On Mon, Oct 06, 2003 at 11:49:54PM -0700, Chas Posinoff wrote:
> 
> Ouch -- It's starting to sound like Qube2/NetBSD isn't the most stable 
> combination... I really was hoping it would be rock-solid but I suppose 
> there are bound to be issues with a more or less rarefied, tinkerer's 
> server setup.
> 
It could simply be the amount of work I've been throwing at an old machine
and if you were *just* serving pages with an ssh login to admin you could be
ok.  Do bear in mind that the lack of pthreads means you'll have to use
PostgreSQL or MySQLite for any forum style software, and that might
restrict you options if you want a 'community' site.  PostgreSQL will also
require a kernel rebuild, but those changes are well documented and it's not
that hard.

> The stock OS load provided >3mo continuous uptime, from what I've heard, 
> and perhaps even longer.
> 
I did have a 60+ day uptime, but the age of the distro drove me nuts whenever
I tried to install software from the .tar.gz files.  I even gave the Linux
From Scratch system a try to see if I could get a more recent set of
userland programs (particularly glibc) on the older kernel, but, sadly, I
ran into a circular dependancy for binutils, gcc and glibc that I just
couldn't work my way out of.  If I had tried an x86<>MIPS cross-gcc then I
might have been able to get around that one, but I didn't have the hardware
available to me at the time.

> I was planning to co-locate this machine again in hopes that I wouldn't 
> have to visit it for a Very Long Time.
>
Hmm, depends what the costs are of visiting your machine, or getting a
remote reboot.

> Is that a bad idea?
>
From my _personal_ experience, then I wouldn't co-locate my Qube.  If I had
some sort of external hardware monitor that would switch the power on and
off if it didn't get a message from the Qube every 30 seconds or so then I'd
probably do it, because with the soft updates turned on I've not (so far)
had any catastrophic data loss from the crashes - the system won't come back
and reboot unattended though.

> Any suggestions?
> 
Ask your co-lo provider for a cost for the Qube - if they resell space in
standard rack Units you might be in for a nasty surprise as the Qube is at
least 3U high, and needs an external power brick - both of which are a pain
for 19" rack setups.  It might be cheaper to buy a 1U server once you take
into account hosting costs for any length of time.  Unless you have a very
enlightened co-lo then you won't be charged for the electricity, so having
an efficient system will only give you a warm glowy feeling inside and not
in the wallet :)

> P.S. thanks much for the apache details!
> 
No probs.  If you want to know more about them then drop me an email, as
it's not really on-topic for this list.

TTFN,
-- 
ian.
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