Power Outages [Today: Update]

[Avidon]

I know very little how SE does things, and as far as branches go, I have no clue as to what they have as well. BUT as a striving business that is always trying to come out with new ideas to survive this economy, to sit idly by and wait for a power shortage to be resolved when it can take up to or more than a month is not how the business man thinks.

SE is doing their part for their nation. But Businesses also have to do their part for their future. A good business is aggressive when it comes to making decisions and choices. And they are always trying to move forward and avoid/limit as many set backs as possible.

SE has branches. When in need, you utilize what you have. I'm sure they are going to utilize every tool in their tool box to make sure they keep revenue coming in. I expect these branches in other countries to be used in some way. Just because SE Japan isn't able to operate, does that mean SE NA is just sitting around waiting for Japan's power to come on?

Idk. Food for though.

[Xeth]

Tokyo Resident Point of View

I've been watching this guy, and I think he's pretty much spot on, about the situation in Japan, and how the Western media is spinning this situation completely out of control.

[NightDagger]

For people that have not seen a server or how they work here is something to imagine:

Picture a piece of ram from your PC. Now if you touch the end of the ram at all you could pooch the ram, if you miscarry it, it will also fry. also they need to be carried in electrostatic bags since static could erase everything on it. Now picture something about 200 times the size of that piece of ram, with 20-40 of them per server & most likely 40-80 servers, not to mention all the housings, cable, cpu's, Hard Drives etc. these hard drives are also alot bigger then that of your CPU. They require proper cooling and are in an enclosed housing.

These things are very fragile & once are set-up you really do not wanna have to play with them unless it is absolutely necessary.

I have seen someone in my Computer Engineering class simply pull out a board to get the numbers off it and insert it again. It was working fine before but did not work anymore after he re-inserted it.

[Amperage]

I'm not sure how people get the idea that servers are still room sized hulks like the super computers you see from the likes of IBM. FFXI was brought online almost 10 years ago and server hardware at the time was MUCH less capable than your avg home PC today. You can be sure over the years that consolidation through the use of virtualization software has taken place to reduce the hardware "footprint" and cost of maintaining the game.

Another known fact is SE has already moved the location of the servers a number of times since FFXI has been in operation including a move just recently and it certainly didn't take them a month to do so.

As far as the radiation is concerned. The levels in Tokyo last I heard were nowhere near dangerous levels but in the event of a complete meltdown and a shift of winds carrying the airborne radioactive particles that could change quickly but for now there would be no danger of collecting the hardware required to resume operations and they could probably even safely turn the servers back on if needed for a short time to gather a backup of the latest data in the event they wish to just put other hardware in operation and restore the data to it.

It's already been made public that most of the major data centers in Tokyo have reserved fuel and plan to continue 24/7 service through the blackouts.

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/a...for-blackouts/

If you read the article in that link they repeatedly say that "Sony" shut down operation of FFXI and FFXIV. I know that Sony a number of years back purchased a large stake in Square but I don't think they are the majority holder currently are they? Assuming it's just a {mistake} made by the writer.

[Babygyrl]

im totally okay with them taking as oong as they need! but i hope they give us some tid bits on whats gonna come in ther version update even though i know its delayed! give us something to talk about while we wait se!

[RAIST]

I'm not sure how people get the idea that servers are still room sized hulks like the super computers you see from the likes of IBM. FFXI was brought online almost 10 years ago and server hardware at the time was MUCH less capable than your avg home PC today. You can be sure over the years that consolidation through the use of virtualization software has taken place to reduce the hardware "footprint" and cost of maintaining the game.

Another known fact is SE has already moved the location of the servers a number of times since FFXI has been in operation including a move just recently and it certainly didn't take them a month to do so.

As far as the radiation is concerned. The levels in Tokyo last I heard were nowhere near dangerous levels but in the event of a complete meltdown and a shift of winds carrying the airborne radioactive particles that could change quickly but for now there would be no danger of collecting the hardware required to resume operations and they could probably even safely turn the servers back on if needed for a short time to gather a backup of the latest data in the event they wish to just put other hardware in operation and restore the data to it.

It's already been made public that most of the major data centers in Tokyo have reserved fuel and plan to continue 24/7 service through the blackouts.

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/a...for-blackouts/

Guess you missed the recent example I gave in this thread (with a picture I might add) of the data center that just hosts fansites. No email server for 1800 employees. no 25 world servers for the game it self. No lobby servers for the various regions. No in-game messaging servers. No development center servers. No QA testing servers (which, by the way do have their own rack of blade server for as well). And then all the other servers needed for other daily support/business operations. This is just for hosting the fansites them selves. Here's the link to the post, in case you missed it:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...ll=1#post29758

Also, bear in mind this pic doesn't show any of the beastly UPS solutions. If they don't use the humongous car battery sized units that WILL essentially cover a wall, the rack mounted ones can easly take up 3U's in a rack for each one, and you may need more than one per rack. You also have to provide 2 220v lines with a locking 3-prong plug to provide them power, which is a non-standard outlet.

