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I am running apache on my redhat 9 box.
I know that on my windows computer I generally have to restart it about once a day due to applications screwing up.
What is everyones experience with linux and leaving your computer running for extended periods of time?
Do you think it is alright?
If not, how often would you do a fresh reboot?
thanks
From what Ive heard linux should be able to run perfectly for weeks without needing a reboot. Ive gone 6 days so far on my newly installed mandrake.
I'm running windows xp home right now and so far my uptime is 13 days.
I have never ran linux longer than a couple days but to me, linux and XP seem likewise stability wise. Now I'm sure someone here is gonna choke when they read that but I love XP.
heh I have heavily altered FreeBSD 3.4 and RedHat 6.2 systems as well as a TRIX 6.2 system and 3 Windows 2000 systems (not part of a wolf pack) that all have uptimes over 520days now (the last power outage that outlasted the UPSes). All the other computers have been off and on since for various reasons.
The lesson? Any of the modern industrial strength operating systems can be stable if handled properly and given good hardware. (though windows does have slightly more finiky taste as far as hardware is concerned hehe)
So yeah, there is no reason that your linux system shouldn't be up more or less forever so long as no serious curves are thrown at it.
catch
Exactly!!Quote:
Any of the modern industrial strength operating systems can be stable if handled properly and given good hardware. (though windows does have slightly more finiky taste as far as hardware is concerned hehe)
A lot of people say "I hate windows, Its so unstable for me" but if they would actually install their apps correctly and buy hardware meant for windows then they wouldn't have any problems. If you start installing stuff and you get warning saying that it might be unstable with your OS, don't come back blaming M$ for making there OS unstable.
The moral of the story: Don't do anything unless you know exactly what your doing, or unless your willing to lose some stability in your OS.
I have an xp machine that is reguraly up for months at a time. execpt recently the only time I reboot is for updates. ( there has been lots of updates of late)
Yeah, if you don't try to install everything you find, Windows can be very stable. I know this guy that had a pentiun 200 mhz box running Windows 95. I think he was using it as an apache server. Anyways, he had it running without a keyboard, mouse, or monitor in his garage for four years until a fine dust collection finally just made the system crap out.
Well that's my story for tonight.
I also had a wierd thing happen to my winxp pro box today. I opened internet explorer and it came up with some page from zone alarm saying that it had halted all internet connections due to someone possibly trying to disable it.
I have not run zonealarm for about a month. It is still installed but I just took it off the run at startup list. One of the directions was to just reboot because it could be a false alarm. I did a virus scan and rebooted. After that everything was fine. It was still really wierd though. At first I thought I was hacked and that was the only page I could go to, that was before I noticed it was the zonealarm page. What scared me was that there were some chinese symbols on the page and i think they were the ones that posted code that lead to msblaster or something. Anyways I think the chinese was just a link to translate the page. It just scared me when I would type in diff urls with the same page for each one coming up. That was kindof off topic, just thought I'd share.
There are several tools/tricks that allow you to skip rebooting after updates.Quote:
Originally posted here by PoSer
I have an xp machine that is reguraly up for months at a time. execpt recently the only time I reboot is for updates. ( there has been lots of updates of late)
catch
My WinME box needs to reboot like once a day.. it's as stable as a game of Jenga (3 ft high!). Sorry for those that didn't catch the joke.. But anyways, anyone got tips on how to make a box stay up longer and more stable w/o a reboot every 10 minutes..? lol, thanks in advance, hopefully I could get it to atleast stay on for like 2 days.. :-/
Spyder32, I would reboot into safe mode and run the maintenance wizard. Make sure you do this when not planning of using your computer for a while. This might help or might not.
Running that will do? can I have some more details on this, please? And what do you mean if I won't be using it for awhile?
This cleans up unused files, runs scandisk( you can either do thorough or normal, I would do normal because thorough takes a long time.), and last it runs defrag which basically puts everything near the beginning of the harddrive making things run smoother and faster. I know they have the maintenance wizard in 98 but I'm not sure about ME. Someone else can probably help you out more than I can.
edit
forget all that stuff, I just realized that you are a senior member, so I was stupid for telling you something you most likely know and probably won't help anyway. Maybe it will help someone else though.
Sorry about that. I didn't mean any disrespect. Also I've heard bad things about win ME.
