Microsoft server crash nearly causes 800-plane pile-up
http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/...fm?NewsID=2275
I will quote the article here.
They moved from Unix to Windows for aircraft control. The software was designed so poorly in Windows that it couldn't handle data properly and required a reboot to fix itself.
Whatever happened to designing systems that just run unless hardware fails?! Whatever happened to using common sense in designing systems meant for airports?
Disgusting! ATMs get shutdown because of Windows viruses, aeroplanes almost crash and we are still eating shit being feed to us by M$ and claiming it is caviar.
I will quote the article here.
Quote:
Microsoft server crash nearly causes 800-plane pile-up
Failure to restart system caused data overload.
By Matthew Broersma, Techworld
A major breakdown in Southern California's air traffic control system last week was partly due to a "design anomaly" in the way Microsoft Windows servers were integrated into the system, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
The radio system shutdown, which lasted more than three hours, left 800 planes in the air without contact to air traffic control, and led to at least five cases where planes came too close to one another, according to comments by the Federal Aviation Administration reported in the LA Times and The New York Times. Air traffic controllers were reduced to using personal mobile phones to pass on warnings to controllers at other facilities, and watched close calls without being able to alert pilots, according to the LA Times report.
The failure was ultimately down to a combination of human error and a design glitch in the Windows servers brought in over the past three years to replace the radio system's original Unix servers, according to the FAA.
The servers are timed to shut down after 49.7 days of use in order to prevent a data overload, a union official told the LA Times. To avoid this automatic shutdown, technicians are required to restart the system manually every 30 days. An improperly trained employee failed to reset the system, leading it to shut down without warning, the official said. Backup systems failed because of a software failure, according to a report in The New York Times.
The contract for designing the system, called Voice Switching and Control System (VSCS), was awarded to Harris Corporation in 1992 and the system was installed in the late 1990s, initially using Unix servers, according to Harris. In 2001, the company completed testing of the VSCS Control Subsystem Upgrade (VCSU), which replaced the original servers with off-the-shelf Dell hardware running Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server. The upgrade was installed in California last year, according to the FAA.
Soon after installation, however, the FAA discovered that the system design could lead to a radio system shutdown, and put the maintenance procedure into place as a workaround, the LA Times said. The FAA reportedly said it has been working on a permanent fix but has only eliminated the problem in Seattle. The FAA is now planning to institute a second workaround - an alert that will warn controllers well before the software shuts down.
The shutdown is intended to keep the system from becoming overloaded with data and potentially giving controllers wrong information about flights, according to a software analyst cited by the LA Times.
Microsoft told Techworld it was aware of the reports but was not immediately able to comment.
Microsoft server crash nearly causes 800-plane pile-up
Failure to restart system caused data overload.
By Matthew Broersma, Techworld
A major breakdown in Southern California's air traffic control system last week was partly due to a "design anomaly" in the way Microsoft Windows servers were integrated into the system, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
The radio system shutdown, which lasted more than three hours, left 800 planes in the air without contact to air traffic control, and led to at least five cases where planes came too close to one another, according to comments by the Federal Aviation Administration reported in the LA Times and The New York Times. Air traffic controllers were reduced to using personal mobile phones to pass on warnings to controllers at other facilities, and watched close calls without being able to alert pilots, according to the LA Times report.
The failure was ultimately down to a combination of human error and a design glitch in the Windows servers brought in over the past three years to replace the radio system's original Unix servers, according to the FAA.
The servers are timed to shut down after 49.7 days of use in order to prevent a data overload, a union official told the LA Times. To avoid this automatic shutdown, technicians are required to restart the system manually every 30 days. An improperly trained employee failed to reset the system, leading it to shut down without warning, the official said. Backup systems failed because of a software failure, according to a report in The New York Times.
The contract for designing the system, called Voice Switching and Control System (VSCS), was awarded to Harris Corporation in 1992 and the system was installed in the late 1990s, initially using Unix servers, according to Harris. In 2001, the company completed testing of the VSCS Control Subsystem Upgrade (VCSU), which replaced the original servers with off-the-shelf Dell hardware running Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server. The upgrade was installed in California last year, according to the FAA.
Soon after installation, however, the FAA discovered that the system design could lead to a radio system shutdown, and put the maintenance procedure into place as a workaround, the LA Times said. The FAA reportedly said it has been working on a permanent fix but has only eliminated the problem in Seattle. The FAA is now planning to institute a second workaround - an alert that will warn controllers well before the software shuts down.
The shutdown is intended to keep the system from becoming overloaded with data and potentially giving controllers wrong information about flights, according to a software analyst cited by the LA Times.
Microsoft told Techworld it was aware of the reports but was not immediately able to comment.
They moved from Unix to Windows for aircraft control. The software was designed so poorly in Windows that it couldn't handle data properly and required a reboot to fix itself.
Whatever happened to designing systems that just run unless hardware fails?! Whatever happened to using common sense in designing systems meant for airports?
Disgusting! ATMs get shutdown because of Windows viruses, aeroplanes almost crash and we are still eating shit being feed to us by M$ and claiming it is caviar.
Comments
Originally posted by iPoster
I did a Google on your signature and it makes me worry even more.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/sec...9163867,00.htm
/hugs his Macintosh.
The servers are timed to shut down after 49.7 days of use in order to prevent a data overload, a union official told the LA Times. To avoid this automatic shutdown, technicians are required to restart the system manually every 30 days
Wouldn´t it be ten time more safe to do it, say, every 20 days?
Originally posted by talksense101
I did a Google on your signature and it makes me worry even more.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/sec...9163867,00.htm
/hugs his Macintosh.
My family got a new PC and it lasted about 1 minute before it got whatever worm was attacking everything (can't keep track anymore)
Originally posted by Stoo
Has anyone considered that this isn't actually Windows' fault ? It could just be a crap system (to ship it with such a huge problem seems rather odd).
actually, the 49.7 day reboot cycle is a "FEATURE" of windows server. its programmed to behave like that. they are not ready for 24/7 mission critical stuff. we had unix boxes at my old company that had been running for years!
This is as much human error as Microsoft bugs at fault. Whoever decided to "upgrade" from UNIX to Windows is retarded and should be fired. Whoever decided to not have tech keep an eye on the Windows boxes is a dumbass, and should be fired.
I don't even know if I'd trust Macs to do such an important job. I'd want some hardcore dedicated hardware and a time-tested OS like FreeBSD or even older that just works. For years, without rebooting. I mean I don't even know if X Serves with OS X would be reliable enough.
I think it is getting dangerously close to a lot of American companies and administrations thinking Windows has gotten "secure" and "reliable" enough to be put in mission-critical environments. That's fucked up. It will never ever ever be mission-critical. OS X or maybe just Darwin might be but even that seems like a stretch.
Originally posted by Aquatic
I think it is getting dangerously close to a lot of American companies and administrations thinking Windows has gotten "secure" and "reliable" enough to be put in mission-critical environments. That's fucked up. It will never ever ever be mission-critical. OS X or maybe just Darwin might be but even that seems like a stretch.
OS X is as stable as any other UNIX system I've used. In fact, I find it to be much more reliable that ANY Linux machine I've ever used, perhaps because there's always so much experimental crap in Linux's enormous, monolithic kernel. I know it's easy to compile very reliable versions of Linux. I'd expect that OS X Server is no different.
The exchange system built on windows NT 4.0 has to be regulary rebooted every once and a while or it just grinds to a halt. I guess newer versions of window have just automated this process.