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Listen to the Automated Message! [Rant]

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  • Listen to the Automated Message! [Rant]

    I just have to vent this so I don't actually have an aneurysm.

    BACKGROUND: The Client has Major App for Network A (which I'll dub "MANA" for short). MANA basically lets users access Network A through a virtual desktop. They log into a base machine with a 'dummy' account, which takes them to the MANA log-in prompt, where they enter their usual login credentials, and boom, they click an icon that launches their virtual desktop.

    MANA is a necessary application at The Client, since there have been recent upgrades to the Network A desktop environment (which I'll dub "Envy"), requiring many users to use MANA to access Envy. However, plenty of users still use MANA to access NetA's regular desktop environment (which I'll dub "ADE" (A Desktop Environment)).

    TL;DR Background Summary -- For lots of users at The Client, in order for them to access their files and systems, they must have MANA. [Insert your mana-related jokes here. ]

    Today, MANA stopped working for some reason. As a result, we got flooded with calls from users who couldn't get into Envy or ADE. As luck would have it, this happened just after most of the day shift had left for the day, leaving us scrambling to figure out what was going on. The users were basically getting an error that their username or password were wrong, even if they weren't.

    When the IT Service Desk figured out we had a major issue here, we quickly created a Global Tier2 Trouble Ticket and sent it up the pipeline to get fixed. The ITSD supervisor also put a message on our automated system, which basically said:

    "We are currently tracking a global incident in which users are unable to log into MANA or Envy. If you are experiencing any other issue, please stay on the line."

    In short, telling people that we know about the MANA problem, so don't call us to tell us it's not working.

    Naturally, we still got slammed with calls saying they couldn't get into MANA. I must have handled about a dozen calls (which, when there's only two or three people still fielding calls, is a lot) from people.

    The worst was from the person who, once she got through, said that yes, she'd heard the message, but she really needed to get into Envy so she could send an important email. Given the nature of The Client, I have no doubt it might have been an important email. However, that does not change the fact that MANA was down, and thus, she cannot get into Envy until it's fixed.

    We weren't given a timeframe on when MANA would be back up, either, all I could tell people is that we'd take the automated message down once MANA was back up. And yet still I'd get people calling up and going, "Yeah, when I try to log into Envy, it says my username and password are invalild. Is that related to the global ticket on your message?" ARRRRGH.

    Eventually, the calls petered out, as the lusers realized that MANA wasn't coming back up soon, and wandered off to go home, and I was relieved when I finally got a call that wasn't MANA-related.

    About half an hour after the calls petered off, they rebooted a server that got MANA back up and running, and people could log back into Envy again.
    PWNADE(TM) - Serve up a glass today! | PWNZER - An act of pwnage so awesome, it's like the victim got hit by a tank.

    There are only Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse because I choose to walk!

  • #2
    i understand your pain. the only worst thing is when you get the caller who wants to rip you a new one for it - because screaming at techs always makes fixes go faster right?

    whenever the net went down on my second ship the people who did that were usually junior enlisted. so my boss (E7/chief) would purposefully take the phone calls. the smart ones wouldn't stay on the line but every so often he'd get one who thought it was just like civilian ISPs where being an asshole had no repercussions. i think chief got a kick out of it - pulling rank on them that is

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    • #3
      Ahh, your tale was the story of my life for three long, crappy years. Night shift, nobody who can fix anything in the office, manning the helpdesk solo while a major app chokes and splutters, and suddenly several hospitals worth of angry doctors and frazzled night nurses want to know if I'd heard that critical system XYZ is down... Yes, yes, you're the 30th person to tell me so in the last 20 minutes, no I don't know when it's coming back, yes I agree that it's very disruptive, no it wasn't a planned downtime, yes I paged the tech who can fix it and his boss and his boss's boss as soon as it happened. And no, no, for the love of god I do not have time to listen to you tell me your tale of how things used to be when you started this job before we used computers for everything.

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