Microsoft Online Services Suffers Outage Due to DNS Error -- Redmondmag.com

Microsoft Online Services Suffers Outage Due to DNS Error

By Chris Paoli
09/09/2011

Microsoft reported that a DNS error caused Thursday night's outage Hotmail, MSN, Office 365, SkyDrive and other Microsoft Live services.

While Microsoft has not yet released further details, it said it had fixed the issue a few hours after the initial outage began.

"We have completed propagating our DNS configuration changes around the world, and have restored service for most customers," Microsoft wrote, in a blog post, at 11:49 p.m. PSD.

According to the company, the outage started in Asia-Pacific and then spread to Europe and the Americas. And while the initial time of outage has not been disclosed, Microsoft started reporting specific service outages over Twitter around 9:30 p.m. PSD.

However, beating Microsoft to the announcement were multiple online monitoring Web sites, such as downrightnow.com, which reported the issue an hour before.

This is the second time in less than a month that Microsoft services have suffered an outage. Office 365, CRM Online and SkyDrive went down for a short period of time on August 17 after a hosting issue hit one of Microsoft's North America data centers. Redmond responded to the incident by reducing Office 365 customer bills by 25 percent for the month.

Microsoft has given no word if it will offer a discount due to the recent outage.

About the Author

Chris Paoli (@ChrisPaoli5) is the associate editor for Converge360.

Featured

Cisco Warns of Brute Force Attacks Targeting VPNs and Firewalls

Cisco has revealed that a global increase in brute force attacks targeting Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and other devices is currently taking place.
What's Inside Microsoft 365's Security Toolbox?

Microsoft provides plenty of native tools to secure Microsoft 365. IT pros just have to know where to look.
Microsoft Kills 30-Day Data Retention Policy for Copilot in Fabric

Microsoft this week announced several usability improvements coming to Copilot in Fabric in preparation of its general availability release later this year.
Using Microsoft Office to Build a Network Diagram 2

Now that we've set up our process, let's dig in with the actual execution.
Microsoft Graph 'Activity Logs' Feature Goes Live

Microsoft announced the general availability of the "activity logs" capability in Microsoft Graph, giving administrators more options to track user activity and identify patterns of potential misuse.