed.”

Yep, Im sure they did it just to piss you and everyone else off. Probably nothing important.

“There’s a Sys Admin day?”

Yep, its the last Friday in July.
Friday, July 30th, 2004 is the next one

17

Wow. I thought you were joking about SysAdmin day, Tezmec.

What kind of gifts do we get? I mean secretaries usually get flowers, right? Do we get RAM?

18

www.sysadmin.com suggests

Handheld GPS Unit - such as Garmin E-Map w/CDROM | Garmin Street Pilot III

White LED Flashlight - such as EternaLight

Gift Certificate from ThinkGeek.com

Case of Iced Mocha Cappuccino | Frappuccino ®

Green Laser Pointer (Green - not Red)

XM Radio PCR

Cookies and Brownies. Preferably homebaked.

Sharp Zaurus 5500 linux PDA

Portable MP3 Music Player (w/20GB disk) IPod or ARCHOS

Plasma TV (42” or larger)

“Geek Disc CDROM” - collection of comedy songs by Wes Borg

iMac w/LCD screen w/Superdrive

Fantazein Clock persistence of vision desk clock

Nerf ® Weapons

BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Swingline “The Red Stapler” only available direct from Swingline website

Digital Camera, 4 Mega-Pixel or greater - such as Olympus - Nikon

Tickets (qty 4) to Baseball | Hockey | Basketball

Cake and Ice Cream party (balloons optional)

Gift Certificate from AMAZON.com | BUY.com | BestBuy.com

DVD Video Player (SONY, JVC)

Home Theater System | Receiver | All-in-one (SONY)

Big comfy Lazy-Boy ® chair (for home of course)

Radio-Controlled Car | Truck | Boat (electric preferred - don’t forget battery charger)

Specialty Food Basket | Gourmet Chocolates | Fruit Basket

Gift Certificates, Gift Certificates, Gift Certificates.
I personally would take any of these over the lack of appreciation and thanks we get. Guinastasia and Dinsdale need to go out and get their SysAdmin a nice thank you card right now for having the utter ignorance to bad mouth them without having a clue as to why they do what they do.

19

Tezmac, most sys admins I’ve known would have most appreciated a Barely Legal magazine, a Snickers bar, and an empty bathroom stall. But I’ll keep your suggestions in mind next time the network goes down.

20

You think if you quit your job as a janitor at Barely Legal then you might meet some real SysAdmins then?