Load Balancing Problems

It has been a very busy day for me and my colleagues and we are on the verge of taking our day off. We would be able to finish a lot of our work but it seems our Internet connection is taking a toll on our servers. We are Linux based and we manage traffic on our Routers but in this particular week, we feel there was something major wrong about how slow everything is. We did not experience this the other week so we did investigate the incident today. The Load Balance capability of the Router seems not working. We have a few Static IP addresses we bought from Eastern Telecommunications and BAYANTEL which are local phone carriers.

I have been configuring Routers for 3 years and I say I have been a skeptic because I thought our products were flawless about this particular problem and the only culprit I could think of was on the ISP side. I was shocked because we were working fine a few hours ago. I asked other departments for the logs and was dumbfounded that this only happens when Load Balancing kicks in. It was supposed to cure the problem about our bandwidth needs but it seems when we have this feature working on our Routers, which is the only time everything comes into a snail's pace. They rebooted our router and we had that connection problem again, but if we only stayed with one ISP connection the Internet becomes normal again. We removed this configuration from the router and everything was okay. We checked for latest updates for the CISCO Router we were using and flashed the enterprise router with the last update then boom! We were back in business. The trial and error method took a couple of hours and we were a little behind schedule on our work. With this problem resolved, maybe we can still catch up and take that well deserved break we need. This is another case of unequal load balancing according to an article we read off another site. At least that explains what happened there. I hope geeks like me do not have to spend days to find out this simple problem next time. It would definitely cost a lot of money for enterprise sized businesses like ours. Thank God!

Typhoon Emong Reaches Pangasinan

Typhoon Emong has hit Northern Pangasinan province and is expected to weaken once it hit the Cordillera Mountains in Luzon. At 10PM this evening Pagasa-DOST says the center of Typhoon Emong is in the vicinity of La Union, another province in Central Luzon.

It has sustained winds of 150 kph and could go stron to 185 kph moving North East with speeds of 19 kph. Tommorow night, it will be around 250 kilometers East North East of Tugegarao City or 210 kilometers South East of the islands in Basco, Batanes.

On Saturday night it is going to be around 395 kilometers North East of the same group of islands.While on Sunday, it will be around 680 kilometers North East off the islands which is around 100 kilometers South Southeast of Okinawa, Japan.

Signal no. 3 has been declared to Pangasinan, Northern Zambales, Tarlac, Nueva Vizcaya, Benguet, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Ifugao, Mountain Province, Kalinga, Apayao and Abra. While Signal no. 2 to the rest of Zambales, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Quirino, Isabela, Cagayan, Babuyan group of Islands and Batanes. Signal no. 1 has been also declared in Lubang Island, Bataan, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Northern Quezon, Aurora and Metro Manila.

There has been a lot of damages in property and a couple of deaths reported so I pray that we would be safe by this weekend.

Ride and Stay Alive

I just left the chat box a few seconds ago. I was talking to my best friend from a nearby province in the North because we have not seen each other in a while. Yes guys and gals, he was the same guy who had a motorcycle accident more than a year ago. I think he's okay now considering he lost his eyesight on the left and had major constructive surgery done on his face. He's got a daughter and family to take care of and even if it did cost a lot he needed to survive for them. I was at his side the whole yard and tried my best to at least ease some of his burden. With the boom and popularity of this mode of transport in the Philippines, we learned the hard way about the importance of road safety.

I love motorcycles do not get me wrong. I dream of having these particular bikes in my garage the next few years.

I know it is a long shot, but hey! You and I know anything is possible once you set your mind to it. In that same extent, I know I would be more careful about riding super bikes like these. In storms and gloomy weather, we should always check everything in our vehicle. The same goes with this DUCATI bike that Tom Cruise used in MI3. Riding in the night would also require us to get the best Motorcycle Light Bulbs. No matter how safe you think you are in the road we are powerless against other vehicles that do not obey traffic rules and regulations. I mean how in the world you could see in a foggy night for example if you do not have Harley Light Bulbs that can pierce through anything in the dark. Not only would you get lost, but you can easily get into trouble with the things in front of you. You could fall off a cliff God forbid if you do not take care of your bikes. Kawasaki Bulbs are also excellent in this particular dilemma. Since they are intended more for the Asian riders, they know how it is in this side of the world. Getting the best things for our motorcycles would not just make our rides pretty, it would help us stay alive the least.

I hope you learn something from this experience. Wear a helmet while on the road, it would not make you look silly but make other people think there is something inside your head right?! Take care!

Death Toll Rises to 27: Typhoon Dante

The number of deaths has risen to 27 as Typhoon Dante ravages the Bicol region.

It has included another fatality from yesterday's number: 26

This has been the latest tally as accorded by the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC).

In the casualties, 20 of them came from the province of Sorsogon, 2 were from Camarines Norte, 3 of them came from Camarines Sur, and 2 from Catanduanes.

Meanwhile, the number has risen to 43, 215 families or the equivalent of 236,887 people who were affected by Typhoon Dante from 220 barangays, 45 municipalities and 3 cities in the Bicol Region.

There are only 9,480 families or 54,308 individuals who are staying in 174 evacuation centers across the region.

There are additionally 5 more reported unconfirmed deaths as of this writing in Typhoon Dante's exit.

I pray there would be no more lives wasted in this natural disaster.