The main channel got an update today. Simon Linden tells us this is a good one. While we can’t see changes, no new shiny, there is considerable system performance improvement on the back side.
Quoting
We updated the main server channel this morning. The most interesting part of the update is internal – not normally visible. But, we got a big improvement in the caps router … an essential part of keeping regions and viewers happy.
… we made one part of the big system work better.
A caps router directs the regions’ requests for various tasks to the correct servers. I don’t have a lot of information on how all the parts work. I know there are a number of regions in a server host. The server host establishes a connection to the various other computers in the system that handle various tasks. It then provides each region with information needed to connect or receive information from those backend servers.

Places Are Not Evil – People Are
Getting a copy of your inventory list, seeing friends online, talking to the asset server… these are all capabilities of the system, caps. Of course, voice and chat are part of the servers provided by backend servers.
You may be aware that when servers are updated on the Tuesday and Wednesday restarts that a number of regions fail to come back online as they should. One noted problem is not being able to log into a region. You may be able to TP into it, but things don’t work well. That region is likely in a host that has failed to connect to the caps, is suffering what is called caps failure. Continue reading →