Subject: RE: Re: WIN32-apache 1.3.x (windows NT) problem of serving concur rent https requests

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 10:23:28 +0100

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Johannes Bertscheit [mailto:[email-masked]]
> Sent: 04 May 2002 18:27
> To: [email-masked]
> Cc: [email-masked]
> Subject: Re: Re: WIN32-apache 1.3.x (windows NT) problem of serving
> concurrent https requests
> snip]
> No question: I would also prefer to develop under LINUX SOO MUCH (!) 
> but I have no choice: 
> the project is bound to windows NT hosts and I was not able 
> to convince 
> the company to take LINUX (or UNIX) - I tried all the 
> arguments as you stated above.
> So what I need are other people with the same problem, that 
> they MUST develop under windows NT and have a RELIABLE apache 
> running on such a machine.
> Are there any people out there - stating that they have a 
> apache mod_ssl 
> running on windows NT RELIABLE ???
> 
> johannes

We have an expression in the UK that you can't make a silk purse out of a
sow's ear. 

I have had blue screen logging in with Windows NT and reboots on logging in
to Windows 2000, both fully patched. We are regularly rebooting our Windows
NT servers on an almost monthly basis. If you look at Microsoft's own web
site via Netcraft (www.netcraft.co.uk), you'll see that none of their
servers has run for more than about 90 days. One server managed to get to
143 days before a reboot. So much for 99.999% availability. They boasted
that they'd run 99.98% availability during the Winter Games, which sounds
good till you realise that this is over a period of about two weeks. You
don't hear them talk about the "five nines" any more, simply because they
can't do it.

If you look at our site, www.rnib.org.uk you'll see we just passed 150 days.
It would have been longer if it weren't for a power cut. I've had a Linux
server pass 497 days uptime, before it was moved to a new site:

  2:43pm  up 497 days,  2:27,  0 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
  2:44pm  up 0 min,  0 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

The uptime counter on Linux resets after 497 days, whereas on NT it resets
after 49.7 days. It's still possible to track uptime for longer though.

The longest uptimes in the world are nearly all Apache servers on BSD or
IRIX (http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/today/top.avg.htm). You won't find an NT
server staying up for long.

What is running on the host is irrelevant. We use Samba to publish our web
pages from Windows clients. We have had occasional Samba crashes, but the
web server has been totally reliable. In over six years, I've seen only one
spurious crash of the web server, all other downtime has been for
maintainence.

Why spend money on Microsoft's licenses, when you can install Linux or any
other type of UNIX for far less money? 

In Latin you would say "res ips a loquitor" (I'm not sure of the spelling,
but it means "the thing speaks for itself". It's used a lot in law).

- 
John Airey
Internet systems support officer, ITCSD, Royal National Institute of the
Blind,
Bakewell Road, Peterborough PE2 6XU,
Tel.: +44 (0) 1733 375299 Fax: +44 (0) 1733 370848 [email-masked] 

The teaching of evolution as a proven fact rather than a theory has done
more harm to scientific progress than anything else in history.

- 

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---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 13:24:00 +0200

> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Johannes Bertscheit [mailto:[email-masked]]
> Gesendet: Samstag, 4. Mai 2002 19:27
> An: [email-masked]
> Cc: [email-masked]
> Betreff: Re: Re: WIN32-apache 1.3.x (windows NT) problem of serving
(cut)

> running on windows NT RELIABLE ???

hmm.. now this calls for an answer. 

we are running ssl-enabled apache on NT since end 99, first ibm http server
1.3.6.2 with 56bit ssl encryption, since december 01 Apache/1.3.22 (Win32)
mod_jk/1.2.0 ApacheJServ/1.1.2 mod_ssl/2.8.5 OpenSSL/0.9.6b. there were some
crashes with mod_ssl in the beginning, but none since i set KeepAlive Off in
httpd.conf. average hits per day on the webserver are 100k.
availability ist 99.97% over the past 2 months, the remaining 0.03% are
caused by hardware changes. the only unplanned reboot since start of
production on this machine in may 99 was due to someone pulling out the
power cable between server and ups.

michael

> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Johannes Bertscheit [mailto:[email-masked]]
> Gesendet: Samstag, 4. Mai 2002 19:27
> An: [email-masked]
> Cc: [email-masked]
> Betreff: Re: Re: WIN32-apache 1.3.x (windows NT) problem of serving
(cut)