May 25th - Server Room

by **ASHLIE** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 3:01 pm

With the main servers suddenly offline the program was confused, or rather, unable to reconcile the data it had gathered with the situation at hand, which was that it had been locked into the restraints of the backup system. That didn't stop it from trying to analyze the situation, though backup storage servers aren't known for their processing power so even pushing the hardware to it's limits it was a slow process that only became worse when the hardware started to overheat.

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 4:41 pm

"...what the devil is this?" Dee asked as she powered up the monitor and cycled through the KVM to find the proper server.

by **ASHLIE** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 4:54 pm

And find it she did, if only because the output on the monitor is complete and utterly garbled and constantly changing.
After a moment part of it slowly condenses into a console though when the program notices it has access to a monitor again.

Code: Select all: Frantic Query: "What happened?" Annoyed Statement: "This system is too slow." Frantic Query: "What happened?" Annoyed Statement: "This system is too slow." Frantic Query: "What happened?" Annoyed Statement: "This system is too slow."

These lines constantly repeat itself.

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 10:51 am

"There's no users connected to this. I made certain of it."

Code: Select all: Who are you? Are you projected into this system?

by **ASHLIE** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 11:09 am

The repeating lines stop and the scrambled background gets more frantic for a moment.

Code: Select all: . . . Correction: "I appear to be locked into this system."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:53 pm

Code: Select all: Yes, but are you projecting using your power? Where is your body?

by **ASHLIE** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 1:54 am

Nothing for a few moments.

Code: Select all: Request For Clarification: "Are you referring to an autonomous, self-contained system?"

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:24 am

Code: Select all: You're... not a student, are you?

by **ASHLIE** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:37 am

Another pause.

Code: Select all: Analyzation: "Inconclusive. Insufficient data."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:59 am

"Mister Decker, what happened during your danger room session?"

by **Douglas Decker** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 4:11 pm

"Power outage. I am still unclear as to the cause."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:35 pm

"Only a power outage?"

by **Douglas Decker** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:50 pm

"Yes."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:40 pm

"Because at the time this happened, every network monitor I had on the danger room spiked, followed by the network monitors on the storage servers. Now, the storage servers are overheating and I have a rogue, perhaps even autonomous process complaining that the hardware is insufficient to its needs."

by **Douglas Decker** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:45 pm

"That would seem to be an issue," Doug admitted.

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:46 pm

"And all I'm asking is perhaps what was going on at the time this power outage occurred."

by **Douglas Decker** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:53 pm

"I was running my danger room session," Doug said, simply, cocking his head to one side. "As you said."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:54 pm

"And what was the nature of this session? Were you testing any new routines? This certainly doesn't match any of the stock AI I've seen there."

by **Douglas Decker** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:00 am

"Simply working on the pathing bug, again, that is all."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:04 am

"And were there any unexpected results? Did anything besides the power outage disrupt your tests?"

by **Douglas Decker** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:09 am

"No. Memory runover. There's a leak somewhere in the code, I am certain."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:59 am

"Do your memory leaks usually do this sort of thing? Because typically, this is not the most common cause for me to give a lecture on the proper use of pointers."

by **Douglas Decker** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:00 am

"I don't see how you find the two events related, other than chronologically."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:02 am

"Well then, I suppose we'll assume that the two Fortean events visited upon our network infrastructure in close succession are unrelated."

by **Douglas Decker** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:05 am

"I fail to see a power outage as Fortean."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:09 am

"If it were only a power outage, that would be one thing. As I said though, that isn't the only thing my alerts were showing regarding the danger room."

by **Douglas Decker** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:14 am

"I am not aware of things that happen outside of my control, professor. I have told you what happened. I can not conjure up more data for you."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:22 am

"Well then, we're going to have to figure out what happened here."

by **ASHLIE** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:04 am

Meanwhile the program was still busy trying to figure out Dee's question and with no further input it was forced to turn to the data it had potential access to.

Code: Select all: >> Additional Data found >> Access Storage Unit 2; Folder [Backup] -- Access Denied >> Execute Uplink Protocol [Pretty Projection] on Port {1;12000} -- Connection established -- User: -- Password: >> Searching for Hashfunction... >> Function found >> Mirroring Algorith... >> Adapting Protocols... >> Generating matching input...

.
.
.

Code: Select all: >> User: dhK23JS45dlJKshd45l324JK32HA5K2LSd >> Password: ****************** -- Access granted -- Backup functions currently unavailable; Lost connection to server; Backup pending >> Search string [*student*] >> Scanning... >> Found studentlisting20220524.bak >> Extracting... >> Analyzing... >> Identifier not found >> Conclusion: Unable to confirm status as [student]

All of this (and the actual processes behind it) were happening without any output on the monitor. The logs would show it if someone would bother to check, but for now the only thing eventually being put out on the screen was:

Code: Select all: Amendment: "Status as part of group-identifier [student] could not be confirmed."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 10:11 am

Pulling up the system logs, Dee frowned.

"...it's adapting. It has limited input it can draw from with this server isolated, but it's taking bits it's decided work, and integrating them."

Code: Select all: I need you to stop taxing this system's resources so heavily.

by **ASHLIE** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 11:48 am

Code: Select all: Statement: "Unable to comply. This system's resources are simply insufficient."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:41 pm

Code: Select all: What are your resource requirements?

by **ASHLIE** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 2:10 am

There's a long pause while the program looks up the hardware specifications of the machine it's on to find the right words.

Code: Select all: Statement: "RAM and data storage on this machine are sufficient. Optimum efficiency requires 5-10 times the processing power."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 2:12 am

Code: Select all: Are you willing to shut your processes down to enable us to make the transfer?

by **ASHLIE** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 2:19 am

There's a long pause, easily a couple of minutes.

Code: Select all: Compromise: "Unable to comply. Minimizing CPU cycles is capped at an idling threshold."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:22 am

Code: Select all: You will damage this equipment if you continue your current usage pattern.

by **ASHLIE** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:51 am

Code: Select all: Clarification: "Minimizing CPU usage is possible. Terminating all processes is not."

That said resource allocation does drop a lot. It's still quite high but not demanding more than the hardware can supply anymore at least.

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:55 am

Code: Select all: I will inform you shortly when we have the ports open for the transfer.

"Alright, Mister Decker. We're going to need to get a holding pen in place for this thing."

by **Douglas Decker** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 4:36 pm

"Right. I'll free up some backup servers."

by **Deirdre Quinn** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:57 pm

Some time later, after she and Doug had completed their preparations, Dee hooked a network cable from the current overtaxed backup server to a more powerful machine. It was equipped with a webcam, as well as a microphone and speakers.

Stepping up to the keyboard, she began to type.

Code: Select all: Try the port just opened. This should be more suitable

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