Recently we’ve had a few problems with one of our storage systems, we were getting some strange errors and didn’t know what was going on. And although the problems were irritating, they weren’t show-stopping but as volumes increased, it was becoming more of a problem. The support logs weren’t giving us any real clues and the response we got from the vendor support was go to the latest version. Now, I am very averse to this sort of problem fixing; I want to know why we should go to the latest version and where in the patch notes it mentions this particular problem and how it is going to fix it.
Anyway, this story has a kind of funny ending; firstly, the vendor turned up mob-handed to a meeting and brought an expert along. I am always cynical when a vendor turns up with an expert as they are often nothing of the sort but this time the guy won our respect by saying, ‘I see that the Support guys are telling you that you should upgrade your software; don’t do that, I’m not convinced that’s the problem..’ Then he arranged for us to get some performance management software on trial.
Unfortunately I have no idea whether this would have helped as one of my colleagues noticed a pattern and decided that a reboot might help things. And it did…the problem has now gone away unfortunately as I have a horrid suspicion that it could return. But hey, the user has stopped moaning for the time being and I can go back to worrying about why our insane data growth carries on getting more insane!
And of course, we could have upgraded the software which would have necessitated a reboot and the problem would have gone away as well! Everyone would have believed that the problem was fixed and carried on happily…so at least, I still know there’s a problem and I know the solution is a reboot…
Ho Hum!
Ahhhh, the joys of not having root cause. The cautious optimism that it won’t come back. I’ll give you a little air time in my prayers tonight 🙂
Rob
“mob”..?!