Support
Mobil: bringing a site back online in a day
Bringing a site back online in a day.
Problem
A petrol station ran on 486-era machines. A disk failed and the site was down. The usual path was to wait for technicians to fly in from interstate, with the site offline until they arrived and finished.
Diagnosis
The failure was hardware, but the fix needed someone on site who knew the system. I was on site, and I had been keeping those machines running for years.
Action
- Worked the fault on site and identified what had failed
- Rebuilt what the site needed to get back up without an interstate callout
- Kept the site running while the fix went in
Outcome
- The site was back online in a day
- No interstate technicians needed
What I'd do differently
Pending
Reflection to be written by Jupiter.
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Open a window and its geometry shows up here.
No events yet.
The desk blanks itself after a quiet spell, then runs one of thirteen effects named after the IRIX screen savers. Move the pointer or press a key to wake it; lock it and only Unlock brings it back.
Settings load with the desktop.
The environment
About this desktop
jupiter.au is set up as a working desktop: the Toolchest, the objects, the status strip and the windows stay with you on every page. Drag a title bar to move a window, pull any edge or corner to resize it, drag it to the side of the desk to snap it into place, and right-click a title bar for that window's menu. Right-click the desk itself for the root menu.
Toolchest
The panel in the corner carries the classic seven menus — Desktop, Find, People, Applications, Shared Resources, System and Help — above the command field. Collapse it to the chip with the arrow in its title strip, or press Ctrl+K to bring it back.
Desks
Four desks, as 4Dwm kept them. Each surface belongs to the desk it was opened on — switch with the status strip, the Toolchest, or Ctrl+Alt+1…4. The Desks Overview window maps all four at once.
The catalogue
The Icon Catalogue lists every application the desk knows — click to select, double-click to open, right-click for the icon's own menu. The objects on the right edge can be dragged into a new order, and the one that will take the drop turns royal blue.
Customise
Desktop → Customise… holds the background (signal wash, flat or dim), the bevels (flat 2026 or the classic two-line), and the way to the Screen Saver. Choices stick to this machine.
Screen saver
Thirteen effects named after the IRIX screen savers, with a timeout, a Random mode and an optional lock. Open the Screen Saver window to change them.
Desks
Four desks, as 4Dwm kept them. Each surface belongs to the desk it was opened on — switch with the status strip, the Toolchest, or Ctrl+Alt+1…4.
Winterm
Type help for the commands — ls, open,theme, date.
Loading the desks…
12 icons shown; sorted by Name
No audio hardware on this host.
Background
Bevels
Screen saver
The timeout, the effect and the lock live in the Screen Saver window.