> > The record for us is about 9 months for a single Linux image. Average > > is about 3-4 months between reboots, depending on what's running in > > them -- things that suck up lots of memory like Websphere tend to > > shorten the lifespan of the machine by fragmenting storage. Machines > > that get a lot of interactive use tend to collect a few zombies after > > a while, so reboots become a reasonably good idea after a while. > > I have to say that I'm a little surprised at that recommendation.
No, THIS IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION. This is a descriptive observation. The failures we see appear to be memory related, and there are some cases where if you cut interactive users loose and let them do their stuff, they create random garbage, et al. This is pretty standard stuff for lots of interactive processing sites -- clear the decks periodically even if it's not sick. > Seems like I've heard lots of tales of people with Linux up > much longer than 9 months... doing web services, etc... do you > think your 9 month figure is a function of the 390 version > of Linux, or Linux in general? No, I think its a function of how we make upgrade decisions and/or ops policy. I suspect that you could go longer, but I wanted to share a data point. > That is, would you recommend > rebooting a PC version of Linux on the same interval (given > the same workload?) Given my workload, probably. My users are rude, cranky, and badly behaved. They can break anything...8-). > Also - just to ask - what about the BSD variants - would you > also recommend 9 months for them? See above. If the users do stupid things, you're about in the same position no matter what the OS. > Could you relate more about this 9 month figure? Do you have > specific instances where it was required, that you can share > of course... The 9 month one was a power failure on site with a P390 doing mail delivery. The failure was that the customer was too ... funds limited... to go for backup setups. Restart, and we were up and running, but that's the maximum runtime we've observed. Sorry if the comment was confusing. I don't intend it to be a recommendation, just an observation of our experience. -- db
