Windows updates driving me crazy

[Wrichik Basu]

After today's major outage and bootloop in Windows, we have yet another reason to prefer Linux to Windows.

 

[DrJohn]

CrowdStrike was the source of today's problem, crashing customers' services in the Windows cloud system.

Who is daft enough to send out an update to all its customers worldwide simultaneously without testing it? CrowdStrike should have sent the update to one (small) region's customers, then waited for news of any problems when installed.

Or very very much better still, just tested it on a few machines of their own held in the cloud just to see what happens!

 

[Vanadium 50]

Who says they didn't test it?

 

[FactChecker]

Who says they didn't test it?

Could it be causing this big a problem if it had been tested reasonably well? Bugs can get through any testing, but it seems strange that this bug took so many computers are down and didn't get detected in tests.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I am willing to believe it wasn't tested adequately. The mess speaks for itself. I am questioning the claim that it wasn't tested at all. That some computers were affected and others were not seems to me to be suggestive and significant.

 

[FactChecker]

I am willing to believe it wasn't tested adequately. The mess speaks for itself. I am questioning the claim that it wasn't tested at all.

Yes, I agree. I can't believe that a software company wouldn't organizationally have testing requirements.

That some computers were affected and others were not

I didn't know that.

seems to me to be suggestive and significant.

Right.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I didn't know that.

As far as one can tell by asking around, most of the engineering/CAD PCs went down,but only maybe half of the "business desktop" PCs. (Most of the scientisist use Linux and so were not impacted)

Such machines are configured differently - CAD stations tend to be newer and better provisioned. The "business" machines tend to have less memory, integrated graphics, fewer cores, etc. So maybe there is something there. Maybe its just coincidence.

 

[russ_watters]

As far as one can tell by asking around, most of the engineering/CAD PCs went down,but only maybe half of the "business desktop" PCs. (Most of the scientisist use Linux and so were not impacted)

Such machines are configured differently - CAD stations tend to be newer and better provisioned. The "business" machines tend to have less memory, integrated graphics, fewer cores, etc. So maybe there is something there. Maybe its just coincidence.

I mean...maybe some use Crowdstrike and some don't? Do we actually know if it did or didn't affect all updated Crowdstrike pcs? Google tells me half of the Fortune 500 use it.

Or...are CAD machines more likely than business machines to be powered on at 2am?

 

[Vanadium 50]

I don't work in IT so can't tell you. I can say that all machines are centrally managed, and are supposed to stay on at night. Whether engineers are more compliant than accountants, I can't really say.

It strikes me as unlikely that IT would decide that this machine needs protection and that one does not, but it is a logical possibility. All I know for sure is that not every machine was impacted, and there seems to be a correlation between which ones were and were not hit. (And we all know about correlation and causality)