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  1. #1
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    Aug 2001
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    Post The Planet - Always Maintenance

    I'm going to keep this quick as I don't want my post coming across as a negative comment.

    I've been extremely impressed with the level of communication over at The Planet. We're always notified of any form of 'work' that could result in downtime, etc.

    HOWEVER, is it normal to see so many 'jobs' that need to be done? It seems we can't go more then 2-3 weeks anymore without something needing fixing, or upgrading, etc. I don't mean this to sound like I'm mad... I love the communication... I'm just wondering if so much work is normal to maintain a safe and healthy network.

    As well, I should note that we purchase our servers through a division of The Planet known as www.insomnia365.com. All emails are marked "The Planet", just like SM clients, etc.

  2. #2
    I would preffer to get informed of all the network "jobs" that are going to be applied, than sitting here waiting for customers to complain... or see the server down.

    Just my $0.02
    ^_^

  3. #3
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    Don't get me wrong, I feel the exact same way... I'm more wondering if other Data Centers go through the same amount of work/maintenance.

  4. #4
    Originally posted by Mekhu
    Don't get me wrong, I feel the exact same way... I'm more wondering if other Data Centers go through the same amount of work/maintenance.
    Yes....in large data centers there can even be work every night *gasp*

    I don't get how this became a topic at all, they are working on their network to improve it. They notify as a precaution so why do you care unless your server is going down every time they do work...

  5. #5
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    This became a topic because it was something on my mind...

    With the 4-5 different data centers I have had experience with in the past, The Planet is the only one that notifies me of things needing fixing (a good thing... I agree).

    However, are the other data centers simply not notifying clients or is The Planet just have lots of work needing to be done!?

  6. #6
    Originally posted by Mekhu

    However, are the other data centers simply not notifying clients or is The Planet just have lots of work needing to be done!?
    Could be both but thats is not your concern as a customer unless these maintenances start effecting you...

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
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    Its probably other Data Centers not telling you, but personally I wouldnt complain that TP keep you informed
    Seeksadmin.com Owner: Providing Security, Administration and Optimization since 2001

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  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
    Posts
    180
    There has been more maintenance than usual in the past month... I've been with TP for 3 years. They are probably just making needed upgrades.

  9. #9

    Re: The Planet - Always Maintenance

    Originally posted by Mekhu
    HOWEVER, is it normal to see so many 'jobs' that need to be done? It seems we can't go more then 2-3 weeks anymore without something needing fixing, or upgrading, etc. I don't mean this to sound like I'm mad... I love the communication... I'm just wondering if so much work is normal to maintain a safe and healthy network.
    Check this out. http://forums.ev1servers.net/forumdisplay.php?f=38

    xeet.com search - coming soon!

  10. #10

    Re: The Planet - Always Maintenance

    Originally posted by Mekhu
    I'm going to keep this quick as I don't want my post coming across as a negative comment.

    I've been extremely impressed with the level of communication over at The Planet. We're always notified of any form of 'work' that could result in downtime, etc.

    HOWEVER, is it normal to see so many 'jobs' that need to be done? It seems we can't go more then 2-3 weeks anymore without something needing fixing, or upgrading, etc. I don't mean this to sound like I'm mad... I love the communication... I'm just wondering if so much work is normal to maintain a safe and healthy network.

    As well, I should note that we purchase our servers through a division of The Planet known as www.insomnia365.com. All emails are marked "The Planet", just like SM clients, etc.
    yes, frequent maintenance is common among the more diligent providers and proactive upgrades are a Good Thing (tm). now, if all of these are service impacting (iow, cause downtime for you), that is another issue entirely.

    it is normal (unless you pay for an additional drop) to only be uplinked to a single distrib switch, so maintenance on that would cause downtime naturally. however, these are usually rather simple devices doing l2 agg and shouldn't need much work outside of replacements in case of failure. anything upstream from that should be redundant so failure and/or maintenance can be dealt with without downtime.

    a better explanation should come from tp's net engs, since they actually know what their network looks like.

    -p
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  11. #11
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    We do business with 6 different datacenters and have 100% uptime in all of them.. Sure there are maintenance items that come up but usually once or twice per year is about average not every 2-3 weeks.. How the heck could you operate a business with that much maintenance?

  12. #12
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    San Francisco, CA
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    I don't see the value or necessity to notify clients every single time you're doing something UNLESS the work may affect connectivity. If a DC decides to do this then fine but you get concerns like this one. ("Why so much work? What's going wrong?") Clients aren't interested in our daily agendas- only those items that may have a direct impact on THEIR network stability.

    Kudos to TP for keeping up the communication - if ONLY we saw more of this level of communication from other hosts. If they followed this practice of extreme communication, the Outages Forum would be filled with far less "We're down because..." and instead - filled with far more "FYI- We are about to..." notices.
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  13. #13
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    Aug 2001
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    Thanks for all the responses everyone. I think my post came across as a complaint instead of a "personal inquiry".

    MrManager, you said it perfect... I'm often left wondering
    "Why so much work?"
    "What's going wrong?"

    I'll be the first person to admit I love the level of communication we receive. We've built our business around the same thinking and things are working out really well.