Wow.. I got to hand it to you, this has to be, without doubt, the funniest thing I've ever read on AO. Senior Member, Newbie, etc etc, it doesn't really matter.. I can learn many things from you, and you could (I hope) learn many things from me, post count doesn't matter.. It's not as if you bow-down to me because of my post-count so stfu about the respect part. LMAO.. either AO has really changed and I came back at a feudal-system type time, or I'm loosing it :D Don't worry man, don't do that though.. lmao.. I'm a total newb at WinME anyways, well somewhat.Quote:
edit
forget all that stuff, I just realized that you are a senior member, so I was stupid for telling you something you most likely know and probably won't help anyway. Maybe it will help someone else though.
Sorry about that. I didn't mean any disrespect. Also I've heard bad things about win ME.
Yeah, btw.. you weren't "stupid" for telling me anything. If I knew it as well as you think I did, would I be asking the question? I just need further detail about the maintenence wizard you speak of and how to use it, how long it takes, etc etc. So yeah, chill out buddy.. :)
well i have 466mhz celeron with 256mb of ram and 8mb video card. i bought this machine.. m.. about 5 years and it is still working as a some kind of server. 5 years is a long time so my coolers 3 times were broken. overheat or smth. my main procesors cooler broke down 2 times and video cards cooler just felt off. i have fixed them because i can't find it anywhere to buy... but that's not the point. my "computer" after few days of work slows down. i don't know why this happens but on win2003 server it crashes after 10 days, winxp - about 7 days, mandrake,freehat,freebsd and other unix'es - it slows down and crashes about 15 days. i restart my pc and it is working for next 7-10 days correctly. i can't understand if processor worms up or something else happens. maybe anyone could help?
For starters, if you plan on leaving it on for long periods of time, you need more cooling than what it comes with. The overclockers website is a good place to go for that. You may need more than fans because over heating can cause alot of problems with an OS. Also I think Windows server 2003 needs at least 500 MHz to work right.
Also, how do you know how good your fans are? You may need to add extra fans and maybe water cooling if your leaving it on all the time. When you reboot or shut down do you leave it off long enough to cool down?
Gore, how many fans would you advise to have running for an AMD 2200+ thats left on 24/7, except for a reboot about 3 times a week?
Thanks for the replies. I'm glad to see that this post actually went somewhere.
Keep um coming.
If you have your computer overclocked, and its a very small space inside then you probably need extra fans, but if your just leaving it up 24/7 using it for 8 hours a day then you really don't need any extra fans.
At least thats my thouhgt on it. My Compaq box has only the factory fans in it, and I've never had a problem with it overheating.
If your computer is closed up and not in a tight area (under a desk or in a cubby) your factory fans should work just fine. By the way, there are different sizes and types of fans: my friend has this big fan that puts out about as much as 4 or 5 of the standard size fans. He doesn't leave his com on 24/7 though: his fan is too loud (lol).
I've run a bunch of diffrent OS. Such as RedHat, Mandrake, Suse, Win95, Win98, Win2K. I have to say they all do about the same. I don't think the OS has as much to do with uptime as what applications you have installed (and running). Obviously the more you have going on inside your machine, the more likely something is to go wrong. The only benefit I can see with a *nix machine is that you really only need to reboot for hardware changes or power outages. As far as overheating, as long as you have ample cooling fans, or some other cooling system ( a friend built a mini-frig into a case) overheating should not be much of a problem.
DeafLamb
All of the computers I mentioned in my prior post (over 500 days up) are built to telcom spec for relaible systems as far as cooling is concerned. That is to say they have no fans at all, just still air cooling. Finding still air power supplies can be a bit of a chore but as far as CPUs go, first pick a cool chip. I prefer the Pentium 2 Xeon 450 with 2mb of L2. Next you need to get some thermal epoxy on there between it and the heatsink. After this is done you want to create a chimney effect, I prefer to use sheets of copper which is painted black on the areas where you want to heat to radiate from and white where you want it to go. Also this is used to pull heat off the whole board, not just the CPUs. Heat sinks on high revving drives are important as well (I am a big cheeta fan.)
For heatsinks, I see a lot of multi colored, white, silver, etc... avoid these like the plauge! If you don't know why, google for "black body radiation"
catch
That's a great question, one that I asked myself before stepping up to linux.Quote:
Originally posted here by h3r3tic
I am running apache on my redhat 9 box.
I know that on my windows computer I generally have to restart it about once a day due to applications screwing up.
