Great Rack Mount Mistakes #7

Today's story in the annuls of problems in IT comes from a guest editor... Mr B.... And Mr B (no relation to anyone in other stories given monogram names) works as the sysadmin and developer for the whole set of systems with his employer; unfortunately this means "it's all his fault".

So what went wrong?  Well, over night the site had a power cut and though they have a nice server, they don't have a power back up, so that server went off.

The server is essentially a java host, specifically hosting Tomcat, and it reaches out to connect to a set of third party endpoints via a restful API.

You'd think no big deal, start up get running and keep running, except that third party don't force a disconnect upon a new edition of their interface API, if you're connected to version 1.0 then you can and they will happily leave you connected to version 1.0, even if they release interim updates, add new calls and quite what got Mr B today remove a call or two.

Your session ending, and then I presume all sessions of that old version, would free their server provisioning to de-allocate the old version.  But to force users to migrate upwards in the chain their published API (so think the end point here in whatever flavour you wish) declaration changes.  Such that you re-download it upon re-connection and that's your new flavour of the month API.

The problem?  It didn't work.

So Mr B had to set about debugging this on the fly, in a live environment, which was down.  And he went through the three stages of technological grief....

1) Denial:    "This is completely illogical, my code brings down their interface, which is the only thing we connect to, it must be right, they can't miss-match them, so this must be my side or the gods are against me".

2) Investigation:  "Read the logs, make a change, nothing seems to work, the gods are definitely snickering behind that cloud of steam now".

3) Realisation:   "If it's not me, and it's not the system here, it must be their side, the huge multi-billion international must have published their API spec with a mistake or miss-match.... click.... YOU FUCKERS!"

What was the actual problem?  Well, the third party published API was actually wrong, the downloaded specification still contained several calls which were removed, when the services Mr B had written came up they checked each end point and found several calls defined which did not respond and so his software, correctly, reported that the endpoint was offline.  They were, they didn't exist anymore.

His fix was to literally tell his stuff to ignore the multi-billion dollar international service providers API spec and to "download" a copy which he hosted locally, with his own edits to it.

Now, he's a tiny fish in a huge pond here, even if he reports this miss-match said multi-billion dollar international isn't going to hear him, and by the time he does they maybe several months down the line, and other folks may have spotted this problem.  He maybe listened to, but he essentially doubts his voice would be heard.

The problem of course being how to abate this issue in the future?  How to avoid this stress?  For at one point he did say "the company is done for", because literally everything was offline, all their services were down.... And of course everyone will blame the little guy doing all the IT, they won't think that the multi-billion behemoth entity could possibly publish a wonky API spec, most of those shouting at Mr B with mouths frothing wouldn't even know what he meant when he explained this to them...

The fact that he's identified this issue, resolved it, and everything is back up within two hours won't be remembered, the glass will remain half-empty, and so it'll only be remembered that on the 3rd September 2020 Mr B's IT suite went offline.

A Golden Rule for IT Infrastructure

Maybe I'm too old?.. Maybe I'm not aware of some other rule... But when I were a lad, and first started out in a professional IT environment, the key was to keep things available and running, and always the same.  Now, the latter item is somewhat of a grey area today, what do we mean by "always the same"?

Well, I'm not talking about the same box, doing the same job, and nothing changing on it... That is very old school and something you have to think about in the sense of "big iron", when you had only one (for it's day) powerful machine, effectively a main-frame, mini or even just a large server.  So, armed with only the one machine, you were forced to think about keeping the status quo, to keep everything the same, everything happy and you paid lots to have people like me, and hugely expensive support contracts to keep that status quo.

That though is old thinking, that is not how modern infrastructure should work, or even be thought of, now today with powerful servers at lower price points, you can think about "high availability".  This is a concept many many older IT bods and even folks in executive level posts are struggling to swallow.

It means they pay out for many smaller boxes, and they virtualize to spread the work between those boxes.

If one box goes down, the virtual machines, or services being run on it, simply up and migrate to another box in the group.  This is the core concept to modern cluster computing and really only depends on the number of boxes you've bought, or hired, and the back-up/snapshot ability of your storage solution.

So we're talking about boxes, running you a SAN solution, we're talking dedicated high bandwidth between the storage and the processing servers, and then many servers booting locally perhaps, to then load virtual machines over the wire/fiber.

What has all this got to do with the status quo?... Well, very simply in this modern infrastructure, no matter where your virtual machines are running, no matter what their services are, if you've not told your customers in the work-place that a change is coming, NOTHING should change from their point of view.

