Possibility of Fedora sponsoring a Freenode server

[Stephen John Smoogen]

On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 3:05 PM, David Nalley <david at gnsa.us> wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 4:58 PM, Mike McGrath <mmcgrath at redhat.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 18 Mar 2010, Nigel Jones wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 9:39 AM, Nick Bebout <nick at bebout.net> wrote:
>>> > What is everyone's thoughts about us sponsoring a Freenode server?  Their
>>> > general requirements are noted on http://freenode.net/hosting_ircd.shtml
>>> > and I've discussed them with mmcgrath and he has said they seem doable,
>>> > probably on telia1 or osuosl1.  Basically we'd be providing them a xen,
>>> > guest with about 1.5 or 2 GB ram, client servers should expect to sustain
>>> > around 1Mbps of traffic, with much higher peaks. Total usage for client
>>> > servers is usually around 320 gigabytes per month, while hidden hubs are
>>> > generally much lower overall.
>>> >
>>> > We'd be giving them at least a user account on it, they prefer sudo if
>>> > possible.  They handle the day-to-day administering of the ircd, either
>>> > scp'ing new binaries or compiling the ircd on the server itself, and
>>> > copying new config files to there.
>>> >
>>> > I've talked to their sponsor liaison and they seem to be interested.  Mike
>>> > and I wanted to discuss it on here before I send the actual "proposal"
>>> > email.
>>> >
>>> > I think it would be a good idea, especially since we use them so much for
>>> > our IRC channels, it'd be nice to contribute a server back to the network.
>>> Sorry but I'd put a -1 on this.
>>>
>>> There was a discussion/proposal (via Trac) from mdomsch there and I
>>> know I put some reasons down.  Heres a few though:
>>>
>>> * Freenode already have an osuosl server iirc
>>> * Have we discussed this w/ our sponsors, they've been giving us
>>> space/bandwidth to do stuff that would benefit Fedora Project
>>> directly.
>>> * Freenode has had a lot of DDOS attacks recently, putting a sponsor
>>> under the potential for such strain is silly.
>>>
>>> I'd also say that the Board should have some say on this.
>>>
>>
>> I think the good citizen thing to do for freenode would be to host a
>> server.  We do use them extensively, giving back is the right thing to do.
>> But the above points do give me serious pause and are good points.  What
>> do other think?
>>
>>        -Mike
>
> So I think it would be good for us to support them, but not sure if
> giving them a server is the only thing (or even the best thing) we can
> do for them. Could we for instance see if CommArch would be interested
> in supporting them financially? The negative points are pretty
> weighty.
>

I wonder if we could do a fund-raiser for them. While FreeNode is no
way an efnet.. a xen root-escape would not be something I would put
past some of its denizens. The other issues listed are also a bit of a
deal. I wonder if we have enough spare hardware (as in old not getting
renewed for support) to set them up a server somewhere with spares to
fix up over time.


-- 
Stephen J Smoogen.

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp. Or what's a heaven for?
-- Robert Browning