From: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Message-Id: <200409292032.i8TKWAE19498@candle.pha.pa.us>
Subject: Re: [pgsql-advocacy] Server unreliability
In-Reply-To: <200409291041.30627.darcy@wavefire.com>
To: Darcy Buskermolen <darcy@wavefire.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 16:32:10 -0400 (EDT)
Cc: pgsql-advocacy@postgresql.org, pgsql-www@postgresql.org
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Darcy Buskermolen wrote:
> On September 29, 2004 10:13 am, you wrote:
> > It is my opinion that we have to make major changes in the way we
> > provide hosting for our servers.  There are several problems:
> >
> > o  Location of servers
> >
> > The location of our servers in Panama is a problem.  They are too far
> > for any PostgreSQL maintainers to access.  Changing hardware or
> > diagnosing problems has been too hard.  I have had like 2 days of
> > downtime on my home machine in the past 12 years.  We have had more than
> > 2 days of downtime in the past 6 months.  My wife would not accept such
> > a reliability level.
> 
> Yes location is a bit of a concern, but I think it's muchless of a concern 
> than the rest of the issues. I think with hardware/jail issues sorted out 
> this one will for the most part take careof it's self, or at least be far 
> less apparent.

I agree, and Marc has an idea for remote administration too.

> >
> > o  FreeBSD
> >
> > The use of FreeBSD jails can cause servers to take +8 hours to fsck on a
> > server crash or power failure.  Again, I would never accept such
> > problems on my home server so it is hard to fathom how a project with
> > thousands of users can accept that.  Either we need to find a fix, stop
> > using jails, or get another operating system, but continuing to use a
> > setup with a known problem is just asking for trouble.
> 
> The over use of jails I think is complicating things, what are the odds that 
> someone could find it in their heart to raid the old hardware pile in their 
> serverback room, and come up with a PIII 800MHz + system with a gig of ram 
> that they could donate to the cause, and we move some of the more critical 
> services (www/ftp/anoncvs) to that box without jails.

I have a dual PIII 550MHz here that I can give away.  It was my previous
server.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
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