Re: [SAGE] Strategies for taking ownership of existing infrastructure?

[Robert Brockway <rbrockway@opentrend.net>]

On Thu, 5 Jan 2006, John Miller wrote:

> Also insist on carving out some time at night on the weekend where you have 
> scheduled downtime if you need them.  Even though many sites want 24x7 - 
> because they think they can have it, build a case for having everything

Indeed.  True 6 sigma is really expensive :)

> Remain calm if something fails to come up.  Use your head.  Talk things 
> through with a user of the system - even if they don't know system admin, 
> they may prove to be a useful sounding board as you try to explain what isn't 
> working.  (They won't have anything better to do anyway, if their server is 
> down.  :^)

Good advice John.

Another important point for the original poster to remember is that there 
are plenty of Sysadmins who hang around in real-time answering questions 
(on irc, etc).  Before the disaster happens scout out a few likely places 
to get real-time support.

And finally, don't be afraid to make a case for bringing specialised 
consultants in.  If the situation is as bad as indicated then a little $ 
now may save a lot of $$$$$ later.  This is not a slight against the 
on-site sysadmin: computing is simply too large and complex for anyone to 
master it all.

Rob

-- 
Robert Brockway B.Sc.		Phone:	+1-416-669-3073
Senior Technical Consultant	Email:	support@opentrend.net
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