Server Admin Guy
Here in this inaugural blog on the newly-created category “Server Admin Guy”–the category that charts the ups and downs of administering a Debian
Linux server (this one at St. Odilo School)–I write a happy message to the
St. Odilo Technology Committee (Techcom). I give a final update to a week-long
process in bringing back network services, after a major SNAFU by SBC-Ameritech (they
obliterated the longstanding account’s static IP numbers).
To: Techcom (Saint Odilo Technology Committee)
SUBJECT: Final (??) Crisis Update
Less than a week after we lost our IP numbers (but not
much less), our system is back and just about fully operational.
There were many hurdles:
- Figuring out the problem was not our equipment: MAJOR
HASSLE, with these highlights: swapping
our our server, router, cables, re-configuring bunches of things. Thanks, Bill
Donegan, for carrying the backup server from the rectory to the school. - Keeping our old IP Numbers: IMPOSSIBLE.
- Getting new IP numbers: NOT
TOO DIFFICULT: Thanks, Frank, of SBC
for staying on at work two hours after normal quitting time Friday night to
re-configure our account. - Getting new IP numbers to work: ALMOST
IMPOSSIBLE: Thanks Al, for your weekend
intervention to resolve some very mystifying account tie-ups and finding us
the person (Guy) who knew exactly what to do to get our new numbers functioning.
Al’s help cut at least two days off our network downtime. - Getting our new IP numbers propagated throughout the
worldwide DNS database: VERY FRUSTRATING
and MYSTIFYING, as all indications were
that the new info was being distributed, but apparently (after nearly three
days of no change) was not. Thanks Ed, for directing me to the place we needed
to go to get things fixed: Our domain name account with Network Solutions.
Unfortunately, there is some kind of problem with our DNS server, such that
it doesn’t effectively send updates to all the world’s DNS servers. In fact,
my current theory (as validated by some googling) is that the notification
our server is sending is correct, but the servers of the world aren’t understanding
it for some reason. ("I’m not wrong, everyone else is!") But whatever–Ed,
I found at our Network Solutions account a way to use their DNS server to
propagate new records. So I sent that through, and the needed changes pointing
people to our new numbers started appearing within a few hours. It’s not a
solution that makes me perfectly happy (we really shouldn’t have to rely on
Network Solution’s DNS server to propagate our change), but it’s perfectly
effective. (Other googling, btw, inclines me to think that maybe our change
would have gone through once our old records "expired" on the servers
of the world–something that would have happened after seven days.)
Thanks Paul, for dropping by the house yesterday, as
you were girding yourself for phone battle with SBC to ask them for all kinds
of restitution. In the old days, it was called Blood Money. I think we’d settle
for some credit or free upgrades. Did you get any? (If not, we’ll settle for
the blood, right?) Thanks for your moral support over the weekend during your
vacation.
Whew. Bye… –Angelo
P.S.: Pardon this Anti-Olympic Moment, but may I avoid
the fate of Phidippides who gave birth to the Olympic Movement by dropping dead
after delivering his joyous message, delayed by a 26-mile run from Marathon
to Athens: "We win!" [plop!]