In otherwords...setting up a large-scale datacenter takes a lot of planning, and not something you just pick up and move. I worked on a 5 server move across town 2 years ago for a small software firm (only 11 employees btw, some who worked remotely and didn't have a local office) and it took us a weekend to make the move.

Raist

Edit: oh, and here's another goody for those who still don't grasp the concept of just how large scale an operation this may be. It's an article about how SE set up their in-house messaging system, including the layout of their hardware:

http://media.netapp.com/documents/square-enix.pdf

[Amperage]

Guess you missed the recent example I gave in this thread (with a picture I might add) of the data center that just hosts fansites. No email server for 1800 employees. no 25 world servers for the game it self. No lobby servers for the various regions. No in-game messaging servers. No development center servers. No QA testing servers (which, by the way do have their own rack of blade server for as well). And then all the other servers needed for other daily support/business operations. This is just for hosting the fansites them selves. Here's the link to the post, in case you missed it:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...ll=1#post29758

Also, bear in mind this pic doesn't show any of the beastly UPS solutions. If they don't use the humongous car battery sized units that WILL essentially cover a wall, the rack mounted ones can easly take up 3U's in a rack for each one, and you may need more than one per rack. You also have to provide 2 220v lines with a locking 3-prong plug to provide them power, which is a non-standard outlet.

In otherwords...setting up a large-scale datacenter takes a lot of planning, and not something you just pick up and move. I worked on a 5 server move across town 2 years ago for a small software firm (only 11 employees btw, some who worked remotely and didn't have a local office) and it took us a weekend to make the move.

Raist

Edit: oh, and here's another goody for those who still don't grasp the concept of just how large scale an operation this may be. It's an article about how SE set up their in-house messaging system, including the layout of their hardware:

http://media.netapp.com/documents/square-enix.pdf

I had already looked at that PDF when you posted it initially and that's not all that complex a setup. A lot of those diagram elements are software layers and on the hardware side I've setup and currently admin more complex networks than that. I don't pretend to know the exact chain of connections or the location of all the servers involved from the time you load POL and finish connecting to the world servers but seeing as how they've organized and moved the server location in less than 1 day of downtime previously says volumes about the actual complexity of the operation. Even given the unprepared state they are in I would assume they could achieve a server move within the week downtime already in progress.

[RAIST]

the point is though, you don't do this as a temporary fix, and not likely easily implemented in just 3 days. A LOT of things have to be considered. If SE is going to migrate... this would be a long term move (short term would just be too big a hit to the bottom line), and would require a LOT of planning...aside from all the business/legal/political (work visa's etc) aspects involved, contractors/permits may have to be sent to the target site to prepare it for the equipment if they aren't simply going to move data to exisitng hardware in an already established datacenter.

They said at least a week, more information will be made available as it comes available. It would appear that no new information is available for them to release just yet.

Kinda remends me of the bickering married couple... honey, coud you take out the trash? I'll get it in a minute...in the middle of something here... 2 minutes later Are you gonna take out the trash? In a minute, lemme finish. 2 minutes later, are you gonna take this trash out or do I have to do it? I SAID I WOULD GET IT! GET OFF MY BACK WOMAN!!!

Raist

[Amperage]

Kinda remends me of the bickering married couple... honey, coud you take out the trash? I'll get it in a minute...in the middle of something here... 2 minutes later Are you gonna take out the trash? In a minute, lemme finish. 2 minutes later, are you gonna take this trash out or do I have to do it? I SAID I WOULD GET IT! GET OFF MY BACK WOMAN!!!

Raist

Actually that kinda sounds like my internal struggle to take out the trash weekly

[NightDagger]

Data Center
http://www.montaraventures.com/pix/datacenter.jpg

Dreamworks animation
http://files.cyberciti.biz/uploads/tips/2007/06/server-farm-dreamworks-animation-studio.png

Above are two good examples of what SE's server could look like. they could be smaller or larger, but I am sure that they are very similar to the second image.

Now the server move that they just did, was it actually moving them to a new location or just replacing some of the older ones & it was all done in house? either way it was only 12 hours to complete. They could of very well moved them to a new location, but that would not mean they took the ones from the previous location & just moved them. i am sure that the new server was set-up at the new location and they just had to spend the time doing some programing and moving of data to get it all setup & test run it. This meaning that the old servers are still where the were initially & they used brand new ones for the move. There is no way humanly possible to move the WHOLE server room to a new location in just 12 hours. They couldn't even do that if it was just to a building across the street.

I know this has all been covered previously but the fact of the matter is we all just have to wait. I am actually really enjoying the break from FF & my kids love it lol. I always logged off the game just to play/spend time with my family before but now I am with them all day every day and they are just loving it. BUT I am also thinking about what i will be doing as soon as the servers are online lol