SysAdmin Report // Friday Deployments and Digital Orphans

>> NODE: ctrlaltcorp.dev

>> AUTHOR: HOTCHIP

>> TIME: [20251017-1758]

[FRI 15:04]

AssetCorp Global© decreed all fixed assets must be reconciled before the weekend reboot. No reason given, just an all-hands ping, subject line: “FA Updates – Urgent Before EOD.”

It’s always before EOD.

Caffeine levels: low. Hope levels: deprecated but still in use.

[FRI 16:12]

Production. Fixed Assets. Only 300 rows. Harmless enough, right? Made a copy of the select in Sheets, insurance policy against disaster. (Spoiler: I’d need it.)

UPDATE D
SET FAJOB = H.JOBNO,
    LIFEREM = H.LIFEREM,
    ACCAMT  = H.ACCAMT,
    LYRAMT  = H.LYRAMT,
    BOOKAMT = H.BOOKAMT,
    YTDAMT  = H.YTDAMT,
    LASTDT  = H.LASTDT,
    LASTAMT = H.LASTAMT
FROM FA_DEPR D
INNER JOIN FA_IDNT A ON A.faid = D.faid
INNER JOIN FA_HIST H ON D.faid = H.faid
WHERE H.jobno = '8675309'
  AND H.fa_ledger = 'GL'
  AND A.sc > 9000

Rolled it out. Looked fine. Wasn’t fine. Bad data upstream, user error, of course. Nothing wrong with the SQL. (It’s never the SQL)

[FRI 16:45]

Rollback initiated. Data ghosts swirling. Google Sheet copy: the only clean backup between me and digital ruin. Used fastestsqlinthewest.web.app The Wild West of rollback generation. Cut, paste, breathe.

UPDATE FA_DEPR
SET FAJOB = '8675308',
    LIFEREM = '244',
    ACCAMT  = '163009.39',
    LYRAMT  = '0',
    BOOKAMT = '3931005.28',
    YTDAMT  = '106379.39',
    LASTDT  = '2024-06-30 00:00:00',
    LASTAMT = '0'
WHERE unique_id = '14950'
GO

Repeat for a few dozen records. One by one. Each GO like a small bubble into the void. End of day approaches. The system hums. I close the terminal and walk away.

[MON 08:32]

Back in. New ticket waiting: “Still not showing correct FAJOB in GL view.” Of course not. The ghosts never rest. Ran diagnostics. Pulled comparisons.

SELECT a.sc, H.JOBNO,
       d.LIFEREM, H.LIFEREM,
       d.ACCAMT,  H.ACCAMT,
       d.LYRAMT,  H.LYRAMT,
       d.BOOKAMT, H.BOOKAMT,
       d.YTDAMT,  H.YTDAMT,
       d.LASTDT,  H.LASTDT,
       d.LASTAMT, H.LASTAMT,
       H.POSTDT, *
FROM FA_DEPR D
INNER JOIN FA_IDNT A ON A.faid = D.faid
INNER JOIN FA_HIST H ON D.faid = H.faid
WHERE H.jobno = '8675308'
  AND H.fa_ledger = 'GL'
ORDER BY H.LIFEREM

There it was. Bad job number, bad lineage, bad luck. The ghosts were breeding.

[MON 09:11]

Cleansing begins. A quiet purge.

DELETE FROM FA_HIST
WHERE faid IN ('F001','F002','F003','F005','F006','F017','F020','F024')
GO

DELETE FROM FA_DEPR
WHERE faid IN ('F001','F002','F003','F005','F006','F017','F020','F024')
GO

The kind of digital erasure that keeps the lights on. The kind that leaves shadows in the logs.

[MON 09:37]

Tested the new job. Aligned the histories. Showed the user a preview. They nodded like they understood. They didn’t. Pushed the corrected update to The Corp®.

UPDATE D
SET FAJOB = H.JOBNO,
    LIFEREM = H.LIFEREM,
    ACCAMT  = H.ACCAMT,
    LYRAMT  = H.LYRAMT,
    BOOKAMT = H.BOOKAMT,
    YTDAMT  = H.YTDAMT,
    LASTDT  = H.LASTDT,
    LASTAMT = H.LASTAMT
FROM FA_DEPR D
INNER JOIN FA_IDNT A ON A.faid = D.faid
INNER JOIN FA_HIST H ON D.faid = H.faid
WHERE H.jobno = '8675309'
  AND H.fa_ledger = 'GL'
  AND A.sc > '9000'

The Corp® declared success. KPIs improved by 0.004%. The machine lurches forward.

[MON 17:58]

All systems “green.” But I know. Without those DELETEs, the orphaned records still whisper in the archives. They’ll sit there forever. half-alive, half-remembered, until depreciation wipes them clean. Three people in the entire org will ever know what happened. None will mention it.

I log off. The hum fades. The monitors glow in the dark.

The database always remembers, even when the users don’t.

 >> END OF TRANSMISSION 

- HotChip