Verizon network maintenance will impact access to the “National Driver Register,” a system that motor vehicle offices around the country need to check before handing out a license.
All 50 states and D.C. participate in the National Driver Register, a database maintained by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The register contains information about drivers who have had their driving privileges revoked, suspended or denied due to serious traffic violations, such as driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, reckless driving or excessive speeding.
The scheduled maintenance should be finished by Monday, in case you needed to update your driver's license or planned to do some reckless driving this weekend.
Verizon network maintenance will impact access to the “National Driver
Register,” a system that motor vehicle offices around the country need to
check before handing out a license.
Wait, what year is it?
how is a network maintenance on what seems like a fairly critical system going
to cause a total outage of said system?
It seems to say more about fluctuating funding and IT management.
I seem to recall an issue with the FAA’s NOTAM / TFR database a few weeks back, one that grounded all flights one fine morning. Wasn’t network-related, but the articles I read about the application’s architecture and fault-tolerance make it seem… lightweight. And I would guess that outage was far more impactful than this one is likely to be.
Sounds like either the National Driver Register or NHTSA is single-homed to Verizon, or the state DMVs each have a WAN circuit of some sort through Verizon to where the National Driver Register system physically lives. If it’s the latter, it sounds like a job that could be handled much more effectively using site-to-site VPN tunnels, but I understand the realities of being stuck in a long-term contract, policy mandates that dictate a physical connection, or things along those lines. Government agencies can and sometimes do get funding for infrastructure upgrades and resiliency - at least if they budget for it…
I’m sure the backstory here is both mundane and interesting.
And I would guess that outage was far more impactful than this one is likely to be.