Tech Support Cracks the Case: Reconfiguration Solves Multiple Problems

A customer at a large bank was having a problem mounting the file system in Veritas Storage Foundation for Oracle RAC. He was unable to access his database, so he called Symantec tech support.

Mani, a technical support engineer, responded to his call and asked him to send her the error message he was getting. Mani determined that there was a problem with the configuration of Oracle Storage Foundation. The customer had a multiple-node cluster server and he was having an issue with the QLOG related to kernel drivers, so he couldn't mount the file system. The customer wanted to convert the multiple node cluster to a single node cluster.

Mani designed and wrote a shell script to change the server configuration, and sent the script to the customer via e-mail. The customer had some difficulty running the script, so Mani logged into WebEx with him and helped him run it. While performing the changes, they encountered several issues, but Mani resolved each issue one by one. "He thought it would take many hours to reconfigure the servers, but I was able to resolve the problem in less than two hours because of my knowledge of the product," Mani says. "It wasn't a problem with him not understanding the features of the product; he needed detailed expertise for reconfiguring things, and that's what I was able to help him with."

Veritas Storage Foundation for Oracle RAC has numerous components—the cluster server, the volume manager, the file system, the database, etc.—and customers sometimes run into difficulties managing all of these components. Most customers have a tough time understanding and fixing issues with interoperability between the various components in a Storage Foundation RAC environment. That's where Symantec tech support comes in. "We make their job much easier by calling us," says Mani. "We save them time, definitely."

It's important to remember that no one understands the system better than the system administrator. Mani worked very diligently with the customer, asking thorough questions and obtaining relevant feedback and data while troubleshooting the issue. The problem was solved promptly and efficiently, thanks to the excellent collaboration between the customer and Symantec tech support. "To sum it up," Mani says, "Another day, another satisfied customer!"

The customer was so happy with the provided solution that he asked Mani for her supervisor's contact information so he could sing her praises.