* * * * *
Renumbering
For several reasons we need to consolidate a large portion of our IP
(Internet Protocol) addresses so that Smirk can transfer a sufficiently sized
block to the new Charlotte, North Carolina [1] data center we're moving into.
It's never easy to renumber, and I knew this was coming up, but I didn't
realize that Smirk would require it done today.
We had already reassigned a block to a customer, leaving us with The Office
machines, and the DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) units to renumber. The Office
would be trivial compared to renumber the DSL units.
Renumbering the DSL units.
Which includes one particularly annoying unit [2], who had to have their DSL
unit reconfigured twice!
Sigh.
Now, unlike residential DSL, we manage both sides of the connection. Also, we
give out static IP addresses (and blocks of IP addresses, although the larger
block of IP addresses per DSL customer isn't changing, it's the IP address of
the individual DSL unit that is). So it's not like we can call our customers
and say “just power cycle your DSL unit.”
On our end, not only do I have to reconfigure the DSL unit, but change some
routing entries on our DSL router, and make changes to the radius database
(which customers get which IP addresses) and make sure to do the changes in
the correct order or else I'll have to end up talking to the customer at the
far end, trying to talk them (invariably non-computer literate) through the
steps to change the DSL configuration.
I manged to do it, but it wasn't smooth (mostly loosing connection to the far
end, which is an occupational hazzard when you are trying to do this
remotely). And I ended up talking to all the customers (and even visiting the
site of that one particularlly annoying unit [3]) and now we have a bunch of
IP addresses to assign to the Charlotte, North Carolina site.
[1]
http://www.charmeck.nc.us/
[2]
gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2006/06/22.1
[3]
gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2006/06/22.1
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