mbecker wrote:
I've just now subscribed to this list, so please stop me if this has been already discussed... After hearing about the storm coming toward the wikimedia servers. I thought to myself, wouldn't it be a good idea to have backup servers elsewhere in the world?
I think it would be a good idea, but only if the expense made sense.
Here are three things I wanted to pass along:0
1. Keep in mind that our hosting facility remained confident throughout the ordeal that there would be no loss of connectivity due to this storm. It's a strong building, they have good power contingency plans, etc. We are not in a position to evaluate their confidence, of course. I merely pass it along as information...
It's pretty hard to take down a data center like this one.
2. We will soon have functional squids in France. As we move forward with that, getting them tested, gaining confidence in our ability to manage that, then we should probably consider putting a db/backup server there, or something similar.
3. We are widely beloved, and it is not difficult for us to get very fast offers of hosting on a temporary basis. In this particular case, the wonderful people at Oregon State University's Open Source Labs offered us "3-4 hefty machines" available at a moment's notice. I am going to talk to them some more, but it seems likely that if we pay the cost of a machine, they would be happy to host on a permanent basis a slave db machine which we could keep synced to have a constant realtime backup.
--Jimbo