5 PM EST TODAY - MCI is Going to Switch VDI at the MCI Location to a New Router / Interface -

They expect 5-10 mins tops to move the Cuircut. During that time you may experience some Lag while the Switching takes place.




VDI STAFF

sounds good. keep us updated!

I suppose it's not a big deal, but what if every one of the dozens of hosts that use this forum started posting notices of their expected downtimes and such customer service information here? Seems like there are better ways to inform your customers of these things. I hear they have this "email" technology these days...

I just put it here also - I informed all our clients allready. Up to them to tell you now...

I dont mind the notice since if an outage on VDI occurs, it affects hundreds of people here. but for the average mom and pop company, then it wouldnt be appropriate.

(1) Bill doesn't have my e-mail address. Nor does he have the addresses of the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of downlines.

(2) VDI is frequently addressed on this board, and the service burps they have had have been consistently posted and discussed for the last two weeks... also Bill promised us an update on switches... So I don't think the post is terribly off-topic.

(3) If the admins decide that Bill's post is inappropriate, I will be happy to re-post the information in a new thread, to remove any sense of impropriety. :) I believe the info is pertinent to many webhosting clients. And unlike advertising, it addresses possible PROBLEMS .... it's not like it's a shameless plug.

Thanks for the update! Hope the upgrade goes smoothly.
:D Bailey

Like I said, I don't really think it's a big deal. On the other hand, I'd hate to see such things become regular practice, so I guess what I'd like see (not that that matters :) ) is for the moderators to state their view on such posts. Reading the forum rules, it appears kind of "gray area."

I can certainly understand Bill's motivations for posting it; if it wasn't stated here we'd inevitably see a "my site at VDI was down for five minutes, this is a disaster" thread!

But why couldn't a host with a couple of resellers, knowing they might, or knowing that they do, have some downline clients here to whom they can't email, make the same justification? Can they only make it if there's been prior discussion of their downtime? Can they make it as long as they've previously promised to do so? Or can only large companies do so? How large?

Just for the record, I frequent both this forum and my hosts forum. As of right now, the only notification I've gotten about this issue is from here. Given that VDI hosts a large number of companies servers, this seems to be a good place to start, especially when the companies between us and them either dont bother or are just slow to get the word out. Since seeing it here I'm now able to inform my clients as to whats going on and how it may effect them.

Would be nice if my upline providers were as swift to diseminate info. I'd rather have a few false alarms than another series of "whats going on"?

In the events of schedualed downtime (which I lump this under) the info should propigate downline within an hour of the top guy anouncing it. Emails fast, and posting it on your own forums in addition to a multi-company forum is just good pr. Thanks for the heads up.

Just my 2 cents.

I'd just make one more suggestion, both for Bill at VDI and for anyone else who sees a reason to make this kind of announcement in the future: how about a descriptive subject line for the thread? Instead of "INFORMATION!!," which does one of two things (some of those of us who are not at VDI read it because it might concern us, and some of those who are at VDI don't read it because they don't know it's anything of interest), perhaps something like "Upcoming brief downtime at VDI."

Personally I think that's a good idea for all new threads, but especially in cases like this where it's targeted to a specific group of members.

See, Bill, if you'd done that I probably would never have looked at it and we wouldn't be going through all this! :)

Jay I think you are missing the reason for the post (or maybe I am?)...

It isn't meant to inform VDI clients or sub-clients (resellers), it is meant to inform the members of this board, which means a post like this is of interest to everyone here. Everyone here knows that this boards upstream is VDI, so I'm pretty sure we would all like to be informed when the board might be down ahead of time.

but especially in cases like this where it's targeted to a specific group of members.
For me, the target group were ALL members of this forum. I guess we see this differently. :D

Just my 2¢

Originally posted by Elena
Everyone here knows that this boards upstream is VDI, so I'm pretty sure we would all like to be informed when the board might be down ahead of time.Hmm... good point, and you're right I wasn't considering that. For that matter, neither were the rest of the respondants to this thread, it seems, since all the discussion has been of the effect on VDI-based hosts. Anyway, my apologies if it seemed like after saying I don't think it's a big deal it seems like I'm making it one. I still don't think it's a big deal, just a continuing conversation.

But I'll stick to my point about descriptively naming threads!

Switch completed ...

I will be making more announcements shortly on the VDI site, i`ll post the URL later. This will inform many people of whats going on.

what vdi site are you talking about? i went to vdi.net and there was nothing there. is there another url where these postings goto or is the url you're talking about coming when you announce it?

Glad to hear it went well Bill :)

And yes, I do appreciate this post as I would not of known about this maintenance otherwise.

Originally posted by JayC
On the other hand, I'd hate to see such things become regular practice, so I guess what I'd like see (not that that matters :) ) is for the moderators to state their view on such posts. Reading the forum rules, it appears kind of "gray area."

I think JayC's about where I am on the issue. While it sure would be convenient if every post neatly fell into one area or another, there are times where I literally sit and stare at a post, reading it over and over, trying to decide what would be best for the board and the members.

I like the easy ones, heh.

The angle that this affects the board is a good one. It isn't advertising (obviously), though I do share most of your views in that we really don't want hosts posting when they expect to have downtime here.

I hate making exceptions (and I know you guys hate that more than anything else), but I will say that the host or NOC who hosts the forum might get a bit of color added to the greyness, as it *does* affect the board itself.

