Thanks to all who wrote, but the problems were mainly:

   o  Bad DDS tapes - a number of the tapes were unreadable
   o  Tapes with missing subsystems (products the Navy had
      purchased and is paying support for but which were not
      on the tapes)
   o  Version mismatches on NS software
   o  One typo by the human who was trying to undo what the
      failed installation process had done so that the automated
      process could be reinitiated

The system in question is a development system, so the users were
programmers, testers, configuration management types, etc.  You know the
sort - malcontents that should just be ignored ;-).  After all, they never
accomplish anything, right?  :-(.  The major applications running on the
system are network management (of 5x other HP 3000s), field production
management, and the intranet web server.  The complaints of the
programmers were ignored, but when those messages "Unable to contact the
XYZ system for x days" (which were popping up every 5 minutes) got under
the skin of the remote operators and THEY started complaining, then
people started getting concerned that a system had been down almost a week.

The current status?  An SLT is being made as I write this.  Those
involved in the 5.5 installation are down in the computer room now, but a
few minutes ago they walked through and said they expect the system to be
up in a couple of hours.

John
--------------------------------------------------------------
John Korb                            email: [log in to unmask]
Innovative Software Solutions, Inc.

The thoughts, comments, and opinions expressed herein are mine
and do not reflect those of my employer(s), or anyone else.