r/ShittySysadmin
•
u/Step-Sysadmin
•
Jul 11 '26
Client left me locked in their server cage, so I took a nap on the floor. Billing them for it
MSP guy here. Client had an incident so I got sent to their datacenter for the first time ever. Their gear lives in one of those big locked cages with a couple of racks in it.
Client's employee badges me into the cage, watches me start working, and then just... leaves. Turns out he assumed I had my own access card. I did not ,I just had a screwdriver and other tools.
Finished the actual work pretty fast. Walked over to the cage door. Locked.
Rattled it like a zoo animal for a bit. Nothing. Congrats to the client on their physical security I guess, it passed the pentest.
At this point, normally I would open my phone and start scrolling reddit but no electronics was allowed inside either.
Assessed my options:
Yell for help (foolish, servers very loud)
Stand at the door making sad eye contact with a corner
Sleep
I decided to take a nap on metal mesh. Couple hours later some DC tech walks past, sees an unconscious man inside the client's cage, and lets me out without asking a single question. Absolute legend.
I woke up and stood with a waffle pattern embossed on my body. Anyway, I logged the whole thing as on-site hours. Technically I have never been MORE on-site