Re: [tlug] longest uptime boxes

[Scott Robbins <scottro@example.com>]

On Mon, Oct 28, 2002 at 02:14:44PM +0900, Nguyen Vu Hung wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Jim O'Connell wrote:
> 
> > Uptime is a dangerous addiction that is best avoided.
> 
> so why?

Oddly enough, I was just looking into this tonight.  (Started as a
google search on which is ~really~ faster, Linux or FreeBSD--answer,
depends upon who you believe.)

From what I gathered in my googling (those who really know, please
confirm or correct) the reason long uptimes don't necessarily mean good
things is that it means the system may not have been properly updated.

If you upgrade FreeBSD with make world, it's considered good practice to
update the kernel as well (actually, before installing the new world)
and this too requires a reboot.  Actually, the make build world part is
best done in single user mode, which although it doesn't require a
reboot would make the machine inaccessible to outsiders during the time
of building world, which can take over an hour (on slow machines, a LOT
longer.) 

A quote from FreeBSD Unleashed (which, as it's not an "official" FreeBSD
publication is not respected by some, but still probably has merit)
"Remember, a system with 350 day uptime either means a system that has
been sitting unused in a closet for a year or a system that has not been
conscientiously upgraded to keep up with security bulletins"

(hrrm, actually, that doesn't necessarily make sense--one would think
that security patches can be successfully installed without kernel
upgrades)
> 
> 
> 
> This is one of the reason why I dislike linux ;):
> When we upgrade kernel, we have to reboot to active new kernel. Of cource,
> big company like a bank cant reboot their server ;)

One would imagine that banks and other companies that can't afford
downtime would have backup servers so that they could bring a server
down for upgrade purposes.

I REITERATE--sad to say, aside from our AIX box on which my boss does
most of the sophisticated work, I'm in an NT environment, so I am
talking from googling, not experience.  I'm just posting this because I
happened to, out of idle curiosity, be researching the same thing.

> 

-- 

Scott

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