Subject: RE: FAA Computer glitch
From: David Stuart (David.Stuart@ventura.org)
Date: Fri Nov 20 2009 - 14:07:30 EST
"Mainframe" has become something of a generic term, frequently used in a somewhat disparaging manner. Several of HP's high-end servers could be considered "mainframe"-class machines, but <deity> help you if you refer to one of them as a "mainframe".. Dave Dave Stuart Prin. Info. Systems Support Analyst County of Ventura, CA 805-662-6731 David.Stuart@ventura.org>>> "Kevin Corkery" <kcorkery@live.com> 11/20/2009 10:44 AM >>> So, after reading through some of these articles, it would seem that the "new" system may be just as vunerable to failures are the older "mainframe" systems. It's interesting to see that the original hardware provider, Philips (maybe not the one we know of), went out of business after delivery of the original system and the FAA had to buy all the available inventory to keep these systems running for as long as they have. One-off purchases are the hallmark of the federal government. Anyway, using the generic term of "mainframe" does a real disservice to the IBM mainframe community where the zSeries mainframes are as robust as anything available for nearly any job you would need to accomplish. Thanks Ken. _____ From: owner-vse-l@Lehigh.EDU [mailto:owner-vse-l@Lehigh.EDU] On Behalf Of Ken McCall Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 1:10 PM To: VSE Discussion List Subject: RE: FAA Computer glitch Note that the articles point out that the previous mainframe system was an old Phillips box, not IBM. Perhaps the FAA should have replaced it with System z instead. IMHO, FlexES would also have been a better replacement, (rare) dongle failures notwithstanding. --- Forwarded on behalf of Doug Harrell, VP of Sales - System z, Mainline Information Systems: For those of you who were wondering what was the cause of major delays yesterday in US flights.....I think the article below clearly states the issue! I have copied a key paragraph for you to form your own opinion of the problem: <http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Corrupt-File-Brought-Down-FAAs-A ntiquated-IT-System/> This was the second time in 15 months that a problem with the flight-plan system caused major delays. The FAA, which used a mainframe system to run the flight-plan system from 1988 to 2008, switched to <http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/FAA-Gets-Its-New-Virtualized-Fli ghtPlan-System-into-the-Air-575310/> a new server-based system earlier in 2009. See full article below: <http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Data-Storage/FAAs -FlightPlan-System-Crashes-Again-Delays-Hundreds-of-US-Flights-199160/&ct=ga &cd=9w8r9cNiYp0&usg=AFQjCNEaa3kLGX5JwuGttvnJoK8uxfFVOQ> FAA Flight-Plan System Crashes Again, Delays Hundreds of US Flights eWeek The FAA, which used a mainframe system to run the flight-plan system from 1988 to 2008, switched to a new server-based system earlier in 2009 in an attempt ... <http://news.google.com/news/story?ncl=http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Data-Storage /FAAs-FlightPlan-System-Crashes-Again-Delays-Hundreds-of-US-Flights-199160/& hl=en> See all stories on this topic Ken McCall Mainline Information Systems, Inc. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary Eheman" <eheman@funsoft.com> To: "VSE Discussion List" <vse-l@Lehigh.EDU> Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 9:01 AM Subject: RE: FAA Computer glitch > Ah, the downside of choosing DIGEST mode for a list. You miss out on the > opportunity to squelch wrong info until the next day. > > > Kevin Corkery wrote: >> Isn't the computer that handles the automated flight plan stuff a Flex-ES >> system? >> I guess nobody wanted to admit "it's a bad dongle" ;-) > > Winky icon or not, I can't let misinformation go unanswered because of the "I > saw it on VSE-L so it must true" phenomenon. FSI dongle failures are very few > and far between. If they do occur then for supported commercial customers there > is a disaster implementation that can be implemented to get the customer up > within minutes of a bad dongle diagnosis. > > Kevin Corkery later wrote: >> I could be wrong but I recall that Flex was sold on one of those NumaQ >> systems for the FAA; new hardware, old software so to speak. In any case, I >> could be mistaken about this. > > They formerly ran the "Notice To Airman System" (NOTAMS) on a Sequent vintage > NUMA server with FLEX-ES that was installed before the IBM acquisition of > Sequent. To the best of my knowledge, that system was migrated to another > platform a few years ago. NOTAMS is a notification system and is way out of > context for the failure that seems to have occurred yesterday. > > Jeff Barnard wrote: >> The FAA said the computer problem, which lasted about four hours, was fixed >> around 9 a.m. EST. It started when a single circuit board in a piece of >> networking equipment at a computer center in Salt Lake City failed, the FAA >> said in a statement. > > Sounds plausible to me since there were zero support calls here yesterday. > Somebody is likely having a really bad day over yesterday's failure, but it > isn't FSI. > > > -- > Gary Eheman > Fundamental Software, Inc. > http://www.funsoft.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Sun Nov 22 2009 - 16:05:08 EST