Core Servers

Overview

Although this organization strives to maintain a significant degree of decentralization with the many services we provide, there are some situations that simply demand a centralized approach.

The core servers are the NetworkOperationsTeam's response to that reality.

Services

Here are some examples of services provided by core servers:

There are almost certainly others; update the list if you know!

Methodology

Like most large-scale Internet systems, planning related to the core servers is an extended series of compromises. The basic idea is that these systems must provide the fastest, most reliable service possible while simultaneously consuming as few project resources as possible.

Since the very beginning, core servers have always run recent versions of the DebianLinux operating system. While this is not a hard requirement, it is a de facto standard which has always served us well.

One strong requirement is that each core server must be able to occupy an assigned static IPv4 address for an extremely long period of time - years, or even decades. Reliable power is also a critical necessity. Other factors tend to vary significantly.

An ideal situation would consist of several extremely powerful systems loaded with hardware redundancy features across the board, hosted at a diverse selection of well-established colocation facilities. The reality of the situation is somewhat different.

Systems

Currently, there are three systems which are considered core servers.

donk

donk is the current leader of the pack.

(More information goes here.)

cornerstone

cornerstone plays the role of Old Faithful. This system has been in nearly constant operation without a single change in hardware since the OS was installed on December 16th, 2002.

(More information goes here.)

The hardware was generously donated by Color Technology.

bone

bone was the very first server to be used exclusively by Personal Telco. If anyone knows any details about either the origin or the current chassis of this system, please update this section!

Although most data has been preserved from the beginning, this system has worn many faces over the years, including a stretch in a 2U rack-mount case installed in the datacenter at Color Technology and a rather less glamourous period of captivity inside a City-provided NuCab case.

(More information goes here.)

Aside from this page, remarkably little has been written about any of these systems. If you are aware of any other source of related information, please link to it here!


[CategoryDocumentation][CategoryHistorical]

CoreServer (last edited 2012-03-11 02:20:51 by RussellSenior)