Spark broadband planner outage Tue 18 to Fri 21 August

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AKLWestie

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#177915 19-Aug-2015 07:59

I noticed Spark is doing a big planned outage this week for their broadband. Anyone got any idea what is this for? Something big and exciting coming up?

https://www.spark.co.nz/help/servicealert/broadbandservicealert

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Talkiet

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#1369075 19-Aug-2015 09:41

These outages are the final stages of a major software and hardware upgrades across all of our Retail BB edge network elements. Although there's a 5 hour outage window the upgrades typically have taken 45 minutes each. The upgrades start at 1am and all customers are typically back online by 2am. Each night affects a few ten thousands of customers only. They say things like "AUCKLAND" in the outage notification because no-one understands us if we say precisely what it is.

FYI, this is the tail end of the national upgrade, about 80% of the boxes have been upgraded so far.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

Talkiet

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#1369084 19-Aug-2015 09:56

Addendum: While this is a lifecycle upgrade and we don't expect any change to performance, we do expect a 30-40% increase in the happiness of the magical pixies in the routers, as they have a bigger better CPU to help them shovel packets.

I can't guarantee you that this means more finely crafted packets and a general feeling of increased serenity in end users, but I know that it makes me feel that way :-)

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.