From owner-freebsd-newbies Mon Apr 12 13: 1:45 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from hostigos.otherwhen.com (dialin2017.pernet.net [205.229.2.17]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 80AFA14FD5 for ; Mon, 12 Apr 1999 13:01:28 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mavery@mail.otherwhen.com) Received: from mail.otherwhen.com (mail.2.229.205.in-addr.arpa [205.229.2.19] (may be forged)) by hostigos.otherwhen.com (8.8.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id PAA13524 for ; Mon, 12 Apr 1999 15:09:37 -0500 (CDT) Message-Id: <199904122009.PAA13524@hostigos.otherwhen.com> Received: from PORKY/SpoolDir by mail.otherwhen.com (Mercury 1.44); 12 Apr 99 14:59:02 -0600 Received: from SpoolDir by PORKY (Mercury 1.44); 12 Apr 99 14:58:39 -0600 From: "Mike Avery" To: newbies@freebsd.org Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 14:58:31 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: FreeBSD server success stories Reply-To: mavery@mail.otherwhen.com In-reply-to: <199904121546.LAA26474@gie.noh.tva.gov> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.02b18) Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On 12 Apr 99, at 11:46, Toby Swanson N-1417 wrote: > While not on an unlimited budget I can recommend the latest and > greatest mother board and SCSI controllers, since the guy who will be > touting an NT "super server" will undoubtedly do the same. I hope to use > the same hard drives now attached to the current server as a cost saving > measure. This isn't a FreeBSD success story. In fact, I could post this message in just about any technical forum I'm a member of.... just change the OS to make the tightasses on those lists happy..... the issue transcends FreeBSD.... and I agree with your goal of migrating to FreeBSD.... I think that reusing the same drives is a false economy for a number of reasons. And whether you migrate to FreeBSD, Linux, another Sun, NetWare, or (blech) NT, it's a false economy. The biggest reason is that it eliminates your fall back position. It's a sad system manager who's career is held on a backup tape. And that's your position when you backup, remove the drives, install them in another system, and then try to restore. What if the tapes are bad? What if the backup software is incompatible? What if .... imagine your worst nightmare here. What if the new system flakes out, and then when you put the drives back in the old one and restore from the tape, something hiccups, so you have neither new nor old server? All in all, if you leave the old system alone until the new one is happy, you have a fallback position. If the new one flakes out, you turn the old one back on. Or reconnect it's cable to the net. No big deal. (And yes, if the system is old, I'd be reluctant to turn it off. I'd move it's network cable to another segment, hub, MSAU, router port, or whatever. And leave it on until I was happy. Sometimes older systems don't come back up after they are turned off. Sometimes it seems this happens most often if you absolutely gotta have 'em back.) Other reasons to not reuse drives - newer drives are bigger, cheaper, faster, and more reliable, so you get more life expectancy and better performance than you do by reusing the old drives. The old drives are used, so their remaining life expectancy is unknown, so new drives again give you a better life expectancy. If your new server will be larger than your old one, you might consider migrating the old drives to the new system after the core of the new system is stable, burned in, and happy. In an business office, I'd let a quarter go by before messing with the old system. You know what your deadlines and signifigant events are. Make sure the new system survives them. Also, test the new system's backup hardware and software so you know you can restore to the new system before canabalizing the old system.... your backup system is only as good as it's last restore. One of the problems that "serious business people" have in taking FreeBSD, Linux, and before that PC's with DOS seriously isn't the software... it isn't the hardware.... it isn't even always the support. Sometimes it's the people on the scene who suggest things that make people who are legally responsible for the outcome and consequences REALLY nervous... things that sound like "let's migrate without a net! No big deal, it's only YOUR business... I can get a new job!" to the guy who signs the checks. Mike ====================================================================== Mike Avery MAvery@mail.otherwhen.com (409)-842-2942 (work) ICQ: 16241692 * Spam is for lusers who can't get business any other way * A Randomly Selected Thought For The Day: A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message