    I was just more interested in whether or not this amount of work was normal.

    We'll just say it is and hope the maintenance schedule slows down soon

  14. #14
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    Aug 2001
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    Paul, just a quick thanks for the lesson I'm still learning a lot of the 'behind the scenes' details but will definately contact TP and speak with an Eng. over there.

  15. #15
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    Mekhu, Maybe I misunderstood your post but are the advisories followed by downtime or you are just asking why all the emails?


    Thanks

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    9,264
    Maintenance:

    1. The act of maintaining or the state of being maintained.
    2. The work of keeping something in proper condition; upkeep.
    3.
    1. Provision of support or livelihood: took over the maintenance of her family.
    2. Means of support or livelihood: was ordered to pay maintenance for both children.
    4. Law. The unlawful meddling in a suit by providing either party with the means to carry it on.


    If it hasn't resulted in downtime or bad network performance: Waste of a thread!

  17. #17
    Originally posted by X-Gaming
    Mekhu, Maybe I misunderstood your post but are the advisories followed by downtime or you are just asking why all the emails?


    Thanks

    I dint know about him, but their last little IOS upgrade one of their switches in front of one of our servers there was 7 hours of instability, and about 270 minutes of downtime, while their night time network guy tried to figure out what was wrong. In the end I got a whopping $11.04 for the downtime.

  18. #18
    I don't think it's a waste of a thread at all. The guy's curious to know if TP is just more proactive in building up their network than other DCs. That's something I'm kinda interested in.

    No harm in asking about something simply for the sake of knowing it.

  19. #19
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    Oct 2003
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    concept,

    This is why I prefer companies who have wicked SLAs and actually put out when they mess up.

  20. #20
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    Jul 2002
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    St. Louis, MO
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    Originally posted by X-Gaming
    We do business with 6 different datacenters and have 100% uptime in all of them.. Sure there are maintenance items that come up but usually once or twice per year is about average not every 2-3 weeks.. How the heck could you operate a business with that much maintenance?
    Instead of bashing them, surprised no one has looked up the actual reasons for the different maintence items. You can look here and notice the different reasons.

    - MCI UUnet maintenance 07/28/2005 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
    - Global Crossing Maintenance 07/27/05 12:01am - 1:01am CST
    - D2 Datacenter Dark Fiber Maintenance 08/02/05 2:00am
    - DLLSTX2 TippingPoint maintenance (07/31/2005)
    - Level3 Maintenance 8/3/05 3:01AM - 6:01AM CST
    - Cogent Maintenance 8/4/05 3:00am - 3:30am CST

    Looks like general maintance. Personally I enjoy getting said emails from The Planet. They actually CARE enough about their customers to let them know about a possible downtime, or high latency time. Most of it is very short time windows.

    Several of the uplink maintence is the actual provider doing work on their own lines.
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  21. #21
    I agree, seems like they could at least let you know what maintenance is being done. Heck, if they are upgrading the network or something similar, it might even be good PR to let customers know this.

    Maybe someone from The Planet will update this tread and let us know.

  22. #22
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    Connecticut
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    I wasn't bashing anyone.. I was inquiring on how you can run a business from thePlanet/SM if you are constantly incurring downtime..?

    Sounds like a fair enough question to me.. You can butter it up any way you want but just looking in the maintanence threads at SM and the "Server down" forum here it sounds like they have a bunch of monkees running the network..


    So there ya go now I did bash them.. Happy now

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
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    North America
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    Nobody said the network goes down during this maintenance (not usually anyways). Intermittant latency and minor packet loss can occur, however overall connectivity is not usually affected as other provider links will assume the load. With the number of links that TP has and their 3 datacenters, they obviously will have more maintenance compared to other datacenters.

    -TAK
    Last edited by TAK; 08-02-2005 at 06:43 PM.

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Posts
    4,028
    Originally posted by David
    Maintenance:

    1. The act of maintaining or the state of being maintained.
    2. The work of keeping something in proper condition; upkeep.
    3.
    1. Provision of support or livelihood: took over the maintenance of her family.
    2. Means of support or livelihood: was ordered to pay maintenance for both children.
    4. Law. The unlawful meddling in a suit by providing either party with the means to carry it on.


    If it hasn't resulted in downtime or bad network performance: Waste of a thread!
    My apologies to you sir...

  25. #25
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    Aug 2001
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    The maintenance items we're notified about all sound legit to me. There was no doubt about this. My only concern is if all the maintenance is a result of "normal" circumstances or maybe a not-so-good network group. I feel this is quite a valid question.

    In regards to the maintenance work that has affected us, we have not had ANY downtime. We do experience packet loss which is just as bad as downtime for us. Even when this occurs WE DO NOT COMPLAIN. It was told to us before hand and we live with it... but putting up with this on a bi-weekly basis is frustrating. If it's normal I'll live with it. If it's not I'll get through it... I was just curious is all.

    As for people mentioning SLA, etc. I've never really been one to bitch about downtime stats, etc. For the sake of saving me $20, why don't I simply remain calm and keep a strong relationship going with the DC!?

    Anyways... I'm still trying to figure out why I'm defending my thread

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