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The Setup Behind Microsoft.com

Posted by kdawson on from the matter-of-scale dept.

Toreo asesino writes "Jeff Alexander gives an insight into how Microsoft runs its main sites. Interesting details include having no firewall, having to manage 650 GB of IIS logs every day, and the use of their yet unreleased Windows Server 2008 in a production environment.

29 of 412 comments (clear)

  1. Mostly how they run it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    is have some crazy sys admins throw chairs around.

    1. Re:Mostly how they run it by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 2, Funny

      Mostly how they run it is have some crazy sys admins throw chairs around.

      I thought that was the QA process. Then again I can imagine Microsoft using chair names as the code names to their products:
          - Cogswell
          - Caquetoire
          - Glastonbury
          - Morris
      And no I don't know chair names by heart. I am computer geek, not a chair geek, since that would be Balmer ;)

      source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chairs

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    2. Re:Mostly how they run it by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 3, Funny

      With Microsoft Windows Server 2008, chairs practically throw themselves!

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
  2. Beta in production environment. by LordSkippy · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Windows Server 2008 in a production environment."

    So even MS has given up on Vista.

    --
    My karma is in a nose dive
    1. Re:Beta in production environment. by JCSoRocks · · Score: 5, Funny

      Tis a sad day when the fanbois can't even get their insults right. shameful.

      --
      You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
    2. Re:Beta in production environment. by vtscott · · Score: 5, Funny
      And of course it's already been modded up (at least only as funny). To clarify why the GP is wrong, from the wikipedia entry on Windows server 2008:

      Windows Server 2008 introduces most of the new features from Windows Vista to Windows Server. This is a similar relationship to that between Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP.

      Gotta give credit to MS for eating their own dog food...

      Allow incoming connection on port 80? Confirm/deny

    3. Re:Beta in production environment. by somersault · · Score: 4, Funny

      Program WinYes! is trying to perform an action on a dialog box. Allow/Deny?

      --
      which is totally what she said
    4. Re:Beta in production environment. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      hi, it's me, spooge and I can guarantee you I really am from Uzbekistan. Now you know for sure. No need to worry anymore it may be some old hippy from MIT who actually wrote the code.

      Go in piss, son.

  3. Firewall Schmirewall by mrtroy · · Score: 5, Funny

    No firewall? Of course not!

    Microsoft servers are notorious for their invulnerability.

    --
    [I can picture a world without war, without hate. I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it]
    1. Re:Firewall Schmirewall by MstrFool · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, remember the story a while back about MS using Linux for some things? I think we just found where they use it. Storing their logs in /dev/nul is the most likely way they deal with 650 GB of logs.

      --
      Question reality.
    2. Re:Firewall Schmirewall by rasputin465 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Storing their logs in /dev/nul is the most likely way they deal with 650 GB of logs.

      Well geez.. in that case I sure hope they do regular backups of /dev/null! ;-)

    3. Re:Firewall Schmirewall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      "They're blocking ports. Port blocking != firewall."

      So when I write my firewall rules and have the choice to block, drop or pass, the firewall is kicks into a a non-firewall mode for block?

    4. Re:Firewall Schmirewall by darthnoodles · · Score: 2, Funny

      They do. They write their data to /dev/null, then read it back and put it into an RLE compression scheme. Unfortunately the counter for the RLE keeps rolling over.

    5. Re:Firewall Schmirewall by somersault · · Score: 5, Funny

      Inventing some binary format is pointless I'm guessing you have no prior experience with Microsoft Office then..
      --
      which is totally what she said
    6. Re:Firewall Schmirewall by mrhandstand · · Score: 2, Funny

      Its the new tape device Native Uniform Linear Loader /dev/null

      --
      Always value the individual over the system. --Bruce Lee "I don't need a Sig - I have a custom 191" - me
    7. Re:Firewall Schmirewall by marcansoft · · Score: 3, Funny

      $ cat /dev/null | gzip - > devnull.gz
      $

      Works fine for me. Are you sure you're not confusing /dev/null with /dev/zero? The latter's a real bitch, it's always too large for my destination drive! Gzip helps though; you can get compression ratios of approximately 2000:1.

    8. Re:Firewall Schmirewall by darthnoodles · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yes I am confusing them. I'm not really a Linux/Unix guy. I'm just pretending.

  4. Priceless... by orclevegam · · Score: 4, Funny

    Cisco Router: ~$700
    Server to run it on: ~$2000
    Beta testing Microsofts new server 2008 in a production environment: Priceless

    --
    Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
  5. Microsoft and logs do not compute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I once had a 800MB plain-text logfile that I wanted to do a simple search and replace. I opened up the file in Word on a P4-2Ghz-2GB system and it took over two hours to complete roughly 50% of the task at hand. At this point I finally gave up because I was worried what was being done to my file and copied the file to an old PIII/450MHZ/512mb running linux and the task took about 2 seconds using a simple regex with sed.

  6. Re:HBI? by orclevegam · · Score: 4, Funny

    Humongously Bad Interface. That's the internal name for all new MS APIs.

    --
    Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
  7. Swimming in acronym soup... by thatseattleguy · · Score: 5, Funny
    Could someone with more Microsoft Kool-Aid in their veins stick their fork in the acronym salad that is this article? ACL (Access Control Lists - which technically are a firewall), DoS (denial of service attacks) and IPS (intrusion protection services) I all know, but WTF are:


    HBI?
    GFS (is the G for "Ghost")?
    NBI?
    NLB?
    ACE?


    TIA :),
    /tsg/

  8. Re:Supporting by stvmty · · Score: 2, Funny

    I wonder what restrained him from using the tag.

  9. Re:HBI? by JCSoRocks · · Score: 2, Funny

    HBI - Hot But Incarcerated?

    --
    You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
  10. Re:Supporting by MightyYar · · Score: 2, Funny

    My point was that TFA reads like it was written by a fanboy. You mean that the guy who describes himself as "IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Australia" is a MS fanboy? Oh the horror! :)

    I think that we can forgive him - it seems to be his job description.
    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  11. Re:Supporting by Digital+Vomit · · Score: 3, Funny

    The highly objective and insightful article mentions, for example,

    "Windows and IIS...rock solid and secure!"

    Talc is technically a rock...

    --
    Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
  12. Now there's a best practice by QuietLagoon · · Score: 2, Funny
    use of their yet unreleased Windows Server 2008 in a production environment.

    Now there's a best practice that other corporations should follow - the use of test software in a production environment.

  13. Re:Microsoft brainwashing by jez9999 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Uh, didn't I read an article not too long ago about how the update.microsoft.com site was broken into?

    Link, please? http://update.microsoft.com/
    --
    == Jez ==
    Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
  14. Hidden by MBHkewl · · Score: 2, Funny

    The blog has been taken off public view, and only for those who have MS TechNET access. Before that, there were comments on lies & un explained abbreviations the dude used... /. word verification: bondage !!!

    --
    Mod points are a dangerous tool. Abuse them wisely.
  15. this is what I get by sentientbrendan · · Score: 2, Funny

    when I try to go to their site:

    "We are currently unable to serve your request

    We apologize, but an error occurred and your request could not be completed.

    This error has been logged. If you have additional information that you believe may have caused this error please report the problem here.
    "

    I think that gives a good demonstration of how they run their site...