mae-west route servers are both down hard

This...

From: noc@noc.ns.itd.umich.edu
Date: Thursday, May 23, 1996 4:26 PM
Subject: rs2.mae-west down indefinately

The route server rs2.mae-west.ra.net has crashed with the same symptoms as
rs1.mae-west. Both servers will be down indefinately. Further
information will be passed on as it becomes available. We apologize for
any inconvenience this may cause.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
UMNet MichNet CICNet
Merit RA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Network Systems Consultant Network Operations Center
trouble@noc.ns.itd.umich.edu U of M Information Technology Division

...is not just an inconvenience. On the strength of Merit's publicity,
quite a few peerships have been done through route servers, and to have
both route servers down at the same time is a massive disruption to many
of the folks who connect at MAE-W.

I have two heavily overconfigured Alpha machines loaded in my van, with
Stephen Stuart's port of RSd all ready for someone from Merit or ISI to
load up their configuration tables. I've got a driver and a technician.

I need someone from Merit or ISI to call me and arrange physical access
as well as scheduling the download of the initial configuration files and
turnover of the root account and other "system keys".

The use of the machines, and the time to deliver and install them, have
all been donated by people who are suffering due to MAE-West's ills. It
is most extraordinary that we have let things suffer this long, and if
the current plan is to wait until after the three day weekend, I consider
that flatly unacceptable.

E-mail me (paul@vix.com) or call me (1 415 747 0204) to arrange details.

>The route server rs2.mae-west.ra.net has crashed with the same symptoms as
>rs1.mae-west.

Hmmm....

I have two heavily overconfigured Alpha machines loaded in my van, with
Stephen Stuart's port of RSd all ready for someone from Merit or ISI to
load up their configuration tables. I've got a driver and a technician.

This is nice as a fast fix, but it seems to me that identically configured
mission critical machines have crashed for the same reason (not
surprising) and now may be replaced by two other identically configured
machines. Might it not be wise to have two DIFFERENT machines doing this
job, maybe a SPARC and an Alpha?

The use of the machines, and the time to deliver and install them, have
all been donated by people who are suffering due to MAE-West's ills. It
is most extraordinary that we have let things suffer this long, and if
the current plan is to wait until after the three day weekend, I
consider that flatly unacceptable.
E-mail me (paul@vix.com) or call me (1 415 747 0204) to arrange details.

Glad to see that people are willing to do what it takes to keep things
operating. Somehow I suspect that Bob Metcalfe's next InfoWorld column
will be gloating over the route server failures and fail to mention
Paul and the other people who put the effort in to deal with the problem.

Sort of like how people use to say Ethernet could never be any good
because of the packet collisions... :wink:

Michael Dillon ISP & Internet Consulting
Memra Software Inc. Fax: +1-604-546-3049
http://www.memra.com E-mail: michael@memra.com