[Theforum] finding a home for weo & leo

Martin martin at members.evolt.org
Mon May 20 06:47:02 CDT 2002


On Monday, May 20, 2002, at 12:14  pm, Warden, Matt wrote:

> martin asked:
>> Question - why do we need to own the boxes?
>
> we don't *have* to, but:
>
> 1. we do already

That's the best reason I can think of too - and it's not too good a
reason...

> 2. it'll be much uglier if we have to move what we have to new boxes
> rather than just move the boxes

Not sure about this - we've a better chance of a no-downtime move if we
don't have to move the boxes. Set the services up in parallel, then just
flip the DNS.

> is there a reason not to?

Yes
1) we don't have to spend time, money and hassle maintaining hardware
which is only of secondary importance to us
2) once we're in shape to move hosts without moving boxes, it gives us a
lot more flexibility in moving in the future, thus a lot less risk
3) I can't speak to Ron's way of working (and let's not assume that this
is either a done deal or a permanent state of affairs), but a normal
co-lo deal is that the host won't touch your hardware. If something
fails, we need to get someone physically there to sort it - which is
significant downtime again. With a normal hosting deal, with normal
SLAs, the hardware maintenance burden is on the host, not the hostee.
4) Depreciation
5) It sucks in donations which may fulfil evolt.org's goals more
effectively if used elsewhere

Now if we decide that strategically it makes sense to not own our
hardware, it would be perfectly OK to decide to do any of the following:

Scenario A
1) Move the current tin to a co-lo in Jan 2003
2) Host *new* services on a host's kit
3) Develop a migration plan for the current services as the kit they're
on moves towards the end of its useful life

Scenario B
1) Move the current tin to a co-lo in Jan 2003
2) Host *new* services on a host's kit
3) Develop a migration plan for the current services to move them to a
host's kit as soon as possible, sell the existing kit and use the cash
to fund whatever evolt.org needs the most (which may be bandwidth
charges)

Scenario C
1) Start working on portability of the existing services ASAP
2) In Jan 2003, if we've completed the portability changes move the
services, not the tin
2a) If not, then move the hardware as co-lo and keep working until we're
ready to move them off
3) Sell the hardware and use the cash as in Scenario B

I'm sure there are other variations too.

The important question is "Is it in the net best interests of evolt.org
to own hardware?" If the answer is 'No', then there's a secondary set of
questions about when and how to stop doing so.

Cheers
Martin
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