Critical OS Software Upgrade -- Disappointment

[WolfBaginski Bearsfoot]

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, this is just like the last time then Lindens upgraded the OS Software. The only news we ever get is at http://status.secondlifegrid.net/2011/12/14/post1496/ and that doesn't tell us anything useful.

 

[Resolved] Critical OS Software Upgrade — Region Restarts

[Resolved 12:05AM PST, 14 Dec 2011] We have completed the current set of maintenance described in this post and will continue with the process later today.

[UPDATED 4:11 PM PST, 13 December 2011] We have begun the next set of maintenance described in this post. Some regions may be restarted during this maintenance.

[UPDATED 9:37 AM PST, 13 December 2011] We have begun the next set of maintenance described in this post. Some regions may be restarted during this maintenance.

[Resolved 6:15 PM PST, 12 December 2011] We have completed the software upgrades that occurred on 12 December.

[UPDATED 4:56 PM PST, 12 December 2011] We have begun the next set of maintenance described in this post. Some regions may be restarted during this maintenance.

[Resolved 8:16am PST, 11 December 2011] We have completed the software upgrades that occurred on 10 December.

[UPDATED 7:45 AM PST, 10 December 2011] We have begun the next set of maintenance described in this post. Some regions may be restarted during this maintenance.

[RESOLVED 9:43AM PST, 03 December 2011] This round of upgrades has been completed. We will begin more upgrades later today. We will update this blog when work begins, as well as throughout the process.

[Updated 9:04 AM PST, 03 December 2011] We have begun the next set of maintenance described in this post. Some regions may be restarted during this maintenance.

[RESOLVED 11:45PM PDT, 02 December 2011] All maintenance today has been completed.

[Updated 8:20 PM PST, 02 December 2011] We have begun the next set of maintenance described in this post. Some regions may be restarted during this maintenance.

[RESOLVED 12:38AM PST, 02 December 2011] This round of upgrades has been completed. We will begin more upgrades later today. We will update this blog when work begins, as well as throughout the process.

[Updated 7:07 AM PST, 02 December 2011] We have begun the next set of maintenance described in this post. Some regions may be restarted during this maintenance.

[RESOLVED 12:58AM PST, 01 December 2011] This round of upgrades has been completed. We will begin more upgrades later today. We will update this blog when work begins, as well as throughout the process.

[Posted 9:23 AM PST, 01 December 2011] Starting today we will be upgrading our simulator system software on the Agni main grid, which will require an extended period of region restarts. We expect this maintenance to be completed by December 25, 2011. We will update this when work begins, as well as throughout the process. The first round of upgrades will begin shortly. 

That is the sum total of what we, the paying customers, know. Again, we have no real idea of how far the process is from completion  We have had seven sessions completed in 14 days, one of them apparently lasting more than 24 hours.

We are promised that it will be all over by Christmas. That's a really old line. you know. What's your next try? "If you knows of a better 'ole, go to it!"

[Cincia Singh]

Personally I prefer they work hard on the OS upgrade rather than post the minutia of a mundane install/reboot process.

[Ayesha Askham]

1) I'm getting really fed up of the number of times I need to try to log-in to these forums before I actually get to post! It's not my browser, it happens on Firefox as well!  FIX IT!

 

2) More calmly, I have to agree with Wolf.  The info is patchy and inadequate.  Yes, of course we want the job done competently, Cincia, but does that really mean that if they do that the upgrade would in some way be compromised?

Also, if it was so straightforward and mundane they'd've got it right first time!!

[Cincia Singh]

I can't imagine how additional information about the process would be helpful other than to satisfy curiosity. Additionally, I could understand how some technical aspects of the upgrade would be confidential business information.

In my experience nothing done in or with SL either by Lindens or we residents ever seems to be straight forward or completed in one attempt, but I imagine that's the case with any virtual world.

I'm always entertained by people asserting that we have a "right" to additional or complete information about the goings-on inside a private company because we're "customers". No product I buy consults with me on any on-going maintenance or updates other than to send the updates to me if they so choose. Given the amount of flaming that goes on (I'm just as guilty of being short-tempered as anyone else) I'm impressed they talk to us at all lol.

Also, I haven't had any issues with logging in or posting.

[Ayesha Askham]

@Cincia

Not for the first time you misunderstand my point, or perhaps I failed to make it clearly.

What I would hope for is consistent information of the type that sporadically appears on the Grid Status Page.  It is the inconsistemcy of it that causes irritation.  I take your point about commercial sensitivity of some information...that's not what I am after.

The notifications have been appearing and vanishing over the last week with perplexing frequency.  I note now a sensible link to the whole process is in place , so most of my issues are met by that.

The only partly related issue of hiding channel information from viewers propsed in a recent  meeting at which Oskar spoke (was it the Beta server group...I forget) is another example of muddled thinking.  Yes it might prevent some useless whingeing, but far more seriously it would prevent relevant information on bugs being relayed to the server group, and that would be of a distinctly detrimental nature in the progressing of SecondLife.

The logging on to the site may be a transatlantic issue, I don't know.

[WolfBaginski Bearsfoot]

I can think of one piece of information which would reassure me: the percentage of the whole process that has been completed.

It's a big project. It's taking over three weeks. The tail end is going to be at a time when staff are going on leave. And none of us have any idea of whather they can deliver on their promise. As my Grandfather said, "When they said it would all be over by Christmas, they didn't tell us it would be Christmas 1918."

In my own experience, the idea of "confidential business information" is too often a cover-up for incompetence and corruption 

[Ryo Schism]

is this y it say " unable to connect to simulator"?????

 

[Nalates Urriah]

First off the Grid Status page is just that: status. If you want information on whats happening with the grid before it happens, get involved. The Lindens meet weekly and explain what is happening. Obviously you guys are out of the loop and part of the entitlment minded crowd that expects everything to be handed to them without having to do anything.

The assumption that they did not get the first kernel upgrade right is wrong. The first OS Kerenel upgrade was to fix a year old problem finially tracked to the Linux OS kernel. I suppose you'll tell the Linux folks to get it right the first time now?

The first kernel upgrade was to fix the TimeWarp problem. This OS fix is to handle different problems and improve hard drive performance. While they expect this to be the last kernel upgrade for some time, unless you can tell them about all the possible interactions between SL and this Linux version, they can't garrantee that. While you guys are at it, tell them about which future Linux upgrades will help performance.

 

 

[WolfBaginski Bearsfoot]

Nalates, it may have escaped your notice that we're not all in the same timezone. The in-world meetings are timed to suit the Lindens in California, which is reasonable enough. But at those times of day some of us are asleep, or at work ourselves. OK, "minutes" of those meeting get published. But, if you're not at the meeting, you're essentially passive.

 

[Ayesha Askham]

@Nalates

Oh dear.  Wolf makes several valid points, re timezones, but to be fair to Linden Lab, so long as you don't work in RL, OH are accessible.

The suggestion about not getting the OS upgrade right first time was made largely tongue-in-cheek, using a form of humour known to those of us near Europe (yurrup) called Irony.  I'm told Americans don't "do" irony.  Tough.

I would not tell the developers at wherever Linux was born to "get it right first time" because I rarely do, and that would be silly and hypocritical.

As to being part of "the entitlement minded crowd",and "out of the loop", I find your remarks insultingly naiive.  I "do" quite a lot but much of it is in RL not SL, and I simply do not have the time to attend the OH sessions.

All I ask of the Grid Status Page staff is what they now at long last appear to be doing, and that is to be consistent, so that I can work out what is going on.

You may think that I am not entitled to that information.  I beg to differ.