Windows 10 "Anniversary Update" - Any SmartSDR concerns?

Michael Coslo

If I might interject, occasionally people have problems with computers that get them to act in a superstitious manner. It seems odd to me that some go to extraordinary lengths to perform gyrations of adding and removing or shutting off various functions, yet I just shut down DAX,  install the new version and delete the previous version's shortcuts - and that's it. Maybe the system logs of broken machines might give some insight, but there is something curious happening between the extremes of hoop jumping and my non-recommended procedure.

Tim - W4TME

Jay - I was once on a team that brought down a primary and backup SCP and we killed local number portability service for about 4 minutes while the DB servers rebooted, synced and came back on-line.  The FCC paperwork we had to fill out was extensive.  I can only imagine what that the fallout for having a 5ESS out of service in a high density subscriber area for 36 hours was like.

KC9NRN

Jay,

Back in 2002 I designed and built 24 dialers using 10 2port ISA Dialogic boards in a P4 based server. Anybody who knows about either knows ISA isn't compatible with the P4 architecture so they used hardware emulation to get it to work.

These Dialogic cards connected to a 5ESS switch and believe it or not are still running today (I build great servers) through emulation since everybody is ripping out those old switches.

I built those systems with the hope that they would retire them after 8 years, instead the owner has chosen to use the outdated technology and pray they keep going. unfortunately for him while they still work the emulation has issues.

There are no words to describe how happy I am not to be working on dialers anymore.

Ken - NM9P

Jay Nation

I learned a lot of what I know about the 5ESS that week. My presence during the rehab/repair/reconstruction, helped to earn my reputation for being a solid, serious tech, to conference in when, something really bad happens.

Prior to that event my 5ESS knowledge consisted of Huh? You mean all those blue cabinets the keep locked up on the 3rd floor? Nope sorry I don't have the door combination.

Afterwards I noticed the tendency to be sent wherever/whenever any related training was going on. Eventually I realized they were trying to convert a Transport/Comm Tech, into a Comm Tech/Switchman what they ended up creating was Jack of All Trades/Hybrid, that could be useful in almost any situation. I was mostly known as that guy that was good at (remote on the job distance learning, done while performing whatever they really should have already trained somebody to do in advance). In other words, my name/email/phone numbers, etc tended to rise to top of all the 24/7/365 call-out / on-call lists.

I learned how to take naps, and use beepers and cellphones for alarm clocks.

I now take retirement just as seriously.

I don't ever answer the phone, I do still receive emails.   

73, Jay - NO5J
     

Jay Nation

I've run into many procedures documented completely, only slightly out of sequence.
like ...

at the end of page 1.

7. Remove and replace the circuit pack.

so I Turn the page.

8. But first, using a paperclip press and hold the reset button hidden behind the hole in the face of the circuit pack, and wait until the alarm lamp above the shelf flashes 3 times to indicate that the processor has placed the shelf in standby and therefore it is now safe to remove the pack.  

9. Who to contact when ordering replacement processor boards ...

Sometimes it's good to read the "entire" procedure first.

73, Jay - NO5J

Jay Nation

My last year or two with the company I worked at the 5ESS provisioning/maintenance/surveillance center. A desk job.
The work consisted of accepting the next work assignment from the automated queue. Then perform it while not causing any service outages. Log the results. 
Rinse and Repeat until the end of the week. Expect to be disciplined about spelling and punctuation errors in your work logs, at anytime. Remember the "2 Qs", Quantity, and Quality. This month we are concentrating on Quantity. 

Management always insisted on "beautiful" log notes. They used those notes to take full credit for their crew members good work.

I had a tendency to include log notes about all the dangerous requests my manager insisted on, taking care to include his full name/title/email and a timestamp.

The equipment alarms write to the same log in realtime, also time stamped.

Once it's added to the log, well to bad. there is no way to edit the log.

Some of my managers, they seemed to change, at times weekly, would get hostile about that.

