*BSD News Article 80816


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From: Chris Mauritz <ritz@interactive.net>
Subject: Re: FBSD Future...
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References: <Dz37x9.7vC@news2.new-york.net> <Dz67yE.8I7@interactive.net> <Dz72I8.8M1@news2.new-york.net> <Dz9wyo.6pA@interactive.net> <DzAH2I.J9z@news2.new-york.net>
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Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 23:47:58 GMT

Louis Epstein <le@put.com> wrote:
:)Chris Mauritz (ritz@interactive.net) wrote:
:): Louis Epstein <le@put.com> wrote:
:): :)Chris Mauritz (ritz@interactive.net) wrote:
:): :): Louis Epstein <le@put.com> wrote:
:): :): :)I gather that 2.1.6 will be released on the net only,not on CDROM,so
:): :): :)how would one handle an upgrade from 2.1?(No point in going to
:): :): 
:): :): Do an FTP install.  If you've got a reasonably fat pipe to the
:): :): net, it's rather painless.  I did a full install of 2.2-current
:): :): over our T3 the other day and it only took about 15-20 mins.  :-)
:): 
:): :)So for a 384k...?
:): 
:): Dunno.  If your 384 isn't heavily loaded, it shouldn't take much
:): longer.

:)So it might vary with time of day...or if I had the news feed shut off.

Yup.  If your link isn't that loaded, the most influential factor will
probably be how loaded the ftp site is.

:): :): :)2.1.5 first if 2.1.6 is coming).How long would I have to take my
:): :): :)ISP down to go to 2.1.6,and get it in shape to honor the 9-12 character
:): :): :)IDs enabled by a kernel recompile for my 2.1??And what would I actually
:): :): :)gain by so doing?
:): :): 
:): :): If you take your entire site down to do that upgrade you're not
:): :): doing it right.  A 486-120 is cheap.  Get a spare one and install
:): :): the new OS on the spare machine.  Then, a simple dump/restore
:): :): cycle with some minor fiddling should be all you need to do.
:): 
:): :)I have two of them,news and main.Would do them one at a time.
:): 
:): It's your neck.  :-)
:): 
:): :)News is a backup radius server,so PPP customers could be authenticated
:): :)while main was busy upgrading,but shell customers and mail would be
:): :)out for that time.
:): 
:): You've just finished telling us that your news server can't keep
:): up.  Why are you running other services on it that you could put
:): on your other box?

:)That's about the only other thing running on news...my news box is
:)much less multi-tasked than Drew's,for example.

It would seem that *any* other thing running is going to bite you
in the ass at this point.

:): Running an ISP on a pair of 486 boxes seems somewhat silly given
:): how ridiculously cheap Pentium and Pentium Pro boxes have become.

:)I've planned all along to move to 6x86es when I got the money.

And you're running this as a business?!?

:): When you originally cornered me at Unix Expo last year and asked
:): me what hardware to use, you told me that you already purchased
:): 486 boxes.  At that time I said if you were already stuck with
:): them to get a lot of memory and the fastest disk controllers and
:): disks you could afford.  Obviously, what you got isn't fast 
:): enough. 

:)is 48 MB insufficient memory?What would going to 64 on either box do?
:)(just got an error message today on lack of awap space on main).

It means you didn't configure your disks with enough swap
space given your (insufficient) amount of RAM.

:): There was a time where anyone with a 486 and a 56k could call themselves
:): an ISP.  Those days are gone.  
:): 
:): Good luck.

:)I started with a pair of the fastest 486es and a 384k.
:)I'd like to be breaking even before I add!

If you're not breaking even now, you probably won't anytime soon.  Margins
are going *down* in the ISP business, not up.  The only folks making any
real $$$ doing this are the ones selling high-end hosting services and/or
dedicated connectivity to business clients.  No offense, but you don't seem
to be equipped for that.

:): You'd probably be better off upgrading sooner rather than later.
:): Our P166 boxes aren't having any problems keeping up.  :)

:)I was just over at the Cyrix price-your-own page,they don't have a
:)FreeBSD option under OS(nor a no-OS),but certainly 6x86-P200+ boxes
:)seem quite cheap now.I would be swapping the motherboard and CPU
:)into my big file server cases,farming the 486-120 out to some other
:)function on the LAN(pure-WWW,backup radius,backup DNS?) and relocating
:)some RAM.

Are you really willing to bet your business on the hope that
there aren't any incompatibility issues with the Cyrix chips?
I wouldn't be.

:)Would use an multiple controllers if I added any disks to news
:)(might be an idea to dedicate a 2GB SCSI to comp,rec,sci,soc).

I can't imagine *not* using multiple disks and controllers if
you plan to do this for a living.

Chris

-- 
Christopher Mauritz         | For info on internet access:
ritz@interactive.net        | finger/mail info@interactive.net OR
IBS Interactive, Inc.       | http://www.interactive.net/