[conspire] 1:2.1.29-1+deb10u5? Re: upgrade-in-place to Mailman 2.1.30 and want to test Mailman3?

[Michael Paoli]

Yeah, replacing drives one at a time should be easy peasy, and for the
most part, doesn't even require downtime ... though at some points, some
bits of downtime would be needed anyway, (e.g. for things like newer
kernel, changing storage under filesystems such as /usr or /var from
md raid1 atop partitions to, e.g. LVM atop md raid1 (or use LVM to do
the RAID-1 ... (but for /boot, go with partitions & md raid1 - it's
dead simple, doesn't change so much, and GRUB and friends highly well
support it)).

And yeah, going up to ~1TiB drives (or larger) would be excellent, that
would be >~=4x current storage, so that should hold for quite a long
while.

And as for the intermittent "drive" issues we've experienced on guido,
that seems not the drives themselves, but most likely the USB power
cables or sockets at either end (on AC power adapters or drive
enclosures) not having a good snug fit between the cable plug and socket
- issue might be either the cable plug or the USB socket being plugged
into with the cable (I recall at least one of them having a very loose
sloppy fit).  Anyway, could take opportunity of one of those downtimes
to do a little shuffling/substitution, and isolate the issue to either
specific end of a specific cable, or one of the four USB sockets (on
one of the drive enclosures or one of the AC power adapters).  I'd say
highly likely, replace whichever is the odd man out with poor fit, and
likely that intermittent issue goes away.  In the meantime, don't
sneeze on those connections or look at 'em funny while the host is up
and in operation.

As for SSD sources, so far I've used ZaReason.com (defunct) and
Central Computers https://www.centralcomputer.com/ - which has pretty
reasonable prices, pretty reasonable stock on hand, and you can check
their catalog and inventory on-line, even have items shipped to one's
preferred store for pick-up.  As for other stores and on-line vendors,
I'd be sure to go with a reputable one.  There's a lot of sh*t out
there, so probably go with direct from manufacturer or from a reputable
vendor that's getting direct from manufacturer or one of their trusted
wholesalers.  And beware that sites like Amazon.com have all kinds of
"partner" stuff that ... can be anywhere from fine to utter sh*t, so
many such sites are very much buyer beware.  And, alas, sounds like
Newegg.com is trying to be another Amazon.com.  :-/  And, if one wants
to continue to see brick and mortar (or click and mortar) stores
continue to exist, generally good to patronize them, at least as
reasonably feasible and sensible.

> In 1TB sizes, Newegg offers new for $520, used for $200.

And, egad, that's scary.  I easily see decent ~1TiB new starting
around $64.99 retail and going up from there.


On Tue, Mar 19, 2024 at 12:20 PM Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:
>
> Here's an idea:  I already had in mind to buy replacements for the pair
> of Vantec external cases for 2.5" SSDs, and for the USB cables providing
> power to those enclosures (and possibly also for the eSATA data cables,
> though we don't have any suspicions about those cables' reliability), so
> how about I start with acquiring current, larger 2.5" SSDs?
>
> /me looks at newegg.com, is appalled at how junked-up the site now is.
> I'd heard they had new management.  Ugh, it shows.
>
> Current mass storage is a mirrored pair of Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series
> 256GB, best of breed for their day, notably using MLC NAND flash rather
> than cheap-ass, slow TLC (triple-level cell) NAND, the greater quality
> attested by the 5-year (now expired) warranty rather than the commodity
> sludge's shorter warranty.  Cost was about $1/GB when new.
>
> Looks like, in the 2.5" "traditional" (heh!) form factor, as opposed to
> racy M.2 stuff that is not a go for the CompuLab box, the Samsung SSD
> 860 Pro Series, in several capacities, is a recent successor to the 840
> PRO Seriea.
>
> In 1TB sizes, Newegg offers new for $520, used for $200.
> https://www.newegg.com/samsung-1tb-860-pro-series/p/N82E16820147777?Item=9SIAADFJVP7159
> Except this is not being sold by Newegg but rather _through_ Newegg by
> some other clowns named "The Best Deals for You Store".
>
> I am -not- getting warm-fuzzies about 2024's iteration of Newegg.  Where
> _do_ people shop for reasonable deals from non-flaky firms, in 2024?
> Central Computer in Santa Clara, maybe?
>
>
> Anyhow, that troubling detail aside, suppose I were to buy a pair of 1TB
> SSDs and 2.5"-compatible external cases plus power ("USB") cables for
> them.  Then, we could put guido into degraded-RAID1 mode with just one
> of the 256GB drives, booting from that, and adding one of the 1TB drives
> to the system, then set up a new guido on the 1TB drive (with LVM and
> other changes deemed desirable), migrate everything to it, set the 1TB
> drive to be bootable, power down, remove the 256GB drive, add the second
> 1TB drive, power back up, remirror the RAID1 array.
>
> I'm used to doing that sort of thing with not only all services offline
> but also and in single-user maintenance mode; don't know how you feel
> about that.  System being down for an afternoon is perfectly fine.
>
> At that point, we'd have a lot more space to play with, and LVM if you
> really think it's justified.  Personally, I am not convinced about the
> need for that additional abstraction layer, especially if one has enough
> spare space, and also if necessary is willing to have downtime while
> moving around data and remaking filesystems (which I am willing to
> have).
>
> What do you think?
>
>
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