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Ma.gnolia User Data Is Gone For Good
miller60 writes "The social bookmarking service Ma.gnolia reports that all its user data was irretrievably lost in the Jan. 30 database crash that knocked the service offline. Ma.gnolia founder Larry Halff recently discussed the crash and the lessons to be learned from Ma.gnolia's experience. A lesson for users: don't assume online services have lots of staff and servers, and always keep backup copies of your data. Ma.gnolia was a one-man operation running on two Mac OS X servers and four Mac minis."
http://www.apple.com/xserve/
Rather than watch the video or download the 23MB MP3, you can read the full transcript here:
http://ratafia.info/post/78915439/transcript-and-commentary-for-whither-magnolia
I can read much faster than I can listen.
Yeah, but that's exactly the surprising part. Why would you pay Apple $3000 for a xserve running Apache and MySQL, with a crappy service contract (no next-day service, no on-site service-- I've looked into it), when you could buy an equivalent Dell server for $2100, running the exact same Apache and MySQL, and get a next-day and on-site service contract?
Anyone who buys an xserve is an idiot.
Comment of the year
Fine; what company do you trust? HP? IBM? Replace "Dell" with them, and my example still applies. The fact is, *every* server vendor can do better than Apple. Even IBM does better, and they suck.
Oh, and BTW, all servers will have hardware problems from time-to-time. When that happens with your Dell, HP, IBM server, the guy is there in his truck in 4 hours. When that happens to your Apple server, you're SOL.
Comment of the year
Except its the same hardware...well no, that's not true. You can get a Dell with actual hardware RAID when you're stuck with software RAID on an Xserve.
Furthermore Dell also has a 4-hour onsite 24/7 support package if I'm not mistaken.
I love my MacBook and the OS X desktop experience but you simply can't use an Xserve on business critical operations.
Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick Two.
Even IBM does better, and they suck.
One morning I came in and was looking at the logs. SMART was reporting that one of the disks in one of the servers was going to go bad soon. Not 15 minutes after i even noticed this in the logs, an IBM tech was there with a fresh one ready to replace it.
How? The server called home, told IBM about the error, and they disbatched a tech immediately.
If that "sucks", your service must come with free hookers or something.
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
a crappy service contract (no next-day service, no on-site service-- I've looked into it)
Not very hard, apparently.
http://www.apple.com/server/support/
You get 24/7 telephone and email support with 30-minute response. For hardware repairs, Apple-certified technicians provide onsite response within four hours during business hours and next-day onsite response when you contact Apple after business hours.