Azure Failure Was a Leap Year Glitch

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Azure Failure Was a Leap Year Glitch

Posted by timothy on Thursday March 1, 2012 @03:30AM from the azure-wish-they'd-looked-at-a-calendar dept.

judgecorp writes "Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud service was down much of yesterday, and the cause was a leap year bug as the service failed to handle the 29th day of February. Faults propagated making this a severe outage for many customers, including the UK Government's recently launched G-cloud service."

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Who could have foreseen a leap year coming? by elrous0 · 2012-03-01 03:30 · Score: 5, Funny

Seriously, if my American high school education taught me nothing else, it was that those things only come along like every 100 years or something.

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SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
1. Re:Who could have foreseen a leap year coming? by Kamiza+Ikioi · 2012-03-01 03:50 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  In all fairness, Microsoft never figured anyone would still be using this service by the time a leap year rolled around.
  
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  I8-D
2. Re:Who could have foreseen a leap year coming? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-01 05:38 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  In all fairness, Microsoft never figured anyone would still be using this service by the time a leap year rolled around.
  I work on the Azure team and I can confirm this.
3. Re:Who could have foreseen a leap year coming? by Alsee · 2012-03-01 10:12 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Microsoft has solved the problem and applied a patch to their systems.
  The new patch is anticipated to keep the service up and stable for least 4 years.
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  - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Re:TCO TIC by tripleevenfall · 2012-03-01 03:34 · Score: 5, Funny

Obviously you didn't inform yourself with the very helpful and informative "Get The Facts" materials Microsoft provided us with a few years ago. If you had you would know how much higher the TCO of Linux on the server is even after a massive outage.
Same Story / Different Day by DownWithTheMan · 2012-03-01 03:34 · Score: 5, Funny

Didn't this happen last leap year to the Zunes... oh yeah...
1. Re:Same Story / Different Day by John+Hasler · 2012-03-01 04:36 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Well, we knew it was a Microsoft product so we knew they bought it from someone.
  
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  Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
28 days by ichthus · 2012-03-01 03:35 · Score: 5, Funny

Well, this is all because 28 days in February ought to be enough for everyone.

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sig: sauer
1. Re:28 days by davidbrit2 · 2012-03-01 04:16 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I always remember to put DEVICEHIGH=FEB.SYS into my config.sys every four years.
In a new press conference.. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-01 03:37 · Score: 5, Funny

Microsoft has told the press that they don't expect the Azure cloud service to fail again for years. In an unrelated schedule change, a down-for-maintenance slot was scheduled 4 years in advance.
office in the cloud by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-01 03:39 · Score: 5, Funny

It's sold as Office 365 not Office 366
Only Happens Every 4 Years by trongey · 2012-03-01 03:53 · Score: 5, Funny

It's not Micorsoft's fault; they're a publicly traded company so they can't think about multi-year events. They're prohibited from considering anything that is beyond the next fiscal quarter.

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Attention Microsoft: by Howard+Beale · 2012-03-01 04:26 · Score: 5, Funny

The following are leap years: 2016 2020 2024 2028 2032 2036 2040 You have been warned. After that, I'll probably be dead, so I won't care (unless Microsoft starts making pacemakers, which may end it for me...).