Original question - Should Sun UE 3000 & 4000 be left up unattended 31 Dec
for date rolloever to new century or should they be shut down and brought
back up in person on 1 Jan 2000.
Thanks to everyone who replied!
It was almost split - slightly more people agreed with leaving it up. The
reasons for leaving them up were basically that they've tested year 2000
issues, have all required patches, SUN has tested adequately, etc. There
was no evidence that the SUNs being powered on for the rollover would make
the transition any smoother. With one exception where an installation noted
problems with 3rd party vendor products that cannot start, as the keys that
drive them don't handle starting up well - if not up during rollover. As a
matter of fact most agreed shutting it down would not hurt anything, it was
just 'unnecessary' in their opinion. Some comments:
- No need to shut down and reboot ... will be a waste of time.
- If there is a real problem, it would be apparent much faster if you left
them on
-frankly I don't see the value in shutting the machines down, then coming
back
in to power them up
The managers who did recommend I shutdown (unless I was going to be present
for the rollover) offered good reasons why
-Avoid power losses (UPS won't be enough for extended power outage),
- If there are problems they won't get worse waiting for me to come in
(assuming it doesn't crash the system),
- someone should be present to pinpoint and correct problems
-eliminates data corruption due to applicatoin failures.
Some comments:
- It eliminates the potential for data corruption due to application
failures. You'll be able to
observe things more carefully when you can control how they are returned to
service.
-I'll agree Sun systems and software are 100% A-OK for y2k - but lets also
agree that your power is unreliable for the first hours of 2000, brownouts
and spikes.
-by powering off and then back on again in an orderly fashion you can
pinpoint and
correct problems much easier as and if they occur. If the systems
remain up and all fail you will have a tough time pinpointing the
problem.
I appreciate all the advice and comments I received. I'm going to recommend
we shutdown Friday evening and boot it up in person on Sat Jan 1 (or if I
can convince my boss just wait till Sunday!!). Although I feel my systems
are y2k compliant and we have tested our applications there are too many
other variables that can come into play and unless I'm present 11:59 Dec 31
(which isn't required thank goodness!) I think you all have convinced me to
play it safe and shutdown.
Again, thanks to everyone who replied!
Laura Bishop mailto:lbishop@safetycenter.navy.mil
Unix Systems Administrator
Naval Safety Center, Norfolk, VA
http://www.safetycenter.navy.mil
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