Re: [pgsql-advocacy] Server unreliability

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.

>
> 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.

Yahoo, Pair, Fugtisu, Affilias , Somebody, Anybody???

>
> o Web site
>
> We have been talking about a new web page layout for years at this
> point. I almost don't care if they just put a dancing bear up on the
> web site. Let's do something!

One thing I know we can do here to help at least the availability of the
website itself, is to use a round-robin DNS based setup. I know Marc
adjusted DNS records to point the main website at www3.ca a while back during
a time that www was stuck in fsck hell. As for the website redesign, I agree
fully, it's been talked about for at least 3 full releases now and from my
understanding it's no closer now than it was before.
Can anybody comment on the hold up here?

>
> o Archives
>
> The archives situation is a continual problem. Again, maybe a dancing
> bear can help. :-)

What about combining the efforts od pgsql.ru and command prompt to do this, or
maybe even monarc or google groups ?

>
> Basically, with no money and no one offering servers, I don't see a good
> solution to any of these problems, but I think we need to recognize
> these are problems and that we will continue to suffer until they are
> addressed.
Ok i know how much we all hate banner adds and the like, but what about using
Google ads especially on the archives to help generate income to fund these
requirements?

>
> Are there any proposals, no matter how radical, to correct these?

--
Darcy Buskermolen
Wavefire Technologies Corp.
ph: 250.717.0200
fx: 250.763.1759
http://www.wavefire.com