[nycbug-talk] FreeBSD gmirror

[Marc Spitzer]

On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 2:00 AM, Isaac Levy <ike at lesmuug.org> wrote:
>
> On Nov 9, 2008, at 12:32 AM, Dan Langille wrote:
>
>> Production?  Define please.
>>
>> I'm using gmirror on my gateway at home, my development box at home,
>> and soon my workstation at the office.
>
> I think George is deploying internet-facing servers, (vs desktop use
> or something), just because I believe I know what he's up to with
> these boxes.  Actually, because of physical proximity, production is a
> term I use mostly for servers- workstations/desktops have human
> contact, and therefore different expectations- (a user can push the
> button, etc...)
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yr-Pp4PFVA
>
> It's not a bad question though, in the context of mirroring, physical
> access could play an important role with some RAID schemes- etc...
>
> --
> Ya know, without an ounce of sarcasm, I truly would love to hear the
> definition of 'Production' from others- (or hammer it out on list).
>
> To me, Production tries to label a given software or hardware as
> proven not to:
>
> - Not fail in ways which take food of my plate (at work)
> - Not fail in ways which are unexpected
> - Not fail in ways which make me cry (at home)
> + Be Reliable/Proven/Stable/Trusted software in an assumed or given
> context
>
> Hard metrics aren't always part of Production criteria, (e.g. how many
> days uptime will it have?  etc...)
>
> Although some organizations I've been in have stiff/formal criteria
> for 'Production' systems, and I've even created this formal criteria,
> it's always based on context.  Any good QA person will explain that
> context is critical to assessment...
> Threat models, business models, usage patterns, and applied value- all
> affect the meaning of Production.


Productrion has nothing to do with hardware, conceptually anyway, it
is all about services and providing them when you need them.  This is
really a system design/business process issue, how much redundancy do
you want to buy.  For example if you have only one disk in a computer
it will fail and test your backup/DR policy.  And if you have raid one
disks your controller will fail and test your backup/DR policy,
although this failure is less likely then the first.  This goes on and
on until you say I have reached the point of diminishing returns and
you stop spending money and accept the remaining risk.

Ah well it irks me when peple talk about production hardware as there
is no such thing.

marc


>
> --
> Wikipedia is a blank:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_(information_technology)
>
> Rocket-
> .ike
>
>
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