New server??

System information

A word on the new server. Frustration. What has to happen is that the IP addresses for the old server and new server have to be switched, followed by a reboot. This is probably a five minute operation with perhaps a 2 minute outage while the servers are re-booted. In the orderly world of State government permission must be received from someone in authority to allow this innocuous change to be performed. This is usually a simple matter of picking up the telephone and making a telephone call. For the State’s IT department, which seems to issue pagers, cell phones, e-mail addresses, and blackberries to everyone and anyone, one would think this was a walk in the park. Well, not so fast, buster. The first of these calls was placed last Thursday 8/21/2008!
On Monday, I made a phone call to Terry Pare (Curtis-Pare) to see what could be done to expedite this process. Yesterday I got another e-mail, about 30 minutes after talking to Terry, from the NET-OPS people informing me that another telephone call had been made to an important person who was not answering the telephone at that moment. That was Monday noon.

I think I’m a reasonable person and as such try to give others the space and time needed to deal with the weighty matters of State business. After all, our system is working, except for the State Library’s version known as Moose. Perhaps its time for me to become a bit more cantankerous.

One day, SOON, the new server will be functioning and life will be all sweetness and light again.

Another point of interest. The indexer, which deals with changes to the database and presents the results of search criteria, decided to take a short holiday yesterday. What this means is that the records loaded into the system yesterday will not be available for searching until sometime this evening when the re-index of the over 2 million records is completed.

Have a happy and productive day!

Charlie