My first reaction was to move this to the Advertsing Forum (where I realize it wouldn't fit), but in truth, the member's posts have convinced me otherwise (and sometimes we actually listen to you guys, heh :)). If this *becomes* a big deal, then we'll have to figure something out.

We need a grey forum? :) j/k

Important announcements Forum
or
Important announcements for hosting companies.....

Examples :

***Worm Virus alert - Please upgrade your Bind

****VDI blah blah

Well, there's the Technical Issues forum, but unfortunately no one reads those posts. :)

During the Emergency operations window on Thursday, March 29th, 2001, UUNET will be performing maintenance in the following cities:

These maintenances will result in additional capacity in order to meetexpected customer demands. The maintenances will start at 3:00 a.m. local time at the affected sites.

DOMESTIC:
New York, NY; Kansas City, MO; San Francisco, CA; Chicago, IL; Tyson's Corner, VA; Dallas TX; Fort Worth, TX; Kirkland, WA; Minneapolis, MN; Newark, NJ; Detroit, MI;
Boston, MA; Houston, TX; Austin, TX; Visalia, CA; Joliet, IL; Adra, IN; Miangola, IN; Belvidere, IL; Bloomington, IL; Bowling Green, IL, Calumet City, IL; Cedar Rapids, IA;
Circleville, OH; Coldwater, MI; Connerville, IN; Davenport, IA; Davison, MI; Decatur, IL; DeKalb; IL; Des Moines, IA; Downers Grove, IL; Duluth, MN; Elkhart, IN; Evansville, IN;
Freeport, IL; Green Bay, WI; Hampton, IL; Holman, WI; indianapolis, IN; Iowa City, IA; Irving, IL; Janisville, IA; Jasper, IN; Kankakee, IL; LaFayette, IN; Lincoln, IL; London, KY; Macomb, IL; Madison, WI; Marion, IL, Marion, OH; Marshfield, WI; Macomb, OH; Milwaukee, WI; Morton, IL; Mt. Pleasant, MI; Muskgon, MI; Napesville, IL; Northbrook, IL; Oaklawn, IL; Ofallon, MO; Owosson, MI; Oxford, OH; Plymouth, WI; Random Lake, WI; Rantoul, IL; Richmond, IN; Rockford, IL; Sandwich, IL; Seymour, IN; Springfield, IL; Stewart, IL; Three River, MI; Valparaiso, IN; Waukegan, IL;
Wausau, WI; Westfield, IN; Wisconsin Dells, WI; Miami, FL; Washington, DC; Dulles, VA; Frederick, MD; Atlanta, GA; Phoenix, AZ; Seattle, WA; Orlando, FL; Windsor, WA; New Orleans, LA; Portland, OR;Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Salt Lake City, UT; Las Vegas, NV; Cleveland, OH; Elgin, IL; Buffalo, NY; San Diego, CA; Philadelphia, PA; Palo Alto, CA

INTERNATIONAL:
Sydney, Australia; Honolulu, HI; Lithgow, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Moe, Australia; Griffith, Australia

These maintenances will result in additional capacity in order to meet expected customer demands.

Sydney, Australia

That us soo overdue it's not even funny...

Greg Moore

Hi,
Maybe the forum could be set up like HostCoalition.org, with seperate forums set up for individual NOC's. It could be a mess though, without good mod's (we've got that covered here :). HostCoalition does a good job, too. Just my $.02

Jim, can ya' wait a bit? With the help of Greg Moore (akashik), I'm building a site for you. Ohhhhh Gregggggg...

Lithgow, Australia ?!?

No one lives in Lithgow except a few coal miners and power plant workers. (Population 25,000)

http://www.wilmap.com.au/lithgow.html

So how does an average jane like myself get notification of updates and news/info on the backbones? That's pretty nifty and ... heh ... OK I'm extraordinarily curious about the ongoing services of the backbones.

:D

Chicken> I'm all for a Service Announcement forum as well. No advertising. Simply to address service issues. Bill's idea about upgrade announcements etc is super too. That way all providers would have a way to reach not just current clients, but potential ones as well -- others could see how they keep in touch and how they handle work on their systems.

Just a little $.02

:D Bailey

alot of good ideas in there. bigest problem i've got with any post is non-descriptive titles. I mean, "Important" and "problem" and "help" give ya so little to work with. Stuff like this is important, but does need to be filtered a bit better. I mean, the Albanza folks could care less if VDI is down, and vice versa. Hmmm....

But as a host, its good to get some info from upstream, as it helps us to keep our clients well supported. More info good! :)

The more I think about it, having an area for NOCs is a good idea. After all, this is webhostingtalk, and all webhosters need a NOC!

Originally posted by Chicken
Jim, can ya' wait a bit? With the help of Greg Moore (akashik), I'm building a site for you. Ohhhhh Gregggggg...

Just for me?...that's awesome.
I'll send you a list of my likes and dislikes so you know which banners will get my attention :D
I can't promise a ton of hits on the page though, maybe once or twice a day. And I might even throw in free hosting for the site. :)

Originally posted by Chicken
Jim, can ya' wait a bit? With the help of Greg Moore (akashik), I'm building a site for you. Ohhhhh Gregggggg...

Chicken,

It's coming. In fact after I hit the post office on about an hour I'm diving right into it. Actually I found the perfect logo for you but if you refer to my 'Scratched CD' thread you'll see it's a little hard to get too *lol* I'll get to it though! If you think of anything else in the next hour or three email me, and I'll add it in.

Greg Moore