What is everyones experience with linux and leaving your computer running for extended periods of time?
Do you think it is alright?
If not, how often would you do a fresh reboot?
thanks
First not only is it better for your computer to leave it running all the time. But linux is far from the crap that microsoft produces, crashing everyday, and having to reboot everytime you do something.
Linux is rock solid, as it takes after it's daddy Unix,lol. Linux is flexible and won't crash on you outta no where. If you intend to run a website from your linux box, it shouldn't be a problem. You can get months even years of uptime (if your hardware doesn't crap out first) from *nix operating systems.
As a matter of fact, the only time I ever reboot, is for adding hardware, or when a new kernel comes out, so I can update mine, and that's just about once a month. And I reboot it during off peak hours, so no one will even notice.
I once read a news story about a University that was auditing their network and couldn't locate a machine that was showing up on their network. After frustration for not being able to find the system, they decided to follow the network cable and it led, them right to a wall. Seeing no other way to follow the cable, they broke the wall and came realized that the machine was actually in a room that had been closed sealed off by dry wall. The machine was running *nix and was up for 3 years.
--PuRe
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/today/top.avg.html
Lil more than 3 years on there. As for an AMd, 3 fans would be good. Also, keeping the room its in cool can help a bit too. I dont like much heat anyway so it works out fine.
Right now:
Uptime: 8 days 18 hours 32 minutes 58 seconds.
catch...what exactly black radiation? I searched google and all i found were stuff on the heat and radiation which i kinda understood but then they went to formulas which i only knew like 2 symbols of...is it dangerous or something?
No no... blackbody radiation is not dangerous, well I mean it could be in high enough doses but it would just cook you.
A blackbody is one that reflects no radiation, when I was last in physics class no perfect black bodies had been discovered but some materials are very efficient. Essentially this object absobs all radiation directed at it and radiates black body radiation.
The heat sink takes another concept of surface area in mind, you want as close to a perfectly even point of contact betwen the heat object and the heatsink, as this enables the most efficent transfer of energy. Thermal epoxy is excellent for this. On the other side of the heat sink you have cooling fins, this allows for more surface area for the blackbody radition to well radiate.
This effectively allows you to pull heat from the source (rather than white for example which would radiate the heat back to the source) and direct it away from the source. Fans simply compensate for space, they enable a smaller heatsing becase the moving air effectively increases the surface area (the fins touch more total air)
If this is not 100% correct, please excuse me, I am not a physist... and it has been many years since my last class, but the overall concept should be basically correct.
catch
ok i understood the absorbing part but i thought u meant it was harmful like puttin out exessive amounts of radiation. I think thats why black absorbs more heat/sun than white. Some of the pages were just fun to stare at will all the formulas and scientific explanations...haha good page to have up when people r lookin at what ur readin...thinkin ur smart and all lol. Thanx for the explanation catch.
hey PuReExTacy,
I liked your story about the computer in the wall.
I've had my server up for almost two days now and it is still running well.
I have two of the exact same computers both running redhat 9.
one has 128 mb of ram and the other 384 mb(this is the server machine).
It's amazing how much faster things load on the machine with more ram.
I have jbuilder 9 installed on the 128 mb ram comp and it takes like five minutes to load.
I am scared to put it on my server machine because it is running well and I don't want to screw it up.
This thread just keeps getting more and more interesting. I am anxious to see how long this lasts.
Keep um coming.
Edit
Hey I just noticed that I am now an Antionline Jr. Member.
Also, I could have sworn I saw a member with over 200 posts and a load of antipoints classified as an antionline newbie. Was I dreaming or has someone else seen this member. I don't remember his username. I was probably just halucinating(spelling?).
hey thanx for "tips" about cooling.
nice story about the server behind the wall.
i bought 2 new coolers yeasterday and i put them into my box. ugly work... my old one's fans are looking like they would be already dead. i also found a "tube" made of aluminium and combined them together (one cooler is attached into the carcass and other is on the CPU and there is that "tube" linked bitween them. the air from whole mainboard is blown away with the power block's cooler). everything looks terrible, but now the air in the box is absolutely cold!!! after 8 hours of uptime it is completely "fresh".
but i have one question: what is the posibility that totaly new cooler will broke down?
that's it for now. sorry for my spelling... i'm lithuanian
good luck in cooling!
