Hr. Daniel Mikkelsen schrieb: Even compared against the new Linux 2.6? With the new scheduler and overhauled IP-Stack, Linux 2.6 performs much better under load than Linux 2.4. On the two servers I maintain, 2.6 has improved the network performance to a measurable degree. Maybe we should give it a try on some of the soon-to-be-purchased machines... Alwin Meschede

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 18:55:38 +0100, Alwin Meschede wrote: I don't think it would be worth the risk- the differences in performance between different kernel versions or netbsd/linux will always be small- i value easy maintenance and high reliability much higher. We can easily add another server to the new setup if the load demands it. There will be quite a few additional machines to maintain- i think the easier this job gets the better. I have Debian running on all my machines, best uptime so far was a webserver that came down after 450+ days because of a broken cooler- with the plain vanilla Debian kernel. I don't consider a Debian install to be difficult really- quickest so far is the Morphix live CD (for a desktop setup). Chroot installs aren't hard either, even with XFS support. -- Gabriel Wicke

Alwin Meschede wrote: Geoffrin, with the new motherboard, still failed memest86. Jason found self-contradictory information in the motherboard manual as to which slots pairs of memory were supposed to be in -- he tried several alternatives, and one almost worked. He has not found any configuration in which all 4Gb of RAM would pass the tests. Today he is contacting Penguin about them replacing the machine completely. It is very likely that I will just have them send the 'new Geoffrin' directly here as part of our migration strategy. I'm waiting to hear the status of the other hardware that Jason installed in the colo on Saturday before I do anything else, but the next step will be one of these two: (1) I have a new Penguin 1000E dual Opteron on order for Bomis, and if Wikipedia isn't joyful by the time it comes in, I will loan it to Wikipedia. (2) Depending on the exact status of things, I will have Jason move all the websites off of one of the existing Bomis servers to have yet another machine to loan to Wikipedia. I think I have a SCSI machine that I could trade with Wikipedia. But I have to study this for an hour or so to determine how much work it will be because another option would be to order some other 'off the shelf' configuration that Penguin or Silicon Mechanics can ship same-day, and loan that to Wikipedia instead. --Jimbo

Ricky Beam wrote: I'll let Jason answer these questions definitively. As to the first, I can only suppose that the answer has to be 'yes'. Penguin is a reputable manufacturer with a lot of experience in Linux commodity webservers, their specialty. That's such an obvious detail that I don't see them overlooking it. But I haven't checked to be certain. I also doubt if the bios has any options set that would break things, Penguin ships boxes like this all the time, I would imagine, to much bigger customers than us. I think there's just something wrong. I'm not happy about any of this, but I will say that -- other than shipping us a broken machine -- Penguin has been steadfast and upfront in their willingness to do the right thing to make things right with us. --Jimbo