classiccmp outage (grave-yard shift in the data center)

From: Ernest <ernestls_at_comcast.net>
Date: Fri Jan 16 21:32:12 2004

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk-bounces_at_classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces_at_classiccmp.org]
> On Behalf Of Curt Vendel
> Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 8:00 PM
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> Subject: Re: classiccmp outage
>
> No kidding, heck I rarely would allow another engineer unfamiliar with
> one of my customers sites in the cage alone when I worked at Exodus (Now
> Cable & Wireless) a few years back, just too many ways for people to
> screw up and you just can't take ANY chances in a live production
> environment. Man that was a great job, nothing beats the humming of
> hundreds of machines, there cooling fans, the airconditioners whirling
> away, your fingers turning blue after 12 hours in the datacenter,
> occassionally some soul when come walking past and thats like your only
> glimpse of human life for another couple of hours.... ahhhh the good old
> DOT COM days....

Or, working the data center grave-yard shift (11pm to 9am.) Very quiet, very
lonely, and the only human interaction you have is when you have to wake up
one of the HVAC guys at 2:30am. Bleak. Very Bleak.

Then around 8am, with morning breath and five-o'clock shadow, you shuffle
your sorry ass to the kitchen for coffee, and you run into the perky young
hotties fresh into work. They're looking their cutest, and you're looking
your raggedy-assed and red-eyed worst. Not many dates for the grave-yard
shift.

I think I suffered hearing loss from working in that data center, also. 400+
Compaq rack servers, a couple dozen HP Superdomes, two ADIC robotic tape
libraries, and ten or so HP400s all humming loudly under the deafening roar
of the cooling fans. It was both exciting and utterly wretched.

The funny part, in a sad kind of way, was that the Data Center was
supposedly haunted by an unfriendly ghost. Your mind can start to play
tricks on you at two in the morning. Did you just see a shadow dart behind
the far Superdome? Is that a voice that you keep hearing underneath the
noise of the data center? Why is the hair on your neck suddenly standing up?
Why did the broom just fall over? Yes. The grave-yard shift in a haunted
data center was not much fun for me, but at least I couldn't hear the foot
steps of the ghosts creeping up behind me, and that's a good thing.
Otherwise, I would have had to face the morning beauties with bad breath AND
soiled underpants.
Received on Fri Jan 16 2004 - 21:32:12 GMT