[atlas] some thoughts and question regrding probe "stability"

On 18/07/14 14:23, Philip Homburg wrote:
>> 3) if a probe, in particular an anchor, gets updated with a new firmware, is
>>    it possible that the ethernet IF does *not* go down? (Note, the 6009 is an
>>    old, big, beta box! Is there a difference with the new soekris probes?)
> 
> On regular probes a firmware upgrade always involves a reboot. On
> anchors the Atlas 'firmware' is an rpm. There is no reason to reboot the
> box or bring its interface down to upgrade the Atlas rpm.

To add to this point:

When we roll out a new probe firmware to the Anchors, the software
restarts (and will disconnect and reconnect to the controller) but
nothing happens to the system OS - it will not result in a reboot, or a
network interface flap.

However, seperately from the probe firmware, we also patch and maintain
the Anchor system OS. This happens during a weekly scheduled maintenance
window:
Tuesdays between 14:00 and 15:00 UTC
(at least we try, sometimes the window overruns a little!)

This may result in system services (such as the DNS and HTTP servers on
the Anchors) restarting, and if there is a kernel update available, we
will also reboot the Anchor during this window. This will result in the
network interface going down and up during the reboot.

This applies to both the V1 Dell Anchors and the V2 Soekris Anchors.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,
Colin

-- 
Colin Petrie
Systems Engineer
RIPE NCC