Archive for the 'Networking' Category

Could (mt) Have Anything Else Go Wrong?

Published
by
Chris Meller
on January 24, 2007
in Commentary, Daily Grind, Gripes, Hardware, Hosting, Internet, Links, Media Temple, Networking and Techno-Babble
. 0 Comments

Just saw “Too many concurrent connections” SMTP error on (gs) GRID.Cluster.1 show up on my Google homepage.

Is there anything else that could possibly go wrong with the Media Temple (gs) service? By my count, thus far we’ve had:

  • Storage problems causing downtime
  • MySQL problems causing database downtime
  • PHP processing power problems causing downtime
  • Log processing problems causing log downtime

Have I missed anything? With the exception of actual network connectivity issues to the broken services on the grid, we’ve hit just about everything they could possibly have go wrong….

Don’t get me wrong, I really really really hope (mt) gets these issues worked out. I’m really looking forward to their MySQL grid containers release in March. Being able to edit your my.cnf file is a real advantage if you ask me. The ability to seamlessly scale up and then back down without being locked into a new plan level is also really cool. It just doesn’t seem like they’re ever going to get any new cool grid features built, because they keep underestimating the use of their existing features. Sometimes I wonder if there was really any beta testing of this platform at all before release…

A New File Server Begins…

Published
by
Chris Meller
on January 8, 2007
in Advice, Hardware, Networking and Techno-Babble
. 3 Comments

Bought a new LSI MegaRaid 6-port SATA adapter last night, now I just need to build a machine around it1.

The only slight downside is that the SATA adapter requires a 64-bit bus, which is going to make the rest of the box slightly more pricey than I’d have liked. Oh well, I guess it’s about time I bit the bullet and made a decent box anyway…

Hell, if I go far enough, I may be able to consolidate the domain controller, SQL 2005 (which would, eventually move into a VM), and the Virtual Server 2005 R2 boxes. If they were able to run on some (probably dual-Xeon) box together, I’d have quite a bit of extra hardware laying around to play with.

This is really the part I hate. Now I’ve got to piece together parts from all across the ‘net, looking for the best performance yet the best deal, while trying to balance the desire to get everything from one retailer.

If you’ve got any particular recommendations on where I should head with this project, feel free to chime in. I’m always open to the opinions of greater nerds who watch hardware performance tests like the true geeks they are…

  1. Sure, some would say I’m building in the wrong direction, but nerts to them! [back]

The “Grid” is Falling….The “Grid” is Falling

Published
by
Chris Meller
on November 29, 2006
in Advice, Announcements, Commentary, Daily Grind, Internet, Links, Media Temple, Networking, Random, Rants, Reviews and Techno-Babble
. 0 Comments

I happened to find this Digg story in the upcoming entries. The “Grid” is Falling….The “Grid” is Falling is about the crappy level of service provided by the new Media Temple “Grid” service.

Since I’ve been thoroughly displeased with the service I’ve had at (mt) over the past several months, I encourage you all to digg that story… for me, please! Not only is their hosting service absolutely atrocious, but their customer service isn’t much better.

For example: Last night all my sites were down. Instant reject for all connections. I open a “Service down or not responding” ticket (which is buried under what’s effectively a “Miscellaneous” category in their web system). At 9:30 this morning they finally respond with a message to the effect of “Yeah, it was a planned downtime.” How exactly was it planned? You didn’t inform any of your customers. The only way I found out about it was by reading the “Internal Incident” report I was linked to by a support rep…

As I said, horrible service. Don’t even think about getting a “grid” server from (mt), you’ll regret it. Please digg the story above, and let me know about any hosting recommendations…

Microsoft Brings some Vista Features to XP

Published
by
Chris Meller
on November 29, 2006
in Commentary, Daily Grind, Insomnia, Internet, Links, Microsoft, Networking, Reviews, Techno-Babble, Windows and Windows Vista
. 0 Comments

Early this morning, as my insomnia-driven computer addiction ensued at hours in which even the birds refuse to wake, I noticed that a couple of new Windows Updates had been deployed by my in-house WSUS box and were ready for installation on my client machines. I thought we’d already had our patch-Tuesday for the month, so I decided to check out what was being updated.

Much to my surprise, there was a new version of the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (aka Terminal Services client) app available. Since, as far as I remember, there has never been an update to this program (since it’s initial inclusion in Windows XP), I thought I’d go check it out.

Thanks to my handy dandy (unofficial) Microsoft Download Notification RSS feed, I was able to quickly track down the stand-alone download package1.

For those that may be interested, the short description of this update is:

Remote Desktop Connection (Terminal Services Client 6.0) provides a way to use any new Terminal Services features introduced in Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Windows Server Code Name “Longhorn” from a computer running Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1.

This simple update boasts a host of changes. Most notably are:

  • Lots of new Authentication updates
  • 32-bit color support
  • Font-smoothing capability
  • Terminal Services “Remote Program” capability
  • Enhanced Device Redirection (for things such as printers connected locally)

My favorite feature, however, is without a doubt the new Monitor Spanning capability. That’s right, now I can finally utilize both of my monitors when doing a remote desktop. Oh sweet joy of joys. Microsoft, sometimes I just can’t help but love you guys2!

For those interested in more details, here’s a link to the stand-alone download, and the knowledge base article3.

Update: In case you have difficulty finding them yourselves, here are download links for other platforms. Still, I’d probably just snag it over Windows Update…

Windows 2003: here
Windows 2003 x64: here
Windows XP x64: here

  1. Oddly enough, Googling around and searching both Microsoft.com and the Microsoft Knowledge Base directly proved to be useless. [back]
  2. And god knows I try not to… [back]
  3. By the way… When did these start requiring passport logins? KB articles have always been publicly available, haven’t they? [back]

Media Temple (gs) Down Time…

Published
by
Chris Meller
on October 28, 2006
in Announcements, Commentary, Daily Grind, Media Temple, Networking and Techno-Babble
. 5 Comments

Welp, about 3 days into using Media Temple’s new (gs) system to host this blog, I’ve hit some fairly significant down-time. Wow, not a good showing at all. I mean, isn’t that the point of the entire grid-server concept? Aren’t we supposed to be highly redundant and not dependent on any single piece of hardware?

Looks like that’s not the case, according to the incident details. Apparently a single faulty storage system was able to bring my site down, along with who knows how many others…

I’ve heard so many great things about Media Temple, and I’m just going to assume that this is a settling-in issue with a brand new service. I only hope that they don’t prove me wrong…