[theforum] [was-thelist] evolt.org down?

Martin martin at easyweb.co.uk
Tue Apr 29 07:43:08 CDT 2003


On Tue, 29 Apr 2003, Jeff Howden wrote:

>
> ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> > From: William Anderson
> >
> > no offence jeff, but why the blinkin chuff wasn't
> > sysadmin, theforum and content (at the very least)
> > emailed with a) "oh dear, there's probs", b) "i'm having
> > to reinstall stuff", c) "it's done, let's see if
> > everything hums along now" instead of having to
> > find out from *thelist* of allfeckingplaces
> ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

Jeff

Firstly thankyou for putting in the work to getting weo (and presumably
all the other sites you host) back up and running.

However:

> i didn't email in the beginning cause i was trying to devote my time to
> getting things back up and running -- time was of the essence.

One 20second email would have saved
a) Lots of people getting worried
b) Your time in responding to this thread at 5am

> theforum was emailed about everything being back up and running before any
> other list was emailed.  i wouldn't have even sent anything to thelist
> except that someone brought it up, so i thought i'd respond.

All of which is good, but even better would have been an email at the
start.

We've been through this often enough, Jeff, at various hosting locations.
By far the least stressful (and most appreciated in handling) incidents
were the ones where someone working on it (often Dean) sent out a "Yes, I
know and am working on it at the start" email.

The most stressful ones (and the ones where the people working on it got
most criticised) were the ones where no-one else knew what was going on,
or when things would be resolved (or at least the scale of work involved).

There's a direct correlation there. No info=no confidence=stress=criticism
(deserved or otherwise). And you've been around this organisation long
enough to know that - it goes with the territory of hosting evolt.

This - after all - is what sysadmin is supposed to be about: giving the
rest of the organisation confidence that any unplanned downtime is being
handled. How it's being done needn't generally get out of sysadmin, but
sysadmin *must* be part of it, and the rest of the org *must* be kept
informed.

> btw, it's now 5am here.   i have a very important appt at 8am that can't
> be missed

Is there any way to ensure that the sysadmin team could share the burden,
so handling future downtime doesn't mean <3hrs sleep for you?

Cheers
Martin
-- 
"Names, once they are in common use, quickly
 become mere sounds, their etymology being
 buried, like so many of the earth's marvels,
 beneath the dust of habit." - Salman Rushdie


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