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Ubuntu Servers Down

pythontech.net.au — Ubuntu services are currently down, possible DoS attack ? Details will be updated!

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  • raingrove, on 10/12/2007, -0/+36maybe it's the power outage.
    • i440, on 10/12/2007, -79/+5Or maybe, it's LinuxLosers who cannot admit their operating systems don't work once in a while!

      j/k <3
    • TenebrousX, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17I don't think it's a DDoS attack, you don't even get a response if you ping the servers
    • webcrumb, on 10/12/2007, -3/+38This reminds me of a story told to us by a lecturer who often contracted for major companies such as Orange and Belgacom.

      He had been contracted to harden a number of machines, and had sorted out most problems. However, there was one problem that seemingly could not be solved: every Monday morning at 8am an entire server block would become unavailable for five or so minutes and would require someone to boot each machine (WOL or pushing the buttons). They looked at every aspect of the server configurations trying to work out why the machines would turn themselves off at the same time every week, but to no avail. They even raised it with the manufacturer.

      One day, the person tasked with starting the machines happened across a cleaner, who apoligised for running a bit late this morning. He watched as the cleaner unplugged the vacuum cleaner from the wall, and reinserted another plug.

      The other plug supplied power for the bank of servers.

      :)

      Not sure how much of that was true (probably happened once), but just goes to show... hardening the software is no good if someone comes along and unplugs the power. :)
    • pak314, on 10/12/2007, -13/+9Where is the server located? If it is in California, I can somehow understand because we have been having a heatwave for the part week and the extra load to the power grid might cause problems. Right now it is 95F inside my apartment.
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10@webcrumb

      I have to think that's a BS urban legend. Damn near every server room use rack mounted UPS's that plug into a non-standard AC plug in the wall. A vacuum cleaner wouldn't have the same sort of plug as the UPS.
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@ Webcrumb

      Follow up.. that seems to be a take on this urban legend found on Snopes - http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/cleaner.asp
    • coopa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7@webcrumb
      http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/cleaner.asp

      There's an urban legend story about that kind of thing, though a quick google did pull up a message on Snopes' forums from a story on NewScientist.com about an actual time this happened to a webserver. Unfortunately i couldn't find the story on NS' site anymore (it's from July 9th, 2000).

      Edit:Beaten, but here's the link to the thread from Newscientist.
      http://msgboard.snopes.com/message/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/91/t/000443/p/1.html
    • Blazeix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Sorry for piggybacking, but the servers are now up.
    • OperatorNo9, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I used to work on a helpdesk that supported POS systems, that accurately stands for both Point Of Sale and Piece Of Sh*t. Cleaning people were always unplugging things at the stores they ought not to. So, it may be an urban myth, but it's grounded in truth.
  • bobbob1016, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I was going to post this too, I can't get any repo updates, or any forum pages either.
  • leahcimic, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2haven't found a reason yet! I'll endeavour to keep you guys updated!
  • ruimoura, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2This is really strange. No mainpage, no foruns, no updates, nothing ... Any news update on that?
  • leahcimic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0nope no news as of yet. No-one seems to know why, and it was never scheduled or announced.
  • sumrandommember, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6The german repos are still up http://de.archive.ubuntu.com
  • kmandla, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Looks like it has also knocked out markshuttleworth.com; that seems to make sense. Ubuntu Gamers Arena is still up, but that makes sense too, since (I think) KingBahamut runs those.
  • aleander, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7An anonymous claiming to be Jeff Waugh claimed on http://supermikenews.blogspot.com/2006/07/suspected-weekend-hacker-attack-on.html (from a duplicate of this story) that the reason is a double power outage. I'm kind of disappointed that such a popular distro has no backup servers in other location (and that the servers are down for such a long time).
    • anonyjames, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10RE: I'm kind of disappointed that such a popular distro has no backup servers in other location.

