When I think of an enjoyable, relaxing Friday night, I do not envision running around my company’s data center, tracing cables, logging into switches and routers via console trying to track down a network loop.

So, it’s 10pm now, and the problem has been resolved. Only 3 hours, too!

Network loops are particularly annoying with less-than-ideal network configurations, or networks that are using overloaded and/or aging products. We use a couple of Foundry BigIrons as our core switches, and no matter how many Foundry technicians we throw at them, they always seem to have spanning tree problems.

I’m sure many of you would have words of wisdom for me, but let’s just say that I’ll be a happier person when we move on to a more stable, modern, and solid network configuration. (Note: I’m not slighting Foundry, just our particular *use* of this Foundry equipment.