Mixed blessings - meebo saves the day!

Posted on February 4, 2006 One Comment

Last weekend, my wife’s suburban ate the only compressor it has. While I was driving it. Great smoke show and lots of noise. Not the end of the world, I just disconnected the power to it and all is fine (compressor is used not only for air conditioning, but also when you’re on Defrost — really, the sole function is to produce dry air at the preferred temp.)

Now, where we live is pretty dry. Not much snow (down in the city) and not much rain. So,a compressor really isn’t all that critical for now. Until we go “home” this summer — because South Dakota gets hot!� However, as a result of all the heat when the compressor seized, the serpentine belt was pretty glazed. While relatively new, I didn’t like that glaze… so, since my folks are in town, dad and I elected to change belts this morning.

Changing serpentine belts is really rather simple. Quite a lot easier than the way we used to change belts in the “old days.” However, routing them can be a challenge, so Dad slid under the truck to help me guide the belt around the pully attached to the crank.

“Hey, what are you spilling up there?” says the father.

“uh… nothing?” I respond intelligently.

Well hey, such luck — we look further and realize that the waterpump is leaking! Ok, I can live without a compressor for a bit, but a leaking waterpump is bad news (I dunno if this matters, but perhaps I should interject that I was a mechanic through high school and college). As a result, I get on the phone, call a few places and then we go grab a waterpump, some antifreeze and other necessary accoutrement.

About an hour into this project (just as we pull off the old waterpump), I realize I’m due at the data center for some server upgrades. My employer has definitely outgrown the “whitebox” server we installed a year ago so we’re bringing in a 1u web server and a 2u db server. Fun stuff and some (compartively) serious horsepower! But that means I need to head out, so I leave the waterpump in my father’s capable hands and head to the NOC to meet a co-worker and get the installs and migrations completed.

Essentially, the server uprade went well. We were there longer than planned (as always, eh?) but the performance upgrade is huge and I really don’t begrudge the time. As we’re leaving, I go around to the back side of our cage and disconnect the power cables for the “crash cart” (monitor, kb and mouse) and some network lines. Then I decide to clean up some lines around the router and switch… well… An hour later I get tracked down. “Hey, nothing’s working! I can’t get past the router to see anything at the NOC.”.

Well nuts. Back I go to the data center(I’m closest with a 15 minute drive). At least I get to drive the sub and see how it all works with the new water pump (I owe my dad huge for finishing this project without me!) When I get there the switch has no link lights on, just a power light. Not good! As I power cycle it, I see a cable laying across an uplink button. Oh crap, as I cleaned things up, I bet I dragged a cable across that switch. Sure ’nuff…. turn off uplink and the switch is a lot happier. Doh.

So now I have everything back on track. I think. Make some calls but can’t reach anyone. How am I going to get this verified outside of the NOC? Hmm… IM would be good, but I really don’t want to install IM clients on our production servers. Why? Dunno, but the thought gives me the heebie-jeebies (sorry for the technical term).

However, I recall reading about Meebo. They are a web site alternate to dedicated chat clients. Well hell, what an awesome tool for datacenters! I go to meebo, log onto MSN Messenger and AIM, contact a few folks and have them hit the sites from the “outside” world. Words can’t express how useful this was. It works very well too. I urge folks to give it a look, the meebo devs are really doing some neat stuff.

Conclusion: Just to wrap up a perfect day, I figured I’d put some gas in the sub on the way back from that last NOC run. Pulled into the gas station and got out to slip a card into the pump. oh. No wallet. — it was still at home on the desk in my home office. *sigh* Been a long day, ya know?

Tags: im, meebo, servers, work