8:30 on a Sunday morning, and I’m up earlier than I want to be.  Have to go back in to work and nudge that server along again.  The drive sync should be complete…  The next step will be to restore the backup to the new array.

I’ve been checking in on that NAS backup throughout the day…  It’s still running.

That’s over 24 hours since I started it yesterday…

Obviously, the NAS isn’t getting upgraded this weekend.

Back from my second site visit of the day…

The server is only 12% done syncing its new array.  Which means it won’t finish until somewhere around 1:00 tonight.

The NAS is still running the backup.  18ish hours and it still isn’t done.  And when it does eventually finish I’m going to have to build a new array and then restore the backup…  I really don’t think that’s going to happen this weekend.

So, I’m not going to bother going back on-site today unless I have to.  I know the server will be syncing until midnight at least…  And I can check on the NAS remotely…  So I won’t bother to go back on-site unless the NAS miraculously finishes up soon.

It’s a respite, of sorts.  I can relax a bit and not have to keep driving back over there…  But it’s frustrating to know that we probably won’t get the NAS done this weekend.

Got home around 5:30 last night, hardly had to work late at all.  Didn’t have to wait around for people to finish up their work or anything.  Just showed up on-site and kicked off the backups.

Had to get up earlier than I wanted to today…  Had to be back on-site at 9:00 this morning.

The server’s backup completed.  The entire array on that machine was only about 73 GB, and it was only about half-full.  So I swapped out the drives for the new 300 GB ones, built a new array, and it’s syncing right now.

The NAS’s backup, however, was not yet complete.  There’s about 700 GB to back up on that NAS…  And from the reports I’ve read, the backup-to-USB is painfully slow.  But I’m not aware of any other way to reliably back up the entire NAS – permissions, shares, quotas, and everything else.

I suspect that two days just isn’t going to be long enough to upgrade this NAS.  It wasn’t enough last time we tried, and we’ve added more data since then.

The frustrating bit is that I can’t just kick back and relax this weekend.  I can’t get involved in a big fleet operation in EVE…  I can’t go out to the movies with my wife…  I can’t stay up all night drinking…  Because I’ve got to be available to check in on this backup/upgrade every couple of hours.

To make matters worse, they weren’t willing to give me a key to the building this weekend.  So I’m having to call up our contact and have them let me into the building.  So I’m having to look at least half-way presentable when I go in to check on things.

…of the wrong kind.

I’ve got to work late tonight.  Have to kick off some backups for a client.  Probably won’t get home until around 6:00 or so…  But that’s just a guess at this point.

Then I’m going to have to babysit a couple storage upgrades this weekend.

We’ve got a server that’s been completely overloaded.  Has a pair of 73 GB drives in it and absolutely no room left on them.  So I’ve got to get an image of the array, replace the drives with something bigger, build a new array, and restore the image.

There’s also a NAS with a pile of big drives in it, but a small array configured.  We replaced the drives a while back, but haven’t had a chance to rebuild the array.  So I’ve got to do pretty much the same thing with it – image, rebuild array, restore image.

None of which is going to require a ton of effort on my part…  I’ll basically just have to click a button or two and then wait for everything to run…

But I’m going to have to keep checking in all weekend to see what has or hasn’t finished, and nudge things along as appropriate.

And they aren’t willing to give me a key to the building…  So I’m going to have to keep calling our contact there and having them unlock the building for me…  So I’m going to have to look vaguely presentable when I show up…

The whole thing is just going to be annoying.