There is a state, in which there is a city, in which there is a long-term living facility, in which there are a number of buildings, in which the IT infrastructure has been rearranged many times.
One of the relics of those changes is that a major network closet (slash room for the nearest department's refrigerator) has a couple of very old legacy servers they can't be moved to the server room for practical reasons relating to being connected to phone lines going all over the campus for doctors to call in on and record voice dictation, which is later transcribed by another department.
Although these ancient servers could survive a little downtime, rebooting them is a black art that takes up to an hour, and the wizard with the knowledge to perform such an arcane task was often busy with other matters. So when the UPS started it's infernal beeping, with a "bad battery" light to accompany it, keeping those servers up and running was a priority, if only to avoid downtime and disturbing aforementioned dark wizard.
The tale of actually ordering and receiving said battery is long and boring and involves people putting it off, so we shall skip ahead to when I have the replacement battery in hand.
As IT tasks go, changing the battery for a UPS sitting on a server on a desk should be one of the simplest. Two, perhaps three minutes at most - there's only one panel to pop off, one screw to remove, and one battery to slide out and disconnect. Reverse order and you're done.
But not this time.
For, you see, whatever elf changed the UPS battery previously decided to order not of the manufacturer's brand, but some off-white off-brand with no identifying labels.
An off-white, off-brand, non-identified, oversized battery.
From the scuff marks on the battery, and from the cut-away section of the plastic shield covering the terminals connecting the two cells, it was apparent that the previous UPS elf had to rather force the battery into place. Upon opening the UPS, it was also apparent that this battery was warm. Very warm. Too gorram hot to touch warm. Which further wedged it into place.
Now, this off-brand, off-color, non-identified, oversized battery did, fortunately, have the traditional plastic tab glued to the bottom for removing it. Unfortunately, heat tends to weaken many glues and this was no exception. It also tends to compromise the integrity of a sealed lead-acid battery. Corrosion was apparent around the seams of the top of the battery, which smelled like a combination of overheated dust, toxic chemicals, and body odor (mine).
So, dear reader, let us recap. We have an off-brand, off-white, non-identified, oversize battery that is too hot to touch for long, corroded and possibly leaking toxic chemicals, wedged into a tight place, with the plastic pull tab sliding merrily along as its glue melts. And we can't shut it down or else the doctors can't dictate their medical notes.
Being a great adventurer, I decide that risking chemicals and explosion simply isn't enough fun. We need to get physical and electrical danger involved to really have a good time. So I began to balance the UPS on the edge of the server it perched atop so that I could unscrew its metal shell. Finally getting that removed, I could reach into a tiny gap between the battery compartment and the read electronics (just waiting for me to touch the wrong surface so it could send me a joyful zap). Success! I managed to push the battery a whole five millimeters forward before the space got too tight for my fingers.
So I reach around the other side and THWACK lost the tip of my fingernail. This UPS has a cooling fan on the side. A fan forged not of plastic and low voltage like the many PC cooling fans it resembled. But a fan made entirely of metal and power and pain.
Trying with ever more care, I was able to lodge my finger in the small gap on the other side and gain another full centimeter before it became stuck once again and I was unable to gain any leverage. This is where my handy kit of tools saved me once again. I produced my pliers and twisted the metal guides, little though the gave, up and away from the off-brand, off-white, non-identified, oversized battery. This enabled me to prod it forward a little more before, once again, it became stuck.
Upon closer identification, the only thing holding the sides of the UPS frame together on top was the controller board, connected to either side by a pair of screws. Removing these allowed me to flex the frame away from the UPS and finally freeing the battery and being able to disconnect it. Success!
I reconnected the controller, put the metal shell back on, connected the replacement battery, which is branded, black, labeled and the right size, and slid it in. Two seconds later, the UPS beeps and the battery light changes from an angry red to a joyous green. I screw the front plate back in, pop on the front panels and pack the off-brand, off-white, non-identified, oversized battery back in the box for recycling. And that's how I spent my Monday morning.
TL;DR: Had to replace UPS battery, had some issues, got it working.
Submitted October 11, 2014 at 01:19AM by SJHillman http://ift.tt/1yi0Ri7 talesfromtechsupport
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