Web Server Down (Again)

[Kip Hampton <kh...@totalcinema.com>]

Can someone wake the hamster that powers axkit.org

Maybe we need to rethink hosting?

-kip

Re: Web Server Down (Again)

[Jörg Walter <jw...@garni.ch>]

On Monday, 01. March 2004 10:41, Kip Hampton wrote:

> Mike Nachbaur's offer is a generous one, but I've always been leery of
> relying on work resources for community projects (some PHB gets a wild
> hair and *boom* the site is down for weeks while we find something
> else). Maybe we need to explore the what's and what ifs before accepting
> or declining.
>
> Paid hosting/colo is another option; but then where does the $$ come
> from? Us? donations? As an ASF project, can we even legally accept
> community donations? Beyond that, there are the companies that offer
> AxKit hosting, maybe we can weasel free host...er, I mean, work
> something out with one of them.

I can offer my box as well. It's my private box, traffic virtually unlimited, 
hardware more than enough, fast uplink (a few GBit/s), and soon in production 
use for something else I want to earn money with. It runs AxKit CVS and is 
already hosting an AxKit Wiki.

For completeness, I have to mention that I've had reliability problems with 
it, but since the technical staff exchanged the power supply, it worked 
flawlessly (3 months now, so it looks like they finally found the problem).

-- 
CU
  Joerg

PGP Public Key at http://ich.bin.kein.hoschi.de/~trouble/public_key.asc
PGP Key fingerprint = D34F 57C4 99D8 8F16 E16E  7779 CDDC 41A4 4C48 6F94

Re: Web Server Down (Again)

[Michael A Nachbaur <mi...@nachbaur.com>]

On March 1, 2004 01:41 am, Kip Hampton wrote:
> Mike Nachbaur's offer is a generous one, but I've always been leery of
> relying on work resources for community projects (some PHB gets a wild
> hair and *boom* the site is down for weeks while we find something
> else). Maybe we need to explore the what's and what ifs before accepting
> or declining.

Well, FWIW I just got management approval (in writing) for hosting axkit.org 
on my servers (in fact, my boss was happy to have the opportunity to give 
back to AxKit in some way).

So, if the community feels like going that direction, the PHB waters are a bit 
less turbulent. :-)

Re: Web Server Down (Again)

[Michael A Nachbaur <mi...@nachbaur.com>]

Matt Sergeant wrote:

>My one big worry is taking axkit.org elsewhere means we have to switch
>everyone's CVS access to something like cvs.axkit.org because we'd have lost
>the DNS A record to this new machine. But that's a one time change.
>
>I'm personally in no hurry to do this, but it depends what the community
>thinks.
>  
>
Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I only realize how often I use the axkit website when I notice that its down. :-)  If you would like the hosting space, I'd be more than happy to offer up my server.  In the event that we do go down that route - whether on my servers or someone else's - setting up a cvs.axkit.org A record wouldn't be a bad idea.  That way DNS for axkit.org is a bit more flexible.

Re: Web Server Down (Again)

[Kip Hampton <kh...@totalcinema.com>]

Matt Sergeant wrote:

> 
> I'm personally in no hurry to do this, but it depends what the community
> thinks.

I'm in no rush, either. There are several things to consider:

First, we've chosen not to use the resources provided by the ASF so that 
we can publish AxKit's public site *using* AxKit. I still think its the 
Right Thing(tm) for us to eat own dog food (and that means hosting 
elsewhere), but we shouldn't forget that we have the option available.

Also, precisely *because* we eat our own dog food, its doubly important 
that axkit.org be attentively maintained. Frustrating users is bad 
enough; saying "our way is better" then presenting them with a b0rken 
site just plain makes us look bad.

Reality is that the situation has changed from when things were set up 
initially. More people are using AxKit than ever, and so the 
consequences of axkit.org being down are greater. Hosting axkit.org on 
Matt's box (and expecting him to be Johnny-on-the-spot when things go 
wrong) provided a key resource when we needed it, but I think that both 
our needs and the expectations of our users have outgrown the current 
environment.

