[HCoop-Discuss] hardware advice

[Adam Chlipala]

Adam Megacz wrote:
> Adam Chlipala <adamc at hcoop.net> writes:
>   
>> it sounds like you're saying that disks are the only kind of
>> hardware that we need to accept as having failure rates high enough
>> that we need to contemplate dealing with failures at anything but a
>> leisurely pace.  Am I interpreting you right?
>>     
>
> No; I'm saying that RAID and hot-swap bays make disks the only place
> where it's sensible to buy cheap-and-unreliable parts.
>   

But, implicit in that, are you saying that the mean time to failure for 
other parts is low enough, when we buy "reliable" versions within our 
price range, that it's OK to only be able to replace parts at the speed 
of shipping them across the country?  (I.e., that this bottleneck is 
unlikely to lead to down time)

>> You can probably tell that I'm pretty ignorant about the nuts and
>> bolts of hardware and hosting today.
>>     
>
> While the pejorative "nuts and bolts" may be an accurate description
> of these issues, they are what drives the co-op's top-level
> architectural decisions.  Perhaps there are some lurking meta-level
> issues in the way hcoop's governance structure allocates
> responsibility (speaking of which, is ntk still breathing?) vs
> authority.
>   

I didn't mean it pejoratively, and I would be tres glad to have someone 
else running this discussion/decision process.  What you are seeing here 
is less a "governance structure" than the interesting fact that no one 
but me has persevered in volunteering time to organizational activities. ;)