Helpdesk culture

Weeks ago I created a cloud environment for a customer, nothing unusual, just couple PowerShell scripts and everything was up in seconds … except … that SQL/database server failed to create

Tried again, checked configs, my logic is undeniable, why is this happening!? I finally went to the Azure portal and to my surprise the region where we had everything running was not enabled or visible to create SQL servers/databases ! (that is like having a house with the car-park kilometers/miles away)

I remember it happened couple random times and the workaround has been to create a new subscription – insert meme here

We have many customers and subscriptions using the Australia East region but sometimes, randomly, the only option is to have the SQL servers in Europe or somewhere around

But the story continues as I requested support. I received a polite (help-desk style) email response from WiPro and the conversation has been more or less the following:

Oct 10 – original request “Can you please enable Australia East for our subscription?”

Oct 10 – long help-desk format reply assigning a random number (exciting!)

Oct 10 – 7 hours later email requesting name, region, subscription etc. (why do you ask that when the initial request had all that info? sending a reply anyway)

Oct 12 – acknowledge email “I have placed a request towards the capacity planning team” (bravo! but at that time we had the system up and running using another region)

Oct 17 – a validation email “I have just got an update from the capacity management team and they have updated that we could see that there are no restrictions on Australia Region for the subscription. If any issue , kindly share the screenshot for further validation” (almost forgot this thing,  just out of curiosity tried again and still the problem, sending a screenshot…)

Oct 18 – “I have reviewed the screen shot the error is not appearing in the screen shot so I would request you to provide a complete screen shot” (facepalm here, sending the original problem, explained in one sentence… again)

Oct 25 – “I am glad to inform you that the Capacity Planning team have approved and processed our request they have enable the Australia East” (exciting! but after checking … no, still not enabled, email back, can you please enable Australia East?)

Nov 02 – “I have just got an update from the capacity management team and they have updated the region is Australia Southeast region” (this is hilarious, we asked Australia East ! sent him a polite email back, explained it would be nice to have Australia East, at this time the system is already in prod so whatever)

Nov 06 – “I will check with the capacity management team to check for the same and will update you as soon as I get any information from them”

That will maybe continue couple weeks, so will probably grant access to Australia East at some time before Christmas

But beyond the fun followups that made me think on leadership, delegation, power and help desk culture – I will update that part of the post later, meanwhile, enjoy your help-desk day!

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Update – the problem was finally solved mid December! and I’m even 90% sure it was because I ran couple workaround scripts, not because WiPro did anything useful but: perseverance pays off!