To change anything at this juncture would result in their feeling, and even spending precious time, checking why something their end is no longer working.. When really it's not their end, something changed in your infrastructure.

So don't do it!

Publish changes, push out a change log, or an update mail or even just have the courtesy to tell them.

And worse still, if a customer comes knocking on your IT office door and tells you they can no longer do today, what they were doing yesterday, don't fob them off with phrases like "if must be your end" or "nothing has changed chap".  If nothing changed they'd not be talking to you, customers don't just get off their seats and show themselves as being in the dark unless something is bothering them.

Your role in IT is not just to provide the infrastructure, but to understand your customers, not all of them are moaning, know nothing, morons... Some are, don't get me wrong, some are, and you are paid to mediate with them.  But then things are changing customers notice, and their frustration will ultimately be taken out on you.

NHS Typo

I've had a mystery appointment text'd to me today from the NHS, nice to see them using some good technology, my GP surgery uses an SMS based reminder system and I think it's a fabulous addition to the NHS armoury to reduce wasted appointment times.

Unfortunately, I didn't recognise this appointment, so checked it out and came to this page...

https://drdoctor.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb/articles/203171691-Appointments-you-didn-t-know-about

I was so sad to read the paragraph:

"If you believe the hospital has incorrect phone numbers recorded you will need to ask them to change their systems as we are note allowed to make changes to that data."

They are 'note allowed' to make changes to the data?... NOTE!.. NOT... It's a mistake, a typo, a small one, but the thing that bugged me was there was no way to tell them.

This site is powered by ZenDesk, so that page is just an entry in their knowledge base, but there's no way to give feedback.

How to Get into PC Gaming (PC Build Advice)

You want to get into PC Gaming?... But you don't know where to start and think it'll cost you the earth?

Ner, lets get straight in here and say, you can spend as much or as little as you like, but you do not ever need to break the bank and certain parts of your built machine will be with you a long time.

What am I talking about?  Well, unlike your console which you buy off the shelf as a complete unit a PC is really a whole collection of different pieces, which over time you can upgrade and keep current.

In general I consider there to be four main sections to your PC:

1. Processor (CPU), Memory (RAM) and motherboard (main circuit board)

2. Graphics Processor(s) (GPU)

3. Case, Power & Cooling Accessories

4. Screen, speakers, controls (Mouse and Keyboard)

Different sections of these pieces are upgradable at different rates and for different price brackets.  Yes ultimately as a PC Gamer you have to buy a whole system.

But in the longer term you can save money by buying a system with some of these parts to last.

A good example is that you could buy a Dell PC straight from them, and pay slowly with their finance deals, however, I can tell you now you'll never be able to use that case again!  You can never rip the 5 year old guts out of a Dell and put the latest CPU/Motherboard/RAM package into that case.

So, this is where I'd start, buy a good case, which is large enough to handle any motherboard.  The key specification here is "ATX" this is the standard side.  Many Dell and other manufacturers cases are "BTX", and you can also get shrunk down "mini-ATX" and even "micro-ATX" cases.  But the standard size case is "ATX".

When considering the case you must also make sure there is room for drives to be added inside.  And space for cooling and power equipment.

My case (as seen here) was purchased in 2007, and has now had three different machines built within it's walls.   It's the same, unmodified, working case I bought for about £90.  Which means it's cost me about £13 a year to own that case, and it's still going strong, still has my main gaming PC within!

My power supply, the power supply sits inside the case, and again so long as it's a standard power supply it will power any machine, what you might want to ensure however is that you have a fairly decent amount of "watts", this is the unit of measure for the total output of your Power Supply Unit (PSU), and you're going to need about 250 watts for a basic desktop processing/internet machine, 350 watts for a simple media center, 450 watts for a basic gaming machine and 650 watts or more for a powerful gaming machine.

As you add more equipment into the machine, the more power draw it has, so the more regulated (safe) power the PSU has to handle and dish out to each component inside.

Fans, or cooling, if you're new to PC's then just understand when you come to PC Gaming the components inside the machine pump out a lot of heat, this has to be extracted from the machine, and fresh - colder - air has to be drawn in from your room.  To do this we mount fans in our case, either drawing in from the front and pushing out the back, or in from the bottom and pushing out the top.