      Meanwhile, the #3 site in the United States, worth $580 Million, was down, as well as much of Yahoo, the #1 site. You can hardly expect a free linux distribution to have geographically distributed when those two don't.
    • aleander, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Oh well. There goes my illusions of popular redundancy.
    • veracon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3You can still download the distro, though; what do you think mirrors are for? http://ubuntu.mirrors.skynet.be/pub/ubuntu.com/ is one that works perfectly, and I'd assume that most (if not all) others do as well; they're not at all related to ubuntu.com.
    • aleander, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Security updates are down.
  • XAsmodeaNX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Jeff Waugh is an employee at Canonical. Assuming that the poster is indeed Jeff Waugh this power outage scenario would seem more likely.
  • ruimoura, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4It´s been down all day ... I beleive it's time now for things to be on the road again. It´s really a shame this lack of stability on servers from ubuntu ...
    • trylleklovn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I doubt it's their fault other than not having emergency backup servers located at a different location.
      As far as i can tell it is their hosting provider which is out of order...
    • webcrumb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Isn't this the first time this has happened? Despite multiple digg and Slashdots? And each of the releases attracting huge amounts of bandwidth usage? I'd say it isn't the servers.
    • foofightrs777, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5There servers have always been stable for me. This is the first time I can remember their site(s) being down for any length of time. So, I wouldn't be complaining about reliability.

      Still, maybe ubuntu needs to re-analyze their plans for situations such as this. Even a simple "Temporary Difficulties-- Check Back Later" page would be better than allowing for time outs. At least that way people know they're in the right place.
    • ruimoura, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3True ... I guess. But from what i understand, their provider is allready up (http://www.blackcatnetworks.co.uk/) ...

      Ps: not sure 100% if this is theyr hosting provider
  • jamesacres, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1In the article it says it's hosted by blackcatnetworks.com but when you access the site it says the domain name is for sale... Maybe their hosting company has shut down?
    • foofightrs777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Blackcat (assuming its the same company and that they are the host) loads fine for me.
      http://www.blackcatnetworks.co.uk/
    • webcrumb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's blackcatnetworks.co.uk

      From whois:
      Registration Service Provider:
      Black Cat Networks Ltd. support@blackcatnetworks.co.uk
    • jamesacres, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It seems there's a mistake in the article as it mentions .co.uk and then .com, the .com seems to be incorrect in the article.
    • Narpas, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1Nevermind
  • kortiz, on 10/12/2007, -14/+20is this really such a big deal?
    • ruimoura, on 10/12/2007, -14/+9Yes it is indeed ...
    • tuna1, on 10/12/2007, -11/+11No its really not.
    • ruimoura, on 10/12/2007, -11/+9Dude, if you din´t like this story, go ready other stories, but don't get here just to show of. Get a life.
    • tuna1, on 10/12/2007, -11/+6Why don't you do the same? Sitting here having withdrawals over Ubuntu server outages isn't any more productive.
    • dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It is, the apt-get repositories are hosted on those servers, and today happened to be the day I started setting up a server.. The sources.list someone posted up a bit work perfectly though, even just that post makes this story usefull..
      - Ben
  • slackerbox, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11Figures. The day I finally get off my lazy ass to install my tv tuner card into my Ubuntu box - the servers go down. :(
    • control98408, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wow, i was doing the exact same thing. I managed to get kdetv working after TvTime displayed garbled video. Just need to tweak the channels now.
    • Narpas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I was just getting ready to set up vSound to start regularly downloading my favorite NPR shows. Bleh!
    • Nothlit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2In my case, I've been putting off installing and learning Linux for months. Finally decided to try it today, and look what happens.
    • paradoxxxx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I just installed my tv tuner card about an hour ago as well, gonna hafta find somewhere else to get packages...


      are Sunday's just good days for installing hardware?
    • miznig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2and I was going to install Kalzium
    • motang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Such is everyone's luck. Something isn't there when you need it, but you can find it everywhere when you don't have any use for it.
    • int19h, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I can install packages fine here, the only thing that affects me is that security.ubuntu.com is down. Try a mirror?
  • spudge, on 10/12/2007, -29/+4This is lame, not news. Get a life.
  • tuna1, on 10/12/2007, -33/+5Marked as lame. Ubuntu servers going down is not news.
    • ruimoura, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13If you weren't so stupid you would understand that it is important ... Some people need the repos up and running so that they can do theyr job, you know?
    • matthewbot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1So use a mirror. If you can't do it because theres no wiki to copy and paste from, go outside for a day. Sites go up and down, that doesn't make it news. Just because Ubuntu is the latest fad doesn't mean all of digg needs to be alerted of its downtime.
    • tonyspencer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Exactly. Shows Ubuntu is not that great after all. A few servers go down and the world panics and can't do any work? Bit of a taste of what the population in Iraq and Lebanon feel without proper power supplies...
  • vdub12, on 10/12/2007, -28/+5Who ***** cares.

