Re: [pgsql-advocacy] Server unreliability

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.

--
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