Maintenance takes precedence

[Steve Clayton]

Was checking the EA site this morning for predictive flooding. It was working and at 9:50 it now says

Service Maintenance
Our mapping internet services are temporarily unavailable, while we carry out essential maintenance work and improvements to the system. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. We will restore normal service as soon as possible.

Never mind what the users need, or the importance of the information - maintenance is KING. Don't you just love IT!!!!

 

[sarabande]

Could be that the servers are being overwhelmed by people accessing the maps, and the systems are being extended in order to cope with the work ?

Seems a sensible thing to do to me, but I do agree they ought to be al ittle more open about what exactly they are doing. It's not a bl**dy state secret !

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

May also be a default for "the server has gone tilt due to the number of users" or similar.

 

[Captain Coochie]

Bit of a bad time to be making improvements when we are all worried about our pride and joy bobbing about in flood water .

 

[andyoxon]

.....or more like, revising the 100 year / 1000 year flood lines to reduce the number of people hassling them for providing inaccurate information.

Is that a bit cynical?

A

 

[Steve Clayton]

Surely the EA have load tested the servers and access paths for various circumstances; then set the limits which when reached prevents further access with the appropriate message??
......or am I being cynical?

It's working now!

Angela will be along soon and give us an update (but she must be quite busy at the moment with other priorities)

Adendum at 11:30 - it pi$$ing it down in Eynsham!!!

 

[angelaquayle]

Hi - yes I am a bit busy but trying to keep checking this forum once in a while!

The flood mapping looks like it's working fine (the bit where you put in your postcode on the home page to see whether you are at risk). It's VERY unlikely that any maintenance is being done - if anything it's probably the servers - or a temporary thing while something was being sorted out. It's run nationally and would have been rigorously tested against lots of people needing to access the info.

This is the first time that I have been in the EA while flooding is happening - personally, I think the difficulty in communications is because everyone is working together to deal with the situation and there is lots of media interest to deal with at the same time - whish is also important! A difficult balance. People in all of the Reading teams are out talking to people who live in streets that might be affected to make sure everybody is doing what they can. Got to go now!
Angela

 

[Steve Clayton]

[ QUOTE ]
I think the difficulty in communications is because everyone is working together to deal with the situation...

[/ QUOTE ]
and from my perspective and information that comes my way then what a good job they are doing given the changing (dare I say "fluid") circumstances.
Certainly just above and below Swinford toll bridge is higher water and more flooding than it was the day before so in the upper reaches it's not receeding yet.