Author: Chris Wik

[Closed] Packet loss in Amsterdam 2 datacenter

Update 12:30 UTC: Reason for outage was a large scale Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on the network. While we were not the target of the attack, our upstream provider’s networks were saturated by the attack and our connectivity was negatively affected. The attack has now been brought under control with a DDoS filtering service. We are continuing to monitor the situation but so far connectivity looks to be stable again.

Update 12:12 UTC: The network is now stable again. We do not yet have a reason for outage. We will continue to monitor the situation and will follow up with network operations to find out exactly what went wrong and what preventative measures are available to reduce the likelihood of a recurrence. Please contact support@anu.net if you are still experiencing any difficulties accessing your services.

Update 11:47 UTC: Engineers have identified the fault and are working on a fix. Still no firm ETA available.

As of 11:13 UTC we are experiencing sporadic packet loss of 20-60% on our IP transit connectivity in our Amsterdam 2 datacenter. Network operations team has been activated and is responding to the incident but no further details are available just yet.

Services affected include Hosted Email as well as web hosting accounts and virtual machines hosted out of our Amsterdam 2 datacenter.

We will update this post as soon as we have further information or an ETA on a resolution.

CentOS 8 now available at Anu

While we have a small percentage of other distributions running for specific purposes, our standard Linux distribution of choice is CentOS. CentOS is an Enterprise Linux distribution which is ideally suited for long term and stable server deployments. This is in contrast to distributions like Fedora, which has a fast release cycle, the latest cutting edge software versions, and is targeted more at end users and developers.

Major CentOS version releases only come around every 3-4 years, so when a new version comes along it is a great opportunity to upgrade older servers. Major new releases always bring new features as well as security and performance enhancements, but can also pose challenges if your application or code base requires major upgrades or changes to run smoothly on the new OS.

CentOS 8 was recently released and is now available for new VM deployments at Anu.

CentOS 6 will become end of life on 30 November 2020, so now would be a good time to start planning to upgrade either to CentOS 7 or 8.

We recognise that a major OS upgrade can be time consuming and challenging for some customers. In order to facilitate a smooth upgrade, we offer our customers running CentOS 6 and 7 a complimentary new CentOS 8 VM with the same spec, running in parallel to the existing VM. Should it be required, we can provide migration support including data transfer and porting configurations for a modest fee. Once customer applications have been tested and are running smoothly on the new VM, the old one is deleted and billing switches to the new VM.

In case the customer requires more than 30 days to complete the upgrade, both servers will be billed after 30 days, until the transfer is complete.

Not sure which CentOS version you’re running? Check the Webmin dashboard, or run ‘cat /etc/redhat-release‘ from the command line.

Ready to upgrade? Ping us an email on support@anu.net and we’ll get you started.

Customer portal improvements

Our trusty Customer Portal has long provided a convenient way for our customers to access select self service functions, update contact data, pay invoices and contact support via a secure authenticated channel.

Today we are pleased to announce a new capability. End users of our Hosted Email service may now log in with their email address and password, and conveniently gain access to:

  • Mailbox settings including Change Password and Vacation Message functions
  • SpamTitan user profile settings where the Spam Quarantine threshold can be tweaked, the frequency and language of the Spam Quarantine Report can be changed, along with numerous other settings.
  • Direct access to RoundCube Webmail
  • Authenticated customer support channel including a form to submit a new ticket and a Live Chat feature.

Over the coming months we plan to work on a number of frequently requested features such as scheduled vacation messages and integrating other services which currently only offer stand-alone interfaces. If there is a feature you would love to see added please do not hesitate to drop us an email.