Monday, October 01, 2007
End Run
For the past ten days/two weeks previous, the floor tech had been struggling with WebSphere Message Broker Toolkit installations. First, the sysadmin who installed it on the server lost his CD (well, he left it at the DR site). His second download didn't work or something so he gave the software coordinator access to download IBM software. The install still didn't work so I opened a trouble ticket with IBM. Level I quickly deferred to Level II who couldn't get it to work either. The floor tech decided to play around with it himself. After changing the file structure to mirror the WMB CDs using DOS directory names (no spaces), he finally got it to work without ever receiving any documentation.
Within a day or so, the contract developer discovers that the Debug function wasn't working. A piece of software is missing from the server. I go back to the sysadmin for assistance. He replies that he's busy with a cert setup for the same project and to download the software. When I tell him I don't have access to do this (his team doesn't allow it), he tells me to get the CDs from the floor tech! I then discover that the floor tech is on vacation for the rest of the week having removed the CDs from the lab against department policy. I give up (for that day).
The next day, I cruise down to see my obstructionist sysadmin. He's off sick, unfortunate for him but lucky for me. I escalate to his team manager who seems to like/want everything escalated to him. He gets one of the other sysadmins to download the software (5 or 10 minutes work), and the original sysadmin's backup to install it. The backup tries to do a poor impression of the original sysadmin by challenging the software version downloaded (I eye-witnessed this so I know it's right) and turning on too much security, but gets the software up and working within an hour. This is exactly how long I told the team leader it would take.
D.
Within a day or so, the contract developer discovers that the Debug function wasn't working. A piece of software is missing from the server. I go back to the sysadmin for assistance. He replies that he's busy with a cert setup for the same project and to download the software. When I tell him I don't have access to do this (his team doesn't allow it), he tells me to get the CDs from the floor tech! I then discover that the floor tech is on vacation for the rest of the week having removed the CDs from the lab against department policy. I give up (for that day).
The next day, I cruise down to see my obstructionist sysadmin. He's off sick, unfortunate for him but lucky for me. I escalate to his team manager who seems to like/want everything escalated to him. He gets one of the other sysadmins to download the software (5 or 10 minutes work), and the original sysadmin's backup to install it. The backup tries to do a poor impression of the original sysadmin by challenging the software version downloaded (I eye-witnessed this so I know it's right) and turning on too much security, but gets the software up and working within an hour. This is exactly how long I told the team leader it would take.
D.
Labels: Work
