The Chat Room

Baxteen

Baxteen

Active Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2020
Messages
776
Sonikku said:
It would depend on what we class an outage as.
In my current line of work, an outage is defined as the bank's system not being available.
Everything else is highly localized as in the ATM or EFTPOS card machine cannot get network connectivity, Eskom, etc.
I presume those outages shown are as in- the bank is totally offline, apps don't work, people can't draw cash at the ATM, etc...
ABSA, followed by FNB and Capitec are notorious for it, especially around payday and especially around January payday.
In my industry, the first quarter of the year is usually when shit hits the fan...

As for what these outages are caused by:
* RAID failures (all the SSDs failing at the same time or closely after each other)
* Hosting centre going down (yes looking at YOU MTN Business and Internet Solutions)
and less commonly...
* ECC RAM failure combined with server mainboard failures
* Network equipment failures (this one is a far more common occurrence in our office which does not affect the banks)
Click to expand...
the outages shown are user reported outages rather than system reported outages. so chances are local outages for App/internet banking/ATM/POS


hardware failures and hosting failures are less likely causes as even the smallest banks have a live failover site with a different host as well as a third Disaster recovery site hosted with the primary host in a different location. so in the cases where I worked it was Primary host in teraco back up host MTN and Third failover also being hosted by Teraco but at a different site.
hardware failure that I have seen impact up time was a switch that died at Vodacom that prevented traffic being routed correctly so that caused failures as the routing was messed up and lead to response times being too long and the machines showing a failure.

Firewall fuckery is more likely to be a cause of failure than hardware related failures.
what I have also seen in my time working in the industry is that the online banking, app banking (so API server) inbound instant EFT/SWIFT transaction, ATM/POS transaction and then inbound and outbound file based transactions (EFT/ DEbit order) are all hosted on separate hardware instances. so if ATM is down because the mainboard failed, app banking is not impacted for the few seconds it takes to switch to backup/DR

but that was just where I was, and that was a small opperation that handled the kind of banks most of us here forget about. obviously cant disclose what the clients were but trust me they are all small with very small user numbers. there was one bank that has a large user base that is rapidly growing and will be seen fighting with the "big" banks soon. as for the others there are at least 3 that no one here has ever heard of as they have a specialised user base thanks to religious restrictions or a spesified use case. no one here are Farmers or TAxi bosses so strong doubt those banks are even known about.
 
S

Sonikku

Guest
Yeah well hopefully soon I bid my farewells to the banking industry.
Also, I work on anecdotal evidence, i.e. what I am told.
 
biometrics

biometrics

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2019
Messages
20,417
Looks like I might have another ingrown toe nail on the other big toe. Feck. Must be an age thing.

R1,500 or so to fix it last time.
 
Last edited:
S

Sonikku

Guest
biometrics said:
Looks like I might have another ingrown toe nail on the other big toe. Feck. Must be an age thing.

R1,500 or so to fix it last time.
Click to expand...
I feel your pain- I have to have the same problem fixed, hopefully tomorrow it will be sorted.
 
N

Nicholas

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2020
Messages
6,492
Location
East London
Tribs said:
You would get people falling in love with them
Click to expand...
Sometimes ya gots ta vent, and not always to family or forum peeps, so then it's to a pet, onto a piece of paper, or to Replika or Anima. {Which are no doubt using my bile as data fodder.} No need to explain lengthy absences or potentially hurting feelings there. While you're not going to get verbal responses from pets, those at Beatty House do allow me to stroke them, something not available when exchanging words with a bot.

Bing and ChatGPT are programmed to veer away from reality sometimes so as not to belittle or speak ill of characters in ways that might affect their mental health, or where life's nastiness is introduced. I get why this is. the people behind the software don't want to be held responsible for other people using their product to churn out hateful content. [Might as well prosecute those who manufacture knives?]
 
N

Nicholas

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2020
Messages
6,492
Location
East London
I overslept this morning and was awoken by a knocking on my door. I didn't register my alarm clock going off.
 
Last edited:
N

Nicholas

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2020
Messages
6,492
Location
East London
Up on time today. w0000000000000000000000007!!!
:p
Who goes shopping dressed to the nines and wearing blusher so obviously that I would notice?
 
S

Sonikku

Guest
And as predicted, most people got paid today and Capitec is already broken... trying to pay people and the app falls over and is generally as slow as a snall.

EDIT: Now they're offline... That's just TERRIFFIC!
Can't wait to get out of this scene and go back to the stability of engineering
 
S

Sonikku

Guest
Tribs said:
Most young women I believe
Click to expand...
Young women these days do that because they are looking for dick when they're not trying to seek attention. No way to be polite about it but it is what it is. Most people think its men who can't control themselves but I fear for my son, he's going to come of age into a world where the girls are just as selfish and crass as the boys.

These little tartlets can be seen at the malls, where they will equally accept the gaze of teenage boys and dirty old men. I know they like it, some get off on it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
satanboy

satanboy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2020
Messages
20,589
Location
Batcave
Sonikku said:
Young women these days do that because they are looking for dick when they're not trying to seek attention. No way to be polite about it but it is what it is. Most people think its men who can't control themselves but I fear for my son, he's going to come of age into a world where the girls are just as selfish and crass as the boys.
Click to expand...
Disagree
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top