History

The Hardware Behind OHWR

The whole OHWR site is hosted on a dedicated server provided by an international hosting firm. Its main characteristics are:

  • Processor: Intel Dual-Core M
  • RAM: 2 GB
  • HDD: 2x250 GB

Software-wise, OHWR is composed of:

Backup strategies

There are two main backup systems in place.

Primary daily backup

A daily backup system is in place. The backup server is provided by a different hosting company than the main server and it is geographically located in a different continent. It makes daily copies of the following:

  • All databases (ohwr & sympa)
  • All uploaded files
  • Mailing list archives
  • SVN and Git repositories

The backup script emits alarms via email in case of any malfunction or misconfiguration.

In case of disaster, a new server can be put in place using the information on the backup server. The process is estimated to be done in 24 hours or less. DNS could take longer to refresh, depending on location.

CERN backup

For further security, the primary daily backup process is mirrored on a CERN-hosted machine. The backup machine at CERN is a dedicated Dual Core Pentium machine with 4GB RAM and a 220GB HDD, running SLC 5. It mirrors daily the whole contents backed up in the main process, and notifies via e-mail of successful completion or failure.

The contents of this secondary backup host are weekly stored at CERN's CASTOR backup for further security, the results being notified likewise.

Server monitoring

The main server is continuously monitored using Munin. This service runs outside of the main server, for additional security.