server uptime

[Ben Scott]

On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 1:50 PM, Warren Luebkeman <warren at resara.com> wrote:
> Our server, running Debian Sarge, which serves our email/web/backups/dns/etc
> has been running 733 days (two years) without a reboot.

  You're obviously not installing all your security updates, then.
Both the 2.4 and 2.6 Debian kernels have had security advisories
posted within the past two years.

  In my experience, discussions about uptime typically involve
approximately the same mentality as a penis-length competition.
Especially since nobody really cares about what uptime(1) shows --
it's service level availability that counts.  Who cares if your kernel
hasn't been restarted but the email service was down for a month, or
slow, or if your company's data is being harvested by a cracker who
used some unpatched security holes to break in.

-- Ben