Turning It Off and On Again: The Ultimate IT Power Move (Literally)
When disaster strikes in IT, the time-honored wisdom is clear: “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” But what happens when the problem is bigger than a single machine—and your only option is to escalate that age-old advice to a building-wide scale? Welcome to one of the most legendary “turn it off and on again” stories the tech world has ever seen.
This is the true tale of how a team of quick-thinking sysadmins, cornered by the infamous 2014 Heartbleed bug and a looming security audit, did the unthinkable: They rebooted their entire headquarters to save the day. Sometimes, stupid problems really do require stupid solutions—ingenious, satisfying, and just a little bit absurd.
When Heartbleed Met Audit: A Perfect Storm
If you worked in IT or cybersecurity in 2014, you probably remember the Heartbleed bug: a gaping vulnerability in OpenSSL that left countless systems exposed. For most, it was a scramble to patch, update, and breathe a sigh of relief. For the team at the center of this story (originally shared by u/roflcopter-pilot on Reddit’s r/TalesFromTechSupport), Heartbleed arrived at the worst possible moment—right before a high-stakes security audit.
On paper, their setup was solid: 90% of user devices were custom Linux thin clients, updated via a streamlined process. Most machines would auto-update on reboot, slick as you please. The catch? Not every user bothered to shut down their machine at the end of the workday. Those left running needed a remote reboot, but—cue dramatic music—a bug in the current OS build made remote shutdowns flaky and unreliable.
With hundreds of devices at stake (some behind locked doors), the team faced a nightmare scenario: vulnerable clients, an inflexible deadline, and auditors out for blood.
Brainstorming and the Big Red Switch
Manually rebooting each thin client wasn’t just daunting—it was impossible. The team needed a solution that was fast, foolproof, and, as it turned out, a little bit crazy.
Enter the “Eureka!” moment: as u/roflcopter-pilot recounted, one team member suddenly remembered that all thin clients were set to “Restore on Power Loss = Last State” in BIOS. The implications were deliciously simple. Why try to remotely trigger reboots one-by-one when you could just kill power to the entire building and let the machines handle the rest?
What IT lacked in office door keys, they made up for in access to the main facility’s breaker room. With a plan in place and a quick heads-up to Facilities (who were, frankly, more than happy to play along, provided the elevators were safely parked), the team did the unthinkable: They threw the main breaker, power-cycled the whole HQ, and watched as every thin client obediently rebooted, fetched the patch, and came online, Heartbleed-free.
As u/Lord_Lenz, the top commenter, put it: “This is the biggest ‘Did you try to turn it off and on again?’ I've seen yet.” The OP agreed, noting, “Throwing those big breaker switches was so satisfying, too!”
Community Wisdom: Hammers, Hacks, and Heroics
The brilliance (or audacity) of this solution wasn’t lost on the r/TalesFromTechSupport crowd. “Sometimes in life,” wrote u/parrukeisari, “you come to a point where regardless if your problem looks like a nail or not, all you really need is a bigger hammer.” And what bigger hammer is there than the building’s master power switch?
Others chimed in with their own war stories and irreverent humor. u/alaorath recalled the old IT joke: “How do I release and renew the IPs of all the machines at a site? Power cycle the building.” Meanwhile, u/RayEd29 marveled, “I've had to reboot a computer, I've even rebooted a network. You, sir, have set a record with rebooting the entire building!”
Of course, the plan wasn’t entirely without risk. As u/NotYourNanny shuddered, “I shudder at the thought of how many ways that could have gone sideways. The audit was probably more important than any of them, though.” Fortunately, Facilities was on board, and the only real hiccup was making sure the elevators didn’t get stuck mid-fix.
Some commenters took the lesson in stride, suggesting next-level automation for the future. u/SevaraB suggested smart breakers on timers, ensuring nightly power cuts unless there’s a business-critical exemption—an idea OP admitted was “honestly a good idea” and great for peace of mind. In fact, the team soon implemented an automatic forced shutdown after the last user logged off, so no thin client could ever be left running overnight again.
And for those who love a good pop culture reference, u/songbolt summed up the drama with a nod to Die Hard: “Shut it down; shut it all down now!”—while u/Mister_Bishop imagined “Ode to Joy” playing as the computers all rebooted and updated in harmony.
Big Levers, Big Lessons
At the end of the day, this story is more than just a satisfying IT hack. It’s a reminder that sometimes the simplest (or most outrageous) solution is the best—especially when time, access, and sanity are in short supply. As u/KelemvorSparkyfox declared, “This is probably the best ‘turn it off and back on again’ story that has ever been and will ever be.”
And the best part? The audit went off without a hitch. Every device was patched, the auditors were none the wiser, and the IT team got a story to dine out on for years.
So next time you’re stuck in a tech jam, remember: Every problem has a Layer-1 solution. Sometimes, you just need the confidence to flip the biggest switch you can find.
Have you ever had to pull a “big hammer” move in IT or elsewhere? What’s your most dramatic fix? Share your stories in the comments below—because sometimes, the stupidest solutions are the ones that actually work.
Original Reddit Post: Stupid problems require stupid solutions.