On Wed, May 16, 2001, Aviram Jenik wrote about "Re: 2 years? can't be linux (was: Re:
web server)":
> Nadav, I disagree with some of the 'excuses' you mentioned as reasons for
> downtime. However, there's one that actually made me mad:
Don't get mad :) I was just giving my own experiences. If you have others,
or have other major reasons for downtime to talk about, please do so.
And these are not "excuses" - these are things that actually caused my
actual server to have downtime in the last few years. What don't you agree
with?
> > 3. Electrical failure - even in Netvision's very reliable server room,
> with
> > its UPSs, etc., we've had one multi-hour blackout in the last year
> (caused,
> > if I remember correctly, by some backhoe accident in the Haifa MATAM
> area,
> > out of Netvision's control).
>
> "even in Netvision's very reliable server room"?! If an external power
> failure brings the Netvision server room down, I wouldn't call it very
> reliable! In fact, I wouldn't even call it remotely reliable.
In the several years that Netvision hosted us, this was (as far as I can
remember) the only unplanned blackout. There was one other planned blackout,
when they switched buildings (they moved about 200 meters south) and the
server had to be physically moved.
I am not sure why during that blackout period their UPS or generators did
not work - I assume the blackout was simply too long (it lasted many hours).
We suffered no physical or other damage to our machine.
Obviously, we've had many blackouts in Haifa in the last few years, and
in all other cases Netvision's UPSs or generators worked well: our machine
typically reaches about 6 months uptime before we reboot it for one reason
or another.
In any case, this server room is reliable enough for me, and I am very
satisfied by it. The other reasons of downtime I stated caused us much more
grief. But if you want, don't run your ICBM launch planner from such a room.
By the way, I wasn't trying to debate whether Netvision is better or worse
than any other ISP. I was emphasising the PC and Linux related issues.
> The moral of this story (for us) was to place a personal UPS as a backup to
> Bezeq Int's UPS backup, which performs an organized shutdown of the machine
> when the power is down for over 10 minutes.
Yes, but that requires more space in the server room, and in the ISP world,
space is money. I never felt the need for a personal UPS over there.
> However, I think this is pathetic - a server room should provide 99.99%
> uptime, including electricity. Every medium sized colocation provider in the
Should it? Remember, 99.99% means 52 minute downtime a year. This is VERY
HARD to achieve - especially for a growing ISP - you have to count planned
and unplanned blackouts (e.g., when you upgrade your generators, electricity
connection, building, etc.).
Achieving 99.99% also for the Internet connectivity is probably completely
impossible (when you have one physical location)!
And in any case, because the availability of the software on our server
was only around 99% (around 3 days of inavalibility each year, much of it
due to overloading and cracking attempts), I don't need a 99.99% guarantee
from the server room... If you were offered a 4-nines colocation facility
for 10 times the price of a 3-nines colocation facility (redundant generators
able to run for a long time cost a FORTUNE), would you take it?
So, can you point us to a colocation company that guarantees 99.99%
availability for a decent price?
--
Nadav Har'El | Wednesday, May 16 2001, 23 Iyyar 5761
[EMAIL PROTECTED] |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |Early bird gets the worm, but the second
http://nadav.harel.org.il |mouse gets the cheese.
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