73, Jay - NO5J

K1UO Larry

Jay.... During my days as a Tech/Installer with New England Telephone/NYNEX/Bell Atlantic/Verizon I ran into many, many database problems installing the first 24 5ESS Machines here in Maine.  This , however, was in the pre cutover phase...  USUALLY THAT IS... until one day I managed to actually cut over the machine bout 3 days early!!!  .  Working 18 hrs a day, day and night for weeks, finally caught up as I was the only 5ESS test rated technician in the State at the time.  Actually learned a lot in those days working with Bell Labs.  Loved it when they would say  "forget everything I am about to show you" :-)    I had a notebook full of specialty notes that the rest of New England was clamoring for :-)  What amazed me was that none of the Bell Labs guys knew how the 5ESS machine worked end to end....  but they were sure experts in the portion that they had responsibility for and great guys to work with.

Jay Nation

I didn't save the articles, but I remember it being worded as multiple, record fines, which when you consider they are telecom fines, where a routine fine is in the millions, hmmm?

Everything in the downtown area served by that switch, which was everything, 911 service, Internet, all PBXs,  were down. no ringing, no dialtone, no way to report it.

Communications wise, Downtown Dallas vanished, for 3 days.

We had to drive outside the outage area in order to access the telco's own computerized  network ticket and monitoring system. if you needed a print out of a circuit. you had to drive about 5-10 miles login, print it and drive back.

For switch replacement parts, the warehouse was told to just ship us a complete "Set" ASAP. whatever they didn't have on hand we had to trackdown and then go "Borrow" permanently, sometimes even when that board was in standby service. many times
borrowed in the dead of night when nobody was working in the office. I think I remember leaving IOU post-it notes stuck to monitor screens for record keeping purposes. I didn't  sign them.  

Except for all the extra driving, it was actually kind of peaceful, all the phones stopped ringing. 

73, Jay - NO5J

Jay Nation

Tim 
I worked the same stuff from the Telco side. I can remember plenty of "nervous" situations but I never actually broke anything personally. But I've watched my coworkers meltdown into nervous breakdowns more than a few times. And had to step in, and recover for them.

I spent about half my time "riding" on outage conference calls as one of the silent "expert" advisors.

A call would ring in, to my position and a machine voice would say press 1 for instructions, etc. instructions might be a ticket number, and a request to press X to join the conference. 

Sometimes the conference would say "who just joined?" sometimes it would say, "Was that you Jay?"

Really they can't send you to school for this stuff.
You learn it by doing it. Once and a while, by doing it badly.

Much of the technology is, "One Off". as in, this may be the only one, doing this, right now.  

73, Jay - NO5J

Ken - NM9P

Jay, what year was this? I lived in Dallas from '81-85.

Jay Nation

Ken

Sometime between 95 and 2000, It was pretty soon after I'd finished transport training. Started in Dallas in the spring of 95, the first two or three years my work consisted of going to schools, working disconnects, and shadowing the folks working tickets. My manager had been the manager of the office where the 5ESS was. he had just transfered to my building and was filling in at his old office until a replacement was selected. When he approved the disaster. immediately after the service was restored. He was banned from that office. And he started being responsible for our crew.   If I think on it long enough I'll probably come up with an exact date. My brain just does that, Garbage goes in, and get's filed away on the off chance, a need for garbage comes up later,  Sometimes feels like "Stage 4 Deja Vu". So far I'm getting the impression it began around 9 am on a Thursday.


73, Jay - NO5J

Jay Nation

In an effort to try to put this thread back on track.
Sorry!

Tip:

Create a windows shortcut with the following as the Target.

C:WindowsSystem32perfmon.exe /rel

Just paste that into the target field when creating or editing the shortcut.

Name the shortcut, Reliability Monitor.

Then try opening it.

It gives you a view of your Windows 10 performance over time.

I will display any updates as they are installed and whether they were successfully installed or not.

It's sort of an update logger in that respect.

It also show you things like Driver crashes, SmartSDR Crashes, etc.

Each time you open it it opens with the current status highlighted on the far right.

Play around with it and you will find a lot of information you didn't realize was available.

I Pinned this shortcut to the taskbar and slid it to appear first on the left side of the taskbar. 

You might find it useful as the Windows 10 Anniversary Updates are rolled out.

73, Jay - NO5J
 

Steve G1XOW

If you want to know details about security updates, this is the best way to find out prior to downloading/installing it.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/mt637763.aspx