Some components like your processor and your graphics card can arrive with fans equipped, but you still have to change the air inside the machine regularly with fans.  To keep them quiet you can go (as I explained in my article) with specialist build fans, or for simplicity just get the largest slowest revolving fans you can, the larger and slower a fan - drawing enough air - the quieter.  It's no good having too slow a fan however, you still need to get air through, just doing it gently makes for less noise (90% of people I meet complaining their PC is stuggling, slow or too noisy, either have tiny fans spinning at crazy high speed making lots of noise, or simply don't have any ventillation; other horror stories about how dirty a PC case can get can be found on the internet).

So, your case, the power supply and your fans can pretty much move from build to build to build as you progress, investing in them now makes for much cheaper new systems as you move up the scale.

Next your PC needs some storage, you need for gaming fast storage, so I'd recommend you get an SSD (or solid state drive) for your games to run from, and then a fast (7,200 RPM) hard drive for the main storage of data.  You can find much better guides to this than here, so for now get what you can afford, one decent 7,200 RPS SATA hard drive is sufficient!

This drive can then be used in any machine you put together later.

That's the end of the sort of "unchanging" part of your machine, obviously a keyboard, mouse, screen and speakers can also be lumped into that "unchanging" category, spend as much or as little as you can afford... There's obstensibly no difference between a £5 keyboard from Asda and a £90 mechanical from Cherry when you're starting out... One day you'll use a better keyboard than your own and want the other, but by them you'll know whether PC is the thing for you.

So, now onto the most malliable, and upgradable, part of your system... The Motherboard, CPU and memory.

You need to pick what you want from your gaming experience, and I'm going to talk about Intel processors, the current three classes of Intel processors are "i3", the "i5" and the "i7".  You can get these in many flavours, but you can change them later, if you have a budget, look for a CPU which fits your budget and note down the connector type (or socket type) for it, then look for the top processor with that same connector type.

This will give you a good idea of the upgrade path your machine will take as it ages, because yes, you can change the processor up from a cheaper one to a more expensive one, or even find the current most expensive one on discount/auction sites later on and upgrade your machine.

Lets say today we've found a Core i5 processor which has a clock speed of 3.0ghz, and we know it has a contemporary Core i7 with the same socket and a clock speed of 4.02ghz, this will be our upgrade path.

What we need now is to find a motherboard with that connector and which supports both chips.  This essentially is a fiddly google search, but do check with the supplier of your parts if you're unsure, and also ask for their confirmation that the motherboard you buy from them supports both chips - this way if it actually doesn't you can sort things out with them!

So, now armed with information about the Motherboard and processor together we need think just about two more things.

The first is the Memory for the machine, you need to buy memory which is compatible with the motherboard you purchase.  Luckily the manufacturers of mainboard come to our rescue, once you've got an idea of the board you want you can just go to their support website and download the manual, before you spend a penny.

Reading this will give you a list of the compatible, or even recommended, memory, you can then simply purchase this for use.

This is the "safest" thing to do, because lots of people will simply dive for the cheapest memory thinking it makes no difference, this will result in their having a poor time with stability; meaning their machine will crash a lot.

Memory gets hot, so you may want to consider a memory heat-sink (this is a metal fin which attaches to the memory to spread heat away from the electronic chips) though some memory already come with fins attached.  You can also get fans for your memory to cool it even more, the cooler the better.

Your CPU has to have a CPU too, both AMD and Intel CPUs (purchased in a proper box) come with a cooler sufficient for their standard use, when you're starting out this cooler will be more than enough.  However a high performance cooler could be yours for around £30 and last you a long time, the only complexity is again any cooler you buy has to fit the processor socket on your motherboard.

So, in review, you can buy a PC built off of the shelf, ready to go, however, you won't know what parts are inside it, nor if any of the parts can be upgraded as the system ages.

There are services you can use whom will build systems exactly to your specification, PC Specialist is one such offering.

Or of course, for a small fee, or gifts, I can help!

Any questions, post them below or e-mail me!

Scottish Independence - A Sad Rant

Scotland, Scotland, Scotland... I don't know how to really express how I feel about even talking about the Independence Vote... I... I really can't believe its being even considered by a single Scot, not only do I feel its just a strange topic of conversation, but Scotland is part of the United Kingdom, it just is, its something lived with something that just is...

Now, I know there are many Scots with a beef about things like, regional autonomy, like they think they've got a hard deal... I've heard things like the closing of Scottish Industry being a major factor in the numbers of unemployed in Scotland, and that being all "London's" fault.

But, the companies which closed were pretty much private companies, just like the companies in Sheffield, Birmingham, Southampton, Bristol and elsewhere throughout the UK.

