The IT Rain Dance

We had a server problem the other day.

It should have been a routine fix - the RAID controller card had gone bad and needed to be replaced.  Not a big deal.

So I put in the new controller card, changed the cable and replaced the battery pack.

I fired the server back up, and checked the drive array in Windows.

Nothing.

I rebooted to make sure the controller card showed up in the POST process.

Then I spent the next two hours wondering why the card showed up in the POST process but not in Windows.

I reinstalled drivers.

I flashed the firmware.

I rebooted 27 times.

I expanded my vocabulary.

I did a rain dance.

Then I got a bright idea – open the case back up and check the connections.

Sure enough, one cable was pointing straight up, dangling in the air.




It works now.


.

2 comments:

Some Guy said...

Maybe a RAID dance instead of a rain dance would have helped.

I usually leave the case open until I've checked that it works. But it always works then. Problems appear only in the times when I put the case back on before testing it - kind of like taking or forgetting an umbrella when there's a chance of rain.

Ricky Anderson said...

Yeah, I felt as dumb as that time I hot-swapped some printer RAM.

At least this one ended on a happy note!