[SAC] Server host quotes

[Daniel Morissette]

The Peer1 quote seems to be reasonable, assuming we do need two servers 
to get started. I missed a good part of discussions about the transition 
plan a few weeks ago, so I'll just assume that we do know that we need 
two servers and that someone has a clear plan for how they are going to 
be configured and used. With respect to the hardware firewall, my 
experience is that we can have very reliable software firewalls with 
iptables. However the call to have a hardware firewall or not should 
probably be made by the administrator who will setup and manage the 
servers in the long run and who will be responsible for keeping them up 
24x7 for the years to come. Same for backup system I guess.

Actually, what worries me the most is not the hardware but the actual 
system administrator. It's nice to have servers but will someone be 
there to take responsibility and maintain the servers in the long run? I 
remember reading that a contractor would be paid by ADSK for the initial 
setup, but will that person be around for the long term maintenance? If 
that person walks away after 3 months are we going to end up with a 
bunch of servers and services and nobody that knows anything about them?

Daniel



Jason Birch wrote:
> I've just had a follow-up call from PEER1 and they are willing to waive
> the setup fees.  
> 
> You have the contact info for the PEER1 sales rep in the quote; should I
> let him know that Tyler will be following up?
> 
> If we are worried about ongoing costs, we could save some recurring fees
> by going to a lower hardware level.  I like the idea of a firewall, but
> only because I'm Linux-impaired.  I would think that we might also want
> a VPN connection between that server and Telascience so that our LDAP
> queries are encrypted point-to-point, but it would also be possible just
> to set up a firewall rule to only allow queries to/from those hosts.
> 
> Do we really want to commit to three years?  I hate doing that with my
> cellphone...
> 
> Jason 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:18
> To: sac at sac.osgeo.org
> Cc: robert.bray at autodesk.com
> Subject: Re: [SAC] Server host quotes
> 
> Tyler,
> 
> Before we start renegotiation's with a vendor I want our Sysadmin to
> review the proposals. This should happen late this week. In the mean
> time it would be great to have input from the SAC membership.
> 
> Bob
> 


-- 
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/