Industry has reduced, closed and moved, that's a fact of the whole British Isles, not specific to Scotland, yet I hear Scots bemoaning their being specially put down...

The likes of Billy Connelly, whom makes me laugh, but when he appears waxing lyrical about the ship yards on the Clyde and then declaring his support for an Independent Scotland, he's linking the two, the closed industry with the Union, where as the two have no real connection.

And Connelly himself, he has no vote, he lives overseas; in Australia mainly I believe, but he's been wheeled out twice... Notably getting air time during the Glasgow Games opening.

Other Scots who live outside of Scotland also don't get a vote, many of whom as I've spoken to a few, would vote NO to an independent Scotland.  And they'd vote no for similar reasons as I feel, that we're stronger together, safer together, that we're more than a United Kingdom, we're a united people.

And my deep personal suspicion is that Alex Salmond is pushing this agenda because he really seems to want to get himself noticed, to get himself into the History books.  There are no real long term benefits to Scotland leaving the Union, there is only long term costs and burden to her people.

I can't speak for everyone, but this is very much like a family fued and one member is about to storm out... The difference is, instead of a dinner going cold, or a few snide remarks next Christmas, this is going to end up costing BILLIONS.

People, companies, livlihoods and services are going to be ruined.

I personally as a UK Tax payer don't want to support a struggling independent Scotland, and the figured given for the Independent lobby don't stack up.

With all the firms already saying they would relocate if the country left the Union, its going to leave much of Western Scotland barren of employment.  Glasgow is going to suffer most I believe.

Aberdeen would see a marginal increase in lucrative Oil money as everyone cashes out for the next 20 years, but come 2034 I strongly believe there will be massive defecits, services would start to crumble and I have to say there may even be an exodus of the able and qualified to English and Welsh locations, followed as the quaffers run sterile to a gaping problem in Scottish communities.

Alex Salmond if not buried by then would be a very old man, he'll be happily tucked up in his adult nappy with a glass of Scotch each night and happy his mark was made.

The people of Scotland will be bereft however, and I have to admit as an Englishman I feel snubbed and insulted that there is this faction of Scottish society whom want to be an independent nation without any thought of who they are where they come from.

Many of the kids of my generation will have had grandparents who fought in the second world war, indeed my own grandfather was in Scotland serving when Rudolf Hess landed there.  My grandfather was the segergant whom guarded him; and was the only guard Hess thanked before he was transferred south.

These links to history, this structure of who Scotland, who WE are is simply being ignored by the "Yes" campaign.

I've hard people in the Yes camp making reference to Bannock Burn... something which would make any Scot's blood swell... But no-one has mentioned the proud traditions since...

The Scottish Highlanders at Waterloo... The Black Watch leading the crossing of the Rhine in 1944... The Scots who fought across Europe to free the people of the tyranny of the Nazi jack boot...

That recent history is being ignored...

Or how about the many Scots who faught, as well as those who died, in World War 1?... Should their legacy be ignored?

It seems one camp thinks "Yes"... And that's got to be thought about seriously as derailed...

Other topics I've seen are the Nuclear Sub's... An Independent Scotland campaign has declared they don't want the base, nor the Subs... I'm pretty sure that Scottish tax payers like that deal, billions spent and they "don't want them"... With a wild acting Russia still flying just off sure of Scotland too...

But hey ho, they don't want the subs... They're playing on Nuclear "fears" to get votes... Not thinking about the communities supported by the sub base, the thousands of jobs in Scotland which depend on those subs being there... Oh no, they just want to be seen as "PC" and get rid of Nuclear!...

What about services which are nationally funded?... I've mentioned the need for RAF cover, Russia does try to overfly Scotland regularly.

How about the Royal Navy's other bases?... How about the Army itself... Does an Independent Scotland want to be a neutral state, like Ireland or Switzerland?... If so, how will it sit with Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France and the remains of the UK in having an unalighed state suddenly appear in the vulnerable Nato North West... The flank through which Cold War Submarine operations so dominated planning and which may come to dominate again, but now without Scottish bases or SOSUS listening stations?

None of this is being thought about, the thinking I've seen from the Yes campaign has been almost a kin to a drunken argument in a bar!  "Bannock Burn, aye Jim laddy the bassads, Independence!"

The "No" campaign, well they've been attacked in the street by numpties with eggs, great way to stop someone speaking to you I must admit...

I have friends who are Scottish, I have friends who are English married to Scots... So far I've not met anyone who has fully furned the "yes" campaign with a vote, nor have I heard how beyond the immediate short term Scotland could support itself!

