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AlexDeGruven posted:In fairness, this is precisely why first line tech support is so frustrating to call when you're experienced. The people behind the scenes have figured out that most of the callers are stupid and haven't done the basic steps yet, and so they now refuse to go any further until it's confirmed to have been done. To be fair, it's pretty hard to tell when someone actually did the steps or is just saying "yep, I did all that, I totally rebooted too. Like three or four times" Some of them have called so many times and know the steps, but are lazy and don't actually want to do them and just want <the thing> replaced. At least at my job which is in-house help desk. Then there are the ones who just start unplugging poo poo without bothering to call at all.
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Mar 19, 2014 00:22
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RFC2324 posted:We have an issue with a handful of our mission criticals constantly throwing false positives on power supplies. One of them, a core NIS server, has had both power supplies and the system board replaced, yet keeps insisting it has a failed power supply. I had almost the opposite of that happen with an HP ProLiant for a client - our monitoring system is set up to send us alerts to email and even a text message by phone if something goes wrong in an environment. In this case, we got several notices, that one of the power supplies was completely dead. I called one of the on site techs to see if he could check it out, he confirmed the green LED was out on the faulty supply. Pulled the supply, took a quick snap of the label, reconnected it but still no dice. Called HP on it, had all the info and told them what I found. They connected to the server, and their management software showed both power supplies were on and active.  I let them know the supply has been confirmed dead (yes, I lied a bit and told them I was on site looking at it, no green LED, been re-seated, etc) and they keep pushing back like it's a good unit and it's a false alarm. So I ask if it could be a problem with the management software, maybe a bug or glitch that needs an update. They check it out, and sure enough, the server software is a couple revisions behind, so they update it. BAM, after the update, the power supply shows faulty, I send them the serial info and they agree to send out a new unit. What a loving waste of time.
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Mar 19, 2014 00:41
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Honestly, that's out first thing we do now. Bad PSU? Update the firmware and see if it consists. We only have HP servers so we're used to that bullshit.
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Mar 19, 2014 00:44
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So I was remoted to a laptop today installing a printer when suddenly the laptop drops off the network. It was right around 4:00 so I figure the user was probably leaving and shut off the laptop out of habit, and I send them an email to let me know when the laptop was back on the network so I could finish the install. About 10 minutes later I get an email back from the user. They were trying to put a memory card into the laptop's SD slot but it wasn't fitting right, so they pulled the card back out and when they did that the laptop shut itself off and a little bit of smoke came out of the card slot. But now they'd powered the laptop back up and it seemed to be okay so I could continue with the printer install. Needless to say that laptop is on its way back to me tonight, and tomorrow I get to try to figure out how you mess up plugging in an SD card so bad you blow a capacitor. The only thing I can think is they have some Sony equipment in the office so maybe they were trying to plug in a Memory Stick instead, but I still don't see how you could do that in such a way to complete a circuit and pop something.
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Mar 19, 2014 04:18
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 I wrapped it in foil so the files don't fall out!
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Mar 19, 2014 04:59
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Knormal posted:So I was remoted to a laptop today installing a printer when suddenly the laptop drops off the network. It was right around 4:00 so I figure the user was probably leaving and shut off the laptop out of habit, and I send them an email to let me know when the laptop was back on the network so I could finish the install. About 10 minutes later I get an email back from the user. They were trying to put a memory card into the laptop's SD slot but it wasn't fitting right, so they pulled the card back out and when they did that the laptop shut itself off and a little bit of smoke came out of the card slot. But now they'd powered the laptop back up and it seemed to be okay so I could continue with the printer install.
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Mar 19, 2014 05:46
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Potato Alley posted:So all in all, I like them a lot, but I wish they'd fix the last little bits and release software faster. I feel like this about all the Ubiquiti stuff. Love the UniFi gear, but the software, what the hell? It installs under the user account appdata and not as a service? They really, really need to sort that out, manually having to set that in a sane folder is a mess, because the updater always assumes it's in your user's appdata folder. Shame, because once you're up, it's by far the best stuff for the money.
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Mar 19, 2014 11:13
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Well, I did it. I'm now the new helldesk team lead. "  "...what have I done?
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Mar 19, 2014 11:46
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JohnnyCanuck posted:Well, I did it. I'm now the new helldesk team lead. Did you get a big enough pay rise to compensate for all the extra whisky you'll be drinking?
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Mar 19, 2014 13:40
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JohnnyCanuck posted:Well, I did it. I'm now the new helldesk team lead. Are you the team lead or the supervisor? Being the top helldesk person is rarely ever a thing to be excited about. Usually means you have ascended the rank of "most overqualified". Being the supervisor on the other hand is a chance for managment experience which could come in handy if you wanted to go down the shameless, soulless path of IT leadership.
