The server is full, we are right on it! ... "right" being a few weeks.



  • On Oct 6th, we had some problems with our CVS server. (yes, CVS, it works for what we do, we are switching to SVN, but that's not the point)



    Being the "you know everything!" guy that I am, I had admin access to that machine, I shouldn't have access, but I had. So I checked it out. It was full, well, it had 60MB disk space left. So I informed our IT department (I'm in development), said they had to get on it ASAP our we would grind to a halt. Knowing that IT is slow, I cleaned up 500MB of space, giving some much needed breathing room.



    18 days later (yesterday), everything is been arranged, they are going to upgrade the disk this weekend. Better late then never... or... that's late. It was almost full, the whole company is using the server as archive. So, when it's full we'll most likely grind to a halt.



    And... 1 day later, today. It's full, cannot commit a 360KB file. We only need to commit and build a release to send out, but we can't.



    WTF1: Someone from development has to warn IT that one of the IT servers is running out of disk-space. (active monitoring anyone?)

    WTF2: It took 3 weeks to get approval for extra disk-space.

    WTF3: Upgrading the disk should be a simple job, these are virtual servers running on a big SAN. All virtual disks and virtual screwdrivers.

    WTF4: They'll just let the company grind to a halt.



    I hate our IT department. They are some of the most incompetent people in our company. They once almost had forced me to reinstall windows on my machine because the machine name was wrong. After I told them to bug off and die, they came up with another solution, which was 1 minute of work.



  • I am totally with you. Sometimes a shot from a Bazooka isn't good enough.

    I remember having had a similar problem with disk space with a Java program that was running on an IBM mainframe (z/OS). When the host admins started complaining about having to give me 1GB more space, I told them that if they needed more space, I happened to have a 60GB hard disk in the MP3 player in my car (that was a pretty big disk for about 8 years ago) and I was perfectly willing to go fetch it and give it to them as a present.

    They didn't want to accept my present :-(



  • I've had some similar experiences in my time. Must see if I some day get around to collecting and writing down some of all those WTF moments.

    On a side note: Why do you and others refer to the maintenance group as 'IT'?

    All people working with IT (as in computers) should 'belong to IT', whether they are developers, project managers, testers, system architects, supporters etc.

    But of course that might explain the whole situation, as it's a case of 'us vs. them'.



  • I guess this is "IT" as in "Internal IT" -- responsible for the equipment we use to do our daily business of delivering IT projects to our customers.



  • @TheRider said:

    I am totally with you. Sometimes a shot from a Bazooka isn't good enough.

    I remember having had a similar problem with disk space with a Java program that was running on an IBM mainframe (z/OS). When the host admins started complaining about having to give me 1GB more space, I told them that if they needed more space, I happened to have a 60GB hard disk in the MP3 player in my car (that was a pretty big disk for about 8 years ago) and I was perfectly willing to go fetch it and give it to them as a present.

    They didn't want to accept my present :-(

    To make it worse, the charge like 300 euros per month for the machine, which will be 500 euros for 400GB instead of the old 200GB. I calculated I could rebuild the machine every 9 months for the same price.


  • @Daid said:

    I cleaned up 500MB of space, giving some much needed breathing room
    I think this urge we have to work for the greater good is keeping us back sometimes. Maybe if you just let things take their course someone high up would notice?


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Daid said:

    On Oct 6th, we had some problems with our CVS server. (yes, CVS, it works for what we do, we are switching to SVN, but that's not the point)



    Being the "you know everything!" guy that I am, I had admin access to that machine, I shouldn't have access, but I had. So I checked it out. It was full, well, it had 60MB disk space left. So I informed our IT department (I'm in development), said they had to get on it ASAP our we would grind to a halt. Knowing that IT is slow, I cleaned up 500MB of space, giving some much needed breathing room.



