Again, read through for my comments...
David Iyoha wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I guess we have to figure out what the different support needs are to warrent
> 24/7 phone support.
>
> 1. Setup help i.e. my client does not work etc.
There are people on staff 7am-11pm Monday to Friday that can answer many
questions, and Tier 2 staff online (normally, as vacations and road trips
allow) 8am-8pm Monday to Friday. I agree that adding a day (9-5) on the
weekends, maybe two, would assist. But in fact the volume is so low it's
hard to justify having someone in for a full shift (which is what would be
required to help with time zone differences).
> 2. Rite test confirmation or issues
Support staff cannot assist with Rite Testing Confirmation - that's a
function handled by the Admin department, which DOES have a skeleton staff
on weekends to process payments (primarily), and RITE Tests secondary.
> 3. Server maintenance and monitoring
We do our best to notify our channel of upcoming upgrades, etc. Our
Operations staff has a world class monitoring system on ALL our servers
(OpenSRS to Tucows web servers to mirroring, etc). Automagic checks can
catch 98% of the problems that happen (I'd even dare to say higher, but no
one's truly analyzed this aspect that I'm aware of... or they haven't told
me *grin*) Sometimes our channel is our best method - many eyes (my
regards to Eric Raymond). That is what 24/7 emergency support is also for
- to help catch that 2% that we sometimes cannot see, as our monitoring
isn't "intelligent" per se. It catches what algorithms we program into
it, and when situations come up that are outside those parameters, we
sometimes need help.
> 4. others I missed ;)
>
> It is my impression that the Server maintenance and monitoring falls under the
> emergency support which is already in place by OpenSRS
>
> So what we have left are the first two options. But IMHO those are one time
> issues. ie once the client is setup it requires very little maintenance (famous
> last words ... ) Obviously once you pass the rite test that is it.
>
> So I can see little justification for needing 24/7 phone support. Note that the
> above is mainly from my personal experience. Which is why I do not see any
> reason to change what they have in place now.
>
> later
>
> David
>
> Bob's Lists wrote:
>
> > > So you don't mind it if the OpenSRS system crashes at midnight on Friday
> > > and it doesn't get fixed until someone comes in to work Monday morning,
> > > so you lose all of your business for 48 hours to another registrar whose
> > > system is up and running? This has happened before... not for a whole
> > > weekend, but for at least 12 hours.
> > >
> > > Also, from some of the other posts I have read, many people seem to think
> > > that the ones who work on the weekend *or* overnite (remember there is
> > > currently no support overnite either) are also the same ones who work
> > > during the day on the weekdays. I'm not sure where this thinking comes
> > > from but the way this works in business is your hire different people to
> > > work the different shifts.
> >
> > Absolutely. I was disappointed to see some of the reactions in this thread,
> > assuming that the suggestion was a complaint about the current level of
> > service. It has to be said that the service has so far (with few exceptions)
> > been excellent.
> >
> > This does not, however, rule out the possibility of a major problem
> > occurring sometime in the future as Bill's suggesting. Nor does it rule out
> > someone on the other side of the world needing support 'now now' - while the
> > US is asleep or having a jolly weekend...
> >
> > Shift systems are not a new idea - in fact I preferred working shifts to the
> > way I work now - we used to work a system of 3 12 hour days, followed by 3
> > 12 hour nights, followed by 6 days off which calculates out at the
> > 'standard' 40 hour week... this could be achieved in the case of OpenSRS by
> > only two people, and there would be someone to handle problems 24/7. The
> > bigger OpenSRS gets, of course, the more people they need on each shift -
> > but it all scales up in terms of the economics of the thing.
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Bob
>
> --
> Systematic Software
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> (513) 241 3331 ext. 9
> http://www.systware.com
--
Charles Daminato
OpenSRS Support Manager
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