    How dose this crap get on the front page. Are you going to post a story every time you need to wipe your ass.
    • MasteRR, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Maybe you don't care, but the people who are wondering why their apt repositories arn't working would like to know. If it's news to a large number of people, it's news.

      However I would mark this one as innacurate due to the fact that it suggests a DDoS attack.
  • icecubed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10THANK GOD...

    And i thought it's something with my net configuration.
    • motang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Same here I thought it was my router that was ***** up again.
  • motang, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I though there was something wrong when I wasn't able to do update on my Ubuntu machine.
  • Narpas, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16To people who think this is lame, I can't:

    * Use the repositories to install anything. That is, I can't easily install anything. It's back to google searches and tarballs.
    * Get tech support. Ubuntu forums is the first and last place I go for that.
    * Get security updates.
    • spudge, on 10/12/2007, -11/+11Neither can people with windows, stop whining.
    • tuna1, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4I'll send you a Slackware copy then.
    • Narpas, on 10/12/2007, -8/+11People with Windows get to double-click on "install.exe" and hit next until the program starts working.
      People with Windows get IE automaticly gets security updates from microsoft.com.
      People with Windows have all of the documentation for thier OS on thier hard-drive. Ubuntu keeps documentation online.

      Sure, it's not the best thing to keep all the eggs in a single basket, but this IS a computer-stopping deal for Ubuntu users.
    • ruimoura, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1Omg dude get a life. If you don´t like this go read other stories or watch tv ....
    • brendanc, on 10/12/2007, -14/+8I have nothing against Ubuntu, but does every story have to make the front page? Ok, so, how about doing one of the following:

      a) Use a functional computer. Geez, if all of you Ubuntu people are searching for stuff on the repo's all the time, how do you possibly have time to do real work?

      b) Use a computer with Windows. SHOCK! GASP! ONOEZ NOT TEH WINBLOWZ!!!!1~ Seriously folks, Windows might "suck", but at least you don't have to apt-get tar -zxvf make install for every program.

      c) Take a break off the computer for a bit. Without a doubt, as long as the servers aren't in a third-world country, they'll be back up soon. The Ubuntu community won't collapse in a day.

      d) Digg me down, because you've got nothing else to do on Ubuntu right now.

      Oh well, here comes the -'s!
    • tomvendetta, on 10/12/2007, -7/+7To people who think this is lame, I can't:

      * Use the repositories to install anything. That is, I can't easily install anything. It's back to google searches and tarballs.
      * Get tech support. Ubuntu forums is the first and last place I go for that.
      * Get security updates.

      ^ lol. ok, so you cant install;post; or update your security for a few hours. its not the end of the world.
    • Narpas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Right. Which is why I'm screwing around on digg rather than vSound running. I set aside time today to figure out how to download all of my favorite NPR shows and listen to them as MP3s rather than streaming .rm's.

      Linux is still mainly used by computer enthusiasts. What do we do? We use computers a lot.

      Besides, I'm doing laundry. I can't really leave the house.
    • MischievousPuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3While I do not think this a big deal, it is news worthy and something I was wondering about. I have a significant number of Ubuntu Servers serving various purposes. None of them are mission critical, but they do serve important roles. So I have a limited window where I do my updates so as to minimize risk of problems while people are active.

      So it is inconvenient that the repositories are offline but updates can wait a week. I did wonder whether the problem was on my side or not up to seeing this article though.
    • aleander, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Pfft. Some people use computers for work. Some (like me) use experimental repositories which, in such early stages, are updates all the time. Some (like me) need new software for work *right*now* and installing straight from upstream (*yes*, I can do that) takes more time (i.e. as much as in Windows, sorry for advocating). Some people would rather take a hike (half my friends are mountain climbing right now and I would gladly join them) but can't because they have work to do.

