[Info-vax] Long uptime cut short by Hurricane Sandy

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2013-01-25 19:31:20 +0000, AEF said:

> On Jan 25, 2:47 pm, Stephen Hoffman <seaoh... at hoffmanlabs.invalid>
> wrote:
>> On 2013-01-25 18:34:48 +0000, Bill Gunshannon said:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> And less than a month ago we heard right here:
>> 
>>>         >> Long server uptimes are the antithesis of testing.
>> 
>>> Go figure....
>> 
>> And you'll hear it again.   That, and the benefits of testing your DT.
> 
> DT?

Disaster Tolerance.

> I don't know. People used to brag of long uptimes here.

Yep.  I thought it was cool, too.  Then I thought of the implications 
of what it meant.

> Usage of these systems has been stable to the nth degree. No hardware
> changes. No software changes. Almost zero use and not in the least bit
> critical.

Uh-huh.
Have you not noticed the flurry of reboot problems with some subset of 
Alpha systems?
If you don't test it, you can't be sure it'll work.

> I've been the only user on the first box during this time period. I
> use it for occasional tasks that could be done elsewhere if really
> needed. OK, some monitoring for a short while, which was also stable.
> 
> No one's used the second box at all for almost as long.
> 
> Don't judge without all the facts.

So.  Will your box reboot automatically?  Are you feeling lucky?  Do 
you have all the facts?

Uptime looks great.  On paper.  Then you slam into reality.  Mistakes 
happen.  Latent bugs become less-than-latent.  That's why we test.





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