deskthority

There was a problem with our server, it had a bad crash which was visible after contacting hetzner (our hoster) and getting access through a KVM console.

On reboot it showed some SSD errors, and some database tables were corrupted. I repaired this, but I don't know if there is damage.

I declare this SSD now unreliable and uptime uncertain.

I'm currently pulling a second full backup from last night to my local machine (we have one at hetzner backup servers too, but just in case). After this is complete, hetzner will replace the SSD. Downtime is currently unknown.

EDIT: There was a second crash the same day. So far no new crash. We will move to a new server with HDD soon.

darn SSDs!

Maybe we should go back to normal hard disks, it's not like we need SSD for performance. Any opinions?

I'm not a big fan of SSDs. SSDs are only good for static data, not for frequently updated data. I bet Daniel Beardsmore killed it with his extreme amount of wiki contributions.

on server I would use them just for very volatile data, such as cache, or disposable logs, but definitely not for "storage". The SSD should be something that you replace and no harm is made to the application. So maybe the system could reside on the SSD but I would put (or backup) data on HDD presto!

If you can backup/duplicate the database (and images/media) into an HDD almost in realtime, that would be perfect. Even 5mins delay would be acceptable I think.

PS: this is especially true for extremely inexpensive hosts such as hetzner

http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/toshi ... -1342.html
Not for storage

7bit wrote:I bet Daniel Beardsmore killed it with his extreme amount of wiki contributions.
:evilgeek:

Very probably. I have the Touch of Doom, after all.

I don't like it, so I'll move to a server with HDD.

with all that RAM a good caching system would do so much more than SSD

SSDs are great for system volumes and for personal machines, but a server ought to use memory to cache and have a hard drive based data store and backup system. Glad to see nothing (that I can see) has been lost with today's surgery.

I thought Deskthority was getting hacked like in that Geekhack disaster.

let me know if you need help with the server... I can do some sysadmin

So hetzner offers to replace the SSD, I tell them I plan to move to a HDD but if they have any tips out of experience.

We have quite good experience with our SSDs. It shouldn't be a problem at all if
you use a software raid 1.

Hmm yeah. No problem at all. (we're running raid 1)

oh wait, are you on RAID1? so you shouldn't have lost any data. raid 1 doesn't prevent failure to happen but if it happens you have double copy of your data.

that being said a 2 drives raid1 is a bit a of nonsense (during sync how do you know which data is corrupted if you have only 2 drives? 50:50)

Still crashed and corrupted mysql tables
But raid 1 might have saved us from an unbootable system. I have a feeling this still might happen.

webwit wrote:Still crashed and corrupted mysql tables
But raid 1 might have saved us from an unbootable system. I have a feeling this still might happen.

data should be safe on one of the two drives if it's a hardware issue. you should mount them separately and check. it happened to me once. I removed the damaged drive and data was safe on the other. anyway not easy to handle these cases remotely

That's one of the reasons I just want to move to a new server with the backup and leave the wreckage behind.

Ordered a new server. Same one, but with HDD.

just curious, is there/ how much is the difference between a SSD server and a HDD one?

2 x 240 GB SATA 6 Gb/s SSD vs 2 x 2 TB SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 rpm HDD (both Software RAID1). The HDD server is EUR 10 cheaper per month.
I doubt you'll feel a difference in page/load time response.

Ok, they already have the new server installed.

By "backup" and "wreckage", you're referring to the operating system, as opposed to rolling back all changes made to Deskthority including the forum and wiki?

Great! 8x more disk space than before!


Let's discuss how we can use it up!

Daniel Beardsmore wrote:By "backup" and "wreckage", you're referring to the operating system, as opposed to rolling back all changes made to Deskthority including the forum and wiki?

Well, this is the downside of it.


But a fresh start can always be viewed as a new chance to do it right from the beginning!

webwit wrote:2 x 240 GB SATA 6 Gb/s SSD vs 2 x 2 TB SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 rpm HDD. The HDD server is EUR 10 cheaper per month.
I doubt you'll feel a difference in page/load time response.

my thought, thanks. Not worth spending the money (and taking the risks with SSDs) in this scenario then imo.

I'll make a fresh backup of the forum and wiki just before the move, so no data is lost. I also made one a couple of hours ago. However, if for some reason the system collapses before the move, the backup used will be max 24 hrs old.