Well i know with my system since the day i brought it, about 8 months, ago it has only been rebooted when i install knew software,
Other then that it has not been turned of.
And it's just got the stock fan,
I don't know if this is healthy for a computer?
And it's runnin windowz 98, two hard drives, a Cdrom, DVD Rom, CD Burner, and a few other goodies, and i sometimes put my hand on the back of the box were the fan is and the air is always nice and cold.
And i was talking to this chappy at this computer shop, and i told him that i never turned my computer off, and he looked shocked !
So is this bad?
Anyhow cheers.
And hope this thread keeps going, it's some real good reading.
Oh yeah i forgot.
h3r3tic: Yeah i''ve seen that person that you talked about.
Apparently he cracked some password and gained access and fiddled with he's points and stuff,
But he is around here somewere.
I knew I wasn't dreaming when I saw a newbie with over 200 posts and legions of leprechauns trying to steal his antipoints. Thanks for clearing that up reset_button.
Hi guys,
Just a pair of dumb remarks:
1. If you are going to run your machine for extended periods, please consider a hard drive cooling kit. This is usually 2 or 3 fans at the front that blow air over the top of it.
2. Condider the cost of running it while you are not using it...electricity?
3. Consider the fire risk?....if the fan fails in the middle of the night........you and the kids upstairs in bed???
Told you that I was dumb...........said a pair and came up with three :)
Take care folks
Apart from fans, the other thing to consider is how much space you have inside your case.
My PC at home (P4 2.66 Ghz, 2 HDD, DVD ROM, CD burner, NVIDIA graphics card, and Creative sound card) doesn't have any additional cooling, other than the bog standard PSU fan (the one at the back). On the other hand it is a large tower case, so there is lots of empty space.
It runs 24/7 with WinXP pro, except for the occasional reboot for critical updates/new hardware etc. During the hot whether we had in the UK recently some components got warm, but well within thermal limits e.g. the CPU temp got up to 55C, which is hotter than usual.
To cut the cost of electricity, look at the options of putting it into standby via the 'power options'. You do have to have a motherboard that will co-operate though! Works fine on my PC, and I also spin down the HDDs if there has been no activity for 2 hours. Rather like putting your TV into standby mode.
Fire risk is not at all significant, as most systems will shut down if they overheat, or just stop working completely. Another point is that in most of the companies I have worked at over the last 20 years, the PC's, workstations etc. used by the end users have always been left powered on 24/7. It can happen, but in all that time I have never heard of a report of a PC catching fire :p
The logic behind leaving your PC powered on all the time is that the most likely time you will blow your hardware is when you switch it on. This gives one hell of a shock to a lot of the components in your PC, as they get themselves up to speed. I have seen this happen umpteen times.
The classic analogy here is when does a light bulb fail? Usually when you switch it back on, as the filament can't cope with the power surge.
from uptime command
23:35:39 up 5 days, 22:34, 3 users, load average: 0.46, 0.18, 0.14
from fresh installation, and still going strong.
yup.. my record is 155 days...
then the powersuply of that poor old 486 just gave up..
You know too high an uptime is also asking for trouble.. Technology goes so fast.. there's an update a day and not all updates can be performed without breaking your precious uptime..
at the moment tp2.be 26-09-2003 14:23:06 up 23 days, 1 min
our secret: a good old box and a nice ups..
yeah new coolers do it's work! nice and cold.. about week of uptime and no problems with my 98se. lets wait a month and i will tell how it is working :)
I had my comp up 15 days and my dad was fooling around with the circuit breakers and killed my power.
now I'm back at zero oh well.
We run several Linux boxes with SuSe 8 and Red Hat 8 & 9......We have MTBF of months 9+ without ever having to reboot! This is the beauty of a Unix based system high uptime! Leave it on and watch the reliability. A breath of fresh air over the other guys!
DarkCarniv0l
I have 3 weeks, 4 days and 24 minutes uptime on my XP pro box. Its still as reliable as linux for me.
The machine i use for a router and firewall is running windows NT4 and it gets left on 24/7, in the last 3 months its only been rebooted a couple of times for updates and i`ve never had no problems with it. It just show that not all Windows boxes are unreliable, i personally think it comes down to the hardware and what its used for more than anything.
I don`t leave any of my workstations on for more than a few days at a time because i tend to find they get a bit clogged up with diffrent applications being opened up and closed all the time, sometimes you can notice a quite a diffrence after a reboot.