[HN Gopher] Wolf Incident Postmortem
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       Wolf Incident Postmortem
        
       Author : zzq
       Score  : 91 points
       Date   : 2023-01-19 17:43 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.jefftk.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.jefftk.com)
        
       | dvh wrote:
       | Reminds me of an admin story where each incident ended with
       | updating /etc/motd
        
       | Communitivity wrote:
       | This is awesome. Job well done, and hats off sir.
        
       | barbazoo wrote:
       | I don't get the joke but I browsed a bit, got to the story about
       | "MA RMV Overloaded" [0] where they tried to renew their driver
       | license. I was baffled by the fact that it was possible at all
       | and even faster to renew your official driver license through a
       | private company (AAA) than through their DMV office.
       | 
       | [0] https://www.jefftk.com/p/ma-rmv-overloaded
        
         | kayodelycaon wrote:
         | It's a reference to this story:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Cried_Wolf
         | 
         | :)
        
         | mlyle wrote:
         | It's about the "boy who cried wolf" vs how incident management
         | works.
         | 
         | False positives can make real issues get an insufficient
         | response when they occur (e.g. sentinel getting eaten).
        
           | jandrese wrote:
           | False positives can be a far more serious issue than people
           | are willing to admit. There are plenty of loss of life
           | incident reports that include wording like "the operator
           | disabled the alert system due to numerous false positives"
           | near the beginning.
           | 
           | An example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zDcsjHyxr8
        
       | thebetatester wrote:
       | It took me longer than I care to admit to figure out this wasn't
       | talking about a real incident. I figured flock was about some
       | Kubernetes/VM thing.
        
         | michaelnoguera wrote:
         | Context for those wondering: The Boy Who Cried Wolf
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Cried_Wolf#The_fab...
        
       | msla wrote:
       | Here I thought Jeff K was a sly fox, not a wolf.
        
       | pixiemaster wrote:
       | Cruel.
        
       | cialowicz wrote:
       | Well done. Seems like a good prototype to show someone who is
       | unfamiliar with how a postmortem should be written up.
        
         | paulgb wrote:
         | Indeed. Bookmarked it for exactly this.
        
       | h2odragon wrote:
       | Sensor was faulty, sensor replaced, system functioning normally.
        
       | 0xbadcafebee wrote:
       | The only wolf evidence are alerts by a now-missing sentry saying
       | "wolf" twice and "real wolf" once. Yet the conclusion due to
       | missing sentry is 'wolf', and not only that, that there must have
       | been only one wolf rather than a pack. If you don't have
       | supporting evidence, this conclusion may be faulty, and the real
       | fault may return.
       | 
       | My initial reaction is that there is no wolf. The sentinel began
       | exhibiting a mental bug that reoccurred for 2 days until the
       | sentinel broke and wandered off. I think the resolution should
       | have an action item to continue closely monitoring sentinels for
       | further bugs, and collect metrics to show proof of wolf. And, you
       | know, maybe come up with an additional wolf countermeasure (if
       | the fault was a wolf, it will probably come back)
        
       | layer8 wrote:
       | A very good observation: https://www.jefftk.com/p/wolf-incident-
       | postmortem#1096589888...
        
       | abeppu wrote:
       | I really prefer when the "postmortem" label is metaphorical.
        
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       (page generated 2023-01-19 23:02 UTC)