I've commented before on the joy and pain of off peak code promotion duties. That said I feel it's necessary to share my delight of not just staying up late at night but of actually completing the promotion before the roosters wake. After a handful of attempts to seamlessly push code into production we were finally able to do the deed with no unexpected snafus either environmental or self inflicted.

It may seem trivial to those outside the IT field but late night maintenance schedules and manual operations are no laughing matter. Most of the world runs on a 7am-9pm schedule, in time zone, and work outside of those times can often be lonely and tedious as the rest of the world either sleeps or head off for the bar. The truth of the matter is that you should expect little sympathy from loved ones and little more than appreciation from management for averting disaster.

Still I contend that late night promotion can be a wonderful and fulfilling thing when it goes well and more importantly does so automatically. Unfortunately some changes can only be verified by a human and until such time as automated test tools are able to adequately verify everything a human will still have to brave late, thankless hours to ensure that everything runs smoothly.