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El Reg reports
A chap named Ross, says he "Just switched off our longest running server".
Ross says the box was "Built and brought into service in early 1997" and has "been running 24/7 for 18 years and 10 months".
"In its day, it was a reasonable machine: 200MHz Pentium, 32MB RAM, 4GB SCSI-2 drive", Ross writes. "And up until recently, it was doing its job fine." Of late, however the "hard drive finally started throwing errors, it was time to retire it before it gave up the ghost!" The drive's a Seagate, for those of looking to avoid drives that can't deliver more than 19 years of error-free operations.
The FreeBSD 2.2.1 box "collected user session (connection) data summaries, held copies of invoices, generated warning messages about data and call usage (rates and actual data against limits), let them do real-time account [inquiries] etc".
[...] All the original code was so tightly bound to the operating system itself, that later versions of the OS would have (and ultimately, did) require substantial rework.
[...] Ross reckons the server lived so long due to "a combination of good quality hardware to start with, conservatively used (not flogging itself to death), a nice environment (temperature around 18C and very stable), nicely conditioned power, no vibration, hardly ever had anyone in the server room".
A fan dedicated to keeping the disk drive cool helped things along, as did regular checks of its filters.
[...] Who made the server? [...] The box was a custom job.
[...] Has one of your servers beaten Ross' long-lived machine?
I'm reminded of the the Novell server that worked flawlessly despite being sealed behind drywall for 4 years.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 15 2016, @03:27PM
(Warning: I may be tangential here) We live in a world where even the same products are not consistent from one batch tot he next. Why would a brand produce same quality of product as they did nearly 2 decades ago? Making products that last forever is a sure fire way to put yourself out of business. You can just make an inferior product, pump money into marketing to get a decent market share, than out compete the people with quality product because your customers have to replace your product all the time. Win win win.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 15 2016, @03:35PM
In this case, the brand was Ross Chap XL.
(Score: 2) by bart9h on Friday January 15 2016, @04:44PM
that, and Seagate today is not the same Seagate two decades ago.
I always buy hard drive from the same brand, but that "favorite" brand sometimes change. I remember it was Seagate in the past, now it's Western Digital.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Friday January 15 2016, @05:06PM
Indeed I gave up on Seagate after the 7200.11 nightmare I have one drive of the seven left from that fiasco and it was the only one that failed in warranty so it was newer replacement model I have. Actually now I think about it the external 1.5tb that I gave to my brother for a Time Machine backup is still alive and kicking, it was bought at the same time so two left out of eight...
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 15 2016, @05:06PM
Soylent News: Slashdot's Yesterday News... Today!!!.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 15 2016, @11:31PM
Here we can avoid the posts by Nerval's Lobster. This is much better, no?
(Score: 2) by http on Saturday January 16 2016, @12:31AM
I have to say this explictily in case anyone misses it: you're ignorant and part of the problem.
Making a product that lasts forever is a surefire way to drive everyone else out of the market. That many manufacturers are buying in to Walmart's drivel that the purchase price is the only thing that matters doesn't negate that reality.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.