Server and System Status

NC036: Connectivity problems in Zambia

18 May 2023 19:54:44 +0000

Today we received a number of complaints of connectivity problems to our mail server. However, they were all from Zambia, from the Luangwa Valley to the Copperbelt to Lusaka; nobody else had any issues.

Below is a screenshot of NinerNet’s live status page that was taken moments ago that shows that the mail server (NC036) has been up for 100% of the last 90 days.

NinerNet live status screenshot, 2023-05-18.

In the absence of any other information we can only assume that there was some sort of widespread, country-wide connectivity problem in Zambia late today, for which NinerNet is clearly not responsible. The NinerNet mail servers continued to process inbound email during this time, so even if you couldn’t connect to the mail server, incoming email to you was still collecting on the mail server for your eventual collection.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact NinerNet support. Thank-you.

Update, 2023-05-19: One of our clients contacted a Zambian ISP and the problem was blamed on Zambia’s international gateway. Sorry for that!

Tags: connection issues, email, mail server
Categories: Email, Incidents, NC036
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NC036: Issue resolved

5 July 2022 23:54:13 +0000

The issue now appears to be completely resolved. If you’re having any email issues, please do contact NinerNet support and we will look into them. Thank-you.

Tags: connection issues, email, imap, mail, mail server, performance, smtp, webmail
Categories: Email, Incidents, NC036
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NC036: Server is up, but some issues

5 July 2022 23:09:28 +0000

We have been informed by the data centre where server NC036 is located that, due to “an effect from ongoing data centre maintenance”, there are connectivity issues. We have been noticing intermittent issues with both direct email connections and the webmail, notably slower transactions (e.g., deleting messages, scanning multiple folders, etc.). However, email is still flowing as usual, perhaps with minor delays.

We have opened a ticket with the data centre to determine why the issues are ongoing. We will update you as we receive more information.

Tags: connection issues, email, imap, mail, mail server, performance, smtp, webmail
Categories: Email, Incidents, NC036
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NC036: Disk space issue resolved

8 May 2022 06:19:09 +0000

Briefly between Saturday and Sunday the disk storing emails on server NC036 became full. This was resolved immediately upon discovery, but some incoming emails were delayed. Some may also have bounced. However, this issue is now fully resolved.

If you have any questions, please contact NinerNet support.

Tags: bounce messages, email, email delivery, mail, mail server
Categories: Email, Incidents, NC036
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NC041: Maintenance post-mortem

8 February 2022 07:39:37 +0000

Our apologies for not following up this issue within the promised 48 hours.

This issue was traced to a problem with a single website hosted on this server, and the modifications made to this website’s file system. What was done within one account’s file system should not have affected the whole server though, and as a result we have filed a bug report with the control panel vendor.

We do again apologise for this issue, and will endeavour to ensure that it does not become an issue again.

If you have any questions at all about this maintenance, please let us know by contacting NinerNet support. Thank-you for your patience, and continued patronage.

Tags: connection issues, down time, web server
Categories: Incidents, Maintenance, NC041
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NC041: Primary web server back online

24 January 2022 05:51:20 +0000

The primary web server (NC041) is again online. It was down for 39 minutes between 05:05 and 05:44 UTC. We’re investigating why this incident happened, and will post further details here within the next 48 hours. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

Tags: connection issues, down time, web server
Categories: Incidents, Maintenance, NC041
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NC041: Primary web server is currently down

24 January 2022 05:11:56 +0000

The primary web server (NC041) is currently down following maintenance. We are investigating. This does not affect email.

Tags: connection issues, down time, web server
Categories: Incidents, Maintenance, NC041
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NC036: Maintenance port-mortem

16 October 2021 10:41:00 +0000

As stated previously, the maintenance on server NC036 is complete, and has been successful.

That said, it had to be carried out earlier than scheduled because disk space on the server was the issue that was causing a problem. To be clear, the disk space used by email accounts was not and is not the issue (that’s on a separate disk), it was the disk space used by the operating system and the logs in particular. When this problem was noticed earlier this week we projected that addressing the issue during our regular weekend maintenance window on Saturday evening UTC would be sufficient. Well, we were wrong. As soon as it became clear that our temporary mitigation efforts were failing to keep up with the rate at which disk space was being consumed (mostly by the aforementioned logs), we immediately implemented the maintenance that we had planned and already practised on a test server. This practice paid off, as instead of allowing an hour for the maintenance to complete, we were done in four minutes, including a server reboot.

That said, the lack of disk space on the server did cause disruption in the rate at which mail was processed, that led to some of you getting errors when sending email, and some incoming email being delayed. For this we apologise. The backed-up mail queue was fully processed by 09:18 UTC.

Had our prediction held up and the maintenance been carried out this evening as scheduled, we wouldn’t even have needed to post this detail. However, in order to clear up any concern, we have.

Early in 2022 server NC036 is due to be considered for replacement. The experience of this issue and other issues we have run into in recent months will inform our decisions about where to locate the replacement server (hint: it won’t be in the current data centre) and various configuration improvements we can make. We’ll also, of course, be using a more current version of the control panel.

If you have any questions at all about today’s maintenance, please let us know by contacting NinerNet support. Thank-you for your patience, and continued patronage.

Tags: down time, email, mail, mail server, reboot, webmail
Categories: Email, Incidents, Maintenance, NC036
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NC036: Mail server disk space issue

15 October 2021 11:34:08 +0000

Server NC036 (the primary mail server) briefly ran out of disk space on Friday 15 October at 11:02 UTC. This was immediately rectified, and the server was running normally again at 11:10.

This is the reason for this weekend’s scheduled maintenance. This problem won’t happen again after the maintenance. We apologise for this temporary problem.

If you have any questions, please contact NinerNet support. Thank-you.

Tags: email, email delivery, error messages, mail, mail server, webmail
Categories: Email, Incidents, NC036
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NC041: Connectivity issue with the primary web server this afternoon

28 July 2021 23:54:28 +0000

Server NC041, the primary web server, experienced connectivity issues between 16:04 and 16:13 earlier today, 28 July, for those 9 minutes. The server was up, but the data centre and our external monitoring service reported a lack of connectivity during that time.

The data centre now reports that it has resolved the issue, and no more issues have been experienced since.

We apologise for this gap in connectivity. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact NinerNet support. Thank-you.

Tags: connection issues, down time, web server
Categories: Incidents, NC041
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System	Status	Ping
NC023	Internal	Up?
NC028	Internal	Up?
NC031	Internal	Up?
NC033	Operational	Up?
NC034	Internal	Up?
NC035	Operational	Up?
NC036	Operational	Up?
NC040	Internal	Up?
NC041	Operational	Up?
NC042	Operational	Up?