OT Fedora in production (as nstallation Problem on Fedora Core 8)

[Jason Ede]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mailscanner-bounces at lists.mailscanner.info [mailto:mailscanner-
> bounces at lists.mailscanner.info] On Behalf Of Richard Potter
> Sent: 14 December 2007 03:20
> To: MailScanner discussion
> Subject: Re: OT Fedora in production (as nstallation Problem on Fedora
> Core 8)
>
> On Thu, Dec 13, 2007 at 04:44:12PM +0000, Greg Matthews wrote:
>
> > Anthony Cartmell wrote:
> > >>Anthony Cartmell wrote:
> > >>>My only few downtimes over the last three years have been hardware
> > >>>and network related. I have never had any issues with Fedora,
> which
> > >>>has proved to be quite stable enough for production use.
> > >>
> > >>Given that Fedora is only supported for 18 months I wonder how that
> > >>can be unless you are running an unmaintained OS.
> > >
> > >Quite simple, I upgrade roughly every 12 to 18 months :)
> >
> > I rest my case
>
> I agree with Greg.
>
> I'm amazed at the length of this thread :-) I had something to do with
> it early on, as I replied at least once.
>
> I think it shows the broad spectrum of contributors here, from Unix
> newbies, to old guys like me (I'm 48). I'm obviously from the old
> school,
> but a piece of hardware, install your OS and run until it you get a
> new piece of hardware. This was the way it was when I started out with
> SCO and AIX, and it's the way it still is.
>
> I've never done a in place linux upgrade, and I never will. Fresh
> install or nothing.
>
> I also wait at least 10 days after release to install a MailScanner or
> any other major upgrades to my boxes. That's experience.
>
> I am experimenting with dag's repository on my own home server, and I
> have been burnt a few times lately. The latest was the MailTools
> upgrade,
> which a quick check of this list showed the answer. That was my fault,
> as
> I approved the yum upgrade. Who would have thought the MailTools
> upgrade
> would have busted MailScanner? My production servers are not using
> dag's
> repository, so life went on.
>
> So... my answer is still the same, Fedora is not meant for a production
> enviroment. But, if you have only one server, and you can afford to
> lose
> it when you least expect it, or to upgrade it, go for it!
>
> My servers cannot be taken down to upgrade. I'm not sure how you Fedora
> users
> do it.
>
> Richard

Multiple servers is the answer. If your servers cannot afford to be taken down at all, then what happens when you have a major hardware failure? Or as was the case up here 5 months ago when a major flood comes? We cannot afford our mail servers to be off line for more than a few minutes at a time so we always have a backup mail server running to make sure of the continuity.

Jason