[AC-Admins] Network link configuration and a bit of data collection

[Pippin Bear]

This morning I saw the discussion in #opers last night about the state
of the network and thought I'd try to do something about it.

For each server, could someone please do a traceroute from that server
to each other server in the list below and mail me the results, please?
I will accumulate the output here: http://husky.floof.org/anthrochat/
I'll then mull over the results and see if I can propose a better link
plan for the network.

Easy way to get the traceroutes (works on Debian, might not work on
others): paste this into a POSIX /bin/sh-compatible shell on your server
and mail me the output.

##### cut here #####
for dest in 66.71.226.37:cheetah.anthrochat.net \
            208.185.247.163:glider.anthrochat.net \
            213.166.30.68:husky.anthrochat.net \
            205.244.242.238:lion.anthrochat.net \
            67.18.92.223:otter.anthrochat.net \
            65.110.40.90:pholph.anthrochat.net \
            66.148.84.24:snowleopard.anthrochat.net \
            83.246.116.54:squirrel.anthrochat.net \
            204.14.18.130:tixen.anthrochat.net
do
  addr="$(expr "$dest" : '\(.*\):')"
  name="$(expr "$dest" : '.*:\(.*\)')"
  echo; echo "$name"; echo "$name" | tr -c '\n' =; echo
  mtr --report "$addr" || /usr/sbin/traceroute "$addr" || traceroute "$addr"
  echo
done
##### cut here #####

[I prefer using mtr (<URL:http://www.bitwizard.nl/mtr/>, apt-gettable
in Debian) to traceroute these days myself: it uses ICMP instead of UDP
so works through more firewalls, it tends to send packets more evenly
spaced which helps get realistic results and is nicer to the network,
and it runs in a more predictable amount of time.  Also the output is
prettier. ;) The only downside I've found so far is that it seems to
ignore (some?) ICMP errors coming back; won't show "network unreachable"
replies for example.]

If the above script doesn't work for you, here's the list of hosts to
traceroute to.  Please trace using the IP address, not the name - otter,
at least, is currently CNAMEd to a rotary.

66.71.226.37    cheetah.anthrochat.net
208.185.247.163 glider.anthrochat.net
213.166.30.68   husky.anthrochat.net
205.244.242.238 lion.anthrochat.net
67.18.92.223    otter.anthrochat.net
65.110.40.90    pholph.anthrochat.net
66.148.84.24    snowleopard.anthrochat.net
83.246.116.54   squirrel.anthrochat.net
204.14.18.130   tixen.anthrochat.net

While we're at it, could you also let me know two other things.  First,
the physical location of your server, rounded to the nearest town or city,
so that I can put it in the right place on the Google-based map I want
to get back to working on soon.  I'll list the info I have on the same
page as above.

Second, which servers you'd like notifications about from nagios, and what
email addresses you'd like the notifications to go to.  Personally, I'm
going to have notifications for all servers, because I'm nosy like that.
By default I'll assume you want notifications for your own server only,
and to send them to your email address as subscribed to the mailing list.
(I plan to stop sending alerts to the mailing list soon, because those
often seem to get delayed and are then useless and spammy.)  I'm happy
to send to multiple addresses for you if you like.  If you want terse
emails sent to an address which forwards to an SMS phone or pager,
please mention that.

Wheee.

Pippin