Spark broadband planner outage Tue 18 to Fri 21 August

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark broadband planner outage Tue 18 to Fri 21 August

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

tripp

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#1369017 19-Aug-2015 08:14

Bloody hell 15 hours down time for Auckland this week.

Must be some major work going on.

timmmay

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#1369022 19-Aug-2015 08:24

Lucky there's no SLA. I wonder what they're doing for business customers?

Inphinity

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#1369031 19-Aug-2015 08:56

Interesting. Hope it's something useful.

sbiddle

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#1369037 19-Aug-2015 09:04

The fact there was supposed to be an outage of 5 hours in Auckland last night and I've yet to see a single person complaining about an outage would suggest it was a lot short than that.

Facebook and Twitter would have gone mad with a 5hr outage!

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.

cbrpilot

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#1369079 19-Aug-2015 09:49

Well said, thanks N.

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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.

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BarTender

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#1369194 19-Aug-2015 11:26

Talkiet: 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 :-)

The world needs an ever increasing flock of magical packet shovelling pixies riding their fibre unicorns for the Internet of Things these days.

gorringS

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#1370236 19-Aug-2015 13:13

this this outage related to the planned vdsl 998 plan upgrade across all dslam nationwide ??

Talkiet

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#1370239 19-Aug-2015 13:16

gorringS: this this outage related to the planned vdsl 998 plan upgrade across all dslam nationwide ??

Nope. Spark doesn't own the DSLAMs and we have no control about when or where that happens.

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.

matisyahu

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#1370723 20-Aug-2015 09:58

Talkiet: 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

For some reason I'm imagining you and a group of Spark people in a ute with networking gear in the back driving up and down New Zealand installing new equipment, taking selfies and sharing a pint at each pit stop along the way.

Btw, there have been lots of changes to the mobile network - are they in the process of replacing the Acatel/Lucent gear with Huawei (as mentioned in an earlier article this year)?

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

cbrpilot

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#1370744 20-Aug-2015 10:23

kawaii:

For some reason I'm imagining you and a group of Spark people in a ute with networking gear in the back driving up and down New Zealand installing new equipment, taking selfies and sharing a pint at each pit stop along the way.

Btw, there have been lots of changes to the mobile network - are they in the process of replacing the Acatel/Lucent gear with Huawei (as mentioned in an earlier article this year)?

That does sound far more fun! The reality is quite a lot more mundane - bunch of people on a call like expectant fathers monitoring systems while someone does the hardware upgrade (which triggers the software upgrade).

As far as the mobile changes go, I'm not entirely familiar with what is happening there. I do know that there are software upgrades being done as we need to co-ordinate all of our upgrades with theirs. Couldn't comment (I don't know) on the Alu->Huawei question.

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pinkydot

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#1371629 21-Aug-2015 14:42

I'm just wondering is there's an email service like subscribe the service alert/planner outage. Since not everyone often check the service alert on the Spark page, so would have no idea when they have a planner outage.
Would be nice to receive email early on the day knowing there will be a planner outage.

BarTender

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#1375985 29-Aug-2015 09:02

I heard a rumor that the last piece of Spark Broadband infrastructure was upgraded Monday night this week, not that anyone noticed. I'm sure the Pixies are all feeling the love right now.

I however feel for our friends on the red network. As their upgrade to less than 10% of the Spark customer count is taking quite a bit lot longer.