You Gotta Be Strong In IT

Bingo. A national pastime for many people. I was tasked to help roll out a bunch of Domino servers across the UK. In reality I was there as muscle.

It was a technology re-fresh meaning all brand new kit. Including server racks. Which tend to be quite weighty. Make that very weighty. Now one would think that that ought not to be a problem as they do have wheels/coasters. And you would be quite correct.

However many of this organisations Bingo halls were located in Victorian era buildings. No elevators but lots and lots of stairs. Sometimes narrow but always steep. Not fun with only two people. The Domino server install engineer and myself. Luckily my partner was built like a gorilla (and a top notch techie to boot!) and I'm not exactly a light weight either. Still these things were a real struggle and a real pain to carry.

So one day we arrive at a new site and do a quick very cursory survey and realise with heavy sinking hearts that the server room is not only on the top fifth floor but also that it may as well have been the attic. We didn't look into the room as the manager was not on site yet - as usual the cleaners had let us in.

It took us an entire day just to get the rack up there. The real killer was the last spiral stair case. At least three times I faced a squishing and my colleague a hernia or a snapped back.

So we finally get the thing onto the top floor next to the room. We left then and there for a well deserved beer or two and dinner at our hotel.

We arrive back on site and carry up the rest of the kit - hub, switch, two servers and a tape unit plus cable. On the first trip up the manager is waiting for us by the rack we'd carried up.

He quizzically asks "what is this thing?"

I reply that its the replacement rack. For some reason I had a not so good feeling about this.

He turns to the door to the server room and says "Well I've never seen one of those! Must have been fun carrying up those stairs though..."

The door opens and yes. There was the old server, switch and hub...sitting on a table.