[THIN] Re: Way OT
- From: "Maddox, Cole" <c.maddox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 23:34:33 -0400
Hello Bill,
Are you setting up an on-call rotation or just trying to figure out how
to balance life, family, and work? If you are trying to figure out the
juggling act of work, life, and family, I would suggest you start by
talking to your boss about how the on-call works. Some of my
suggestions for things to look for in a good on-call rotation are listed
below. As for family, well, after nights that I have to work late I try
to come home early the next day. I have found that showing up an hour
or half an hour ahead of schedule goes over well with the wife and
child. When I worked for IBM, you also got a little extra money for
working on-call on the weekend. It wasn't much, about $100 or so, but
that was enough to take my wife to a nice dinner.
As for setting up an on-call rotation, couple of suggestions:
1. I would recommend that all of the servers you support should have
some sort of lights-out/remote management card so that you can power
over servers remotely, mount cds or floppies, and see the actual console
screen. This will let you do most anything without having to be
on-site. If your server doesn't have it built in, most servers have
some sort of card you can purchase to give you that capability.
2. As others have suggested, definitely create a knowledge base so that
others may help cover. Establish basic troubleshooting procedures for
all of your servers so that anyone on-call can do preliminary
troubleshooting. This will allow you to have a less experienced person
take on-call responsibility.
3. Have a primary and a backup on-call. Let the primary handle the
calls, and the backup can cover when the primary needs to do something
like take the wife/husband out to dinner and such.
4. Make sure there is a proper escalation path which is documented.
Again, this will allow less experienced people cover the on-call shifts,
and then if there is something that the basic troubleshooting procedures
cannot cover, they know to whom they should escalate the problem.
5. Make sure there are specific times for the on-call to start and stop.
For example, M-F, on-call is from 5PM to 7AM, and then all day Saturday
and Sunday. During the week, whoever is on-call should have a lighter
load than the others, and they are allowed to come in late when they are
up late troubleshooting.
Hope this is helps.
Cheers,
Cole.
-----Original Message-----
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Bill Beckett
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 8:43 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; windows2000@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Way OT
Ok guys, Way OT but want to get opinions/feedback here. Those of you
on 24 hr support....what do you do for the 3AM calls? What about those
with family...wife/kids and 3AM calls? Those of you not 24 hrs, would
you agree to 24 hr support?
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