Stefan G. Weichinger <lists <at> xunil.at> writes:
> yesterday I started to upgrade an older gentoo server at a customer. It > has only been updated now and then as they tend to save money and rarely > contact me ... > I would like to avoid to have to drive there so it would be great to be > able to fix that from here, via ssh. > Thanks for any help, Stefan Well it's probably late to "chime in" but, I have faced your delima too many time. I'm probably older and more of a grouch than your are but this problem is too simple. Build a second machine, with all they need, maybe a few new things. Copy the old data to the new machine. FEDEX (whatever) the machine to them. Since it is commercial and critical, no way in hell, I'd do this cheap. Teach them an expensive but excellent lesson. Let them keep the old box to do with as they like. They can even ship it to you every year or so for an upgrade. Redundancy is some thing I demand with commercial folks I deal with. Spare hardware onsite. Deploy one upgrade the other. PERIOD. They choose not to call, you have left them in good shape. The longer the duration between calls, the larger the invoice to fix. Customers like this are the reason many consultants/small firms go broke. "MAKE MONEY" and at the same time cultivate them into being a client you like having in your portfolio! Otherwise, ditch the loosers! or as they use to say money talks and bullshit walks... ymmv, hth, James
