My company runs copies of all our internal services in air-gapped data centers for special customers. The operators are just people with security clearance who have some technical skills. They have no special knowledge of our service inner workings. We (the dev team) aren’t allowed to see screenshots or get any data back. So yeah, I have done that sort of troubleshooting many times. It’s very reminiscent of helping your grandma set up her printer over the phone.
For all the hours I spent on the phone spelling grep, ls, cd, pwd, raging that we didn't keep nano instead of fucking vim (and I'm a vim person)... I could have stayed young and been solving real customer problems, not imperium-typing on a fucking keyboard with a 5s delay 'cause colleague is lost in the middle of nowhere and can't remember what file he just deleted and the system doesn't start anymore your software is fragile, just shite.
Yes, and it works if both parties are able to communicate using precise language. The onus is on the remote SME to exactly articulate steps, and on the local hands to exactly follow instructions and pause for clarifications when necessary.
Sometimes the DR plan isn't so much I have to have a working key, I just have to know who gets their first with a working key, and break glass might be literal.
Not OP, but many times. Really makes you think hard about log messages after an upset customer has to read them line by line over the phone.
One was particularly painful, as it was a "funny" log message I had added the code when something went wrong. Lesson learned was to never add funny / stupid / goofy fail messages in the logs. You will regret it sooner or later.
