The Value of an Open Mind

Edit: Nobody knows it all. Surround yourself with smart people.

Originally posted December 14, 2009 on AIXchange

Recently a customer was trying to repurpose an old POWER5 machine. It had been connected to an HMC, but the customer wanted it to run in standalone mode in a data center that lacked an HMC to connect it to.

I was running hyperterm on an old laptop on the raised floor. (How old was it? The laptop was old enough that it actually had a built-in serial port.) Using a serial cable to connect to the server’s serial port, I was able to connect to the server and look at the service processor menus. I could return it to standalone mode by resetting it to factory defaults. Then I powered on the system, and everything worked great until it booted up. At that point, the hyperterm screen went blank and the system didn’t respond.

I found that strange, although I know that serial ports can become unresponsive when servers are connected to an HMC. Maybe the server somehow still responded as though it was connected to an HMC. I knew it wasn’t a cabling or a laptop issue, since I’d just used them to access the menus over the same serial cables.

I asked a buddy who told me to swap out the serial cable. This struck me as a stupid idea, and I told him so. Nevertheless, I reluctantly tried his suggestion. My buddy was right. He’d recently run into the same issue where one serial cable wouldn’t work when he was using the console.

The point here is it’s best to be open-minded. In IT, a lot of us know quite a bit, but none of us knows it all (even if a few of us think they know it all and are never afraid to say so). You should have access to smart people. Even if you aren’t fortunate enough to work with these folks, you can still find them through user group meetings, discussion forums and various other channels. Networking isn’t just good for finding a job; industry contacts can, at times, help you do your job.

So listen to those around you. Their suggestions can save you time and money. Their ideas — even the “stupid” ones — can be the answer to your problems.

Note: From time to time I hear about resources that may not warrant their own post. Here’s another one.

Check out the section that covers AIX and HACMP lessons and let me know what you think.