On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 2:14 PM, erik quanstrom <[email protected]> wrote: >> rio is such a minor thing to run on today's massive machines, I'm not >> sure I really see the problem in starting it on your cpu server >> anyway. I frequently set them up to launch into rio because: >> 1. It's easier to fix things when I can cat /dev/kprint in a window >> rather than have it constantly interrupting me >> 2. I like to be able to interrupt programs >> 3. It's nice to run more than one thing at once, have a graphical editor, >> etc. >> 4. Full-screen stats is pretty >> >> Of course, none of these reasons matter to you, since you don't run >> rio on your servers AND you don't think there's any reason to lock >> them (I agree!), I'm just pointing out that graphical lockers and rio >> in general are far from useless on a cpu server. > > i'll buy that. but i think you're missing the basic reason > that the plan 9 cpu console is so minimal. there's no > reason to use one, unless you are doing the most basic of > system maintence. and using one is not without risk. > for example > - you've got admin privs. it's easy to forget any abuse this. > - an errant ^T^Tr ^P or vulcan nerve pinch reboots the > server and not your terminal. > > here are some additional reasons that rio makes life > more difficult > - the serial console is now useless; no fixing or rebooting > the machine from home > - you need a kvm port or a real keyboard/video/mouse > to fiddle with the machine even locally. > > for me, the loss of the serial console alone makes > running rio on a cpu server a non starter. > the serial console has saved me a good 3-4 trips into > the office this year. > > - erik
Those are reasonable points, definitely. Since I'm usually the only one to use my servers (except at Sandia, where I share with Ron), abusing my admin privs isn't a big deal. At Sandia, the cpu/auth/file server is connected to a serial multiplexer, so I don't run rio there. At my university lab, I didn't bother to connect a serial line or a KVM, but the server sits right under my terminal, so I can swap the connectors around and get a physical console if I really need one. Sometimes there's a good reason to run rio, sometimes it's actively counterproductive. Now that I've admitted there might be more one way to do a thing, I should probably go put keyboard shortcuts into Acme or something ;-) John -- "With MPI, familiarity breeds contempt. Contempt and nausea. Contempt, nausea, and fear. Contempt, nausea, fear, and .." -- Ron Minnich
