Tips for installing/upgrading Software
I was at a customers site today upgrading their software, it isn't really very difficult process and basically involves copying some newer files and updating some configuration files.
For some added excitement I was installing it on a Linux server (ahhhh) and
what's more I am installing it via talking to someone on the phone (I'm afraid I can't speak Linux) and I can't even see any folders or files anywhere and have to remember where all the files are and what they should be.
luckily I have done this loads of times and know what I am doing but it got me thinking about previous installations and here are my tips for installing your software at a customers site are
1. Be on time, who knows what might go wrong when installing the software give yourself as much time as possible
2. Do your home work, what do you know e.g. operation system, current installation, software versions being used and is there anything customised on the users software
3. practise - if possible do a practise run of the installation using the customers configuration
4. Have some paper backup instructions. Some times in the heat of battle your'e thinking may not be as clear and you get times when you are looking for what to do next. Having a piece of paper with instructions can give you a quick visual clue. It has also on occasions reminded me to do something and in a certain order.
5. It's worth giving a summary of what you are doing and how long certain parts will take, this might mean they leave you in peace for a while. It also allows the person supervising you to tell their boss what is going on and time scales etc.
of course you never know if things are going to go well but you can prepare yourself for the worst
For some added excitement I was installing it on a Linux server (ahhhh) and
what's more I am installing it via talking to someone on the phone (I'm afraid I can't speak Linux) and I can't even see any folders or files anywhere and have to remember where all the files are and what they should be.
luckily I have done this loads of times and know what I am doing but it got me thinking about previous installations and here are my tips for installing your software at a customers site are
1. Be on time, who knows what might go wrong when installing the software give yourself as much time as possible
2. Do your home work, what do you know e.g. operation system, current installation, software versions being used and is there anything customised on the users software
3. practise - if possible do a practise run of the installation using the customers configuration
4. Have some paper backup instructions. Some times in the heat of battle your'e thinking may not be as clear and you get times when you are looking for what to do next. Having a piece of paper with instructions can give you a quick visual clue. It has also on occasions reminded me to do something and in a certain order.
5. It's worth giving a summary of what you are doing and how long certain parts will take, this might mean they leave you in peace for a while. It also allows the person supervising you to tell their boss what is going on and time scales etc.
of course you never know if things are going to go well but you can prepare yourself for the worst
posted by The Hosk at
6:02 pm
3 Comments:
Oh, the joys of installs and upgrades :-)
I'm working on a project to improve the install and upgrade process for our product. Luckily, I only have to deal with Windows, but we've got loads of bit and pieces that need to be installed and configured correctly.
By
Anonymous, at Wed Apr 12, 09:16:00 am 2006
It always such a nerve racking thing to do. There you are in your suit, knowing that it should be easy and all go to plan.
Last time I installed at the same place, everything went massively wrong. I got there at 8.45am and didn't leave until 6pm and still everything wasn't right. Most of the problems were down to some bizarre Linux setting. Thank god for the internet, I rang the problem back to base camp and then someone found the problem on the internet.
I also had one time when I was installing tomcat, java and then a couple of war files onto their server. There server room was freezing, I had to keep popping out every hour to warm up.
The plus points about going out on site, is I get a free lunch and my milage paid and you hope you can install everything quickly so you can slope off for the rest of the day ;-)
By
The Hosk, at Wed Apr 12, 12:42:00 pm 2006
To get an rss feed to the site you need to click on the title
"a funny java flavoured look at the world" and then this will take you to the main page and on the sidebar there are a couple rss feed you can subscribe to. I would read some other entries on the blog to see if its the kind of thing that interests you because there isn't much linux (not any actually) if thats what you are into.
or just go here
http://hoskinator.blogspot.com/
or these are the two rss feed (they do the same thing just different flavours)
http://hoskinator.blogspot.com/atom.xml
http://feeds.feedburner.com/afunnyjava
By
The Hosk, at Wed May 03, 07:43:00 pm 2006
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