FlatTurtle Blog
9 July 2024, 16:13
At FlatTurtle, we recently encountered a peculiar performance issue at a large site in Ghent, Belgium. The network, which supports various critical operations, including EV charging stations, started showing irregularities. The charging stations were randomly going offline, causing significant inconvenience and raising eyebrows among the users (and the network admins alike).
Our team quickly initiated a thorough investigation using our comprehensive monitoring tools. As seen in the attached pictures, the monitoring data for the last three days revealed a massive spike in CPU usage on the switches. The culprit? A broken switch provided by a third-party vendor was somehow sending a ton of broken packets, causing excessive bandwidth consumption and network issues.
This incident underscores the importance of having proper monitoring systems in place. Without monitoring, identifying the root cause would have been much more challenging and time-consuming – another reason to avoid unmanaged and consumer hardware in professional environments. It also highlights the need for using trustworthy hardware that can be efficiently troubleshooted. In this case, the faulty switch disrupted the network’s performance, affecting part of the site’s functionality.
Furthermore, this situation illustrates the risks associated with mixing and matching various network providers. Such practices can create blind spots and introduce equipment that may not be fully compatible. VLANs and other configurations are not (automatically) synced across different models and vendors, leading to potential network inconsistencies.
To prevent such issues, it’s advisable to work with a single network provider responsible for the entire setup. This ensures seamless integration and compatibility of all network components. Additionally, any new equipment should be neatly documented (“what’s plugged in where, and what does it do?”) and integrated into the existing network infrastructure with proper oversight.
At FlatTurtle, we emphasize the need for a cohesive network strategy, utilizing reliable hardware and consistent monitoring to ensure optimal performance. This approach not only resolves issues swiftly but also enhances the overall network reliability, keeping operations smooth and uninterrupted.
Prioritise comprehensive monitoring and reliable hardware, and avoid the pitfalls of mixing various network providers (each with their own take, configuration and methods). FlatTurtle ensures that our clients enjoy seamless and efficient network operations and act as single point of contact when other vendors need to connect their own devices to the network.
For more information on our services and how we can help maintain robust network performance, visit FlatTurtle Services.
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