By: OpenSRS Team on November 12th, 2009
Posted in: Inside OpenSRS
Tags: MeetOpenSRS, Operations
Comments: 0

Change management is all about ensuring the stability of our services. In the last year, we made significant improvements to our Change Management processes.

In part one of the series, A.J. Mirani, Manager, Technical Operations, talked about how we analyze changes and manage risk. Creating categories for changes and risk is only part of a solid change management process. In part two, A.J. provides more context to the life-cycle of a change request:

You might also be interested in A.J’s introduction to the Technical Operations team that we posted a few months back.

Stay tuned for more videos about the Technical teams at OpenSRS. Also, if you have any suggestions for topics you’d like to hear more about, let us know.

By: OpenSRS Team on November 4th, 2009
Posted in: Inside OpenSRS
Tags: MeetOpenSRS, Operations
Comments: 0

We’re accountable to you to provide stable, reliable services. To meet that goal our Technical teams have made significant improvements to our Change Management processes.

In our last video, A.J. Mirani, Manager of Technical Operations, provided us with a brief overview of the Technical Operations team. He joins again with two videos explaining the OpenSRS/Tucows Change Management processes.

In this first part, A.J. talks about how we analyze changes and manage risk using our version of ITIL/ITSM: (5 minute video)

Next week, we’ll post part 2 of our conversation on Change Management.

By: OpenSRS Team on August 17th, 2009
Posted in: Inside OpenSRS
Tags: MeetOpenSRS, Operations
Comments: 0

In our last videos we talked about how Technical Support and our Network Operations Center (NOC) investigate your requests and conduct service monitoring. Once their work is confirmed, they hand off tickets to our Technical Operations team to investigate and work to resolution. Members of the OpenSRS Technical Operations team are the key owners for our incident, problem and change management processes. They also manage our software, servers and data centers. AJ Mirani, Manager of Technical Operations, and I will provide you with several videos all about his team and their work. The first video is an introduction to Technical Operations:

In the video, AJ discusses how important Open Source is to OpenSRS. What types of Open Source applications do you use in your day-to-day operations?

Next up: AJ and I will discuss how Change Management has helped OpenSRS improve and grow.

By: AJ Mirani on July 31st, 2009
Posted in: Inside OpenSRS
Tags: NOC, Operations
Comments: 1

SysAdmins can be thought of as perhaps the medical doctors of the technical world – heroes in their own right. They are the silent protectors, the caped defenders of our electronic cities. Armed with nothing but their sharp wit and lightning fast fingers, they bring to life an otherwise lifeless world. They rush to the aid of ailing servers and networks. They build enormous arrays of redundant storage, take the pulse for an ocean of applications and keep a watchful eye on row upon row of blinking servers. Who are these masked crusaders and what do they seek, you ask? And more importantly, do they have any super-powers? Fear not, they do not swing from buildings or trees, nor do they fly through the sky or have super-human strength. No, they view their world through an electronic window; taking comfort only in maintaining order for all within their domain – ever vigilant.

At OpenSRS, we have a small army of Unix variety SysAdmin heroes. They work tirelessly day and night to ensure we maintain a detailed analysis for our diverse environments. Behind the scenes these heroes spend endless hours planning and executing preventative measures against our common foes: downtime and degradation. Working with developers and engineers to bring new products and services to life in a configuration that is the most resilient and scalable available. Pouring over millions upon millions of lines of logs each day, the tiny footprints in the sand left behind by each application, they ferret out problems before they surface. They build walls of fire to protect us from the ever-evolving number of viruses and exploits lurking in the ether. And they bring balance to the chaotic world of packets, TCP and UDP alike.

Their work, frequently so successful and seamlessly integrated, by design goes unnoticed. Their super-hero preemptive work is critical for the achievement of nerd nirvana (or nerdvana as we like to call it here.) In general though, we tend to recognize our SysAdmin heroes most when they bring incidents to resolution. Well, today is their day. So to all of the SysAdmins here at OpenSRS and out there; you know who you are: We salute you!

Some of Our SysAdmins demonstrating Whois Privacy (they are camera-shy)

Photo: Paul Tichonczuk, Senior Web Application Developer

By: OpenSRS Team on January 25th, 2008
Posted in: Inside OpenSRS
Tags: Operations
Comments: 0

Editor’s note: Heather is a Customer Communications Representative at Tucows. Her many responsibilities include handling customer and emergency communications, drafting incident reports and taking care of special technical communications. If you’re a Tucows customer, Heather plays an integral role in keeping you informed about the status of Tucows various services.

Last week, I was given the opportunity to visit Q9, one of Tucows’ data centres. Every day I write about our products and service in status updates, maintenance windows and customer reports. Tucows infrastructure hardware — including our servers, routers, storage device and data centres — have become so familiar in my day-to-day tasks that I find myself thinking about them like actual live staff members.

Seeing the strength of the Tucows network, from the fibre drop to the servers, is a rare treat. Tours of Q9 are infrequent for security and logistical reasons. Access to the site is strictly controlled with only highly technical staff members granted security clearance to the data centre and our cages. Our Network Operations Centre (NOC) and Operations teams at Tucows headquarters conduct monitoring with a number of sophisticated remote systems. We also have staff who stay onsite at each of our data centres to coordinate with multiple sites and the team back at headquarters.

Q9′s data centre is built with the highest caliber of technical security: bullet resistant glass and biometric entrances with access cards are among the authentication and verification steps that must be complete before entering the areas of the cages. Q9 has strict protocols for site usage and visits. Surveillance includes cameras covering every angle and extensive onsite and offsite monitoring. There are mantraps that use biometrics to protect access to designated areas. The chamber has a biometric fingerprint unit that (whether imagined or not) felt like a current went through me when I touched it for validation scanning. Let’s face it: my inner geek loved the chance to see the hardware of the layer 3!

Our cage is large, with rows and racks of servers, massive storage devices, routers and cables. We use the best of the best equipment, including NetApp, for storage devices. Being a trained Library and Information Technician, I was extremely impressed with the labeling of every device with Dewy-Decimal-like meticulousness. Every machine has redundant power backups for testing and security. The hum and beeps of all the machines represent millions of domains, mailboxes, products and services.

Customers depend on security, reliability, accuracy and professionalism. Every day at work our teams ensure that every aspect, from security to equipment organization to functionality to maintenance, is seamlessly conducted. Q9 helps us out with multiple service points, generators and a contract of 100% service availability. When the blackout struck the Eastern Seaboard circuits in August 2003, Q9 remained online with their downtown NOC fully redundant and emergency plans enacted. Last year we moved to Q9 because of the reliable and consistent service it enables Tucows to pass onto its customers.

Tucows employees love the Internet. We are passionate about our work and almost daily there are internal challenges to see who has the best new tech toy or website reference. The abstract part about working in the Internet industry is that unless you are logged into the physical devices or visiting the data centre cages, you reside in the top layer and your own imagination. Now when I write about our devices I will have a much better visual of some of our infrastructure. Unlike a former coworker, I did not hug the machines! Instead, I just smiled and secretly waved.