[rescue] web server loadbalancing...

[David Cantrell]

woods at weird.com (Greg A. Woods) wrote:
> [ On Friday, August 3, 2001 at 10:45:59 (+0100), David Cantrell wrote: ]
> >                                                      As far as *we* are
> > concerned, no downtime is acceptable.  So we have redundant everything.
> 
> Since I know nothing of your systems and their configurations, please
> don't take this personally or as an attack, but:
> 
> Do you really have "redundant everything", or does it just look that way
> on paper?  I.e. have you gone in and randomly removed, turned off,
> disconnected, or otherwise simulated failure of, half of everything in
> your system?

Not personally, but I am assured that it has been tested.  Of course,
even if your system is perfect there's still human error - like maybe
the grunt who was meant to change the oil in the backup generator decided
to slope off for a ciggie instead.  There is no reasonable system on
earth that can account for that.  But even so, the resulting downtime
is unacceptable.

Oh, and of course I should have said that it was *unscheduled* downtime
that is unacceptable.

> > And speaking as an ordinary user, then five minutes of downtime is also
> > unacceptable and I will go elsewhere.
> 
> If ordinary users already have that perception then the Inetnet is
> already doomed long before it even gets started.
> 
> If five minutes of downtime makes that much difference to you in your
> real life, and if no other factors influence your choice of "service
> provider", then I think you're living in a dream world too!

I was talking specifically about webshites there.  If I am looking for
a particular piece of information and google is down, then I'm not going
to wait, I'll go to another search engine.  If I am looking to buy a
particular book and amazon aren't working, then they have plenty of
competitors of approximately equal quality eager for my wallet.  The
great thing about the interweb is that there are choices.

> Why do people in general seem to have such stupid misconceptions when
> computers are involved?  Most sane people don't get so upset in real
> life.  Computers are real machines with real failure modes -- they're
> not shining ideals of perfection that can never fail.

I know that.  However, in the real world, have you noticed just how angry
people get when they are let down?  I suggest you go to your local
railway station and cancel a few trains to see just what happens to all
the happy commuters.  These people don't even have the luxury of being
able to use a different provider of the same service.

-- 
David Cantrell | david at cantrell.org.uk | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david

Do not be afraid of cooking, as your ingredients will know and misbehave
   -- Fergus Henderson