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

[Michael J McCafferty]

Dear Valued M5Hosting Customer,

     The emergency maintenance has concluded successfully and within  
the announced window. It went very smoothly. One core switch has been  
replaced and all new cross connects have been provided by the data  
center facility and all cables that connect to the core switches have  
been replaced.

Thank you !
Mike


Quoting Michael J McCafferty <mike at m5computersecurity.com>:

> 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
>
> -- 
> ************************************************************
> Michael J. McCafferty
> Principal, Security Engineer
> M5 Hosting
> 858-576-7325 Voice
> http://www.m5hosting.com
> ************************************************************
>
> _______________________________________________
> M5Hosting mailing list
> M5Hosting at m5hosting.com
> http://lists.m5hosting.com/mailman/listinfo/m5hosting



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