Month: June 1998

Tue Jun 23 22:18:02 PDT 1998 — Two events are scheduled for 3am: * Attaching DLT tape drive to NetApp filer (2 minutes downtime) This will allow us to suppliment the NetApp’s snapshot system with tape backups. (Especially, we want a good tape of Thunder before our new web server, Storm, enters service.) * Moving Shell.sonic.net to another shelf (5 minutes downtime). This should result in almost no service disruption, unless you happen to be logged into the shell server. -Scott

Tue Jun 23 05:00:00 PDT 1998 — Two updates this morning: * Attached DLT tape drive to NetApp filer. This allows us to supplement the Network Appliance’s snapshot system with tape backups. {Especially, we want a good tape of Thunder before our new web server (Storm) enters service.} * Moved Bolt (Shell.sonic.net) to another shelf. This moved Bolt to the shelf directly above its RAID-5 array, freeing up some slack in its SCSI cable so that it could be re-routed. Earlier, there was a chance that the SCSI cable could be damaged while unracking some equipment — now, we don’t have to worry about hurting Bolt as we move servers into the new facility. -Scott

Sun Jun 21 06:00:00 PDT 1998 — The core router move is complete, and it went very smoothly. Total downtime while we moved the core router was under 10 minutes at 3:35AM PST. We migrated our six data T1 circuits and two T3 circuits into the new datacenter, and also moved their connections to our new Extreme Networks Gigaswitch. More servers will be migrated into this facility and into this new core network switch in the next couple weeks. -Dane, Scott and Dustin

Sat Jun 20 18:01:28 PDT 1998 — Tomorrow morning (Sunday 21st), between 12am and 3am, we will be moving some of our backbone equipment into the newly expanded machine room. The only noticable impact should be moving our core router, which will result in approximately 10 minutes downtime. We expect to perform that move between between 2 and 3am. -Scott and Dane

Update – the move is complete, and it went very smoothly. Total downtime while we moved the core router was under 10 minutes at 3:35AM PST. We migrated our six data T1 circuits and two T3 circuits into the new datacenter, and also moved their connections to our new Extreme Networks Gigaswitch. More servers will be migrated into this facility and into this new core network switch in the next couple weeks. -Dane, Scott and Dustin

Fri Jun 19 18:15:42 PDT 1998 — We’re pleased to announce the deployment of our new San Rafael POP! Users in San Rafael and Novato can now reach Sonic as a local call. We’re offering standard analog v.34 connections in this POP, plus K56Flex, v.90 and ISDN. In addition, we’re now offering dedicated Centrex ISDN, T1 and fractional T1 to the San Rafael area. If you’re interested in any of these dedicated services, do let us know. The new San Rafael access number is 415-492-9867. Please dial zero and ask for rate information to make sure that this is a local non-toll call for you if you’re like to use this POP. -Dane, Eric and crew

Sat Jun 13 23:21:45 PDT 1998 — Because of ongoing intermittant problems with nas21.sonic.net (which serves 522-1003), we’ve flashed it to a different firmware version. USR claims that this new engineering release will fix the odd troubles that we’ve had with the equipment’s operating system. When it failed, we had problems with long FTP transfers and with network routing.

Update – the new engineering release would not allow users to authenticate, so we were forced to back up to the previous release of the OS. This leaves us with the intermittant FTP and routing issues. If you notice problems, let us know and we’ll reboot the device, meanwhile we’ve asked the USR support list for advice. -Dane

Update (Mon Jun 15 18:43:31 PDT 1998) – We’ve managed to get the engineering release to load, and the device seems to be a bit more stable. Hopefully this will end troubles with 522-1003! -Dane and Brian

Wed Jun 10 12:50:20 PDT 1998 — Our web server has some minor filesystem corruption on its root filesystem, and it’s currently offline for filesystem repair. We expect to have the server back online in a few minutes. Thanks for your patience. -Dane and Scott (12:55 or so — fixed and back online 🙂 -Scott and Dane

Sun Jun 7 18:56:17 PDT 1998 — Our core router is having stability problems right now. We’re working to resolve the issue. -Dane

Update: We’ve traced the trouble to a network attack on one of our dialup access servers which is apparently coming from someone at (or spoofing the address of) the University of Wisconsin. We isolated the source and filtered the traffic so that it no longer affects our network. -Dane