    18 days later (yesterday), everything is been arranged, they are going to upgrade the disk this weekend. Better late then never... or... that's late. It was almost full, the whole company is using the server as archive. So, when it's full we'll most likely grind to a halt.



    And... 1 day later, today. It's full, cannot commit a 360KB file. We only need to commit and build a release to send out, but we can't.



    WTF1: Someone from development has to warn IT that one of the IT servers is running out of disk-space. (active monitoring anyone?)

    WTF2: It took 3 weeks to get approval for extra disk-space.

    WTF3: Upgrading the disk should be a simple job, these are virtual servers running on a big SAN. All virtual disks and virtual screwdrivers.

    WTF4: They'll just let the company grind to a halt.



    I hate our IT department. They are some of the most incompetent people in our company. They once almost had forced me to reinstall windows on my machine because the machine name was wrong. After I told them to bug off and die, they came up with another solution, which was 1 minute of work.

    By cleaning up the system for them, you gave them license not to bother doing it themselves. "Daid said the disk was full, but it's got half a gig of space. Ticket closed." You should've left it alone and escalated the ticket; "cannot build release" is the same thing as "prod db down."



  • @DOA said:

    @Daid said:
    I cleaned up 500MB of space, giving some much needed breathing room
    I think this urge we have to work for the greater good is keeping us back sometimes. Maybe if you just let things take their course someone high up would notice?
    Note, I cleaned up the 500 MB a few days later. And now the disk is full full, and I'm not cleaning up again. I'm also informing as many people as possible that the server is full and that they should complain to IT if they want something done about it.



  • @ochrist said:

    On a side note: Why do you and others refer to the maintenance group as 'IT'?

    All people working with IT (as in computers) should 'belong to IT', whether they are developers, project managers, testers, system architects, supporters etc.

    IT is a pretty overloaded term, yes. It's one of those "context" things... in this case, he's abbreviating "IT Support". We do the same thing at our company, except our company, being full of marketing people, actually decided to brand our IT Support department. What are we supposed to call them? Get ready for this: Re:Sources



  • @blakeyrat said:

    We do the same thing at our company, except our company, being full of marketing people, actually decided to brand our IT Support department. What are we supposed to call them? Get ready for this: Re:Sources
     

    The IT department at my company is called "Q". It consists of a guy whose name starts with the letter Q.



  • @Daid said:

    Note, I cleaned up the 500 MB a few days later. And now the disk is full full, and I'm not cleaning up again. I'm also informing as many people as possible that the server is full and that they should complain to IT if they want something done about it.

    So... who was the idiots or idiots who filled it up?


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @Daid said:

    And... 1 day later, today. It's full, cannot commit a 360KB file. We only need to commit and build a release to send out, but we can't.

    Aha! TRWTF is committing 360KB files.



  • @Someone You Know said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    We do the same thing at our company, except our company, being full of marketing people, actually decided to brand our IT Support department. What are we supposed to call them? Get ready for this: Re:Sources
     

    The IT department at my company is called "Q". It consists of a guy whose name starts with the letter Q.

    We're "funny" with our support team's name: Computer and Technology Services (aka CaTS). Yes, they use LOLcats as their mascots.


    EDIT: When you hire someone else into that department, will it be renamed "QQ"?



  • Anonymizing the names, my department has two Jacks, two Johns, and a Jake. Right behind me, there are two desks belonging to another department. One of them is occupied by another Jake; now if only we'd got a second Jules to pair with the one that's there, we'd have achieved full redundancy. ;)

    And yeah, we're the "IT department" and the "applications department" respectively. "IT" seems to be a catch-all name when you don't have enough people to have separate "network people", "server people", and "helpdesk people".



  • @UrzaMTG said:

    @Someone You Know said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    We do the same thing at our company, except our company, being full of marketing people, actually decided to brand our IT Support department. What are we supposed to call them? Get ready for this: Re:Sources
     

    The IT department at my company is called "Q". It consists of a guy whose name starts with the letter Q.