Simply put, Scotland is part of this Union of the Great Kingdoms on the British Isles, talking of her anything other makes me very sad.

----

Addendum : 10/Sept/2014

I reckon I'm onto something, i reckoned Scotland would be wrecked by economic disaster (if independent) by 2034... Turns out 2035 the Oil runs out... Lovely... Can't wait to see the results of that one...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29149106

Multiboxer - Support - Knock back

I'm sat with my IDE open, and multiple World of Warcraft clients setting up my macro's for healing.  I have the two alpha testers for today on skype, and I have over 150 views on each of my Multiboxer posts on this very blog...

What I don't have is any supporting sponsors :(

I think this may change when I release the beta (time & function limited build) software with some World of Warcraft and Neverwinter and Runes of Magic profiles, so people actually can get their mits on the software and see it is real, and it does need help developing.

But what I also have with me is a pair of e-mails, you see I sent this project off to see if an old contact (who works in games) wanted to support the software, his response is a no... This wasn't a surprise, I'm pretty sure I pissed the guy off, and they only work in game publication, not actually in game tools or play support tool production.

Happily though the chap didn't tell me to go forth and multiply, what he did do however was send the message onto a chap called "Andrew".  Now I have no idea who Andrew is, but he's maybe been to these very pages to have a look, so hello Andrew... but his reply is rather odd... Let me paste it here...

"its probably good for subscription games (ie. encourages more subs) like WoW, but I don't see a benefit for F2P."

And this is where so many people working in the game business don't connect with their audience, he doesn't see the point really, that's what this says... he doesn't see why you'd want to play a half dozen characters at the same time, and he doesn't see the reason you'd want to do this in a Free to Play game...

Hmm, lets digest why I want to play multiple accounts at the same time... Its more of a challenge, and I can access loot from PVE content without sharing with others, I can explore and enjoy PVE content without the need for friends online, a guild, or Pick up Groups (vomits)... In PVP I get a huge, and legitimate, play advantage over others (how many multiboxers do we know who got Grand Marshal in WOW?)...

That is a lot of the reason I used to play WOW with my guild, but without my guild a multiboxer is the only way to go... It has only one down fall for me personally, the cost...

So to mitigate the code... Free to Play... 

Would I like all those advantages of playing content and comptetitive play in a Free to play game?... YES!  Of course I would, in fact with F2P titles there can be a slightly more obvious advantage to having your own group and that is many free to play games have fragmented audiences, they don't have the player numbers or the popularity of WOW driving them, so populations can be sparse.  Starting out in Runes of Magic - which I've done multiple times - can be quite lonely.

With my own team I'm not lonely.

This leaves me wondering who this Andrew is, and whether he's been to see the amount of YouTube videos of other Multiboxers using other software, and the high costs of those software suits compared to what I'm trying to produce?

P.S. Before anyone gets off of their high horse exclaiming "Who does this Xelous think he is?"... I work for a multi-billion euro international gaming company... I'm a software engineer for them, working on graphical front ends and gaming interfaces... I spend a LOT of time talking to a LOT of different companies and developers... So I know what I'm doing in a gaming company sense... This project, just like for my contact above, is not in my employers genre of interest.  But it is in my genre of personal interest.

Runes of Magic - Reset Secondary Password

I play a lot of games, this generally means I have a lot of passwords, and I've learned from mistakes; thankfully made by others; to use different passwords on different games.

One game however does seem to stress online security more than others, it provides an on screen touch keyboard to use with the mouse, as well as allowing keyboard entry, so potentially foiling key loggers, and this is Runes of Magic, it is the only game I've come across which supports a primary and secondary password system, whereby there are two layers to get into the accounts to play.

Recently I tried to retrieve my Runes of Magic account, I logged into the primary password, but for the life of me could not remember the second...

So, I used the options to reset that secondary password, and the site told me the password has been reset....

Think about that word... "reset", if it has a value, it is set to a different value, like you "reset an alarm clock", it had a time to go off, not it has a new time to go off, you didn't cancel it, you didn't wipe it, you reset it...

So when this site said it has reset the secondary password, I just assumed it'd be given a new valie - like the primary was - and I'd use that to log in and change that secondary password... Nope, the site just said "reset"...

But what had it been reset to?... So I contacted their support their answer... "it has been cleared"...

Cleared is not reset, reset indicates a value just like resetting the primary did, please please Runes of Magic people sort this out.

To the confused public, when they reset the secondary password, they just clear it!