Last night I found myself in a bad mood, a very bad mood. It was the kind of mood reserved for server administrators just when it dawns on them that the last action they committed after a long day was a big mistake!

I inadvertently upgraded mysql-server when I’d been carefully trying not to for weeks. I’d read that the upgrade version wasn’t too stable when used on my platform and since the current version worked just fine why fix it? But fixing it was exactly what I did whilst installing another software package, and suffice it to say the rumours were quite correct.

Looking on the bright side, not something for which I’m noted, it gave me the chance to test the effectiveness of the backup scripts and strategy I’d implemented. This type of thing is essential for a systems admin to get right as downtime and the loss of data can be far more disastrous than broken software. I’m glad to say that they appear to have worked well, although this momentary lapse has cost be about six hours of work.

Note to self: Remember to think before hitting the enter key!