Edit: Surely there have been more stories I could have been told in the time since this was published..
Originally posted October 27, 2010 on AIXchange
Halloween’s coming up, and I’m looking for horror stories. No blood and gore, please–just tales from your life as an IT professional.
We all have these stories, things we’ve been through and things we’ve heard about. But even if your story comes from a friend of a friend, I’d still like to hear it. I feel all these experiences are instructive. They remind us to be on our toes around our machines.
For instance, a guy once told me about one of his coworkers replacing a disk in a rack-mounted server. An aluminum rod in the raised floor snapped, and the rack started to fall on him. Thankfully, the others working on the raised floor at the time were able to catch the rack before it crushed him.
I heard about another guy who stumbled entering another raised floor — and in the process he accidentally pressed the big red button that completely cut off power to the computer room. From what I was told, the IT folk did not have a particularly happy day recovering those machines. And I can tell you first-hand that when you enter this room now, you’ll find a large cover over that big red button.
I have many stories about dropped machines. I even know someone who took pictures. In that case, my friend said his customer unboxed a new 595 while it was still on the truck — ignoring his advice, by the way. They then wheeled the machine onto the semi’s liftgate, which was sloped slightly. I think you know where this is going. The 595 rolled down the slope, tumbled off the truck and landed upside-down on the ground. That story at least has a relatively happy ending; once they got the machine to the raised floor, it powered right up. But the cosmetic damage serves as a vivid reminder of what can happen if you uncrate the machine before taking it off the truck.
I’ve personally been in computer rooms where columns and posts blocked the ramp–providing just enough obstruction to make it impossible to wheel large computer equipment onto the raised floor. My back still aches thinking about the time I had to lug a 4-CEC 570 with multiple drawers of disks up a flight of stairs.
Finally, a friend e-mailed me this story: “In the late 80s our company had three System/38 machines, and we ended up buying a company out of Minnesota that had its own System/38. Of course that box had to be shipped to Phoenix after we bought the company.
“The System/38 was about the size and weight of your typical Fiat 500. While it did have wheels and could be rolled off the truck and into our building with relative ease, we could only fit it onto the elevator to our third-floor data center by standing it up on its end.
“There we were, around 11 p.m. one night, taking advantage of the extra people in the data center at shift change. We gently slid it out of the elevator and into the lobby. With eight people standing around the 1,100-pound behemoth, surely it would be no problem to gently set it back down on its wheels and push it the last 50 feet to its new home.
“But as we nudged it back towards its normal horizontal position, it became apparent that not everyone understood exactly how heavy this thing was, and, it kind of got away from us. We were close, but with about 24 inches left to go, some of us lost our grip (or maybe our nerve, thinking about crushed toes and fingers). The machine slammed into the floor, shooting the remains of one wheel across the lobby.
“It turns out a System/38 can be rolled on three wheels, if you really want it to. So we managed to get it into the data center and give it a trailer-park touch, leveling it with a piece of 2×4 we scrounged up in the parking garage.
“We figured we’d better find out as soon as possible how badly the system was damaged, but upon plugging it in and powering up, it came up normally. We never had any problems, other than the access doors that never quite closed completely after that night.”
I just wish I’d been there to see that. No, on second thought, I’ve done enough heavy lifting as is.
These are a few of my horror stories. Now let’s hear yours. Surely you’ve seen something memorable in your career (and hopefully the statute of limitations has expired by now). Share your tale by sending me an e-mail or making a post in the Comments section.