[M5Hosting] Emergency Maintenance between 22:00 - 23:59 US/Pacific Time

[Michael J McCafferty]

Dear Valued M5Hosting Customer,

    Earlier today (Thursday June 12th, 2008) about 25% of our  
customers were affected by intermittent network connectivity. The  
cause of this was several interfaces on one of our core switches were  
flapping. This flapping caused spanning tree protocol to block and  
unblock as the topology changed. Each time the state changed on an  
interface, that link would be down for the time it takes spanning tree  
to cycle through it's cycle (about 30 seconds).
    Interfaces can flap or links can be lost due to bad cross connects  
in the data center facility's cable plant, or a bad patch cable or bad  
networkign components. In this case several interfaces were involved  
nearly simultaneously. This makes it more likely that a network  
component is to blame, although the exact cause can't be known for  
certain. While the interfaces are not flapping currently and have been  
stable for more than 8hrs now, we can not say for certain that the  
cause of the flapping has been eliminated. We can change that with an  
emergency maintenance which should have a minimal impact to you.

    We have all new redundant cross connects ready to replace all  
existing cross connects between all of our racks and our core network.  
We also have configured a brand new core switch ready to replace the  
unit that was involved in the irregularities today. Starting this  
evening after 10pm (30 minutes from now) we will cut over to the cable  
plant and replace the switch that was flapping today. During this  
time, as the topology changes (fail-overs to redundant equipment and  
cables moved), there will be some brief (about 30 second)  
interruptions in connectivity. You may experience a few of them during  
this time.


Start Time: 22:00 US/Pacific June 12th, 2008
End Time: 23:59 US/Pacific June 12th, 2008
During this window, you may experience a few interruptions of 30 to 45  
seconds each.

    I apologize for the short notice, but the goal is to suffer a few  
seconds of interruption to prevent an unplanned event which may have a  
large impact. We would normally perform this during our regular window  
(Sat. night after 9pm US/Pacific), but we have determined this is an  
urgent matter.

    As always, I invite and encourage your comments on this  
maintenance, this email or any aspect of the service you trust us to  
provide for you.


    Thank you for your continued trust in us !

Sincerely,
Mike

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Michael J. McCafferty
Principal, Security Engineer
M5 Hosting
858-576-7325 Voice
http://www.m5hosting.com
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