Shocking Really
Last night, the IT department did some work on the system. Pretty routine stuff from what their email indicated. As per routine, when we came into the office this morning, no connectivity to the servers in Bellevue (yes, I find humour in the fact that the head office shares its name with one of the more famous insane asylums in the US). Here's the story of the last hour and a half.
IT calls and asks me to reboot the local Dell server so I go into the furnace/boiler room that houses our two servers (yes, go ahead and gasp in horror). I clean the layer of peat moss off the machines, swap out the monitor/keyboard/mouse connections that were hooked up to the Tacit server and had a look at what the Dell server was saying. "Virtual Memory Low". Ctrl+Alt+Del. Nothing. Do it again for good measure. Nothing. Lovely, hard boot time. Push the button. Hum the 10 second wait song. Press the button.
"Chirp!"
Heh? Wassat? I look around the back of the server cage where that new sound came from. There's a piece of equipment back there that wasn't there when I left last year.
"Chirp!"
Who are ... hold the phone! All the pretty green lights just disappeared. I go back round the front and everything is dead as a doornail. Fudge monkeys.
I find a flashlight and go have a look at the new gizmo. Up on it's side, leaning against the back wall of the ATCO shack that serves as our office is an APC Smart UPS. OK, that's actually a good thing. Not the way it's sitting on the dirty floor instead of being racked in the cage but having it is good. Push power button. Nothing. Push again and then hit the test button. Nothing.
I hate this joint. *sigh* Walk back to my desk, call Bellevue. Sit on hold for 15 minutes. Tell IT guy who I am, where I am, and what happened.
"What does the screen say?"
"Ah, there's no power to anything in the rack. The UPS is down and it won't restart."
"But what does the screen say?"
"Again, no power to the servers or the monitor ... therefore it says nothing."
"Oh." Pause. "Did you ..."
"Yes, I tried the power button on the UPS ... twice. Nothing. Do you want me to bypass the UPS?"
"Umm ... I need to talk to my supervisor"
I almost wish there was music when you get put on hold.
"Ah, Connie?"
"Yup"
"Can you try unplugging the UPS at the wall and plugging it back in."
"Ooohkay. Do you want to go on hold or should I phone you back?"
"Why can't you just stay on the line?"
"There's no phone in the room where the servers are."
"I'll hold, I guess."
Back in the dirtiest server room on the planet. I unplug the UPS at the wall. Oh, just frigging lovely! The face plate and the box come out of the wall. I tuck it back in ... gingerly ... noting that I can see daylight through the hole. With great care I plug the UPS back in. A small flash and a tiny zort. Could have been worse, I guess. I hit the power button on the UPS then the test button. Green lights begin to come one.
"Chirp!"
Hal-lee-freakin'-lo-ya! Server boots up .... slowly. I go back to the phone.
"OK, everything should be online here shortly."
"..."
"You still there?"
"Yes, I don't think you did it right. I'm not seeing you on the network."
"The server was booting up..."
"Nope, no Pine Bluff on the system."
"Well, no, they're still down for repairs after the big storm ... in eastern Canada. I'm in the Vilna location ... in western Canada."
"Oh. I thought you guys were the same place. Yup! There you are. Have everyone in your office reboot their machines to reconnect to the server. Bye!"
Head. Desk.
Do you think I'm going to miss this place?
IT calls and asks me to reboot the local Dell server so I go into the furnace/boiler room that houses our two servers (yes, go ahead and gasp in horror). I clean the layer of peat moss off the machines, swap out the monitor/keyboard/mouse connections that were hooked up to the Tacit server and had a look at what the Dell server was saying. "Virtual Memory Low". Ctrl+Alt+Del. Nothing. Do it again for good measure. Nothing. Lovely, hard boot time. Push the button. Hum the 10 second wait song. Press the button.
"Chirp!"
Heh? Wassat? I look around the back of the server cage where that new sound came from. There's a piece of equipment back there that wasn't there when I left last year.
"Chirp!"
Who are ... hold the phone! All the pretty green lights just disappeared. I go back round the front and everything is dead as a doornail. Fudge monkeys.
I find a flashlight and go have a look at the new gizmo. Up on it's side, leaning against the back wall of the ATCO shack that serves as our office is an APC Smart UPS. OK, that's actually a good thing. Not the way it's sitting on the dirty floor instead of being racked in the cage but having it is good. Push power button. Nothing. Push again and then hit the test button. Nothing.
I hate this joint. *sigh* Walk back to my desk, call Bellevue. Sit on hold for 15 minutes. Tell IT guy who I am, where I am, and what happened.
"What does the screen say?"
"Ah, there's no power to anything in the rack. The UPS is down and it won't restart."
"But what does the screen say?"
"Again, no power to the servers or the monitor ... therefore it says nothing."
"Oh." Pause. "Did you ..."
"Yes, I tried the power button on the UPS ... twice. Nothing. Do you want me to bypass the UPS?"
"Umm ... I need to talk to my supervisor"
I almost wish there was music when you get put on hold.
"Ah, Connie?"
"Yup"
"Can you try unplugging the UPS at the wall and plugging it back in."
"Ooohkay. Do you want to go on hold or should I phone you back?"
"Why can't you just stay on the line?"
"There's no phone in the room where the servers are."
"I'll hold, I guess."
Back in the dirtiest server room on the planet. I unplug the UPS at the wall. Oh, just frigging lovely! The face plate and the box come out of the wall. I tuck it back in ... gingerly ... noting that I can see daylight through the hole. With great care I plug the UPS back in. A small flash and a tiny zort. Could have been worse, I guess. I hit the power button on the UPS then the test button. Green lights begin to come one.
"Chirp!"
Hal-lee-freakin'-lo-ya! Server boots up .... slowly. I go back to the phone.
"OK, everything should be online here shortly."
"..."
"You still there?"
"Yes, I don't think you did it right. I'm not seeing you on the network."
"The server was booting up..."
"Nope, no Pine Bluff on the system."
"Well, no, they're still down for repairs after the big storm ... in eastern Canada. I'm in the Vilna location ... in western Canada."
"Oh. I thought you guys were the same place. Yup! There you are. Have everyone in your office reboot their machines to reconnect to the server. Bye!"
Head. Desk.
Do you think I'm going to miss this place?