> Agreed the Unix systems are deffinitly more reliable as history proves but
> if built properly a Windows 2k or 2k3 box will have just as much uptime as
> their Unix counterparts.

Hmmm, I guess my Windows 2003 server isn't built properly then, because the M$ security updates force a reboot most weeks. Or is there a Microsoft definition for "uptime" that I'm not aware of :-)

Gary.

Yeah, any 5 minute period that your computer does not reboot automatically.

---

"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

"Yeah, any 5 minute period that your computer does not reboot automatically." Ooh, don't go there. My motherboard had issues where it'd spontaneously reboot. Had to return it for warranty. This one works great. Yeah, forget about the updates. I just have the notifier let me know when there's one available. I'll let it download when I feel like it, and install it when I feel like it. No biggie for me. What I do hate is when you install them, and tell it "Reboot Later" every 5 or 10 min. the dialog box pops back up asking to reboot. And sometimes it switches the Reboot now and reboot later buttons, so if you get used to being in one spot, it tricks you into blidly hitting reboot now. Now that's a pain, cause it forces everything closed, saved or not.

---

(so, for UNIX u haven't to pay a license.)

Only if you steal a copy.
LINUX & BSD are based on UNIX, but they are not UNIX.

BSD is UNIX. FreeBSD, OpenBSD and netBSD are not UNIX.
Tullio

Ok, ok, ok. Sorry. I'm not very "on-line" about the legal status of all UNIX/LINUX & x-NIX based platforms, but I remember that there are many x-NIX based systems on opensource, and so, on copyleft rights (so, theoricaly, without license payment).

And, of course, there isn't my intention to open a discussion about copyrights and another legal issues. (Specially, 'cause this isn't the best place to do that)

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The table which we sit around and eat lunch was full of miscellaneous screws, heat sinks, empty drive trays, shredded bubble wrap, etc. but not anymore.

OK, someone has to bring this up, so I will...

Clean up the office before cleaning up the stale results from Aug 2005 and Feb 2006.

Matt, I am kidding about this. I understand when you work in an office as yours (I did Systems / Network Administration in a small office which was also out lunch / debug / build / everything area). I many times had to eat lunch on a small spot of the table that I had to create just to take the time to eat something, since the 12+ hour days would have gone a lot worse without a little nourishment.

Keep up the grand work. I envy you, as I have not been in the Admin position in many years. I miss it a lot, and wish I could go back. I've been doing too many other things since.

I have a good feeling about today (Wednesday). I guess I have to have a good feeling about today, it is my wife's birthday.

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My movie https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/502242

(so, for UNIX u haven't to pay a license.)

Only if you steal a copy.
LINUX & BSD are based on UNIX, but they are not UNIX.

BSD is UNIX. FreeBSD, OpenBSD and netBSD are not UNIX.
Tullio

I would like to remind people that the B in BSD stands for Berkeley.

---

BOINC WIKI

Hi all!

I've beenfollowing all these updates with much interst and have decided to join in to say a BIG thanx to Matt and colleagues during these arduous and trying times! I imagine there are many "lurkers" like myself who rarely post messages but I felt compelled to do so to let you know thta even the "silent majority" value highly all your sterling efforts. Thanx!

I'm running Rosetta whilst SETI is currently being refurbed (thanx to Sun!) so my machines are continuing to contribute, albeit in some small way :^))

Thanx again for the frequent updates on progress and for keeping us all "in the loop".

Best wishes from the UK!

I thought we might enjoy a quick communal sing-song: are we ready...all together now...

Fly me to the moon...let me play among the stars.
Let me see what life is like
on Jupiter and Mars

Aaah Thenkyoo

---

Hi all!

I've been following all these updates with much interest and have decided to join in to say a BIG thanx to Matt and colleagues during these arduous and trying times! I imagine there are many "lurkers" like myself who rarely post messages but I felt compelled to do so to let you know that even the "silent majority" value highly all your sterling efforts. Thanx!

