The more you learn does it make you...

Dangerous.

As my knowledge grows I noticed I get more daring on the command line. I run debugs, do router changes (all approved in our current system). I was wondering how many of you have went through this phenomenon as you learn more.

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Slowhand

Yup, definitely. I've had a few moments in my career where I begin to get more and more confident as I learn things, get all kinds of daring with the live systems, then learn not to be too daring as I sit up all night fixing something I've broken. . . A LOT.

networker050184

The more I learn the less I want to touch stuff. The more changes I make the more I see you never know whats going to happen. You can configure everything right and stuff still not work.

As far as debugs, thats just playing with fire. I never use them in production unless I'm in a maintenance window.

shodown

networker050184 wrote: »

The more I learn the less I want to touch stuff. The more changes I make the more I see you never know whats going to happen. You can configure everything right and stuff still not work.

As far as debugs, thats just playing with fire. I never use them in production unless I'm in a maintenance window.

Thanks what I think to, but on some of the VOIP things that I deal with the only want to get what I'm looking for is to run debugs, which sucks cause on the gateways you can get the same info from the show commands. The funny thing is that we just don't' run debugs for the hell of it. We get tickets after it has passed though 2 layers from the NOC, so my thinking is at that time what else can we do????

gorebrush

I always remember this too: -

Experience is lifes hardest teacher, she gives you the exam first, and then the lesson.

Forsaken_GA

networker050184 wrote: »

The more I learn the less I want to touch stuff. The more changes I make the more I see you never know whats going to happen. You can configure everything right and stuff still not work.

As far as debugs, thats just playing with fire. I never use them in production unless I'm in a maintenance window.

I'm right there with you. Playing in my lab is all in good fun. When it comes to production gear, I don't want to do anything that is going to cause my phone to ring. All changes are pre-tested as much as possible with a rollback plan in place just in case.

Learning stuff in the lab, it's ok to be a little bit cavalier. When working on production, the scope of what just one bad command can do starts to sink in.

Paul Boz

I still get nervous when I'm doing something benign like a firewall rule addition or adding an object-group. You just never know what the unintended consequences of your actions will be until you commit the changes and see what happens. In my environment any type of unintended down-time due to changes made without change management approval almost always results in a termination.

Turgon

shodown wrote: »

Dangerous.

As my knowledge grows I noticed I get more daring on the command line. I run debugs, do router changes (all approved in our current system). I was wondering how many of you have went through this phenomenon as you learn more.

You need to be careful. In my environment change approval process is scrutinised by myself and a CCIE. The awareness is useful but as it grows you need to learn to take a step back before submitting that change. In a complex environment there are many impacts, some of which are unknown.

shodown

Turgon wrote: »

You need to be careful. In my environment change approval process is scrutinised by myself and a CCIE. The awareness is useful but as it grows you need to learn to take a step back before submitting that change. In a complex environment there are many impacts, some of which are unknown.

Thanks for everyone's input. This has been my concern. As things come to our level people are just looking for resolution. We have a approved list of what can be changed and worked on, but I still feel that we have a little too much power. Since I have been at my current job there has only been 1 outtage caused by us and it was due to a error in a change request. So I guess a better way to say my concern is what do you guys do who work on cases that have already been passed through the NOC and people are riding you for resolution?

Forsaken_GA

shodown wrote: »

Thanks for everyone's input. This has been my concern. As things come to our level people are just looking for resolution. We have a approved list of what can be changed and worked on, but I still feel that we have a little too much power. Since I have been at my current job there has only been 1 outtage caused by us and it was due to a error in a change request. So I guess a better way to say my concern is what do you guys do who work on cases that have already been passed through the NOC and people are riding you for resolution?

during my interview at my current company, one of the folks responsible for making the decision on my hiring said it plainly. 'We need superheroes. We don't need cowboys.'

if everything has already gone to crap, I pretty much have approval to do what I need in order to get things back up and running. The outtage is already here, so there's no time for the change management bureaucracy. Whatever I did can be dissected at the postmortem.

Now, if it's not an outtage situation, and people are riding my ass for a resolution, it depends on who it is. If it's management, I explain to them what I need or what I'm waiting, or where we are in the company process for approval of making a change. Then I start calling the folks I'm waiting on and making *their* lives miserable so that I can get management off my back.

If it's not management that's riding my case, I explain to the person trying to hound me that the process is being worked through and that short-circuiting is above my (and his/hers) paygrade.