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Mar 19, 2014 14:28
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GreenNight posted:Honestly, that's out first thing we do now. Bad PSU? Update the firmware and see if it consists. We only have HP servers so we're used to that bullshit. Serious, hp firmware is a loving mystery sometimes. A server sitting with a static config for years could all of a sudden have memory issues and upgrading the firmware fixes it. Doesn't make any loving sense.
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Mar 19, 2014 14:31
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Sickening posted:Serious, hp firmware is a loving mystery sometimes. A server sitting with a static config for years could all of a sudden have memory issues and upgrading the firmware fixes it. Doesn't make any loving sense. Even better when it's the iLO firmware that does that (like the false temp alarms in iLO3 1.57).
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Mar 19, 2014 14:40
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AlexDeGruven posted:Even better when it's the iLO firmware that does that (like the false temp alarms in iLO3 1.57). Ahh, yes. Good ole integrated Lights On management. Not as bad at JetDirect firmware for the 4200 series though. Those are a nightmare.
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Mar 19, 2014 15:10
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:This. I have a 2100TN that is loving indestructible. Everyone in the Contract/Procurement department at my site has a LaserJet 4000 on their desk. They print faster and better quality than the spare 1505 that I hooked up in my office.
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Mar 19, 2014 15:14
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dogstile posted:Did you get a big enough pay rise to compensate for all the extra whisky you'll be drinking? Sickening posted:Are you the team lead or the supervisor? Being the top helldesk person is rarely ever a thing to be excited about. Usually means you have ascended the rank of "most overqualified".
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Mar 19, 2014 15:17
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A toner cartridge came in... So our front desk lady comes in and asks if we can use toner. A company in our building is moving out and apparently is purging their stuff. She hands over an HP 5500/5550 OEM toner. I tell her sure, we'll take all we can get. I start looking up on Craigslist what the 5500/5550 toner goes for when a guy with a handtruck comes in. Three OEM HP toners, two remanufactured. The boxes have never been opened, the zip top things are untouched and intact. Turns out full sets of this toner go for upwards of $800-$1000 on Ebay. I figure I can't command as high a price since a full set would be all three HPs and the one remanufactured, and I list them for $600. They sold literally 30 seconds later.  Just after I finish jumping up and down they bring in another reman'd toner and an HP 8100 OEM cartridge. Time to get that Suntory Hibiki I've been wanting to try!
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Mar 19, 2014 15:58
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Lum posted:At the behest of my boss I am now basically trolling our slow and overly bureaucratic head office IT department. Well, it turned out to be less funny than anticipated. They punted it out to two suppliers, one of which is bloody Computacentre, both of whom couldn't get one, then they offered to buy me a new printer. I turned the offer down and instead got a new sealed unopened cartridge for £18.50 onn eBay. Fun thing with these LJ4 cartridges is they claim to have a lifetime warranty, where lifetime is until the toner runs out, I wonder if HP will still honour it?
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Mar 19, 2014 18:11
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NerdsMcGee posted:Ahh, yes. Good ole integrated Lights On management. Not as bad at JetDirect firmware for the 4200 series though. Those are a nightmare. I don't get the iLO hate. Out of all the lights out poo poo i've delt with, iLO is far better than Drac or ilom/alom. I am now on a call explaining to a project manager that while, yes, I am a very good and gifted engineer, even I am not good enough to set up servers without disk. I am also going to explain to this same PM that yes, servers need to have dual redundant power supplies before they can go into support, and no, its not a good idea to skimp on that. I found out that none of this set had redundant power supplies when one i was working on let the magic smoke out.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:13
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I came across a server that appeared to have redundant power supplies, but the cables from each of the PSUs went into some kind of Y-connector so they were both actually plugged into the same outlet.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:21
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Inspector_666 posted:I came across a server that appeared to have redundant power supplies, but the cables from each of the PSUs went into some kind of Y-connector so they were both actually plugged into the same outlet. That's hilarious. I love those Y cables.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:23
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Lum posted:Well, it turned out to be less funny than anticipated. You can try it! But you better have that Lifetime warranty in writing.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:27
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Inspector_666 posted:I came across a server that appeared to have redundant power supplies, but the cables from each of the PSUs went into some kind of Y-connector so they were both actually plugged into the same outlet. A few jobs ago we had a server with redundant power, but the server room was on a single circuit because small business, yay! I ended up installing two UPS's that were fed by the same main and plugging a PSU into each of them.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:32
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RadicalR posted:You can try it! But you better have that Lifetime warranty in writing. It's printed in the little manual that comes with the cartridges.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:33
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Lum posted:It's printed in the little manual that comes with the cartridges. Better check the fine print. I bet they have something like "Offer is valid until we decide it is no longer valid." From a google search, it appears that HP will throw a stink if you try to do it.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:37
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Inspector_666 posted:I came across a server that appeared to have redundant power supplies, but the cables from each of the PSUs went into some kind of Y-connector so they were both actually plugged into the same outlet. Some people just only care about redundancy when it comes to power supply failures; they don't care enough to to invest in redundant power as well. But then that comes around to people not thinking/caring enough for proper investment such as proper backups.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:57
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GreenNight posted:That's hilarious. I love those Y cables. It's my second-favorite when they are both plugged into the same UPS.
