upvote
The 11:05:31 PM UTC update is is the first since the outage began that feels hopeful.

From the 11:06:31 PM UTC update:

Current status: We've begun returning a portion of the affected servers to service, and they're remaining stable so far. We've also shifted traffic and connections to alternative pathways wherever possible and have observed limited recovery in some regions.

We've streamlined our recovery process to expedite returning the remaining affected servers to service. To further support recovery, we're implementing protective traffic management measures in a specific location to reduce load on the affected infrastructure, and we'll expand these measures to additional locations if we observe positive results. As capacity is restored, users may experience a gradual recovery as their clients reconnect to the service.

---

The 10:11:39 PM UTC update is a little chilling. They don't know why what's happening is happening so they're doing experiments.

I do that with closed-source software when I don't want to bother trying reverse engineer it, but these guys have the code! Yikes.

I recognize that even w/ the code available there are likely behaviors that aren't likely to be anticipated because of the scale of traffic. Complex systems fail in complex and non-intuitive ways.

From the 10:11:39 PM UTC update:

Current status: We're continuing to pursue all available pathways to restore service, as our actions taken thus far have not provided the anticipated relief. Our investigation has found that a core process on the affected servers is becoming overwhelmed, which causes the servers to stop responding and contributes to the capacity loss.

To validate a potential recovery approach, we're fully isolating a portion of our service infrastructure, restarting the affected components, and gradually reintroducing traffic to confirm our services remain stable before applying this approach more broadly. We're also analyzing traffic patterns across our entire service infrastructure and evaluating whether isolating traffic within each region may allow affected regions to recover independently.

reply
The code by itself doesn't tell you how the various components of a complex distributed system interact in a failure condition with clients hammering retries.

I mean it sort of does if you know the whole system inside and out and have the ability to reason about it, but just having the code for each component doesn't by itself solve the real problem of understanding

reply
> these guys have the code!

But maybe don't understand it because they didn't write it themselves?

reply
The one guy that did understand the code took VEO, and isn’t answering his phone right now.
reply
1. Life imitate Art

2. Art imitate Life

3. Goto 1

https://youtu.be/3TNpOD6bov8

reply
Not exactly confidence inspiring.
reply
Update as of 10 minutes ago implies that didn't work:

> Current status: We’re continuing to pursue all available pathways to restore service, as our actions taken thus far have not provided the anticipated relief. Our investigation has found that a core process on the affected servers is becoming overwhelmed, which causes the servers to stop responding and contributes to the capacity loss.

reply
So health checks were correct… this solution of silencing the first symptom is probably just adding to the problem. I am afraid they may be opening the door for the fire trucks and getting some other kind of intrusion instead. Better they shut it down for day and do proper fix.
reply
deleted
reply