From the Diary of a Data Center Engineer – “The Yellow Sticky Note Apocalypse: Admin vs. Physics”

Episode 11

It all started innocently enough. The system administrator at an institution I was servicing had a unique approach to documentation. Instead of using configuration management systems, he relied on a tried-and-true technology: yellow sticky notes. They were everywhere. IP addresses, VLAN configurations, port descriptions, cable labels… even magical incantations for reviving dead interfaces — all carefully plastered on his colorful wall of memory. But the true masterpiece was the port panel of the legendary Cisco 6500.

At first glance, it looked like any other switch in the rack — ordinary, boring. But it was surrounded by the full breadth of the administrator’s sticky-note wisdom. Piled on like honeycomb, they stuck out at all angles. Some placed at weird slants, others repeatedly repositioned with edges rough like sandpaper. Reading them, one might think the front panel of the 6500 wasn’t just part of a switch — it was the chronicle of the server room, a relic of past eras, a sacred archive of knowledge.

Unfortunately, like all eras, this one also had to end.

The administrator decided to install a new module in the 6500, which required removing a slot cover. What motivated him — a need for new connections, faster interfaces? Who knows. But the moment the last screw turned, something occurred that no one could have predicted.

Centripetal force? Vacuum pressure? I don’t know. But in a flash, every single yellow sticky note detached like autumn leaves in a hurricane and got violently sucked into the guts of the 6500. Whatever pulled them in must have acted like an industrial vacuum cleaner on steroids. In an instant, all that knowledge, all the secrets, all the magical instructions that had kept the infrastructure alive vanished into the machine’s abyss.

Silence fell.

The administrator stared at the switch that had just devoured his sticky note legacy. Then he slowly looked up at me. And I — a professional, an engineer, a man of technology — could only say calmly:

“Well… now we’ve got a problem.”

Taking the server apart to rescue the notes was out of the question — procedures, maintenance windows, downtime risks… The sticky notes were now a permanent part of the infrastructure, bonded in a way no IT manual had ever foreseen.

As you might guess, the story ends on a relatively positive note. The loss of the sticky notes forced the admin to write new ones, because no one could remember half the interface settings. But the sacred principle — “don’t touch anything if it works” — was broken in spectacular fashion. Eventually, things were restored to normal, but the 6500 was never quite the same. It became a legend, a cursed object that no one would touch unless absolutely necessary.

And me? Ever since that day, I live by one rule: if your admin loves sticky notes, let him stick all he wants — just never, *ever* let him unscrew anything they’re stuck to.