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Mar 19, 2014 19:07
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Building on the PSU chat, this did actually happen to my company a couple of weeks ago. One of our servers hosted in a colo somehow had one of the PSUs removed by a tech there, and the other one had its UPS switched off. We weren't notified because they didn't know it was missing a PSU. Bye bye server, corrupted mail stores, 12 hour downtime etc. Fun.
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Mar 19, 2014 19:28
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DrAlexanderTobacco posted:Building on the PSU chat, this did actually happen to my company a couple of weeks ago. One of our servers hosted in a colo somehow had one of the PSUs removed by a tech there, and the other one had its UPS switched off. We weren't notified because they didn't know it was missing a PSU. Bye bye server, corrupted mail stores, 12 hour downtime etc. Fun. I don't even know how this would happen. Who takes a cpu out of a server that is still racked? Who leaves the thing racked after doing so. Who doesn't check the documentation first?
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Mar 19, 2014 19:33
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Sickening posted:I don't even know how this would happen. Who takes a cpu out of a server that is still racked? Who leaves the thing racked after doing so. Who doesn't check the documentation first?
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Mar 19, 2014 19:34
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nexxai posted:PSU != CPU Yeah... that does change a few things. Still, loving with a power a rack is even worse.
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Mar 19, 2014 19:36
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NerdsMcGee posted:Ahh, yes. Good ole integrated Lights On management. Not as bad at JetDirect firmware for the 4200 series though. Those are a nightmare. Ahhhhh JetDirect Flashbacks!!!!! 
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Mar 19, 2014 19:48
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nexxai posted:Just a quick shout-out to Ubiquiti for their magical UniFi series of devices. I had 10 APs configured and working around our office in under 30 minutes (including walking time). Goddamn, why can't all hardware be this easy to setup? I have some of the Pros in my house and after going through the initial learning-how-different-company-does-things stuff, I agree. These things are pretty awesome. And the management utility thing works pretty well (but it's java-based. Boo!) I had the machine that ran the service roll over and die on me, but installing java on a new VM, redirecting the shortcut to point to the proper location for javaw.exe and restoring configuration settings from backup and I was back up in minutes. Yay! Potato Alley posted:Also, the fact that the controller doesn't do SNMP and the APs only do basic SNMP v1 and don't seem to offer the stats on clients / traffic through SNMP is rather annoying for an "enterprise" system. Seriously this. Who builds an enterprise system without SNMP support? People have been clamoring for this capability for years now. I use SNMP counters on the switch port to monitor traffic on each AP, but it would be nice to be able to monitor client counts and stuff like that. Agrikk fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Mar 19, 2014 |
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Mar 19, 2014 19:53
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Ahhhhh JetDirect Flashbacks!!!!! I'm sorry for bringing up bad memo--- ERROR 49.4c02
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Mar 19, 2014 19:59
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NerdsMcGee posted:I'm sorry for bringing up bad memo--- Oh go to hell. You go to hell right goddamn now. edit: So now I'm having a full-on JetDirect over IPX/SPX PTSD episode.
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Mar 19, 2014 20:00
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Lightning Jim posted:Some people just only care about redundancy when it comes to power supply failures; they don't care enough to to invest in redundant power as well. And if you don't even have a UPS at least put them on different circuit breakers.
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Mar 19, 2014 20:03
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At the risk of invoking more bad memories, what's this JetDirect you're talking about?
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Mar 19, 2014 20:04
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Sickening posted:Yeah... that does change a few things. Still, loving with a power a rack is even worse. I was actually wrong; we did have two PSUs but they were plugged into the same UPS 
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Mar 19, 2014 20:07
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RadicalR posted:At the risk of invoking more bad memories, what's this JetDirect you're talking about? Network card/port for HP LaserJet printers and the like.
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Mar 19, 2014 20:08
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Today we found a pair of "redundant" UPSes that were both running at 55% load.
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Mar 19, 2014 20:12
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Modern built-in JetDirect isn't too bad. The old standalone boxes were the cause of much alcoholism. UPS chat: We have a second level UPS for the Nagios server. The batteries failed and I found the AGM cells have swelled to the point where can't get the battery drawer out to replace them. 
Collateral Damage fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Mar 19, 2014 |
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Mar 19, 2014 20:13
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