M6.Net  Weekly  News    November 3, 2004


Michael Guilfoyle
Director

   Welcome

 

 A busy week with DDoS attacks and DNS issues. Based on this I worked closely with Roli to revise and update our server move and client move scripts so we maintain a database holding every tiny, explicit detail of a client setup on a server so at any time we can move a client from one server to another. This way we will be able to move your accounts across servers or networks with minutes or a couple of hours at the most in the presence of a threat or disaster.  We hold client config data but the work done this week means we know record every detail right down to permissions and very specific IIS configurations so we can replicate a server right from the database.

As I mentioned last week Fraud and security issues are the challenge of hosts of the moment. Looking back on 2004 I think it will be known as the year of Fraud and Security threats in the hosting industry. As always though we have used these challenges to extend our knowledge, methods and tools to fight back and stay on top of it. It has sharpened us in many other areas of our operations.


Gavan O'Connor-Risch
 Network Administrator

 

Network Administration

 

This week has been a busy one, dealing with a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on one of our servers. There was also an issue between our Primary and Secondary DNS servers which is now resolved, and I have also been clearing old domains off another of our mail servers in preparation for the SmarterMail 2 upgrade. We aim to begin upgrading the first server at the end of the week so that the upgrade process occurs over the weekend when traffic is at it's lightest.

Kunal Kochhar
Support Coordinator		   Support and Customer Service
  This week we had problems with one of our server due to a DOS attack. A lot of clients gave us a lot of understanding and we really appreciate their patience. Thanks to all our clients on Server Senna.

However, in order to improve our response in future we will be training our support to handle such situations in their shift a lot better. I want to help each person on the team depend less on other people in the team like myself, Gavan or Vijay.

Roli Varma
Lead Developer		   Development and New Technology
  This week I had to allocate time between doing several tasks. Started off with developing Filemanager for the Control Panel.

The next few days I had to shell off some time for meetings regarding the new design and structure for billing. The new design is much more elaborate and efficient and caters for most of the billing related issues encountered all this while.

With some problems related to our servers, I had had to look into scripts that would backup client configuration data from the servers. This would enable us to never loose any client information and even if one server gets inaccessible due to some reason, we would be able to set the client up on another server. Work with the server scripts is what I am involved with now and for few more days till we have everything smooth as before.

M6.Net  Always On. Always Performing. Always Hosting.

http://www.m6.net/   : Control Panel : http://www.copanel.com/  Past Newsletters: http://www.m6.net/newsletter