      And for those people server outage is a big issue (please do not reverse the implication)
    • bobbob1016, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@brendanc
      "a) Use a functional computer. Geez, if all of you Ubuntu people are searching for stuff on the repo's all the time, how do you possibly have time to do real work?

      b) Use a computer with Windows. SHOCK! GASP! ONOEZ NOT TEH WINBLOWZ!!!!1~ Seriously folks, Windows might "suck", but at least you don't have to apt-get tar -zxvf make install for every program.
      ......"

      I use XP, OSX, and Dapper, so I find your generalizing all Linux users to illiterate teenagers, "ONOEZ NOT TEH WINBLOWZ!!!!!1", odd. I use all three so when I decide to harp on a flaw in one, I know what I am talking about, at least more than you seem to. It is obvious you have either never used Linux, or haven't for a while, you can do apt-get install program, or tar -zxvf (I have never personally used that one much, I haven't had the need to). There is a program called Synaptic which does all the apt-get-ing from a GUI program. The benefit is that all the programs there are spyware/virus free. The downside is that if the server goes down, no one can install programs as easily.

      Also, what do you mean a functional computer? I'd assume that you mean functional as in one with XP. My fresh Ubuntu install comes with a full office suite, instant messenger (not one that is just built by Ubuntu, like XP and MSN Messenger), a full partitioning program, and a multitude of crappy games, as opposed to the few XP comes with.
    • Narpas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Totally. We get, like, fifteen crappy games. You get, what? Six?

      :-P
    • tonyspencer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If you were doing serious work, you wouldn't be using an experimental system, but a tried and tested one. So don't whinge. Go mountain hiking.
  • Optimus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14The system is down, yo.

    http://www.homestarrunner.com/systemisdown.html
    • ruimoura, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4Flame me, if you want, but this is funny ***** as hell :)
  • phobozad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Doing a traceroute shows that it gets to a london level3 server before starting to time out
    • tonyspencer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ah, must be due to the outrageous heatwave that must have been caused by global warming...

      You guys had better get a Plan B together before the 2012 London Olympics...
  • MasteRR, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12I think it's funny that the people who complain about Linux news not being news don't just remove the entire Linux/Unix section from their Digg display.
    • ruimoura, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4MasterRR for president.

      Theyr just people without a life who like to show off ...
    • Narpas, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4That's a really good call. Peoples should go to

      http://digg.com/profileedit/ (Your screen name) /topics

      and get rid of a few of those sections.
  • rementis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I freakin' knew it!
    I was installing Ubuntu on a laptop and couldn't update or get a bunch of crap I wanted.
    How dare they? :)
  • butlershouse, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Thats not a DDoS. its all the people at LugRadio Live 2006 getting their updates hving just grabbed the 6.06LTS Ubuntu CDs!
  • theonewho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I had luck changing the archive.ubuntu.com to us.archive.ubuntu.com....also try the german repos if that doesn't work.
    • MasteRR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah the US repos are still up it seems. The only ones that won't work for me are the two security repos, which are just security.ubuntu.com, thus probably on the down servers.
  • upsilonh24, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Who in the world would want to put Ubuntu's servers down?
  • dsn0wman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Hmm....

    Looks like they are learning a lesson in backup / disaster recovery. Personally I just need my repos back.
  • antigoogle, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3Ubuntu sucks! This shows how fragile Ubuntu is!
    • Iandefor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Of course, because the integrity of the servers of the company that distributes Ubuntu is such a reliable indicator of the quality of the actual operating system. There *are* mirrors of all the services tied into the actual OS itself.
  • Nothlit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2There's an update posted at http://ubuntu.wordpress.com
    • antigoogle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1can't see anything about this issue
  • bieber, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Damnit damnit damnit. Now I have to find my software in deb format somewhere else. Someone should _really_ consider mirroring Ubuntu's package repos somewhere...
    • MasteRR, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1They do have mirrors...

