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Every minor change requires:
Ticket raised requesting changes
Change request goes to account manager
Account manager sends a quote
Quote agreed
Account manager sends contract addendum to Steph
Steph signs addendum, adds it to the every growing pile
Once signed, works are scheduled
Some time later, works get completed. Occasionally, if the stars align, this happens without issues.
Aside from extra effort, this makes lead times for what should be 5 minute jobs extend into days or, typically, weeks.
Cloud credits agreed to be added as a “final” addendum on 15/11/2023
Part 2 - Did it make any difference
Ordering new MS365 licenses before moving to account credit took around a month.
Ordering new MS365 licenses after moving to account credit took around a month.
Did occur over the holidays, so hopefully better next time. I’m not holding my breath though.
Ongoing - Missing basic features
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Ongoing - That constant feeling that no matter how many things we have going on, we should never ask AIMES to do more than one thing at a time otherwise something will get missed
Ongoing - Intermittent radio-silence on simple tickets
T20231106.0006 raised 06/11/2023
Request for info on max RAM availability for each server
Assigned to Heather on 06/11/2023
No response as of 20/11/2023, chased up in morning
20/11/2023 16:17 ticket closed abruptly with note “Inforamtion sent to Joe Moorhead”
Mid 2022 - NBT migration communication issues
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31/01/2023 18:00 Michael finds rebuilt server is unlicensed, unable to complete transfer, raises this with AIMES
01/11/2023 09:52 Joel chases this up with AIMES.
01/11/2023 12:10 AIMES apologise for the error received, do not acknowledge the root cause or disruption
01/11/2023 15:08 AIMES re-install SQL server, licensing issue apparently caused by them having installed the wrong version
01/11/2023 16:12 AIMES and Michael agree to attempt migration again tonight, with IP cutover tomorrow 8am pending confirmation of successful transfer
January 2024 - VPN Outage due to failed certificate renewal
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Certificate used for all AnyConnect VPN clients was allowed to expire
View file name _.aimes.services.crt Common Name: *.aimes.services
Subject Alternative Names: *.aimes.services, aimes.services
Organization:
Organization Unit:
Locality:
State:
Country:
Valid From: December 19, 2022
Valid To: January 20, 2024
Issuer: Go Daddy Secure Certificate Authority - G2, GoDaddy.com, Inc. Write review of GoDaddy
Key Size: 2048 bit
Serial Number: dbe0653f36391488
Noticed around 22:00 Saturday 20th January
Reported as P1
Call from support shortly after
Support agent said this would be billable out-of-hours support
We pointed out this cannot possibly be true given the issue is entirely due to ARO failing to renew a critical certificate. This is basic stuff.
Support agent suggested they would look at it “first thing on Monday” and be resolved “by 8:30am”
Sunday 2st ticket escalated as UKKA management want it sorted before Monday
Updated request not acknowledged
George chased up around 6am Monday
No acknowledgement
09:24am Monday: “Good morning, the issue is being worked on by Richard Johnston in the network team , we are looking into a potential certificate issue on one of the core Firewalls. Unfortunately I don't have an update on potential fix time at this moment.”
10:45am: “We are just in the process of applying a new certificate, the CA has issued this due to some (as yet) unknown issue with the current certificate.”
From George: “I don't think it's as-yet unknown, it's that current SSL certificate expired on Saturday at 1:45pm without having been renewed in advance.”