A NetApp Limerick
        by Anne Bennett
          2004-12-23

NetApp recommended a patch
Without telling us there was a catch.
  We applied it, and rued it
  When we found out they'd screwed it
Up; now we need an escape hatch!

We discovered our mount paths they'd lopped
With a mighty Procrustean "chop!"
  SAG pulled an all-nighter,
  An exhausting nail-biter,
But we swept up the mess NetApp dropped.

We thought we'd avoided all harm
But our logs gave a cry of alarm:
  Be courageous, be strong,
  Mirror copying's gone wrong
Jeopardizing the whole data farm.

Humbly certain he'd made a mistake,
Joel asked what he'd managed to break;
  But we learned that our vendor's
  No regression tester:
Now they've placed our data at stake.

Joel's suffered agonies a-plenty
As he wondered if these problems meant he
  Had made bad decisions -
  But there's no perfect vision,
'Xcept hindsight, which is twenty-twenty.

So they tell us that we must back out.
"Not again!" we exclaim with a shout.
  What teeth-gnashing, what fright,
  Joel's hair has turned white!
Buggy software's what this is about.

So upon this new task we embark;
'Tis no joy, 'tis no fun, 'tis no lark.
  Type with fingers crossed,
  Hope no snapshots are lost,
Pondering vengeance most dire and dark.

With this bletcherous software we're stuck.
It all makes me want to upchuck.
  Triple nines are a joke
  For our mirrors they broke.
NetApp's earned seven years of bad luck!