      Change your repos in your /etc/apt/sources.list to be us.archive.ubuntu.com and it should work fine.
    • aleander, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2For new software, just add a mirror (de.archive.ubuntu.com, AFAIR). Security updates won't work.
  • JSchwage, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4To all of you who think this news is lame, look in the mirror.

    Yesterday in the middle of updating some of my packages it suddenly stopped downloading the updates in the middle. I thought it was a problem with my notebook or my internet connection. If I hadn't seen this news on digg, I probably would have ended up reinstalling Ubuntu from scratch since I also couldn't access the Ubuntu Forums.
  • Goner, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Yes, and yahoo instant messenger and other stuff was down for a large portion of the day yesterday. It was due to the heat and subsequent power outages and whatnot. I suspect the hosting for these serevrs is simply having a power problem.
  • scatman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9The real reason it's down is because the Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big truck.

    It's a series of tubes.

    And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.
    • Seta, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Ahhhhh Ted Stevens.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Stevens
      His whole speech on Net Nutrality was the most amusing thing i've heard in a long long time. The fact that he can say all of that with a straight face is great and what's really amusing is he managed to make that last 11 minutes.
    • simd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Well said. Only the other day someone sent me an Internet and it took three days to get to me because of the stuff in the tubes.

      That's almost certainly the problem here.
    • tonyspencer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Right, so surely we need a lot more tubes, and a lot less people sending internets. Time for an internet tax...
  • Iandefor, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0Canonical servers go down like this at least once every six months. It's just now worthy of being on Digg?
  • egorgry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I picked a fine day to install dapper on my amd box. :) I guess I'll have to do something social.
  • Vektuz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2They really should have fallback mirrors listed in the sources.list that it automatically tries if the first fails... I mean... it sounds like something pretty obvious. Perhaps I'm missing some vital info. But they do appear to have a lot of official mirrors. So why wouldnt they add those mirrors to the sources list as fallbacks or something. I'm guessing apt cant do that. But hey, it should :P
    • MasteRR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Sounds like a feature request.
    • dipswitch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If launchpad weren't down, I'd search a wishlist bug for you and file it if it ain't there :)

      But Launchpad, Canonical etc. are also down :'(
  • dapperdrake, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2It's an attack from the all of the digg users who have gotten sick of ubuntu news.
  • avazquez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0They are back!! Try ubuntu.com now.
  • SpookyET, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Marked inaccurate because it implies that all services are down. Only US servers are down. Change us.archive.ubuntu.com to major countries or continents. ca.archive.ubuntu.com, eu.archive.ubuntu.com etc.
  • autosuggested, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The repositories and www.ubuntu.com are back online now. Forums still seem to be down.
    • greggish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Actually only the English forums are down.
  • trevi55, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Here you are a little bash script tip to add working repositories to your sources.list

    http://italy.copybase.ch/blog/informatica/linux/server-ubuntu-sotto-attacco-un-tip-per-avere-indietro-i-repository/

    Bye ;)
  • Veritascitor, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0Okay, this is just getting annoying. This is the third "such-and-such is down" post I've seen on digg in the past few days. First Yahoo, then MySpace, now Ubuntu. How is this, in any way, a news article? Also, no details in any way. The original poster merely speculates about a DoS attack. Digg was made for articles and news, not this crap. No Digg, and marked as lame.
    • greggish, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1"Digg was made for articles and news"

      Kevin can correct me if I'm wrong. but I thought Digg was made so it could be sold to a major media company for $$$$$$$$$
  • egrabosky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2phew...thought it was on my end.
  • picpak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well, the forums are back online now. Funny this happens after upgrading their database.
  • ordepmod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I agree the story could have been labeled differently, but as a person who just migrated all machines to Ubuntu - I found this information on point! IMHO.

    The bashing should stop, but who am I. Thanks for the lead or link to find the website that posted everything was working. Seeing as how, @ 0946PM CST/US time I had to really digg and search to find this buried story.

    Thank to the poster and yes think twice about the title - it means alot to the Digg community and the general public.
  • psilanthropist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1simple fix for ur automatic updates. in ur sources.list file, replace "us" with "uk" or "br" wherever applicable. this swithces to the brazillian or british mirrors.
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