I'm running Rosetta whilst SETI is currently being refurbed (thanx to Sun!) so my machines are continuing to contribute, albeit in some small way :^))

Thanx again for the frequent updates on progress and for keeping us all "in the loop".

Best wishes from the UK!

Dash and dang! I'm, such a n00b, I posted with my (unused) account rather than the one SETI knows me as! I also took the opportunity to edit my original post for some glaring typo's!

Now, I'll go back to lurking! LOL!!

---

> Agreed the Unix systems are deffinitly more reliable as history proves but
> if built properly a Windows 2k or 2k3 box will have just as much uptime as
> their Unix counterparts.

Hmmm, I guess my Windows 2003 server isn't built properly then, because the M$ security updates force a reboot most weeks. Or is there a Microsoft definition for "uptime" that I'm not aware of :-)

Gary.

Microsoft's idea of high availability is faster reboots.

What I do hate is when you install them, and tell it "Reboot Later" every 5 or 10 min. the dialog box pops back up asking to reboot. And sometimes it switches the Reboot now and reboot later buttons, so if you get used to being in one spot, it tricks you into blidly hitting reboot now. Now that's a pain, cause it forces everything closed, saved or not.

The easy fix for that is to drag the "Reboot now" window down to the bottom of the screen so thgat it doesn't cover any windows. That way it doesn't keep popping up and is not sitting on top of useful windows.

I thought we might enjoy a quick communal sing-song: are we ready...all together now...

Fly me to the moon...let me play among the stars.
Let me see what life is like
on Jupiter and Mars

Aaah Thenkyoo

I will see your Fly me and raise you ..

Its cold outside,
There's no kind of atmosphere,
I'm all alone,
More or less.
Let me fly,
Far away from here,
Fun, fun, fun,
In the sun, sun, sun.

I thought we might enjoy a quick communal sing-song: are we ready...all together now...

Fly me to the moon...let me play among the stars.
Let me see what life is like
on Jupiter and Mars

Aaah Thenkyoo

I will see your Fly me and raise you ..

Its cold outside,
There's no kind of atmosphere,
I'm all alone,
More or less.
Let me fly,
Far away from here,
Fun, fun, fun,
In the sun, sun, sun.

How about '2000 light years from home' by the Strolling Bones?

---

> Agreed the Unix systems are deffinitly more reliable as history proves but
> if built properly a Windows 2k or 2k3 box will have just as much uptime as
> their Unix counterparts.

Hmmm, I guess my Windows 2003 server isn't built properly then, because the M$ security updates force a reboot most weeks. Or is there a Microsoft definition for "uptime" that I'm not aware of :-)

Gary.

And here's where running a Windows server at home versus in a large-scale production environment differ. At home you usually don't have hundreds or thousands of desktops or other machines relying on being able to access a server. In a production environment, any competent sys admin will test any update on a test system before deploying it to their production systems, especially servers. Imagine the headache of installing an update to a server (without testing) only to find out it causes problems with one of your programs. Not good. At home, if something goes wrong with an update, it usually isn't difficult to recover and you don't have hundreds or more people waiting for the server to get fixed.

Keep in mind also that all those updates are entirely optional. I've got two Windows servers at home and they're pretty locked down to the net, so I don't always run out right away to get an update. My machine running SBS 2003 Premium has been going now for just over four months and my box running Server 2k3 Enterprise was up for 381 days straight at one point (can't remember why it rebooted).

Justin

Hi Justin.

> Keep in mind also that all those updates are entirely optional.

You're right, I was talking slightly tongue-in-cheek. My server is for a small number of people who work (mostly) 9-5 so I can afford overnight reboots. I used to run SGI servers with IRIX, and I do get frustrated by the number of M$ security and critical updates. "uptime" on the SGI boxes was usually measured in hundreds of days. "uptime" on the M$ 2003 server is typically 7 or 14 days.

Given the contents of my 2003 server, I'm not prepared to risk the consequences of not installing a "critical" or "security" update.

