Less Than Impressed

[Blue)(Fusion]

Well my employers had servers here for some time, but since they hired me on to do work for them, I have been very unimpressed with the operations at SF. I won't list out everything, but the latest issue has me quite tense.

So our main web server is getting overloaded. I used Lighttpd + mod_cache as a proxy on the server to interface with Apache on localhost which helped increase speeds somewhat, but there's still just a limit as to what it can do. To get thing going fast again we opted for a load balanced solution. The second web server and load balance server (they use Linux Virtual Server (LVS)) was brought online last week. The plan was to migrate everything to use the load balancer over this long weekend so we can have ample time to migrate and monitor the setup.

To accomplish this migration to the load balancer, we need SF staff to change the VLAN on the switch for our original web server to put it on the same IP block as the new units. I can set the server to the new IP, but without them changing it on the switch, it's useless. I was told that the guy at SF who does that is gone for the weekend.

In addition to not getting the server IP changed, we need the LVS software configured. We were told it was done, but when I logged in, I couldn't find the lvs.conf file (using slocate and find) so I am unsure if it's even properly installed. The ONLY guy who knows how to use the LVS software at SF is also gone for the weekend.

So now, our plans to make use of the free time we had this weekend ends up being a waste of our time. Maybe it's just me, but I find it ridiculous that the staff at SF rely on one or two individuals for certain tasks and if they're off duty, you're SOL. It would have been faster if I colocated my Foundry ServerIron load balancing switch there and have them attach our servers to it. If Meigs Field was still open, I could have flown to Chicago and set it up myself in a few hours.

That's all I have for now.

[Justec]

While you do have a point did you alert them ahead of time to schedule this for a specific date? Even if there are more than 2 guys for a certain task I would def. want the on staff experts to be in the building while doing the move and would make sure it was scheduled when they were there.

I've had a few hiccups with steadfast but they have been pretty quick to resolve them and have been very honest about them.

I hope everything gets worked out before the weekend is up.

PS. I used to play an old MS flight sim which defaulted to Meigs field :)

[Henrik]

I agree with Justin that; Even if I can't have a definitive opinion in your particular case, Rich, I can agree with Justin about Karl and Steadfast always playing with open cards regarding any snafus happening.

[Blue)(Fusion]

No we didn't alert them ahead of time. I guess I'm too used to the "let's call our personal techs at the DC and get things done" from my other job.

Yesterday, Kevin did work with us to get things going, thankfully.

PS. I used to play an old MS flight sim which defaulted to Meigs field
I flew there once in real life on a solo cross country for private training a few months before the mayor illegally tore up the runway.

[Kevin]

Rich,

I do apologize for the fact we didn't have someone prepared to help with the configuration. I had a vacation scheduled from a couple weeks earlier, and it was a surprise on Tuesday that you guys were doing an expansion, and I hadn't the time to brief anyone on some of the things that might need to be done before I left. Also, part of the configuration (I had previously set up completely) was lost when we reinstalled one of the servers due to the OS compatibility issue.

I'm not sure how much notice you had given sales, but since support only had a few hours notice before we put the boxes up on an "ASAP" schedule, there wasn't much chance to prepare. Sorry about that!