Most of the desktop computers in the UK's Department for Work and Pensions were paralyzed for four days on Monday, when a failed upgrade took them offline. The outage, covering 75 percent to 80 percent of the DWP's 80,000 PCs, is one of the largest in the UK government's not entirely impressive IT history.
And possibly one of the most costly. According to staff reports, the outage occurred on Monday afternoon, disconnecting staff e-mail, benefits processing, and Internet and intranet connectivity. According to one, a limited network upgrade from Windows 2000 to Windows XP was taking place, but instead of this taking place on only a small number of the target machines, all the clients connected to the network received a partial, but fatal, "upgrade."
News source: eWeek
And possibly one of the most costly. According to staff reports, the outage occurred on Monday afternoon, disconnecting staff e-mail, benefits processing, and Internet and intranet connectivity. According to one, a limited network upgrade from Windows 2000 to Windows XP was taking place, but instead of this taking place on only a small number of the target machines, all the clients connected to the network received a partial, but fatal, "upgrade."
News source: eWeek
Build 11 24 November 2004
* Made code to start/stop programs and services multi-threaded for faster execution
* Added a few more descriptions for possible error messages when starting/stopping services
* Fixed bug that caused crash in GUI when loading a profile with a filename longer than 20 characters
* Added auto-arrange to the main profile window (icons will arrange themselves as the window is resized)
The patching systems replaced some of the Win2K dlls with XP dlls in effect bringing it down.
I don't think Microsoft can be held responsible for this, yet I got the feeling that the person who wrote the article wanted us to think that.
Everyone always blames the computers when something goes wrong
Removed by author to reduce further flames. Sorry guys, didn't mean it!
Last edited by 44562 on 29 Nov 2004 - 09:03
But you are feeding forder to trolls.
Last edited by 36818 on 28 Nov 2004 - 14:00
I was telling my wannabe Linux fanboi that since they have a real company backing them (rather than downloading a Linux distro), they'll get real support, rather than having to post on a forum.
I might take the time to point out that as was pointed out before, Linux comes with as much support as Windows.
And, as a reminder: yes, you can get warned for trolling in the news section of Neowin, too.
no doubt the 7 they were testing deployment to worked fine.
--DK
I just wish our government IT systems weren't so dependant on Microsoft software, far too costly in my view, and updating kernel/librarys/software should not cause the system to crash!
Last edited by 20986 on 28 Nov 2004 - 10:41
If that was not an example of advocating the use of OSS software!!, Unfortunatly government departments WILL NOT switch to linux because it does not meet their requirments for security, adaptability and the support issues involved would be far greater than using micorsoft software. Yes i know that you can get support with one of the major distros, but when your IT Dept (7 technicians) looks after some 3000 pcs all over the country, we want the easiest solutions to provide support to our end users (i.e. Technet and the corporate support we have with microsoft). To me this is why Linux has not taken off with the home user nor OEM's as it would be a knight mare to support. So don't be to quick to jump on people just because linux was brought up (I believe you are a supporter of linux, was this a knee jerk because you thought i was knocking it, Far from it!) i was trying to point out that the fault lies with EDS as they have screwed up many of the contracts they have, look at the Child Suport Agency, Dept of Work & Pensions, the passport office, etc
I just thought your comment may have been sort of for section 4, not 7...
Somehow I don't think that would make a whole lot of difference when you roll an XP patch out on a win2k machine.
theres 2 valid reasons for it and besides the GOVT have an software assurance from MS (being a big customer).
The upgrade of licences from their W2k to XP doesnt cost them more than their annual subs to MS.
And for the rest who say oooh they should have tested it.
They did you knobbers if you read the actual article befor eposting it you would see that.
Techies did what they were asked , it was the boffins sitting in his office that decided do them all (prolly a Degree Grad in 1st week of post over long term techies, who have the practical experince hehe)
Last edited by 46870 on 30 Nov 2004 - 08:51
UK Gov't Admin Team Mistakenly Rolls-out Particial WinXP Upgrade Downing 60,000 PCs
The current headline makes it seem that it was Microsoft's fault...they had nothing to do with it.
it's a shame for UK though...
They should employ people with out a cabbage for a brain.
I don't understand why they need to go from 2k to xp. They still use nt4 on atm machines, what a joke.
Everyone is pointing the finger at EDS as they normally cock things up pretty good but this isn't really their fault. They were asked to upgrade the systems and they did, then they were asked to cancel it which they did (to be honest they shouldn't have done this really).
it says that it WASN'T MICROSOFT FAULT
What I found hilarious is that I been out of work for the last year with 10+ years experience & an MCSA in the IT field.
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