Important discussion about future of server

the current server is nox hosted locally in philly. nox is hosted for free at a data center in philly. this situation does not show specific signs of changing, though we are at the mercy of our contact there, who does not want to be bothered more than absolutely necessary.

Aaron email

From: Aaron Couch
To: group
Date: Jul 24, 2005 11:15 PM
Subject: Re: This weekend

hi ro,

thanks for the update. i think we should seriously consider private hosting.

karl from http://www.phillyfuture.org recently found a host he is happy w/ which i could get more details about if we decide to go down that road. aaron from http://www.campusactivism.org/ pays $8 a month for 1 gig disk space from http://www.jaguarpc.com/.

our next scheduled meeting is wednesday. i hope we can discuss it further then.

-Aaron

Ro email

From: rolando
To: Aaron Couch
Cc: group
Date: Jul 25, 2005 9:28 AM
Subject: Re: This weekend

aaron-

i don't think "private" (i.e., paid) hosting is the answer. first of all, i think you'll have a hard time finding an inexpensive private host that is willing to run an app as complex as mir. i could be (very) wrong about that. however, i also think that 1G disk space is inadequate, and with the number of lists we host, etc., there are other issues. further, there are sites such as barcelona, lavazone.org, inkywatch (and others which are my responsibility) and the global indymedia publish site which rely on vox. that being said, the first and the last may have been moved off of the machine by this point. i know that prometheus moved its database off of vox.

if the group decides that we do not want to own our own machine (which raises the question of what to do with the two server-class machines we own!), i would instead suggest putting philly imc on one of the many servers in the imc network (traven comes to mind; i know that it is a mir host for several sites). or at least have a plan in place to back it up there. for $50/month, we could also have our own machine (nox) put in a colocation facility in seattle staffed by indymedia radical types. john duda knows more about this.

######## does not host radio volta, per se, though radio volta uses its bandwidth. k and john own a machine (karl) which is located at the ####### data center in ######; that is where radio volta streams from. i do not know the arrangement. plus, vox was at ###### data center(s) for over four years. at one point, k offered to take the imc backup machine to the ###### data center. i'm not sure if that offer still stands.

in any case, this is not a simple decision. at the very least, owning a machine requires a commitment from the philly imc to recruit new tech-savvy participants or else to start learning this stuff, as i did, by getting oneself a user ID and starting to futz around.

i will further say that there is a regional group (nj, ny and philly) which all want to run mir and which need a server. those groups (esp. new york) may be the places to look for new tech-savvy people.

i have CCed john duda. he may have some insight.

-ro.

John email

From: john duda
To: rolando
Cc: group
Date: Jul 25, 2005 10:53 AM
Subject: Re: This weekend

On Mon, Jul 25, 2005 at 09:28:39AM -0400, rolando wrote: > aaron-
>
> i don't think "private" (i.e., paid) hosting is the answer. first of
> all, i think you'll have a hard time finding an inexpensive private host
> that is willing to run an app as complex as mir.

you're not going to be able to run mir effectively without a good deal more access to a machine than you get with hosting plans. you really need some sort of root access, either into a physically colocated box or into a virtual server. either way, you need someone to run and maintain it. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, you need to trust the company that hosts the box. You need to know that when the privacy and safety and freedom of you users is being threatened by the police, that your ISP will stand up for your rights (like Phil and DCA did for philly and barcelona, or like Calyx did for NY) rather than roll over and let the cops do whatever they want(like rackspace and the ahimsa seizure)

> the global indymedia publish site which
> rely on vox. that being said, the first and the last may have been moved
> off of the machine by this point.

global indymedia is now on traven.

>
> ######### does not host radio volta, per se, though radio
> volta uses its bandwidth. k and john own a machine (karl)
> which is located at the ####### data center in ######; that is where
> radio volta streams from. i do not know the arrangement

the arrangement with karl is that k got the chance to colocate a box as a job perk. the server that she and myself and kate khatib went in on and named karl hosts a lot of radical stuff, but those projects never asked ###### for hosting.

>
> in any case, this is not a simple decision. at the very least, owning a
> machine requires a commitment from the philly imc to recruit new
> tech-savvy participants or else to start learning this stuff, as i did,
> by getting oneself a user ID and starting to futz around.

finding a home for a server is relatively easy, the hard part is having a group of competent sysadmins committed to looking after it.

>
> i will further say that there is a regional group (nj, ny and philly)
> which all want to run mir and which need a server. those groups (esp.
> new york) may be the places to look for new tech-savvy people.

I believe New York is about to launch their mir site off traven.

-- AaronCouch - 14 Sep 2005
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