On Tue, 13 Apr 1999, Sean Donelan wrote:
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 02:53:04 -1000 From: Sean Donelan <SEAN@SDG.DRA.COM> To: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: FYI ONLY >> Non-Operational (at least directly)
randy@psg.COM (Randy Bush) writes:
University of Hawaii' external data services were effected (Primary and Secondary DNS were not functional).
hmmmmm. wonder how that could hapen.
[ ... ]
It appears Hawaii.EDU at least has arranged for an off-island backup of its DNS. There may have been some other configuration problem, but at first glance Hawaii.EDU and Hawaii.NET had a chance of keeping its DNS functioning. Hawaii.GOV's NS records have a slight problem, which may have killed it when connectivity was lost. And things like HI.US would have been completely dead. The US-domain sucks in many states, so that's not too unusual. DRA made a standing offer to the US-domain administrator to act as one of the primary or secondary servers for any LIB.xx.US.
For those wish to know.. The University of Hawaii (UH) has had a long-standing relationship with NASA, providing the University with Secondary DNS since Hawaii's connectivity to the net. That arrangement is not new. The physical dispersion of UH campuses and community colleges -- has over the years complicated network topology (I am in no way responsible for it, NOR do I answer to complications within it...:) ). Correspondingly, DNS as a function, does experience difficulty with respect to stability -- within the UH system. I am not going to go there... when it comes to HI.US
AT&T may handle the physical circuits, but the Internet service for the University of Hawaii is handled by UUNET. So there are lots of different people you can ask why the redundancy failed, or if it was ever present.
I did not want to be that complete Sean.. :) yes, however, if the bits are experiencing a problem crossing a bridge -- no matter where the bridge is (on land.. over a stream and between islands), what you ultimately end up with is 'byte-jam' or as they say here in Hawaii, 'byte-jam-up'. It does not ease the situation WHEN your bits transit one provider's backbone (whom you chose to assure redundancy) does ultimately receive transit (at times such transit is not for long distances..) from a yet another whose infrastructure is now effected. I am not suggesting however, that is the case here.. AT&T is investigating. :) I am going to jump out of this conversation all, and get back to work. Thought that it would be interesting to report this to all who were interested. Best.