    We're "funny" with our support team's name: Computer and Technology Services (aka CaTS). Yes, they use LOLcats as their mascots.


    EDIT: When you hire someone else into that department, will it be renamed "QQ"?

     

    I've suggested before that they hire someone whose name starts with the letter A, then rename the IT department the QA department.

     



  • @Someone You Know said:

    The IT department at my company is called "Q". It consists of a guy whose name starts with the letter Q.
     



  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @blakeyrat said:

    We do the same thing at our company, except our company, being full of marketing people, actually decided to brand our IT Support department. What are we supposed to call them? Get ready for this: Re:Sources
     

    Or as I like to call them, The Colons.

    "So, what kind of exam do you have to take to get certified to work with The Colons?"



  • @ochrist said:

    On a side note: Why do you and others refer to the maintenance group as 'IT'?

    All people working with IT (as in computers) should 'belong to IT', whether they are developers, project managers, testers, system architects, supporters etc.

    We build traffic lights. Are you sure you want to call us "IT"?


  • @Daid said:

    We build traffic lights. Are you sure you want to call us "IT"?

    Sure, why not? BTW are all traffic lights stupid as fuck because you ship them that way, or because local installers fuck up the install? Because all traffic lights are stupid as fuck.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @blakeyrat said:

    @Daid said:
    We build traffic lights. Are you sure you want to call us "IT"?

    Sure, why not?

    Maybe because it takes almost all meaning out of the acronym (at least as it applies to an organization as opposed to an industry category)?



  • @Daid said:

    We build traffic lights. Are you sure you want to call us "IT"?

    Last time I looked, IT meant Information Technology. Why shouldn't traffic lights be included in that definition?



  • @ochrist said:

    @Daid said:

    We build traffic lights. Are you sure you want to call us "IT"?

    Last time I looked, IT meant Information Technology. Why shouldn't traffic lights be included in that definition?

    Because they provide information and they are technology?



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @Daid said:
    We build traffic lights. Are you sure you want to call us "IT"?

    Sure, why not? BTW are all traffic lights stupid as fuck because you ship them that way, or because local installers fuck up the install? Because all traffic lights are stupid as fuck.


    Because the customer wants them to be as stupid as fuck.

    Seeing your timezone you live in the US. We don't deliver to the US, but I know a bit about it. The summery is, "make it as cheap as possible!". So no detector loops, no dynamic behavior. You could replace most US trafficlights with a cylinder with 2 stop signs and 2 go signs on them and have it rotate 90deg every X seconds. If you add pedestrians it gets a bit more complicated, but nothing like we have in Europe.



    You want a WTF from The Netherlands? Here is one for you, the control program in The Netherlands is written in C, yes, C. By people who never learned how to program, and have no idea what a stack is. So we get a few problems every year where a control program crashes on the street. Ensuring pissed of users, frustrated project managers, and job security for me.



    In the end it's the local authority that controls how the trafficlight works. If you see something stupid or dangerous then complain to them.





    And about the IT thingy, from wikipedia:

    Information technology (IT) is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications.
    If you call Traffic light fabrication IT, then you are really stretching the definition of IT.


  • @Daid said:



    And about the IT thingy, from wikipedia:
    Information technology (IT) is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications.
    If you call Traffic light fabrication IT, then you are really stretching the definition of IT.

    I still think it's covered by IT - as long as it's controlled by microprocessors.

    But anyway, my point was that IT covers a lot. Why then keep people referring to only the support people as 'IT'?


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @ochrist said:

    But anyway, my point was that IT covers a lot. Why then keep people referring to only the support people as 'IT'?

    Because an industry categorization is not the same thing as a description of organizational duty. Can you not see the difference in context?



  • @ochrist said:

    @Daid said:



    And about the IT thingy, from wikipedia:
    Information technology (IT) is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications.
    If you call Traffic light fabrication IT, then you are really stretching the definition of IT.

