Fliers hit delays, cancellations after network outage ( FAA is using antiquated stuff )

MarketWatch ^ | Nov. 19, 2009, 2:57 p.m. EST | Christopher Hinton, MarketWatch

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Scheduling system had crashed three times since 2007

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that a four-hour network failure has been resolved, though flight delays and cancellations are expected to continue to affect across the eastern United States.

This is at least the third outage in just more than two years for the agency's flight-planning processing system, which tracks more than 1.5 million flight schedules a day for all domestic departures and arrivals.

The FAA said a software-configuration problem with a network router was to blame for taking offline the 24-year-old system, called the National Airspace Data Interchange Network, or NADIN. The outage took place Thursday at both its locations -- Atlanta and Salt Lake City -- just after 5 a.m. Eastern. There was no indication of a cyber attack, the agency added.

The system came back online at around 9 a.m. Eastern, according to the FAA.

Airports in the Northeast were impacted heavily, with Washington Dulles International, Ronald Reagan Washington National, Newark Liberty International and New York's JFK reporting significant delays. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, the world's busiest airport, also was affected.

Flight operations were mostly back to normal by mid-afternoon, with Northeast airports reporting delays due to poor weather.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Not sure whether the 24 year old system refers to the network,...the host computer ( very likely ) or the software program that is run....

[jaydubya2]

FAA said a software-configuration problem = Human Error

[ConservaTexan]

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thread Earlier this morning:

Flights Delayed, Canceled Nationwide Because of FAA Computer Glitch

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

If we would just run out of oil we wouldn’t have to worry about this.

[US Navy Vet]

Did it have a Vacuum Tube burn-out?

[BikerJoe]

Did it have a Vacuum Tube burn-out?

They don't make 12AX7s like they used too...

[expatpat]

Don’t laugh, the first computer I ever programmed was a vacuum-tube machine (with only 2k of core memory). Now you know why the ‘19’ was left out of dates.....

[WarEagle]

The article said it was a router problem. If I'm reading correctly, this has NOTHING to do with the integrity (or lack thereof) or the age of the system. It has to do with the idiots driving the network, whomever they might be.

Apparently they made a change to routers at both Atlanta and Salt Lake at the same time, and it took them 4 hours to back out the changes.

If somebody in my organization did something like that, they would have been shown the door immediately.

But it's the government, the same folks who want to manage our health care....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the other thread posted by cedar dave....and post #79 posted by uncommonsense :

*******************************EXCERPT********************************

It doesn't look like the problem was with NADIN this time (the Philips DS714 mainframe computers from 1968 - no kidding):

The difficulties started when a single circuit board in a piece of networking equipment at a computer center in Salt Lake City failed around 5 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Google searchon the phrase:

Philips DS714 mainframe

yields this one:

More on computer mishap at the FAA

*****************************EXCERPTS******************************

Willie (IBM DB2 for z/OS SME) posted 8/28/2008 | Comments (4)

Willie's "Getting the Most out of DB2 for z/OS and System z" blog.
Here's a little more information about the FAA outage that occurred Tuesday, August 26 (see my blog entry from yesterday, August 27). It seems the system used to file flight plans (it was this system that crashed Tuesday) is more than 20 years old and slated for replacements. When you read this article ("Corrupt File Brought Down FAA's Antiquated IT System"), you have to wonder how it has managed to work at all the last few years (or decades). Every flight plan for every flight in the US or enters the US comes through this system. That has to a tremendous workload for a brand new system , much less something 20 years old.

Here's another article that discusses why there has been a plan in place by the FAA to replace this system ("Going fault-tolerant for less"). I found this article of particular interest because it was written in 2005, three years ago. The stuff about the FAA starts in the middle of page 2 of this article.

Finally, here's a link to a site that has nothing to do with the FAA. However, it has a few pictures of the Phillips DS714. This machine is similar to the one that crashed on the FAA Tuesday.

---

Well, that's it for now.

And as always, thank you for stopping by and thanks for your continued support

Willie

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the link mentioned in my post at # 12...we have pictures...looks like it has no vacuum tubes:

**************************************EXCERPT**************************

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See updates ...if you still care ...for more detail.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Looks more modern than the stuff I saw at the FAA sites in Kansas City Area in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Looks more modern than the stuff I saw at the FAA sites in Kansas City Area in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Sorry about the double post,...not sure what I did.

[CedarDave]

Got caught up in it myself. Was traveling from Idaho to Texas yesterday. Everything went fine until the last leg — the incoming plane originated on the east coast in the morning and was still 1 1/2 hours behind schedule last night. Got in to the airport at midnight and still had to travel 2 hours to get home. Gave it up and got a motel room for the night.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Check the thread with the big news today:

Breaking News Story: CRU has apparently been hacked – hundreds of files released

This may REALLY expose the Global Warming Hoax....threads multiplying fast.... check the various keywords.