All Things Microsoft > Microsoft Software
Windows Sucks
toadlife:
--- Quote from: piratePenguin ---I know very, very little about the server/business world. But anyhow, why do you upgrade the server "every three or four years"?
If I bought a $25,000 computer, I would hope it would last forever.
--- End quote ---
Well you manyt times you don't need to if your apps, and number of users never changes, but if they do, then upgrading to more powerfull hardware can become neccessay.
For example, the online class server I run required dual 800Mhz Xeon processors three years ago. The version we run today has lots more featues, and now requires dual 2.8Ghz Xeon processors.
Our current server (that we bought three years ago), has five Xeon 733 processors, and while it does most things okay, for some functions that require large database queries, it just doesn't cut it. We are replacing it with a quad Opteron 2.6 server. Based on what we have seen, we think this new server should last us at least five years.
In five years, there will either be a new version that has many more features and higher requirements, and/or we will have explanded our number of online classes, and will require new hardware.
muzzy:
People with high uptimes are typically people who don't patch nor upgrade stuff. If you upgrade your server software every now and then, you're going to have to restart it anyway. That means downtime. Rebooting after software upgrade also means downtime, but it also means you know the new server software will start up if you have to reboot. It's not uncommon for people to hack stuff on the fly to get things working, then screw up while writing startup scripts. The simple act of rebooting verifies that you won't be fucked when you HAVE TO reboot, for one reason or another.
mobrien_12:
--- Quote from: muzzy ---People with high uptimes are typically people who don't patch nor upgrade stuff. If you upgrade your server software every now and then, you're going to have to restart it anyway. That means downtime. Rebooting after software upgrade also means downtime, but it also means you know the new server software will start up if you have to reboot. It's not uncommon for people to hack stuff on the fly to get things working, then screw up while writing startup scripts. The simple act of rebooting verifies that you won't be fucked when you HAVE TO reboot, for one reason or another.
--- End quote ---
See, here is the difference between Linux and Windows.
Let me give you an example. I update my SSH software, just type
--- Code: ---
service sshd restart
--- End code ---
And ssh is restarted.
The downtime is just a second.
Because this script is exactly the same as the one called by the SysV-like initialization routine, I KNOW it will work when I reboot.
I only have to reboot when putting a new kernel on, which admittedly has happened more often than I like this year.
muzzy:
Yes, most distributions have a mechanism for doing this kind of stuff, but if you're running anything unusual, you might have to write the scripts yourself. And they might break when you upgrade, for various reasons. And the restart script might still work, because the system is in a good state as result of running the old version, yet it could fail at reboot.
I suppose it's not such an issue if you only run ssh and apache, with stuff tested by distributor.
mobrien_12:
--- Quote from: muzzy ---Yes, most distributions have a mechanism for doing this kind of stuff, but if you're running anything unusual, you might have to write the scripts yourself. And they might break when you upgrade, for various reasons. And the restart script might still work, because the system is in a good state as result of running the old version, yet it could fail at reboot.
I suppose it's not such an issue if you only run ssh and apache, with stuff tested by distributor.
--- End quote ---
Point taken about SysV scripts sometimes needing to be hand written. But
even then you can just start daemons with a single line added to rc.local.
I have been running Linux since 1997, with about 20 assorted installs on various hardware. I have a habit of adding software (including server software) that is not standard with distributions and updating with software straight from their distributors websites (OpenSSH, OpenSSL, Apache, Samba, Webmin, etc.). I have never had problems with the server software failing on reboot if I can start them after installation.
And if anyone is doing this, they know enough to handle the startup scripting.
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