I got into work feeling as if I was going to have a good day. I'd been
trying to work with XML to create some kind of database files for our
website and I was focused and feeling good about it. I'd been putting off some of my other tasks to I could at least get some better understanding of what I was doing... but not getting very far - I still have
so much to learn.
Anyway, I got an email from a software vendor. They sent the license info I needed for
another project so I put away the XML
and dove quickly into the replication task that I'd been putting off. This was something that I'd had on my plate for a while and was
assuming it would come off without a hitch... hey, it was just replication, easy shit, I'd be back to my real project in a few minutes
Financial reporting has been such a disaster in the last year - most reporting has been a disaster in the last year (oh, how I love
PeopleSoft).
We've been trying to figure out how to keep it running consistently (if anyone knows what Nvision is and can make it work right let me know).
Our recent solution was to remove the network reads and writes and try to make everything
work off the local drive; then replicate the reports to the file server.
It worked OK when we used it with sales reporting so this one was a no brainer.
I set up the local directory on the server for Nvision to use and the replication point into that empty directory. I then
brought up the console, created the new job and set it up to backup the new directory to the production reporting area on the file server.
It ran ten minutes later and erased all of the production financial reports for the last two years.
Our backup tape from last night failed and we had to go back to Monday night's backup... at least that one wasn't my fault.
The rest has my name written all over it and I feel like shit. At the very least we
have it restored (as best we can) but I'm so paranoid about the replication that I'm afraid to use it.
OK, not afraid, just very wary...
I guess I learned how NOT to set up a replication. I hate feeling stupid, I hate having to explain to the accountants WHY the reports they ran this morning have
to be rerun... they're being unnervingly nice about it.
Lesson learned, overconfidence is bad.
Humility can be quite useful when groveling.