Production server running from USB stilck with /var on,>> >HD

[R. G. Newbury]

>> >On 10.07.2012 06:07, Philip Rhoades wrote:
>>> >>People,
>>> >>
>>> >>I have been using RH and Fedora since the beginning and love it!
<big snip>

> So even putting /var on the hard disk would not help much?
>
>
>> >You should probably assemble a little cluster and then use kvm for
>> >virtualization. It's very speed efficient to reboot virtual machines.
>
> I did think of that but that does not resolve all the problems - it
> allows me to create a new (virtual) server quickly and swap it in when
> it is ready to go - so there is not much downtime BUT then the
> underlying OS doesn't get updated . . and I still have the same problem
> to update that.  I have been thinking about using a SSD for the OS but
> it would be nice to be able to plug in a new drive without taking the
> box apart - I suppose I could look for plug-n-play SSD that can be
> inserted into a drive-socket in a standard CD drive bay . .

USB sticks are not fast enough. However, you might find that an SSD in a 
portable case *with eSATA* will be fast enough not to be objectionable.
Set things to boot from the external (in BIOS) and test it. When ready, 
halt the server, swap the SSD into the box and reboot, change the BIOS, 
and done!. Downtime maybe 4 minutes if you are quick. Data can be on 
another physical drive, or replicated to a partition on the 
to-be-swapped drive immediately before server shutdown.

I have a portable external drive case which cost maybe $8 more for eSATA 
capabilities and it IS fast. Waaayyyy faster than USB!

G.