    I still think it's covered by IT - as long as it's controlled by microprocessors.

    But anyway, my point was that IT covers a lot. Why then keep people referring to only the support people as 'IT'?

    I thought this level of pedanticness was reserved for Blakey. But perhaps you're his young son who hasn't learned how to emphasize his fucking point yet?



  • @Daid said:

    We don't deliver to the US, but I know a bit about it. The summery is, "make it as cheap as possible!". So no detector loops, no dynamic behavior.

    I don't know where the in US you're talking about. It's a big country. I could see that being the case in some of the poorer States.

    In my State, they never install a light without a detector loops. Whether the loops actually DO anything or not, well, that's a total crapshoot. Maybe it's a placebo thing like the "door close" button in elevators.

    @Daid said:

    You could replace most US trafficlights with a cylinder with 2 stop signs and 2 go signs on them and have it rotate 90deg every X seconds. If you add pedestrians it gets a bit more complicated, but nothing like we have in Europe.

    Riiight. We're just cavemen over here, hitting giant rats with clubs. THOG NOT LIKE GREEN SMALL-SUN! THOG GO KILL RATS!

    Or I could take another angle and say: European traffic lights have to be more complicated because nobody in Europe knows how to drive and your traffic signs and road layouts are confusing as hell.

    Or I could take the third angle and say: But if it was just a cylinder with red and green, how would you gun your car on the yellow?

    @Daid said:

    And about the IT thingy, from wikipedia:

    Information technology (IT) is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications.
    If you call Traffic light fabrication IT, then you are really stretching the definition of IT.

    How about this: traffic lights should be IT, but aren't because they're inevitably stupid as fuck.



  • @ochrist said:

    But anyway, my point was that IT covers a lot. Why then keep people referring to only the support people as 'IT'?

    Do you understand the concept of "abbreviation"? Do you understand how somebody might abbreviate "IT Support" as "IT"? That's all that's happening here. Relax. It's not a conspiracy.



  •  You know the real reason people abbreviate it IT is most developers refuse to say they are "in IT" because they see people who manage the system as lower life forms.


  • :belt_onion:

    @blakeyrat said:

    THOG NOT LIKE GREEN SMALL-SUN! THOG GO KILL RATS!

    THOG HATE YOU TALKY MAN

    [url]http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0808.html[/url]



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @Daid said:
    We don't deliver to the US, but I know a bit about it. The summery is, "make it as cheap as possible!". So no detector loops, no dynamic behavior.

    I don't know where the in US you're talking about. It's a big country. I could see that being the case in some of the poorer States.

    In my State, they never install a light without a detector loops. Whether the loops actually DO anything or not, well, that's a total crapshoot. Maybe it's a placebo thing like the "door close" button in elevators.

    @Daid said:

    You could replace most US trafficlights with a cylinder with 2 stop signs and 2 go signs on them and have it rotate 90deg every X seconds. If you add pedestrians it gets a bit more complicated, but nothing like we have in Europe.

    Riiight. We're just cavemen over here, hitting giant rats with clubs. THOG NOT LIKE GREEN SMALL-SUN! THOG GO KILL RATS!

    Or I could take another angle and say: European traffic lights have to be more complicated because nobody in Europe knows how to drive and your traffic signs and road layouts are confusing as hell.

    Or I could take the third angle and say: But if it was just a cylinder with red and green, how would you gun your car on the yellow?

    Did I hit a nerve and did it hurt?


  • @Daid said:

    @DOA said:
    @Daid said:
    I cleaned up 500MB of space, giving some much needed breathing room
    I think this urge we have to work for the greater good is keeping us back sometimes. Maybe if you just let things take their course someone high up would notice?
    Note, I cleaned up the 500 MB a few days later. And now the disk is full full, and I'm not cleaning up again. I'm also informing as many people as possible that the server is full and that they should complain to IT if they want something done about it.
     

