{"id":1370,"date":"2013-03-14T12:09:12","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T16:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=1370"},"modified":"2013-03-14T12:09:12","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T16:09:12","slug":"microsoft-blames-outlook-hotmail-outage-on-overheated-servers-apologizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/03\/14\/microsoft-blames-outlook-hotmail-outage-on-overheated-servers-apologizes\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft blames Outlook, Hotmail outage on overheated servers, apologizes"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

The outage that left Outlook.com and Hotmail users without access to their emails for almost 16 hours this week was due to overheating servers in the data center, Microsoft said.
\nThe service disruption began at around 1.30 p.m. PDT on March 12 and affected access to Hotmail.com and Outlook.com, as well as some SkyDrive service users. The issue was fixed some 16 hours later, at around 5.40 a.m. PDT on March 13. At the time, Microsoft acknowledged the problems but did not issue an explanation.
\nArthur de Haan, Microsoft\u2019s vice president, explained in a blog post late on Wednesday that the outage happened after the company updated firmware on a core part of its systems.
\nHe wrote: \u201cThis is an update that had been done successfully previously, but failed in this specific instance in an unexpected way. This failure resulted in a rapid and substantial temperature spike in the datacenter. This spike was significant enough before it was mitigated that it caused our safeguards to come in to place for a large number of servers in this part of the datacenter.\u201d
\nHumans had to intervene!
\nThe overheating issue prevented access to users\u2019 mailboxes stored on the affected servers, and also prevented the system to switch to standby servers to allow continued access, de Haan explained, so the fix needed both software and human intervention.
\n\u201cRequiring this kind of human intervention is not the norm for our services and added significant time to the restoration,\u201d he said.
\nMicrosoft apologized for the outage, but did not say exactly how many users were affected: \u201cWe sincerely apologize and regret the impact this outage had on all of you. Now that we’re through the resolution, we’re also hard at work on ensuring this doesn’t happen again.\u201d
\nIn case of future outages, De Haan wrote that “https:\/\/status.live.com is always the best and most reliable way to get real time information specific to any service issues that we are encountering, and when you are signed in, is customized based on the health of your specific account.”
\nBad timing
\nThe outage did not come at a good time for Microsoft. The revamped Outlook.com debuted in preview mode last July, heralded as the successor of Hotmail and a rival to Gmail and Yahoo Mail.
\nAfter extensive testing, Microsoft opened up Outlook.com for anyone who wanted to migrate from Hotmail, ahead of a complete migration of 360 million email accounts by the summer of 2013.
\nSixty million Hotmail users migrated to the new service. However, a 16-hour outage is not the most reassuring signal to send to Outlook.com users, who also have been unable to access their account for several days in mid January and again in late February.
\nvia Microsoft blames Outlook, Hotmail outage on overheated servers, apologizes | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The outage that left Outlook.com and Hotmail users without access to their emails for almost 16 hours this week was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[487,788,962],"class_list":["post-1370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-microsoft","category-networking","tag-hotmail","tag-outlook","tag-server-outage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-m6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7276,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/12\/29\/sony-playstation-network-is-back-online-now-really\/","url_meta":{"origin":1370,"position":0},"title":"Sony: PlayStation Network is back online now, really","author":"NCCT","date":"December 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"After giving gamers false hope on Saturday, Sony now says its PlayStation Network has been fully restored after a Christmas Day attack that knocked it offline for about three days. At around 1 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Sunday, Sony declared its online gaming platform fixed and, as it had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Networking"","block_context":{"text":"Networking","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/networking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8593,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/09\/01\/microsoft-accused-of-adding-spy-features-to-windows-7-8\/","url_meta":{"origin":1370,"position":1},"title":"Microsoft accused of adding spy features to Windows 7, 8","author":"NCCT","date":"September 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"By\u00a0 Peter Bright | Ars Technica Windows' network activity continues to be scrutinized amid privacy concerns. Windows 10 was first put under the microscope with both new and old features causing concern. With its Cortana digital personal assistant, Windows 10 represents a new breed of operating system that incorporates extensive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Microsoft"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/microsoft\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7063,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/12\/10\/pirate-site-the-pirate-bay-goes-down-then-sails-for-costa-rica\/","url_meta":{"origin":1370,"position":2},"title":"Pirate site The Pirate Bay goes down, then sails for Costa Rica","author":"NCCT","date":"December 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The original home of The Pirate Bay, probably the Web\u2019s highest-profile site for copyrighted movies, music, and software, is no longer online. However, at least a placeholder is alive on a Costa Rican domain\u2014though not much more than that. TorrentFreak first noted the outage. The site\u2019s reporters said that they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2907,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/07\/12\/windows-server-2012-r2-preview-your-cloud-on-ramp-is-under-construction\/","url_meta":{"origin":1370,"position":3},"title":"Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview: Your cloud on-ramp is under construction","author":"NCCT","date":"July 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been just under a year since Microsoft released Windows Server 2012. Touted as an operating system built for the cloud, Server 2012 promised some significant improvements to storage, networking, and virtualization services. It tried to strike a balance between the complex and varied needs of its data center customers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Microsoft"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/microsoft\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview: Your cloud on-ramp is under construction | Ars Technica","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/dynamic-memory-980x632.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/dynamic-memory-980x632.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/dynamic-memory-980x632.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/dynamic-memory-980x632.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6466,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/09\/24\/apple-releases-icloud-drive-for-windows-mac-users-have-to-wait-until-yosemite-is-out\/","url_meta":{"origin":1370,"position":4},"title":"Apple releases iCloud Drive for Windows, Mac users have to wait until Yosemite is out","author":"NCCT","date":"September 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Apple started rolling a revamped version of iCloud this week with the arrival of iOS 8. Dubbed iCloud Drive, the cloud storage service is now more akin to Dropbox and Google Drive in that you can actually access and store stuff through a file system. But while iPhone users who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apple"","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/apple\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6231,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/08\/11\/microsoft-to-issue-many-windows-patches\/","url_meta":{"origin":1370,"position":5},"title":"Microsoft to issue many Windows patches","author":"NCCT","date":"August 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Microsoft has released their advance notification for the August 2014 Patch Tuesday updates. There will be a total of nine updates issued next Tuesday, August 12, two of them rated critical. The two critical bugs affect Windows and Internet Explorer. The critical Windows update affects only business and professional editions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Microsoft"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/microsoft\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}