Power Outages [Today: Update]

[woie]

what do you mean it wont be fixed by sunday!!!!???? WHAAAA WHAAAA /em throw's toys out of pram

this is a joke before you all start flaming me

i dont know where the servers or SE are actually based my guess would be tokyo witt the situation with the nuclear reactors getting worse and most EU countrys telling thier citezens to GTFO just prey a lack of power is the only thing they have to deal with

[Aengus]

While I'd also like to see the servers up as soon as possible, it probably isn't realistic...

Generators require fuel, which there is a massive lack of, moving also requires fuel, not to mention the ability to convince those in the company to possibly put people at risk to radiation by being outdoors (however unlikely).

Yes, Japan has not moved the boundaries for the disaster that far, but there is a general sense of unease with what the Japanese people are hearing and what they are seeing happen.

I don't see many other options, and knowing that SE stated that they were taking into consideration their civic responsibilities and the continual rolling power outages I just don't see the game bouncing back on Sunday. Unfortunate, but not unheard of in instances of country wide crisis. We also have to remember that Japan is roughly the size of California, so regional events affect many more people. Hopefully, I'm wrong and FFXI is back soon, and Japan gets back on its feet.

[Penance]

This can only be speculated until they know the true status of the reactors. The economy is already worsening in japan so I believe Square Enix will be up as soon as they can. But until there is enough power for the city, i believe we will be FF-less

On a sidenote , i Dont believe this will do much good to FFXIV as it wasn't doing so good before the server was taken down issue.

Lets hope they manage to regain control in tepco powerplants without anymore casualties

[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.

[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