If you can afford the risk, then not installing the updates will improve your "uptime".

Gary.

Thanks for the continuing patience and encouraging sentiments since the science database server crashed over a week ago. Still waiting on the server replacement. I think we're all anxious for it to arrive already, but we originally expected it no earlier than late-in-the-day today.

Yay patience! Slow and steady wins the race!

---

--
Christopher 'CajunCoiler' Mayeux
Owner, MSB Data Systems
Panama City, FL

> Agreed the Unix systems are deffinitly more reliable as history proves but
> if built properly a Windows 2k or 2k3 box will have just as much uptime as
> their Unix counterparts.

Hmmm, I guess my Windows 2003 server isn't built properly then, because the M$ security updates force a reboot most weeks. Or is there a Microsoft definition for "uptime" that I'm not aware of :-)

Gary.

Microsoft's idea of high availability is faster reboots.

yeah!, and their idea of security is ... better I'll say nothing.

---

That's what Jocelyn, Sidious, and the other BOINC system servers do. Thumper is the Master Science Database and is really only needed when work is generated from our POV, and of course assimilate the canonical results into. IIRC, they're now considering what they can do to build up a backup for him and how that fits into the budget.

Alinator
[/quote]

I've been following these threads with fascination (meanwhile, my machine is chewing over some einstein@home WUs). I love what you've done with the place, though I agree that everything will be hard to find since you tidied up. I am getting confused, however, keeping track of your different server names (thumper, sidious, et al). I wonder if, while you guys are sitting around waiting for the UPS guy, you might give us a cast list of your servers and their functions? As the say in baseball, Ya can't tell the players wit'out a program!

---

I'm happy I got some work for seti don't really know how comes but got some work done. So I'm really pleased acctually, (as I assume this is meaning the near end of the problems). correct me if I'm wrong off course. Only thing I noticed that seemed a bit "weird" is that my credits ain't showing in "Boincstats" :s. But hey we're all here to find something out their ;)

---

Thanks for the continuing patience and encouraging sentiments since the science database server crashed over a week ago. Still waiting on the server replacement. I think we're all anxious for it to arrive already, but we originally expected it no earlier than late-in-the-day today.

We had the usual database backup outage, in case anybody noticed. Outside of the usual backup/compression of the BOINC database, I fixed the replica server, so that's back up and running again. I also rebooted our Network Appliance which has been complaining about "misconfigurations" as of late, but that didn't seem to help or hurt. We think a bad drive in the system is causing these errors. I then replaced a bad drive in the Snap Appliance so that's back to having two working hot spares (phew). Jeff, Eric, and I also cleaned up the lab. Entropy reigns supreme around here. The table which we sit around and eat lunch was full of miscellaneous screws, heat sinks, empty drive trays, shredded bubble wrap, etc. but not anymore.

- Matt

Hi Mat, greeting and my encouragments

What is the situation now ???
Did you receive the server from Sun ???

Let us know about the evolution.
Perhaps by opening a forum, but where nobody else than the team can write.
Perhaps you wrote the latest news, but not easy to find between all the replies !!!

Philippe

---

That's what Jocelyn, Sidious, and the other BOINC system servers do. Thumper is the Master Science Database and is really only needed when work is generated from our POV, and of course assimilate the canonical results into. IIRC, they're now considering what they can do to build up a backup for him and how that fits into the budget.

Alinator

I've been following these threads with fascination (meanwhile, my machine is chewing over some einstein@home WUs). I love what you've done with the place, though I agree that everything will be hard to find since you tidied up. I am getting confused, however, keeping track of your different server names (thumper, sidious, et al). I wonder if, while you guys are sitting around waiting for the UPS guy, you might give us a cast list of your servers and their functions? As the say in baseball, Ya can't tell the players wit'out a program!

If you click on 'server status' under 'about' (at the top of the page/ home page), you'll see a listing of all the servers and their duties, etc.

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