Mike Nachbaur's offer is a generous one, but I've always been leery of 
relying on work resources for community projects (some PHB gets a wild 
hair and *boom* the site is down for weeks while we find something 
else). Maybe we need to explore the what's and what ifs before accepting 
or declining.

Paid hosting/colo is another option; but then where does the $$ come 
from? Us? donations? As an ASF project, can we even legally accept 
community donations? Beyond that, there are the companies that offer 
AxKit hosting, maybe we can weasel free host...er, I mean, work 
something out with one of them.

Anyway, there really is no need to rush this unduly, but I do think we 
have grown to the point that we need to start looking for more robust 
options.

-kip

Re: Web Server Down (Again)

[Matt Sergeant <ma...@sergeant.org>]

On Mon, 1 Mar 2004, Steffen Schwigon wrote:

> "Matt Sergeant" <ma...@sergeant.org> writes:
> > Axkit.org currently runs on a P3-550 with no proxying behind a 256K DSL
> > line.
>
> How many traffic/accesses/load does it produce?
> By rule of thumb ...

It's about 2000 page views per day.

-- 
<!-- Matt -->
<:->get a SMart net</:->
I am Jack's broken heart.

Re: Web Server Down (Again)

[Steffen Schwigon <sc...@webit.de>]

"Matt Sergeant" <ma...@sergeant.org> writes:
> Axkit.org currently runs on a P3-550 with no proxying behind a 256K DSL
> line.

How many traffic/accesses/load does it produce?
By rule of thumb ...

Steffen
-- 
Steffen Schwigon <sc...@webit.de>

Re: Web Server Down (Again)

[Matt Sergeant <ma...@sergeant.org>]

From: "Michael A Nachbaur" <mi...@nachbaur.com>
> Does it need to be dedicated, or can it run on a web server already
> running AxKit-CVS?  By mid-next week I should have my Dual Xeon up and
> running, and hosting AxKit sites.  That will be my production (e.g.
> stable) box, so it should be pretty reliable. It has (well, soon will
> have) dual Ultra320 SCSI RAID-1 mirroring, and will be backed up nightly.
>
> It also has a reverse-proxy HTTP accelerator sitting in front of it, so
> performance should be nice and zippy.  The whole shebang is racked at
> work, and sits on a pretty nice pipe (Cable ISP, and all that).

Axkit.org currently runs on a P3-550 with no proxying behind a 256K DSL
line.

So yeah, the above would be faster (though we don't exactly need the
performance - it's not like we're ebay).

My one big worry is taking axkit.org elsewhere means we have to switch
everyone's CVS access to something like cvs.axkit.org because we'd have lost
the DNS A record to this new machine. But that's a one time change.

I'm personally in no hurry to do this, but it depends what the community
thinks.

Matt.

Re: Web Server Down (Again)

[Michael A Nachbaur <mi...@nachbaur.com>]

Matt Sergeant wrote:

>>Maybe we need to rethink hosting?
>>    
>>
>
>Possibly. If someone wants to donate dedicated hosting (with backup - for
>the wiki) that'd be great.
>  
>

Does it need to be dedicated, or can it run on a web server already 
running AxKit-CVS?  By mid-next week I should have my Dual Xeon up and 
running, and hosting AxKit sites.  That will be my production (e.g. 
stable) box, so it should be pretty reliable. It has (well, soon will 
have) dual Ultra320 SCSI RAID-1 mirroring, and will be backed up nightly.

It also has a reverse-proxy HTTP accelerator sitting in front of it, so 
performance should be nice and zippy.  The whole shebang is racked at 
work, and sits on a pretty nice pipe (Cable ISP, and all that).

Re: Web Server Down (Again)

[Matt Sergeant <ma...@sergeant.org>]

From: "Kip Hampton" <kh...@totalcinema.com>
> Can someone wake the hamster that powers axkit.org

Done. Had problems with LibXML versions (as seen multiple times on various
mailing lists).

> Maybe we need to rethink hosting?

Possibly. If someone wants to donate dedicated hosting (with backup - for
the wiki) that'd be great.

Matt.