Alec Waters
2003-10-22 15:07:55 UTC
Hi all,
After the problems discussed in the threads "Persistant Outages" and
"Issues from Brighton POP", I put a number of questions to my Easynet
account manager (or whatever they're called these days:) . These found
their way up to Trevor Legg, Easynet's Head of Operations, who kindly
gave the following answers. I am posting it here with his permission,
because I know there are others reading this who were also affected by
the problems. Hope you find it interesting!
alec
--
--- Original Message ---
Hello Alec
I apologise for the delay in responding to you with reference to the
loss of service incident affecting the Brighton area recently.
I have attempted to answer each of your questions raised.
Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss further
1. What was the cause of the outage?
The cause of the outage was a fibre break in the Aldershot area
that affected our SDH network at Brighton.
2 - I understand that the SDH network that serves the Brighton POP is
protected. What kind of protection is in place?
There is SDH hardware protection but there is no fibre diversity at present
3 - What are you doing to prevent it from happening again?
The single point of failure of the SDH circuit to Brighton had already
been highlighted at a previous risk-analysis review. At the time of
this fault we had already begun the tender process for a resilient path
into the Lees House data centre in Brighton, this is still ongoing.
4 Concerning the intermittent outages about 04 Sept, which seem to have
been resolved (see the thread "Persistent outages" on easynet.support):
I'm concerned about the failing device representing a single point
of failure. Has the network at Lees House been redesigned to provide
redundancy?
The Lees House data centre is an important resource to Easynet;
containing not only customer Leased Line and DSL connections but also
important infrastructure required for day-to-day Easynet business
supporting the staff who work from that office.
High availability of the site is crucial to Easynet, and steps were
already being taken to add resilience.
5 - Furthermore, there was a period of connectivity loss whilst the
problem was finally resolved. Why weren't we informed about this?
This information is communicated to customer-facing Easynet staff as
quickly as possible in the event of an outage. Six such notifications
were made during this event and the latest information was always
available to the Helpdesk. This system does however rely on you calling
in to us for a status report, which is not ideal.
However with the planned introduction of the online trouble ticketing
system planned this should assist in allowing clearer visibility and
communication of information
(Please see Q and A number 6 )
6. Are there any plans for easynet to have on-line real-time trouble
ticket reports.
There are indeed plans to implement this. With the wide and varied
customer base that Easynet has we are working hard to ensure that
information communicated is relevant and appropriate. Our internal
notification systems are not yet ready for this.
I would estimate this system to be available early 2004 if not before
7. Can I get a network diagram from you so I can see how many other
single points of failure there are in your network?
We cannot supply a network diagram, as that data is commercially
sensitive. We do not have other unprotected SDH paths to hide.
The Brighton line is an unusual one as it is one of the only pieces of
SDH infrastructure that does not have full fibre diversity.
All other links and trunks to other Easynet sites were built
across the Easynet fibre network with SDH protection.
8. Martin Saunders says that "easynet.support is a support channel,
but it isn't an official line of communications with our customer base
as it is an open forum that anyone can read." If this is the case, what
purpose does easynet.support serve?
easynet.support has proven historically to be a valuable resource of
information, tips and fixes for users and staff alike. However, it was
created at a time when Easynet's product range was less diverse, and
queries and fault reports were appropriate for the entire userbase.
Only in cases of a major outage is this still the case, and therefore
the group is not regularly monitored by support staff. We suggest that
you email or phone into the Helpdesk to report a fault as this will get
you the quickest response.
Many Thanks
Trevor Legg
Head of Operations
Easynet Ltd
0207 900 7311
After the problems discussed in the threads "Persistant Outages" and
"Issues from Brighton POP", I put a number of questions to my Easynet
account manager (or whatever they're called these days:) . These found
their way up to Trevor Legg, Easynet's Head of Operations, who kindly
gave the following answers. I am posting it here with his permission,
because I know there are others reading this who were also affected by
the problems. Hope you find it interesting!
alec
--
--- Original Message ---
Hello Alec
I apologise for the delay in responding to you with reference to the
loss of service incident affecting the Brighton area recently.
I have attempted to answer each of your questions raised.
Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss further
1. What was the cause of the outage?
The cause of the outage was a fibre break in the Aldershot area
that affected our SDH network at Brighton.
2 - I understand that the SDH network that serves the Brighton POP is
protected. What kind of protection is in place?
There is SDH hardware protection but there is no fibre diversity at present
3 - What are you doing to prevent it from happening again?
The single point of failure of the SDH circuit to Brighton had already
been highlighted at a previous risk-analysis review. At the time of
this fault we had already begun the tender process for a resilient path
into the Lees House data centre in Brighton, this is still ongoing.
4 Concerning the intermittent outages about 04 Sept, which seem to have
been resolved (see the thread "Persistent outages" on easynet.support):
I'm concerned about the failing device representing a single point
of failure. Has the network at Lees House been redesigned to provide
redundancy?
The Lees House data centre is an important resource to Easynet;
containing not only customer Leased Line and DSL connections but also
important infrastructure required for day-to-day Easynet business
supporting the staff who work from that office.
High availability of the site is crucial to Easynet, and steps were
already being taken to add resilience.
5 - Furthermore, there was a period of connectivity loss whilst the
problem was finally resolved. Why weren't we informed about this?
This information is communicated to customer-facing Easynet staff as
quickly as possible in the event of an outage. Six such notifications
were made during this event and the latest information was always
available to the Helpdesk. This system does however rely on you calling
in to us for a status report, which is not ideal.
However with the planned introduction of the online trouble ticketing
system planned this should assist in allowing clearer visibility and
communication of information
(Please see Q and A number 6 )
6. Are there any plans for easynet to have on-line real-time trouble
ticket reports.
There are indeed plans to implement this. With the wide and varied
customer base that Easynet has we are working hard to ensure that
information communicated is relevant and appropriate. Our internal
notification systems are not yet ready for this.
I would estimate this system to be available early 2004 if not before
7. Can I get a network diagram from you so I can see how many other
single points of failure there are in your network?
We cannot supply a network diagram, as that data is commercially
sensitive. We do not have other unprotected SDH paths to hide.
The Brighton line is an unusual one as it is one of the only pieces of
SDH infrastructure that does not have full fibre diversity.
All other links and trunks to other Easynet sites were built
across the Easynet fibre network with SDH protection.
8. Martin Saunders says that "easynet.support is a support channel,
but it isn't an official line of communications with our customer base
as it is an open forum that anyone can read." If this is the case, what
purpose does easynet.support serve?
easynet.support has proven historically to be a valuable resource of
information, tips and fixes for users and staff alike. However, it was
created at a time when Easynet's product range was less diverse, and
queries and fault reports were appropriate for the entire userbase.
Only in cases of a major outage is this still the case, and therefore
the group is not regularly monitored by support staff. We suggest that
you email or phone into the Helpdesk to report a fault as this will get
you the quickest response.
Many Thanks
Trevor Legg
Head of Operations
Easynet Ltd
0207 900 7311