Three of us went to the data center to kill spanning tree.
The old Dell switches were coming out. New Juniper gear was going in.
Once the cutover was complete, the plan was to run on the new distribution network with spanning tree eliminated.
That was the plan. Not the result. We were still at the data center doing the work when I sent the note.
Spanning tree is there to keep a switched network from looping back on itself. I was not trying to write the whole design from the data center. The point of the note was much simpler: after this cutover, spanning tree would no longer be part of the distribution network.
The hardware names were just as specific. Dell was what we were replacing. Juniper was what we were installing. I was not announcing a generic upgrade or saying the whole network had been rebuilt. I was describing the work directly in front of the three of us.
I told the team to call my cell if anyone saw an issue so we could verify whether it was related to the cutover. From outside the room, an error is just an error. From inside the room, the timing matters.
That request was part of the maintenance plan too. It did not assume every problem would be ours. It made sure we could compare anything the team saw with the change happening at the racks at that moment.
Three people at the racks. Dell out. Juniper in. New distribution network after the cutover, if the work went the way it was supposed to.
No victory lap yet. We still had to finish it.