[ale] NanoPC

Thu Mar 6 14:24:21 EST 2014

On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 1:35 PM, Lightner, Jeff <JLightner at dsservices.com>wrote:

>   I was being facetious with the Fedora comment.
>
>
>
> Fedora is bleeding edge and they tell you NOT to use it for Production as
> most releases are not supported for more than a year.  You’d be constantly
> upgrading and probably breaking Production.
>

Fedora doesn't say "don't use our stuff". That seems to be a management
line :-) I have more issues with ancient crap lying around only getting
security fixes (RHEL4) or bug  and security fixes (RHEL5) than still
getting new hardware patches as well as bug and security fixes (RHEL6). I
ran fedora as public facing servers for years because it was where the best
and most current security tools were found. Selinux in RHEL is 2-3 years
behind. The long support releases like RHEL are for business who never,
EVER upgrade anything and are relying on 10+ year old applications for
their core business that are not under active development. I get the allure
but no code is perfect and it ALL requires updates over time (except the
software that ran the space shuttle - only 7 mistakes in 20+ years of use.
Not bugs or crashes. Mistakes. As in all the processes were proven
mathematically before coding began. there were 7 mistakes in
implementation. NO errors, failures, bugs or crashes ever!).

>
> It is however used as a test bed for what ends up in RHEL eventually.
>
>
>
> RHEL is a bit different from other distros as it focuses on stability by
> NOT updating every package to the latest upstream version over time.
> Instead it starts with a given upstream version of a package then backports
> bug and security fixes into their version to help insure you’re not
> suddenly not changing underlying tools used by your static applications.
> For most businesses this stability is an important consideration which is
> probably why it is so successful.
>
>
>
> We have the same issues with developers often saying “hey install the
> latest php” and having to explain to them we won’t do that if it isn’t
> provided in the standard RHEL repositories.
>

No matter how I look at it, php makes my skin crawl and will for a long
time to come.  The combination of php and mysql just screams "coding by
kids with no understanding of good practices". Just because it's easy
doesn't mean it's any good.

>
>
> Another issue we see is most security scanning tools are brain dead and
> will flag properly patched RHEL versions of software as being vulnerable
> because they only look at the base upstream version and ignore the extended
> versioning RHEL puts its backported updates that address the same CVEs
> they’re flagging.
>

ARGH!!! Very frustrating! Only solution is to use tools that are designed
to work with the distro in use. Might as well run a windows scanner on a
RHEL box for all the good that's doing.

>
>
>
>
> *From:* ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] *On Behalf Of *Jim
> Kinney
> *Sent:* Thursday, March 06, 2014 12:49 PM
>
> *To:* Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> *Subject:* Re: [ale] NanoPC
>
>
>
> Small setup here. HPC stack is only 10 nodes with IB and Tesla cards.
> There are additional systems for specialty database projects and a VMware
> stack I'm slowly converting to Ovirt.
>
> All total we have 2 full 42U racks with one rack of high density gear and
> the other rack of lower density storage gear. Main NAS is about 80TB. All
> running CentOS 5 or 6 or Fedora 19 (or esx with one windows server for the
> manager - blech!)
>
> And I am the only admin. Plus I have the student lab room with an
> amorphous hodgepodge of crap running win7 or Linux (Ubuntu or Fedora) and
> lousy bandwidth back to the NAS for /home mounts.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 12:20 PM, Beddingfield, Allen <allen at ua.edu> wrote:
>
> Ah, I didn't realize you were at Emory.
> No, I'm at UA (University of Alabama main campus) in Tuscaloosa.  I'm the
> primary Systems Engineer for Linux Systems, and the backup guy for
> virtualization.  Luckily, the HPC stuff gets managed by someone else for
> the most part.
> How big of a deployment do you have?
> We've got 250+ datacenter Linux systems, and another big chunk for
> HPC/research.
> Most of the datacenter stuff runs SLES, with a handful of other distros
> thrown in the mix because of vendor requirements.
>
>
> --
> Allen Beddingfield
> Systems Engineer
> The University of Alabama
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Athena®, Created for the Cause™
>
> Making a Difference in the Fight Against Breast Cancer
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *How and Why I Should Support Bottled Water! *Do not relinquish your
> right to choose bottled water as a healthy alternative to beverages that
> contain sugar, calories, etc. Your support of bottled water will make a
> difference! Your signatures count! Go to
> http://www.bottledwatermatters.org/luv-bottledwater-iframe/dswaters and
> sign a petition to support your right to always choose bottled water. Help
> fight federal and state issues, such as bottle deposits (or taxes) and
> organizations that want to ban the sale of bottled water. Support community
> curbside recycling programs. Support bottled water as a healthy way to
> maintain proper hydration. Our goal is 50,000 signatures. Share this
> petition with your friends and family today!
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail may contain privileged or confidential
> information and is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). If you
> are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution, or
> use of the contents of this information is prohibited and may be unlawful.
> If you have received this electronic transmission in error, please reply
> immediately to the sender that you have received the message in error, and
> delete it. Thank you.
> ----------------------------------
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
>

-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III

Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain
at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail.
It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain

*http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
<http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/>*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20140306/f665d306/attachment-0001.html>