| Martin Michlmayr - Debian Project Leader 2005-03-15, 6:00 pm |
| * Julien BLACHE <jblache@debian.org> [2005-03-15 17:42]:
>
> Yes, that was it. Sorry I just couldn't remember what the whole thread
> was about.
I'll give you more information to show why I didn't spend Debian's
money on a new box and how my decision making process worked.
Most of the talks about buying new kit for Alioth happened when haydn
was really unstable, but this mostly got fixed when some bad RAM chips
were removed. Then costa also came along.
In December 2004, Wichert Akkerman approached me and told me about the
requirements for a new box for Alioth/SVN/Arch. He was migrating
these services from haydn to costa and this migration significantly
improved performance even though the machine itself is slower (but the
new setup is much better). While this migration helped, it is not a
solution in the long run (given that the machine is not terribly
fast and lacks storage). Wichert's summary was:
> Summarizing: while we have at this moment hardware to run Alioth, it
> is desirable to have a newer machine that will be able to handle
> Alioths growth for the next few years as well.
In other words, there was no immediate need to rush out and buy a new
box. Nevertheless, there was certainly a need to act and see what can
be done. In order to evaluate whether we should a) spend some of our
own money, b) look for some sponsor or c) ask our old pals at HP, I
contacted HP to see if they'd be mad at us if we asked for another
box. ;) They said that we had a more urgent request in their queue (a
RAID for cdimages.d.o which I hear is now being delivered), but that
summer/fall looks good since this would be a new financial quarter for
HP.
So, in this case, the easiest option c) worked out (or probably will).
If c) failed, I had tried b) and then a).
Speaking of which, there is also a need to replace klecker although
I'm less sure about the requirements for this box. Anyone reading
this who might find themselves in category b) may get in contact
with me. 
--
Martin Michlmayr
leader@debian.org
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