Bob Friesenhahn wrote: > On Thu, 5 Jun 2008, James C. McPherson wrote: > >> Ethan Erchinger wrote: >>> Hello, >>> We have a backup strategy that involves mapping LUNs between a given >>> pair of hosts, and copying data from one of the LUNs (src) and another >>> LUN (dest). The src LUNs sit a SAN device, sometimes multiple devices >>> (zpool mirror). The src LUN is running a MySQL database and typically >>> will be running for weeks without issue. >> >> I'm sorry, I don't quite understand how this can be a serious >> "backup strategy" - how on earth did you get to thinking that >> it was going to work reliably? > > Once again, you show little mercy for the Sun customer. Is it really > wise to beat up customers in public? It might be limiting to your > career path at Sun, or at other companies. Potential future employers > will learn a lot about you via Google.
Hi Bob, I based my response to Ethan on 5 years of supporting Sun's customers doing technical escalation resolution (including being a trainer and Asia-Pacific resource for Sun's implementation of the Kepner-Tregoe Rational Troubleshooting methodology), bug fixes, alpha- and beta-testing of new products... all in the storage area. Specifically: storage device drivers, SANs, MPxIO and backups. I have also had more than a few years as a software engineer working on Sun's "leadville" stack, MPxIO and SAS. If Ethan had logged a call and it came to me, I would indeed be asking those questions, because to do otherwise would not be providing the service that was required. >> So ... _unpatched_ you say? _Why_ ? I know organisations generally >> have rigorous patching methodologies and schedules, but fer cryin' >> out loud, S10 Update 4 has been available since the middle of 2007. >> That's very nearly 12 months old. > > The problem with patching is that it causes down-time. It sounds like > Ethan's application can not afford any down-time and they are doing > whatever they can to avoid it. There is a trade-off between the cost of > patching and rebooting the OS, and any the cost of any bugs which may > become evident due to not patching. I'm very, very well aware of what is required to patch a system - both from the point of view of generating those patches, and from the customer's perspective. That means schedules, business uptime and outage requirements, SLAs, patch trains, testing + development environments, rollback, regression testing... the whole kit+caboodle. I am also very, very well aware of what can go wrong when a system is not kept up to date. My final recommendation to Ethan still applies - he should seek the assistance of a Professional Services organisation to help him get a reliable, scalable and supportable backup configuration implemented for his environment. James C. McPherson -- Senior Kernel Software Engineer, Solaris Sun Microsystems http://blogs.sun.com/jmcp http://www.jmcp.homeunix.com/blog _______________________________________________ storage-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/storage-discuss
