LAX outage blamed on HW failures...

[linuxguru]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,6802259.story

A failing NIC card, followed by a failing PSU. What are the odds that these were caused by bad caps and/or bad sleeve-bearing fans? IMHO, close to 100%...

[willawake]

Re: LAX outage blamed on HW failures...

PSU probably.......ever heard of redundant psu?
NIC.........not enough info

who knows if the info released is not total BS anyway....would they admit they had a virus or were hacked?

a bit more background info for those like me which did not hear about the incident

[toastygoodness]

Re: LAX outage blamed on HW failures...

maybe we should ask the guy who hangs around here that works at an airport...

[willawake]

Re: LAX outage blamed on HW failures...

i don't work at an airport though......

maybe this is why hes gone missing

[toastygoodness]

Re: LAX outage blamed on HW failures...

haha yep i can see it now, "East Coast Airport Worker Causes System Failure in West Coast Airport"

[Per Hansson]

Re: LAX outage blamed on HW failures...

I've seen this kind of problem with a NIC

Took down a really big network, I think the issue was that it was requesting new ARP addresses but didn't realize that the switch gave them to it

So it eventually flooded the whole network with ARP requests (once a switch runs out of ARP addresses there isn't much it can do)

Note that highend switches can sense this and turn off the offending port, and a gateway will also limit the problem so it can't spread...

[willawake]

Re: LAX outage blamed on HW failures...

the admins should have used a lan diagnostic tool though..........even if the hardware does not have it.

......even the lowest enterprise switch has stats....

maybe they have crap hardware or maybe the admins are crap or both. if they were very low staffed it would be a shit environment to troubleshoot in though. lots of angry people........need to lock the door and pull the phones out....its like today we had a problem and they wanted to know why/what/when/where even before i stepped in the office.......

[WNG]

Re: LAX outage blamed on HW failures...

I experienced a similar scenario to Per's at a job in the past. IT guy who isn't Linux savvy had to configure some old Sony laptops with RedHat 8 for me to use as software verification rigs. I immediate noticed that one laptop when booted will begin a cascading LAN lock up as it requests an IP address. First in my passive switch on my desk, then our leg on the first floor. I shut it off quickly. I remember once I had interviewed a guy for a job and we spoke about how easy it is to cause a HW based denial of service attack on unprepared networks. It dawned on me this must an address flood.
The IT guy, didn't take me seriously when I spoke to him. (WTF would I know, I'm just a lowly EE, heehee) So, the only way to get something done was to allow the laptop to cripple the whole company's network.
When each trunk fell, everyone started complaining, he took me seriously that this misconfigured laptop did all this damage.
Don't get me wrong, he and I got along splendidly, he just couldn't believe his laptop was the cause. Hubris.

[bgavin]

Re: LAX outage blamed on HW failures...

I'm inclined to think LAX is running on Windows Vista, (which crapped out), and MS paid them to say something else...



But seriously.... a single point of failure on a cheap workstation, holding up the whole show.

[WNG]

Re: LAX outage blamed on HW failures...


Aside:
As for Vista, MS took a publicity blow when Lenovo, the provider of computer systems for the 2008 Summer Olympics, announced they will be running XP on important systems supporting the games. The seriousness of the event requires a stable and mature platform.
OWNED!
Vista will be provided for the athletes to check their emails, on specified marketing PCs.


http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...-off-core.html

[stretch0069]

Re: LAX outage blamed on HW failures...

Damn...can't believe I missed this post.

Sounds like BS to me. More than likely, somebody screwed up the database (which is vulnerable) and they tried to blame it on HW. The system Customs uses for "tracking" people is typical of the crap the Fed buys. They get told "oh yeah...this is just what you need!" and the dumbass in procurement just goes right along with it. Oh yeah...and ends up paying 5 times the price. Dumbasses.
As for OSs...we're running 2000 on all our machines that are for admin. XP hasn't been approved yet, but shouldn't be long. as far as computers that are used for controlling aircraft and the like, we're using versions of Unix.....AIX, Redhat, etc. there is no M$ on critical systems.......I wonder why????? [/sarcasm]