Words of Wisdom

Hello everyone. I am looking for feedback.

I have a second interview for a Datacenter Tech position. I was told they would show me around and then throw some things at me. Mainly I was told they would give me a physically broken server to fix.

ESD mats or wristbands - if not inquire about them just in case?

Methodical approach or hone in on the issue directly, then if I can't isolate it go with methodical?

First, turn on the machine to see what it does if anything. Need be, strip it down to bare bones: PS, mobo, cpu / cooler, graphics [probably onboard] and work from there making sure everything is installed properly.

A couple of things that I would think of to throw off people would be to: put in a dead battery on the mobo, inconspicuously snip a lead to the power switch, have a faulty stick of ram, maybe have a piece of hardware that requires a firmware/BIOS update, have a misconfiguration in the BIOS.

There was quite a few questions on RAID arrays, I hope they don't expect me to do anything with a faulty array.

Should I bring software tools? Knoppix / UBCD (ultimate boot CD)

Any links to resources to look over would be great as well.

I may be getting carried away as this is an actual entry level position [not 1-2 years experience] but never hurts to be over prepared.

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Comments

undomiel

Aim for swift but methodical. If you can easily identify the problem then go for that, if not then just go through the appropriate steps. Bringing your own tools shouldn't hurt either but don't be surprised if they limit you on what you can use.

itdaddy

wow !!
what a real interview....wow...

dude I think you got it right....I would start with the obvious.

Look at the wires and inside and check all basic stuff. you are on the right track

also look at it as fun to TS something and show your stuff.

-Robert

you can do it man!

rubberToe

Thanks for the replies. I try not to get too attached to jobs I am interviewing for in case I do not land it. I try and keep applying to other places so if one falls through I have another interested party lined up.

It would be great if I landed this one at the Datacenter though. Not too many industries use Linux, but in webhosting I'll get some great professional exposure.

nel

good luck man!

I doubt it will be anything too complex for this position if its a hardware issue - just check the usual stuff which you've mentioned.

If they were asking lots of Q's about raid i would recommend reading up on the common ones and at least have knowledge of what they are, how many disks it needs, how many disks can fail before the array goes etc. Best to be prepared!

rubberToe

Thanks, yeah I handled all the RAID questions fine. I did look up some more information on RAID 10 which is mistaken a lot of times.

Essentially, RAID 10 is 1 + 0 (mirrored stripes) and then RAID 01 is respectively 0 +1 (striped mirrors). There are fault tolerance and performance differences of one over the other.

http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/perf/raid/levels/multLevel01.html

Nested RAID levels are interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID_10#RAID_1.2B0

cacharo

rubberToe wrote:

A couple of things that I would think of to throw off people would be to: put in a dead battery on the mobo, inconspicuously snip a lead to the power switch, have a faulty stick of ram, maybe have a piece of hardware that requires a firmware/BIOS update, have a misconfiguration in the BIOS.

This type of issue jumped out at me. Loose/snipped cable, dead battery, etc. I tried to think about what I would have done. There is a chance that you are not the only interview that day -- I would think the problem would be something that could easily be reversed in order to get it ready for the next interviewee. Also this shows that you are not overthinking or jumping to conclusions regarding the situation.

This type of thing happened to me IRL this week. A new server was shipped to our DC and the tech that installed it said it was DOA. He started with the PM escalating to the vendor to get a new MOBO shipped ASAP. I walked out, opened the case and plugged in the lead from the power switch to the MOBO and booted it up. Done in 2 minutes. KISS

rubberToe

Thanks for sharing your story. The tech must have felt bad if he did look it over for awhile stumped and you figured it out in a minute. But then again if he went right to the manufacturer's support without doing visual inspection and some troubleshooting then I feel bad for him.