[ale] Little OT: Bad Linux Sysadmin Practices

Fri Oct 12 14:28:22 EDT 2012

you

lucky

bastard

argh!

!!!!!

On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 1:55 PM, Jeff Hubbs <jhubbslist at att.net> wrote:

> Again...it's why I got out! :)
>
> On 10/12/12 9:30 AM, Lightner, Jeff wrote:
> > I worked for a company that had a large data center in Little Rock which
> had both the telecom systems and the banking/mortgage systems (mainframe
> and open systems) for multiple telecom, banking and finance companies (at
> the time 20% of mortgages in the US went through these systems).
> >
> > On two separate occasions while doing supposedly "planned" maintenance
> they took down the whole data center accidentally.   In one of these events
> they had poorly wired one of the breaker cabinets and caused a short which
> made it fail.  No problem because they had brilliantly set up the power so
> that failures from one cabinet would shunt the load to the next one.  Oops
> - there's still a short so now we've fried that next cabinet.  No problem
> because it fails over to another one etc...  - OH WAIT....!
> >
> > It is truly gratifying when there is a major production outage that you
> as a sysadmin could NOT have prevented and do NOT have to be involved in
> resolving (at least until it comes time to power everything back up).
> >
> > At that same company a co-worker put together a very good backup policy
> on our first implementation of NetBackup but when they saw how much it was
> going to cost for all the tapes required to do the various retention levels
> management balked.   They nixed his plan and said they'd never need a
> backup more than 6 months old and "saved money" by not buying as many tapes
> and adjusting the retention policies.    8 months later when they asked for
> a backup from the first month due to a critical issue they asked why we
> didn't have it.  When we told them (and even showed to them in writing) how
> they had said they would never need more than 6 months did they accept
> responsibility for poor decision?  They did not - They instead said that
> the admins were not forceful enough in trying to convince them of the need
> for the original plan.    Sometimes you just can't win.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
> Jeff Hubbs
> > Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2012 7:14 PM
> > To: simontek at gmail.com; Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> > Subject: Re: [ale] Little OT: Bad Linux Sysadmin Practices
> >
> > Actually - as I pointed out at the time - there's another reason to not
> do that.  You don't want to assume that the three conductors going to one
> power supply are all at the same potential (at the same time) as the three
> conductors in the other always and forever.  If some yobbo is working on
> the first distribution point upstream and drops a toolbox onto the
> connectors, what was once "ground" on one side might momentarily become
> "hot" - and you really don't want the twain meeting near each other in your
> servers.  No.  "Redundant power supplies" are for protection against
> *failure of power supplies*, not failure of mains power; protect against
> the latter in some other combination of ways.
> >
> > On 10/11/12 6:28 PM, simontek at gmail.com wrote:
> >> I usually like the split the load between 2 different circuits, but
> keeping that if one pdu dies, it can still handle the server load ,so you
> end up with a ton of empty sockets.
> >> Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com>
> >> Sender: ale-bounces at ale.org
> >> Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:24:16
> >> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts<ale at ale.org>
> >> Reply-To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
> >> Subject: Re: [ale] Little OT: Bad Linux Sysadmin Practices
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Ale mailing list
> >> Ale at ale.org
> >> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> >> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Ale mailing list
> >> Ale at ale.org
> >> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> >> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ale mailing list
> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Athena(r), Created for the Cause(tm)
> > Making a Difference in the Fight Against Breast Cancer
> >
> > ---------------------------------
> > CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail may contain privileged or
> confidential information and is for the sole use of the intended
> recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure,
> copying, distribution, or use of the contents of this information is
> prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this electronic
> transmission in error, please reply immediately to the sender that you have
> received the message in error, and delete it. Thank you.
> > ----------------------------------
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ale mailing list
> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>

-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
*
*Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain
at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail.
It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain
*
http://electjimkinney.org
http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20121012/26225283/attachment.html 