    [url="http://www.dilbert.com/2000-12-30/"]Be careful when you ask them to do their job . . .[/url]



  • @ochrist said:

    I still think it's covered by IT - as long as it's controlled by microprocessors.

    But anyway, my point was that IT covers a lot. Why then keep people referring to only the support people as 'IT'?

     

    Because "Information Technology" is such a vague, ill-defined, low signal/noise ratio, wishy-washy, <insert synonym here> term. By any reasonable definitions of the words "information" and "technology" paperclips would qualify as information technology (at least, I don't see microprocessors as being a defining characteristic of "technology").

     



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Do you understand the concept of "abbreviation"? Do you understand how somebody might abbreviate "IT Support" as "IT"? That's all that's happening here. Relax. It's not a conspiracy.

    Not sure if you're trolling or just didn't understand my question, but I'll bite anyway.

    I work professionally as an IT consultant (doing development, project management and all things in between). I have done that as a freelancer (from my own company) for more than ten years. I don't usually do tech support, but I still call myself an IT consultant. I.e. I work with (in) IT.

    My current contract is with an organisation consisting of an IT department. This in turn is divided in several groups, e.g. development, pc/network support, operations etc. The IT department covers everything in this case.

    But still I often see in these forums people referring to tech support as 'IT', and I'm just wondering why people do that. If other industries did the same thing, a car salesperson might refer to a mechanic as 'automobile'....

    Even here in my own country (non English speaking) I see the same thing. But never mind. Just forget I asked :-)

     



  • @ochrist said:

    But still I often see in these forums people referring to tech support as 'IT', and I'm just wondering why people do that. If other industries did the same thing, a car salesperson might refer to a mechanic as 'automobile'....

    Even here in my own country (non English speaking) I see the same thing.

     

    It's a common thing in English, and it would surprise me to find that no other language does it.  Did you ever watch a movie on "cable" or "satellite"?  Heat up some food in a "microwave"?  Make a phone call on your "cell"?

     



  • @ochrist said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    Do you understand the concept of "abbreviation"? Do you understand how somebody might abbreviate "IT Support" as "IT"? That's all that's happening here. Relax. It's not a conspiracy.

    Not sure if you're trolling

    I'm not sure that blakeyrat ever posts anything which isn't trolling. But sometimes it's fun to troll him back.


  • @da Doctah said:

    It's a common thing in English, and it would surprise me to find that no other language does it.  Did you ever watch a movie on "cable" or "satellite"?  Heat up some food in a "microwave"?  Make a phone call on your "cell"?

    Another one who doesn't get it?

    What I find interesting is that people would abbreviate 'IT Support' to 'IT'. So how would you propose abbreviating 'IT Development', 'IT Management', 'IT Quality Assurance', 'IT Operations'. Just asking....



  • @Daid said:

    @ochrist said:

    On a side note: Why do you and others refer to the maintenance group as 'IT'?

    All people working with IT (as in computers) should 'belong to IT', whether they are developers, project managers, testers, system architects, supporters etc.

    We build traffic lights. Are you sure you want to call us "IT"?
     

    [link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbPovgCP5BU[/link]

     



  • @ochrist said:

    @da Doctah said:

    It's a common thing in English, and it would surprise me to find that no other language does it.  Did you ever watch a movie on "cable" or "satellite"?  Heat up some food in a "microwave"?  Make a phone call on your "cell"?

    Another one who doesn't get it?

    What I find interesting is that people would abbreviate 'IT Support' to 'IT'. So how would you propose abbreviating 'IT Development', 'IT Management', 'IT Quality Assurance', 'IT Operations'. Just asking....

    R&D, Man, QA, OP (but nobody uses an abbreviation for management)
    Calling everything "IT" just because they use computers is stupid. We all use shoes! 'Shoes Development', 'Shoes Management', 'Shoes Quality Assurance', 'Shoes Operations'!
    And how about instead of "IT support": "IT infrastructure providers"?

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